The History

Three hundred years of balls, pins, bells and flippers — told from a corner of the Pinball Hall of Fame.

An early wooden bagatelle game

  1. 1770s

    Bagatelle

    French nobility play a table game of balls, pins and holes — the ancestor of pinball.

  2. 1871

    The Plunger

    Montague Redgrave patents the spring launcher still used on machines today.

  3. 1931

    Baffle Ball

    Gottlieb's coin-operated countertop game sells by the tens of thousands during the Depression.

  4. 1933

    Electricity

    Batteries and lights arrive, bringing bells, bumpers and scoring.

  5. 1947

    Humpty Dumpty

    Gottlieb introduces flippers — pinball becomes a game of skill.

  6. 1950s–60s

    The Golden Age

    Painted backglasses, chimes and multi-player machines fill arcades and diners.

  7. 1976

    Pinball Is Legal

    A famous called shot in New York helps prove pinball is skill, not gambling.

  8. 1990s

    The Big Boom

    The Addams Family becomes the best-selling pinball machine of the modern era.

  9. Today

    Las Vegas

    The Pinball Hall of Fame keeps hundreds of machines playable for everyone.