My father keeps raving about an old EM he used to play back in the day, which I'd love to identify (and perhaps acquire someday) but he can't seem to remember the name or even the theme.

All we have to go on is:
-- it was from the early 60s, or at least most likely before 1966
-- it had some sort of lane / tunnel up the middle, which was partially covered by a clear piece of plastic
-- he can't recall what was at the end of the lane / tunnel; perhaps a target or a saucer/kicker
-- there was a series of score-value indicator lights going up the lane/tunnel

Does this ring any bells (see what I did there?) for any of you fellow EM fans?

Thanks for these suggestions. I checked and he re-affirmed the ball itself had to go up the center lane. On these you suggested, it doesn't appear the ball actually goes in those "tunnels".

Thanks for the suggestions, all...I'll check in with him on Saturday on these.

I pressed him with all these same questions Friday afternoon, re: theme, colors, multiplayer, layout; but couldn't squeeze anything else out. Will keep trying. (Whatever this game is, it's also overshadowed by Slick Chick, his all-time favorite.)

o-din -- we know it's not the first of the two you suggested, because that's Flying Chariots, and I have one of those! In fact, he never talked much about this particular machine until I got FC, so I'm thinking its target alley may have jogged his memory. I'd also previously asked about captive balls (like the second one you posted) but he said no to that too. I'll show him this one anyway.

Ok, I squeezed a little more this morning. Firstly, he confirmed it's not any of those suggested already.

The era of play (based on where he'd played it and where he lived at that age) would have been 1962-1966 (while there's no guarantee the game couldn't be older than that, it certainly couldn't be newer.)

He's not certain if it was 1-or-2 players. It was definitely not a double lane like the captive ball game shown above. He says "All I can recall (so far) is that there was some sort of single lane with partial coverage, value-lights showing in a line (can't recall how much of the line was in the confined lane or out of it), and either a target or pop-hole at the end of it."

Sorry, I know this isn't much to go on ... but I figured the great team of pin experts here might have a chance!

You guys are awesome. I'll follow up with him on all of these.

Update: I had him look through this thread, and he said these were great suggestions but he doesn't think any of these are it. Doh.

Feel free to toss out any other ideas you might have, in the meantime, he's going to go dig deeper on IPDB.

Thanks for all your efforts so far!

No, it was down the shore in Bradley Beach, New Jersey. He spent a lot of time there in the the 60-66 timeframe, particularly in the summer of '63 when he fell in love with Slick Chick (while 'Just One Look' -- a big hit in 63 -- played over & over again on the arcade's jukebox). (Note: having acquired my own Slick Chick, I invited him over to play last Father's Day. His father's day gift: a 45 of 'Just One Look' that I'd loaded in my jukebox. Fired up the game and the song and transported the man back in time!)

He says either dime or nickel, he's not certain.

He's pretty certain it was a manual-load game.

I probed on this again, to which he replied "no backglass or theme recollection, though some images come to mind as *familiar* when seen, for example Cover Girl" (http://mirror2.ipdb.org/images/580/image-4.jpg)

He does not believe it had a carryover, as he was never a fan of that type of feature.

He also apologizes for not being of much help, lol.

He's confident Slick Chick was on the scene before the mystery machine, and he's also confident it wasn't a woodrail.

With all this memory prodding, he realized he did visit the same arcade during a visit in 1972, and so is now wondering if perhaps it might've been a machine from that timeframe. He's poking around on IMDB this afternoon. Any suggestions from the early 70s that might fit the bill? (Though won't this conflict with the manual ball-lift?)

Fleeting memories from 50 years ago...this is challenging!