The game of pinball enjoys a rich history that continues to this day, and remains one of the most popular arcade game concepts of all time. And it owes its humble beginnings to a lesser-known game called Baffle Ball. Created in 1930 by a man named David Gottlieb, Baffle Ball paved the way for all of the pinball machines that followed.

There were some noticeable differences between Baffle Ball and the machines that would follow. For one, it needed no electricity whatsoever. Secondly, it was diminutive by comparison; the game measured a mere 16” x 24” and could therefore easily be placed atop any countertop or other suitable surface, even a table.

The cost to play was a whopping penny, and for that investment, a player received 5 balls. A simple plunger fired the balls one at a time into the playing surface, and from that point on, gravity took over. With no flippers or bumpers, the ball simply descended, ricocheting off a collection of pins protruding from the game surface. On the lower edge were a number of slots and holes with various point values assigned to them. The only legal control a player really had at their disposal was by controlling the velocity of the plunger. Of course, many decided to tilt the machine anyway, in an attempt to hit the better targets. Tilting would of course later be a popular way of cheating in pinball as well.

So, how popular was Baffle Ball when it was introduced? Well, it quickly sold 50,000 units for $17.50, a pretty lofty price back in 1930. It spawned an entire industry of pinball, of which Gottleib is the established father. He quickly introduced a couple of sequels – Baffle Ball Sr. in 1932 and an electric version of the original game in 1935, all of which made him a wealthy man. The company bearing his name exists to this day and is responsible for such video games as Reactor and Q*bert.

And when Microsoft decided many decades later to create a video game featuring seven classic pinball games, Baffle Ball was, of course, one of them - a testament to its well-deserved place in pinball history as the game that started it all.