Where Are All The Pinball Wizards?

Remember the days of settling in on a Saturday afternoon at the local bowling alley or skating rink, dropping in a quarter in your favorite pinball machine, and trying to keep the steel ball from dropping out-of-sight by using the flippers and bumpers to get the highest score?  Where have all the machines gone?

Bally Hoo was the first coin-operated pinball game and was invented by the founder of the Bally Corporation, Raymond Maloney in 1931.

There was a time when you could physically shake and lift the machines to benefit your style of play. Then, a gentleman by the name of Harry Williams invented the tilt mechanism to answer the problem.  From then on it was fair game. (Get it, fair game?)

So with the first digital scoring pinball machine, "Rally Girl", that was released in 1966, and the first solid-state electronic pinball machine released in 1975, most versions of the games are software based with graphics.  

So if you find one of the old-fashioned machines, grab a handful of quarters and settle in for a trip down memory lane.

Here are a few things you probably didn't know about the history of Pinball.