Miami Bar

The Miami Bar, manufactured by Rotor Table Games Co. in October 1935, is a single-player electro-mechanical (EM) machine from very early in the EM era of pinball. Flippers would not be invented until 1947, so gameplay on a machine of this vintage would have relied on tilting the cabinet, plunger shots, and passive targets rather than player-controlled flippers.

Detailed information about the Miami Bar's rules, playfield layout, and specific mechanical features has not survived, which is typical for such an obscure and short-lived manufacturer; Rotor Table Games Co. operated for only about a year, from 1935 to 1936. Its electro-mechanical design would have used electrical contacts and relays to register scoring, an early step toward the more elaborate EM systems that followed later in the decade.

The Miami Bar's rarity and the scarcity of documentation about it make it a fascinating subject for historians researching the many small, short-lived manufacturers of the early pinball era, even though little can be said with confidence about its original design or artwork.