In anticipation of opening up this arcade museum, I have been doing a lot of research about the early history of pinball. I would like to not only have a bunch of games, but also a bunch of exhibits/historical documents and facts etc.I have stumbled across some interesting facts, such as the whole ww2 conversion era ( Which I didn't know about until yesterday when I went to buy a baseball pitch and bat, and the guy also had a flipperless marvel lightning pinball machine). I also followed a link from here about a prototype hyperball one piece backglass and found out that the seller, Steve Richie, is also the same guy who designed black knight, hyperball, high speed, high speed 2, T2,T3, spiderman, etc. What I would like to know is what facts have others stumbled across in their research of pinball history / old machines?

Thanks

Gerald

I was chatting with Steve about buying both those glasses a couple of weeks ago and he said he would sign them. The problem is he doesn't want to ship them and he's currently in California. I was asking about what shows he was going to attend this year but he didn't know as of yet.

They are both very flakey FYI and he is reluctant to sell them without someone laying eyes on them first hand. I didn't care because it's a piece of history. He also noted they were in his opinion quite ugly and would not modify a machine to take them.

I left it at that and well see if our paths are going to pass at a show some time. If you get him to ship them your in luck.

A Spellbinder BG also came up and was sold at a show awhile ago.

Most of these items would be of interest to only real true pinball aficionados to see. The general public would probably just be interested in the commercially released stuff shown in chronological order to get an idea of pinball advancements over time.

Quoted from necro_nemesis

I was chatting with Steve about buying both those glasses a couple of weeks ago and he said he would sign them. The problem is he doesn't want to ship them and he's currently in California. I was asking about what shows he was going to attend this year but he didn't know as of yet.

They are both very flakey FYI and he is reluctant to sell them without someone laying eyes on them first hand. I didn't care because it's a piece of history. He also noted they were in his opinion quite ugly and would not modify a machine to take them.

I left it at that and well see if our paths are going to pass at a show some time. If you get him to ship them your in luck.

Yes , I saw that. I have a cousin in California, who I have enlisted in the past to get things and store them for me. Would be nice to get though.

Quoted from gjd

Yes , I saw that. I have a cousin in California, who I have enlisted in the past to get things and store them for me. Would be nice to get though.

If he'll go pick them up then your in luck!

gfd: buy and read these 4 books: http://www.pinballcompendium.com/

lots of *excellent* material, history and comments from the designers and artists you won't find anywhere else. A must!

you can also do advance people searches here: http://www.ipdb.org/search.pl?searchtype=advanced ... or simply click on a name when you search for a machine to find all of his games ( like Steve Ritchie

Quoted from Mrhide

gfd: buy and read these 4 books: http://www.pinballcompendium.com/

lots of *excellent* material, history and comments from the designers and artists you won't find anywhere else. A must!

you can also do advance people searches here: http://www.ipdb.org/search.pl?searchtype=advanced ... or simply click on a name when you search for a machine to find all of his games ( like Steve Ritchie

I agree, no way you can go wrong with those.  I've got all 3 and there's quite a good sized write up on virtually every machine you can think of along with who designed what, who did the art and some backstory as to the how and why's they made each table.

I also have all four of those Pinball Compendium books:
- 1930s - 1960s
- 1970s - 1982
- 1982 to present
- EMs (this is the newest one in the Pinball Compendium series).

Recommended reading, however these books are certainly not cheap.
But *definitely* worth it for anyone interested in the pinball history,
great pictures and designers interviews/info !

Cheers,
- Sylvain.