Cadet

The 1938 Cadet from Chicago Coin Machine Manufacturing Company is a scarce electro-mechanical game from pinball's pre-flipper era. Released on June 30, 1938 as model number 49, it was a payout machine, meaning it dispensed coin awards for successful play, placing it in the gambling-adjacent category of games that were common in the late 1930s. A Billboard advertisement dated June 25, 1938 offered the game for sale just days before the manufacturer's official date.

With a confirmed production run of only 349 units, the Cadet was a small-volume release even by the standards of its day. As a single-player electro-mechanical machine, it would have used relays, switches, and coils to handle scoring and payouts, but specific details of its playfield layout and rules have not been documented. It predates flippers by nearly a decade, so play would have centered on the plunger shot and the luck of the ball's path.

Despite the scarcity of information about its design, art, or theme, the Cadet is an interesting specimen of Chicago Coin's late-1930s output and of the payout-machine genre that flourished briefly before wartime restrictions and changing laws reshaped the industry.