What was the largest pinball machine of all time?

(Author: Johnny Enzyme, with permitted updates & additions by Ike Savage of PN)

Now what do I mean by a "pinball machine," exactly? To be clear-- I'm speaking specifically about modern-style pinballs, i.e. precision-made, flippered games with built-in scoring systems. For example-- one could well argue that by the very earliest standards, a "pinball machine" could theoretically be constituted by a couple wooden posts, some piled-stone barriers, a couple scoring holes, and a simple plunging mechanism, all arranged in an empty field of wildflowers. By early 1900's standards, one might argue that something like that was indeed a 'pinball machine.' Fair enough, so.

Indeed, for all we know, a mad Roman emperor of Ancient Rome once did something similar in one of his arenas, except using buried prisoners and... well, you get the point! (credit: 1979's Caligula)

It's also true that there are giant inflatable slides / toys out there, such as Pinball Action, in which kids are meant to play the role of the balls, but IMO calling that a "pinball" would be confusing the theme with the actual item. This is meant to be a fun, interesting list, but not a completely silly list.

Onward, then! Here are the largest true pinball machines in history, in descending order:


The Sub.jpg
Heineken's The Sub. [2014, 24'7"x53'9," 1,331 sq ft] This sort of resembled one of those pinball-themed bars, complete with furniture, except you could actually turn it on and play it! In reality it was a marketing device for a Heineken product launch, and doesn't look like it was meant to have any particular longevity. Still, it satisfies the requirements, and is considered by Guinness to be the current record holder.



The MMM.png
NBC's The Magnificent Marble Machine. [1975, 12'x20', 240 sq ft] This was built for a game show, and was by far the pinball with the most lucrative prizes ever dispensed. It required two people to play, one at each flipper station, and a team could earn thousands of dollars in 1975 per ball, as well as standard gameshow stuff, like trips and cars. Not bad. Like many pinballs, the game (and show) featured in a movie. A really good movie, actually-- The China Syndrome. The machine was up and running through the show's lifetime, which only lasted about a year, but the game itself seems to have still been around (disassembled) as recently as a few years ago, as seen on Pinside.



Bigfoot.jpg
Bally's Bigfoot. [1977, 4'x8', ~32 sq ft] This seems to be the largest pinball ever designed for standard commercial operation, altho only two units were made, and it never went in to full production. The game was simply scaled up from Bow and Arrow (Bally, 1975) without much regard for the greater stresses that the larger ball, mechanics and electromagnetics would impart. This led to the units essentially shaking themselves apart over time.



Hercules.jpg
Atari's Hercules. [1979, 3'3"x 7'9," ~25 sq ft] This was the largest pinball machine that made it to arcades in significant numbers, with ~280 machines produced in total. It was based on the Bigfoot concept, but took care that the individual machine parts wouldn't overwhelm the structural integrity of the game. It's also the only game on the list I personally played, long ago at an amusement park. Rather predictably, although Hercules did solve Bigfoot's engineering issues, it wasn't a particularly good game. (IPDB users rate it a paltry 5.1 / 10 stars)



The Flintstones (ICE, 1994) POV shot.jpg
ICE's The Flintstones [1994, ~3' x 6', ~18 sq ft, 2" ball] As with the others, this was -for sure- a strange machine. For example, instead of the usual 'box assembly on legs' arrangement, it was something of a floating platform, with suspended parts above. In fact, the whole thing was designed to resemble Fred's car. What's more, this was evidently the world's first marriage between pinball and redemption machines, directly reflected in the simplified playfield. It also featured reversed-flippers, and plenty of voice sampling. Just like Williams' normal pin released the same year, this one was heavily tied to Universal's 1994 movie.



Challenger.jpg
Gottlieb's Challenger. [1971, ~20"x~60," ~8.3 sq ft] This one is a rather speculative entry on my part, although the machine does seem to be the longest standard-width machine ever made. In reality, it probably had about the same area as the largest widebodies out there. Challenger was a rare head-to-head pinball, an interesting subgenre which never quite broke out, likely due to space and maintenance requirements. [just for fun, here's a classic 8-bit version of this type of game you can play online against an AI opponent-- NES' Rock n' Ball]​


EDIT: Commenters on Reddit and FaceBook have made some contributions! It seems the homebrewed Good-vs-Evil will surpass Challenger in length, and ICE's Flintstones pinball / redemption game is possibly the largest widebody-variant of all time, with a ~3'x5' PF and a 2" ball.
 
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I could get used to that living room... just saying :D
 
I could get used to that living room... just saying :D
I haven’t had the pleasure to work on any of these, but I hear that the Hercules didn’t have a prop up supported playfield. Instead 2 bomb bay doors could be opened to work on from below on a mechanics creeper possibly.
 
I did some editing and expansion earlier in the year, although there's always room for more facts & details. For example, did "Good vs Evil" ever get produced? Anybody know..?

There's also the fact that the top entries on this list were single-shots, and it's not really until Hercules that one can say incontrovertibly that 'that's the biggest real machine I ever played!'

There's plenty of debate there, anyway.
 
Coin operated was Hercules by Atari. I got to play this a long time ago.
 
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