C.O.C.A. Times

If you look at the Internet Pinball Database (IPDB),
It seems one way they tried to differentiate them-
selves from other makers was with a built in jackpot it shows that A.J. Stephens & Co put out a few more
feature . Looking at the listing of all pre-war companies non-payout games in 1932. But there is no mention
and their respective titles in Bueschel 's Encyclopedia of any other machines made after that. It seems their
of Pinball, Volume 1, the Stevo-Ball 600 is one of the foray into the pinball world was apparently short lived.
earliest payout pins. And it was completely mechani- Perhaps there was too much competition and they pre-
cal. No AC power, no batteries. The jackpot is filled ferred to concentrate on their more lucrative radio cabi-
automatically. Every 6th nickel played is diverted into net business. (There was probably a good chance they
a special area at the front of the game, and if a player continued to make pin cabinets for other manufacturers
is lucky enough to land one of the marbles in the "600" just like they did with the radio industry.)
hole, he or she is awarded a pool of coins through a
But the payout feature lived on. Many of the large
small trap door. I've included a few pictures so you can manufacturers developed a line of payout machines.
see how it works. I've also included a trade ad of the Early on they were known as "Jackpot" machines and
game that was sent to me by Gordon.
then "One Ball" machines. Later, they evolved in to
All of their trade ads touted it as a game of skill, "Bingo" machines. All trying to claim some form of
therefore legal in areas where gambling was not per- skill to avoid being labeled as gambling devices.
mitted. Personally, I think it is nearly impossible to win
So here's to you A.J. Stephens & Co- your life in
the jackpot. Look how the "600" hole is so guarded by the pinball world was brief but the impact lasted for
pins. You would need some serious luck ... I mean skill decades.
to make that. Since there was no tilt mechanism on the
game, I would imagine patrons shook the game with Please send your "tale" to:
great fury trying to get the jackpot, which may account Jack Freund, PO Box 4, Springfield WI 53176 or
for the scarcity of these games today.
email to: jbgum@msn.com
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