Game Formats

A game format is the broad category of device a machine belongs to.

Pinball is the reason this site exists. Pinball descends directly from bagatelle, the flipperless plunger-and-gravity ancestor that established the basic form.

Most of the formats occupy different niches on the coin-op route, sharing manufacturers, operators, and distribution with pinball. Over the years, big manufacturers like Williams and Chicago Coin built most of them.