60's SF Depicted in Pinball Form with Questionable Accuracy
— By Kevin Montgomery (@kevinmonty) |

Last time I was at Alameda's Pacific Pinball Museum, I failed to notice this 1964 William's pinball machine themed around our prime city. Certainly the machine was fun to play, but the artwork by then Chicago-based game manufacture was real highlight. Ignoring the fact that they depicted the Golden Gate Bridge as having four towers, the city is essentially represented as Chinatown with a harbor, cable cars and white women dancing in the streets.

From what I understand, this sort of racist and misogynist imagery wasn't uncommon in older pinball machines. After all, these machines were made to be played in the back of seedy, smoke-filled bars by all sorts of disreputable badasses. And, you know, what kind of self-respecting badass wouldn't want to look at a caricature of Chinese person while smacking a ball around with flippers. Even so, this machine exemplifies how SF was marketed in the 50's and early 60's: experience the exotic wonders of 'the Orient' while riding the cable cars and scoring 10 points when lit.