Catalina

The Catalina, manufactured by Marvel Manufacturing Company of Chicago in February 1946, is a product of the immediate post-war era of pinball. Notably, it was not an entirely new game: Catalina was a conversion of Chicago Coin's 'Sport Parade', a common practice in the mid-1940s when wartime material restrictions had halted new game production and companies refreshed existing machines with new artwork and themes.

As a single-player electro-mechanical game built before the introduction of flippers in late 1947, the Catalina relied on the pre-flipper style of play, with the game's operation driven by electromechanical relays and solenoids characteristic of the period. Marvel Manufacturing operated only from 1944 to 1948, making its output a small but interesting chapter in Chicago's coin-op history.

The scarcity of information surrounding this machine makes it all the more intriguing for enthusiasts seeking to piece together the history of early pinball, and the Catalina stands as a representative example of the conversion games that bridged the war years and the flipper era.