![A rebuilt Terminator 2 pinball machine by Wayne Patrick Finn Melbourne Australia](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7f/A_rebuilt_Terminator_2_pinball_machine_by_Wayne_Patrick_Finn_Melbourne_Australia._38.jpg)
Pinball games are a family of games in which a ball is propelled into a specially designed table where it bounces off various obstacles, scoring points either en route or when it comes to rest. Historically the board was studded with nails called 'pins' and had hollows or pockets which scored points if the ball came to rest in them. Today, pinball is most commonly an
arcade game
An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily games of skill and include arcade v ...
in which the ball is fired into a specially designed
cabinet
Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to:
Furniture
* Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers
* Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets
* Filing ...
known as a pinball machine, hitting various lights, bumpers, ramps, and other targets depending on its design. The game's object is generally to score as many points as possible by hitting these targets and making various shots with
flippers before the ball is lost. Most pinball machines use one ball per turn (except during special multi-ball phases), and the game ends when the ball(s) from the last turn are lost. The biggest pinball machine manufacturers historically include
Bally Manufacturing
Bally Manufacturing, later renamed Bally Entertainment, was an American company that began as a pinball and slot machine manufacturer, and later expanded into casinos, video games, health clubs, and theme parks. It was acquired by Hilton Hotel ...
,
Gottlieb
Gottlieb (formerly D. Gottlieb & Co.) was an American arcade game corporation based in Chicago, Illinois.
History
The main office and plant was located at 1140-50 N. Kostner Avenue until the early 1970s when a new modern plant and office was lo ...
,
Williams Electronics
WMS Industries, Inc. was an American electronic gaming and amusement manufacturer in Enterprise, Nevada. It was merged into Scientific Games in 2016. WMS's predecessor was the Williams Manufacturing Company, founded in 1943 by Harry E. Williams ...
and
Stern Pinball
Stern is the name of two different but related arcade gaming companies. Stern Electronics, Inc. manufactured arcade video games and pinball machines from 1977 until 1985, and was best known for '' Berzerk''. Stern Pinball, Inc., founded in 1999 ...
.
History
Pre-modern: Development of outdoor and tabletop ball games
The origins of pinball are intertwined with the history of many other games. Games played outdoors by rolling balls or stones on a grass course, such as
bocce
(, or , ), sometimes anglicized as bocce ball, bocci or boccie, is a ball sport belonging to the boules family. Developed into its present form in Italy, it is closely related to British bowls and French , with a common ancestry from ancien ...
or
bowls
Bowls, also known as lawn bowls or lawn bowling, is a sport in which the objective is to roll biased balls so that they stop close to a smaller ball called a "jack" or "kitty". It is played on a bowling green, which may be flat (for "flat-gre ...
, eventually evolved into various local
ground billiards
Ground billiards is a modern term for a family of medieval European lawn games, the original names of which are mostly unknown, played with a long-handled mallet (the '), wooden balls, a hoop (the ''pass''), and an upright skittle or pin (the ' ...
games played by hitting the balls with sticks and propelling them at targets, often around obstacles.
Croquet
Croquet ( or ; french: croquet) is a sport that involves hitting wooden or plastic balls with a mallet through hoops (often called "wickets" in the United States) embedded in a grass playing court.
Its international governing body is the Wor ...
,
golf
Golf is a club-and-ball sport in which players use various clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a course in as few strokes as possible.
Golf, unlike most ball games, cannot and does not use a standardized playing area, and coping wi ...
and
pall-mall
Pall-mall, paille-maille, palle-maille, pell-mell, or palle-malle (, , ) is a lawn game (though mostly played on earth surfaces rather than grass) that was mostly played in the 16th and 17th centuries, a precursor to croquet.
History
Related to ...
eventually derived from ground billiards variants.
The evolution of outdoor games finally led to indoor versions that could be played on a table, such as
billiards
Cue sports are a wide variety of games of skill played with a cue, which is used to strike billiard balls and thereby cause them to move around a cloth-covered table bounded by elastic bumpers known as .
There are three major subdivisions of ...
, or on the floor of a pub, like
bowling
Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). The term ''bowling'' usually refers to pin bowling (most commonly ten-pin bowling), though ...
and
shuffleboard
Shuffleboard (more precisely deck shuffleboard, and also known as floor shuffleboard) is a game in which players use cues to push weighted discs, sending them gliding down a narrow court, with the purpose of having them come to rest within a ma ...
. The tabletop versions of these games became the ancestors of modern pinball.
Late 18th century: Spring launcher invented
![Early Pinball](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3f/Early_Pinball.jpg)
In France, during the long 1643–1715 reign of
Louis XIV
, house = Bourbon
, father = Louis XIII
, mother = Anne of Austria
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France
, death_date =
, death_place = Palace of Vers ...
, billiard tables were narrowed, with wooden pins or skittles at one end of the table, and players would shoot balls with a stick or cue from the other end, in a game inspired as much by
bowling
Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). The term ''bowling'' usually refers to pin bowling (most commonly ten-pin bowling), though ...
as billiards. Pins took too long to reset when knocked down, so they were eventually fixed to the table, and holes in the table's bed became the targets. Players could ricochet balls off the pins to achieve the more challenging scorable holes. A standardized version of the game eventually became known as
bagatelle
Bagatelle (from the Château de Bagatelle) is a billiards-derived indoor table game, the object of which is to get a number of balls (set at nine in the 19th century) past wooden pins (which act as obstacles) into holes that are guarded by wooden ...
.
Somewhere between the 1750s and 1770s, the bagatelle variant ', or Japanese billiards in English, was invented in Western Europe, despite its name. Also called ''
Stosspudel'', it used thin metal pins and replaced the cue at the player's end of the table with a coiled spring and a plunger. The player shot balls up the inclined playfield toward the scoring targets using this plunger, a device that remains in use in pinball to this day, and the game was also directly ancestral to
pachinko
is a mechanical game originating in Japan that is used as an arcade game, and much more frequently for gambling. Pachinko fills a niche in Japanese gambling comparable to that of the slot machine in the West as a form of low-stakes, low-st ...
.
1869: Spring launchers become mainstream
In 1869, British inventor
Montague Redgrave
Montague Andrew Elijah Redgrave (July 31, 1844 – 1934) was an English-American game designer who bridged the gap between table Bagatelle and Pinball through his popular "Parlor Table Bagatelle" game. The game was first released around 1871 and po ...
settled in the United States and manufactured bagatelle tables in
Cincinnati
Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking and Ohio rivers, the latter of which marks the state line wit ...
,
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
. In 1871 Redgrave was granted U.S. Patent #115,357 for his "Improvements in Bagatelle", another name for the spring launcher that was first introduced in '. The game also shrank in size to fit atop a bar or counter. The balls became marbles and the wickets became small metal pins. Redgrave's popularization of the spring launcher and innovations in game design are acknowledged as the birth of pinball in its modern form.
1931: Coin operation introduced
![Flipper1948](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/01/Flipper1948.jpg)
By the 1930s, manufacturers were producing coin-operated versions of bagatelles, now known as "marble games" or "pin games". The table was under glass and used Montague Redgrave's plunger device to propel the ball into the upper playfield. In 1931 David Gottlieb's ''
Baffle Ball
''Baffle Ball'' is a pinball machine created in November 19, 1931 by David Gottlieb, founder of the Gottlieb amusement company.
Gameplay
For one US cent players get ten balls. These balls are fired up onto the playfield and fall into pockets and ...
'' became the first hit of the coin-operated era. Selling for $17.50, the game dispensed five to seven balls for a penny. The game resonated with people wanting cheap entertainment in the
Great Depression
The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...
-era economy. Most
drugstore
A pharmacy (also called "drugstore" in American English or "community pharmacy" or "chemist" in Commonwealth English, or rarely, apothecary) is a retail shop which provides pharmaceutical drugs, among other products. At the pharmacy, a pharmacis ...
s and
tavern
A tavern is a place of business where people gather to drink alcoholic beverages and be served food such as different types of roast meats and cheese, and (mostly historically) where travelers would receive lodging. An inn is a tavern that h ...
s in the U.S. operated pinball machines, with many locations quickly recovering the cost of the game. Baffle Ball sold over 50,000 units and established
Gottlieb
Gottlieb (formerly D. Gottlieb & Co.) was an American arcade game corporation based in Chicago, Illinois.
History
The main office and plant was located at 1140-50 N. Kostner Avenue until the early 1970s when a new modern plant and office was lo ...
as the first major manufacturer of pinball machines.
In 1932, Gottlieb distributor
Raymond Moloney
Raymond T. Moloney (November 2, 1900 - February 26, 1958) was an American businessman, and the founder of Bally Manufacturing Corporation. He was instrumental in popularizing the pinball machine, and was regarded, at the time, as "Mr. Coin Machin ...
found it hard to obtain more Baffle Ball units to sell. In his frustration he founded Lion Manufacturing to produce a game of his design, ''Ballyhoo'', named after a popular magazine. The game became a smash hit. Its larger playfield and ten pockets made it more challenging than ''Baffle Ball'', selling 50,000 units in 7 months. Moloney eventually changed the name of his company to
Bally
Bally may refer to:
Places
*Bally, a historical spelling of Bali
*Bally (from the Irish ''baile'') or townland, a traditional division of land, as well as a common prefix in the names of settlements throughout Ireland
*Bally, Bally-Jagachha, a c ...
to reflect the success of this game. These early machines were relatively small, mechanically simple and designed to sit on a counter or bar top.
1933: Electrification and active bumpers introduced
The 1930s saw major advances in pinball design with the introduction of electrification. Pacific Amusements in Los Angeles, California produced ''Contact'' in 1933, which had an electrically powered
solenoid
upright=1.20, An illustration of a solenoid
upright=1.20, Magnetic field created by a seven-loop solenoid (cross-sectional view) described using field lines
A solenoid () is a type of electromagnet formed by a helix, helical coil of wire whose ...
to propel the ball out of a bonus hole in the middle of the playfield. Another solenoid rang a bell to reward the player. ''Contac''t's designer, Harry Williams, eventually formed his own company,
Williams Manufacturing, in 1944. Other manufacturers quickly followed suit with similar features. Electric lights soon became standard on all pinball games, to attract players.
By the end of 1932, approximately 150 companies manufactured pinball machines, most of them in Chicago, Illinois. Chicago has been the center of pinball manufacturing ever since. Competition was strong, and by 1934, only 14 companies remained.
During
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
, all major manufacturers of coin-operated games turned to manufacturing for the war effort. Some, like Williams, bought old games from operators and refurbished them, adding new artwork with a patriotic theme. At the end of the war, a generation of Americans looked for amusement in bars and malt shops, and pinball saw another golden age. Improvements such as the tilt-sensing mechanism and the awarding of free games (replays) appeared.
1947: Flippers introduced
Gottlieb's ''
Humpty Dumpty
Humpty Dumpty is a character in an English nursery rhyme, probably originally a riddle and one of the best known in the English-speaking world. He is typically portrayed as an anthropomorphic egg, though he is not explicitly described as such. ...
'', introduced in 1947, was the first game to add player-controlled flippers to keep the ball in play longer. The low-power flippers required three pairs around the playfield to get the ball to the top.
''Triple Action'' was the first game to feature just two flippers at the bottom of the playfield. Unlike in modern machines, the flippers faced outwards. These flippers were made more powerful by the addition of a
DC (direct current) power supply. These innovations were some of many by designer
Steve Kordek
Steve Kordek (December 26, 1911 – February 19, 2012) was an American businessman of Polish descent who was best known for the design of the pinball machines.
Kordek is credited with designing over 100 pinball machines. The last game Kordek he ...
.
The first game to feature the familiar dual-inward-facing-flipper design was Gottlieb's ''Just 21'' released in January 1950. However, the flippers were rather far apart to allow for a turret ball shooter at the bottom center of the playfield. Another 1950 Gottlieb game, ''Spot Bowler'', was the first with inward-facing flippers placed close together.
The post-war era was dominated by
Gottlieb
Gottlieb (formerly D. Gottlieb & Co.) was an American arcade game corporation based in Chicago, Illinois.
History
The main office and plant was located at 1140-50 N. Kostner Avenue until the early 1970s when a new modern plant and office was lo ...
. Game designers Wayne Neyens and
Ed Krynski
Edward Paul Krynski (September 12, 1927 – November 15, 2004) was a pinball game designer and innovator who worked for D. Gottlieb & Co between 1965 and 1984. During this time Krynski designed more than 200 games and innovated new pinball standa ...
, with artist Leroy Parker, produced games that collectors consider some of the best classic pinball machines.
1970s: Solid-state electronics and digital displays introduced
![Visible Pinball III - Pacific Pinball Museum cropped](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/45/Visible_Pinball_III_-_Pacific_Pinball_Museum_cropped.jpg)
The introduction of
microprocessor
A microprocessor is a computer processor where the data processing logic and control is included on a single integrated circuit, or a small number of integrated circuits. The microprocessor contains the arithmetic, logic, and control circu ...
s brought pinball into the realm of
electronic gaming. The electromechanical
relay
A relay
Electromechanical relay schematic showing a control coil, four pairs of normally open and one pair of normally closed contacts
An automotive-style miniature relay with the dust cover taken off
A relay is an electrically operated switch ...
s and scoring reels that drove games in the 1950s and 1960s were replaced in the 1970s with
circuit board
A printed circuit board (PCB; also printed wiring board or PWB) is a medium used in Electrical engineering, electrical and electronic engineering to connect electronic components to one another in a controlled manner. It takes the form of a L ...
s and digital displays. The first pinball machine using a microprocessor was Flicker, a prototype made by Bally in 1974. Bally soon followed that up with a solid-state version of Bow and Arrow in the same year with a microprocessor board that would be used in eight other machines until 1978, which included Eight Ball, the machine that held the sales record from 1977 to 1993. The first solid-state pinball is believed by some to be
Mirco Games
Mirco Games was a pinball and arcade game manufacturer from Phoenix, Arizona that existed from 1969 to 1978. They were originally called Arizona Automation from 1969 to 1973 and then changed their name to Mirco in 1974 . They created the first micr ...
' ''
The Spirit of '76'' (1976), though the first mainstream solid-state game was Williams' ''Hot Tip'' (1977). This new technology led to a boom for Williams and Bally, who attracted more players with games featuring more complex rules, digital sound effects, and speech.
The
video game boom of the 1980s signaled the end of the boom for pinball. Arcades replaced rows of pinball machines with video games like 1978's ''
Space Invaders
is a 1978 shoot 'em up arcade game developed by Tomohiro Nishikado. It was manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and licensed to the Midway division of Bally for overseas distribution. ''Space Invaders'' was the first fixed shooter and set ...
'', 1979's ''
Asteroids
An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere.
...
'', 1980's ''
Pac-Man
originally called ''Puck Man'' in Japan, is a 1980 maze action video game developed and released by Namco for arcades. In North America, the game was released by Midway Manufacturing as part of its licensing agreement with Namco America. Th ...
'', and 1981's ''
Galaga
is a 1981 fixed shooter arcade video game developed and published by Namco. In North America, it was released by Midway Manufacturing. It is the sequel to ''Galaxian'' (1979), Namco's first major video game hit in arcades. Controlling a starshi ...
''. These earned significantly greater profits than the pinball machines of the day while simultaneously requiring less maintenance. Bally, Williams, and Gottlieb continued to make pinball machines while also manufacturing video games in much higher numbers. Many of the larger companies were acquired by, or merged with, other companies.
Chicago Coin
Chicago Coin was one of the early major manufacturers of pinball tables founded in Chicago, Illinois. The company was founded in 1932 by Samuel H. Gensburg to operate in the coin-operated amusement industry. In 1977, Gary Stern and Sam Stern purc ...
was purchased by the Stern family, who brought the company into the digital era as Stern Enterprises, which closed its doors in the mid-1980s. Bally exited the pinball business in 1988 and sold their assets to Williams, who subsequently used the Bally trademark from then on for about half of their pinball releases.
While the video game craze of the late 1970s and early 1980s dealt a severe blow to pinball revenue, it sparked the industry's creative talents. All companies involved tried to take advantage of the new solid-state technology to improve player appeal of pinball and win back former players from video games. Some of this creativity resulted in landmark designs and features still present today. Some of these include speech, such as Williams' ''
Gorgar
''Gorgar'' is a 1979 pinball machine designed by Barry Oursler and released by Williams Electronics. It was the first speech-synthesized ("talking") pinball machine, containing a vocabulary of seven words ("Gorgar", "speaks", "beat", "you", "me ...
''; ramps for the ball to travel around, such as Williams' ''
Space Shuttle
The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program na ...
''; "multiball", used on Williams' ''
Firepower
Firepower is the military capability to direct force at an enemy. (It is not to be confused with the concept of rate of fire, which describes the cycling of the firing mechanism in a weapon system.) Firepower involves the whole range of potenti ...
''; multi-level games like Gottlieb's ''
Black Hole
A black hole is a region of spacetime where gravitation, gravity is so strong that nothing, including light or other Electromagnetic radiation, electromagnetic waves, has enough energy to escape it. The theory of general relativity predicts t ...
'' and Williams' ''
Black Knight
The black knight is a literary stock character who masks his identity and that of his liege by not displaying heraldry. Black knights are usually portrayed as villainous figures who use this anonymity for misdeeds. They are often contrasted with t ...
''; and blinking chase lights, as used on Bally's ''
Xenon
Xenon is a chemical element with the symbol Xe and atomic number 54. It is a dense, colorless, odorless noble gas found in Earth's atmosphere in trace amounts. Although generally unreactive, it can undergo a few chemical reactions such as the ...
''. Although these novel features did not win back players as the manufacturers had hoped, they changed players' perception of pinball for decades.
1980s and 1990s: Pinball in the digital age
![20080405-Vegas004-PinballHOF02](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7b/20080405-Vegas004-PinballHOF02.jpg)
During the 1980s, pinball manufacturers navigated technology changes while going through changes of ownership and mergers: Gottlieb was sold to Premier Technologies, and Bally merged with Williams. The
Video game crash of 1983
The video game crash of 1983 (known as the Atari shock in Japan) was a large-scale recession in the video game industry that occurred from 1983 to 1985, primarily in the United States. The crash was attributed to several factors, including ma ...
made the manufacturers refocus on their pinball sales. A trend started of pinball becoming increasingly elaborate to use more computing resources, following video games. Games in the latter half of the decade such as
High Speed started incorporating full soundtracks, elaborate light shows and backbox animations - a radical change from the previous decade's electromechanical games. Although pinball continued to compete with video games in arcades, pinball held a premium niche, since the video games of the time could not reproduce an accurate pinball experience.
By the first years of the 1990s, pinball had made a strong comeback and saw new sales highs. Some new manufacturers entered the field, such as Capcom Pinball and Alvin G. and Company, founded by Alvin Gottlieb, son of David Gottlieb. Gary Stern, the son of Williams co-founder Sam Stern, founded
Data East
, also abbreviated as DECO, was a Japanese video game, pinball and electronic engineering company. The company was in operation from 1976 to 2003, and released 150 video game titles. Its main headquarters were located in Suginami, Tokyo. The Am ...
Pinball with funding from Data East Japan.
The games from Williams now dominated the industry, with complicated mechanical devices and more elaborate display and sound systems attracting new players to the game. Licensing popular movies and icons of the day became a staple for pinball, with Bally/Williams' ''
The Addams Family
''The Addams Family'' is a fictional family created by American cartoonist Charles Addams. They originally appeared in a series of 150 unrelated single-panel cartoons, about half of which were originally published in ''The New Yorker'' over a ...
'' from 1992 hitting a modern sales record of 20,270 machines. Two years later, Williams commemorated this benchmark with a limited edition of 1,000 ''Addams Family Gold'' pinball machines, featuring gold-colored trim and updated software with new game features. Other notable popular licenses included ''
Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure'' and ''
Star Trek: The Next Generation''. Expanding markets in Europe and Asia helped fuel the revival of interest.
Pat Lawlor
Patrick M. Lawlor (born November 30, 1951) is a video game and pinball machine designer.
Pat Lawlor had originally been a video game designer and had entered the coin-operated game design industry in 1980, working for Dave Nutting Associates. ...
was a designer, working for Williams until their exit from the industry in 1999. About a year later, Lawlor returned to the industry, starting his own company, working in conjunction with Stern Pinball to produce new games.
The end of the 1990s saw another downturn in the industry, with Gottlieb, Capcom, and Alvin G. closing by the end of 1996. Data East's pinball division was acquired by
Sega
is a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo. Its international branches, Sega of America and Sega Europe, are headquartered in Irvine, California and London, r ...
and became
Sega Pinball
Sega Pinball Inc. was a division of Sega which existed from 1994 until 1999. Though Sega first entered the pinball market in 1971 but stopped production in 1978. Sega re-entered the market when it took over Data East's pinball division in 1994. The ...
in 1994. By 1997, there were two companies left: Sega Pinball and Williams. In 1999, Sega sold their pinball division to Gary Stern (President of Sega Pinball at the time) who called his company
Stern Pinball
Stern is the name of two different but related arcade gaming companies. Stern Electronics, Inc. manufactured arcade video games and pinball machines from 1977 until 1985, and was best known for '' Berzerk''. Stern Pinball, Inc., founded in 1999 ...
. By this time, Williams games rarely sold more than 4,000 units. In 1999, Williams attempted to revive sales with the
Pinball 2000
Pinball 2000 was the last pinball hardware and software platform developed by major pinball manufacturer Williams, and was used in the machines '' Revenge From Mars'' (under the brand name Bally) and '' Star Wars Episode I'' (under the brand nam ...
line of games, merging a video display into the pinball playfield. The reception was initially good with ''
Revenge from Mars'' selling well over 6,000 machines, but short of the 10,000-plus production runs for releases just six years earlier. The next Pinball 2000 game, ''
Star Wars Episode I'', sold only a little over 3,500 machines. Williams exited the pinball business to focus on making gaming equipment for casinos, which was more profitable. They licensed the rights to reproduce Bally/Williams parts to Illinois Pinball and reproduce full-sized machines to The Pinball Factory. Stern Pinball remained the only manufacturer of original pinball machines until 2013, when
Jersey Jack Pinball
Jersey Jack Pinball, Inc. is an American company manufacturing pinball machines, which was established in 2011. The first table released by the company, '' The Wizard of Oz'', was released in 2013.
History
Jersey Jack Pinball was founded in Janua ...
started shipping ''
The Wizard of Oz''. Most members of the design teams for Stern Pinball are former employees of Williams.
Amid the 1990s closures, virtual pinball simulations, marketed on computers and home consoles, had become high enough in quality for serious players to take notice: these video versions of pinball such as
Epic Pinball
''Epic Pinball'' is a 1993 pinball video game developed by James Schmalz and published by Epic MegaGames. The initial release pre-dated Schmalz' Digital Extremes name. The game is played seen from a 2D top-down view within a scrollable window wi ...
,
Full Tilt! Pinball
''Full Tilt! Pinball'' is a pinball video game developed by Cinematronics and published by Maxis in 1995. It features pre-rendered 3D graphics and three tables—''Space Cadet'', ''Skullduggery'', and ''Dragon's Keep''. On each table, there are di ...
and the
Pro Pinball series found marketplace success and lasting fan interest, starting a new trend for realistic pinball simulation. This market existed largely independently from the physical pinball manufacturers, and relied upon original designs instead of licenses until the 2000s.
2000s and beyond: Revival
After most pinball manufacturers' closure in the 1990s, smaller independent manufacturers started appearing in the early 2000s.
In November 2005, The Pinball Factory (TPF) in
Melbourne
Melbourne ( ; Boonwurrung/Woiwurrung: ''Narrm'' or ''Naarm'') is the capital and most populous city of the Australian state of Victoria, and the second-most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Its name generally refers to a met ...
, Australia, announced that they would be producing a new ''
Crocodile Hunter''-themed pinball machine under the Bally label. With the death of
Steve Irwin
Stephen Robert Irwin (22 February 19624 September 2006), known as "The Crocodile Hunter", was an Australian zookeeper, conservationist, television personality, wildlife educator, and environmentalist.
Irwin grew up around crocodiles and ot ...
, it was announced that the future of this game was uncertain. In 2006, TPF announced that they would be reproducing two popular 1990s era Williams machines, ''
Medieval Madness
''Medieval Madness'' is a Williams pinball machine released in June 1997. Designed by Brian Eddy and programmed by Lyman Sheats, it had a production run of 4,016 units. As of April 3, 2022, the Pinside pinball community lists it as the #2 hi ...
'' and ''Cactus Canyon''. TPF, however, was unable to make good on its promises to produce new machines, and in October 2010 transferred its Williams Electronics Games licenses as well as its pinball spare parts manufacturing and distribution business to Planetary Pinball Supply Inc, a California distributor of pinball replacement parts.
In 2006, Illinois pinball company PinBall Manufacturing Inc. produced 178 reproductions of Capcom's ''Big Bang Bar'' for the European and US markets.
In 2010, MarsaPlay in Spain manufactured a remake of
Inder's original ''Canasta'' titled ''New Canasta'',
which was the first game to include a
liquid-crystal display
A liquid-crystal display (LCD) is a flat-panel display
A flat-panel display (FPD) is an electronic display used to display visual content such as text or images. It is present in consumer, medical, transportation, and industrial equipmen ...
(LCD) screen in the backbox.
In 2013,
Jersey Jack Pinball
Jersey Jack Pinball, Inc. is an American company manufacturing pinball machines, which was established in 2011. The first table released by the company, '' The Wizard of Oz'', was released in 2013.
History
Jersey Jack Pinball was founded in Janua ...
released ''
The Wizard of Oz'' pinball machine, based on the
1939 film. It is the first pinball machine manufactured in the US with a large color display (
LCD) in the backbox,
the first widebody pinball machine since 1994
and the first new US pinball machine not made by
Stern Pinball
Stern is the name of two different but related arcade gaming companies. Stern Electronics, Inc. manufactured arcade video games and pinball machines from 1977 until 1985, and was best known for '' Berzerk''. Stern Pinball, Inc., founded in 1999 ...
since 2001.
This game was followed by ''The Hobbit'' in 2016 (based on
''The Hobbit'' film series), ''Dialed In!'' in 2017 (an original theme designed by
Pat Lawlor
Patrick M. Lawlor (born November 30, 1951) is a video game and pinball machine designer.
Pat Lawlor had originally been a video game designer and had entered the coin-operated game design industry in 1980, working for Dave Nutting Associates. ...
which included
bluetooth
Bluetooth is a short-range wireless technology standard that is used for exchanging data between fixed and mobile devices over short distances and building personal area networks (PANs). In the most widely used mode, transmission power is limi ...
technology that enabled flipper control from a smart phone and a camera built into the backbox for taking
selfie
A selfie () is a self-portrait photograph, typically taken with a digital camera or smartphone, which may be held in the hand or supported by a selfie stick. Selfies are often shared on social media, via social networking services such as ...
s), ''Pirates of the Caribbean'' (based on the
Pirates of the Caribbean film series) in 2018 and ''Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory'' (based on the movie ''
Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
''Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory'' is a 1971 American musical fantasy film directed by Mel Stuart and starring Gene Wilder as Willy Wonka. It is an adaptation of the 1964 novel ''Charlie and the Chocolate Factory'' by Roald Dahl. The film ...
'' from 1971) in 2019.
In 2013, the
Chicago Gaming Company announced the creation of a remake of ''
Medieval Madness
''Medieval Madness'' is a Williams pinball machine released in June 1997. Designed by Brian Eddy and programmed by Lyman Sheats, it had a production run of 4,016 units. As of April 3, 2022, the Pinside pinball community lists it as the #2 hi ...
''. This was later followed by a 2017 release of a remake of ''
Attack from Mars'', and a 2018 release of a remake of ''
Monster Bash''.
In 2014, the new pinball manufacturer
Spooky Pinball released their first game ''America's Most Haunted''. This was followed by a few more themed, original, and contracted titles.
In 2015, the new British pinball manufacturer
Heighway Pinball
Heighway Pinball was a British company, established in 2012, that manufactured pinball
Pinball games are a family of games in which a ball is propelled into a specially designed table where it bounces off various obstacles, scoring points eit ...
released the racing themed pinball machine ''Full Throttle''. The game has an LCD screen for scores, info, and animations located in the playfield surface at player's eye view. The game was designed with modularity in mind so that the playfield and artwork could be swapped out for future game titles. Heighway Pinball's second title, ''Alien'', was released in 2017 and was based on the
''Alien'' and
''Aliens'' films. Due to internal company issues, Heighway Pinball ceased manufacturing operations and closed its doors in April 2018.
In 2016, Dutch Pinball, based in the Netherlands, released their first game ''The Big Lebowski'', based on the 1998 film, ''
The Big Lebowski
''The Big Lebowski'' () is a 1998 crime comedy film written, produced, and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. It stars Jeff Bridges as Jeffrey "The Dude" Lebowski, a Los Angeles slacker and avid bowler. He is assaulted as a result of mistaken i ...
''.
In 2017, Multimorphic began shipping its pinball machine platform after several years of development. It is a modular design where different games can be swapped into the cabinet. It also has a large interactive display as the playfield surface, which differs from all prior pinball machines traditionally made of plywood and embedded with translucent plastic inserts for lighting.
Relation to gambling
Pinball machines, like many other mechanical games, were sometimes used as gambling devices. Some pinball machines, such as Bally's "bingos", featured a grid on the backglass scoring area with spaces corresponding to targets or holes on the playfield. Free games could be won if the player could get the balls to land in a winning pattern; however, doing this was nearly
random
In common usage, randomness is the apparent or actual lack of pattern or predictability in events. A random sequence of events, symbols or steps often has no :wikt:order, order and does not follow an intelligible pattern or combination. Ind ...
, and a common use for such machines was for gambling. Other machines allowed players to win and accumulate large numbers of "free games" which could then be cashed out for money with the location owner. Later, this type of feature was discontinued to legitimize the machines, and to avoid legal problems in areas where awarding free games was considered illegal, some games, called Add-A-Ball, did away with the free game feature, instead giving players extra balls to play (between 5 and 25 in most cases). These extra balls were indicated via lighted graphics in the backglass or by a ball count wheel, but in some areas that was disallowed, and some games were shipped with a sticker to cover the counters.
Prohibition
Pinball was banned beginning in the early 1940s until 1976 in New York City.
New York mayor
Fiorello La Guardia
Fiorello Henry LaGuardia (; born Fiorello Enrico LaGuardia, ; December 11, 1882September 20, 1947) was an American attorney and politician who represented New York in the House of Representatives and served as the 99th Mayor of New York City fro ...
was responsible for the ban, believing that it robbed school children of their hard-earned nickels and dimes.
La Guardia spearheaded major raids throughout the city, collecting thousands of machines. The mayor participated with police in destroying machines with
sledgehammer
A sledgehammer is a tool with a large, flat, often metal head, attached to a long handle. The long handle combined with a heavy head allows the sledgehammer to gather momentum during a swing and apply a large force compared to hammers designed t ...
s before dumping the remnants into the city's rivers.
The ban ended when
Roger Sharpe
Roger Dean Sharpe is a public servant, author and North Carolina politician. He was the Democratic nominee for the U.S. House of Representatives from the state's Fifth congressional district in 2006, losing to incumbent Virginia Foxx. He w ...
(a star witness for the AMOA – Amusement and Music Operators Association) testified in April 1976 before a committee in a
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
courtroom that pinball games had become games of skill and were not games of chance (which are more closely associated with gambling). He began to play one of two games set up in the courtroom, and – in a move he compares to
Babe Ruth
George Herman "Babe" Ruth Jr. (February 6, 1895 – August 16, 1948) was an American professional baseball player whose career in Major League Baseball (MLB) spanned 22 seasons, from 1914 through 1935. Nicknamed "the Bambino" and "the Su ...
's home run in the
1932 World Series – called out precisely what he was going to shoot for, and then proceeded to do so. Astonished committee members reportedly voted to remove the ban, which was followed in other cities. (Sharpe reportedly acknowledges, in a self-deprecating manner, his courtroom shot was by sheer luck although there was admittedly skill involved in what he did.)
Like New York, Los Angeles banned pinball machines in 1939. The ban was overturned by the
Supreme Court of California
The Supreme Court of California is the highest and final court of appeals in the courts of the U.S. state of California. It is headquartered in San Francisco at the Earl Warren Building, but it regularly holds sessions in Los Angeles and Sacra ...
in 1974 because (1) if pinball machines were games of chance, the ordinance was preempted by state law governing games of chance in general, and (2) if they were games of skill, the ordinance was unconstitutional as a denial of the
equal protection of the laws. Although it was rarely enforced, Chicago's ban on pinball lasted three decades and ended in 1976. Philadelphia and Salt Lake City also had similar bans. Regardless of these events, some towns in America still have such bans on their books; the town of
Kokomo, Indiana
Kokomo ( ) is a city in Indiana and the county seat of Howard County, Indiana, United States. It is the principal city of the Kokomo, Indiana Metropolitan Statistical Area, which includes all of Howard County, the Kokomo-Peru CSA, which includ ...
lifted its ordinance banning pinball in December 2016.
Pachinko
Another close relative of pinball is
pachinko
is a mechanical game originating in Japan that is used as an arcade game, and much more frequently for gambling. Pachinko fills a niche in Japanese gambling comparable to that of the slot machine in the West as a form of low-stakes, low-st ...
, a gambling game played in Japan. Although they share a common ancestry, the games are very different. Pachinko involves shooting many small balls repeatedly into a nearly vertical playfield, while pinball is about manipulating the small number of balls currently in play on a near-horizontal playfield.
Components
Cabinet
The cabinet of a pinball machine is the (traditionally wooden) frame usually shaped like a box, with the playfield laid inside.
Backbox/head
One identifiable attribute of the pinball machine is the cabinet design that contains the mechanical, electrical and electronic parts, assemblies and wires. The modern cabinet consists of two major items. The 'backbox' or 'head' (among other terms: lightbox) is the vertical box atop the lower cabinet opposite the player's position. It usually consists of a wooden box with colorful graphics on the side and a large 'backglass' in the front. The backglass usually has very stylized graphics related to or depicting the theme of the game, and also the game's name (and sometimes the manufacture year). The backglass is the game's 'advertisement', intended to catch the eye of passersby and entice gameplay. Many backglasses are beautifully illustrated and approach fine illustration or fine art quality. The silkscreened graphics are partially translucent and have small lights mounted in strategic locations to highlight parts of the artwork and light up scores, the ball currently in play, which player's turn it is (on a multi-player game), and so on. The Electro-Mechanical (EM) heads often have 'animation' or moving parts incorporated into the backglass and spring to life if the player achieves the required sequence on the playfield to activate it. Most games have an "insert board" between the backglass and controls that have lights to highlight portions of the backglass artwork or game name or other mechanical devices or displays.
The Electro-mechanical (EM) heads contain the score reels, relays and stepper units that control the scores and other sequencing operations dealing with players, balls, scores, credits and so forth. Most EM backglasses are removed from the rear of the head where a lever will release it so it can be leaned back and carefully sliding it up and out. The newer Solid State game heads contain most circuit boards and digital displays that perform the same functions as their EM predecessors, but much faster and with exponentially higher capacity. Newer games may have digital displays (some with alpha-numeric digit displays) or a dot-matrix display (DMD-often used to describe the era of the 90s) and speakers. All games will have some sort of cabling connecting the head to the rest of the game. The heads of all games will have 2-4 bolts securing them to the lower cabinet. Newer games have pivot brackets that allow them to be folded down for easier transport. The EMs will have a tin panel in the back of the head with a lock to unlatch for service. Newer games are serviced from the front. Typically they will have a lock on the side of the head, or centered above the backglass to unlatch.
Lower cabinet
The EM lower cabinet contains fuses, relays, stepper units and a score motor, among other things, mounted to a Mechanical Board which is mounted to the cabinet floor. The Mechanical Board is mounted to the cabinet floor with bolts to be removed for service if necessary. Just inside and under the coin door is the cash box.
The modern lower cabinet is mostly empty. Power cord, transformer, tilt mechs, diagnostic switches, speaker(s), wiring harnesses, flipper buttons. Both types of cabinets have four legs at each corner, typically secured with acorn head bolts that mate with a threaded plate attached to the inside corner brace. Older games have wooden legs, while modern games have many finishes on metal legs, with Chrome and black powder coat popular choices. Legs should have adjustable casters at the bottom to adjust the pitch (rear-to-front angle) and level (side-to-side evenness). Some modern games are fitted with a small "bubble level" by the ball plunger.
Playfield
The key attribute of a successful pinball game is an interesting and challenging layout of scoring opportunities on the playfield. Many types of targets and features have been developed over the years.
The ''playfield'' is a
planar
Planar is an adjective meaning "relating to a plane (geometry)".
Planar may also refer to:
Science and technology
* Planar (computer graphics), computer graphics pixel information from several bitplanes
* Planar (transmission line technologies), ...
surface inclined upward, usually at six and a half
degrees, away from the player, and includes multiple targets and scoring objectives. Some operators intentionally extend threaded levelers on the rear legs and/or shorten or remove the levelers on the front legs to create additional incline in the playfield, making the ball move faster and harder to play. The playfield must be level left-to-right; a quick visual test compares the top of the back cabinet against a brick or block wall behind it, or to roll a marble down the center of the playfield glass. If it rolls off to one side, a player may be inclined to stuff folded paper beneath the legs on the lower side to level the playfield. Additionally, leg levelers that are extended fully make the game easier to nudge; when collapsed low, the entire game is more stable, and nudging becomes harder.
The ball is put into play by use of the ''plunger'', a
spring
Spring(s) may refer to:
Common uses
* Spring (season)
Spring, also known as springtime, is one of the four temperate seasons, succeeding winter and preceding summer. There are various technical definitions of spring, but local usage of ...
-loaded rod that strikes the ball as it rests in an entry lane, or as in some newer games, by a button that signals the game logic to fire a
solenoid
upright=1.20, An illustration of a solenoid
upright=1.20, Magnetic field created by a seven-loop solenoid (cross-sectional view) described using field lines
A solenoid () is a type of electromagnet formed by a helix, helical coil of wire whose ...
that strikes the ball. With both devices the result is the same: The ball is propelled upwards onto the playfield. Once a ball is in play, it tends to move downward towards the player, although the ball can move in any direction, sometimes unpredictably, due to contact with objects on the playfield or by the player's actions. To return the ball to the upper part of the playfield, the player uses one or more ''flippers''.
Manipulation of the ball may also be accomplished by various tricks, such as "
nudging". However, excessive nudging is generally penalized by losing the current player's turn (known as ''tilting'') or ending of the entire game when the nudging is particularly violent (known as ''slam tilting''). This penalty was instituted because nudging the machine too much may damage it or result in unearned play and scoring that wears game parts. Many games also have a slam tilt in the bottom of the lower cabinet to end the game if the cabinet is raised and dropped to the floor in an attempt to trigger the coin counting switch falsely.
Plunger
The ''plunger'' is a
spring
Spring(s) may refer to:
Common uses
* Spring (season)
Spring, also known as springtime, is one of the four temperate seasons, succeeding winter and preceding summer. There are various technical definitions of spring, but local usage of ...
-loaded rod with a small handle, used to propel the ball into the playfield. The player can control the amount of
force
In physics, a force is an influence that can change the motion of an object. A force can cause an object with mass to change its velocity (e.g. moving from a state of rest), i.e., to accelerate. Force can also be described intuitively as a p ...
used for launching by pulling the plunger a certain distance (thus changing the spring
compression
Compression may refer to:
Physical science
*Compression (physics), size reduction due to forces
*Compression member, a structural element such as a column
*Compressibility, susceptibility to compression
* Gas compression
*Compression ratio, of a ...
). This is often used for a "skill shot," in which a player attempts to launch a ball so that it exactly hits a specified target. Once the ball is in motion in the main area of the playfield, the plunger is not used again until another ball must be brought onto the playfield. An
electronically controlled launcher is sometimes substituted for the plunger in modern machines.
The shape of the ball launch button that replaces the plunger may be modified to fit the aesthetics of a particular game's theme, such as being made to look like the trigger of a gun in a game with a military or action-hero theme.
Flippers
![Pinball Flippers - Demolition Man](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e8/Pinball_Flippers_-_Demolition_Man.JPG)
The ''flippers'' are one or more mechanically or electromechanically (
solenoid
upright=1.20, An illustration of a solenoid
upright=1.20, Magnetic field created by a seven-loop solenoid (cross-sectional view) described using field lines
A solenoid () is a type of electromagnet formed by a helix, helical coil of wire whose ...
) controlled levers, roughly in length, used for redirecting the ball up the playfield. They are the main control that the player has over the ball, usually by corresponding pushbuttons on the cabinet‘s sides. They can primarily be switched fully on, sometimes with two different strengths for thrusting the flipper up and for holding it in position. Careful timing of this limited positional control allows the player to direct the ball in a range of directions with various levels of velocity and spin. With the flippers, the player attempts to move the ball to hit various types of scoring targets, and to keep the ball from disappearing off the bottom of the playfield.
The very first pinball games appeared in the early 1930s and did not have flippers; after launching the ball simply proceeded down the playfield, directed by static nails (or "pins") to one of several scoring areas. (These pins gave the game its name.) In 1947, the first mechanical flippers appeared on Gottlieb's ''
Humpty Dumpty
Humpty Dumpty is a character in an English nursery rhyme, probably originally a riddle and one of the best known in the English-speaking world. He is typically portrayed as an anthropomorphic egg, though he is not explicitly described as such. ...
'' and by the early 1950s, the two-flipper configuration at the bottom above the center drain had become standard. Some pinball models also have a third or fourth flipper. A few later machines even have flippers that the machine's software could operate independently of the flipper button. During "Thing Flips" on ''The Addams Family'' pinball machine, the upper-left flipper automatically triggers a brief moment after the ball passes an optical sensor just above the flipper. Very few machines came with curve shaped
banana flippers.
The introduction of flippers ushered in the "golden age" of pinball, where the fierce competition between the various pinball manufacturers led to constant innovation in the field. Various types of stationary and moving targets were added, spinning scoring reels replaced games featuring static scores lit from behind. Multiplayer scores were added soon after, and then bells and other noise-makers, all of which began to make pinball less a game and more of an experience. The flippers have loaned pinball its common name in many languages, where the game is known mainly as "flipper".
Bumpers
''Bumpers'' are round knobs that, when hit, will actively push the ball away. There is also an earlier variety of bumper (known as a ''dead bumper'' or ''passive bumper'') that doesn't propel the ball away; most bumpers on machines built since the 1960s are active bumpers, variously called "pop bumpers," "thumper bumpers," "jet bumpers," or "turbo bumpers." Most recent games include a set of pop bumpers, usually three, sometimes more or fewer depending on the designer's goals. Bumpers predate flippers, and active bumpers added a great deal of spice to older games.
Pop bumpers are operated by a switch connected to a ring surrounding the bottom circumference of the bumper that is suspended several millimeters above the playfield surface. When the ball rolls over this ring and forces one side of it down, a switch is closed that activates the bumper's solenoid. This pulls down a tapered ring surrounding the central post of the bumper that pushes downward and outward on the ball, propelling it away.
Kickers and slingshots
![Pinball Slingshot - The Machine](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/Pinball_Slingshot_-_The_Machine.JPG)
''Kickers'' and ''slingshots'' are rubber pads that propel the ball away upon impact, like bumpers, but are usually a horizontal side of a wall. Every recent pinball machine includes slingshots to the upper left and upper right of the lowest set of flippers; older games used more experimental arrangements. They operate similarly to pop bumpers, with a switch on each side of a solenoid-operated lever arm in a typical arrangement. The switches are closed by ball contact with the rubber on the kicker's face, which activates the solenoid.
Early pinball machines typically had full solenoid current passing through trigger switches for all types of solenoids, from kickers to pop bumpers to the flippers themselves. This caused arcing across switch contacts and rapid contact fouling and failure. As electronics were gradually implemented in pinball design, solenoids began to be switched by power transistors under software control to lower switch voltage and current, vastly extend switch service lifetime, and add flexibility to game design.
The smaller, lower-powered solenoids were first to be transistorized, followed later by the higher-current solenoids as the price, performance, and reliability of power transistors improved over the years.
Targets
![Pinball Target - Demolition Man](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/05/Pinball_Target_-_Demolition_Man.jpg)
* ''Stationary Targets'': These are static targets that simply record when a ball strikes them. These are generally the simplest playfield elements. They are also known as ''spot targets'' or ''standup targets''.
* ''Bullseye Targets'': These are static targets that have two concentric elements, similar to a stationary target. Hitting the outer ring usually scores lower than hitting the center bull's eye. They are found chiefly in older electro-mechanical games.
* ''Drop targets'': These are targets that drop below the playfield when hit. Eliminating an entire row in this manner may lead to any of various features. Once an entire bank of drop targets is hit, the bank may reset or pop back up. Alternatively, the drop targets can be placed in front of other targets, requiring the drop target to be knocked down before the targets behind can be hit, or the drop target may only pop up at specific times to deny the player the ability to shoot the ball into whatever is behind it. If used in the latter way, the target is usually blocking a lane or ramp.
* ''Kicking Target'': Used rarely, these targets look like stationary targets, but when hit, they kick the ball away in the opposite direction, much like a slingshot or bumper.
* ''Vari-Target'': These targets award different points depending on how hard the target was hit. It is a metal arm that pivots under the playfield. When a ball hits it, it ratchets back sometimes, resetting immediately or resetting only after it is hit all the way back. A large sum of points is usually awarded when the target is hit back all the way with one strike of the ball.
Holes and saucers
* ''Holes'': The player directs the ball into a hole. In modern games, there are both vertical and horizontal holes (also called ''scoops''), and the game may include mechanisms to move the ball between them. A "gobble hole" is sometimes included in some older games, which does not return the ball, but gives a large bonus or a game feature, which may be the ball itself.
* ''Saucers'': A shallow hole with a kicker inside. The ball remains visible on the playfield and is kicked out straight up (usually into a duct or rail chute) or sideways back onto the playfield.
Initially, holes and saucers worked by using tubes behind the playing field, with a pin at the top to hold the ball for later drops. Another version of the tube uses two spinning wheels to transfer the ball from hole to hole. Newer versions use an electronic track with a carriage or an electromagnet to pull the ball between holes.
Spinners and rollovers
![Pinball Roll Over Targets - Demolition Man](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/af/Pinball_Roll_Over_Targets_-_Demolition_Man.JPG)
* ''Spinners'': A ball can push through a flat surface hinged in the middle, causing it to spin; each rotation adds points.
* ''Rollovers'': These are targets activated when a ball rolls over them. Often a series of rollover targets are placed side-by-side and with dividers between them forming "lanes"; the player must guide the ball to particular lanes (or to all lanes) to complete an objective. Such lanes are frequently placed at the bottom sides of the playfield: "inlanes" feed the ball back to the flippers, "outlanes" cause the ball to drain immediately. On many machines, outlanes can have extra balls or "specials" lit to play the same role as the older gobble holes.
* ''Whirlwind Spinner(s)'': Used in some games, a whirlwind spinner is a rapidly rotating (often rubberized) disk on the playfield that momentarily "grabs" the ball and throws it in a random direction. Some games couple a whirlwind spinner with a magnet placed in the center, although DataEast seems to be the only manufacturer to do so. Bally's "Fireball" and Chicago Coin's "Casino" were popular games with a whirlwind spinner.
Switches, gates, and stoppers
* ''Switch'': A switch is an area that is blocked off after the ball passes through it once. An example of this is the initial firing lane: as a ball passes through the firing lane, it hits a switch and cannot reenter that chute.
* ''Gate'': This block will allow balls to come through one way but will block the ball if it is going the other way.
* ''Stopper'': Also called a ''magic post'', this is a small pole most often found centered between and just below the lowest set of flippers and also rarely next to the outlanes. When activated (typically by hitting a specific target or targets), the pole ascends from inside the machine, blocking the area between the flippers for a limited time, making it more difficult to drain and lose the ball. After time expires, it returns to its resting place just below the playfield.
Ramps
![Pinball Wire Ramp - Demolition Man](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/09/Pinball_Wire_Ramp_-_Demolition_Man.JPG)
Ramps are inclined planes with a gentle enough slope that the ball may travel along it. The player attempts to direct the ball with enough force to make it to the top of the ramp and down the other side. If the player succeeds, a "ramp shot" has been made. Ramps frequently end so that the ball goes to a flipper so one can make several ramp shots in a row. The number of ramp shots scored in a game is often tallied, and reaching certain numbers may lead to various game features. At other times, the ramps will go to smaller "mini-playfields" (small playfields, usually raised above the main game surface, with special goals or scoring).
Toys, magnets and captive balls
* ''Toys'': Toys are various items on, above, or beneath the playfield (items beneath the playfield visible through windows) or attached to the cabinet (usually to the backbox). Usually, each toy is unique to the machine it was made for, and reflects the game's theme. They may be visual only, and have no effect on gameplay; they may be alternate ways of performing common game functions (for example, instead of using a drop hole to hold the ball, a hand or claw might reach out, grab the ball, and capture it that way); or they may be an integral part of the game rules and play (for instance, having a smaller playfield over the main playfield that can be tilted right and left by the player, using the flipper buttons).
* ''Electromagnets'': Some machines feature electrically operated magnets below the playfield to affect the ball's speed and trajectory according to the current state of gameplay. This may be done to make the ball's movement unpredictable, temporarily halt the ball (as a ball saver, for example), or otherwise control the ball by non-mechanical means. Electromagnets may also be used in above-playfield elements (often as part of the playfield toys) to grab the ball and move it elsewhere (onto a mini-playfield, for example). The Williams machine ''The Twilight Zone'' featured a mini-playfield that used electromagnets controlled by the flipper buttons, allowing the player to flip the ball on the mini-playfield, essentially working as invisible flippers. Contrary to a popular myth, there are no professionally produced pinball machines that contain magnets under the playfield intended to clandestinely make gameplay harder or increase ball losses.
* ''Captive balls'': Sometimes a ball can move around only within a confined area. A typical application of this has a short lane on the playfield with a narrow opening, inside which a captive ball is held. The player can strike this captive ball with the ball in play, pushing it along the lane to activate a rollover switch or target. In games such as ''Theatre of Magic'', captive balls sometimes have what's called a "Newton Ball," which is a stationary ball adjacent to a free ball in a small lane. The ball being played strikes the Newton ball which, in turn, transfers its momentum to the adjacent ball, which causes it to move.
Backglass
The ''backglass'' is a vertical graphic panel mounted on the front of the backbox, which is the upright box at the top back of the machine. The backglass contains the name of the machine and eye-catching
graphics
Graphics () are visual images or designs on some surface, such as a wall, canvas, screen, paper, or stone, to inform, illustrate, or entertain. In contemporary usage, it includes a pictorial representation of data, as in design and manufacture ...
. The score displays (lights, mechanical wheels, an
LED
A light-emitting diode (LED) is a semiconductor Electronics, device that Light#Light sources, emits light when Electric current, current flows through it. Electrons in the semiconductor recombine with electron holes, releasing energy i ...
display, or a
dot-matrix display
A dot-matrix display is a low cost electronic digital display device that displays information on machines such as clocks, watches, calculators, and many other devices requiring a simple alphanumeric (and/or graphic) display device of limited re ...
depending on the era) would be on the backglass, and sometimes also a mechanical device tied to gameplay, for example, elevator doors that opened on an image or a woman swatting a cat with a broom such as on Williams' 1989 "Bad Cats". For older games, the backglass image is screen printed in layers on the reverse side of a piece of glass; in more recent games, the image is imprinted into a translucent piece of plastic-like material called a translite which is mounted behind a piece of glass and which is easily removable. The earliest games did not have backglasses or backboxes and were little more than playfields in boxes. Games are generally built around a particular theme, such as a sport or character and the backglass art reflects this theme to attract the attention of players. Recent machines are typically tied into other enterprises such as a popular
film series A film series or movie series (also referred to as a film franchise or movie franchise) is a collection of related films in succession that share the same fictional universe, or are marketed as a series.
This article explains what film series are ...
, toy, or
brand name
A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...
. The entire machine is designed to be as eye-catching as possible to attract players and their money; every possible space is filled with colorful graphics, blinking lights, and themed objects. The backglass is usually the first artwork the players see from a distance. Since the artistic value of the backglass may be quite impressive, it is not uncommon for enthusiasts to use a deep frame around a backglass (lighted from behind) and hang it as art after the remainder of the game is discarded.
Features
There are other idiosyncratic features on many pinball playfields. Pinball games have become increasingly complex and multiple play modes, multi-level playfields, and even progression through a rudimentary "plot" have become common features in recent games. Pinball scoring objectives can be quite complex and require a series of targets to be hit in a particular order. Recent pinball games are distinguished by increasingly complex rule sets that require a measure of strategy and planning by the player for maximum scoring. Players seeking the highest scores would be well-advised to study the placard (usually found in the lower-left corner of the playfield) to learn each game's specific patterns required for these advanced features and scoring.
Common features in modern pinball games include the following:
* ''Ball lock'': Each time a ball goes into a specific hole or target, it is locked, and a new ball appears at the plunger. The multiball feature starts when the player has locked the required number of balls (often three). On some games, the balls are physically locked in place by solenoid-actuated gates, but many newer machines use virtual ball locks instead, in which the game merely keeps count of the number of locked balls and then auto-launches them from the main ball trough when it is time for them to be released.
* ''Multiball'': This occurs when there is more than one ball in play at a time and usually includes some kind of jackpot scoring. Multiball ends when all but one ball is lost down the bottom of the playfield, and then regular play resumes.
* ''Jackpot'': Some targets on the playfield increase the scoring value of something else, which could be as simple as hitting a ramp, or a complicated sequence of targets. Upon their inception, the jackpot was the main goal of most pinball machines in the 1980s. Jackpots would often range from one to four million (back when this was a significant addition to the score), and their value would accrue between games until it was scored. Scoring it was usually a complicated task. Modern games often dilute the meaning of "jackpot". Modern games give off several jackpots in each multiball mode, which is usually quite easy to attain, and the value of today's jackpots is far less significant. Many jackpots awarded during special modes often do not increase at all, but are instead simply fixed-value bonuses.
* ''End-of-ball bonus'': After each ball is played, the player scores bonus points depending on how many times certain features have been activated or the numbers of items that the player may obtain. Some games award a seemingly arbitrary number of points that depend on the number of times ''any'' switch has been hit. Virtually all games have the ability to assign a multiplier to the bonus. Most games cap the bonus multiplier at 5x or 10x, although more modern games apparently have no limit.
* ''Extra ball'': If a player has earned this, when they lose a ball they get another one to play immediately afterward and the machine does not count the lost ball towards the limit of balls for that game. For example, if the player were on ball two and they earn an extra ball, the next ball will still be counted as ball two instead of the third ball. When a machine says "SHOOT AGAIN" on the scoreboard, it signifies that an extra ball will shoot. In a multiplayer game, the player who just lost the ball is the same one to shoot again.
* ''Kickback'': When a ball goes into one of the outlanes the ball instead of draining goes into a kicker that will launch the ball back into play. Their use is limited and has to be earned to be used.
* Various timed rounds (''modes''): For example, if the player hit a specific target three times within the next 20 seconds, they might score several tens of millions of points for it. There are many and various time-related features in pinball. Progression through each mode is frequently accompanied by
DMD animations and sound.
*''Stackability'': To ''stack'' means that the player can run one play mode while another mode is in progress. This strategy usually yields higher scores. A noted example of this is Williams' ''Bram Stoker's Dracula'', with its Multi-Multiball feature.
* ''Wizard Mode'': This is a special scoring mode, which is reached after meeting certain prerequisites to access this mode (e.g., finishing all modes). This is the pinball equivalent of the final
boss fight
In video games, a boss is a significant computer-controlled opponent. A fight with a boss character is commonly referred to as a boss battle or boss fight. Bosses are generally far stronger than other opponents the player has faced up to that ...
in video games. Classic examples of this include Williams' ''
Black Knight 2000
''Black Knight 2000'' is a 1989 pinball game designed by Steve Ritchie (who also provides the Knight's voice) and released by Williams Electronics. The game is the sequel to the 1980 pinball machine ''Black Knight''. It was advertised with the ...
'' (The King's Ransom) and Midway's
''Twilight Zone'' (Lost in the Zone). Named after The Who's song "
Pinball Wizard". Wizard modes come in two varieties: goal-oriented types where the player receives a huge number of points after completing a specific task, or multiball modes with 4–6 balls in play, and virtually every feature active. Some games offer both and award the latter as a condition for completing the former.
* ''Ball Saver'': Many modern games include a feature that prevents a player from being disappointed if a ball sent into play quickly drains before substantial points have been added. This player will immediately be given another (free) ball to compensate. Electromechanical games made during the 1970s had a similar Ball Index switch system that returned a drained ball if no points were made.
* ''Slam Tilt'': There are special tilt switches placed on the underside of the playfield, on the coin door, and (on electromechanical games) in the lower cabinet and upper cabinet, designed to prevent cheating. If a player lifts and drops, pounds, or kicks the machine and activates any slam tilt, the entire game ends immediately for all players and may go into a reset/reboot mode. These are also used on video and
coin pusher games. A similar Incline Tilt prevents a player from lifting the front of the cabinet to tip the ball back up the playfield by ending his turn.
In the 1990s, game designers often put hidden, recurring images or references in their games, which became known as
easter eggs
Easter eggs, also called Paschal eggs, are eggs that are decorated for the Christian feast of Easter, which celebrates the resurrection of Jesus. As such, Easter eggs are common during the season of Eastertide (Easter season). The oldest tra ...
. For example, Williams' designers hid cows in the video displays of the games, and
Pat Lawlor
Patrick M. Lawlor (born November 30, 1951) is a video game and pinball machine designer.
Pat Lawlor had originally been a video game designer and had entered the coin-operated game design industry in 1980, working for Dave Nutting Associates. ...
would place a red button in the artwork of games he developed. The methods used to find the hidden items usually involved pressing the flipper buttons in a certain order or during specific events. Designers also included hidden messages or in-jokes; one example of this is the phrase "DOHO" sometimes seen quickly displayed on the dot matrix displays, a reference to ''Do''ris ''Ho'', the wife of then-Williams display artist Scott "Matrix" Slomiany. DOHO was popularly thought to be an acronym for ''D''ocumented ''O''ccurrence of a ''H''idden ''O''bject until its true meaning was revealed in a ''
PinGame Journal'' article on the subject. The game ''
Star Trek: The Next Generation'' went so far as to embed a hidden ''
Breakout''-like game, available only after a complex sequence of events had been accomplished during the game.
Scoring points
![Pinball Dot Matrix Display - Demolition Man](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/20/Pinball_Dot_Matrix_Display_-_Demolition_Man.JPG)
Contact with or manipulation of scoring elements (such as targets or ramps) scores points for the player. Electrical switches embedded in the scoring elements detect contact and relay this information to the scoring mechanism. Older pinball machines used an
electromechanical
In engineering, electromechanics combines processes and procedures drawn from electrical engineering and mechanical engineering. Electromechanics focuses on the interaction of electrical and mechanical systems as a whole and how the two systems ...
system for scoring wherein a pulse from a switch would cause a complex mechanism composed of
relay
A relay
Electromechanical relay schematic showing a control coil, four pairs of normally open and one pair of normally closed contacts
An automotive-style miniature relay with the dust cover taken off
A relay is an electrically operated switch ...
s to ratchet up the score. In later games these tasks have been taken over by
semiconductor
A semiconductor is a material which has an electrical resistivity and conductivity, electrical conductivity value falling between that of a electrical conductor, conductor, such as copper, and an insulator (electricity), insulator, such as glas ...
chips and displays are made on electronic segmented or
dot-matrix display
A dot-matrix display is a low cost electronic digital display device that displays information on machines such as clocks, watches, calculators, and many other devices requiring a simple alphanumeric (and/or graphic) display device of limited re ...
s (DMD). The first DMD on a pinball machine was used by ''
Checkpoint'' and features also video mode
minigame
A minigame (also spelled mini game and mini-game, sometimes called a subgame or microgame) is a short game often contained within another video game. A minigame contains different gameplay elements, and is often smaller or more simplistic, than th ...
s.
MarsaPlay in Spain manufactured a remake of
Inder's original ''Canasta'' titled ''New Canasta'', with an
LCD screen in the backbox in 2010.
''
The Wizard of Oz'' is the first US pinball machine that used a
LCD in the back box. It is not only used for scoring and mini-games but also to display full color videos.
Other display innovations on pinball machines include pinball video game hybrids like ''
Baby Pac-Man
''Baby Pac-Man'' is a hybrid maze and pinball game released in arcades by Bally Midway on October 11, 1982, nine months after the release of ''Ms. Pac-Man''. The cabinet consists of a 13-inch video screen seated above a shortened, horizontal pin ...
'' in 1982 and ''Granny and the Gators'' in 1984 and the use of a small color video monitor for scoring and minigames in the backbox of the pinball machine ''Dakar'' from manufacturer
Mr. Game in 1988 and
CGA color monitors in
Pinball 2000
Pinball 2000 was the last pinball hardware and software platform developed by major pinball manufacturer Williams, and was used in the machines '' Revenge From Mars'' (under the brand name Bally) and '' Star Wars Episode I'' (under the brand nam ...
in 1999 that utilizes a
Pepper's ghost
Pepper's ghost is an illusion technique used in the theatre, cinema, amusement parks, museums, television, and concerts.
It is named after the English scientist John Henry Pepper (1821–1900) who began popularising the effect with a theatr ...
technique to reflect the monitor in the head of the as well as modifications by the use of ColorDMD that is used to replace the standard mono color DMDs.
Pinball scoring can be peculiar and varies greatly from machine to machine. During the 1930s and the 1940s, lights mounted behind the painted backglasses were used for scoring purposes, making the scoring somewhat arbitrary. (Frequently the lights represented scores in the hundreds of thousands.) Then later, during the 1950s and 1960s when the scoring mechanism was limited to mechanical wheels, high scores were frequently only in the hundreds ''or'' thousands. (Although, in an effort to keep with the traditional high scores attained with the painted backglass games, the first pinball machines to use mechanical wheels for scoring, such as ''Army Navy'', allowed the score to reach into the millions by adding a number of permanent zeros to the end of the score.) The average score changed again in the 1970s with the advent of electronic displays. Average scores soon began to commonly increase back into tens or hundreds of thousands. Since then, there has been a trend of scoring inflation, with modern machines often requiring scores of over a billion points to win a free game. At the peak of this trend, Williams
No Fear: Dangerous Sports and
Jack-Bot have been played into ten billions and Williams ''
Johnny Mnemonic
"Johnny Mnemonic" is a science fiction short story by American-Canadian writer William Gibson. It first appeared in '' Omni'' magazine in May 1981, and was subsequently included in ''Burning Chrome'', a 1986 collection of Gibson's short fiction. ...
'' and Miday/Bally ''
Attack from Mars'', have been played into one hundred billion. Another recent curiosity is the 1997 Bally game ''
NBA Fastbreak
''NBA Tonight'' is a National Basketball Association studio program that airs on ESPN. The program used to air as part of ESPN's ''The Trifecta''. Formerly known as ''NBA 2Night'' and NBA Fastbreak, the program, hosted by various ESPN personalities ...
'' which, true to its theme, awards points in terms of a real basketball score: Each successful shot can give from one to three points. Getting a hundred points by the end of a game is considered respectable, which makes it one of the ''lowest'' scoring pinball machines of all time. The inflated scores are the source of one of the Spanish-language names of pinball machines, ''máquina del millón'' ("million machine").
Special scores
*
High score
In games, score refers to an abstract quantity associated with a player or team. Score is usually measured in the abstract unit of points (except in game shows, where scores often are instead measured in units of currency), and events in th ...
lists: If a player attains one of the highest scores ever (or the highest score on a given day), they are invited to add their initials to a displayed list of high-scorers on that particular machine. "Bragging rights" associated with being on the high-score list are a powerful incentive for experienced players to master a new machine.
Pinball designers also entice players with the chance to win a free game or credit. Ways to get a free game might include the following:
* ''Replay'': A free game is awarded if the player exceeds a specified score. Some machines allow the operator to set this score to increase with each consecutive game in which the replay score is achieved, in order to prevent a skilled player from gaining virtually unlimited play on one credit by simply achieving the same replay score in every game.
* ''Special'': A mechanism to get a free game during play is usually called a "special." Typically, some hard-to-reach feature of the game will light the outlanes (the areas to the extreme left and right of the flippers) for special. Since the outlanes always lose the ball, having "special" there makes it worth shooting for them (and is usually the only time, if this is the case).
* ''Match'': At the end of the game, if a set digit of the player's score matches a random digit, an free game is awarded. In earlier machines, the set digit was usually the
ones place; after a phenomenon often referred to as ''score inflation'' had happened (causing almost all scores to end in 0), the set digit was usually the tens place. The chances of a match appear to be 1 in 10, but the operator can alter this probability – the default is usually 7% in all modern Williams and Bally games for example. Other non-numeric methods are sometimes used to award a match.
* ''High Score'': Bally/Midway, Williams and Stern Pinball machines award 1–3 free games if a player gets on the high score list. Typically, one or two credits are awarded for a 1st–4th place listing, and three for the Grand Champion.
When a free game is won, Williams and Bally/Midway machines typically makes a single loud bang, most often with a
solenoid
upright=1.20, An illustration of a solenoid
upright=1.20, Magnetic field created by a seven-loop solenoid (cross-sectional view) described using field lines
A solenoid () is a type of electromagnet formed by a helix, helical coil of wire whose ...
that strikes a piece of metal, or the side of the cabinet, with a rod, known as a ''knocker'', or less commonly with
loudspeaker
A loudspeaker (commonly referred to as a speaker or speaker driver) is an electroacoustic transducer that converts an electrical audio signal into a corresponding sound. A ''speaker system'', also often simply referred to as a "speaker" or " ...
s. "Knocking" is the act of winning an free game when the knocker makes the loud and distinctive noise.
Playing techniques
The primary skill of pinball involves application of the proper timing and technique to the operation of the flippers, nudging the playfield when appropriate without tilting, and choosing targets for scores or features. A skilled player can quickly "learn the angles" and gain a high level of control of ball motion, even on a machine they have never played. Skilled players can often play on a machine for long periods of time on a single coin. By earning extra balls, a single game can be stretched out for a long period, and players can earn replays known as "specials."
A placard is usually placed in a lower corner of the playfield. It may simply show pricing information, but should also show critical details about special scoring techniques. This information is vital to achieving higher scores; it typically describes a series of events that must take place (e.g., shoot right ramp and left drop targets to light 'extra ball' rollover). Learning these details makes the game more fun and challenging. With practice — and a machine in good operating condition — a player can often achieve specific targets and higher scores and trigger exciting events.
Nudging
Players can influence the movement of the ball by moving or bumping the pinball machine, a technique known as "nudging" or "shaking." After some experience in playing a certain machine, a skillful player is able to nudge the machine to make the ball bounce harder from a bumper or go in a certain direction. A very skillful player can shake the machine and cause the ball to bounce back and forth and prevent it from "draining."
There are tilt mechanisms which guard against excessive manipulation of this sort. The mechanisms generally include:
* a grounded plumb bob centered in an electrified metal ring – when the machine is jostled or shaken too far or too hard, the bob contacts the ring, completing a circuit. The bob is usually cone-shaped allowing the operator to slide it vertically, controlling the sensitivity.
* an electrified ball on a slight ramp with a grounded post at the top of the ramp – when the front of the machine is lifted (literally, tilted) too high, the ball rolls to the top of the ramp and completes the circuit.
* an impact sensor – usually located on the coin door, the playfield and/or the cabinet itself.
When any of these sensors is activated, the game registers a "tilt" and the lights go out, solenoids for the flippers no longer work, and other playfield systems become inoperative so that the ball can do nothing other than roll down the playfield directly to the drain. A tilt will usually result in loss of bonus points earned by the player during that ball; the game is automatically over if it's the last ball and the player has no extra ball. Older games would immediately end the ball in play on a tilt. Modern games give tilt warnings before sacrificing the ball in play. The number of tilt warnings can be adjusted by the operator of the machine. Until recently most games also had a "slam tilt" switch which guarded against kicking or slamming the
coin mechanism, or for overly aggressive behavior with the machine, which could give a false indication that a coin had been inserted, thereby giving a free game or credit. This feature was recently taken out by default in new
Stern
The stern is the back or aft-most part of a ship or boat, technically defined as the area built up over the sternpost, extending upwards from the counter rail to the taffrail. The stern lies opposite the bow, the foremost part of a ship. Ori ...
S.A.M System games, but can be added as an option. A slam tilt will typically end the current game for all players.
Trapping
Skilled players can also hold a ball in place with the flipper, giving them more control over where they want to place the ball when they shoot it forward. This is known as ''trapping.'' This technique involves catching the ball in the corner between the base of the flipper and the wall to its side, just as the ball falls towards the flipper; the flipper is then released, which allows the ball to roll slowly downward against the flipper. The player then chooses the moment to hit the flipper again, timing the shot as the ball slides slowly against the flipper. Multi-ball games, in particular, reward trapping techniques. Usually this is done by trapping one or more balls out of play with one flipper, then using the other flipper to score points with the remaining ball or balls.
Once a player has successfully trapped a ball, they may then attempt to "juggle" the ball to the other flipper. This is done by tapping the flipper button quickly enough so that the trapped ball is knocked back at an angle of less than 90 degrees into the bottom of the nearest slingshot. The ball will then often bounce across the playfield to the other flipper, where the ball may then be hit (or trapped) by the opposite flipper.
Occasionally a pinball machine will have a pin or post placed directly between the two bottom flippers. When this feature is present, the advanced player may then attempt to perform a "chill maneuver" when the ball is heading directly toward the pin by opting ''not'' to hit a flipper. If successful, this will cause the ball to bounce up and back into play. A related move, the "dead flipper pass," is performed by ''not'' flipping when a ball is heading toward a flipper. If done properly, the ball will bounce off the "dead" flipper, across to the other flipper, where it may be trapped and controlled.
Manufacturing process
![Judge Dredd Pinball Machine underside](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/Judge_Dredd_Pinball_Machine_underside.jpg)
The assembly of a pinball machine is a complex process and involves several manual steps.
The wiring for the game's electronic system is a major effort. A color-coded flexible wiring harness is typically soldered to many lamps, switches and solenoids, and connected with plugs to the main electronic circuit boards in modern machines. Technicians are guided by a set of instructions and templates to ensure all wires (that can have a total length of almost half a mile) are installed properly.
The main construction on one hand involves the mounting of mechanical components onto the wooden playfield, such as hammering in anchored metal railing that keeps the balls from exiting the playfield and attachment of plastic parts with nuts and screws. On the other hand, electrical components are installed, like bumpers, slingshots, and sockets for lamps and flashing lights. All of the wiring is fastened to the playfield and big components like speakers, mains transformers or shaker motors are bolted into the bottom of the cabinet. The player-accessible parts like the spring plunger, buttons and the coin door with its mechanics are attached directly to the cabinet.
After successful testing, the playfield is set on hinges into the cabinet. The cabinet of computerized games contains very few parts. On older electromechanical games, the entire floor of the lower box was used to mount custom relays and special scoring switches, making them much heavier. To protect the top of the playfield, tempered glass is slid into side rails and secured with a metal locking bar.
The backbox is installed with hinges on modern machines or screws on older games. It contains the scoring displays and electronic circuit boards and is historically covered with a removable, painted, partially transparent, backglass which defined the game‘s appeal as much as the playfield design and the cabinet art. Since a damaged backglass is hard to restore, newer games use (sometimes optional) plastic translites behind a clear glass.
Other steps include installation of removable boards with speaker and dot-matrix displays and/or hinged wooden boards with lights and displays. The cabinet and backbox are covered with artwork that was historically sprayed on with stencils and later is applied as full-size decal stickers.
Solenoids
* ''Solenoids or coils'': These are found in every modern pinball machine since the flipper age. They are usually hidden under the playfield, or covered by playfield components. By applying power to the coil, the magnetic field created by electromagnetism causes a metal object (usually called a plunger) to move. The plunger is then connected mechanically to a feature or accessory on the playfield.
Flipper solenoids contain two coil windings in one package; a short, heavy gage 'power' winding to give the flipper its initial thrust up, and a long, light gage 'hold' winding that uses lower power (and creates far less heat) and essentially just holds the flipper up allowing the player to capture the ball in the inlane for more precise aiming. As the flipper nears the end of its upward travel, a switch under the flipper disconnects the power-winding and leaves only the second sustain winding to hold the flipper up in place. If this switch fails 'open' the flipper will be too weak to be usable, since only the weak winding is available. If it fails 'closed' the coil will overheat and destroy itself, since both windings will hold the flipper at the top of its stroke.
Solenoids also control pop-bumpers, kickbacks, drop target resets, and many other features on the machine. These solenoid coils contain a single coil winding. The plunger size and wire gage & length are matched to the strength required for each coil to do its work, so some types are repeated throughout the game, some are not.
All solenoids and coils used on microprocessor games include a special reverse-biased diode to eliminate a high-voltage pulse of reverse EMF (
electromotive force
In electromagnetism and electronics, electromotive force (also electromotance, abbreviated emf, denoted \mathcal or ) is an energy transfer to an electric circuit per unit of electric charge, measured in volts. Devices called electrical ''transd ...
). Without this diode, when the solenoid is de-energized, the magnetic field that was built up in the coil collapses and generates a brief, high-voltage pulse backward into the wiring, capable of destroying the solid-state components used to control the solenoid. Proper wiring polarity must be retained during coil replacement or this diode will act as a dead short, immediately destroying electronic switches. Older electromechanical AC game solenoids do not require this diode, since they were controlled with mechanical switches. However, electromechanical games running on DC do require diodes to protect the rectifier.
All but very old games use low DC voltages to power the solenoids and electronics (or relays). Some microprocessor games use high voltages (potentially hazardous) for the score displays. Very early games used low-voltage AC power for solenoids, requiring fewer components, but AC is less efficient for powering solenoids, causing heavier wiring and slower performance. For locations that suffer from low AC wall outlet voltage, additional taps may be provided on the AC transformer in electromechanical games to permit raising the game's DC voltage levels, thus strengthening the solenoids. Microprocessor games have electronic power supplies that automatically compensate for inaccurate AC supply voltages.
Historically, pinball machines have employed a central fixed I/O board connected to the primary CPU controlled by a custom microcontroller platform running an in-house operating system. For a variety of reasons that include thermal flow, reliability, vibration reduction and serviceability, I/O electronics have been located in the upper backbox of the game, requiring significant custom wiring harnesses to connect the central I/O board to the playfield devices.
A typical pinball machine I/O mix includes 16 to 24 outputs for driving solenoids, motors, electromagnets and other mechanical devices in the game. These devices can draw up to 500 W momentarily and operate at voltages up to 50 Vdc. There is also individually controlled lighting that consists of 64 to 96 individually addressable lights. Recently developed games have switched from incandescent bulbs to LEDs. And there is general illumination lighting that comprises two or more higher-power light strings connected and controlled in parallel for providing broad illumination to the playfield and backbox artwork. Additionally, 12 to 24 high-impulse lighting outputs, traditionally incandescent but now LED, provide flash effects within the game. Traditionally, these were often controlled by solenoid-level drivers.
A game typically includes 64 to 96 TTL-level inputs from a variety of sensors such as mechanical leaf switches, optical sensors and electromagnetic sensors. Occasionally extra signal conditioning is necessary to adapt custom sensors, such as eddy sensors, to the system TTL inputs.
Recently, some pinball manufacturers have replaced some of the discrete control wiring with standard communication buses. In one case, the pinball control system might include a custom embedded network node bus, a custom embedded Linux-based software stack, and a 48-V embedded power distribution system.
Custom machines
![A rebuilt Terminator 2 pinball machine](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/6e/A_rebuilt_Terminator_2_pinball_machine.jpg)
Some hobbyists and small companies modify existing pinball machines or create their own custom pinball machines. Some want, for example, a game with a specific subject or theme that cannot be bought in this form or was never built at all. Some custom games are built by using the programmable P-ROC controller board.
Modifications include the use of ColorDMD that is used to replace the standard mono color
dot-matrix display
A dot-matrix display is a low cost electronic digital display device that displays information on machines such as clocks, watches, calculators, and many other devices requiring a simple alphanumeric (and/or graphic) display device of limited re ...
s or the addition of features, e.g. figures or other toys.
A few notable examples of custom pinball machines include a ''
Ghostbusters
''Ghostbusters'' is a 1984 American supernatural comedy film directed and produced by Ivan Reitman, and written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. It stars Bill Murray, Aykroyd, and Ramis as Peter Venkman, Ray Stantz, and Egon Spengler, thr ...
'' theme machine, a ''
Matrix
Matrix most commonly refers to:
* ''The Matrix'' (franchise), an American media franchise
** ''The Matrix'', a 1999 science-fiction action film
** "The Matrix", a fictional setting, a virtual reality environment, within ''The Matrix'' (franchis ...
'' style game,
Bill Paxton
William Paxton (May 17, 1955 – February 25, 2017) was an American actor and filmmaker. He appeared in films such as '' Weird Science'' (1985), ''Aliens'' (1986), ''Near Dark'' (1987), '' Tombstone'' (1993), ''True Lies'' (1994), '' Apollo 13 ...
Pinball, ''
Sonic'', ''
Star Fox
is an arcade style rail shooter and third person action-adventure video game series created by Shigeru Miyamoto, produced and published by Nintendo. The games follow the Star Fox combat team of anthropomorphic animals, led by chief protagoni ...
'', ''
Predator
Predation is a biological interaction where one organism, the predator, kills and eats another organism, its prey. It is one of a family of common feeding behaviours that includes parasitism and micropredation (which usually do not kill th ...
'', and
Iron man
Iron Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was co-created by writer and editor Stan Lee, developed by scripter Larry Lieber, and designed by artists Don Heck and Jack Kirby. The charact ...
machines.
Data East
, also abbreviated as DECO, was a Japanese video game, pinball and electronic engineering company. The company was in operation from 1976 to 2003, and released 150 video game titles. Its main headquarters were located in Suginami, Tokyo. The Am ...
was one of the few regular pinball companies that manufactured custom pinball games (e.g. for
Aaron Spelling
Aaron Spelling (April 22, 1923 June 23, 2006) was an American film and television producer and occasional actor. His productions included the TV series ''Family'' (1976–1980), '' Charlie's Angels'' (1976–1981), ''The Love Boat'' (1977–1986 ...
,
Michael Jordan
Michael Jeffrey Jordan (born February 17, 1963), also known by his initials MJ, is an American businessman and former professional basketball player. His biography on the official NBA website states: "By acclamation, Michael Jordan is the g ...
and the movie ''
Richie Rich''), though these were basically mods of existing or soon to be released pinball machines (e.g. ''
Lethal Weapon 3
''Lethal Weapon 3'' is a 1992 American buddy cop action film directed by Richard Donner and written by Jeffrey Boam and Robert Mark Kamen. The sequel to '' Lethal Weapon 2'' (1989), it is the third installment in the ''Lethal Weapon'' film ser ...
'' or ''
The Who's Tommy Pinball Wizard
''The Who's Tommy Pinball Wizard'' is a pinball machine based on the rock musical ''The Who's Tommy''. The machine features twenty-one songs from the musical sung by original Broadway cast members. The game was designed by Joe Kaminkow, Ed Cebu ...
'').
Competitions
Two Pinball World Championships were held in the
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
area in 1972 and 1973 under the auspices of the World Pinball Association which also published a newsletter carrying results of regional tournaments.
In 1974, students at
Jersey City State College
New Jersey City University (NJCU) is a public university in Jersey City, New Jersey. Originally chartered in 1927, and known as Jersey City State College for 40 years of its history, New Jersey City University consists of the School of Business, ...
wanted to make pinball playing a varsity school sport, like
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
was, so they started a Pinball Club Team to compete against clubs at other schools. They asked two other schools to participate.
St. Peter's College took up the challenge, while the other school did not.
Many pinball leagues have formed, with varying levels of competitiveness, formality and structure. These leagues exist everywhere from the Free State Pinball Association (FSPA) in the Washington, D.C. area to the Tokyo Pinball Organization (TPO) in Japan. In the late 1990s, game manufacturers added messages to some games encouraging players to join a local league, providing website addresses for prospective league players to investigate.
Competitive pinball has become increasingly popular in recent years, with the relaunch of both the
Professional and Amateur Pinball Association The Professional and Amateur Pinball Association (PAPA) is an organization supporting the game of pinball as a recreational and competitive sport. PAPA is currently a brand owned and operated by the Replay Foundation and is based in the Pittsburgh a ...
(PAPA) and the
International Flipper Pinball Association
International is an adjective (also used as a noun) meaning "between nations".
International may also refer to:
Music Albums
* ''International'' (Kevin Michael album), 2011
* ''International'' (New Order album), 2002
* ''International'' (The T ...
(IFPA).
Two different systems for ranking pinball players exist. The World Pinball Player Rankings (WPPR) was created by the IFPA. The WPPR formula takes into account the quantity and quality of the players in the field, and awards points based on that calculation for the nearly 200 IFPA endorsed events worldwide. PAPA manages a ranking system known as the PAPA Advanced Rating System (PARS), which uses the
Glicko Rating System
The Glicko rating system and Glicko-2 rating system are methods of assessing a player's strength in games of skill, such as chess and Go. The Glicko rating system was invented by Mark Glickman in 1995 as an improvement on the Elo rating system, a ...
to mathematically analyze the results of more than 100,000 competitive matches. Since 2008 the IFPA has held a World Championship tournament, inviting the top-ranked WPPR players to compete; the 2019 title holder was Johannes Ostermeier of Germany.
PAPA also designates the winner of the A Division in the annual PAPA World Pinball Championships as the World Pinball Champion; the current holder of this title is Keith Elwin from the USA. Current Junior (16 and under) and Senior (50 and over) World Champions are Joshua Henderson and Paul McGlone, respectively. Samuel Ogden has become one of the most memorable champions in the PAPA tournaments, winning four straight competitions from 2004 to 2008 in the 50 and over category.
Video game simulations
Simulating a pinball machine has also been a popular theme of video games.
Chicago Coin
Chicago Coin was one of the early major manufacturers of pinball tables founded in Chicago, Illinois. The company was founded in 1932 by Samuel H. Gensburg to operate in the coin-operated amusement industry. In 1977, Gary Stern and Sam Stern purc ...
's ''TV Pingame'' (1973) was a digital version of pinball that had a vertical playfield with a paddle at the bottom, controlled by a dial, with the screen filled with simple squares to represent obstacles, bumpers and pockets. This inspired a number of clones, including ''TV Flipper'' (1973) by
Midway Manufacturing
Midway Games Inc., known previously as Midway Manufacturing and Bally Midway, and commonly known as simply Midway, was an American video game developer and publisher. Midway's franchises included '' Mortal Kombat'', '' Rampage'', ''Spy Hunter'' ...
,
Exidy
Exidy was a developer and manufacturer of coin-operated amusements. The company was founded by H.R. "Pete" Kauffman and Samuel Hawes in 1973. The name "Exidy" was a portmanteau of the words "Excellence in Dynamics".
Notable games released by Exid ...
's ''TV Pinball'' (1974), and ''Pin Pong'' (1974) by
Atari, Inc.
Atari, Inc. was an American video game developer and home computer company founded in 1972 by Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney. Atari was a key player in the formation of the video arcade and video game industry.
Based primarily around the Sunny ...
The latter replaced the dial controls with button controls.
Other early pinball video games include
Toru Iwatani
is a Japanese video game designer who spent much of his career working for Namco. He is best known as the creator of the arcade game '' Pac-Man'' (1980).
Early life
Iwatani was born in the Meguro ward of Tokyo, Japan on January 25, 1955. While ...
's
Namco
was a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company, headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo. It held several international branches, including Namco America in Santa Clara, California, Namco Europe in London, Na ...
arcade games
An arcade game or coin-op game is a coin-operated entertainment machine typically installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are presented as primarily games of skill and include arcade v ...
''
Gee Bee'' (1978), ''
Bomb Bee
is a Japanese arcade game that was released by Namco in 1979. It is the sequel to '' Gee Bee'', which was released in the previous year.
Gameplay
The maximum number of players is two, and the two players have to alternate. The control is a rota ...
'' (1979), and ''
Cutie Q
is a 1979 block breaker/video pinball hybrid arcade game developed and published by Namco in Japan. The player controls a set of paddles with a rotary knob, the objective being to score as many points possible by deflecting a ball against bloc ...
'' (1979),
Tehkan
, was a Japanese video game corporation founded in 1967. It had its headquarters in Kudankita, Chiyoda, Tokyo. Its subsidiary, Tecmo Inc, was located in Torrance, California. Tecmo was formerly known as Tehkan.
Tecmo is known for the ''Captain ...
's arcade game ''Pinball Action'' (1985), the
Atari 2600
The Atari 2600, initially branded as the Atari Video Computer System (Atari VCS) from its release until November 1982, is a home video game console developed and produced by Atari, Inc. Released in September 1977, it popularized microprocessor- ...
game ''
Video Pinball
The Video Pinball brand is a series of first-generation single-player dedicated home video game consoles manufactured, released and marketed by Atari, Inc. starting in 1977. Bumper controllers on the sides or a dial on the front are used to ...
'' (1980), and ''
David's Midnight Magic
''David's Midnight Magic'' is a pinball simulation video game written by David Snider for the Apple II and published by Broderbund in 1982. The game was published in Europe by Ariolasoft. A port to the Atari 8-bit family was released the same y ...
'' (1982). Most famous on home computers was
Bill Budge
Bill Budge (born August 11, 1954) is a retired American video game programmer and designer. He is best known for the Apple II games '' Raster Blaster'' (1981) and ''Pinball Construction Set'' (1983).
Early games
Budge says he became interested ...
's ''
Pinball Construction Set
''Pinball Construction Set'' is a video game by Bill Budge written for the Apple II. It was originally published in 1982 through Budge's own company, BudgeCo, then was released by Electronic Arts in 1983 along with ports to the Atari 8-bit fami ...
'', released for the
Apple II
The Apple II (stylized as ) is an 8-bit home computer and one of the world's first highly successful mass-produced microcomputer products. It was designed primarily by Steve Wozniak; Jerry Manock developed the design of Apple II's foam-m ...
in 1983. ''Pinball Construction Set'' was the first program that allowed the user to create their own simulated pinball machine and then play it.
Most early simulations were top-down
2D. As
processor
Processor may refer to:
Computing Hardware
* Processor (computing)
**Central processing unit (CPU), the hardware within a computer that executes a program
*** Microprocessor, a central processing unit contained on a single integrated circuit (I ...
and graphics capabilities have improved, more accurate ball physics and
3D pinball simulations have become possible. Tilting has also been simulated, which can be activated using one or more keys (sometimes the space bar) for "moving" the machine. Flipper button computer peripherals were also released, allowing pinball fans to add an accurate feel to their game play instead of using the
keyboard
Keyboard may refer to:
Text input
* Keyboard, part of a typewriter
* Computer keyboard
** Keyboard layout, the software control of computer keyboards and their mapping
** Keyboard technology, computer keyboard hardware and firmware
Music
* Musi ...
or
mouse
A mouse ( : mice) is a small rodent. Characteristically, mice are known to have a pointed snout, small rounded ears, a body-length scaly tail, and a high breeding rate. The best known mouse species is the common house mouse (''Mus musculus' ...
. Modern pinball video games are often based around established franchises such as ''
Metroid Prime Pinball
''Metroid Prime Pinball'' is a pinball video game themed after the ''Metroid'' series. The game uses the graphical style and various story elements from ''Metroid Prime''. It was developed by Fuse Games and published by Nintendo for the Ninte ...
'', ''
Mario Pinball Land
''Mario Pinball Land'', known in Europe and Japan as ''Super Mario Ball'', is a pinball video game developed by Fuse Games and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance, released in 2004. It is the ninth Mario game for the Game Boy Advance ...
'', ''
Pokémon Pinball
is a pinball-based Pokémon spin-off video game for the Game Boy Color. It was released in Japan on April 14, 1999, and in North America on June 28, 1999. In it, the ball is a Poké Ball, and most of the objects on the table are Pokémon-relat ...
'', ''
Kirby's Pinball Land
''Kirby's Pinball Land'' is a 1993 pinball video game developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Game Boy. It was HAL Laboratory's third pinball video game after the MSX and NES title '' Rollerball'' and the Game Boy title ' ...
'', and ''
Sonic Spinball
''Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball'' is a 1993 pinball video game developed by Sega Technical Institute and published by Sega. It is a Spin-off (media), spinoff of the ''Sonic the Hedgehog'' series set in the continuity of the ''Sonic the Hedgehog ...
''.
Popular pinball games of the 1990s include ''
Pinball Dreams
''Pinball Dreams'' is a pinball simulation video game developed by Digital Illusions and originally released for the Amiga in 1992. It spawned several sequels, including ''Pinball Fantasies'' and ''Pinball Illusions''. The MS-DOS port was digital ...
'', ''
Pro Pinball'' and ''
3D Pinball: Space Cadet'' that was included in
Windows ME
Windows Millennium Edition, or Windows Me (marketed with the pronunciation of the pronoun "me"), is an operating system developed by Microsoft as part of its Windows 9x family of Microsoft Windows operating systems. It is the successor to Windo ...
and
Windows XP
Windows XP is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. It was released to manufacturing on August 24, 2001, and later to retail on October 25, 2001. It is a direct upgrade to its predecessors, Windows 2000 for high-end and ...
. More recent examples include ''
Pinball FX
''Pinball FX'' is a pinball machine video game for the Xbox 360. It was developed by Zen Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It was released on April 25, 2007 via the Xbox Live Arcade service. The game features three tables, with ...
'', ''
Pinball FX 2
''Pinball FX 2'' (stylized as ''Pinball FX2'') is a pinball video game for Xbox 360, Xbox One, and Microsoft Windows ( XP and higher) and is the sequel to '' Pinball FX''. It was developed by Zen Studios and published by Microsoft Studios. It was ...
'', and ''
Pinball FX 3
Pinball games are a family of games in which a ball is propelled into a specially designed table where it bounces off various obstacles, scoring points either en route or when it comes to rest. Historically the board was studded with nails call ...
''.
There have been
pinball programs released for all major home video game and computer systems,
tablet computer
A tablet computer, commonly shortened to tablet, is a mobile device, typically with a mobile operating system and touchscreen display processing circuitry, and a rechargeable battery in a single, thin and flat package. Tablets, being comput ...
s and
smart phone
A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, which ...
s. Pinball video game engines and editors for creation and recreation of pinball machines include for instance ''
Visual Pinball
Visual Pinball is a freeware and source available video game engine for pinball tables and similar games such as pachinko machines. The software is composed of an editor and the simulator part itself. It runs on Microsoft Windows. The program ...
'', ''
Future Pinball
Future Pinball ("FP") is a freeware 3D pinball editing and gaming application for Microsoft Windows.[Future P ...](_blank)
'' and ''Unit3D Pinball''.
A
BBC News
BBC News is an operational business division of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs in the UK and around the world. The department is the world's largest broadca ...
article described virtual pinball games e.g. ''
Zen Pinball
''Zen Pinball'' is a series of pinball machine video games for iOS and the PlayStation 3 developed by Zen Studios. The iOS releases are two separate applications, each containing one table; ''Zen Pinball: Rollercoaster'', released July 7, 2 ...
'' and ''
The Pinball Arcade
''The Pinball Arcade'' is a pinball video game developed by FarSight Studios. The game is a simulated collection of real pinball tables licensed by Gottlieb, Alvin G. and Company, and Stern Pinball, a company which also owns the rights of machines ...
'' as a way to preserve pinball culture and bring it to new audiences.
Another example of preserving historic pinball machines is ''
Zaccaria Pinball'' that consists of digital recreations of classic
Zaccaria
The Zaccaria family was an ancient and noble Genoese dynasty that had great importance in the development and consolidation of the Republic of Genoa in the thirteenth century and in the following period. The Zaccarias were characterized by, accor ...
pinball machines.
In popular culture
Pinball games have frequently been featured in
popular culture
Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a ...
, often as a symbol of rebellion or toughness. Perhaps the most famous instance is the
rock opera
A rock opera is a collection of rock music songs with lyrics that relate to a common story. Rock operas are typically released as concept albums and are not scripted for acting, which distinguishes them from operas, although several have been ad ...
album ''
Tommy
Tommy may refer to:
People
* Tommy (given name)
* Tommy Atkins, or just Tommy, a slang term for a common soldier in the British Army
Arts and entertainment Film and television
* ''Tommy'' (1931 film), a Soviet drama film
* ''Tommy'' (1975 fil ...
'' (1969) by
The Who
The Who are an English rock band formed in London in 1964. Their classic lineup consisted of lead singer Roger Daltrey, guitarist and singer Pete Townshend, bass guitarist and singer John Entwistle, and drummer Keith Moon. They are considered ...
, which centers on the title character, a "deaf, dumb, and blind kid", who becomes a "
Pinball Wizard" and who later uses pinball as a symbol and tool for his messianic mission (the album was subsequently made into a
movie
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
and
stage musical
Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through words, music, movement ...
). ''Wizard'' has since moved into popular usage as a term for an expert pinball player. In 1975, Bally created a pinball game named ''Wizard!'' that features
Ann-Margret
Ann-Margret Olsson (born April 28, 1941) is a Swedish–American actress, singer, and dancer. As an actress and singer, she is credited as Ann-Margret.
She is known for her roles in '' Pocketful of Miracles'' (1961), ''State Fair'' (1962), '' ...
and The Who's
Roger Daltrey
Roger Harry Daltrey (born 1 March 1944) is an English singer, musician and actor. He is a co-founder and the lead singer of the Rock music, rock band The Who.
Daltrey's hit songs with The Who include "My Generation", "Pinball Wizard", "Won't Ge ...
on the backglass. In the movie, Tommy plays a Gottlieb ''Kings and Queens'' machine, while The Champ plays a Gottlieb ''Buckaroo'' machine.
In 1976, Bally released ''Capt.Fantastic'', which had an image of Elton John on the backglass, playing pinball in a similar costume as used in the movie ''Tommy''. Data East produced ''
The Who's Tommy Pinball Wizard
''The Who's Tommy Pinball Wizard'' is a pinball machine based on the rock musical ''The Who's Tommy''. The machine features twenty-one songs from the musical sung by original Broadway cast members. The game was designed by Joe Kaminkow, Ed Cebu ...
'' in 1994, based on the rock musical ''The Who's Tommy''. This game is notable in its use of The Who's iconic songs, including "Pinball Wizard", sung by original Broadway cast members.
In the late 1970s the children's television series ''
Sesame Street
''Sesame Street'' is an American educational children's television series that combines live-action, sketch comedy, animation and puppetry. It is produced by Sesame Workshop (known as the Children's Television Workshop until June 2000) a ...
'' began airing a series of short animated segments, called the "
Pinball Number Count
''Pinball Number Count'' (or ''Pinball Countdown'') is a collective title referring to 11 one-minute animated segments on the PBS children's series ''Sesame Street'' that teach children to count to 12 by following the journey of a pinball through ...
". Each segment was different, and involved the ball rolling in different themed areas of a pinball machine depending on which number (from 2 to 12; no segment was produced for the number 1) was being featured. The animations were directed by Jeff Hale and featured music by Walt Kraemer and vocal work by
The Pointer Sisters
The Pointer Sisters are an American pop and R&B singing group from Oakland, California, that achieved mainstream success during the 1970s and 1980s. Their repertoire has included such diverse genres as pop, jazz, electronic music, bebop, b ...
.
In ''
Pinball, 1973
is a novel published in 1980 in literature, 1980 by Japanese language, Japanese author Haruki Murakami. The second book in the "Trilogy of the Rat" series, it is preceded by ''Hear the Wind Sing'' (1979 in literature, 1979) and followed by ''A Wi ...
'', a novel by
Haruki Murakami
is a Japanese writer. His novels, essays, and short stories have been bestsellers in Japan and internationally, with his work translated into 50 languages and having sold millions of copies outside Japan. He has received numerous awards for his ...
, the protagonist is obsessed with pinball. One of the plot lines follows his attempts to find a pinball machine he used to play.
"Little Twelvetoes," a 1973 episode of ''
Multiplication Rock
''Schoolhouse Rock!'' is an American interstitial programming series of animated musical educational short films (and later, videos) that aired during the Saturday morning children's programming block on the U.S. television network ABC. The them ...
'', centers around an intergalactic pinball game demonstrating the multiples of the number
12.
In 1975–76 there was a brief TV game show based on pinball called ''
The Magnificent Marble Machine''.
''
Tilt
Tilt may refer to:
Music
* Tilt (American band), a punk rock group, formed in 1992
* Tilt (British band), an electronic music group, formed in 1993
* Tilt (Polish band), a rock band, formed in 1979
Albums
* ''Tilt'' (Cozy Powell album), 1981
* ...
'' is a 1979 drama film starring
Brooke Shields as the protagonist, Tilt, a young pinball wizard.
''
Nickelodeon
Nickelodeon (often shortened to Nick) is an American pay television television channel, channel which launched on April 1, 1979, as the first cable channel for children. It is run by Paramount Global through its List of assets owned by Param ...
'' used the pinball as their logo in the early 1980s. The words "Nickelodeon" were in rainbow colors against a huge pinball. This logo was used until 1984, when the orange splat logo took its place.
Canadian Football League
The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...
running back
Michael "Pinball" Clemons got his nickname due to his running style; his diminutive size and extraordinary balance allowed him to bounce between defensive players much like a pinball inside a pinball machine.
See also
*
List of pinball machines
This is a partial list of pinball games organized alphabetically by name.
List
There are currently games on this list.
See also
* List of pinball manufacturers
* Glossary of pinball terms
* List of arcade video games
Notes
References
...
*
Glossary of pinball terms
A glossary of terms, commonly used in discussing pinball machines.
A
add-a-ball
:Allows the player to add additional balls by achieving a specific task e.g. during an active ''multiball''. A feature especially popular on the latest generations ...
*
List of pinball manufacturers {{short description, None
This is a partial list of pinball manufacturers of past and present organized alphabetically by name. The article only includes producers of pinball machines at least in a small series which excludes makers of single unit ...
*
Museum of Pinball
The Museum of Pinball was a non-profit museum dedicated to the preservation and advocacy of pinball machines and other arcade games. The museum was located in Banning, California, United States, and opened in 2013. With an 18-acre campus, ove ...
-
Banning, California
Banning is a city in Riverside County, California, United States. The population was 29,505 as of the 2020 census, down from 29,603 at the 2010 census. It is situated in the San Gorgonio Pass, also known as ''Banning Pass''. It is named for Phi ...
, largest collection of pinball games in the world.
*
Pinball Hall of Fame – Pinball arcades located in Las Vegas, Nevada.
*
''Special When Lit'' – feature documentary about pinball
*
Ed Krynski
Edward Paul Krynski (September 12, 1927 – November 15, 2004) was a pinball game designer and innovator who worked for D. Gottlieb & Co between 1965 and 1984. During this time Krynski designed more than 200 games and innovated new pinball standa ...
, game designer and innovator
*
John W. Baumgartner, Los Angeles City Council member, 1933–35, opposed pinball machines
*
Pinball museum (disambiguation)
References
External links
Internet Pinball DatabaseWorld's largest online searchable database of pinball machines
*
Pinballhistory.comPictures and history of historic pinball machines
{{Authority control
Single-player games
Individual sports
Gambling games
Culture of Chicago