playfield

playfield

English

Etymology

play +‎ field

Noun

playfield (plural playfields)

1. A playing field.
   • 1884, Alexander Maxwell, The History of Old Dundee

     The position of the playfield is here identified as lying north of this open space between it and the burn, and occupying the haugh which extended west...

   • 1974, Comprehensive Plan for Covington, Kentucky, and Environs

     It has been recommended by some recreational specialists that there should be one such playfield for each 500 children of high school age.

2. The area within which a game (especially a video game) is played.
   • 1977, Popular Science magazine

     The game has a tilt feature — tilt Fireball and a tilt sign glows and the scoring stops. The full-sized, full-color commercial playfield even has a special friction silk-screened surface so the ball will roll and not slide.

   • 2007, Friedrich von Borries et al, Space Time Play: Computer Games, Architecture and Urbanism

     In this case, the playfield is more disorienting and feels more like the maze that it is.

Translations

playing field — see playing field

area within which a game is played

Finnish: pelikenttä (fi)