While The Who's "Pinball Wizard" still stands up after four decades of radio play, the designers of the pinball machines that made Tommy so good have become an endangered species. Only one company ...

A flipperless electro-mechanical pinball predecessor with passive bumpers. 1947: Humpty Dumpty (by Gottlieb, USA). The first pinball machine manufactured with electro-mechanical flippers.

There's a certain thrill associated with peeking under the hood of a pinball machine where thousands of moving parts come together. This is especially true of older electro mechanical machines ...

Distinct and pleasing to the eye topside.A maze of relays and motors and switches below deck. With no electronics.That’s the electro-mechanical pinball machine that dominated American arcades ...

Other parts, such as flywheels and score reels, might have to be replaced. Some pinball machines might have four score reels for each player, he explained. His wife chips in to polish up the ...

The older machines are electro-mechanical — meaning the switches, relays and contact points are magnetic — while the newer versions are digital. A look inside of a pinball machine reveals a ...

Young took me into the storage and manufacturing area within The Pinball Resource, featuring shelf after shelf of parts plus tables covered with specialized machines. "I have a lot of tooling set ...