Some 1930's Pinball Games
 
1933 Rockola Worlds Fair Jigsaw. Worlds Fair Jigsaw is considered to be the most collectible 1930's vintage pin game in existence. Created in 1933 by David Rockola (Who later ventured into the jukebox manufacturing business) to celebrate the upcoming 1934 Worlds Fair in Chicago Illinois. The first of Rockola's completely mechanical marvelous machines (followed by World's Series in 1934) the player has ten balls to try to complete a jigsaw puzzle picture of the fair. At the beginning of the game, all the puzzle pieces are on end and as a player lands the ball in holes, from one to four puzzle pieces are rotated flat displaying parts of the picture. Completing the puzzle in ten ball's is difficult, but possible. The marquee displays point values associated with the number of puzzle pieces completed. With the disclaimer 'No gambling permitted' the marquee also advises the player 'Completed score must be shown to clerk on duty as soon as made'. Rockola Worlds Fair Jigsaw and Worlds Series represent the peak of the completely mechanical (no electricity) pin game period.
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    • 1932 Gottlieb Play-Boy. With the tremendous sucess of Baffle Ball, Gottlieb needed to followup with a new game in 1932. Using the existing Baffle Ball cabinet production line, they created a new playfield with card graphics and called it 'Play-Boy'. The game was actually cheaper to produce than Baffle Ball since the expensive cast metal pieces used on Baffle Ball's playfield were not required. Play-Boy is very versatile in that a player can play for accumulated points or they can play card games such as poker or black jack with the launched glass balls. Play-Boy was a hit and was the start of Gottliebs very long line of playing card themed games produced through the years.
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    • 1934 Rockola World's Series. David Rockola who is well known for producing jukebox's, also produced many early pinball machines. Some of his machines, in particular Jigsaw and World's Series are mechanical marvels with animated playfield action. These machines are now considered highly collectible. In World's Series, the ball's become little men, running around the bases scoring singles, doubles, triples and running in to score a home run.
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    • 1936 A.B.T. Captain Kidd. Captain Kidd is a payout pinball machine. Payout pinball's were often placed in locations where slot machines were either illegal or frowned upon. In this machine, three ball's are shot. Depending on the symbols they land on (just like a slot machine) the electric powered mechanism inside pays out nickles to the lucky winner via the 'secret' door on the bottom, opened for view in the picture. This particular machine was used for many years at the now long gone Woodcliff Pleasure Park in Poughkeepsie, NY.
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    • 1932 R.H. Osbrink Mike & Ike. While Gottlieb was riding a wave of popularity with it's game designs, smaller companies would "borrow" those design idea's and incorporate them into their own games. Mike & Ike was produced in 1932 by R.H. Osbrink Manufacturing Company and incorporates the basic playfield design of Gottlieb's "Five Star Final". However, the playfield is where the similarities end. Mike and Ike is very small, only 10.5 x 22 inch's and has a painted metal playfield. The ball loader and shooter is a unique design which scoops up a ball from under the playfield and then the spring loaded load mechanism is released and the ball is launched into play. When a new game is initiated, the coin slide activates a set of rotating gears underneath the metal playfield which rotate and allow the ball's to drop to a lower shelf and return to the area of the ball loader. Mike & Ike, while resembling Five Star Final is actually a very unique and ingenious game.
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    • 1932 Lincoln Mfg. Co. Whiz Bang. This is a very unusual machine with only a few known to exist. One of it's more interesting features is that the ball's are trapped in their holes via pin nails. When a new game is started, rather than dropping down to a lower board like other pin's of it's era, the nail pin's actually spread apart and the ball's roll down the playfield to be caught by a drain at the bottom. The wooden legs of this machine attach inside the cabinet which is unusual. Almost all other pinball's attach the legs outside the machine's cabinet.
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    • 1932 Peo Daisy. In a attempt to add variety to pinball, several games were created in a 'squared circle' format. The playfield is actually a circle and when the ball is shot, it circles the field in a manner similar to roulette. When the ball begins to fall to the center, it is trapped in a hole and add's to the accrued score. The format never really caught on and squared circle pinball's quickly disappeared from the market.
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    • 1932 Gottlieb Five Star Final. Gottlieb produced a very interesting game variation whereby two distinct playfields were used in the same small countertop machine. The ball is shot and does a figure eight around the two playfields with gravity determining where it will eventually end up. Some people thought the name 'Five Star Final' meant the final game for Gottlieb. They were wrong... Gottlieb produced great games for another 50+ years.
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    • 1939 Gottlieb Bowling Alley. By the late 1930's, Pinball had taken a form similar to what we see today. A large cabinet with a lit glass in a backhead. Notice the use of beautiful wood rails to surround both the playfield and the backglass. This style continued until 1960. Also note that the 'bumpers' are actually steel springs which make contact with a inner conductor inorder to indicate a ball hit. This machine, like many others of it's era could also be used for gambling. It can be set to accrue 'free games' for certain scores. After winning games, the player would collect equivalent nickles as a 'payout' by the establishment owner rather than actually play the games. The owner would then push a secret 'knockoff switch' located underneath the playfield cabinet to reset the free game counter back to zero.
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