Having survived a couple of World Wars, countless recessions, the indignation of lifestyle police, and most recently the video game phenomenon it appeared that pinball was just too tough to kill. Thats why it was a surprise 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 immersive challenge. Besides, it took two to tango when it came to Pong, so that game and its progeny had more of an impact at the home level (and paved the way for what would become a huge industry). 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. Several games were spun off from video games, including a couple of good ones”Spy Hunter and Space Invaders and a number of not so good ones based on the Pac Man video games. Bally even made a game called Baby Pac Man that was a video/pinball hybrid. 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.

It was the late 1980s”when video games became more technologically advanced and began to offer superior play experiences”that pinball lost its way. Depending on the manufacturer, they did it in different ways. 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”and in large part due to the paucity of compelling pinball machines turned out during this era”video had taken over the arcade. Some larger arcades continued to offer a few pinball machines to placate hardcores, while some eliminated pinball altogether.

Pinball began to experience a bit of a comeback in the 1990′s driven by well designed, enjoyable games that finally got the balance between traditional gameplay and modern technology right. Williams and Bally (whom WMS later acquired), along with Data East, were making the majority of new games and some would become classics. Pin-Bot, Earthshaker The Adams Family and Diner are among my favorites of this era. Articles started to appear in the traditional media about the durability and timelessness of pinball, about how 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.

So what now? Stern Pinball”recently spun off by Sega”is still committed to building new games, but their track record is spotty and certainly not in the league with Williams/Bally. Theyll have a harder time marketing the games, and as a result theyre not a company that will be able to bring the industry roaring back. 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. With the capital investment required for a new company to get into the business, its hard to envision any new manufacturers popping up.

Ross Everett is popular culture editor for The Savage Science, a website covering both MMA news and popular entertainment culture. He’s an also a fight sport expert, and reportsUFC news for several mainstream sports broadcasts and websites. He’s practiced several martial arts forms since childhood and holds a black belt in judo.

Have you gotten weary of going back and forth to the video store just to find out that the film that you have been waiting for is not in stock? Do you need a better way to obtain your movie entertainment? Now you can download first-rate, unabridged motion pictures straight to your own computer right in the comfort of your own home.

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There are plenty of ways to make money online. The key to succeeding is finding a method, model or strategy that you will enjoy. Not all models are right for everyone. Some are great at selling and promoting products as an eBay affiliate while others seem to do well selling informational products. In either case, the model you choose will help determine your success.

Never start an online business without first considering the niche market first. There are many niches online ranging from jewelry and clothing to flags, model trains and cookware. Each niche has a unique set of demographics that must be understood.

So where should you begin when thinking about a niche? The best place to start is with keyword research. This phase is not only critical to your success, but failing to do so will lead to dismal failure. The online the keywords you target are your market and represent the desires of the market as a whole or in part.

If you target the wrong set of keywords for the type of market you want to reach then all of your efforts will be in vain. It is of paramount importance to thoroughly research the related phrases that people will type in the search engines like Google, to find the type of services and products you plan to promote. Additionally, by focusing your marketing efforts on specific phrases, this will make it much easier to track buying keyword conversions too.

An example of a broad market would be credit cards. While you may think this is a good place to start, the fact remains that there is far too much competition to enter this market as a beginner. However, if you segment the credit card industry, then you could target a more specific keyword where you may have a decent chance such as low interest credit cards.

One of the consequences of targeting the wrong keywords in your marketing efforts can be low traffic or traffic that does not convert. The keywords you use are extremely important. They will determine whether or not you get traffic from the search engines like Google and Yahoo and will affect how well that traffic converts into buying customers.

Keyword research begins online. There are plenty of databases that you can access. Some databases are free while others require a small fee. The best keyword research tool that you can use is Google’s own keyword tool. It is not only free, but the data is compiled from their data centers based on actual monthly search results.

The Google keyword tool will give you all of the preliminary data you need to consider before going into a specific market. I encourage you to use this tool frequently. You will not only get all kinds of ideas for online businesses, but you will get a good understanding of how searches are conducted online. This data will help you in your quest to start an online business.

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