I costruttori delle correttamente chiamate " Pinball Machine "
non sono poi molti, si possono contare sulle punte delle dita di una mano .
Con questa sezione, inizieremo a conoscere un pò di storia
sulle più importanti ditte che si dedicarono a questo sogno .
Gottlieb (o meglio, la D. Gottlieb & Co.) è stata un’azienda statunitense fondata da David Gottlieb negli anni ’30, che produsse principalmente flipper, but also other types of games such as mini-bowling games, and in recent years even some video games room (including the remarkable "Reactor" and "Q * bert"). Like other manufacturers, the initially produced Gottlieb pinball mechanics, electro since 1935, and since the late 70s were a semi-electronic (solid state pinball).
The Gottlieb was the leading company in the U.S. and around the world for the production of game, especially from the '60s to the '70s, despite the fierce competition from other major U.S. companies such as Bally and Williams. The first machine produced, still kind of Bagatelle, was "Baffle Ball" in 1931. In 1947, Humpty Dumpty the Gottlieb invented the game, introducing the palette to repel the ball, which had a resounding success. In 1954 with "Super Jumbo" the Gottlieb pinball machine produced the first "multiplayer", that in turn matches for up to four players, in 1960 with "Flipper" introduced the first machine of type Add-a-ball, which allowed to extend the game by winning balls but without the additional repetition of the game, that the laws of some countries (including Italy) was considered as gambling. The last pinball machine produced by Gottlieb was "Barb Wire", the beginning of 1996.
Gottlieb worked for the best game designer ed artisti americani, quali Leroy Parker, Art Stenholm, Ed Krynski e Gordon Morison. Questi ultimi due artisti caratterizzarono la produzione dell’ultimo periodo “aureo” degli anni ’70, realizzando insieme ben 137 flipper, molti dei quali rimasti dei classici del loro genere, tra i quali ricordiamo almeno: "Atlantis", "Aquarius", "Buck Rogers", "Drop-a-Card", "El Dorado", "Flying Carpet", "Galaxie", "Jungle King", "High Hand", "Lawman", "Royal Flush", "Sky Jump", "Ship Ahoy", "Spider-Man", "Surfer", "Ten-Up", "Top Card".
Con l’avvento dei videogames alla fine degli anni ’70, la Gottlieb e le altre companies began to reduce the generation of pinball, getting progressively in crisis. The Gottlieb was bought by Columbia Pictures in 1977. In 1983, when Coca Cola bought Columbia in turn, areas of Gottlieb's pinball machine for the production of a new company were sold to Coca Cola, Mylstar Electronics. 84 Coca Cola defeated the Mylstar, which began making videogames. That same year, a management group led by Gilbert G. Pollock acquired the fields of Mylstar relating to pinball, Gottlieb continued the production of a brand new company, Premier Technology. The latter company remained operational until the summer of 1996 when the sharp drop in demand for the game forced out of business. The Premier Technology avoid bankruptcy, but was forced to liquidate all its assets aa benefit of creditors. Currently, the Gottlieb pinball machine (produced by Premier and Myslar), Gottlieb and logo belong to a holding company, Gottlieb Development LLC.
During the years '80 - '90 Alvin Gottlieb, son of the founder, still produced pinball, before the transfer of business. However, since the use of trade mark rights had already been sold to Premier Technology, Alvin Gottlieb could not use the family brand, and for this reason he created the brand "Alvin G. & Co., "where the" G. " was obviously the initial "Gottlieb".
But Alvin Gottlieb had little success and soon had to leave the business, especially with competition from Williams, who made strong pressure on distributors, in practice those who bought the game Alvin G., Williams could no longer buy from. Thus the "Alvin G. & Co., though it had a flipper production of good quality, has failed to establish themselves in the market was difficult, jeopardized by the overwhelming success of the video game Fatal
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WMS Industries is a company statunitense, produttrice di macchine da gioco e per l'intrattenimento. Fondata nel 1943 da Harry E. Williams come Williams Manufacturing Company, è diventata Williams Electronics Inc. nel 1974, e WMS Industries, Inc. dal 1987: WMS è una abbreviazione di Williams.
L'azienda è celebre per la sua produzione di flipper, ma anche per diversi videogiochi arcade, quasi tutti presentati durante la cosiddetta età dell'oro: fra quest'ultimi Defender, Joust, Robotron: 2084.
Ad oggi, la casa produce esclusivamente macchine per il gioco d'azzardo come slot machine e video poker, sotto il nome dell'etichetta WMS Gaming. I diritti dei videogiochi prodotti nel corso degli anni sono in mano a Midway Games, mentre quelli dei flipper sono di proprietà di The Pinball Factory.
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