Smarty

Smarty, manufactured by Williams in 1946, is a flipperless electro-mechanical pinball machine from a pivotal transitional period in the industry, released one year before Williams introduced its first flipper game, 'Sunny,' in December 1947. As a rare example from this pre-flipper era, it's an essential piece for collectors and historians seeking to understand the development of modern pinball.

As a flipperless game, Smarty relied on skillful plunging, playfield layout, and gravity-driven mechanics rather than player-controlled flippers - the gameplay style that defined pinball before 1947. The manufacturer's original, undated playfield drawing shows the dual game name "Smarty + Amber," suggesting a shared design lineage with another contemporary Williams release, though the production playfields of the two games differ.

As one of many flipperless EM pinballs of its era, Smarty is historically notable because operators of the period would often retrofit flippers onto games like it once the technology arrived, sometimes placing the new flippers in unusual playfield positions. Its presence in a collection offers a firsthand look at pinball just before the flipper revolution reshaped the game.