Today's tidbit: Pinball history

Pinball Space Cadet

Coin operated arcades, filled with those big, clunky wonderful cabinets, are slowly on the demise. It is harder and harder to find a good coin op these days. It is even harder to find the arcade game cabinet’s predecessor: the pinball game.

Pinball is still somewhat popular and the idea has been somewhat successfully ported to the home gaming scene. An archaic version of pinball has been released on pretty much every home gaming console and Space Cadet was even bundled in the Windows package for many PCs. You can even purchase an application like Pinball Builder and create your own table.

But once, pinball games were illegal. In the World War II era, pinball games were deemed gambling devices…games of chance…and made illegal in cities such as New York. In New York City alone, over 3000 pinball games were confiscated and destroyed.

Pinball games were brought back to the mainstream by a 26-year-old pinball wizard named Roger Sharpe in 1976. With a pinball game inside a courtroom, Sharpe called a shot and made it, proving that the game was about skill more than chance. Pinball games were reinstated as a viable gaming pastime.

Pinball has evolved in the last 35 years, finding its way into home consoles, online play, and even team events.