Sources
Contributors to this record: Flipcommons AI Descriptions (GameFormat), Flipcommons Catalog.
- description
- Flipcommons AI Descriptions (GameFormat)Pinball and the slot machine grew up as siblings in the coin-operated trade, and for decades the line between them was blurry. Before [[gameplay-feature:flippers]] arrived in 1947 to reward skill, many a "pin game" was really a gambling device that paid out in coins, and the makers moved freely between the two businesses. The machines gathered here are the slot side of that family - the upright consoles and "flasher type" payout games that catalogs like IPDB swept up alongside pinball because they came off the same factory floors. [[manufacturer:keeney]], [[manufacturer:games-incorporated]] and [[manufacturer:bally]] built these one-coin gambles by the thousands through the 1930s, '40s and '50s, while [[manufacturer:mills-novelty-company]] - the house that perfected the spinning-reel bandit - turned out "flasher" games like *[[title:flasher-bell-fruit]]* that lit a winning combination instead of spinning a reel. They are not pinball, but they are pinball's shadow: the chance-driven amusements the industry spent decades trying to live down before skill, flippers and respectability finally won out.
- display_order
- 5Flipcommons Catalog
- slug
- slot-machineFlipcommons Catalog
- name
- Slot MachineFlipcommons Catalog