Systems Engineering in Modern Skill-Based Flipper Games
How digital transformation and systems principles work together to take Pinball to the next level.
I was on Engineering.com, and I saw a captivating article about how pinball, a once-considered analog game, has turned into one dominated by “digital” technology (Winnick, 2023). Articles regarding the silver ball game were once unheard of, at least in a positive light, since the game was illegal in many states just in the past decade (Klein, 2023). You also might not know that pinball nearly went extinct in the late 90s as it struggled to remain relevant (Snow). Today, there are several popular manufacturers: Stern Pinball, Jersey Jack, Spooky Pinball, and American Pinball. The industry is thriving, and new title releases like Stern’s Jaws bring new, never-before-seen features to life (“Stern of the Union Address — March 2023 — Stern Pinball.” 2024).
Erin Winnick’s article, “The Arcade Classic That Tilted Digital” tours the reinvention of the game by sharing the typical suspects of modern engineering development newly found in the pinball industry. Since very few seem to be talking technically about Pinball, let’s expand upon Winnick’s observations. I also want to focus on one particular “System of Systems” (SoS), which I believe is currently the most powerful element in the digital transformation of pinball.
Enabling the Greater System
Winnick begins her article by highlighting several examples of digital transformation in her publication, where she states,
“Pinball has had to reinvent itself in the digital age, with today’s state-of-the-art machines sporting cameras, large LCD screens, internet connectivity, increasingly complex code, custom animation and more” (Winnick, 2023).
Pinball manufacturers are not all made equal; Stern is the big kid on the playground in this case, and I have found that Stern’s systems engineering rigor is a key element of what sets them apart from their competition. When Winnick mentions internet connectivity, this is a component of a modern pinball cornerstone SoS, Insider Connected, a product/feature developed by Stern Pinball. Insider Connected enables users and operators to create accounts that provide network-based access to Stern pinball machine features. Furthermore, Winnick makes an excellent observation about the impact of this tool,
“The addition of modern features in pinball games has not only been to draw in players. It has also been a bonus for designers. With internet connectivity, pinball machines can evolve over time with software updates to introduce completely new gameplay for years after release. The connection also uploads an abundant amount of data back to machine manufacturers.”
How do I define Insider Connected as a part of the System of Systems? Per SEBoK, part 4, Systems of Systems,
“five key characteristics (not criteria) of SoS: operational independence of component systems, managerial independence of component systems, geographical distribution, emergent behavior, and evolutionary development processes, and identified operational independence and managerial independence as the two principal distinguishing characteristics for applying the term ‘systems-of-systems.’ A system that does not exhibit these two characteristics is not considered a system-of-systems regardless of the complexity or geographic distribution of its components.”
Based on SEBoK’s definition, I am focusing on Insider Connected, particularly its emergent behavior and evolutionary developmental processes, as well as the unique process elements that are enabled by this novel SoS. Next, we can look at a few of the systems engineering processes that interact with the Insider Connected element.
Securing The Next Big Thing
All pinball manufacturer organizations should employ some form of The Portfolio Management (PM) process (section 7.3) (Wiley, 2015, 151). For makers to remain competitive in their working environment, they must be able to secure the highly desirable rights to potential titles, sometimes competing against one another. The end users are the ultimate winners if this process is successful because they get the opportunity to play the most interesting game themes possible as a result. An interesting thing of note here is that Stern’s Insider Connected can harvest data that can be used to evaluate the PM strategy effectiveness on various games, which is one of the process inputs per the INCOSE Systems Engineering Handbook (Wiley, 2015, 151). Two publicly available metric examples that the end users have ranked as the top machines currently are #1 Godzilla and Jurassic Park ranked #2 (“Pinside Top 100”, 2024). The foundation of these dominating games in the pinball universe are the blockbuster movies they are based on secured by PM, but also (surprise) these games both are Insider Connected capable (“Pinside Pinball Database — Godzilla”, “Pinside Pinball Database — Jurassic Park”, 2024).
The Stakeholders, Environment, and Their Needs
We can draw further conclusions about what it takes to make a good pinball machine by identifying stakeholders and operating environments. When we discuss stakeholders we can consider The Stakeholder Needs and Requirements Definition Process (section 4.2) (SNRD) (section 4.2) from the INCOSE Systems Engineering Handbook (Wiley, 2015, 52). Of the inputs to this process, the definition of stakeholder’s needs and the environment are necessary. The stakeholders one might quickly identify include players, operators, and personal owners. Before diving into the commonwealth, consider that stakeholders in pinball have included lawmakers at the state and city levels. New York City Mayor LaGuardia was famously pictured in the 1940s smashing pinball machines around New York in prohibition-style raids (“Pinball in America”). The goals of regulatory bodies were not being met at this time, but it wasn’t for a lack of effort from manufacturers (Klein, 2023). Blue Chip, a game in my collection from the 1970s worked to appeal to this sort of regulation with a family-friendly ‘successful industry’ theme, markings
“PLAY FLIPPER SKILL GAMES”, “FOR FUN AND RECREATION”, and “FOR AMUSEMENT ONLY”
adorning the cabinet and backglass. The idea was to differentiate the game of pinball from similar-looking gambling devices which were games of chance (“pinball in America”). Today, regulation plays a different role in these games, with a focus on trademarks and licensing which we discussed in regards to Portfolio Management processes.
For pinball machine collector stakeholders like myself, we are both the operator and the player. I have observed personally that the environments for these machines are typically arcades, breweries, and bars, where the games will see thousands of plays per year. When arcade games make their way into collector’s homes, the abusive environmental requirements are greatly lessened. However, other design elements such as the trim quality and depth of the ruleset coded into the game might be more heavily scrutinized by a collector (Snow, 2008). SNRD leaves us with requirements to guide the designers, but also criteria which I believe Stern can then use to validate system performance through comparison to data collected by Insider Connected. Winnick mentioned this,
“By observing the parts of the game players most interact with and what strategies they gravitate towards, Stern can work to better balance the game. It also keeps dedicated players coming back, wanting to see what has changed with the machine through software updates.”
This same tool empowers operators by automating updates and providing hardware health status updates to their email inboxes (Winnick, 2023).
For the pinball business, stakeholders are further expanded into digital license holders such as, The Marvel Comic Universe, a popular classic movie Jaws, or your favorite music artists (“Stern of the Union Address — March 2023 — Stern Pinball.”, 2024). I think these license holders have a unique perspective, as they are not necessarily consumers of most of the system features. Yet, they hold a stake in the perception of the product as viewed by the other stakeholders. This success-driven perspective means that everyone involved has a common goal. Designers have the role of making the game attractive and play well, portfolio management targets popular licenses but, ultimately I believe previously validated performance as created by the stakeholders influences which licenses are willing to play ball.
Expanding the Feedback Cycle
The Validation Process (VP) (section 4.11) in the INCOSE Systems Engineering Handbook,
“can be applied to any system element of engineering item of the system or its definition that has been defined or realized” (Wiley, 2015, 89).
Validating every individual system element of a pinball machine would likely be an expensive endeavor, even today. Limiting our field of study to Insider Connected once again, engineers can see the data flowing in from Godzilla IC machines fielded all over the world, but #283 on the Pinside top 100, Shaq Attack released by Gottlieb in February 1995 (“Pinside top 100”, 2024) — the validation feedback data is stymied upon release. Stern is actively collecting feedback on machine performance and user preferences across the entire product life cycle.
Final Thoughts
In conclusion, modern pinball machines that implement network connectivity and software can make more efficient and effective use of systems engineering (SE) processes as defined by SEBoK and The Systems Engineering Handbook. There are many applicable processes, but we must pay close attention to the Portfolio Management Process, Stakeholder Needs and Requirements Definition Process, and Validation Process. The benefit of these processes is that they allow for a machine design that better meets operator and player needs. The cornerstone enabler of all of these processes is the Insider Connected system, which allows the capture of data throughout the complete product lifecycle. Ultimately, the efficient use of these processes can translate to raising game and cost performance on products built by manufacturers employing these SE tools.
Citations:
Authors, S. (2023). Guide to the systems engineering body of knowledge (SEBOK). Retrieved from https://sebokwiki.org/wiki/Guide_to_the_Systems_Engineering_Body_of_Knowledge_(SEBoK)
Klein, C. (2023). That Time America outlawed pinball. Retrieved from https://www.history.com/news/that-time-america-outlawed-pinball
Pinball Database — Godzilla. (n.d.-a). Retrieved from https://pinside.com/pinball/machine/godzilla-pro
Pinball database — Jurassic Park. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://pinside.com/pinball/machine/jurassic-park-stern
Pinball in America — The Strong — National Museum of Play — Rochester, NY. Retrieved from https://artsandculture.google.com/story/nwWRhPEYG8fuKg
Pinball top 100. (n.d.-b). Retrieved from https://pinside.com/pinball/top-100
Snow, J. (2008). The last pinball factory in the world. Retrieved from https://www.wired.com/2008/04/the-last-pinbal/
Stern of the Union Address — March 2023 — stern pinball. (2023). Retrieved from https://sternpinball.com/2023/03/07/stern-of-the-union-address-march-2023/
Walden, D., Roedler, G., Forsberg, K., Hamelin, D., & Shortell, T. (2015). Systems Engineering Handbook (4th ed.). San Diego, Ca: Wiley.
Winick, E. (2023). The arcade classic that Tilted Digital. Retrieved from https://www.engineering.com/story/the-arcade-classic-that-tilted-digital
