‘Why did these games not come to Australia?’, thoughts

[Pop Bumper Pete]

‘Why did these games not come to Australia?’, thoughts

After my earlier thread about Fathom, I got to wondering, ‘How come some of these games are so scarce?’

I then thought about it some more and maybe the local distributors and ops chose their games no different to myself.

Over the last few years I have ordered both Batman (TDK) and Ironman when there was only the cabinet art available on the internet.
Both times I felt the theme was good enough to take that chance.
Whereas some other themes over the last few years did not sell themselves to a middle-aged, Australian pinhead.
(Wheel of fortune comes to mind, from what I hear, it is a good game to play, but there is no way I would have it in my house)

When one looks back at pinball machines in the early 80’s, each maker would bring out 8 games a year, and (with two exceptions), when the run was over, that was it. No more of that game.
I am guessing that all the Australian distributors had to go on for their order was the pictures on the flyers
From that time, Bally came out with both Centaur, Flash Gordon and Eight Ball Deluxe, these games have striking art that pulls you in.
So I can see why they would import many of these games (Back then it was not hard to find either game on location), and maybe not so many of the other games on offer
While Fathom is an attractive game, its beauty is not as instantly appreciated as either Centaur Flash Gordon or EBD
Same with Medusa (though I think I did get to play it once in the 80’s)

This is only covering Bally games, early 80’s were good, Black Hole, Catacomb, Black Knight to name a few


So I  am guessing that they bought games that visually interesting and ignored the ones that were not so eye-catching


Pete

[Homepin]

as operators in those heady days we would generally buy between 3 and 6 of a title if the theme grabbed us. Our reasoning (initially anyway) was that we would always have an identical machine on site somewhere to swap boards in for repair purposes.

Many titles didn't grab our interest so we didn't buy them. I suppose the distributors would have brought over a few samples of pretty well every title to gauge interest - there were always 'release' nights that we would attend and we got to look at most new machines.

Mostly we stopped buying electronic Gottliebs because most of them had boring game play and the reliability was hopeless - they just didn't make money and let's face it, that is what mattered the most.

[patric67]

as operators in those heady days we would generally buy between 3 and 6 of a title if the theme grabbed us. Our reasoning (initially anyway) was that we would always have an identical machine on site somewhere to swap boards in for repair purposes.

Many titles didn't grab our interest so we didn't buy them. I suppose the distributors would have brought over a few samples of pretty well every title to gauge interest - there were always 'release' nights that we would attend and we got to look at most new machines.

Mostly we stopped buying electronic Gottliebs because most of them had boring game play and the reliability was hopeless - they just didn't make money and let's face it, that is what mattered the most.

How much were they new in those days?

[Strangeways]

Simple answer - The dawn of the video game. Blame Asteroids, Pacman, Frogger, Scramble, Breakout and Galaxian.

I vividly recall the last of the pinball containers consisted of Paragon, Space Invaders, KISS and a few others. This followed the previous container of Mata Haris, Globetrotters, Eight Balls etc etc .. (I still recall these days and consider myself to be very lucky)

The next container that didn't leave had the Fathoms, Medusas, Eight Ball Deluxes. When I asked my old man (ten years ago) he simply told me that he was buying videos by the container from Japan.

There were not distributors (as there are today) - especially in the 60's and 70's. Dad used to fly over to the Bally and Gottlieb factories and pick them off the line. Leisure and Allied used to import them in the mid seventies and some operators bought direct from them. Flyers were sent weekly - and I have many flyers with the actual price of the machines (new) and some second hand. I've retained all these flyers. I did have a thread on this in the Flyer section.

System one machines were rubbish (grounding issues) - so system 80's were avoided. It was either Bally or Stern. Williams system 6 were avoided as well. Many Operators simply bought Ballys and Sterns in the early 80s before the video age took over.

[johnwartjr]

Fascinating stuff, thanks for sharing :)

Why wasn't history in school this interesting?

[Strangeways]

Fascinating stuff, thanks for sharing :)

Why wasn't history in school this interesting?

I trying to get Dad to write his memoirs - some really interesting insight into the formation of the industry in this country. Here's the link to the flyers with prices - I might have to add to it soon as I've found heaps more ;

http://aussiepinball.com/index.php?topic=3942.0

[Caveoftreasures]

Nino and Mike, (strangeways n Homepin)

quick question since u guys have the knowledge, so i wanted to ask you (and anyone else who may know)

Q -Did the pinball companies both here and overseas USA offer a payment/lease plan for operators when they bought the machines. So the operator would buy a machine for say $4 grand, but they leased the machine from Allied or who-ever ?. I find it hard to understand how any operator could fork out so much capital upfront ? or did the operator HAVE to find his own finance or just fork out a mint upfront.

thanks, brett
(also, good thread Pete) 

[Strangeways]

I can only comment from our experience, but there were no leasing plans etc. Fly over to Chicago - pick the titles and wait until they arrive. There was always some "second hand" machines that would fill a container, and sometimes container space was shared with other business' - that was handled by the broker, and you simply drove down to Port Melbourne to pick up your machines as "loose Cargo". From the flyers that I have, some had comments such as "Yes", "Maybe" and "No" - These are mainly on EM flyers.

SS machines were all brought direct from the USA as well. Always as multiples - never just "one" machine. I'm not sure if any Australian Distributors were set up so that you HAD to buy from them. This started more or less with the Viseo Games - You could only buy TMNT Video game from LAI exclusively.

Machines in the 60's, 70's and 80's didn't cost anything near $4000 each. Buying the machines was "up front" and hope the container does not fall off the ship.

[Homepin]

Our gear was all purchased from local distributors such as Lai and was already in the country.

We had our own finance arrangements and most machines were leased as business equipment.

It was pretty easy (in those heady days) to pay out loans on - say - 20 machines, in a year, so it was pretty straightforward to get more finance.

We were probably buying around 300 new machines a year which was pretty exciting!!!

Then Space Invaders arrived - ........................

[Caveoftreasures]

Mike, what would a machine like a Black Knight 2000 cost in say 1989/1990.

would it be pro-rata like 6500 for a stern today, or was it dearer or cheaper ?

[Pop Bumper Pete]

I have been into pinball for a LONG time

When Bally released Fireball Classic, you could buy it off the floor at LAI for 4 old games (trade ins) and $2200

[beaky]

Mike, what would a machine like a Black Knight 2000 cost in say 1989/1990.

would it be pro-rata like 6500 for a stern today, or was it dearer or cheaper ?

i was told $8000 au at the time. that was from LAI. I may have been miss informed