A glossary of terms, commonly used in discussing pinball machines.
A action button A physical button located in the center of the lockdown bar. The action button can be used to activate the auto-plunger and complete in-game actions.
add-a-ball (abbreviated AAB) a feature on some pinball machines that allows the player to earn additional balls by achieving a specific task. In modern machines, the add-a-ball feature often adds an additional ball into play during a multiball. Add-a-ball was first introduced in the 1960s to distinguish pinball machines from gambling devices by extending gameplay without allowing players to win additional credits. Unlike the extra ball feature, balls earned through add-a-ball on these machines are typically denoted on the game display by increasing the overall number of balls available. Additionally, a player can continue to earn additional balls via add-a-ball even if it has already been earned once from a ball in play or if the ball in play is itself an add-a-ball. Colloquially, machines that offer this feature are also called add-a-balls.
apron A large attachment at the very bottom of the playfield, which covers the ball trough and often has inserts to display cards that explain the rules, scoring, or price. The front edges of the apron can form the lower edge of the playfield to lead the ball to the drain. This component is typically made of metal or plastic and can go by several names.
art blades Decorative vinyl decals installed on the inner side walls of the cabinet just above the playfield that cover the plain black cabinet walls. Mirrored glass is occasionally used to cover the cabinet walls instead of vinyl stickers.
attract mode Animations on the display, and/or changes to the light display on the playfield to entice passers-by to play the game. One of the earliest pinball machines to have an attract mode is Star Trek (1979).
auto-plunger A mechanism that can launch balls into play without requiring the player to manually operate the plunger. Certain games such as Judge Dredd have two auto-plungers.
auto-plunger button A button that is located where the plunger handle would be on some 1990s pinball games. It activates the auto-plunger and sometimes has extra functions like in the Terminator 2 game where it fires a cannon. Some games would have a themed auto-plunger button. Examples of this include Fish Tales where it is shaped like a fishing rod, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein where it is a switch instead of a button, and in Terminator 2, it resembles a gun trigger.
autosave More commonly called ball save, every ball that goes down the drain will be returned to the plunger for a limited time. The amount of time that an autosave lasts varies from machine to machine and can be adjustable. Usually only available when starting with a new ball (to compensate for "unfair" very fast drains), it is also available during the start of multiballs on some later machines or as a reward for completing certain shots.
B backbox The vertical box that sits at the head of the pinball machine. It holds the backglass, electronics of the game, a game display, and may hold speakers. Some digital game displays include a seven-segment display, DMD, or LCD. The backbox is also known as a lightbox or back rack.
backglass The upright glass panel in the backbox, displaying the game's title and an illustration. The first backglass with lighted scoring appeared in 1935. Backglass production employs a reverse glass printing technique, with layers of color screen printed on the back of the glass, and can include unpainted sections to view displays for score or ball count. Backglasses are often treated as collectors' items due to their perceived artistic qualities.
ball A single turn of the game, from plunging to draining. Most machines are set to either 3 or 5 balls per game.
ball lock A mechanism during a game where achieving a certain shot will catch a ball and hold it in place. Ball lock is typically used to generate a multiball by collecting one or more additional balls which are then released simultaneously. Ball locks may either physically hold the ball(s) in place until the multiball or briefly hold the ball(s), maintaining a virtual count of the balls held.
ball saver A feature in games that prevents the ball from being lost by draining. Historically, the ball saver was a physical component that would activate (such as magic post and magna-save) to block the space between the flippers; in modern machines the ball is allowed to drain and returned to the plunger and will either auto-launch or allow the player to re-launch it as the same ball in play. The amount of time that a ball save lasts varies from machine to machine and can be adjustable. Usually only available when starting with a new ball (to compensate for "unfair" very fast drains), it may also available during the start of multiballs or as a reward for completing certain shots. The mechanism that returns a drained ball to the plunger may also be called autosave.
ball search On most solid state games, if no scoring activity is detected for a certain period of time, all solenoids in the game will cycle in sequence. If a ball is trapped by one of the moving components, this should free any balls that may have become stuck.
banana flippers An experimental flipper design made of nylon and developed by Williams in the 1970s. The design was modeled after cestas used in jai alai and nicknamed for its curved shape, which distinguishes it from traditional straight flipper bats. The banana flipper was only ever released on Disco Fever and Time Warp machines.
bash target A type of playfield target that does not have a standard appearance, but is designed to be forcefully hit by the pinball. It often strongly bounces the ball back towards the player or into another playfield element.
bonus (end-of-ball bonus) Also called an end-of-ball bonus, these are additional points awarded when the ball leaves the playfield. The bonus may be a fixed amount per ball, but is usually determined by the activity during play such as achieving a shot, repeatedly hitting a shot, or pure chance. The bonus can take the form of a specific number of points or a multiplier that will increase the bonus by a factor. One of the earliest examples of a bonus is the 1939 machine, Nippy, but it became more common in the 1970s beginning with Snow Queen. A common penalty for tilting a machine is the loss of the end-of-ball bonus.
bumper While the most recognized type is a pop bumper, it is broadly any component that stands vertical to the playfield for the ball to bounce (or bump) against. Originally bumpers were upright cylinders that provided an obstacle and ricochet point for the ball but did not score any points. Those "passive" or "dead" bumpers, advanced around the 1960s to detect a hit and register points and later to include a ring and solenoid that respond to a ball hit by actively shooting it off in another direction. These more widely known "active" bumpers have also been called "jet bumpers" by Williams, "thumper bumpers" by Bally Technologies, and "turbo bumpers" by Data East/Sega. Additional notable bumper types include slingshots, mushroom bumpers (passive and registers points), tower bumpers (passive and registers points), and disappearing bumpers.
buy-in A feature in some pinball machines to continue the game after the last standard ball has drained, usually at a cost of one credit. Variable components of a buy-in include: the number of additional balls (one to three), availability of more buy-ins after the extra ball drains, and the inclusion of an automatic bonus or start of a mode. Some games also keep a separate high-score table for games completed using buy-in, to distinguish them from high scores achieved through traditional game play. The feature first appeared in 1934, known as a buy-back, and became more commonplace with solid state pinball machines, beginning with the Bally Midway Blackwater 100 in 1988.
C cabinet the main body of a pinball machine; it holds the playfield, the glass, and the internal game play and payment mechanisms.
call-out a sound bite (spoken words, or particular sound effect) that lets the player know that a certain pin shot or mode is going on in the game. This can indicate strategy or game state to the player without looking at the display.
captive ball a pinball trapped on the playfield, either in one spot or with a limited area of motion. A popular example of a captive ball is visible in the patented design from 1995 by Williams, used in Theatre of Magic. This feature acts like a Newton's cradle to move the furthest pinball towards a target. Other tables use multiple stacked captive balls confined to a small area, such as Judge Dredd. Some unique examples of captive balls are the captive cue ball on the Cue Ball Wizard game and although not a ball, the mechanic in the Demolition Man game which features a series of captive toy cars.
coin door the front-facing, often wide and rectangular panel on a pinball that contains coin slots and mechanisms to accept and validate coins for gameplay. It is designed to be wide enough to accommodate multiple coin slots and a coin box, and the internal coin mechanisms
combo an immediate combination of different moves, often continuous ramp and/or orbit shots. Some machines, like Taxi, Theatre of Magic, and Demolition Man, reward combo shots by an increasing number of points, depending on the number of successful consecutive shots made.
conversion kit special equipment sets that can be used to transform one pinball table into another. Kits can build on an existing pinball machine's theme while changing the rules, audio, and visuals, such as the conversion kit to update Black Rose to Black Rose: Skull and Bones, or may introduce an entirely new theme, such as converting Flash to the original game Asgard. Conversion kits can include boards, a translight or backglass, playfields, lights, and instructions.
credit the allowance a player to play one game of pinball, usually as a result of depositing a coin. Additional credits can be awarded by completing certain objectives to earn Specials, getting a high score, or by matching the numbers at the end of a game.
credit dot a small dot shown next to the credit indicator on solid-state machines, indicative of the machine's self-testing detecting a fault somewhere. Usually found on dot-matrix-display tables, and designed to be fairly subtle so as not to dissuade potential paying players.
credit reel a wheel on EM pinball machines that represents how many credits have been earned.
D dead bumper See passive bumper.
DMD A dot-matrix display is a pixel-addressable display used to display the score and other status during the game. Almost always placed in the backbox (exception: Cirqus Voltaire). Most machines released from 1992 to 2016, starting with Data East's Checkpoint, released in 1991, feature this display. Some exceptions are the two VGA-driven Pinball 2000 series machines, pinball games that uses a LCD-display such as the machines from Jersey Jack Pinball and Heighway Pinball or retro style machines such as Whoa Nellie! Big Juicy Melons.
drain The common term used to refer to the area beneath the flippers. If the ball rolls into the drain area via an outlane or between the flippers, it will be lost. Also refers to the act of losing a ball in this manner.
drop target An upright, pressure-sensitive rectangle that drops below the playfield when hit by the ball. Drop targets are often arranged in so-called banks, and may require being hit in combination or in sequence to score or light special features.
E electro-mechanical (EM)