5 Of The Coolest Auto-Themed Pinball Machines Ever Made

Arcades during the 1980s were the place to be. The digitized siren songs of newly developing computer arcade games mixed with the bells, whistles, thumps, and flipper flaps of the long-established pinball machine combined to make the din emanating from these hallowed halls the background noise for an entire generation of kids.

Interestingly, the earliest form of "pinball" traces its roots back to a French game called Bagatelle, which started as a lawn game and morphed into a table game during the late 18th century that more closely resembled billiards than the pinball machines we have today. 

Whereas today's cutting-edge flippers are digital, rigs from the past typically were mechanical, electro-mechanical (EM), dot matrix display (DMD), or solid-state (SS). The difference identifies during which generation they were built and serves as an ode to ingenuity.

With such a long and rich history in American gameplay, here are four of the coolest pinball machines ever made based on one of America's other manufacturing obsessions — the automobile.

Our list begins with a game from the "Golden Age" of pinball.The first coin-operated pinball machines appeared in 1931, and the first electric ones (powered by a small battery) emerged in 1933. Coil bumpers appeared in Bally tables in 1937, and D. Gottlieb & Co. invented flippers in 1947. This evolution ushered in what many consider the "Golden Age" and ran from 1948 through 1958.

Speed Way was built by Williams Manufacturing Company and appeared first in 1948 with a theme centered around car racing. However, aside from the name and the backglass artwork, you'd never know it had anything to do with cars, as neither the playfield nor cabinet artwork conveys any racing theme.

It's an electro-mechanical (EM) machine that utilizes relays, motors, solenoids, and switches but contains no electronic components per se. And in this case, it uses lights fixed behind the backglass instead of a mechanical wheel to tally the score.

The ball is shot from the plunger on the right side, takes a lap around the playfield (ala, a race car around the track), then dives into a playfield with two flippers, five passive bumpers, and three kick-out holes. Those features sound pedestrian, but it seems to be the first to use automobiles as the motif. Speedway also used outward-facing flippers instead of the conventional inward, and it had a pop bumper in the center.

During the 30s and 40s, most pinball machines were built in Chicago, well known for its organized crime. Before the invention of flippers in '47, pinball was a game of chance instead of skill. Many soon came to perceive the machines as a "menace to society" and a way to circumvent gambling laws.

In 1942, New York City banned pinball machines and went so far as to carry out police raids, destroying thousands in the process. Boston, Chicago, and Los Angeles all followed suit with similar bans that lasted until the mid-1970s. Believe it or not, playing games on pinball machines in many major American cities for decades was illegal.

In 1963, however, Midway came out with an electro-mechanical (EM) race car-themed table that gets a spot on this list for one simple feature — it had two tiny yet real slot cars that raced around a miniature oval track housed in the upright backbox (or lightbox) based on what the ball hit and where it moved around on the playfield. 

The ball was shot into play from the center outhole located between the flippers rather than a plunger on the right-hand side and bounced around two flippers, four slingshots, seven hanging targets, had left and right dual outlanes, and a total of four kick-out holes. Sound was provided by a wooden box chime and counted off laps.

Bally purchased Midway in 1969 but didn't merge the pinball divisions until 1982, forming Bally/Midway.

The first solid-state (SS) machine — the "Spirit of 76" built by Mirco Games Incorporated in 1976 — appeared just as laws banning pinball games were fading. The technological changeover from electro-mechanical to solid-state was revolutionary and helped usher in a new gaming era. Unfortunately, much like hitting a flipper at the wrong time, pinball's resurgence coincided with the rise of computer-powered arcade games like Space Invaders in 1978, Asteroids in '79, and Pac-Man in 1980.

In 1988, WMS Industries purchased Bally/Midway and released some gems, like the solid-state table Corvette in 1994. This pin game was designed to take the player on a ride in one of America's most iconic automobiles, replete with a bevy of beautiful artwork not just on the backglass but wrapped around the whole table.

It has three flippers, two ramps, and a track-like launch ramp funneling the ball to a V8-shaped LT5 engine that rocked and revved. If the player was skilled enough, getting the ball into the intake registered a jackpot. The aim was to collect the nine cars (representing every generation of Corvette to that point) laid out on the playfield by completing modes, including video and multi-ball modes. 

Another feature that makes this table so cool is the Hot Wheels-like drag strip on the right side, where two miniature Corvettes drag-raced each other up the side as you played.

At the time of this writing, Bally's Indianapolis 500 table sits at #73 on the Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) Top 300 list and #81 on Pinside's Top 100, so that's saying something about this pin game's cool factor. This solid-state table enjoyed three flippers and three pop bumpers, a turbine engine that kicks out additional multi-balls, an autoplunger, and a digital dot matrix display (DMD) game. 

Need more cool? How about a spinning Indy car in the upper right that shakes the whole table or the bigger replica Indy car on the left side that waits patiently for you to join it at the finish line? If that's still not convincing, the game's audio might change your mind. The voices of legendary race announcers Paul Page, Bobby Unser, and Tom Carnegie were backed by the screams of powerful Indy car engines as they raced around the Brickyard.

A litany of Indianapolis Speedway images (including the Borg-Warner trophy) litter the playfield. The goal is to advance your position and complete as many laps around the track as possible. One mode has you try and run all four ramps in 20 seconds to snag yourself 10 million points.

In 2014, Stern Pinball released not one but three Mustang-themed pinball machines, which, much like Bally's table did with the Corvette, celebrated another classic American car – the mighty Mustang, born in 1964.

Two were designated as "pro" machines meant for arcades, while a third was a higher-end "premium edition" centered on the legendary Bosses (302, 351, and the baddest of the lot — the Boss 429). Artwork on all of them highlighted 50 years of Mustang magic and mixed old-school flipper action with cutting-edge tech, letting players collect parts to customize their rides and "go racing."

The solid-state table had a Stern S.A.M. Board System microprocessor that powered a video display and real Mustang sound effects. The pro included two flippers, four pop bumpers, two slingshots, seven standup targets, one 5-bank drop target, a spinning target, a captive ball, and a whirlpool.

Hitting targets simulated shifting gears, and the ramp moved up and down, adding another layer of complexity. A 1/24 scale toy Mustang car sat above the "GEARS" target for effect.