Data East’s The Simpsons, released in 1990 and designed by Joe Kaminkow and Ed Cebula, was the first pinball machine to feature America’s favorite animated family, arriving early in the show’s cultural explosion. A straightforward but lively solid-state table with twin up-kickers, a five-bank and a three-bank of drop targets, and full speech, it captures the early, anarchic spirit of Springfield with the accessible design typical of Data East’s output.

The scoring is clean and build-oriented. The left side adds letters to “MILLIONS,” and completing it lights a million-point shot on the ramp — either a single million or, depending on the operator’s settings, unlimited millions, a potentially huge scoring opportunity. The center drop targets light the locks for multiball, and in a nice twist the lock location changes in subsequent multiballs, so you have to find it anew each time. During multiball, MILLIONS progresses on the ramp and re-locking pays jackpots.

A piece of pop-culture and pinball history as the family’s debut on a playfield, the Data East Simpsons is a fun, approachable machine that wears its early-90s charm proudly. For collectors who love the show’s classic era — or simply enjoy a clean, satisfying drop-target-and-multiball game — it’s an enjoyable and historically notable table. Ay caramba!