Gun Smoke

Gun Smoke, manufactured by Chicago Coin Machine Manufacturing Company in April 1968, is a two-player, Western-themed electro-mechanical pinball machine designed by Ed Sermonti and Albin Peters, with artwork by Christian Marche.

The game features two flippers, three pop bumpers, and three kick-out holes. Its signature mechanic is the Gun Smoke flash feature: landing the ball in the top or side kick-out holes, or exiting through a lit Gun Smoke outlane, stops play and starts values flashing on the backglass from 50 to 500 points. Pressing the Gun Smoke button on the front of the cabinet locks in the flashed value and resumes play — a feature Chicago Coin had first used on 1967's 'Twinky'.

Gun Smoke also holds a genuine footnote in pinball history: it was the first pinball machine by an American manufacturer to have the familiar round up-post between the flippers, which Chicago Coin called the Ball Saver. With its classic Western artwork and distinctive backglass gamble feature, Gun Smoke remains an appealing example of late-1960s EM design.