Streamliner

The Streamliner, manufactured by United Manufacturing Company in February 1944, is a wartime example of electro-mechanical (EM) pinball. Notably, it was a World War II-era conversion of Exhibit's 1941 machine 'Stars,' a common practice at the time due to wartime material restrictions. Its transportation-themed artwork, centered on trains, reflects the streamlined-travel aesthetic popular in that period.

Gameplay on the Streamliner centers on 14 passive bumpers, which score points when the ball contacts them, along with a single kick-out hole that returns errant balls to play. The layout is typical of the compact, target-driven playfields of early-1940s EM machines.

The Streamliner's design and artwork carry a travel and transportation theme, with locomotive imagery evoking the trains of the period. As a wartime conversion of an existing Exhibit title, the Streamliner offers a window into how manufacturers adapted existing designs during the material shortages of World War II.