Fortune

Fortune, manufactured by J. H. Keeney and Company Incorporated in November 1941, is an example of the one-ball payout machines that were a fixture of the coin-op trade in the years before America's entry into World War II. Housed in a console cabinet, it belongs to the gambling side of the pinball family, where a game cost a nickel and could return real money.

The gameplay on Fortune is straightforward yet distinctive. The player inserts a nickel into the coin slot and pushes the plunger in to start the game; lights flash and motors whir while the machine chooses the player's number and odds. If the ball lands in the number the machine selected, a payout is awarded. This showcases the era's inventive use of electromechanical components to build suspense into a game of chance.

Operators had considerable flexibility in how Fortune ran, with factory options for 1-ball or 5-ball play, single or 4-coin multiple, and payout or free-play operation. As an artifact of the payout-machine era, Fortune provides insight into a side of pinball history that would soon face wartime production halts and, later, widespread gambling restrictions.