Pinball games have long been regarded as the twentieth century's ultimate coin operated amusement, touching the lives of generations of players in numerous cultures. This visual chronicle, with examples from the game's beginnings to the present day, focuses in particular on the years from 1958 to 1998. It showcases fifty fascinating pinball games, each with its own chapter outlining the special features. Covered in detail are cultural influences, design and artistic trends, historical connections, collectibility, values, and unique game rules. Over 800 full color photographs display whole machine shots, close-ups of backglasses and playfields, and ball's-eye-view images. They put the pinball enthusiast right into the action! This beautiful book is an essential reference for the libraries of pinball collectors and aficionados everywhere.

This fantastic book tells the detailed history of pinball games from the 1930s to the 1990s, including the evolution of all sorts of game features--from flippers and bumpers to sound, scoring, and tilt mechanisms--all immersed in the complex and magnificent artwork characteristic of pinball machines. Pinball manufacturing giants like Gottlieb, Williams, and Bally are well represented, in addition to several lesser-known and foreign manufacturers. With a listing of over 3,000 games built to date, statistics, updated pricing information, and over 900 color photographs (including close-ups, flyers, images of rare prototypes, and games never before seen in print), this is essential for the libraries of all pinball lovers. The pinball machine is here to stay--due in part to the exponential increase in the number of serious collectors and enthusiasts. What other modern amusement machine can boast a longevity of over 60 years, withstanding the test of time and ever-changing technology, while maintaining its instantly recognizable form? The rolling, bouncing silver ball, as unpredictable as the flip of a coin or even life itself, has kept up with cutting-edge advancements in electronics, mechanics, and even computers, to amuse and test the skill of players worldwide!

Even in those days, kids in grade school were slaves to fashion and creatures of habit. One of those creatures of our habit was the infamous raccoon skin cap, a must head covering for a ten-year-old boy. No doubt the clothing fad originated with the popular 1936 movie, Daniel Boone, starring George O'Brien. Author Raymond M. Featherstone Jr. details the experiences of his middle class Indianapolis family during the Great Depression and World War II, offering a lighthearted and humorous look at the 1930s and 1940s through the eyes of a young boy. Journey to the heart of Featherstone's neighborhood as he describes his childhood antics, eccentric neighbors, and family escapades. Featherstone recalls the fads, fashions, and expressions of the era, and includes several thumbnail sketches of people, places, and things in the public eye. Ranging from a brief look at the 1933-34 Chicago World's Fair to the history of the yo-yo and to Featherstone's daily trips to the drugstore for Old Lady Schenzel's bottle of Virginia Dare port wine, Naptown Memories: One Boy's Life Growing Up In Indianapolis-1930s & 1940s paints a charming yet realistic portrait of this significant era in America's history.

Fifty vintage and contemporary pinballs are showcased, each with its own chapter outlining special features, historical information, game trivia, game rules, collectibility, graphic images, and current value. Over 600 full color photographs provide a complete visual of each game. Whole machine shots, close-ups, and ball's-eye-view images put enthusiasts right into the action. A must for pinball collectors, graphic artists, historians, and devotees of coin operated amusement games.

It is a story which traces the very first memory of a baby boy who grows up in an average middle class family. Like all of us, as we grow up, there are memories which are dear to us. Real life experiences, as you know, have many twists, and the boy becomes a man faced with a problem with the love of his life. He reaches deep within himself for answers, and the media is right there to plant the seed in his mind. As the story unfolds together, they contain the secret recipe necessary to take stepping stones, which empowers him to acquire the gift of knowledge. He becomes very bitter as he sees deception intertwined with reality. Music seduces him, and through it, he uncovers himself and the true path that he follows.

In 1976, champion player Roger Sharpe stepped up to a pinball machine in a Manhattan courtroom. He was there to challenge the citywide ban on pinball by proving this was a game of skill, not chance. Sharpe pulled back the plunger and released, and the fate of this industry and artform hung in the balance.0Thus opens Jon Chad's comprehensive graphic guide to the history of the captivating, capricious-and at times infuriating!-game of pinball. Tracing pinball's roots back to the Court of King Louis XIV and right up to the present day, Chad captures not just the history of the game but also the artistry, cultural significance, and even the physics.

Pinball's history is America's history, from gambling and war-themed machines to the arcade revolution and, ultimately, the decline of the need to leave your house. The strangest thing about pinball is that it persists, and not just as nostalgia. Pinball didn't just stick around—it grew and continues to evolve with the times. Somehow, in today's iPhone world, a three-hundred-pound monstrosity of wood and cables has survived to enjoy yet another renaissance. Pinball is more to humor writer Adam Ruben than a fascinating book topic—it's a lifelong obsession. Ruben played competitive pinball for years, rising as high as the 80th-ranked player in the world. Then he had children. Now, mired in 9,938th place—darn kids—Ruben tries to stage a comeback, visiting pinball museums, gaming conventions, pinball machine designers, and even pinball factories in his attempt to discover what makes the world's best players, the real wizards, so good. Along the way, Ruben examines the bigger story of pinball's invention, ascent, near defeat, resurgence, near defeat again, and struggle to find its niche in modern society.