The Ball is Wild 🪩 Pinball Culture
Pinball! This almost 100 years old arcade game where you indirectly juggle steel marbles around a crooked playfield inside a coin operated machine is special. It was born into a world of gambling and vice in the early 1930ies of the United States, and even though it was actually quite harmless since the beginning, it remained its infamous reputation as well as an illegal status in some countries and states for decades.
Issue #7: Marvellous Marble Machines (3 December 2024)
Issue #6: Spooky Silverballs (30 October 2024)
Issue #5: Balancing balls (30 September 2024)
Issue #4: Pinball in the public (31 August 2024)
Issue #3: Machine manipulation (28 July 2024)
Issue #2: Examining the pinball (1 July 2024)
Issue #1: Let’s get this ball rolling (10 June 2024)
Today pinball is widely accepted as a game of skill. Yet there is still a unique type of exciting chaos within this game where you simply can not have complete control over it all the time. Because the ball is wild!
What kind of pinball newsletter is this?
This newsletter is about pinball culture and approaches its subject from social, artistic and overall curious angles. It's also inclusive in a way that blends the physical and the digital, the common and the not-so-common, pinball and other kinds of rolling ball games out of arcade and videogame communities. And it talks about and with the people who make all of it happen.
The Ball is Wild is for everyone. It tries to be intriguing to people who like game culture, communities and different perspectives to it. If helps, of course, if you bring a latent or manifest interest in pinball and pinball-like experiences to the table. But it is not required: Having an open mind and being curious should be more than enough to get something out of this newsletter.
Who writes this?
Robert Glashüttner here from Austria, game culture journalist and radio editor by trade, pinhead by passion. I came in contact with videogames early on and soon became fascinated by all the different aspects, the interactivity, challenges, genres, visuals, sounds, designs, and the rich potential that comes with it.
As with many others, pinball was first introduced to me via videogames. I discovered the physical machines only in my late teens. Gradually, I learned about the history, learned to play the different games, started competing in tournaments, did media reports on the subject and thus became part of the amazing international pinball community.
I started The Ball is Wild originally as a little blog in 2014 and now kicked off this newsletter because I want to share my love for pinball, videopins, and silverball projects through good stories, recommendations and interviews from an approachable perspective. So without further ado, let's get this ball rolling 🪩