- credit
- Earl Froom — Design
- credit
- Arthur L. Paulin — Design
- ipdb.corporate_entity_name
- Yohio Manufacturing Company
- ipdb_id
- 5394
- ipdb.image_urls
- ["https://www.ipdb.org/images/5394/image-1.jpg","https://www.ipdb.org/images/5394/image-2.jpg"]
- ipdb.notable_features
- Had a center playfield shuttle operated by a rod that was pulled and pushed back. Had ball lift.
- ipdb.notes
- This was the first game under the newly formed Yohio Manufacturing Company, and was the next step in the evolution of Whiffle, following 1930 'Whiffle Game'.
According to Bueschel's book Pinball 1, carpenter Arthur L. Paulin designed and built the prototype "Old Jenny", and salesman Earl Froom added to the game to make it commercial. He added a playfield glass and a coin chute. He added a system of recycling the balls by drilling holes in the playfield along with adding a shuttle (a.k.a. baffle) underneath so that balls falling into these score holes would stay trapped there for the rest of the game play. He added a knob on the front of the game allowing the player to push the shuttle at start of next game to allow the trapped balls to fall through and roll down to an area where he added a ball-lift knob allowing the player to serve the balls into play.
Ten games were made in approximately 30 days. The first one had a handmade coin chute which was replaced by a new Monarch/A.B.T. coin chute for the remaining nine.
They continued making improvements to this game, and after changing their company name, they hit upon the game that enjoyed an overwhelming success, Automatic Industries, Incorporated's 1931 'Whiffle Board', which naturally caught the attention of the existing coin machine industry, thus accelerating the development of a highly competitive pinball machine industry.
- player_count
- 1
- production_quantity
- 10
- technology_generation
- pure-mechanical
- year
- 1931