Left Kickback Lanes

Left kickback lanes are Kickback Lanes cut into the left flank of the playfield — a channel of their own, with a kicker at the bottom that throws back any ball running down it.

What separates the arrangement from a Left Outlane Kickbacks is where the kicker lives. There it is fitted inside the outlane, rescuing a ball on its way out of play; here the lane is a route the designer has cut for it, and being kicked back out is what the lane is for. The two often share a playfield with the other left-side devices: Airborne Avenger (1977, Atari) puts a kickback lane down its left side and a Detour Gates in the outlane beside it.^[1] The fitting is a long-lived one, running from woodrail machines such as Rag Mop (1950, Williams) to Whirlwind (1990), and its high-playfield form is the Upper Left Kickback Lanes.