Bubbles

Bubbles, manufactured by Genco Manufacturing Company in January 1939, is an early example of electro-mechanical (EM) pinball design. It is a single-player, flipperless machine -- as with all pinball of this pre-1947 era, there are no flippers, and the player instead relies on plunging, nudging, and the layout of bumpers and targets to score.

Gameplay on Bubbles is straightforward: players insert 5 cents per play and aim to accumulate as many points as possible, up to a maximum displayed score of 16,999. Eighteen spring bumpers are scattered across the playfield, providing the game's main scoring challenge. The coin mechanism references U.S. Patent No. 2,134,185, filed in January 1936 and granted to L.M. Hansen in October 1938.

The theme of Bubbles centers on women, with artwork featuring female figures -- a departure from many of the more abstract or novelty themes common on pinball machines of the era. Notably, IPDB records indicate the surviving example's cabinet does not fully match the artwork and hardware shown in period Billboard advertisements for the game, raising some uncertainty about whether all of its components are original to this exact release.