Pinball Wizards

For collectors, pinball remains flippin’ awesome.

 

By Kris Manty

Bells and chimes rang as sirens wailed, glowing-colored lights flashed, animated scenes danced across dot matrix displays, and the air was filled with the sounds of clinking quarters and the frantic clang of flippers smacking metal balls.

For kids (and adults), few things were as exciting as visiting an arcade during pinball’s heyday and being immersed in this cacophony. Pinball ruled long before video games conquered the world and whether it was playing “The Addams Family” at the arcade, “Twilight Zone” at the pizzeria, or “Medieval Madness” at the local bar, everyone had their favorite game.

With their blinking lights, sound effects, and mechanical wonders, pinball machines have captured the imagination of people of all ages for decades; their colorful history even includes once being outlawed.

Today, pinball is experiencing a resurgence, thanks to an increasing number of enthusiasts who came of age playing the silver ball and now have the nostalgic desire to buy old favorites, creating a healthy market for vintage machines that can command thousands of dollars on the secondary market.

 

Pinball’s Evolution

Over the past 90-plus years, pinball has gone from a simple marble game in the 1930s to the wood-railed classic of the 1950s to the multi-leveled digitized machine it is today. A product of America’s industrial past, these mechanical marvels symbolize the nation’s technological ingenuity.

At its most basic level, pinball challenges players to use plastic flippers to control, aim and fire a stainless-steel ball around a playfi eld covered with objects and obstacles. Even if you’ve never played pinball, the game’s rectangular cabinet and sloped playfield are instantly recognizable.

Pinball’s roots trace to the 18thcentury French table game “Bagatelle.” Similar to billiards, “Bagatelle” was played by using a cue stick to knock balls across a table past wooden pins and into scoring holes.

The first modern pinball machines originated in the 1930s during the Great Depression. In 1931, David Gottlieb, founder of Gottlieb & Co. amusement company, developed a game called “Baffle Ball” that had players try to get a ball into a hole and had a penny coin mechanism to monetize play. A year later, Raymond Maloney, who founded the Lion Manufacturing Company (later renamed Bally), is widely considered to have invented the modern pinball game “Ballyhoo,” also coin-operated.

Throughout much of the 20th century, Bally and Gottlieb were among the innovative companies whose glasscovered, countertop “pin games” entertained millions of people and were the precursors of video games.

Game-Changing Innovations

As the game rose in popularity during the 1930s and 1940s, designers introduced new features, including bells, chimes and electrifi ed scoring bumpers. Playfields and “backglasses” also gave artists a blank canvas to create vibrant visuals often centering on fairy tales, popular trends and pretty women.

Pinball was further revolutionized when the Gottlieb Company released the game “Humpty Dumpty” in 1947 with its now-iconic electro-mechanical feature: the flipper, which allowed skilled players to keep the ball in play longer and increase their scores. “Humpty Dumpty” featured six outward-facing flippers, but by the early 1950s, two flippers became the standard with the game “Triple Action.”

Flippers transformed pinball. Preflippers, it was a muchdiff erent game. With little to no skill involved in playing it, it was viewed as a game of chance, as players had no control over how the ball bounced off pins and went across the playfield. Like many other games of chance, people gambled on it.

As a result, early pinball was outlawed as a gambler’s game, became associated with the mob, and New York City offi cially banned it in 1942. Other major cities soon followed suit, including Chicago and Los Angeles. It wasn’t until the 1970s that pinball reemerged as a legitimate game of skill and not chance.

Pinball was revolutionized when the Gottlieb Company released the game “Humpty Dumpty” in 1947 with six flippers, electro-mechanical features that allowed skilled players to keep a ball in play longer and thus increase their scores. Two flippers became the standard in the early 1950s with the game Triple Action.

Paving the Way for Video Games

Pinball off ered people new and exciting ways to play games and helped lay a foundation for video games. Many early arcade video games, including “Pong” (1972), “TV Flipper” (1975) and “Video Pinball” (1978), required players to hit digital balls with virtual paddles or fl ippers, much like pinball. Video game designers also borrowed from pinball’s basic game structure of three balls and accumulating extra ones, translating it to “three lives” and “extra lives.”

In the 1980s, video games almost erased pinball, but lucrative movie licensing deals in the 1990s made it popular again and produced one of the best-selling pinball machines in history: 1992’s “The Addams Family” game by Bally’s Midway division that was based on the 1991 movie of the same name starring Angelica Huston and Raul Julia. Famous for its innovative design, more than 20,000 units were sold and this now-iconic game can command five figures on the secondary market.

“The Addams Family” pinball machine, 1992, is the best-selling pinball game in history and is equally popular with collectors. This machine sold for $8,750.

A Growing Collectors’ Market

Pinball has had a resurgence in recent years driven by collectors and enthusiasts who value the craftsmanship, entertainment and nostalgia the machines bring, sparking growth in the production of new machines and the demand for vintage classics.

Collecting has also evolved from a niche hobby to an active community with members from all walks of life. With the advent of online pinball forums and social-media marketplaces, collectors now have more resources to fi nd their next pin buys. Auctions can also be goldmines for acquiring vintage machines and networking with local pinball groups can lead to rare finds and private deals as well.

The fun part about pinball is that everyone has their favorite machines and diff erent collecting strategies. Some key factors collectors consider include build quality and features, artwork and design, thematic appeal, and the manufacturer. Machines made by Bally, Gottlieb, Stern and other leading pinball companies that produced some of the most memorable games in history are perennial favorites with collectors and avidly sought for their high-quality and inventive designs.

ELTON JOHN, wearing giant Doc Martin-style boots above, played the Pinball Wizard in Tommy, a 1975 movie based on the Who’s 1969 album of the same name. The rock opera is about a “deaf, dumb and blind kid” who becomes a pinball champion and religious leader. Inspired by the movie, the “Captain Fantastic” pinball machine, with John depicted wearing his 54-inch-tall Tommy boots, was released in 1976 by Bally, becoming one of the most popular pinball machines ever made. The game’s name comes from John’s autobiographical song, “Captain Fantastic.”

The Value of Pinball Machines

Collectors who preserve these interactive pieces of art are willing to pay way more than a pocketful of quarters for some of them. Factors such as rarity, condition, demand, historical significance, and limited editions determine value, which can range from a few hundred dollars to tens of thousands. Pinball machines from the 1980s through today generally have higher prices, as these machines are more complex and imaginative to compete with video games.

Some standout sales over the past few years include:

1. Batman 66, 1991, by Stern, rare, limited edition of 80, sold on eBay in 2021 for $29,999.
2. Ghostbusters, 2016, by Stern, limited edition of 500 with the hardto-fi nd Ecto-1 topper sold on eBay in 2023 for $25,999.
3. The Big Lebowski, 2022, by Dutch Pinball, sold on eBay in 2024 for $25,000.
4. Twilight Zone, 1993, by Midway, sold on eBay in 2023 for $23,000.
5. The Addams Family, 1992, by Midway, sold on eBay in 2022 for $21,590, while a special Gold Edition, released in 1994 in a limited run of 1,000, sold in 2024 for $22,888.
6. Mermaid, a rare 1951 woodrail machine by Gottlieb, sold at auction in 2024 for $22,300.
7. Guardians of the Galaxy, 2017, by Stern, limited edition of 600, sold on eBay in 2025 for $20,000.
8. Sweet Add A Line, a 1955 woodrail machine by Gottlieb, sold at auction in 2024 for $11,300.
9. Arabian Nights, 1996, by Bally, sold at auction in 2024 for $8,000.
10. Creature From the Black Lagoon, 1993, by Bally, sold at auction in 2024 for $7,500.

The 1993 “Twilight Zone” pinball machine, themed after the Rod Serling TV show, is a collector favorite featuring a gumball machine, a mechanical clock with rotating arms and many more delightful quirks. It can sell for $8,500-$10,000.

Not every pinball machine has a price tag out of reach for beginning collectors. Many machines sell for under $1,000. For example, a 1975 “Super Flipper” machine by Chicago Coin Machine Co. sold at auction in 2025 for $650 and a 1985 “Sorcerer” game by Williams Electronics (in need of some work) sold at auction in 2025 for $850.

Pinball’s enduring appeal lies in its innovation, skill, and nostalgia. As collectors and enthusiasts continue to grow the community and preserve these machines, it assures that future generations can enjoy the magic and mechanical wonders of the game.

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