Edit History
- By Flipcommons AI Descriptions (GameplayFeature)
- description
PlayerA **flipper** is a pivoting bat or paddle set into pinball machines' [[gameplay-controlledfeature:playfields]]paddlesandmountedswungnearby a button on thebottomside of theplayfieldcabinet,operatedusedbytobuttonsknockonthe ball back up thesidesplayfield. Much of thecabinetworld considers the flipper to be the game's defining characteristic. WhileHarrycalledMabs"pinball"designedin English, many countries know the game as "flipper", including [[location:italy]], [[location:france]], [[location:germany]], [[location:sweden]], Denmark, and Norway ('flipperspill'). Spain and Spanish South America use both flipper and pinball, among other terms, depending on where. ## The first electric flipper Themechanismuniversalforadoption of the flipper on pinball machines dates from the introduction of the electric flipper, which vastly improved upon its purely mechanical predecessors. The first electrically operated flipper arrived in 1947 on [[manufacturer:gottlieb]]'s *[[title:humpty-dumpty]]*,[1] designed by [[person:harry-mabs]].[2] The impact on the industry was immediate: by the end of that year, most makers in the trade had either built a flipper game or started one.[3] Gottlieb announced the machine in the trade paper The Billboard on 1 November 1947.[4] Inside a month of its reaching locations,anda distributor was paying for space in theinventionsametransformedpaperpinballto thank the firm "for making the greatest improvement in the history of pin games".[5] *Humpty Dumpty* carried six flippers, in three pairs climbing the playfield, because each bat was too weak on its own to work the ball back toward the top.[6][7] Gottlieb advertised them to operators as "Player Controlled Flipper Bumpers".[8] ## Who invented it Credit for the electric flipper was contested from the start. While the name most commonly associated with inventing it is Gottlieb's Harry Mabs, [[manufacturer:chicago-coin]] designer [[person:jerry-koci]] held agamepatent ofaimhisintoown on an electric flipper, filed in January 1948 and granted in August 1950 as agamepivotalofballreflexesreturn means for pin games,[9] andtimingmaintained that his firm had got there ahead of Gottlieb.EarlyBymachineshisusedaccountsixhe had asked, in mid-1947 while at work on a baseball game, for a bat to go on a pin game; the firm declined, which left the field to Gottlieb.[10] *[[title:bermuda]]* was the machine the firm eventually did put flippersscatteredon.[11] [[person:harry-williams]]acrosssaid in a 1978 interview that [[manufacturer:williams]] had been working on a comparable device at the same time — a shallow hole with a bat behind it that kicked the ball out again. The Williams device fired on its own rather than on a button under the player's hand, which is precisely the distinction the invention turns on.[12] ## Before the electric flipper Some purely mechanical flippered pinball machines existed before electricity made flippers universal. [[manufacturer:ad-lee]]'s *[[title:double-shuffle-3]]* (1932) carried eight of them, worked through levers with no power behind them ([[gameplay-feature:mechanical-flippers]]), and most other early bats were manually operated, one to a playfield;, on baseball games.[13][14] Nor did player control have to mean a bat: *[[title:juggle-ball]]* (1932, [[manufacturer:rock-ola-manufacturing-corporation]]) offered player control by other means entirely.[15] Even theearlyname1950swas already taken. [[person:david-gottlieb]] wanted to call the 1947 machine Flipper, and a legal check turned up a patented 1932 countertop game with a manual bat, [[manufacturer:smith-manufacturing-company]]'s *[[title:flipper-2]]*, so the nursery rhyme went on the cabinet instead.[16] ## The modern layout Thehadstandardconsolidatedflippertoarrangement, with two flippers guarding the center drain at the bottom of the playfield, took three years and three machines to arrive. [[manufacturer:genco]]'s *[[title:triple-action]]*, designed by [[person:steve-kordek]] and in production for ten weeks from January 1948, cut the number down to two and set them at the foot of the playfield, where they have stayed ever since;[17] they still pointed outward, away from one another. Two Gottlieb games of 1950 turned them inward: *[[title:just-21]]* in January, its pair set wide apart to leave room for a turret shooter in the middle, and then *[[title:spot-bowler]]*, whose inward-facing flippers sat close together[18] — theconfigurationlayout, credited to [[person:wayne-neyens]], thatbecametheuniversaltrade eventually settled on.[19] SettlingThreetook another thirty years. The bats grew: Williams' *[[title:hayburners-ii]]* carried the first three-inch flippers in 1968, and three inches was standard across the industry by the end of the 1970s.[20] The bottom of the playfield converged too, on the symmetrical arrangement the trade calls an Italian bottom — a flipper on each side, flanked by [[gameplay-feature:outlanes]] andfour[[gameplay-feature:inlanes]] — which was standard by the middle of the 1980s.[21] ## Skill and the law The flipperlayoutshasappearoftenperiodicallybeenwhenthedesignerslegalwantboundaryadditionalbetweenshotaoptionsgamefromof skill and a game of chance (i.e., gambling). The [[location:usa/ca]] Supreme Court found in 1974 that flipper games did involve an element of skill,[22] and in 1976 [[person:roger-sharpe]] demonstrated as much before theuppercity council in [[location:usa/ny/new-york]], which lifted a ban held there for decades.[23] A [[tag:flipperless]] machine had no such case to make: with nothing on the playfield for the player to work, where the ball went was random.[24]- 1.Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinball
Gottlieb's Humpty Dumpty, introduced in 1947, was the first game to add electromechanical player-controlled flippers to keep the ball in play longer.
2.Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) — Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) #1254Harry Mabs, a Gottlieb employee, is credited with inventing the EM flipper.
3.Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humpty_Dumpty_(pinball)By the end of 1947 every pinball manufacturer had either produced or started to develop their own pinball machines with flippers.
4.Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) — Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) #1254Teaser ads for this game began appearing in The Billboard starting with the Oct-11-1947 issue. Gottlieb announced this game in the Nov-1-1947 issue
5.Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) — Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) #1254Included in this listing is an image of a Billboard ad where a distributor enthusiastically thanks Gottlieb "for making the greatest improvement in the history of pin games". 'Humpty Dumpty' was out for less than a month at the time the ad was published, highlighting the immediate impact this game had on the industry.
6.Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PinballThe low-power flippers required three pairs around the playfield to get the ball to the top.
7.Kineticist — https://www.kineticist.com/news/pinball-prohibitionincluded three pairs of flippers ascending the playfield to help send the ball around and give the player more control
8.Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) — Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) #1254Sensationally New Player Controlled Flipper Bumpers
9.Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) — Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) #225Patent #2,520,283 [PIVOTAL BALL RETURN MEANS FOR PIN GAMES] filed January 30, 1948. Granted August 29, 1950 to Jerry Koci, Inventor.
10.Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) — Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) #225designer Jerry Koci believed that Chicago Coin had invented the EM flipper before Gottlieb. While working on a baseball game in the summer of 1947, he had asked that a bat be put on a pinball machine. Chicago Coin didn't go for the idea and this decision allowed Gottlieb to be the first.
11.Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) — Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) #225'Bermuda' is the first flipper machine made by Chicago Coin.
12.Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) — https://www.ipdb.org/glossary.php Archiveat the time when Harry Mabs at Gottlieb came out with the first flipper, Williams [Manufacturing Company] had also been working on a similar device.
13.Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) — Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) #1254Flippers were already used on many games prior to 1947, but they were non-electrical, entirely mechanical. Some games had eight mechanical flippers, such as Ad-Lee Company's 1932 'Double-Shuffle'.
14.Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) — Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) #1254bats used on baseball games, one to a playfield.
15.Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) — Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) #1254A method of player-control other than flippers is found on Rock-ola's 1932 'Juggle Ball'.
16.Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) — Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) #1254David Gottlieb wanted to name this game 'Flipper' but a legal check found a patented countertop game that had a manual bat, Smith Manufacturing Company's 1932 'Flipper'.
17.Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) — Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) #2650According to Steve Kordek, this was the first pinball machine to have only two flippers, placed at the bottom of the playfield.
18.Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PinballThe first game to feature the familiar dual-inward-facing-flipper design was Gottlieb's Just 21 released in January 1950. However, the flippers were rather far apart to allow for a turret ball shooter at the bottom center of the playfield. Another 1950 Gottlieb game, Spot Bowler, was the first with inward-facing flippers placed close together.
19.Flippers.be — https://www.flippers.be/basics/101_flipper_evolution.htmlBy 1950, Wayne Neyens introduced the classic layout on Gottlieb's Sport Bowler, placing two flippers at the bottom center, facing inward.
20.Flippers.be — https://www.flippers.be/basics/101_flipper_evolution.htmlThe first machine with 3-inch bats was Williams' Hayburner 2 in 1968.
21.Flippers.be — https://www.flippers.be/basics/101_flipper_evolution.htmlconsisting of a symmetrical bottom with an outlane, inlane,
22.Pacific Pinball Museum — https://www.pacificpinball.org/pinball-gamblingA California Supreme Court decision in 1974 affirmed that flipper games did include an element of skill
23.Pacific Pinball Museum — https://www.pacificpinball.org/pinball-gamblinghe convinced the council to legalize pinball in NYC after decades of prohibition
24.Kineticist — https://www.kineticist.com/news/pinball-prohibitionA pinball machine without flippers made for a very different game, one that made the movement of the ball completely random.
- By Flipcommons AI Descriptions (GameplayFeature)
- description
- Player-controlled paddles mounted near the bottom of the playfield, operated by buttons on the sides of the cabinet. Harry Mabs designed the first flipper mechanism for [[manufacturer:gottlieb]]'s *[[title:humpty-dumpty]]* in 1947, and the invention transformed pinball from a game of aim into a game of reflexes and timing. Early machines used six flippers scattered across the playfield; by the early 1950s, the layout had consolidated to two flippers at the bottom — the configuration that became universal. Three-flipper and four-flipper layouts appear periodically when designers want additional shot options from the upper playfield.
- By Flipcommons Catalog
- gameplay_feature_alias
- Alias value
- Flipper
- gameplay_feature_alias
- Alias value
- Flippes
- name
- Flippers
- slug
- flippers