Episode 07: Space Pinball with Erin Winick Anthony

Written By Emily Olsen

Whether you're a pinball champion, an avid enjoyer of the old virtual Space Cadet pinball games, or a complete newbie to the pinball world - you may be surprised at just how much overlap there is with spaceflight and pinball game design over the ages. Join Emily and Alexa in conversation with Erin Winick Anthony, a science communicator, engineer, and one of the top 100 ranked women's pinball players in the world, as we dive into the world of space pinball!

Vote for us in the Women in Podcasting Awards before October 1st! 🚀🎙️ https://womeninpodcasting.net/art-astra-podcast/

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Music credit: "Space" by Music_Unlimited

Show Notes:

Erin's socials/websites:

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Transcript:

Emily

Hello and welcome to the Art Astra podcast. I'm Emily Olsen.

Alexa

And I'm Alexa Erdogan.

Emily

And together, we explore intersections of the arts and space studies. Today, we're thrilled to have a special guest on the podcast Erin Winick Anthony. But first, we have a quick announcement.

Alexa

In case you haven't heard, we're nominated for the Women in Podcasting Awards and the window to vote for us in the competition closes October 1st, so please vote for us if you haven't already. The link to do so is on our website and on our socials.

Emily

If you have already voted, thank you, please consider rating us on Spotify rating and leaving a review on Apple Podcasts or wherever else you get your podcasts and sharing our podcast with friends. Any of these actions help spread the word and means the world to us. Thank you again to everyone for supporting our show. They were so excited to have a very special guest, Erin Winick Anthony.

Erin Winick Anthony is the founder of science communication company Steam Power Media, which works to share the creativity in science and engineering and help others tell their space stories. Erin has a Bachelor of Science in mechanical engineering.

And more than nine years experience working as a stem communicator for organizations such as MIT and NASA, she has a social media following of nearly 150,000 followers, to whom she shares science, space and pinball content. She's also one of the top 100 ranked women's pinball players in the world, Erin, thank you so much for joining us today.

Erin

Thanks for having me. I'm excited for this.

Alexa

Yeah, we are too. There's so many cool things that you have worked on and have been a part of and continue to be a part of that we'd love to talk to you about today, one of them being your experience in communicating science because you have so many years of experience and such a breadth of experience in that field too. So how did you even begin to get started in Sci Comm or science communication?

Erin

Yeah, I think my entry point was when I was getting my mechanical engineering degree. You know, when I went into college, I was debating majoring in journalism or mechanical engineering, which seemed like 2 very different things to a lot of people, but I loved both and my core. I always loved making stuff and that's kind of why I went the engineering route, because I always figured I could go back to journalism. I wanted to, but then I was like, wait, maybe there's a way to combine both of these things. So when I was in college, I started  a jewelry company that made 3D printed science and engineering inspired jewelry called Sci Chic. 

And I got to learn more about doing outreach stuff related to STEM and I got to start making more educational materials and I just found that that was an area that I was really passionate about. And I feel like everyone, science communications has, like, kind of a winding path to get there. But that was kind of the impetus to start off and go OK, maybe there's a career I can make for myself here.

Alexa

I love that. I feel like when we're in college, it all seems very, you know, “pick engineering,” or “pick this” and then the reality is as we all get older like all of those things are so intertwined, it seems kind of silly. Looking back, you can't really pick one specific thing because everything works together.

Erin

Yeah. Yeah. And I feel like when you're in college, there's like a few paths that everyone feels like they should go on. It's like, “OK, you're going to get an internship at Google or SpaceX or something,” or, “you're going to go to grad school and that's it,” you know? And it's like, easy to see those as the only metrics of success. But like so many of these STEM careers can lead you into so many different unique fields that you're still exposed to in that environment.

Alexa

Yeah, absolutely. Are there any nuances that you found in communicating signs within different fields or for different audiences, for example, like communicating space stories for NASA or, you know, communicating science for MIT versus working freelance? All these different fields and things to juggle and balance.

Erin

Yeah, definitely it's different audiences for all of them. You know, when I was at MIT, I was working more as a science journalist, which definitely has different things that you consider. And you look at things with a really critical eye especially, and trying to see the things that you need to highlight. With NASA, there's a little bit more of an educational spin on things. NASA’s a huge organization, right? So there's so many stories coming out of NASA, but there's also so many collaboration opportunities. So when you work with journalists, it was a lot more, like independent and fact checking and things like that. And here there's, like, just teams of people all around the agency that you need to work with. And I think it's definitely a different type of collaborative experience doing that and then freelance.

Now I get to kind of be able to work with so many different audiences. Of course, storytelling, I think is the core of all of it, no matter what you're doing. But it's really fun some days to be able to like tomorrow I'm going to record a video at Space Center Houston, which is near me, about some of the cool space artifacts I have there. And then I was at Astro Lab, a Lunar Rover company just a couple weeks ago. Being able to like record videos for them, so I think at the core all of them have that similar storytelling arc to it, but it's really the audience and trying to think about it from different perspectives of who you're trying to share those stories with.

Alexa

That's so cool. Like one week you get to be like covering a Lunar Rover, and then you get to, like, talk about space artifacts

Erin

Yeah, that's the biggest highlight of it for sure.

Alexa

It sounds like you've had the opportunity to cover so many different things. Do you have maybe one or two or even several that have been some of your favorite stories?

Erin

The biggest was I had a huge project that I did at NASA, which was the Benefits for Humanity project. So the International Space Station every few years puts out something that's known as the Benefits for Humanity Book, and it's how are all the ways that the research we've done on the space station, how has it benefited us back here on Earth? That's the question everyone always asks, like, why does space matter to everyone here?

And so when I took it on every year, it had been doubling in size and it was very much… It was like a literal book, and it was kind of becoming a quantity over quality thing of like, “who's gonna sit down and read that whole thing?” So it was really fun to be able to take this on because we were able to pull out the stories we thought were most valuable, add updates, add in news stories, make it more of a magazine and less of a textbook, make it more digital friendly, pair it with things like podcasts and videos and things to make the message spread so much further. And for me, it was so fun because I got to dig into 20 years of research that’s been conducted on the space station and now really be able to answer that question: what's the reason that space matters? And for a couple of examples, I always try to give a range. There is some new Febreze products that use colloids research that was done on the space station, which makes shelf lives for products longer. We have different technology that was developed for the neutron telescope, NICER telescope up there, that's now being used to potentially make CT scanners lighter weight, more accessible, and lower radiation doses. There's been new drugs that have been developed from research up there. So it's just cool to be able to know how much what we've done in space has mattered to us back here on Earth.

Alexa

That circle I didn't even realize the breadth of all like pharmaceutical stuff. I think we hear about a lot, but then some stuff just like the Febreze. 

Erin

Yeah. Yes, it's good to know the one that's on your shelf that also had some benefit.

[laughs]

Emily

A follow up question on when you were determining what stories were more valuable than others. Out of curiosity, what makes the story more valuable, or what was the value metric there?

Erin

Yeah, well, some of them that had been tracked for a while didn't have as big of an impact as maybe we thought they did six years ago. So some of them, there was potential, and then maybe it was really cool fundamental research, but it wasn't necessarily applied. Like for example, there's one that I thought was really cool, which is the development of artificial blood for animals because there's no…When you think about it, no blood drives for cats and dogs. So there's not that accessibility for vets, but the price right now is just so high that there's not any necessarily being produced, but it's something that 10 years down the road, maybe that story gets picked up again and is much more impactful. And then it was just trying to make sure that we had a representative covering of all the different types of impact that it's had, ranging from that medical that we talked about to some that were more economic, like some of that fundamental research, things that we've discovered that we just didn't know about because we hadn't done that. 

So it was kind of what's the highest impact in each of those different areas and some of them that are just more relatable. For example, the Febreze, that people could just go, “OK, I get what that is.”

Emily

Absolutely. And then, also spinning off of what you previously mentioned: you mentioned magazines. I saw that you recently got to MC the Reinvented Magazine Space Gala. Can you tell us about that? That looked so cool.

Erin

Yeah, their STEM fashion show. It was so, so fun. So this was… I felt like I was Heidi Klum hosting Project Runway here. It was really cool. So basically, they had designers that created STEM-inspired designs. So some of those were very technology infused. So they had, you know, fiber optics or motors in them. Others were sustainable. So reusing a bunch of old jeans and things like that that were more environmentally friendly. And some that were just inspired by the idea of space and STEM, and they were all these designs that were paired with models that were role models, so amazing women in STEM. They got to wear and walk the runway. And then there were winners chosen in each of the categories. I also helped them organize the student competition for it. So we had three students who designed accessories and then got to walk the runway.

Erin

To do so, I got to be the one standing off to the side and showing off and talking about how cool all of these designs were, and oh my gosh, it was a whirlwind and so much fun. And just to be able to meet all of the designers and role models and seeing some of their incredible creations. I highly recommend going and looking at Reinvented Magazine’s Instagram just to see some of the pictures. We just got all the photo shoot pictures back, so there's definitely going to be some more going up soon.

Emily

That's absolutely fantastic. We'll be sure to link to Reinvented Magazine in our show notes too.

Erin

Awesome.

Alexa

Yeah, I'm excited to look through those. I don't… I haven't had the chance to look at them yet. And that's so cool. I love seeing so many different ways people can take STEM and fashion from like you were saying, like things that have utilized telescope pictures as templates for, you know, dresses or pieces of clothing to the things that have like fiber optics in them, I find so fascinating. Like the combination of creativity and engineering.

Erin

Yeah. And the inspiration that they all took was very cool because I got to read off like the things that the designers submitted, which was like all their stories and stuff that was like behind this. And it just makes you realize how much thought really goes into all these designs. As they put together, I mean some looked like they were like 3D printed dresses that looked like disco balls and others were like big ball gowns and almost looked like Earth, that it was a cool contrast between all these different types of things.

Alexa

I know in the past you've written, especially like your Medium article, you've written a lot about the importance of intersections between STEM and sewing. And one thing I really loved in that article that you wrote, which again we'll link in the show notes, was how you talk about how so so many of the like sewing skills and like, craftsmanship skills that you learn as part of textile work also applies very much to engineering. And I'd love to hear more about your thought process with all that.

Erin 

Yeah. I think the first machine I ever got to use as a kid was a sewing machine, you know?

And it's well, when I.. my mom and I would always make my Halloween costumes every year together. So whether it was my, you know, Hermione robe when I was dressing up as her and 4th grade or, you know, Dorothy for Wizard of Oz, it was really cool to be able to collaborate, really have someone to teach me that. And then also, it really is one of the only things in life that you do like off of a computer that's turning something completely 2D into something completely 3D. It's just like so similar to the mindset you have when you're playing with Legos and things like that and putting that together.

There and you really have to wrap your brain around when you see this like flat piece of fabric. How exactly is this going to fit around an arm and the different connection points and it really is just a totally different form of 3D design. And I think learning that at a young age definitely helped me realize that this was something I was interested in. And I've loved to be able to continue to do that even as I've learned to also use lathes and bills and things like that, very different type of tool and very cool when you could combine those two together too.

Alexa

I was reading through that, and it reminded me a little bit of when I used to work on cosplay as well. When I yeah, when I first started learning how to work with foam and different types of glue and how material interact with each other. And I remember when I first started my engineering program, they I guess most of the folks in my like most of my peers were already engineers, so a lot of the discussion prompts were like, what's a project that you've worked on like material engineering? And I was like, I'm a bio person, so I was pulling examples from like, “Well, I worked on this cosplay project,” or “I was building this prop and I had to utilize these 3D models and build things and try to envision how different materials will work together to create different textures or effects” and it was really striking. You would never think at first glance that the crossover between these two things are so similar.

Erin

Yeah, I did cosplay in college as well, carrying that forward. I'll ask you, did you have a favorite cosplay that you did?

Alexa

Ooh, I did my very first one was Commander Shepard from the Mass Effect game series I loved dearly, and it was my very first one. The foam I used was a little too thick and I didn't get half of it done in time, but I walked through a convention show and somebody yelled “ Shepard!” And that was it. That just… it made my day. 

Erin

I love it.

Alexa

What did you cosplay in college? I have to know now.

Erin

Well, the one that's most relevant to this is I did Miss Frizzle from the Magic School bus. That was my one cosplay award I won. It was like an audience favorite or something at Swamp Con at University of Florida for for that I also did Kim possible and Marjorie Tyrell from Game of Thrones because that was very big around that time. I did one Doctor Who won Madame de Pompadour from the “Girl in the Fireplace” episode.

Emily

I love that episode.

Erin

Yes, and a Clara one as well. Again, all the things that were, it was like SuperWhoLock era, you know, that was my college time so.

Alexa

Yeah, I think it was the same for all of us with SuperWhoLock college-time.

Erin

Yeah, you get it. 

[laughs]

Alexa

Do you still cosplay now?

Erin

You know, I haven't for a while. I try to do something with Halloween costumes now, but I do want to get back into it. I still have a Kaylee from Firefly, one that I have worn to my local one because again, it's very still on brand for me, and  that's a very comfortable one. Just the jumpsuit and T-shirt and carry her around her little umbrella.

Alexa

Mm-hmm. Oh, that's so awesome. I would love to see pictures at some point.

Erin

Yes, I had an old Facebook page and it was to dig it up …there was a cosplay that was... It still has all the pictures up on there. So my husband did it with me. He was Ron Stoppable when I was Kim Possible and things like that so I love it. 

Emily

That it's fantastic. I have never cosplayed, which is surprising in retrospect, since I take Halloween so seriously.

Alexa

You have. You've been Carmen San Diego. Hey, that's good.

Emily

Yeah, I've been Carmen San Diego, and then I was Kate Bush from the Hounds of Love album, which I'm happy that it got more relevant culturally.

Erin

Nice.

Emily

But transitioning entirely, the other aspect that we were so excited to talk to you about was pinball, yes.

Erin

Yes.

Emily

So how did you get started in pinball?

Erin

So I'd say originally I have to credit probably Space Cadet, the Windows 95 computer game, like I obsessively played that, especially with my dad and my dad played pinball. So I played like one pinball machine at our local Mel's Hot Dogs in Tampa, Florida. And then I had a Wii game that was like the old Williams  (one of the pinball machine manufacturers) that had all of their games on there. So a lot of virtual pinball. And then I moved to Houston just a few months before COVID hit. And so I hadn't really formed a community here. And after a few years of that, and wanting to try to meet people, I found out we have a local arcade here that does tournaments, so that's what got me out there. And we also have a big women's pinball league as well around here. So that got me out to go try it in person. And honestly the biggest thing that hooked me was the community because it was so welcoming and so fun around there, and so it's been almost two years now that I've been actually playing in competitive tournaments.

Emily

Do you have a favorite pinball machine?

Erin

So I have a few. It's hard to pick just one. There's a lot of eras with pinball machines. So my favorite era is like the 90s pinball machines, 80s/90s that are called solid states and that was when they started to make a lot more licensed games, so I really like Congo, which is based on like the Michael Crichton book and the movie. I really… I don't love the theme, but I love the playing of the Baywatch game and then modern, I'm a big fan of Labyrinth, which was made last year. I'm slightly biased because I was in the trailer for the pinball machine that was released, but genuinely I also really love it and it's a ton of fun.So I think those are my top, but honestly it goes back and forth. Godzilla is always up there too.

Emily

That's fantastic. And you've also teased a little bit on your socials about a project you're working on related to pinball. Can you tell us about that?

Erin

Yes, so this is what made me go, “OK, I have to reach out to them,” because this just overlaps so perfectly. I'm making a video that's looking at space history through pinball machine art, because pinball machines often reflected the things that were really popular at the time and machines were popular during kind of the rise of space and space heyday.

Erin

And so it's really interesting to look at the public perception of space and the things that were important, and the different art styles at the time, even all the way through modern day. Through some of this just really, really cool, unique pieces of art, many of which have been preserved a lot better than other art at the time, which might have been posters and things like that, because of these pinball machine collectors. So I'm looking at that, and kind of talking about how you can track the ups and downs and the popularity of space and the different types of pinball machines, and how these different technologies paired. So I'm trying to make a longer form YouTube video. Right now I'm aiming to release at the end of September on my YouTube channel. I'll have some other extended interviews that probably will go up in conjunction with that because there's just so many stories that are popping up in the local community in addition to just telling that one main story about tracking that.

Emily

That's so cool. And what inspired you? Was it just both of the industries and the fields that you're passionate about combining or was there a specific moment that you conceptualized this idea? 

Erin

So part of it is the… One of the places I play a lot around here is called Game Preserve, and there's one location it's called Game Preserve, NASA. It's very close to Johnson Space Center, so it's a space-themed location and they have a number of historical space machines there: a Pioneer which came out in 1976, and was  celebrating all the exploration that humanity has done one called Space Odyssey that had some like, very cool historical NASA art on it and I play there all the time. So just seeing these, and also I've seen how many people in our community work at NASA and also play pinball and it's just fun to see the people that today even have an intersection between the two hobbies.

Emily

I'm wondering now, especially since you've referenced how close it is to NASA and that personnel overlap, I wonder if there's any press photos of astronauts playing these pinball games.

Erin

You know, it's really funny. I interviewed someone today for this. His name is Blake, and he's also a mission patch designer. So he gets to work with astronauts all the time. And I said, “If you were going to recommend to astronauts to play one game, what would it be?” And he said, “Well, it depends on how skilled they are,” but he recommended Space Shuttle, which is one from the 80s, which I feel like is is like peak space game because it's  pretty accurate for a lot of stuff. the reflecting space things or Space Odyssey, which is a little bit older, one that has a art that shows the Apollo Soyuz when they met in space for the first time, the ASTP so it's cool, space history and some fun playing machines.

Emily

Speaking of that particular artwork, we noticed when we were looking through the pinball machines that you mentioned, that artwork was sourced from NASA.

Erin

Yeah, there's a really famous artist, Robert McCall, who's done a ton of art for NASA over the years. Even at Johnson Space Center is like a huge mural that's still done by him. And so yeah, it was sourced. It's not the exact picture, but it was based on his art, specifically highlighting that moment.

Emily

That's so cool. And it's such an interesting project, too. I will confess, even though I'm a huge nerd about automata and technology history, I've never been inspired to look into the history of pinball before you mentioned this project to me, and it was wild to me that it was banned starting in New York City from 1942 to 1970s. 1974, I think was when California overturned that… Yeah. But it's so interesting that it reenters popular culture in the 70s, and then we immediately get into the 80s and it gets more futuristic, or at least is that…Is that accurate? Because I'm not that familiar with the broader scope of them. 

Erin

I'll give you the high level timeline for pinball, which  starts out..The reason it's called pinball is there's nails that are put into wood and there's no slippers on them. You just launch balls into machines and it bounces around pins. Then we go into the electromechanical era, which…there's no computers. All the parts move mechanically, and that runs through the 60s, a little bit into the 70s. And then you get into the solid-state era, which is the first circuit-boards that go into them. You start having digital displays a lot more, like the sounds that aren't actual physical bells and things.

Then, you'll get like some dot matrix displays, kind of like those orange lights that light up and can form pictures on the back and more licensed games. And then we get into the more modern era that has DMD's [Dot Matrix Displays] and then LED screens which are like the more modern ones. So over that time, you know it goes up and down in popularity, as you said, some of it's sometimes it gets banned, then there's new things and electronics make it popular again, then video games get more popular so they get less popular. And then there's kind of a nostalgia, almost. It brings it back.

And COVID was a huge boon for it. A lot of people decided they wanted to buy pinball machines for their house, so people who had never been longtime collectors were. Now there is a new market. It wasn't just arcades and bars that were buying them. Tons of people were buying them for their homes. So there was a huge spike, which pinball is kind of still riding today, and it's just almost every year. It's just tons. Tons more people are entering the hobby and more tournaments and more competitions are happening.

Emily

I realized also when flagging that they were banned, they were banned at first because people would be gambling on them and that was illegal. And then in the 70s it gets proven that it is a game of skill. Yeah, but so with the constant evolution of these games in the 60s, even when they were underground, the technological development was still going into them and the game was changing even in this underground culture.

Erin

Yeah. And, you know, it wasn't banned everywhere. It was kind of like local, depending on local... Honestly, there's some places where technically it's still banned for people under 18 to play. I think in South Carolina it is. It's not enforced. But technically those laws are still on the books. Same thing where it's like, you know, illegal to eat ice cream while standing on one foot in some spots, that sort of thing. 

[laughs]

Erin

But yeah, it did still have that development. And there were a number of competing manufacturers that were kind of pushing that and like the invention of the bumper, just like revolutionizes the game. The little like circles, that kind of, you know, when the ball hits it, it shoots off of it. Someone really brings in the spinner and all those different elements that make all the other manufacturers keep pumping out new games and trying to push those boundaries. And if you wanna see a really good movie about some of this I think streaming on Hulu. It's “The Man Who Saved the Game,” which is the person, Roger Sharpe, who went to that New York City Council meeting, and said, “I'm gonna hit these shots and call them all out and hit them perfectly and prove that it was a game of skill,” super fun movie. Very cute. Highly recommend it. Roger Sharpe is still playing today and goes to all the pinball tournaments and his kids are like high level at Stern Pinball, which was the main panel manufacturer and the IFPA, the International Flipper Pinball Association. 

Emily

Do you have any favorite stories that you've uncovered over the course of this project that you maybe weren't familiar with before? 

Erin

Yeah, well, one just again sticks in my mind because I was talking with Blake today about this. So, like I said, Blake designs mission patches for NASA today, and it was interesting because he was saying he was looking at some of the old machines, old Marvel comic books used to use this style of art to display space. It was kind of these big, colorful clouds almost, that also then transferred over to pinball machine art, which now he used on one of his mission patches that he made because he was working with an astronaut who was also a fan of comic books. And he was able to put that on the patch. And the creator of that art style’s so saw it and reached out to him and said how cool he thought it was and just bringing those things totally full circle and then on top of that, it's just honestly been incredible to see just how many space seemed pinball machines. There were… I took this on because I knew there were a lot. There's a lot and some of them are more futuristic Jetsons-looking. Some of them have Apollo astronauts on the back glass and has a Saturn V,  and you can look at, you know exactly how they were reflecting kind of the public perception of space at the time so I have a  huge list that I've been compiling of unlicensed space games and it is a lot longer than I thought it would be and I'm excited to try to reach out to our local community and still continue to try to document and take pictures of some more of them.

Emily

That's so cool. Alexa and I have talked before about space in video games, and it's so cool to see, like the physical aspect of it, but particularly not only outside of digital consoles for the earlier games, but also in terms of like the actual like McCall art adapted for this game and to see the art history element of how space is perceived in addition to the futuristic aesthetic choices that get made as the game systems change.

Erin

Yeah, absolutely. And I think there's just more ability to do more with like certain eras of art. And on that note, when you look back at the old 60s one, some of the art is degrading because it's old. Some of them have been stored in places that had a lot of nicotine at the time. They're like…the manual bulbs burn some of it off. But it's really cool to see how some people are now learning to preserve some of these and try to keep them constant versus the new ones, which hopefully will last and be significantly better, more sustaining because we now have better ways of creating them but trying to maintain that live old art styles with modern techniques versus the modern ones that well. I'm curious to see what they look like 50 years from now when people are…collectors are looking at them. Is there anything that's degrading or are they gonna still look just as perfect as they do today?

Alexa

It's so interesting. Yeah. It's like another level of our preservation 

Erin

Yeah.

Alexa

…because I feel like when folks hear that term think of carefully, meticulously working on a painting in a museum, but like as you're mentioning, these things are reflecting not just popular space art or not just, you know, how the underground culture is developing, but also public opinion and and public sentiment towards such a huge endeavor for humanity. And the fact that some of it is degrading is kind of sad. It's like a space artifact in a sense, like a space era artifact.

Erin

Yeah. It’s always…there's a little bit of like… you're a torn a bit because you want them to be still played, right? And playing them makes them degrade sometimes. But if you keep them in climate controlled environments and you can replace them with some more modern bulbs, they can reduce some of those things. But it's a balance of, OK, you still want to have these cool 1950s machines out there, but they weren't necessarily built to be beat up on in an arcade for hours at a time.

Though it's interesting, the people who are the techs and the mechanics out there, they're doing incredible work and it's very cool to be able to see them be the heroes of some of these local pinball communities as well.

Emily

Are there missions that are getting more or less love than you'd expect, or like a certain aspect of space is way more popular than anticipated in a certain area of time?

Erin

Yeah, well, I'll say people love rockets. They're so many. I mean, I literally, there's some that are just called “Rocket.” So there's Saturn V on a lot. I said that Space Shuttle is an iconic one. People tend to like Space Station art, even if it was like old imagined art, but since there was kind of like a dip off in unlicensed games and there was like a decrease in popularity, we have kind of a gap around like the late 90s or early 2000s where there's not much space stuff that's represented there. There's a lot of like Star Trek, Star Wars type games that start coming out as licensed stuff really ticks up. So as someone who worked on the International Space Station program for a long time, I'm a little sad that that's not more in space station art or in spin pinball machine art, but I think there's also a lot of very cool pop art interpretations of space. There's so many like Jetsons-y looking old machines, which is super cool sometimes, like a cross between Star Trek and Jetsons. That was very, very popular aesthetic. There's this one called “Future Spa,” which is just like Ultra Futuristic-y looking. So yeah, I think people liked space, and that meant people would put the quarters in the machines. So if rockets are selling, they'll keep making more rocket games. Then they proved that and they kept putting rockets on more of those back glasses.

Emily

And then a follow-up question, too: are you only focusing on games played in America? Were there any games getting shipped to Europe or any European manufacturers that were making space related games that caught your attention?

Erin

Good question. Yeah. So one of the big pinball manufacturers that was from overseas called Zaccaria, which coincidentally one of our local collectors here loves Zaccaria games and actually been working on getting a bunch of them restored.

Erin

So I'm hoping that I might be able to see one of their space themed games, but that was the primary one. So yes, there was some of that. It was largely US manufacturers. Even today it's primarily us. There is a couple outside of the US as well, but Chicago is really the pinball hub for back then, and even today, even though there's some branching out as well, I can't remember the name of the one that Zaccaria produced, but they definitely did make one that was relatively popular.

Alexa

I wonder too, like what the international pinball culture is like in different places and how that has evolved over time. But what I was curious, too, was… So, you know, you're focusing specifically on space pinball, which, we all might be biased, but it's one of the coolest things ever. I imagine there's a lot of just like general sci-fi themed pinball machines and games as well. Have you seen so far that space kind of dominates the sci-fi realm or is it just like a really strong sub section of it? Because I feel like as you're talking about, like the Jetsons and all of these different things, I'm sure that there are a lot of really cool fantasy pinball machines out there, too. But it seems like space sometimes dominates the sci-fi field.

Erin

Yeah, there are definitely some older fantasy and like Greek God type ones, there's one called like Centaur and one called Paragon, where the person's riding on top of a lion on the back glass and things like that but so I'd say space dominated, but there was definitely a number of fantasy elements like that. And if you're, like I said, talking more licensed games, more and more modern times, there is a Jetsons game. There are, I think, 4 Star Trek games and four or five Star Wars games. There's an old Star Trek game as well. Bally is one of the older manufacturers and they, I believe, created the old Star Trek game and everyone… a lot of the people were like, “Well, what's your favorite Star Trek game?” There's been so many of them.

So in that area there was a number of sci-fi type ones that came into play. I have to shout out to... There's one for Apollo 13, the movie, which is funny because it it has the iconography from the movie and not the actual astronauts, but the iconic thing from that game is there is a 13 ball multiball. So multi balls when you get multiple at the same time when you're playing, if you do a certain thing, you get 13 balls at once, and it is extremely overwhelming.

Emily

Are there any Soviet Russian pinball games that you've come across or are Soviet-inspired?

 Erin

Yeah, I don't know if there's any that were like, produced over there, but like I said, the one that   has a Soyuz docking with a US spacecraft is the only one that I can think of off the top of my head that has, like specifically Soviet thing. There is an old game called Satellite that looks almost like… I know you all had a James Bond episode in the past, almost like what you imagine like a rocket looking like in James Bond. And I have a feeling it was probably relatively inspired by that since it was kind of an American thing. It almost…Sometimes pinball art skews patriotic in a way, so there's some that are kind of skewing more in that direction. I can't think of any that have otherwise like a Russian astronaut or something on the back of it. I'll have to look into that now I'm curious.

Emily

And I was just curious, thinking too about the timing of it coinciding also with the Cold War, I feel like a Soviet inspired pinball machine might get frequently checked by law enforcement.

Erin

Yeah, sure. 

Emily

Do you have any advice for pinball beginners?

Erin

Yeah. So you know, first of all, I'll say I really only started playing heavily two years ago and I think don't be afraid to go out there and just start playing. I got last in my first many tournaments. I think the places you can figure out a starting point are look at pinballmap.com. This is a crowd sourced website. All the pinball community people will fill in whenever they find a pinball machine out in the world.

They list what it is, where it is, and it's a great way to find them in your local community. And then if you want to try going to tournaments and just don't think of a tournament as “You have to be great.” Think of it as just a great meeting place for the local pinball community. Check out ispapinball.com and they have a list of all of your local tournaments. And that's how I found my local community. Go out and play. And if you are a woman looking to play, check out and see if you have a local Belles and Chimes League. Belles and Chimes is the focus for women and gender minorities to get out and have  a safe place to learn and practice. Moms bring their daughters out to go learn to play pinball. It's a great place to start.

Emily 

That's so cool. I'll have to. I'll have to take a look, ‘cause we were talking earlier, as we were looking through this is– I don't know the last time I played on a pinball machine and I'll have to change that, especially after our talk.

Erin

Yes, absolutely. If you need some tips let me know.

Alexa

Yeah, I feel like the last time I played pinball was like virtual pinball. I was obsessed with that Space Cadet game as well.

Erin

Yes, which you can still play, that people have created ways that you can download it and play it on your computer. Now if you want to get some nostalgia, speaking of space themed pinball.

Alexa

So yeah, I'm also kind of curious…I haven't looked too deeply into how complex these pinball machines are to create, but as you were talking about how they've evolved technologically over the different eras of pinball history, have you ever felt that itch or urge to, like, try and build or repair one of these old pinball machines yourself with your background in engineering and anything?

Erin

Yeah. So I have started on that a little bit. I do own one pinball machine now. I own a cocktail pinball machine called the “Circa 1933,” which is confusing. It didn't come out in that year. It's… The theme is 1933 Art Deco, it's from like the late ‘70s and having that, being able to open it up and look at the complexity inside of it. I can see all the coils and all of the wiring and the circuit board in the bottom. It's been really fun and we have done a few little repairs on it when the some of the bumpers stopped working as well or the drop targets weren't popping back up appropriately, and I did take a local pinball machine repair class at my local arcade, which was super, super fun. And some of the expert on electromechanical machines that era from, like the 60s, seventies showed us how to read schematics, electronics schematics for pinball machines, and how to diagnose problems and things. So that was super fun. I haven't gotten so far as building them. I have gone to Barrels of Fun,  a pinball machine manufacturer that makes Labyrinth and they are located here in Houston. That's why I was in the trailer for it and I've got to go to their factory and see some of that stuff behind the scenes, which has been super fun.

I help them a little bit with their social media. So I get to be in their Slack and see them all talking about developing stuff, which is very fun. So I've, like, dipped my toe into that world a little bit at a lot of pinball machine conventions, people bring homebrew machines, which are exactly what you're talking about, making them from scratch. That's, I think, another level beyond what I might do, but I definitely like the repaired restore aspect of it.

Alexa

That's still very badass. I love that. I appreciate that.

Erin

It's a lot of fun. 

Emily

If you were to make a home brew one, what would your pinball machine be based on or inspired by?

Erin

OK, well, you know, OK, so everyone has their dream theme in pinball. They're like, “Man, I wish this machine…” Mine is Avatar: The Last Airbender. So I really want that to happen. Side note though, I'd love to see a more modern unlicensed space game. I feel like Artemis would make a fantastic theme and like, even just the art from the James Webb Space Telescope and things. There's a lot of more modern untapped space topics. So I think that would be very cool, maybe even making it in the style of an older machine, but with more modern space stuff. So I think those are up there. Someone else mentioned How to Train [Your] Dragon was their top theme and I'm like, “That would also be great.”

Alexa

That's so wholesome. That would be amazing. As you're saying that also, like James Webb Space Telescope, it makes me think of some of the asteroid visit missions that we've done, that would be cool to see as well as a theme.

Erin

I could see that, you know, the - on your mode and trying to complete on the pinball machine is “return the asteroid sample.” That would be cool.

Alexa

Yeah, that'd be so cool.

Emily

That would be incredible. We need NASA to get on an Artemis Mission pinball machine.

Erin

Yeah. Maybe not an easy task, but it's worth it, right? Definitely so.

Emily

Or an ISS one.

Erin

Yes, I know, fulfill my dreams.

Alexa

I also wanted to ask, you know, as we start to sort of wind down towards the end of the episode. I feel like you do such a great job of portraying your passion for all these different things with, you know, all of the STEM and the STEAM intersections and space pinball, and all the work that you've done in the past with science communication, and continue to do now with science communication.

Similar to sort of tips and tricks for pinball beginners, do you have any advice, or like tips, that you would share for listeners who might be interested in getting involved in science communication?

Erin

Sure. Well, part of what you said, I think, is let your passion for it come across. People can relate to you when you're excited about it. When I'm helping scientists try to - because part of what I do is communicate myself, I also try to help scientists and engineers become better communicators. Don't feel like you have to be, like, buttoned up and perfect. Be excited. Show why you're passionate about these things too, and that passion and excitement will get other people excited, too. And then also, don't be afraid to share while you're learning. You don't have to have a PhD in a thing to start sharing about a topic sharing a cool thing you learned just that day. It makes you feel more relatable. You're bringing people into your learning process, your research process. And then last would be: try to just document your process. If you're going through getting a STEM degree, document that process. Don't feel you have to create everything from scratch, write a script, talk to camera, edit it. Just showing what your day is like in a lab. Again, if you shared something cool that you were learning that day, that could be almost even more impactful, and it's nice being that close to that science can really inspire people and help them connect to it as well.

Emily

Terrific. Thank you so, so much for that. And a final question, where can people find you online?

Erin

Sure. Well, I'm on all the social media platforms at Erin Winick, E-R-I-N-W-I-N-I-C-K. If you want to see this video, that's hopefully going to be coming out in the end of September, check out my YouTube channel. I haven't done a lot on there. I'm trying to really kick it off at the end of this year, because I'm known for doing a lot more short form stuff or the longer form stuff I've done for other people and not for myself. So I'll have this project, as well as I'm working on a video related to an ocean expedition I went on earlier this year, completely other part of my science communication journey, and so documenting some of the results and the process post-ship of that will be coming out there, too. And then if you want to check out my company it would be STEAM Power Media.

Emily

Amazing. Thank you so much. We'll make sure that all of these are linked in the show notes as well. And Erin, thank you so much for your time and for your insight and for sharing all of your incredible passions with us!  

Erin

No, thanks for having me. This was fun! 

Alexa

This is so amazing. I learned so much more about pinball and I feel like now this is going to be the new rabbit hole that I go down. 

Erin

It's a fun rabbit hole. Enjoy it! 

[interlude music]

Emily

Thank you so much for listening to this episode. We hope you enjoyed and maybe learned something new about the world of pinball and its unique relationship with space history over the years. If you happen to visit a pinball location near you and find a cool space themed game, feel free to share with us and tag US on socials. We'd love to see I actually looked up the pinball machines.

Emily

Me on the website Erin mentioned, pinballmap.com, and found that the Apollo 13 pinball machine Erin mentioned is actually here in New York City, so I'm excited to try that out sometime soon.

Alexa

Oh, once again, if you enjoy the show and would like to support us in the women in podcasting awards, you have until October 1st to vote for us. We'd really appreciate it! You can also always leave a review and or a rating for the show wherever you get your podcasts.

Alexa

And finally, you can always find us on our socials at Art Astra podcast on Instagram, Twitter/X, Blue Sky, and Facebook.

Alexa & Emily (together)

Until next time!

Emily Olsen
Next

Episode 06: Space Archaeology with Dr. Justin Walsh