Electric Eye

The Electric Eye is an electro-mechanical machine from 1936, crafted by Exhibit Supply Company (ESCO) of Chicago, Illinois. Exhibit Supply was one of the many Chicago coin-machine companies active in the 1930s, and the Electric Eye comes from the era when manufacturers were rapidly adding electrical features to what had begun as purely mechanical countertop games.

Electric Eye is a payout machine, a gambling-style game that dispensed an automatic award for winning outcomes rather than simply registering a score. Games of this type were popular on location in the mid-1930s, though they later drew legal scrutiny in many jurisdictions. Like all pinball machines of its era, it had no flippers; players influenced the ball chiefly through the plunger and by nudging.

Little is documented about the Electric Eye's design, art, or theme, and its production numbers are unknown. Even so, as a surviving example of a 1930s Exhibit Supply payout game, it remains a historically interesting artifact for enthusiasts of vintage coin-operated machines.