Advance Pin Table
Judging by surviving numbers, these little oak counter-top pin-tables were made in considerable numbers. The design is a very conservative bagatelle layout and bears more than a passing resemblance to Mills Novelty Co.'s "Baby Official" Pin Table of 1932. This example has a retail label for T H Moor, Ironmonger, South Molton. The company made a very similar game called Zunt. |
Ewan, White & Co 1932
Discotelle
Unusual bagatelle-type game using glass discs in place of the more common marbles or ball bearings. One of several rarely found skill games made by the Lebren Manufacturing Company of Coventry; others were Discofrutel, Flipotelle, Money Moon, Skill Flite and Three Stars. It's doubtful that the provisional patent number 14823/33 matured to a full patent, but it gives us a date. |
Lebren Manufacturing Co. 1933
Figure of 8
One of many 'unsigned' British pinball games from the mid 1930s. This example is evidently missing some player game control ironwork on the front, possibly some means of tilting the playfield to guide the balls. |
Unknown maker 1930s
Horseshoe Pintable
Unfortunately, we don't even have a name for this game, but it appears to be from the same stable as the UNEDA pinballs made by Automatic Machine Co. Ltd. It is clearly 1930s period and has an attractive inlaid playfield with horseshoe targets. |
Automatic Machine Co. Ltd 1930s
Little Bren
This diminutive and unusual counter-top pinball appears to be from the 1950s but has been decimalized to take the now withdrawn half new penny. Like several other British payout pinballs, the object is to leave the winning (X) symbol lit when the ball exits play. Winning coins are paid over the top glass. A bumper light cap and ball firing control need replacing on this example. |
Brenner 1950s
Maze
10 BALLS A 1D; COLOURED BALL COUNT DOUBLEEvidently this simple, all-mechanical bagatelle originally contained coloured ceramic or composite balls |
Unknown 1930s
Oval
DIRECTIONS: PLACE PENNY IN SLOT. PUSH KNOB RIGHT IN. WAIT FOR GREEN LIGHT BEFORE BOWLING. KEEP PLAYING UNTIL 'OUT' WHEN WICKET WILL FALL. Rare early electro-mechanical cricket-based pinball on which the object is to avoid the inner (fielder) holes and aim for the boundary (run-scoring) holes. |
Unknown maker 1930s
Shoot!
This appears to be Shields' first counter-top pinball which paid out rolls of sweets and works on the same principle as the later and more common Tuck Shop. |
Shields 1940s
Skill Score
Small battery-operated flipper-less counter-top pinball with electro-mechanical score dial in the back-box. The balls ricochet between the solenoid bumpers to advance the score. |
Hooper 1940s
Star Eight
The maker of this figure-of-eight game is unrecorded, but it appears to be of British origin. Balls failing to make the high scoring holes at the top (1000 for orange, gold or yellow, 1500 for red) roll down to the lower pinfield for 500 to 100 points, out or replay. |
Unknown maker 1930s