Mills Softball
About This Machine
The Mills Softball is an electro-mechanical (EM) pinball machine produced by Mills Novelty Company of Chicago, Illinois, sometime during that company's 1932-1942 production run. Its baseball theme and flipperless design place it among the sports-themed pin games of pinball's early formative years.
What sets the Mills Softball apart is its distinctive gameplay: players get 5 balls for 5 cents, played across a chrome-plated playing field studded with 11 passive bumpers shaped like spherical white softballs with artistic stitching. Ten of these bumpers each advance a baserunner one base, while a special bumper scores a home run and brings all runners home -- a clever scoring twist tied directly to its baseball theme.
The Mills Softball's design is further distinguished by backglass light animation depicting men running the bases as the game is played. Its exact year of production and designer are not documented, but as a flipperless sports-themed EM from the Depression era, it remains a notable piece of Mills Novelty Company's pinball history.
Images (1)
Technical Details
- Theme:
- Sports - Baseball
- Notable Features:
- 5 balls for 5 cents. Passive bumpers (11). Chrome-plated playing field. Each of ten bumpers advance the runner one base. One bumper scores a home run and brings all runners on the field into home plate. All bumpers caps are shaped like white softballs, spherical and with artistic stitching. Backglass light animation (men run bases).