1 (OP): Aliquippa, Pennsylvania 1941


2: Ambridge, Pennsylvania 1941


3: Clinton, Indiana 1940


4: Fort Belvoir, Virginia 1942

Photos from Library of Congress.

  • Zombiepirate@lemmy.worldOP
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    5 days ago

    This was before flippers were introduced to the game, so the plunger was the only intended control.

    Pinball would not use flippers until 1947.

    • Whostosay@sh.itjust.works
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      5 days ago

      Nope. Fucking no sir.

      More info is required, are we talking like duel plungers for the pit or does it all come back to the start and you just have to be quick enough?

      Heeeelp

      • CandleTiger@programming.dev
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        5 days ago

        They had a plunger, ball goes up and hits targets (or not) and falls down. Your score is however many targets it hit while it was up.

        Your controls were bumping and rocking the game case to try to make the ball bounce better off of things.

        Games have … improved since then.

        • Zombiepirate@lemmy.worldOP
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          4 days ago

          Your controls were bumping and rocking the game case to try to make the ball bounce better off of things.

          The original Pro Gamer move.

      • ayyy@sh.itjust.works
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        4 days ago

        It’s important to point out that at this point in time, pinball wasn’t seen as gaming the way you would think of it today, it was almost exclusively for gambling. Like a way cooler slot machine.

  • Depress_Mode@lemmy.world
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    5 days ago

    Photo taken 10 seconds before that one of the cop smashing up pinball machines with a sledgehammer because they had been banned under anti-gambling laws. Pinball makers would eventually successfully argue that they were a game of skill, rather than chance.

    • raef@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      Germany had those laws until so late that video arcades were never a thing here. Now there’re shitty little casinos everywhere and slot machines in bars

    • GraniteM@lemmy.world
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      4 days ago

      I really hope at least one of those authoritarian fucks took a piece of flying debris to the eye.

  • Wahots@pawb.social
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    4 days ago

    An era where everyone looked hot AF for some reason. Perhaps it’s the clothes. Or the grooming.