The company developed rapidly and began selling to other operators in Italy. I'm sure that the Strike was produced after that one. The Internet Pinball Database says that the first production model Zaccaria released was Strike. The first pinball we reconditioned was called Red Show, if I remember correctly. Lorenzo, a friend of ours, introduced us to this idea.ĭo you remember the name of the first model that you decided to 'freshen up' in the sixties? Natale from a Zaccaria Pinball publicity brochure in the '80sĪt the time pinballs were mostly being imported from the USA, but due to an economic crisis in Italy their cost increased a lot, and so we decided to start refurbishing used pinballs with new graphics applied. At that time I was finishing school but still helped however I could, and started working full time in 1968. The cash box was filling up so quickly it wasn't long before he began to set up pinballs in other bars.Īt some point he realized that he needed help, and asked Franco. Marino started out in 1964 with his first pinball machine in his bar. How did your adventure in the pinball business begin?įratelli Zaccaria was started by Marino, Franco and Natale Zaccaria. I remember Gottlieb's Hi-Lo and Bally's 8-Ball. He is currently the Technical Director for Tecnoplay, a company founded by Zaccaria family members in 1986.ĭo you remember the first pinball machine you played or made a particular impression? I had the opportunity to correspond with the company's legendary founder Natale Zaccaria. Their biggest sales hits were, among others, Time Machine, Pinball Champ, Soccer Kings and Magic Castle. Zaccaria pinballs were also exported to Poland in the 1980s. Most of them were designed by self-taught visual artist Lorenzo Rimondini. With a bowling theme, it featured drop targets symbolising bowling pins, and an add-a-ball feature.īetween 19 they produced fifty different models produced under the ZZZ brand, and another five released under the Tecnoplay banner. The first model they released under the Zaccaria company name was a single player, electromechanical pinball called Strike. The company was established in 1974 in Calderara di Reno, Bologna, and set up by three brothers (Mario, Franco and Natale Zaccaria). Zaccaria was one of the biggest Italian producers of pinball in the seventies and eighties.