Fatima

Fatima, manufactured by Bally in July 1933, is one of the company's earliest pure mechanical pin games, produced when Bally itself was only two years old. Its significance lies in its place among the countertop marble games from which pinball evolved, and according to an Automatic Age article from July 1933, Fatima was the first game for which Bally copyrighted its Rules and Instructions.

The game's format is charmingly simple. For one cent or five cents, the player received four balls, and the balls themselves were not steel pinballs but marbles: three red and one green. The machine was advertised as a square game measuring 24 inches by 24 inches, standing 36 inches high on a metal stand.

Little information survives regarding Fatima's designer or the inspiration behind its name and design. Nonetheless, it remains an interesting piece in the history of pinball, a tangible connection to the very beginning of the industry, when Bally and its Chicago competitors were still working out what a coin-operated ball game could be.