Saratoga

The Saratoga, designed by Harry Williams and produced by Williams Manufacturing Company in October 1948, holds a genuinely important place in pinball history: it was the first machine to feature an 'active bumper' of the type that uses a metal ring to repel the ball -- what Williams' own flyer called a 'thumper bumper.' This design would soon replace the earlier spring-compression bumpers found on games like Stoner's 1938 'Super-Zeta' and 'Zipper,' setting the template for active bumpers used industry-wide for decades afterward.

Beyond this innovation, the Saratoga offers a robust feature set for its time, including two flippers, two pop bumpers, three passive bumpers (styled to resemble stationary flippers on the upper playfield), and two kick-out holes. A distinctive 'knock-off' feature let location owners remove replays from the backglass meter via a button on the cabinet's underside, allowing them to pay off players for wins as an incentive to keep playing.

Artist George Molentin's work adorns the cabinet and backglass with the simple, striking graphics typical of the era. Thanks to its pioneering thumper bumper, the Saratoga remains a genuinely significant machine for collectors and historians tracing the technical evolution of pinball.