Advance

The Advance pinball machine, designed by Harry Williams and manufactured by Automatic Amusements Company in October 1933, holds a special place in pinball history. In a 1982 interview with pinball historian Russ Jensen, Williams stated that Advance was the first complete game he designed, the first pinball machine to use his now-famous tilt mechanism, and the first pin game to feature a visible coin chute — three innovations that would go on to shape the industry for decades.

As a Pure Mechanical (PM) game, Advance predates electrically operated pinball entirely, relying on purely mechanical means to control gameplay: players aim to score points by guiding a ball through holes and channels using skill and the layout of the playfield rather than any electrical assistance. The introduction of the tilt mechanism on this machine was a particularly significant innovation, discouraging players from shaking or jarring the cabinet to influence the ball's path — a feature that remains standard on pinball machines to this day.

Specific details about Advance's art and cabinet design have not survived, and Automatic Amusements Company's production run was short-lived, operating only from 1932 to 1935. Even so, Advance's documented firsts — from tilt detection to the visible coin chute — make it a genuinely significant milestone machine, cementing Harry Williams' reputation as one of pinball's foundational designers.