Spinning discs on pinball machines, although not that common a feature, have been around since the 1930s when Jig-alo Electro-Ball first featured one.
It was an interesting contraption, with the ability to catch four balls.
In 1960 Williams released Nags with six pop bumpers on a turntable. Although it wasn't very fast, it did turn.
1972 brought Fireball and re-introduced the spinning disc as a functional playfield device that had the ability to redirect balls in chaotic ways, and then it appeared on several other machines shortly thereafter like Chicago Coins Casino and Bally's Twin Win.
In the solid state and DMD era the spinning disc made a few appearances and Whirlwind had three that were all geared together. So they would stop and go at the same time.
In 1997 the disc was once again reimagined and revolutionized with the game Twister, as now there was a functional magnet in the middle of the disc that could not only hold five balls at once and spin and release them at the same time, but was also used to catch a ball for the plunge skill shot and could sense it once it was on there.
Lost In Space and X-Men featured a similar magnet on disc, and other games like Tron have used regular spinning discs, but that's where the evolution of the feature has pretty much stopped.
So with no real advancement in over 20 years, will the spinning disc become a novelty and be used only here and there on a few games, or will it once again be revolutionized and become a modern visually exciting and functional feature it once was?
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Oakland, NJ
Leduc, AB
