Boop-A-Doop

The Boop-A-Doop, manufactured by Pace Manufacturing Company Incorporated in March 1932, is a pure mechanical (PM), single-player counter-top pinball game. It stands among the early wave of American-made coin-operated pinball equipment from the early 1930s, though it is not established as the very first such machine produced in the country.

The game offers seven balls for a single cent, an appealing value proposition for operators and players during the Great Depression. A wooden stand allows the countertop unit to be converted into a table-top game, adding versatility for different placement needs.

Boop-A-Doop's name likely nods to the newspaper comic strip Blondie, which premiered in 1930 and originally featured a character named Blondie Boopadoop before she married Dagwood Bumstead in 1933. As a purely mechanical game with no elaborate theme, Boop-A-Doop reflects the simplicity of early pinball design, prioritizing straightforward, affordable play over artwork or narrative.