Magic Picture Pin

Magic Picture Pin is a solid-state pinball conversion released in April 1982 by Arkon Automaten of Frankfurt, Germany -- specifically, a reworking of Bally's 1980 machine 'Silverball Mania' with a new Magic/Occult theme and backglass. It was the invention of Arkon owner Reinhard Deutsch, who created the Picture Pin concept after AMOA show staff made him cover the backglass of his risqué 'Sexy Girl' game -- only to notice the covered game drew even more attention from customers. Magic Picture Pin let operators simply swap the backglass and film cassette to recreate that earlier game's appeal under a different theme.

Gameplay features two flippers, three pop bumpers, and a horseshoe lane: shooting the horseshoe lane or lit top-center rollover converts a center outlane below the flippers into a kicker that returns an otherwise-drained ball back into play. Balls that drain down the side outlanes can even be nudged onto wireforms that route them toward this same recovery kicker. As an earned feature, the game projects still images of science-fiction scenes onto a screen embedded in the playfield, with the picture changing throughout play.

The lower-left backglass spells out 'M-A-G-I-C' in lights, tying the visual theme together. Both the flyer and apron credit only Arkon Automaten, with no additional company name evident.