Scoop
About This Machine
Scoop, manufactured by the Bingo Novelty Manufacturing Company in September 1932, is a pure mechanical (PM) tabletop/counter pinball game from the very earliest years of the pinball industry, which had only recently emerged with games like 1931's Baffle Ball.
A distinctive aspect of Scoop's gameplay is its scoop mechanism at the top of the playfield: a large metal scoop, rotated under player control, captures the ball in play and, with skill, delivers it to any of three habitrails. These raise the ball off the playfield before depositing it into one of thirteen trap holes. Pricing was unusual for the format -- 7 balls for 1 cent, or 10 balls for 5 cents.
Compact in size -- about 32 1/4 by 18 by 9 3/4 inches and roughly 42 pounds -- Scoop was built for counter or tabletop placement rather than as a floor-standing cabinet. Little is documented about its designer, but its player-controlled scoop places it alongside a small handful of similar early machines, such as National Pin Games' 1932 'The Pilot,' that experimented with active upper-playfield control mechanisms.
Images (19)
Technical Details
- Notable Features:
- 7 balls for 1 cent, or 10 balls for 5 cents. Trap holes (13). A large metal scoop at top of playfield rotates under player control to capture ball in play and, with skill, delivers it to any of three habitrails which then raises the ball off of the playfield before depositing it in a trap hole. The cabinet was advertised as 32 inches long by 16 inches wide. The cabinet pictured here measured 32 1/4 inches long, 18 inches wide, and 9 3/4 inches high at the back. It weighed to be approximately 42 lbs.