The game of pinball enjoys a long history that few are aware of. Most would be surprised to find that its history dates all the way back to the 1930’s. Perhaps not surprisingly, it wasn’t always the same game. Numerous technological advances had to occur along the way before it transformed in the game most are familiar with today. Perhaps the most significant alterations were introduced in 1936, thanks to a game called Bumper. This early pinball machine is fondly remembered for changing the course of the game, and the actual pinball, forever.

Prior to this innovative addition to the world of pinball, the playing surface of most games was covered with pins that helped to guide the ball, much like a Japanese Pachinko machine. Bumper removed the pins from the field and replaced them with, you guessed it, bumpers – which, thanks to a concealed coiled spring would launch a colliding ball randomly in a different direction. All of this served to keep the ball in play much longer than on previous versions of the game and made things far more fast-paced and exciting.

But that wasn’t all. Before Bumper, players actually had to keep track of their own score when playing pinball, which was quite the distraction. Bumper introduced the first auto-scoring system into the world of pinball, tallying points on its “score totalyzer.” And much like auto-scoring bowling alleys of the future, those with a strong distaste for math were eternally grateful.  

The combination of these innovations not only made Bumper a very popular game, but it also set the standard for just about every pinball machine in the decades that followed. Most machines since then have employed an average of 10-20 bumpers, although recently that number has dropped substantially as other methods of ball direction have become commonplace. Still, you won’t find a pinball machine, past or present, that doesn’t automatically keep score for you, and it all started with Bumper.

Today, Bumper seems quaint in comparison to the technological advances commonplace in modern games. But pinball historians will always have a fond soft spot for Bumper, recognizing the important trail that it blazed in the game’s overall development.