Scoop

Scoop, manufactured by Bally in December 1939, is a flipperless, single-player electro-mechanical (EM) pinball machine -- a format that had already been well established for several years by this point, with EM design tracing back to the early 1930s.

For five cents, players received five balls to play, a standard format for the period. One distinctive touch was a projection unit at the rear of the cabinet that shone the number of replays onto a white display window on the playfield's upper ball arch -- a novel way of showing replay values compared to the mechanical reels or lights used on other machines.

No specific designer or theme is documented for this Scoop, and its straightforward, functional design is typical of late-1930s flipperless EM machines. It remains a modest but interesting example of Bally's pre-war output, offering insight into pinball just before the format was transformed by the introduction of flippers in 1947.