Time Out
About This Machine
Time Out, manufactured by V. P. Distributing Company of St. Louis, Missouri in 1944, is a wartime conversion of Bally's 1940 'Vacation.' Wartime shortages of new parts and materials led manufacturers to rework existing cabinets like this one rather than build entirely new machines.
As a flipperless, electro-mechanical machine, gameplay on Time Out relied on plunger shots and gravity to direct the ball toward scoring targets rather than on flipper control. Detailed records of the machine's original rules and objectives have not survived, so its exact scoring layout is uncertain.
The design and artwork on Time Out are typical of early EM pinballs, with a simple, minimalist aesthetic reflecting the manufacturing constraints of wartime production. There is no discernible theme or branding, and Time Out's main significance today is as an example of how machines were kept in circulation during World War II.