Pinball

Pinball is a type of coin-operated arcade game where a player attempts to score points by manipulating one or more metal balls on a playfield inside a glass case. The primary objective of the game is to score as many points as possible. Secondary objectives are to maximise the time spent playing (by earning extra balls and keeping balls in play as long as possible) and to earn free games (known as replays).

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The Evolution from Outdoor 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 Bowls, eventually evolved into games played by hitting the balls with sticks and propelling them at targets. Croquet and Shuffleboard are examples of these games.

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Eventually the games led to indoor versions that could be played on a table, such as Billiards or Carrom, or on the floor of a pub like Bowling. The tabletop versions of these games eventually became the ancestor of the of the modern pinball machine.

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Bagatelle

History records the existence of table-based games back to the 15th Century. While some games took the wickets and balls of Croquet and turned them into the pockets of modern billiards, some tables became smaller and had the holes placed in strategic areas in the middle of the table.

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In France, during the reign of King Louis XIV, someone took a billiard table and narrowed it, placing the pins at one end of the table while making the player shoot balls with a stick or cue from the other end. Pins took too long to reset when knocked down, so the pins eventually became fixed to the table and holes took the place of targets. Players could ricochet the ball off of pins to achieve the harder scoring holes.

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In 1777 a party was thrown in honor of the King and his wife at the Chateau D'Bagatelle, owned by the brother of the king. The highlight of the party was a new table game featuring the slender table and cue sticks, which players used to shoot ivory balls up an inclined playfield. The table game was dubbed Bagatelle by the King's brother and shortly after swept through France. Some French soldiers carried their favorite bagatelle tables with them to America while helping to fight the British in the American Revolutionary War. Bagatelle spread and became so popular in America as well that a political cartoon from 1863 even depicts President Abraham Lincoln playing a tabletop bagatelle game.

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The Birth of Pinball

In 1869, a British inventor named Montegue Redgrave settled in America and manufactured bagatelle tables out of his factory in Cincinatti, Ohio, USA. In 1871 Redgrave was granted US Patent #115,357 for his "Improvements in Bagatelle" http://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=4542&depth=0&picno=6000, which 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 using this plunger, a device that remains in pinball to this day. This innovation made the game friendlier to players. The game also shrunk in size and began to fit on top of a bar or counter. The balls became marbles and the wickets became small "pins". Redgrave's innovations in game design are acknowledged as the birth of pinball in it's modern form.

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The Depression Era

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 Redgrave's plunger device to propel the ball into the upper playfield. In 1931 David Gottlieb's Baffle Ball became the first overnight hit of the coin-operated era. Selling for $17.50, the game dispensed five balls for a penny. The game stuck a chord with a public eager for cheap entertainment in a depression-era economy. Every drugstore and tavern in america operated pinball machines, with many locations making back the cost of the game in a matter of days. Baffle Ball sold over 50,000 units and established Gottlieb as the first major manufacturer of pinball machines.

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In 1932, Gottlieb distributor Ray Moloney found it hard to obtain more Baffle Ball units to sell. In his frustration he founded Lion Manufacturing to produce a game of his own design, Ballyhoo. Named after a popular magazine of the day the game became a smash hit as well, selling 75,000 units in 7 months. Moloney eventually changed the name of his company to Bally to reflect the success of this game.

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The 1930s saw a leap forward in innovation in pinball design and devices. A company called Pacific Amusements in Los Angeles, California, USA produced a game called Contact in 1933. Contact had an electically powered solenoid to propel the ball out of a bonus hole in the middle of the playfield. Another solenoid rang a bell to reward the player. The designer of Contact, Harry Williams, would eventually form his own company, Williams Manufacturing in 1944.

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By the end of 1932 there were approximately 150 companies manufacturing pinball machines, most of them in the city of Chicago, Illinois, USA. Chicago has been the center of pinball manufacturing ever since. Competition between the companies was brutal, however, and by 1934 there were only 14 companies left.

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The Post-War Boom

During World War II all of the major manufacturing companies in coin-operated games were put into use manufacturing equipment for the American war effort. Some companies like Williams bought old games from operators and refurbished them, adding new artwork with a patriotic theme.

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By the end of the war, a generation of Americans looked for amusement in their bars and malt shops. Pinball saw another golden age of growth. Innovations such as the tilt mechanism and free games (known as replays) appeared. Gottlieb's Humpty Dumpty added the first player-controlled flippers to keep the ball in play longer and added a skill factor to the game.

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The post-war era was dominated by Gottlieb. Game designer Wayne Neyens along with artist Leroy Parker turned out game after game that collectors consider some of the most classic pinball machines ever designed.

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Pinball's Shadier Side

Pinball has long been associated with various disreputable activities. 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. Free games could be won if the player was skillful enough to get three balls in a row. However, doing this was nearly random, and the real use for such machines was for gambling (similar to the way many places now use video poker). Other machines allowed a player to accumulate large numbers of free "games" which could then be redeemed for money. This type of feature was later discontinued, in an effort to legitimize the machines. Nevertheless, on occasion pinball games have been regulated or banned, notably in New York City beginning in the 1940s and continuing until 1976. Some towns in America still have these bans on the law books over fifty years later.

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Most recent games are clearly labeled "FOR AMUSEMENT ONLY" so that the manufacturer can emphasize their legitimate, legal nature.

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Another close relative to pinball is Pachinko, a gambling game played in Japan. Although they share a common ancestry, the games are very different, in that pachinko simply involves shooting many small balls one after the other into a nearly-vertical playfield while pinball is about the manipulation of the small number of balls currently in play.

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The Solid-State Era

The advent of the microprocessor in the early 1970s brought another new age for pinball. The electromechanical relays and scoring reels that drove games in the 50s and 60s were now replaced with a circuit board and digital display. Companies like Bally thrived in this era, selling large amounts of games with fancier sound effects, speech, and game features that only a computer could make possible.

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The video game fad of the 1980s, however, signalled the end of the boom time for pinball. Arcades quickly replaced rows of pinball machines with games like Asteroids and Pac-Man,

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which earned incredible amounts of money compared to the pinballs of the day. Bally, Williams, and Gottlieb continued to quietly make pinballs while they also manufactured video games in much higher numbers. Some of the smaller manufacturers like Chicago Coin closed their doors, while many of the larger companies were acquired by corporations or merged with other companies. Bally exited the pinball business in 1986 and sold their assets to Williams.

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Pinball in the Digital Age

After the collapse of the coin-operated video game industry, pinball saw another comeback in the 1990s. Some new manufacturers entered the field such as Capcom Pinball and Alvin G and Company, founded by Alvin Gottlieb, son of David Gottlieb. The remains of the Chicago Coin factory became Data East pinball, headed by Gary Stern, son of Williams co-founder Sam Stern.

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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 hitting an all-time modern sales record of over 22,000 copies. Expanding markets in Europe and Asia helped fuel the boom.

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The end of the 1990s saw another downturn in the industry, with Gottlieb, Capcom, and Alvin G all closing their doors by the end of 1996. By 1997 there were only two companies left: Data East Pinball (now called Stern Pinball) and Williams. In 1999, Williams attempted to revive sales with the Pinball 2000 line of games, merging a video display into the pinball playfield. The reception was lukewarm and Williams exited the pinball business to focus on making gaming equipment for casinos. Stern Pinball is now the only remaining manufacturer of pinball machines in America.

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Arcade game: An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, typically installed in businesses such as restaurants, pubs, and video arcades. Most arcade games are video games or pinball machines....

Metal: :For alternative meanings see metal (disambiguation)....

Glass: :For eyeglasses, see glasses. For the drinking vessel, see glass (drinkware)....

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