Fleet Sr.

Fleet Sr., released by Bally Manufacturing Corporation in June 1934 and designed by Herbert G. Breitenstein, is a notable piece of Bally's early history: it was the first Bally game to feature kickers (the first from any manufacturer being Earl & Koehler's 1934 'Cannon Ball'). The game was clearly a hit - Bally president Ray Moloney later recalled building 500 Fleets a day for three weeks during the hottest summer in years.

The gameplay mechanics are striking for a pre-flipper game. Players could choose 1-cent or 5-cent play, with seven kickers in action on the playfield. Twelve trap holes line the playfield perimeter, including the outhole, while two long metal rails on each side of the playfield form lanes that expedite the ball from the upper to the lower playfield. Seven playfield cannons "fire" the pinball upwards; the largest cannon is a tube that instead delivers a ball entering its top to the high-scoring "Shell Hole" at the bottom of the playfield. Bally advertised the Senior game at 44 inches long by 22 inches wide.

Fleet Sr.'s innovative mechanics were protected by two patents filed in 1934 by Breitenstein and assigned to Raymond T. Moloney - a design patent granted that October and a game apparatus patent granted in 1937. Its slightly smaller sibling, Fleet Jr., omitted the long metal side rails and two of the trap holes. As a relic of the 1930s coin-op boom, Fleet Sr. remains a fascinating artifact for collectors and historians.