by Andrew MacBain | May 27, 2020 | Collector's Corner, Micro Pinball, Pinball Buzz, Pinball Canada, Pinball History, Pinball News, Pinball Record
Originally, machines were all single-player games. It was one player at a time. But starting in 1954, Gottlieb came up with the idea to have two or even four people playing at a time. Player one would play ball one, then player two would play ball one. Then player one...
by Andrew MacBain | May 27, 2020 | Collector's Corner, Micro Pinball, Pinball Buzz, Pinball Canada, Pinball History, Pinball News, Pinball Record
Bally was the first company to do that. They were the first company to get an official licensed theme. During the 1950s, Gottlieb had done some unlicensed themes. They had a game called Guy’s Dolls, and it just happened to come out at the same time as the Broadway...
by Andrew MacBain | May 27, 2020 | Collector's Corner, Micro Pinball, Pinball Buzz, Pinball Canada, Pinball History, Pinball News, Pinball Record
During the 1930s, there were literally hundreds of companies making pinball machines. After World War II, though, there was only a handful. The key players were Gottlieb—the biggest, and pretty much the Cadillac of pinball—and Williams, which was substantially smaller...
by Andrew MacBain | May 27, 2020 | Collector's Corner, Micro Pinball, Pinball Buzz, Pinball Canada, Pinball History, Pinball News, Pinball Record
It was a game that morphed from the French game of bagatelle. In the 1930s, it really exploded as a gambling thing, and that’s where pinball got this gambling association. Coming out of World War II, the gambling laws were changing in the United States. In particular,...
by Andrew MacBain | May 27, 2020 | Collector's Corner, Micro Pinball, Pinball Buzz, Pinball Canada, Pinball History, Pinball News, Pinball Record
Are there a lot of pinball machine collectors? It is a fairly small hobby. I’m the co-editor of one of the pinball magazines, and the subscription number is 1,200 people worldwide. Now, I know not every collector subscribes, but that gives you an indication that the...