Uploaded October 2020 | Updated September 2026, 1 hour ago
Here today to entertain your eyeballs is the infamous DRAGON from Interflip of Spain. Many pinball people may not realize it, but there was a huge and vibrant pinball industry in Europe throughout the 70's and into the 80's. Manufacturers like Sonic, Recel, Playmatic and Interflip existed in Spain, while Zaccaria and Bell Games operated out of Italy. They often copied the designs of the big American manufacturers, but many of their designs were original.
Rather than having the playfield artwork printed on wood, many of these companies would silkscreen the artwork on the back side of a plexiglass-type of material. The result is that the artwork on playfields never wore out. I am not sure what type of process they used for the backglass artwork, but most of the imported European machines I've seen have nearly perfect backglasses as well, even after 40+ years. Even the plastics are thick and not prone to breaking or warping. Interestingly, there seems to be two different types of pop bumper designs used on Dragon. Some have the round style (as shown in this video), while others have a more square design (this can be seen on the Dragon page at ipdb.org).
Additionally, these games, and especially the machines made by Interflip, were built like TANKS. The mechanisms, relays and steppers are all incredibly well made. And the complexity of Dragon is unbelievable. The engineering that must have gone into the design of this game is over-the-top. It's easily the most complicated electromechanical machine I've ever worked on. Every single space inside the lower cabinet and head is occupied by mechanisms or motors of some sort.
Also making Dragon unique is the electronic sound it employs. In spite of being electromechanical, the game uses a solid state sound board. Electronic sound was not necessarily a new idea within the arcade industry, but it was very novel within a pinball machine in 1977. This was something that the European manufacturers seemed to embrace much sooner than the Americans. The sound board in Dragon has two very distinct sections, one that is responsible for the beeps and boops and one one that handles the BAAAOOO sound of the dragons.
The machine in this video was hardly ever played and only has 3300 games on the counter. It looks nearly brand new and plays very quickly. The basic idea of the game is simple: hit the numbers 1 through 5 to light the two blue targets for special, advance the bonus to 50,000 to light the centre kick-out for special. Advancing the bonus can be done by hitting the dragons or the two blue stand-up targets. Lighting the pop bumpers can be done by hitting 1, 3 and 5. The key to a high score is in the lit pop bumpers. They score 1,000 points when unlit but 10K (!) when lit. That makes the lit pops twice as valuable as anything else on the playfield. So if you light all three pops and get the ball in that area for, say, 5-6 hits, you're going to do far better than if you hit the dragons or try for the targets. This is some pretty seriously unbalanced scoring.
This game is HARD. The flipper gap is enormous and hitting the dragons can often lead to the ball heading straight down the middle. There are also some angles where the ball just seems to head for the outhole before the player can react. For this reason, game times are very short (I played three consecutive games in this video). Additionally, all Dragon machines, as far as I can tell, were set for 3-ball play from the factory and changing this requires the removal and re-soldering of a wire from the ball-in-play unit.
Anyway, this game is a fun and unique oddity that is worth a few plays. If you go in knowing that you're about to get crushed and your ball times will be brief, it's far less frustrating.
For more info about Dragon, see here:
ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=3887
Also, check out this very funny video about Dragon from the old Classic Game Room channel:
youtube.com/watch?v=4XQvojmUFro
Here today to entertain your eyeballs is the infamous DRAGON from Interflip of Spain. Many pinball people may not realize it, but there was a huge and vibrant pinball industry in Europe throughout the 70's and into the 80's. Manufacturers like Sonic, Recel, Playmatic and Interflip existed in Spain, while Zaccaria and Bell Games operated out of Italy. They often copied the designs of the big American manufacturers, but many of their designs were original.
Rather than having the playfield artwork printed on wood, many of these companies would silkscreen the artwork on the back side of a plexiglass-type of material. The result is that the artwork on playfields never wore out. I am not sure what type of process they used for the backglass artwork, but most of the imported European machines I've seen have nearly perfect backglasses as well, even after 40+ years. Even the plastics are thick and not prone to breaking or warping. Interestingly, there seems to be two different types of pop bumper designs used on Dragon. Some have the round style (as shown in this video), while others have a more square design (this can be seen on the Dragon page at ipdb.org).
Additionally, these games, and especially the machines made by Interflip, were built like TANKS. The mechanisms, relays and steppers are all incredibly well made. And the complexity of Dragon is unbelievable. The engineering that must have gone into the design of this game is over-the-top. It's easily the most complicated electromechanical machine I've ever worked on. Every single space inside the lower cabinet and head is occupied by mechanisms or motors of some sort.
Also making Dragon unique is the electronic sound it employs. In spite of being electromechanical, the game uses a solid state sound board. Electronic sound was not necessarily a new idea within the arcade industry, but it was very novel within a pinball machine in 1977. This was something that the European manufacturers seemed to embrace much sooner than the Americans. The sound board in Dragon has two very distinct sections, one that is responsible for the beeps and boops and one one that handles the BAAAOOO sound of the dragons.
The machine in this video was hardly ever played and only has 3300 games on the counter. It looks nearly brand new and plays very quickly. The basic idea of the game is simple: hit the numbers 1 through 5 to light the two blue targets for special, advance the bonus to 50,000 to light the centre kick-out for special. Advancing the bonus can be done by hitting the dragons or the two blue stand-up targets. Lighting the pop bumpers can be done by hitting 1, 3 and 5. The key to a high score is in the lit pop bumpers. They score 1,000 points when unlit but 10K (!) when lit. That makes the lit pops twice as valuable as anything else on the playfield. So if you light all three pops and get the ball in that area for, say, 5-6 hits, you're going to do far better than if you hit the dragons or try for the targets. This is some pretty seriously unbalanced scoring.
This game is HARD. The flipper gap is enormous and hitting the dragons can often lead to the ball heading straight down the middle. There are also some angles where the ball just seems to head for the outhole before the player can react. For this reason, game times are very short (I played three consecutive games in this video). Additionally, all Dragon machines, as far as I can tell, were set for 3-ball play from the factory and changing this requires the removal and re-soldering of a wire from the ball-in-play unit.
Anyway, this game is a fun and unique oddity that is worth a few plays. If you go in knowing that you're about to get crushed and your ball times will be brief, it's far less frustrating.
For more info about Dragon, see here:
ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=3887
Also, check out this very funny video about Dragon from the old Classic Game Room channel:
youtube.com/watch?v=4XQvojmUFro
