Nine Sisters

Nine Sisters, manufactured by Williams in December 1953, is a single-player electro-mechanical machine designed by Harry Williams — the founder of Williams Manufacturing Company himself — with artwork by George Molentin. It was one of only six Williams single-player games made in late 1953 using an experimental score-reel scoring system (three moving reels plus four stationary zero reels); the company abandoned the approach the following year and didn't return to score reels until multi-player production began in 1955.

The machine's layout includes an impulse flipper, three pop bumpers, four trap holes, two kick-out holes, and two kicker lanes. A standout feature is the 'Whirligig': a kicker lane in the lower-left playfield propels the ball upward through a circular ramp to a second, hidden kicker that sends it to the upper playfield, adding an unusual vertical dimension to the shot layout.

Nine Sisters doesn't carry an explicit theme, but its brief run with score-reel scoring makes it a notable curiosity in Williams' mid-1950s history, representing a short-lived experiment before the company settled back into bulb-based scoring.