Hi all.
I have had this pingame for about 5 years and have finally gotten around to trying to identify it. I’ve asked all the old pinball game experts in the States. The general theory at the moment is that it is a mixture of parts from two companies Harry “the Father of Pinball” Williams was heavily involved with, Automatic Amusements Company and Pacific Amusement Manufacturing Company (PAMCO).
Williams’ first pinball he fully designed was the “Advance” in 1932. In his own words “mechanical gates stopped the balls……then, by putting another ball through a hole at the top of the machine, the player raised the gate and allowed the first ball to roll down into the high-scoring area.” That is precisely what my machine does, as you see in the pics. It has two holding gates and two release holes, rather than one. A see-saw type mechanism under the playfield opens the gates. Harry also spoke of arches at the top and bottom which were made of metal rather than the traditional timber, and my machine’s are metal also. Unfortunately there are no images to date of the “Advance” machine to verify the idea this is the same machine.
The “Advance” preceded the first ever EM game, “Contact” designed by Williams and made by PAMCO (see link below). The advancement to higher scoring concept was the same in “Contact”, but was implemented by electronically kicking out the balls held in holes further down the playfield rather than via the mechanical release of gate-held balls.
http://www.coinopgamemuseum.com/games/contact/contact.htmlYou will see similarities with this PAMCO pinball “Time” (see link below) and my machine. Another Williams first, the anti-tilt mechanism is the same, the simple pedestal kind where a small ball falls off the pedestal due to excessive nudging. The serial number is the same position as on my machine, including the letter “C”, just below the front door and left. It is mysteriously crossed out though on this “Time” machine, but is 4791 on my game.
http://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=2562&picno=40033It is highly likely my machine was disassembled, shipped to Oz then reassembled. It may even have a locally made conversion playfield, which is highly Art Deco and fits in well with the 1932/33 vintage.
I have had the most help from Ken Lyons of
www.prewarpinball.com and Rob Hawkins of
http://www.pinballcollectorsresource.com/refer.html who are both continuing to research my pingame.
If anyone has or knows of people with old pinballs knowledge and reference material please let me know. Hopefully there are amusement machine catalogues from 1932 onwards out there somewhere.
Cheers
Chris
crushworth@yahoo.com
