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Gottlieb's countertop pinball game became one of the Depression's unlikely bestsellers, and the network of Chicago manufacturers, distributors and route operators that grew around machines like it became the commercial ancestor of the American arcade.
Coin-operated play became an industry before it became electronic. The supply chain, the low price per attempt, the split with location owners and the geographic concentration in Chicago were all in place by the mid-1930s, and the video game business inherited them intact when screens replaced steel balls.
Gottlieb's Humpty Dumpty gave players flippers to keep the ball alive, moving pinball from a game of chance toward a game of skill. That distinction later did real work in fights over municipal bans.
One control scheme changed the legal and cultural standing of an entire class of machine. Pinball's long argument that skill separates amusement from gambling shaped how American cities regulated public play, and video games later inherited both the argument and the suspicion that made it necessary.
