The Future of Pinball
Last night, I saw the documentary The Future of Pinball at the Clinton Street Theater here in Portland. It’s a solid overview of the pinball industry with a focus on how Williams, the last pinball maker (at the time), gave it one last go in 1999 with Pinball 2000. After two machines, they shut down their pinball division to focus exclusively on slot machines. Many interviews with the top game designers of their day.
An interesting fact stuck out. Early pinball was a game of chance, very similar to a horizontal pachinko machine. Spring the ball up, watch it bounce around, shake the machine a bit, and rack up points. Eh, not a ton of fun. But in 1947, Gottlieb introduced the flipper on Humpty Dumpty. Pinball immediately experienced a boom.
And what controls the flipper? A button.
Pinball changed from a game of luck to a game of skill (as someone in the movie said). The player stopped simply observing the game and instead actively participated in it. Interacted with the game. And with a little skill and practice, controlled it. You had to develop a sense of timing for when to push the buttons, one at a time or in a quick combination. “Let’s see what happens” became “Let’s see what I can do.”
Games now are all about how well you can push the buttons. So we find that the first example of pushing buttons to interact with an electronic device to control the play of a game is on something called Humpty Dumpty. Excellent.
There may be earlier examples in non-pinball games, and I will be thankful when you correct me.
Updated: After a bit more searching, I found this tantalizing nugget from the history of Hubbell Incorporated.
[Around 1893] While walking in New York City, [Harvey] Hubbell happened upon a penny arcade which had just closed for the day. The arcade had been equipped with several electrically operated games, including one where two boxers, maneuvered along slots in the floor of the miniature boxing ring, threw right or left uppercuts at each other with the touch of the proper button.
I see I have more hunting ahead of me.
Incidentally, Hubbell invented both the pull chain light switch and the common power plug and wall outlet combo that is now everywhere. That’s all.