Silverball guide · The Addams Family
The mansion is the machine
The best-selling pinball machine ever made keeps its scoring somewhere most players never look: the end-of-ball bonus. Thirteen rooms is the route there.
UK Machine Record
The Addams Family
Bally · 1992 · at 23 UK venues.
23
UK venues
23
machines mapped
#4
most-located of 246
1992
released
Dot matrix4 playersSolid state
DesignLarry DeMar, Pat Lawlor
ArtJohn Youssi
SoftwareLarry DeMar, Mike Boon
About
The Addams Family is one of the defining pinball machines of the 1990s, with Pat Lawlor turning the Addams mansion into a playfield full of interconnected objectives. Thing, the Electric Chair, the Vault and the Mansion are more than memorable toys; they are all important parts of the game’s progression.
The genius is how readable the game remains despite its depth. You can walk up without knowing the rules and immediately understand that something happens when you shoot the Mansion, while experienced players can spend hundreds of games working out how to maximise the scoring opportunities.
It rewards players who understand what they are building towards rather than simply chasing whatever happens to be flashing. Learn the Mansion and you’ll start to understand what the game is really asking you to do.
Written by Silverball
Collector · casual
Your rating
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Your score · casual
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The playfield
What you’re looking at · 3
- The Swamp
The blue pool at the top right. The card standing in it is the machine telling you the rule in its own words: spell G-R-E-E-D to open the bookcase for a shot to the Vault.
- The Electric Chair
The wooden chair sitting over a hole in the middle left of the playfield, level with the flipper feed from the left ramp.
- The Mansion
The house across the bottom of the playfield. Its windows are the rooms, and they light as you take them.
Written by Silverball
The playfield
Strategy tips · 12
Strategy tips written by players on PinTips , not by Silverball. Best-voted first.
Top tipSecrets & easter eggs 12 votes
The magnet will shut off after 10 seconds of no switch hits. Cradle up and wait for it to turn off in order to make shots safely.
General8 tips
- General
Chair starts modes. Either ramp lights chair. Modes can be stacked. If chair is unlit, the right inlane lights chair momentarily.
- General
Side red ramp (million plus) is usually late on the upper flipper. Flipping too early will go to the dangerous train shot.
- General
The chair scoop and bookcase are both safer to backhand. Try to follow up bookcase hits with Million Plus ramp shots.
- General
After making 1st GREED ball lock, short plunge to lock ball 2. Short plunge again & catch w R Flipper & hit chair. Showtime!
- General
Every pop bumper hit changes lit mode. THING multiball can be very valuable if you shoot the center shot quickly to lock in a high reward.
- General
On some machines, a chair kickout to a dead flipper bounce pass lines you up for a perfect shot to the extra ball mini ramp.
- General
On most machines, backhand Bear ramp w R Flipper to light Chair. Or post pass to L Flipper if R flipper is weak
- General
Bear kicks max out at 99. After that, every bear kick awards 5M, lights the chair and feeds the right flipper.
Skill shot1 tip
- Skill shot
Plunge for Thing saucer. If you plunge short and do not hit a switch, drain and the ball will come back to try again.
Secrets & easter eggs1 tip
- Secrets & easter eggs
3-way combo - Center ramp, left orbit, left ramp. 4-way combo - Add a swamp shot at the end of a 3-way combo for bigger points.
Multiball1 tip
- Multiball
Hit bookcase to spell GREED. Lock ball at green lights. Start multiball by shooting electric chair or vault. Side ramp awards double jackpot
Tips belong to the players who wrote them. Read them all, vote, or add your own on PinTips, a Match Play project.
A closer look
Close-ups of the The Addams Family playfield, with our note on what each one is showing you.
Three pop bumper caps, set into the graveyard artwork.
The Thing hand, beside the mechanism that works it.
The mansion between the flippers, its windows lit as the 3 MIL and 6 MIL inserts.
Photographs via the Internet Pinball Database. The captions are ours.
Community tutorials on YouTube, not made by Silverball.
The Addams Family Pinball Tutorial & Gameplay (Bally Williams 1992)Majestic Pinball · 2025 · on YouTube
Addams Family Pinball Tutorial!PAPApinball · 2014 · on YouTube
Videos from YouTube, curated from channels we rate. They belong to their creators, who aren’t affiliated with Silverball; links open on YouTube so the view counts for them. A creator who’d rather not be listed can get in touch and we’ll remove it.
The original flyer
How The Addams Family was sold to operators — Bally, 1992. The back is the feature list the manufacturer led with, which is a fair record of what the machine was meant to be famous for.
Front
BackManufacturer’s sales flyer — Bally’s own artwork. We haven’t been able to confirm the source of this scan.
Nobody we follow has reviewed this one
Same short list of channels as the tutorials. A machine with no review here has not been passed over — it simply hasn’t been covered by anyone we list.
Where a machine sits is Pinball Map’s work, not ours, find The Addams Family near you on their map. Ratings, tips and tournament results here are ours.