Back in another time, I was a tournament pinball player. After being away from pinball for some decades, I’ve returned to it, like to play machines, have made some friends in the pinball community. Tournaments are highly organized and regimented via national and international organizations, and I have no interest in paying them money to find out that I’m maybe the 52,827th best player in the country or whatever. So I just play when I see a table and have some time and a few quarters.

This machine is No Fear: Dangerous Sports, a 1995 Bally Williams table. If you like classic machines, you’ll think of 1995 as modern machines, and if you like modern tables, 1995 would be a classic. Anyway, a bar not that far from me has a couple of pinball tables from that era; I like older machines, so I don’t play either of them that much, but they look really nice, and when you turn your photos into black and white shots, the lighting really makes the table look very lively.

August 15, 2025. OnePlus 12 cell phone, 2.62mm focal length (35mm equivalent: 14mm), f/2.2, 1/30, ISO 250.