Tropics

The Tropics, manufactured by United Manufacturing Company and first shipped in July 1953, is a single-player bingo-style pinball machine built around 25 trap holes and card-based feature scoring rather than flippers. Notably, Tropics is credited with the first use of the "advancing odds" feature in this genre of machine.

Gameplay centers on landing the ball in one of the machine's 25 trap holes to fill in a card. A Corners Score feature, a Rollover Button, and a five-feature-select mechanism give players and operators several ways the game can play out, adding strategic depth typical of 1950s bingo pinball machines.

The machine's tropical theme -- beach, Hawaii, nautical, sailing, and water imagery -- is rendered in the colorful, playful artwork typical of the genre and era. Specific design credits have not survived, but as the machine credited with introducing the advancing-odds feature, Tropics holds a notable place in the history of bingo-style pinball.