Nugget

Nugget is a single-player electro-mechanical pinball machine manufactured by Bally in June 1937 (model number 114). It was built as a table-top/counter game -- a compact cabinet meant to sit on a store or tavern counter rather than stand on the floor, a common format for coin-op games of the era.

As a 1937 release, Nugget predates the invention of the flipper by a decade; gameplay of the period relied on plunging the ball and skillful nudging rather than flipper control. Specific details about its playfield layout, scoring, and artwork are not documented.

No information survives about Nugget's designer or theme. Even so, as an early Bally counter-game release from the pre-flipper era, it offers a glimpse into the compact, low-cost coin-op machines that were common in the 1930s.