Joy Game

The Joy Game, manufactured by The Ad-Lee Company of Chicago, Illinois in April 1932, is a purely mechanical, single-player tabletop or counter game from the earliest years of the coin-operated pinball industry. Little specific documentation survives about its designer or exact features.

As a pure mechanical (PM) game, Joy Game predates electrification of pinball scoring and, like all games of its 1932 vintage, predates the flipper entirely -- the flipper would not be introduced until 1947. Players of the era relied on plunging or nudging skill, along with the game's mechanical layout, to score, though the specific playfield details of Joy Game are not well documented.

Its rarity and early production date make it a piece of interest for collectors of pre-flipper mechanical amusements, offering a reminder of the tabletop and counter-game formats that were common before pinball machines grew into the larger floor cabinets familiar today.