Editing Pinball (section)

===Pre-modern: Development of outdoor and tabletop ball games===

The origins of pinball are intertwined with the history of many other games. Games played outdoors by rolling balls or stones on a grass course, such as [[bocce]] or [[bowls]], eventually evolved into various local [[ground billiards]] games played by hitting the balls with sticks and propelling them at targets, often around obstacles. [[Croquet]], [[golf]] and [[pall-mall]] eventually derived from ground billiards variants.{{citation needed|date=October 2016}}

The evolution of outdoor games finally led to indoor versions that could be played on a table, such as [[Cue sports|billiards]], or on the floor of a pub, like [[bowling]] and [[shuffleboard]]. The tabletop versions of these games became the ancestors of modern pinball.