(written from a Production point of view)
The first Star Trek pinball backglass from Bally
Westmore with his two pinball machines
Star Trek Pinball has been a popular promotional tool in the game industries, with a number of pinball machines being manufactured dating back to the release of Star Trek: The Motion Picture.
The first Star Trek pinball machine was made by Bally to tie into the release of Star Trek: The Motion Picture in 1979. This machine featured imagery of the main cast from the film.
Twelve years later in 1991, Data East released a pinball game, again based on the Star Trek: The Original Series characters.
In 1993, the first machine based on Star Trek: The Next Generation was released by Williams Electronic Games. This game featured imagery from the show and also included a number of recordings from the main cast. Michael Westmore was part of the crew creating this machine. (Westmore's Legacy, Star Trek: Insurrection DVD release, special feature)
1998 saw the first video game release of a pinball game by Interplay with their Star Trek Pinball game for MS DOS. The game featured imagery and sounds from Star Trek: The Original Series.
With the release of Star Trek, Stern Pinball released a trio of machines with missions based on the film. Karl Urban recorded his voice as Leonard McCoy to be used in the games.