Pinball Machines often reuse a popular theme. For example, how many card game, soccer, and Star Trek machines have there been?
Now with several pinball machine manufacturers in the marketplace – Stern Pinball, Jersey Jack Pinball, American Pinball, Spooky Pinball etc. several popular themes have come out from different designers and manufacturers. It’s interesting to see what different teams can do with a theme.
Pirates of the Caribbean Pinball Machines
The popular Disneyworld ride and then successful movie series featuring Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow, has been licensed by both Stern and Jersey Jack.
Stern’s version of Pirates of the Caribbean came out in June 2006 and approximately 6,000 of these machines were made.
Stern Pinball’s Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean offers the following features:
- A mechanical pirate ship that the player strikes with the pinball. With each hit, the ship lowers its sails and eventually sinks into the playfield, thus revealing a shot into the Kraken’s mouth. In this area, the player can sink the ship, destroy the Kraken, and fight Davy Jones.
- A mechanical treasures chest, the Dead Man’s Chest, through which the player can shoot the ball. When the player has the KEY, the chest opens. They can then spell H-E-A-R-T to begin HEART multi-ball.
- A contained spinning rubber disk where the player can capture up to three pinballs. The disk bounces them around in the contained area and holds them for an extended period of time till the player starts multi-ball. The disk sometimes represents Tortuga and other times Port Royal.
- A map compass comprised of playfield inserts that shows the player each feature they need to finish. Complete all eight features and play Four Winds Multi-ball.
The newest pinball machine (2018) to license the Pirates of the Caribbean theme is from newcomer Jersey Jack pinball and featuring a rocking Pearl sailing ship, the ability to load a cannon and fire at a target for multiball, a treasure chest and an elaborate under the playfield subway system. This is a wide-body game.
Yet another Pirates of the Caribbean pinball machine
There is another Pirates of the Caribbean pinball machine out there. This one is called “Zizzle Pirates of The Caribbean 2: Dead Man’s Chest Arcade Pinball” and was built for the home market as an affordable, kid’s kind of mini-pinball machine. You can find one used in the $400-$600 range.
Owner review: “Having owned real pinball machines, I can say that I was surprised with this pinball machine. If you play most kid’s pinball tables out there, you will find they are made poorly and play poorly as well. But Zizzle does a good job of replicating a real pinball machine at a very affordable price. Is it as good as a real pinball machine? No, but then it is one 10th the price of a real machine. But for a kid’s toy it is great!”
Other Pirate Themed Pinball Machines
Pirate themed pinball machines seem to arise in every decade of pinball’s history. Here are some of the pirate-themed pinball machines that hit the market in pinball’s past:
Buccaneer – Gottlieb, 1948 – 3,650 produced
Captain Kidd – Gottlieb, 1960 – 900 produced
Jolly Roger – Williams, 1967 – 3,502 produced
“Pirate Gold” / IPD No. 1804/ January 14, 1969 / 1 Player from Chicago Coin
“Captain Hook” – Game Plan, 1985 – 450 produced
1976 Gottlieb’s “Buccaneer” Pirate themed pinball machine
“Black Rose” is a pinball machine from July 1992, manufactured by Bally Manufacturing Co
“Hook” -Data East, 1992 – 6,705 produced