Bridgeball (long cabinet bowl model)

The Bridgeball (long cabinet bowl model), manufactured by Culp Products Company starting in August 1940, is a flipperless, pure mechanical (PM) pinball machine -- an early version of Culp's Bridgeball concept later revived in a shorter 1950 cabinet. According to a 1940 trade article, the game was being location-tested at the time, with production planned to follow shortly after.

As a flipperless PM machine, Bridgeball relies on the player's manual skill rather than flipper control. The 1940 article describes its playfield as a bowl (rather than a flat board), in which the player would guide a ball toward scoring pockets, similar in principle to the mechanism seen in Culp's later Bridgeball models.

The long cabinet model measured a substantial 36 inches long, 26 inches wide, and stood 36 to 38 inches high. Beyond the 1940 test-run reference, no further mentions of the game have been found until a brief 1949 note that Culp was bringing new ideas to the coin-machine business, so it's unclear whether this 1940 version was ever placed in wide production. Its uncertain history and flipperless, bowl-based design make it a compelling mystery for collectors of early Culp Products games.