Sources
Flipcommons AI Descriptions (Manufacturer) and Flipcommons Catalog contributed to this record.
Single source (4 fields)
- description
- Flipcommons AI Descriptions (Manufacturer) Taito is best known globally as a Japanese video game company — the creator of Space Invaders — but the firm also maintained a meaningful presence in pinball manufacturing across multiple decades and continents. Taito's pinball involvement began in the late 1960s with [[technology-generation:id:1]] machines produced in Japan, then expanded significantly in the late 1970s and early 1980s as the company's American and Brazilian divisions produced [[technology-generation:id:3]] machines for their respective markets. Taito America Corporation, based in Elk Grove Village, Illinois, served as the company's North American pinball manufacturing arm during the [[technology-generation:id:3]] era, producing games alongside Taito's Japanese and Brazilian operations. The combined catalog includes titles spanning from [[title:id:1387]] (1967) through early-1980s solid-state machines like [[model:id:2640]] (1983) and [[title:id:6147]] (1984). Taito's pinball machines were generally modest in ambition compared to contemporary offerings from [[manufacturer:id:86]] or [[manufacturer:id:714]], but they found placement in markets — particularly in Japan and South America — that the dominant American manufacturers served less aggressively. Taito exited pinball by the mid-1980s as the company focused its resources on the booming video game industry. The firm's pinball catalog is an interesting artifact of a multinational amusement company that maintained parallel manufacturing operations across three continents, and a reminder that pinball's story extends well beyond Chicago — even when one of its chapters was, in fact, based in suburban Illinois. used
- opdb_manufacturer_id
- Flipcommons Catalog 73 used
- name
- Flipcommons Catalog Taito used
- slug
- Flipcommons Catalog taito used