60 Fun Facts About Pinball

The word pinball comes from the nails historically studded into the board. What were they called?

The ball scored by coming to rest in hollows or pockets between them.

Which billiards-derived French table game, named after a château, is the direct ancestor of pinball?

Louis XIV-era billiard tables were narrowed and fitted with fixed skittles, and holes in the bed became the targets.

Which 18th-century table-game variant replaced the cue with a spring plunger and was ancestral to pachinko?

Despite its name meaning 'Japanese billiards', it was invented in Western Europe.

Which British inventor's 1871 spring-launcher patent is called the birth of modern pinball?

He made tables in Cincinnati, and they were produced until 1927.

Which 1931 game, selling for $17.50, became the first major hit of the coin-operated era?

Gottlieb built 400 a day at its peak; a penny bought five, seven or ten balls.

Which 1932 game, named after a magazine, gave the company Bally its name?

Raymond Moloney built it when he could not get enough of Gottlieb's hit to sell; it moved 50,000 units in seven months.

Which city has been the centre of pinball manufacturing since the early 1930s?

About 150 companies were making machines there by the end of 1932; only 14 survived to 1934.

Which 1933 game by Pacific Amusements introduced electric solenoids to pinball?

Its designer Harry Williams went on to found his own company in 1944.

Which 1947 Gottlieb game was the first with electromechanical player-controlled flippers?

Its weak flippers needed three pairs up the playfield to get the ball to the top.

Who invented the flipper, reportedly 'quite accidentally'?

His game was inducted into the Amusement Industry Hall of Fame in 2025.

Which 1950 Gottlieb game was the first with the familiar pair of inward-facing flippers at the bottom?

They sat far apart to allow a turret ball shooter between them; Spot Bowler later brought them close together.

Which New York mayor banned pinball in the early 1940s, smashing machines with a sledgehammer?

He believed the machines robbed schoolchildren of their nickels and dimes, and dumped the wreckage in the rivers.

In which year did New York City's pinball ban finally end?

Chicago's rarely enforced ban lasted three decades and ended the following year.

Who ended New York's ban by demonstrating in a courtroom that pinball was a game of skill?

He later admitted his called shot owed a lot to luck.

Besides New York, which West Coast city banned pinball in 1939?

The industry's home city also had a ban on the books until 1977.

What did games called Add-A-Ball award instead of free games, to sidestep gambling laws?

Between 5 and 25 extra balls was typical.

What is the name of the solenoid-driven rod that makes a loud bang when a free game is won?

Winning that way is called 'knocking'.

What is the traditional tilt sensor inside a pinball machine?

When the machine is shaken too hard the bob touches the ring and completes a circuit.

What does a player usually forfeit when a tilt is triggered?

If it happens on the last ball with no extra ball, the game simply ends.

Bumping the machine to influence the ball, without tilting, is called what?

Along with flipper timing and shot selection it is one of the game's core skills.

Which rubber-padded features to the upper left and right of the flippers propel the ball away on impact?

Every recent machine has them; older games tried more experimental arrangements.

What is the end-game scoring stage reached after finishing all a machine's other modes called?

It is either a huge points task or a frenzied multiball with four to six balls in play.

What is the default probability of a pinball 'match' free game on modern Williams and Bally machines?

It looks like 1 in 10, but the operator can set it.

What is the first working pinball machine to use a microprocessor?

Dave Nutting Associates converted the Bally game using an Intel 4040 kit and demonstrated it in September 1974.

Which Bally game held the pinball sales record from 1977 to 1993?

It shared its microprocessor board with eight other machines released through 1978.

Which Bally game is considered the first mainstream solid-state pinball?

Williams' Hot Tip followed nine months later; both used a Motorola 6800.

Which Williams game introduced speech to pinball?

The same era brought ramps on Space Shuttle and multiball on Firepower.

Which 1980 Williams game by Steve Ritchie was the first solid-state machine with a multilevel playfield?

Ritchie also voiced the Knight, and the game introduced magna-save.

Which 1992 machine holds the modern sales record with 20,270 units?

Williams marked the milestone in 1994 with 1,000 gold-trimmed 'Gold' editions.

Which actor recorded custom speech for the best-selling machine of 1992?

Huston's lines were lifted from the film; she also insisted her nose be redrawn on the backglass.

In the 1992 best-seller, what is 'The Power' mounted beneath the playfield?

During Thing Flips the machine even takes control of the upper left flipper itself.

Which designer created Twilight Zone, FunHouse, Whirlwind and 1992's best-selling machine?

He stayed with Williams until it quit pinball in 1999, then partnered with Stern.

What is the Powerball in the Twilight Zone machine?

It is 20 per cent lighter than the steel balls; only blue and white ceramic were available when the choice was made.

What working feature holds three balls in Twilight Zone?

The game also has a working 12-hour analog clock that doubles as a timer.

What is the name of the talking head in FunHouse (1990)?

He was voiced by Ed Boon, later of Mortal Kombat fame.

Which 1989 game was the first pinball machine with a shaker motor?

Its theme was earthquakes; the follow-up tackled tornadoes.

Which 1997 Williams machine designed by Brian Eddy had a run of 4,016 units and later got a full remake?

A full remake was announced in 2013.

Which 1999 Williams line merged a video display into the playfield in a last attempt to revive sales?

Revenge from Mars sold over 6,000, but Star Wars Episode I only about 3,500, and Williams quit that October.

On what date did Williams exit the pinball business to focus on casino gaming equipment?

By then its games rarely sold more than 4,000 units.

Who bought Sega's pinball division in 1999 and named the company after himself?

He was president of Sega Pinball at the time; his father Sam had co-founded Williams.

Which company ended Stern's run as the only maker of new machines by shipping The Wizard of Oz in 2013?

It was the first US machine with a large colour LCD in the backbox and the first widebody since 1994.

Which 2010 Spanish remake was the first pinball machine with an LCD screen in the backbox?

MarsaPlay's remake of Inder's Canasta beat the American manufacturers to the feature.

Which manufacturer's 2017 platform swapped the wooden playfield for a large interactive display?

Different games can be swapped into the same cabinet.

Which studio bought Gottlieb for $47 million in the mid-1970s?

After Coca-Cola bought Columbia, the company was briefly renamed Mylstar Electronics in 1983.

In which year did Bally exit pinball and sell its assets to Williams?

That is why several 1990s classics carry the Bally label but were built by Williams.

Which band's 1969 song 'Pinball Wizard' appears on the rock opera Tommy?

Pete Townshend added a pinball angle after critic Nik Cohn gave the album a lukewarm first hearing.

Which musician performed 'Pinball Wizard' in Ken Russell's 1975 film of Tommy?

The band played it at the Super Bowl XLIV halftime show in 2010.

The Pinball Hall of Fame, a hands-on museum opened in 2006, is in which city?

It is run by the local pinball collectors club as a nonprofit.

Which body created the World Pinball Player Rankings?

The Professional and Amateur Pinball Association is the other big competitive organisation.

Which Spanish-language nickname for a pinball machine reflects its inflated scores?

It means 'million machine'.

Which 1931 game from Youngstown, Ohio does the Internet Pinball Database call the birth of pinball?

Gottlieb's smash hit followed later the same year.

Which designer's many innovations included the DC-powered two-flipper layout of Genco's Triple Action?

Its flippers faced outwards, unlike the modern inward pair.

Which 1995 Brian Eddy game was released by Midway under the Bally label?

Its 1999 sequel Revenge from Mars sold over 6,000 machines in 1999.

Which firm founded by David Gottlieb's son entered the market in the early 1990s?

It closed by the end of 1996 along with Gottlieb and Capcom.

Which manufacturer, based in the Netherlands, released The Big Lebowski machine in 2016?

Pinball Brothers, from Scandinavia, went on to make Queen and ABBA machines.

A pinball playfield is traditionally made of what material?

Translucent plastic inserts are embedded in it for lighting.

Who designed 1933's electrified game Contact and later founded his own manufacturing company in 1944?

By the end of 1932 around 150 companies made pinball machines, most in Chicago; only 14 remained by 1934.

At roughly what angle is a pinball playfield inclined away from the player?

Some operators extend the rear levelers to steepen the slope, making the ball faster and the game harder.

Which Williams game introduced the multiball feature?

Space Shuttle brought ramps and Gorgar brought speech in the same era of solid-state innovation.

How many limited-edition gold-trimmed Addams Family machines did Williams build in 1994 to mark its sales record?

The Addams Family Gold carried updated software with new features alongside its gold-coloured trim.