Challenger

Bally's Challenger, released in June 1936, is a Depression-era one-ball payout machine with a nautical theme of boats and sailing. Sold new for $137.50 (with no extra charge for the check separator), it was announced to the trade in early July 1936 via a Billboard advertisement. As model number 105 in Bally's line, it belongs to the golden age of payout pinball, when a single well-placed ball could earn the player a cash award.

As a one-ball game, Challenger offered exactly one chance per nickel -- a format that put a premium on the skill of the plunge rather than extended play. The cabinet was advertised as 53 inches long and 24 inches wide, a substantial floor piece typical of payout games of the period. Like all machines of its era, it predates the flipper by more than a decade.

The machine's paperwork reflects the patent landscape of early pinball: it cites patents filed as far back as 1928 by George H. Minor, along with 1930s game-apparatus patents granted to Bon MacDougall and to Henry and Herman Seiden (assigned to Lion Manufacturing, Bally's parent corporation), highlighting how quickly the young industry formalized its technology.