Exclusive | Pinball state championships will be held in this New Yorkers tiny apartment: I have a couch and a bed, thats it

Her arcade’s fire.A pinball diehard loves the classic pastime so much, she has converted her Park Slope abode into a plinky-plonky paradise — giving up the usual comforts of home to squeeze in 16 of the hulking, colorful machines into her railroad-style apartment.“I have a couch and a bed, that’s it,” Kaite Martin, a 34-year-old bartender told The Post of her 80-by-15-foot living space, crammed with $100,000 worth of themed pinball machines, from “Star Trek,” to “Robocop,” and more recently “The Walking Dead.” Her oldest machine, which has an interstellar-themed layout, dates back to half a century ago, in 1978.Martin acquired it just a week ago for $1,800.

Typically, her hunt for vintage and unique machines involves lots of begging and pleading on Internet forums, the bumper lover confessed.Martin’s collection — now worth $40,000 more than she originally paid — isn’t just for fun and games, though.On Saturday, Martin will pull off a New York City pinball first: She’s flipping the script by hosting the International Flipper Pinball Association state championship, the first time the tournament will be held in a Big Apple residence.“I have better games than a lot of the public locations and we can close off the location so that there aren’t random Tinder dates interrupting you while you’re playing,” she said.Martin, who fell in love with the game a dozen years ago while working in a pinball bar, will also host and compete in the state women’s tournament inside her home on Sunday.As the 2023 NYC women’s champion, she’s stiff competition.Tournaments typically rotate between NYC, Western New York and the Hudson Valley at bar or arcade venues.

And it’s not Martin’s first rodeo: she’s hosted ten tourneys over the yearsFor this weekend’s competition, Martin crafted a potluck subcompetition so attendees can compete for best dish, too.To make some space in her cramped quarters, she tried fitting one of the machines into ...