Capcom Pinball Magic

Brian Hanson / 1995-08 | 1200
Capcom A0015405

Pinball Magic was the first pinball Capcom produced. It was released in October 1995 and about 1200 machines were sold.. Bryan Hansen did the design job together with Rob Hurtado. He is not a well-known designer in the pinball industry. But on the other hand, he seemed to be a rather good magician though...

This was Rob Hurtado’s first pinball designjob. He has some experience in working on several machines. He was responsible for the mechanics in for instance South Park, Goldeneye and a few other Sega machines.

The music for this machine is done by Chris Granner and Jeff Powell. Especially Granner ment a lot for the pinball industry when it comes up to creating music and sounds.

Capcom released only four pinball games, including Pinball Magic. Big Bang Bar and Kingpin only existed as prototypes. Illinois Pinball did a rerun on the first, and is planning a rerun in 2010 for the other

Romstar, a Capcom company, asked Mark Ritchie if he was interested in a position as Director of Engineering. It was just after he finished Indiana Jones, back in 1993. According to a Topcast interview he gladly accepted their offer and thought: “let's jump over and kick some ass”. And so he did...

As a Williams employee, Ritchie had signed a contract in which he promised not to design a game within a year after leaving the company. Since he was the Director of Engineering at Capcom, and not a designer, he did not expect Williams to sue him.

However, Williams did. It never got to the end. After three years battling, Capcom closed their pinball division in 1996.

The Pinball Magic in the Hyperballs Pinball Museum is a full restored pinball machine. The original playfield is replaced by a New Old Stock one. Playfield Renovations clearcoated this playfield several times.

The wire ramps are gold plated, some NOS plastics were installed and of course all the assemblies were fully renewed. The cabinet is in original condition though.