The Addams Family Pinball Machine (Bally, 1992): A Buyer's Guide to Testing One

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Part of The Addams Family's appeal to a first-time buyer is simple arithmetic: Midway built a lot of them. The Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) records 20,270 units of the original, built by Midway under the Bally name in 1992, and notes that it "broke all previous sales records for flipper games." That volume is good news for a buyer. It also means condition varies enormously from one machine to the next, and the same name covers a later limited edition that is worth understanding before you look at any listing.

This guide pulls together what IPDB, the original Midway operations manual, PinWiki's repair notes and the ROM history say about the game, then turns it into a practical checklist for buying one second-hand. It is built from those published sources rather than from first-hand repair work, and every figure below is attributed to whoever published it.

The Addams Family at a Glance

Sources: IPDB entries for The Addams Family (IPD No. 20) and The Addams Family Special Collectors Edition (IPD No. 21), read via Internet Archive captures of 21 August 2026 and 4 March 2026.

Two numbers matter when you plan the move. Midway's January 1992 operations manual lists the game at 290 lbs, about 55 inches long, 26 inches wide and 85 inches high, and calls it a 3-ball game. IPDB separately records an actual measured weight of 255 lbs including legs. Either way, this is a job for two people and a proper hand truck, and our home game room planning guide covers the doorway and floor questions.

What Makes It Tick

The features that make The Addams Family fun are also the parts a buyer needs to test, so it helps to know what they are. According to IPDB and the manual:

• Thing. A large plastic hand in a box at the upper right of the playfield comes out to pick up the ball magnetically and take it below the playfield.
• The Bookcase. IPDB calls it the first-ever optical target bank. When active, it rotates to reveal the shot to the vault.
• The Power. Magnets under the lower playfield switch on as an earned feature and push the ball around.
• Thing Flips. One of the four flippers is fired by the game itself: the manual describes the ball being diverted to the upper left mini-flipper, which "Thing" then shoots toward the swamp.
• The Electric Chair, listed by IPDB as one of the game's toys, and 2- or 3-ball multiball.

Every one of those depends on a motor, a magnet or a switch that can fail, and two of them, Thing and the bookcase, can be switched off in the game's settings. That is exactly why the checklist below asks you to watch each one work.

Three Versions You Might Be Offered

The 1992 production run. This is the standard game, model 20017, and with 20,270 built against 1,000 Golds, it is what most listings will be. IPDB's notes describe cabinets and backboxes made in blue.

The "Later Production" gold cabinets. Designer Pat Lawlor wanted to commemorate the record-breaking machine by having it built in a gold cabinet, and IPDB says that change carried over to a number of games made afterwards in the original run. Some of these have gold lower cabinets with blue backboxes. Larry DeMar explains in the IPDB entry that cabinets and backboxes were built separately and joined later, so "a small number of games were mis-matched", and Lawlor adds that the record-breaking game was #20,232. The legs, metal trim and lockdown bar on these games are not gold. A gold cabinet from this run is an original 1992 game, not a Gold edition.

The 1994 Special Collectors Edition. IPDB says Midway put the game back into production in 1994 with a special run of "Gold" machines, 1,000 units, to mark it becoming the best-selling flipper game of all time. They carry gold accents on the metal ramps, legs and bolts, lettering, the vault plastic, the bumper caps and Thing's box, and each one includes a certificate signed by the design team and a gold plate on the lower right front of the machine carrying its machine number. Larry DeMar adds that the colors on the Gold playfield were made "hotter", so original-run and Gold playfields are easy to tell apart side by side.

No remake to confuse things. Chicago Gaming Company describes its Attack From Mars, Monster Bash and Cactus Canyon as part of a series of remakes of "the greatest Bally and Williams pinball machines", and it also sells a Medieval Madness remake. Its pinball line, checked in September 2026, lists no Addams Family, so there is no remake from that company to tell apart from a Midway original.

Buying it second-hand

With more than 20,000 built, you can afford to be choosy. Work through the game in this order: confirm what it is, prove the mechanisms work, then look at the electronics and the paperwork.

Confirm which game it is. A "Gold" listing should come with the signed certificate and the numbered gold plate on the lower right front, plus the gold ramps, legs, lettering, vault plastic, bumper caps and Thing's box that IPDB lists. A gold lower cabinet with a blue backbox and ordinary legs and trim fits the 1992 later-production games IPDB describes, which are originals but not Golds. IPDB's entry also links to the Internet Pinball Serial Number Database (IPSND) listing for the title, which is worth a look when a seller quotes a serial number.

Run the Thing and Bookcase tests. The operations manual gives each mechanism its own test. T.12 Thing Test has a motor test, which shows the status of the opto limit switches, and an operation test in which the hand should take a ball from the eject hole and drop it into its box. T.13 Bookcase Test starts and stops the bookcase motor and shows its limit switches. Then check two settings the manual lists under the game adjustments: A.2 20 Disable THING and A.2 21 Disable BOOKCASE. Set to Yes, each stops that mechanism, so a game can play on with either one quietly switched off. The ROM history shows how old the Thing problem is: revision L-2, released in March 1992, added "enhanced logic for handling a broken 'thing' hand."

Check The Power magnets. PinWiki warns that if a magnet driver transistor fails and shorts on, the magnets can stay on all the time and burn the playfield, and it says to make sure the correct fuses are fitted. The manual puts the magnet fuse, a 5 amp slow-blow, on the underside of the playfield. Look closely at the playfield around the lower magnets for heat marks, and ask whether the fuse is the correct rating.

Ask about the swamp and Thing eject coils. PinWiki describes a missing "diode tieback" connection on the swamp release coil that makes driver board transistor Q20 fail, after which the coil is likely to lock on and melt. It notes that the Thing eject coil also uses a diode tieback. A seller who has had the game serviced should know whether these were checked.

Shoot the center ramp. PinWiki's "Can't get Bear Kicks" note describes center ramp shots paying out as if the left ramp had been shot, and traces it to a worn microswitch at the top left of the ramp. A few center ramp shots during your test game will show whether it registers.

Read the audits, but do not trust them blindly. The manual's main audits include Total Plays, which counts only completed games. The same manual lists utilities to clear the audits and restore factory settings, and it explains that a "Factory Settings Restored" message means the memory has lost its settings and the batteries and battery holder should be checked for contamination. Treat a low play count as the seller's claim, look at the battery holder, and ask when the batteries were last replaced.

Know which software it runs. The manual's ordering instructions say the ROM level is printed on the game ROM's label. The ROM history on IPDB lists the released revisions from L-1 in January 1992 through H-4 in May 1994, which it marks as recommended, followed by 6.0H in 1995, which only switched to a new numbering scheme. L-6 went only to a German distributor, and L-7 was an internal version that the history says likely came into circulation during Pinball Expo '92, when it was handed out to a few people as a "Home" version.

Judge the description by what it can show you. "Fully working" should come with a video of Thing taking a ball, the bookcase turning and The Power moving the ball. "Low plays" is only as good as the audits, which can be cleared. "Gold" needs the certificate and plate. "Shopped" should come with a list of what was done and when. And before you pay, run through the general checks in our first-machine buying guide: playfield wear, inserts, the inside of the cabinet and a full game played.

After you buy one. The manual has a utility, U.12 New Location, that tells the game's Thing Flips calibration system the machine has moved, so run it once the game is set up. Then give the playfield a proper clean with a playfield cleaning and wax kit, following our cleaning and waxing walkthrough, and swap old, pitted balls for a fresh set of pinballs. Weak or clacking flippers are covered in our flipper rebuild guide; check your parts against the manual's flipper listing before ordering anything, because rebuild kits are made for specific manufacturers and eras. For more home-game gear, see our top picks.

Sources

• Internet Pinball Database (IPDB), "The Addams Family" (IPD No. 20), read via the Internet Archive capture of 21 August 2026.
• IPDB, "The Addams Family Special Collectors Edition" (IPD No. 21), read via the Internet Archive capture of 4 March 2026.
• Midway Manufacturing Co., The Addams Family Operations Manual (January 1992), IPDB file, read via the Internet Archive capture of 31 August 2025.
• IPDB, "The Addams Family Game ROM History" (text file), read via the Internet Archive capture of 20 November 2023.
• PinWiki, "The Addams Family" (page last edited 26 November 2015), read via the Internet Archive capture of 7 December 2022.
• Chicago Gaming Company, pinball product list, chicago-gaming.com, checked September 2026.

FAQ

How many Addams Family pinball machines were made?

IPDB records 20,270 units of the 1992 original and 1,000 units of the 1994 Special Collectors Edition, both confirmed figures.

How can I tell a Gold Addams Family from a regular one?

IPDB says each of the 1,000 Gold machines has a certificate signed by the design team and a gold plate with its machine number on the lower right front, plus gold ramps, legs, bolts, lettering, vault plastic, bumper caps and Thing's box. Some 1992 games have gold lower cabinets with blue backboxes; those are later-production originals, not Golds.

How heavy is The Addams Family pinball machine?

Midway's operations manual lists 290 lbs and approximate dimensions of 55 inches long, 26 inches wide and 85 inches high. IPDB records an actual measured weight of 255 lbs including legs.

Has The Addams Family pinball been remade?

Not by Chicago Gaming Company, which sells remakes of Medieval Madness, Attack From Mars, Monster Bash and Cactus Canyon: its pinball line lists no Addams Family (checked September 2026).

What should I test first on a used Addams Family?

Thing and the bookcase. The manual's T.12 and T.13 tests exercise both, and its adjustments A.2 20 and A.2 21 can switch them off entirely, so confirm both are set to No and watch each one work in a game.