Pinball reborn as home accessory

And one amusement company that has ridden the ups and downs of pinball from its heyday in the early 70s through its decline in the 80s as video games took over, is again riding a new crest in demand for these classic amusement machines.

Bumper Amusements has found that an increasing number of homeowners and designers have requested the addition of a pinball machine to the household, whether to add that element of ‘cool’, to fit in with a retro design, or simply to offer a particular entertainment that computer games cannot provide.

According to director Del Reiss, who has been dealing in pinball since 1972, the reason for the sudden interest in the machines is because of the near death of the amusement arcade from around 2002, followed by the major pinball manufacturers – Bally, Williams and Gottlieb – deciding to shut up shop and close down production.

“Pinball machines went through a resurgence in the early 1990s with the launch of the Terminator 2 machine following more than a decade in the wilderness due to the boom in video games started by Space Invaders, Pac Man, Galaga and the like,” Reiss says.

“But in 1997 the market was again saturated with the new evolution machines, and where they once retailed at their peak for $8000, were suddenly selling for as little as $600.”

At this time, pinballs were again hit hard by another form of amusement, this time in the form of the Daytona rally car machines that saw the peak of amusement arcades such as TimeZone.

However, with the current demise of amusement arcades, pinballs are back on home and business renovators’ wish lists, with the machines from the 90s being the highest in demand because of their ‘collectable’ status.

Typical machines that Bumper supplies its customers include Terminator 2, Startrek, Indiana Jones, Kiss (from 1979), Dr Who, The Simpsons, Jurassic Park, Batman, and the most popular machine in the history of amusements, The Addams Family. These machines now retail from $2000 upwards.