{"id":390088,"date":"2026-01-04T01:41:24","date_gmt":"2026-01-04T01:41:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/390088\/"},"modified":"2026-01-04T01:41:24","modified_gmt":"2026-01-04T01:41:24","slug":"collector-with-50-pinball-machines-in-his-shed-hopes-to-create-a-playable-museum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/390088\/","title":{"rendered":"Collector with 50 pinball machines in his shed hopes to create a playable museum"},"content":{"rendered":"

Greg Sharp has a games room few could rival \u2013 lined wall to wall with his collection of pinball machines from across the world.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Inside what appears to be a backyard shed in Albany, Western Australia, lights flash and sounds erupt from the machines which lie in four parallel lines along the length of the room.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Greg<\/p>\n

Greg Sharp bought his first pinball machine decades ago. (ABC News: Samantha Goerling)<\/p>\n

As with many great collections, it all started with just one item, some two-and-a-half-decades ago.<\/p>\n

“I just love playing them, absolutely love playing them and I figured it would be great if I would own one myself,” Mr Sharp said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Various<\/p>\n

Greg Sharp appreciates the details in the design, lighting and music of each machine.\u00a0 (ABC News: Samantha Goerling)<\/p>\n

Today, he has 50 pinball titles and counting in his collection, inspired by his teenage years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“The whole collection of when Bally-Williams merged in \u201886 through to \u201899, they made approximately 86 machines and that’s the number I’m hunting,” he said. \u00a0<\/p>\n

“Being a fisherman, ‘Fish Tales’ is the top of my list, [it] brings my passion of work and games together.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Coin<\/p>\n

Greg Sharp’s collection includes pinball machines from all over the world.\u00a0 (ABC News: Samantha Goerling)<\/p>\n

The ceiling is lined with power points, in preparation for the remaining 36 titles.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mr Sharp closely monitors sales across Australia for the remaining machines, many of which were initially imported from abroad.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Greg<\/p>\n

There are few people with the skills and knowledge to repair the machines.\u00a0 (ABC News: Samantha Goerling)<\/p>\n

When he snaps one up, it often needs repairs.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It’s a bit like cars, I probably spend as much time restoring them as I do playing them,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“And again, it’s like people with cars, they pop the bonnet and tinker with them, we pop the play field up and tinker with the pinball.”\"Wires<\/p>\n

Many of the collectable pinball machines need repairs.\u00a0 (ABC News: Samantha Goerling)<\/p>\n

Securing the remaining machines, though, is becoming increasingly difficult.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“As people like myself get hold of these particular titles and don’t sell them again, they become harder and harder to get,” Mr Sharp said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“There’s a lot of titles here that I have not seen for sale for over 10 years.”<\/p>\n

\"Greg<\/p>\n

Some machines, like Medieval Madness, are increasingly hard to find. (ABC News: Samantha Goerling)<\/p>\n

Aside from other collectors, there\u2019s been a renewed interest in pinball over the past decade \u2013 something Greg has witnessed through the competitions he organises.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“There is a quite a large pinball community now in WA and it’s getting bigger by the day,” Mr Sharp said.<\/p>\n

“We’re now seeing a whole new generation of pinball players.” \u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Azza<\/p>\n

Azza Williamson is a pinball enthusiast.\u00a0 (ABC News: Samantha Goerling)<\/p>\n

\u00a0Mr Sharp’s friend Azza Williamson is a fellow pinball enthusiast and frequents the games room.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I loved it growing up as a kid I used to stand on a milk crate, I just couldn’t wait till I could grow taller,” Mr Williamson said.<\/p>\n

He said he was stoked to see the pinball community growing. \u00a0<\/p>\n

“I think it\u2019s awesome, older people, newer people,” Mr Williamson said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“I sort of thought it was something that was going to disappear completely, because it sort of did, but it\u2019s still out there, so it makes me very happy.”<\/p>\n

\"Azza<\/p>\n

Azza Williamson has been playing pinball since he was a little kid.\u00a0 (ABC News: Samantha Goerling)<\/p>\n

For Mr Sharp, there is never quite enough time to play his collection.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Too busy earning money to buy more, but hopefully we’ll be getting to that time now where it goes the other way, and spend a lot more time playing and less time working,” Mr Sharp said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It is all part of a long-term plan to share his collection more broadly as a playable pinball museum.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Hopefully I\u2019ll open it up to the public, that is my ideal goal,” he said. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Mr<\/p>\n

Pinball has become a pastime for the whole family.\u00a0 (ABC News: Samantha Goerling)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Greg Sharp has a games room few could rival \u2013 lined wall to wall with his collection of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":390089,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[208919,64,63,208921,208916,208918,208917,208920,85,45],"class_list":["post-390088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-arcade-games","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-collectible-items","tag-pinball","tag-pinball-collector","tag-pinball-machines","tag-pinball-resurgance","tag-sports","tag-wa-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=390088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/390088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/390089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=390088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=390088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=390088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}