Baffle
Ball
1931 D. Gottlieb & Company
The first commercially available coin-operated
pinball machine was the Baffle Ball, shown here, designed by D. Gottlieb
& Company in 1930. The following year, Raymond T. Moloney came out with
Ballyhoo, Bally’s first pinball machine. Raymond Moloney also founded
the Bally Manufacturing Company. However, the term "pinball" was not
coined until 5 years later in 1936.
The first version of Baffle Ball sold was set for 10
balls for 1 penny. The game retailed for $17.50 which would be about
$194.00 in 2005 dollars. The Gottlieb factory ran 24 hours a day, 7 days
a week, and they still could not keep up with the demand. They
eventually ended up selling over 50,000 of these machines.
One of the most famous operator stories about pinball
back in the 1930s was that pinball machines put out on location would be
paid off within one day. This may be a bit of an exaggeration, since
that would mean people would have to play a game every 50 seconds for 24
hours straight. These machines may not have paid themselves off
overnight, but they created a new form of cheap entertainment in the
heart of the Great Depression.
Baby
Contact
1933 Bally
The Contact is considered by many to be the father
of modern pinball because of the use of solenoids. The game came in
three sizes, and the Baby Contact is usually shown on exhibit at the
Rocky Mountain Pinball Showdown.
Rocket
1933 Bally
Bally’s Rocket was designed by Harry Williams, famous for starting
Williams Electronics. Williams’s electronics is now known as Williams
Gaming after shutting down the pinball division in 1999. The game shown
was the very first payout machine.
A payout machine has the ability to
award players who reach a certain goal. These awards ranged from free
games, tickets, candy, and even coins.
Payout
machines were eventually labeled as gambling machines and outlawed in
many states. Modern pinball machines all have something in common with
this machine — pinball machines award free games for reaching a certain
score or matching at the end of the game.
Action
1934 Automatic Amusements Co.
The Action was designed to run on dry cell
batteries; however, a few have been converted to run on a power cord.
The bouncer at the top is like a pop bumper or sling shot, as when it is
hit, it kicks the ball away. When the ball falls into a hole, it is
kicked out into a higher scoring area.
Lindstrom Bagatelles
Notice the Pins! Pinball is loosely based on
these early machines.
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