Broadcast

The 1941 Broadcast pinball machine, Bally Manufacturing Corporation's Model 410, is a relic from the flipperless era of the game's evolution. Released in February 1941, shortly before America's entry into World War II halted game production, Broadcast reflects the mature pre-war style of pinball: five balls for five cents, no flippers, and a playfield populated by 15 passive bumpers.

Broadcast's most interesting features lie in how it handled awards. The game could be set up for Free Play (Replay) or Novelty operation. An operator-optional "Hold-Score" feature allowed the player to keep inserting coins to start new games without subtracting from the totalizer (replay counter), and a knockoff button on the right front of the cabinet bottom would subtract the replays down to zero, allowing for location payoffs, a window into how operators of the era straddled the line between amusement and gambling.

Little is known about Broadcast's design or artwork, but its award mechanisms make it a fascinating study in 1940s pinball engineering and the business realities of the coin-op trade in the years before the flipper transformed the game.