Pinball: The Silver Ball is Wild!
The fascinating, yet not often discussed, world of pinball machines was the topic of a recent Brown Bag Lecture, featuring Lance Foster, BRCC graphic design supervisor. Foster brought four machines from his personal collection, representing different eras of manufacture, and allowed the 50 attendees the opportunity to flex their “flipper fingers” by playing them.
While Foster’s passion for pinball goes back to childhood, his interest in restoring them began in 2006 when he received one as a Christmas gift. The hobby is a perfect melding of his talents, Foster says. His interests in digital electronics, mechanics, graphic design, and painting all come into play when restoring pinball machines, and he has owned and sold 32 of them over the years.
Participants learned many interesting things about pinball, such as the fact that it was illegal in many states for years because it was considered gambling. A landmark legal case in 1976 lifted the ban. The mid-1970s also ushered in the digital display age, where circuit boards and microchips replaced electromechanical circuitry, and the machines could keep track of high scores, rather than resetting to zero at the beginning of play.
The Cultural Affairs Committee at BRCC sponsors many interesting Brown Bag Lectures each semester. Confirmed lectures for the spring semester include: a forensic anthropologist, a documentary filmmaker, and a local artist.
