Last unflippered pin

[tudnut]

Hi guys, been away for awhile (seems to be an occupational hazard with me lately), but just ran across something that virtually dictated my coming back to this forum again.

No, it isn't to dredge up mine and John's rhetorical argument vis-a-vis "one balls" again...I'll agree to just disagree on that one.

It has to do with what the thread was about in the first place, the last pinball game made without flippers.

I was just browsing through my games, especially some that I hadn't played in awhile (like about a thousand of them!) when I hit "Fun Cruise" by druadic, Bally 1965. (I presume I got it from IR, but haven't checked. For that matter, who knows? It may even be available here!) Certainly not a bingo (despite dru's usual fondness for them) and not a flipper, or any other means of control other than nudging, in sight! (Loads of fun, too! Though be warned that, until you read the help file, you might not figure out that for some reason dru used "C" to add credits instead of a "5" or any other number...and "S" starts it, by the way.)

I can't promise that this is the last flipperless game ever made, but it's certainly newer than anything else John or I came up with on here so far, bangers or no!

 

[didi]

Hi all

I'm new to the site (just registered). I was searching for some bingo pinball games,
so that's how I discovered the site.
I live in Belgium (so please forgive my not perfect english). I would like to contribute
to the bingo games development, if that's ok for you :D
Here in Belgium you still can find bingos in almost every bar, bowling or pool room.
And yes, they are big fun!
They are very varied these days. The most common are the 'Royal Sevens' with
following features: six card game, seven card game, one ball, super one ball, crazy sevens (with a jackpot them), triple sevens,....

About one ball game, I spoke with Hung (author of the contintental bingo which can
be found here) some months ago. I gave him clear instructions about one ball game and how the games work. He told me that he would incorporate a one ball game into
the continental one, but also that he had little free time left these day.

Unfortunately, I can't program it myself, but I began to take some courses in visual basic and C+, so maybe in the future...who knows.

If you would like to have more info on our bingo machines over here or how they work etc..just let me know, I am glad to help you out (and yes, a one ball bingo recreated would be nice!

Greets !

 

[JonPurpleHaze]

Hello tudnut,

I ran a search for flipperless games at IPD and here are the results, just discovered Nudge It (1990 Premier)!

http://www.ipdb.org/search.pl?specialty=15&sortby=date&searchtype=advanced

To my amazement, Nudge It was recreated by Destruk and Gaston for VPM (available @ VPF) and I'll see if we can add it to Pinball Nirvana.

DiDi01!
I love Bingo's and they are very hard to find here, i used to play them in the 70's. I wish you success in any development that you attempt and Hung did a fine job with his Bingo's, his username here is hungfj.

Jon

 

[ohmwiz]

Some say a bingo or a 'one ball' has no redeeming social qualities whatsoever... its whole purpose was to make money for somebody. Here is a good example, a Buckley Pay Day one ball from 1935 at http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=1769

I live in WI, USA and bingos and payout pinballs including oneballs were outlawed here from 1952 or so until the mid 1990's. Our pinballs until recently had free balls, but you could only win five or so tops.

Unfortunately, some parts of the world lumped all pinball type games into the same group, all bad. It was only too easy to say all pins were JD magnets, and 'organized crime' supposedly ran all pinball locations in the USA.

Which is why flipperless pins are so rare to begin with... if you were a politico back then who wanted to show how 'family oriented' you were come election time, all you needed was some old games, a sledgehammer, and a cameraman.


Ken
ohmwiz@yahoo.com

 

[JonPurpleHaze]

My hisory with Bingo Machines?....

I used to go to a pin and pool hall in the 70's that had Bingo Machines in a dark corner of the hall. One day (late 70's) a sherriff that was up for re-election showed up at the Hall with a bunch of people, including a tv news crew. They were filming the entire sad events, they proceeded to take the Bingo Machines into the parking lot and smashed them up with axes..

Wally wrote an article about Magic Screen Bingo's, he mentions that there are a bunch in Hawaii.
http://pinballnirvana.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=PagEd&file=index&topic_id=5&page_id=3

 

[ohmwiz]

I remember seeing an old photo somewhere of Fiorello LaGuardia smashing pins with a sledgehammer myself, I looked but could never find it again. I thought there was only two places left in the USA where bingos were still legally used - Reno and Las Vegas. I haven't read the article yet, are those bingos in a private collection or are they actually being played? Some states have looser gaming laws than others...

Which brings me to my second point.

None of you may actually know this, but I believe that recreating flipperless pins via VP is a very good thing for historic preservation. Those of you who have done 'recreations' of vintage machines have made it possible for many to play machines that have actually become extinct, although (only) digitally.

Every game you code is another machine saved for posterity, another
one saved from oblivion. I have personally played many machines via VP that I have only seen before only in books, like the original Airway,
Juggle Ball and Electric Cyclone.

I just wanted to say Thank You for this.

My own personal favorite - Cloverleaf.

Ken
ohmwiz@yahoo.com
(rant over)

 

[JonPurpleHaze]

I used to chat with Wally a few years ago and i believe the Bingo's were in public places, i visited there but didn't have time to find them. Here's an article about Pingames and Gambling from Russ Jensen:
http://members.aol.com/rusjensen/gambling.htm
And from his MULTIPLE COIN PINBALL MACHINES here:
http://members.aol.com/rusjensen/multiple.htm

END OF AN ERA
By the 1970's bingo pinball was illegal in most states or
localities. Actually only Nevada, Tennessee, and South Carolina seemed to allow them totally. Then a few years ago Tennessee instituted a "slow death law" saying that after two yearn bingo pinball would be permanently banned from the state.
It was at this point that Bally, the only U.S. manufacturer of bingos at that time, apparentLy decided to quit bingo production, and thus the age of multiple coin pinball essentially came to an end, except for a smattering of machines in Nevada and a few other localities around the country where they were tolerated by local authorities.

Yeah, I love the recreations and won't forget the thrill i enjoyed when i discovered Visual Pinball!

 

[didi]

I can't quite understand the bingo discrimination over there guys (it must have to
do with history from what I read)
Remarkable, but here in Belgium they are the only gambling machines that you
will find in bars (of course we also have gambling rooms with video fruitmachines and
casinos, but they are severely controlled by government and you won't get in under
the age of 21...but...a 17 year old can play the bingos) because they are considered
to be games of skill, and not games of chance.
2 years ago, even jackpots in casinos were forbidden here in Belgium...

 

[ohmwiz]

It isn't really just 'bingo discrimination', we had 'in the day' lots of people gambling on pinballs, so most pinball variants (like payouts, oneballs and bingos) were banned by 1953. It's all in your point of view, I guess - now we have video poker machines all over the place in my homestate, and in the local 'Indian' reservations you can play videoslots or poker while standing in line at the gas station.

I bought a Jennings Sportsman payout pinball in the late 1980's
when it was outlawed here in northern USA - it wasn't till 15 or so years later that it was finally legal for me to own it. Funny, the local police was in my apartment many times, but in all that time nobody made a move to confiscate it. They legally could have too.

I own a bingo myself, it's an acquired taste. many people don't have the patience to go through all the different ways to win.

Ken
ohmwiz@yahoo.com

 

[Bally1959]

They still make the flipperless bingo games. They Do not make any flipperless one ball horse racing games anymore tho.. Seems like most everyone forgetts about these games.. http://rwatts.cdyn.com/Machines/grandstand.html
I believe grandstand was the last of these things but I could be wrong.. I imagine you could look it up in the IPDB.

-Tom

 

[Ray W]

ReUnit.flex

The Bally Bingo or in-line games could not be used in Nevada because of the Reflex Unit. Nevada law requires each play to have equal chance of outcome and the reflex unit prevented that.

The reflex unit predated the bingos going back to the one-ball machines like Grandstand.