Empire

This Empire is a single-player Pure Mechanical (PM) pin table from an unknown manufacturer, circa the 1930s, with a Playing Cards theme and 5-cent play. As with most machines of its era, no designer or precise release date has been documented.

Being a Pure Mechanical machine from the 1930s, Empire predates the invention of the flipper (which wouldn't appear in pinball until 1947) and relies entirely on gravity, tilt, and mechanical scoring elements rather than any electrically powered or player-controlled paddles. Players would have guided the ball through the playfield primarily by nudging or tilting the cabinet, with the playing-card theme reflected in its scoring pockets or targets.

Little further information survives about this machine's specific gameplay, artwork, or manufacturer. It stands as one of many undocumented small-format machines that circulated in the US during the 1930s, illustrating pinball's transitional period before electromechanical components became standard.