In today’s Friday Know-It-All, Editor Andrea discusses the history of pop culture pinball machines and which media classics they believe deserve their own game.

Pinball saw a rise in popularity in the ’80s, and by the ’90s, licensing popular movies, TV shows, and icons of the day became a staple for pinball. As a result, companies such as Stern and Williams designed machines for some truly random films. I mean, do you think anyone would be talking about 1994’s “The Shadow” if there wasn’t also a beloved pinball machine based on the movie? For a while, it seemed like the worse the movie was, the more engaging and enjoyable the corresponding pinball machine adaptation would be. I also love that there are pinball machines designed after video games. Licensing existing properties for pinball machines persists among pinball makers today, with recent Stern pinball releases for “Jaws” and James Bond. A new favorite of mine is Chicago Gaming Company’s Pulp Fiction. I love everything about “Pulp Fiction” pinball — the sound of “Misirlou” as the game starts, the Jules and Vincent tiny sculptures, the Pawn Shop in the middle. It compliments and pays homage to the movie, if that makes sense. I got to asking myself what good movies would make for good pinball machines. Here’s a list of my thoughts:

“Napoleon Dynamite”: Featuring bumpers where Napoleon says “GOSH!” over and over again. I’m also imagining a Vote for Pedro multiball set to “Canned Heat” by Jamiroquai.
“The Grand Budapest Hotel”: Any Wes Anderson film would do, really.
“Everything Everywhere All At Once”: Hot dog flippers! A plunger shaped like the "Auditor of the Month" trophy, where the goal of the game is to complete the IRS episode to reach Everything Bagel Wizard Mode.
“Scott Pilgrim vs. the World”: I would design this pinball machine to look like the already existing Avengers: Infinity Quest, Godzilla, or Deadpool pinball machines, where the goal of the game corresponds to enemies (in this case, evil exes of Scott) you must defeat.
“Wet Hot American Summer”: Okay, the criteria for all of the films on this list is that they must have one of two things: a killer soundtrack, or iconic, quotable lines. “Wet Hot American Summer” has both.
“Drive”: Vaporwave aesthetics and pinball go together like PB&J.
“Pee-wee's Big Adventure”: I am genuinely surprised that this hasn’t happened.
“Knives Out”
“Up”: Can you believe that the only Disney/Pixar movie that’s been made into a pinball machine is “Toy Story… 4”?!
“Vertigo”: Horror and thriller pinball machines are some of my absolute favorite ones to play, and I can’t think of a better film to adapt to a pinball machine than this one.