The History of Pinball Part 1: The Electromechanical Era

Comments · 354

• MX

  @mxwillow · 3 years ago

  My jaw literally hit the floor seeing all of those tables getting destroyed. RIP.

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• OG

  @OGKend · 2 years ago (edited)

  I cried when they destroyed the pinball tables😢

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• VA

  @Valmont1978 · 2 years ago

  I watched this entire 4 part series with my mother in law and we laughed the whole time. Way to go making an extremely informative and entertaining series that for whatever reason is peppered with coyotes and ducks. I instantly shared it on my socials! Absolutely magnificent. I was hoping that you'd spend more time on individual tables through the years. Dr. Dude and his Xcellent Ray is my favorite pinball machine of all time! But there was a lot of story to tell and I know you couldn't spend too much time on an individual table. Keep up the awesome work!

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• TE

  @terminallygray · 1 month ago

  I can remember the bowling alley having a Fireball machine with their others. That one required you to really pay attention to what was going on. When the ball got anywhere near that spinning disk in the middle of the table, all bets were off cause you had no idea where it was going to wind up. It kept things interesting: it made watching pinball as much fun as playing it.

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• SL

  @slimbomb · 2 years ago

  I knew the pinball destruction was coming but god that was actually painful. My whole dream is to work with pinball machines, those were beautiful.

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• JI

  @JIm-w1b · 2 years ago

  Keeney, what you don't remember, was a big name in bowlers from about the late 40's to the early 60's. Bally and Williams both made bowlers. Bally bowlers were beautiful scaled-down bowling alleys 12 feet long, with 6 players, replete with walnut hardwood and chrome castings and I would pay $10,000 to have one today. Scaled-down bowling commonly found in big-city bars, was once a genuine sport that many people took seriously and even had tournaments. The balls were about the size of coconuts and the pins around a foot high. The genius electromechanical system kept regulation score.

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• JI

  @jimmyhuesandthehouserocker1069 · 3 years ago

  Bally at one time was big in bowlers, I'm not an authority but I'd say around the 1940's 'n 50's. Bally made some beautiful walnut and chrome, ball bowlers and if only I had enough space I'd guarantee you I'd have one by now. They had about a 12 foot lane and a black weighted rubber ball the size of a coconut. I knew a certain Betty Jastatt who had one in her basement 'n my passion was to play it and I did some repair work on it, too. The electro-mechanical engineering in how it was 6 players and it kept regulation bowling score was incredible, it was truly an electro-mechanical computer. Around 1982, I wrote to Bally and they send me a wiring schematic for free

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• SO

  @solidghost4525 · 2 years ago

  The golden age of pinball is coming back folks. You can smell it.

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• CA

  @CaptainFoufeu · 3 years ago

  My grandfather fought in World War II and he often told me about the Gottlieb Tank, Bally Dive Bomber and Chicago Coin Battleship. They're the reason America won the war!

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• FR

  @frenchfriedtatersyoutube · 4 months ago

  The Creature from the Black Lagoon soundtrack during this slaps

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• A_

  @a_bloodshotgod · 1 year ago

  You seem relatively young, which makes this exhaustive history lesson on pinball the more impressive.

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• JI

  @jimmyhuesandthehouserocker1069 · 4 years ago

  The  backglass on Big Deal features the Beatles, sitting around a card table, and I don't why this game isn't the famous classic you'd think it would be. You'd think everybody would want it

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