Pinball Map API Tokens

We have always been happy to provide an open, friction-free API for anyone that wants to use it. This has encouraged a diverse group of people to make interesting uses of the data: Students simply wanting to learn how to use an API; analytics-minded folks who like to explore the data in interesting ways; businesses that want to easily list their line-up on their website; folks like Matchplay that use it to quickly import machine line-ups for a tournament. These uses align with the intention of the API: to make the data available so others can make interesting things, and not just clone the core functionality.

In the past, there were always people here and there who took the data and made a “where to find pinball” site with it and pretended they had a community. But those were pretty rare. Now, however, with the barrier to entry so low, basically everyone who is working on a pinball app/website of any sort is slapping on a pinball map. Thousands of people have put in thousands of hours of work over 18 years to develop and maintain this data, and this is its home. Clones pull people off-site and risk reducing the quantity of updates on the map. Additionally, the apps springing up lately are often not considerate toward our server resources.

In the end, we’ve come to the decision to require an API key on requests. Keys must be requested and approved. And they can be revoked!

Go here to request an API token. You must provide a detailed plan of your use.

From today - July 16 - we will have a 2 week period before the requirement is in place. On July 30 the gate will be closed and you’ll need a key.

We don’t have a way to contact everyone who is currently using the API, because for the most part we don’t know who you are. So, sorry if your app breaks.

And as always, we are happy to discuss ways to efficiently make use of the data.