Baffle Ball is a pinball machine created in 1931 by Gottlieb. It was the first pinball machine, and was designed by company founder David Gottlieb. It cost a penny to play and gave players seven balls to shoot into scoring holes. It spawned a home version in 1932 called Baffle Ball Senior.
Baffle Ball was responsible for the launch of the company Gottlieb that went on to make pinball machines such as Ace High and Black Hole. It used no electricity and for one cent, players got five balls. They would be fired up onto the playfield and fall into pockets and holes (there were no flippers). Some were worth more than others, and players tried to fire the ball at just the right speed. The best thing to get was the Baffle Ball, which was getting the ball into a tiny hole at the top, which would double all points. All scoring had to be done by hand. It would sit atop bar counters and the bartender may award payouts for high scores. It is very popular with and sought after by collectors.
The table was virtually recreated in pinball simulation video game, Microsoft Pinball Arcade.
Famous quotes containing the words baffle and/or ball:
“Indeed, it is that ambiguity and ambivalence which often is so puzzling in women—the quality of shifting from child to woman, the seeming helplessness one moment and the utter self-reliance the next that baffle us, that seem most difficult to understand. These are the qualities that make her a mystery, the qualities that provoked Freud to complain, “What does a woman want?””
—Lillian Breslow Rubin (20th century)
“Any balance we achieve between adult and parental identities, between children’s and our own needs, works only for a time—because, as one father says, “It’s a new ball game just about every week.” So we are always in the process of learning to be parents.”
—Joan Sheingold Ditzion, Dennie, and Palmer Wolf. Ourselves and Our Children, by Boston Women’s Health Book Collective, ch. 2 (1978)