Pinball Compendium by Michael Shalhoub

The pinball compendium is actually a set of three books. Each one describes the pinball machines created during specific period.

However as all three books are equal in quality and should be bought together, I review them here together.

These books are probably the best 'glossy' pinball books ever made !

Oh, you don't believe me, you want more details, do you ?
Well, these books give you more information than any other pinball book will give. What makes this book so good (in my opinion) is that the author has interviewed dozens of people who worked at the pinball companies. So you do not only read about just every game that has been made, but for almost every game there is someone giving you inside information about it.
So it's not one person (a book author) who shares his wisdom, but maybe 100 or more people who give you background information and insights you did not know.

It shows even a lot of pictures of whitewood playfields, prototypes, and much more..
I thought by now I knew about every prototype and cancelled game in the 80ies and 90ies, but these books have pictures of prototypes I had never heard about !

The books are not cheap, but really worth their price. Because each of the books talks about a specific type of games you can buy the book about the pinball machines you're most interested in (for most people it will be the most recent games).. but once you have one book you probably want to buy the others too.

Official site of this book.