The Resurgence of Pinball Is Something Else
So, at one point in time, arcades were considered “dead.”
This came when home gaming took off like a rocket, leading to many Mom and Pop-owned arcades and other chains to close their doors. Which was a sad thing to see. And, with that, I almost expected arcade gaming to feel the impact, including the manufacturing of pinball machines.
But then the funniest thing happened — pinball thrived.
In the 90s, machines like Creature From the Black Lagoon, Addams Family and countless others thrived. Then, as the 2000’s set in, we started to see more sophisticated licensed machines. There were also some original efforts that caught some attention as well.
Now here we are, and the year of 2023 appears to be one of the biggest yet for the pinball medium. What happened?
Well, I’ll tell ya — a devoted community. Say what you want about arcade gaming not being the same anymore, but the pinball community is amazing. Between devoted streamers like MPT3K and DeadFlip, as well as companies like Zen Studios keeping the heart beating with its Pinball FX model (even if tables don’t port over from previous purchase, gah), it lives on with so many.
And that’s not even including official new table releases. Let’s recap.
First off, Stern Pinball is once again teaming with a popular band for a table, just as it did with The Beatles, Led Zeppelin and Rush, among countless others. This time, the Foo Fighters are getting the treatment, with what appears to be one of the company’s biggest releases yet.
Though sales numbers haven’t been released yet, this looks to be just as popular as other releases in the company’s catalog, if not moreso. And it pays loving tribute to the late Taylor Hawkins, who tragically passed away last year.
Tell you what, I can’t wait to play this one. It looks amazing, even if the general “green” table design seems very St. Patrick Day-ish. No matter, it’s hardly a “Pretender.”
Next up is Jersey Jack Pinball, a company that recently made a name for itself with such greats as The Hobbit and Toy Story 4 in pinball form. Now it has its biggest license yet with its new table, The Godfather. That’s right, the classic Francis Ford Coppola film now lives on in pinball form, and looks absolutely fantastic.
I’ve already seen this pop up at a few pinball places, and we’re sure that its distribution will continue well into the summer. It just goes to show how much Jersey Jack has grown over the years, and I’m eager to see what it does next. (How about a Def Leppard machine?)
There are others as well. Play Mechanix and Chicago Gaming Company, two awesome names in the game industry right now, are working on a new machine based on, of all things, Quentin Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction. The teaser trailer for the table is below, but we can probably expect gameplay any day now.
Oh, and I should mention that Mark Ritchie designed this table. He’s a legend in the pinball-verse, so feel free to look him up.
And finally, American Pinball also has a new table in the works — a weird-looking table called Galactic Tank Force. It looks very micro-sized, but innovation is definitely working in its favor. Hopefully we’ll see the final design soon enough.
It just goes to show that the pinball market is surprisingly fresh and loaded with products that people want to play, both licensed and otherwise. And it also shows that there’s room to grow for the “little” companies as well, as I recently saw at Free Play Florida just a few months ago.
It’s a pleasant surprise, and I can only hope it continues to shine on from here. I’m a big fan of pinball, and this just makes me want to play all the tables even more.
Now, um, if only The Pinball Arcade could get new releases again…
