Eden Stamm, B.C. pinball master, tries to break Guinness record

Starting Tuesday afternoon, White Rock native Eden Stamm will do nothing but play pinball for 28 hours or more in an attempt to break the Guinness World Record for longest pinball marathon.

If all goes according to plan, Stamm will begin playing at 3 p.m. Tuesday at the Lamplighter Public House in Gastown, and continue on until at least 7 p.m. the following night.

The attempt, according to Stamm, isn't too out-of-reach. He's competed in pinball tournaments before, and the International Flipper Pinball Association ranks him as 54th in the world. He also says he's once played pinball for hours on end without intending to.  

"I'm pretty sure I started at something like 11 p.m. or one in the morning or something like that," he recalls.

"I was just going to play a few games before bed. The next thing you know, it was 16 hours — so it was the next evening. It was ridiculous."

During Stamm's record-breaking attempt on Tuesday, he will be allowed a five minutes of rest time per hour played, but he says he will try to bank that time for longer rest periods. He also plans to only drink water and Pepsi.

Though pinball hasn't always been his thing (he was more into arcade video games like Donkey Kong when he was a kid), Stamm says he became hooked when he was 18 years old.

"What makes you keep coming back is that you have that goal of getting the replay," he said.

"You get a free game if you get enough points, so you can't say no to that. So your skills always improve, which means your game and your scores will always improve. It's always interesting to see how much better you can do."  

Listen to the full interview: B.C. pinball master attempts record-breaking feat