Why People Love Each Pinball Manufacturer: Gottlieb to Zaccaria

Ask a collector why they love a machine and you rarely get an answer about the machine. You get an answer about the company that built it — the way Gottlieb laid out a shot, the way a Bally cabinet sounds, the strange things Zaccaria did because nobody in Bologna was checking what Chicago was doing.

Every manufacturer has a personality, and it survives in the metal. This is a guide to those personalities: who made what, when, and what their people actually love about them.

Where sources genuinely disagree on a date, we say so rather than pick the tidier answer.

Gottlieb — the Cadillac

Founded in Chicago in 1927 by David Gottlieb. Baffle Ball (1931) was the first commercially successful coin-operated pinball machine, and Humpty Dumpty (1947) was the first with player-controlled flippers — which is to say Gottlieb invented the thing that makes pinball pinball.

The company sold itself to Columbia Pictures in the mid-1970s (sources split between 1976 and 1977), became Mylstar under Coca-Cola in 1983, and was bought out by its own management as Premier Technology in October 1984 — which is why 1985-onward machines say Gottlieb on the backglass and Premier on the paperwork. Pinball production ended in the summer of 1996 with Barb Wire.

What fans love: geometry. Gottlieb laid out playfields with a clarity nobody matched — clean, readable, satisfying to shoot at, with none of the clutter that came later. The single-player "wedgehead" cabinets of the 1960s and 70s are objects of real affection, and Roy Parker's artwork on the woodrails is genuinely great graphic design. The company's own claim was to be "the Cadillac of pinball machines," and the people who love Gottlieb are the people who agree.

Signature titles: Humpty Dumpty (1947), Haunted House (1982) with its three levels, Black Hole (1981) with its lower playfield.

Technically distinctive, and often got wrong: Gottlieb's System 1 (from December 1977) used a Rockwell PPS4/1 — a 4-bit processor — not the 6800 or 6502 everyone else was using. It was severely constrained: a handful of solenoid drivers and a hard ceiling on lamps. System 80 (from 1980) moved to the 6502 and is a completely different repair proposition. Anyone shopping for boards needs to know which they own; our guide to replacement CPU boards splits the field the same way.

Bally — the blockbuster machine

Founded in Chicago on 10 January 1932 by Raymond Moloney, and named after its own first game, Ballyhoo.

Bally's pinball heyday is the late 1970s and early 1980s, and the numbers explain the affection: Eight Ball (September 1977) sold 20,230 units, the best-selling pinball machine of its era by a wide margin. In 1988 Bally Manufacturing sold its amusement-games arm to Williams; the corporate parent lived on in casinos and fitness, and Williams kept using the Bally name as a second brand on pinball right up to 1999.

What fans love: Bally in the solid-state era was loud, confident and commercial. It chased licences nobody else dared — KISS, Playboy, Dolly Parton — and built machines that felt like a night out rather than a puzzle. Collectors of 1977–85 machines tend to end up with more Ballys than anything else, partly because there are simply more of them, and partly because Eight Ball Deluxe (1981) is one of the best-playing machines ever made.

Signature titles: Eight Ball (1977), Eight Ball Deluxe (1981), Centaur, Fireball.

Williams — the peak of the craft

Founded by Harry E. Williams in the mid-1940s (sources say 1943 or 1946). Sam Stern bought half the company in 1947; Seeburg took it over in 1964; Williams Electronics was formally reconstituted in 1974 and independent again by 1979. It went public as WMS Industries in 1987, bought Bally/Midway in 1988, and closed its pinball division on 25 October 1999.

What fans love: the 1990s. The WPC platform — a Motorola 6809 running at 2 MHz, from FunHouse in September 1990 to Cactus Canyon in October 1998 — hosted what most players consider the greatest run of pinball machines ever designed. The Addams Family (1992) sold 20,270 units and remains the best-selling pinball machine of all time; Twilight Zone (1993) sold 15,235 and is the connoisseur's pick. Deep rulesets, brilliant sound, mechanical toys that actually worked.

The ending is worth knowing because it explains the mood of the hobby ever since. Williams bet the division on Pinball 2000, a system that reflected a computer monitor onto the playfield so the ball appeared to interact with virtual objects. It was ingenious. It sold badly — Revenge from Mars managed 6,878 units against Addams Family's twenty thousand — and WMS walked away from pinball entirely to make slot machines. For about a year and a half, exactly one company in the world still made pinball machines.

Owners of the earlier Williams solid-state machines — System 3 through 7, from Hot Tip in September 1977 — are in a different and much cheaper world, and one we cover in our Williams System 3 to 7 board guide.

Stern — two companies, one family name

This is the most commonly botched fact in pinball, so plainly: there have been two Sterns, and they are not the same company.

Stern Electronics (1977–1985) began when Sam Stern and his son Gary bought the assets of the bankrupt Chicago Coin around the turn of 1976–77. It made Meteor, Flight 2000, Seawitch, Nine Ball and the gloriously strange Orbitor 1, then folded on 1 February 1985 after the video-game crash and Sam Stern's death.

Stern Pinball, Inc. was founded in 1999, when Gary Stern bought the pinball assets out of Sega. Corporately it descends from Data East and Sega, not from Stern Electronics. The only continuity is one man and a surname.

What fans love: Stern kept pinball alive. From 1999 it was the only manufacturer left standing, and it is now the largest in the world. Modern Stern is fast, brutally shot-driven and built for competition; its licences (Metallica, Godzilla, Jurassic Park) put pinball back in bars.

Worth knowing for owners of classic machines: Stern Electronics boards were functionally close relatives of Bally's, which is why the aftermarket sells combined "Bally/Stern" replacement MPUs rather than two separate products — and why our BallyFA MPU board covers Bally and Stern machines from 1977 to 1985 together.

Data East → Sega → Stern: the chain, properly

People get this wrong constantly, so here it is in order.

In November 1986, the Japanese arcade firm Data East opened a US pinball division in Melrose Park, Illinois, with Gary Stern helping to found it and running it as president. In 1994, Sega bought that division and renamed it Sega Pinball. In 1999, Sega left pinball and sold the pinball assets to Gary Stern personally, who founded Stern Pinball, Inc.

Same factory, largely the same staff, the same man in charge from 1986 to today. Three names on the backglass, one unbroken production line.

Data East (1986–1994, 27 machines) is loved for going after licences nobody else would touch — Star Trek: The Next Generation, Jurassic Park, Guns N' Roses — and for a run of genuine firsts: Laser War (1987) was the first pinball machine with stereo sound, Checkpoint (1991) the first with a dot-matrix display, and Maverick (1994) the first with the full-size 192×64 DMD that became the industry standard. Its machines are the affordable way into a 1990s DMD game, and collectors are fond of them in a slightly indulgent way — loud, fast, occasionally rough at the edges.

Sega Pinball (1994–1999) is the least-loved link in the chain, and a little unfairly. It kept the factory running and the people employed through the industry's worst years.

The modern makers

Jersey Jack Pinball — founded January 2011 by Jack Guarnieri, and the company that broke Stern's monopoly. The Wizard of Oz (2013) was the first production pinball machine with a large full-colour LCD in the backbox — a 26-inch screen when everyone else was on monochrome dot matrix — plus RGB LED lighting throughout. What fans love: unapologetic excess. Dense multi-level playfields, elaborate toys, no expense spared, prices to match.

American Pinball — founded in the mid-2010s near Chicago, and notable for backing original, unlicensed themes when everyone else was buying film rights, with veteran designer Joe Balcer on the drawing board. Houdini: Master of Mystery (2017), Oktoberfest (2018) and Legends of Valhalla (2021) all have devoted followings. Be aware that the company changed hands in January 2026 after a dormant period; if you are buying new, check current status first.

Spooky Pinball — founded 2013 by Charlie Emery in Benton, Wisconsin. Horror and cult themes, deliberately tiny production runs — 150 machines for America's Most Haunted, 888 for Evil Dead — and an unusually direct relationship with its buyers. Fans love it the way people love a small record label.

Chicago Gaming Company — makes officially licensed remakes of classic Williams and Bally machines: Medieval Madness, Attack from Mars, Monster Bash, Cactus Canyon. It is the only way to buy a brand-new WPC-era classic, and for a lot of people that is the whole point.

Multimorphic — the most architecturally radical machine currently in production. The P3's lower playfield is a large LCD whose artwork reacts in real time to the tracked position of the physical ball, and the upper playfield is a module you swap in about sixty seconds without tools; the machine recognises what is fitted and offers only compatible games. It is the first genuinely new idea in pinball architecture since Pinball 2000.

Zaccaria — the Italians who did it differently

The most interesting company in this article, and the one most owners outside Italy have never played.

Zaccaria of Bologna was founded by three brothers — Marino, Franco and Natale Zaccaria — and the logo is their initials: three yellow Zs with an M, an F and an N inside them. The company was legally established in 1973 and its pinball run began in 1974; the last Zaccaria machine, Star's Phoenix, appeared in 1987 before the business collapsed in 1987–88. Around forty machines in total.

At its peak, around 1983, Zaccaria is generally reckoned the third-largest pinball manufacturer in the world after Bally and Williams — though Italian specialist sources place it fourth, behind Gottlieb. Either way it was comfortably the largest outside the United States, exporting most of what it built.

What fans love: the sheer nerve of it. Zaccaria did things American manufacturers would not try for another decade, and some they never tried at all:

• Time Machine (1983) has a section of transparent playfield that raises and lowers during play, along with a moving platform of targets and bumpers.
• Farfalla (1983) has a transparent upper playfield and extra flippers guarding the outlanes — four-flipper layouts were a Zaccaria signature.
• Vacuum-formed plastic backboards for a genuine 3D effect, and neon tubes around the backbox.
• A headphone jack beside the coin door, forty years before anyone thought of it again.
• A timed bonus ball where the flippers simply freeze when the clock runs out — brutal, and completely unforgettable.

And the hardware is the real oddity. Where every American manufacturer standardised on the Motorola 6800 or MOS 6502 families, Zaccaria built both generations of its boards around the Signetics 2650A. Not the plain 2650 — the faster A variant specifically, and the slower chip will not substitute. That single decision is why a Zaccaria is its own repair world: nothing made for a Gottlieb, Bally or Williams backbox will fit one, and it is served by its own specialist European suppliers.

Mr. Game and Tecnoplay — what happened next

Mr. Game (1988–1990) operated out of Calderara di Reno, Bologna — the same site as the Zaccaria factory. It is usually described as "Zaccaria reorganised", but Italian sources tell it more precisely: the plant was acquired in 1988 by Alfredo Cazzola, who started a new brand with the existing facility and staff. The Zaccaria brothers themselves went elsewhere.

What Mr. Game did with it was radical. The cabinet was redesigned into a more angular, modern shape with trigger-style flipper buttons, and — most strikingly — the backbox lost its score display entirely and gained a small colour television, sometimes carrying video-game elements alongside the pinball. Five machines: Dakar (1988), Motor Show (1989), Mac Attack (1989), World Cup '90 (1990) and Fast Track (1990).

Tecnoplay, of San Marino, is where the Zaccaria story goes after Bologna — and here the sources genuinely conflict. Some say Tecnoplay bought Zaccaria, dated variously to 1987 or after the bankruptcy; Italian specialist sources say the Bologna plant went to Cazzola and became Mr. Game, while the Zaccaria family relocated to San Marino and ran Tecnoplay. What is not in dispute: Tecnoplay built pinball machines in 1987–88 — Devil King, Scramble, X Force, Space Team, Hi Ball — on Zaccaria's own 2650A architecture, and its Devil King was a re-release of the Zaccaria kit Mystic Star. Marino's son Mauro remained central to it, and Tecnoplay went on to be a major Italian distributor.

Others who earn their place

Chicago Coin (1932–1977) never had the technical reputation of the big three, but Kilroy (1947) sold 8,800 units — the best-selling pinball machine until the 1970s — and its bankruptcy assets are literally what Sam and Gary Stern bought to start Stern Electronics. No Chicago Coin, no Stern.

Bell Games / Nuova Bell Games (Bologna, 1978–1988) built its business on conversion kits: new artwork, playfield and cabinet for an existing machine, so a European operator could refresh a tired game cheaply while the strong dollar made American originals expensive. This matters practically — a Bell Games machine is usually a Bally underneath, running Bally boards, which is why our World Defender and other Bell Games pages sit alongside the Bally ones.

Spain deserves more attention than it gets. Playmatic (1968–1987) printed its artwork on a durable plastic sheet laid over the playfield rather than painting and varnishing wood, which is why Spanish playfields survive so well. Inder (1970s–1993) put a CRT in the backbox with Flip VI in 1990. Recel, the export brand of Petaco, built its System III on the Rockwell PPS4 chipset — the same family as early Gottlieb. And Sonic, confusingly, was a licensed Sega offshoot in Spain making pinball from 1972 to 1986, with no relationship whatsoever to Sega Pinball of Melrose Park.

Alvin G. and Company (1991–1994) was founded by Alvin Gottlieb, David's son, in a warehouse in Melrose Park. He could not use the family name — Premier owned it — so he used his own. It was the last time a Gottlieb made a pinball machine.

A note on what this shop actually covers

Most of the manufacturers above are outside what we sell. Our boards serve 1977–1989 Gottlieb, Bally and Williams machines, plus Bally-compatible Stern and the Bell Games conversions built on Bally hardware. Zaccaria's 2650A architecture is a different family entirely; Mr. Game is bespoke; the Spanish makers have their own board sets; and everything from Data East forward is later hardware with its own suppliers.

We are not going to pretend otherwise to sell you something. If you own a Zaccaria, go and find the people who specialise in them — they exist, they are good, and they are not us.

FAQ

Are the old Stern and the modern Stern the same company?

No. Stern Electronics (1977–1985) closed in 1985. Stern Pinball, Inc. was founded in 1999 when Gary Stern bought the pinball assets out of Sega; corporately it descends from Data East and Sega. The continuity is Gary Stern personally, not the company.

What is the connection between Data East, Sega and Stern?

Data East opened a US pinball division in Melrose Park, Illinois in November 1986. Sega bought that division in 1994 and renamed it Sega Pinball. In 1999 Sega sold the pinball assets to Gary Stern, who founded Stern Pinball. Same factory, same staff, three names.

What is the best-selling pinball machine ever made?

The Addams Family (Bally/Williams, 1992) at 20,270 units. Bally's Eight Ball (1977) is close behind at 20,230, and held the record for the solid-state era.

Why is Zaccaria special?

Because it built things nobody else did: raising transparent playfield sections, four-flipper layouts, vacuum-formed 3D backboards, neon-lit backboxes and a headphone socket by the coin door. It also used the Signetics 2650A processor rather than the Motorola and MOS chips every American maker adopted, which makes it a completely separate repair world.

Was Mr. Game really just Zaccaria under a new name?

Not quite. Mr. Game operated from the same Bologna site with the same staff, but after Alfredo Cazzola acquired the plant in 1988 — a change of ownership rather than a rebrand by the Zaccaria family, who went to San Marino.

When did Williams stop making pinball machines?

25 October 1999, after Pinball 2000 sold far below expectations. WMS Industries moved entirely into slot machines, leaving Stern Pinball briefly the only pinball manufacturer in the world.

Sources & further reading

• Internet Pinball Database — titles, years and production runs
• Gottlieb — company history
• Stern Pinball — company history and Gary Stern's career
• Sega Pinball — the Data East to Sega to Stern transfers
• Williams Pinball Controller (WPC) — platform generations and dates
• Tilt.it — the Italian pinball reference on Zaccaria, Mr. Game, Tecnoplay and Bell Games
• Zaccaria restoration reference — the Signetics 2650A board generations
• Pinball News — American Pinball sold (January 2026)
• Flippers.be — European manufacturers and dimensions reference