Pinball began as a purely mechanical game in the early 1930s, evolving from bagatelle tables where a spring-loaded plunger launched a ball among pins and scoring pockets. The defining feature of modern pinball, player-controlled flippers, was not introduced until 1947 (Gottlieb's "Humpty Dumpty"), turning it from a game of pure chance into one of skill and reflexes. Playfields are tilted a few degrees so gravity continually pulls the ball back toward the player, while rubber bumpers and electromagnetic solenoids kick the ball away on contact, converting stored spring/coil energy into sudden bursts of velocity. Machines also include an anti-cheat "tilt" mechanism: a pendulum-based sensor that detects when a player shakes or bumps the cabinet too aggressively and disables the flippers as a penalty.

• Commercial playfields are tilted roughly 6.5 degrees to keep the ball rolling toward the drain under gravity.
• Standard pinball balls are chrome-plated steel, 1-1/16 inch (about 27mm) in diameter.
• A well-struck flipper shot can send the ball up to roughly 7 m/s (about 25 km/h).
• Bumpers and slingshots use solenoid coils that fire a kicker ring outward the instant a switch is triggered.
• Scoring is detected by electromechanical switches or optical sensors under lanes, targets, and bumpers.
• The mechanical flipper only reached production in 1947, over a decade after coin-operated pinball began.
• A pendulum or ball-in-bowl "tilt" sensor cuts power to the flippers if the cabinet is jostled too hard.
• Modern flippers are roughly 3 inches (7.6 cm) long and pivot through about 30-45 degrees per stroke.