What's new
By:
Pinball info

Register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox!

Pinball Trivia - What was the first to have wireforms, ramps or returns to inlanes and multi level pf

David_Vi

David_Vi

Site Supporter
5Years
Joined
Sep 3, 2019
Messages
3,914
Location
Sudbury
If you look at early solid states, a lot are still on one level. I believe Black Knight was the first to have a second playfield level with own flippers and Elektra was first to have three playfield levels.

Those metal ramps on BK and ELEKTRA seem commonplace in that era, popping up on games like Flash Gordon and more.

It got me thinking, are these what were considered ramps back then?

So what was the first game to have wireforms or plastic as we know them now?

If I think of early solid states with modern ramps that I have seen, Genesis, TX SECTOR for example. They have ramps and wireforms but they don't deliver the ball back to the in lane. That must have come later?

I thought it would be interesting to see where all those features we now take for granted came from and how they developed.

So here's the task list,
Identify
1. First game with plastic ramps
1. First game with metal wireform/habitrails
1. First game with ramps that feed the inlanes
 
@Gary Flower will know all of this 😁

Ramps feeding inlanes was certainly a thing with some Sys 11 era machines. No idea the first though.

Space Shuttle was first game to have a plastic molded toy on the playfield, was it one of the first with plastic ramp ?

Xenon had a plastic tube , not exactly full ramp, in 1980.
 
David_Vi said:
If you look at early solid states, a lot are still on one level. I believe Black Knight was the first to have a second playfield level with own flippers and Elektra was first to have three playfield levels.

Those metal ramps on BK and ELEKTRA seem commonplace in that era, popping up on games like Flash Gordon and more.

It got me thinking, are these what were considered ramps back then?

So what was the first game to have wireforms or plastic as we know them now?

If I think of early solid states with modern ramps that I have seen, Genesis, TX SECTOR for example. They have ramps and wireforms but they don't deliver the ball back to the in lane. That must have come later?

I thought it would be interesting to see where all those features we now take for granted came from and how they developed.

So here's the task list,
Identify
1. First game with plastic ramps
1. First game with metal wireform/habitrails
1. First game with ramps that feed the inlanes
Click to expand...
I hope you're not using the mobile in the cab you don't want a spad...
 
Last edited:
There were a few very old flipperless games before Rollercoaster that had wire bridges, the sort of games where you just watch the ball trickle down the playfield bouncing against nails, so not exactly ramps that you could shoot for, but they usually lead to higher scoring parts of the playfield. I can't remember the name off the top of my head but it used a kicker to fire the ball up a ramp like bridge over to a lower area of the machine, so I suppose that was the first ramp?
 
Last edited:
Stern Electronics also released Free fall in 1981 with a similar idea as used in the old bagatelle style machine I mentioned, a kicker at the top fires a ball up a wire ramp.

image-10.jpg
 
MajesticPinball said:
There were a few very old flipperless games before Rollercoaster that had wire bridges, the sort of games where you just watch the ball trickle down the playfield bouncing against nails, so not exactly ramps that you could shoot for, but they usually lead to higher scoring parts of the playfield. I can't remember the name off the top of my head but it used a kicker to fire the ball up a ramp like bridge over to a lower area of the machine, so I suppose that was the first ramp?
Click to expand...

There was a Genco Spitfire (1935) for sale on eBay a while ago that had a wire habitrail.

1657794427471.jpeg
 
Awesome responses so far.

MajesticPinball said:
That's the one! The name wouldn't come to me
Click to expand...
It reminds me of a bowling alley!


Arv said:
I hope you're not using the mobile in the cab you don't want a spad...
Click to expand...

I'm off for two days then back on the rails for 8 days straight 🥴

Wayne J said:

Pinsiders pinball firsts quiz | All Pinball | Pinside.com

| Forum Topic by soren
pinside.com pinside.com

(Took me over half an hour to find the thread - although I remember it from 8 years ago)
Click to expand...

Thanks Wayne this looks like it'll be good reading!
 
Re. Free Fall; a local arcade returned the two that they bought new, due to a software problem which showed in two-player games. Player 1, Ball 1 would suddenly shift to Player 2, Ball 1, award a few points, and then advance to Player 1, Ball 2, in play. No one I knew would risk more than a two-player game, so whether three or four player games were affected remained unknown.

When wire tubes began to appear, at first they tended to feed the ball back to a flipper past the front of the slingshot, rather than using the return lane. High Speed and Laser War being examples.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom