Pinball

Jon Chad tells the story of pinball in graphic novel form, covering how the game works and why it still matters in an age of special effects and on-screen gaming. The book opens in 1976 in a Manhattan courtroom, where champion player Roger Sharpe faces a pinball machine. The New York City Council is weighing whether to lift the city's ban on the game, which had been outlawed since 1942 over supposed ties to gambling and organized crime.

Sharpe's task is to show that pinball is not a slot machine built to fleece players but a game of skill, demanding patience, coordination, and control. To make the case, he announces that he will send his ball down the center lane at the far end of the playfield, in the manner of Babe Ruth pointing to the fences. As he pulls back the plunger and lets go, the future of an industry and an art form hangs in the balance.

From there, Chad traces the history of this captivating, capricious, and sometimes infuriating game. He starts with its roots in the court of King Louis XIV, then moves through the immigrant experience of early twentieth-century America and the post-war boom and bust, all the way to the present. Along the way he covers the artistry, the cultural significance, and even the physics of what he presents as a distinctly American pastime.