This colourful book captures something of the endless fascination of pinball - the magic, frustrating, exhilarating feelings that capture the hearts, flipper fingers, clenched teeth and bated breath of millions of people throughout the world.

Generally considered to have evolved from the simple holes-and-pins game of bagatelle, present-day pinball has developed an armoury of electrical wizardry which can transform a simple steel ball into a frenzied missile, hurtling through an assault course of bumpers, kickers, rollovers, slingshots, moving targets, rollunders, bonus gates, buttons, spinning turntables, rotor targets, flippers and finally - heart-stoppingly the exit lanes or more disastrously - the tilt trap. - even.

This book takes a long look at the history and development of pinball from its beginnings in the 1930s to the present day. It covers such aspects as style, design, artwork and systems of play and introduces the artists, designers and players to help capture an insight into the elusive psychology of the game. But mainly it is a selection of colourful reproductions of playing decks, glimpses of a wide variety of machines, some positively historic. new, some old, some

Pinball Portfolio features machines with names like 'King Tut', 'Magic City', 'Major- ettes', 'Friendship 7', 'Big Daddy', 'Central Park', 'King of Diamonds', and 'Cowpoke'. Many of these come from private collections and are complete with detailed descriptions of all the scoring features, specialities and idiosyncrasies. They will be of consuming interest to regular pinball players, owners and those with fond memories of a pinball- playing youth; whilst those people who never quite got into pinball will be introduced to a whole new world of wonder and excitement.

Harry McKeown was born in Glasgow in 1937. He is a freelance journalist and photo- grapher and has worked for several national newspapers. He is at present planning a film on pinballs.