Flipper

Despite its name, Flipper is not a pinball machine and, per documentation, has no flippers or any other active components. It is a simple Pure Mechanical (PM) tabletop/counter novelty of unknown manufacture and date, themed loosely around beach, water, and happiness imagery.

Gameplay is entirely passive: a player drops a coin into a slot at the top of the cabinet, and the coin bounces down through a field of metal pins toward the bottom. Where the coin lands determines whether — and what — prize is paid out, making Flipper closer to a coin-drop novelty or gambling device than to a true pinball machine.

Priced at one cent per play, Flipper is preserved mainly as a curiosity: an example of the loosely defined, sometimes misleadingly named coin-operated amusements that predate and parallel true pinball's development.