The History of Pinball Part 2: The Rise of the Solid-States

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The History of Pinball Part 2: The Rise of the Solid-States

Рет қаралды 53,149

Күн бұрын

In this video, we go through pinball's history from where we left off in the late 70's through the rapid advancement in the 80's. In this time, we see the shift from Electromechanical pinball machines (EM's) to the use of Solid-State (SS's)
Special video credits go to the following. If you wanna see more detailed videos/gameplay for individual machines, I highly recommend checking these guys out
For Amusement Only e.V. - Flipper- und Arcademuseum Seligenstadt, London Pinball, Doug's Home Arcade Collection, Cagey Cretins, Dr. Dave's Pinball Restorations, PAPApinball, Long Island Retro Gaming, Jeffrey Rank, Chris Hibler Pinball, GRC Pinball Official, Tomyelectronic, John's Arcade Game Reviews & Tech, Kelly Corcoran, Intuitiv Spielen und Verbinden, Eddie Cramer, SeeburgSam, CGR Publishing, tattyadams, Sylvain Simard, The Crow Continuum, Pinsation, Pinball Reviews, PinballHelp, muckman2001, AoFparson, Basileous Productions, Carls493, brutalmoose
Also, this whole project couldn't be possible without great resources like The Pinball Compendium series by Michael Shalhoub, IPDB, and Pinside.
Highlighted Tables
1.The Atarians (Atari)
2.Freedom (Bally)
3.Hot Tip (Williams)
4.Rodeo (Sega)
5.Space Mission (Williams)
6.Capt. Fantastic and The Brown Dirt Cowboy (Bally)
7.Supersonic (Zaccaria)
8.Bigfoot (Bally)
9.Mata Hari (Bally)
10.Millionaire (Sega)
11.Woman-Lib (Sega)
12.Winter Sports (Zaccaria)
13.Disco Fever (Williams)
14.Eight Ball (Bally)
15.Phoenix (Williams)
16.Orbit 1 (Hankin)
17.FJ (Hankin)
18.Paragon (Bally)
19.Black Velvet (Game Plan)
20.Flash (Williams)
21.Stellar Wars (Williams)
22.Superman (Atari)
23.Hercules (Atari)
24.Sharpshooter (Game Plan)
25.Genie (Gottlieb)
26.Gorgar (Williams)
27.Firepower (Williams)
28.The Amazing Spider-Man (Gottlieb)
29.Pinball Lizard (Game Plan)
30.James Bond 007 (Gottlieb)
31.Black Knight (Williams)
32.Xenon (Bally)
33.The Empire Strikes Back (Hankin)
34.Eight Ball Deluxe (Bally)
35.Fireball II (Bally)
36.Fathom (Bally)
37.Locomotion (Zaccaria)
38.Black Hole (Gottlieb)
39.Centaur (Bally)
40.Elektra (Bally)
41.Hyperball (Williams)
42.Orbitor 1 (Stern)
43.Haunted House (Gottlieb)
44.Le King (Jeutal)
45.Devil’s Dare (Gottlieb)
46.Caveman (Gottlieb)
47.Varkon (Williams)
48.Soccer Kings (Zaccaria)
49.Baby Pac-Man (Bally)
50.Time Fantasy (Williams)
51.Rat Race (Williams)
52.Time Machine (Zaccaria)
53.Firepower II (Williams)
54.Amazon Hunt (Gottlieb)
55.Farfalla (Zaccaria)
56.Af-Tor (Wico)
57.Space Shuttle (Williams)
58.Robot (Zaccaria)
59.Brave Team (Inder)
60.Sorcerer (Williams)
61.Clown (Zaccaria)
62.Comet (Williams)
63.Cyclopes (Game Plan)
64.High Speed (Williams)
65.Raven (Premier)
66.Super Star (Recreativos Franco)
67.Grand Lizard (Williams)
Thanks for coming back for part 2. Part 3 will probably take about as long as part 2 did, which could be quick I wasn't really keeping track.

Пікірлер: 186

@SmugStick Жыл бұрын

This is one of the best documentary series on KZfaq. You deserve so many more subs

@HoddToward-r6t Ай бұрын

Smugstick himself is here?

@juststatedtheobvious9633 2 жыл бұрын

I've never seen so many flavors of sarcasm combined together in one place as I have in this series. Between all the multiball juggling and loop around callbacks, as well as the high score tables...it's the rare documentary that perfectly understands and captures the spirit of the subject matter.

@jamesdavis5096 2 жыл бұрын

I'm really disappointed he did not mention high speed or Tommy

@zakharafonin1023 2 жыл бұрын

Thought I was on a 100k sub channel judging by production quality, was very surprised seeing you had just 238 - now 239. A very interesting series and I don't even play pinball. Thanks KZfaq

@N.Naesby Жыл бұрын

I had the same feeling. Amazing Series. See you at 100K soon I hope

@adownbeatexegete1549 Жыл бұрын

Because it's pinball.

@sirmoony5633 Жыл бұрын

Swatstika and Nazis suck! They really stink!

@jasonc2784 10 ай бұрын

Too much commentary. Loses clout.

@jimbroen 2 жыл бұрын

I played a lot of Black Knight back in the day. Pinbot was another one. We used to play in the pub. Low score was obligated to buy a round of shots. I always liked Williams games the best.

@bralex2670 2 жыл бұрын

That sounds fun. Love a good bar with some pinball machines.

@rageinthecage3900 4 ай бұрын

So much information presented in such a charming way. Subscribed

@thegrimghoul 7 ай бұрын

Solid state be like: colonel, I’m trying to sneak around, but the chimes of my solenoids keep alerting the guards.

@zillelben8742 2 жыл бұрын

I love Pinball, the machines have taken over my house & all my friends think I lost my mind. Your speed of presentation, clips & humor is a refreshing way of educating & locking in viewers instead of putting us to sleep 💤 . Part 3 cannot come to soon. Continue in strength!

@alejandrouribe6680 2 жыл бұрын

Just got into pinball last month! This is awesome, and the edits are quite amusing

@bralex2670 2 жыл бұрын

New blood new blood

@PinballEddie 2 жыл бұрын

Amazing series and great production quality. Can’t wait for the next one. Take care.

@pinfarmer 9 ай бұрын

Great job man. Ive been into pinball since I was a teen (40 now)😅. Seen and learned some new stuff and am even more hyped now. FK pinball is so awesome. Can't beat physical stuff.

@toddduff508 2 жыл бұрын

This was fantastic! We can't wait for chapter 3!

@dundy212 Жыл бұрын

Wait wtf how does this channel only have a couple thousand subs? This is professional quality stuff

@FuzzyCollieDoggo 7 ай бұрын

25:55 OMG The Comet! A buddy of mine has one of those at his cabin! played so many hours on that bad boy. The music from it is still stuck in my head lmao

@FuzzyCollieDoggo 3 ай бұрын

@@Kerlimann HEY TURKEY!

@Murrlin27 Жыл бұрын

I LOVED Comet and Cyclone SO MUCH!!!

@alzy101 2 жыл бұрын

I REQUIRE A PART 3

@BarnyardCasanova 2 жыл бұрын

I don't know what witchcraft you're using but pinball was never an interest of mine until my recent visit to the Appalachian Pinball Museum. Now this history lesson pops up in my feed. And if there's one thing I love it's juicy history. So yeah now I have a strong interest in pinball and while it isn't all your fault you can take some of the blame if you'd like.

@bralex2670 2 жыл бұрын

You give me too much credit. I'm just psychic

@PinStratsDan 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks! That was also great. I recently found out why Stellar Wars and Superman have so many similarities. Steve Richie designed both... don't know how he got away with it.

@JesseJuup 6 ай бұрын

What a superb and awesome job putting together these videos and documenting the history of pinball and flippers. ❤

@davidtucker3008 8 ай бұрын

Can't recall exactly when (maybe 12 years old) or which game it was but I was hooked from the start. This was early 70s, and I played pinball every chance I got. Bally 8ball was my favorite, me and my friends worked that game over like a second hand ho, put in a quarter or 2 and play on replays after that. When I see the prices for the old games it makes me cry, I'll never be able to afford one. But I can still remember...😂

@CrowContinuum Жыл бұрын

One thing not mentioned about the Zaccaria Solid States is that they had a 4th "Bonus Ball". During your third ball you would earn bonus time and when you lost that ball, you would get a fourth ball and you could play it for as long as the time you earned during your third ball.

@riversarcadereview385 8 ай бұрын

Comet's "Snowman" as you refer to was a makeshift Skee Ball which was big at Riverview

@geminisfl 10 ай бұрын

That RAT SLIME joke is pure gold!

@HomeBologn Жыл бұрын

Corporate office got a Star Wars pinball machine, which led me down a rabbit-hole to a really good channel.

@bralex2670 Жыл бұрын

Hell yea which one?

@HomeBologn Жыл бұрын

@@bralex2670 one of those $5000 Stern Machines. It was sick. I was working late, and it took a lot of discipline not to play it well into the night.

@ksibln 2 жыл бұрын

What an unusual, fresh and interesting film about pinballs with so much information, linked so well together. Thank you so much!

@marcobucci Жыл бұрын

Great series. The jokes always catch me off guard, too

@soupmoneyman143 2 жыл бұрын

Return of the king 👑

@riversarcadereview385 8 ай бұрын

LOVED Orbitor 2

@28russ 2 жыл бұрын

Good timing mate. Just watched pt1 yesterday and was a little disappointed there wasn't a pt2 up yet. Nice work. Subbed. 🙂👍

@500Erin Жыл бұрын

Just saw the movie Pinball The Man Who Saved The Game - hope you saw it Bralex - very good movie about the 1976 end to the illegal ban on pinball.

@grouuter 10 ай бұрын

This is so exciting!! 3rd part Subscribing is on the way!!

@bradwilliams1691 10 ай бұрын

7:41 Hankin pinball machine FJ is themed for the legendary FJ Holden. Holden was an Australian car manufacturer & the FJ used to be the car evey good ol' aussie larrikin wanted.

@Bryan-qe5xt 2 жыл бұрын

Great job again. Looking forward to part 3!

@DavidRabbit Жыл бұрын

So you ask the question about the weird backbox/scoring arrangement on Centaur II. Check out IPDB. In short, Bally was worried that William's Hyperball was going to be a success so rushed a 'clone' called Rapid Fire into production. They pre-made a ton of cabinets thinking they'd sell well in the market. So....tons of these oddball sized backboxes are sitting around once both the 'crossfire' games failed. Hence Centaur II, Eight Ball Deluxe Limited Edition, and Mrs. and Mr. Pac-Man Pinball all having odd-shaped Backboxes.

@w0mblemania Жыл бұрын

Great stuff. Very funny.

@mannofnope6836 Жыл бұрын

Another one of these videogame/pinball hybrids was Bally's Granny and the Gators, released in 1983. So, technically, Bally's the king of these hybrids while Caveman was forgotten.

@michaelbixler87 Жыл бұрын

Braex could explain how paint drys and I would listen!! True talent for comedic history lessons! HEY PBS!!! Hire this guy! And I probably wouldn’t fall asleep to most of your tv shows!

@andrewfischer48 10 ай бұрын

had a buccaneer loved it but the disease is real having more games then space this one sold easy at the time

@donsimon2830 2 жыл бұрын

This was a really entertaining watch. I was and still am a Classic Stern kind of guy.

@thingsiplay 2 ай бұрын

"Look at it" 2022 ~ probably Bralex ~

@TiltingT 2 жыл бұрын

Another great look into po ball history.. especially covering the foreign manufacturers.. Cant wait for Part 3! DMD!

@justimagine2403 2 жыл бұрын

Warning - copyrighted music from awesome machines in this. And it's awesome. I am so glad I started to play pinball in the 80's. EM's were awful. Even Millionaire music. And Voltaire and awesomeness!

@bralex2670 2 жыл бұрын

Of course, voltaire's my favorite :)

@Notester82 Жыл бұрын

Another cool and amusing installment! Also oh my gosh, bless Roger Sharpe (especially since he mentioned that the shot was erm, lucky).. ;u; Interesting to hear that a film's being made about him and what he's done for pinball too, thanks for mentioning that!

@taso_arts 2 жыл бұрын

pinball movie is a must-see. i await its release with bated breath

@bralex2670 2 жыл бұрын

Same its gonna be so hype

@ExpressoMechanicTV 2 жыл бұрын

Excellent. Looking forward to part three.

@maxhemenway Жыл бұрын

15:11 upper playfields started to trend

@yaheshua 2 жыл бұрын

This is awesome! excellent series. Subscribed for the third part

@Puce.C Жыл бұрын

Appreciate your work

@wolfweb 2 жыл бұрын

Another great one. The humour style kind of reminds me of reddit ten years ago so more up to date (young) dad humour. Great production skills.

@dnbreyen 2 жыл бұрын

Great information!

@CJScratch 2 жыл бұрын

bro your research and editing are top notch i throughly enjoyed the first two videos .. the monkey sign language joke destroyed me my abs were sore from laughing that shit was hella funny...

@bralex2670 2 жыл бұрын

Thanks man. I knew that would get someone

@lukewarmloser Жыл бұрын

Love these videos

@joekelly9800 2 жыл бұрын

Great series. Can't wait for part 3. Subscribed

@halfsourlizard9319 Жыл бұрын

Black Hole is way more complex than it looks ... truly a great table.

@junior_pinball Жыл бұрын

James bond has a feature where instead of ending your game when a timer reaches zero. They repurposed it to give you bonus after all balls are played

@fenomozo9108 2 жыл бұрын

I cannot wait to see part 3.

@delorean_5982 Жыл бұрын

8:17 IM DYING RN 💀

@PeterSvP 2 жыл бұрын

Can't wait for part 3.

@carlosfields9937 2 жыл бұрын

WELL DONE.

@v1rtu050 2 жыл бұрын

Looking forward to part 3!

@commiezombie2477 9 ай бұрын

Crazy, Bally went from Pinball to WORLD WIDE fitness chain 😂

@drewvaldez7969 2 жыл бұрын

Referencing RCDB, bringing up Brutalmoose, an obsession with geese. Are you me?

@bralex2670 2 жыл бұрын

Ah, a fellow man of culture I see

@sunquestenergyhomesolution96 2 жыл бұрын

New subscriber. Can't wait for part 3.

@jeffbarta6276 5 ай бұрын

thanks your great !!!!!!!

@glennmckay5119 2 жыл бұрын

@ 7'45" - "What do you think FJ stands for?" Its a classic Australian car. (yes, we did have a few) FJ was the model designation of the 1953 Holden. If some young buck wanted a cool car in the 70's, it just HAD to be an FJ.

@RokSlana 2 жыл бұрын

Subbed for part three. Great work.

@Furluge 2 жыл бұрын

13:05 - There was a pretty rad Joust pinball that Williams made. There's some videos of it on YT. Made in 1983 the machine is in a cocktail format and two players, one on each side of the table. When you play two player you can knock the balls out of your play field and into your opponents playfield. It's pretty rad. I only got to play it once though before it vanished from the Arcade I played it at. :(

@Furluge 2 жыл бұрын

Damn, Wico always keeps popping up in the weirdest places. :D

@rickpontificates3406 Жыл бұрын

And now.. Stern IS the biggest pinball company because they're THE ONLY pinball company. I owned a Paragon pin. Then, I bought Hyperball, Haunted House, Black Knight 2000, and Funhouse

@darkarcade8952 2 жыл бұрын

I agree it is an amazing series, maybe you could make more historical story series after this one.

@bralex2670 2 жыл бұрын

I plan on covering a lot of things, just wanted to start with pinball cause I love it so much

@Railoffroader2 2 жыл бұрын

Part 3, Part 3, Part 3!!!! 😤😁

@robertellis3915 7 ай бұрын

At one time there was a part Pack Man and Pin ball .. remember when got 2 plays for a quarter

@matthewbarry4464 2 жыл бұрын

Subscribed for part III. Just a quick correction. Mark Ritchie was credited with designing Blackout in 1980 although some say he ripped off the design from someone else.

@lukewarmloser Жыл бұрын

Love these cideos

@niemand7811 Жыл бұрын

Ramps might have become a staple at one point, But Centaur was perfect without them and Black Knight kinda sucked because of them. So there is that. I still prefer some older machines as you have to use your skill to get the ball where it's supposed to go. Most machines during the 90s,even though there are quite some I like, were mostly about looping through rampshots. Weird.

@bralex2670 Жыл бұрын

Centaur >>>> Black Knight I gotta agreee

@appidydafoo Жыл бұрын

15:43 - You can see her process in this video - Suzanne Ciani Creates The Soundtrack For A Pinball Machine: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/qJhonJCcmNOwY6M.html

@francknavallon3879 2 жыл бұрын

Great again! J'adore

@Diskoboy1974 Жыл бұрын

Actually, many states would still ban people under the age of 18 from playing pinball well into the 80's. The state I live in (Tennessee) banned players under 18 up until around 1986. I remember moving here from South Carolina where it was legal for all ages to play. All the arcades here had pinball machines segregated from the arcade games. The first time I tried to go play pinball, I remembered one of the attendants yelling at me to get away from those machines. My mom, who was with me at the time, and I looked at each other, bewildered. She asked what was wrong, and the attendant snapped back, "You can't play pinball in the state of Tennessee unless you're over 18". We literally had to tell the guy we just moved here from South Carolina where pinball was 100% legal for everyone. We knew people there that even had full sized pins in their homes. We asked who came up with this stupid rule. And he said the law had been on the books since the 40's. We walked out of the arcade and didn't look back. Ironically, they were raided and shut down 2 months later for having poker machines. Video games took over anyway. Most arcades didn't even have a pinball machine again here until the late 80's. Around the Williams System 11 era. F-14 Tomcat was the first pinball machine I finally got to play in the 7 years since we moved to Tennessee.

@WilleHelm 10 ай бұрын

Interesting that the KISS logo had to be replaced on the pinball as well. Was this internationally renowned? As far as I know they had to do change it on their records for the German market at some point and existing material was replaced on the fly. The band was strictly against it and justly claimed to mean nothing but to depict flashes, but the record company overruled them because of pressure; surely not from their fans.

@bralex2670 10 ай бұрын

Yeah, Germany's pretty strict about that kind of thing. Pretty understandably so, but I don't blame kiss for being mad about it

@GarethWalton2 Жыл бұрын

What happened to part 1? It’s been taken down for some reason. Great video series btw 100% top notch effort and information

@bralex2670 Жыл бұрын

Strange. It's still up on my end.

@CrowContinuum Жыл бұрын

lol... seeing my own Time Machine footage in this video confused me for a moment.

@CrimsonFox36 2 жыл бұрын

Great! Now i HAVE to subscribe just so i dont miss part 3. >:(

@bralex2670 2 жыл бұрын

Yup I'm a dastardly fiend

@joshcantrell8397 Жыл бұрын

Thank god for transistors

@Furluge 2 жыл бұрын

26:32 - Wow... Evil Otto kills another one.

@GusFernCa 18 күн бұрын

Didn't Data East get its start making pinball machines in this era? For being such a comprehensive documentary, There is no mention of them.

@WeaveDreamer 3 ай бұрын

The only way a timer inside of a Pinball machine works is if the name of the game is disarmed the bomb You have a time limit to get to a specific score and if you don't reach that score the game cuts off if you do reach that score you can keep playing What if the timer resets Implying you have to Disarm more than one There would be 2 ways to play either try to disarm In the time allotted Or try to rack up extra lives before the clock stops and every time the clock stops it takes one of your extra lives

@jamesdavis5096 2 жыл бұрын

It looks like the G jn the Gottlieb's logo is punching itself in its face just like the company did in real life kind of a self fulfilling company logo

@RT4eva9 5 ай бұрын

Ive played hercules before, it was pretty jank and used a pool ball for the ball, but was pretty fun

@Furluge 2 жыл бұрын

I don't think I would say that arcades started to die in the late 80s. If anything home consoles and arcades fed off each in a cycle where the good version would come out in the arcade and then home consoles would get a port*. It wasn't really until he mid to late 90s with the Saturn, PS1, and N64 that we started to really see the decline of the arcades. *Oh, and of course the exception to this was the Neo Geo. Since that home console was basically just the arcade without the cabinet. Not to many people had that. They did have this neat system to copy things from arcade to home but I never really saw it used much.

@Canobiecoasterman1902 2 жыл бұрын

15:28 best moment of series

@bralex2670 2 жыл бұрын

Judging from your name I can guess you appreciated the rcdb plug too?

@maxhemenway Жыл бұрын

15:15 Lightning

@andrewfischer48 10 ай бұрын

there is a movie about sharp the man who saved pinball

@ianedwards1255 Жыл бұрын

can you make an 8 hour special on robot bridge?

@christopherthomasorr 3 ай бұрын

First, I want to say that you did an overall good job on the series. That said, there are few things that should be corrected. I'm unsure if this is your voice or an AI script reader, but 'pseudo,' 'R.I.P.,' 'Bally,' and 'Gottlieb' aren't pronounced correctly in any of the four videos. It's a little odd to have history videos on a subject and mispronounce two of the largest players in the industry. Kind of like Bill and Ted introducing their class to 'So-Crates.' Also, Gottlieb had their first solid-state game in December of 1977, a month before Zaccaria released their first solid-state in January of 1978. You also misrepresented David Gottlieb as someone who was making gambling machines. He was vehemently opposed to making any kind of payout machines that could be considered gambling. It was a constant argument that he had with his competitor and friend, Raymond Moloney, who ran Bally. His opposition came from his deeply held religious views, the same that made his company a great place to work. Also, Gottlieb, while no longer in its heyday, wasn't struggling when Coke acquired Columbia. They were coming out of 1982 with two of their biggest sellers, Q Bert and Haunted House. Mylstar Electronics was just corporate idiots that thought a name change would make that division cool with the kids. Remember, this was the same corporate board that thought New Coke was needed less than two years later. Then you had the video game crash of 1983 and the implosion of home gaming and neighborhood arcades. Coke bought Columbia Pictures for the movies, so selling off Mylstar made sense to them. This means that Mysltar never changed its name to Premier. Investors who bought the assets of Mylstar came up with the name Premier for their new company and their company had the rights to the Gottlieb name.

@bralex2670 3 ай бұрын

Thanks for the input. And yeah I do say things funny sometimes don't worry I know. I didn't mean to portray Gottlieb like he loved gambling, it just turned out that a lot of people used pinball thay way early on. I tried to personify the companies to try to detatch any negative aspects (like gambling) but I probably could've done better with gottlieb the guy and gottlieb the company.

@jmike2039 Ай бұрын

Nothing about this sounds like ai

@ExNihiloComesNothing 2 жыл бұрын

Dude. Part. THree. WHEN?!?!

@kylerobertson9703 2 жыл бұрын

Firepower wasn't the first to feature multiball...Laser Ball was released in Oct 1979 and featured multiball before firepower

@bralex2670 2 жыл бұрын

From everything that I can find, Laser Ball does not have multiball. If you have something of a Laser Ball with multiball I'd love to see it.

@Samuel127849 Жыл бұрын

There is a Hercules machine in Lyons Colorado, it uses pool balls instead of pinballs

@bralex2670 Жыл бұрын

Interesting, how does it play?

@ritualsofthedarksun 8 ай бұрын

Yo I ❤ the series, but didn't Bally's Xenon come out before Firepower? Making it the 1st Solid State powered game with Multiball? + Question: Is Xenon the 1st game with a ramp?

@bralex2670 8 ай бұрын

Thx :) There were some EM's that had ramps like Bally's 4 Million BC, but that was just for the skill shot from the plunger. I think it'd be safe to say that Xenon's ramp was the first to be an important shot and a key part to the game's overall design (of which most ramps are like nowadays)

@googpix540 Жыл бұрын

Williams actually beat Bally when they made 11 Aztec pinballs before they made the hot tips.

@bheasy1 2 жыл бұрын

Brown dirt cowboy was a bally home use 76. You had captain fantastic em in the video, mistake. Brown dirt was a freeplay only ss. Just a correction, not too mad.