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Many of the bingos had “Exotic Land” themes, which is way cool and
definitely part of the lure for me: Bally
had Sea Island in the early years (1959) and then Tahiti, Bali,
Orient, Venice, Acapulco,
and Hawaii
in the later years
United chose to
follow suit and put out a few hooks of their own with right from the start
and through out their entire history: Monaco, South Seas, Tahiti, Rio, Brazil, Singapore, Caravan,
Tropic, Havana, Mexico, and their
own Hawaii.
Interesting to
note: I guess that Bally did some of their new bingo test runs down in
Mexico. In the Hooker interview, Don briefly mentions this when asked where
did Bally try out the machines. He also mentions that Texas and New Orleans
where the main locations, and since we know that these bingos way a ton I
always assumed that the test sites down Mexico way must have been in the
border towns just across the Rio Grande. Although a pretty good assumption,
I have yet to be able to find any firm evidence of this in all of my
research.
Anyhoo!
Here’s a little Hawaiian
Bingo stuff for ya:
By Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writer
Sometime around 1930, the first pinball
machine arrived in Hawaii. It must have been a sensation. Within five
years, authorities estimated there were 600 such machines in Honolulu
alone.
At the same time, police were fielding a
crescendo of complaints from angry parents about schoolboys squandering
lunch nickels on pinball. By January 1936, authorities had rounded up a
half-dozen Honolulu merchants who featured pinball in their shops and charged
them with violating obscure lottery laws. Pinball had officially been put
on notice.
The game only got more popular.
Journalist and author David Lippman
described Hotel Street before World War II as a setting swarming “with
shooting galleries, pinball machines and taxi-dance halls.” By 1945, the
courts had decreed it was illegal for minors in the Territory to so much as
lay eyes on a pinball machine unless accompanied by an adult.
In 1957, free pinball games were outlawed. In
1960, nine Honolulu bowling alleys were raided, 15 pinball games
confiscated and 16 managers arrested. More raids and arrests followed.
Meanwhile, committees were formed to study “the pinball problem.”
Part of the problem was confusion over the
difference between flipper-less bingo-type pin games that were actually
gambling devices, and flipper-type pinball machines that were intended for
amusement only. Since the games looked similar, the general public usually
couldn’t tell the difference.
It wasn’t until 1980 — a half century after
the threat of pinball began — that the Hawai‘i Supreme Court,
in a unanimous decision, struck down laws that prohibited operators from
allowing, or kids from playing, pinball.
That’s cool!!
 
 
Well then one day
out of the blue a man named Christian Haberecht from Berlin Germany posts a
plea for help out on the Usernet site rec.games.pinball asking if someone
can help fix his Interflip Bingo from Spain. I wrote and asked for some
pics (shared them with Phil Hooper) and he sent me internals and electronic
copies of the schematics too :)
 
…….…kind of a
volcanic theme on that baby………….
Completely
digital, if you want the schematics, please let me know.
Interflip – Not a
whole lot of info available on these guys that I can find, Here is a
heading on a website that suggests they are from France?
INTERFLIP (Rec.
Franco ) – PINBALL
The site shows several machines (not this one) including another
bingo, Bingo Bombo listed as being solid-state, that range in dates from
1973 to 1986.
Yet another website header, probably more mysterious
then the last:
INTERFLIP / RECREATIVOS FRANCO
Madrid
* Interflip fue la marca que creó R.Franco para la exportación.
Off some totally foreign pinball forum:
Posted by: pinfriend
Liebe Leser!
Bin stolzer Besitzer eines SS Bingo von InterFlip (Spanien)- leider nicht
funktionierend…
Muss Bj. ca. 1979 sein- zumindest gibts da einen Aukleber auf der CPU-
Platine. Das Ding heisst Honolulu. Ich finde
leider keinerlei Hinweise im www. Die Unterlagen, die dabei waren sind
leider von sehr schlechter Qualität- Stromlaufpläne sind fast nicht
entzifferbar…
Soweit, sogut.
Jetzt könnte ich munter drauflosreparieren, aber leider gibt’s auf der CPU-
Platine zahlreiche Leiterzugauftrennungen und dementsprechend zusätzliche
Drahtbrücken, efin ich nicht weiss, ob die Kiste überhaupt mal gespielt hat
(mit den Modifikationen). Welchen Grund diese Änderungen haben sollten,
kann ich leider auch nicht nachvollziehen- sie entsprechen jedoch efinitive
NICHT dem Stromlaufplan. Evtl. entstammen sie früheren Reparaturversuchen.
Jetzt die Frage:
Wer kennt diese Platine, hat sowas schonmal gesehen, kennt jemanden, dessen
Bruder mal einen kannte, dessen Schwager mal so’n Teil hatte…...... Ist
evtl. die gleiche Elektronik wie in InterFlip Flippern??
Fragen über Fragen…
Christian
Well that’s all for today……………………
May 18th 2003:
Well what do ya know, I guess people are actually out
there surfing and reading my pages:
Hi Danny.
I used to play at the local
pool halls. I always thought it was legal to own the machines but illegal
to have it brought into Hawaii. My favorites were the 2 in blue and the
“ok” machines, particularly Circus Circus, Carnival Queen, and Sea Island.
Thanks.
Keith
----- Original Message -----
From: Danny
To: thehawaiiguy@hawaii.rr.com
Sent: Monday, May 19, 2003 3:48 PM
Subject: Re: bingo pinball
Hello Keith - No bother Sir, please write whenever you
want to. Are you saying that they still have bingo machines out in town
these days? Wow! That's great. What machines are still around? Where are
they located? Do you play? Do you have a favorite machine or story to
share? I take it you found my site? What island are you on?
Danny
Aloha.
Sorry to bother you, but is
it legal for kids to play the bingo pinball machines in Hawaii? Also, is it
legal for a Hawaii resident to buy and bring a bingo pinball machine
into the state? Thank you for your time. Aloha and Mahalo.
Keith
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