From: wasallee@RWASIC24.AUD.ALCATEL.COM (}Bill Sallee)
Newsgroups: rec.games.pinball
Subject: Older Pinball Machines (Was:A Hardware Question)
Date: 26 Aug 92 14:51:51 GMT

Since Someone asked about the second plunger. I've been
playing pinball for thirty years ($.05/game)
 so I played a number of these games. Cheap ASCII graphic
Follows:
       -All balls were physical balls.(Not one ball logically
        called ball 1, 2, 3 etc.)
       -At the begining of the game all balls were located
        behind a blocking bar about four inches underneath
        the playfield and visible thru a window in the lower
        right side of the machine.
       -When the credit button was pushed the blocking bar
        was raised allowing all five balls (yes 5 balls was the
        norm) to roll down to the lifter plunger.
       -the lower plunger lifted one ball to (H) in the plunger
        channel.
       -When the first point of the game was scored the block
        was lowered.
       -Ball in play was indicated by looking in the window to see
        how many had drained.
       -Multi-ball was achieved by launching one after another.
        (considered a stupid thing to do since there were no
         jackpots to be gained)
       -The drain was an actual hole that dropped the ball back
        down to the block.
                                                                                     
                                                                                      
                               b
                               l   |  |    
              \dr/             o   |  |
               \/              c   |  |
                          ballsk   |   \ 
                         /------\  |   H|
              window--> < OOOOO| > |   /
                         \______/  |  / 
                                   | T|
                      ____________||__|
                                     # 
                                     # 
                                    ###
                                     ^
Other differences between these machines and modern pins:
      -scores ranged from 1 to 9999 points
      -multiple replay (4 or 5 ) scores were very common
             eg.  800pts   replay
                 1200pts   replay
                 1600pts   replay
                 2400pts   replay 
      -rolling over the scores allowed you to get more replays
       (later on a lighted 1 was added in the 10000's place
        that was lit when the mechanical score rolled over)
      -Specials were common.
      -I don't recall extra balls. but some machines had gate
       on the right outlane that would feed the ball back to
       the plunger.
      -matches were random except when the match wheel got stuck
       so that the machine always matched X. (Then on the last
       ball of a poor game you always tried to drain on X.
      -The only sounds were buzzers and bells and the wonderful
       thwock of the replay indicator.
      -It was not uncommon to see people rack up 20 or 30 replays.
                                                                                      Of course it's been a long time since I've played or even seen one
of these games so I may not have everything exactly right. Anyone
else remember playing these?

Bill Sallee   wasallee@rwasic24.aud.alcatel.com
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