Across the Board

Across the Board is a rare and fascinating electro-mechanical machine from January 1938, manufactured by Rock-ola Manufacturing Corporation of Chicago during the company's brief 1932-1938 run as a pinball maker. A flipperless payout machine from the pre-flipper era, it is a valuable piece for collectors interested in the gambling side of pinball's early history.

Gameplay on Across the Board is built around its nine spring bumpers, which send the ball careening around the playfield - a very different experience from the flipper-controlled games that would arrive a decade later. As a payout machine, its appeal lay as much in the chance of a reward as in the play itself.

Interestingly, this game was advertised as being the same game as Rock-ola's 1938 'Three Up' but with an interchangeable backglass, a cost-saving practice that gave operators a fresh look without a new mechanism. Very little else is known about the design or theme of Across the Board, with no designer credited, which only adds to its mystique and makes it an enigmatic piece from the twilight of Rock-ola's pinball years.