Nudge Magazine: 24 Hour Pinball People (2024)

I wrote about (and participated in) Missouri's first ever 24 Hour Pinball Tournament for Nudge Magazine, the only regular pinball periodical in print today. The cover story is an hour by hour account of our descent into madness. Available for purchase, read full text by request.

“Why do we do this to ourselves?” 

Four hours into a tournament, when an eight-year-old on a stepstool is destroying me on a Guardians of the Galaxy Pro, I ask myself this.

Six hours into a tournament, crestfallen, tilted out of semifinals, I think about this. 

Eight hours into a tournament, one scoop away from victory and one brick shot away from a long, quiet car ride home, I also think about this. 

The answer isn’t deep: pinball is our obsession.

But there are times in our lives when we are forced to examine where our obsessions end, and where true psychosis begins. 

Huddled across three sheds of pinball machines from every era, against an Illinois skyline choked by a Gotham-esque oil refinery, 50 fearless maniacs would take the plunge (several hundred times, actually) and attempt competitive four-player Match Play pinball for over 24 hours straight. With only two half-hour breaks. None of this is court ordered.

Eventually, as the sun rose, and set, and rose again…we would all discover what true midnight madness means.