Ten Strike

The Ten Strike, produced by J. H. Keeney and Company in January 1937, is a payout pinball machine that blends sports theming with electro-mechanical operation. Its bowling motif is realized literally: the ten scoring bumpers on the playfield are shaped like bowling pins, tying gameplay directly to its theme. It wasn't the first game to use bowling pins as bumpers — that distinction belongs to Pacent Novelty's 1936 'Bolo' — but Ten Strike put its own spin on the idea a year later.

Gameplay is straightforward: two balls could be played for a nickel, and knocking down the bowling-pin bumpers determined the payout, which ranged from five cents up to two dollars. As a payout machine rather than a replay game, Ten Strike belonged to the coin-operated gambling side of the pinball business that was common in the 1930s.

Little is documented about the machine's designer or its commercial run, but as an early example of a sports-themed payout pinball, Ten Strike offers a window into the format's roots in pre-war coin-op gaming.