Globe Trotter

The Globe Trotter, manufactured by the Rock-ola Manufacturing Corporation of Chicago in February 1937, is an early example of an electro-mechanical (EM) pin game. It comes from the period when pinball was evolving from simple bagatelle-style marble games into machines that used electrical circuits to add scoring features and action to the playfield.

As a single-player game built a decade before the invention of the flipper, the Globe Trotter would have relied on the skill of the plunge and careful nudging, with balls settling into scoring positions on the playfield. Little specific documentation survives about its layout, artwork, or theme.

Rock-ola, better remembered today for its jukeboxes, produced coin-operated pin games only from 1932 to 1938, making the Globe Trotter a product of the company's brief but active run in the amusement game business and a rare glimpse into the development of an iconic American pastime.