Hi-Ride

The Hi-Ride, manufactured by J. H. Keeney and Company of Chicago in October 1947, is a late example of the flipperless electro-mechanical pinball machine, arriving just as the flipper was about to transform the industry. Its amusement park and roller coaster theme captures the postwar appetite for carefree recreation.

Hi-Ride offered players five balls for five cents, an extended gaming experience at a modest cost. With no flippers, play revolves around the launch and the machine's twelve passive bumpers and five kick-out holes, with skillful plunging and nudging determining where the ball ends up. The maximum displayed point score is an impressive 950,000 points.

A note on its date: IPDB previously listed the game as November 1947, but a distributor ad in The Billboard of October 25, 1947 lists the game for sale, and a Keeney announcement dated November 1 confirms it was in full production by then. Little is known about the designer behind this machine, but its amusement-park imagery gives players a small taste of the midway.