A free game awarded to the player for exceeding a score threshold, completing a specific in-game objective, or winning a match at the end of the game. The replay is the coin-operated amusement industry\u2019s fundamental reward mechanism: play well enough and you earn another game without inserting another coin.
\nReplay thresholds were operator-adjustable, allowing the route operator to control how frequently free games were awarded and balance player satisfaction against revenue per machine. A machine set to generous replay thresholds attracted more play but earned fewer coins per hour; a stingy setting earned more per game but risked driving players to competing machines on the route.
\nThe legal status of replays shaped the industry for decades. In jurisdictions that classified a free game as a \u201cthing of value,\u201d replay machines were regulated or banned outright as gambling devices. This legal pressure drove the development of Add-a-Ball as an alternative reward mechanism and Novelty as a reward-free configuration. The distinction between a replay machine and a gambling machine was argued in courtrooms, city councils, and state legislatures across the United States from the 1930s through the 1970s, and the outcome in each jurisdiction determined which machines operators could legally place on location.
\nReplay remained the dominant reward mechanism for American Pinball from the Electromechanical era through the present day. Virtually all modern Solid State machines are configured for replay, though the mechanism is now implemented in software rather than the mechanical replay units and score motors of the EM era.
\n", "citations": [], "attribution": null}, "aliases": [], "title_count": 445}, {"name": "Add-a-Ball", "slug": "add-a-ball", "display_order": 2, "description": {"text": "A reward mechanism in which the player earns an additional ball of play rather than a free game. Add-a-ball emerged in the late 1950s and early 1960s as a direct response to local regulations that classified [[reward-type:replay]] awards as gambling: if the machine never awarded a free game, it could not be considered a gambling device. The distinction was legally significant \u2014 it determined whether a machine could be placed on location in a given jurisdiction.\n\nManufacturers produced add-a-ball versions of their games primarily for export to Italy and other European markets where replay machines were prohibited. A typical production run yielded both a replay model for the domestic US market and an add-a-ball model for export, often with different model numbers, different backglass artwork, and different instruction cards, but sharing an identical playfield layout. IPDB and other databases frequently list these as separate machines, though they represent the same game design configured for different legal environments.\n\nAdd-a-ball machines were identifiable by their lack of a replay counter on the backglass and the presence of an \"Extra Ball\" indicator in its place. The player's reward for strong play was more time with the current game rather than a new game entirely \u2014 a distinction that satisfied regulators in jurisdictions where the free-game award crossed the line into gambling.\n\nThe add-a-ball mechanism was most prevalent during the 1960s and 1970s, when the legal landscape for coin-operated amusements varied sharply between countries and even between states and municipalities within the United States.", "html": "A reward mechanism in which the player earns an additional ball of play rather than a free game. Add-a-ball emerged in the late 1950s and early 1960s as a direct response to local regulations that classified Replay awards as gambling: if the machine never awarded a free game, it could not be considered a gambling device. The distinction was legally significant \u2014 it determined whether a machine could be placed on location in a given jurisdiction.
\nManufacturers produced add-a-ball versions of their games primarily for export to Italy and other European markets where replay machines were prohibited. A typical production run yielded both a replay model for the domestic US market and an add-a-ball model for export, often with different model numbers, different backglass artwork, and different instruction cards, but sharing an identical playfield layout. IPDB and other databases frequently list these as separate machines, though they represent the same game design configured for different legal environments.
\nAdd-a-ball machines were identifiable by their lack of a replay counter on the backglass and the presence of an \u201cExtra Ball\u201d indicator in its place. The player\u2019s reward for strong play was more time with the current game rather than a new game entirely \u2014 a distinction that satisfied regulators in jurisdictions where the free-game award crossed the line into gambling.
\nThe add-a-ball mechanism was most prevalent during the 1960s and 1970s, when the legal landscape for coin-operated amusements varied sharply between countries and even between states and municipalities within the United States.
\n", "citations": [], "attribution": null}, "aliases": ["Add-a-ball"], "title_count": 145}, {"name": "Free Play", "slug": "free-play", "display_order": 6, "description": {"text": "A configuration in which no coin is required to start a game. The player presses the start button and plays without payment. Free play is not a reward mechanism in the same sense as [[reward-type:replay]] or [[reward-type:add-a-ball]] \u2014 it is the absence of the coin-operated transaction entirely.\n\nFree play configuration appears in several contexts. [[tag:home-use]] models were typically shipped from the factory in free play mode, since there was no operator collecting revenue and no reason to require a coin. Route machines at the end of their commercial life were sometimes switched to free play by their final owners. And some operators configured machines for free play in locations where the game served as an amenity rather than a revenue source \u2014 a break room, a waiting area, a private club.\n\nOn [[technology-generation:electromechanical]] machines, free play was enabled by a physical switch or by setting the coin mechanism to zero credits per coin. On [[technology-generation:solid-state]] machines, it became a software setting in the operator menu. The game itself played identically in either mode \u2014 the same rules, the same scoring, the same playfield behavior. The only difference was whether a coin had to drop before the game would start.\n\nIn modern home collecting, virtually all machines are set to free play. The coin door remains as a physical artifact and a point of access to the cash box and operator controls, but the transaction it was designed to mediate no longer occurs.", "html": "A configuration in which no coin is required to start a game. The player presses the start button and plays without payment. Free play is not a reward mechanism in the same sense as Replay or Add-a-Ball \u2014 it is the absence of the coin-operated transaction entirely.
\nFree play configuration appears in several contexts. Home Use models were typically shipped from the factory in free play mode, since there was no operator collecting revenue and no reason to require a coin. Route machines at the end of their commercial life were sometimes switched to free play by their final owners. And some operators configured machines for free play in locations where the game served as an amenity rather than a revenue source \u2014 a break room, a waiting area, a private club.
\nOn Electromechanical machines, free play was enabled by a physical switch or by setting the coin mechanism to zero credits per coin. On Solid State machines, it became a software setting in the operator menu. The game itself played identically in either mode \u2014 the same rules, the same scoring, the same playfield behavior. The only difference was whether a coin had to drop before the game would start.
\nIn modern home collecting, virtually all machines are set to free play. The coin door remains as a physical artifact and a point of access to the cash box and operator controls, but the transaction it was designed to mediate no longer occurs.
\n", "citations": [], "attribution": null}, "aliases": [], "title_count": 144}, {"name": "Novelty", "slug": "novelty", "display_order": 3, "description": {"text": "A configuration in which the machine awards no replays, no extra balls, and no payouts of any kind. The player inserts a coin, plays the game, accumulates a score, and the game ends. The term \"novelty\" distinguishes these machines from [[reward-type:replay]], [[reward-type:add-a-ball]], and payout models \u2014 the game is offered purely for amusement, with no mechanism by which skilled play returns anything of value to the player.\n\nNovelty configuration served two purposes. In jurisdictions where any form of reward \u2014 free games, extra balls, cash, or tickets \u2014 classified a machine as a gambling device, novelty mode was the only legal option for operators who wanted to place machines on location. The machine could not be a gambling device if there was nothing to win. Second, some operators preferred novelty configuration in locations where replay abuse was a concern: players could not accumulate free games and monopolize a machine without continuing to pay.\n\nMany [[technology-generation:electromechanical]] machines offered operator-selectable modes, allowing the same machine to be configured as novelty or [[reward-type:replay]] depending on local requirements. The choice was typically made via a switch or jumper inside the cabinet. Some manufacturers produced dedicated novelty models with distinct model numbers and no replay mechanism in the circuit at all, distinguishing them from their replay counterparts at the factory level.\n\nIn the modern era, the novelty distinction has largely faded as the legal battles over pinball as gambling were resolved in favor of the industry. Virtually all current production machines are configured for [[reward-type:replay]].", "html": "A configuration in which the machine awards no replays, no extra balls, and no payouts of any kind. The player inserts a coin, plays the game, accumulates a score, and the game ends. The term \u201cnovelty\u201d distinguishes these machines from Replay, Add-a-Ball, and payout models \u2014 the game is offered purely for amusement, with no mechanism by which skilled play returns anything of value to the player.
\nNovelty configuration served two purposes. In jurisdictions where any form of reward \u2014 free games, extra balls, cash, or tickets \u2014 classified a machine as a gambling device, novelty mode was the only legal option for operators who wanted to place machines on location. The machine could not be a gambling device if there was nothing to win. Second, some operators preferred novelty configuration in locations where replay abuse was a concern: players could not accumulate free games and monopolize a machine without continuing to pay.
\nMany Electromechanical machines offered operator-selectable modes, allowing the same machine to be configured as novelty or Replay depending on local requirements. The choice was typically made via a switch or jumper inside the cabinet. Some manufacturers produced dedicated novelty models with distinct model numbers and no replay mechanism in the circuit at all, distinguishing them from their replay counterparts at the factory level.
\nIn the modern era, the novelty distinction has largely faded as the legal battles over pinball as gambling were resolved in favor of the industry. Virtually all current production machines are configured for Replay.
\n", "citations": [], "attribution": null}, "aliases": [], "title_count": 66}, {"name": "Cash Payout", "slug": "cash-payout", "display_order": 4, "description": {"text": "A reward mechanism in which the machine directly dispenses coins to the player based on scoring outcomes during play. Cash payout machines blurred the line between pinball and slot machines \u2014 the player inserted a nickel, launched a ball, and if it landed in the right hole or triggered the right combination, the machine dropped coins into a payout cup.\n\nCash payout was the dominant reward mechanism in the earliest era of coin-operated pin games, particularly during the 1930s. Manufacturers like [[manufacturer:bally]], [[manufacturer:pamco]], and [[manufacturer:esco]] built machines with visible coin escalators, odds-changing mechanisms, and payout cups that made the gambling analogy explicit. The playfield was the randomizer; the payout cup was the jackpot. These machines were enormously profitable for operators and enormously controversial for regulators.\n\nIt was the cash payout mechanism, more than any other feature, that provoked the anti-pinball legislation of the 1940s. New York City's 1942 ban and similar prohibitions across the country targeted machines that dispensed coins, but the bans were often written broadly enough to sweep in all coin-operated pin games regardless of payout capability. The industry's subsequent pivot toward [[reward-type:replay]] and [[reward-type:novelty]] configurations was a direct response to this regulatory pressure \u2014 an effort to distance pinball from its payout-machine origins.\n\nBy the 1950s, cash payout had largely disappeared from mainstream pinball manufacturing in the United States, though payout mechanisms persisted longer in bingo pinball machines and in markets outside the US where the regulatory environment was different.", "html": "A reward mechanism in which the machine directly dispenses coins to the player based on scoring outcomes during play. Cash payout machines blurred the line between pinball and slot machines \u2014 the player inserted a nickel, launched a ball, and if it landed in the right hole or triggered the right combination, the machine dropped coins into a payout cup.
\nCash payout was the dominant reward mechanism in the earliest era of coin-operated pin games, particularly during the 1930s. Manufacturers like Bally, PAMCO, and ESCO built machines with visible coin escalators, odds-changing mechanisms, and payout cups that made the gambling analogy explicit. The playfield was the randomizer; the payout cup was the jackpot. These machines were enormously profitable for operators and enormously controversial for regulators.
\nIt was the cash payout mechanism, more than any other feature, that provoked the anti-pinball legislation of the 1940s. New York City\u2019s 1942 ban and similar prohibitions across the country targeted machines that dispensed coins, but the bans were often written broadly enough to sweep in all coin-operated pin games regardless of payout capability. The industry\u2019s subsequent pivot toward Replay and Novelty configurations was a direct response to this regulatory pressure \u2014 an effort to distance pinball from its payout-machine origins.
\nBy the 1950s, cash payout had largely disappeared from mainstream pinball manufacturing in the United States, though payout mechanisms persisted longer in bingo pinball machines and in markets outside the US where the regulatory environment was different.
\n", "citations": [], "attribution": null}, "aliases": [], "title_count": 6}, {"name": "Ticket Payout", "slug": "ticket-payout", "display_order": 5, "description": {"text": "A reward mechanism in which the machine dispenses paper tickets based on the player's score or specific in-game achievements. The tickets are redeemable at the location for prizes \u2014 a model familiar from modern arcade redemption games. Ticket payout occupied a middle ground between [[reward-type:cash-payout]] and [[reward-type:novelty]]: the player received something tangible for skilled play, but the award was a ticket rather than legal tender, which gave operators and regulators a basis for distinguishing these machines from gambling devices.\n\nTicket-dispensing pin games appeared as early as the mid-1930s, with manufacturers like [[manufacturer:esco]], [[manufacturer:bally]], and [[manufacturer:stoner-manufacturing-company]] offering ticket models alongside their cash payout and novelty configurations. Some machines were purpose-built for ticket dispensing, while others were available in multiple configurations \u2014 the same game could be ordered from the factory with a coin payout mechanism, a ticket dispenser, or neither, depending on the operator's market and local regulations.\n\nThe ticket payout model never became the dominant reward mechanism for pinball, but it persisted as a niche configuration across multiple eras. It found its most enduring home not in traditional pinball but in the broader redemption game market, where ticket-dispensing skill games and chance games became the economic foundation of family entertainment centers and modern arcades.", "html": "A reward mechanism in which the machine dispenses paper tickets based on the player\u2019s score or specific in-game achievements. The tickets are redeemable at the location for prizes \u2014 a model familiar from modern arcade redemption games. Ticket payout occupied a middle ground between Cash Payout and Novelty: the player received something tangible for skilled play, but the award was a ticket rather than legal tender, which gave operators and regulators a basis for distinguishing these machines from gambling devices.
\nTicket-dispensing pin games appeared as early as the mid-1930s, with manufacturers like ESCO, Bally, and Stoner Manufacturing Company offering ticket models alongside their cash payout and novelty configurations. Some machines were purpose-built for ticket dispensing, while others were available in multiple configurations \u2014 the same game could be ordered from the factory with a coin payout mechanism, a ticket dispenser, or neither, depending on the operator\u2019s market and local regulations.
\nThe ticket payout model never became the dominant reward mechanism for pinball, but it persisted as a niche configuration across multiple eras. It found its most enduring home not in traditional pinball but in the broader redemption game market, where ticket-dispensing skill games and chance games became the economic foundation of family entertainment centers and modern arcades.
\n", "citations": [], "attribution": null}, "aliases": [], "title_count": 2}]