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PEOPLE & ARTSSaturday 30 December 2017
Tilt! Old-school pinball is no
longer old-school
In this Oct. 13, 2017 photo, Escher Lefkoff poses for a photo at By CARRIE ANTLFINGER a Chicago suburb. “It can’t Zach Sharpe says his com-
the Pinball Expo 2017 in Chicago. Lefkoff won the Professional Associated Press be replicated and I think pany’s revenue has shot up
and Amateur Pinball Association’s World Championships last ELK GROVE VILLAGE, Ill. (AP) that’s why it never truly goes in recent years. This year rev-
spring. — The old-school arcade away.” enue grew 30 percent over
game of pinball is resurging The first game ever patent- 2016 and 2016 was up 40
Associated Press in popularity. ed was in 1871, but access percent over 2015.
Interest has skyrocketed to games stalled from the He attributes some of this
over the last decade or so, 1940s through the 1970s with growth to smartphone ap-
with the number of players some cities banning pinball plications that show enthu-
and competitions growing because it was deemed to siasts where to find pinball
worldwide, according to the be gambling, according to machines, video pinball and
International Flipper Pinball Roger Sharpe, Zach’s father, arcade bars.
Association. There were 500 who wrote the book “Pin- The game attracts a variety
players in 50 competitions ball!” of ages, including 14-year-
worldwide in 2006, accord- The elder Sharpe is known old Escher Lefkoff, who at
ing to the IFPA. In 2017, there in the pinball world for con- 13 won the Professional and
were nearly 4,500 competi- vincing the New York City Amateur Pinball Associa-
tions and more than 55,000 Council that the game is tion’s World Championships
players. more skill than luck, leading last spring.
“Pinball is not going away,” to the city lifting its ban in “It was my day,” he said re-
says pinball player Zach 1976 and precipitating the cently at the Chicago Pin-
Sharpe, also the spokesman removal of similar restrictions ball Expo. “I played great
for the world’s leading pin- elsewhere. that day and I won. It was
ball manufacturer Stern Pin- Since then, popularity has the most magical moment
ball, Inc. in Elk Grove Village, ebbed and flowed. But of my life.”q
