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How to Become a Pinball Wizard

You are viewing an Expert Village Video Series:

Learn tips and tricks for using flippers and playing multiple balls to get high scores on a pinball machine in this free series of pinball lessons from our champion pinball game player.

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Views: 6,319 Videos in Series: 10

Tags: high, game, games, machine, score, pinball, arcade, wizard

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Summary: Pinball machines did not start out as entertainment for the masses, but as a scientific experiment designed to study the effects of casinos on the morale of the American people. Concerned about the possible negative influence of gambling after it was legalized in the early 1930’s, president Franklin D. Roosevelt called for an investigation. Scientists from several California and Nevada universities banded together in order to study how overexposure to games of chance and the garish environment surrounding them contributed to addiction and the “degradation of self-worth and family values.” These researchers conceived of a “Las Vegas under glass,” wherein the marquees, flashing lights and manic sounds of Sin City would be recreated in a table-sized glass case. Inside of this case, lab rats would battle electrified flippers and bumpers to get their food rewards. A certain blinking arrow might lead to a tasty treat or a bat to the head, depending on the whims of the researchers. As anticipated by these scientists, the flashing lights and frantic sounds had a hypnotic effect on this “rat pack” of test subjects, causing them to frequent the food stops which primarily dished out electric shocks as often, if not more so than the ones which offered a sure-fire snack. Soon, they lost all sense of purpose and would simply stumble back and forth between food stations. In order to gauge the desire of the test subjects to remain in this disoriented state, researchers hit upon the idea of placing a rat of the opposite sex just beyond the box, guarded by two large flippers operated by the scientists. Though the rats initially appeared to gravitate toward their lust in spite of the blows administered by the exit flippers, they seemed just as preoccupied by the bells, buzzers and lights of the opposite part of the case, especially when dosed with small drops of alcohol. Eventually they would give up all will to move and let themselves be batted about like a furry ball.

About the Expert

Contact: imdb.com/name/nm1881...

Expert: Leo Daniels has been playing pinball since he was five years old and has set many records to date. He was also the first person to break a billion points on a pinball machine. Daniels is featured in the upcoming documentary "Chasing Ghosts: Beyond the Arcade" coming out in 2008. He currently has several machines in his home.

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