Night Fighter

Night Fighter, manufactured by Genco in August 1953, is an electro-mechanical gun game rather than a flipper pinball machine - players fire at a 3-D war scene instead of controlling a ball with flippers. It followed Genco's earlier gun game, Sky Gunner, which Genco's advertising directly compared it to.

Night Fighter offered operators a choice of 200 shots for 5 cents or 300 shots for 10 cents, and a score of 180 to 250 hits qualified the player for an additional 300 shots, adding significant replay value. Gun flashes fired as shots landed in the 3-D war scene, and the game featured blacklighting along with a Match feature - a combination that set it apart from Sky Gunner, which lacked the Match feature and used a shorter backglass and backbox as a result.

The cabinet measured 34 inches long, 19 inches wide, and 80 inches high. Little is documented about the specific designer behind Night Fighter, but as one of Genco's wartime-themed gun games from the early 1950s, it remains a notable piece of pre-flipper coin-op history.