Episode 7 – Playing EM Pinball in Tournaments with John Lee
In this episode, I am joined by John Lee. In this interview, we talk about a wonderful charity called project pinball and his involvement. We also talk about pinball tournaments including John’s...
Highlights
- Project Pinball was founded when Dan Spolar discovered a broken Spider-Man machine in a children's hospital that had 20,000+ plays in two years
- Project Pinball has a platinum transparency rating and is a verified 501(c)(3) charity
- John Lee currently owns 25 pinball games across various eras, including EMs and modern titles
- Rochester Pinball Collective initially held at 49 games, with Zach Fry owning most of the EM machines in their collection
- Attack from Mars (Williams/Chicago Gaming remake) represents the pinnacle of pinball for John Lee's generation
- John Lee started running a league at WOW Arcade in Wilton Mall before organizing tournaments
Notable quotes
“When you close your eyes, all the bells and the chimes and the buzzers and everything that were going off, it was cathartic. Taking you to a whole other world, away from everything else.”
“To see a kid right who is just suffering in that way and they can just be a kid for a minute right: that's what Project Pinball does.”
“The fact that I feel lucky that I know somebody like that, right? That's the cool thing about this hobby is it spans every kind of person.”
“For me, I'm old enough where pinball machines were only EMs when I was little. There weren't solid-state games yet. So every time I hear the bells and chimes in an EM pinball machine, I still have the nostalgia feeling.”
“That game, in my vintage of life, is like the pinnacle of pinball. Anybody you put it in front of, people still stand in line to play that game. From pros to novices.”
“He's a younger guy, 30-ish, a world-class pinballer, and he's got EMs. He likes EMs. He plays EMs. His house has EMs in it.”
Entities
- Barrels of Fun· company
- Saratoga Pinball and Arcade Show· event
- Texas Pinball Festival· event
- The Last Arcade Pintastic· event
- Attack from Mars (Chicago Gaming remake)· game
- Iron Maiden· game
- Labyrinth· game
- New England Pinball League· organization
- Project Pinball· organization
- Chris· person
- Dan Spolar· person
- Howard Levine· person
- John Lee· person
- Lonnie· person
- Melinda· person
- Zach Fry· person
- Pastime Pinball· venue
- Rochester Pinball Collective· venue
- Saratoga Silver Ball· venue
- Vintage Game Revival Arcade· venue
- WOW Arcade· venue
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