How Pinball Machines Work

Early Pinball Machines

The first pinball machines were called electromechanicals, and they were run completely on actual machinery underneath the table. They were fitted with a plunger, which worked on a spring mechanism, pop bumpers, flippers and kickers. Most of the objects on the table were rigged to ring a bell when struck by the pinball, providing most of the noise during a game. These tables kept scores by a mechanical reel on the backglass. Often, pinball manufacturers would paint extra zeroes on the glass itself, in order to make it seem as though the scores were higher.

Solid State Machines

Starting in the late 1970s, pinball machines went digital. Bells and reels were replaced by sci-fi sounds, rudimentary speech and digital LED scoring displays. The era of pinball coincided with the advent of the arcade, thus making this one of the most well-remembered and exciting times in pinball history. Because they were controlled by digital means, pinball machines became much less of a mechanical construct. In some early cases, the machines came with the option of turning off the digital sounds and replacing them with electromechanical bells and jingles. These sounds were still produced digitally, however.

DMD Machines

In the early '90s, Solid State machines gave way to the next evolution. LED scoring displays were replaced by dot matrix displays, which could show not only the score, but animations. The speech and music got better, and pinball became much more of an immersing experience. The themes got more complex as well. Rather than the object of games being a high score, pinball games introduced deeper rule sets with "modes" that needed to be completed, in much the same fashion as a video game.

Novelties

As pinball has evolved throughout the years, there have been many interesting additions. Some of these novelties were only used a couple of times, while others became commonplace. These include magnets under the table (to make the ball do interesting things, or save the ball from draining), "toys" on the table (plastic figures that can move and sometimes interact with the ball) and even video games built into the backglass.