Commodore

Commodore, manufactured by the Chicago Coin Machine Manufacturing Company in December 1939, is a single-player, flipperless electro-mechanical game with a nautical sailing theme - the game arrived nearly a decade before flippers transformed pinball, so play centered on skillful plunging and the bounce of the ball. Chicago Coin confirmed a production run of 2,252 units under model number 75.

The playfield is populated with a dozen spring bumpers, the scoring workhorses of late-1930s pin games, and the machine offered 5 balls for 5 cents - standard pricing for the era. Games of this type rewarded operators with simple, reliable mechanisms and players with the satisfying clatter of bumper scoring.

No designer is credited for this machine. Chicago Coin was one of the industry's most durable manufacturers, operating from 1932 to 1977, and Commodore is a representative example of its pre-war output: a straightforward, honestly-built bumper game whose sailing theme gave it a touch of pre-war charm. For collectors of flipperless games, it offers a glimpse of pinball as it existed on the eve of the Second World War.