9 minute read
Jim Belsito & The Riverside Pinball League
WORDS: MANO MIRANDÉ PHOTOS: ZACH CORDNER
While growing up in Riverside in the 80s, there was no shortage of places to play video games. Local staples like the Riverside Plaza’s “Aladdin’s Castle,” and “The Gold Mine” at The Tyler Mall, and of course, the three-story arcade inside Castle Park were constantly packed with people of all ages dumping whatever change they could scrounge up into these machines. Some played as an innocent distraction, while others spent countless hours honing their skills to defend their high scores and defeat potential challengers. With popularity of home gaming systems like Nintendo and Sega reaching an all-time high by the mid to late 1980s, a noticeable decline in attendance of public arcades inevitably followed. Many of these once thriving gaming institutions eventually met their demise—permanently closing their doors to become nostalgic memories of days past. Long before the video game craze of the 1980s, another beloved source of coin-operated entertainment reigned supreme. Consisting of only a silver ball and two flippers, the deceptively “simple” game of Pinball offers much more to its players than one might imagine. With roots as early as the 1930s, Pinball has managed to survive the test of time, and with the current resurgence in popularity of Retro Gaming and “Barcades,” it’s currently witnessing a long-awaited rebirth. But those who love the game and its culture recognize it as much more than just a passing trend. It’s become a lifestyle to many, and like any competitive platform, it demands a skill level and dedication that requires years of practice to master. One Inland Empire native who has committed decades of his life to Pinball and continues to contribute to its advancement is Jim Belsito—founder of the Riverside Pinball League, owner of PS Vending, and co-organizer of the INDISC Pinball Tournament. Born in Lansing, Michigan, Jim moved to the Inland Empire at the age of five where his love for video games began. At 52 years old today, Jim fondly recalled his early fascination. “It started in ’81 when I found Pac-Man. I was totally addicted to video games, and Pac-Man was the start of it. In elementary
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school, I was a perfect student first through fifth grade, but by sixth grade my grades started struggling. I wondered what happened and later found some of my old notebooks. Every page was covered with drawings of Pac-Man characters,” he laughed, “I mean, I was totally obsessed, but so was everyone at that time.” This early obsession with video games shifted to Pinball soon after. Jim explained, “I started spending all my money on video games for the next three or four years. I was even taking quarters out of my dad’s change jar until he caught on. I’d ride my bike four miles just to play video games at this bowling alley in Rialto called Orange Bowl. It’s gone now, but one day a friend of mine asked me, ‘Why don’t you try Pinball? You can win free games, maybe your money will last longer.’ So, I tried it and had a knack for it to the point where I was putting one quarter in and playing for two to three hours. I’d build up so many credits that I started selling them to people. On my way out, I’d ask them, ‘Hey, do you want to buy ten credits for a dollar’? Each one was worth $.25 cents, so it was good deal. I was walking out with more money than I came in with. After that, I never went back to video games.” While video games remain more popular to the general public than Pinball, Jim explained the allure of transitioning to Pinball, aside from financial reasons. “I think it’s way more interesting than video games. There’s more interaction. You’re actually dealing with a moving object whereas with video games you’re constantly fighting against a computer. There’s a lot of geometry in there, a lot of knowledge of the game, and how to keep the ball in play, so you actually have more control of what’s going on.” This explanation led to the following question I assumed would be on most peoples’ minds less familiar with the game: “How do you get good at Pinball?” Jim explained, “First of all, it’s knowing the machine. Each game plays and scores different, so you have to really know the rules of each game and how to safely score the most points. Second thing is ball control—not just flipping away, but being able to actually stop the ball and trap it on the flipper you want to shoot from. Lastly, you want to be able to aim. That just takes practice. It’s visual, but it also takes a lot of muscle memory and timing.” These factors prove that Pinball is undoubtedly a game of skill and far more complicated than it appears. In its early years, Pinball was considered a game of chance and misperceived as a gambling device, which led to its ban in several major cities across the country during the 1940s. Not until the 1970s would the ban be lifted, thanks to Pinball enthusiast turned activist Roger Sharpe, who continues to play professionally and remains committed to its advancement today. “Two of the guys who (currently) run the International Flipper Pinball Association, Zach and Josh Sharpe, their dad, (Roger Sharpe), went to the New York City Council in 1976 to prove that Pinball was actually a game of skill and
Riverside's Pinball Wizard, Jim Belsito
The Riverside Pinball League meets every Tuesday night at Lake Alice Bar.
nota game of chance, and was able to get the ban lifted.” The decision to overturn Pinball’s prohibition was instrumental not only to the game’s survival, it also allowed for the establishment of the Pinball industry we know today. With its legitimacy restored, Pinball would usher in a new era going into the 1980s. Several manufacturing companies emerged as a result, mass-producing and distributing games across the country and spawning the birth of arcade culture. With soaring popularity and demand, competition between manufacturers grew exponentially. Machines evolved and became more sophisticated with technological advances over time. As new machines arrived, older ones became scarce, causing their value and demand to increase among collectors. Today, it’s not uncommon for enthusiasts to own, trade, and collect machines, as well as knowing how to service them. Jim is no exception, currently owning over 230 games in his personal collection. While the majority of them have been distributed to various establishments throughout Southern California for commercial use through his company PS Vending, Jim is currently building a structure at his home to house over 80 machines for his own personal use. Jim describes how his collection began along with his early experience working in the Pinball industry. “I bought my first game in ’91 from Castle Park,” Jim recalled. “My friends and I would go there to play Pinball and miniature golf every Friday night, so by 1988 I figured I may as well get a job there. They were always known for having the newest games before anyone else and usually had two of each machine when they came out. The owner at the time—Bud Hurlbut—was the guy who brought rides to Knott’s Berry Farm. He also made all of the trains by hand, and even invented the first Log Ride. He made his fortune there and took that money to build Castle Park in 1974. By 1988, it had a threestory arcade with 425 games in it. If you were a good employee, they’d offer to train you to learn how to repair the machines, so I ended up becoming a technician and eventually the General Manager.” This became the foundation for Jim’s transition as an avid player into the ranks of the gaming industry, and his passion for Pinball has only grown since. In 1992, Jim founded the Riverside Pinball League, which has hosted seasonal competitions at Lake Alice in downtown Riverside since its inception. Jim has been a part of it every step of the way—he not only owns, operates, and services all of the machines, he has consistently participated in the competition over the last four decades as well. The League is open to the public and welcomes players of all ages and skill levels every Tuesday evening at 7:30pm over sixteen weeks each season. It generally consists of about twenty to 30 players broken down into four-player groups who compete on five specific machines. Most of the games are
switched out every season and range in manufacturing date from as early as the late 70s to the present day, and each requires a separate skill set and rules for scoring. Players must adapt and study each individual machine’s game play each season in order to master them. Players are ranked on their scores compiled weekly. At the end of each season they are placed into three groups of eight players based on their rankings for a final competition, where the top player for the season is determined. Cash prizes are distributed based on their cumulative scores and are reported to the International Flipper Pinball Association, where they’re ranked internationally. Several players who participate in the Riverside Pinball League rank among the top-rated players in the world and Jim’s scores consistently place him among the best. Jim is also co-organizer of INDISC: “It Never Drains in Southern California”—the largest Pinball Tournament in the United States. Currently held right here in Riverside, the tournament has made the city a destination for hundreds of competitors from across the country, and brought it international recognition. Founded in 2012, INDISC began at Lake Alice with only a handful of players, but quickly outgrew the space and moved to several locations throughout Southern California before finding a longtime home at the Museum of Pinball in Banning, CA. until its closure in 2021. The tournament has since returned to Riverside in February of 2022, held at The Riverside Convention Center where it will take place again in January of 2023. While Pinball might be seen as an outdated novelty to some, Jim Belsito (along with countless players from around the globe) share a deep love and appreciation for the game. From the quirky artwork and primitive game play of early machines to the sophisticated computer screens and elaborate backstories of today’s games, one thing that has remained constant is the dedication and passion seen on each player’s face as they drop their coins into those machines and pull back that lever—launching them into the world that each game has to offer.
