Goofus

Goofus, produced by Northwest Coin Machine Company of Chicago starting in August 1932, is an early pure mechanical pinball machine with a notable legal history. According to the Encyclopedia of Pinball, it was essentially a copy of Bally's 1932 'Goofy (Junior),' and Bally sought an injunction against the many copycat games it inspired. As a result, Goofus was renamed 'Spoofus,' with advertising flyers updated to reflect the change even though some still pictured the original name and artwork.

Gameplay was straightforward: the machine shipped with both a set of marbles and a set of steel balls, letting the operator choose which to use, and offered 10 balls of play for either 1 cent or 5 cents depending on how the operator set it up. The compact cabinet measured 28 inches long by 14 inches wide, standing 6 inches high at the front and 8 inches at the back — typical dimensions for the table-top counter games of the period.

While no designer or artwork details survive, Goofus remains a useful window into the fiercely competitive and litigious early pinball market of 1932, when successful games like Bally's Goofy Junior were rapidly imitated by smaller manufacturers across the country.