400

The Genco Manufacturing Company's 400, designed by Harvey Heiss and produced starting in July 1952, is an unusual artifact from the electro-mechanical era: it is an upright game with a vertical playfield, a format far removed from the standard pinball table. Heiss himself confirmed his design credit in interviews for the 2002 book The Pinball Compendium 1930s-1960s.

The 400 gives the player six balls for a single coin. A single flipper is controlled by a button on the lower left of the backglass frame, charmingly labeled "Skill Control." A buy-back feature allows the player to purchase up to six extra balls at one coin per ball, and the playfield glass features mirrored trim, adding an ornate touch to this distinctive machine.

Genco's documentation gives no production end date or run quantity, so it is unknown how many were made. With its vertical format and unusual single-flipper control scheme, the 400 stands out as a curious experiment from one of Chicago's veteran coin-op manufacturers.