Do or Don't

Do or Don, manufactured in June 1935 by the Western Equipment & Supply Company of Chicago, comes from the earliest years of electrically equipped pin games. Western operated only from 1934 to 1938, and Do or Don is one of its lesser-documented products from that brief run.

The game's most defining characteristic is its format: it is a one-ball payout machine. Rather than giving the player a supply of balls to rack up points, one-ball games offered a single shot per coin, with the machine automatically paying out coins for a winning result. This gambling-oriented category was popular in the mid-1930s, particularly with horse-race and chance themes, before increasing legal restrictions pushed manufacturers back toward amusement-only designs.

Physically, the game was advertised with a compact cabinet measuring 42 inches long by 19 inches wide. Beyond that, little is documented about Do or Don's artwork, theme, or production numbers, leaving it as an intriguing but mysterious artifact of pinball's payout era.