Star Battle

The Star Battle pinball machine, produced by the Coffee-Mat Amusement Division of Kenilworth, New Jersey, is a 2-player solid-state cocktail table with an outer-space, space-fantasy theme. Its exact release date is unknown, but records place it before December 23, 1978, based on a hand-written list of high scores kept by a former Numax Electronics program manager who worked on the game's electronics.

The machine used a TMS 100 microcomputer paired with LED score displays, and offered 3- or 5-ball play. Gameplay includes two flippers, a pop bumper, two slingshots, two captive balls, two standup targets, a spinning target, and a kick-out hole, accompanied by six electronic sounds. Players could earn replays by reaching score thresholds of 100,000, 300,000, and 500,000 points; notably, scores exceeding 1,599,000 points would revert to 1,500,000, and high scores were not retained when the machine's power was turned off.

Star Battle is closely tied to a nearly identical game released under the same name by Century Consolidated Industries Company in 1978; the relationship between the two companies is unclear, though Coffee-Mat's game appears to have come first. As one of the lesser-known machines from this era, Star Battle offers a window into a period when non-traditional manufacturers, including a company also known for coffee machines, experimented with early solid-state pinball technology.