Free Ball Gates

A free ball gate is a Ball Return Gates variant that, when the game opens it, sends the ball down a lane that delivers it back to the shooter alley rather than to the drain — so the player shoots the same ball again and the machine counts no ball played.^[1]

It is an award, and the game keeps it shut until the award is earned. On Wild Wheels (1966, Bally) three number wheels in the playfield turn as the ball strikes the bumpers in front of them, and the right combination is one of the things that opens the gate.^[2] On Millionaire (1977, Sega) the gate opens at one moment in the game and no other: a bonus sequence kicks the ball across the playfield into the long right-hand lane, where the gate is waiting to carry it back to the shooter.^[3][4]