BALLY'S SKIPPER

 

                         by Russ Jensen

 

 

     This is the third article of my series describing the

pingames in my collection.  Before describing the actual game I

want to provide some historical background associated with the

game.

 

     The earliest pingames used one, and only one, scoring

device, the hole, into which a ball would fall and be counted

according to the score value with which it was marked.  The only

'action' which these games possessed, other than the ball rolling

down the playfield by gravity, was the balls hitting metal pins,

with which early playfields were studded, and being deflected

slightly by them.

 

     A little later games employing various mechanical devices,

such as Rockola's mechanical marvels WORLD SERIES and JIGSAW,

added a little more action to the playfield, but not much to the

ball itself.  Then, late in 1933, Harry Williams revolutionized

pingame design with the introduction of the electric ball kicker,

the forerunner of the modern 'kickout hole'!

 

    While the kickout hole itself did not achieve great

popularity until the Forties, Harry's idea of using electric

solenoids to provide playfield action did.  Many games started to

appear with various electric kickers, often referred to as

'cannons' or 'guns' on their playfields.  By 1936 these electric

action devices were all the rage in amusement pinball games.

 

     All of a sudden, late in 1936, a second major revolution in

pingame design occurred, which almost overnight made electric

action games virtually obsolete for many years to come.

 

     In December 1936 Bally first advertised their revolutionary

new game called BUMPER, which included a new type of scoring

device which was to become known 'generically' by the same name.

Bally's advertisement for this game heralded it as a "novelty

smash hit by Bally" and proclaimed in large letters "no pins, no

pockets" which was to set it apart from all previous games which

included holes ('pockets') as the primary scoring device, and a

playfield studded with 'pins' as ball deflecting devices.

 

     Advertising for the game dramatically described the new

'action' of BUMPER which was really what made this new concept so

exciting to players.  A ball traveling down a playfield could

literally bounce off of a bumper spring with much more motion

than if it were deflected by a simple pin.

 

     A necessary adjunct to the bumper was another new device

introduced by Bally on BUMPER.  This was the projector "score

totalizer" which indicated the player's score in the form of a

number projected on a frosted area of the game's backglass.  This

became a fairly common method of pingame score indication for the

next several years, and a method of free-game display for many

more years.

 

     This first form of bumper was very simple.  It consisted of

a coil spring, the top end of which was supported by a metal top

mounted on a stud bolted to the playfield.  The lower end of the

spring was bent straight down and protruded through the center of

a carbon ring embedded in the playfield.  When the ball hit the

spring body of the bumper two things would happen.

 

     The springiness of the spring would cause the ball to bounce

away from it providing the action, and the movement of the spring

caused its lower end to make contact with the carbon ring

surrounding it.  This acted as an electrical switch, causing the

score, indicated by the projection "score totalizer", to be

incremented via electrical circuitry.

 

     Bally had really 'scooped' the industry!  They had brought

out a new scoring device, the bumper, which was to literally

change the face of pinball, and they also introduced a simple and

reliable score totalizer which was to become one of the two major

pinball score-keeping devices for the next several years.

 

     Also, in 1933, Bally came out with a new type of pingame

which was to have a major impact on the pinball industry and

result in much legal controversy for many years to come.  This

game was called ROCKET and it used electricity (from "dry cell"

batteries) to power a mechanism which paid out coins directly to

the player if he shot a ball into the proper holes on the

playfield.

 

     At that point pingame design began to split in two

directions, "payouts", and "novelty" games.  Many manufacturers

including Bally, Gottlieb, Western Equipment and Supply, Keeney,

and the slot machine firms Mills and Jennings, began to put out a

good many payout pinballs in the Thirties, in addition to their

"novelty" games.  Payout pinballs were indeed a big business in

those years.

 

     Another important event occurred early in 1935 with the

introduction of "free games" to pinball design.  In an effort to

come up with a way to award pinball players for their skill,

without direct payouts, a young man invented a new device whose

concept was to have a lasting effect of the pinball industry,

even today.

 

     This man, as the story goes, was a young assistant to

pinball pioneer Harry Williams named Bill Belluh.  The device he

invented and patented, and which Harry helped him perfect, was

the "free-play coin mechanism" which allowed a player, making a

certain high score in a game, to restart the game without

inserting a coin; thus awarding him with a "free game".  This

idea was introduced in mid 1935 on Rockola's FLASH and then began

to appear on pingames by most manufacturers.  "Free-game

pinballs" became the most common type of pingames from that time

on and are the only type generally in use today.

 

     These new "free-play" pingames became a third class of

pinball game which could be operated legally in most territories

where "payouts" were strictly forbidden.  These games gave the

players something to "shoot for", namely a "free game".

 

     Now to SKIPPER.  In early 1937 Bally came out with a game

called SKIPPER which was a new version of BUMPER.  This game

combined the "bumper scoring" action of BUMPER with both a "free

play" and "payout" capability.

 

     SKIPPER had a free game register (using a second projector

"totalizer") on the backboard which showed the player how many

"free games" he had accumulated.  The player could either play

these games one by one as "replays" or, by pushing a button

hidden underneath the game's cabinet, cause the machine to

subtract his "free game" credits from the indicator and pay him

one coin for each credit by means of a payout mechanism which

would dispense coins into a "payout cup" located in a special

added section underneath the cabinet.

 

     SKIPPER could thus be operated as a "payout" in "payout

territories" or as a "free play" machine (by disabling the payout

mechanism) in "free game territories".  I also imagine that

SKIPPER was even occasionally operated in areas where payouts

were illegal, by paying out secretly using it's hidden mechanism.

 

     Even though few games (SKIPPER may even have been the only

one) were made with both built-in payout and free game features,

the idea of installing a button underneath the cabinet for

subtracting free game credits became a standard feature on most

"free play" pinballs until the early fifties.

 

     The copy of the advertisement shown here for SKIPPER, from

the February 20, 1937 issue of the trade publication "Automatic

Age", not only pictures that game, but shows it's 'cousin'

BUMPER.  Another insert in the ad illustrates the fact that

SKIPPER came with an under-the-cabinet attachment which could be

removed when the game was used in territories where payouts were

not allowed.  (The SKIPPER I own is missing this attachment, but

does have the internal payout mechanism.)

 

     As to the play of the game, it was really quite simple - yet

somewhat revolutionary like BUMPER as I previously mentioned.

Any ball hitting one of it's many bumpers caused the score

projector totalizer on the left side of the backboard to be

incremented by 10 points.

     If the player achieved a score of 300 points each additional

bumper hit would also give him a 'replay' by incrementing the

replay totalizer on the right-hand side of the backboard.  After

the game was over the player could either play off these "free

games" one by one, or (if the game was so configured) opt to cash

them in in the form of a payout as described earlier.

 

     Well, there you have it - a description of a unique pingame

of the mid 1930's.  A game which not only included the

revolutionary pinball scoring device - the "bumper", but also

utilized the new idea of "free games" combined with an optional

direct coin payout capability.  An interesting little game

indeed!