Recel
Recel S. A. · Madrid, Spain · Made pinball 1974–1980
- Games on file
- 25
Games
About
Recel S.A. was the export brand of Petaco S.A., a Spanish pinball manufacturer founded in Madrid on March 16, 1962, by six partners including Juan Paredes Hernández. The company had already been building machines informally since 1958, in a small workshop on Calle Santa Feliciana. Petaco's name stuck so firmly to the machines that "petaco" is still used in Spain as a generic word for pinball. In 1972 Petaco set up Recel to handle exports, and machines bound for other markets carried the Recel name and logo instead.
Recel released roughly 30 pinball machines between 1974 and 1980. Poker Plus, from 1977, is credited as the first pinball machine with a fold-down backbox, meant to make the games easier to ship and move. In 1978 Recel introduced a solid-state platform built around the same Rockwell PPS4 chipset Gottlieb used in its early System 1 games, with a closely similar architecture. The board ran titles including Fair Fight, with its rotating playfield target, along with Mr. Evil and Crazy Race.
Petaco stopped building pinball machines around 1980. Paredes started a new company, Juegos Populares, in 1984 and returned to making pinball under that name, but it closed shortly after his death in 1987. Petaco itself remained a registered company for years afterward, formally dissolving in November 2002.
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Page updated October 2026 · Suggest a correction
