Coin Machine Review (& Pacific ...)

·Pin Boll
A Major Sp~rl
By James T. Man9an
Director,' CMI Pu&lic Relafions Bureau
The Coin Machin e Industry's m ost g ifte d w riter tells in this
article why p in ball clicks w ith the American people. The
article will undou bte dly become the mos t able defense of p~n
g ames yet p u blis hed. Plans are u n der way for attractive
b ulletin copie s to b e made available to the trade .
•
Pin ball has suddenly reached the status of a major sport.
Statisticians, in finding out that more people watched basketball
than baseball, that 20,000,000 Americans indulged in bowling, and
that many millions more engaged in sports that most of us con-
sidered trivial and obscure, suddenly published the figure that
40,000,000 people played pin ball at some time or other during the
year.
Then came the . question-can 40,000,000 people be crazy? If
pin ball is as silly, ridiculous, and moronic as some super· critics of
American activities had supposed it to be, why should 40,000,000
ablebodied and unhandcuffed men and women not only take it up
but keep it up?
For a game is not something you just throw at people. They have
something to say about whether they will play it or not and they
are always brutal and ruthless in telling you either that the game is
worthless or that it pleases them. As a matter of fact, a pin game is
not a bit different from a Broadway show. It is made for entertain-
ment and amusement. It deals primarily in the. elements of interest,
suspense, and amusement. Unless it delivers these elements, it
flops miserably just like the poor show. No designer or manufac-
turer of pin games can guarantee in advance that any particular
game will be a hit. He tries to make them all hits, but only about
one out of four reach the "hit" status. He, just like the Broadway
producer, knows that he doesn't know everything about human
nature.
So, now, university professors of psychology, economics, mathe-
matics, yes, even chemistry, have suddenly taken the pin game to
their bosoms and admitted that this' phenomenon is a thing worthy
of their special study. Students have been given the pin game as a
subject for their graduating theses and every week Coin Machine
Industries Public Relations Bureau receives requests from these
students for material with which to complete their theses. Every-
one, who is in any way concerned with the psychology of human
behavior, considers pin ball as a prime object of study.
Did pin ball come of age overnight? Did all this happen in the
last couple of months?
A Fifteen Year Sensation
Pin ball is a lot more than an overnight news story. Pin ball is
actually ,a fifteen year sensation-it has been a blazing success for
a decade and a half, and it is only the traditional slowness of
American critics that suddenly recognizes the true worth of this
major sport fifteen years after it has established itself. But the
pin ball fraternity doesn't feel too bad about this delayed recogni·
tion. Pin ball people realize that it took golf about a hundred
years to catch on, that baseball wasn't really much for its first
fifty years, that all games which Americans take to their hearts
have had to serve long periods of waiting before receiving the
universal okeh. In view of such a condition, pin ball has probably
outstripped every other major sport in speed of acceptance.
Several thousand years ago ancient soothsayers used to select
heavy round stones and throw them up the hillside to watch the
stones roll back downhill and lodge in little hollows and declivities.
If it , was a ten stone game demonstration, the soothsayers had a
lengthy fortune to tell about an individual's future, or a nation's
welfare. Then the game slept for a couple of thousand years, only
to reawaken in the fqrm of "bagatelle" which had quite a run about
seventy years ago when it was considered an indispensable adjunct
of every American horne. It kept on being popular for a couple of
, decades and again faded out.
, Suddenly, about 1931, official pin ball was born in the form of a
coin·operated, completely automatic game. The coin-operated game
furnished the player something that was missing in the machina-
tions of the soothsayer and the bagatelle experts.
Less Work In Playing
Because a coin machine must be entirely automatic, the original
pin games had to be designed so that the board and balls were
under glass, and a new game could be set up fOJ;, play in a second
after the old game was finished. As the player deposited his coin,
he unknowingly dropped the dead balls from the previous game
through holes or gutter traps, and they rolled down a second slant-
ing board lying under the pin board proper into position for lifting
for the shot.
In shooting a pin ball shot, the only work the player has to do,
which is in no way connected with the' game action itself, is to lift
the ball ' into shooting position. This feature of 99 per cent game
and 1 per cent work is a big feature which most sports lack. A
ball player has to do a lot of moving and walking not connected
with the actual playing of baseball; a golfer has to step a hundred
or two hundred yards between shots; but a pin ball player has only
the very light duty of lifting his ball into position before he shoots
it. He doesn't have to work. He has more time to spend on the con·
centration on the game proper. His muscles don't get tired. He
rJoesn't need a strong back.
Pin ball is a clean game. The player doesn't get his hands dirty
because the ball lift and handle are well polished from constant
play. His hands never touch the balls or the board. There being
. a minimum of physical exertion, the player doesn't have to remove
his coat for fear of working up a sweat. His clothes stay clean and
in press. No game ever treated the player with more respect for
his physical comfort and well being. On a normal night in summer
a thousand or more young Americans suffer accidents playing the
universally loved and respected game of softball; the pin ball player
gets all the excitement, suspense and competitive thrills of softball
and never has to see a doctor to have any wounds treated.
Psycholog ists Ask "Why Pin Ball ?"
Now the psychologists are asking, "Why pin ball'?" Where does
this game get its hold on the players? The loose or flippant answer
may be "escapism"-the desire of the subconscious to run away
from the cares and burden of real life and submerge itself in an
absorbing game dealing only in points. But that seems too ready·
made an answer.
I like to explain the widespread acceptance of pin ball in terms
of what I call "hand hunger." Those of llS who do not work with
our hands to make a living, have hands just as hungry and anxious
for work as those of the bricklayer or carpenter. When the brick-
layer finishes his day's work his hands are satisfied. But a sales-
man, a clerk, or an office worker too seldom finds the proper food
for his hands in his daily work. So he takes up a game like golf,
billiards, or bowling to give his hands the expression that nature
demands for them. And hungry hands are best fed when they are
addressed to assignments calling for the use of skill.
In spite of the general skepticism concerning the amount of skill
involved in playing pin ball, I maintain the real success of every
pin ball game rests on its containing a generous amount of three
different kinds of skill.
First, the game must have immediate skill. The player without
any previous experience must be able to step up and shoot a
creditable game-sometimes making a score far better than that
'turned in by veterans. This immediate skill offers the rich en-
couragement that makes new players into enthusiasts.
Second, pin ball has the illusion of skill. Many a good shot in
pin ball (such as many a shot in billiards) is the result of sheer
accident. However, all good pin games ar~ so designed that these
"accidents" allow the player, enough material to claim that the
good result was caused by scientific intention. He kids himself
into thinking he is good, when he really isn't. Of course, the il-
lusion of skill is not really skill at all, but it is necessary in a
good game.
Third, pin games require a very detinite per cent of pure skill.
Of course, pin ball is not entirely composed of pure skill for then
the game would not be practical because the very skillful would
get a great deal more out of the game and the less skillful would
not receive their proper share of pleasure and amusement. But it
is a known fact that many players have developed an extraordilJary
sensitivity of touch; can shoot the ball to travel down one side or
other of the board or the direct cellter; can use experienced judg-
ment in making the course 9f the travelling ball favor the shooter.
Many players of this type constantly produce scores that are far
above average and many a layman gets 'a night's enjoyment out of
watching a pin game craftsman playing for hours, without having
any desire to touch the game himself. It is much the same thrill
as watching a pro golfer or billiard player at work.
They Shoot For Points
The motive of the pin game addict is fantastic. He shoots for
points. He is satisfied if he gets a high score; he is disappointed
with a low one. He loves points more than he loves material reo
wards. It would be difficult to find a game where there is less
COIN
MACHINE
REVIEW
15
FOR
JULY
1947