The D.R.A.P.L. was founded by pin heads wanting more out of their collections, more times to get together with friends and relate pinball stories and of course to play pinball. The only reason for our existance is the lack of public places to play in. The bars and bowling scene is gone with no arcades available to play in. Thus we needed to be in our homes playing our collections, where the majority of machines are now found.

D.R.A.P.L. goals are simple. We wanted to have fun playing competitive pinball with other collectors on collector quality working games from all era's in a smoke free environment. Our secondary goal was to protect our "host of the month" machines and residence from our members. Our 3rd goal was to be able to do this without having to travel great distances away from our home and family's. And our 4th and last goal was to make the machines as difficult and tourney worthy so everyone will have a chance to win.

D.R.A.P.L. could not survive without the dedication of our hosts. Our hosts currently maintain and help each other keep all machines in 100% working order. With a current game list of well over 50 games our members are continuing to expand there collections with this obsessive hobby we call "Pinball". Games include the latest Stern releases to the old EM machines that made pinball what it is today. We will rarely run into repeating a game of the same title in a complete season. But due to mechanical failures and host numbers, this may not be the case all the time.

Why we limited our member base? As most of us know, this is Durham. Some of our members have limited space with smaller collections, thus aren't able to fit over 20 people in their homes. Collecting pinball machines is all dependent on what kind of space you have to spare. The directors of this league wanted a trouble free, no hassle league. By limiting our membership to those people who are local only will allow proper attendance for those who want to committ to the league and allow members to get home at a decent hour.

Why there is no cash involved other then host fee's? We wanted to play competitive pinball with the best in the area. As in any league, some are more competitive then others so we encourage a friendly atmospher where people can come and meet new people who share the same passion of playing pinball. We give everyone the chance to basically have fun, meet with other collectors, trading games, trades playing and restoration strategies.

Why we choose people that can host over people that cant ? The founding members had concerns of hosting an event while others cannot or will not host events. We currently are trying to keep the numbers controlled and if we do not have players that can host, we do not have any venue's to play in! With only 24 meetings a year, we don't see a problem with this, but we would prefer that new members will be able to host events to expand our title selections.

To be added to the waiting list to become a member please forward your name, location, game count and host preferences to the D.R.A.P.L mailing list eddie.dorazio@durhamregionamateurpinballleague.com .  Please note that this email account is not checked everyday.