The business re-tooling pinball for the digital age

Pinball: the only slice of Americana with a CSI Miami version. 

Once an arcade institution, the game is now a nostalgic novelty — but startup Scorbit thinks a digital overhaul might restore its former glory. 

Founded in 2016, Scorbit offers a full-stack platform that digitizes live pinball, letting bar and arcade owners host asynchronous competitions on their vintage machines. 

How it works:

• Scorbit sells hardware that’s compatible with the vast majority of existing pinball machines and can instantly read and write directly to the game’s memory.
• Once the hardware is installed, machines are visible on Scorbit's app, displayed on a map (think Find My Friends but for pinball).
• Scorbit allows those machines to accept players' contactless payment, track scores, maintain in-app leaderboards, and host competitions (some for cash prizes). 

The company’s focus is currently pinball-specific, but it has ambitions to cover every corner of the arcade with similar systems, from Pac-Man to Pop-A-Shot. 

The endgame? Developing a global network of connected games that benefits both businesses and players by adding a trackable, social, competitive element to machines patrons might look past otherwise. 

Why should you care?

Scorbit's latest funding round shows it offers more than just proof you absolutely run your favorite dive bar's “Gilligan's Island” pinball machine. It represents an interesting niche in entertainment tech: nostalgia preservation. 

Companies are digitizing analog entertainment staples and finding lucrative new life in them, including:

• Dartsee, an interactive dartboard manufacturer, brings the classic bar game — which ~95% of all drunk people suck at — to a new generation.
• Singa, a multi-device karaoke app with an accessible, extensive song library, expands your karaoke repertoire beyond "Mr. Brightside."  
• Touchtunes, the brand behind the digital jukebox, makes forcing an entire bar to listen to "The Thong Song" by Sisqó 20 times in a row way too easy. 

Those businesses play on a simple premise: Some fun things never stop being fun. A lot of old school entertainment staples still have mileage, but they could use a digital touch-up.