Pinball is alive and well in Australia, says Andrew Savva of Big Top Amusements.

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Savva again had a booth at this year’s AGE show in Sydney as a follow-up to the one he ran in 2017, offering cranes and other games.

“Australia is the best market in the world for pinball by per capita,” he said and pubs and clubs continued to be a good market.

“The home games business is strong and so are the arcades and family entertainment centres.”

His Big Top booth held the pinball products of Highway Group, an Australian company distributing the Chinese-made Homepin that is making an impact in Australia and in other parts of the world with its Thunderbirds licensed game. Also on the stand, however, was the totally innovative Arcooda digital product in pinball format, but which can be used to play not just pinball games, but any joystick game.

Highway’s Arcooda has a set of controls, joystick and buttons mounted on the front panel to give the player the option of the type of game he wants to play. It can also be connected up to an Xbox or Playstation.

The home market, said John Redmond of Highway Group is a key target for the Arcooda product, but it is also available for the coin-op business and can be offered as ticket redemption. Both Homepin and Highway are handled by Big Top.

Arcooda is made by Steve Josifovski from his Newcastle, NSW, factory and he is enjoying some attention from the international market with a US distribution now under discussion and interest from other international markets, including the UK.

Image: John Redmond of Highway and Owen Simons from Forward Amusements on the Big Top stand with the two pinball games.