Genco Champs

The Genco Champs, manufactured by Genco Manufacturing Company of Chicago in April 1936, is an early single-player electro-mechanical (EM) pinball machine. Genco was one of the prolific Chicago coin-op makers of the 1930s, active from 1931 to 1958, and Champs comes from the middle of the decade when manufacturers were rapidly adding electric scoring and lighting features to what had begun as purely mechanical games.

Little documentation of the machine survives: the available records confirm its manufacturer, its April 1936 release, and its electro-mechanical construction, but details of its playfield layout, artwork, and theme are unknown. Like all games of its era, it predates the flipper, which would not arrive until 1947, so play would have revolved around skillful ball launching into a fixed scoring layout.

For collectors and enthusiasts, the Genco Champs is chiefly of interest as an artifact of pinball's formative years -- a reminder of how many games from the 1930s boom remain obscure, with their stories still waiting to be filled in.