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HomeExploreGamesClassic Pinball Machines and Their Backglass Art
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The artwork on a pinball machine can tell you what kind of game you're about to play. Start with Gottlieb's wooden Baffle Ball from 1931 and follow the cabinet and backglass designs through to the castle of Williams's Medieval Madness in 1997. Along the way, look for the six flippers in Humpty Dumpty, the space battle that frames Firepower's score displays and the way FunHouse brings the dummy on the backglass down into the playfield.

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1
Baffle Ball
Baffle Ball: Gottlieb released Baffle Ball in 1931. This wooden countertop machine has a plunger and a field of pins and…
2
Humpty Dumpty (pinball)
Humpty Dumpty (pinball): Gottlieb's Humpty Dumpty arrived on October 25, 1947. Harry Mabs designed it with six…
3
Ace High (pinball)
Ace High (pinball): Roy Parker framed the card game on Gottlieb's Ace High from 1957 with a broad pink arc of scores. The…
4
Flipper (Gottlieb pinball, 1960)
Flipper (Gottlieb pinball, 1960): The top-hatted magician on Gottlieb's Flipper from 1960 is Roy Parker's work. Look below…
5
2001 (pinball)
2001 (pinball): Gottlieb's 2001 from 1971 turns the star corridor from Kubrick's movie into sharp streaks of color in…
6
Fireball (pinball)
Fireball (pinball): Bally's Fireball from 1972 puts Dave Christensen's fire god in the middle of the glowing backglass and…
7
Wizard! (pinball)
Wizard! (pinball): Bally's Wizard! from 1975 puts Roger Daltrey and Ann-Margret from Tommy at the center of Dave…
8
Spirit of 76 (pinball)
Spirit of 76 (pinball): Gottlieb's Spirit of 76 arrived in 1975 for the Bicentennial. Gordon Morison's art brings a…
9
Capt. Fantastic and The Brown Dirt Cowboy (pinball)
Capt. Fantastic and The Brown Dirt Cowboy (pinball): Bally's Capt. Fantastic and The Brown Dirt Cowboy from 1976 takes its…
10
Eight Ball (pinball)
Eight Ball (pinball): Bally's Eight Ball from 1977 puts a leather-jacketed pool player in the foreground, with a jukebox at…
11
Kiss (pinball)
Kiss (pinball): Bally's KISS from 1979 lights up all four band members against flames and fireworks. The bright lettering…
12
Gorgar
Gorgar: The red demon above the glowing playfield is Gorgar, Williams's 1979 game and the first commercially released…
13
Firepower (pinball)
Firepower (pinball): The illuminated backglass on Williams's Firepower from 1980 shows blue fighter ships flying past a…
14
Xenon (pinball)
Xenon (pinball): Paul Faris's Xenon backglass puts an uncanny blue face between chrome spheres and fans of red rays. Bally…
15
Black Knight (pinball)
Black Knight (pinball): An armored rider takes up the center of Tony Ramunni's backglass for Williams's Black Knight from…
16
Centaur (pinball)
Centaur (pinball): The backglass of Bally's Centaur from 1981 puts Paul Faris's mechanical centaur against stark blacks…
17
Eight Ball Deluxe
Eight Ball Deluxe: Bally's Eight Ball Deluxe from 1981 gives the pool theme a Western turn. A cowboy lines up behind an…
18
Black Hole (pinball)
Black Hole (pinball): The blue-and-black spiral on Gottlieb's Black Hole from 1981 runs from Terry Doerzaph's backglass…
19
High Speed (pinball)
High Speed (pinball): Williams's High Speed from 1986 puts a police pursuit in the backglass and a red beacon above it…
20
Pin-Bot
Pin-Bot: Williams released PIN·BOT in 1986, with design by Python Anghelo and Barry Oursler and art by Anghelo. The robot's…
21
FunHouse (pinball)
FunHouse (pinball): On Williams's FunHouse from 1990, John Youssi puts Rudy the dummy in the middle of a carnival scene on…
22
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (pinball)
Terminator 2: Judgment Day (pinball): Williams's Terminator 2: Judgment Day from 1991 gives Doug Watson's backglass two…

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