Little Joe

Little Joe, designed by Jim Patla with artwork by Christian Marche, was manufactured by Bally in August 1972. This four-player electro-mechanical game takes its theme from playing dice; in the dice game of craps, "Little Joe" is the traditional call for rolling a pair of twos. Bally produced a confirmed 2,080 units under model number 927.

The playfield is well stocked for an early-1970s EM: two flippers, four pop bumpers, three mushroom bumpers, two slingshots, two standup targets, two right-side ball return gates, and a kick-out hole. An up-post between the flippers gives players a chance to save a ball headed straight down the middle, and the replay wheel maxes out at 25.

With Christian Marche's artwork carrying the dice theme and Jim Patla's layout mixing traditional pop bumpers with mushroom bumpers and the between-the-flippers up-post, Little Joe is a characteristic Bally EM of its period and an appealing example of the company's early-1970s four-player games.