In my head, I’m starting to collect references to the Addams Family Pinball Machine.
For example, I recently mentioned The Sanctum in Meridith, CT where a bunch of my relatives live. The first question was “Do they have an Addams Family?”
A fellow pinhead posted a story on a pinball forum that went something like this – He has a collection of fifteen or so pinball machines in his basement. A buddy of his never showed any interest in playing any of his machines over years.
Suddenly he calls up and tells him that he’s gotten bitten by the pinball machine and “can you hook me up on a good deal on an Addams Family pinball machine?”
I see a review of an arcade in Florida. The first question under the review is “does it have and Addams Family?”
I swear if I were to open an arcade I’d call it “Addams Family Arcade” and be sure to have five Adams Family pinball machines in the line-up.
I’m assuming that the fascination with Addams Family pinball is due to the sheer number of machines that were made – over
A friend of mine has 18 plus or minus machines in his home at any one given time and yes, he has an Addams Family. It was the third pinball machine he ever purchased.
He had a Gottlieb Genie from 1979 in college. Sold that and later picked up a 1992 Williams Getaway: High Speed II .
He had that machine for a number of years before becoming a bigger collector when he picks up the Adams Family and then his 1993 Williams Twilight Zone.
I think his favorite game is Twilight Zone as designer Pat Lawlor was given full reign to pack Twilight Zone with as much crazy mechanical action as he could after the breakaway success of The Addams Family.
I have to admit that Addams Family is a big draw. I’m totally sucked in by call outs, “Gomez” and that cool Thing hand the comes out of the box and grabs to ball to lock it for multiball.
Casual players love The Addams Family as it is simply fun. Great sounds, cool action. But more serious collectors and players don’t rank it as high as its reputation. It’s ranked 15th on the top 100 list on the pinball fan site Pinside https://pinside.com/pinball/top-100
The Addams Family is a pinball machine from March 1992, manufactured by Bally Manufacturing Co. and designed by Pat Lawlor. Addams Family was at the time, and remains to this day, the most commercially successful pinball machine, selling 20,270 units, 40 more than Bally’s Eight Ball which had held that position since 1977. 1,000 more were to follow later in a Special Edition. Based on the movie of the same name, released in 1991, the Addams Family Pinball features custom speech by the movie’s actors Anjelica Huston and Raúl Juliá.
The game features a four-flipper layout including numerous Lawlor staples, such as the shot through the bumpers, and the upper-flipper ramp shot. The game has many uniquely notable features including an animatronic hand with a built-in magnet that will grab and lock pinballs for multiball, as well as a computer-controlled mini flipper that, using artificial intelligence programming, learns to shoot a tricky cross-playfield shot with remarkable consistency. This game is also frequently credited with popularizing the “wizard mode” (despite not being the first game to have one). A true success for Bally/Williams, Addams Family holds an important place in pinball history and well deserves its sought-after status.
pinside
Surely, The Addams Family was a monster hit when it was first released and was a popular staple in arcades for years to come. Some machines are still on location earning quarters and dollars decades later.
What is the appeal? Seth Porges for Popular Mechanics. It was a great combination of old and new, he writes:
The game featured plenty of next-gen features, such as a moving mechanical hand (Thing) that picked up balls, an enormous number of scoring modes, and new dialogue recorded by the film’s stars specifically for the game. But the real reason for its success was that it had great gameplay. With well-placed ramps and shots leading into each other naturally, The Addams Family avoided some of the all-too-common pratfalls of the pinball machine. The game nailed the simple things, and virtually every game since has taken design cues from it.
In the intersection of pinball collectors and the curious public, your pinball collection could have countless rare titles, amazing restored classics, the newest, most expensive, fresh out of the box machine with all the bells and whistles, yet still get asked the question “do you have The Addams Family?”