PBall Gallery, a pinball museum in Budapest, Hungary, contains more than 130 once-banned (and dreaded!) electromechanical gaming machines. It’s an incredible collection, and a reminder that while most of us were glued to the game, these games are also little works of art.
Pball is Europe’s largest interactive pinball exhibition, and anyone who’s into arcade gaming culture should visit at least once. The museum has machines from almost every decade, representing the full history of pinball. There are machines inspired by sports, music, movies, science fiction, fantasy, space, comics, history, technology. Many of them are also beautiful, with hand-painted or designed “back glass” or “head glass” decorating the headboard of the machine — you know, the part you might miss if you’re focused on your game.
The following set of images shows you fifty pretty pieces of back glass — the main design element of any pinball machine. Enjoy the time travel!
This is the first piece of our mini series showcasing awesome pinball machines.
Batman (Data East, United States, 1991)
Blackout (Williams, United States, 1980)
Firepower (Williams, United States, 1980)
Pink panther (Gottlieb, United States, 1981)
Spectrum (Bally, United States, 1981)
Rolling Stones (Bally, United States, 1979)
Punk! (Gottlieb, United States, 1982)
The Amazing Spider-Man (Gottlieb, United States, 1980)
Fathom (Bally, United States, 1980)
Elektra (Bally, United States, 1981)
Hi-Score Pool (Chicago Coin, United States, 1971)
Hi-Diver (Gottlieb, United States, 1959)
Roto Pool (Gottlieb, United States, 1958)
Jalopy (Williams, United States, 1951)
Basketball (Gottlieb, United States, 1949)
Airport (Genco, United States, 1939)
Dancing Lady (Gottlieb, United States, 1966)
Centigrade 37 (Gottlieb, United States, 1977)
Criterium 75 (Recel S.A., Spain, 1975)
Flying Chariots (Gottlieb, United States, 1963)
Winner (Williams, United States, 1972)
Spacerider (Atari, Japan, 1978)
Medusa (Bally, United States, 1981)
Rapid Fire (Bally, United States, 1981)
Motor Show (Mr Game, Italy, 1989)
Farfalla (Zaccaria, Italy, 1983)
Haunted House (Gottlieb, United States, 1982)
Apollo 13 (Sega, United States, 1995)
Space Station (Williams, United States, 1987)
Black Knight 2000 (Williams, United States, 1989)
Time Machine (Data East, United States, 1988)
Star Wars (Data East, United States, 1992)
Orbitor 1 (Stern, United States, 1982)
Xenon (Bally, United States, 1980)
Spirit (Gottlieb, United States, 1982)
Sexy Girl (Arkon/Ranco, Germany, 1980)
Space Invaders (Bally, United States, 1980)
Attila the Hun (Gameplan, United States, 1984)
Capt. Fantastic (Bally, United States, 1976)
Fireball (Bally, United States, 1971)
KISS (Bally, United States, 1979)
Black Hole (Gottlieb, United States, 1981)
Super Mario Bros (Premier/Gottlieb, United States, 1991)
Rocky (Gottlieb, United States, 1982)
Mars, God of War (Gottlieb, United States, 1981)
Eclipse (Gottlieb, United States, 1982)
Disco Fever (Williams, United States, 1978)
Cosmos (Bally, United States, 1969)
Super Flipper (Chicago Coin, United States, 1975)
The Machine — Bride of Pin Bot (Williams, United States, 1991)
Pictures: Attila Nagy/Gizmodo