🎵 Hello and welcome to another episode of the Classic Pinball Podcast. My name is George and today we're going to talk about a game called Bally Speakeasy. Speakeasies found their place in society during the time of Prohibition in the United States. From 1920 to 1933, the terms outlined in the 18th Amendment made the manufacture, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages illegal in the United States, but that didn't stop people from having drinks. To cater to the very large population of people who still wish to drink, hidden bars and nightclubs were established in cities across the country. The term speakeasy is thought to have come from the patrons having to whisper or speakeasy when attempting to enter the hidden bar. I got a call, again, I get a lot of these calls from customers. Well, they've heard how many stories already today. Yeah, exactly. People get sick of listening. No. I think they live vicariously through this because where else are you going to get these stories from? People have to go out and search for stuff. This stuff comes to me, which is nice. Okay. Years ago, I was out searching. We're not a very sticky podcast. Sticky meaning? I think a lot of people listen to the episodes they like and then don't listen to other episodes that they don't like. Where with other podcasts, it's more of a serial and they might listen every week. we don't seem to have that stickiness, but the premise always was for the show was to archive games that you and I either own or play, and now, because you're in business up to your eyeballs, we have all these stories of games and how you acquire them. I'm guessing people want to hear about it. I always like listening. Hey, I like listening. You come across. Grant does. Grant certainly does. Well, he made a comment. What was his... Oh, I don't have my notes in front of me. Oh, I know. I sent him a picture of all those Godzillas that were at Pentastic lined up. He said, no wonder, mate, why we don't have any of those games here. They're all at your show. I started laughing. That's good. Anyway, continue. So you got this game. So they called me up and said, I get to speak easy. It kind of works, but this and that. and I just want it gone. It's in the way. I don't want to put it downstairs and basically come get it. I was like, come get it? Okay. Come get it? Yeah, come get it. Just come get it. I say, you don't want anything for it? He says, no, I'm not worried about it. Okay. Where'd you go? You know, this is the second time. You know what happened to me the first time? What town in? Newton. Was this person? It's a money town. I say, okay, it's a money town. They don't care about dough. So when I went there, you know, the house wasn't any great shakes. They looked like they could... They just wanted the room. They could use the money. Was the wife there saying... Yeah, she was there too. Was she happy seeing it go bomb by yod? No, she wasn't that type of wife. No, they were both cool. It was like the other time when I got a call about a beautiful skateball that was like home use only working and come get it. And that was about two years ago. So you basically had your six guns on, and you brought this home. Well, I went there, and I was talking to him, and he told me the whole story about this game. There's some history here. The guy who owned this game, he's owned it for like over 20 years. He had some health problems, so he couldn't play anymore. He's got, I don't know, Alzheimer's or something going on where he just basically can't. So he gifted it to his friend who does carpentry and house restoration, whatever, who is this guy. and he said, you know, I really probably, maybe I should get some money for it. He says, yeah, let me know. It's like it's worth something. So I gave him a little bit of money for it just to kind of give it to the guy, you know, which is fair, you know, instead of me just taking it. So I gave him some dough. So then he told me about it. He bought it. Then I'm looking inside, and he said the reason why he called me, I put some color-changing lights up there. Oh, yeah, City of Lynn. This came out of years ago. Lynn, Lynn, the city of sin. And I kind of, so we're going to start with that too, George. There's a Lynn sticker on the back glass. Like that was amusement device, you know, vendor. That's the money sticker. The tax sticker for the city of Lynn. This thing was somewhere. So I said, how did you find me? Oh, your name was inside the game. And I look inside the game. It's like, wow, I restored this game back in the early 2000s and sold it. I owned this game a long time. This is my game I restored. So the person that gave it to the person. Was my original customer. Really? Yeah. And now it's came back to me. That's called a boomerang. This game boomed. This game found me. And I'm looking at it, you know. Did you remember doing this? I remember buying this game years ago from a guy in Rhode Island probably back in the late 90's I had it for a while I bought this game back then because I remember fondly playing it in Fun and Games Arcade and I bought it and I cleaned it and I played it but then it just didn't wow me like it did when I was a kid and it's like oh I'm going to move it on after about a year playing it I'm going to move it on so I did and I sold it to this guy I think the guy's name is David as well and it's weird. When I look back at what I've done in the 2000s for quote-unquote restoration versus now, it doesn't compare to what I do now. I've learned so much over the years. You look at your list and it's like, that was junk. Have you told the people what this game is? No, I don't think I have yet. Hey, what is the name of the game? I know you're all wondering what the name of the game is. The name of the game is a 1982 Bally Speakeasy. Two-player. Now, again i don't know much about this game other than i know the audience either does or doesn't remember but i bought the playfield and it had some of the mechs on at the flyaway and some other things and i sold it all off i bought it for like 20 bucks at allentown and then i'm making a couple hundred bucks on all the pieces um are all these edible games is it edible it was an edible game but it's also a replay game. It's both. It does replays and add a ball. That's the weird thing with this game. Is this... And it has a small head. Look at the skinny head. I'm noticing a lot of... Why? Why did they go in this direction? It seems like... It's a one-off. Someone had an idea. That's expensive to do a one-off. And this wasn't a very popular game either. It wasn't. I think they made 3,000 of them. Were they trying to capitalize on, hey, we haven't made an add-a-ball game in a long time. People like those. Probably. I guess. Yeah. Yeah. So the back glass is smaller as well. Yeah, back glass is unique, smaller. I actually own a four-player speakeasy back glass. Oh, they made this in two? And those all went overseas. Those all went to Australia and other places, and those are made a four-player version. So this is probably a pretty rare game. It's kind of a rare game. You don't see this all the time. Although this game, was it Pentastic recently? The last Pentastic we just had? They had this game there. Well, we played it. That was Dave. Yeah, it was Dave, yeah. That was one of the Daves. Rhode Island, yeah, one of the Daves. The good thing about this game one of the good things about it is the play field is indestructible It a plastic resin fiberglass play field that doesn wear out So this game was filthy when I got it I just spent about maybe a million hours Yeah, like 15 hours on it, just going through and taking, cleaning everything on it, cleaning, buffing. How much fun was it with all those switches on the roulette wheel? Those actually switches are still good. I didn't have to even touch those at all. I took it apart. I cleaned everything inside there to make it nice. But the bulbs were all burned out. This guy played this game so much. All the GI bulbs were burned out. They're all silver-colored, burned-out bulbs. Now, the reason I'm not a fan of this and other games like it is the flyaway targets. Only two games are made with that. This one and Grand Slam. That's it. It's kind of unique. Yeah, I don't know. You have to get them in order, George. You have to get them in order, 10 through 8. I just don't like the mechanics of it. Too gimmicky. It's just not my thing. But I got a lot of money for that thing. I bet you did because you can't find them. Well, again, this is going back 15 years, maybe longer. I mean, I sold the playfield, I remember, for $100. Bargain. Bargain. But, I mean, these playfields don't wear out, though. I don't know why somebody bought it. I don't care. I mean those were the good old days we've talked about it too many times I mean it's kind of a it's a nice period piece you know speakeasy has that kind of this would look good next to what's it called 8 ball champ 8 ball champ has the same kind of old 1920s theme so that brings up a question ever been to a speakeasy yes I have actually yeah where In Hudson, there's a speakeasy down there. You knock on the door, they slide the thing over, there's a bar downstairs. They have it right now. It's a pretty cool place. Let's go there right now, George. We'll take this on the road. We're having some juice right now. The audience has heard before, I've been to Stowe several times skiing, and they actually have a speakeasy on premise. Oh, it works fine? Well, no, that's the story. Oh. I've been there, I don't know, at least four times, maybe more. And you said, hey, you want to go to the next? I've never had the opportunity to go to the speakeasy. Oh, not the game, the actual speakeasy. No, the actual speakeasy. A speakeasy, going in there and speaking. You're on the town square where you can walk around where all the stores are. And you'll see this utility closet down like eight or ten steps. so it's subterranean and you would never know i had to go out i had to ask somebody actually at the resort i said i know there's a speakeasy here where is it and they said they pointed they go over there i go down there they're like yeah that's where the bar is and i guess two guys from boston go up there mess of times during the winter and they're the mixologists so it sounds like pretty cool. We're going again. It's funny, because the last time we talked about this, you probably don't remember. Yeah, I do. There's a bunch of tyranny going on. No, no, no. You were talking about knuckle-hucking. Ah, knuckle-hucking, yes. The knuckle-huck. So, that's starting up again. I don't know if you've been watching. Oh, X-Cames? Well, it's coming. Good. I love that stuff. No, I know you do. I love that stuff. In fact, I'd love to do it, but I need to work out first. So, are we going to talk about, or play this or well i'll meet i'll say some some things about this game so this game is pretty unique uh it loves to give out of balls you can get up to nine out of balls it also can subtract balls from your play as well for some our audience is older but maybe they don't know because it's not add a ball means what add a ball is extra ball multiple extra balls so only how do you earn it so game so people like in new york and connecticut maybe new jersey no okay new york and connecticut very they didn't allow free games because it considered gambling so you get free balls because that wasn't gambling that's how your government works your government does not really go by logic but that's okay but how does one get a free ball on this game on this in many ways you get actually two free balls by getting the top cards five through nine in order you get them in order you get two free balls those are the lanes lanes the top lanes and is a setting in here you either get you can go 5 through 9 or 9 through 8. As long as you get them in sequence, you're okay. Also, say you're sort of out of sequence. Say you've got a 7 on the ball and you lose the ball and you have over 25,000 points on the score. There's a button on the side here called the sacrifice button that will, you hit the button before you shoot the ball, your ball 2, it'll take out 25,000 points. No way. Yeah, it'll take off 25,000 points off your score. it'll put this back in the sequence even with your 7 still on here and then you're still in sequence. Oh, because it's a holdover to the next ball? Yeah, next ball. Oh, so it doesn't reset. It doesn't reset, but it puts you back in a sequence. No, I understand the premise behind it. That's a pretty cool feature. You're not a big extra button guy. I'm not. So it's kind of a gambling game because you're in a speakeasy. It's all about gambling. It's about sacrificing. It's about putting up or shutting up, that kind of thing. So that's one way for sequence. The other sequence is the flyaway targets, 10 through ace in the middle of the flyaways. Get those in order. Only one way. 10 through ace. When you do that, it adds a ball. Okay, I'm going to ask the dumb question. Yeah. What happens if you do 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 in the lanes and then continue 10, jack, queen, king, ace? Do you get something like super special? Say that question again. Say you don't hit anything on the flyaways. Yeah, yeah. And you get 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 in order. Okay. Then you come and say, okay, now I want to hit the flyaways, and I hit those in order on top of all the ones on top. Do you get like a super duper special? I don't think so. Okay. Not that I'm aware of. Because I think what happens once you do that, these reset again and you start again. Okay. Yeah. The other thing you do in this game is. Because that would be like the double super straight. Right. Right. And also the super straights, that's not allowed in San Francisco these days, just so you know. It's against the law. I was wondering when you were going to do. Took you a long time. Took you a long time in this show. We got there, George. We got there. Yeah, of course we did. So the middle of the game has this little roulette wheel, which is very exciting. And somebody paid up for that thing, too. I bet they did, because where are you going to find one? So it has an add-a-ball in it, and it has a subtract-a-ball in it, and it has points as well, and it spins. So you spin it with a little saucer on the left and the right. there's so many ways to win an add-a-ball in this game that I found when I played it back in the day or back when I owned this game the game would just last too long I kept winning balls it's like okay I'm ready for this game to end it's almost like playing a ramp game it's too long of a game so the way to make this game shorter is by making it tougher you can actually toughen up the settings so they're more conservative versus liberal and everybody's happy when you're more conservative than liberal George. How does that flyaway target work? Alright, so you hit a target, it goes up and it sticks. Hit them all up. So is there a switch up there? I don't remember. There's a little switch. There's a little tab at the end of the flyaway that gets tucked into a little leaf switch. And it holds it? It holds it. Almost like a magnet, but it holds it like a magnet. It holds it right up there. And once Once you get them all in there, once you get them all up, it makes a solenoid on the right side of the playfield pull in and it brings them to the side slightly and it falls off their switch and they all fall down I guessing that the reliability of that is probably not as high as other mechanisms That why they didn use it in a lot of games I've had no problem with it. I didn't have to do anything at all. Some people will adjust that mech, but it's a bad mojo if you do adjust it. I left that alone. That was working fine. It's a pretty game. It's a very pretty game. Actually, I was liking playing. I did a little bit of playtesting on it. I worked on it all day yesterday for like 10 hours to get ready for today's show to get this happening. So it's all working nice now. So do you want to play? Yeah, let's play it. Let's play. It's a two-player game. We have two players. So why not? Let me see. I'll put this. Let me put that there for a second. Let me get another thingy-jiggy. It is a pretty game. You know, this would look really good if I didn't. Now, this is already pre-sold. So I got this game about maybe a week and a half ago. This is my quickest flip I've ever done. So how did somebody find out that you had it? Well, the customer with the Star Wars with a weird problem, she wanted to surprise her husband for Christmas with a game. So this was the one. Well, this is the one, but here's the thing. And I gave her a fair warning, whatever you want to call it. When he came in, I was working on the Star Wars, getting all the stuff done. He works long hours in a medical facility. I think he's a heart surgeon or something. He came in, and before he was even home, when I was working the game, he says, I want to buy him a game. Let me know. And I told her what I have. I said, I have a couple games. Maybe it might fit the bill. Okay, well, don't tell him anything. It's a surprise. I said, okay. He came in, and I said, hey, so are you looking for any games in the future? He said, oh, yeah, I like the Williams stuff from the 90s, this and that. And I said, what about the older stuff? Oh, it's okay, too, but I really like the 90s, you know, the 90s Williams stuff. It's okay. So I know where he's at, and that's what he owns. He owns 90s, and he owns an EM. This game does not fit that. This is an early 80s ballet, not anywhere in the ballpark. So when she emailed me, she said, okay, what do you think? I said, well, I have this game here. It's a speakeasy. It's going to be in nice shape. I'm going to go through it. And she wants it delivered, like, you know, a week before Christmas. This is the fastest game out the door. It's the fastest game out the door ever. Because this game was actually, I restored this game 20 years ago, so I know a lot of the heavy lifting is already done on it, and I know that I can get this turn-as-around quickly, so it wasn't some unknown thing. So I know I can get it done. I just had to devote time to it. So I emailed her, and I said, okay, I have this game, but just so you know, I talked to your husband on the down-low, and this is what he kind of wants. This game would fit well, though, in a diverse collection, because he has a Data East 90s, he's got a William 90s. What's the worst case? It boomerangs back again. her back again. Right, exactly. That's fine. That's okay. He's not really into it. He'd like to trade it in. I'm sure Fair Deal Dave will come back and say, of course I can accommodate you. Sure, sure. No, this is a unique game. Did he make a lot of these? No, they made, I think, 3,000 of them, tops. Maybe less. So I told her all about it. I sent her some pictures, and I sent her pictures not from my game, but IFBD, and said, here's the deal. She goes, done. I like it. And I gave her a price. Done. Perfect. You know? It's a card game. It's a gambling game. So let's talk about that for a second. Again, fantastic reference. So we talked about your competitor, Zach Frey. Zach Frey. We did? Yes. Remember I told you Upstate New York has a lot. The guy that you played and lost to. Oh, him. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Zach Frey. Young guy. Oh, competitor on playing, but not fixing. Did you know, I'm going to guess no. Did you know that he had a homebrew game at Pentastic? I did not know that. Okay. What was it? Well, I'm going to, it's pretty easy to identify. Okay. It was the game without a head. And it was called Poker. No, I never, I didn't know anything about that one. I didn't know where that even existed. Okay, just again. Okay. was it was it bad no i i want you to i want you to understand who again you were playing against oh he likes poker so he's playing poker so he's thinking three steps ahead no well even more so okay he's this talented he didn't use anybody's board set to do his own homebrew. Okay. He created his own. That's pretty good. That's going to... Look at the big brain on Brad. Yeah. So, Zach... Or Zach. Zach. I like Brad better. That's... You were... It's good that you didn't know who it was. I'm just adding to the pile. So, you really think that he actually was five steps ahead? He's like number 30-something. Was he five steps ahead in the TNA because he knew... You know, they didn't have him on. I listened to their latest podcast. They didn't have him on. He's usually on every once in a while. But when I see him, oh, I'm all over him like a cheap suit. I want to know. Yeah, I want to know, too. I want to know. I want to know what he's thinking. I want to know if he set you up. Yeah, that's all I want to know. I think. Because I didn't think of it at all. George started saying, oh, you're set up. I was like, I didn't get that. I didn't read that on him. I did not read that. Like I said, it's good that I wasn't there. But it could be. I would have gotten your head. You would have gotten my head. You would have gotten me all more nervous. Talented guy. Yeah. Talented guy. But I did well against him on the old school. You did great. We'll do it again. I want to do a classic tournament here sometime. It's going to find some quality people. I'm not. You know, I'm. Crickets. Yeah, you know, you've got to be this tall to ride this ride. The way you're going, nobody's going to come. No, I know. Because they don't know if they're going to get skewered by us. No, I've got a new crew. I've got a nice new crew, based. So, are we going to play this thing? Or are we going to just sit here and... Pontificate. Let's see. Let's see if it... Does it talk? No. It does not talk. Yeah, somebody... So they cheat down the sound. They went back to like 1980. But I'm just saying, it's... This game makes no sense to me. It doesn't. Never did. I don't... It's weird how they did this game. So show us how it's done. All right. You want me to hold the... Here, like this. You go like that. I'm just going to go across like this. Okay, that works. All right. You don't care. It'll be okay. All right. Here we go. Carton sequence. Let's go. Shooting the ball. And we get an eight, which out of sequence already. That's a good way to start. Okay, a couple flyaways. I didn't even really level this game, so we're kind of in code two rules here. That's okay. You never do. I never do. Yes, I do. Okay, so did you get those first two cards in sequence? No, we're not in sequence anywhere. We're in no sequence. So now I'm back in sequence. If I can get that ten. Yeah, you hit it. In sequence. Oh, I'm in sequence. Yeah, so you're right. So the flyaway targets, he's hit them left to right. He's hit targets one, two, and three Or ten jack queen So hit the king And if I see if I hold the ball here It can go out like a gottlieb and lose Oh it's got open returns Yes open taco So you hit that king and it didn't go down I did well I didn't quite hit it hard enough I think Add a ball Oh I got add a ball see George Bing and he gives a little pop for that Oh you hit all the targets Oh so you're pretty good I got four balls. See, this is why this game, I need to make it even harder, because it's like, you can play this game for a long time. Let's see if I can get something here. I'm still not a fan of the flyaways. Now I out of sequence Yeah Oh okay So how did you get the multiplier I think by getting the flyaways Yeah, see, all the flyaways. Yep, you just got 5X. It's got the generic targets like all these games from Midway Bolly back in the day. Which one? Those bumper caps. Those are on Kings of Steel. No, not the same. I don't think so. No? They look very similar. I don't know. They could have put something better on there. They could have. It almost sounds like... And the blue... I don't get the blue. The blue in the... Yeah, there's no... That should all be green. Yeah, it should be green. There's no blue on the entire playfield except for the posts and the lane guides. I got 545. Yeah, I'm not going to even come close. No, you might. No, I'm not. Let's get the cards in order. Okay, let's see. Seven. You're out of order already. On any other game? You're out of order. You're out of order. That would have been good. And you're out of order everywhere. Okay, so I like that part. That you can shoot the flyaways and actually get a lane as well. If you go in the right saucer, four times you'll get extra ball. That's not going to work that way. Okay, I got all the flyaways down. And that's a multiplier by getting the flyaways in. Now you're at two times. Okay, so that's good. It's not a bad little game. No, it's not. It's pretty basic. It's pretty basic. Yeah, it's a nice valley. Yeah. It goes in a certain kind of, you know, if you like a gambling... Oh, you get the roulette wheel at the end of every ball? Yes, you get every ball. You get a little special roulette wheel situation going on. There you go. That's better. Yes, you do. All right, here we go. get the seven... Oh, I could have sacrificed, but I didn't. Well, you have points. But I don't really need them. Right, I only have 117,000 points. Yeah, this is, uh... They won't be disappointed in this game. No, it's something different. Well, you're certainly not going to see another one for a while. No. That's for sure. There we go, King. There we go. Yeah, you've got to hit the target. Add a ball when lit. Really? How do I get an add a ball when lit? That's weird. Where? Up top. If I get a ball down. Add a ball when lit. Yeah, see if I get a ball. See the top. I don't know what you did. I don't know either. Boy, that's going to give me a joker. Oh, the ball doesn't come out into the play field. It goes right down. It gives me a joker. Oh, I don't like that. No, that could be dangerous. With that open lane there, yeah. Okay. Yeah, it's a... Maureen actually likes this game. Maureen actually wanted me to keep this game. Nah, I don't know about that. Well, she likes Funhouse too, which I'm not a big fan of either. Oh, did you... Are you aware of that... What? Newness? What? Funhouse? Yeah. What are they doing now? Are they going to do one of those too? New back glass. Really? really wow no I did not know that yeah go look it up not my thing it's a new car alright that's a that's a free ball I think or is that a free game you got free games you must have the threshold set 1.3 million stop I hate you I do in a loving kind of way I really do ok so I don't like this part either Why is there a 1, 2, 3, 4 with jokers on the right? Because if you get those 1 through 4, you can add up. You get a ball. So now you're at 1. You're going to get three more of those. You get a free ball. Unless you lose the ball like that. Maybe you can add a ball here. You could get an add-a-ball. Oh, you got subtract-a-ball. Oh, yeah, you have zero. You might have lost the game. I'm really good. Oh, my God. Oh, you suck. Now, let's see if you're still on the board here. Did it give it to you? So it's a three ball game So if I gotta subtract a ball I got nothing You gotta play your last game Yeah you got nothing You're out Oh I don't like this game Well it's like gambling You choose your money You take your chances Whatever that thing says You play your chances I don't know about this game This game is easy George I get that I get the ace again. Another extra ball. It's all about extra balls in this game. Another extra ball. Pop. There you go. Another extra ball. Like a two. Oh, we're going to be playing this for a while. You're If I get that five up top. I'm not doing anything except holding a microphone. Well, you know. Oh, another. What is that? So you have 94,000 in bonus? Yeah, I think. How do you get that much bonus? I don't know. I don't know, George. I need the... Oh! This one needs a level of this game. I do like the roulette wheel. The roulette wheel? I do. I had to clean that all up. That's nice and shiny. It's all, like, crappy. If I get to five... Five. Come on, five. If I get to five, I'm happy here. Let's see. I've got the spinner. Nope. Nope. Wrong side of the play field. The other way. Maybe. Maybe. Yeah, obviously the tilt is not set very well. Okay. One more ball to go? Oh, add a ball. Almost add a ball. Alright, one more ball. Almost two million. Okay, now I need to get that five. So you're going to claim that you didn't play this. I have not played this at all. I haven't. Stop it. I haven't played it at all. My first complete game. I have to restore it. Okay. Re-restore it. I should say re-restore it. All right. Up top again. Come on. Let's see. Hmm. No. Ten. Oh, you suck. Could be add a ball. Add a ball. I could have shaken some more. All right. How many credits do you need? Nine credits? I got nine credits for that, George. He didn't like me so much. I got two million. Thank you. So don't worry about tomorrow, take it today. Forget about the chips, we'll get hell to pay. Have a drink on me. Have a drink on me. Yeah, have Yeah