Block-A-Shot

Block-A-Shot is a 1976 electro-mechanical basketball game from Briarwood, a division of Brunswick Manufacturing Company. Notably, it is not a pinball machine: it's a two-player, vertical-cabinet game (advertised at 64 inches high) in which each player presses buttons to electromechanically operate basketball figures, shooting for baskets while trying to block the opposing player from doing the same. Each player's score is tracked on two score reels.

Little is documented about the machine's designer or the specific mechanics behind its basketball-figure animation. Briarwood's run under Brunswick was relatively short-lived (1976-1980), making surviving examples of Block-A-Shot uncommon.

For collectors interested in the broader world of coin-operated amusements beyond traditional pinball, Block-A-Shot is an interesting curiosity from the mid-1970s sports-game category, illustrating how manufacturers of the era experimented with electromechanical sports simulations alongside conventional pinball.