Sunday, February 16, 2020

Niche Collections: Craig's one-ball horse race pinballs

Once the pinball craze swept America in 1931 it didn't take long for them to create machines with automatic payouts.  For Amusement Only my ass!  From the get-go you would bring your high score to the attention of the bar-keep or pharmacist or shop-keep (sometimes they were all the same person, it was a different time...) and collect your payout.  Maybe it was store credit (they were called trade stimulators and lumped in with the rest, at first) or maybe a drink or a smoke or maybe maybe maybe even some shiny nickels from the register.

The first of the payout machines had cute little hidden drawers for payouts you had to know where to access, but the law caught up to that trick fairly quickly.  Mind you it's the 1930s, information traveled at drastically distended speeds depending on where you lived.  But it didn't matter if you were flagging the attendant, raiding the payout drawer, or racking up credits on the backbox, it was all skilled gambling.  Slots had been around for a few decades at that point, but pinballs put the player in control of their own fate, no longer at the sole mercy of the spinning wheels.  Who needed good luck when you had a precision plunge?


Many pinheads will not be familiar with the one-ball machines, but they are a vital part of the history of pinball today.  In the era before flippers, I would assume they gave the most excitement for one's nickel as the odds spun and flashed, perhaps giving you a chance at a lucrative payoff.  They need to be known for so much American legislation was reactive to their popularity.  They need to be known because they are stunning pieces of art, craftsmanship, and Americana.  And personally, I think they're awe-inspiring because they took a problem like "what do we do about people moving the machine and winning more?" and the solution was:  BUILD THEM AS HEAVY AS A TANK SO THEY CAN'T BE MOVED.


Niche Collection 003: Craig's one-ball horse race pinballs



Bally Sunshine Park (1952) - The very last one-ball game produced by Bally

the basics
who: Craig Smallish (pinside)
where: America
what: American one-ball horse race, credit and payout machines
when: "I began actively collecting woodrails in late 2012, with a focus on horse games back in 2014."
how many: "I currently own 15 EM pins, with 8 being one-ball, horse race themed games, and 2 being mid ‘30’s era horse race themed, side-bet/credit games, one lowly flipper game with a race horse theme, and an 1871 Redgrave Bagatelle. Other than my most recent acquisition which was neglected in a barn for years, they all play and function well!"



Tuesday, February 11, 2020

Niche Collections: pindude152's bingos

It's hard for me to get into the headspace of what an EM bingo parlor might have been like, with so little documentation of them having survived over the years.  Payout pin games started in the 1930s and massive one-ball horse race games ruled the 1940s.  Anti-gambling legislation led to an industry crisis that was solved by the innovation of bingo pinball in the 1950s.  Innovation that would pay off for a decade or so until it was once again rapped by further legislation.
Staggeringly heavy machines with a dense matrix of possible rules and features.  Colourful artwork of whimsical day-to-day themes.  The lure of possibility of physically lining up 5 numbers for a giant payoff.  Bingos are a wondrous coin-op marvel in a field filled with marvels.

Contemporary gambling machines are a sad disappointment compared to these electromechanical wonders.  What a disappointment to have such aesthetic interaction excised from an industry that leaves people staring at LCD screens instead.  The actual successor of this kind of innovation would be the modern redemption arcade industry, as at least some of those machines involve the illusion of skill and the aesthetics of physical interaction.  But with no real payouts beyond a few garbage prizes, there aren't any real stakes, and in modern redemption machines you're mostly paying for spectacle.


But for a brief period in history, gambling was both enchanting and physical.  Skillful nudging and a wise plunge could greatly tilt the scales in your favour.  For a brief period in history, the mighty bingos ruled.


Niche Collection 002: pindude152's bingos



Bally Sea Island (1959) & Bally Key West (1956)
Most bingos have 25 holes

the basics
who: pindude152 (website)
where: Canada
what: American bingo machines. Complicated electromechanical coin operated devices.
when: "pinball machines since 2000, bingo machines specifically since 2013"
how many: "I kinda lost count.  I have 14 bingo machine titles, some I have doubles.  The whole collection? 57+"
why: "[I like] their complexity, the challenge of repairing them, and their seedy history.  All those old black+white photos of law men destroying bingo machines."

Friday, February 7, 2020

Niche Collections: Scottie's Allwins

Welcome to the first installment of the Niche Collections series, where we get to geek out and celebrate the unique coin-op related collections out there.

One thing that starkly differentiates American and British gaming was the influence of laws and legislation.  American machines had state and Federal laws constantly pushing them towards the electromechanical innovations that flipper pinball inspired, while British machines stayed legal.  Recovering post-WW2, Britain could keep making these stunning purely mechanical skill-based slot machines.
American machines had to obfuscate and diminish their chance elements with flippers, abstract the chance for payouts with credits.  British machines could continue paying out directly with the coins put into the machine, and the same mechanisms that were popular pre-war were still popular after.

Automated coin-operated vending machines really took off in the 1940s around the world, and some allwins also represent the first of the automated redemption arcades.  The earliest coin games would offer you prizes of cigars or cigarettes or store credit, but you'd have to bring your win to the attention of the bartender or pharmacist to get paid out.  Allwins could dispense a sweet or cig automatically, with just the turn of the WIN knob.  They are perhaps a precursor to the Japanese 10Y redemption games of the 70s and 80s, and the contemporary redemption arcades we see today.

I hope you enjoy this series, and these machines, as much as I do!


Niche Collection 001:  Scottie's Allwins




the basics
who: Scottie Banks
where: Canada
what: British Allwins
when: "I purchased my first allwin back in 1986 at a local auction"
how many: 25 machines
why: "I like allwins because of the nice looking solid oak cabinet.  They're all mechanical and they pay out.  I bolt them to the wall and they don't take up much room."


Win A Spangles 1954