Mr. Raphael Lankar sent this out as another rare find and in many ways it is :)

Russ Jensen pointed out to me that this is a repo backglass for a series of 1970s dime machines known as the Ohio games. I will post more detail on that when there's time.

He also points out that Jeffery Lawton shows a picture of one of these backglasses in chapter 7 of his book where he describes this style of Bingos.
 

Here's the scoop on these Twin Joker machines

Russ Jensen and the IPD are the source of the above photos and the IPD comments are that only 1000 of these pins were made - Wow! These babies are rare.

From: Dan (emscodan@ionet.net)
Subject: Twin Joker - What have I?
Date: 1999/12/13

Picked up a game called Twin Joker today. The machine is like a "bingo"machine (I think) - you shoot a ball and it comes to rest in one of many holes labeled as a playing card (eg Queen of Diamonds). You shoot five balls to make up your hand. The next player then has five balls and tries to shoot a better hand. Bets are placed on the side I assume.

Anyway, the machine is beautiful and 100% working. . .I've never seen one and don't know anything about it. . .Check IPD and it was listed as 1000 produced but didn't really say anything about it. .

Can ya'll share some insight? Were there a lot of machines like this? I never saw 'em in an arcade. . ..where was the market? Are there collectors of these types of machines that can give me a fair value on this one (I know all the differect factors, just a ballpark please)?

Thanks,Dan

David Marston Replies:

These may have been built so that illicit bingo operators could buy them and part them out. They were sold as cut-rate closeouts for a loooong time after being released.

They are probably legal to operate nearly everywhere, because the game only collects a quarter (or whatever flat rate) to play 2-player-only, and does not dispense anything that could be cashed in. There is no point score, and the game certainly isn't capable of evaluating poker hands.

I don't know of anything quite like it: a trap-hole game that must be played in 2-player mode. Since it must be "scored" by a human, it has some resemblance to the earliest pinballs of the 1930s.

Carl Replies:

There was an article in a recent Gameroom magazine about this. Evidently (they think) made by Bally to be able to legally ship bingo parts to states where bingo games were illegal. If interested I can dig up the article.

Another couple of rec.games.pinball threads on these:

Subject: Re: Bally Twin Joker
Date: 1996/08/11

Dave Appelbaum writes: about Bally TWIN JOKER...People wouldn't play it. It was the worst bingo, and couldn't compete with any regular pinball either. The game was either a flipperless >pinball or else a bingo which didn't pay off the winners. It definitely went into close-out sales, so they over-produced it. It could have been a "spoof" game, intended to be parted out immediately after purchase.

David Marston comments: TWIN JOKER doesn't evaluate the poker hands, it just holds the first player's hand in a bank of lock-in relays, while it clears the board And lets the second player's hand sit in the bingo-style trap holes. There are 25 holes, for 9 through ace of the four suits plus one joker.

 

Well if your sitting on one of these, hold on to it, the IPD data on this claims that only 450 were made
 

This page last updated on 12/02/2002