Booster

The Booster, manufactured by J. H. Keeney and Company of Chicago in May 1936, is an early electro-mechanical (EM) payout machine from a company that would go on to operate in the coin-machine business for decades, from 1934 until 1964. As a single-player game, Booster reflects the simple mechanical payout machines common in bars and arcades during the 1930s.

Little specific documentation survives about Booster's gameplay mechanics, artwork, or theme. Like other EM payout machines of the era, it likely rewarded players with coins or tokens based on where the ball landed on the playfield, using relays and mechanical switches rather than the flipper-based skill play that would not appear in pinball until more than a decade later.

Booster remains a modest artifact from the early days of J. H. Keeney and Company, offering a glimpse into the variety of payout machines manufacturers produced before pinball design standardized around skill-based flipper gameplay.