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1[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/pinball-player_7397.jpg]]
2[[caption-width-right:350:''He stands like a statue\
3Becomes part of the machine\
4Feeling all the bumpers\
5Always playing clean'']]
6
7->''Ever since I was a young boy, I played the silver ball\
8From Soho down to Brighton, I must've played 'em all\
9But I ain't seen nothin' like this in any amusement hall\
10That deaf, dumb, and blind kid sure plays a mean pinball.''
11-->-- '''Music/TheWho''', [[Music/{{Tommy}} "Pinball Wizard"]]
12
13Pinball is a type of UsefulNotes/ArcadeGame where players score points by manipulating one or more steel balls on a playfield inside a glass-covered cabinet. Points are scored by striking certain targets and completing various objectives, and a player's turn ends when the ball drains off the bottom of the playfield. Skilled players can extend their playtime by keeping the ball in play as long as possible and earning extra balls; bumping, nudging, and slapping the table to affect the ball's behavior are legitimate gameplay techniques, but excessive force will invoke a TILT and cause the player to lose the current ball. Free games, called "Specials", can be earned either by very skilled playing or by random award at the end of a game.
14
15Thousands of pinball tables have been created in the lifetime of the genre. Most tables have a theme, often with a [[LicensedPinballTables license of some kind]]. Although their popularity in arcades have been diminished by the rise of VideoGames, pinball continues to live on, whether it's via {{Pinball Spinoff}}s of popular video games, digital emulation of PhysicalPinballTables, or original tables made for both commercial establishments and private collectors. Even today, fans continue to collect tables as a hobby, and a vintage table in excellent condition can cost tens of thousands of dollars. Truly devoted players have created their own games, either by retheming an existing pin or by building original tables from scratch.
16
17[[foldercontrol]]
18
19[[folder:History]]
20Though the game is believed to be based on ground billiards games, the original [[UrExample pre-pinball game]] is generally accepted to be ''bagatelle''; invented in France in the 17th century, it was an indoor game where players would shoot balls with a stick from one end into score holes. UsefulNotes/ArcadeGame vendors in the 19th and 20th centuries added pins, spring launchers, scoring troughs, and flashing lights to these "marble games".
21
22While it was not the first game of its type, [[Creator/{{Gottlieb}} David Gottlieb's]] ''Pinball/BaffleBall'' is considered the [[TropeMaker first commercially-successful "pin game".]] It was affordable for most drugstore and tavern owners to purchase, and quickly recouped its costs with people seeking cheap entertainment during TheGreatDepression. [[FollowTheLeader Other imitators quickly followed,]] with the term "pin ball" used to describe them after the release of Mill's 1932 ''Official'' game. Attempts by manufacturers to differentiate their games caused rapid evolution in the field, leading to elements like electric bumpers and flippers, which increased the amount of chance and level of player control to the game.
23
24The notion that pinball was [[LuckBasedMission entirely based on luck]] reached its peak in the middle of the 20th century, when the city of New York banned pinball on claims that they [[NewMediaAreEvil were a form of gambling that led to delinquency.]] [[note]]There was some truth to this; unsavory places offered rewards or cash prizes for high scores, and TheMafia ran some pinball arcades, just as they did to other businesses.[[/note]] Although most establishments skirted the laws[[note]]It was legal to own pinball machines for personal use[[/note]] or ignored the bans, it remained on the books for over thirty years; it ended in 1976 when writer Creator/RogerSharpe testified before a committee that pinball was not a game of chance, but required skill and finesse. [[SugarWiki/MomentOfAwesome Sharpe demonstrated this with a courtroom pinball game,]] capped when [[CallingYourShots he announced that he would launch his next ball through the center lane at the top of the playfield,]] then [[ImprobableAimingSkills proceeded to do so.]] The committee immediately removed the ban, though Sharpe later admits [[AccidentalHero his courtroom success was by sheer luck]].
25[[/folder]]
26
27[[folder:Eras]]
28The various generations of pinball can be divided as follows:
29
30!!The Electro-Mechanical Era (1930-1975)
31Although pinball got started with purely mechanical "pin games" like ''Pinball/BaffleBall'', the earliest age of pinball is considered to be the Electro-Mechanical (EM) Era. Starting with ''Pinball/{{Contact}}'', these were games driven by electrical mechanisms. Since there were no computer processors running these games, nearly all EM games required that every point, light, and rule change to be controlled by a complex array of relays and switches all working in perfect order. Sound effects consisted of chimes of varying tones, accompanied by the clacking of solenoids. Play style on these machines is fast and frantic, with short ball times and a lot of emphasis on careful aim and good nudging skills; many EM machines give a default five balls per play to compensate for the quick speed.
32
33!!The Solid State Era (1976-1990)
34Pinball entered the computer age with the introduction of solid-state (SS) controllers, with the first games being ''Spirit of ’76'' ([=MicroGames=]) and ''Hot Tip'' (Creator/WilliamsElectronics). The earliest SS machines played very similar to their electro-mechanical brethren, but later games added more complex scoring rules, modes, and objectives, along with electronic sound effects, music, voices, and choreographed playfield light shows. To fend off competition from VideoGames, pinball gameplay trended toward giving players more for their money, with longer ball times and more crowd-pleasing features such as ramps, multiball, and progressive jackpots. As play times tended to be longer, games would give only three balls per play.
35
36!!The Dot Matrix Era (1991-2016)
37The addition of dot-matrix displays ([=DMDs=]) to pinball games (starting with Creator/DataEast's ''Pinball/{{Checkpoint}}'') opened up more new possibilities to the field. Although internally similar to solid-state games, the DMD gave designers a new outlet for feedback and storytelling; the screen gave immediate information on important objectives, options could be selected on-screen, and animated clips and {{Video Mode}}s add to the entertainment value. Gameplay on these tables is far less linear than previous generations, usually with only one or more {{Wizard Mode}}s acting as a final goal. Ball times are even longer than before, and a skilled player can go for twenty minutes at a time.
38
39!!The LCD Era (2016-present)
40A natural evolution from the DMD era. Officially christened in 2013 with Jersey Jack's first game, ''Pinball/TheWizardOfOz''. Once Creator/SternPinball followed suit in 2016 after ''Pinball/GhostBusters'', LCD displays became the de-facto standard in the industry. Background animations vary significantly across games, usually taking the form of actual pre-recorded footage, CGI animations, hand-drawn cartoon animations, or even a combination of any of these. Portions of the display can be reserved to track multiple objectives, giving the player a clearer picture of where they stand toward completing the game objectives. Game rules have become deeper and more nuanced, largely assisted by the influx of elite players (e.g. Creator/KeithElwin and Raymond Davidson) being hired by pinball companies to directly contribute to game design and code/rules development. The {{Wizard Mode}} of games of this era is often considerably more difficult to reach, however there are often less complicated "mini-wizard modes" to give more intermediate players a goal to shoot for.
41[[/folder]]
42
43[[folder:Pinball Companies]]
44Major pinball companies past and present include:
45
46* Creator/{{Atari}}
47* Creator/{{Capcom}}
48* Creator/DataEast
49* [[Creator/{{Gottlieb}} Gottlieb, Premier, and Mylstar]]
50* Creator/HeighwayPinball
51* Creator/JerseyJackPinball
52* [[Creator/MidwayGames Bally and Bally/Midway]]
53* Creator/{{Multimorphic}}
54* Creator/SpookyPinball
55* [[Creator/{{Stern}} Stern Electronics]] and their successor companies:
56** [[Creator/DataEast Data East Pinball]]
57** [[{{Creator/Sega}} Sega Pinball]]
58** Stern Pinball
59* Creator/WilliamsElectronics
60* Creator/{{Zaccaria}}
61[[/folder]]
62
63[[folder:Pages and Indexes]]
64This wiki offers the following pinball-related pages and indexes:
65
66* PhysicalPinballTables
67* DigitalPinballTables
68* LicensedPinballTables
69* PinballCreators
70* PinballTropes
71* TropesInPinballGames
72* PinballOfThe2000s
73* PinballOfThe2010s
74[[/folder]]

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