Manually controlled electric pinball game

Claim 1

In a manually controlled electric automatic scoring pinball game including a means forming a cabinet, an electric automatic scoring pinball game assembly in said cabinet, said game assembly including a play field board having a planar upper surface with a predetermined descending slope from front to rear and movably secured in said cabinet for predetermined maximum lateral movement in all directions, a pinball of predetermined size and weight, a parallel bar trackway means in said cabinet secured above and parallel the front edge of said board and sloping about a horizontal axis perpendicular to the edge of said board at a predetermined angle with respect to the surface of the board for gravitating a pinball over the length of the trackway means, an electro-magnetic impact solenoid positioned on said board at the lower end of said trackway means with the movable element thereof in alignment with the path of travel of said pinball, a normally open momentary impact switch for energizing said impact solenoid positioned on said board with the operating element thereof in the path of movement of said pinball at the lower end of its path of travel, a source of electric energy, circuit means connecting said source of energy and said impact switch and said impact solenoid, one said bar in said trackway means pivoted by a lever means at each opposite end thereof for lateral movement to release said pinball from said trackway means at any position along its length during its gravitational travel, an electro-magnetic release solenoid operatively related to one of said lever means for moving said bar from its normal pinball conducting position to its pinball release position when energized, a normally open momentary release switch manually operable from the outer side of said cabinet, circuit means connecting said release switch to said release solenoid and said source of energy whereby a player may release said pinball from said trackway means to descend to a desired lateral position on the upper surface of said board.