Gamatron

Gamatron, released by Pinstar in December 1985, occupies a curious niche in pinball history: it was not a standalone machine but a conversion kit, produced by a company Gary Stern started between the collapse of the original Stern Electronics and the formation of Data East Pinball. Credited to Harry Williams and Steve Kirk, with artwork by Seamus McLaughlin, the kit carried an outer space theme and, per the manufacturer's flyer, fit most standard-size four-player Bally pinball machines.

The playfield is a version of Stern's 1980 'Flight 2000', including a device similar to that game's ball-walker at the upper left, and a binary comparison shows the software is 100% identical to Flight 2000's, running on the Bally/Stern boardset via a PinStar daughterboard plugged into the CPU socket. Players complete the letters G-A-M-A-T-R-O-N to enable ball locks leading to 3-ball multiball, and the layout offers two flippers, a pop bumper, two slingshots, four standup targets, three kick-out holes, a 5-bank and a 3-bank of drop targets, two spinning targets, and a ball kicker.

Because the kit lacked the ramps, speech, and text-capable displays that were driving the market by 1986, not many Gamatron kits were sold and few examples exist today. That scarcity, together with its unusual origin story, makes Gamatron a genuine curiosity for collectors of solid-state pinball. A charming detail: designer Steve Kirk placed his personal design number, SK-9, on a launching rocket in the backglass art, continuing a tradition he kept across his games.