Spot-Ball

The Spot-Ball pinball machine, produced by In and Outdoor Games Company of Chicago starting January 1932, is a pure mechanical (PM) countertop-era game from the early days of commercial pinball, part of the wave of games that followed Gottlieb's hugely successful 1931 'Baffle Ball.'

The gameplay on Spot-Ball is relatively straightforward, but it offered ten balls for just five cents, a generous ratio for its time. The walnut-finish cabinet, measuring approximately 22 inches wide, 43 inches long, and 36 inches high, sat on removable, adjustable legs. Advertising for the game indicated the possibility of changing the playfield to create an entirely new game, though no evidence of replacement playfields being produced has surfaced, likely because In and Outdoor Games Company did not stay in business very long.

As with many early pinball machines, Spot-Ball does not boast elaborate artwork or a specific theme. Two surviving examples of the game are known: one bearing a plate indicating it was manufactured by Precision Metal Workers of Chicago, and another with no such plate or evidence one was ever attached, suggesting some manufacturing variation between units.