Pace Maker

The Bally Pace Maker is a one-ball horse-race pinball machine from June 1938, model number 237, manufactured by Bally Manufacturing Corporation. As an electro-mechanical (EM) game, it relies on electromagnets and mechanical relays rather than the pure gravity-driven mechanisms of earlier pinball games, reflecting the industry's shift toward more elaborate scoring systems in the late 1930s.

As a single-player, one-ball horse-race game, Pace Maker's gameplay centered on shooting a single ball and scoring based on where it landed, in keeping with the popular horse-racing-themed one-ball machines Bally produced during this period. It predates the invention of the flipper by nearly a decade, so scoring relied entirely on the layout of holes and lanes rather than any player-controlled flipper action.

Little is documented about the designer or artwork of the Pace Maker specifically. As a surviving example from the pre-flipper EM era, it offers collectors and historians a window into Bally's early one-ball horse-race lineup.