- gameplay_feature
- Passive Bumpers ×12
- ipdb.corporate_entity_name
- Mills Novelty Company
- ipdb_id
- 1732
- ipdb.image_urls
- ["https://www.ipdb.org/images/1732/image-4.jpg","https://www.ipdb.org/images/1732/image-5.jpg","https://www.ipdb.org/images/1732/image-6.jpg","https://www.ipdb.org/images/1732/image-7.jpg","https://www.ipdb.org/images/1732/image-A4.jpg","https://www.ipdb.org/images/1732/image-8.jpg","https://www.ipdb.org/images/1732/image-9.jpg","https://www.ipdb.org/images/1732/image-A5.jpg","https://www.ipdb.org/images/1732/image-A6.jpg","https://www.ipdb.org/images/1732/image-1.jpg","https://www.ipdb.org/images/1732/image-2.jpg"]
- ipdb.notable_features
- 5 balls for 5 cents. Passive bumpers (12). Each of the three backbox reels advance when any if its corresponding bumpers are hit, but this only happens with the first ball in play. The backglass shows how many points are awarded for reel combinations achieved by the first ball. Free plays (replays) are awarded for high scores and are projected onto the backglass below the owl image. The remaining four balls do not turn the reels but only increase the score, so if the reels did not score well, the four balls can work towards reaching the free play award thresholds.
- ipdb.notes
- 'Owl' was designed for territories that would not allow 1-ball games such as Mills' 1940 '"1 2 3"'. It was equipped with 5 balls and was promoted that way, but the backbox reels only operated with the first ball of each game, and it was expected that players would likely abandon the remaining four balls and restart the game after only one ball was played. If desired, operators could change to one-ball operation by removing the other four balls from the game.
Reportedly, this game was available in both a payout model and a non-payout model, but we have not seen examples with a payout mechanism.
The production of 'Owl' began in 1941. This listing includes a Billboard ad from December 17, 1942 stating that the Owl games in that ad were from Mill's "final production". We believe that phrasing caused many pinball resources, including ours, to infer a new game was made and thus carry an additional listing for 'Owl' dated December 1942. However, the USA manufacture of pinball machines ceased by May 1, 1942 under orders of the War Production Board, and this ad coming out seven months later certainly was trying to sell leftover games made before the ban. Therefore, we have removed our 1942 listing of this game and moved its images and text into this 1941 listing.
- player_count
- 1
- reward_type
- Free Play
- technology_generation
- electromechanical
- year
- 1941