Bingo Pinballs

This page was created on 03/04/2016 _ Last updated 04-18-2014

Jay at the IPDB sent us one pages of the 1980 Amusement Review with his Mystery List of Bally Bingos and questioned a bunch of us on that little white article on the right, that references Bally demonstrating a Solid-State High Flyer in Europe that same year:

Now, check out that blurb next to it: “Bingo Limited Here; Big Market Overseas _ Read that Carefully!!

~ Wow! A Solid-State Bally released before Bally’s last bingo Continental ~

Even more shocking: Jay’s Mystery List identify’s several unknown Bingos with (4) total after Continental!!

Hi Danny,

I haven't emailed you in a long while. I hope you are doing well.

I was researching a pinball machine for a guy in Tokyo, which caused me to pull out my copy of Amusement Review, Jan/Feb 1980.

When I was done, I decided to peruse through the issue to see what else is there, and I found an interesting little comment on page 3, upper right corner:

Bally presented the prototype of the first electronic bingo, High Flyer,
(previously an electro-mechanical model) at the recent ATE show in
London and expects the first full production electronic bingo to be on
the line in early summer.

Well, the first SS bingo we have on the IPDB is 1980 Bally Continental, but I thought of your website and look what I found there:

http://danny.cdyn.com/hybird101a.htm

Your text indicates the ebay seller said this High Flyer had a kit applied to it. I don't know what such a kit would look like, so I don't know if maybe he mis-judged this particular High Flyer. Maybe it was the prototype? I would think that Bally would have done more to make it solid-state than what the pictures show, but I don't know.

What do you think? Have you seen other EM bingo games having the exact same "kit" as seen in your pictures of the "hybrid"?

Jay

P.S. I scanned and attached the magazine article so you can see for yourself.

_My Reply _

Jay: From what we know, in 1980 bally was seriously winding down, the electro-mechanical engineers were gone and no one knows who was doing this digital stuff. Phil has one shot of the continental's internals and it reflects the schematic, which is clearly a set of boards that lines up with a 6-card format. From what I can find, it looks like the Continental also lines up and matches many of the early Belgium bingos. The bingos I refer to as being from “The Dead Years” and “The Dead Zone” – etc. Based upon this, it would be my guess that the High Flyer mentioned in the article would have followed that same format. Few engineering resources still in place, very similar games, and Bally’s history “reusing technology as often as possible” it would make sense for them to standardize as much as possible. I also say that with some certainty because of the solid-state technology seen in the High Flyer I posted. That type of modular construction only came out in the 1990s.

……Thxs for copying me on the article - i very much appreciate that……

~

_ Naturally, Jay writes back and asks me a few questions on my theory! _

Hi Danny,

I am understanding you to say that you believe the High Flyer prototype at that ATE show would have had solid state circuit boards in it, not like the game on your website with the box attached to the back of the backglass and with the long cables hanging off of it. I would think so as well.

Ok, then turning our attention away from the prototype game at the ATE show and focusing on the game on your website, do you have actual advertising pictures (or manuals, or flyers) of whatever "kit" that was used to convert that High Flyer, with the box and long cables, such that you can definitely say that it is a kit that has been used on that High Flyer? I mean, if an actual kit looked very different than what is attached to that High Flyer, I would then wonder who manufactured the equipment used to convert that High Flyer. Make sense?

Jay

My initial answer back to Jay was “No, I do not have any manuals, flyers, or any documentation” but since then I was able to find a manual from the company who made the modules mounted on the backdoor of the Backbox and it looks like the line of modules was developed in 1990 and that the “H-series” wasn’t out until 1993, so that pretty much references the earliest date that High Flyer could have been modified – I attach the manual below in my Links.

Today (04-15-2014) I received an email from Keith, which helps shed a bit more light on the origin of my High Flyer:

Keith Nickalo

Hi Danny.

Hope things are going good for you out there. Seems like every time I turn around, Portland is in the news for something.

I was checking out this page about the IPDB guys inquiry.

http://danny.cdyn.com/201412.htm

He quoted this page...

http://danny.cdyn.com/hybird101a.htm

He asked some questions about the High Flyer in the ad. That High Flyer is definitely photo'd in front of Jeff Markvan's store down in Ambridge PA. For sure. I've been there. It's him.

As a reminder he is this guy...

http://danny.cdyn.com/dixieland.htm

http://danny.cdyn.com/cdixielands.htm

His games have those Casey electronics mods added to them. I would bet that High Flyer is a Casey job as well. I've seen a few of them

_ Thank you Keith _ Very Cool _

Here you can see the main module, which is labeled Omron C200H, which we find is a 1990s microprocessor:

606042373_o