Pearl Harbor

The Mills Novelty Company's Pearl Harbor is a 1-player, flipperless, one-ball electro-mechanical payout machine manufactured in July 1935, built around an American Places theme.

Gameplay is simple: one ball plays for five cents. The playfield features 46 lights, and the machine runs on six large dry-cell batteries rather than a wall outlet, reflecting the power solutions common to games of this period. The payout mechanism is accessed via a trapdoor on the underside of the front left side of the cabinet, a design detail documented in period materials.

As a flipperless payout game, Pearl Harbor predates the flipper era of pinball entirely, with skill and chance centered on the ball's initial launch and lights rather than flipper-based shot-making. While details of its designer remain unknown, the machine is a representative example of mid-1930s American-themed payout pinball.