Chicago Coin

Sam Gensburg founded Chicago Coin Machine Exchange with brother-in-law Sam Wolberg and third partner Lou Koren, a company which had a business of trade-ins for coin-operated games. In 1931, Sam Genburg's brothers Louis Gensburg, David Gensburg, and Meyer Gensburg had founded Genco as an amusement manufacturer and Samuel decided to enter that business by establishing Chicago Coin Machine Exchange (later renamed Chicago Coin Machine Company).{{cite magazine |date=September 1933 |title=Other Machines |journal=Office Appliances |volume=58 |issue=3 |pages=126}} The company started off by making replacement boards for early pinball games before creating the table Blackstone (1933) which was manufactured by a partner named Stoner.{{Cite web |title=THE EARLY PINBALL BOOKS by Russ Jensen |url=http://www.scholzroland.de/VPStuff/BOOKS.htm |access-date=2023-06-10 |website=www.scholzroland.de}}{{Cite book |last=Bueschel |first=Richard M. |title=Encyclopedia of Pinball, Volume 2 |publisher=Silverball Amusements |year=1997 |isbn=978-1889933023}} In 1957, the company changed its corporate name to Chicago Dynamic Industries, retaining Chicago Coin as a label of the company. Genco would remain a competitor with Chicago Coin until the companies merged in 1959.

Though never a technologically-driven or innovative company, Chicago Coin was highly successful in the years preceding and immediately succeeding World War II. Their pinball table Beam-Lite (1935), which featured a lighted playfield, sold 5,703 units and their flipperless game Kilroy (1947) sold 8,800 units which was the highest selling pinball table up until the 1970s. The company also diversified in later years, creating sports tables and shuffle alleys.

File:All American Basketball (2599415578).jpg (EM game) produced by Chicago Coin]]

They later manufactured various other electro-mechanical games (EM games) for amusement arcades. In 1969, they manufactured Speedway, a licensed North American version of racing game Indy 500 (1968) from Japanese company Kasco.{{cite book |last1=Smith |first1=Alexander |title=They Create Worlds: The Story of the People and Companies That Shaped the Video Game Industry, Vol. I: 1971-1982 |date=19 November 2019 |publisher=CRC Press |isbn=978-0-429-75261-2 |page=120 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cxy_DwAAQBAJ&pg=PT120}}{{cite web |title=Kasco Indy 500 coin operated mechanical arcade driving game |url=http://www.pinrepair.com/arcade/k500.htm |website=Pinball Repair |access-date=16 April 2021}} It resembled a prototypical arcade racing video game, with an upright cabinet, yellow marquee, three-digit scoring, coin box, steering wheel, accelerator pedal,{{cite book |last1=Lendino |first1=Jamie |title=Attract Mode: The Rise and Fall of Coin-Op Arcade Games |date=27 September 2020 |publisher=Steel Gear Press |pages=18–9 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=d6wCEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA18}} and pseudo-3D first-person perspective.{{cite book |last1=Williams |first1=Andrew |title=History of Digital Games: Developments in Art, Design and Interaction |date=16 March 2017 |publisher=CRC Press |isbn=978-1-317-50381-1 |page=23 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xLVdDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA23}}{{cite book |last1=Ramsay |first1=Morgan |title=Gamers at Work: Stories Behind the Games People Play |date=2012-06-08 |publisher=Apress |location=New York |isbn=978-1-4302-3352-7 |page=24 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lESCCXkdy3YC&pg=PA24}}

While Kasco's original Indy 500 had sold over 2,000 arcade cabinets in Japan, Speedway went on to sell over 10,000 cabinets in North America, making it the biggest hit arcade game in years,{{cite web |title=Kasco no Jidai ~ Moto Kansai Seisakusho Staff Interview ~ |script-title=ja:(キャスコの時代 ～元・関西製作所スタッフインタビュー～) |trans-title=Kasco and the Electro-Mechanical Golden Age: Former Kansai Seisakusho Staff Interview |url=http://www.ne.jp/asahi/cvs/odyssey/hyperlink/setframe_creators_kasco1.html |website=Classic Videogame Station Odyssey |year=2001 |lang=ja |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20030622095823/http://www.ne.jp/asahi/cvs/odyssey/hyperlink/setframe_creators_kasco1.html |archive-date=2003-06-22 |access-date=16 April 2021 }}

• {{cite web |title=Kasco and the Electro-Mechanical Golden Age |url=http://shmuplations.com/kasco/ |website=Shmuplations}}{{cite magazine |title=The Replay Years: Our First Dynamic Decade In Words & Pix |magazine=RePlay |date=November 1985 |volume=11 |issue=2 |pages=120–32 |url=https://archive.org/details/re-play-volume-11-issue-no.-2-november-1985-600DPI/RePlay%20-%20Volume%2011%2C%20Issue%20No.%202%20-%20November%201985/page/120/mode/2up}} and setting an arcade sales record that was not surpassed until the arrival of arcade video games in the 1970s. Like Sega's Periscope (1966), Speedway also charged a higher US quarter price point per play, further cementing quarter-play as the standard for North American arcade games for over two decades. Chicago Coin also adapted Speedway into a motorcycle racing game, Motorcycle, in 1970.

Speedway had an influence on Nolan Bushnell, who as a college student worked at an arcade where he became familiar with EM games such as Speedway, watching customers play and helping to maintain the machinery, while learning how it worked and developing his understanding of how the game business operates.{{cite magazine|title=The Great Videogame Swindle?|magazine=Next Generation|issue=23 |publisher=Imagine Media |date=November 1996|pages=211–229 (213)|url=https://archive.org/details/NextGeneration23Nov1996P2/page/n72}} When he founded Atari, Bushnell had originally planned to develop a driving video game, influenced by Speedway which at the time was the biggest-selling game at his arcade, but ended up developing Pong (1972) instead; Atari eventually developed a driving video game later on, Gran Trak 10 (1974).{{cite news |last1=Bushnell |first1=Nolan |author1-link=Nolan Bushnell |last2=Weaver |first2=Christopher |title=Nolan Bushnell: Transcript of an interview conducted by Christopher Weaver |url=https://www.si.edu/media/NMAH/NMAH-AC1498_Transcript_NolanBushnell.pdf#page=37 |access-date=20 May 2021 |work=Lemelson Center for the Study of Invention and Innovation |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |date=17 November 2017 |pages=33, 45}}

In 1973, Chicago Coin was one of the many companies who created Pong (1972) clones with TV Ping Pong (1973). In subsequent years, the company took to licensing games from other manufacturers including TV Goalee (1974) from Australian Leisure & Allied Industries, Super Flipper (1975) (originally UFO) from Model Racing of Italy, and Destruction Derby (1975) from Exidy of California. As a result of entering the video game market, in 1974 Chicago Dynamic Industries was one of the many companies sued by Magnavox regarding patents related to the Magnavox Odyssey (1972).{{Cite web|url=http://allincolorforaquarter.blogspot.com/2014/10/the-first-european-imports.html|title=The Golden Age Arcade Historian: The First European Imports???|last=Smith|first=Keith|date=2014-10-04|website=The Golden Age Arcade Historian|access-date=2017-09-26}}

Chicago Coin's TV Pingame (1973) was a digital video game adaptation of pinball that had a vertical playfield with a paddle at the bottom, controlled by a dial, with the screen filled with simple squares to represent obstacles, bumpers and pockets. This inspired a number of clones, including TV Flipper (1973) by Midway Manufacturing, Exidy's TV Pinball (1974), and Pin Pong (1974) by Atari, Inc. The latter replaced the dial controls with button controls.{{cite book |last1=Williams |first1=Andrew |title=History of Digital Games: Developments in Art, Design and Interaction |date=16 March 2017 |publisher=CRC Press |isbn=978-1-317-50381-1 |pages=62–3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xLVdDgAAQBAJ&pg=PA62}}

Following subsequent financial trouble, Chicago Dynamic Industries sold the assets of Chicago Coin which were incorporated into the new company Stern Electronics, Inc.{{cite news |last1=Nox |first1=Lazarus |title=Gary Stern- Founder of Stern Pinball |url=https://pinballmag.fr/en/gary-stern-founder-of-stern-pinball-interview/ |access-date=14 January 2025 |work=Pinball Mag |date=20 June 2023}}

Chicago Coin tables are often lesser known than those made by Gottlieb, Williams, and Bally. Nonetheless, there were several Chicago Coin tables which stood out amongst the larger market.

• Sun Valley (1962)
• Bronco (1963)
• Stage Coach (1968)
• Casino (1972)
• Hee Haw (1973)
• Riviera (1973)
• Hi Flyer (1974)
• Gold Record (1975)
• Red Baron (1975)
• Hollywood (1976)
• Sound Stage (1976)

• [http://www.ipdb.org Internet Pinball Database]

Category:Game manufacturers

Category:Pinball manufacturers

Category:Manufacturing companies based in Chicago

Category:Defunct companies based in Chicago