Gamers connect over ‘world under glass.’ Pinball passion rings bells in Valley
When Robert Wilson bought Fast Eddie’s MOAB in 2022, he didn’t know his new restaurant came with more than just great food and history. The owner, Eddie Gibson, decided to sell the Modesto business after decades of serving burgers, fries and shakes. When he handed over the keys, he left behind his recipes, a lot of nostalgic decor and one pinball machine, Fish Tales.
That last acquisition led the restaurateur to something he didn’t expect: becoming part of a local community of pinball enthusiasts.
Wilson said he was drawn to the machine and would play a few games in his spare time. He said he wasn’t really very good, and the machine would break down often. One day, a customer named Matt Ernst came in and offered to fix the game. “He said, ‘If you buy the parts, I’ll do the work,’” Wilson said.
Ernst took the game home to work on it. “We spent a lot of money because it was in very bad shape, and then when it came back, it worked,” Wilson said. “Matt was knowledgeable enough to teach me how the game works, and I realized it was honestly kind of addictive.”
Wilson said he liked the flashing lights and other elements of the pinball machine — a “world under glass,” he called it. Miniature sets, animatronics and the ding-ding-ding of the bumpers as the metal ball rolls over the colorful playfield take it from just a game to a total experience.
Wilson didn’t know it at the time, but Ernst is a pinball fanatic. “I think I could say for me, it’s the randomness,” Ernst said as he described what initially attracted him to pinball. “It’s the actual physics of the ball running around. It’s unpredictable, though it’s very much a skill game. So in general, it’s an actual steel ball running around, bashing into things, and lighting up lights and making sounds, and it’s just exciting,” he said.
Ernst grew up with a pinball machine at his house and would frequent local arcades like Tilt at Vintage Faire Mall before it closed sometime in the 1990s. He said he always wanted to own a machine, but the cost and upkeep seemed daunting.
“Pinball really got popular during the COVID-19 pandemic, so I started buying them because I just took the leap and thought I could maybe work on them and keep them running, and went from there to having too big a collection at home,” he said. A news story from 2021 reported that “Stern, the world’s largest pinball manufacturer based in Chicago, reported sales during quarantine five times higher than ever before.”
Ernst’s collection grew so big that he ran out of room. He decided to ask local business owners if he could place his machines in their establishments, and Wilson was game.
That first pinball machine grew into an entire room of machines, all Ernst’s until the collecting bug hit Wilson, too. Soon, Wilson’s own collection of machines exceeded the gaming space at MOAB. Wilson said he rotates out machines often, sometimes one or two a month.
Ernst now has his collection in other sports around town, the most being at Contentment Brewing Company and Rivets American Grill.
Ernst found a community of pinball enthusiasts in Modesto, and one of those people was Robert Reiss. Reiss is president of the Stanislaus Pinball League and found Ernst almost by accident.
He began to get into pinball during the pandemic, too, and he and a friend bought a machine to play at home. Soon, one grew to a few, and he wondered if he could create a club to meet other players.
They initially called it Modesto Pinball League, but when they tried to set up the email address, it was already taken. They emailed the account, and Ernst responded. He had the same idea, and they met and connected the area players.
In January 2023, the club was founded with 24 members in its inaugural year. Today, there are over 50 members in the Stanislaus Pinball League.
“If you build it, they will come,” said Ernst. “We just built the ability to have a league, and then people from all over started joining and telling their friends, the community that we have in the league is really amazing, there’s men, women, and kids, all ages,” he said.
Though pinball may seem like a solitary game, Wilson said there are various options for group play. Using the flipper buttons, players can select standard play or competition play, where players trade off balls and go score for score.
When the group meets, members often play in teams and multiple rounds that can last for hours. “You can’t play pinball on your phone, right? You actually have to be out there and be social. It uses physics and mechanics, so it’s a really neat way for people to interact,” Wilson said.
The club meets every other Tuesday and Thursday at MOAB and every other Wednesday at Contentment Brewing Company or Rivets American Grill. For a full schedule and to sign up with the club, visit www.sites.google.com/view/stanislaus-pinball/home
One way the league engages with the larger pinball community is by streaming tournaments on Twitch, the popular livestreaming entertainment application. Stanislaus Pinball League member David Stoddard built a camera rig that allows streaming of the game from multiple angles, including the score screen, the player and the pinball playfield. Viewers can watch games at www.twitch.tv/highscorzpinball
Wilson said that for October, he and Ernst will put out some machines that tie into the Halloween season. Wilson will add one of his favorite games, Monster Bash, to the lineup at MOAB. The game features popular monsters including the Creature from the Black Lagoon, the Wolf Man, Frankenstein and his Bride, the Mummy and Dracula.
Ernst says he has a “Halloween” movie-themed pinball machine he will add to the lineup in the coming weeks, too.
If you are looking to play spooky-themed games, MOAB has “Ghostbusters,” “Funhouse: Rudy’s Nightmare” and “Stranger Things.” Contentment Brewing has “Jaws,” “The Walking Dead,” Godzilla and King Kong. And Rivets has “Black Knight: Sword of Rage” and “Attack from Mars.”
For a list of games all over Modesto, Pinball Map is a crowdsourced guide to all the games and locations in the area.
This story was originally published September 29, 2025 at 8:57 AM.
