Two questions:
(1) Was "Black Hole" Licensed in any way from Disney?
The movie was 1979; the pin game out in 1981. I'd always assumed it was based on the movie but in looking more closely at the sales literature for the machine, there's no mention of the movie and they don't seem to have put identifiable actors from the movie on the artwork (just faceless astronauts).
I have a list of machines that are "ersatz themes", that seem to capitalize off other franchises without paying a license fee. Examples: "Bone Busters", "Mad World", "Deadly Weapon", "Sexy Girl", etc. and am wondering if I ought to move "Black Hole" onto it.
(2) Was this the first 50 cent a play machine?
I had a vague memory of being pissed off about having to shovel two quarters into the machine at the time, but the thought didn't occur to me it might have been the first until I spotted a reference to having "broken the 50 cent barrier" in one of the sales circulars that's now in the archives.
Thanks for any more expert knowledge you can add to this.