Same player shoots again : a biography of the pinball machine / Andreas Bernard ; translated by Valentine A. Pakis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bernard, Andreas, 1969- author.

Contributor:

Pakis, Valentine A., translator.

Standardized Title:

Trost der Flipper. English

Language:

English

German

Subjects (All):

Bernard, Andreas, 1969-.

Bernard, Andreas.

Pinball machines--Social aspects.

Pinball machines.

Pinball machines--History.

Genre:

Translations

Autobiographies.

Physical Description:

v, 96 pages ; 22 cm

Other Title:

Biography of the pinball machine

Place of Publication:

Cambridge, UK ; Hoboken, NJ : Polity Press, [2026]

Language Note:

In English, translated from the German.

Summary:

"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."--Publisher.

Other Format:

ebook version :

ISBN:

9781509569434

150956943X

9781509569441

1509569448

OCLC:

1585501702

Publisher Number:

CIPO000365173