The age of coronavirus is upon us and that means much more time spent home with family, and the collections. For a while now I had been planning on turning the tables on myself and doing my own entry in the Niche Collections series. I was waiting for everything to "really come together". So many projects on the go, and with the pandemic distending all timelines, I figured Why Not just do it now? So let's go. I'll update this post at some point in the future when the opportunity arises.
Niche Collection 005: Caitlyn's purely mechanical and upright games
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| Goofy (1932, Bally) |
the basics
who: Caitlyn (aka cait001 on every site)
where: Canada
what: purely mechanical and upright games
when: "I started collecting pinball with the arrival of my daughter almost 8 years ago, and space constraints in the last few years pushed me towards machines that didn't have the same real estate demands as pinball"
how many: "well I've got 22 here... eeeeep"
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| Signal Jr (1934, Bally) |
How did you first discover these types of machines?
When I became a mom I gave up much of my former life, and I decided to get involved with pinball. I needed a new hobby I could do at home, and something that didn't involve being in front of a computer. Pinball was perfect.
I'd loved pinball since I was a child running around arcades, quarterless. But every once in a while I'd find a credit on a machine someone walked away from, or an ignored extra ball in the plunger lane. Pinball brought me in when I had nothing.
I couldn't afford much, but I found a person (now friend) that lived close to me. All I needed to do was clean a pinball-sized floor space in the basement storage room and find $1000, and I could have a pinball machine at home. And so it happened, I got a Gottlieb Royal Flush and loved every moment of it.
I cleaned more of the back room. I got another machine. I cleaned more of the back room, and eventually made space (and saved enough) for a third.
I even eventually had four machines back there, but it was pretty cramped.
All the while I digested every bit of pinball info I could find, digging further and further back, and eventually learning about the 1930s machines that started it all. A fringe benefit here was that these machines were far smaller.
I got a pachinko machine, also much easier to store than a pinball machine.
The possibilities were intriguing. Pinball will always be my first love, but here was an exciting new fling.
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| Corinthball (1950s, unknown manufacturer) My Japanese machines aren't even technically coin-operated. The balls you play with are the currency themselves. But for Corinthball here you'd pay the attendant and they'd release the balls via a latch at the back of the machine. If you scored points you'd receive your rewards direct from the attendant as well. |
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Select-Em (1933, Exhibit Supply)
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| Smart Ball (スマートボール) (1960s?, Mitsuha Seisakusho (三葉製作所)) Like pachinko, with Smart Balls like this the balls are the currency. |
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| HEY GET OFF THERE |
What attracted you to them?
If I had a bungalow ranch house without space limitations, I'm not sure I would have ended up with a collection like this. But beyond the space issues, I was fascinated by the historical aspects. How we got from a basic marble toy to a Jurassic Park Premium by Stern is documented every step of the way, one innovation at a time. I loved seeing each step in that journey enunciated and elaborated upon.
But one aspect of the hobby caught me off-guard: a fascination with how the laws helped shape pinball. But that quickly led to how the laws effected gambling machines of all stripes, and then expanded in to how the laws effected each country individually. And here I am now, fascinated by the 20th century of gambling/coin-op machines from around the entire globe.
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| Admiral (1933, Genco) |
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| Contact Master (1934, PAMCO) |
What is the history of this kind of machine?
OK you really want to do this? Here are some rough notes...
1770s: a billiards variant is developed in Bagatelle, France.
19th century: early bagatelles are made as children's toys in Europe and in America
late 19th century: slot machines are invented, ushering in the age of automated coinop devices and gambling machines
1900: early coinop games of skill are produced around Europe
early 1900s: European vertical machines make their way to Japan, as do bagatelle toys. The bagatelles are popular in America with their new-fangled spring plungers, but the vertical machines not so much.
1930s: the American bagatelle pinball boom, coin-operated pinball machines have meteoric growth. What began as trade stimulators quickly turned into automatic payout skilled gambling devices.
Vertical machines take off in popularity across Europe.
Uniquely Japanese machines, once inspired by European vertical machines, take on a life of their own as pachinko and invent complex machinery to control the game behind the playfield.
WW2 sets things back a bit. Post WW2...
America: lawmakers across the country continue their fight against gambling. Not just slot machines, the one-ball horse racing games of the 1940s give way to the bingo pinball of the 1950s. Electromechanical flippers are invented in 1947 and the evolution of pinball as amusement and skill machines lights up.
Germany: prior slot machine bans are loosened, but new machines must now offer 15 seconds of game play and only pay out up to 10x the cost to play. Their new electromechanical wall machines flourish.
Britain: without the American-style laws choking out the old machines, the traditional slots and vertical allwins continue to be popular. There is some innovation of course, but nothing like the sea change of the American industry.
Japan: Pachinko and Smart Ball both surge in popularity. As Japan becomes more prosperous, the slower gameplay and lower stakes of Smart Ball see it wither into a retro pasttime. Pachinko overcomes a series of legal changes, but eventually turns into a gaming/gambling powerhouse, peaking in popularity in 1995.
The history of 20th century coin-op machines takes a massive turn internationally at the end of the 70s with the rise of video games. No country would be immune, no niches too specialized to not be impacted by the video game revolution.
Pachinko would run with solid-state technology and eventually become the giant video slot machines they mostly still are today, despite peaking in the 90s.
Pinball would adapt every technological trick it could find, but still nearly every company went out of business as the 20th century rolled to an end.
Even the video game industry would have a hard time coping evolving as arcades slumped under the growing power of home gaming.
But I trace every new video game, every new pinball machine, every new pachinko, back to France, and the exciting innovations of a few billiards enthusiasts.
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| Merry-Go-Round (1934, Gottlieb) |
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| World's Series (1934, Rock-ola) - out for restoration |
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| Bridge Ball (1950, Culp) one of only two known in the world |
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| Bridge Ball (1950, Culp) Culp made this as a prototype but abandoned it for gun games. One of the latest Purely Mechanical games made |
OK so what's up with all the purely mechanical machines?
Apocalypse prep.
While you chumps are hoarding toilet paper and canned food, I've hoarded mechanical machines that don't require any electricity to play.
When the power grid falls to roaming bands of CoronaZombies, I'll run this town like Master Blaster runs Bartertown.
OK, seriously: I never really set out to collect purely mechanical machines, but my focus on the history of 20th century machines sure brought a lot to my attention quickly. But it is kind of cool to say much of your arcade is playable in a blackout...
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| baseball pachinko (1978, Heiwa) this machine does have a single battery in it, to turn on a light when it pays out winnings |
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| Cascade (1971, Bell Fruit) - learn more about it here |
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| Base Ball (1931, Pace) - this is a "continued production" from the original casts and utilizing NOS parts |
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| Fill 'Em Up (1953, Ruffler & Walker) - read more about this here |
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| Little Dream Baseball (1907, Mills Novlety Co) - pure and good and certainly not illegal! Drop a penny in the top and if it lands on 1, 2, or 3 expect to get paid out in that many nickels of store credit, or in cigars. If it falls in to OUT? then they'd say "Close, but no cigar" |
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| Five Jacks (1930, Fields -- this is a reproduction circa 1980s) Get a penny in one of the five slots and you can release the winnings cup under that slot |
OK, now why wall machines?
Vertical machines really sparked my imagination when I encountered my space issues. And now that my attention has been spurred in that direction, I keep discovering more and more fascinating avenues and developments with them.
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| Skill-Roll (1956, Bally) this machine straddles the Purely Mechanical world too! It doesn't actually need power to run, but it's nice to have it on since the EM kachunks of score keeping are delightful. But in a pinch, this game is very playable come apocalypse! |
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| Apollo 1 Arepachi (CRアレパチ アポロ1号) (2004, Taiyo Elec) an obscure arepachi machine, these are hard to find but came in the wake of arrangeball machines |
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| Rialto (1964, Wulff) I find German machines endlessly fascinating. A 1950 law legalized gambling machines, but said gameplay must last 15 seconds and the wins can only be 10x what was paid. The result of the 15-second rule resulted in lots of really innovative gameplay designs. This is just a slot machine, essentially, but with player-controlled shooting |
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| Lion Miracle Arrangeball (1975, Satomi) did you read the arrangeball post? Yeah it's one of those! |
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| Glory Ball Deluxe (1970s, unknown manufacturer) - read more on it here Fairly obscure even for arrangeball machines, I love the gameplay in this one. |
What inspired you to acquire so many of them?
*head twiches*
*she scratches her left arm raw*
Next question.
What do you tell people about these machines when they walk up to them and have never played them before?
Some good Ottawa folks started the Ottawa Pinball and Gameroom show and a few of us came together to show off some of our older machines. This quickly spiraled out of control and soon enough I was helping run the entire history booth at the show. The games are so varied, you'll really have to come to the show and I'll introduce you to each in person, and show you how to play.
You can find a short tour of the show here, with a focus on the history booth at the beginning:
Advice if someone reading this wanted to get into these machines?
By all means get into it. The machines are far cheaper than NIB pinball machines. They are mostly wood and metal, so that often makes them easier and more satisfying to fix.
If you have a basement full of pinball machines, chances are you have room for one of the 1930s classics.
And if you've ever gotten nice and high, these mechanical marvels and pachinkos and convoluted slots are absolutely entrancing to play.
This isn't competitive pinball. These are gambling machines with zero stakes since they're in your house. But the AESTHETICS are damn compelling. There is joy in their history, and their operation.
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| one of the precursors that started it all! Japanese Corinth / Fortuna machines didn't have spring plungers, but used a cue stick like the original billiards. The invention of the springed plunger is one of the reasons pintables took off more in America |
Have a machine to sell?
Standard boilerplate for everyone that arrives here via searches: If you have any of these kinds of machines and want more info on yours and/or want to sell them, please email me at thetastates@gmail.com and I'll see if I can help you. No matter where you are in the world, chances are there's probably a community of people I can get you in touch with.
Have a collection to showcase?
If you a niche collection that might be appropriate here, please email me at thetastates@gmail.com
What, a, marvelous, collection.
ReplyDeleteVery nice!
ReplyDeleteWe approve! :)
www.historyofpinball.org