# 1930s Pinball Machines: Mechanical to Electrical - Pinball Expo 2025 - Pinball News

**Source:** Pinball News (Pinball Expo 2025)  
**Type:** video  
**Published:** 2025-10-17  
**Duration:** 56m 6s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L2-IOE4H4WI

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## Analysis

A Pinball Expo 2025 presentation surveying 1930s pinball machine history, from mechanical to electrical machines, and restoration techniques. Two speakers with 40+ years combined experience in coin-operated machines discuss influential collectors and historians (Dick Buchel, Russ Jensen, Hal O'Rourke, Rob Burke), the evolution of pinball design and features, and the shift from gambling-focused payout machines to traditional five-ball games.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Dick Buchel was a Chicago advertising agency figure who significantly contributed to pre-war pinball knowledge through books, magazine articles, and community presence — _Primary speaker credits Buchel as foundational figure in pre-war pinball hobby; mentions specific contributions: Encyclopedia Pinball volumes, trade publications, regular attendance at shows_
- [HIGH] Russ Jensen was a prolific photographer and historian of pinball machines, particularly late 1930s Bally games, with significant contributions to IPDB — _Speaker notes Jensen's name appears frequently on IPDB, published troubleshooting guides for electromechanical pinballs, attended shows with photography-focused articles_
- [HIGH] Hal O'Rourke pioneered reproduction parts for 1930s Rockola games (Jigsaw, World Series), which was a 'game changer' for preserving machines previously considered unrepairable — _Speaker describes O'Rourke's work as enabling machine restoration; notes parts inventory passed to Nate Thompson (Buckworks)_
- [HIGH] The 1934-1936 period is considered the 'golden years' of pre-war pinball with significant innovation in features like kickers, back glass, and electrical components — _Speaker explicitly states '34, 35, 36 as sort of the golden years' and discusses specific innovations like battery-powered kickers, enlarged back glass, increased electronics_
- [HIGH] Original 1935 Excel game sold for $54.50; by 1937 machine prices had roughly tripled with larger cabinets and increased electronics — _Speaker cites specific pricing examples: 'original brand new purchase price for that machine was $54.50' and notes 1937 prices had 'tripled'_
- [MEDIUM] Many Rockola World Series games from the mid-1930s were found in original cartons as late as the early 1980s because manufacturers produced excess inventory for route operators — _Speaker speculates about distribution patterns and storage: 'there were so many of the rockola games produced particularly the world series games i know there was a time in probably the early 80s that some of those were still turning up new in cartons'_
- [MEDIUM] Ticket vending machines with score-stamping mechanisms were introduced in 1935 by Exhibit Supply as a workaround to gambling ordinances, but the innovation failed because location operators found them unreliable — _Speaker owns 1935 Exhibit Supply Play Ball with mechanical ticket stamping; claims by 1936 'nobody was stamping scores on the back of tickets because I think it became a problem in the innovation of technology'_
- [HIGH] Chain of Light (1934 Gottlieb game) used neon tubes for scoring powered by a Model T truck ignition coil and six-volt batteries; only a few examples are known to exist — _Speaker identifies Clay Harrell's Vintage Flipper World as having one example; describes technical specifications: 'model t truck ignition coil that is fully functioned by six volt batteries to fire that coil'_
- [HIGH] The 1930s pinball industry was highly topical, as exemplified by Pacific Amusement's 'Quintuplets' series of five games released in response to the 1934 birth of the Dionne quintuplets in Ontario — _Speaker describes the quintuplets birth as catalyst for five-game series with themed names like 'Double or Nothing,' 'Hit or Miss,' 'Left or Right'_

### Notable Quotes

> "All of this pre-Internet. So those of us that were in the hobby back 40 years ago, we kind of stood on an island in an effort to try and learn."
> — **Primary speaker**, Early section
> _Emphasizes the isolation and difficulty of learning about pinball history before digital resources; contextualizes why key figures like Dick Buchel were so valuable_

> "There's so much information on the database that has Russ's name associated with it. He was a great collector of photographs."
> — **Primary speaker**, Mid-section
> _Highlights Russ Jensen's specific contribution as documentation/photography pioneer, correcting assumption that named contributors were necessarily large collectors_

> "When you've got parts available, machines that were previously considered, I don't know if I can do anything with that, then escalated because of the ability to get reproduction parts."
> — **Primary speaker**, Hal O'Rourke section
> _Explains how reproduction parts supply fundamentally changed the restoration economics and desirability of 1930s machines_

> "Innovation for the sake of innovation. I often wonder, to what end? What's the point?"
> — **Primary speaker**, Ticket-stamping section
> _Reflects on failed innovations in 1930s pinball; frames as timeless industry tension between feature novelty and practical utility_

> "We've made it easy for the storekeeper to see the winning score."
> — **Primary speaker**, Spotlight game section
> _Summarizes the actual value proposition of early pinball features: enabling location operators to manage gambling/payouts without close observation_

> "If you're from Chicago, you sure as heck better know Red Grange. His nickname as a football player was the Galloping Ghost."
> — **Primary speaker**, Galloping Ghost section
> _Identifies early 1930s pinball as possibly the first example of name/image/likeness (NIL) licensing in gaming, with Red Grange's direct involvement in machine design_

> "I don't know that any of these [Pro 11 by Advance machines] have ever surfaced. I don't even know if it was produced because it wasn't uncommon sometimes for images to be conjured up to see if there was any interest in the marketplace."
> — **Primary speaker**, Pro 11 section
> _Reveals that manufacturers sometimes created fictional marketing materials to gauge market interest before committing to production—a speculative business practice_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Dick Buchel | person | Chicago advertising agency figure; foundational historian of pre-war pinball; authored Encyclopedia Pinball volumes and contributed to trade publications; mentor to the primary speaker |
| Russ Jensen | person | Prolific photographer and historian of pinball; major contributor to IPDB; published troubleshooting guides for electromechanical pinballs; collected late 1930s Bally machines |
| Hawkins and Muting | person | Authors of Pinball Reference Guide and revised/pocket editions; provided alphabetical listings, manufacturer dates, and critical information for pre-war pinball collectors |
| Hal O'Rourke | person | Pioneer in reproduction parts manufacturing for 1930s Rockola games (Jigsaw, World Series); parts inventory transferred to Nate Thompson/Buckworks after O'Rourke's death |
| Nate Thompson | person | Current operator of Buckworks; inherited Hal O'Rourke's reproduction parts inventory for mid-1930s Rockola games |
| Terry Cumming | person | Canadian contributor; produced three-volume collection of original 1930s pinball advertising and promotional imagery |
| Rob Burke | person | Pinball Expo organizer; credited as major contributor to pre-war pinball hobby through continuous Expo presence; helped shift venue from buy-sell environment to manufacturing-focused exhibition |
| Cliff Schoon | person | Operator of no-flip pinball booth at Expo; collector of rare 1930s machines including Chicago Express and Rex with original marquee and Chain of Light neon-scoring game |
| Clay Harrell | person | Operator of Vintage Flipper World (VFW) facility in Michigan; maintains rare 1930s machines including Chain of Light with neon tube scoring |
| Red Grange | person | Football player ('Galloping Ghost') for University of Illinois and Chicago Bears; early example of name/image/likeness licensing in gaming with 1930s pinball machine 'Galloping Ghost 77' |
| Mike | person | Co-presenter with 15+ years of pre-war pinball restoration expertise; rugby background informs interest in Rugby game; collaborator on presentation content and historical knowledge |
| Pinball Expo 2025 | event | Major pinball industry trade show and community event hosted in Chicago; venue for this presentation on 1930s pinball history and restoration |
| Duval | company | Chicago-based 1930s pinball manufacturer; produced Big Bertha (1934), offered junior/senior model variants; contributed games to annual trade shows |
| Rockola | company | 1930s pinball manufacturer; produced significant volume of games including Jigsaw, World Series; many units found in original packaging as late as early 1980s |
| Gottlieb | company | Major 1930s pinball manufacturer; produced primarily payout games; branded line called 'Playtime' using Hammond Clock Company electric clocks; produced Chain of Light with neon tube scoring (1934) |
| Pacific Amusement | company | 1930s manufacturer; produced Action (early kicker game), Quintuplets series (topical 1934 Dionne quintuplets), Speedway; built by Harry Williams (later Williams Electronics) |
| Exhibit Supply | company | Chicago-based 1935 manufacturer; produced Play Ball with mechanical ticket-stamping scoring mechanism using engraved rubber wheels and ink pads |
| O.D. Jennings | company | Longtime slot machine manufacturer that diversified into pinball; produced Flying Turf, Sportsman, and rare baseball/football games; known for distinctive leg escutcheons |
| Williams Electronics | company | Historical pinball manufacturer; founded by Harry Williams who produced Action game with Burgess battery-powered kicker |
| Chicago Coin | company | 1930s pinball manufacturer; produced Rugby game with player-figure bumper scoring mechanics |
| Stoner | company | Aurora, Illinois manufacturer; produced Turf Champs gambling game with up-to-seven-horse betting and simultaneous five-ball launch |
| P.O. | company | Rochester, New York manufacturer known for countertop gambling machines; produced Pigskin game using cast aluminum playfield inserts |
| ABT | company | 1930s manufacturer best known for coin slides; expanded into pinball production to vertically integrate and capture additional profit |
| IPDB | organization | Internet Pinball Database; modern resource allowing collectors to research machines via phone; represents third wave of pre-war pinball interest enabled by digital access |
| Vintage Flipper World | organization | Pinball arcade operated by Clay Harrell in Michigan; features rare 1930s machines including Chain of Light neon-scoring game |

### Topics

- **Primary:** 1930s pinball machine design and innovation, Pre-war pinball history and documentation, Key collectors and historians of pre-war pinball, Pinball restoration and reproduction parts, Gambling and anti-gambling ordinances in 1930s pinball
- **Secondary:** Payout vs. traditional five-ball pinball mechanics, Early pinball licensing (Red Grange/NIL), Pinball Expo's role in pre-war machine preservation

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.82) — Speakers express genuine enthusiasm for pre-war pinball history, gratitude toward key contributors (Buchel, Jensen, O'Rourke, Burke), and excitement about rare machines and innovations. Some critical commentary on failed innovations (ticket stamping, clock branding) but framed as historical learning rather than negativity. Educational tone emphasizes preservation and community support.

### Signals

- **[business_signal]** 1930s pinball pricing escalation (3x from 1935 to 1937) raised questions about whether operators could achieve proportional ROI on higher-cost machines, contributing to secondary market reliance (confidence: medium) — Speaker notes 'So it's gotta be curious to me to really get a feel for, were you gonna be able to triple your return on a machine that was gonna cost you so much more? Not necessarily the case. So a lot of the machines that were available at that time often came back into the market on a use basis'
- **[sentiment_shift]** Strong nostalgia and reverence for pre-war pinball figures (Dick Buchel, Russ Jensen, Hal O'Rourke) as foundational contributors who preserved hobby knowledge and access during pre-internet era; gratitude for their mentorship (confidence: high) — Speaker extends thanks 'to those gentlemen that have brought this opportunity for us to be able to come here today' and describes Buchel as person 'that helped me probably the most' through phone calls and personal mentorship at shows
- **[community_signal]** Pinball Expo credited as critical venue for pre-war pinball preservation, shifting from buy-sell environment to exhibition-focused community gathering that gives machines 'a new lease on life' (confidence: high) — Speaker notes 'over the years that I've attended, there were always pre-war pinball machines that came through the door at the expo, and that gave them a new lease on life' and credits Rob Burke's Expo organization as major contributor to third wave of pre-war interest
- **[design_philosophy]** 1930s pinball manufacturers pursued aggressive feature innovation (kickers, neon scoring, mechanical ticket stamping, electric clocks) with mixed success; many innovations failed due to operator complexity and maintenance burden (confidence: high) — Multiple examples: ticket-stamping innovation 'I don't believe, was very successful' due to spool tracking and inking issues; Hammond Clock branding questioned as to 'who was going to keep track of making sure that the clock was telling the right time'; neon tube scoring survived but remained rare
- **[market_signal]** Three-wave narrative of pre-war pinball interest: first wave (pre-internet era historians: Buchel, Hawkins/Muting, Jensen); second wave (parts reproduction pioneers: O'Rourke); third wave (digital/social media access democratization) (confidence: high) — Speaker explicitly outlines three waves: 'Dick and Hawkins and Muting brought us...then Russ'; 'second wave is Hal O'Rourke'; 'third wave of interest to the pre-war pinball, because with the development of the Internet and with the development of social media'
- **[licensing_signal]** Red Grange's Galloping Ghost pinball (1930s) represents possibly the first name/image/likeness (NIL) licensing in gaming, predating modern IP deals by decades; Grange was directly involved in machine design (confidence: high) — Speaker identifies Galloping Ghost 77 as 'maybe one of the first licensing opportunities that ever came to the marketplace with the use of Red Grange's name and his input' and notes machine design reflected Grange's zigzag running style
- **[market_signal]** Used pinball machines significantly undercut new machine pricing (often <$10 vs. $50-150+ for new), creating secondary market for refurbished machines at locations unable to afford new inventory (confidence: high) — Speaker shows multiple resale brochures where 'reduced price' machines still profitable for operators; notes 'less than $10 for some of these machines' in use listings and frames as 'win for them because they could still make money'
- **[product_strategy]** 1930s manufacturers offered junior/senior model variants of identical games to serve locations with different space constraints and budgets, enabling market segmentation (confidence: high) — Speaker notes 1934 development: 'the use of junior and senior models. So we basically had same game, but a little bit variance to a location, possibly having a little more space or a little less space'
- **[product_concern]** Failed innovations in 1930s pinball (mechanical ticket stamping, electric clock branding) suggest that manufacturers sometimes prioritized feature novelty over practical operator utility, resulting in poor adoption and maintenance burden (confidence: medium) — Speaker speculates ticket stamping 'wasn't very successful' and questions Hammond Clock adoption: 'who was going to keep track of making sure that the clock was telling the right time?' Frames as broader pattern of 'innovation for the sake of innovation'
- **[rumor_hype]** Multiple machines mentioned as potentially unproduced or never surfaced: Pro 11 by Advance (complex elevated-track football game), Submarine (underview ball mechanics), with speculation that fictional promotional materials were sometimes created to gauge market interest (confidence: medium) — Speaker states Pro 11: 'I don't know that any of these is have ever surfaced...I don't even know if it was produced because it wasn't uncommon sometimes for images to be conjured up and to see if there was any interest in the marketplace'; same uncertainty about Submarine
- **[technology_signal]** Internet and social media (IPDB, Facebook pre-war pinball groups) represent third wave shift enabling democratized access to pre-war pinball knowledge and commerce, contrasting with pre-internet isolation (confidence: high) — Speaker states 'with the development of the Internet and with the development of social media, now we've got the IPDB' and 'Facebook has a pre-war pinball site as well' enabling knowledge 'exchanged there' and 'a lot of commerce that exchanges there as well'

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## Transcript

 You put it there. So, all right, can everybody hear me? Good. All right, so we'll begin. We'll kind of survey the room a little bit. I'm curious. Mike and I have talked about how we want to move forward. So the first question is, we are here today to either remind you, teach you, or excite you about 1930s pinballs. I guess the first question that we had in mind was, how many people in the room own a 1930s pinball? Show of hands. Okay. How many would like to own a 30s pinball? Show of hands. All right. How many came for the free beer? Show of hands. No? Okay, all right, we got one over here. We'll watch him with security. So our opportunity today is to walk through some history related to 30s pinball machines, and then also with Mike's expertise, if you are the benefactor of owning one, how you can best maintain and refurbish and restore those machines. So that's kind of the point. I've got 40 plus years in the coin operated hobby. I had the good fortune to be at the very first pinball expo. I've come to a handful of other ones over the years and have enjoyed that experience. And Mike has got, what did we just say this morning? How many years have you got invested? Well, I bought my first coin-operated machine 40 years ago, and it was a Pepsi machine that keeps beer really, really cold. I still have it. It still works. And but I've moved on since then with the with the pre-war pinballs. It's been about 15 years that I've been working on those. All right. Well, let's get started. So we've already covered. Why are you here? Hopefully at the end of the day, you'll know you'll learn a little bit more about 30 spin balls and you'll feel better about the opportunity if you decide to go ahead and purchase one. all right so this is basically my take on a pre-war pinball hall of fame these individuals that i've listed here were significant i think certainly not only to me but the hobby of anybody that collected 30s or his collector of 30s pinballs dick buchel was a chicago advertising agency guy that had an untold passion for coin-operated machines, and he translated that into books and magazine articles and his exposure at all of the coin-operated events. The first thing I always have to remind a group like this is what I'm talking about is all pre-internet. So those of us that were in the hobby back 40 years ago, we kind of stood on an island in an effort to try and learn. And so what drove me forward is not only the pursuit of some machines, but the history behind those machines. And early on in my collecting, I was fortunate to come upon a somewhat of a significant amount of original advertising flyers for pinball machines and arcade games as well. And those became a great learning tool for me, first of all, to not only know about, learn about some of those machines, but some of the aspects because those flyers would talk about some of the features that the games held. And so then I really heightened my pursuit, not only for machines, but then also for coin op magazines, the trade publications, catalogs, anything that I could learn from. And Dick was the person that helped me probably the most. I would come to the Chicago shows next weekend at this facility will be the the annual Chicago land show that has moved around the Chicago area, but it lands here next weekend. Dick would always be at that event. I could generally get some of his time. There were phone calls that I had the good fortune to be able to make. There wasn't any email, you know, there wasn't a chance to text somebody. So it was FaceTime and then certainly at Pinball Expo. And I know Rob, he appeared here on a number of occasions on similar panels and he made himself available to the hobby. The books that he produced are Encyclopedia Pinball 1 and 2. Again, if you get back into some of the pinball or the coin-op related magazines, you'll find his information there. I don't know how readily available either one of his books are, but if you can go find them, they're certainly worth the opportunity because there's so much to be learned from those publications. Going back, we'll now move on to what was my Bible for a period of time, was the pinball reference guide that I carried with me for a very long time by the great duo of Hawkins and Muting. They brought to life for me information that I had previously not been able to find. This book gives you an alphabetical listing of machines, manufacturer dates, all of which is pretty critical if you're trying to grow your knowledge and grow your interest. And so I give credit to those gentlemen. They went on to do a revised edition, which brought to bear a full size, but they also provided a handy pocket guide that was very useful as well as I went out in pursuit of the machines. Next up is Russ Jensen. Now, Russ is a guy that was prolific at developing or providing information with photographs. In fact, I've had collectors over the years that have gone to the now available internet pinball database, and they see Russ's name. And I've had people ask me, who is this guy? Is he a big collector? And I said, no, he was a great collector of photographs. So there's so much information on the database that has Russ's name associated with it. He was also somebody that contributed to the publications, magazines that we no longer have available, but we did for a long period of time. And he would write articles about all the shows he attended, always lots of photographs and lots of information. He published some troubleshooting guides for electromechanical pinballs, but somebody that was a huge contributor to the 30s machines. His first machines were late 30s Bally's. And so there was certainly a hook into him for that era pinball. And he continued that as long as he was alive and contributing to the hobby. So I look at the pre-war pinball in sort of a three-way fashion. The early wave, I would consider the exposure that Dick and Hawkins and Muting brought us, and then certainly Russ as well. And then I have identified a second wave, and the second wave is Hal O'Rourke. And Hal was also a regular attendee at Pinball Expo when I was first introduced to him. But the thing that Hal did that made a big difference was he started looking at reproducing parts. And the parts he was reproducing were for the Rockola games, the Jigsaw game, the World Series game. And I don't know that any of the stuff that he did specifically cosmetic would have been applicable to Army, Navy, but some of the internal components. Well, now all of a sudden that's a game changer because when you've got parts available, machines that were previously considered, I don't know if I can do anything with that, then escalated because of the ability to get reproduction parts. What happened with Hal's estate is that inventory, the whole concepting of reproduction parts went on to Nate Thompson. And if you are familiar now with any of the Rockola games of that era, the mid-30s, Nate has got Buckworks as his company, and he makes those parts available. So again, that saved a lot of the games. curiously enough there were so many of the rockola games produced particularly the world series games i know there was a time in probably the early 80s that some of those were still turning up new in cartons because the way that the industry output them they often went out to people that were trying to create routes and if they weren't successful in creating routes for whatever reason And some of those games may have gone by the wayside and later on surface. So, again, persons like Hal O'Rourke, huge contributor to the hobby to be able to keep those games alive. Terry Cumming out of Canada. I talked to Terry the other day. He produced a three-volume set of all of the original type advertising, many of the images that you'll see here today in this presentation. and it was a huge catalyst to be able to teach people about all the games that are out there visually even though we had some printed materials we didn't necessarily have all of the visual support for us to be able to recognize what the themes were what the features were and so his work was certainly a large contributor to the pre-war pinball hobby and again three volumes if you can find those books, I think they're worthy of acquiring. And the last person is this gentleman sitting down here in the first row, and that's Rob, because his efforts to continue to bring the Expo along has also been a huge contribution to pre-war, because in the early days, and I talked with Rob a little bit about this today, it was a little more of a buy-sell type environment, where it's now morphed into a lot more exposure at the manufacturing level. But over the years that I've attended, there were always pre-war pinball machines that came through the door at the expo, and that gave them a new lease on life. So these people have done a huge service to be able to bring us to where I now consider us to be sort of in the third wave of interest to the pre-war pinball, because with the development of the Internet and with the development of social media, now we've got the IPDB, the International Pinball Database. You can go and look things up on your phone. You can certainly go to social media. Facebook has a pre-war pinball site as well. So, and there's an awful lot of information exchanged there. And there's also a lot of commerce that exchanges there as well. So I would say thank you to those gentlemen that have brought this opportunity for us to be able to come here today and talk to people that have some enthusiasm about pre-war pinballs. This is some of Dick Buchel's work where he took a look back at the history of sort of the origin of the pinball flyer. That's a mid-30s rocket. And then we've got, you know, Jigsaw, which is particularly well-known out of the Rockola line. Rocket, which was a Bally payout. Blue Ribbon is its non-payout version. And then the World Series. Now, this particular ad, the reason I've chosen these, there's a variety of things that I tried to find here with regard to information I wanted to share. Well, Action is a machine that's often considered as the first machine to have a kicker on the play field. And that was what the whole theme was, is that now there's action on the play field because you've got a ball that's being kicked. This ad out of a trade publication is a co-op ad, if you will, with the battery manufacturer. So they're getting credit. it, this is a Pacific amusement machine that was built by Harry Williams. And so basically Harry Williams who went on to Williams pinball Williams electronics, but this ad represents that initial kicker effort battery powered in the company that powered it was Burgess battery. This is the crazy lane game. And basically it's an opportunity for, as you'll go through and see a lot of these different ads, they're often going to be focused on how important it was for people to make money. So their gold reference here is that you can make so much profit as a result of utilizing this ad or this machine that's advertised here. This is a cover of a show magazine for the trade show. And those typically took place here in Chicago. Sherman Hotel was a destination for those shows. and this particular one, 1935, I kind of consider 34, 35, 36 as sort of the golden years of the pre-war pinball. We came from the 1900s where smaller mechanical machines, mostly countertop. There really wasn't a lot of activity on any of those games. The battery certainly changed all that. innovation has always been a huge part of this industry and even today as we heard you know the prior discussion the innovation always rolling along but the mid-30s had some innovation as well and so those shows were designed to bring people out in the industry to look at purchasing the machine to turn into you know and put into the field for their operation to be able to take advantage of the profits that were awaiting them. So this is an ad for Duval, Duval based here in Chicago. This was going to be their lineup that year, bringing five new models to the trade, to the exhibit for people to purchase and put on location In 1934 we saw Duval bringing these two games Big Bertha. Another development that happened in 34 was the use of junior and senior models. So we basically had same game, but a little bit variance to a location, possibly having a little more space or a little less space. So they were given a selection choice as to whether or not they wanted to operate a junior or senior model. This is the Excel game. And basically, you know, what we're seeing here in 1936 is we've introduced a back glass. And the back glass has gotten a little bit bigger. Earlier than this, we had machines that basically had a marquee, generally not electrified, but something on the back to identify perhaps the name of the game or some feature related to it. But in that innovation world, we continue to see growth and change. And that's an example of that. Also fun to note that the original brand new purchase price for that machine was $54.50. So hit and run. Now we've advanced to 1937. We've gotten into a bigger cabinet. We've gotten into a bigger back glass. We've gotten into more electronics in the game. Oh, look at that, we've tripled the price. So it's gotta be curious to me to really get a feel for, were you gonna be able to triple your return on a machine that was gonna cost you so much more? Not necessarily the case. So a lot of the machines that were available at that time often came back into the market on a use basis. And we'll see some of those ads here for some of the machines that came back from that standpoint at a reduced price, but were still functional and still desirable in the market. Now this is a Chicago Express and Rex. Curiously enough, another Duval game, you can see a small marquee on the back of this particular right here. And a lot of those went missing. So it's likely if you find one of those machines today, you may not have that marquee. In fact, Cliff Schoon, who has the no-flip pinball booth here, has one of those machines in his booth. And I mentioned to him today, oh, by the way, I've got an original ad that shows the marquee, which disappointed him because now he's going to have to go see if he can find one to go ahead and complete his machine from that standpoint. This is a 1935 ad from Exhibit Supply based here in Chicago as well. And what's a little curious to me about this is that there's language right in here that talks about printing your score on the ticket. Now, ticket vendors became a part of the industry. There was so much gambling in the country on coin operated equipment that there was an effort in many and many communities. there were ordinances written that said no coin payout. So the industry thought, okay, we'll do a little end run here. We can put ticket vendors in there and use tickets to still go ahead and fulfill the gambling aspect. Personal experience, I own a 1935 Exhibit Supply play ball. And it's a mechanical scoring reel that's part of the machine. It's a baseball game. So you're trying to score runs. But along with the mechanical reel, there's an engraved rubber wheel that has an ink stamping pad that rolls a complete spool of tickets forward. It stamps your score on the back of the ticket. It cuts it and vends it. So innovation for the sake of innovation. Had this conversation with my friends about my cell phone gets these upgrades. And I often wonder, to what end? What's the point? Well, I think about innovation here. That, I don't believe, was very successful. Because what has happened? Now you're asking a location to try and keep track of a ticket spool. You're also asking them to try and figure out, is the inking working? So I think that whole, we're going to tell you in 1935, we're going to give you a machine that stamps the score on the back. I don't think in 1936 anybody was stamping scores on the back of tickets because I think it became a problem in the innovation of technology. Flying Turfs, O.D. Jennings, a longtime slot machine producer. producer also as many companies that were in other aspects of coin op came forward and got into the the pinball business this is an example of that a lot of gambling a lot of gambling when you go through all these games you're going to see one ball three ball and then five ball well one ball and three balls are typically payout machines five balls are more than likely a traditional regular five ball pinball machine so they made different versions again to be able to satisfy markets where gambling was a problem and they could get around it by just having a traditional five ball game this is a game that genco produced again available for you if you go out today in the uh in the expo hall you'll see that this game is available to play it's a one of the first games with the lit back glass for scoring and in this case you're keeping baseball scoring here's some pricing information if you go up and down this line you can certainly see where some of these machines are offered at newer price, you know, brand new. And then you get down in here and you see a lot of these machines are used considerably less. And I'm sure if you're interested in buying, you'd love to buy at these prices for these machines today. So this is an interesting effort by Gottlieb. Gottlieb, at some point, decided that they wanted to have a branding platform of, let's call it Playtime. And they put that up here where it says Playtime. So they went to a clock company, the Hammond Clock Company, and bought clocks that they installed in the game. So there's clocks back in this game in the head just so they could fulfill the brand of playtime. Well, that's another question I would ask. How successful was it to put a clock in the game and who was going to keep track of making sure that the clock was telling the right time, the clock was working? So again, innovation, maybe not as beneficial from that standpoint. But again, payout type machines, and you can see pricing goes up because when you've got payout mechanisms in the machines, they typically are going to cost more. Some more versions of the Gottlieb games that were again in the payout world. 1936 were right in the heart of some of the more prolific amount of games that were being produced with payouts. More of the same from Gottlieb, again payout. And this one they tell you that you can get it with the electric clock, yet the example that they show here doesn't have electric clocks. So I'm not sure if you could just get either or, but it was at least an option to be able to go ahead and get your Hammond clock in a machine. Gottlieb, although they primarily lived in the complete pinball world, they did produce this which is a rotary merchandiser. So this is really an arcade game, but they also wanted to make sure that they took advantage of getting their clock in yet another machine. This is an OD Jennings baseball, and then the other machine's called Redman. They produced this at about the same time that they were doing the Flying Turf game, the time that they were doing Sportsman. It's got a more traditional look to it, but it's still a payout game. So they kind of changed it up to look a little bit more like the other pinball machines. A lot of the Jennings games have these escutcheons that surround the legs, and generally you can identify games just from that standpoint. But this one looked a little bit more traditional. I will say that over the years I've never seen one of these baseball games. I know there are some Jennings games out there but that's not one that I've ever seen. Jennings also made a football game. That's also some pretty rare air surrounding that game. Not at all a gambling machine as typically the case with anything Jennings related. This one was produced. There are a few examples of that. Not very many, but it's a traditional pinball play for fun with a football theme to it. Merry-go-round, another game that has marquee on the top. And I know that that's one that Cliff was able to track down and you can see that marquee and that machine and play that machine. Another Gottlieb game, but from 1934. So chain of light. Well, interesting game, but the one on the bottom, to me, that's kind of a hold my beer type game because they brought neon into the marketplace as the scoring. And again, you can go out to the no flip pinball booth and play this. And it literally uses neon tube in the game for you to be able to. It's part of the scoring. it uses a model t truck ignition coil that is fully functioned by six volt batteries to fire that coil and like those neon tubes i do know of a couple of those in addition to the one that you can see in play here Joshua Clay harrell at his facility up in michigan has one of those in his vfw the vintage flipper world that you can play there as well. Pretty low production, but a very, very unique game. So topical, well, we know how topical the pinball market is today. It was certainly topical back then as well. And in this particular case, the topical aspect were the quintuplets born to the Dion family in Ontario. And so what happened was Pacific Amusement thought, well, let's be topical and let's bring the quintuplets to market. And in this case, the quintuplets are these five games over here. And so obviously you've got all of the naming, double or nothing, hit or miss, left or right. All of those were the five games that they put underneath the quintuplets that were born out of the quintuplets being born in Canada. Speedway, another Pacific amusement game, another payout game. The really curious thing is I looked at the pricing on these and I thought, okay, why are these, you know, at this point, and then why is the Palooka considerably more? Because it basically talks about they're all on the same platform. The Palooka has six coin slides in it. So it had the ability to take in six nickels or six times the money. and we certainly know that what that translates to more gambling but you can see the price variance just based on the fact that they hung six coin slides on the front of the game spotlight the feature that they were selling here was if you could read the text again when we think about gambling what it talks in this text right here is that the way that this head was the illumination on that, that the score or the storekeeper could easily spot the score from behind the counter. They didn't have to physically walk out and witness the game to confirm what the score was, which in turn yields some sort of a prize, whether it was cash, whether it was merchandise, but that was the selling feature behind this game. We've made it easy for the storekeeper to see the winning score. Pigskin, that's a P.O. game out of Rochester, New York. Now, P.O. was a company that made an awful lot of countertop gambling and amusement machines in the early 30s. What they brought, whoop, how did I lose it? What did I do? all right so PO made the countertop games what they did on this game this is a cast aluminum piece it's insert in the play field and it's very similar to the cast aluminum elements that they made in their countertop games, but it was a way for them to penetrate the pinball market as well. Knickerbocker, official baseball. So now what we get into were the resellers widely distributing this company, the Ponser Company. You can see that they're bringing information as a big distributor and to be able to try and attract more customers So this is an example of a brochure that would have been sent out to an operator distributor to try and get them to purchase games from them More of the same This is the I think referred to as the champion model World Series Certainly the more rare version where it brings the ball down through these channels. The more typical version has a different configuration of pins on the play field. Again, more machines. We can see in this market that it looks like they've reduced the price on the Jigsaw and it would be great to be able to find them at that price today. So ABT, ABT best known for coin slides. So they were the producer of coin slides and also decided, well, why don't we get into the pinball business? So this is a group of machines that they produced to be able to give them a point of purchase within the industry. All along they were providing almost all of the coin slides that went onto the machines, but they decided to go ahead and produce machines as well to come along with the opportunity to create more profit. Again, here we've got resale opportunities, marketplace still being able to support locations where operators wanted additional machines. And if they could get them more affordably, then that was a win for them because they could still make money. More of that. This is another distributor, Supreme News. And they produce their own newspaper, basically out of New York and try to get more people. They talk about what nice people we are and the text in here and please do business with us. And oh, by the way, we'll help you make more money. That's a pretty common thread through all of the language that these advertising pieces hold. Here's again some more pricing information. If you can see these prices, you realize, okay, when we get into the use prices, it often gets down into nearly, you know, less than $10 for some of these machines that were made available. But again, if somebody had a location and they wanted more options for the consumer, these were great examples. because they were proven machines, even though they were likely going out as refurbished at that point. More of the same, used prices. Again, this was a treat for me to be able to find these kind of brochures because it taught me an awful lot about what was available, what some of the names were, and then once some of the publications came along to support it, it was great to have images because, as I said, a lot of the publications just had name, date, and manufacturer, manufacturer but it didn't always have images so this was a treat to be able to get some of the images that it helped educate me and and I was information I could share with others same more the supreme news the the information overall as far as pricing goes okay so now we'll kind of shift into an area that I've identified as sort of a I guess a unicorn example this is pro 11 by advance i don't know that any of these is have ever surfaced excuse me um what's cute well why does it keep doing that when i try to use the pointer we come back there we go we're good now all right so here it talks about all of these play players on the play field and the fact that they all move and you've got a chance to score it also has a field goal opportunity if you're not close enough what you can't see is there's an elevated track on this play field that the ball if you get it into the right hole it kicks it it travels the length of that track and you score a field goal i've never seen one i don't know anybody that's ever seen one but i don't even know if it was produced because it wasn't uncommon sometimes for images to be conjured up and to see if there was any interest in the marketplace to support it from purchases but this is one that would certainly be in that not likely to turn up. I just hope it does at some point. This might have been the original, you know, now what we call a nil-type contract, which is name, image, and likeness. Anybody here know who Red Grange was? All right. So if you're from Chicago, you sure as heck better know Ren Grange. His nickname as a football player, played at the University of Illinois, played for the Bears, was the Galloping Ghost. And so this is Galloping Ghost 77. That was Red's number. He was involved in design of the pinball machine. Again, we now know how big licensing is in the pinball industry, but to me this could have been maybe one of the first licensing opportunities that ever came to the marketplace with the use of Red Grange's name and his input. But the machine itself, and I'm sorry I didn't get the image included here, the machine has a zigzag elevated type of a channel that that's what you're attempting to do. And if you ever knew anything about Red Grange, that was his effort to run was sort of in a zigzagging fashion. This game, okay, submarine. I don't know anything about this. I don't know that it was ever produced. It talks about how the game allows for a dive. The ball goes underneath the play field. goes up the play field, pops back up, see these games and think, wow, I'd love to see one of those. But I don't know that there's out there, but hopefully one of those will surface at some point as well. And this was a particular interest of Mike. Mike played rugby. And so we talked about this game and he said, oh, I'd love to find one of those. This was a Chicago coin produced game. And what's unique about it is there are players on the play field and they are basically scoring bumpers. So as you bring the ball down the play field, each bumper, which is a small figure, rugby player, each one that you come in contact with provides for scoring on the machine. We basically get to stoners. Stoner here in Aurora, Illinois, produced turf champs and stoner had games that were non-gambling, but turf champs was one of their more popular gambling games. What's unique about that game is it allows you to input, you can bet up to seven horses, and then it fires five balls simultaneously. So it gave seven people a chance to stand around the game, all bet whichever horse they thought was going to win, and then you fire the game, it launches the balls, And then as they come down, depending on which number they land in, the first number that receives a ball is the winner. And that's the individual who bet that is the benefactor of the payout. This is a Sunshine Baseball made by Gottlieb. I know this game pretty well because I have this one in my collection. It's also a gambling game. What's unique about this game is that it features the Chicago Cubs, the Detroit Tigers, and the Cleveland Indians on the play field from Major League Baseball. But the other thing that's unique about it is the rest of the teams that are featured on the play field are all minor league baseball teams. To include names like the Toledo Mudhens, still exist, Buffalo Bisons, that club still exists, but they're all minor league clubs. And to the best of my knowledge, there's no other pinball machine or arcade game of any nature that features minor league teams, whether it's any sport. But in this case, the baseball theme, it has the opportunity. There's a hole at the top of the game that when you launch the first ball, if you're able to get in that hole, if you started the game the way it randomly puts up the odds. if you start out with a lower odds number if you're able to get it in the changing odds hole you are then hopefully the benefactor of a higher payout this game was manufactured as a one ball so you had one shot at it but they also produced it as a five ball game and that's the game that i own is a five ball payout and it pays out with two different coin mechanisms there's a nickel payout or perhaps a token. There's also a silver dollar payout or again perhaps a token. If you are able to get the 40 which then basically translates to two dollars the game pays out with half nickels and then the silver dollar. When I found this machine and went through to restore it there is a tag originally attached from the factory that instructed if you wanted to disable the 40 odds payout and reduce it to only 18 that you could do that so a little bit of hijinks there but you know that was the nature of the industry at that time this is a little bit of a close-up of the play field for that game and it shows you some of those minor league clubs that are included again so there's the 40 which if you want to you could disable it now this game is a western game called socket and western equipment was here in chicago what's curious to me about this game is that i'm not certain but it might be the first pitch and bat game now pitch and bat baseball games have long been around and are still available to play in a lot of locations today. But the way that they did this is if you look closely, there's a flap here, which is the way most pitch and bat machines work is that they have a ball and the instruction says that it'll keep pitching until you bat. And there is a bat down here. And so the player controls when they want to bat the ball. and then in this case it is a one ball game so you get one shot at it to try and win so again from that innovation standpoint this could be the first game that ever featured what became much more commonplace in the way of pitch and bat baseball games so now we move along to the most important part for mike to be able to teach you everything you need to know if you get a game how to refurbish it and make it work best. All right. Thank you, sir. Thanks, Phil. So, first of all, if you – somebody put their hand up that they were looking for a game. In the No Flip booth, Rob has his Madcap. There's a Madcap game down there that I was just reminded that's on there that's leaning up against the wall, and it's for sale, right? Yeah, Shune. Yeah. And Cliff Shune showed his one single 1930s game. So then you got a goofy guy like me who walks up to it and says, well, that's kind of cool. let me buy one and two and then three and then five and then ten and um but there's something there's magical about it because it you know this is where it all started so anyone that's not seen the 30s exhibit you have to do it but the reason i wanted to come up here and talk about mike is um i don't know how i found him or or if he was listing something for sale or how i got your that's it you you bought okay i bought a game for him i said you know i got a bunch of more games who could use some help. Well, he has seen my drive for about three separate trips. But the point being, there's a lot of great guys in the hobby like Mike, and he's really helped me a lot, and he's helped me bring a lot of these old games back to life. So any of you out there that need some help, this is the guy to see it. However, I hope he'll put you on the waiting list because I've still got some more games to fix. But I guess the whole thing I want to mention about is the community is really great. And in so many aspects, no matter what level of interest you are with pinball, you'll find someone there to help you out. Phil Emmerich, this young man from Colorado, I believe, right? Colorado Springs, yes. So I heard about him years ago, but over time, you know, as the hobby exploded and pinball exploded, you know, you talk to him more often. The next thing you know, he's my bosom buddy. So he's here today. But, you know, that's another thing. When you guys are here, make sure you make a point to meet the people here at Expo, including the international people. They're really interesting themselves. So I got the hi sign, so I better get going. Back to you, Ed. Okay. Bye. So thanks, Rob. And you're overly kind to me, as usual. And it's been my pleasure. And again, I've worked on, I think, around 40 of Rob's machines so far. And so each one is a really cool learning process. And I hopefully get better and better as we go on. So I'm just going to roll through some slides here, talk about, and I want to be really clear. This is just my method there folks in here I sure who I sure I know your name from the Facebook group the pre group and folks that probably do way better work than I do But this is just the way that I do it. And I'm not a restorer. It doesn't look brand new. I'm a patina guy. that Pepsi machine that I bought 40 years ago still looks like it did the 30 years before I got it. So, but, but they work. That's always one of the things that I told my kids is I like old stuff, but it's got to work. So must have tools. One of the great things about working on these is you don't need a huge tool cabinet. Don't tell my wife that as I want to go buy a metal lathe, but, but so just, just going through it, I brought my micrometer, my micrometer with me, but you know, the, the flex stone to be able to, to polish the, the contacts, slotted screwdrivers, needle nose pliers. One of those little magnet thingies on a telescoping is, is just incredible. So those are it. And what I found is that a lot of people that do this, you know, make their own tools, make their own methods. When you're pulling the pins out, to be able to have a little jig that goes around the pin so you're not ripping the wood apart every time you pull a pin, just simple things like that. So the resources that I want to talk about. I'm a shop local kind of guy. So my first stop before I go anywhere else is to the Waddington Hardware Store, which is the local hardware store in my village. I see if they have the part that I want. If they don't have the part, I ask the guy behind the counter. I bring it in, hey, can you find a lock like this? By the way, they can't find the four-inch acorn bolts if anybody's looking for those. Pinball resource, the pinball database is absolutely phenomenal for, and that's the, you know, the go-to place for each one, the pre-war pinball site. Just doing a random search on YouTube, pinrepair.com is where I, when I first started, I had a, my first pinball machine was a, is still have it is a 1972 Gottlieb dimension. I think it's 72. Um, great machine. Um, my first pre-war I got at a estate sale, uh, because I had the pinball book. I can't remember who wrote that one, the price guide. Um, and it said the world series was a really valuable one. And I saw it came up at an estate sale. I'm like, oh, I'm going to go buy that. And then I was just so fascinated that I continued. But the other thing that I want to mention that's not on the slide is the United States Patent Office. If you're looking to research things, especially like coin slide parts, if you have to build them, you can find a lot of the specs on the patent site. You have to, they don't put the measurements in there You have to print them out and figure out the measurements But it's good to spend some time that way So the first thing that I do is I say what works on the machine How does it work? That's the fun part is figuring out the mechanics Figuring out the electrical parts of it What's broken? What am I going to have to replace? and then what can I save from that machine. But that's part of, before I start cleaning anything, before I start doing anything, I'm trying to figure out how it works and what it was supposed to do, and that's where I go to some of those other resources as well. The next thing is to catalog the whole process. This little guy right here, as much as I hate social media and cell phones on other things, boy, are these handy to have in terms of just taking a ton of pictures to be able and go back. This one is not one of Rob's, but one that I picked up around Philadelphia and it's a Stoner Crossroads. And it's really, really cool. These are little elevators. So when the ball goes in here, the solenoid drops down pops it back up and puts it on the the raised trail super cool and actually when i looked on the the in the internet database the description that's there and you'll find this too the description that's there doesn't work for my game my game is actually wired a little bit differently than the than the person that wrote up this description and i think that's relatively common that, you know, changes were made here or there. So next thing is dismantling it. Handy tools and tricks, I already said, you know, a little jig to be able to pull out the nails. Different manufacturers have tendencies. So for posts, some of them went in like nails, some of them went in as screws. And so just getting to know them. sort and and magnetic trays and bins. I'm rolling. Okay. Magnetic trays and bins as much as you can sort that stuff out. Cleaning and polishing. These are pretty much the only things I go to now. I think you have to be really careful with the paint on on the old ones and some of the cleaners. But boy, Murphy's oil soap works incredibly well. Refinishing, I love this stuff, this Restora finish. Restora finish is interesting because it actually emulsifies the original finish that's there a little bit. And so you can't shellac over top of it, but it does fix many things that are there. and then I love Howard's Feed and Wax as well. If I build a new, if I make a new piece, a new door or a back door or something like that or a lockdown bar, I'll use shellac. I just don't like polyurethane very much and I like the way that shellac looks. More cleaning stuff. This stuff in the middle, evapo-rust, like that game that I just showed you. I pulled all the pins out. I soaked them in evapo-rust overnight. All the rust disappears. The next thing I'm going to do is put them in the tumbler and hopefully shine that stuff up. And then an ultrasonic cleaner is handy too. It's not necessary, but it is handy to get a lot of gunk out. Elevators. So this is, we don't really have time to show it, but this was something I was particularly proud of. On a coin slide, many of them don't drop the coin right below. They have to go around this little elevator thing to go into a collection tube, especially on the payout machines. And these are made of pot metal and they fall apart. So I was able to enlist my nephew to do a 3D scan and a 3D print. and he was able to 3D print the part for me. And one of the games, one of Rob's games that's over there right now has one of these 3D printed parts in it. So that's the part about technology that we can really take advantage of. You don't need to see the video. The plungers, obviously different makers had their different tendencies. for those. What I found, one of the things, the handy tools is a tap and die set that, you know, you could get relatively cheaply anywhere, but a lot of times, you know, we're not going to find the same thread size as are on these rods, but you can, you know, use a tap and die set and fix that. so reassembly did you take a lot of pictures because that's what i do is i go through and i pick up this one section of the play field and i make sure all the pins went back in that section of the play field and and reassemble it as we go and this was my attempt at a joke for uh humpty dumpty you know falling off the wall all the pieces together and nobody okay you'll get it later and giggle. This should have appeared earlier. If you've never, if you have never seen one of these, the ElectroPak, that's good. So I've been told, and somebody might disagree with me, when you get one of those, throw it out. Because this, I forget what this thing is called here. The selenium rectifier. Thank you. Sounds like it's from Star Trek. Selenium rectifiers are bad and can be toxic and cause cancer, things like that. You want to eliminate those. The multimeter, super handy. You spend a lot of time tracing wires, just the continuity tester. Does this go from here to here and putting those things together to help you figure out the logic that's behind it. And then they're all generally DC powered. So if you go to the pre-war booth, you'll see some of them are plugged in. The ones that I work on for Rob, he wants a transformer inside of him. Cliff likes batteries. And so either one works, but these are examples. I use a 12 volt rechargeable battery. Cliff uses six volt lantern batteries. And he's had one, he's had some in his game for two years. So I don't even know if I need to invest in the rechargeable. And then springs and switches. Hold on to your old stuff, your old junk so that you can make, you're going to have to make parts as it goes through. So don't throw anything out. Springs are especially difficult to find. That's where your micrometer comes in handy to be able to get the size of the spring wire. So again, you can do some research and figure out how they make springs that it's the length of the spring, the number of coils in between, the type of wire that's used and the actual diameter of the wire itself. Okay. We'll skip this. Screws and bolts. I'll just say that I like to put on slotted screws because that's what was there originally. A lot of times you have to special order from a hardware company the oval-headed slotted screws because they just don't carry those in stock. Again, be really, really careful of plastics and metals and leaving them soaking in anything too long. The paint wasn't as good back then. Tilt mechanisms. A lot of times the tilt mechanism is going to be the thing that stops it from working. So you want to... And the tiny timer. These things are really cool as far as a tilt mechanism, but they get gummed up. And if somebody's got a way that they know, because I haven't figured it out yet, about how to un-gum them, de-gum them so that they work again. You got one? All right. I'll talk to you. Okay. With the balls, I go to Pinball Resource whenever I can, but House of Marbles has them. Buckworks has them. Again, use your micrometer as best as possible. Sorry, I know I'm running over time. And legs levelers and bolts, again, the evapo-rust, if they've got the levelers on the bottom, I like to keep the old ones and evapo-rust will free that stuff up so you'll be okay. Legs were very part specific to the different manufacturers, but it is just a piece of wood so you might be able to find a local craftsman to recreate them for you. And then with the labels, I've had good luck with this fellow here who's in the Netherlands. Is he here? Oh, he's not from the Netherlands? He is. Okay. All right. Okay. And then we had Q&A, but I think we're out of time, Phil. Okay. Thank you all very much for your time.

_(Acquisition: youtube_groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 79331519-8e96-405f-8a89-a7d2310ab6c2*