Armada

Armada, manufactured by Stoner Manufacturing Company of Aurora, Illinois in January 1941, is a flipperless electro-mechanical pinball machine from the final year of Stoner's run as a game maker. Its aviation and naval warfare theme arrived at a moment when war news dominated headlines, giving the game an unmistakable flavor of its time.

As a flipperless game, Armada relies on the plunger skill shot and the geometry of its playfield. That playfield carries 12 passive bumpers and 4 mushroom bumpers, and curiously, two of the six round bumpers have no point values painted on the playfield for them and may be non-scoring with no moving parts. Little is known about the designer or the specifics of its development.

For pinball enthusiasts, Armada offers a glimpse into the pre-flipper era of electromechanical games, when manufacturers like Stoner competed on playfield novelty and topical themes. It stands as an evocative artifact of American coin-op amusement on the eve of the country's entry into World War II.