Stern Pinball Inc. is the last of its kind in the world. A range of companies once mass produced pinball machines, especially in the Chicago area, the one-time capital of the business. Now there is only Stern. And even the dinging and flipping here has slowed: Stern, which used to crank out 27,000 pinball machines each year, is down to around 10,000.

In the United States, half of the company’s new machines, which cost about $5,000 and are bought through distributors, now go directly into people’s homes and not a corner arcade, and nearly 40 percent of the machines are exported.

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