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Last update: 03-12-2007
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Mr. Raymond Watts sent me an email on Jan 15, 2006
with a link to a very interesting 1937 Bally Pin: From Ray: Looks
like Bally had the in-line games long before United.... The message
is ready to be sent with the following file or link attachments:
These two photos are credited on the IPDB Site to Russ Jensen
(of course) Notice the
Playing field with 25 Holes:
Both of these pictures from John Gray are much larger
then this if you want to use them and blow them up On Carson’s
Site I also saw this pin listed as both a 1931 and a 1939 – Anyway you slice
it, I bet $74.50 was a pretty large chunk of change to initially kick out for
a pinball!! Here is an
excerpt from a Russ Jensen article, so it’s a pretty safe assumption that
1937 was the correct year: - Pinball
Scoring Themes - Before leaving the mid-Thirties one other pinball scoring theme
should be mentioned, although at that time it was only used a few times, but was revived in the 1950's as we will see
later. That theme was "in-line" scoring. Possibly the earliest pingame to employ this theme was Pacific
Amusement's LITE-A-LINE which appeared on the market in late 1934. This game
had a circular playfield containing 25 holes numbered "1" through
"25". The backglass had
three 5 by 5 number patterns similar to a "bingo card". The player "bought" 1, 2, or all
cards by depositing coins in three separate coin chutes (one for each card).
In order to win the player had to light a row of 5 numbers on the
selected card(s). Two later games with this theme were Keeney's KEEN-O from Spring
of 1937, and Bally's LINE-UP later that same year. KEEN-O had one 5 by 5 card on its backglass with a center
"free spot" replacing the number "13". Numbered spring bumpers on the playfield
would each light one (and in a few cases two) numbers on the card. In order to win the player again had to
complete a five number line on the card (which could include the "free spot"). Bally's LINE-UP had a similar "bingo card" on its backglass,
but the playfield contained a 5 by 5 array of holes in the exact same pattern as the backglass card. We shall see later that a similar game
format became very popular in the 1950's. In a later
page on “In Line” games I will share some more on the Keeney machine. Based upon
this bad Boy, it looks like it was a simple step for Bally to move to the
Bingo Concept of the 50s, 60s, and 70s! Or should I
say “move back to”!!
Danny Leach = leach1580@comcast.net
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