Extra Inning

This game has no replay unit or add-a-ball unit. While its apron is similar to add-a-ball games made for export to Italy, Federico Croci, a collector in Italy, tells us that he has never seen this game there. He also provides these studied observations: 1) Italian versions did not use printing such as "insert coin only when coin entrance is lit", or "credit when lit" around the credit light. The word 'credit' was forbidden on games in Italy. 2) Italian add-a-ball games typically have five similar objects in the art of the backglass to count added balls, but they are not present here, and there is no stepping unit shown in the backbox picture to count added balls. 3) This game has a four-digit score which is quite low for a 1971 Italian-version game. Operators in Italy by this time were modifying old four-digit games into five digit games, and newly built games for Italy were coming out with 5 digits. 4) Gottlieb's factory address was never included in full in the playfield or in the backglass in the export games. Here, it is displayed on the apron. Reportedly, this game was made for New York in light of its restrictive laws regarding pinball at the time, in the fashion of Gottlieb's 1971 'Bristol Hills'. It was produced just after Gottlieb's 1971 'Playball' and had a playfield quite similar except without pop bumpers. The fact of its Novelty Play format, its lack of pop bumpers, the apron not having the word 'flipper', and the backglass indicating only 'Innings' instead of 'Ball In Play' may have been attempts to downplay or differentiate this game from contemporary pinball machines.