Top-10 Pinball Innovations

[chasethechuckwagon]

Hey All,

I am a member over on KLOV and thought that you guys would be interested in our RetroGaming Podcast over here. We frequently talk pinball and this month we debate the top-10 pinball innovations. Personally, I have a small arcade with 10 games, two of them pins - Williams Taxi and Stern Stars. Oh, and Atari Video Pinball :)

Check the past show for more more pinball talk. Hope you enjoy it :)

http://retrogamingroundup.com/shownotes/current/current_roundup.htm

Your own Jukebox Part 2 (Scott) - (00:00)
Book Review - (17:33)
Review of the BBC Micro Computers (23:57)
Swap Talk - (40:03)
Yars Revenge Read Along Book - (67:07)
The NES Game Challenge - (79:07)
Top Ten Pinball Innovations - (82:17)
It Came From MAME - (221:20)
The British Hour - (229:20)
News And Mailbag - (238:10)
Gaming Expos - (301:16)
URLs and E-Mails - (310:30)

 

[shiva]

My list is a bit different, as these items were so successfull, they were used since, or for many years afterwards. Don't forget that the very first Pins were a bunch of nails and cutouts on a wood surface in the early 30's. Most of the stuff we now take for granted were developed in the 30's as time went by, and every pinball game since follows.

1. Flippers (Humpty Dumpty)
2. Electricity (were run on batteries before)
3. coils and solnoids (believe it was Contact by Harry Williams)
4. Solid State displays (Spirit of 76 by Marco)
5. Multiball (Balls a poppin)
5. Ramps (Four Million BC)
6. Multi levels/ mini playfield (Black Knight)
7. Computer Driven (roms, but as a overall controller for all aspects and objects)
8. Toys
9. Reels (replacing the old light bulb based scoring)
10. Backglass/ Cabinet heads

Things like plungers were always used from the beginning. You can add the tilt feature as well to this list, as well as the use of motors, the new computer controlled lighting and GI etc. This list I have are the ones that had the most profound effect over the greatest period of time.

 

[chasethechuckwagon]

My list is a bit different, as these items were so successfull, they were used since, or for many years afterwards. Don't forget that the very first Pins were a bunch of nails and cutouts on a wood surface in the early 30's. Most of the stuff we now take for granted were developed in the 30's as time went by, and every pinball game since follows.

1. Flippers (Humpty Dumpty)
2. Electricity (were run on batteries before)
3. coils and solnoids (believe it was Contact by Harry Williams)
4. Solid State displays (Spirit of 76 by Marco)
5. Multiball (Balls a poppin)
5. Ramps (Four Million BC)
6. Multi levels/ mini playfield (Black Knight)
7. Computer Driven (roms, but as a overall controller for all aspects and objects)
8. Toys
9. Reels (replacing the old light bulb based scoring)
10. Backglass/ Cabinet heads

Things like plungers were always used from the beginning. You can add the tilt feature as well to this list, as well as the use of motors, the new computer controlled lighting and GI etc. This list I have are the ones that had the most profound effect over the greatest period of time.

Cool. We did cover some of those in the podcast. How did we forget ramps. I think we mentioned them in passing but not an innovation in and of themselves. That's a good one. Toys were also mentioned and maybe should be in the top-10. It's hard narrowing it down to 10, that's for sure.

We had a great time on this recording session.

 

[faralos]

Pick from this list your top ten innovations!!

Baffle Ball Gottlieb 1931 First commercially successful pinball machine
Broker's Tip Gottlieb 1933 First mechanical tilt mechanism
Autocount ABT Manufacturing 1933 First electrical tilt mechanism
Bumper Bally 1936 First bumper
Dux 1937 First full-sized backglass
Humpty Dumpty 1947 First table to use flippers
Rainbow Williams 1948 First use of active bumpers
Army Navy Williams 1953 First use of score wheels
Nine Sisters Williams 1953 First ramp on playfield
Super Jumbo Gottlieb 1954 First machine to keep score for four players
Balls-a-Poppin' Gottlieb 1956 First multiball
Magic Clock Williams 1960 First moving target
Flipper Gottlieb 1960 First machine to award an extra ball
Vagabond Williams 1962 First drop targets
Cabaret Williams 1968 First up post
WIZARD Bally 1975 First machine theme to be licensed from a movie[20]
Spirit of '76 Mirco Games 1975 First machine to use a microprocessor
The Magnificent Marble Machine 1975 Only pinball machine to be the basis of a game show. TMMM was a custom-built, non-commercial machine and is the largest pinball machine in history, at 20 feet high and 12 feet long.
Gorgar Williams 1979 First machine to provide synthesized speech (7 words)
Hercules Atari 1979 Largest commercial pinball machine (83 in tall, 39 in wide, 93 in deep)
Firepower Williams 1980 First use of "lane advance" (player control of top rollover lane lights)[21]
Black Knight Williams 1980

First multi-level playfield
First Magna-Save (player-controlled magnet to prevent outlane drains)
Caveman Gottlieb 1982 First combination of mechanical pinball with a video game
Chicago Cubs: Triple Play Gottlieb 1985 First alpha-numeric display
High Speed Williams 1986

First machine to auto-adjust replay scores based on game history
First use of a complete song/soundtrack
First jackpot to carry over between games
F-14 Tomcat Williams 1987 First automatic ball save
Dakar Mr. Game 1988 First video monitor scoring display
Black Knight 2000 Williams 1989 First "Wizard Mode"
Elvira and the Party Monsters Bally 1989 First known use of a celebrity voice recorded especially for the game (Cassandra Peterson as Elvira)
Checkpoint Data East 1991

First dot-matrix scoring display
First machine to feature a choice of alternate soundtracks (selected by the player)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day Williams 1991

First cannon launcher (player "shoots" captured pinball at targets)
First "Video Mode"
Twilight Zone Bally 1993 First use of a non-magnetic, ceramic pinball (the "Powerball")
Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure Williams 1993

First use of a player-controlled mini-playfield
First machine with high-fidelity digitized and compressed sound (using the DCS sound system)

 

[Isaac Sauvage]

Great topic which I'd like to sticky for the time being. If a 'greatest hits' consolidation thread got created at some point, this topic would surely belong there, as well.

Don't forget that the very first Pins were a bunch of nails and cutouts on a wood surface in the early 30's.

This brings up another fascinating point-- i.e., when did pinball get invented, anyway? Well, going by the WP article, it seems PB might actually have dated back as far as the mid-1600's, believe it or not.

WP: The birth of the spring launcher.