Wico Corporation

Wico Corporation traces to the Marcus Company, a Chicago-area vending and food-route business founded by Max Wiczer. Around 1940 his brothers Harry and Milton Wiczer joined, and the firm became Harry-Marcus Company; it moved into a larger plant in Niles, Illinois, just outside Chicago, in 1946 and adopted the Wico name, a play on "Wiczer Company." By the 1960s Wico had become the largest supplier of replacement parts to the coin-op and vending industries, and its joystick line, introduced commercially in the late 1970s, became standard equipment on arcade cabinets from nearly every major manufacturer, including Japanese companies that stocked Wico sticks in machines built for the U.S. market.

Wico also built two pinball machines. Big Top, released in November 1977, was a compact, single-player, circus-themed table aimed at the home market rather than commercial operators. Its only other pinball, Af-Tor, followed in 1984: a wide-body, four-player solid-state machine and the first pinball machine from any manufacturer to use an alphanumeric display, spelling out words and messages alongside the score. Wico Corporation filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2001, after decades as one of the coin-op industry's dominant parts and joystick suppliers.