Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Addams Family Pinball Values

For as long as I've known her, my wife has always wanted 2 things:

1) a 1966 Ford Mustang
2) an Addams Family pinball machine

She came close to #1 in College when she bought herself a 1967 Mustang (sold off long before we met).

Now, tonight, she can mark #2 off her list.

Much the same way that I troll ebay for Disney Haunted Mansion stuff, she's been known to look for the Addams Family pinball machine. But it's always been more than she's willing to spend and besides... where would we put a pinball machine?

But wait, our new house has a basement that we plan to turn into a game/media room!
... and her mid-year bonus is just sitting in savings earning interest!
... and her worthless husband still owes her a Mother's Day gift!
... and her birthday's coming up!

So now that there's room and we're wanting to be good "economy stimulating" citizens and I'm a dottering moron when it comes to buying gifts (hey, acknowledging it is the first step, right?), there's nothing standing in the way.

And wouldn't you know it, a very nice specimen comes up on ebay and the price is reasonable (compared to some of the others we've seen out there) and with a little cajoling from me, she bought it.

Wow... I don't think I've seen her this happy since our wedding day.

Maybe happier.

Hey...

;-)

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow. That's pretty amazing. I'm sure that I'll never own a stand-up arcade game of any sort. You only wanted it for the very young Christina Ricci featured on the hood art! ;)

I'm sure that there's a story behind Misha's strange obsession with that particular pinball machine. Do tell! You'll have to post some pics of your new acquisition soon!

Michael

Gomberg said...

If memory serves, you were the horndog with the Ricci-fetish. At least, until she grew up and went anorexic. How badly did you want to run out to see Buffalo 66?

Addams Family Pinball broke all the sales records at Bally's when it came out and I think they still stand to this day.

Pinball at the time was on it's way down the drain but then this game - released in parallel with the blockbuster movie and designed by some wunderkind of Pinball and game design who threw all sorts of electronic wizardry into the machine - brought Pinball into a sort of golden age renaissance.

It was groudbreaking, with interactive story elements and it actually used an early AI to learn to control one of the flippers to achieve the best possible shot... and it was fun to boot. Concepts and Elements it pioneered are still found in today's pinball games.

The fact that this game was everywhere (thanks to those sales records) makes it memorable and popular. It's also highly customizable as evidenced by the number of auctions on ebay for mods. I've seen some fully restored machines being sold for over $7K and one insane seller on ebay asking $45K for a Gold Edition of the game signed by the designer. We got a much better deal on ours. I just hope everything arrives in one piece and in working order.

Speaking of which it's supposed to arrive tomorrow so you can bet there will be some pinball happening in our basement tomorrow night and pictures soon after.

Carl

Unknown said...

you were the horndog with the Ricci-fetish.

Took the words right out of my mouth, Dix.