For most of the 20th century it seemed that pinball was sort of the ‘cockroach’ of the amusement industry–just too tough and/or too adaptable to kill. It survived wars, economic downturn, moral outrage and most recently video games. Despite the changing cultural climate, it was still a shock when WMS Industries, the dominant player in the industry for the past decade and the maker of Williams and Bally machines, announced that it was getting out of the business several years ago. WMS wasn’t in any sort of financial peril, but rather they wanted to focus on their more lucrative slot machine and video poker business.

At one point, pinball dominated the arcade. During the mid to late 1970s and on the heels of the movie version of the Who pinball themed rock opera Tommy arcades nationwide featured row upon row of gleaming new machines from one of over a half dozen US manufacturers (with many others made worldwide). The first salvo of the video game industry was fairly innocuous”Pong didnt do much to dent pinballs popularity since it didnt exactly offer the same immerse challenge. The first challenge to the popularity of the pinball machine in the arcade began with Midways Space Invaders and Ataris Asteroids. These games could be played alone, and offered the same sort of escapism that pinball provided. For the arcade owner, these games took up less space, required less maintenance, and offered a higher customer turnover.

Pinball hung in there, however, and through the early eighties continued to make some solid games. The ones that come immediately to mind are games like Firepower (which helped launched the now ubiquitous multi-ball feature), Black Knight (offering an early version of the looping ramps found on many modern machines) and a couple of fun machines from Bally Paragon and Flash Gordon. For awhile, the choice between pinball and video games was similar to the choice between Pepsi and Coke: both were equally pervasive and it was simply a matter of personal preference.

In the late 1980’s, however, pinball began to lose its way. Gottlieb and others made simple, traditional games that just couldnt compete with their video counterparts. Bally and other manufacturers went the opposite route”by cramming so much onto a playfield that the game hardly resembled traditional pinball. Some of Ballys late 1980s games”with so much playfield gimmickry going on”were nearly unplayable. By this point video games had taken over the arcade. Some larger arcades continued to offer a few pinball machines to placate hardcores, while some eliminated pinball altogether.

In the 1990’s, pinball began to experience a bit of a comeback driven by well designed, enjoyable games that finally got the balance between traditional gameplay and modern technology right. Williams was at the forefront of the return to excellent design and gameplay, and its hard to think of a Williams game from this period that wasnt a fun game to play, if not a borderline classic. The mainstream media began to notice the renaissance, and noted that the average pinball machine received much more repeat business than the average video game and about the devotion of the pinball player.

The final nail in the coffin, however, were a number of societal changes beyond the pinball manufacturers’ control. For one, video games and video arcades became less profitable as companies like Sony and Nintendo were able to transform a lot of the high end gameplay to the home platform. Fewer people were going to malls, and they werent staying as long when they did. Mega-malls like the Mall of America and the Forum Shops at Caesar’s were the exception to this, but there just werent enough to these to sustain demand.

Pinball still soldiers on, with something of a hipster revival of the games in cities like Seattle and Portland where lovingly restored machines sit alongside new offerings by Stern Pinball, the only remaining manufacturer in the world. At this point, it appears that the only hope for pinball players is that some effort will be made to preserve the machines that already exist.

Ross Everett is heavy metal editor for The Savage Science, a website covering both MMA news and popular entertainment culture. He’s an avid MMA and boxing enthusiast as well, and reportsUFC news for several mainstream sports broadcasts and websites. He’s studied judo since childhood and has earned the rank of black belt.

Tags: college, self motivation, general

It would be such a different world if we never had to practice any form of deceit or craftiness to get the things we wanted from others, but this simply isn’t the way things are.

Without doubt the politician represents the deceitful and yet successful persuasion artist. They always lie to us and tell us one thing whilst doing something entirely different. The politician makes promise after promise that they never keep, and yet they are perpetually elected into office. In fact, as time goes on, they are elected by the people they deceive into even higher offices.

People trust politicians as much as they do not trust them, and this is because of their Machiavellian persuasion techniques. It’s one thing to use hypnotic mind control to put people into a trance to get them to quit smoking, and yet it is something entirely different to use hypnotic mind control to advance into higher positions in order to increase your options.

As we fully consider the scope of persuasion, hypnotic mind control should always have a Machiavellian spin on it so that you can obtain the same success that world leaders have enjoyed for centuries. You will easily hypnotize the masses without them knowing they have been hypnotized, and even though there will always be a select few who see through your deceit, this will never nullify the fact that the majority of people whom you are trying to persuade will not see through your deceit.

This, as Machiavelli said, was the inevitable division among the people that the persuasion artist must simply learn how to use to their advantage. Persuasion is a numbers game, and as you fully consider politics, you will notice that politics are everywhere: At work, At Home, In Hollywood, and even in our schools and prison systems.

Since politics are here to stay, a persuasion artist who is shrewd must learn how to behave like the politician in order to advance their best interest. This means you should think as you wish while at the same time behaving as other people. This way you will always seem to have the best interest of others in mind.

Covert hypnosis is not just language patterns. Language patterns are only a piece to a much greater whole as the art of persuasion is concerned.

Discover the most closely guarded secrets of hypnotic mind control and the persuasion techniques that were banned from many prison systems by visiting Disguised Hypnosis to download your free audio CD that discusses the secretive principles of persuasion.

Tags: recreation, self help, self Improvement

South Carolinas Darlington Raceway is an egg shaped terror that has become known as the track too tough to tame. If thats true, David Pearson came pretty close”during his illustrious career, he posted 10 victories and 12 poles at Darlington. These are both records for one of NASCARs most unforgiving tracks. Pearsons ability at Darlington bordered on the unreal, and he was able to follow the conventional wisdom about performing well there better than anyone. The old saying is that you need to race the track, not the other drivers, but thats a lot easier said than done. Pearson, however, made it look easy.

David Pearson was born on December 22, 1934 in Whitney, SC”a textile town near Spartanburg. Like most of the locals, his parents worked in the local cotton mill and did their best to provide. David dropped out of school after the 10th grade to work in the mill, but soon quit that life as well–he was drawn to racing cars and began running at short tracks in the Carolinas. He ran his first race on 9/19/52 in Woodruff South Carolina. Within a few years, he won his first championship at the Greenville”Pickens Speedway in 1959.

Pearson never sought out stock car racing immortality, but some of his friends had other ideas. They began raising money to buy a car to race in the NASCAR Grand National series (the forerunner to today’s Sprint Cup). With a patchwork of financial backing, David began racing a limited schedule on the Grand National circuit and was named the 1960 rookie of the year. In 1961, he became the first driver in history to win on 3 of the 4 superspeedways in the same season (Charlotte, Atlanta, Daytona). This attracted sponsors, and before he knew it he was a top NASCAR driver winning Grand National titles in 1966, 1968 and 1969.

During the 70’s, Pearson specialized in superspeedway racing. Through the end of the 1970s, Pearson won 43 races. In addition to his mastery of Darlington, he posted remarkable numbers all over the circuit. He is one of two men to have won more than 100 races, and his 105 is second only to The King Richard Pettys 200 wins. Hes also second on career poles (113) to Petty. Head to head, however, he has a slight edge over NASCARs legendary King: in races where he and Petty finished 1-2, Pearson won 33 to Pettys 30. His 11 consecutive poles at Charlotte is a feat that will likely never be matched. Another record that may never be broken is his 18.29% winning percentage, as well as his record of starting from the pole in 20% of the races he ran.

Pearson is alive and well and still lives in Spartanburg, SC. In March 2000, SC Highway 221 through Spartanburg County was renamed David Pearson Boulevard in his honor. He still gets out on the Darlington track a few times a year–impressive for anyone, but even more so for a 75 year old man. And he’s still got the sterling silver hair which gave him his nickname of ‘The Silver Fox’.

Ross Everett is a freelance sports writer who has written on sports betting and how to successfully bet on NFL football. He has appeared as a guest on TV and radio talking about boxing, cricket and NFL pointspreads. He lives in Southern Nevada with three Jack Russell Terriers and a lynx.

Tags: self help, advice, self motivation