5 Of The Coolest Auto-Themed Pinball Machines Ever Made
Our list begins with a game from the “Golden Age” of pinball.The first coin-operated pinball machines appeared in 1931, and the first electric ones (powered by a small battery) emerged in 1933. Coil bumpers appeared in Bally tables in 1937, and D. Gottlieb & Co. invented flippers in 1947. This evolution ushered in what many consider the “Golden Age” and ran from 1948 through 1958.
Speed Way was built by Williams Manufacturing Company and appeared first in 1948 with a theme centered around car racing. However, aside from the name and the backglass artwork, you’d never know it had anything to do with cars, as neither the playfield nor cabinet artwork conveys any racing theme.
It’s an electro-mechanical (EM) machine that utilizes relays, motors, solenoids, and switches but contains no electronic components per se. And in this case, it uses lights fixed behind the backglass instead of a mechanical wheel to tally the score.
The ball is shot from the plunger on the right side, takes a lap around the playfield (ala, a race car around the track), then dives into a playfield with two flippers, five passive bumpers, and three kick-out holes. Those features sound pedestrian, but it seems to be the first to use automobiles as the motif. Speedway also used outward-facing flippers instead of the conventional inward, and it had a pop bumper in the center.
