Peppy
About This Machine
Peppy, manufactured by Chicago Coin Machine Manufacturing Company in July 1938, is a Flipperless electro-mechanical game with a Music - Women - World Places theme. Only 742 confirmed units were produced, making surviving examples relatively scarce today.
The playfield features 12 spring bumpers and two rubbered yellow posts that do not spin. Its cleverest feature is hidden from view: a captive-ball scoring unit inside the backbox simulates a five-pulse score motor, delivering five switch closures for every single playfield switch closure. A slowly rotating motor beneath the playfield toggles rollovers between 200-point and 1,000-point values, with playfield lamps signaling to the player when the higher value is active; reaching the 1,000-point score fires a solenoid that sends a ball around a track past five 200-point rollovers.
The theme of Music - Women - World Places is reflected in the game's artwork, though interestingly, at least one surviving example's cabinet art doesn't match the manufacturer's original Billboard advertisement — instead matching artwork used on Chicago Coin's 1938 'Exposition.' Little is documented about the designer, but the ingenious captive-ball mechanism makes Peppy a notable piece of pre-flipper EM engineering.
Images (15)
Technical Details
- Theme:
- Music - Women - World Places
- Model Number:
- 50
- Notable Features:
- Spring bumpers (12). Two rubbered yellow posts do not spin. A captive ball scoring unit inside backbox is not visible to the player. A slowly rotating motor under the playfield toggles the rollovers to score either 200 points or 1000 points. The playfield lamps light to indicate to the player when the value has increased. To score the 1000 points, a solenoid in the backbox fires a ball around a track having five 200-point rollovers.