Pinball

Pinball is a type of coin-operated arcade game where a player attempts to score points by manipulating one or more metal balls on a playfield inside a glass case. The primary objective of the game is to score as many points as possible. more...

Secondary objectives are to maximize the time spent playing (by earning extra balls and keeping balls in play as long as possible) and to earn free games (known as replays).

History

The Evolution from Outdoor Games

The origins of pinball are intertwined with the history of many other games. Games played outdoors by rolling balls or stones on a grass course, such as Bocce or Bowls, eventually evolved into games played by hitting the balls with sticks and propelling them at targets. Croquet and Shuffleboard are examples of these games.

Eventually the games led to indoor versions that could be played on a table, such as Billiards or Carrom, or on the floor of a pub like Bowling. The tabletop versions of these games eventually became the ancestor of the modern pinball machine.

Bagatelle

History records the existence of table-based games back to the 15th Century. While some games took the wickets and balls of Croquet and turned them into the pockets of modern billiards, some tables became smaller and had the holes placed in strategic areas in the middle of the table.

In France, during the reign of King Louis XIV, someone took a billiard table and narrowed it, placing the pins at one end of the table while making the player shoot balls with a stick or cue from the other end. Pins took too long to reset when knocked down, so the pins eventually became fixed to the table and holes took the place of targets. Players could ricochet the ball off the pins to achieve the harder scoring holes.

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