Chicago Coin used this feature on several of their games. In one instance, Chicago Coin's 1967 'Beatniks', the ring had two slingshots instead of a pop bumper.

Gottlieb used this feature on a few of their games and referred to it in their flyers as a "semi-enclosed pop bumper".

Williams used this feature on Williams' 1968 'Lady Luck' and referred to it in the flyer as a "trap bumper".

A list of games identified with this feature can be found here.

Add-a-ball games start a ball counter at the original number of balls given to a player at the start of the game and then award the player additional balls as objectives are met, incrementing the "current ball" count for each one.

Early add-a-ball games had individually lighted numbers on the backglass indicating the current ball count.  These were usually completely separate models from the non-Add-a-ball games (even of the same name), but in later years an Add-A-Ball "Option" was instead built into a single model, allowing use as either an Add-A-Ball game, a replay game, or a novelty play game, depending of what the government rules in effect at the location.

Because some locations even disallowed the display of the replay or add-a-ball totals wheel, some games came with a sticker to cover the replay counter.  Some games would even "hide" the extra ball count in backglass graphics that could not be seen until an additional ball was added.

Gottlieb games can usually award up to 5 additional balls at any one time.  If one or more of these additional balls are awarded, they are all played before the main ball counter decrements.  So you could win up to 5 balls during the play of 5 regular balls, or a total of up to 25 extra balls. Gottlieb called this the "WOW" feature.  For Williams games, the ball counter started at 5 balls and awarded balls could raise the total to as 10 balls at one time.

Alvin Gottlieb created the concept which was then designed by Wayne Neyens.

Gottlieb also used cathodic tubes, (which are distinctive with their blue glow, or green if translucent green plastic has been placed over the display such as on Gottlieb's 1982 'Haunted House'), in which the high voltage current flow causes a flourescent material on the inside of the segments to glow, much like in a tube television. These were available in 4, 6, 7, and 20 character tubes.

Note that some LED displays were used by a very few exotic manufacturers, mostly in Europe.

This type of display has been replaced by the more modern dot matrix display (DMD) which can also display graphics.

Alphanumeric display from WMS's 1990 'Funhouse'

Backgl​ass light animation involves lighting up various images or symbols on the backglass outside of the score displays. Playing cards light up when earned during play on Williams' 1964 'River Boat'. Ice skaters light up when earned during play and also flash during Game Over on Gottlieb's 1965 'Ice-Revue'. Other games have lights that illuminated different colored masks to produce the illusion of movement.

See also Mechanical Backbox Animation.

Also called a Card Holder.

The first solid-state pin game to have this feature was Williams' 1986 'High Speed'.

An earlier electro-mechanical pin game to have this feature was Williams' 1949 'St. Louis' where only the first of four replay thresholds was automatically adjusted up or down by the machine, based on game play.

See also Reflexing Feature.

A list of games identified with this feature can be found here.

Rally-Play, a French manufacturer, advertised 'automatic flippers' or 'flippers automatiques" but they were referring to slingshots.

For solid-state games, see game-controlled flipper.

In many games, this insert hinges outward from the front after the backglass has been lifted up and out of the game, allowing access to both sides of it. An example with an illustrative picture is Williams' 1986 'PIN·BOT'.

In other games, the backglass hinges outward within its own frame while the insert itself does not hinge and remains fixed. An example with an illustrative picture is Williams' 1965 'Alpine Club'.

In yet other games, the backglass remains fixed while the insert hinges outward from the back after the backbox back door has been lifted up and out of the game. An example with an illustrative picture is Gottlieb's 1965 'Pleasure Isle'.

And, in yet other games, the backglass slides out sideways, or upwards, after a piece of wood trim is removed. The insert remains fixed to the cabinet. An example of this is Williams' 1954 'Big Ben'. An example with an illustrative picture is Keeney's 1962 'Hacienda'.

Also called a Backglass Spinner.

See also Spinning Lights.

Being glass, backglasses are fragile and subject to peeling over time.  They are also more restricted than translites in the type of artwork which can be produced, although their color is generally more brilliant than that of a translite.

Backglass of Toledo

The earliest relative of the modern pinball machines, bagatelles consist of a basic construction of a frame around a playfield.  They have no flippers, bumpers, ramps or other mechanical items normally found on a pinball machine, nor do they contain lights, sounds, or power sources.  They have no playfield glass and, with rare exception, are not coin-operated.

Bagatelles are still being manufactured today, although most modern versions are made from plastic and can be found primarily in toy stores.

Only three pinball machines have been found to use this unique device so far:

Bally Midway's 1987 'Dungeon and Dragons' manual called it a Teleport Drop Target Assembly.

Data East's 1988 'Secret Service' flyer called it a resetable ball eating target while the manuals called it a Ball Eater or Target Eater.

Bally Midway's 1989 'Mousin' Around' manual referred to them as Trap (Ball Eater) Assemblies.

1) A physical device that rises up between the flip​pers during game play to prevent the ball from draining, found on many EM games and some SS games. During 1950-1951, Gottlieb and Chicago Coin used a V-shaped metal wall between the flippers for this purpose and referred to it as a Blocking Gate or Safety Gate. The first known example of a round version of this gate is found on Rally's 1967 'Play boy' and this shape is commonly known as an Up-post. Chicago Coin used the term "Ball Saver" to introduce this round Up-post to their games, starting with Chicago Coin's 1968 'Gun Smoke'. See also Up-post.

2) A software-programmed time limit found on SS games only, not requiring a physical device between the flippers. The game is programmed to return a drained ball to the plunger within the first few seconds of play, until the set time expires. If the game has an autoplunger, it will often shoot the ball back into play automatically along with an audio cue and an animation.  Many games also activate this feature at the start of multiball, when players may not be expecting additional balls on the playfield.  Programmed ball savers are a recent feature, introduced around 1990.  Most games with this feature will return the drained ball once, although some games can be configured to return it more than once if it is lost again within the ball saver time window. On most games, the time limit for this feature can be adjusted by the operator or turned off altogether. Sometimes this feature takes the form of a minimum game time, as in Stern's 1982 'Orbitor 1', where the last ball in play can get returned to the plunger repeatedly until the set time expires.

Because two switches are used, Stern's game manuals may refer to it as a dual target even though it may be responsible for three or more playfield inserts.

A list of games identified with this feature can be found here.

One example is the Genie Toy on Williams' 1996 'Tales of the Arabian Nights'.

Another example is the Wolverine Toy on Stern's 2012 'X-Men Wolverine LE'.

The playfields are usually quite bare compared to pinball machines, having no bumpers, ball guides or lights like pinball machines, but because they share many of the same mechanical elements as pinball machines, they are included in the database.

The playfield usually contains only the targets and holes, labeled with possible pitch results such as single, double, out, etc., and sometimes some small jumps and a second level of targets/holes at the back. Some games even mimic the players running around the bases, often with mechanical figures in the backbox running around a baseball diamond.

These words appeared on backglasses for games made for Italy, not necessarily games made in Italy, as a direct result of Law 507 passed in Italy on May 12, 1965 which prohibited flipper pinball machines as gambling because the replays were deemed a thing of value. As a result of this law, pinball machines were still seen in Italy but the word "flipper" had been banished from appearing anywhere on the game and players could only earn added balls to extend game play. Even then, the backglass would surreptitiously indicate the presence of earned added balls by lighting unnumbered and innocent-looking art elements on the backglass, such as round balls or stars, that blended into the art around it.

Federico Croci, a collector and historian in Italy, provides us the following information:

Before that law, there was no need to have a new name for the flipper game, let alone written in italian on the backglass; everyone was calling him 'flipper' (actually, this one remained the unofficial name even after the law, amongst players and operators), but now, being the 'flipper' a forbidden game, there was the need to show that these new machines were totally new games, actually a "bigliardino elettrico" (="electric billiard"). On some games there is written 'biliardino' instead of 'bigliardino', that's the same. Also note that some other kind of flipper games, for example toys for kids, were still called 'flipper' with no problem. It was a forbidden word only regarding coin-op games.

Actually, history is that the italian importer of Gottlieb's games of the time, as soon as he learned of the new game, called the manufacturer asking for every new game to have the words "nuovo bigliardino elettrico" ('nuovo'='new', after a few games 'nuovo' was dropped), believing it could help in distinguish it from the the 'usual' flipper games, as the police was starting to check bars and arcades for the now forbidden games. It proved successful in at least a dozen of cases, so even some italian manufacturers of the time, and other european manufacturers, sometime used to include in the backglass or in the instructions the same (or similar) words. Bally made italian language instruction cards with the same words, as well as Williams.

10/30/2017

As balls fall into the playfield holes, the corresponding numbers are lit up on the Bingo card(s) on the backglass. The ball will then stay into that hole until the end of the game. Bingo games normally have 5 balls per game -- to make them distinctive from the one-ball machines made illegal in most areas -- and (similar to normal Bingo) awards can usually be won by getting three to five numbers in a row on one of the Bingo cards, with larger awards for more numbers in a row or more coins deposited to raise the odds. Players can either play off the replays earned or have the owner exchange them for cash or prizes.

Bingo games have their roots in a 16th century Italian lottery game named Beano, later renamed to Bingo. They are a result of the early desire to reward players with money, free games and awards. Early games to accomplish this were single ball games with horse and dog racing themes. The (Federal Government's) Johnson Act of 1950 caused the demise of one-ball horse racing machines because it outlawed and made a federal offense the inter-state shipment of gambling devices, manuals and repair parts except to states where the devices were legal, and many areas had already declared them illegal since they were deemed a game of chance rather than a game of skill. (The addition of flippers on later pinball machines caused them to be considered a game of skill since the player could have much more affect on the resulting score.) Since horse/dog racing games were usually one-ball games, and since most areas declared specifically that "one-ball" games were illegal, the manufacturers could see that further production of those types of games would be impractical and so switched to the five ball Bingo designs.

You may also want to read an article titled PINGAMES AND GAMBLING - An Historical Survey by Russ Jensen for more historical information on Bingo machines and the laws affecting them.

An example of this feature can be found on Chicago Coin's 1951 'Thing'.

A more complete definition is coming.

Some Gottlieb games used these targets but without the center bullseye pin. One game that had this type is Gottlieb's 1962 'Preview'.

Active bumpers, the most common, forcefully kick the ball away when struck.

Passive bumpers look similar to active bumpers, but do not kick the ball when hit. See also the passive Tower Bumper.

Mushroom bumpers are passive bumpers, each is a post having a disk on top. When the ball approaches the bumper and strikes the post, it lifts the disk.  The disk is attached to a shaft down the middle of the post, and this shaft rises when the disk is lifted, activating a leaf switch which registers the hit. Bally popularized this bumper in the 1960s and 1970s starting with Bally's 1963 'Hootenanny', and European games followed in its use. While Bally is popularly credited with the first use of mushroom bumpers, Stoner used them during 1939-40 on Stoner's 1939 'Ali-Baba' and Stoner's 1940 'Fantasy'.  

Active bumpers have been given various names. According to the book All About Pinball, Williams called them thumper bumpers on their 1948 game Saratoga but eventually decided to use the shorter term jet bumpers. Gottlieb first used the term percussion bumpers on their 1949 "Bowling Champ" game but eventually changed to the term pop bumpers. Genco called them power bumpers. Bally called them thumper bumpers.

Disappearing bumpers are active bumpers with flat plastic tops in place of standard bumper caps and that are mechanically lowered to be below the playfield when dictated by game rules. When lowered, the flat top of the bumper is flush with the playfield surface as if the bumper was not there.

A list of games with a disappearing bumper is here.

The invention of the bumper in 1936 replaced the well-known pins and pockets. Balls would now exit the playfield after play, while the score would appear on the backglass. Before, players had to visually add up their score from the balls that had landed in playfield pockets and remained in them until the start of a new game.

A thumper bumper from Bally's 1975 'Freedom'.

A list of games identified with this feature can be found here.

The Buy-back feature on pin games did not outlast the 1950s. When it reappeared in solid state games, it was known as the Buy-In.

Williams/Bally/Midway also used this term and feature in their pinball machines manufactured during 1993 to 1995. For each player, after the last ball has been played, the player can press a specially-marked button on the front of the cabinet to extend the game by buying an extra ball, usually at the cost of 1 credit. If this is done, the game will not go to Game Over but will continue where it left off for that player, typically with extra features or modes that were not previously activated or available to achieve. Some pinball machines with this feature will allow only one buy-in extra ball per game per player. Other machines will provide higher maximums, such as 3, 9, or an unlimited number of buy-in extra balls per player. The button for this feature is located either below the left-side Start button or below the right-side ball shooter knob. On Williams games, this button will be marked EXTRA BALL or SUPER BALL.

Capcom, Data East, and Spinball are examples of other manufacturers that used this feature on one or more of their games.

A list of games identified with this feature can be found here.

Buy-in was a term used by manufacturers of solid state machines. When this feature appeared in EM games of the 1930s to 1950s, it was known as Buy-Back.

Other arrangements include:

A curved captive ball lane, as on Gottlieb's 1974 'Magnotron'.

A bagatelle on the playfield as on Williams' 1954 'Big Ben' or in the backbox as on Williams' 1966 'Casanova'.

A mini-playfield containing both captive ball and dedicated flippers as on Bally's 1981 'Elektra'.

See also captive ball spinner.

Left:Diagram of captive ball setup.   Right: Captive balls and target from Capcom's 1996 'Breakshot'

Transfer of balls between these serial captive ball devices are not necessarily immediate and may require the player to first achieve a playfield objective using a separate ball in play. If the game ends before balls are cleared from this series of devices, in most games each stage of capture awards a point score value.

Some games advance captive balls inside an enclosed area of the playfield and these balls are never available as a ball-in-play. In these instances, again, either kick-out holes or ball kickers may be used. Point values may be assigned to intermediate stages of capture.

A list of games identified with this feature can be found here.

See also Captive Ball Walker.

A list of games identified with this feature can be found here.

Bally was first to use this device. In their undated First Edition An Introduction to Bally Flipper Games, Bally referred to it as the Captive Ball Escapement Assembly and stated it was designed and patented by them. Their first game with this patented device was Bally's 1964 'Mad World'. In their 1965 Parts Catalog, they referred to it as a 4 Steps Free Ball Escape Assy. (The four steps are capture-transfer-transfer-release.)

Stern used a similarly-designed device on their Stern's 1980 'Flight 2000' and its manual referred to it as a Ball Launcher Assembly. In their manual for Stern's 1981 'Freefall', it was listed as a Ball Walker Assembly.

A list of games identified with this feature can be found here.

Earlier games used Captive Ball Advance where balls may or may not return to play and most often scored points when resting in their intermediate positions. Sometimes referred to as progressive scoring.

An example of this type of game is Unknown Manufacturer's 'Carombolette Table'.

Billiard Boards were sold to allow a regular billiard table to be converted to a carombolette table. An example of this is H. P. Schafer's 'Combination Recreation Board'.

As described above, this term primarily describes a feature that carries-over from game-to-game, but it can also be used to describe a feature that carries-over from player-to-player during multiple-player games.

Check separators were often an operator option at extra cost.

Invented by Charles Fey for his Liberty Bell slot machines which were the first mechanical slot machines, also invented by him.

A list of games identified with this feature can be found here.

This finish almost always produces a strikingly polished and reflective surface, more than the playfield possessed when it came from the factory. Thus the practice goes beyond the protective effect of a good waxing by adding a permanent visual effect. For IPDB purposes, these playfields do not show users how the game looked when first produced.

In some styles, the back portion of the cabinet will extend to the floor as one piece with only the front end supported by two individual legs. Games such as United's 1962 'Bonus Baseball' might be described as having a console cabinet.

Other consoles are too small to have any individual legs, and the cabinets rest on the floor. An example is Genco's 1952 '400'.

Conversion kits usually contained a backglass and instruction cards, and sometimes a new wired playfield (that plugged into the old connections) but which reused the electromechanical or solid state controllers, cabinet, cabinet art, coin mechanisms, scoring mechanisms, etc.  Some conversion kits included additional items, such as cabinet side decals, new game roms, manuals and miscellaneous other items.  Some later kits even contained new solid state electronic boards to upgrade the control system.

In kits where only only a backglass and instruction cards were included, the game play and scoring was not changed in any way and the original manufacturer's name was often still on the game, which can lead to confusion regarding the status of similar games and their manufacturer.

Because the controllers were usually reused, conversion kits were designed to convert one specific game into another.

Unlike conversion kits, which were designed to be installed by the owner/operator in the field, converted games were converted at a manufacturer’s facilities (and usually not by the original manufacturer) and then sold as "new" games by the new manufacturer.  This process became popular during World War II when a ban — announced March-26-1942 — was placed on the manufacture of new pinball machines beginning May-01-1942 and lasting four years until May-1946, when the ban was finally lifted.

Converted games were remanufactured several ways.  Some games were given a new backglass and playfield, while others were given little more than minor playfield changes, such as a retouching of the original playfield art.  Some conversion manufacturers, such as Victory Games, would not even remove the original manufacturer’s name from the machine.  Other conversions would go as far as completely stripping the components from the game and rebuilding it with a new theme, possibly rescreening the playfield, and even including new side art, manuals, score cards, etc. in addition to a new backglass.

Owners would often send in their games to be converted, but manufacturers also purchased games on their own to convert and, using additional parts available from stock, resell to a different owner.

A number of new companies were created solely for the purpose of offering pinball machine conversions.  According to the Pinball Collectors Resource (by Robert Hawkins & Donald Mueting), there were only four manufacturers of pinball machines from before the ban that were still producing them when the ban was lifted!

See also Re-themed Game.

The dot initially indicated only that switch errors were present, but in later games it represented additional error conditions, such as if one of the balls in a multi-ball game was missing from the trough.

The first pinball machine that had defective switch detection was Williams' 1986 'High Speed' but it could not show a credit dot because it still had the traditional 4-digit display for credits and match numbers. These displays did not provide for dots or commas. To alert the operator, when this game was powered-up the switch numbers were shown on the score displays (up to a maximum of three switches according to the manual). Also, as an operator option, an audio alarm at power up would cause the knocker to rapidly strike several times. See Switch Alarm Knocker.

The first pinball machine to have a credit dot was Williams' 1987 'F-14 Tomcat' as it was their first game to have 7-digit alphanumeric score displays, replacing the traditional 4-digit display, and these new displays allowed for dots and commas.

Reportedly, these additional manufacturers used credit dots:

• Premier Technology (games using the Gottlieb System 3 MPU)
• Data East (example: Time Machine from 1988)
• Capcom (used stars instead of dots)

Credit Dot, seen to the right of 'Credits 0' (click to enlarge)

A list of games identified with this feature can be found here.

Thanks to former Gottlieb designer John Osborne for providing us the derivation of this term.

A list of games identified with this feature can be found here.

Not be be confused with Diverter Magnet.

Mechanical (non-electric) pivoting diverters are found on Genco's 1933 '42nd Street'.

For static (non-moving) diverters, see Horseshoe Diverter.

Not to be confused with a Diverter.

See Playfield Magnets.

A single pivoting device is used to divert the ball on Midway's 1994 'The Shadow'.

Multiple dive​rters are used to direct the ball on Williams' 1988 'Swords of Fury'.

See Diverter.

This type of display replaced the earlier Alphanumeric displays.

A dot matrix display from Capcom's 1996 'Breakshot'.

An example of this feature is found on Bally's 1967 'The Wiggler'.

A game having two of these lanes is Bally's 1968 'Dixieland' where the left one is very long and has a detour gate in its path, if earned by the player.

In the example of Williams' 1970 'Gay 90's' the drop lane also serves as an extended kickback lane.

A list of games identified with this feature can be found here.

Some games were designed by the factory to have a mini-post in the path of the dropping ball to deflect the ball away from the outlane and towards the flipper. In these instances, we do not identify this feature as a drop lane, even if an operator removed the mini-post after the game left the factory.

The earliest type of drop target that we have encountered is on Exhibit's 1936 'Trapper' where the metal target tips over onto the playfield, not into it. The ball-in-play does not actually make contact with the target but instead hits a spring which in turn pushes the target over.

A subsequent version of drop target dropped into the playfield but the surface that the ball hit did not drop. What dropped is a piece of decorative plastic behind the target that the ball never touched. An example of this is found on Gottlieb's 1951 'Minstrel Man'.

Starting with Williams' 1962 'Vagabond', the surface struck by the ball is what dropped into the playfield, and the flat top of the target became part of the playfield surface while in the down position. This type of target is often found in a row of several, referred to as a drop target bank.

Unlike a Dropping Bank of standup targets where all targets move in unison under motor power, each drop target operates individually, dropping suddenly when hit, pulled by spring tension. They reset in unison, however, when they are in a bank controlled by a common reset coil. This reset action is also sudden.

One unusual type of drop target does not require the ball to hit it to make it drop because its up/down action is under timed control from the CPU. See Sega Enterprises' 1976 'Rodeo'.

See also Memory Drop Target.

In the Notable Features section of the game listings on this site, drop targets are grouped by the number of them that share a common reset coil. For instance, if ten drop targets are in a row and share one reset coil, we will display this fact as 10-bank drop targets (1). If half of that row used one reset coil and the other half used a different reset coil, we will display this fact as 5-bank drop targets (2).

In addition, targets that share a reset coil may not all appear next to each other on the playfield. For instance, Bally's 1981 'Centaur' has two sets of two drop targets in its center playfield that share a reset coil and we would show this as 4-bank drop targets (1).

In-line drop targets also are grouped by common reset coil. Centaur also has 4-in-line drop targets which means all four targets share a reset coil.

Grouping drop targets in this manner can help explain game operation to users unfamiliar with a game. Games for which we do not yet know how many reset coils are involved will list their drop targets as a sum total, such as Drop targets (10).

Bank of 5 drop targets from Bally's 1975 'Freedom'

This feature trips the same drop targets every time and should not be confused with the memory drop targets typical of solid-state games where trip arm wireforms are not used and the same drop targets are not always tripped each time.

A list of games identified with this feature can be found here.

Gottlieb used this style of cabinet from January 1963 to February 1964 on their multi-player games to accommodate their new larger chrome door and their new and large combination lockdown bar and ball-shooter used during this period.

Williams used this style of cabinet for games made from February 1965 through mid-1966. They had instituted a new coin door designed to accommodate nickels, dimes, and quarters in a single slot. Prior to this, each denomination required its own coin slot. This new design required a larger coin acceptor and a larger coin door than before. To accommodate the larger door, the front end of the wood cabinet was extended downward. Their first game to use this cabinet style was 1965 'Alpine Club'. Their last game to use this cabinet was 1966 'A-Go-Go' where, during its production run, the coin door was changed back to a multiple slot design and the cabinet extension was eliminated.

Other manufacturers also used this style of cabinet. Sega Enterprises of Japan used it on their solid state games from 1976 to 1979. An example is 1977 'Mikoshi'.

An example from Spain is Automaticos' 1970 '7-Up'.

The up and down motion is controlled by a motor, therefore is not a instant action like in the case of Drop Targets.

A list of games identified with this feature can be found here.

Their circuit boards will indicate E.F.O. BARCELONA SPAIN.

Their schematic pages may indicate EFO S.A..

Their name roughly translates to "Functional Operative Electronic".

A list of games identified to have boards provided by this company (or probably provided by them) can be found here.

See Playfield Magnets.

Later models did not light symbols on the glass but instead had three small windows built in the top of the cabinet, simulating the look of a slot machine as symbols flashed by.

It is important to note that these devices do not have a side handle to pull like a traditional slot machine nor are any coins or tokens dispensed as payout. Payout takes the form of added credits to the counter, allowing the player to continue to play without inserting more coins or, if permissible by the location (and if no law enforcement is present in areas where gambling is illegal), the player can exchange credits for cash. The location will then remove all credits, usually by quickly turning the machine off, then on, which activates the knock-off mechanism, quickly decrementing the counter to zero.

The J.H. Keeney company was a well-known manufacturer of these games in the 1950s and 60s, having made many models, although other manufacturers such as Bally made them, too.

Sometimes these games show up on pinball lists in old Billboard and Cash Box magazines. We include some of them on this site, for clarification purposes.

An example of this device where lighted symbols flash on the glass is Keeney's 1959 'Big Round-Up'.

An example where symbols flash like a slot-machine is Keeney's 1960 'Black Dragon'.

Power supplies such as this were used in pinball machines as the evolutionary step after batteries to allow a game designed for DC operation to be powered by an AC wall outlet.

Electrical Products Company was owned by Avery B. Chereton.

See Patent 2,028,191. For additional info, see this article from The Billboard, Feb-20-1937, page 88.

A Billboard article dated Mar-16-1946 page 93 stated that Chereton was also a coin machine manufacturer before WWII. However, we have not yet found his name associated with any pinball machines outside of that article.

An Electropak missing its Rectifier Click image to Enlarge	Manufacturing Plate Click image to Enlarge	From the Coin Machine Journal October 1936, page 76 Click image to Enlarge

This bonus can be a fixed amount of points for each ball, not tied to player performance. Gottlieb's 1961 'Oklahoma' awards 30 points per ball. Gottlieb's 1964 'World Fair' awards 30 points per ball plus a spin of the spin-disc to spot a number on the playfield.

Other games can increase the bonus based on player performance. The player would need to hit a sequence of rollovers or targets, complete modes, and/or earn multipliers. Gottlieb's 1962 'Tropic Isle' awards 20 points per ball, or player skill can change it to be 200 points per ball.

Games that allow player skill to increase the bonus amount to any of several values will display these amounts in a row or cluster of inserts on the playfield. This arrangement is known as a bonus ladder. As the player achieves playfield objectives tied to this bonus, the lit value on this ladder will increase.

An early example of a bonus ladder is found on Chicago Coin's 1939 'Nippy'. Starting in 1970, bonus ladders were conspicuously displayed as a vertical row of inserts near the flippers. Because of this, it has been incorrectly believed by modern players that Gottlieb’s 1970 Snow Queen and Snow Derby were the first games to have an end-of-ball bonus.

It is important to note that the end-of-ball bonus is not something that is only awarded at the outhole at the bottom of the playfield. For example, Gottlieb's 1960 'Seven Seas' has two bonus ladders, one for each of its gobble holes, and the manufacturer clearly marks this gobble hole award as "Bonus". The gobble hole on Gottlieb's 1960 'Spot-A-Card' awards a fixed 200 points.

On some games, this bonus is such a large portion of the score that tilting the game results in a major loss of points.

The end-of-ball bonus is almost a standard feature on SS games but less so on EM games. A list of EM games identified with this feature can be found here.

In EMs, end-of-stroke switches are used in several places.  For instance, a slingshot score is not activated by the standup switches, but the standup switches activate the kicking coil which, when fully engaged, hits the end-of-stroke switch which pulses the score relay.  They are also used on pop bumpers and some stepping units.

This device was commonly used in payout games of the 1930s.

An example of a short escalator can be seen in our listing of Exhibit's 1937 'Bazaar'.

An example of a long escalator can be seen in our listing of Bally's 1937 'Carom'.

Used on a few Bally games during 1987, these lanes appeared on Bally Midway's 1987 'Dungeons & Dragons' where they were also called Magic-Save lanes. They also appeared on Bally's 1983 'BMX'.

Not to be confused with Williams' Fliptronics.

Actually, flippers were already used on many games prior to 1947, but they were non-electrical, entirely mechanical. Some games had eight mechanical flippers, such as Ad-Lee Company's 1932 'Double-Shuffle'. Most were "manually-operated" bats used on baseball games, one to a playfield. 'Humpty Dumpty' is the first pinball machine manufactured with flippers that were electromechanical. According to the book Pinball 1, David Gottlieb wanted to name this game 'Flipper' but a legal check found a patented countertop game that had a manual bat, Smith Manufacturing Company's 1932 'Flipper'.

From an interview with Harry Williams on March 18, 1978, pinball historian Russ Jensen later wrote that "at the time when Harry Mabs at Gottlieb came out with the first flipper, Williams [Manufacturing Company] had also been working on a similar device.  Theirs, [Harry] said, used a shallow hole into which a ball would drop, which would then be kicked out by a "bat" behind the hole. This was an "automatic" action, however, and not controlled by buttons on the cabinet." See Game-controlled Flipper.

It is a trademarked feature found on some of their games that (temporarily) closed (or "zipped" up) the gap between the flippers once certain game goals were accomplished, such as lighting up a series of targets, thereby preventing the ball in play from draining between these flippers. Bally parts catalogs referred to this feature as the Flipper-Zipper Assembly.

Bally used the term on its flyers, starting with their second game to have this feature, Bally's 1966 'Capersville', and they almost always hyphenated it. Bally finally referred to it as 'Zipper Flippers' on the flyer for their last game to have this feature, Bally's 1981 'Medusa', which is also their only Solid State game to have this feature, and their only game where these flippers were not placed at the bottom of the playfield.

Used on four Williams EM games, where it was known as "Closing Flipper Action".

Also used on a few games made in Europe.

A list of games identified with this feature can be found here.

It is also used for games made before the invention of the EM flipper but after the invention of the passive bumper (in 1936, see Pacent's 'Bolo') because playfields in this time frame (1936-1947) can often look similar to flippered playfields simply because they have these round bumpers, so we identify them as flipperless to clarify this fact for those users who may not be familiar with when the flipper was invented.

Mechanical games and other games made prior to the invention of the passive bumper are obvious to the eye that they would not or cannot have flippers, therefore we do not bother to mark those games as flipperless.

This specialty designator is occasionally used to identify other games, usually those for which not having flippers is an interesting notation.

Many games manufactured just prior to 1947 may have had EM flippers retrofitted into them by their operators in an attempt to keep these games profitable on location after new games were released with flippers. These games will still be designated as flipperless, because they were manufactured without flippers, even if a particular instance of the game is pictured in the listing with the retrofit.  These retrofit flippers can be found in various locations on the playfields, as operators fit them in wherever there was room and wherever they did not interfere with existing wiring.

Not to be confused with Rally's Flip-tronics.

Bally advertised this feature as "All New" on their Bally's 1982 'Speakeasy' but, in fact, targets that performed like this appeared on earlier games whether the term "Flyaway" was used or not. Midway had used the term "Fly Away Skill Target" on their advertising flyers for Midway's 1964 'Top Hit' and Midway's 1965 'Mystery Score'.

1) A game won by the player. Also called a replay. Allows a future game to be started without having to insert a coin (coining). A running count of such awarded games are most often displayed on the backglass.

2) Back in the 1930’s and 40’s, games were advertised by the manufacturer to have optionable modes for Free Play or for Novelty Play, often pointed out to differentiate the game from Payout Machines of the day. To option the game for Free Play was to allow it to award replays for achieving game objectives. Modern games refer to this setting as the Replay Mode. To collect on the earned free plays (replays), the game has a Start button on the front of the cabinet used to bypass the need for coining or, if the game has a coin slide, the slide may be pushed in all the way without a coin in it. This type of coin slide that allowed free play first appeared on Keeney's 1935 'Quick Silver' and was invented and patented by Bill Bellah.

3) An operator option on Solid State games to allow the Start button to initiate a game without a coin, and regardless if there are replays registered on the credit meter.

4) For games that were not equipped by the manufacturer with an option to bypass coining, which includes the EM games, this term refers to an after-factory modification to bypass the need for coining. To do this, the replay unit zero-count switch (on EM games) can be made to not open, rendering the Start button as always "hot", or a separate button can be wired to appear somewhere on the coin door, to simulate the insertion of a coin. Alternately, the game can be set to award a replay at a very low point threshold, ensuring that a replay will always be won for each game played, eliminating the need for coining.

"Thing Flips" is found on Midway's 1992 'The Addams Family'.

"Shark Flips" is found on Sega's 1995 'Baywatch'.

"Autodrop Probe" is found on SLEIC's 1996 'Io Moon'.

"Phantom Flips" is found on Williams' 1998 'Monster Bash'.

For electro-mechanical games, see Automatic Flipper.

See also Sinkhole.

We asked Wayne Neyens for more information. He told us that, in the 1970’s, Gottlieb shipped the following components to Australia and Brazil:

Backglass
Playfield
Lightbox insert
Lower cabinet insert (aka motor board)

Gottlieb did not ship the playfield glass or the cabinet. Those components would have to be procured (locally) by the recipient.

See also Knock-Down Game.

10/18/2011

A previous type of replay unit required only a small square of unpainted backglass through which was displayed the number of replays. This style of device was used by many manufacturers throughout the EM era and replaced the older style known as replay projection. An example of this previous device can be seen here.

Whether half-moon or square, these displays on the backglass of EM games are collectively called replay windows or credit windows.

The Gottlieb patent #3,793,510 for the half-moon device explains that it was recognized that the previous Gottlieb replay unit could be cheated by players to increment replays without coining and this half-moon device was designed to eliminate such cheating.

This device was introduced during the production run of Atlantis in January 1975. Therefore, some games in that run have the square replay window and some have the half-moon replay window. The last game to have this device was Sure Shot of March 1976. Subsequent Gottlieb games once again had the square replay window device until their transition to solid state credit windows in 1979.

A list of games identified with this feature can be found here.

On Bat Games, these targets appear along the back edge of the playfield and often do not move much when hit, except to allow the ball to hit it and pas​s behind it. If the target stays up in the air once hit, it can be referred to as a Flyaway Target.

This feature was named the Ball Return Feature on Bally's 1978 'Tahiti'.

A list of games identified with this feature can be found here.

These home models are usually not valued as highly as their commercial models because of their simpler design.  The electronics (used in later models) are hard to find.

Horserace games are were an attempt to capitalize on the popular sport of horse racing by using a game that could be claimed to not be gambling because of the interaction of the user in shooting the ball.  These games used a horse racing theme and they allowed a player to shoot a single ball for each game.  The player would try to shoot the ball and cause it to fall into a scoring hole, which caused the player to win that payoff.  These games usually allowed players to enter more than one coin at a time to increase the payoff odds.  The playfields were often divided into the areas of Win, Place and Show with appropriate odds on the holes in that playfield area.

In old trade magazines such as The Billboard, these large games are sometimes euphemistically called 'jumbo pin games' or 'jumbo pinball games'.

A note about the 'one ball' designation listed above: Some 'one ball' horserace games manufactured after World War II actually contained 5 balls, even though still only 1 ball was used to score.  The additional four balls were first shot by the player into the "Skill Lane".  This was done to allow operators to continue using the games in the areas where "one ball games" were increasingly being classified as gambling devices.

For these 5 ball horserace games, the first four balls shot by the player were stored in a pocket positioned just to the left of the rebound spring at the left edge of the rebound arch at the top of the playfield.  The only skill required to reach this "Skill Lane" was the ability to shoot a ball hard enough to reach the left side of the playfield.  Making all four balls into the "Skill Lane" had no effect on the game play or the payout.  After four balls were in the "Skill Lane", the rebound spring was reset to the normal position to allow the 5th (scoring) ball to properly rebound when shot.  If more than one ball made it onto the playfield and dropped into a scoring hole, the payout was disabled for the extra balls.

A list of games identified with this Skill Lane feature can be found here.

This device is found on the mechanical games of the 1930’s and often is designed to look like an actual equine horseshoe, implying good luck. It is different from the horseshoe lanes found in EM and SS games because it is not actually an enclosed lane, but probably a bigger difference is that, while the horseshoe lanes face towards the flippers that drive the balls into them, the horseshoe diverters of flipperless games are aligned to the trajectory of the upper ball arch that directs the launched ball into play.

An example of a game which uses two of these devices in tandem is Chicago Coin's 1933 'Baby Leland'.

These lanes can be as small as the one on the left side of Williams' 1988 'Swords of Fury' or as wide and sweeping as the one in the upper playfield of Williams' 1982 'Thunderball'.

See also Horseshoe Diverter.

See Cabinet Insert.

See Playfield Insert.

With few exceptions, kick-out holes propel the ball in one direction only. A list of games having 2-way kick-out holes is here.

See also Kick-out Saucer.

An example is found on the upper playfield of Bally's 1978 'Mata Hari'.

An example of a game with this feature is Midway's 1965 'Play Ball'.

On European games such as Bensa's 1974 'Big Brave' and Interflip's 1977 'Dragon', the face of the target, once hit, remains flush with the playfield surface until reset.

Sometimes, a knocker is used for other purposes such as notifying the operator of a condition. See Switch Alarm Knocker.

A knocker can be used during game play to highlight a game feature. Three sequential knocks are used to highlight the theme of Chicago Coin's 1951 'Thing'. On Rock-ola's 1935 'Big Game', a knocker bangs the inside of the cabinet bottom to augment backglass light animation if earned by the player.

This device was Williams' version of the Gottlieb vari-target. It's first (and possibly only) appearance was on Williams' 1989 'Bad Cats'.

A list of games identified with this feature can be found here.

Keeney ended pinball production in 1963.

In 1977, Chicago Coin became Stern Electronics, Inc. which lasted until 1985. (In 1999, Stern Pinball, Inc. began operation.)

Gottlieb became Mylstar in 1983 which then became Premier in 1984 and went out of business in 1996.

Williams merged with Bally before closing its pinball division in 1999.

The companies that are still making pinball machines today can be found here.

See also Backglass Marquee.

In some two-player games of the 1950s, the operator can set the machine to provide 10 replays if both player's scores match the number (five for each player). In four-player games of that period, 10 replays could be awarded if first and second player both matched, or if third and fourth player both matched.

Some 1-player games of the 1950s and early 1960s used bulb scoring instead of score reels and these games did not use a match number but instead lit a star on the backglass. If the lit star was adjacent to the last two digits of the player’s score, a replay was awarded. For example, the backglass of Gottlieb's 1957 'Straight Flush' illustrates where the star would randomly light next to any of the ten possible combinations of the player’s last two digits.

The use of a star in the match feature is not to be confused with the ones used by Williams for their short-lived Star Feature.

See also Your Number Match.

This mechanical anim​ation is often referred to as backg​lass anim​ation when not considering backg​lass light anim​ation.

See Animation.

Mechanical Animation on Gottlieb's 1966 'Central Park'

"MEL" was a Bally/Williams created term for pre-production games built on the test production line. MEL was an acronym for Manufacturing Excellence LAB.  This is what many companies call the Test Production Line, or Pilot Production Line, or Sample Production Line.

It was a small production line separated from the main line. It had all the same stations/tools/equipment as the actual production line but only held 15 games. Its intention was to build games from a completed BOM with sourced parts and production tools to get the production process set and look for assembly issues. Normally the first 15 games were built on this line, 7 of these games went to the European customers, one game to the programmer, one to UL testing, one to ship testing, one to the game designer for testing, one for manufacturing. Sometimes all 15 were never completed. We called these MEL games. Some games were very close to the actual production games, some games had many issues and the MEL games are considerably different from the production games.

1) Mode of Play. Replay, Add-a-ball, or Novelty. Many games are manufactured to allow the operator to select which mode of play the game will have for purposes of awarding the player for high scores or for achieving certain play objectives.

2) Periods of game play where the rules change and sometimes special shots are made available. Most modern games (that is, solid state) contain these modes. Common types of modes are where one target scores a value that counts down from its highest value to nothing or when repeated ramp shots score an increasing number of millions.  Some games have a certain number of modes you must complete to get a reward or enter a wizard mode.

Player-created multiball:

Many mechanical and electro-mechanical pinball machines are equipped with more than one pinball resting in their ball troughs and the player is allowed to shoot more than one of them into play at the same time, using the ball lift knob to elevate each one to the shooter alley, without waiting for any ball-in-play to drain. These games were not designed to offer special advantages or features for multiball play and, typically, players don't bother with creating multiball on these games, instead playing the balls serially. Unlike solid state games, simultaneous switch hits by multiple balls may not be recognized by EM mechanisms, creating a scoring disadvantage for EM multiball as well as shortening game time in the process. For these games on our site, multiball is NOT identified as a Notable Feature in their listings.

Game-designed multiball:

These are games having multiple-ball play as a designed feature of game play. The additional balls are shot into play according to game rules. During multiball, there is often some sort of objective, most commonly in solid state games a jackpot target that scores an obscene amount of points. For these games on our site, multiball is identified as a Notable Feature in their listings.

A small number of EM games were designed to acknowledge multiple balls on the playfield. A list of these games can be found here.

Bally's 1964 'Mad World' is an example of an EM game designed for multiball but at the option of the player.

Multiball was re-introduced in solid state games starting with Williams' 1980 'Firepower'.

'Multiball' is trademarked by Williams Electronics.

Note that since it is a part that has been around for several years, it may not be in pristine condition depending on how it was stored, and in some cases the term has been inappropriately used to describe parts that are used but are claimed to still be in pristine "new" condition, a usage of the term which is generally frowned upon.

The first pinball machine to use this device as described above was Capcom's 1996 'Breakshot'.

A list of games identified with this feature can be found here.

The name for this pinball is taken from Sir Isaac Newton for his law of the conservation of energy, as seen in the device known as Newton's Cradle where several silver balls are suspended in a frame, all in a row and touching each other, and where the intermediary balls in the row remain motionless while balls at each end exchange momentum.

On some games, the intermediary pinball in a captive ball assembly is attached to the playfield using a support pin. This type of intermediary is really a fancy post, not a Newton Ball. Because these games' manuals may still label this post as a Newton Ball, we identify it on this site as a Newton Ball Post.

On other games, a pinball is attached to the playfield as part of a standup target with no connection to a captive ball assembly. This device is really a fancy target, not a Newton Ball. Because these games' manuals may still label this target as a Newton Ball, we identify it on this site as a Newton Ball Target.

It is seen as part of a captive ball assembly as an intermediary between the ball in play and the captive ball. The captive ball rests against this post due to gravity. The ball in play strikes the post and momentum is transferred through the post to propel the captive ball.

Some earlier games used a thick metal rod or rail as a captive ball intermediary instead of a post. The captive balls on Recel's 1978 'Mr. Evil' use these rails.

Rubber rings are used as captive ball intermediaries in Atari's 1978 'Space Riders'.

Many games use no intermediary at all, allowing the ball in play to directly strike and propel the captive ball. When such games have more than one movable ball in the captive ball chamber, the Newton effect does not rely on any balls being anchored to the playfield. Examples can be seen on Williams' 1978 'Pokerino' and Gottlieb's 1961 'Flying Circus'.

The use of posts on pinball playfields is hardly notable as a feature but the unusual design of this post intends it to be noticed and distinguished. We identify the presence of this unique post on a game to clarify that it is not to be mistaken for a captive ball or for any other potentially mobile ball on the playfield.

A list of games identified with this feature can be found here.

See also Newton Ball Target.

The term 'Nixie' was trademarked by the Burroughs Corporation and was derived from 'NIX I' which stood for 'Numeric Indicator eXperimental No. 1.'

An example of a pinball game using Nixie tubes is Rally's 1966 'Rally Girl'.

Compare Numitron tube.

Each digit in a Numitron tube is a seven-segment digit (like an led display).  Nixie tubes use discrete elements for each digit.

Numitron tubes are powered by logic level 5v whereas Nixie tubes require high voltage.

When used as a specialty indicator in this database, this denotes games that were manufacured as a novelty play only model and which had a separate model number given to it by the manufacturer.  If the game merely had novelty play available as an option, but did not have a separate model designation, then it will instead be marked in the notes.

The NRA was created by the National Industrial Recovery Act of June 16, 1933.

Initially, there was one "blanket code" in 1933 but during the following year and a half, this blanket code was replaced by over 500 codes that were negotiated for individual industries.

The NRA code specific for coin machine manufacturers became effective February 2, 1934, ten days after its approval by President Roosevelt.

The NRA subsequently was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court on May 27, 1935.

We can expect to find an NRA stamp, decal, or metal plate on pinball machines made after February 2, 1934 and until probably a little beyond May 27, 1935, allowing for a probable response time by the pinball industry to discontinue its use.

An example of an arcade game using Numitron tubes is Chicago Coin's 1975 'Super Flipper'.

Compare Nixie tube.

Each digit in a Numitron tube is a seven-segment digit (like an led display).  Nixie tubes use discrete elements for each digit.

Numitron tubes are powered by logic level 5v whereas Nixie tubes require high voltage.

Sometimes, this word is incorrectly used to describe inserts that are actually trans​lucent.

See also Translucent and Transparent.

On EM games with bulb scoring, this would mean reaching the maximum sweep of the Score Advance Unit, and the backglass score would be maxed out as visible to the player. The machine is unable to record any additional points for the remainder of that game in progress.

On EM games with score reels, this would mean the score reels all turn from 9 back to 0 and continue to score normally from that point. A player can say s/he "flipped over" the score.

On pre-DMD SS games having 6- or 7-digit scoring, the score will "flip over" to all zeroes and continue scoring from there. On some of these games, the High Score To Date shown in Game Over mode cannot record that this occurred, therefore no credits are awarded for High Score. On other games, the High Score To Date in Game Over mode will show the player's score as all 9's flashing, and any credits earned for that achievement will be awarded.

Bally EM games in the 1970's specifically used the words "Over The Top" in the production runs of several different multi-player games as a feature displayed on the backglass. On these games, five score reels were used per player, allowing a maximum score reel display of 99,990 points each. On Early Production games in these runs, if a player achieved a score exceeding 99,990 points, the reels would flip over to zeroes and a buzzer would sound for a second or two while the silkscreened words "Over The Top" would briefly appear on the backglass. This was a temporary display, not retained by the game during game play or at Game Over. This system was changed during the production runs of Old Chicago and Capt. Fantastic to add 100k relays, one for each player, allowing each player to light a silkscreened "100,000" upon achievement of that score. This type of score display was retained during game play and at Game Over. The words "Over The Top" were removed from the backglass on these modified games. The designer of those two games, Greg Kmiec, theorizes that the change was made at the request of the German distributor because the German players were very good at flipping the scores over on these games and the 'Over The Top' method was likely confusing and not helpful when comparing final scores during multi-player games.

Williams used "Over The Top" in at least one EM game, Williams' 1971 'Doodle Bug'.

Coin payout machines were eventually labeled gambling machines and outlawed in most states.  At that time, manufacturers converted to awarding and accepting tokens instead of coins in an attempt to circumvent the gambling laws for several years.

See Playfield Magnets.

Some games may have multiple playfields, with various methods for the ball to travel between them.  The additional playfields are usually smaller and located either above the main playfield, or below the main playfield and visible through a window of some sort.  (Habitrails under the playfield do not count as additional playfields.)

Some games have a 'split-level' playfield where a portion of the playfield is raised above the main playfield.  This is distinguished from 'multiple' playfields because in a split-level playfield there are no real play areas under the raised portion.

A example of a split-level playfield is Williams' 1980 'Black Knight'.  An example of a multi-level playfield is Stern's 2003 'The Simpsons Pinball Party', which has a small second playfield in the upper left corner of the main playfield.

The two types of magn​ets used in pinball play are the Permanent Magnet and the Electromagnet.

These magnets perform different actions on the ball in play. We have categorized three main types of actions below.

Diverter Magnet

Stop Magnet

Thrust Magnet

Some magnets might perform more than one of the above actions. Magnasave can either divert a ball or stop-and-drop it, depending on when the player activates it.

The magnet in Midway's 1994 'The Shadow' stops the ball then thrusts it. The magnets in Williams' 1992 'The Getaway: High Speed II' do not stop the ball but increase its speed.

An example of this device appears on Williams' 1970 'Straight Flush'.

A similar device on Williams' 1989 'Bad Cats' uses a spinning disc instead of an arrow.

Another type has the entire spinning mechanism out of view to the player except for a circle of playfield inserts. The spinning mechanism rotates a light from insert to insert until it stops. An example of this is found on Gottlieb's 1970 'Snow Derby'. Arrows are used in the example of Gottlieb's 1968 'Fun Land'. In each case, the spinning of this unit is tied directly to the revolutions of one or more spinning targets.

This feature first appeared on Chicago Coin's 1969 'Action'.

Proximity sensors have a small circuit board to convert the change in inductance of the sensor to an on/off switch signal.  The original proximity sensor circuit boards have a small potentiometer on them to adjust the sensitivity, while newer games have automatic circuit boards that are self-adjusting.  The sensor itself can be as simple as a small circuit board with a circular trace pattern.

While re-themed games are converted games, the Specialty designator of Re-themed Game is reserved on this site for those conversions which were not done by pinball manufacturers or other pinball companies of the historical past for commercial profit, but were done for personal pleasure by contemporary pinball collectors, private individuals, hobbyists, and others.

The mission of this website is to feature pinball machines as they were made by the manufacturers. These repainted games done by individuals fall outside of our mission. However, we know our users may see these repainted games in public and search our site for them, whether or not they know who made the game. We also know the quality of artwork of these repainted games has improved over time to rival or even exceed the quality provided by contemporary commercial manufacturers. This may cause our users to assume these games are commercial effort such that they would expect to see them on our site. Therefore, we will show re-themed games, usually with minimal text and with three basic pictures: full backglass, full playfield, and full cabinet view. In this way, our users will find at least some information on it, instead of finding nothing and then concluding the site was missing a manufacturer's game.

A list of his games pictorially showing the location of this red post on each one can be found here.

An example of a regular pinball machine that has this device is Bally's 1958 'U.S.A.' used to power down the pop bumpers during a game.

An example of this is found on Gottlieb's 1967 'Sing Along'.

These holes do not have to be adjacent to each other on the playfield to operate as relay-action. An example of this is Gottlieb's 1960 'Texan'.

A list of games identified with this feature can be found here.

Not all games with kick-out holes arranged in a line are designed to operate as relay-action. An example is Williams' 1959 'Rocket'.

See also:

1) Flipper Return Lane.

2) Crossover Return Lane.

3) Free Ball Return Lane.

The first type are those designed as a rolldown game using an oversized ball which the player rolls down the playfield (which is itself protected by a cover glass) aiming to land in score holes in the playfield.  Examples of this are Genco's 1945 'Total Roll' and Genco's 1946 'Advance Roll'.  These were designed by Harvey Heiss of Genco and produced right after World War II.

(According to Harvey Heiss and Steve Kordek, due to the wood shortage after the war, the wood used in these games was left over from the manufacture of Howard Hughes Spruce Goose airplanes and was flown from California to Chicago for use by Genco in these and possibly other games, although that was not advertised.)

The other type of rolldown games are pinball games with designs modified to comply with local laws.  Instead of the current ball being delivered to a plunger, it is dispensed into a cup on the front of the game.  This is claimed to increase the skill of playing, thereby making it a game of skill instead of a game of chance which would be illegal in many anti-gambling regions.  These games have a playfield glass which is open on the upper end and the player rolls the ball over the glass and it drops onto the upper end of the playfield where it then rolls back towards the player and into score holes in the playfield.  Another glass is placed above so the player cannot cheat. There were relatively few of these games produced.

See also Kick-out saucer.

The games display the playfield on an upright mirror although the playfield is really on the bottom of the cabinet.  Balls are released from the top of the playfield; there is a track that the ball can roll back and forth on when launched.  Pressing a flipper button causes the ball to be released from the rail, allowing the player their attempt at hitting strategic locations.

Bally made one bingo machine, Bally's 1954 'Hi-Fi', that used buttons on the side of the cabinet to jolt the playfield upwards, up to ten times per game. They referred to this feature as the Bump-feature.

A list of games identified with this feature can be found here.

Easily achieved by kicking the coin box or lifting the machine past horizontal.  This type of behavior will also get you thrown out of an arcade and is considered very bad manners.

A list of games identified with this feature can be found here.

Compare to Swinging Target.

An example of this feature can be found on Genco's 1934 'Pontiac'.

Backbox Spinner or Backglass Spinner

Captive Ball Spinner

Playfield Spinner

Spinning Bumper or Carom Spinner

Spinning Posts

Spinning Target

Spinning Disc or Whirlwind Spinner

A list of games identified with this feature can be found here.

Compare this feature to the Spinning Posts.

An example of this feature on the backglass is found on Gottlieb's 1968 'Spin Wheel'.

An example of this feature on the playfield is found on Bally's 1971 'Firecracker'.

See also Spinner for several examples of spinning mechanisms that are visible to the player, including Backbox Spinner.

A variation of the above design, aerial spinning posts, uses no turntable. The two posts are attached by their tops, one to each end of an aerial support that spins around its central axis whenever the ball hits either post. Two examples to have this style are Playmatic's 1974 'Joker' and Premier's 1995 'Mario Andretti'.

Two other games came from the factory with only one post on its turntable. They are Williams' 1971 'Zodiac' and Williams' 1971 'Planets'.

A list of all games identified with this feature can be found here.

A list of Square Machines can be found here.

According to the book Pinball 1, the Standard Transformer Corporation, a subsidiary of Western, manufactured these transformers at 852 Blackhawk Street, which was Western's former address and the original address of Western Electric Piano Company.

From the Coin Machine Journal July 1936, page 64 Click to Enlarge

Also known as a spot target.

A round standup target. The tab on the front is used to mount the target to the underside of the playfield.

If the player does not deposit the second coin, then the play is a conventional 5-ball game that still awards replays for high scores.

The list of games identified with this Williams feature can be found here.

Notice that this feature compares the "end-of-ball ma​tch number(s)" to the first digits of the score. This coining feature is not to be confused with the more familiar end-of-game match number that compares to the last digits of the final score and that had begun to appear on Williams games in 1955. Games with the Star feature did not have the end-of-game number match feature.

See Playfield Magnets.

A list of games identified with this feature can be found here.

Compare to Snap Target.

Reportedly, if pinball-playing customers discovered the power switch or, typically, were familiar enough with the games to know how to turn the games on, this loud repetitive sound could cause them to suspect something was wrong with the game and then they would not deposit their coins to play it. Thus, this option might be turned off by the operator for this reason.

The first pinball machine to have defective switch detection was Williams' 1986 'High Speed' and was also the first game to have this optional knocking sound.

As best as we can determine from available game manuals, the following Williams games had the Switch Alarm Knocker notifier:

• All System 11 and System 11A games (exception: Grand Lizard used a bell instead of a knocker)
• All System 11B games from Big Guns to Earthshaker, except Jokers! which only displayed the message "Press ADVANCE for Report" at Power Up.

The Credit Dot notifier was already in use by the time Williams discontinued the Switch Alarm Knocker notifier.

Recel and Petaco used this feature. A Recel flyer identifies these two targets as one "alternating target".

For pictures, see Recel's 1978 'Fair Fight'.

See Playfield Magnets.

There are several mechanisms that are used to detect machine abuse.  The first is simply a conical pendulum suspended inside a metal ring.  This is called a tilt bob or pendulum tilt.  As the machine is nudged, the pendulum will swing, and if it ever touches the ring, a TILT occurs.  Most new machines can be set to give one or more tilt warnings before actually tilting, and tilting in this fashion causes immediate loss of both the ball in play and your accumulated bonus for that ball.  

Another tilt mechanism is the "ball roll" tilt. It's a pinball sitting in a metal track inside the cabinet.  The track has a shallow slope in the same direction as the playfield, so the ball usually rests in the bottom of the track; at the top of the track is a sensor.  If you physically lift the front of the machine, the ball rolls up the track and contacts the sensor.  At the very least, this is an immediate tilt with no warnings.  On most machines, it's a slam tilt.  

Finally, there are usually one or more impact sensors, placed in places likely to be the subject of player abuse, such as the coin door and cabinet. The sensor is just a pair of switch blades with a round weight affixed to one of them. The switch may be either normally open or normally closed. Banging on the game hard enough to trigger one of these sensors will cause a slam tilt.

One version of the slam tilt is the sway tilt. It looks like an upside-down pendulum tilt. Its ring is at the top. Unlike the pendulum tilt, the thin metal rod is rigidly attached to the frame and thus does not allow for swinging. If the player strikes the cabinet sharply, the adjustable weight on the top end of this thin rod vibrates surprisingly and will tilt the game if it touches the ring. We have seen the sway tilt mounted in backboxes and near the inside of the front coin door. An example of this tilt can be seen on Exhibit's 1941 'Knockout'.

Diagram of a Tilt Bob Assembly

The only way in which this rollover can be the first switch closure for a ball shot into play is if the left ball gate is stuck in an open position, allowing the plunged ball to pas​s under it to reach this rollover first. The playfield then tilts for that ball. This left ball gate could get stuck open if it was unclean or if a cheating player held a mag​net over it, through the playfield glass, or if it retained residual magnetism from such an act.

While any pinball machine with a metal ball gate is subject to such cheating or lack of cleaning, a search of Williams EM games from 1970 up to the advent of SS games in 1977 showed that, of the many games that had an upper left return lane, only the lanes that had a spinning target at its lower end had this tilt rollover. Without this tilt rollover, a stuck left gate could allow the player to flip a ball up through the spinner, rebound the ball off of the closed upper right metal ball gate, and back through the spinner, and repeat this action to accelerate playfield objectives and the score. If the playfield also had an upper right return lane, a stuck left gate would allow a skillful player to repeatedly flip the ball into a counterclockwise orbit, up the right lane and down the left one, keeping the spinner in constant scoring motion.

The designer certainly anticipated the possibility of misplay due to a left ball gate malfunction and deemed the game as unacceptable for play under that condition, making it tilt. An observant player could still defeat this feature, however, by softly plunging the ball to avoid the stuck gate and close some other switch first, thus activating the Ball Index relay and disabling the tilt rollover for the duration of that ball in play.

A list of the Williams games having this tilt rollover is here.

The list includes two games that were on the cusp of the emerging solid state technology, and shows both their EM and SS versions. This feature which may have started out as an idea for EM was soon to be eclipsed by the flexibility of solid-state programming. The two SS playfields do show this tilt rollover but for only one of them do we have documentation to see the rollover being acknowledged and, therefore, probably operative. We searched beyond 1977 for other Williams SS games that had an upper left return lane, stopping the search at 1980 when multi-level playfields began, and none of these games 1977-1980 that had a spinner in a left lane also had an unmarked rollover. It’s possible that this rollover was soon discontinued because the gate malfunction was deemed not much of a threat. Perhaps the institutional knowledge of its use at Williams did not carry over to the new group of solid state designers and wouldn't really be needed by software programming at that point anyway.

An example of an electromechanical game with this feature is Como Manufacturing Corp.'s 1951 'Stadium'.

The timer found standard in many flipperless games is housed inside a metal bell yet it has no clapper and the bell does not ring. The bell serves only as a protective housing for this timer. This timer may be listed in parts catalogs of the day as a time clock or a time clock assembly and will have a picture with it so that the term is not confused to mean some other device.

See also Bell Timer.

A number of playfields were designed by Harry Williams for Williams Electronics, Inc. in Chicago, reportedly when Harry was living in California. Harry would mail the drawings to Williams in Chicago. These playfields were not produced as games by Williams Electronics and any of them may not have even been acknowledged as received from Harry.

For the fascinating story, click here.

See also Trade Check.

The earliest use of the Williams Tool Room copy of which we are aware was seen for Model 174, Williams' 1956 'Perky'.

Prior to introducing these tracings, Williams used the original playfield drawing in the Tool Room, as some drawings have been seen marked up with blue pencil notations on holes and slots, etc.

Starting with Model 201, Williams' 1958 'Casino', Williams began an additional practice with their drawings and copies even though implementation of this practice was spotty until Model 209, Williams' 1959 'Sea Wolf' (with two exceptions, Model 214 Williams' 1958 'Club House' an Model 236 Williams' 1960 'Darts'). This was the practice of rubber-stamping a standard signature/date block onto the drawings, containing either the word ORIGINAL or the word MASTER, into which people would then add the info by hand.

The word "ORIGINAL" was stamped in red ink on the original drawing by the designer. On a drawing that has both "drawn" and "approved" lines initialed, the drawing would have been done by a draftsman, while the designer would have approved the drawing as reflecting what they designed.

The word "MASTER" was stamped in black ink on what had formerly been known as the "Tool room copy."

All the same data was on each, it was just a new stamping/naming standard. The ORIGINAL generally contained the designers’ initials or name, and a date and maybe a revised date, while MASTER generally contained the date redrawn by a draftsman, and the date the routing jigs were completed. There's no guarantee the designer's initials would be on the Tool Room or MASTER drawing, while they would almost always be on the ORIGINAL drawing.

The practice eventually evaporated.  Steve Kordek’s drawings started getting all the tool room work done directly on them again like was done previously, and Norm Clark basically never stamped his copies, he just wrote things in by hand.

Whereas older games have the art painted directly into the backglass, newer games use a translite held onto a piece of clear glass using plastic trim. Removed from the glass, a translite appears a lot like a poster, and is more resistant to damage than a backglass, although the colors are often less brilliant than those found on a backglass.  

Translites are sometimes referred to as backglasses when the distinction is not important.

Also spelled as 'translight'.

Playfield inserts are commonly translucent as one cannot look through the insert from above and see the light bulb underneath. An example of this is the insert located between the pop bumpers on Keeney's 1964 'Arrowhead'.

Sometimes, this word is incorrectly used to describe inserts that are actually trans​parent.

Sometimes, the word opa​que is incorrectly used to describe inserts that are actually translucent.

See also Transparent and Opaque.

Playfield inserts that are transparent allow one to look through the insert and see the light bulb underneath. An example of this are the string of inserts located between the two side targets on Gottlieb's 1962 'Sunset'.

Sometimes, the word trans​lucent is incorrectly used to describe inserts that are actually transparent.

See also Translucent and Opaque.

Most mechanical pinball machines that have tr​ap holes will have point values painted near them as the necessary way to designate the points that a ball earns by landing in them. Once the electric bumper and progressive scoring appeared on games starting in 1937, balls no longer had to end their play in a tr​ap hole to score points but could continue in play, bouncing off the scoring bumpers and racking up more points on the progressive score totalizer. Then the ball could exit the playfield via an outhole and in some cases be recycled as the next ball in play.

Tr​ap holes did not disappear from use after 1937, however. They were still used in a number of electromechanical flipper machines into the 1950s. One example is Williams' 1953 'Grand Champion'. They are the main component of all bingo machine playfields to this day.

In all instances, the trapped balls actually rest on a baffle board underneath the playfield. This board in its closed position holds the trapped balls in place. In EM games, the board contains a small switch for each tr​ap hole, allowing the weight of the ball to close the switch for scoring. At the beginning of each game, the baffle board moves slightly, allowing all trapped balls to fall through and return to the ball shooter for play. In older games, pushing the coin chute with a coin in it will move the baffle and drop the balls. In later games, the baffle would move under electric motor power.

Smaller versions that do not illuminate can be found anywhere else on the playfield and might be identified more properly as Mini-posts.

Chicago Coin called their version the Power Target.

Williams called their version the Linear Target.

Stern referred to the target as a "variable push target" on the flyer for their game Stern's 2004 'Ripley's Believe It or Not!®'.

Homepin used what they called a "push target" on their prototype version of Homepin Ltd's 2018 'Thunderbirds' but it was replaced on production games with a captive ball assembly.

A vari-target described on Gottlieb's College Queens Flyer.

Veeder-Root Incorporated of Hartford, Connecticut was the first counter manufacturer to have its counters installed in coin operated equipment and is the only counter manufacturer whose name we have seen mentioned in old Billboard ads. However, over the years, other counter manufacturers came into existence and found their way into coin-operated equipment.

As an example, Williams' 1993 'Indiana Jones: The Pinball Adventure', a popular wide-body game, has a 25" wide cabinet/playfield, while other games of that period have a 22 1/2" wide cabinet/playfield.  Backboxes of the wide-body games are usually the same width as the "standard" games.

Habitrails are examples of multiple-strand wireforms. Some consist of only two parallel wires, forming a track upon which the ball rides. Others consist of several wires assembled in the shape of a hollow tube. Each end of the track or tube may be anchored to the playfield surface or to another playfield part.

In the late 1950's, manufacturers began phasing in the use of metal for the siderails and lockdown bars.  Gottlieb was the last to manufacture a woodrail pinball game with their 1960 game "Kewpie Doll", after which they converted to metal rails for the production run of their next pinball game "Flipper" (although some test games of that model still had wood rails).  Williams was the last company to make a woodrail pitch and bat game with their 1961 "Batting Champ".

Note that in 1962, some games — such as Williams' "1962 World Series" — had metal side rails with wooden trim around the backglass, but games such as these are not considered woodrails because the "rails" on the cabinet are metal.  Backbox wooden trim was still occasionally used until 1965.

Also note that there were conversion kits to convert woodrail games to metal rail cabinets.

This last digit in the score is designated as YOUR NUMBER and each player up has one. The player can change this number anytime before shooting the last ball by pressing the yellow button on the coin door. For instance, pressing the button three times will display a '3' on the backglass score.

The playfield has a small LED that displays a single-digit number throughout game play. This number is always visible to the player and changes value each time the ball hits any targets or switches.

When the last ball drains, the player will be awarded 'Special' (1 credit) if 'YOUR NUMBER' and the playfield Match number is the same.

The player can attempt to lose the last ball on purpose if these two numbers are matching.

For pictures of what this finish looks like on a bingo machine, see Bally's 1963 'Bounty' (this image).

John C. Zola of California patented his polychromatic paint in 1952. (United States Patent 2,591,904.)

For more information, see this article from The Billboard, Jun-26-1954, page 116.