Fire Chief

Fire Chief, produced by D. Gottlieb & Company in June 1935, is an early electro-mechanical (EM) pinball machine from the first years of the game's history. Gottlieb, whose Baffle Ball helped launch the coin-operated pinball industry in 1931, was by 1935 one of the leading manufacturers in a rapidly evolving field, and Fire Chief comes from the period when makers were first adding electrical features to what had been purely mechanical games.

Detailed documentation of Fire Chief's gameplay has not survived well, so its specific features remain somewhat mysterious. As a single-player machine of its era, it would have been played by shooting balls onto the playfield well before the invention of flippers, with electro-mechanical components handling scoring or other effects.

While little is known about its original artwork or specific rules, Fire Chief's age makes it a valuable historical artifact. As an early example of EM technology, it provides insight into the foundations on which modern pinball machines were later built, and it stands as a small but vital piece in understanding the development of the game.