Kevin Martin calls pinball "just my crazy hobby," but of course, that's an understatement.

It's really more of a crazy vocation.

Mr. Martin, of North Strabane, owns the rights to the Professional Amateur Pinball Association world championships, which concluded recently in Scott.

Many of the world's most accomplished players, from as far away as Sweden, Germany and the Netherlands, descended on Mr. Martin's cavernous facility for the four-day event.

The total prize package was $36,100 with entry fees providing more than 70 percent of it. After a few days of qualifying phases, brackets in various divisions were narrowed into groups of four, with final points totals from three games determining individual winners.

The overall champion was Jorian Engelbrektsson, of Sweden. It was the first time in 10 world titles that the winner was from outside the United States.

"They are very serious about their pinball [in Sweden]," said Mr. Martin. "They actually have two very big tournaments: their own national championships and the European championships."

New Yorker Steve Epstein began PAPA and its world tournament at his Brooklyn Arcade, but after five events was unable to hold it locally.

"He held the last one in 1997, in [Las] Vegas," Mr. Martin said. "This was while I was running my own Pinburgh [event]. Steve retired and I ended up buying the remaining assets."

Mr. Martin, who grew up in South Carolina, left graduate school to work for Stern, currently the only U.S. developer and manufacturer of pinball games.

He said he got "sidetracked" into working on a video program for the company -- he's a computer programmer by trade -- but eventually got back into pinball.

After starting his own company to host Internet Web sites in 1995, he made his way to Pittsburgh and got involved in the association. Searching for a facility to store and operate his burgeoning collection in the City of Pittsburgh, but found the amusement tax "extremely limiting."

Mr. Martin found a building in Scott that had been used as a sausage casing factory then a packaging factory. He had the electric schematics redesigned to handle the power needs of more than 300 machines and added a power transformer.

For several years, the association's tournament ran smoothly in its new home, until a change in the weather.

Residual storms from Hurricane Ivan hit the Pittsburgh area in mid-September, five days after the championship round of PAPA 2004. Mr. Martin's facility sits on the banks of Chartiers Creek, where the water rose rapidly.

"The flood destroyed everything," said Mr. Martin, who tried to drive over but got stranded by water at an intersection. His Ferrari 456 stalled out and was eventually submerged ("Rescue boats went over it"). The car was covered by insurance, the pinball facility and machines were not.

By the time Mr. Martin and two friends got into the building, floodwater was visibly moving up over the machines. An environmental company and a contractor came in once it receded.

"We carried everything out into the front parking lot and went through the machines, smashed the glasses and picked the machines apart."

Several days of this ("And the water was really nasty, sewage, silt and diesel fuel") yielded just two machines worth restoring. The rest were cannibalized for parts or trashed.

An older pinball machine might sell for several hundred dollars, a mint-condition classic, perhaps $12,000.

New machines run around $4,000, he said.

Mr. Martin wasn't certain what he wanted to do.

"I gave myself a couple of weeks to think about it. I realized no one would criticize me if I just walked away."

By the time PAPA 2005 got under way, there were 300 machines up and running.

The sport of pinball has weathered other storms. Introduced in its current form around Chicago during the Great Depression, it grew in popularity, peaking in the 1960s. But the advent of video games siphoned off young players.

Many of the public machines are found today in bars or university recreation centers.

"It's still around, and every game is different," said Steve Zumoff, of Point Breeze, who helps Mr. Martin with the tournament.

"Some people do crossword puzzles, some people knit, some people play pinball."

Until recently, Mr. Martin opened the Scott facility only for the tournament.

"We're looking at renting it out for corporate events, things like that. It's a shame, and expensive, having it just sit."

Mr. Martin is no longer a tournament player, but he does offer tips to newcomers who want a change from the video-game world.

"A good player understands the rules of the game, understands the way the machine plays and he keeps cool under pressure, because there is a lot of pressure."