Formation

Formation, manufactured by Genco Manufacturing Company in July 1940, is a flipperless electro-mechanical (EM) pinball machine designed by Harvey Heiss. Its aviation and warfare theme is very much of its moment, arriving as air power dominated the news in the early days of World War II.

Gameplay is built around 19 spring bumpers, with two bells providing the soundtrack as balls rattle down the flipperless playfield. The backglass carries twelve numbered circles across its top, a scoring display whose exact operation IPDB is still seeking to document.

Formation holds a small but genuine place in Genco's history: it was the last Genco game produced with spring bumpers, as subsequent games switched to plastic bell-shaped bumpers. There are unconfirmed reports, based on an image attributed to Russ Jensen, that Genco also produced Formation with plastic bumpers, though the bumper style in that image postdates the bell-shaped type, leaving the question open. For collectors, Formation offers a snapshot of a manufacturer, and an industry, in transition.