Double Play

Double Play, manufactured by Williams in April 1965, is a single-player electro-mechanical bat game (model 302) that brought the excitement of baseball to the arcade in the tradition of the pitch-and-bat genre Williams had long specialized in. Rather than flippers, the player swings a bat to hit pitched balls, with the machine offering both fast and slow pitches.

The game's standout feature is its four playfield "players," which simulate double plays by catching the ball, turreting, and shooting it to another player, creating a lively, interactive defense. Seven hanging targets provide additional goals, lights on the playfield track the movement of men around the bases, and the backbox features mechanical animation of men running the bases beneath a backglass marquee. Making a Grand Slam Home Run lights the next letter of the game's name on the backglass, a carryover feature that persists between games. Operators could set games to 1, 2, or 3 innings, and the machine used a distinctive drop-down cabinet.

Double Play was also produced in a novelty (no-replay) version as model 327. As a late-era EM bat game packed with mechanical animation, it represents Williams' baseball line at its most elaborate.