Pinball games are a family of games in which a ball is propelled into a specially designed table where it bounces off various obstacles, scoring points either en route or when it comes to rest. Historically the board was studded with nails called 'pins' and had hollows or pockets which scored points if the ball came to rest in them. Today, pinball is most commonly an arcade game in which the ball is fired into a specially designed cabinet known as a pinball machine, hitting various lights, bumpers, ramps, and other targets depending on its design. The game's object is generally to score as many points as possible by hitting these targets and making various shots with flippers before the ball is lost. Most pinball machines use one ball per turn, and the game ends when the ball(s) from the last turn are lost. The biggest pinball machine manufacturers historically include Bally Manufacturing, Gottlieb, Williams Electronics and Stern Pinball.
WMS Industries, Inc. was an American electronic gaming and amusement manufacturer in Enterprise, Nevada. It was merged into Scientific Games in 2016. WMS's predecessor was the Williams Manufacturing Company, founded in 1943 by Harry E. Williams. However, the company that became WMS Industries was formally founded in 1974 as Williams Electronics, Inc.
Pokémon Pinball is a pinball-based Pokémon spin-off video game for the Game Boy. It was released in Japan on April 14, 1999, and in North America on June 29, 1999. In it, the ball is a Poké Ball, and most of the objects on the table are Pokémon-related.
Pokémon Pinball: Ruby & Sapphire is a 2003 pinball game developed by Jupiter and published by The Pokémon Company and Nintendo for the Game Boy Advance handheld game console. It was first revealed at E3 2003. The North American release was done to coincide with the fifth anniversary of the North American release of Pokémon Red and Blue. It is based on Pokémon Ruby and Sapphire, and is a sequel to Pokémon Pinball for the Game Boy Color. In some ways, it plays like a traditional pinball game, where the objective is to get a high score by keeping the ball in play as long as possible and hitting bumpers. In keeping with the theme of Pokémon, it features Pokémon collection, where while the players play pinball, they must also capture the eponymous creatures.
Pinball Dreams is a pinball simulation video game developed by Digital Illusions and originally released for the Amiga in 1992. It spawned several sequels, including Pinball Fantasies and Pinball Illusions. The MS-DOS port was digitally released by Rebellion Developments along with its sequel and Pinball Mania on February 22, 2011 on GOG.com with support for Microsoft Windows. It received an OS X build on April 23, 2013; and a Linux build on August 19, 2014.
Pinball Illusions is an Amiga and MS-DOS pinball video game developed by Digital Illusions CE (DICE) in 1995 as a sequel of Pinball Fantasies and Pinball Dreams.
Pinball is a pinball video game developed by Nintendo and HAL Laboratory and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It is based on a Game & Watch unit of the same name, and was first released for the Famicom in Japan in 1984. It was later released as an arcade game for the Nintendo VS. System in Japan and North America in 1984. In 1985, it was a launch game for the Nintendo Entertainment System in North America.
Metroid Prime Pinball is a pinball video game themed after the Metroid series. The game uses the graphical style and various story elements from Metroid Prime. It was developed by Fuse Games and published by Nintendo for the Nintendo DS in North America and Australia in 2005, in Japan in 2006, and in Europe in 2007. Metroid Prime Pinball uses the basic mechanics of pinball, along with typical pinball items. New mechanics are introduced, such as wall jumping and the ability to fire weapons. The Nintendo DS's touchscreen can be nudged with a finger to alter the pinball's trajectory while in motion.
Epic Pinball is a 1993 pinball video game developed by James Schmalz and published by Epic MegaGames. The initial release pre-dated Schmalz' Digital Extremes name. The game is played seen from a 2D top-down view within a scrollable window with plain raster graphics in 320x240. It was noted for being programmed entirely in x86 assembly language for MS-DOS systems. On November 30, 2017 the game was re-released on GOG.com, with support for Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux pre-packed with DOSBox.
Patrick M. Lawlor is a video game and pinball machine designer.
Pro Pinball: Timeshock! is an action video game developed by Cunning Developments and published by Empire Interactive for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation. It is the second game in the Pro Pinball series, and is themed around the concept of time travel.
Pinball FX is a pinball machine video game for the Xbox 360. It was developed by Zen Studios and published by Microsoft Game Studios. It was released on April 25, 2007 via the Xbox Live Arcade service. The game features three tables, with six more available as downloadable content, leaderboards and online multiplayer. A sequel to the game, Pinball FX 2 was released on October 27, 2010.
Ruiner Pinball is a pinball video game developed by High Voltage Software and published by Atari Corporation exclusively for Atari Jaguar on November 6, 1995. It was marketed as the first game to feature support for the Jaguar's ProController, though the only difference that the controller provides is that its shoulder buttons can be used as an alternative way of nudging the table.
FunHouse is a pinball machine designed by Pat Lawlor and released in November 1990 by Williams Electronics. Starring a talking ventriloquist dummy named Rudy, the game is themed after the concept of an amusement park funhouse. FunHouse is one of the last Williams games to use an alphanumeric display; the company switched to dot matrix the following year.
Pinball Quest is a 1989 pinball video game developed by Tose and published by Jaleco. Released for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Pinball Quest was unusual at the time of its release for its "unique" mash-up of pinball and role-playing game (RPG) mechanics, and it is considered the "first ever RPG pinball game."
Kiss-themed pinball machines were produced by Bally in 1979 and Stern in 2015. There are also some pinball machine conversion kits, a Kiss pinball machine prototype and a Kiss pinball video game.
Jurassic Park typically refers to the Jurassic Park franchise, a series of books, films, and video games centering around a fictional theme park.
Harley-Davidson is a Sega Pinball pinball machine released in September 1999 and was the last machine released by this company. It was designed by Jon Borg and Lonnie D. Ropp.
El Dorado City of Gold is a pinball machine designed by Ed Krynski and released in 1984 by Gottlieb. The game features an El Dorado adventure theme.
3-D Ultra NASCAR Pinball is a racing video game released in 1998 for Windows and Macintosh, and is the fourth game in 3-D Ultra Pinball video game series. It was also released under the title 3-D Ultra Pinball: Turbo Racing. The game received the Everyone rating from the Entertainment Software Rating Board. The game uses an improved graphics engine from the previous 3-D Ultra Pinball titles, which takes advantage of greater color depth and resolution up to 800x600 pixels. On the game's CD, the publishers have added texts and videos about NASCAR races.
