Bingo Pinballs

This Page Last Updated 9-04-2010

 

Russ Jensen Introduction:

 

THE 'QUEENS' GAMES

Early in 1960, Bally, who had primarily been making the gambling type "bingo pinballs" during most of the fifties, came out with a

series of unique pingames which employed 'number sequences' as a major game objective. Like the "bingos", these machines had no

flippers, but in all other respects resembled an amusement pinball. With one exception, BEAUTY CONTEST, the names of all these

games contained the word "queens", and for this reason I refer to them as the "Queens Games". The other games in this

series were: BEACH QUEENS, BEAUTY QUEENS, TROPIC QUEENS, and ISLAND QUEENS.

All of these games had number sequences (11 numbers), each number being represented by a picture of a beautiful girl on the backglass.

These numbers were lit by hitting bumpers, etc, on the playfield. Lighting various amounts of these 'girls' (it was how many numbers,

not which ones that counted) would result in different amounts of replays being awarded to the skillful player.

Some of these games allowed the player only 1 ball and others two or five.

 

~ Light-A-Lady Scores – Cool ~

 

A few weeks ago Mark W from “Ohio” was kind enough to write in with the serial numbers from his bingos, which to my surprise included a Beach Queens – Very Cool, since I have never seen any of these games and it reminded my that I have a few photographs and goodies that I hadn’t shared with everybody yet.

 

Mark Email #1

 

The guy I got the Queens (and Dixieland) from also has a Yacht Club, Palm Beach, and a 51 United ABC. He said he never did get all 11 girls on the queens, not sure how long he had it for. I haven’t yet either. I have another friend with a yacht club also and another with an Atlantic City. I will try to get some more s/n's for you. Jeff has been here at my house, great guy. He knows his stuff that’s for sure! He is not very far away. I still haven’t gotten over there to see and play his collection.

 

Mark is referring to Jeffery Lawton there (cool)

 

Now these are single-coin games and One Balls and look like they are a blast to play – In the Don Hooker Interview he talks about how “he wished he would have got a patent on the “kicker” he invented, he would have been rich, since it was used on most every flipper game since” – These are the games Don invented them for and here is a follow-up from Mark telling just how effective these two-coil kickers are:

 

Hello Danny, They are serious slingshot kickers that can send the ball all the way to the top of the playfield. Mark

 

 

Those “assemblies” right below the two lower gals are what we and the flyer are referring to _ When they sense a ball touching their face, they respond in an instant, with a forced-kick that sends the ball shooting back up the playfield.

 

 

 

 

~ All the photos above are Beach Queens ~

 

~ A flyer I found while searching around some Italian websites ~

 

~

 

Now I have never seen a Tropics Queen picture and no one I have talked to has ever seen one or a machine!

 

 

 

~ Seven Seas is not on Russ Jensen’s list of games, nor on the flyer, but neither is Waikiki ~

 

Hmmm! – I wonder if there is a connection there _ I have some detail now on Royal Distributing and it warrants it’s own page!

 

~

 

…..Some game-play notes from Mr. Croci……

 

Also, there are two strange slingshots which use two coils instead of one. They work in this way: the main coil (115 volts) is energized through the usual playfield switches, providing the slingshot action and remaining latched; but quickly the other coil unlatches the first. These slingshot assemblies are more powerful than the normal ones we usually find in a flipper-type pinball. They are capable of shooting the ball to the upper zone of the playfield. Not bad, in a game without flippers! An eject-hole is present in the center which is the type usually found in Bally games built some years later, with automatic ball-return. Yes, this game actually HAS automatic ball return! And not a motorized ball lift like on Bingos, there is a normal ball-return eject hole, identical to the one described above!

 

Hitting any of the numbered bumpers lights the corresponding girl on the backglass. A close look at the inside wiring discovers that girls 10 and 11 are tied together (kinky, eh!) so in truth, there are only ten girls to be lit. These two figures (10 and 11) can only be spotted by entering the eject hole in the middle of the playfield. In fact, this eject hole can spot any two of the 11 girls. You can change the current "girl to be spotted" by hitting any contact on the playfield. Only trouble is the eject hole is aimed directly at the out-hole and, as you have only one ball per play, this is something to beware of!

 

Now for a look at the scoring. Four rubber rebounds score 1,000 as does the thumper bumper. The dead bumper and the eject hole score 5,000. These points can be useful for competitions, but no award is baséd on the scoring. What you really need to do is to spot the girls. At the end of the game, a minimum of six girls lit, awards two replays. If you have seven lit you get four replays, eight awards eight replays, nine girls awards 20 replays and all 11 girls lit awards 100 to 180 replays!!

 

Replays can only be played. It's not possible, like on bingos, to buy extra balls, change the odds, etc. Note that turning off the machine resets all the remaining credits. Considering that usually no one would have the will to play something like 180 games, this is obviously provided for the benefit of the operator, to permit him to pay to the player the value of the remaining credits and then subtract them from the machine.

 

The left side door can be very useful in this context. The owner can give the operator keys to the left door only, to permit payment of credits with coins taken from this secondary cash box without having to give access to the main cash box and the inner mechanisms.

 

Considering the whole game, it plays very fast, due to the fact that there is only one ball per play and no flippers. I don't think Bally built it only for providing spare parts for bingos: BEAUTY CONTEST is very well thought out. It is a real gambling machine, very different from the usual bingos or slot machines.

 

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<<<Associated Links>>>

 

http://danny.cdyn.com/Queen%20Machines.htm

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

~ Bingo-Style Pinballs – I will ask Mark if he will send in some pics of the Score Card! ~

 

 

……Stay Tuned!……

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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