Pinball Magazine Presents the Pinball Book by Santiago Ciuffo

dtown8532

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Apr 10, 2012
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I haven't seen anything about this new book on here so I thought I'd start a thread. I received my copy today of the book "Pinball" by Santiago Ciuffo. It's currently being sold through Pinball Magazine's website. It's not cheap. With shipping to the U.S., the cost was about $60.00. So, what do I think?

"Pinball" is probably the ultimate coffee table pinball book. It's hardback, a little over two hundred pages and is almost exclusively made up of large full page sized photos. Many of you know that I'm an amateur photographer and I can tell you that the photography is superb. As is the print quality. It far exceeds the style and print quality of the Marco Rossignolli books like Pinball Memories, Pinball Perspectives and Pinball Snapshots; all of which I own and enjoy. However, it does not supplant them.

While the book "Pinball" contains absolutely first rate photography, that is about all it contains. Unlike the aforementioned Rossignolli books, "Pinball" does not take a random selection of fifty tables, break them down by chapter and have a lengthy write up about each table along with several photos of each, including a full playfield image. Very rarely do we see a full playfield in "Pinball." Usually one table gets two photos which are taken from an artistic point of view. Meaning if, say, a slingshot is the subject then a shallow depth of field is employed to blur out the background to showcase the sling art. There were a few instances where I would have preferred the playfield glass removed like in one of the Paragon photos, but Ciuffo might have wanted it to remain for light reflection purposes. Who am I to complain? I wasn't there nor inside his head at the time. :)

Speaking of Paragon, this book really caters to the early solid state fan, which definitely includes myself. While there are some EM's, the majority of the tables featured are from the late 70's and early 80's. That probably has something to do with location of these pins which was Argentina. It would seem that they had a large influx during that time period. Whether they did or not, I would argue that this era produced much of the finest artwork ever in pinball so they would make for the best examples to showcase in a coffee table book.

Like I said in the beginning, I think "Pinball" is the finest coffee table book about pinball yet made. If you put this out for guests to look at who know nothing about pinball, I would bet they'll find it interesting enough to look through the whole book. I have included some pics from Pinball Magazine's website along with a link to it and one to Pinball News's review of the book. I didn't think it would be appropriate to include my own photos of the book if I were to take any.

http://www.pinball-magazine.com/

http://www.pinballnews.com/learn/newpinballbook/index.html

Bottom line is if you love the early solid state era of pinball and have the cash to spend, this is a great book. There's an absolutely spectacular pic of a trashed Stern Nine Ball playfield that's almost worth the cost alone.



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Fungi

Active member
Feb 20, 2012
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Thanks for this. I almost bought this a few weeks ago, but every time that shipping price pops up, I just can't justify it. Although I can afford $60, I'm not certain I want to drop $60 on pictures of tables. I probably would pay $40 complete.
 

PinballMagazine

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Dec 25, 2012
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Thanks for reviewing Santiago Ciuffo's book. It's appreciated very much and I'm glad you appreciate the book.

Regarding the pricing of the book, as mentioned by Fungi: The book itself actually costs about $ 40.00 at shows in Europe, but the additional shipping / postal rates are making it more expensive. It's a heavy book and the postal rate to ship it to North America is close to 20.00. It is a heavy book. I've looked into working with a distributor in USA but the American postal rates were even more expensive.
However, there may be some good news for Fungi after all as Pinball Magazine just teamed up with the Pacific Pinball Museum for the NW Pinball & Arcade Show. PPM will be selling the book in their booth at the show, which is held from June 6-8 2014. The number of available copies is limited, but in case any are left after the show PPM will take these back to California and may offer them at the museum and other shows like CAX. The best part of this news: due to shipping the books as freight the shipping costs per book are reduced quite a lot and PPM is likely to offer the book for $ 50.00*, which is $ 7.50 less than in the Pinball Magazine web shop. *: at the moment the actual fees for import tax, customs and such are estimated and they may vari. So as editor of Pinball Magazine I'm definitely looking into ways to keep the costs as reasonable as possible. Hope this helps. The feedback so far has been great so that is at least indicating you're getting value for your money. If anybody has any questions about the book, feel free to contact me: editor @ pinball-magazine . com (remove the spaces).

Cheers,

Jonathan
 

Zombie Aladdin

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Mar 28, 2014
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This is just out of curiosity, but I see that the interview in the magazine is translated into many languages, all of them European in origin. Is there a reason for the lack of Asian languages? Is Pinball Magazine's readership high in countries with European languages but too low for translation elsewhere?
 

Shaneus

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Mar 26, 2012
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I got mine in the mail the other day, yet to crack it open and have a look. Pretty excited about it... so glad Jonathan got his hands on it, rather than have it fade into obscurity. Not bad for such a small operation he's running.

Can't wait for magazine #3, the tribute to Python <3
 

PinballMagazine

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Dec 25, 2012
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This is just out of curiosity, but I see that the interview in the magazine is translated into many languages, all of them European in origin. Is there a reason for the lack of Asian languages? Is Pinball Magazine's readership high in countries with European languages but too low for translation elsewhere?

Actually most orders come from the native English speaking countries. When I started Pinball Magazine there were ideas to see if a translation in French or German would work. That turned out to be a lot of work with only very few people showing interest (online) in the translated magazine, when asked on forums. However, that may be different when they get their hands on something. With the book having only 8 pages of text it was easy to translate. Initially I picked 6 languages: English, French, German, Spanish (original language of the book), Portugese (mainly to cater the Brazilian market) and Italian. Once I had announced these I got asked if I was doing Swedish as well. Then I figured I might as well do all the Scandinavian languages. So Danish, Finnish and Norwegian were added as well. Dutch is my own native language and I could publish the translated interview in a local pinball magazine, which would help to promote the book, so that was an easy decision as well. With the number of translations growing I met a Polish writer who was willing to do a translation. I knew about the Polish pinball scene, but had hardly any orders from there. I figured this may be a good way to see whether there is any interest at all. Same goed for Hungarian. I met this Hungarian girl at the European Pinball Championschips and she was interested to do the translation. That one still needs to be finished though.

As for why no Asian translations? So far orders from Asia have only been a few. Less than 10 I think and these would all go to Japan. If there is interest in a Japanese language supplement I would be interested to do such a translation. If anyone is interested in doing such a translation I'd love to hear that too. I have no indication there is a large pinball scene in other Asian countries. If there turns out to be one, I'd be interested to know about it.

Hope this answers your question. Cheers!

Jonathan
 

PinballMagazine

New member
Dec 25, 2012
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I got mine in the mail the other day, yet to crack it open and have a look. Pretty excited about it... so glad Jonathan got his hands on it, rather than have it fade into obscurity. Not bad for such a small operation he's running.

Can't wait for magazine #3, the tribute to Python <3

Thanks :) Glad you appreciate it :)
 

Zombie Aladdin

New member
Mar 28, 2014
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Wow, thanks for the detailed answer! To my knowledge, you're absolutely right: During the times I've been in Asia, most people don't even know what pinball is.
 

PinballMagazine

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Dec 25, 2012
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Wow, thanks for the detailed answer! To my knowledge, you're absolutely right: During the times I've been in Asia, most people don't even know what pinball is.
You're welcome. Actually the Japanese Sega did manufacture pinball machines in the '70s, but they may not have been that popular.
 

PinballMagazine

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Dec 25, 2012
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For those interested: A new batch of orders will ship out this Friday. Pinball Magazine usually ships their orders once a month, so ordering now gets you still in the batch that ships this week. See www.pinball-magazine.com for all info, reviews, feedback and much more.

Thanks,

Jonathan
Pinball Magazine
 

Reagan Dow

New member
Jul 23, 2014
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I received my copy for my birthday in December of 2014 and I still crack it open very frequently and drool over the amazing photography. Well worth the $60 here in the USA (it weighs a ton) and Jonathan is a consummate gentleman who will always answer your questions etc very quickly! Great Book and Great Magazine, can't wait for more!
 

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