Many of the larger companies were acquired by, or merged with, other companies. Chicago Coin was purchased by the Stern family, who brought the company into the digital era as Stern Enterprises, which closed its doors in the mid-1980s.
Holes: The player directs the ball into a hole. In modern games, there are both vertical and horizontal holes (also called scoops), and the game may include mechanisms to move the ball between them.
Companies came and went, were sold or just closed down, but here's a list of the most influential pinball manufactures from the early days of pinball.
Gate: This block will allow balls to come through one way but will block the ball if it is going the other way.
By the first years of the 1990s, pinball had made a strong comeback and saw new sales highs. Some new manufacturers entered the field, such as Capcom Pinball and Alvin G.
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Data East chose to forgo many unlicensed titles and worked with big names licenses to develop some really cool pinball more info machines based on tv shows, movies and rock n roll bands. While this lead to popular games, it also lead to very small profits. Some of their popular titles include: Guns N Roses, Star Wars, Back to the Future, and The Simpsons.
Electromagnets: Some machines feature electrically operated magnets below the playfield to affect the ball's speed and trajectory according to the current state of gameplay. This may be done to make the ball's movement unpredictable, temporarily halt the ball (as a ball saver, for example), or otherwise control the ball by non-mechanical means. Electromagnets may also be used in above-playfield elements (often as part of the playfield toys) to grab the ball and move it elsewhere (onto a mini-playfield, for example).
Saucers: A shallow hole with a kicker inside. The ball remains visible on the playfield and is kicked out straight up (usually into a duct or rail chute) or sideways back onto the playfield.
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Special: A mechanism to get a free game during play is usually called a "special". Typically, some hard-to-reach feature of the game will light the outlanes (the areas to the extreme left and right of the flippers) for special.
Stern Pinball’s Star Wars has an LCD screen included in the playfield, which is rather unique when compared to many other pinball games.
Stern Pinball adds these features only to their high end models so they become a bit of a collector's item. This collectability is one aspect that makes the pinball machine unique.
Solenoids or coils: These are found in every modern pinball machine since the flipper age. They are usually hidden under the playfield, or covered by playfield components.