Jiggilo

Jiggilo is a rare pinball machine produced by the Ace Novelty Company in January 1933, notable less for its own innovation than for its curious place in an early pinball copycat saga. According to the Encyclopedia of Pinball, Bally sought an injunction to stop manufacturers from copying its 1932 game 'Goofy (Junior).' One such copy was Genco's 'Jiggers (Jr),' and another was Ace Novelty's own 'Who's Goofy.' To sidestep Bally's injunction, Ace Novelty stopped producing 'Who's Goofy' and instead began making Jiggilo — a copy of Genco's Jiggers rather than of Bally's original game, making it a copy of a copy. The game was also sold as a conversion kit in December 1932, and its name was inexplicably misspelled 'Jiggolo' in at least one period advertisement.

Like other pure mechanical (PM) games of its era, Jiggilo predates flippers and electromechanical features entirely, relying on gravity, pins, and simple mechanisms to guide the ball into scoring holes. Its gameplay and rules are not well documented today.

Given its unusual origin story and the rarity of surviving examples from Ace Novelty's short-lived operation, Jiggilo is a notable piece of early-1930s pinball history, illustrating just how quickly manufacturers copied and re-copied each other's designs during the game's formative years.