Thumbs Up

Thumbs Up, manufactured by Arco Sales Co. of Philadelphia in 1942, is a single-player, flipperless electro-mechanical (EM) pinball machine with a wartime, patriotic theme — a reflection of the era's mood just months after the U.S. entered World War II.

Gameplay-wise, Thumbs Up features 12 passive bumpers, typical of flipperless EM machines of the early 1940s. As a flipperless design, scoring relies on where the ball naturally falls among the bumpers rather than on player-aimed shots, in keeping with pinball conventions before flippers were introduced in 1947.

Little is documented about the specific designer or other trivia surrounding this particular machine. However, as an artifact from 1942, Thumbs Up provides a glimpse into pinball's adaptation to the cultural landscape of wartime America.