Pinball Machines [Hardcover]

Heribert Eiden (Author), Jurgen Lukas (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: July 1999

Now with current prices, this book shows the big, flashy machines that have entertained and delighted us in taverns, arcades, and at home for half a century. Devoted fans are all around the world, and nearly everyone has a special memory of their favorite machine and a story to tell of the greatest game they ever played. Naturally, these machines have become highly prized collectibles. Renowned for the conspicuous design of their playing surfaces and scoreboards, these "games of skill" have captivated collectors with their eye-catching art. Pop Art, Cubism, Comic art, and Photo Realism are among the styles found on the glass canvas of the machines and in these pages. This is a collector's book as well as a pinball gallery of art. Moreover, it's a chronology, from the simple early mechanical pinball machines up to their modern, fully electronic equivalents. It provides an alphabetical overview of all the variety, the artistry, and the manufacturing ingenuity that have gone into pinball machines over the years.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English (translation)
Original Language: German --This text refers to an alternate Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 160 pages
• Publisher: Schiffer Pub Ltd; 3rd Rev edition (July 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764308955
• ISBN-13: 978-0764308956
• Product Dimensions: 11.3 x 8.7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,288,983 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

43 of 43 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A better title would have been "Pinball Backglasses.", March 11, 1999

By 

Jason Merlo "BooBowie" (Austin, TX USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Pinball Machines (Hardcover)

I was really let down by this one -- the title of the book is quite a misnomer.

If you're expecting detailed pictures of backglasses, playfields, cabinets, and rulesheets, you're out of luck. This book contains only pictures of backglasses and partial backglasses. An occasional playfield shot is thrown in now and then, but there aren't enough to be useful.

OH, and I should mention that more than half of the pages are in BLACK AND WHITE, making the pretty colorful backglass artwork boring to look at.

The book gets two stars instead of one for the index in the back. It's nice to now have one place to look when I want to find out what year a particular pinball was made.

In future editions, I would love to see the index in the back expanded to include rule cards and trivia. Maybe a current price guide also. But most importantly, I'd love to see a crisp top-down picture of the playfield for each machine as well as the backglass. All in full color, of course. This would be an invaluable tool for techies trying to piece together several old ratted out machines into one good one.

Sorry, but as a pinball/video game collector, I can't recommend this book.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Just a bunch of backglass pictures, August 9, 2000

By 

Tobor "IMO" - See all my reviews

This review is from: Pinball Machines (Hardcover)

I was checking this book out at Borders. Its really acollection of artwork from pinball games organized by theme (cards, pool, "vacation" - which includes sports like skiing, etc). Not much info here and your not even sure if the prices are for the just the backglass or the whole game. The prices were way too low I thought compared the action Ebay's coin-op auctions. Ugly book with cheap feeling paper...

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Pretty much just backglass art..., January 16, 2001

By 

Richard M. Fife (Richmond, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Pinball Machines (Hardcover)

which is OK, if it's clearly labelled as such, which this book is not. The cover also implies that it's up to date to 1999. It's not. There are only a handful of machines from the 80's mentioned and absolutely none from the 90's (which is the peak era of pinball as far as playability goes.)