We Still Make Pinball Machines in the US

Photo: Sally Ryan for The New York Times

Just not very many.

...Stern Pinball Inc., is the last of its kind in the world. A range of companies once mass produced pinball machines, especially in the Chicago area, the one-time capital of the business. Now there is only Stern. And even the dinging and flipping here has slowed: Stern, which used to crank out 27,000 pinball machines each year, is down to around 10,000.

I always loved pinball machines and I still do. What's interesting is that most of the ones now are being sold for use in private homes. If I had an extra $5,000 sitting around here, I'd love to have one.

Though pinball has roots in the 1800s game of bagatelle, these are by no means simple machines. Each one contains a half-mile of wire and 3,500 tiny components, and takes 32 hours to build — as the company’s president, Gary Stern, likes to say, longer than a Ford Taurus.