Playmatic

Playmatic was a Spanish pinball manufacturer founded in 1967 in Santa Coloma de Gramenet, just outside Barcelona, by Luis Gimeno Martín, Alfredo Villalba García and Francisco Munté Abelló, three partners who had previously worked together at another local pinball maker, Cedes SA. The company moved into larger quarters in Barcelona the following year and began building electromechanical machines, starting with titles such as Racers and Caravan in 1968. Early tables including North Pole and Rose Winds reproduced the playfields of Gottlieb's Aloha (1961) and Williams' Trade Winds (1962), a common way for European manufacturers of the era to build up a catalog before developing their own house style.

Through the mid-1970s Playmatic became one of Spain's leading pinball exporters, earning the country's "Líder de la Exportación" trophy in 1978 and gold export medals in 1979 and 1980. Its first microprocessor-controlled machine, Space Gambler, appeared in 1977, with electronics built by the Barcelona firm EFO (Electrónica Funcional Operativa) around an RCA CDP1802 processor. In 1980 Playmatic and EFO jointly formed Cidelsa to build coin-operated video games, releasing Destroyer, the first arcade video game designed and built entirely in Spain, followed by Altair and Draco. Pinball continued in parallel, with Cerberus and Spain 82 both released in 1982, before Cidelsa wound down as the video-game market cooled and Playmatic turned its attention back to pinball and to newly launched bingo-style prize machines.

A mid-1980s rebound in Spanish pinball brought Playmatic back to the category with five new tables in 1984 alone, and by 1985 it had released Rock 2500, which reused the playfield layout of its earlier Black Fever with new artwork. Flash Dragon, released in 1986, drew attention for a Polaroid camera built into the backbox that photographed players who beat the high score. By 1987 the market had become saturated and Playmatic closed after releasing its final machines, Phantom Ship and Skill Flight, having produced more than 60 pinball models over two decades.