Back Backbox Animations

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  1. By Flipcommons AI Descriptions (GameplayFeature)
    description
    Backbox animations are moving displays built into a pinball machine's backbox that act out the game in progress — with physical figures driven by motors and relays, or with lamps flashed in sequence so the artwork itself appears to move. [[gameplay-feature:playfield-animations]] is the same idea but on the playfield. The animation is wired to the game's scoring, so the head performs what the playfield only tallies. The device is as old as the payout era: a tank on *[[title:battle]]* (1935, [[manufacturer:bally]]) shoots shells to score,[1] and *[[title:mars]]* (1937, [[manufacturer:chicago-coin]]) flew its spaceships between two [[gameplay-feature:backglasses]] layered a few centimetres apart, so the player watched the scene in real depth.[2][3] The flipper-era makers kept it up for decades. On [[manufacturer:gottlieb]]'s *[[title:mermaid]]* (1951) a fisherman lands a boot while a fish surfaces behind him,[4][5] and on the firm's *[[title:flipper-cowboy]]* (1962) a cowboy shoots at a target.[6] Machines carried animated backboxes to the end of the 1990s, and 2000s remakes such as *[[model:king-of-diamonds-2]]* (2010, [[manufacturer:retro-pinball]]) rebuilt the animation units along with the games.
    1.
    Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) — Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) #199
    Backbox animation ("shells" are shot from tank to score 1000 points each).
    2.
    Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) — Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) #3395
    Mechanical backbox animation (spaceships fly in and out of view).
    3.
    Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) — Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) #3395
    Two backglasses, spaced 3.1 cm apart, each have artwork on them, and the player can look through both of them to see a distant city and mountains on the inside of the backbox door.
    4.
    Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) — Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) #1574
    Backbox animation (man catches boot when points are scored while a fish surfaces to apparently thumb its "nose").
    5.
    Pinball Repair & History (pinrepair.com) — https://www.pinrepair.com/gtb/index.htm
    backbox animation of fisherman catching a boot
    6.
    Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) — Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) #893
    Backbox animation (cowboy shoots at target).
  2. By Flipcommons Catalog
    gameplay_feature_alias
    Alias value
    Backglass Animation
    name
    Backbox Animations
    slug
    backbox-animations
    status
    active