Silverball Chronicles: A Pinball History Podcast

Want to Support the Show? Visit our Patreon at www.patreon.com/silverballchronicles Or pick up a tee shirt at https://tinyurl.com/kz5xt4hc Episode Summary: Manufacturing is hard. Pinball is hard, and when you're starting on the other side of the world from all the suppliers and skilled labour, it's that much harder. COVID-19 did not help Haggis Pinball is the latest cautionary tale of a pinball start-up that promised big and initially delivered but ultimately succumbed to the pressures of the industry. Join us this month while we talk about an IT guy who started a manufacturing company, what the heck is a celt, is innovation worth it, remaking old Ballys, COVID-19 production, red flags, and no, we won't be doing Australian accents and barbie jokes. Sources: The Aussie Pinball Podcast, Ep 16 – Mike from Homepin The Aussie Pinball Podcast, Ep 5 – Wayne Gillard Pinball Profile, Ep 304 – Fathom Revisited from Haggis Pinball Pinball Profile, Ep 243 – Haggis Pinball Celts Update 2019, Austetrogamer – Made in Australia: Haggis Pinball. Here 2024, Pinball News – Haggis Liquidation. Here 2024, Kineticist. A Detailed Timeline of the Haggis Pinball Collapse. Here 2024, YouTube, Cary Hardy. My Interview with Haggis Pinball. Here 2024, YouTube, Cary Hardy. Unboxing the TRUTH on Haggis Pinball. Here 2024, Knapp Arcade. Haggis Pinball, The Aftermath Here

Want to Support the Show? Visit our Patreon at www.patreon.com/silverballchronicles Or pick up a tee shirt at https://tinyurl.com/kz5xt4hc Topic Begins at 12:12 Episode Summary: Bingo just isn't the game you can play at a country fair or a sketchy gambling establishment. Bingo is also the big brother to today's modern pinball. You'll remember we spoke about Bingo machines and the issues they had in our Brief History of Pinball episode, but we figured Bingo needed its own episode. I mean, Roger Sharpe got two episodes. Ron and Dave (mostly Dave) crack out their 1920's voices as they dive into the world of one-balls, bingo, and 5-balls flipper games! We discuss Bingo vs. Bingo, touch on names you should know like the geniuses Lyn Durant and Don Hooker, Miami Beach's risqué flyer, what is so attractive about Bingo, why are there no Gottlieb Bingos, and more! Huge thanks to Nick Baldridge and the For Amusement Only Podcast for the content of this episode. Sources: Baldridge, Nick. A Beginner's Guide to Bingo Pinball. Here. Flippers.be. Bingo Machines: What Are They and How to Repair Them. Here. McCaffrey, James D. Bingo Pinball Machines. Word Press. Here. Baldridge, Nick. For Amusement Only Podcast. Here. Pacific Pinball Museum Interview with Wayne Neyenes The Johnson Act of 1951 – Here Don Hooker's Games List – Here Lyn Durant Games List – Here Shalhoub, Michael. The Pinball Compendium. Internet Pinball Database. IPDB.org

Want to Support the Show? Visit our Patreon at www.patreon.com/silverballchronicles Or pick up a tee shirt at https://tinyurl.com/kz5xt4hc Episode Summary: We've fought long and hard to avoid giving Roger Sharpe yet another ego-building podcast to spin his narrative and propaganda… but, here we are. Roger wrote about pinball. Played pinball. Promoted and evangelized pinball. Roger has been involved in the birth of tournaments, the second rise of licensing, and mainstream journalism. He also has had a great film based on him and his relationship with his wife Ellen. Join us as we talk about Roger's beginning, looking to buy a pinball machine, a thing that happened in a Court Room in the late 1970s, his pinball designs, the birth of tournament pinball, and his friendship with Steve Epstein. Sources: TopCast Episode – 17 – Roger Sharpe Teolis, Jeff. Pinball Profile. Here Barracora Inspiration. Li I, 1974 by Swiss artist H.R. Giger. Here and Here Pinball Magazine. 12-Aug-2015. Interview: Roger Sharpe. Here. Pinball News.19-Jun-2020. Steve Epstein Dies. Here. Shalhoub, Michael. The Pinball Compendium. Internet Pinball Database. IPDB.org Joe Balcer Game List. Here. YouTube. Modern Pinball NYC Closing. Here. YouTube. Broadway Arcade Commercial. Here.

Want to Support the Show? Visit our Patreon at www.patreon.com/silverballchronicles Or pick up a tee shirt at https://tinyurl.com/kz5xt4hc Topic starts at 8:27 Episode Summary: Capcom was a video game company that wanted to get into the pinball industry and ride a wave of popularity, just like Data East! Sadly, they were a victim of the wrong place, wrong time. Add to that a bunch of mismanagement, Python Angelo, various lawsuits, and well... you end up like Capcom Pinball. Even after Capcom disappeared, the lure of what could have been remained, especially as we stumble upon a crazy collector and dreamer who ruined himself… but we will get into that in Part 2. Join us this month while we discover why Capcom wanted to join pinball, who they bought to table to build machines, poaching talent from Williams, the lawsuits, and ultimately, the crash and burn. Sources: TopCast: Episode 42 – Python Angelo Episode 56 – Ward Pemberton Episode 52 – Stan Fukuoka Episode 49 – Mark Ritchie Episode 47 – Chris Granner Episode 43 – Jeff Powell Shalhoub, Michael. The Pinball Compendium. Flower, G. Pinball: The Lure of the Silver Ball Hardcover. Here. Internet Pinball Database. IPDB.org The Capcom Game List. Here.

Silverball Chronicles BONUS: Our Top Pins Join Ron and Dave in this Bonus Silverball Chronicles episode as they choose their favourite pinball machines made by featured pinball designers from previous episodes! https://mcdn.podbean.com/mf/web/nw2bie/Bonus_Episode_-_Our_Top_Pins9niuz.mp3

Want to Support the Show? Visit our Patreon at www.patreon.com/silverballchronicles Or pick up a tee shirt at https://tinyurl.com/kz5xt4hc Episode Summary: Gottlieb is viewed as the romantic electro-mechanical giant to many. The pinball machine atop the coin-op pedestal for all other manufacturers to reach for… but it was its god-tier status in the 1960s and early 1970s that would ultimately lead to its epic cratering in the 1980s. What led Gottlieb into the Mylstar Nosedive? Was it a lack of leadership? Corporate chaos? The recession of the early 1980s? Or was it a lack of creative freedom and adventure in the products? This month, Dave and Ron talk about the massive success of D. Gottlieb and Co., the ownership changes that hobbled the company, Ed Krynski's biography, generational changes in Gottlieb, Ron not knowing Europe is a continent, and the games of Mylstar! What could go wrong? Sources: Shalhoub, Michael (2004). The Pinball compendium: 1982 to Present. Schiffer Publishing, Ltd. YouTube Interviews from the Pacific Pinball Museum – Here, Here, Here and Here TopCast – Episode 30 – Wayne Neyens

Want to Support the Show? Visit our Patreon at www.patreon.com/silverballchronicles Or pick up a tee shirt at https://tinyurl.com/kz5xt4hc Topic starts at 10:50 Episode Summary: What can you say about Keith P Johnson? He has 4 of the top pinball machines in the Pinball Awards' Hall of Fame. He coded some of the most revered and most panned pinball codes in our hobby. In addition, Keith was one of the most important pieces in designing the Jersey Jack operating system and building their philosophy around pinball code. Join us this month as we discuss how Keith got into the pinball industry, his transition into full-time rules designer, his Simpsons Pinball Party and Lord of the Rings masterpieces, leaving pinball only to be pulled back in, building the Jersey Jack operating system and JJPs philosophy on code… Everything is Lit this month! Sources: IPDB Keith P Johnson Gamelist. Here. WOZ Pinball Magazine. Here Head 2 Head Pinball Podcast Ep 41 Pinball Profile Ep 266 TopCast Episode 63 Shalhoub, Michael (2004). The Pinball compendium: 1982 to Present. Schiffer Publishing, Ltd.

Want to Support the Show? Visit our Patreon at www.patreon.com/silverballchronicles Or pick up a tee shirt at https://tinyurl.com/kz5xt4hc Topic starts at 10:03 Episode Summary: A Brief History of Pinball is a great place to begin! Let's wind the clock back WAYYY back. We're going to visit the beginning of many 'games' in the early days of fancy pants Europe, the importation of table games to America, New Jersey's part in all this, Harry Williams, Wayne Neyens, and all those innovations that make pinball, pinball! Games: Baffle Ball, Ballyhoo, Contact, Skyscraper, World's Series, Rockelite, Humpty Dumpty, Triple Action, Saratoga, Army Navy, SuperJumbo, Balls-a-Poppin', Vegabond, Swing-Along, The Spirit of '76, Flash, Gorgar, Checkpoint, Revenge from Mars, and Wizard of Oz. Sources: Bagatelle. Here Pinball. Here ThoughtCo. The History of Pinball. Here Baldridge, Nick. This Week In Pinball. A Beginner's Guide to Bingo Pinball. Here Pinball News. Illuminating. Here Remembering Harry Williams. Here Shalhoub, Michael (2004). The Pinball compendium: 1982 to Present. Schiffer Publishing, Ltd. Kocurek, Carly A. "Coin-Operated Americans: Rebooting Boyhood at the Video Game Arcade." Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2015. Sharpe, Roger. "Pinball!" New York: E.P. Dutton, 1977. Sullivan, Barbara. "Ballyhoo Over Goldberg Hardly Whole Bally Saga." Chicago Tribune, June 17, 1996. Sweeney, Melodie. "The bagatelle wizard instead of the pinball wizard." National Museum of American History, October 31, 2012. Terry, Clifford. "How the Pinball Machine Got Those Flippers." Chicago Tribune, August 8, 1993. Wolf, Mark J. P. "The Video Game Explosion: A History from PONG to Playstation and Beyond." Westport CT: Greenwood Press, 2008.