#THE WHO PINBALL WIZARD VIDEO SERIES#

But, after restoring his first machine he purchased for $25 at an auction, he was hooked. Specifically, Duff is mesmerized by the color-coded bundles of wires that keep the bumpers bumping, bells dinging, and lights whizzing.ĭuff didn’t grow up playing pinball or video games. Duff thinks the machines’ guts are their own form of art. The art isn’t just in what the gamer sees. “The goal was to separate a person from their coins and ultimately after they’re separated from their coins they think man that was a pretty good deal. “…It is art, it is just a side of commercial art.ĭuff owns his own Marketing company and is a magician. “We call it our art collection,” said Duff.

The pinball collector began restoring pinball machines in the early 1990’s that led to his collection dating back to 1933. He shows us a game from ten years earlier, and compares it to the more advanced games of recent times.Ĥ9:30 Copy video clip URL Jon says that Bruce Springsteen, Michael Jackson, and Hugh Hefner are among the celebrities who are known pinball enthusiasts.The sounds of ticking, clicking, dinging, and popping punctuate flickering and flashing lights that fill Todd Duff’s Paducah basement. Then he continues playing Cue Ball Wizard, while discussing pinball score inflation and other aspects of game design.Ĥ4:39 Copy video clip URL Jon talks about his opinion on why Chicago is the “pinball capital of the world.” Then he talks about the technological aspects of recent pinball design. We see him play the game, with close-up shots of the board’s design.Ģ7:45 Copy video clip URL Jon describes what he thinks it means to call oneself a “pinball wizard.” He owns between seventy and eighty games that were all made before 1965. It is a pool themed game that would often be found in taverns. When he was in college, studying art at Cal State, the student union had pinball games that he played often.ġ5:25 Copy video clip URL Jon shows us some tricks that most pinball players cannot do.Ģ2:40 Copy video clip URL Jon moves onto the next machine, a game called Cue Ball Wizard. Another is to bring back a rule from games of past decades.ġ3:00 Copy video clip URL Jon talks about the origin of his interest in pinball. He goes into specifics of game locations and corresponding earnings.ġ1:30 Copy video clip URL One of Jon’s trademarks in pinball rule design is adding in an improbable but possible task that can multiply the player’s score. His high score on this game is around six billion, he says.Ġ7:00 Copy video clip URL The hardest part of designing a pinball game, according to Jon, is trying to appeal to as wide a range of people as possible. He talks about the secrecy involved in pinball game design.Ġ4:40 Copy video clip URL Jon plays a golf-themed pinball game he co-designed, called Teed Off. Jon shows some popular games, such as Super Mario Brothers and Street Fighter 2. Norris comes to meet him and takes him into the pinball factory where he works as an engineer. This tape features a tour of Gottlieb pinball company with engineer and 'pinball wizard' Jon Norris.Ġ0:00 Copy video clip URL Cameraman Doug Sawyer checks in with a receptionist at Gottlieb to see Jon Norris.

#THE WHO PINBALL WIZARD VIDEO SERIES#

Raw footage shot for the TV series Chicago Slices.

The who pinball wizard video