Fascinating

Fascinating, manufactured by the Stoner Manufacturing Company of Aurora, Illinois in October 1935, is one of the more obscure entries in early pinball history. In fact, the only evidence that this game ever existed is a period advertisement — no known photographs, playfields, or surviving physical examples have been documented.

Because so little survives beyond the ad itself, virtually nothing is known about Fascinating's gameplay, mechanics, artwork, or designer. As a product of Stoner Manufacturing's early years (the company operated from 1933 to 1941), it likely reflects the pure mechanical or basic electromechanical scoring designs typical of mid-1930s pinball, which predates the invention of the flipper by more than a decade.

For historians and collectors, Fascinating stands less as a machine to be played than as a documentary curiosity — a reminder of how many pinball titles from this era are known only through fragments of advertising.