I've had a number of friends recommend the podcast
99% Invisible before, but I hadn't listened to it until the other day. At the beginning of October, 99% Invisible did a podcast about the history of pinball, and I was immediately aware of it! A ton of people emailed me and were like, "you like pinball, right?! This is about pinball!! LISTEN!"
I didn't need any more encouragement than that! The episode was structured around the
recent law passed in Oakland, CA to relegalize pinball. The episode explains how pinball came to be illegal in the first place, and how the ban was famously lifted in New York City. The argument that was being levied in pinball's defense was that it wasn't a game a chance, but instead a game of skill. The climax of the story is when pinball historian, Roger Sharpe comes in and plays a game of pinball and calls a couple of critical shots. (there's a great writeup about this famous shot
HERE). For me, it's my favorite story about pinball. The hair's on the back of my neck are standing up just thinking about it.
In any case, the
99% Invisible episode about pinball is a great summary of pinball's illegal, and then legal, past. In the same spirit of this episode, I wanted to repost the image I drew of Roger Sharpe, and that famous shot.
