Mar-Ball

Mar-Ball is one of the earliest and most enigmatic pinball machines ever produced. Manufactured by Dixie Music Co. (whose instruction cards list the company as "Shayne Dixie Music Co."), a company based in Miami, Florida, in January 1932, this Pure Mechanical (PM) game holds a special place in the history of pinball, predating the development of electronic pinball by decades and showcasing the earliest era of mechanical pinball experimentation. It sold for $59.50.

As a Pure Mechanical machine from before the 1947 invention of the flipper, Mar-Ball's gameplay would have relied entirely on plunger shots and gravity-based playfield mechanics rather than any flipper control. Little is known about its specific theme or artwork, which has been largely lost to time.

Dixie Music Co.'s original location at 912-914 N.W. First Avenue burned down between February and May of 1932, according to Automatic Age magazine. In their new location, the company built a follow-up version of this game called 'Shoot at the Moon with Mar-Ball'. This brief, eventful production history makes Mar-Ball a rare and significant artifact of pinball's pre-flipper, pure-mechanical origins.