We will look at games that are 2-player head-to-head and use a series of buttons to activate solenoids to fire balls from holes that are resting in grooves. Not every game is basketball-themed, but most are.
The purely mechanical origins
Head-to-head ball-popping basketball games are fairly old, but most use the physical force of the player to launch the balls.
1924 Aero-matic Basketball game by A. Emenhiser Mfg. & Distributor Co. Tulsa, OK (via Morphy)
Set-Shot Backetball ups the intensity by providing the player with a whole line of buttons. The center spinner is a mechanism we will see again in 1962 with Bally's Spinner.
1952 Set-Shot Basketball by Richman Corp & Mike Munves
Even later games were built using this principle. Each solenoid drives up the build costs, so mechanical games are less expensive.
1976 Block a Shot by Brunswick
The electromechanical ancestor
While it does not get much love in North America, Bally's Spinner took head-to-head action (head-to-head-to-head-to-head, technically) and added solenoids and found modest success internationally. Each player has 5 holes in front of them and pressing one of 5 buttons ejects a ball from the associated hole to try and make the best "hand". We call it "Reverse Hungry Hungry Hippos", and it is a great game for betting dollars on. (or whatever currency you can balance on the top of the dome)
This might seem a removed from the basketball games below, but I feel this innovation is what directly preceded their invention. Spinner appears to have been widely exported, and its influence is deeper than most people give it credit for. It's iconic dome, it's focus on player-v-player competition occurring across the dome, and it's solenoid controlled eject buttons all had a strong influence on the market. Even it's central spinner mechanism would appear in a number of other arcade machines in the subsequent years and decades. (We love you, Orbitor 1!)
Game mechanisms follow obtuse histories, and when we take ball-popping basketball games and add in lines of solenoids we arrive at one of the most exciting mechanisms to ever hit the arcade: electric ball-popping head-to-head basketball games!
On to the basketball, proper.
The earliest machines of this type seem to have come out of Italy, with RMG's Football (trying to find a picture). L'Automatico had RMG build their iconic basketball-style games. (all of this is hearsay from Mr. Croci of Tilt.it, who knew RMG)
We know that L'Automatico (of Bologna, Italy) were building these in 1965 because by January 1966 they had already sent variant models to the UK to be sold by Jollymatic, under a different name. I do not know for certain if 1965 was their first year.
~1965 Pallacanestro Elettrica by L'Automatico
Pallacanestro Elettrica variant: this one has a slightly different control panel graphic, and there are visible numbers on the score board when unlit. We know one of these models, at least, was around in 1965. My instinct is that it is the top model came first.
Sega's Basketball would not appear until the end of 1966. Please see the article linked under the photo for full details on it, its' successors, and its' copy-cats.
This next machine is nearly identical to Basket above, but introduces a sloping control panel and the body is less of a basic rectangle.
Basket by unknown [but presumably built by RMG, Italy] this machine could easily be the version Jollymatic displayed in 1966.
another view of the same machine
Here is another machine that fits a similar profile, except it has the rectangular base, sloping control panel, different scoreboard, and the "Hop-Ball" illumination in the corners has been changed to "International Basket"
International Basket by unknown [presumed built by RMG, Italy]
Note: while there are least 2 major sources on the internet that have Midway's Basketball as listed as 1964 it was made in 1968. This is well documented in the article linked above for Sega's Basketball. If a version came out earlier and I have missed any press releases for it, please let me know! I want to be sure the information here is as accurate as possible.
1970 Super-Basket by Rhenania (Germany) note: the control panel says Basket, but the adcopy says Super-Basket
The machine above has a design that slopes inward in tiers. This next one is similar in that regard but uses pinball-style metal legs. I do not know the year for it.
Basket Ball unknown year, presumed European
This next model is quite similar to the one above: same slanted panel, same metallic armor trim, same style coin door. Differences: the control panel has a blue background instead of orange, the base is a different shape, and the scoreboard graphic is unique. (though the backboard lights line up with the original scoreboard configuration)
It was also pointed out that the coin door of the above two are the same that Gottlieb used, from about 1963 to 1975.
This next machine is very similar to the machine 2 above. Same scoreboard, but the classic "BASKET". It actually looks very close to Super-Basket by Rhenania, above, but the control panel is flat and there's solid metal moulding around the edge.
Basket [Hop-Ball] by Walmatich (Rimini, Italy)
Champion Long Shoot brings back the spinner popularized by Bally's Spinner (which we see fairly frequently in Japan in the 1960s).
1981 Basketball - バスケットボール by タイトー (Taito) (Japan)
I am unsure of the year of this one. Atari is the manufacturer, and they ended in 1996. Olympia is an Italian company that, according to KLOV, seemingly only existed until 1983. So perhaps this is around 1983. There is no basketball team called "NY Kings", it seems to be a riff on the old Kansas City Kings logo. No idea why Iowa gets a racist little logo on this, they don't even have a pro basketball team AFAIK.
Basket Ball by Olympia (Italy) & Atari (USA)
These 2 Sega machines swap the buttons with a control ball that (I'm assuming) lets you highlight the position you want to pop with the button.
1992 Speed Basketball - スピードバスケットボール by セガ (Sega) (Japan)
1992 Speed Soccer - スピードサッカー by セガ (Sega) (Japan)
1994 エキサイティングショット (exciting shot) by バンプレスト (Banpresto) (Japan)
1995 サッカーランド (soccer land) by サンワイズ (sunwise) (Japan)
Cool Gunman replaced the row of buttons with sensors on each of the playfield segments, and players shoot them to make it pop. The ball has been replaced with cans. The game? Very cool.
1998 Cool Gunman - クールガンマン by ナムコ (Namco) (Japan)
1999 Flash Soccer - フラッシュサッカー [unreleased] by セガ (Sega)
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