The Addams Family pinball machine was unavoidable - a cornerstone of practically every single arcade, bar, beachfront, bowling alley, and nightclub in town. When it is hit, it is tipped over at an angle and its lower point, which sits in the spoon switch, closes the switch. The mushroom (shown in black) is waiting to be hit by a ball. As a final touch, Raul Julia and Angelica Houston recorded new dialogue especially for the game, reprising their roles of Gomez and Morticia Addams. The animation illustrates how a pop-bumper works. These include the secret staircase, the living bear rug, Wednesday’s toy train, the family vault, and, most importantly, THHHE MAA-MUSHKAAA! The playfield utilizes hidden magnets to play havoc with physics, while an animatronic Thing emerges from a box to lock balls.

TAF is, of course, an adaptation of Barry Sonnenfeld’s 1991 movie, but nobody could have quite anticipated the game’s incredible popularity.ĭesigned by Pat Lawlor, The Addams Family features a memorable, comic-book playfield, with modes based upon various scenes in the movie. This is with good cause, as Williams’ The Addams Family is officially the best-selling pinball machine of all time, having shifted a staggering 20,270 units since its initial release. Tell anybody who was around in the ’90s that you’re into pinball, and, never fail, you’ll be met with some variant of “Oh yeah, I remember pinball!. There have been thousands of machines produced since the 1930s, from coin-operated bagatelle tables, through to the delightful electromagnetic (EM) machines of the ’50s-’70s, these would give way to the Solid State (SS) machines of the ’80s, pinball’s golden renaissance in the ’90s, and ultimately lead to today, with companies such as Stern and Jersey Jack continuing to roll out brand new, exciting, hi-tech games for people who have much more money than should ever be legal. If there was a five-foot footprint empty, then it had a pinball machine plonked on it. Arcades, bars, clubs, laundries, restaurants, theaters, corner stores, and gyms. The past two decades might have seen pinball become something of a niche, rich folk’s pastime, powered by a massively inflated collector’s market and the increasing rarity of machine components, but for those of a certain age, there was, truly, a time where you couldn’t enter a public building and not fall over a pinball machine or three.

Classic baseball pinball machine