First Pinball Machines

1931 Gottlieb Baffle Ball. Dave Gottlieb who produced penny arcade grip testers, observed a potentially huge market for pinball. Dave produced a small coin operated countertop machine and called it 'Baffle Ball'. The game took the country by storm and rocketed pinball into national prominance. Even working 24 hours a day, Gottlieb just couldn't produce enough Baffle Ball's to satisfy the public's demand for it. This is the machine which launched the whole pinball industry.

1932 Bally Ballyhoo. Ray Moloney saw the explosive demand for Dave Gottlieb's Baffle Ball and decided to design and manufacture his own game inorder to get a share of the market. Ray designed a colorful game and borrowed the name of a popular magazine of that time, Ballyhoo. Ray named his company which would produce Ballyhoo, 'Bally Mfg. Co.' This is the game that started Bally. Ray's advertising slogan was "What'll they do through 32.... play Ballyhoo"!

1932 Rock-Ola Juggle Ball. Player control comes to pinball! Until Juggle Ball, once the ball was launched on to the playfield, the only possible control the player had was by nudging the machine. In 1932, David Rockola (Famous for his line of Jukeboxes) devised a game whereby players could directly control the ball via a sliding arm mechanism with metal bumpers. The game was a hit with the public and lead the way for future developments such as flippers in the 1947 Gottlieb Humpty Dumpty. Juggle Ball was offered in one and five cent versions. The machine shown above is is configured to work on one cent.

1933 Pacific Amusements Co. Contact. This machine is considered to have more 'firsts' than any other. It was the first pinball to use electricity instead of just gravity. It was the first machine to add momentum to the ball by solenoids, it was the first to have a electric ringing bell and it was the first to be designed by Harry E. Williams, the namesake of Williams pinballs and probably the most prolific pinball designer of all time. Pacific Amusement company produced several models of Contact which were all well received by the public. Gravity pinball's were then considered obsolete. Most Contact's were produced by Pacific Amusements in Los Angeles, California, however Contact Jr. was produced directly by Harry Williams himself in his workshop away from the factory. This particular machine has a pencil drawn 'HEW' (presumably Harry E. Williams) underneath the playfield. The playfields and cabinets were also hand numbered and fitted together.

1947 Gottlieb Humpty Dumpty. "The greatest triumph in pin game history" was proudly proclaimed by Gottlieb in their 1947 advertisements for Humpty Dumpty. Gottliebs lead designer, Harry Mabs invented and included a new feature in Humpty Dumpty which forever changed pinball. Six 'Flipper Bumpers' were added allowing far more player control of the ball than had been previously possible. The public reacted with wild enthusiasm and all manufacturers then began adding 'flippers' to their games. The first game with flippers also included beautiful artwork by Roy Parker and animation with lights on the backglass. During play a animated Humpty Dumpty fall's off the wall. Note that the original flippers were oriented backwards to how we are now used to seeing them.

1936 Bally Bumper. During 1936 there was tremendous competition among the manufacturers of pinball games. Bally wanted to develop new innovations into it's machines to pull it ahead in the market. Bumper introduced several new features which again changed pinball forever. Bumper is the first game to use bumpers for scoring. A ball is shot and as it works it's way down the playfield, the player nudges the machine and trys to hit as many bumpers as possible. Each bumper is a spring which activates a switch and add's points to a score which is projected from the rear by a projection bulb and stencil. Bumper was also the first game to make use of plastic. The caps of the bumpers were made of plastic, a characteristic which remains in pinball machines manufactured today. Bumper was incredibly popular with the public and provided a much needed boost for Bally. Bumper production began in 1936 and ran into 1937 with approximately 15,000 machines produced.