Cross Fire

Cross Fire, manufactured by Exhibit Supply Company (ESCO) of Chicago in May 1947, is an intriguing electro-mechanical pinball machine from the very last months of the flipperless era. Exhibit's first flipper game, 'Build Up', would not arrive until January 1948, and operators of the period soon began retrofitting flippers onto flipperless games like Cross Fire—often mounting them in unusual places on the playfield.

The game offered five balls for five cents and features fifteen passive bumpers and four kick-out holes, characteristic of late-flipperless-era design. Its dancing theme gives the machine a distinctive personality among the games of its day.

Little is documented about the game's designer, but Cross Fire remains an interesting piece of the game's past, offering a glimpse into pinball just before the flipper transformed it forever. Examples surviving with—or without—period flipper retrofits are a fascinating study for collectors of 1940s games.