High Card

High Card, manufactured by D. Gottlieb & Company in August 1936, is an early electro-mechanical payout machine from pinball's pre-flipper era. As a single-player game built around a playing-cards theme, it belongs to the 1930s generation of machines that rewarded winning play with coins, and it could optionally be ordered as a ticket game for $10.00 extra, with options including a mystery single or multiple coin slot, a check separator at no extra charge, and a D.C. Adaptopak.

The playfield is dotted with 28 trap holes, the classic scoring mechanism of the period: balls launched onto the playfield settle into holes that determine the outcome, with no flippers to alter their course. One curiosity is that the backglass does not show the game's name at all, instead displaying the words "ODDS for HIGH SCORE."

High Card was one of several themed variants of the same basic design that Gottlieb issued in 1936: a football version called 'College Football', a horserace version called 'Derby Day', and a baseball version called 'Hit Parade'. Together they offer a glimpse into how 1930s manufacturers stretched a single platform across multiple themes during pinball's formative years.