PINBALL FIRSTS

[v8racefan]

This is lengthy, but here are all of the things that Wikipedia lists as pinball firsts:

First pinball machine that was commercially successful: Gottlieb's Baffle Ball (1931)
First pinball machine with a tilt mechanism: Williams' Advance (1932)
First pinball machine with a bumper: Bally's Bumper (1936)
First pinball machine with full-sized backglass: Dux (1937)
First pinball machine to use flippers: Humpty Dumpty (1947)
First pinball machine to use \"jet bumpers\" and locate the flippers at lower end of playfield: Williams' Saratoga (1948)
First pinball machine with score wheels: Williams' Army Navy (1953)
First pinball machine to use a ramp on playfield: Williams' Nine Sisters (1953)
First pinball machine for four players: Gottlieb's Super Jumbo (1954)
First pinball machine with multiball: Bally's Balls-a-Poppin' (1956)
First pinball machine to feature a single shot for one million points: Williams' Arrow Head (1957)
First pinball machine with a moving target: Williams' Magic Clock (1960)
First pinball machine to award an extra ball: Gottlieb's Flipper (1960)
First pinball machine to use drop targets: Williams' Vagabond (1962)
First pinball machine to feature an up post: Williams' Cabaret (1968)
First pinball machine to use a microprocessor: Mirco Games' Spirit of 76 (1975)
First pinball machine that spoke (a seven-word vocabulary): Williams' Gorgar (1979)
First pinball machine to use skee-balls (the largest commercial game ever built): Atari's Hercules (1979)
First pinball machine with multi-ball in the solid-state electronics era: Williams' Firepower (1980)
First pinball machine with \"lane advance\" (player control of top rollover lane lights): Williams' Firepower (1980)
First pinball machine with two-level playfield: Williams' Black Knight (1980)
First pinball machine with Magna-Save (player-controlled magnet to prevent outlane drains): Williams' Black Knight (1980)
First pinball machine with reverse playfield: Gottlieb's Black Hole (1981)
First pinball machine to combine mechanical pinball with a video game: Gottlieb's Caveman (1982)
First pinball machine with a three-level playfield: Gottlieb's Haunted House (1982) ↑
First pinball machine to feature a single shot for one million points in the solid-state electronics era: Williams' Comet (1985)
First pinball machine with an alpha-numeric display: Gottlieb's Chicago Cubs: Triple Play (1985)
First pinball machine to auto-adjust replay scores based on game history: Williams' High Speed (1986)
First pinball machine to feature a complete song/soundtrack: Williams' High Speed (1986)
First pinball machine with a jackpot that carried over between games: Williams' High Speed (1986)
First pinball machine to feature a wizard mode (high-scoring mode): Williams' Black Knight 2000 (1989)
First pinball machine to feature a known celebrity voice (Cassandra Peterson - Elvira) especially recorded for the machine: Bally's Elvira and the Party Monsters (1989)
First pinball machine with a dot matrix scoring display: Data East's Checkpoint (1991)
First pinball machine to feature a choice of alternate soundtracks (selected by the player): Data East's Checkpoint (1991)
First pinball machine without a plunger (a trigger-operated gun is used instead): Williams' Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
First pinball machine with a cannon-launcher (player literally \"shoots\" captured pinball at targets): Williams' Terminator 2: Judgment Day (1991)
First pinball machine with a built-in dollar bill validator: Data East's Lethal Weapon 3 (1992)
First pinball machine to reward for a \"death save\": Data East's The Adventures of Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends (1993)
First pinball machine to use a non-metallic, ceramic pinball (called a \"Powerball\"): Bally's Twilight Zone (1993)
First pinball machine with a player-controlled mini playfield: Williams' Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure (1993)
First pinball machine with multiple cannon-launchers: Williams' Star Trek: The Next Generation (1993)
First pinball machine to overlay interactive video onto the mechanical playfield: Williams' Revenge From Mars (1999)

[Retropin]

Interesting although not 100% correct.
All is good until WMS SARATOGA which was released in OCT 1948.. according to IPDB this was the first machine to have thumper bumpers (now known as just bumpers).
Flippers at the bottom of the playfield had already been done in Feb of the same year by Genco on TRIPLE ACTION.. some 6 or 7 months prior to WMS taking on the flipper placing.
What i do find very interesting is WMS being responsible for the drop target as we know it today, Gottlieb had similar on MINSTREL MAN ( try getting one of these!!) some 10 years or so prior... WMS are not known for drops... Gottlieb are.
Fancy making an innovative design aspect and then give it away!

[Pinprick]

That's all really interesting stuff. Thanks for the post.
I bet my silver balls that now there will be all sorts of replies with amendments, corrections, additions and assorted horseshit 

[Retropin]

That's all really interesting stuff. Thanks for the post.
I bet my silver balls that now there will be all sorts of replies with amendments, corrections, additions and assorted horseshit 

Yep - guaranteed... forums thrive on horseshit

[Caveoftreasures]

well done Leon. Some good info there.   I can add a first for a machine that is not on there.

FIRST machine with a opening flap on the playfield that shoots a ball onto the playfield from a hidden trapdoor, TEENAGE MUTANT NINJA TURTLES - DATA EAST 1991 , with its sewer hole. AND TMNT was the first Data East machine to incorporate DMD style graphics with alpha numeric graphics on a single display. (Bugs Bunny was the first in 1990 to do a dmd style batch of graphics with alpha numerics on a double (2 x singles side by side) on a display for a Bally I believe.