Touch-Off

The Touch-Off, manufactured by Chicago Coin Machine Manufacturing Company in March 1936 (model number 19, with 296 confirmed units produced), is an electro-mechanical pinball machine notable for its unusually elaborate ball-handling mechanism. Play cost 5 cents for 10 balls, a generous ratio for the era.

The Touch-Off's gameplay centers on trap holes, kick-out holes, and kickers. Four of its seven kick-out holes are vertical long holes with a rollover switch at the top; the other three are round holes without switches, and three additional rollover switches are placed elsewhere on the playfield for a total of seven rollovers. All seven holes are tied to a single solenoid: balls that land in any of them stay put until another ball closes one of the seven rollover switches, at which point the solenoid kicks out all seven holes simultaneously, sending the trapped balls back into play at once and creating an early form of multiball. Two additional kickers at the bottom of the playfield each have their own switch and solenoid, allowing them to fire independently and immediately.

Little is known today about the machine's designer or its original theme, but its ingenious hole-and-solenoid trapping mechanism has made it a notable curiosity among collectors of pre-war EM machines. An export version of the game was sold under the name 'Soccer' (not to be confused with G. M. Laboratories' unrelated domestic-market 'Soccer' from the same year).