Back in my day, in order to play games we actually had to use our hands instead of our thought waves. Our fingers had to be more fast and furious than Vin Diesel’s massage therapist. We played games with real, moving parts encased in tables bigger than a gymnast’s coffin. They were called pinball machines, and they were called that because they used a pinball, and it was called a pinball because… it… something to do with… pins…

As a kid, the most fun pinball machines were those themed after something you identified with. Like my favorite pinball machine of all time was called Cyclone, which was based on Coney Island/amusement parks in general. I heard “Ride the ferris wheel!” several more times as a kid than, “I think you’re cute.” But I also loved pinball machines based on popular movies, of which there were many. The following are some of my favorite movie-based pinball machines from when I was a kid and had nothing better to do on our family vacations to historic Williamsburg. And since this weekend we’ll be officially changing this site from a movie blog to a pinball enthusiasts forum, I thought this post would be a smooth transition.

The Addams Family

According to most accounts, this is the most popular pinball machine ever. I certainly saw it at virtually every arcade back then. I must have heard Uncle Fester say, “It’s not plugged in yet!” and “Gomez…” at least 487,664,975 times.

Jurassic Park

Well of course! The greatest movie of the ’90s also made a great pinball game.

Creature from the Black Lagoon

Teenage me had never seen this movie but this was still a lot of fun and technically impressive. Smelled like hot tuna, though.

Bram Stoker’s Dracula

Pretty odd movie to make a pinball game out of, so it made a pretty odd pinball game. Not nearly as much blood or boobies in the game. But the sound bites are better than Keanu Reeve’s acting.

The Flintstones

Correction: THIS was the best movie of the ’90s. Every company that made merchandise for this horrible movie must have been kicking themselves in the crotch all the way to bankruptcy court.

 

Star Wars

Never heard of this movie but the pinball game was pretty fun. It has robots!

Flash Gordon

FLASH! AAAA-AAAAHHH!! This was before my time but how f’n cool is this? Unfortunately it couldn’t recreate the Queen soundtrack. DIIIIIIIIIIVE!!