TrulyObscure - article - Games - The Last Pinball Factory

Long ago, pinball machines were threats to public morality, banned in New York City in 1942 and smashed up by a celebratory Mayor LaGuardia. They’ve inspired books, bad movies, and of course everyones favorite rock opera: The Who’s Tommy. And now, about seventy years after the term was coined, pinball has one foot in the grave, and the other in the past.

The sole company in the entire world that manufactures pinball machines is Stern Pinball, and they have a single factory where each machine is designed, assembled by hand, and tested before being shipped out. This factory is still, miraculously, based in the United States in a suburb of Chicago called Melrose Park. Their headquarters looks exactly like any of a number of stout, cookie-cutter buildings in an industrial complex- but inside is where the last of the pinballs are born.

Stern is solidly profitable now, a nice change from the tumultuous 80’s and 90’s, but a sad end to a once-iconic American obsession. Their factory produces 55 games a day, meaning that between ten and twenty thousand machines are manufactured worldwide annually. Most of these go to collectors- nostalgia is now the fuel of Stern’s business. Many are sent to Europe, where pinball skills are so good that Stern modifies them to have a larger ‘drop’- the area between the flippers- making them more difficult.

Twenty thousand machines may sound like a lot, but it’s small potatoes to the billion-dollar arcade industry. Not many figures are available, because unlike other industries there is no legal requirement for arcade companies or game manufacturers to submit sales figures to a government or trade body. Arcade operators we have spoken to argued that pinball machines simply aren’t profitable for them- they are difficult to maintain, and they attract less attention and take longer to play than many of today’s flashier arcade games.

Stern produces around 3 models a year, a far cry from the golden age of pinball, when manufacturers such as Bally and Gottlieb were competing for quarters with dozens of new models each year. Today, Stern focuses on licensed properties for their machines: their most popular recent machines are based on The Sopranos, Nascar, Elvis, and Lord of the Rings.

Based on the game bagatelle, and similar to pachinko, pinball machines are extremely complicated. Each game takes three days to construct, and contains around 3500 parts- 115 lights, 72 switches, and a 1/2 mile of wiring.

Buying a pinball machine will set you back between $1500 and $5000- no small amount of pocket change. There are two basic ways to buy one (besides going to eBay): contact a distributor, or go to an auction. Stern sells its machines only through distributors, and they’re the ones who will be able to actually arrange for the machine to be transported to you.

Auctions, on the other hand, are a lot more fun- and they are becoming more popular. Most auctions will have dozens, even hundreds of machines playable for free- no purchase necessary! Some do charge a small admission, but it’s definitely worth it. Mr. Pinball maintains an excellent page on upcoming pinball events, from Pennsylvania to California.

So, where does pinball go from here? Reduced to a pursuit for collectors, will pinball be able to return to it’s glory days? Gary Stern, owner and President of Stern Pinball doesn’t think so, and has gone on record for Business Week as saying, ”... [T]here’s room for one. We’re striving towards 10,000 machines a year, our breakeven is 65% or 70% of that. If somebody else came in, they would bring us to breakeven or below—and maybe kill us both.”

Despite this, there has been some recent news about an Australian, Wayne Gilard, attempting to start a new pinball company. According to pinballnews.com, Mr. Gilard has purchased the intellectual property and rights of WMS, including use of the Bally name, and manufacturing of old pinball parts. He has also controls, and has updated the website Pinball.com which states, simply, “The Future In Pinball Technology Is Coming!” and also mentions that further information will be available around October 12th.

Whether or not the game makes a return to the days of yore, one thing is certain: there will always be demand for a game that offers the uniquely tactile experience that is part and parcel of pinball.

_{Stages of pinball- from the wiring board to the table surface to the nearly completed machine. Glare-resitant glass is added last. All images are ©TrulyObscure.com, all rights reserved.}