Q 01/05

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

A) Pins

B) Pegs

C) Studs

D) Spikes

Answer · why

A) Pins

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

Q 02/05

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

A) Pall-mall

B) Bagatelle

C) Boules

D) Pétanque

Answer · why

B) Bagatelle

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

Q 03/05

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

A) Trou madame

B) Bar billiards

C) Billard japonais

D) Billard russe

Answer · why

C) Billard japonais

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

Q 04/05

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

A) David Gottlieb

B) Harry Williams

C) Raymond Moloney

D) Montague Redgrave

Answer · why

D) Montague Redgrave

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

Q 05/05

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

A) Baffle Ball

B) Ballyhoo

C) Whiffle

D) Contact

Answer · why

A) Baffle Ball

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