Boom Town

Boom Town is an intriguing example of early pinball history, manufactured by Success Manufacturing Corporation of Chicago in April 1941. This flipperless electro-mechanical game provides a glimpse into pinball's pre-war era, featuring eleven passive bumpers and a single trap hole that give the gameplay its challenge. Its theme of oil drilling and exploration shares its name with 'Boom Town', a Hollywood movie about oil tycoons released in August 1940.

One notable aspect of Boom Town is its unlimited buy-back feature, which let players purchase continued play. Period advertising called the feature 'exclusive', although the same feature was also advertised for other games of the day, including Bally's 1941 'Pan-American'. Curiously, the Billboard ads for the game made pictorial reference to oil wells even though none appear on the game itself.

While little information is available about the machine's designer or specific production history, its origin with the short-lived Success Manufacturing Corporation (1940-1942) makes it an attractive acquisition for serious collectors and enthusiasts of early pinball machines.