Bola-Way

The Bola-Way, produced by Chicago Coin Machine Manufacturing Company in 1941, is a flipperless electro-mechanical game from the years before the flipper transformed the industry. Chicago Coin's first flipper game, 'Bermuda', would not arrive until November 1947, and operators of that later period would often retrofit flipperless games like Bola-Way.

Gameplay offered 5 balls for 5 cents, and the playfield is populated with an impressive 14 passive bumpers that provide the scoring action. With a confirmed production run of 1,414 units, Bola-Way was a solid seller for Chicago Coin.

The Bola-Way's sports theme is centered around bowling, with artwork reflecting a popular pastime of the era. While not much information is available about the game's designer, the machine remains an intriguing piece of pinball history, offering a glimpse into the flipperless games that defined the industry's early decades.