U.S.A. Football

The U.S.A. Football pinball machine, designed by Jerry Armstrong with art by Tim Elliott and sound by Kyle Johnson, was manufactured by Alvin G. and Company in October 1992 (100 units confirmed produced). It is a head-to-head pinball machine in which two players stand at opposite ends of the playfield and compete in simultaneous play, each controlling only the flippers facing their opponent.

The U.S.A. Football boasts numerous features that set it apart, including six flippers, eight standup targets, six ball kickers, four spinning targets, two 3-bank drop targets, and two kick-out holes - notably, it has no pop bumpers, slingshots, or outlanes. Its patented "switch-flippers" system is particularly noteworthy: wireform switches on each flipper let the game's "Designated Scoring" system award playfield points to whichever player's flipper last touched the ball during head-to-head play, while in single-player mode those same switches auto-flip the ball back toward the player.

The game carries an American football theme, distinguishing it from the same manufacturer's export version, 'A.G. Football,' which has a soccer theme and an up-post between the flippers that U.S.A. Football lacks. It should also not be confused with a separate 1-player, flipperless 1992 redemption game also named 'U.S.A. Football' from Alvin G., which shares the head-to-head cabinet style but has a very different playfield layout. With its focus on simultaneous head-to-head competition, U.S.A. Football stands as an inventive and unusual entry in early-1990s pinball design.