Who invented pinball?
Pinball
In 1869, British inventor Montague Redgrave settled in the United States and manufactured bagatelle tables in Cincinnati, Ohio. In 1871 Redgrave was granted U.S. Patent #115,357 for his "Improvements in Bagatelle", another name for the spring launcher that was first introduced in "". The game also shrank in size to fit atop a bar or counter. The balls became marbles and the wickets became small metal pins. Redgrave's popularization of the spring launcher and innovations in game design are acknowledged as the birth of pinball in its modern form.
WMS Industries
During the "Golden Age" of pinball, Williams was one of the three major manufacturers (Bally and Gottlieb being the other two). For much of the later history of pinball, Williams dominated the industry even as pinball declined in popularity.
WMS Industries
A Stanford engineering graduate, Williams devised the “tilt” mechanism for pinball machines. The first all original amusement device made by Williams was a flipperless pinball machine called "Suspense" (1946). During the late 1940s and early 1950s, Williams continued to make pinball machines and the occasional bat-and-ball game. In 1950, Williams produced "Lucky Inning", their first pinball machine to have its bottom flippers facing inward in the modern manner. In late 1958, Williams Manufacturing became known as Williams Electronic Manufacturing Company. In 1960, Harry Williams designed his last pinball machine for Williams, the horse racing-themed "Nags". The last game he designed for Williams was also one of the last electromechanical games, "Rancho" (1977).
Pinball
The first game to feature the familiar dual-inward-facing-flipper design was Gottlieb's "Just 21" released in January 1950, though the flippers were rather far apart to allow for a turret ball shooter at the bottom center of the playfield. "Spot Bowler", also made by Gottlieb and released in October 1950. was the first game with inward-facing flippers placed close together.
Sonic Pinball Party
"Sonic Pinball Party" is a pinball video game with the objective being to earn as many points as possible. During both the Story and Arcade Modes of the game, the player starts each match with three pinballs, each one shot onto the playfield from the plunger. When the pinball rolls into the hole on the bottom of the table, the player loses a ball and must try again with another. Losing all three pinballs ends the pinball match. Much like in "Sonic the Hedgehog Spinball", the player can control each pinball on the table using the two flippers set on the lower part of the table or the lone flipper placed in the upper right side of the table. The player can also shake the pinball table in three directions. With these methods, the player can make the pinball sling and hit one of the pinball tables' targets in order to rack up points.
Spirit of 76 (pinball)
Spirit of 76 is a pinball game designed by Ed Krynski and Wayne Neyens and released in 1975 by Gottlieb. The pinball machine should not be confused with the pinball machine "The Spirit of '76" by Mirco Games, Inc.
Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure
Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure is a 1993 widebody pinball game designed by Mark Ritchie (the younger brother of acclaimed pinball designer Steve Ritchie) and released by Williams. It was based on the Indiana Jones movies. It was also part of WMS' "SuperPin" series of widebody games (see also "The Twilight Zone" and ).
Bon MacDougall
According to the Internet Pinball Database, he designed five pinball games for Pacific Amusement Manufacturing Company, of Chicago, and Bally Manufacturing Corporation in 1934 and 1935. He received several patents for pinball game features during this period. He became a US citizen in 1940.
Archangels Don't Play Pinball
Archangels Don't Play Pinball (Italian title: "Gli arcangeli non giocano al flipper") is a 1959 two-act play by Dario Fo. The play uses the metaphor of a pinball machine—a new innovation in Italy at the time of and one of which Fo and his wife Franca Rame were fond— to convey mechanisation and conspicuous consumption.
Fireball (pinball)
The game itself is notable as it featured several pinball innovations, including a spinning disc, moveable "zipper" flippers, and trapped ball bonuses. "Fireball" was also an early table to have the multi-ball (three balls, in this case) feature. "Fireball"s main surface and raised surface also featured elaborate artwork of a flaming "fire man", flames, and stars in space. The table is highly valued as a collector's item.
Fireball (pinball)
Fireball is a historically notable pinball machine designed by Ted Zale and released by Bally in 1972. The table was one of the first to have a modern sci-fi/fantasy type of outer space theme and featured elaborate, painted artwork on the sides of the table, painted by Dave Christensen.
Pinball
Contact with or manipulation of scoring elements (such as targets or ramps) scores points for the player. Electrical switches embedded in the scoring elements detect contact and relay this information to the scoring mechanism. Older pinball machines used an electromechanical system for scoring wherein a pulse from a switch would cause a complex mechanism composed of relays to ratchet up the score. In later games these tasks have been taken over by semiconductor chips and displays are made on electronic segmented or dot-matrix displays (DMD). The first DMD on a pinball machine was used by "Checkpoint" and features also video mode minigames. MarsaPlay in Spain manufactured a remake of Inder's original "Canasta" titled "New Canasta", with an LCD screen in the backbox in 2010." The Wizard of Oz" is the first US pinball machine that used a LCD in the back box. It is not only used for scoring and mini-games but also to display full color videos. Other display innovations on pinball machines include pinball video game hybrids like "Baby Pac-Man" in 1982 and "Granny and the Gators" in 1984 and the use of a small color video monitor for scoring and minigames in the backbox of the pinball machine "Dakar" from manufacturer Mr. Game in 1988 and CGA color monitors in Pinball 2000 in 1999 that utilizes a Pepper's ghost technique to reflect the monitor in the head of the as well as modifications by the use of ColorDMD that is used to replace the standard mono color DMDs.
Diner (pinball)
Diner is a pinball machine produced by Williams in 1990. The objective of the game is to serve all customers in a diner. The table was marketed with the slogan ""It's fresh! It's fast! It's hot!""
Donny Gillies
Stern Pinball
Microsoft Pinball Arcade
Microsoft Pinball Arcade is a pinball video game from Microsoft. It was released on December 15, 1998 for Microsoft Windows and in 2001 for the Game Boy Color. The game is a collection of seven real pinball tables licensed by Gottlieb. These include: "Baffle Ball" (1931), "Humpty Dumpty" (1947), "Knock Out" (1950), "Slick Chick" (1963), "Spirit of 76" (1975), "Haunted House" (1982), and "Cue Ball Wizard" (1992).
Pinball (video game)
"Pinball" was later re-released for the Family Computer Disk System in May 30, 1989, as an e-reader Card game, and is also playable as an unlockable mini-game in "Doubutsu no Mori" for the Nintendo 64 and "Animal Crossing" on the Nintendo GameCube and as a downloadable title on the Virtual Console for the Wii in 2006 (November 19 in North America, December 2 in Japan and December 15 in PAL region) and Wii U (in October 24, 2013).
Chicago Coin
Chicago Coin was one of the early major manufacturers of pinball tables founded in Chicago, Illinois. The company was first a label and then a division of Chicago Dynamic Industries which was founded in 1931 by Samuel H. Gensburg to operate in the coin-operated amusement industry. In 1977, Gary Stern and Sam Stern purchased the assets of the Chicago Coin Machine Division as it was then called to found Stern Electronics, Inc.
Joel Pritchard
Along with a few of his friends, Pritchard invented the game of pickleball at his house in 1965.
Pinball (video game)
"Pinball" is a game where the player controls the paddles of a virtual pinball machine. The game has two screens to represent the traditional pinball table and one for a bonus mode. Play begins when the player launches a ball with the plunger from the first screen—the bottom of the pinball table—through the top of the screen to the second screen. Play will move to the first screen if the ball falls through the bottom of the top screen and will return to the top screen if the ball is hit back through the space at the top of the first screen. The player controls the flippers on either screen to deflect the ball to keep it from falling off the bottom of the lower screen.
Pinball
While the video game craze of the late 1970s and early 1980s dealt a severe blow to pinball revenue, it did spark the creative talents within the industry. All companies involved tried to take advantage of the new solid state technology to improve player appeal of pinball and win back former players from video games. Some of this creativity resulted in landmark designs and features still present today. Some of these include speech, such as Williams' "Gorgar"; ramps for the ball to travel around, such as Williams' "Space Shuttle"; "multiball", used on Williams' "Firepower"; multi-level games like Gottlieb's "Black Hole" and Williams' "Black Knight"; and blinking chase lights, as used on Bally's "Xenon". Although these novel features did not win back players as the manufacturers had hoped, they changed players' perception of pinball for coming decades.
Candlepin bowling
Candlepin bowling was developed in 1880 in Worcester, Massachusetts, by Justin White, a local bowling center owner, some years before both the standardization of the tenpin bowling sport in 1895 and the invention of duckpin bowling, said by some sources to have been invented the same year. As in other forms of bowling, the players roll balls down a wooden pathway ("lane") to knock down as many pins as possible. The main differences between candlepin bowling and the predominant tenpin bowling style are that each player uses three balls per frame, rather than two (see below); the balls are much smaller (11.43 cm or 4½ in diameter) with each ball weighing as much as only one candlepin and without finger holes; the pins are thinner (hence the name "candlepin"), and thus harder to knock down; and the downed pins (known as "wood") are not cleared away between balls during a player's turn. Because of these differences, scoring points is considerably more difficult than in tenpin bowling, and the highest officially sanctioned score ever recorded is 245 out of a possible 300 points. This score was first achieved in 1984 by Ralph Semb, who is the President of the International Candlepin Bowling Association . The record was matched on May 13, 2011 by Chris Sargent of Haverhill, Massachusetts, at the Metro Bowl Lanes candlepin center in Peabody, Massachusetts, and accepted by the ICBA.
Banzai Run
Banzai Run is a pinball machine produced by Williams in 1988, and the first machine designed by Pat Lawlor. It has a multi-playfield design, in which the player can play a vertical game on the machine's backglass in addition to the main playfield.
Frank Thomas (designated hitter)
In 1995, a baseball video game titled "Frank Thomas Big Hurt Baseball" was developed by Acclaim Entertainment and released for various platforms, with "All-Star Baseball '97 Featuring Frank Thomas" following in 1997. Also in 1995, Premier Technologies created a pinball machine (marketed under the Gottlieb trade name) titled "Frank Thomas' Big Hurt"; Thomas made an appearance in the documentary "The History of Pinball" in which he discusses the similarities between playing baseball and pinball. "Frank Thomas' Big Hurt" was later added to pinball video game "The Pinball Arcade" in late July 2016.
Pinball
Pinball was banned beginning in the early 1940s until 1976 in New York City. New York mayor Fiorello La Guardia was responsible for the ban, believing that it robbed school children of their hard earned nickels and dimes. La Guardia spearheaded major raids throughout the city, collecting thousands of machines. The mayor participated with police in destroying machines with sledgehammers before dumping the remnants into the city's rivers.
The Empire Strikes Back (pinball)
The Empire Strikes Back is a pinball machine released in 1980 by Hankin. It is based in the Star Wars film "The Empire Strikes Back". The machine was designed by David Hankin and was the last built by this manufacturer.
Pinball
The primary skill of pinball involves application of the proper timing and technique to the operation of the flippers, nudging the playfield when appropriate without tilting, and choosing targets for scores or features. A skilled player can quickly "learn the angles" and gain a high level of control of ball motion, even on a machine they have never played. Skilled players can often play on a machine for long periods of time on a single coin. By earning extra balls, a single game can be stretched out for a long period, and if the player is playing well he or she can earn replays known as "specials."
Pin tumbler lock
In 1848, Linus Yale, Sr. invented the modern pin-tumbler lock. In 1861, Linus Yale, Jr. was inspired by the original 1840s pin-tumbler lock designed by his father, thus inventing and patenting a smaller flat key with serrated edges as well as pins of varying lengths within the lock itself, the same design of the pin-tumbler lock in use today.
Central Park (pinball)
Central Park is a pinball machine that was released by Gottlieb in 1966. The game was sold in 3,100 units. It was designed by Ed Krynski and the art was done by Roy Parker.
Epic Pinball
Epic Pinball is a 1993 pinball video game developed by James Schmalz and published by Epic MegaGames. The initial release pre-dated Schmalz' Digital Extremes name. The game is played seen from a 2D top-down view within a scrollable window with plain raster graphics in 320x200. It was noted for being programmed entirely in x86 assembly language for MS-DOS systems. On November 30, 2017 the game was re-released on GOG.com, with support for Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Montague Redgrave
In 1871, he patented the first game that resembles modern pinball, calling it "Improvements in Bagatelles." His design introduced the spring-loaded plunger for launching the pinball.
Pinball
Simulating a pinball machine has also been a popular theme of video games. Early pinball video games include Toru Iwatani's Namco arcade games "Gee Bee" (1978), "Bomb Bee" (1979), and "Cutie Q" (1979), the Atari 2600 game "Video Pinball" (1980), and "David's Midnight Magic" (1982). Most famous on home computers was Bill Budge's "Pinball Construction Set", released for the Apple II in 1983. "Pinball Construction Set" was the first program that allowed the user to create their own simulated pinball machine and then play it.
The Amazing Spider-Man (pinball)
The Amazing Spider-Man is a pinball game designed by Ed Krynski and released in 1980 by Gottlieb. It is based on the comic book character Spider-Man released by Marvel Comics.
Electronic game
Since the introduction of electromechanics to the pinball machine in 1933's "Contact", pinball has become increasingly dependent on electronics as a means to keep score on the backglass and to provide quick impulses on the playfield (as with bumpers and flippers) for exciting gameplay. Unlike games with electronic visual displays, pinball has retained a physical display that is viewed on a table through glass. Similar forms of game such as pachinko have also become increasingly dependent on electronics in modern times.
Video Pinball (1980 video game)
Video Pinball is a game for the Atari 2600 programmed by Bob Smith and released by Atari, Inc. in 1980. The Sears rebranded version for its Tele-Games system is Arcade Pinball.
Curveball
Baseball lore has it that the curveball was invented in the early 1870s by Candy Cummings (it is debatable). An early demonstration of the "skewball" or curveball occurred at the Capitoline Grounds in Brooklyn in August 1870 by Fred Goldsmith. In 1869, a reporter for the "New York Clipper" described Phonney Martin as an "extremely hard pitcher to hit for the ball never comes in a straight line‚ but in a tantalizing curve." If the observation is true, this would pre-date Cummings and Goldsmith. In 1876, the first known collegiate baseball player to perfect the curveball was Clarence Emir Allen of Western Reserve College, now known as Case Western Reserve University. Both Allen, and teammate pitcher John P. Barden, became famous for employing the curve in the late 1870s. In the early 1880s, Clinton Scollard (1860–1932), a pitcher from Hamilton College in New York, became famous for his curve ball and later earned fame as a prolific American poet. In 1885, "St. Nicholas", a children's magazine, featured a story entitled, "How Science Won the Game". It told of how a boy pitcher mastered the curveball to defeat the opposing batters. In the early years of the sport, use of the curveball was thought to be dishonest and was outlawed, but officials could not do much to stop pitchers from using it.
Apollo 13 (pinball)
Apollo 13 is a 1995 pinball machine based on the film "Apollo 13". It was designed by Joe Kaminkow and Joe Balcer, and released by Sega Pinball. It is notable for its 13-ball multiball mode, the largest of any pinball machine ever made.
Pinball (1980 video game)
Pinball is a video game written by John Allen and published by Acorn Software Products in 1980 for the TRS-80.
Codeball
Codeball was invented in 1929 by a Chicago doctor named William Edward Code, who developed the game for his friend. At the time, Code's friend sought an inexpensive outdoor game suited to large playgrounds. Almost forgotten today, the game reached its peak of popularity in the 1930s. By summer 1932, at least 12 codeball courses were in existence, chiefly in the upper Midwest.
Wiffle ball
Miniature versions of baseball have been played for decades, including stickball, improvised by children, using everything from rolled up socks to tennis balls. The ball most commonly used in the game was invented by David N. Mullany at his home in Fairfield, Connecticut in 1953 when he designed a ball that curved easily for his 12-year-old son. It was named when his son and his friends would refer to a strikeout as a "whiff". The classic trademarked Wiffle Ball is about the same size as a regulation baseball, but is hollow, lightweight, of resilient plastic, and no more than 1/8 inch (3 mm) thick. One half is perforated with eight oblong holes; the other half is non-perforated. This construction allows pitchers to throw a tremendous variety of curveballs and risers. Wiffle balls are typically packaged with a hollow, hard plastic, yellow bat that measures in length and about in diameter.
Pure Pinball
Pure Pinball is a pinball simulation video game developed by Hungarian studio A.S.K. Homework and published in North America by Simon & Schuster for the Microsoft Windows and XS Games for the Xbox, released on May 28, 2003 and August 5, 2004, respectively. The game was published in Europe by Iridon Interactive and distributed by Koch Media in Germany.
Firepower (pinball)
Firepower (also known as Multi-Ball Firepower) is a 1980 pinball game designed by Steve Ritchie and released by Williams. The machine had a production run of 17,410 machines.
Frank Corridon
The invention of the spitball has been credited to several pitchers. Corridon is one of them. He claimed to have originated the pitch while playing for the Providence Grays of the International League, when discovered that a ball which had landed in a puddle and was wet on one side did an unexpected effect on its flight when he threw it. He later wet the ball during games and went on to have a respectable major league career.
Corridon entered the majors in 1904 with the Chicago Cubs, appearing for them in 24 games before joining the Philadelphia Phillies (1904–1905, 1907–1909) and St. Louis Cardinals (1910). His most productive season came with the 1907 Phillies, when he posted career-numbers in wins (18), starts (32), complete games (23) and innings pitched (274.0), while collecting a 2.46 ERA. He finished 14–10 with a 2.51 ERA the next season, and went 11–7 with a career-high 2.11 in 1909. He faded to 6–14 with the Cardinals in 1910, his last major league season.
Pinball (disambiguation)
Pinball is a type of physical arcade game with a metal ball. It may also refer to:
FunHouse (pinball)
FunHouse is a pinball machine designed by Pat Lawlor. It was released in 1990 by Williams Electronics. As its title suggests, the game is themed after the concept of a funhouse, a walk-through amusement park featuring many attractions.
Metroid Prime Pinball
The initial idea for a video game that presented the "Metroid" series in a pinball setting came to Kensuke Tanabe after he learned that Fuse Games had previously worked on "Mario Pinball Land", another pinball video game. Recalling that the series' protagonist, Samus, can morph into a ball, Tanabe was convinced that the "Metroid" universe could be adapted to a pinball setting. The game was sold with a Rumble Pak accessory for the Nintendo DS, marking the first time the accessory was available for the Nintendo DS.
Comet (pinball)
Comet is a pinball machine released by Williams in June 1985. It was designed by Barry Oursler and was the first in an amusement park themed pinball trilogy followed by "Cyclone" in 1988 and "Hurricane" in 1991.
The Empire Strikes Back (pinball)
"The Empire Strikes Back" was the first "Star Wars" pinball machine ever created. According to Pinball Memories, this game was first exhibited in November 1980 at the National Amusement Machine Operators Convention held at Surfers Paradise, Queensland, Australia.
Kickball
Kickball, originally called "Kick Baseball", was invented as early as 1917 by Nicholas C Seuss, Supervisor of Cincinnati Park Playgrounds in Cincinnati, Ohio. Seuss submitted his first documented overview of the game which included 12 rules and a field diagram in "The Playground Book", published in 1917. Kickball is referred to as "Kick Base Ball" and "Kick Baseball" in this book.
Around 1920–1921 "Kick Ball" was used by physical education teachers in public schools to teach young boys and girls the basics of baseball. Around this time, the ball that was used was a soccer ball or volleyball. It was played by ten to thirty players and the field included a "Neutral Zone": an area not to be entered until the ball has actually been kicked. There was no pitcher as the ball would be kicked from the home area, which was a 3 ft circle. The ball must pass beyond the 5 foot line. Base-runners could only advance one base on infield balls. Teams would switch sides only after all team members have kicked.
During this time, it was played on the same field as baseball except that there was only one base corresponding to a baseball diamond's 2nd base. Multiple players could be on base at a time, but all needed to get home before the last kicker kicked and the kicking order had retired.
Steve Kordek
Kordek was credited with many innovations to pinball machines. He revised the machines of the 1930s by putting two inward-facing flippers at the bottom of the playing field that were controlled by two buttons on the side of the machine. Other innovations still used today are drop targets and multi-ball mode.
Centaur (pinball)
Centaur is a pinball machine designed by Jim Patla and produced by Bally. The game was inspired by the classic Bally's 1956 "Balls-A-Poppin" that was the first flipper pinball machine with multiball. Because of its success, the pinball machine was re-released in 1983 as Centaur II. The re-release has only a different backbox and was otherwise unchanged.
The Wizard of Oz (pinball)
"The Wizard of Oz" is the first widebody pinball machine since 1994 and the first new US pinball machine not made by Stern Pinball since 2001. The pinball machine is based on the classic film version of "The Wizard of Oz".
Black Hole (pinball)
Black Hole is a pinball game released in 1981 by Gottlieb. It is notable for having two playfields: one on top with a conventional slope, and one mounted underneath, sloping away from the player. It has no connection with the 1979 film of the same name.
Poohsticks
Poohsticks was invented by English author A. A. Milne for his son Christopher Robin Milne. The game first came to prominence when it was described in the author's book "The House at Pooh Corner" as well as in the Disney animated featurette "Winnie the Pooh and a Day for Eeyore". Winnie-the-Pooh, the protagonist of the book, accidentally drops a pine cone into a river from a bridge and, after observing how it appeared on the other side of the bridge, devises the rules for Poohsticks. Pooh continues to play the game with the other characters, Christopher Robin, Tigger and Eeyore.
Raymond Moloney
Raymond T. Moloney (died February 26, 1958) invented the "Bally Hoo" pinball machine in 1931, and founded the Bally Manufacturing Corporation of Chicago, IL, USA on January 10, 1932.
Pinball
In 1932, Gottlieb distributor Raymond 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. Its larger playfield and ten pockets made it more challenging than "Baffle Ball", selling 50,000 units in 7 months. Moloney eventually changed the name of his company to Bally to reflect the success of this game. These early machines were relatively small, mechanically simple and designed to sit on a counter or bar top.
Steve Kordek
Steve Kordek (December 26, 1911 – February 19, 2012) was an American businessman of Polish descent who was best known for the design of the pinball machines.
Pokémon Pinball: Ruby &amp; Sapphire
Pokémon Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire is a pinball game developed by Jupiter, published by The Pokémon Company and distributed by Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance handheld game console. It was first revealed at E3 in 2003, and was released in the same year – on August 1, August 25, and November 14 in Japan, North America, and PAL regions respectively. The North American release was done to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the North American release of "Pokémon Red" and "Blue". It is based on "Pokémon Ruby" and "Sapphire", and is a sequel to "Pokémon Pinball" for the Game Boy Color. In some ways, it plays like a traditional pinball game, where the objective is to get a high score by keeping the ball in play as long as possible and hitting bumpers. In keeping with the theme of "Pokémon", it features Pokémon collection, where while the players play pinball, they must also capture the eponymous creatures.
Play-Boy (pinball)
Play-Boy is a pinball machine released by Gottlieb in 1932. The game features a card gambling theme. It should not be confused with several other pinball machines with the name "Playboy" as from Rally Play Company, Bally, Data East and Stern.
The Simpsons Pinball Party
The pinball game was released in 2003. Keith Johnson, software designer on "Pinball Party" said around that time that "In the last 12 years, both pinball and The Simpsons have come a long way, and it was my goal to design a game that illustrates that perfectly. Casual players will be attracted to the Simpsons license and the compelling gadgets. Regular players will be astounded by the sheer amount of things to do and accomplish on the game. I think players of all kinds will be drawn in and find the game satisfying regardless of their skill level." According to Stern, the pinball game is one of Stern Pinball's "largest and most successful titles."
Big Shot (pinball)
Big Shot is a pinball machine designed by Ed Krynski and produced by Gottlieb in 1973. It was created as a two player version of their 1973 game, "Hot Shot". The table is pool themed and is very popular among skilled players and collectors, because of the skill required to hit all 14 drop targets in the game. 2,900 units were manufactured.
Pin Bot (video game)
Pin Bot is a pinball video game developed by Rare and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was released in North America in April 1990. It is a conversion of the pinball machine by the same name (developed and manufactured by Williams in 1986). The NES version of the game accurately reproduces some of the game-play and aesthetics of the pinball machine, while introducing new features and added challenges.
Video Pinball
Video Pinball is a Single-player dedicated video game console released in 1977 as an Atari, Inc. Bumper controllers on the sides or a dial on the front are used to control the games depending on the game selected. There are three game types: "Pinball", "Basketball", and "Breakout".
Forkball
"Bullet" Joe Bush of the Boston Red Sox is credited with the invention of the forkball, shortly following World War I. However, it was popularized by former relief pitcher Elroy Face of the Pittsburgh Pirates. Face single-handedly made the forkball a topic of popularized discussion through his effective use of the pitch.
Pinball
In 1974, students at Jersey City State College wanted to make pinball playing a varsity school sport, like football was, so they started a Pinball Club Team to compete against clubs at other schools. They asked two other schools to participate. St. Peter's College took up the challenge, while the other school did not.
Pinball
Pinball is a type of arcade game, in which points are scored by a player manipulating one or more steel balls on a play field inside a glass-covered cabinet called a pinball table (or "pinball machine"). The primary objective of the game is to score as many points as possible. Many modern pinball machines include a story line where the player must complete certain objectives in a certain fashion to complete the story, usually earning high scores for different methods of completing the game. Points are earned when the ball strikes different targets on the play field. A drain is situated at the bottom of the play field, partially protected by player-controlled plastic bats called flippers. A game ends after all the balls fall into the drain a certain number of times. Secondary objectives are to maximize the time spent playing (by earning "extra balls" and keeping the ball in play as long as possible) and to earn bonus games (known as "replays").
Pinball (journal)
In its short history, "Pinball" has published several award-winning science-fiction authors, including Kij Johnson, Tony Daniel, and Bruce Holland Rogers, as well as literary writers, including young novelist Miles Klee and NPR contributor David Ellis Dickerson. Notable comic artists include Screaming Females' guitarist and singer Marissa Paternoster. The journal also publishes up and coming writers, visual artists, and comic artists.
Rollerball (chess variant)
Rollerball is a chess variant invented by Jean-Louis Cazaux in 1998. The game was inspired by the 1975 science-fiction movie "Rollerball", specifically the futuristic and violent sport (similar to Roller Derby) portrayed in the film.
Jack-Bot
Jack-Bot (styled JACK•BOT) is a 1995 pinball game designed by Barry Oursler and Larry DeMar, and released by Williams. It is the third game in the "Pin-Bot" series.
Pushball
The game was invented by M. G. Crane of Newton, Massachusetts, in 1891, and was taken up at Harvard University the next year, but never attained any considerable vogue. Emory University students played pushball from 1923 to 1955 before the game was retired due to its increasingly rough nature.
Black Rose (pinball)
Black Rose is a pinball machine designed by John Trudeau and Brian Eddy and produced by Midway (released under the "Bally" name). The game features a pirate theme and was advertised with the slogan ""This game is loaded!"." "Bally" abandoned the idea to use black pinballs for the machine.
Jive Time
Jive Time is a pinball machine released on April 23, 1970 and made by the Williams Manufacturing Company. This table is nearly exactly the same as a pinball machine called "Rock 'n Roll" which was released on the same day as "Jive Time". The only differences are that "Jive Time" has a replay feature and "Rock 'n Roll" has an Add a Ball feature. The designer of the two tables is Norm Clark and the art of the two tables was made by Christian Marche.
The Pinball Expo
Pinball Expo is an event that is held annually in the Chicago area, the original home of most pinball manufacturers. It attracts pinball industry professionals, pinball players, collectors, and enthusiasts from around the world. Founded by Robert "Rob" Berk, of Warren, OH, the event was inaugurated over the weekend of November 22–24, 1985 at the Holiday Inn O'Hare/Kennedy in Rosemont, IL. At the 33rd Pinball Expo, on Saturday, October 14, 2017, Twin Galaxies founder Walter Day made a presentation on behalf of Guinness World Records, issuing a Guinness award that recognized The Pinball Expo as history's "longest-running pinball event."
Dave Nutting
In 1974, Nutting and fellow MCI engineer Jeff Frederiksen started Dave Nutting Associates to serve as a contractor for new arcade game concepts. The two learned about Intel's new microprocessor chip set and decided to integrate this technology into a pinball machine, convincing Intel to provide them with one of the first development kits for the Intel 4040. They integrated the microprocessor into a "Flicker" (1975) pinball machine provided by Bally Manufacturing. This scheme was later patented by the duo as the first microprocessor pinball design. Bally acquired the patents to their solution, but did not produce a product based on this design. They began producing solid-state pinballs in 1976 with the Night Rider (1976) table and became the predominant pinball company in the industry. The patents became the subject of a patent infringement lawsuit against other pinball makers, primarily D. Gottlieb & Co and Williams Electronics.
Charlie Emery
Charlie Emery is a pinball podcaster and pinball machine designer from the United States. He runs "Spooky Pinball".
Psycho Pinball
Psycho Pinball is a 1994 pinball video game published and developed by Codemasters, released for the Sega Mega Drive in the United Kingdom, and MS-DOS personal computers in the United States and Europe.
Haunted House (pinball)
Haunted House is a pinball game released in 1982 by Gottlieb. It was the first game with three playfields that the ball can move between, including one below the main playing surface. "Haunted House" was designed by John Osborne, with artwork by Terry Doerzaph. It is part of Gottlieb’s “System 80” series of pinball machines.
Space Shuttle (pinball)
Space Shuttle (full title: Space Shuttle: Pinball Adventure) is a Space Shuttle themed pinball machine designed by Barry Oursler and Joe Kaminkow and produced in 1984 by WMS Industries. The machine's marketing slogan is "The fastest way to make your earnings really take off!".
The Pinball of the Dead
The Pinball of the Dead is a pinball video game developed by Sega's Wow Entertainment division and co-published by Sega and THQ. It was released for the Game Boy Advance on June 19 and July 4, 2002, in North America and Japan, respectively. Based on Sega's "The House of the Dead" series of light gun games, particularly "The House of the Dead" and "The House of the Dead 2", the game contains three tables and includes a "Challenge" mode. Full-motion video sequences and audio samples from previous games were also added. The game was first announced during the 2001 Nintendo Space World. Composer Hitoshi Sakimoto was involved with making the game's music.
Pinball
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. Gary Stern, the son of Williams co-founder Sam Stern, founded Data East Pinball with funding from Data East Japan.
Jorian Engelbrektsson
Jorian Engelbrektsson (born May 15, 1982, Falun, Sweden) became the first non-American to take the Pinball World Champion title, which he did on October 14, 2007 at the PAPA 10 contest (The 10th World Championship organized by the Professional & Amateur Pinball Association, which took place at 101 Keystone Dr Scott Township, PA 15106, USA) in Scott Township, Pennsylvania.
World Poker Tour (pinball)
World Poker Tour is a Stern pinball machine designed by Steve Ritchie and Keith Johnson and released in January 2006. It is based on the series of poker tournaments of the same name.
Pinball
"Triple Action" was the first game to feature just two flippers at the bottom of the playfield. Unlike in modern machines, the flippers faced outwards. These flippers were made more powerful by the addition of a DC (direct current) power supply. These innovations were some of many by designer Steve Kordek.
The Simpsons Pinball Party
The game is the successor to the first "Simpsons" pinball game, entitled "The Simpsons", which was released by Data East Pinball (the predecessor to Stern Pinball) in 1990. In 2007, Stern Pinball president Gary Stern said in an interview with "License!" that "We first licensed "The Simpsons" for pinball in the early '90s, when we were Data East Pinball. While we export about one-third of our games, that first model did especially well in the U.S." He went on to say that more than a decade later, "we started to manufacture a totally new game, "The Simpsons Pinball Party". We coordinated with Fox and "The Simpsons" folks who did the art for the game, as well as the actors who voiced the speech heard during gameplay. We then made an initial production run, totaling thousands [...]".
Eight Ball Deluxe
Eight Ball Deluxe is a pinball machine designed by George Christian and released by Bally in 1981. The game features a cue sports theme and was so 
popular that it was produced again in 1984.
Pinball Hall of Fame
The Pinball Hall of Fame is a nonprofit venture and its creation came about in part due to donations, which are still accepted. The museum is run by Tim Arnold, a veteran arcade operator who ran "Pinball Pete's" in East Lansing, Michigan. Fully staffed by volunteers, excess revenues are donated to the Salvation Army.
The Pinball Expo
Founded in 1985, Pinball Expo is the longest-running event dedicated to pinball. It was conceived in 1984 by Robert "Rob" Berk of Warren, Ohio, with the purpose of honoring his heroes of the pinball industry; the artists and designers. With the assistance of Bill Kurtz of Cleveland, Ohio, and later Mike Pacak of Canfield, Ohio, the trio held their first event over the weekend of November 22–24, 1985 at the Holiday Inn O'Hare/Kennedy in Rosemont, Illinois. The inaugural event attracted around 100 attendees from all parts of the world and a dozen vendors. The expo offers seminars, a tour of a pinball factory, an autograph session, tournaments, an exhibit hall of pinball machines, parts, and related paraphernalia, and much more. On October 26, 1991, the Pinball Expo launched the Pinball Expo Hall of Fame and inducted its first class of pinball luminaries: David Gottlieb, Ray Moloney, Sam Stern, and Harry E. Williams. The event is open to the general public.
Doctor Who (pinball)
Doctor Who is a pinball machine designed by Bill Pfutzenreuter (Pfutz) and Barry Oursler, and released by Midway (under the "Bally" brand name) in September 1992. It is based on the television series "Doctor Who". As stated in the Gameplay section, the rulesheet is rather different from other pinball machines released at the time, which didn't help popularity (and even now it is still seen as an exotic machine amongst collectors) as casual players did not understand the complex rule changes that occur during the game.
The Spirit of '76 (pinball)
The Spirit of '76 was the first microprocessor-based pinball table. It was released by Mirco Games, Inc. in 1975. The pinball machine should not be confused with the pinball machine "Spirit of 76" by Gottlieb.
Pinball
In France, during the long 1643–1715 reign of Louis XIV, billiard tables were narrowed, with wooden pins or skittles at one end of the table, and players would shoot balls with a stick or cue from the other end, in a game inspired as much by bowling as billiards. Pins took too long to reset when knocked down, so they were eventually fixed to the table, and holes in the bed of the table became the targets. Players could ricochet balls off the pins to achieve the harder scorable holes. A standardized version of the game eventually became known as bagatelle.
Pinball Illusions
"Pinball World" was released on DOS just after "Pinball Illusions". It has nine pinball tables: Africa, Australia, Far East, Germany, Hollywood, United Kingdom, New York, North Pole and South America. It was developed and written by Spidersoft. Coming Soon Magazine gave it 90 out of 100, PC Joker gave it 68 out of 100, PC Player (Germany) gave it 68 out of 100, Power Play gave it 57 out of 100, Joystick (French) gave it 50 out of 100, PC Games (Germany) gave it 45 out of 100, Computer Gaming World (CGW) gave it 2 Stars, and High Score gave it 1 out of 5.
Pinball
The evolution of outdoor games finally led to indoor versions that could be played on a table, such as billiards, or on the floor of a pub, like bowling and shuffleboard. The tabletop versions of these games became the ancestors of modern pinball.
Baffle Ball
Baffle Ball is a pinball machine created in 1931 by David Gottlieb, founder of the Gottlieb amusement company.
The Simpsons (pinball)
The pinball game was released by Data East Pinball in 1990. It was licensed by Fox Broadcasting Company and produced in Data East's factory in Melrose Park, Illinois. According to an article in "Chicago Sun-Times", the producers took advice from "The Simpsons" creator Matt Groening while developing the game. On November 9, 1990, Data East executive vice-president Gary Stern described the game to the press as "fun – a whole package ... voices, music, artwork, great ramps." He also noted that "This game is already on its way to becoming a monster hit." In 2007, Stern said in an interview with "License!" that "While we export about one-third of our games, that first ["The Simpsons" pinball] model did especially well in the U.S."
Pro Pinball
Pro Pinball is an action video game series developed by Cunning Developments and published by Empire Interactive based on pinball.
Pinsetter
In bowling, a pinsetter, or pinspotter, was originally a person who manually reset bowling pins to their correct position, cleared fallen pins, and returned bowling balls to players. Probably due to the nature of the work (low-paid, often part-time, manual labor that most frequently took place evenings), many pinsetters were teenage boys, and thus pinboy is another name used to describe the job. Gottfried (Fred) Schmidt invented the mechanical pinsetter and sold the patent in 1941 to AMF firm, which largely did away with pinsetting as a manual profession, although a small number of bowling alleys still use human pinsetters. While humans usually no longer set the pins, a pinchaser, or in slang 'pin monkey', often is stationed near the equipment to ensure that it is clean and working properly, and to clear minor jams.
Kiss merchandising
In 1978 the first Kiss arcade pinball machine was introduced by Bally, and stayed in circulation well into the 1980s. In 2001, a "Kiss Pinball" game was released for the PlayStation. In September 2006 it was announced that a new coin-op machine was in the works from Kiss licensee ICUP. On May 6, 2015, Stern Pinball announced the release of three new versions of a KISS pinball machine. The machine features the artist who worked on the original Bally pinball machine, Kevin O'Connor.
Pinball
During WWII, all of the major manufacturers of coin-operated games turned to the manufacture of equipment for the war effort. Some companies, like Williams, bought old games from operators and refurbished them, adding new artwork with a patriotic theme. At the end of the war, a generation of Americans looked for amusement in bars and malt shops, and pinball saw another golden age. Improvements such as the tilt mechanism and free games (known as replays) appeared.
Pinball
Another close but distinct relative of pinball is pachinko, a gambling game played in Japan. Although they share a common ancestry, the games are very different, in that pachinko involves shooting many small balls repeatedly into a nearly vertical playfield, while pinball is about the manipulation of the small number of balls currently in play on a near-horizontal playfield.
Data East
Data East also made pinball machines from 1987 through 1994, and included innovations such as the first pinball to have stereo sound ("Laser War"), the first usage of a small dot matrix display in "Checkpoint" along with the first usage of a big DMD (192x64) in "Maverick". In designing pinball machines they showed a strong preference for using high-profile (but expensive) licensed properties, rather than creating totally original machines, which did not help the financial difficulties the company began experiencing from 1990 on. Some of the properties that Data East licensed for its pinball machines included "Guns N' Roses", "Star Wars", "Back to the Future", "Batman", "RoboCop", "The Simpsons", and "Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles". Data East is the only company that manufactured custom pinball games (e.g. for Aaron Spelling, the movie "Richie Rich", or Michael Jordan), though these were basically mods of existing or soon to be released pinball machines (e.g. "Lethal Weapon 3"). The pinball division was created in 1985 by purchasing the pinball division of Stern Electronics and its factory and assets. Amidst plummeting sales across the entire pinball market, Data East chose to exit the pinball business and sold the factory to Sega in 1994. At the time of the buyout by Sega, Data East Pinball was the world's second-largest pinball manufacturer, holding 25 percent of the market. Although all of Data East's pinball games were developed in the United States, several were released in Japan by the parent company.
Eugene Jarvis
Having an interest in natural language processing, Jarvis was hired by Hewlett Packard to help create a COBOL compiler. He disliked the boring HP culture and quit after only three days into the six-year project. A few days later, three months after his interview, Atari finally called him back, interested in hiring him. He joined them and started programming some of the first pinball games that used microprocessors. Atari's pinball development branch failed a few years later, so he moved to Chicago to continue programming pinball games for Williams Electronics.
Cue Ball Wizard
Cue Ball Wizard is a pinball machine designed by Jon Norris and released in 1992 by Gottlieb. It features a cue sports theme and was advertised with the slogan ""Gottlieb Presents CUE BALL WIZARD!"".