Crazy Ball

Crazy Ball, manufactured by Chicago Coin Machine Manufacturing Company in July 1948 with a confirmed run of 900 units, is an early flipper-era electro-mechanical game with a baseball theme. Arriving barely a year after flippers debuted, it captures the industry mid-transition, blending the new flipper mechanism with the passive bumpers of the pre-flipper years.

The game offered five balls for five cents and features two flippers, nine passive bumpers, one spinning bumper, and a single kick-out hole. Its signature scoring moment comes from the Extra Special kick-out hole, which awards a mystery score of 50,000 to 200,000 points when CRAZY BALL is lit. Operators could configure the game for Regular novelty play or Free Play replay operation, with a replay wheel maximum of 47, and a single bell provides the soundtrack.

The artwork is by Roy Parker, the prolific illustrator best remembered for his long run at Gottlieb, and its baseball imagery reflects the period's enthusiasm for sports themes. Crazy Ball offers a snapshot of pinball's late-1940s boom, when manufacturers raced to fold the flipper into every new design.