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news & gossip

Skill Shot #20 News & Gossip

Originally published in Skill Shot #20, August 2011

The Ballard Pinball Tournament had the unusual starting time of 3 in the afternoon on Monday May 30th, because it was Memorial Day. As always the Ballard Tournament is a roving event that moves to different establishments in the neighborhood, but because of the holiday many of the planned venues were either closed or had inconvenient hours. Claire and Headley’s Pinball Room was also out of the running because of a new floor being installed, so all the matches were held at Snoose Junction and Liberty House. Julie Gray took first place and Graham Klym took second. Liberty House was a great place to go because they had hosted the Sam Theoharis Memorial Croquet Tournament the day before and were still stocked with grills, beer and pinball machines. Pinball Summer!

Another reason Headley’s pins were not available was because they were being packed up for the Pacific Northwest Pinball and Gameroom Show (PAGS) later in the week. This annual event is something we look forward to each summer and Skill Shot was graciously allowed to take pictures of the games while they were being set up on Thursday evening. A lot of love and work goes into this show and we were impressed with how it was set up this year. Look for our full report on PAGS elsewhere in this issue!

As usual, there have been a lot of local tournaments happening, and on June 9th the Seattle Pinball Museum held the first in their new quarterly format. Hosted by Jeff Groper, the tournament had 40 contestants as well as many observers, including British pinball author Gary Flowers and Canadian Bally repair expert Lindsey Rupertus. Steve Ackley took the top prize and Brian Headley took second. Later that evening we had a 5 game tournament of our own at Shorty’s against Sergey and Heather. Using our 100 Pinball Game Equation (from issue 16) we luckily didn’t bet any money because Heather won. It’s more fun to compete!

As if that wasn’t enough pinball tournament action for a week, the next night (6/10) was the first of three official TRON Pinball Release Parties! The TRON events also featured a tournament and the first one at the Seattle Waterfront Arcade was won by Maka. The next day (6/11) had a TRON party at Flynn’s Arcade in Tacoma (a.k.a. Dorky’s), and the pinball machine was hooked up to the sound system for the final match, which ELF won. Four days later (6/14) at the Seattle Pinball Museum, TRON had another release party that was won by Seattle Pinball League treasurer Hannah Olson. And we missed them all!

photo by Katy Jacobson

Other pinball events we missed include the annual Summer Solstice Soiree at Andrew Nunes’ house that happened on the same day as the Fremont Solstice Day Parade; the July Seattle Pinball League Tournament that was held at Mike Lorrain’s home, won by Randy Pouley; the first tournament at Bridle Trails New York Pizza in Kirkland, won by Beth Johns; and the Super Multi-Brawl tournament in Vancouver BC, won by Cayle. A Vancouver tournament is apparently a rare event because most pins are in private homes rather than on location. They haven’t had a public tournament in years. Sorry, Maka.

Rod Olson’s annual 4th of July Party was a great time as always. The festivities included tasty food, fireworks, tank battles and of course, lots of pinball. Rod has a great collection of pins and this year he also had a nice set up in his garage. Some of the games included Fish Tales, two NBA Fastbreak that were connected to each other and 300, which became the center of attention when we held a Biggest Loser Tournament, won by Rod’s stepmother. Those Olsons have pinball in their blood!

Birthdays seem to be popular times to have pinball tournaments at Shorty’s. 4th Place Andy hosted The Trick Pinball Olympics on June 21st. Four different pins had different games: Biggest Loser on Speakeasy; Pat Hand on The Addams Family; Blind Folded (Tommy) on Family Guy; and Half and Half on Champion Pub. The highest scores were awarded points with the four highest scorers moving on to the final match on TRON, which Pancakes easily won. Jawn Wakefield had a Batman-themed birthday on July 21st, with a Bat-Hand tournament on Batman, naturally. In this tournament, players had to use the opposite hand for each flipper and you could do either forwards (like most people did) or backwards, which seemed to help some folks. This style of playing is fun and challenging and we would like to see it played again sometime on an easier game. Bat Fun!

We made it to Dorky’s recently and were impressed with their large game selection. It’s like a mini PAGS with a ton of arcade games and over 20 pinball machines, many of which you don’t often see available to the public. Dirty Harry, Data East’s Star Trek and Indianapolis 500 are just a few of the older games there, as well as newer pins like Big Buck Hunter and TRON. There were a few bands playing in the big room the night we visited and we watched Les the owner moving games around so a stage could be built. Later he even had a working arcade game out on the sidewalk for people to play. Dorky’s is in a nice part of Tacoma and there’s a lot of different neat bars and other businesses within walking distance. You don’t have to go anywhere else to get a drink though, because beginning August 1st Dorky’s started selling beer. Beer!

Another business that recently got a license to sell beer and wine is the Seattle Pinball Museum! With their ever-changing collection of games and plans to open The Upper Playfield soon, the SPM just keeps getting better and better. Owner Charlie Martin wanted us to mention that if you need a pinball machine fixed in your home, the SPM might be able to help and Cindy Martin reminded us that they are now selling Full Tilt Ice Cream. Speaking of Full Tilt, we heard that the building permits for their future Ballard business have finally arrived. The new location will have more pinball than either of their other two arcades and will most likely be open in 6 to 8 weeks. Sweet.

The Pinball and Arcade Swap Meet happened in the parking lot of Specialty Coin in Kent and despite the rain there was a good turnout. There was lots of different stuff for sale or trade, including a No Good Gofers pinball machine and various ramps, switches and instruction manuals for many different games. Specialty Coin was also open and had Rolling Stones and NASCAR pins to play. Chris Walsh and Butch Clifford brought a generator along with Radical and Strike and Spares in the back of their truck, so those pins were also available to play. There’s talk of starting another swap meet on the north-end, but organizer Keith Nelson would rather have someone else coordinate that one. Thrifty!

Last issue’s Skill Shot Folding Party at The Lookout was our most successful one yet; over 1600 issues of the zine were folded in record time and we would like to thank everyone who stopped by to help out. Also, thanks again to The Lookout who provided us with tasty sliders and hummus (and beer). Have you been to our website? www.skill-shot.com is the place to go for all past Skill Shot articles and covers. There’s also current news and gossip tidbits, updated calendar listings and more, so check it out. You can also see what the current The One To Beat score is. We had to change the pin because no one could beat MAK’s 1,136,165,620 on Batman at Shorty’s. We’re sure everyone wants another chance to beat Maka so the new TOTB is the Jack-Bot at the Rabbit Hole in Belltown. Go Team Skill Shot!

Pinball Tidbits: The WWF Royal Rumble at the 9LB Hammer has a DMD that randomly goes out multiple times during a game. The Randy Savage sound bites made this a fitting place to have a drink when remembering The Macho Man • The Lookout has finally replaced the no tilt Frankenstein with Pirates of the Caribbean, and it plays pretty well if you’re not Jeff Groper • Pinball champ Nycole Hyatt is now bartending at the Tiger Lounge and plans are forming for a tournament there • The Fun House finally has a Fun House • The current season of Hell’s Kitchen has a pinball-themed intro that you should check out (on FOX) • The Highline took out part of the bar and built a pinball cove • The next new Stern will be TransformersThe Annual Shorty’s Pinball Tournament has changed dates to November 5 &6 • We want to go Pinball Camping!

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news & gossip

A Pinball Museum Comes to Seattle

Originally published in Skill Shot 16, October 2010

by Gordon2

The Pacific Northwest has always been a great place for pinball and now it’s even better with the recent opening of the Seattle Pinball Museum.

The Seattle Pinball Museum (SPM) is the creation of Charlie and Cindy Martin of Federal Way WA, who first began forming their plan for the museum back in February. By mid-summer, Charlie had created a Facebook page announcing the museum and soon after, the Martins hosted a BBQ/meeting to gauge community interest. Needless to say, the pinball community responded positively and the Martins began searching for a space to rent.

While investigating spaces in Pioneer Square they became aware of Storefronts Seattle, an organization involved in revitalizing the Pioneer Square and International District neighborhoods. Storefronts Seattle matches artists/art with unused retail space and gets them free rent for a limited time, with the hope that the increased foot traffic the art brings in will improve the neighborhood as a whole. Realizing the potential of the Seattle Pinball Museum, Storefronts Seattle made them one of the first ten art projects accepted into the program.

The space was finalized at the end of August, and the Seattle Pinball Museum had one week to move in and open up for the First Thursday Art Walk, which happens each month in the neighborhood. Many people volunteered to make this happen by donating and delivering pinball machines, cleaning, advertising and other thankless tasks the museum needed done. On September 2nd the SPM had 10 pinball machines (and a few pachinkos) up and running for the Art Walk. Two days later they had an official grand opening with 13 working pins.

The SPM is located in a retail space on the bottom floor of a hotel in the International District/China Town of Seattle. It’s a large space that has big windows and a long wall of pinball machines. Above each of the games is a placard giving some facts about the pin, including the date it was manufactured. Almost all of the pinball machines are in working condition and available for the public to play. The machines are also lined up in chronological order with a flipper-less 1936 Bally Bumper being the closest to the front door, and Galactic Girl (2010), built by Seattle’s own Dominique Nick, holding up the rear.

The museum is an active space and while people playing pinball, often pins are being worked on. Go there during the day and you’re likely to see someone trying to coax a machine back to life, or giving one of the games a tune-up. There have been some interesting donations to the SPM recently, including a Tropics bingo-machine (1953) and a KISS (1978), neither of which were in working condition when dropped off. There’s also a lot of comings and goings, as pinball machines are added to the museum roster on a weekly basis. Charlie says that they have the space for 28 games.

The Seattle Pinball Museum is currently open Thursday – Sunday. Admission includes unlimited free-play. They also plan on opening for special events and tournaments. Check out their Facebook page for further details.

Seattle Pinball Museum, 508 Maynard Ave S, Seattle WA

Categories
news & gossip reviews

100 Pinball Game Equation

An Interview with Math Professor Luke

BB:   X = a player. Z = the number of games played. Y = the number of games needed to win. Can you write this out in math? Basically, for the best two out of three, three out of five, etc.  This is for a two player pinball tournament article in Skill Shot.

Luke:   Hey skipper! I can do my best. Let’s see here. You want to play an odd number of games, so things can’t end in a tie, so for some number nZ = 2n+1. (That is, we can let n be any whole number we want, and then Z will be the n-th odd number; if n=1 we get Z=3games, if n=2 we get Z=5 games, and so on.) So then it’ll takeY=n+1 games to win. I introduced n as a convenience, but we can easily remove it now. As we see, Z = 2Y-1, or equivalently, Y = (Z+1)/2.  Does that help?

BB:  AWESOME!!!

Luke:  I’m glad all those years I spent in grad school weren’t wasted after all! How’s it all going, mister?

BB:   It’s going great. Working on Skill Shot 16.  So Gordon and I played a 2-player 100 game pinball tournament. It took about a week, and he won 71, I won 29.  Afterwards, we played a 10 game tournament, and I won 6, he won 4. So 100 games or 10, we’re still close in skill. How’s your life?

G2:  Hi Luke. We need another pinball equation for determining a fraction or percentage of a pinball tournament where it is possible to have a tie score.  For example: If player X and player Y played 100games of pinball, the equation would express the results as percentages. The equation could also be used in a tournament of 8games or 7 or whatever. We’re thinking about calling the article “Percentages”. It would help people rank themselves.

Luke:  Hey Gord! Let’s see here. Suppose you play a total of T games (100, or 8, or 7, or whatever) and win X of them. Then you’ve won100*X/T percent of your games. We can turn any fraction into a percentage this way, just by multiplying by 100: 0.6 or 6/10 is the same as 60%, etc. Just type 100*X/T into Google and press enter (replacing X and T with the actual numbers, of course) and it’ll even do the computation for you. I freaking love Google.

BB:   Hey Luke, one more question. Do these equations apply to tournaments with more than 2 players?

Luke:   Oh! Good question! The percentage one, definitely. In a tournament, if there are T games played in all, and a certain player wins X of them, he’s won 100X/T percent of all games in the tournament. If a certain player wins X games and that same player plays a total of say D games (maybe he doesn’t play every single game in the tournament; if there are a total of say 30 games in the tournament but this player only plays in 10 of them, then T=30 butD=10) then he’s won 100X/D percent of the games he’s (or she’s) personally played.

The formula for the number of games required to win will still work in a multi-player tournament, *if* a single player has to win more than half of all games to win the tournament. If you just have to win more games than any other player it’d become a lot more complicated! I’ll have to think about that one.

BB:  Anyway, this type of tournament isn’t really all about winning, it’s more of a way to rate your skill against other players. I mean, winning is great, but every game has to be played, even after one player has won the number of games required to beat the other(s). In the 100game tournament, Gordon and I played all 100 games, long after he had already won the tournament by winning 51.

Categories
news & gossip reviews

Pinball Tournaments Are Rad!

by Gordon

Readers of Skill Shot may have noticed that Seattle has a lot of pinball tournaments. Whether at bars, private homes, or public arcades, if you play pinball you’re bound to come across either a tournament while it is happening or a flyer for one that is going to happen soon. This is a good thing because tournaments are fun and they make pinball more exciting than any other arcade game. But for new players, or those who have never participated in a tournament, they can be a little intimidating.

Head-to-Head pinball tournaments are popular in Seattle and the kind of contest you will find in bars like Shorty’s and at the Annual Georgetown Pinball Tournament (which is held at multiple bars). Head-to-Head tournaments put two players against each other in what is a best two-out-of-three match-up. During a single elimination Head-to-Head tournament, the winners keep advancing until there are only two players left for the final game that decides the winner.

In a Double Elimination Head-to-Head tournament, two different brackets are used: a winners’ bracket and a losers’ bracket. The first time a player loses they move into the losers’ bracket and continue to play matches (against other losers) until they lose again and are eliminated from the tournament (hence the name Double Elimination). The players in the losers’ bracket keep advancing until there is only one player left, and the top loser then plays against the final winner from the winners’ bracket. During the final match of a Double Elimination Tournament, the final loser has to win two of the games while the final player from the winners’ bracket only has to win one.

Yet another variation in Head-to-Head is sudden-death, which is simply a single game match instead of the best-of-three. This version is mostly used when time is running out (because the bars close at 2AM).

For more casual tournaments that happen regularly (such as in pinball leagues), the Vancouver Regional Pinball Association style of tournament is popular. The VRPA league point system was developed by Eden Stamm of Vancouver BC, and is a group/point format that has been adapted by many and is especially good for social groups and pinball leagues.

The basics: During the qualifying rounds of the tournament, participants are divided by their skill level into groups of three or four to play a series of matches. Players are then awarded points according to how they placed during each match of the series (1st place gets 7 points, 2nd place gets 5 points, etc). At the end of the qualifying rounds, the total number of points each player acquired are added up to determine who goes on to the next round, ultimately leading to the final match-up that determines the winner of the tournament.

The points that all participants received at past events are averaged together and are carried over to the next (league) tournament so that the players with the highest rankings/number of points can be grouped together. This system is a way of making tournaments in a regular group setting a bit more fair, as it usually places players against each other who have similar pinball skills and insures that all participants have a chance to get further in the qualifying rounds, as opposed to the more random head-to-head style, where a first time player could potentially be matched against a champion.

The Seattle Pinball League uses a version of the VRPA style where the points gained from past tournaments are averaged to determine a player’s ranking. But instead of awarding points gained from each individual match, SPL points are awarded according to how a participant placed in each individual tournament. SPL does it this way because the host of each tournament has the ability to decide what kind of tournament style they wish to have (at their house). Many of the SPL tournaments are done in the VRPA style, but occasionally a tournament style is chosen where counting points during matches is impractical, such as a Round Robin tournament (where only a single point is awarded during each match). While this system may seem confusing at first, like the VRPA, the SPL averages the rankings of the players this way to insure that all members of the league have an equal chance to compete regardless of their skill level.

The Northwest Pinball Championship is the yearly tournament held at PAGS (the Northwest Pinball and Gameroom Show). This is an Open Qualifying tournament where participants buy an entry for the qualifying rounds, which allows them to play one of the designated 7 machines set aside specifically for the tournament. Once their game has been played, the score is recorded and compared to that of the other players, with the highest scorers receiving specified points for how they placed at the end of the qualifying rounds (which end at midnight on Saturday). On Sunday the players with the most points advance to the tournament’s final matches, where the champion is determined by the player with the most points (usually the winner of the final match).

Because this is an open qualifying tournament, contestants are free to purchase entry games as often as they want, with their highest score on any particular machine being the one that is counted. Often players will continuously play qualifying games during the event in order to maintain (or surpass) their ranking on that game. Besides the NW Pinball Championship, PAGS also has other side contests, such as a classics tournament (held on older machines), the highest ranking woman, the highest qualifying score, and a tournament for novice players.

One of the most influential pinball tournaments in the country, the World Pinball Championship, is hosted each year in Pennsylvania by the Professional /Amateur Pinball Association. This is an Open Qualifying tournament held at the PAPA facility, which is used almost exclusively for this event and maintains over 400 pinball machines. PAPA has an extensive rule set for the tournament (over 20 pages) and many of the specific rules concerning game play, machine settings, malfunctions, and player conduct have been adopted  by other pinball tournaments around the world (including PAGS and VRPA).

Although many pinball tournaments use the PAPA rules governing the machines and players, it’s the rules of the qualifying rounds at PAPA that can truly boggle the mind. Participants buy an entry in the qualifying round, and then play a total of five different pins (from 10 or 11 designated games). Once they are finished with the five games, their scores are used to determine their ranking on each individual machine and these rankings are then awarded points which are added together to determine an individual entry’s total points. Because the qualifying rounds are continuously happening, it is likely that an individual’s ranking on a particular pin will decrease as the tournament progresses, unless they get a really high score.

Since each entry contains the total scores of five games, each time a player submits a new entry it is possible for them to affect their previous ranking on a pin and also lower their previous points. Their earlier scores are not omitted, no matter how many times they may play a particular machine and each individual entry is considered unique unto itself. While it is not possible for contestants to void a single game, they are allowed to void a whole entry, and this necessitates a strategic game play. While it certainly is a confusing system, it was developed by PAPA as a way to award consistently good players and once the qualifying rounds are over they go back to scoring individual players and their rankings in a more recognizable manner. (Whew!)

Needless to say, pinball tournaments can be as easy or as complicated as the organizer wishes them to be.  They may seem intimidating at first but new players shouldn’t be afraid to give them a try, because playing at tournaments is a fun way to learn more about pinball and a good way to meet other people who also love this great sport!

Other Pinball Tournament games and styles:

PIN Golf. Organizers set out (18) pins and then pick a score (par) for each. Players then try to reach that score in the fewest balls (strokes) possible. The winner is the person who uses the lowest number of balls when totaled after all the games are played (just like golf). A danger of this style of tournament is when the scores for the machines are set too high and players need many balls to reach it. If a player needs more than 3 (or 5) balls to hit the target score then the previous game total must be computed into the next game’s score.

Round Robin: A tournament where all participants play against each other, with the winner being determined by who has won the most matches. This style works best when there is a limited number of players and a lot of pinball machines, because it can last a long time. It was recently used at the Tiger Lounge during the Galactic Girl release party.

The Ballard Pinball Tournament: Pub crawl style. Head-to-Head, double eliminations held at a series of bars in the Ballard neighborhood. Players in the losers’ bracket often found themselves playing their rounds in the least desirable locations! (aka places with broken pins)

Price is Right: A specific score is chosen on each game and players must get as close as they can to that score without going over. Come on down!

Siamnese Twin Half and Half: Two-player teams go head-to-head against each other while wearing one XXXL t-shirt. Each team member can have only one arm out of the sleeves, but both of their heads have to come out of the top.

Quarter Qualifying: Set up a group of machines and let people play them for a set period of time using quarters.  You can spend as much as you want to qualify, contributing to the prize fund at the same time.  This also works very well for a “side tournament”, where one machine is set up and everyone tries to get the best score up to a certain time.  At the end, the person with the highest score gets all the money that was put into the game during the tournament!

Tommy Pinball: A team contest where the person controlling the flippers is blindfolded, while their teammate directs them what to do. The first annual Tommy Tournament happened at Shorty’s this past April.

Pat Hand: Also known as one-handed pinball. Only one hand can be used during each ball. Named after a 1975 William’s pinball machine.

Powder Puff Tournament: A bi-annual Double Elimination Head-to-Head tournament held at Shorty’s for the “anatomically female only”.

Weekly Sunday Tournament: A head-to-head, double elimination tournament that happens every Sunday at Shorty’s and begins at 6PM.

Single Qualifying Tournament:  Each player gets one chance to qualify on a single machine and the four players with the highest scores moves on to the final match-up, which is then a four player game. Highest score wins.  Recently used at the Iron Man tournament.

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news & gossip

Pinball History

Originally published in Skill Shot issues 1 – 5

by Gordon Gordon

Part one

It can be safely assumed that as long as there has been modern man there have been games. Rocks and sticks, bats and balls, dirt, cards, whatever; human’s like to play and have ample imagination to make things up if and when there’s a desire. Sometime around the 18th Century the idea of hitting a ball with a stick on a table became popular with Europeans and evolved into (at least) two different parlor games: Billiards and Bagatelle.

The main similarity between Billiards and Bagatelle was hitting (shooting) a ball with a (cue) stick. But unlike Billiards, Bagatelle has a play field that is slightly inclined and instead of having pockets on the side of the table, the scoring holes on a Bagatelle can be anywhere. Despite the table incline, the biggest difference between the two games is the placement of “pins” around the table on the Bagatelle. These pins had a dual purpose of deflecting the ball about the table and also for knocking the ball into (or away) from the score holes.

While billiard tables have stayed much the same over the years, Bagatelle tables have always had innumerable varieties. Scoring holes and pin placement was totally up to who ever created each individual game. The first major innovation to the game happened in the 1800’s when the cue stick was replaced with a coiled spring and a plunger. This made the game a little easier to play and helped direct the size of the games to smaller versions that could fit on the top of a bar or counter.

The next step on the road to modern pinball games happened in another area of American ingenuity: The Penny Arcade. At the turn of the century (1900’s) coin operated amusements were invented and became all the rage. Fortune Teller machines; simple movie projectors; Test of Strength and the like amused and delighted the masses. Arcades were springing up everywhere and countless new novelties and machines were needed for these businesses including one of the earliest flipperless pin-like games called Log Cabin. In Log Cabin the player would shoot the ball to the top of the game, hopefully landing the ball in one of the numbered scoring slots. Getting the ball in a numbered slot would win the player different amounts of cigars depending on the score.

While Log Cabin was a popular game, it wasn’t until 1931 that the first pin games truly appeared. Ballyhoo by the soon to be named Bally Company and Gottlieb’s Baffle Ball both came out that year and both game s were extremely popular. By placing the game under glass and feeding the plunger 7 to 10 balls per game, for a penny or a nickel the games started making their owners a nice bit a cash, all for a reasonable investment of less than 20 dollars. Flippers hadn’t been invented yet and you had to add up your own score, but for only a coin these two games were fun to play and started the pin-game craze.

Part Two

The mid-1930’s was a time of many innovations to the game we now know as pinball. As mentioned last issue the introduction of Baffle Ball and Ballyhoo brought widespread popularity as the games (which cost less than $20) spread across America. These games were not very large and easily fit on public counter tops and bars and at a penny a game gave people a cheap diversion during the depression years. One of the many things that make these games a curiosity today is that they were non-electrical and had none of the features that contemporary players are familiar with such as flippers, bumpers or even automatic scoring!

Before electricity pinball games were simple affairs similar to a gum ball machine; you put a penny into the slot and received a set number of balls, then shot the balls one at a time (with a spring launched plunger) up into the play field hopefully landing into a scoring hole. Since there were no flippers or bumpers, gravity was the main motor of these early games and either luck or a “slight” nudging was the only way to get the balls into the higher scoring positions. The addition of a battery to the pin-games brought then exciting features such as lights, bells and in 1935, perhaps the most annoying aspect of all modern pinball games: the tilt mechanism.

Up until the invention of the “tilt” players could jostle, lift and move the game as much as they wanted with no penalty unless the owner of the game happened to notice. Since many of the early games awarded prizes for high scores (like current redemption games) there was plenty of incentive to manipulate the machine as much as possible. But at the same time, since gravity was the main force moving the ball a certain nudging of the game was to be expected, just not too much. Around the same time automatic scoring also made its debut. Early scoring was done basically by illuminating numbers on the back glass as certain shots were made. Soon after the batteries were introduced to pinball games someone came up with the idea of adding an transformer to the machines and games were then able to be plugged into any electric outlet. This gave the games the added boost of power that led to the next big addition: electric bumpers.

With the addition of electric bumpers gravity no longer was the main propulsion of the balls, since the bumpers could bounce the balls in any and all directions. The Bally Company’s “Bumper” pinball machines (1937) were the first games to have these electric bumpers, but other companies soon added this important feature as well. Automatic scoring became connected to both the bumpers and the scoring holes, although the “holes” were soon eliminated because they stopped the movement of the balls.

Pinball games became all the rage at this time and hundreds of different games were soon being produced and enjoyed around the country and the world. So many different pinball machines were produced in the late 30’s- and 40’s that collectors are still discovering forgotten games to this day. But while the electric bumpers added movement and excitement to pinball there was still one important feature left to be invented: flippers!

Part Three

By the late 1930’s, there were hundreds of pinball machines being produced and the popularity of pinball was reaching an all-time high. The addition of electricity to pinball games added features that we currently take for granted, like automatic scoring, lights, sounds, and electric bumpers which made the games more fun to play than ever before. Pinball was an inexpensive way for people to entertain themselves and the games were available in a variety of places, such as drug stores and restaurants.

At the same time, gambling machines were also benefiting from the addition of electricity, and as these devices spread throughout the country, local governments began creating laws to restrict them. Many of the gambling machines at this time resembled pinball games, with the most popular and well known ones being the Bingo games. Bingo machines worked in much the same way as early pinball did, with the player shooting a ball to the top of the play field and into a scoring hole that resembled a giant bingo card. Since it was sometimes difficult to tell a gambling machine from a pinball machine, some local governments began to ban both types of games. The most extreme instance of this was in 1942, when the city of New York banned and then destroyed thousands of machines as part of a political publicity stunt.

During this same period, World War 2 was happening and most of the manufacturing companies in the U.S. were being diverted to war-time production. While new machines were not being produced, some companies were refurbishing old games and giving them patriotic themes. Despite the new laws and the interruption in production caused by the war, the makers of real pinball machines were ready with new games and designs once WW2 ended. While pinball flourished in the post war years, one thing was still missing that modern players would have noticed right away: flippers!

The first pinball machine with flippers was Humpty Dumpty, created by the Gottlieb Company in 1947. On this early game, they were called “flipper bumpers” and there were three sets of them running up the middle of the game and pointing outward (instead of pointing inward like modern pinball flippers do). Now, instead of relying on gravity and the mostly random bouncing of the electric bumpers, players could hit the ball with the flippers to keep the ball in play as long as possible. This important innovation gave the player more control of the game and made pinball more of a game of skill than ever before, further distancing itself from the gambling machines. Naturally, other manufacturers added flippers to their games, and that spelled the end of the flipper-less pinball era.

During the two decades that followed, other features that we take for granted today made their debuts, such as multiple player games, add-a-ball, multi-ball, and automatic ball return. Although these innovations, along with fantastic artwork, kept the games new and exciting throughout the sixties, it wasn’t until the 1970’s that the next big evolution happened in pinball.

Part Four

After the invention of flippers during the late 1940’s, other features that players of pinball would recognize began to be introduced during the decades that followed. Sling shot bumpers (1951), multiple players (’53), multi-ball (’56), extra ball (’60), drop targets (’62), spinners (’63), “mushroom” bumpers (’64), and the modern 3″ flippers (’68) were all created during this time. While various manufacturers introduced these features, it wasn’t long before they all included them, even if they called them by different names for copyright reasons (for example, “multi-ball” wasn’t called that on all games).

Despite these new gimmicks, pinball machines didn’t really change much due to their electro-mechanical (EM) nature, which gave them lots of wires, relays, solenoids, and moving parts (such as the scoring wheel). Pinball machines still had to attract players with their imaginative art work and the various buzzers and bells that are associated with the games of this period. Many people consider these EM machines to be part of the golden age of pinball, even though they may seem slow and clunky by today’s standards. But all of that was about to change with the introduction of computers and transistors to pinball, A.K.A. Solid State.

The first solid state (SS) pinball machine was a game called Spirit of ’76, released in 1975 by Micro Games. Although not many of these games were sold due to the unattractive playfield, other companies began to produce their own solid state machines (sometimes creating two versions of the same game, one EM and one SS). The new games were much easier to work on because they had less moving parts, and they also made it possible for pinball to include new features such as sound effects, music, and electronic scoring. In 1979, the first talking pinball machine was introduced (Gogar), and this was soon followed by other features such as multi-level play fields (1980’s Black Knight). These features rekindled interest in pinball, but the computer/game revolution almost ended that interest with the sudden popularity of video games.

As video games crowded out pinball in the bars and the newly established arcades, most companies soon began producing their own video games (and very few new pins). Things were looking bleak for pinball, as more companies left the pinball business and the ones that stayed were increasingly being consolidated into larger (sometimes non-pinball related) corporations. Fortunately, at around the same time the video craze crashed in the early 90’s, the most popular pinball machine of the modern era was released: The Addams Family.

Selling over 22,000 units, Bally’s The Addams Family was based on the popular movie and breathed new life into pinball. Soon new innovations such as the dot-matrix display, video-mode, ball-saver, and the automated ball plunger were introduced and the current era of modern pinball truly began. Medieval Madness, Twilight Zone, Monster Bash, Scared Stiff, and many others that are still popular today were created and sold respectably, but it was too little too late for many companies, as they were sold or dissolved by their parent corporations. In 1998 Williams Manufacturing introduced their Pinball 2000 series that combined pinball with video (Star Wars: Episode 1 and Revenge from Mars) but the sales were less than hoped for and they soon left the pinball business. That left just two companies, Sega Pinball and Stern Electronics.

In 1999, Stern bought Sega and became Stern Pinball, making them the sole manufacturer of new pinball machines today. Since then Stern has released new games at a steady pace that are exclusively based on licensed properties and proven able to attract new players (Family Guy) and challenge old ones (Wheel of Fortune.) Thanks to the rise of home game rooms and private collectors, the market for both used pinball machines and new ones has been growing in recent years and will hopefully continue to do so keeping pinball alive far into the 21st Century.