Arrow Head

Arrow Head, produced by Williams Manufacturing Company in February 1957, is a fine example of golden-age electro-mechanical pinball from the team of designer Harry Williams and artist George Molentin. Themed around the American West and Native American imagery, its backglass artwork appears to have been inspired by the work of famed pin-up artist George Petty.

The playfield offers two flippers, four pop bumpers, three passive bumpers, two slingshots, three standup targets, and three gobble holes that light alternately for bigger rewards. The heart of the game is its bonus system: by building up Arrow Head bonuses and then scoring a lit gobble hole at various bonus levels, players can instantly win from one to five free games. Unusually, there is no match feature and no game-over relay, so the flippers stay live even after all balls are played. Most remarkable of all, the game can award one million points at a single time - an extraordinary figure for a 1957 machine, shared by only a couple of other EM games such as Gottlieb's 1957 'Royal Flush'.

With its two-bell soundtrack, replay wheel topping out at 47, and Molentin's mid-century artwork, Arrow Head embodies the craftsmanship of 1950s Williams design and remains an appealing example of the era for collectors of vintage EM machines.