Episode 28: Is Pinball Evolving or Dying w/ Jamie from Wormhole Pinball!
In this episode of The FlipSide, I sit down with Jamie from Wormhole Pinball for an in-depth and fun conversation covering everything from our experience hosting the TWIPY Awards to exploring the...
Highlights
- Wormhole Pinball started in October 2020 in a former $39 insurance building as a private hangout during COVID lockdown
- A transformer blew at 82 Bar downtown in 2021, displacing 40 league players, leading Tim and John to invite them to Wormhole, transforming it into a public venue
- Wormhole has 23 pinball machines in approximately 1,400 square feet
- Wormhole has hosted 87 Monday night game streams with 10-12 people, $2 entry fee, featuring different machines each time
- Tim Hood owns approximately 250 pinball machines total
- Jamie started playing pinball in 2018 after Tim showed him Metallica with a specific teaching moment about game strategy
- Wormhole Pinball plans include one to two public open days per month at $20 entry with food service, potentially expanding to two-three days weekly
- Houston has expanded from two pinball tournament venues with two tournaments monthly in 2015 to five tournaments weekly currently
Notable quotes
“There's a method to this madness. It's not just keeping the ball alive and just doing this crap... hit sparky trap up boom boom.”
“I just kept calling it a suck hole. Wormhole sounds better than suck hole.”
“I lived at the wormhole. I would get here like at 3 in the afternoon, and then at 2 in the morning I would be driving home.”
“Tim would have been a really good cult leader... he'd be the greatest pinball cult leader of all time.”
“A game cannot leave the wormhole unless it's been streamed on one of our game stream nights.”
“Think about the Wormhole as really our first iteration of a museum that we want to build.”
Entities
- Electric Bat Arcade· company
- Wormhole Pinball· company
- Pinball Expo· event
- Twippies· event
- Fish Tales· game
- Magic Girl· game
- Metallica (Pro)· game
- White Water· game
- World Cup Soccer· game
- IFPA· organization
- The Flipside Pinball Podcast· organization
- Christine Hood· person
- Jamie· person
- John Spates· person
- Josh Sharp· person
- Kale· person
- Rachel· person
- Retro Ralph· person
- Tim Hood· person
- 82 Bar· venue
- The Vault· venue
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