Winners Circle! A Bally prototype arrangeball derby game, probably from 1974

I am incredibly excited to share photographs of this seemingly unknown Bally prototype game, Winners Circle!

The owner has graciously allowed me to post these photographs and video.

This is an arrangeball game with derby rules.  The remarkable thing is that it seems to have been made for potential USA markets.  I would like to get into the rules of the game, then review what is going on inside, and then I'd like to share context of why this is significant and what else was going on in the industry at the time.

Bally Manufacturing Corporation
Chicago, U.S.A.
EO 593
PA-1006

Rules & Gameplay

Gameplay video!  Please note that due to corroded sockets, a number of the lights were swapped for LEDs.  This results in some lights flashing when the horses step forward.  There is also one green light that is not working because the owner was short on replacement sockets.

The ball release mechanism sometimes get stuck, so if you see multiple coins being insert, it is an attempt to release all of the balls.  In some gambling machines, adding more coins will increase the payout amounts, but that is not the case here.

When you insert your coin/token the game will randomly select one horse (red, green, or yellow) as "WIN" and one of the other two as "PLACE".  This is shown on this lower panel of a horse's head:

You then shoot the pachinko balls onto the playfield.  Arrangeballs typically have 16 balls in them, so I presume this was meant to have 16 balls as well.  The cups entered will advance the horse of that colour by the number on the cup.  Along the bottom we see all three colours, with values of 1 or 2 lengths.

The silver cups advance all three horses by that amount, so that silver 3 will advance each horse 3 paces.

The upper playfield pockets are hard to hit, but very lucrative, awarding 2 or 3 lengths.   That silver 5 in the center advances all horses 5 paces, so a huge advantage if you can hit it.

Some arrangeballs have holes that return the ball to be shot again.  This machine does not seem to have any holes like that, so if there are 16 balls in the machine, the player will take 16 shots.

The payout structure is interesting.

If the horse that is lit as "WIN" crosses first, you can get 2 coins. 
If the horse that is lit as "PLACE" comes second (but the third horse came first) then you get 3 coins. 
If the "WIN" is first place and "PLACE" comes second, you get 4 coins.  If all 3 horses make it to the finish line in the correct order, you get 5 coins!  (WIN-PLACE-SHOW)

If any of the above conditions are met, the playfield has lights to show what has been achieved.

While the game will show all 4 "win" scenarios, it will only payout the one of highest value.  Therefore any game is limited to a maximum of 5 coins paid out on a win.  Many arrangeball machines have logic to limit the payout of a single game to 5 tokens.  But there are plenty of them that do not.

If the player has a winning light, they can press the "PUSH TO COLLECT" button for payout.

At any time, when a new coin is insert the game resets, the balls will be released, and the "WIN" and "PLACE" lights will be randomized.  

Gameplay video #2:

I am presuming that all of the game materials were made by Bally.  The cabinet and mechanisms all seem different than what you'd see in an arrangeball in Japan.  They are not recycling any of the common pachinko cabinet parts like hinges and latches, reinforcing how this was probably made entirely in the USA and not just a prototype idea brought from Japan.

The only parts that seem like they might be from Japan is the pachinko shooter itself, but they would be readily available from any of the commonly imported pachinko machines.

My friend nazox2016 pointed out that they were experimenting with the nails:

You would normally have the extra nail above a hole you wanted to decrease the odds of hitting.  So the green 2?  Sure.  The red 1 on the right?  Why would you have a nail there?

They were obviously experimenting with the colours and pocket values at the point the project was abandoned.

Look at the distribution by colour and we see yellow is favoured.  But we also have red and green on the pockets furthest to the left and right, so perhaps this was deliberate as a way to balance amongst 3 horse colours.

Red: 1 1 2 1 1

Yellow: 1 2 1 2 2

Green: 2 1 2 1

The physical distribution of the 2s along the bottom is also odd.  If you are placing three of the 2s amongst four of the 1s, you'd normally do 1 2 1 2 1 2 1 like on the right-hand side.  But on the left hand side we have 1 1 2 1 2 1 2.

It is not easy to balance 3 colours of 2 different values amongst 2 racks of 7 cups.

Internals

Back-side of the playfield is very tightly wired.  Bally has opted to use full-sized leaf switches for the ball entrances, while in Japan they would use microswitches for each hole.

There are 2 solenoids here for sound effects, an age-old tradition in pinball machines but unheard of in Japanese machines of this era.  Later IC arrangeballs would use early digital sounds, but I do not recall seeing earlier ones have chimes and knockers.

Another notable addition is the "COIN IN" counter.  I do not see a lot of arrangeballs with internal audit counters like this.  There is also a "COINS OUT" counter inside the machine, providing an operator with useful audit information.  6737 coins in indicates it has not been in heavy service, but it has not been entirely sitting idle since it was built.

Let's look at the rest of the internal mechanisms:

The coin acceptor on the left has been changed out so that it accepts quarters, not tokens.  Here is the original coin acceptor:

the original coin mechanism used

At the top is the coin slide, which feeds the payout tube, which is controlled by the payout solenoid.  The "COINS OUT" counter is here, showing 4972 coins paid.  That would mean this game has theoretically "earned" the operator 1765 coins.

The circuit boards:

upper-left

lower-left

lower-right
In pencil, it says "pay out", so the breadboard here might be part of the payout circuit.

upper-right

If you can identify specific design details, I would love to hear about it!  Please respond below and I will try and include your information in this post.

The knobs to select the payout amounts is fascinating.  This was probably setup to test the game for balance.  I think most of the 6000 coins in this machine were part of the tests to figure out which payout amounts to use.

I guess they ran out of dials, since the one on the left is a different dial design.

I do not think these switches would be there in the final design for the operator to configure the game.  Some early arrangeballs would have a switch that would let an operator toggle a setting, but this seems like an idea that would get removed for cost, and for risk of damage to the board they are attached to.

It would also mean the score plate would need to be changed.

One my friends is an electronics whiz and told me that ICs are stamped with the year and month of manufacture, so let's look at those chips:

The earliest date I can see is 7350 (50th week of 1973) and the latest is 7439 (end of September, 1974).  This tells us that the prototype was built NO SOONER THAN October 1974.

I am not an expert on the history of Bally technology, but it seems Bally first attempted to showcase solid-state technology with Balley Alley and Balley Lane, which began in 1972 and were released in 1973.  In 1974 Bally experimented with solid state pinball, making at least 17 IC-controlled versions of Bow and Arrow.

There are some similarities between the 1974 Bow and Arrow boards and the Winners Circle boards, but I will let someone familiar with electronics tell me specifically.

Bow and Arrow boards (1974) on IPDB

By the time Bally made a solidstate version of Freedom at the end of 1976, the technology looked very different.

Here is a prototype Bow and Arrow serial number plate:

from ipdb: "The E0-606 was the project number, 1033 the model number, 1 was the version, 17 was the number of the game, this being the seventeenth Solid State game produced"

Recall the information on the Winners Circle plate: EO 593, PA-1006

Is '1006' the model #?

Circus (1973-03) has model # 978

Big Show (1974-01) has model # 985

Champ (project date 1973-06, manufacture date 1974-02) has model # 987

Sky Kings (1974-03) has model # 995

Wall Street bingo (1974-02) has model # 1011

Bow and Arrow (1974) has model # 1033

IPDB has a listing for a game called Relay (1974-01) that was apparently listed as model 1006 in a "Bally's Numerical List of Machines", but the game was never made and there is no other information about it.  This is very curious, as the timing lines up for both machines.  Perhaps the number was given to one, and then to another when the project was canceled? 

The project # of Winners Circle is EO 593, and that is sequentially before Bow and Arrow's 606.  I do not know how to discover what other project #s area, but I hope to find out.

Context: why is this significant?

Nazox2016 recently made a blog post about Bally Japan, the Japanese arm of Bally.  From his post: "というわけで、バリージャパンの存在時期のファイナルアンサーは、「1974年7月設立、1984年4月に撤退」としたいと思います。"

This says Bally Japan was established July 1974 and lasted until April 1984.

For many years after WW2, Bally was a major distributor within Japan.  Bally machines, alongside Williams, Gottlieb, and some Chicago Coin, were extensively imported into Japan.  The Japanese arcade manufacturers began finding success in the late 1950s, and in the 1960s the industry really grew.  The 1950s gave us Service Games which would be known as Sega.  関西精機 (Kansai Seiki) began in the 1950s and they would create the famous games brand Kasco, and 中村製作所 (Nakamura Seisakusho) began and would eventually be known as Namco.  In the 1960s 太東 (Taito) would get started as well, along with many other companies, some successful and some not.

By the 1970s, Bally was famous in Japan for their pinball tables + gun machines, slot machines, bingo machines and bowlers.  But what they were NOT known for is exporting games from Japan and importing them into North America.

There were some games that crossed from Japan to the USA, but they were few and far between.  Japan adapted many gaming trends from German and USA machines, but we rarely saw North America adopting Japanese gaming trends, at least not until the "Invaders Boom" of 1978 upended the industry.

Since WW2, the USA has had many military bases in Japan and around that area.  It was quite common for soldiers to return with pachinko machines as souvenirs.  Pachinko machines would get licensed for a year, and then they would have to be removed.  I forget when the 1 year licensing limitations first came about.  By the early 1970s, the global shipping industry had grown, and containers full of old pachinko machines were being sent to North America and sold in popular department stores.

Arrangeball machines also made it across the ocean, and many were used as games at carnivals.  The number of arrangeballs machines imported were vastly less than regular pachinko machines, so they were still quite obscure.

I would love to know what convinced Bally to attempt to bring an arrangeball-styled game to North America.  There was certainly a push by some crafty distributors to try and make pachinko popular.  Some Japanese companies made coin-operated pachinko machines that found their way over to North America.  Some companies in the USA set out to retrofit imported pachinko machines and present them as coinop games that took American quarters.  But these attempts were mostly failures, and did not make a dent amongst the soaring popularity of 1970s pinball and early IC-based arcade games in the USA.

I would guess this game was built at the end of 1974, or near the beginning of 1975.  That means this game was developed shortly after Bally Japan was founded.  This is one of the very few examples of a Japanese machine idea being worked on for a North American audience!

And that it happened before Space Invaders means it was a brave move and a bit of a risk.

Context: how did we get here?

For most Bally fans in North America, the mid-70s was all about pinball.  Some bingo machines were still legal to operate, but it was hits like Wizard, Bow & Arrow, and Old Chicago that dominated at the time. 

An arrangeball would certainly seem very odd and out of place to most Bally fans, but for industry observers from Japan it would be a quite familiar design.

Derby Games

I want to return to some global game trends.  Derby games were popular long before a coin mech was added to them.  French makers in the late 1800s would make mechanical games where horses or dogs would race around a track, and players would make bets against each other.  There were table-top models and even models that filled a room.  

There were many famous derby-style slot machine games, like Paces Races and Ray's Track, where bellows powered early EM technology.

1930s Ray's Track by Bally

Derby games would make a splash in the adventurous arcade market of the 1950s, where the technology for automated pseudo-gambling was still in full force, bingo machines were extremely popular, and manufacturers tried out an impressive variety of arcade gimmicks.  Animated horse tracks were popular, and helped visualize the tension of the gameplay.

1951 Spark Plugs by Williams

1951 Hayburners by Williams

1952 4 Player Derby by Chicago Coin

1958 Turf Champ by Williams

Bally Derby even had a horse race mech inside a gun cabinet, using a mirror to simulate shooting at balls in the bouncy grid.

1959 Bally Derby by Bally

Vertical Games

Vertical games did not take off in North America like they did across Europe, a dominance seen since Pickwick first arrived around 1900.  1944's Zingo by Williams is notable for being the first Williams game.  More explicitly gambling games came out around 1952, with Genco releasing a handful of games vertical games, beginning with 400:

1952 400 by Genco

Wins are not paid out, as gambling laws in the USA were strict and regionally varied.  Like bingo machines with credit registers, an operator would press a button to "knock off" the credits, and the assumption is that you would get paid by the operator.

These machines are significant because there is no "loser" hole.  Every shot helps build towards a winning position.  Sometimes you can hit pockets that will have no effect because they were already lit, but their is no hole designed to lose.  This is similar to arrangeballs in the 70s.

Skill Derby is an important footnote here, because it shows how the derby mechanism could be adapted to the top of an upright machine.  Flick a coin up, and each stage advances a specific horse by a designated number of steps.

1960 Skill Derby by Bally

There are no "Lose" holes on Skill Derby.  Every action has a benefit.  

So that sets the stage for things in the USA:

• gambling is mostly illegal and most machines do not payout
• Vertical pinball machines are not very popular, but a few companies tried them
• Derby games continue to be as reliable as a theme as card games were

Back to Japan

Pachinko-style machines began production in Japan in the 1920s.  While we mostly think of pachinko machines dispensing balls, the earliest machines would dispense coins.  Some pachinko machines in the 1940s would be used to dispense candy.  This would continue into the 1960s with machines like ガムパチンコ (gum pachinko) by 東光遊園設備 (Toko Amusement Park Equipment).

A pachinko-style game where every hole along the bottom has potential value was probably first popular in Japan with games like Big Strike Bowling, a 1960s game from Germany that found some success in Japan when Taito sold it in 1971.

1971 Big Strike Bowling - ビッグ・ストライク・ボウリング by 太東貿易 (Taito Trading)

Big Strike Bowling, like Genco's 400 and Bally's Skill Derby, gave every move a related action, whether it was required or not.  There were no "Lose" holes, though you could argue that when a hole becomes redundant, it then becomes a de facto "lose" hole.

One of the most well-known games of this era is Derby Day - ダ ービーデー by セガ (Sega), from around 1969. It would dispense prizes for a win.  There are no "lose" holes in Derby Day, each ball advances the action through some pocket.

~1969 Derby Day - ダ ービーデー by セガ (Sega)

The game would be re-released around 1971 as Jockey Club.

1971 Jockey Club - ジョッキー・クラブ by セガ (Sega)

The design bears a lot of resemblance to Bally's Skill Derby from 1960, with the animated derby track at the top and a playfield that would randomize which horses would advance, all the while deluding the player into thinking that they can win more often if only they improved their shooting skills.

One of the most iconic games of 1972 is Time 80, a more traditional pachinko-style game where you won a prize if you got enough points within a time limit.  Balls falling to the bottom did not award anything.

1972 Time 80 - タイム・エイティー by ユニバーサル (Universal)

But there were other games around the same time that would set the stage for Winners Circle.

World Derby was a modern take on the Paces Races games of the 1930s.

1972 World Derby by 新精電機 (Shinsei Denki)

Gold Cup was an upright game that featured a derby race along the top, depicted by illuminated horses, something we would see in Winners Circle.

1972 Gold Cup - ゴールドカップ by カトウ (Kato)

And perhaps most importantly, Universal gave us Derby in 1973 which presented us 3 horses to bet on, each advanced by the holes the ball falls into, and each ball always falls into a hole to progress the horses.

1973 Derby - ダービー by ユニバーサル (Universal)

Since the 1950s, 藤商事 (Fuji Shoji) had been making pachinko variants called sparrow ball, a way to play mahjong within a pachinko framework.  In 1973 they released what is considered the first arrangeball, in conjunction with Taiyo.  We know when arrangeballs began as they had to get legal approval to dispense tokens that could be traded in to the establishment.  They had the same legal classification as pachinko machines.  These were not machines aimed at kids, and could not be setup in children's arcades.  They did not pay out prizes.  Arrangeballs paid out the same tokens used to operate them.

1973 パイパイゲーム (Pai Pai Game) by 藤商事 & 大洋産業 (Fuji Shoji & Taiyo)

Most arrangeballs had a bingo-style grid to complete to earn payouts.  But they all had no Lose holes, as every hole built towards a potential win, just as we saw in Derby Day and Big Strike Bowling.

1973 Sammy Bingolet Arrange Ball by さとみ (Satomi)

Are you starting to see how we got to Winners Circle now?  An arrangeball framework, with derby style play.

One quick detour back to derby games...  In 1970 we have Quarter Horse Derby.

1970 Quarter Horse Derby by Games of Nevada

I am unsure if it is related, but in 1974 Max Brothers started selling a similar game, though obviously a different build, in Japan.  I am unsure if Max Brother built it, as they were mostly known for importing.  You can famously see Quarter House in an episode of Supaidaman.

Quarter Horse - クォーターホース by マックス・ブラザーズ (Max Brothers)

1974 was a major year for MIMO in Japan, meaning "Medal In, Medal Out".  These were game parlors where you played gambling machines with tokens, all for fun.  These types of games are still very popular today. Quarter Horse would be one of many large console-style games that would get released.

Here is a game that is quite similar to Quarter Horse.... Winner's Circle.  "Winners Circle"?  No no, this was "Winner's Circle", with an apostrophe before the 's'.

Wait, who made this game?  Well it seems it was also made by Bally.

1974 Winner's Circle - ウィナーズ・サークル by Bally

This machine was imported into Japan by ジャトレ (Jatre).  The advertisement claims "2,000万円ゲームマシン遂に日本上陸!" (20 million yen game machine finally landed in Japan!) and this suggests it was imported.  Jatre was known then for importing medal game from around the world, and in 1974 also brought Double Falls and Kentucky Derby (a descendant of Japanese Rolling Ball), and the following year would import the famous New Penny Falls machines from the UK.

I have never seen a photo of this machine outside of a single advertisement.  Was this game in use anywhere in the USA?  I would love to know.

Context: Conclusion

We have looked at upright machines, derby machines, arrangeball machines, and even another game by Bally called "Winner's Circle" that was produced the same year and seemingly only advertised for Japan, and only in one year.

All of these developments are what preceded Bally's attempt to bring a derby-style arrangeball to USA markets. 

Was it meant to be for casinos?  There were very few places in the USA in 1974 where you could operate a machine that paid winnings like that, even if just using tokens.

Bally was a dominant slot manufacturer, so perhaps this was an attempt to bring that MIMO arcade energy from Japan into USA casinos.  I know I would have gotten hooked on it!  

Electromechanical derby games were mostly phased out of Vegas casinos when IC machines were available, and I am unsure how well documented their presence on the strip was.

once again... Winners Circle by Bally