Name: Same Player Shoots Again: A Biography of the Pinball Machine
Start: 2026-03-07T15:00:00-08:00
End: 2026-03-07T17:00:00-08:00
Location: The Wende Museum

A discussion with author Andreas Bernard on pinball, public space, and what declining analog play reveals about modern leisure and work.
About this Event

Join us for a conversation with Andreas Bernard, author of Same Player Shoots Again: A Biography of the Pinball Machine.

Once a fixture of bars, arcades, and public life, the pinball machine flourished from the 1960s through the 1990s before quietly disappearing. Bernard uses pinball as a lens on much larger shifts. The erosion of public leisure. The collapse of clear boundaries between work and play. The rise of screen-based distraction and the thinning of social critique.

Part memoir, part cultural history, the book moves from specific machines to broader questions about how we spend time, how we gather, and what has been lost as games migrate from shared physical spaces to private screens.

The program will include remarks by the author, brief readings, and audience Q&A. A complimentary reception will follow in the garden. Copies of the book will be available for purchase.