Product Tag - Data East Pinball

Data East made pinball machines from 1987 through 1994, and included innovations such as the first pinball to have stereo sound, the first usage of a small dot matrix display in Checkpoint, along with the first usage of a big DMD (192×64) in Maverick. In designing pinball machines they showed a strong preference for using high-profile (but expensive) licensed properties. Some of the properties that Data East licensed for its pinball machines included Guns N’ Roses, Star Wars, Back to the Future, Batman, Robocop, The Simpsons and Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It is the only company that manufactured custom pinball games (e.g. for Aaron Spelling, the movie Ritchie Rich or Michael Jordan). The pinball division was created in 1985 by purchasing the pinball division of Stern Electronics and its factory and assets. Amidst plummeting sales across the entire pinball market, Data East chose to exit the pinball business and sold the factory to Sega in 1994. At the time of the buyout by Sega, Data East Pinball was the world’s second-largest pinball manufacturer. Although all of Data East’s pinball games were developed in the United States, several were released in Japan by the parent company.