Ostend In Cafe Westrozebeke gathered Saturday 78 participants for the TSOP flippertornooi. Five friends, united by their interest in pinball and pinball machines, to organize the tournament for the second time. “For some people is the nostalgia, when we were at the pub for pints played. Others bring pinball to a higher level.”
In the garage of Matthias Leurs are several pinball machines produced. Lack of space is one of the biggest challenges for the friends. Together, they possess twelve pinball machines, including ones from the ’50s to newer models. They restore them, work at it, and can spend hours at play. “Most people don’t know that there is a full game in the closet. Some cabinets have rules of a few pages long. That you can find, but the best remains to bring the cabinet to play and find out. So I’m already a year and a half to play one game. Since I started with this hobby, I’m busy, I still play less than on the Playstation,” says Matthias.
He learned the flipperwereld to know through his father. “There are also two categories of people who play pinball games. The one are nostalgic people, like me, who still know of at a cafe, when we were still for pints played. The others are young people who could already play to a higher level,” explains Vic Houtteman from Heist.
