PINGAMES AT THE 1988 FUN
FAIR
- A Variety -
by Russ Jensen
photos by Sam Harvey
The 10th edition of the Loose Change Fun
Fair was again held
at the
Pasadena Exhibit Center in Pasadena, California, the
weekend
of the 1st and 2nd of October. There
were a large number
of
visitors as well as exhibitors, the exhibit area even
extending
into the seating area for the snack bar.
There were also a large number of pinball
games at the show,
both
old and modern. I counted approximately
37 pins, including
two
FIREBALLs. A majority of the games were
owned by three
dealers,
the rest scattered throughout the other booths.
This year, rather than describing, and
showing pictures of
all the
games (the pictures alone would take up more space than
this
article is allotted) I have decided to emphasize the large
variety
of pingames at the show, including some of their
historical
significance, and occasional tidbits of pinball
trivia.
I will, however, list all the games (in chronological
order)
at the end of this article so you will know exactly what
was
there.
KOW TOW - Probably the earliest game at the
show was a coin-
operated
"bagatelle type" game called KOW TOW, produced in early
1932 by
Bay City Games of Bay City, Michigan.
In a manner of
speaking
this game was not actually "at the show" as it was
purchased
by my good friend Richard Conger before the doors were
opened
to the general public; he being one of those who paid a
"bonus"
to be admitted during the exhibit "set-up time" on Friday
night
and Saturday morning. The story of how
Richard came to
purchase
this game is kind of interesting.
He went to the "set-up" on
Friday night and noticed an
unusual
game, but did not buy it at that time.
Early Saturday
morning
he came up to my place to pick up a game I had found for
him and
told me of this game he had seen which used a "cue stick"
to
shoot the balls, but was also coin operated.
His description set off something in my
head and I said
"there's
a game just like that shown in Dick Bueschel's new
pinball
book". I then got the book and
sure enough Richard said
"that's
the same game". A few minutes
later he left in a hurry
to get
back before the show opened to the public to buy KOW TOW.
For
those of you fortunate enough to own that great book, this
game is
shown and described on page 156.
This unusual and rare little game was one
of the few early
pins to
use a cue stick to shoot the balls, like pinball's early
non
coin-operated ancestor, the game of "Bagatelle". Surviving
KOW
TOWs seem to be quite scarce as Dick Bueschel states that
only 2
or 3 are known to currently exist.
Other than it's method
of
shooting the balls, the playfield characteristics are quite
similar
to the other "pin and ball" games prevalent in the
pioneer
year of 1932.
For more information on this game and
it's history I suggest
reading
the write-up on it in Dick's book. By
the way, I believe
this is
the rarest pinball game ever to be sold at a Loose Change
Fun
Fair.
ACES HIGH AND MERRY-GO-ROUND - two other
interesting early
games
on display were ACES HIGH whose maker I have not been able
to
determine, and MERRY-GO-ROUND, made by the ABT Manufacturing
Company,
both having a similar playfield format.
In both of
these
games balls were shot onto a circular playing area with
holes
around it's periphery. The playing area
of the field was
sloped
such that each ball would eventually end up in one of the
holes. These games may not be "pingames"
in every sense of the
word
(no "pins", for instance); maybe they're more close to being
Trade
Stimulators, but their use of a plunger to propel the balls
is
enough for me to loosely classify them as pingames.
ACES HIGH had a Poker theme with 4 holes
each for 10, Jack,
Queen,
King, and Ace. The player apparently
shot five balls and
tried
to form a "poker hand" from the holes in which they landed.
This
was a fairly simple, but well-built, counter-top game.
MERRY-GO-ROUND, on the other hand, had
it's holes labeled
with
the traditional slot machine symbols (bars, bells, and fruit
symbols). The player apparently shot 3 balls trying to
form a
"winning
combination" as indicated on the slot machine type
"award
card" near the lower end of the game.
This game was quite
similar
to Bally's SKIPPER from 1933 (not to be confused with the
Ballygame
of the same name coming out in early 1937).
GOOFY - Bally's GOOFY from 1932 was a
very colorful game
indeed! The name probably came from the fact that
the playfield
design
was radically different from the common simple "pin and
ball"
games of that time. The ball, when
shot, would circle the
playfield
before starting down the field, an idea which was used
on
several other games in the early Thirties, and even one or two
in the
late Forties and early Fifties.
The "novelty" and
"color" of GOOFY was emphasized in the
advertisements
for it which appeared in the coin-machine trade
publications. The following is excerpted from an ad for
the game
appearing
in the September 24, 1932 issue of Billboard:
A GOLD
MINE FOR PROFIT - Already the operators who
placed
the first few thousand GOOFY machines on
location
are burning up the wires with rush orders for
additional
machines. They are amazed at the big
profits
that they are hauling out of GOOFY.
You'll
understand
why GOOFY gets the play and holds it after
you've
seen this dizzy, dazzling, different game.
Loaded
down with new and spectacular ideas . . .
Colorful
and flashy and fast as a sky-full of fireworks
on the
Fourth Of July GOOFY challenges the skill of the
player
. . . Delivers a dozen dynamic thrills with
every
shot . . . And piles up profits for the
operator! Put GOOFY on your locations and watch people
pour
money into it. Write or wire for
complete
details. And do it now . . . So you can start cashing
in on
this great, goat-getting GOOFY game.
Better
still,
hustle down to your jobber. He has
GOOFY ready
for you
now. Hurry and "get yours while
the getting is
good"!
So, as you can see, Bally's GOOFY was
quite advanced for
it's
time, both in it's artistic and play features.
T-N-T - By 1935 the Rockola manufacturing
company, which was
well-known
as a jukebox manufacturer, was also into the pingame
business. In fact, in that same year they hired a
budding young
pingame
designer, Mr. Harry Williams, to head their design team.
Whether
or not Harry worked on T-N-T I don't know, but it
certainly
appears to be an "action-packed" game, the kind that
Harry
really enjoyed designing.
The game was very well-built, as were all
Rockola's
products,
and featured colors on the playfield besides.
All in
all a
fine addition to the Rockola "pingame stable" during the
very
productive year of 1935.
SINK THE JAPS - Shortly after America's
entry into World War
II,
production of "non-essential" items, such as amusement
machines,
was curtailed so that materials needed to produce war-
related
products could be conserved to enhance "war production".
game
factories also turned to "war work" to do their part in
America's
"all out effort".
Even though new pingames could not be
produced at that time
the
demand for them increased, those games being a popular
diversion
for the many military men stationed and trained at
bases
throughout the country. In order to
keep up with this
demand,
enterprising individuals and small companies started
"converting"
pre-war pingames into different games, even though
in some
cases only superficiality.
These "Wartime Conversions", as
they came to be known, were
of two
general types. In some cases, typified
by games converted
by
Harry Williams' and Lyn Durrant's new United Manufacturing
Company,
the old games were completely dismantled and the parts
and
cabinets re-used to produce the "new game". Most
conversions,
however, were of a much simpler type with the
original
configuration remaining intact and only new backglasses
(with a
new name and theme, of course), instruction cards, and
many
times new bumper caps being substituted.
A "conversion" of the latter
type was shown at this year's
Fun
Fair, a real "first" for this show as this type of game is
quite
rare today, to say the least. This game
was called SINK
THE
JAPS, which was converted from Genco's 1941 pingame, SEVEN
UP. The circle of numbers on the original glass
was replaced by
caricatures
of Japanese military men, the scoring numbers being
now
indicated as representations of Japanese ships and aircraft.
This
backglass, by the way, was in "mint condition".
The new bumper caps provided with SINK
THE JAPS also had the
caricatures
of Japanese military. The caps,
however, were
removed
from the game at the show to keep them from getting lost;
as the
game, for some reason, had no top glass.
So, for the
first
time in 10 years of Loose Change Fun Fairs, a "Wartime
Conversion"
pingame was shown.
OSCAR - One of the pingame manufacturers
which got their
start
making "conversions" during the war was an outfit calling
itself
Marvel. Their first
"conversion" was called BASEBALL and
was put
on the market late in 1944. They made
four more games
between
that time and August of 1946, the advertising for which
indicated
that they were also "conversions".
Their first game
not to
be indicated as such was OPPORTUNITY in October of that
same
year. After that they produced at least
7 more games until
they
apparently folded sometime in 1948.
Marvel's OSCAR, from October of 1947, was
at the show this
year
and was in excellent condition. But, I
had seen that game
before! Over a year ago, at Pinball Expo '87 in
Chicago, I was
approached
by game dealer and collector Alan Sax who told me he
had a
very nice old pin for sale. Not being
able to buy another
game
(my game room and garage were already over-crowded) I told
others
at the show about what I thought was a good buy.
And sure enough, Arizona collector (and
publisher of the
very
amusing pinball and jukebox satire magazine, Flashback)
Leroy
Harris said he was interested in seeing it.
So Leroy,
Alan,
and myself (armed with Sam Harvey's trusty camera) went to
Alan's
warehouse to see the game, which Leroy purchased.
Incidentally,
the photographs of this game shown with this
article
were taken by "yours truly" and, believe it or not,
turned
out OK in spite of my usually poor photographic skills
(well,
it had to be Sam's camera, it certainly couldn't have been
me!).
As you can plainly see, OSCAR appears to
be an interesting
game of
the post-war, pre-flipper era, complete with "kickout
holes"
and many of the diamond shaped bumpers which only appeared
for a
period of a year or so in the late 1940's.
Incidentally,
OSCAR
was also purchased at the Fun Fair by Richard Conger and
will be
another prime piece in his extensive collection.
"400" - Since the beginning of
the Fun Fairs in 1979
pingames
from the 1950's (referred to by many as "Pinball's
Golden
Age") have been quite rare at these shows. This year was
no
exception as the closest thing to a Fifties pin that could be
found
was an "upright" game by Genco from 1952 called simply
"400".
Genco, founded by the Gensberg brothers
in the early 1930's,
was one
of the major manufacturers of amusement pinballs
throughout
the Thirties and Forties; making almost exclusively
"amusement
type" pins; while most of the other manufacturers of
the
1930's turned out both "amusement" and "gambling" models.
With a
few minor exceptions, it wasn't until the early Fifties
that
Genco tried their hand at "gambling type machines".
In the period between October 1952 and
April 1954 Genco
produced
four "upright" games, "400" being the first of this
series. The other games in the series were JUMPING
JACK, GOLDEN
NUGGET,
and SILVER CHEST. In all of these games
the balls were
shot
upward onto a vertical playfield, would fall toward the
bottom
of the field (through a field of pins which changed their
path)
and ended up in one of the "scoring channels" at the bottom
of the
playfield.
"400" had two groups of six
channels at the bottom of it's
playfield,
one colored orange and the other blue.
The object of
the
game was to line up balls in one of these groups in a row
from
left to right. If you succeeded in
filling up the first
three
channels in either group you would be awarded 3 "credits".
Four in
a row would get you 7, five got 12; and if you were lucky
enough
to fill up all six channels in a group you would receive
20
credits!
The "credits" the player won
were indicated by a three digit
counter
in the center of the playfield area.
These "credits"
could
be used to play "free games", but I would imagine that in
many
(if not most) locations cash awards were given and the
"credits"
erased as was done with most of the "bingo pinballs"
which
were popular during this period. In
fact, I guess you
could
say that these games were "Genco's answer to the bingo".
Incidentally, this was not the first
time that Genco
produced
a game such as this. In 1946 they came
out with a small
counter-top
game called WHIZZ with a similar format.
This game
also
had a vertical field with 10 channels at the bottom numbered
1 -
10. In order to win the player had to
get balls in from 4,
to all
10, consecutive channels. WHIZZ had
pinball-like scoring
panels
on it's glass in units of 1000. Each
1000 points was
equivalent
to one "replay". Scoring a
winning combination
resulted
in 1 to 20 thousand being scored (depending on how many
consecutive
channels were filled) which represented 1 to 20
"replays". The machine could then be played for
"free", each
game
played resulting in 1000 points being subtracted from the
player's
score.
A friend of mine several years ago gave
me a WHIZZ to repair
and I
really enjoyed playing it for hours on end after I got it
going. It was really a challenging little
game. Incidentally,
in case
you're wondering, more than one ball can fall into any
channel
which is usually the case, thus making it more difficult
to
complete a long sequence of numbers.
Most of these games, I
believe,
gave the player 10 balls for a nickel.
As a sidelight to the story of the
Genco "uprights" of the
early
Fifties, let me say a little about Genco's last pinballs.
the last true Genco pin made before the
"uprights" just
described
appears to be SPRINGTIME, coming out early in 1952.
After
that year the only Genco pinball that appears in any list
of
games was a game called SHOW BOAT, listed in Pinball Reference
Guide
as coming out in December of 1957.
Incidentally, I
recently
discovered that a picture of that game appears in the
"color
section" of Steve kirk and Bobbie Natkin's book "All About
Pinball".
There was, however, at least one other
pingame made bearing
the
Genco name which apparently came out sometime in the late
1950's. I first saw one of these games operated in
an arcade in
Thousand
Oaks, California back in the mid 1970's; a "woodrail"
amongst
a room of current 70's pinballs! I
remembered that the
game
had the appearance of a pinball from the late Fifties, which
seemed
unusual to me at the time since I had never seen a Genco
of that
late a vintage. I could never exactly
remember it's
name,
but did remember it having a "shooting gallery" theme.
Well, in October, during a visit with
pinball collector Stan
Muraski
in Rockford Illinois, I again saw this game among Stan's
exquisite
collection of prime pingames. The name
of the game
was, of
all things, FUN FAIR (a very rare game indeed!), so I
thought
a mention of it here would be appropriate.
As of yet,
however,
I do not know it's exact date of manufacture.
Can
anyone
help?
LAGUNA BEACH - Although a few "bingo
pinballs" have appeared
at past
shows, this year was the first time for one of the "OK"
variety. For a detailed description of the
characteristics of
such
games I refer you to my past article "Bally's Bikini, It's
'OK'"
in the Fall 1987 issue of Coin Slot.
The "OK game" at this year's
show was Bally's LAGUNA BEACH
from
early 1960. I used to think that this
was the first "OK"
but I
was later corrected, being told that it was preceded by
COUNTY
FAIR in late 1959.
The LAGUNA BEACH at the Fun Fair was in
almost "mint"
condition,
and was displayed by a dealer from Las Vegas.
This
machine,
as with probably all "bingos" operated in Nevada, was
converted
to a "coin payout" by the addition of a bottom cabinet
section
replacing the original legs of the game.
It is my belief
that
there were no bingo pinballs equipped for coin payout during
manufacture,
probably because the "payout one-balls" (the
predecessor
of the "bingos") were "outlawed" primarily for that
reason.
Anyway, I was glad to see one of my
favorite type of "bingo
pinball"
(the "OK" machine) at the show.
Maybe there will be
more at
future shows.
RACK-A-BALL - Pins from the early 1960's
have also been
fairly
rare at past Fun Fairs, but this year there were four of
these
"classics". A fine example of
such a game which was
displayed
this year was Gottlieb's RACK-A-BALL from 1962. This
was one
of the many "pool theme" pingames that have appeared in
every
decade since the 1930's. In the
Thirties, for example,
there
were such games as Gottlieb's KELLY POOL in 1935 and
Bally's
POCKETS in 1936. In the Forties we had
Gottlieb's SPOT
POOL in
1941. Examples of Fifties "pool
pins" included
Gottlieb's
BANK-A- BALL in 1950 and SKILL POOL in 1952, plus
Williams'
EIGHT BALL in 1952 and SPOT POOL in 1959.
In the 1960's (besides RACK-A-BALL) we
had Gottlieb's BANK-
A- BALL
from 1965, as well as Williams' SKILL POOL in 1963 and
MISS-O
(and it's 2 player version EIGHT BALL) in 1966. The
1970's
brought us Williams' SOLIDS AND STRIPES and Chicago Coin's
HI-SCORE
POOL (to be described later) both from 1971.
Then came
the
solid-state era with Bally's pioneer electronic game EIGHT
BALL in
1977 as well as Gottlieb's PINBALL POOL in 1979. The
current
decade has had both Bally's EIGHT BALL DELUXE from 1981
and
EIGHT BALL CHAMP in 1985, as well as Gottlieb's RACK 'EM UP
from
1983.
As you can plainly see, the game of pool
was indeed a very
popular
theme throughout pinball's history. I'm
sure you've also
noticed
that the names of these games, with the exception of
MISS- O
(I really don't know where that name came from), are very
similar,
many being identical. One reason for
the popularity of
pool as
a pinball theme was probably that pinball machines were
often
found in locations were pool was played.
Another reason
was
probably that the numbered balls used in pool lent themselves
quite
well to the "number sequences" which were a popular
"scoring
objective" in pinball over the years.
RACK-A-BALL was certainly a fine example
of the pool theme
games. The artwork on both the backglass and
playfield featured
several
female pool players which was typical of most of the
"pool
pinballs" made since the 1940's.
This game featured a form
of
"mechanical animation" in it's backboard with it's "rack of
balls"
behind the backglass, an idea used on several games in the
Sixties. The game at the show was in excellent
condition and
certainly
a very collectable pingame of the period.
CAPERSVILLE - Bally's CAPERSVILLE from
1966 was somewhat
typical
of Ballypins of the mid 1960's. The
artwork on the
backglass
was of a "modernistic" style with very angular
depictions
of human figures. The game's asymmetric
playfield
design
was also characteristic of Bally designs of the period,
and
featured several of the "mushroom bumpers", a Bally
innovation
of that decade. While this game was
probably "nothing
special",
it does serve to illustrate the wide variety of
pingames
available at this year's show.
HI-SCORE POOL - Chicago Coin's HI-SCORE
POOL of 1971 was
certainly
an unusual game, as well as being another of the "pool
theme"
games described earlier (also note the female pool player
on the
backglass). Two unusual features of
this game were it's
"turret
shooter" and the fact that the ball, after being shot,
was
hidden from the player's view part of the time.
The "turret shooter" (a
constantly moving device which
launched
the ball onto the playfield whenever the player pressed
a
button) was not new to this game. To
the best of my knowledge
it was
first used on several Gottlieb games in the early 1950's,
games
such as SELECT-A-CARD and JUST 21 in 1950.
Williams also
used
"turret shooters" on three of their "horserace" games which
will be
discussed shortly.
HI-SCORE POOL'S unusual playfield had
replicas of the
fifteen
standard pool balls mounted on it's upper panel. The
scoring
switches for these balls were hidden from the player's
view,
with arrows indicating to the player in which direction to
aim to
"hit" certain combinations of the numbered balls.
The player used the "pointer"
arrow on the "turret shooter",
and the
arrows painted on the playfield, to determine when to
press
the button to release each ball. After
the ball was shot
it
disappeared beneath the top panel, "hitting" various "pool
balls",
and then re-appeared. The player could
then use the
flippers
to try to "hit" additional "balls". Two "slingshot
kickers"
at the bottom of the playfield also aided the player in
hitting
more balls.
This indeed was an unusual game and
certainly added to the
wide
variety of games shown at the Fun Fair this year.
WINNER - Of the several games from the
early 1970's at this
year's
show I have chosen Williams' WINNER from 1972 to again
emphasize
"variety". WINNER was the
last of a series of
"horserace
theme" pinballs produced by Williams beginning with
HAYBURNERS
in 1951.
Other games in that series included two
NAGS (1951 and
1960),
SPARK PLUGS (1951), HORSEFEATHERS and HANDICAP (1952),
DAFFY
DERBY (1954), TURF CHAMPS (1958), DERBY DAY (1967), and
HAYBURNERS
II (1968).
All of these games were very well
described and pictured in
an
article titled "Playin' The Ponies" by Dennis Dodel, published
in the
July/August 1987 issue of Dennis' fine pinball
publication,
Pinball Trader. Each of these games had
a
mechanically
animated "horse running unit", usually located in
the
game's backbox. TURF CHAMPS had it's
horse unit in the
center
of the playfield, and WINNER's was located below the
playing
surface, covered by a plexiglass sheet.
Dennis mentioned in his article that
WINNER, as well as the
two
previous Williams "horse games", were designed by veteran
pinball
designer Steve Kordek. Steve has been
in the industry
for
over 50 years, starting with Genco in 1937.
He has been with
Williams
since 1960 and is currently Vice President of Game
Design. Steve is a wonderful fellow and has
participated now in
all
four Pinball Expos, and has won the hearts of all who attend
these
events.
Dennis Dodel described the operation of
WINNER as follows:
The
last of the horse race games and also one of the
strangest. Steve Kordek placed the horse running unit
under
the playfield this time. The entire
playfield is
covered
with a plexiglass sheet to allow viewing of the
horses
underneath. Mr. Kordek is fond of
saying that
all
WINNER playfields are in as good of shape today as
when
they were built in 1972. If you own
one, you know
this is
true. To allow space for the horse
running
unit,
most mechanical parts are located in the head with
a swing
open door reminiscent of the bingo games.
The
WINNER
has the same oscillating ball shooter as DERBY
DAY and
HAYBURNERS II. A randomly selected
horse is lit
at the
start of the game and each horse is coaxed
forward
by six targets at the top of the playfield.
Hitting
two targets on either side of the horse targets
lights
an A-B-C and D light on the playfield which in
turn
lights Specials in either side drain.
Bringing in
the
selected horse first awards 1 replay.
So here, as you can see, is another very
interesting type of
pingame,
further emphasizing the "variety" of games shown this
year.
HAUNTED HOUSE - Even though my interest
in solid-state
pinballs
is "minimal", in all fairness to some of the younger
collectors
(and older ones too who are fascinated by these games,
for
that matter), at least one of these games should be mentioned
here. Of the 5 or 6 "digital" pins at
this year's show I chose
Gottlieb's
1982 model, HAUNTED HOUSE, because of it's uniquely
different
style, both in artwork and playfield design.
The "haunted house" on the
backglass is certainly "eye
catching"
as is the game's "multi-level" playfield. One
interesting
thing about the backglass is it's lack of scoring
displays. While this is somewhat common today, in 1982
most
games
still had scoring indicated on their backglasses. HAUNTED
HOUSE,
by the way, was designed by former Gottlieb designer John
Osborne
who has since left pinball design and now lives, and
works
in another field, in Southern California.
That rounds out my coverage of the wide
variety of pingames
making
an appearance at the 1988 edition of the Loose Change Fun
Fair. The following is a chronological listing of
all the
pinballs
I saw at the show:
NAME MANUFACTURER YEAR
---------------- ------------ ----
ACES
HIGH ??? 1932
BALLYHOO Bally 1932
FIVE
STAR FINAL Gottlieb 1932
GOOFY Bally 1932
JIGGERS Genco 1932
KOW
TOW Bay City Games 1932
MERRY-GO-ROUND Abt 1932
WOW Mills 1932
TNT Rockola 1935
SINK
THE JAPS ??? 194?
OSCAR Marvel 1947
"400" Genco 1952
LAGUNA
BEACH Bally 1960
RACK-A-BALL Gottlieb 1962
SKILL
POOL Williams 1963
SLICK
CHICK Gottlieb 1963
NORTH
STAR Gottlieb 1964
CAPERSVILLE Bally 1966
SUPER
SCORE Gottlieb 1967
GRIDIRON Williams 1969
MILLS
0FFICIAL (Reproduction) 197?
GALAHAD Bally 1970
HI-SCORE
POOL Chicago Coin 1971
FIREBALL Bally 1972
OUTER
SPACE Gottlieb 1972
SPACE
TIME Bally 1972
WINNER Williams 1972
NIP-IT Bally 1973
SPANISH
EYES Williams 1973
OLD
CHICAGO Bally 1976
VOLLEY Gottlieb 1976
CLOSE
ENCOUNTERS Gottlieb 1978
DRAGON Gottlieb 1978
STAR
TREK Bally 1979
SPACE
INVADERS Bally 1980
HAUNTED
HOUSE Gottlieb 1982
RAPID
FIRE Bally 1982
It was sure nice to see so many pingames
at the show,
especially
such a wide variety of types and vintages, from simple
"pin
and ball" games of 1932 to the "solid-state" marvels of the
present
decade. Here's hoping this trend will
continue in future
shows.