Before the flippers, before the arcade boom, before anyone called it a classic — pinball had a criminal record. Multiball: The Story of Pinball digs into the full story of the silver ball: from 18th century French parlors to Depression-era Chicago back rooms, through the golden age of design, the near-death of an industry, and the unlikely modern renaissance that saved it. Each episode goes deep on the machines, the manufacturers, and the moments that made pinball one of the most fascinating — and most misunderstood — games ever built.
Multiball: The Story of Pinball
Claim This Podcastby Pinball Stories
5.0(2 reviews)
16 episodes
Updated Daily
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Podcast Overview
Before the flippers, before the arcade boom, before anyone called it a classic — pinball had a criminal record. Multiball: The Story of Pinball digs into the full story of the silver ball: from 18th century French parlors to Depression-era Chicago back rooms, through the golden age of design, the near-death of an industry, and the unlikely modern renaissance that saved it. Each episode goes deep on the machines, the manufacturers, and the moments that made pinball one of the most fascinating — and most misunderstood — games ever built.
Language
🇺🇲
Publishing Since
3/7/2026
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Recent Episodes
July 4, 2026
S2E6: Pinball Lighting
<p>There is a particular quality of light you only find in a certain kind of room. Warm, amber, coming from dozens of small sources rather than one. The light of incandescent bulbs in a pinball machine — not illuminating, but glowing. Present in a room the way a fireplace is present.</p><p>Episode 6 is the history of how pinball machines have been lit, from the hundred small incandescent bulbs of the EM era through solid state's new capabilities for controlled light sequences and attract modes, to the LED transition that changed the economics, the capabilities, and the warmth of the game's visual experience simultaneously. It's more emotional than it sounds. The argument about LEDs versus incandescents is still ongoing in the collector community, and this episode explains exactly why.</p>
June 27, 2026
S2E5: The History of Scoring
<p>My score was four billion, seven hundred million points. In the context of that particular machine, it was slightly below average.</p><p>Episode 5 asks the question nobody thinks to ask: how did we get here? From bumpers worth ten points on five-reel displays that maxed out in the hundreds of thousands, to multiball modes that generate half a billion points and scores that need ten digits to express — the history of pinball scoring is one of the strangest and most revealing stories in the design history of the game. We trace score inflation from its physical constraints in the EM era through solid state's liberation of the numbers, the DMD era's sophisticated use of scoring differentials as design tools, and the billion-point present where the numbers have lost their human scale entirely.</p>
June 20, 2026
S2E4: The Ramp
<p>There is a particular shot in pinball that feels better than almost any other. The ball finds the ramp entrance, starts to climb, and does something that still feels slightly miraculous no matter how many times you've seen it: it goes up.</p><p>Episode 4 is the history of the ramp — the inclined plane that became pinball's most satisfying shot type and one of its most consequential design innovations. We trace the pre-ramp playfield, the High Speed moment of 1986 when Steve Ritchie proved that a ramp could express a theme rather than just route a ball, the distinct personalities of solid versus wire form ramps, and a tour through the canon of great ramp machines from The Addams Family to Godzilla. The ramp, it turns out, is not just a feature. It's a feeling.</p><p></p>
16 total episodes available
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- What is Multiball: The Story of Pinball?
- How often does this podcast release new episodes?
This podcast updates daily.
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This podcast is available on 4 platforms including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and more. You can also use the RSS feed directly.
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No, this podcast does not typically feature guests.
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