A Brief History
On April 3, 2019, Zaccaria Pinball became available for the Xbox One. By providing digital recreations of classic pinball tables, Zaccaria Pinball helps to preserve pinball history.
Digging Deeper
Zaccaria (later briefly reorganized under Mr. Game before ending production) was an Italian manufacturer of pinball and arcade machines that existed in Bologna from 1974 until 1990. After the Mr. Game-era, the former Zaccaria factory was sold to technoplay. This San Marino-based company also made some pinball machines and is still in business today. At Zaccaria’s height, the company was the third largest manufacturer of pinball machines in the world after Bally and Williams. At least 47 different Zaccaria pinball machines are known to exist, although some are just variations of the same game.
In the 2010s, over twenty years after Zaccaria’s bankruptcy, A.S.K. Homework Game Development released Zaccaria Pinball for Android and iOS as well as Windows on Steam that consists of digital recreations of classic Zaccaria pinball machines with the possibility of many more tables to come, including tables from A.S.K. Homework’s Age of Pinball game. Indeed, one thing that has particularly sparked my curiosity (and hopes) is a post made on Zaccaria Pinball‘s official Facebook page (see below) that suggests the possibility of even history themed tables (such as one featuring Cleopatra) and even a neat looking vampire themed table being ported to Zaccaria Pinball. I so, so badly want these to be released on the Xbox One!
Currently, Zaccaria Pinball offers dozens of diverse tables, including Solid State, EM, Remake, and Retro tables. Not only are there recreations of the real Zaccaria tables (Solid State and EM), there are also new, more modern takes on these machines. These remakes appeal to people who like the more modern machines than the classic originals. The game also has numerous customization options that allow players to tweak many different settings such as camera, lighting, physics, and more!
If you are interested in trying Zaccaria Pinball, then you can do so on the following platforms: Android (https://apkpure.com/zaccaria-pinball/hu.magicpixel.Zaccaria), Steam (https://store.steampowered.com/app/444930/Zaccaria_Pinball/), Switch (https://www.nintendo.com/games/detail/zaccaria-pinball-switch/), and Xbox (https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/zaccaria-pinball/9p7jbqj691kl?activetab=pivot:overviewtab). You can see a teaser for the Xbox One version below.
I personally play Zaccaria Pinball on my Xbox One X and enjoy it immensely. I strongly recommend the game to my fellow Xbox One owners and really hope that all tables currently released on other platforms will soon come to the Xbox One as well. Posted below is a gallery of some of my rankings on leaderboards (I am jphinesdad).
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- Photograph by Dr. Zar.
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- Photograph by Dr. Zar.
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- Photograph by Dr. Zar.
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- Photograph by Dr. Zar.
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- Photograph by Dr. Zar.
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- Photograph by Dr. Zar.
Question for students (and subscribers): What is your favorite Zaccaria pinball table? Please let us know in the comments section below this article.
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Historical Evidence
For more information about pinball history, please see…
Rossignoli, Marco. The Complete Pinball Book: Collecting the Game & Its History. Schiffer Publishing, Ltd., 2011.
The featured image in this article, a screenshot from Zaccaria Pinball, was provided to Dr. Zar per his request via private message to Zaccaria Pinball‘s official Facebook page and is thus used here with the permission of the game’s publisher.
