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Pinball Machines in History and Today

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Games based on hitting balls into specific locations go back centuries to bocce and croquet. During the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, a table game called bagatelle involved directing balls into holes—King Louis XIV of France and Abraham Lincoln both played this game. In 1869, however, Montague Redgrave made a bagatelle game in which a spring allowed players to shoot balls up the playing field, and in 1947, the Humpty Dumpty Game introduced flippers, which remain the signature of the pinball machine to this day.

Pinball machines remained popular for several decades and reached their heyday in the 1970s and 1980s. However, at that time, pinball machine popularity decreased due to competition from video games such as Pac-Man, and today, pinball is a fledging industry in the United States.

Manufacturers, however, have continued to make innovations to traditional pinball. Pinball has reached the digital age, and speakers, music, and displays that interact with the game are all commonplace. Manufacturers have also tried to attract attention by making licensing agreements with movies and organizations such as the National Basketball Association (NBA). In some places, pinball is a source of gambling, but it also often remains a solitaire or friendly multiplayer game.

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