High Stepper

High Stepper is a horse-racing themed payout machine produced by the Puget Sound Novelty Company of Seattle in May 1949. It is a conversion of two Bally games from 1947, 'Bally Entry' and 'Special Entry,' though it is not confirmed whether High Stepper retained the one-ball format of those source games.

Puget Sound Novelty was primarily a distributor, making High Stepper an unusual case of a distributor also manufacturing a converted game. Surviving documentation is sparse: a May 1949 Billboard article describing it as new, and a partial backglass visible in a photo published in Replay magazine. According to that Billboard article, initial distribution was limited to Washington and Oregon.

As a payout-style horse-racing conversion rather than a standard scoring pinball, High Stepper reflects the once-common practice of distributors and small manufacturers repurposing existing Bally cabinets for regional release. Its limited early distribution and thin documentation make it a niche curiosity for collectors researching Pacific Northwest coin-operated amusement history.