Attack Ball

The Attack Ball, manufactured by Sankyo Precision Equipment Company, Ltd. of Tokyo, Japan, is a rare and little-documented electro-mechanical redemption game with an auto racing theme. The only known image comes from a March 1976 issue of the industry magazine 'The Amusement Sangyo,' and its exact production date is unknown.

As a redemption game, Attack Ball dispenses prizes into a receptacle at the bottom of the cabinet front; the backbox appears to display several race car toys (or possibly boxes of candy) as prizes. It's unclear from the surviving photo whether the game has flippers, and it may include mechanical backbox animation in the form of a rotating disc. The unusual lower cabinet appears to be padded or upholstered, a detail that sets it apart visually from typical pinball cabinets of the era.

Beyond these details, little else is documented about Attack Ball's gameplay or design. As one of several obscure Sankyo titles known only from period trade photography, it offers a small glimpse into the redemption and amusement game side of Japan's electro-mechanical era, a corner of pinball history still largely unexplored by Western researchers.