Pinball Wizard

The origins of what we know today as “pinball” derive from a seventeenth century French game of upright pins and balls called Bagatelle. Such table games with pins and balls themselves derived from outdoor lawn games like bowling and croquet, miniaturized for indoor play during inclement weather. Table pins were tedious to reset, of course, and eventually pins became fixed to the table, and holes in the table became the targets for the balls, placed in varying locations to create greater challenges, ricochets and points. It was quite like billiards with obstacles.

In 1871, Montegue Redgrave filed a US patent for his version of “improved Bagatelle”, which featured an inclined table, marbles, and a spring and plunger mechanism. It was the first pinball machine, but modern versions closer to what we know today really began to appear in the 1930s. The flipper was introduced in 1947, and forever changed the game from one of luck to one of skill.

Matt Williams, a die cast machinist in England with a brilliant knack for creating outstanding mechanical puzzles, loves pinball, and has produced a remarkably puzzling object in Pinball Wizard. Fans of his work will be familiar with his initial set of cube puzzles, which were followed by the breakout hit Bandit, a form follows function arcade game puzzle with some amazing moves. Matt shared the origin and story of his follow up arcade puzzle, Pinball Wizard.

“So the idea for pinball was an idea I had almost from the start of the classic arcade series (Bandit /pinball/--?) The third in the series is yet to be decided as I have several ideas at this point.

Pinball wizard did take a lot longer to develop than I originally intended as I found some difficulties in trying to keep it as close to the theme as I could. I think the final product does this pretty well but that was not without its own difficulties. It took a lot of fine tuning to get the mechanisms working consistently but we got there in the end.”

Like Bandit before it, which capitalizes on movements and functions one might expect from a real slot machine to enact and achieve progress toward the end game and goal of the puzzle (while still maintaining confusion and mystery as to how exactly that is done), Pinball Wizard is a puzzle that plays like a pinball machine. No aspect of the experience is overlooked, from the start of the game to the finish, and there are a few great surprises along the way that should earn the puzzle status in the history books of such things. Perhaps even more so than its predecessor, Pinball invites and encourages you to play pinball, as a fun diversion but also as a required experience to advance in the objective, which in this case is not to rack up the high score, but rather to find your own unique number and get the trophy.

The puzzle is beautifully rendered, thanks to Matt’s skill and access to machining equipment. “The puzzle is built around an aluminium frame with cast acyclic side panels and nylon/brass inner workings. I chose nylon inner parts so to keep the price down as much as possible, as it’s a great material to machine and works great with moving parts.” I found the puzzle to be quite challenging and made progress and got stuck in equal measure. A few gentle nudges from Matt set me off again on the right track toward the final prize. The reset did not seem so difficult to me so thankfully I did not invoke any shame, but never fear, Matt provides for this as well. “During Testing amongst other things it was highlighted that the puzzle could be reset in such an order that it's possible to lose the ball bearing, making it almost impossible to retrieve it (without taking it apart), so this is where the "tool of shame" came from. I thought it should be highlighted if you don't reset it correctly haha. The next [arcade] puzzle is still not confirmed, but the next set of puzzles are not for the feint hearted. I'm a big fan of horror movies and this theme is hopefully going to be scary and most importantly Fun.”

While there may be any number of questionable “Pinball Wizard” cocktails in the world (I found one such libation made with blueberry vodka), I decided to flip the script for this toast and reference the frenetic flappers that make a game of pinball go ballistic. I have featured various “flips” on these virtual pages in the past, so if you’re feeling nostalgic you can flip back in time to those prior potions. Which seems somewhat appropriate, as the flip is a very old concoction, dating all the way back to the 1600s. In its original form, it was an interesting mixture of ale, rum and sugar, shocked by a red hot poker which caramelized the sugar and gave the warming drink a toasty sweetness that must have been just the thing to ease the winter’s chill. Pubgoers in those days sipped at their hot flips and bemoaned the absence of the pinball machine in the corner, which wouldn’t appear for another three hundred years.

In the nineteenth century, the flip morphed into a cold drink which contains an entire egg, quite similar to an eggnog. A fortified spirit such as sherry would have been the main ingredient found in the classic preparation, such as the sherry flip made by Professor Jerry Thomas in How to Mix Drinks, 1887. Flips contained less alcohol than nogs, and as such were perhaps the more refined drink. Oloroso is a balanced style of sherry full of richly spiced fruit flavors and works particularly well in the flip. Try one for a change of pace, a nod to the past, and a decadent treat this season. Cheers!

Sherry Flip by Jerry Thomas

2 oz Oloroso sherry

½ oz simple syrup

1 egg

Shake ingredients vigorously without ice, then again with ice to chill. Strain into a favorite glass and grate fresh nutmeg on top.

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