Alphanumeric display on Back to the Future

Some machines, particularly before the LED era used other means of animation, such as moving parts behind the backglass or lights that illuminate different colored masks to produce the illusion of movement.

Animation on Central Park

Backbox of Hayburners II (highlighted)

Backglass of Toledo

There are several other files that deal with bang backs:

• VFBTF Skills for the pinball wizard (contains pointers)
• The rec.gams.pinball game-playing tips list section 8.1

Active bumpers, the most common, are round mushroom-shaped targets set in the playfield that forcefully kick the ball away when struck. Passive bumpers look similar to active bumpers, but do not kick the ball. Bally once made a unique type of passive bumper, called a Mushroom Bumper which is a post with a disk on top. When the ball approaches the bumper, it lifts the disk as it strikes the post. The disk is attached to a shaft down the middle of the post, which rises when the disk is lifted, closing the switch that registers a hit.

Active bumpers are called Pop Bumpers by Williams, Thumper Bumpers by Bally and Pop Bumpers by Gottlieb. \\ * C \\ - Cabinet :: The large box that holds the playfield, coin box, flipper buttons. Not to be confused with the backbox. The cabinet is also known as the body. \\ - Captive Ball :: A captive ball is a special kind of target that consists of a pinball held captive at the end of a lane or ramp with a switch at the far end. A captive ball is also known as a messenger mall.

Diagram of captive ball setup \\ - Cellar Hole :: A ramp below the playfield, entered through a hole in the playfield. \\ - Center post :: A post set between and in line with the bottom pair of flippers. Gottlieb/Premier use a center post on most of their games, while the other manufacturers usually do without, although there are exceptions, such as Terminator 2 from Bally/Williams. \\ - Combo :: A defined sequence of shots that need to made in rapid successions without missing are called combos. \\ * D \\ - Data East :: One of the major pinball manufacturers today. Data East only makes games that are based on a licensed theme, such as a TV show or movie, but have used unlicensed themes in the past. Data East is now Sega Pinball, Inc. \\ - Death save :: A method of saving a ball that has fallen down an outlane. By moving the cabinet forward and to the right as the ball hits a plate near the drain, tha ball can be made to bounce back into play.

There are several other files with information on death saves:

• VFBTF Skills for the pinball wizard (contains pointers)
• The rec.games.pinball game-playing tips list section 8.2

In EMs, EOSS are used in several places. For instance, a slingshot score is not activated by the standup switches, but the standup switches activate the kicking coil, which when fully pulled, hits the EOSS which pulses he score relay. This is also used on pop bumpers and some stepping units. \\ - EOSS :: See End-of-stroke switch \\ - Extra ball buy-in :: Many newer games allow the player to purchase an extra ball after the last ball of a game has drained. This is called an extra ball buy-in. \\ * F \\ - Flip Card :: A domino-sized and shaped device that is hinged on one side and flips back and forth to show status, much the same as a drop target or a light shows status. Only three machines use this feature, all of them manufactured by Bally. \\ - Flipper :: Those thingies that mose when you hit the flipper buttons. Some people use these to propel the pinball. The Addams Family pinball uses these to make a point. \\ - Frenzy :: A special mode where everything on the playfield scores a lot of points. \\ * G \\ - Gate :: A thing the pinball can go through in one direction but not the other. You can often find gates at the end of the plunger lane. \\ - Gimmick :: A feature of the game that is put in there to attract attention and make the game unique in some way. A gimmick can also be a decoration on the cabinet or backbox. \\ - Gobble hole :: A hole in the playfield through which the ball in play may fall, ending that ball. Falling into this hole usually scores a large value or a special. This was a common feature in the woodrail era, and rarely seen after that.

Also a hole in the playfield that gobbles the ball, causing it to drain. See also Sinkhole. \\ - Gottlieb/Premier :: One of the major pinball manufacturers. Gottlieb, before it was bought by premier, is one of the oldest pinball manufacturers around, with three generations of the Gottlieb family in the business. \\ * H \\ - Habitrail :: The paths made from pieces of steel wire set above the playfield. Also called wireforms. \\ - Head :: See Backbox. \\ * I \\ - Inlane :: The path feeding a falling ball from the playfield, usually behind a slingshot to the flippers. \\ * J \\ - Jet bumper :: The name used by Williams Electronics to describe active bumpers. See Bumper for a description. \\ * K \\ - Kickback :: Usually located at the left outlane, the kickback, when activated, kicks the ball back into play instead of allowing the ball to pass to the drain. \\ - Knocker :: The solenoid that bangs the side of the cabinet or backbox to produce the loud cracking noise that signals a free game. \\ * L \\ - Lane change :: Games featuring lane change allow the player to shift the lit lights in a set of lights on the playfield, such as a set of lights on the outlanes and inlanes. \\ - Leaf switch :: A type of switch the consists of two tounges of metal that come into contact when pressed together. Leaf switches are used to detect a ball coming through a gate or going up a ramp. In older games leaf switches are used throughout most of the game.

A leaf switch \\ * M \\ - M-ball :: Data East's name for multiball before they licensed the word multiball from Williams. \\ - Magnasave :: A player-activated magnet above an inlane that will catch a ball headed for the outlane . Magnasave has appeared on some Williams games and is a trademark of Williams Electronics. \\ - Manufacturers :: There have been several pinball manufacturers through the years. Currently, there are only three major forces in the pinball business, Bally/Williams, Gottlieb/Premier and Sega Pinball, Inc..

Some other manufacturers, who are no longer in business include Alvin G. & Co., Astro Games, Atari, Chicago Coin, Facination Games, Game Plan, Grand Product, Midway, Micro Industries, Pinball Vision, Pinstar, Stern, Wico and Zaccaria. \\ - Match :: A free game given away by the machine to one of the players for no apparent reason at the end of the game. There appears to be a 10% chance of receiving a match, but newer solid-stat machines allow this to be set as low as 1%, with the factory setting at 7%. \\ - Messenger Ball :: See Captive Ball. \\ - Microswitch :: A type of switch used under rollovers and in some other parts of a game. Microswitches are small switches that have a button that, when pressed, closes the switch. Many microswitches can be fitted with a lever that will press the button.

Microswitches \\ - Mode :: Most modern games contain modes, periods where the rules change, and sometimes special shots are made available. Common types of modes are where one target scores a value that counts down from its highest value to nothing or when repeated ramp shots score an increasing number of millions. \\ - Multiball :: When several balls are in play at one time. During multiball, there is often some sort of objective, most commonly a jackpot target that scores an obscene amount of points. Multiball is trademarked by Williams Electronics. \\ - Multi-Level machine :: A multi-level machine has at least two distinct playfields at different elevations, each of which contains at least one player controlled device. \\ - Mushroom Bumper :: Mushroom bumpers are a type of passive bumpers made by Bally. See Bumper for a description. \\ * N \\ - Nudge :: A method of controlling the ball by moving the machine itself. See Shaking/Nuging in Skills for the Pinball Player for a fuller desription. \\ * O \\ - Operator :: A person who owns runs a pinball game. \\ - Opto :: A type of switch that detects the ball using light. \\ - Outhole :: See Drain. \\ - Outlane :: The lanes that usually are placed to the far sides at the bottom of the platfield and lead to a drain. \\ * P \\ - Pass :: Moving the pinball from one flipper to another. There are several ways of doing this, detailed in

• View from behind the flippers skill guide
• The rec.games.pinball game-playing tips list

Easily achieved by kicking the coin box or lifting the machine past horizontal. This type of behavior will also achieve getting you thrown out of an arcade and is considered very bad manners. \\ - Slap save :: A save accomplished by slapping the side of the machine and the flipper button so a ball headed SDTM hits the tip of the flipper. \\ - Slingshot :: The (roughly) triangular objects above the flippers that kick the ball in the general direction of each other and the outlanes. \\ - Solenoid :: A coil, with another coil or magnet inside, used in flippers and kickers. When the coils are energized, the opposing magnetic fields cause the inner piece to move. \\ - Solid-state flipper :: Flipper mechanism used by Data East and as a backup mechanism in newer Bally/Williams games. \\ - Solid state game :: A pinball machine that uses solid-state electronics (transistors, integrated circuits, printed circuit boards, microcontrollers etc) rather than the earlier elecro-mechanical components. Modern solid-state games are quite sophisticated with generic CPU and audio boards controlled entirely by computer software. \\ - Special :: A special is usually a free game, but can be set to some other award, such as an extra ball or a number of points. \\ - Spinner :: >A metal plate, usually about 1"x1.5" which spins about its center along a horizontal axix. The ball passes underneath striking the lower half of the spiller, causing it to spin several revolutions.

A spinner \\ - SS :: Acronym for Solid State. \\ - Standup target :: A target that is in a vertical position, such as a round plastic "spot letter" target. \\ - Swinging Target :: A moving target that moves constantly due to a motor, or intermittently due to a solenoid. \\ * T \\ - Thumper Bumpers :: The name used by Bally to describe active bumpers. See Bumpers for a description. \\ - Thwacker :: See Knocker. \\ - Tilt :: A pinball machine will tilt, aborting the current ball and discarding End-of-ball bonus if the player moves the cabinet too violently. \\ - Tilt warning :: Most games will issue one or more tilt warnings before actually tilting, so a player has a chance at one or two powerful shoves before losing the ball. \\ - Token :: Some arcades use tokens in place of coins. \\ - Trap :: Catching the ball to it comes to rest in the angle formed by a raised flipper. \\ - Tri-ball :: One name Data East used for multiball before licensing the use of the word multiball from Williams. \\ * V \\ - VUK :: Acronym for Vertical Upright Kicker. A VUK is a device that kicks the ball straight up, usually onto a habitrail. \\ - Video mode :: A mini video game used as a mode on a pinball machine, displayed on a dot-matrix display. \\ * W \\ - Whirlpool :: A funnel-shaped device where the ball enters at the top and spins to the bottom. \\ - Widebody :: A pinball machine wider than the standard 22" width. \\ - Wireforms :: Another name for habitrails. \\ - Wizard :: An extremely skilled pinball player. \\ - Wizard bonus :: A reward that is so difficult to achieve, only pinball wizards ever find it. /pinball Back to the Pinball Pasture