Hi-Score Pool

The Hi-Score Pool, manufactured by United Manufacturing Company in 1956, is not actually a pinball machine — it is billed by its own category as a 'Not A Pinball' cue/billiards game. This electro-mechanical, billiards-themed amusement device let players compete head-to-head rather than shoot a ball through a traditional pinball playfield.

Play required one dime for a single player or two dimes for two players. The game was advertised as 5 feet long and 3 feet wide, with a Plexiglas backglass measuring 12 by 28 inches — notable for its use of Plexiglas at a time when that material was still relatively novel in coin-op design.

The Hi-Score Pool's design features artwork befitting its billiards theme, though details on the specific designer are not available. The earliest known trade mention of the game was a pictureless distributor ad in Billboard in February 1956. As a cue game rather than a traditional pinball machine, Hi-Score Pool remains an unusual and lesser-known item from United's mid-1950s catalog.