Hot Tip
About This Machine
The Hot Tip pinball machine was manufactured by J. H. Keeney and Company Incorporated of Chicago in August 1937. It is a single-player, electro-mechanical (EM) game from the formative years of the coin-operated pinball industry.
As with most machines of its period, Hot Tip predates flippers by a decade -- flippers were not introduced to pinball until 1947 -- so gameplay would have relied on the plunger and the layout of scoring holes, lanes, and targets rather than flipper-controlled shots, in keeping with EM design conventions of the late 1930s.
Detailed information about Hot Tip's specific playfield features, artwork, or designer has not survived in the historical record. Its manufacture by J. H. Keeney places it among the EM pinball output of a company that remained active in coin-operated amusements for decades, but beyond that little can be confirmed about this particular title.