Back Rolldown

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  1. By Flipcommons AI Descriptions (GameFormat)
    description
    1.
    Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) — Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) #1686
    This game was made in two versions: A standard cabinet version and a rolldown cabinet version. Both were made by the manufacturer without flippers. The rolldown version has a ball dispenser instead of a plunger.
    2.
    Pinball Repair & History (pinrepair.com) — http://www.pinrepair.com/arcade/hyroll.htm
    HyRoll, Bally, 11/47, rolldown game. Has 18 roll over buttons and seven pockets which score from 1000 to 10,000 points.
    3.
    Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) — Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) #579
    'Cover Girl' was the first flipper game made by Keeney. This game was made in two versions and offered simultaneously (per Billboard, Jan-10-1948, page 103).
    4.
    Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) — Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) #2800
    The shooter lane would have been blocked at its top end, and a ball cup installed in place of the spring-loaded ball shooter.
    5.
    Pinball Repair & History (pinrepair.com) — http://www.pinrepair.com/baseball/gencobb.htm
    Baseball, Genco, 1942, a roll down game (which Genco was well-known for). Game did not get produced in any great numbers because of WW2.
    6.
    Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) — Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) #4968
    in a close-out ad from a distributor in New Jersey, where it stated, "Roll Down Baseball Game, like Genco Playball, perfect, like new, real bargain at $50.00"
    7.
    Billboard — May 1, 1943 — 1943 (p. 70)
    8.
    Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) — Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) #3269
    Production: 4518 [...] Production start date: 10/30/45
    9.
    Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) — Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) #2374
    Genco advertised this game as their first post-war 5-ball pinball machine and, while that is accurate, it was actually their fourth post-war effort, following their rolldown game Total Roll and two vertical counter games Whizz and Pee-Wee.
    10.
    Pinball Repair & History (pinrepair.com) — http://www.pinrepair.com/arcade/hyroll.htm
    The 'super score' is a carry over feature that maintains from game to game.
    11.
    Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) — Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) #3586
    Roll Down [...] IPD No. 3586 / November 01, 1947 / 1 Player [...] Production: 350
    12.
    Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) — Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) #5435
    Firestone Enterprises, Inc., of Brooklyn, New York [...] The first Billboard ad from the manufacturer for this rolldown game is dated 07/06/1946
    13.
    Billboard — July 6, 1946 — 1946 (p. 161)
    14.
    Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pinball
    Gottlieb's Humpty Dumpty, introduced in 1947, was the first game to add electromechanical player-controlled flippers to keep the ball in play longer.
    15.
    Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humpty_Dumpty_(pinball)
    By the end of 1947 every pinball manufacturer had either produced or started to develop their own pinball machines with flippers.
    16.
    Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) — Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) #1567
    'Melody' was the first flipper machine manufactured by Bally. The rolldown version of this game is Bally's 1947 'Melody Roll'.
    17.
    Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) — Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) #2800
    'Wisconsin' was the first flipper game made by United. Pictured in this listing is a game that appears to have been converted not once, but twice, by an operator.
    18.
    Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) — Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) #4355
    According to Genco data, 245 units of this rolldown game were made. Production start date: 01/31/48 Production end date: 02/19/48
    19.
    Pinball Repair & History (pinrepair.com) — http://www.pinrepair.com/arcade/numroll.htm
    Number Roll, Genco, 6/57, two player, a rolldown game where the player is trying to get "21" in each of the four frames. [...] This roll down game largely mimics the game of black jack.
    20.
    Pinball Repair & History (pinrepair.com) — http://www.pinrepair.com/arcade/lucky7.htm
    Though the game makes no reference to dice, it's apparent that the game does follow a dice style game.
    21.
    Pinball Repair & History (pinrepair.com) — http://www.pinrepair.com/arcade/lucky7.htm
    The thing that makes this roll down game unique is the player nudge buttons. [...] With a bit of practice this gives the game a great deal of skill, allowing the player to nudge to the point hole desired.
  2. By Flipcommons AI Descriptions (GameFormat)
    description
    A rolldown is a pinball game with the plunger deleted: the machine dispenses each ball to a cup and the player rolls it onto the playfield by hand, over rollover buttons and into scoring pockets.[1][2] The form sat close enough to standard pinball that makers built some designs both ways at once — a standard cabinet with a ball shooter alongside a rolldown console of the same game[3] — and operators converted machines from one to the other, blocking the shooter lane and setting a ball cup where the spring-loaded shooter had been.[4] ## Genco and the postwar rush The form belonged to [[manufacturer:genco]] before anyone else. Genco was well known for its rolldowns, a line running back to wartime baseball games like *[[title:play-ball-9]]* (1942),[5] which distributors of the day advertised as roll down games.[6][7] When production resumed after the war, Genco led with the format again: *[[title:total-roll]]* entered production in October 1945 and ran to 4,518 units,[8] ahead of the firm's first conventional postwar pinball.[9] Within two years the trade had piled in — [[manufacturer:bally]]'s *[[title:hy-roll]]* banked a carry-over "Super-Score" from game to game,[10] [[manufacturer:chicago-coin]] named its entry simply *[[title:roll-down]]*[11] — and the fad reached past Chicago entirely: [[manufacturer:firestone-enterprises-inc]] of Brooklyn was advertising its *[[title:tally-roll]]* by the summer of 1946.[12][13] ## Collision with the flipper Then pinball changed underneath it. [[gameplay-feature:flippers]] arrived with [[manufacturer:gottlieb]]'s *[[title:humpty-dumpty]]* at the end of 1947, and by the close of that year every maker had a flipper game built or underway.[14] The two forms crossed inside the same cabinets: Bally's first flipper game, *[[title:melody]]*, arrived with a rolldown twin, *[[title:melody-roll]]*;[15] [[manufacturer:keeney]]'s first, *[[title:cover-girl-2]]*, was offered in rolldown and standard versions simultaneously;[3] [[manufacturer:united]]'s first, *[[title:wisconsin]]*, survives in examples operators converted between the two forms.[16] The collapse is plain in the production numbers: Chicago Coin's *Roll Down* of November 1947 ran to 350 units,[11] and Genco's *[[title:bubbles-rolldown]]* of early 1948 to 245, built in three weeks.[17] ## Into the arcade The format outlived the fad in the arcade. [[manufacturer:williams]]'s *[[title:jolly-joker-2]]* carried it into 1955, and Genco returned in 1957 with a pair of rolldowns built on gambling arithmetic — *[[title:number-roll]]* playing at blackjack,[18] and *[[title:lucky-7-genco]]* at dice, its nudge buttons letting a practiced player steer the ball into the chosen hole.[19][20]
    1.
    Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) — Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) #1686
    This game was made in two versions: A standard cabinet version and a rolldown cabinet version. Both were made by the manufacturer without flippers. The rolldown version has a ball dispenser instead of a plunger.
    2.
    Pinball Repair & History (pinrepair.com) — http://www.pinrepair.com/arcade/hyroll.htm
    HyRoll, Bally, 11/47, rolldown game. Has 18 roll over buttons and seven pockets which score from 1000 to 10,000 points.
    3.
    Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) — Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) #579
    'Cover Girl' was the first flipper game made by Keeney. This game was made in two versions and offered simultaneously (per Billboard, Jan-10-1948, page 103).
    4.
    Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) — Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) #2800
    The shooter lane would have been blocked at its top end, and a ball cup installed in place of the spring-loaded ball shooter.
    5.
    Pinball Repair & History (pinrepair.com) — http://www.pinrepair.com/baseball/gencobb.htm
    Baseball, Genco, 1942, a roll down game (which Genco was well-known for). Game did not get produced in any great numbers because of WW2.
    6.
    Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) — Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) #4968
    in a close-out ad from a distributor in New Jersey, where it stated, "Roll Down Baseball Game, like Genco Playball, perfect, like new, real bargain at $50.00"
    7.
    Billboard — May 1, 1943 — 1943 (p. 70)
    8.
    Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) — Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) #3269
    Production: 4518 [...] Production start date: 10/30/45
    9.
    Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) — Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) #2374
    Genco advertised this game as their first post-war 5-ball pinball machine and, while that is accurate, it was actually their fourth post-war effort, following their rolldown game Total Roll and two vertical counter games Whizz and Pee-Wee.
    10.
    Pinball Repair & History (pinrepair.com) — http://www.pinrepair.com/arcade/hyroll.htm
    The 'super score' is a carry over feature that maintains from game to game.
    11.
    Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) — Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) #3586
    Roll Down [...] IPD No. 3586 / November 01, 1947 / 1 Player [...] Production: 350
    12.
    Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) — Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) #5435
    Firestone Enterprises, Inc., of Brooklyn, New York [...] The first Billboard ad from the manufacturer for this rolldown game is dated 07/06/1946
    13.
    Billboard — July 6, 1946 — 1946 (p. 161)
    14.
    Wikipedia — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humpty_Dumpty_(pinball)
    By the end of 1947 every pinball manufacturer had either produced or started to develop their own pinball machines with flippers.
    15.
    Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) — Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) #1567
    'Melody' was the first flipper machine manufactured by Bally. The rolldown version of this game is Bally's 1947 'Melody Roll'.
    16.
    Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) — Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) #2800
    'Wisconsin' was the first flipper game made by United. Pictured in this listing is a game that appears to have been converted not once, but twice, by an operator.
    17.
    Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) — Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) #4355
    According to Genco data, 245 units of this rolldown game were made. Production start date: 01/31/48 Production end date: 02/19/48
    18.
    Pinball Repair & History (pinrepair.com) — http://www.pinrepair.com/arcade/numroll.htm
    Number Roll, Genco, 6/57, two player, a rolldown game where the player is trying to get "21" in each of the four frames. [...] This roll down game largely mimics the game of black jack.
    19.
    Pinball Repair & History (pinrepair.com) — http://www.pinrepair.com/arcade/lucky7.htm
    Though the game makes no reference to dice, it's apparent that the game does follow a dice style game.
    20.
    Pinball Repair & History (pinrepair.com) — http://www.pinrepair.com/arcade/lucky7.htm
    The thing that makes this roll down game unique is the player nudge buttons. [...] With a bit of practice this gives the game a great deal of skill, allowing the player to nudge to the point hole desired.
  3. By Flipcommons Catalog
    display_order
    9
    name
    Rolldown
    slug
    rolldown
    status
    active