First Solid-State Pinball
Until the 1970s, no pinball machine had any sort of computerization. Instead, the electromechanical games ran on a precarious balance of moving parts, with their guts resembling giant Rube Goldberg machines. But beginning in 1977, manufacturers began running their...
Top 8 Most Innovative Pinball Machines of All Time
Seth Porges Aug 5, 2008 First With a Mechanical "Tilt" Brokers Tip /// 1933 /// D. Gottlieb & Co. Early pinball machines, which became immensely popular in a Depression-scourged America looking for cheap entertainment, were built without flippers. Instead of the...
Things you didn’t know about pinball history
The surprising history behind a beloved American pastime. By Seth Porges Sept 2009 Pinball Was Illegal Pinball was banned from the early 1940s to the mid-1970s in most of America's big cities, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, where the game was born and...
Chicago: Pinball’s capital and last best hope
Roger Sharpe’s two sons, Joshua and Zachary, are ranked among the world’s top five pinball players, and, like their father, they collect vintage games, which they display in Joshua’s basement arcade. It’s a surprising link with the city’s past—the pinball machine, the...
Law Banning Pinball Shuts Down Retro Arcade
An ancient pinball ban was actually enforced in the town of Beacon, New York, shutting down a local business. Fred Bobrow's Retro Arcade Museum in Beacon, New York seems like an awesome place. He's got hundreds of pinball and arcade games that date back to as early as...
Nike LCD Pinball Machine
Nike has created an LCD Pinball Machine to advertise their wares as part of their ‘Write the Future’ campaign for the World Cup. It look very impressive in the video but I’m not sure it will capture the same gameplay as an old style mechanical pinball machine. Watch...
Turn an Old Pinball Machine Into a Badass Coffee Table
Turn an Old Pinball Machine Into a Badass Coffee Table Love pinball? Looking for a new coffee table? Well, why not combine your love of pinball with your need for new living room furniture? If you've got a non-functioning pinball machine available to you,...
Jersey’s pinball wizard
Amanda Brown/The Star-LedgerThere are pinball machines from the 1930 to 2000s at the Silverball Museum Pinball Hall of Fame in Asbury Park, New Jersey. It’s four days until the Fourth of July, and Rob Ilvento is scrambling, twirling cotton candy for customers one...
Ben Heck chose to make his Bill Paxton pinball machine
Ben Heck chose to make his Bill Paxton pinball machine the old fashioned way, using actual flippers and tunnels and whatnot. But there’s also another, less complicated way to make a pinball machine – by running an emulator on a computer. But “less complicated” doesn’t...
goodbye to Old Coney Island
By KEVIN WALSH and DAVID S. ALLEE One by one, the venerable institutions of old Coney Island are vanishing. Ruby’s, the last of the boardwalk-facing bars, has served its final drink; Shoot the Freak, one of the most popular game booths, won’t reopen in the spring. And...
Kalamazoo’s Star World Amusement is keeping classic arcade games alive
KALAMAZOO — Long before Chuck E. was the big cheese in town and prior to Dave and Buster’s arrival in Detroit and other nearby areas, Star World arcade was the place to be — every single weekend. In the 1980s, teenagers who are now in their 40s, packed the Portage...
iPad Magic Pinball accessory makes your tablet a table
iPad Magic Pinball accessory makes your tablet a table The iPad’s sizeable display does make it rather apt for games like pinball, but New Potato Tech are taking things one step further with a custom iPad “Magic Pinball” accessory. Slot in your iPad, run the game...
How cutting edge can you get?
Stern Pinball's TRON: Legacy Pinball features an incredible 3D backglass that brings the film’s characters and story to life. (Stern Pinball) How cutting edge can you get? If you've got the bucks, there's a world of awe-inspiring gadgets and goodies out there for you....
Hopkins Arcade Owner Using Pinball Machines To Stay Afloat
There’s no question times are still tough for many small business owners. An arcade owner in Hopkins has never had it harder. Pinball is Lloyd Olson’s passion that he just can’t let go of. “It’s a work of art you can play,” said Olson, who owns SS Billiards. Olson and...
Prudish About Pinball
The progression went like this. A young innocent, almost always a male, fell in love with the flashing lights, bumpers, and rolling silver spheres of a pinball machine. He skipped a class or two, figuring his time was better spent mastering flippers than French. He...
Pinball Wizards of Orange County
Nothing obvious separates the home of Brad Chamberlain from the others on this quiet, tree-lined Anaheim Hills street. Two stories, a small front yard, two-car garage. But inside, medieval knights hoist their lances. Detectives interrogate murder suspects. An annoying...
Vintage Rock N’ Roll Pinball Machines
In the late 1970’s and early 1980’s many pretty cool looking Rock N’ Roll pinball machines made it to the local arcades. Check out some of these flyers for the pinball machines I found at The Arcade Flyer Archive. Elton John – Captain Fantastic – 1975 Ted Nugent –...
Inside the World’s Last Pinball Design Shop
Quartermasters: Inside the World's Last Pinball Design Shop THE X-MEN FRANCHISE IS THE LATEST POP-CULTURE PROPERTY TO GET THE STERN PINBALL TREATMENT. WHILE THE WHO'S "Pinball Wizard" still stands up after four decades of radio play, the designers of the pinball...
Interesting Vancouver: Catching up with a World Pinball Champion
By Interesting Vancouver Robert Gagno is a world champion pinball player. At 4 years old, he played his first game at Wally’s Burger (a burger joint their family frequented in Vancouver). When he turned 10, his family got him his first ever pinball machine. Robert...
Duo Pinball Turns iPad Into A Mini Pinball Cabinet
Playing pinball on an iPad is fun, but it’s nowhere near as fun as actually mashing real buttons with both hands wrapped around your Transformers Pinball Machine. While the Duo Pinball iPad Controller doesn’t quite turn your tablet into a full-sized arcade box, it’s...
PinBox 3000 Is An All-Cardboard Pinball Game With A Customizable Play Board
We’ve already seen foosball and table tennis games done up entirely in cardboard, giving you the benefit of full-featured playroom games with the ability to fold up inside a closet. This time around, you can enjoy those same benefits in a full-featured pinball game...
Transparent Pinball Machine is Awesome
By Adam Frucci - GIZMODO This is the Transparent Pinball Machine, a custom piece created out of a 1976 "Surf Champ" unit by Michael Schiess, owner of the Lucky JuJu Pinball Arcade in Alameda, CA (which looks like the coolest place ever). The traditional wood cabinets...
iPad Magic Pinball accessory turns your tablet into a table
Chris Davies - Nov 18, 2010, 9:30 am CDT iPad Magic Pinball accessory turns your tablet into a table The iPad’s sizeable display does make it rather apt for games like pinball. New Potato Tech are taking things one step further with a custom iPad “Magic Pinball”...
Kalamazoo’s Star World Amusement is keeping classic arcade games alive
By Kelle Barr | Special to the Kalamazoo Gazette KALAMAZOO — Long before Chuck E. was the big cheese in town and prior to Dave and Buster’s arrival in Detroit and other nearby areas, Star World arcade was the place to be — every single weekend. In the 1980s,...
