A popular style was pin-based games, based on the bagatelle game of the 19th century. One of the first pin-based games was Baffle Ball, a precursor to the pinball machine, in which players were given a limited number of balls to knock down targets with just one plunger. The popularity of these games was helped by the effects of the Great Depression of the 1930s, as they provided inexpensive entertainment. Coin-operated pinball machines with electric lights and functions were developed in 1933, but at that time lacked user-controlled pinball mechanisms; these were invented in 1947. Although the creators of these games argued that these games were still skill-based, most governments still considered them gambling and ruled them gambling devices, which they also banned. In addition, pinball machines attracted the younger generation to the games, which made morally concerned elders across the generations fear what the youth were doing and view the machines as „tools of the devil,“ which encouraged these bans.
