The beginnings of pinball can be traced to 1871 where the first spring loaded plunger was added to an inclined table. Coin operated pinball games emerged in the 1930s. Early games are commonly referred to as “EM” because of their electromechanical nature but later games after 1977 were electronically scored and dubbed as “Solid State.” Games have three main components, the head that holds the scoring mechanisms and usually the cpu, the playfield which contains the area in which the ball is in play, and the body which supports the playfield and head and holds the power supply. There are basically two classes of pinball game play, those that use flippers to keep the ball alive and the less common flipper-less pinball games. For more information about pinball games look at the Internet Pinball Database.