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Beschreibung

This is an ode to the lost golden age of the pinball machine. These vivid, flashing portals of entertainment were mainstays of nearly every bar, pub, and amusement arcade from the 1960s to the 1990s, but today they have all but disappeared. Andreas Bernard, looking back on his coming of age as an avid pinballer, reflects on what the disappearance of pinball machines tells us about the modern transformation of leisure time and public spaces.

The demise of pinballing at the end of the 1990s converged with huge social shifts which eroded the distinction between work and leisure. Now we use the same screen to organize both work and leisure, and games have been absorbed by a professionalization of daily life that is impossible to escape. Is our free time, as we know it, really free? Bernard also shows how the replacement of pinball machines by pocket-sized vessels of distraction was accompanied by the ebbing away of social critique.

At times nostalgic and lighthearted and at others bitingly astute, this book will appeal to all pinballers, past and present, and to anyone interested in the changing world of culture, gaming, and entertainment.

This is an ode to the lost golden age of the pinball machine. These vivid, flashing portals of entertainment were mainstays of nearly every bar, pub, and amusement arcade from the 1960s to the 1990s, but today they have all but disappeared. Andreas Bernard, looking back on his coming of age as an avid pinballer, reflects on what the disappearance of pinball machines tells us about the modern transformation of leisure time and public spaces.

The demise of pinballing at the end of the 1990s converged with huge social shifts which eroded the distinction between work and leisure. Now we use the same screen to organize both work and leisure, and games have been absorbed by a professionalization of daily life that is impossible to escape. Is our free time, as we know it, really free? Bernard also shows how the replacement of pinball machines by pocket-sized vessels of distraction was accompanied by the ebbing away of social critique.

At times nostalgic and lighthearted and at others bitingly astute, this book will appeal to all pinballers, past and present, and to anyone interested in the changing world of culture, gaming, and entertainment.

Über den Autor

Andreas Bernard teaches History of Science at Leuphana University of Lüneburg, Germany.

Inhaltsverzeichnis
1. Time Warp
2. Monaco
3. Harlem Globetrotters
4. Pinball Champ '82
5. Paragon
6. Earthshaker
7. Taxi
8. Star Trek: The Next Generation
9. Tilt
10. Same Player Shoots Again
Details
Erscheinungsjahr: 2026
Fachbereich: Allgemeines
Genre: Importe
Rubrik: Sozialwissenschaften
Medium: Buch
Inhalt: Einband - fest (Hardcover)
ISBN-13: 9781509569434
ISBN-10: 150956943X
Sprache: Englisch
Einband: Gebunden
Autor: Bernard, Andreas
Übersetzung: Pakis, Valentine A.
Hersteller: John Wiley and Sons Ltd
Verantwortliche Person für die EU: Libri GmbH, Europaallee 1, D-36244 Bad Hersfeld, gpsr@libri.de
Maße: 142 x 223 x 15 mm
Von/Mit: Andreas Bernard
Erscheinungsdatum: 16.01.2026
Gewicht: 0,254 kg
Artikel-ID: 134547032

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