Antique pinball8/4/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() TAF is, of course, an adaptation of Barry Sonnenfeld’s 1991 movie, but nobody could have quite anticipated the game’s incredible popularity.ĭesigned by Pat Lawlor, The Addams Family features a memorable, comic-book playfield, with modes based upon various scenes in the movie. This is with good cause, as Williams’ The Addams Family is officially the best-selling pinball machine of all time, having shifted a staggering 20,270 units since its initial release. Tell anybody who was around in the ’90s that you’re into pinball, and, never fail, you’ll be met with some variant of “Oh yeah, I remember pinball!. There have been thousands of machines produced since the 1930s, from coin-operated bagatelle tables, through to the delightful electromagnetic (EM) machines of the ’50s-’70s, these would give way to the Solid State (SS) machines of the ’80s, pinball’s golden renaissance in the ’90s, and ultimately lead to today, with companies such as Stern and Jersey Jack continuing to roll out brand new, exciting, hi-tech games for people who have much more money than should ever be legal. If there was a five-foot footprint empty, then it had a pinball machine plonked on it. Arcades, bars, clubs, laundries, restaurants, theaters, corner stores, and gyms. It's also still popular among pinball lovers who have presumably seen it all, as the below video shows.The past two decades might have seen pinball become something of a niche, rich folk’s pastime, powered by a massively inflated collector’s market and the increasing rarity of machine components, but for those of a certain age, there was, truly, a time where you couldn’t enter a public building and not fall over a pinball machine or three. Verdict: it’s fun even for a pinball novice, and to anybody who loves the movie it has enough references to enhance gameplay. The game nailed the simple things, and virtually every game since has taken design cues from it.ĭrawn by the fame of the Addams Family machine, this Smithsonian reporter played a few games on one at a local bar. ![]() With well-placed ramps and shots leading into each other naturally, The Addams Family avoided some of the all-too-common pratfalls of the pinball machine. But the real reason for its success was that it had great game play. The game featured plenty of next-gen features, such as a moving mechanical hand (Thing) that picked up balls, an enormous number of scoring modes and new dialogue recorded by the film’s stars specifically for the game. ![]() It was a great combination of old and new, he writes: There’s no real mystery to the success of the game, writes Seth Porges for Popular Mechanics. These factors coalesced with the pop culture of the time, resulting in some truly decadent examples of ‘90s kitsch: The Twilight Zone, The Simpsons and Tales From the Crypt are just a few of the hit franchises that got their own pinball incarnation.īut The Addams Family was something a little different: it still stands today as the best-selling pinball game of all time, with more than 20,000 units sold. In the early 1990s, advances in computing had allowed pinball machines to get ever-more complex, and arcades were still big business. It was a big success in a moment where pinball had a lot of pull. The game has a quirky aesthetic that closely aligns with the spooky-ooky-ooky vibe of the film. It was based on the 1991 movie starring Raul Julia and Anjelica Huston as the married couple at the center of a strange family. That’s when The Addams Family-the pinball game, not the movie-premiered. To those in the know, March 1992 is a watershed moment in the history of pinball. ![]()
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