Handicap

Handicap is a single-player electro-mechanical pinball machine produced by Exhibit Supply Company of Chicago (trade name ESCO) in May 1938. Exhibit Supply was a long-established name in the coin-machine trade, best known for arcade card vendors and novelty machines, and its pinball output of the 1930s and 1940s forms an interesting side chapter of the company's history.

As a 1938 game, Handicap comes from the pre-flipper era: play revolved around the plunger launch, nudging, and the layout of scoring features, with electricity powering the game's scoring or action features. No specific playfield features, theme details, or designer credits have been documented for this title.

Though little is known about it today, Handicap offers collectors a glimpse of Exhibit Supply's late-1930s pinball line and of a period when dozens of Chicago manufacturers were turning out new games at a remarkable pace.