Zaccaria (company)

Zaccaria
Industry Interactive entertainment
Fate Bankruptcy
Founded 1974
Defunct 1990
Headquarters Bologna, Italy
Products Pinball and arcade machines
Owner Marino, Franco and Natale Zaccaria

Zaccaria, (later briefly reorganized under Mr. Game before ending production) was an Italian company of pinball and arcade machines that existed in Bologna from 1974 - 1990.[1] The factory was sold to tecnoplay.[2]

History

The company was founded as a manufactory for pinball arcade games in Bologna by the three brothers Marino, Franco and Natale Zaccaria. The logo consists of their initials. Zaccaria was led by Marino Zaccaria, a former manager of a bar near Bologna.[2]

At their best time, Zaccaria was the third largest company of pinball machines in the world after Bally and Williams. The company also entered into the video arcade game sector in the late 1970s. Therefore, they licensed games and developed some games with their own designs.[2]

There are at least 47 different Zaccaria pinball machines known to exist although some are just variations of the same game.[3][4]

Zaccaria pinball machines

  • Tropical (1974)
  • Cine Star (1974)
  • Top Hand (1974)
  • Granada (1974)[5]
  • Red Show (1975)
  • Ten Up (1975)
  • Lucky Fruit (1975)
  • Ten Stars (1976)
  • Moon Flight (1976)
  • Wood's Queen (1976)
  • Aerobatics (1977)
  • Circus (1977)
  • Combat (1977)
  • Nautilus (1977)
  • Universe (1977)
  • Supersonic (1977)
  • Queen's Castle (1978)
  • Winter Sports (1978)
  • House of Diamonds (1978)
  • Strike (1978)
  • Future World (1978)
  • Ski Jump (1978)
  • Shooting the Rapids (1979)
  • Hot Wheels (1979)
  • Space City (1979)
  • Fire Mountain (1980)
  • Star God (1980)
  • Space Shuttle (1980)
  • Earth Wind Fire (1981)
  • Locomotion (1981)
  • Soccer Kings (1982)
  • Pinball Champ '82 (1982)
  • Pinball Champ (1983)
  • Time Machine (1983)
  • Farfalla (1983)
  • Devil Riders (1984)
  • Magic Castle (1984)
  • Robot (1985)
  • Clown (1985)
  • Pool Champion (1985)
  • Mystic Star (1986)
  • Blackbelt (1986)
  • Mexico ’86 (1986)
  • Zankor (1986)
  • Spooky (1987)
  • Star's Phoenix (1987)
  • New Star's Phoenix (1987)

Zaccaria arcade machines

  • TV-Joker (1974), PONG clone[6]
  • Circus (1977), licensed Exidy Circus
  • The Invaders (1978), Space Invaders clone
  • Astro Wars (1979), port of Data East Astro Fighter
  • Dodgem (1979), port of Sega Head On
  • Galaxia (1979), port of Namco Galaxian
  • Quasar (1980), Zaccaria Original, distributed in US by US Billiards[7]
  • Moon Crest (1980), Quasar machine with a space fortress side art
  • Firebird (1980), licensed Amstar Phoenix
  • Space Pirate (1980), copy of Cinematronics' Rip-Off
  • Puckman (1980), copy of Namco Pac-Man
  • Scramble (1980), licensed Konami Scramble
  • Buck Rogers (1981), licensed Sega Buck Rogers
  • Vanguard (1981), licensed SNK Vanguard
  • Super Cobra (1981), licensed Konami Super Cobra
  • Frogger (1981), licensed Konami Frogger
  • Crazy Kong (1981), licensed Falcon Crazy Kong
  • Pac and Paint (1981), port of Kural Crush Roller
  • Zaxxon (1981), port of Sega Zaxxon
  • Hustler (1981), licensed Video Hustler
  • Comidar (1981), licensed Konami Amidar
  • Fitter (1981), licensed Round Up
  • Laser Battle (1981), Zaccaria Original, distributed in US by Midway by the title Lazarian
  • Scorpion (1982), ?
  • Sea Battle (1982), ?
  • Dribbling (1982), port of Dribbling by Model Racing
  • Jump Bug (1982), port Rock-Ola Jump Bug
  • Fantasy (1982), port Rock-Ola Fantasy
  • Cat and Mouse (1982), Zaccaria Original
  • Eyes (1982), licensed Techstar Eyes
  • Mr. Do! (1982), licensed Universal Mr. Do!
  • Eggor (1983), Telko Eggor
  • Money Money (1983), Zaccaria Original
  • Hyper Sports (1983), licensed Konami Hyper Sports
  • Hyper Olympics (1983), licensed Konami Hyper Olympics
  • Shooting Gallery (1984), Zaccaria Original
  • Jack Rabbit (1984), Zaccaria Original[8]

Digital recreations

Zaccaria Pinball
Developer(s) A.S.K. Homework Game Development
Platform(s) Android, iOS, Windows
Release iOS
Android
  • WW: February 21, 2015
Windows
OS X
Linux
Genre(s) Pinball
Mode(s) Single player

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. Versions for OS X as well as Linux were released on August 31, 2017.[9]

Digital pinball machines

There are 42 digital tables released.

  • Aerobatics
  • Blackbelt
  • Cine Star
  • Circus
  • Clown
  • Combat
  • Devil Riders
  • Earth Wind Fire
  • Farfalla
  • Fire Mountain
  • Future World
  • Granada
  • Hot Wheels
  • House of Diamonds
  • Locomotion
  • Lucky Fruit
  • Magic Castle
  • Mexico ’86
  • Moon Flight
  • Mystic Star
  • Nautilus
  • Pinball Champ 82
  • Pinball Champ 83
  • Pool Champion
  • Red Show
  • Robot
  • Shooting the Rapids
  • Soccer Kings
  • Space Shuttle
  • Spooky
  • Star God
  • Star's Phoenix
  • Strike
  • Supersonic
  • Time Machine
  • Top Hand
  • Tropical
  • Universe
  • Winter Sports
  • Wood's Queen
  • Zankor

Company Mr. Game

Mr. Game
Industry Interactive entertainment
Founded 1988
Defunct 1990
Headquarters Bologna, Italy
Products Pinball and arcade machines

Zaccaria was briefly reorganized under the label Mr. Game before ending production.[1] The company Mr. Game produced pinball machines from 1988 until 1990. Under the Mr. Game label, the company introduced a radical redesign of the traditional pinball cabinet. The commonly known rectangular cabinet containing the 'playfield' was updated into a more modern look with a different shaped box, and trigger buttons for flipper control. The legs were also more angular in support compared to the mostly vertical legs used by other manufacturers. Additionally, the 'backbox' eliminated the traditional numeric or alpha-numeric score and status displays in favor of a small color TV screen, sometimes containing video game elements.[10][11][12]

Mr. Game pinball machines

  • Dakar (1988)
  • Fast Track
  • Mac Attack (1989)
  • Motor Show (1989)
  • Sofficini Dakar
  • World Cup '90 (1990)

Successor tecnoplay

tecnoplay
Industry Interactive entertainment
Founded 1987
Headquarters San Marino
Products Pinball and arcade machines

After bankruptcy, the factory in Bologna of Zaccaria was sold to tecnoplay in San Marino, that produced pinball machines from 1987 - 1989 and is still in business as an importer, reseller and maintainer of pinball machines, spare parts, arcade and vending machines and other amusement games. Tecnoplay is managed by Mauro Zaccaria, the son of Marino Zaccaria, one of the founder of the company Zaccaria.[2][13][14]

Technoplay pinball machines

  • Devil King (1987)
  • Scramble (1987)
  • X-Force (1987)
  • Space Team (1989)
  • Hi-Ball (1989)

See also

  • Playmatic, a former Spanish company of pinball machines
  • Inder, another former Spanish company of pinball and arcade machines
  • Taito of Brazil, a former Brazilian company of pinball and arcade machines
  • Maresa, a former Spanish company of pinball machines
  • Sega, S.A. SONIC, a former Spanish company of pinball and arcade machines

References

  1. 1 2 http://www.zaccaria-pinball.com/
  2. 1 2 3 4 http://www.zzzaccaria.com/
  3. ↑ http://pinside.com/pinball/archive/zaccaria/1
  4. ↑ http://www.ipdb.org/search.pl?searchtype=advanced&mfgid=356
  5. ↑ http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=6139
  6. ↑ Flyer of TV-Joker
  7. ↑ Flyer of Quasar
  8. ↑ http://www.zzzaccaria.com/list.htm
  9. ↑ http://steamcommunity.com/games/444930/announcements/detail/1451703867051926032
  10. ↑ http://www.ipdb.org/search.pl?searchtype=advanced&mfgid=222
  11. ↑ http://www.zaccaria-pinball.com/mrgame/
  12. ↑ http://www.zaccaria-pinball.com/corti/mt.html
  13. ↑ http://www.ipdb.org/search.pl?mfgid=313&searchtype=advanced
  14. ↑ http://www.tecnoplay.com/eng/chi-siamo.php

Further reading

  • Fabio Rossi. Dizionario dei Videogame. Milano, Garzanti, 1993. ISBN 88-11-90422-6
  • Tristan Donovan. Replay: The History of Video Games. Yellow Ant, 2010. ISBN 978-0-9565072-0-4
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