Silverball News and Views - July 1997 - Editorial #2

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By Bob McCann

Past

Over the years, pinball companies have come and gone but there has always been somebody to keep the ball rolling. It wasn't so long ago that I first started playing pinball for the first time. I remember it well, I was at the local mall arcade when I saw it; Star Wars. Now I had putzed around on a couple pinball machines but had never really tried to be any good at it. It was simply put in a quarter, plunge the ball, and flap it around watching all the pretty flashing lights and listening to the strange noises that only a pinball machine makes. But this was different, this was Star Wars, my favorite movie of all time. With a name like that, the game HAD to be good... Right?? Well I certainly thought so.

I had a blast seeing and hearing all of my favorite characters from the movies brought to life in this machine. I was excited to get tri-ball going just to have the chance to blow up the Death Star and once again save the galaxy from the evil Galactic Empire. This is what started it off for me. Once I had played that game a zillion times, I ventured into uncharted waters and started playing other pinball games. To my surprise, even though they didn't have as cool a theme as Star Wars, I loved playing many of them too!

Looking back on it, I see that this is what is so interesting about the pinball industry. With new games coming on the market from the various manufacturers all of the time, there had to be something that would eventually draw me in. Data East happened to be the one when they made Star Wars. But once drawn in, I learned about the rest of the pinball world. Data East, Williams, Bally, Gottlieb, Alvin G, all became household names to me for they were the people who made the games that I had learned so quickly to enjoy so much. I learned the history of the great game, from Humpty Dumpty to the people that were designing the most recent games. I learned about companies such as Stern and Game Plan, who for years made pinball machines. But it never dawned on me that the companies that were currently producing pinball machines would ever go out of business, for pinball is a booming industry I thought... Isn't it???

Present

And then there were two. Only a few short years after my first great experiences with the game of pinball, there are only two companies still in business producing pinball machines.

The first to go was Alvin G & Company. While never highly regarded among the `pinball community', the short lived company put out a few games that many people enjoyed playing. Next went Gottlieb (which was owned by Premier Technologies). Year after year they put out solid games that never really were the best, but quality games that both operators and players could enjoy. Then went Capcom's brief venture into the pinball division. The venture probably would have worked, for most of their games were of very high quality and a blast to play, but poor timing got them into the industry when they shouldn't have and they closed their pinball division not too long after opening it.

Which leaves us with two. Williams/Bally, which produces games under both names but is really just one company, and Sega, which completely bought out Data East pinball. So what does this mean? Well, a couple of things.

First, it means that pinball as an industry isn't doing well lately. Even the two companies that have survived are facing cutbacks. Williams recently was forced to layoff several of it's designers and other people who had brought us so many great games in the past. Sega has been unwilling to put as much money into it's pinball division as it does in it's video game division which results in restrictions as to what they can put into their games. Why is the pinball industry not doing as well lately? My opinion is that the main reason is home video game systems. In the past, if people wanted to play the leading edge video games they had to go to their local arcade. While at the arcade, they may play a little pinball. Today, people don't need to go to the arcades. Home gaming systems provide almost the same level of technology as many of the arcade systems can provide, thus people don't have the same incentive to go to the arcade.

And then there were two. What else does this mean? It means that quite simply there aren't as many games being produced, and this presents the problem of the industry not being able to bring in as many new players as they would like. I explained my first experience with pinball when I saw Star Wars. But what if there had been no Star Wars? What if Data East hadn't been there to make it? Perhaps a different company would have made a game with the Star Wars theme, but perhaps not. And if not, would I have become interested in pinball? Perhaps another game would have drown me in, but again perhaps not. With the fewer amounts of new pinball machines being made these days, there is less of a chance for people to find the one that draws them in and less of a chance to increase the amount of pinball fanatics.

Future

Could there be less? Let's hope not. Pinball is a fantastic game which I am sure that everybody reading this would agree can be much more fun than any video game. And this is where you, the reader, comes in. I pose a task on everybody who loves the game of pinball to drag others into your hobby. Don't let them go play video games when you go off to play pinball. Tell them to join you, to at least give it a try. And don't laugh when they quickly lose their first ball, which inevitably they will, instead offer them as many pointers as you can. Show them that pinball is more than just flapping the ball around watching it hit stuff. Then, show them a different game so that they can see that each machine is different. With any luck, they will start playing it on their own and really learn to enjoy it. If not, maybe it just isn't for them, but try somebody else.

Eventually you're bound to find a few people who will learn to enjoy the game. Then, encourage them to show others the game. Pinball is a game that could really use a boost. While video games can rely on advertisements and video game magazines that are on every drug store shelf to promote them, pinball can't. This is why that I feel it is important to bring new players to the game by showing them what a great game it is. Right now there are two, so let's try to make those two thrive. Let's show them that the pinball industry is just as lucrative a business to be in as any other so that they will be able to put out the highest quality games that they can make. Then, who knows, right now there are two but let's hope for more.

Bob McCann may be contacted via electronic mail at mccannr1@pilot.msu.edu
or via the web at http://pilot.msu.edu/~mccannr1.