King Tut

King Tut, manufactured by Richard Manufacturing Company of Winooski, Vermont in October 1932, is an early example of the pure mechanical pinball machines that flourished in the wake of Gottlieb's 1931 'Baffle Ball' and Bally's 'Ballyhoo.' Its mechanical construction is particularly noteworthy: the game was built with no nails, screws, or bolts, with all parts instead sliding into grooves — a distinctive manufacturing approach for its era.

Gameplay on King Tut offered operators flexibility: for 1 cent, players received seven balls, while 5 cents bought ten balls, with the operator specifying the configuration at time of order. As a flipperless pure mechanical game, play relied on plunger-launched balls and gravity-driven paths across the playfield rather than any player-controlled flippers, which would not be introduced to pinball for another fifteen years.

The Egyptology theme, tied to the historical fascination with ancient Egypt that followed the 1922 discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb, gives King Tut a distinct identity among its contemporaries. No designer is documented, but the machine's grooved, hardware-free construction remains a notable piece of early pinball engineering history.