Pinball actually derives from an eighteenth-century French game called Bagatelle, but the game as we would recognize it today dates back to the early 1930s. Nearly all of the major pinball manufacturers have been located in and around the city - and even as interest in the game has ebbed and flowed, Chicago has always remained at the epicenter. As Zach explains, Chicago is to pinball as Detroit is to cars. His father and brother, who both live in Arlington Heights, have twenty-five and twenty-nine machines respectively.īut Zach doesn’t only lead in pinball rankings - he also works for the global market leader in manufacturing pinball machines, Stern Pinball in Elk Grove Village.Ĭhicago and pinball have a long history. Now living in Chicago’s North Park neighborhood with his wife and young son, Zach has seven machines in his basement. No Sharpe would find himself without a respectable personal collection. Zach Sharpe and his brother, Josh, inherited their pinball brilliance from their father, Roger. Today, Zach and his brother, Josh (GIES ’01), continually top the rankings, and all three men hold top positions in the International Flipper Pinball Association, the industry’s governing body for competitive pinball. He was surrounded by the sounds of balls ricocheting against bumpers and the glow of the back glass.Īt one point, his father, Roger, was among the best pinball players in the country and is credited with saving the game in the 1970s. When he was growing up in suburban Chicago, there were no fewer and often more than ten pinball machines in his house - in his bedroom, in the basement, in the living room. Zach Sharpe (GIES ’05) comes from what the Chicago Reader calls the First Family of Pinball. “I don’t even have an earliest memory of playing pinball because it’s always been a part of my life.”
0 kommentar(er)
