History of Pinball Machines
Pinball is a coin-operated arcade table game. The object of the game is to score as many points as possible by directing the balls inside the glass-covered playing area and preventing them from falling back into the pinball machine. Paddles under the glass, which are controlled by buttons a player presses, whack the ball back up onto the playing field. These paddles are called "flippers." A good player will win enough points to trigger free games.
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The Bagatelle Table
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Players enjoyed a very rudimentary form of pinball during the early 1800s. The game involved using a pool cue to shoot the balls into the pockets of a "Bagatelle Table." A bagatelle table was a discarded pool table with obstacles placed on it, such as bent nails.
From Bagatelle to Pinball
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Montague Redgrave was a British inventor who emigrated to the United States in 1869. In 1871, Redgrave was granted a patent for a ball-shooter that eliminated the need for a pool cue. Redgrave made several improvements in the bagatelle table and produced them out of his home in Cincinnati, Ohio.
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Pinball: A Game of Chance, or Skill?
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Several American cities, including New York and Los Angeles, have at one time banned pinball machines. Games of chance were often accompanied by illegal gambling. In New York, for instance, pinball was banned from 1939 until 1976. That is until a man named Roger Sharpe appeared before the New York City Council and proved that pinball was, in fact, a game of skill. Sharpe, a pinball designer, explained that the way in which he pulled the plunger of the ball-shooter affected the direction of the ball. Sharpe did this with such accuracy--he announced to his audience which lane the ball would go into even before he touched the plunger--that he convinced New York to lift the ban on pinball machines.
Pinball in Pop Culture
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The game of pinball has been a part of popular culture. The rock opera "Tommy," created by The Who, starred a protagonist who was deaf, blind and dumb, but a genius at pinball. Tommy became the first pinball wizard. The term "wizard" now refers to a champion pinball player.
Pinball as a Sport
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Today, there are hundreds of pinball organizations throughout the world. The most competitive is the IFPA or International Flipper Pinball Association. The IFPA is owned by Josh Sharpe, the son of Roger Sharpe. According to the IFPA, the 2008 top pinball player was a 32-year-old mathematician and textbook writer named Bowen Kerins.
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