Watch This Slow Motion Video of a Pinball Machine

By Mark Jessen - News Published: 18 Jan 2021, Last Updated: 29 Oct 2023

Walk into a video game arcade and you’ll see any number of games ready to challenge your skills. Any arcade worth its salt will have at least one pinball machine with its flashing lights and ringing bells. The classic machine is a mainstay and people the world over have tried their hands at mastering the game, all the while ignoring the intricate details that make it possible. YouTube sensation The Slow Mo Guys are pulling back the curtains to reveal how a pinball machine works in their latest video “How a Pinball Machine Works in Slow Motion.”

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The Slow Mo Guys host Gav, along with co-host Dan, chose a Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory pinball machine to serve as the subject of their video. It takes a while to get to the actual slow-motion portion of the video—it happens at around five and a half minutes—but when it is time, you’ll get a view of the machine’s circuits, rings, switches, rods, ejectors, and plungers all working in harmony.

Perhaps most enthralling is a single moment in time, roughly half a second in length, when the machine’s bumpers bounce the ball back and forth a total of eight times. Just watching the flipper reveals how much force is actually in play in pinball—enough that the rubber on the flipper ripples off of the flipper.

Pinball machines, even modern pinball machines, are highly mechanical games, giving Gav plenty of things to shoot with the Phantom camera. The same holds true for the Willy Wonka game in the video. It comes with four flippers, six balls, a captive ball, and seven magnets.

Then there are the things that are peculiar to this particular game, such as the Wonkavator Super Ball Lock, the spinning Everlasting Gobstopper, the Red Most Secret Machine, and the Oompa Loompa camera sculpture. The game also features a stereo headphone jack, a 7-inch Wonkavision LCD, and a 27-inch HD LCD screen complete with 3D animations. If you want to see how all of that works together to offer you afternoons of playtime, then you’ll want to check out the video.

Mr Mark Jessen

Mark Jessen studied English at Brigham Young University, completing a double emphasis in creative writing and professional writing/editing. After graduating, Mark went to work for a small publisher as their book editor. After a brief time as a freelance writer, Mark entered the corporate world as a copywriter. These days, his hours are spent mostly in proofing and editing, though he continues to create content for a wide variety of projects. In 2017, Mark completed UCLA's Creative Writing Certification. A prolific writer, Mark has over 20 years of experience in journalism.

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