During the early 1930’s, Pinball was a staple in drugstores and taverns. It was a rather simple game of luck based on the French game Bagatelle, using spring launchers to score points. Electrification and active bumpers added more excitement, but the game didn’t evolve into a game of skill until flippers were introduced in 1947. The microprocessor revolutionized the industry by replacing scoring reels with digital displays during the
The rapid rise of coin-op video games took the pinball industry by surprise. Executives at Bally, a leader within the pinball industry, even boasted, “nothing could ever replace pinball!” The Chicago-based industry was proven wrong and pinball became second-fiddle to the likes of Asteroids, Donkey Kong, and the endless march of video…
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Michael Thomasson is one of the most widely respected videogame historians in the field today. He currently teaches college level videogame history, design, and graphics courses. For television, Michael conducted research for MTV's videogame related program Video MODS. In print, he authored Downright Bizarre Games, and has contributed to nearly a dozen gaming texts. Michael’s historical columns have been distributed in newspapers and magazines worldwide. He has written business plans for several vendors and managed a dozen game-related retail stores spanning three decades. Michael consults for multiple video game and computer museums and has worked on nearly a hundred game titles on Atari, Coleco, Sega and other console platforms. In 2014, The Guinness Book of World Records declared that Thomasson had “The Largest Videogame Collection” in the world. His businesses sponsor gaming tradeshows and expos across the US and Canada. Visit www.GoodDealGames.com.
