Draw Ball

Draw Ball is an early piece of coin-op history from August 1936, manufactured by the Rock-ola Manufacturing Corporation of Chicago, which produced pinball games during the 1930s before becoming famous for its jukeboxes. As a single-player electro-mechanical game from the pre-flipper era, it represents the period when pinball was still primarily a game of launching balls and letting chance and subtle nudging do the rest.

Notably, Draw Ball is a payout machine: rather than awarding only points or replays, games of this type could dispense coin awards to winning players. Payout pinballs were a significant, and eventually controversial, branch of the 1930s coin machine industry, contributing to the gambling associations that would later lead to pinball bans in several American cities.

Beyond its date, manufacturer, and payout classification, little documentation survives about Draw Ball's specific playfield layout or artwork. It remains an intriguing artifact from the formative days of the industry, inviting further research by collectors and historians.