For most of the 20th century it seemed that pinball was sort of the ‘cockroach’ of the amusement industry–just too tough and/or too adaptable to kill. It survived wars, economic downturn, moral outrage and most recently video games. Despite the changing cultural climate, it was still a shock when WMS Industries, the dominant player in the industry for the past decade and the maker of Williams and Bally machines, announced that it was getting out of the business several years ago. WMS wasn’t in any sort of financial peril, but rather they wanted to focus on their more lucrative slot machine and video poker business.
Until the 1980’s, pinball dominated the arcade. In the late 1970’s and on the heels of the film adaptation of The Who’s pinball themed rock opera ‘Tommy’ arcades featured row after row of new machines from over a half dozen US based manufacturers. Countless other machines were made worldwide. The first shot of the video game industry didn’t make much of a dent–’Pong’ was revolutionary, but its gameplay was downright dull compared to pinball. It also required two players, another downside in the often solitary isolation of the arcade. The first real challenge to pinball was the second generation of video games, including ‘Space Invaders’ and ‘Asteroids’.
Pinball hung in there, however, and through the early eighties continued to make some solid games. The ones that come immediately to mind are games like Firepower (which helped launched the now ubiquitous multi-ball feature), Black Knight (offering an early version of the looping ramps found on many modern machines) and a couple of fun machines from Bally Paragon and Flash Gordon. For awhile, the choice between pinball and video games was similar to the choice between Pepsi and Coke: both were equally pervasive and it was simply a matter of personal preference.
It was the late 1980s”when video games became more technologically advanced and began to offer superior play experiences”that pinball lost its way. Depending on the manufacturer, they did it in different ways. Gottlieb and others made simple, traditional games that just couldnt compete with their video counterparts. Bally and other manufacturers went the opposite route”by cramming so much onto a playfield that the game hardly resembled traditional pinball. Some of Ballys late 1980s games”with so much playfield gimmickry going on”were nearly unplayable. By this point”and in large part due to the paucity of compelling pinball machines turned out during this era”video had taken over the arcade. Some larger arcades continued to offer a few pinball machines to placate hardcores, while some eliminated pinball altogether.
In the 1990’s, pinball began to experience a bit of a comeback driven by well designed, enjoyable games that finally got the balance between traditional gameplay and modern technology right. Williams was at the forefront of the return to excellent design and gameplay, and its hard to think of a Williams game from this period that wasnt a fun game to play, if not a borderline classic. The mainstream media began to notice the renaissance, and noted that the average pinball machine received much more repeat business than the average video game and about the devotion of the pinball player.
The final nail in the coffin, however, were a number of societal changes beyond the pinball manufacturers’ control. For one, video games and video arcades became less profitable as companies like Sony and Nintendo were able to transform a lot of the high end gameplay to the home platform. Fewer people were going to malls, and they werent staying as long when they did. Mega-malls like the Mall of America and the Forum Shops at Caesar’s were the exception to this, but there just werent enough to these to sustain demand.
Pinball still soldiers on, with something of a hipster revival of the games in cities like Seattle and Portland where lovingly restored machines sit alongside new offerings by Stern Pinball, the only remaining manufacturer in the world. At this point, it appears that the only hope for pinball players is that some effort will be made to preserve the machines that already exist.
Tags: A, amusement device industry, amusement devices, b, business;finance, e, entertainment, entertainment industry, g, game industry, Games, h, hobby, home & family, i, n, p, pinball, Product Reviews, r, Recreation, u