Coin Slot

Coin Slot Magazine - #040 - 1978 - May [International Arcade Museum]
Anyone — take an aborigine from his land, find a well-bred gentleman
with an open mind - and give him a pinball game. The pinball
can make time go away for anyone willing to permit it to do so.
True, there will be some who object to the game claiming it has no
purpose to be inherently interesting. The steel balls themselves fal
ling from one end of the playfield to the other manage to evoke
some universal fascination for mankind.
Fascinating it may be, but it was in man's nature to give even the
earliest pinballs an added purpose as gambling devices. The addition
of a goal to pinball is harmonious with its raw attraction, providing
the goal is within reach but beyond mundane achievement. But
gambling, especially in the highly decentralized form which was in
herent in the thousands of early pinballs, has never been a welcome
activity to government.
For the purpose of this column, govern
ment's constant vigil against the use of pinballs as gambling devices
is welcome, since gambling in the industry tends to stunt creativity
of the nature which most interests this writer.
Pinball today is without purpose beyond its own demands.
There
is no reason beyond the game itself that any money should be spent
off pinball by the player. Any purpose for pinball which is beyond
the game itself detracts from the essence of the game.
Modern pinball is wedded to the replay.
It too is harmonious with
the basic draw of pinball, but is a return which is less upsetting to
government than a non-self-serving prize.
It is the job of everyone
involved with the pinball machine right up to the person who plays
game to make the replay as valuable as possible.
The art in pinball
design and operation is in the myriad of ways to reach this end. At
its best, pinball maximizes both its return to the player and its
return to the owner.
Pinball as an art does not necessarily conflict with pinball as a means
of putting bread and butter on the table as long as the priorities
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given pinball
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"Star Wars" —
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tacular success of a "Star Wars".
Economic considerations have
are kept straight.
Unfortunately, there are no patrons of pinball
giving large grants for the advancement of play and removing games
brought about the existence of most pinballs and obviously have a
© The International Arcade Museum
http://www.arcade-museum.com/