August 1 National Pinball Day

A day that celebrates the man that saved pinball, Roger Sharpe, birthday comes every August 1 since 2019.

The inaugural celebration of National Pinball Day took place in 2019 and has been enjoyed annually ever since. The date was chosen to coincide with the birthday of Mr. Roger Sharpe and was also coordinated as the start of that year’s Pinburgh, one of the largest ever pinball conventions, which includes the annual World Pinball Championships.

National Pinball Day (August 1st) | Days Of The Year

At PGM we’ve celebrated Roger Sharpe’s work in the pinball space before: Bought, Watched Pinball: The Man Who Saved The Game + 8 Roger Sharpe Designed Pinball Machines and 6 VPIN Recreations and just one of many reasons to get excited about virtual pinball is that you can play 6 of 8 pins Roger Sharpe designed. It will be much harder finding those real pins to play out in the wild.

How can we celebrate August 1 and pinball? Easy, go out and play or, if you’re fortunate enough to have home access (HUO), fire up those flippers. Can’t get out and flip one for whatever reason, then fire up some kind of virtual pinball, whether it be Zen pinball, Zaccaria, VPX or Future Pinball or just any vpin game through history. There are boatloads of fun vpins to play.

Personally, I don’t make the distinction with pinball that one is better than the other. Different? Yes. It’s like different flavors of ice cream and different type of cones (I like waffle cones a little more than sugar cones, but will also eat ice cream in a cup). There is a huge physical difference between virtual pinball and real pinball and it’s that crazy jumping steel ball that doesn’t translate digitally the same. The experience is getting better every year, but I’m not comparing one to the other here. I love ’em both. Play ’em both. Don’t get caught up in the quicksand that is considering one pinball and the other some kind of lesser deity.

Not today, August 1, pinball day.

And today is a day to celebrate. If you’re playing Stern, be sure to use your Insider Connected QR code and you might consider joining our Summer 2024 event: Summer 2024 Pinball PlayGamesMore Event: Visit Multiple Insider Connected Locations

Here’s another idea: try flipping a pinball machine you’ve never played before. Today’s a perfect day to see if you make a new pinball friend. Call up a buddy, ask him/her to go play pinball. So many more pinball ideas, attend a tournament tonight, you can check for them on sites like Pinballmap events (see; Traveling? Here is Where To Find Pinball), or join a Facebook group in your area.

We have one in Washington State where I live that chats up where the pinball tournaments are at.

Let us know in the comments how you’re celebrating pinball today. What are you playing? What would you like to play? Shopping for a pinball machine? What are you interested in buying?