Tron had not been filmed yet, and super heroes were still for kids.

You might as well ask "Why so many card themes?" as well. It's kind of a question that answers itself, really.

Were there any EM's with real people, characters, movie themes or brands back in the day? I can't think of any. It is strange that they did not have a Mission Impossible (tv show) or Beverly Hillbillies or superman EM made back then. A Rolling Stones Pin made in the 60's would of killed on route. Why was there no Elvis pin before Stern?

Perhaps pinballs kind of had a bad rep with people who did not play them, so you would not want your character or brand on the machine.

No ramps. No toys. Just real pinball.

Mork and Mindy?

Yea, they had them.

Here's a couple: 1977 Sonic Prospector- Laurel & Hardy
1975 CC Hollywood- Lots of different actors represented

Ken

What modern pins with characters or brands could of been EMs back in the day?

Twilight Zone, Creature, Monster Bash, X-men, Monopoly, Nascar, WOZ, LOTR, Shadow, XMen, superman, Spider-Man, Iron Man, Batman, AFM, TAF, ST, Indy 500, Flash Gordon, Flinstones, playboy, Godzilla, the avengers, Popeye, hulk......more?

A lot actually. More than I thought.

Most likely due to pinballs popular in bowling alleys and taverns back in the day. My local bowling alley had a bank of 15 pins. Bowling was much more popular in the 50s-60s. Billiard games are always at hit in bars/taverns.

The whole notion of "licensing" was still an odd concept in the early days of pinball, or anything really. If memory serves, it was the original Star Wars that fully realized the whole merchandising and licensing thing to its maximum potential. Even as late as the 90s companies were still screwing up doing proper licensing and merchandising. : P

As for why many early pinball machines had pool and bowling themes... well... it's really a no-brainer: Pool and bowling both use balls, just like pinball. ; )

Agree with Pinplayer1967

When someone went to the bowling alley, tavern, or pool hall, they played a few games of pinball after they we're done bowling or shooting pool.

Maybe this type of theme was a payback from major pinball manufacturers to those type of establishments since pinball does go hand and hand with them?

Bagatelle must be the realest pinball!

Targets need to represent something
People know in 10 pin bowling you need to hit all the pins
For card games, people know that you need get cards of certain values
And with pool, you need to sink the balls

They were doing the same as Stern does now, using themes that were common in the day

I'm pretty sure that the games of the era were simply reflecting popular culture in terms of favorite leisure time activities as well as movies & TV shows.

I grew up in Michigan in the 60's, and I can tell you that bowling and pool were very popular activities and 'card nights' were popular with people of all ages (not just poker but euchre, gin rummy, etc.).

If you look at the popularity of Westerns on TV it's not surprise that there were also so many Western themed pinball games. Even my favorite pinball back glass - Sing Along - presents the popular (at the time) activity of Caroling during the holidays.

This "art" imitating life phenomenon is yet another reason why I love EM games - particularly those from the 60's.

Interesting question. Seems to me it's a combination of what others have mentioned (popular themes and pastimes of the '50s & '60s) but also that cards and bowling have simple rulesets that were could be implemented (or simulated) with the EM technology of the day.

I'd like to mention the mid 70s and the many games that were red white and blue
Were you guys celebrating something?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Bicentennial

It was a pretty big deal.

Balls=balls.

It's easy to make the mental hop from using a bowling ball to knock down stuff, to a pinball knocking down stuff. But it's a bit harder to make the mental leap to what a steel ball hitting things has to do with surfing, picnics, the wild west, truckers, horse racing, etc...

The card theme games, that's easy. Pinball machines used to be gambling devices. Literally. Then, when they got outlawed from being gambling devices, I'm certain that the easies theme for customers to quickly recognize the familiarity and prior association to, was that of a gambling nature. Hence, cards.

Depends on your definition of celebrating.

th-2-234.jpeg

+1

Just like every diner would have a jukebox, every bar or bowling alley would have pinball machines. Often the bars and bowling alleys would have ball bowlers or shuffle bowlers as well. Bowling everywhere.

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Pins back in the day in many cases did loosely depict popular TV stars and shows. Gottlieb's "Gigi", "Lovely Lucy", "Sky-Line" and others are some examples.
Gottlieb "Bonanza" really pushed the envelope with the actual name and close likenesses of the characters. An early game that may have been the first to depict an actual historical event is Williams "Friendship 7". Bowling, billiards and card playing were very popular recreational activities back in the '40s, '50s, '60s and even into the '70s.

They made a Skylab pinball machine before it came crashing to Earth.

Another good question is why are so many modern pinball machines based on rock stars, movies and other themes that haven't been relevant in over a quarter of a century?

Don't forget Williams "Space Mission/Odyssey" game which depicted the the Apollo-Soyuz mission where the USA and Soviet Union linked up in space.

Ken

We could go on and on, but most EM games reflected the times as compared to todays pinball machines. Heck, they just announced Alien, a movie that came out in 1979. I heard next they are doing Kiss.

Are Metallica and Guns & Roses not considered "modern" pinball machines? Walking Dead? Iron Man? What is your definition of the term modern? I'm just not seeing modern pinball machines that are resurrecting stars, groups and movies that are over 25 years old. Where are all these modern pinball machines you speak of?

GnR was almost over in 1994, although still current when the machine came out, but that was 20 years ago. Metallica was an 80s band, and that was 30 years ago. Predator was an 80s movie. Etc.
Walking Dead and Iron Man are more recent, but it seems the trend leans more towards ancient themes.

That's because nothing new is good

Thus our love for old school EMs.

1963 really.

More recent than me.

My IM is a 1963 EM actually. It plays very fast for an EM. It is an EMLE actually. I can not take a puff off of my cigarette in between shots sometimes.

You need one of these.
http://www.pbresource.com/signatur/gtb-a3623+.jpg

Funny! I did a temp trade recently with my 1960's IM for a LOTR and I noticed the LOTR smelled a little smoky. I was worried he smoked around his games even though I never saw him smoke before. I did not want my IM smelling like smoke when it came back. I called the owner of the LOTR and asked "uh, you do not smoke in your game room do you?". He said he only smoked a couple of packs a day around his machines and said not to worry because he has an ashtray on my IM! Kidding! He said LOTR was routed and smelled like smoke a little.

Good to know!

One of the reasons I love my GnR is that over the 15+ years before I got it, while Axl was getting fat, it sat in a bar in Bakersfield for the duration. It is not that noticable, but when I open the coin door it does have a sweet aroma of bar scent. Some that might offend, but for me, it just adds to the patina and history of the machine. And for that particular title, I wouldn't have it any other way.

Bakersfield.

This was my first thought also. Because it was just way too easy to make up rules that worked with these themes using EM tech.

Always loved that song off of the "Some Girls" album! You do not get all those pinside Karma points posting BS, do you o-din? You earn them! Your posts are thoughtful, insightful and caring. Thanks for letting us into your world.

I think many of the modern pin themes listed here that are 'retro' are marketed to the gen x and baby boomers who have been around since the glory days and have stayed somewhat loyal to pinball since they(we) grew up with it! Look at who's playing pinball, yes, there are some young people out there, but vast majority are still over 40.

I know of a very good young player. His band of choice is Devo.

No way o-din Are we not men

Ken

Can't say I blame him. Devo put on the best live show i ever saw. And that was back when I remembered things.

Flicker has Laurel and Hardy and other movie stars on it.

Is that used for a future Justin Bieber pin?