Galaxy

The 1973 Galaxy is an electro-mechanical pinball machine from Sega Enterprises, Ltd. of Tokyo, which built pinball machines from 1971 to 1979. A single-player game with an outer space and science fiction theme, it reflects the growing popularity of space fantasy in early-1970s popular culture.

Galaxy's claim to fame is its 'Space Patrol' feature: a moving magnet that slowly transports the ball in an arc across the mid-playfield, carrying it from the left kick-out hole over to the right one. It is a genuinely novel mechanism for an EM game - so novel, in fact, that the same moving-magnet idea would famously resurface two decades later on Williams' 1993 'Bram Stoker's Dracula'. The rest of the playfield offers two flippers, three pop bumpers, two slingshots, four standup targets, two kick-out holes, and a spinning target, with 3- or 5-ball play, a maximum displayed score of 99,990 points, and a single bell providing the soundtrack.

As a Japanese-built EM from Sega's pinball era, Galaxy is an interesting piece for collectors curious about pinball manufacturing outside the United States, and its magnet-driven Space Patrol gimmick gives it a distinctive place in the history of playfield innovations.