What is the difference between electronic and electro-mechanical pinball machines?
Electro-mechanical (EM) machines are run by a large amount of switches, relays, solenoids and an electric motor while electronic games are run by mostly Integrated Circuit (IC) devices. Any pinball machines made before 1977 are EM and any after 1977 are electronic. 1977 is the crossover year and has a mix of both. If you don’t know the year the machine was made the simplest way to tell is to examine the game displays. Mechanical scoring reels means it is EM while digital displays mean it is electronic.
