Kamloops pinballers brought their machines together so people can play for free

There’s a row of people flipping flippers, triggering lights and bells to rack up a high score in Kamloops but it isn’t a flashback to the 70s, it’s every week for a dedicated group of pinballers.

Derek English is the president of the Kamloops Pinball Association, a group of pinball enthusiasts who found a home at Embers Brewhouse to share their love of the game.

“I occasionally played throughout my life, but really fell into virtual pinball during the pandemic. And that basically led me to running into them at Embers and joining up with the crew there,” he said.

Embers had a few old pinball machines that people would come in and play, then it snowballed when English and other pinball wizards decided to bring their own personal machines into the bar to grow the community.

“There are 10 machines and they’re all individually owned. They’re not owned by Embers at all. We just kind of coexist and they let us have that space, which we’re extremely grateful for,” he said.

The association came about to help organize tournaments for the Kamloops Pinball League, get insurance for the machines, and help pay for maintenance but it’s a non-profit society.

The association has a tournament every Thursday and free play on Tuesdays for anyone who wants to open a tab and get into pinball. The tournament fees go towards machine maintenance.

Pinball machines are expensive. English’s dream machine, themed around Twilight Zone, goes for about $12,000.

“They’re definitely not a moneymaker like they used to be, you know, a dollar a game doesn’t really pay for the $9,000 brand new machine that you’re buying in any amount of time,” he said.

It’s also not easy to find someone to fix them, so English and others at the society do all the maintenance.

“Nowadays it’s trial and error,” he said. “If I don’t know what I’m doing with something, there’s usually a tutorial or somebody’s got pictures of how something’s supposed to look.”

Like many niche interests, there’s an app for people who seek out pinball machines called Pinball Map.

“We’ve had people show up from the U.S. because they’re like, ‘we were traveling through B.C. and we searched on Pinball Map and we saw your location with this great lineup,’” he said.

“A lot of people are intimidated at first cause they’re like, ‘Oh, it’s a tournament, you guys are internationally ranked. That’s too much pressure for me,’ but honestly, we’re just a community. We’re there for the friendship,” he said.

While the pinball community is a grassroots group, the tournaments are official and they do count towards the International Flipper Pinball Association which ranks 147,000 players around the world.

“One of our guys was in the top 20 in B.C. And there’s multiple of us that are in the top, like 500 in B.C. and all here in Kamloops, we’re pretty proud of that,” he said.

English said there are people who play every day and get scores up to a billion points, but the association is more about giving people access to pinball and making friends.

“It’s my time away from work, my time away from home to get out and actually do something and to socialize, sometimes have some drinks and just hang out with friends. It’s a great time,” he said.