Same Player Shoots Again

Name: Same Player Shoots Again
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ISBN: 9781509569441

A Biography of the Pinball Machine

Andreas Bernard (Leuphana University of L¿neburg, Germany), Valentine A. Pakis

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English

Polity Press
22 May 2026

Society & Social Sciences; Popular culture

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.

By: Andreas Bernard (Leuphana University of L¿neburg Germany)
Translated by: Valentine A. Pakis
Imprint: Polity Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 211mm, Width: 137mm, Spine: 15mm
Weight: 159g
ISBN: 9781509569441
ISBN 10: 1509569448
Pages: 112
Publication Date: 22 May 2026
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Paperback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

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

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

Reviews for Same Player Shoots Again: A Biography of the Pinball Machine

""Part memoir, part cultural history, Same Player Shoots Again beautifully evokes a lost world through a single object. It offers an illuminating window on that strange and unknown land, the very recent past."" Joe Moran, Liverpool John Moores University