Avalon

Avalon is a single-player, flipperless electro-mechanical game released in July 1939 by the Exhibit Supply Company (ESCO) of Chicago, which built coin-operated amusements from 1932 to 1957. Its theme is pure Californian escapism: the backglass depicts Avalon Harbor on Santa Catalina Island, giving the game its breezy beach-and-boating identity.

Gameplay centers on the playfield's 17 scoring bumpers. As a flipperless 1939 game, Avalon rewarded a well-judged plunger shot and careful nudging as the ball rattled among the bumpers, the dominant style of play in the years just before the flipper's 1947 debut.

Avalon was available in both Regular and Free Play versions, with schematics dated July 7 and July 12, 1939 respectively, and it was advertised in The Billboard in July 1939. It stands as a pleasant example of the late-1930s bumper game and of the era's fondness for evocative American travel destinations as pinball themes.