Pinball Machines

Pinball pre-history starts with stones rolled at troughs in the sand, but 15th century billiards and bagatelle tables, where the holes or cups were ascribed values and guarded by pins, are the real ancestors of the modern machine. As early as 1878 a British patent was granted for a coin-operated version, but it was Bally Manufacturing Co. of Chicago's Ballyhoo of 1931 that headed the craze that swept America at the start of the depression years and triggered the rapid evolution of the game through automatic scoring, anti-cheat devices, lighting and sound effects, solenoid bumpers and flippers. Post 1930s British pintables largely emulated American designs, but lack of production scale prevented them from competing on price and as the game became more complex, indigenous production ceased.