- credit
- Ed Krynski — Design
- credit
- George Molentin — Art
- gameplay_feature
- Passive Bumpers ×9
- gameplay_feature
- Flippers ×2
- gameplay_feature
- Pop Bumpers
- gameplay_feature
- Kick-Out Holes
- ipdb.corporate_entity_name
- J. H. Keeney and Company Incorporated
- ipdb_id
- 6821
- ipdb.image_urls
- ["https://www.ipdb.org/images/6821/image-1.png"]
- ipdb.notable_features
- 1 ball per play. Flippers (2), Pop bumper (1), Passive bumpers (9), Kick-out hole (1). This game has a 3-digit replay counter. Completing 1 to 12 awards 100 credits.
Replay wheel maximum: 999
- ipdb.notes
- This game is an apparent simple rename of Keeney's 1960 'Eleven Belles'. The sole picture we present was sent to us in 2012 by the owner in Italy who did not respond to our further requests for pictures and information. We later saw the game on ebay.it in 2018 and 2019 (showing the same three games as in the photo) but no responses to us from the seller. The ebay text indicated it is a one-ball game with credit maximum of 999, operating on a 10-cent Euro coin. It has automatic ball-serve and a device to divide the coins between the operator and the location. One of the ebay pictures (not shown here) confirms that the playfield has nine passive bumpers and only one pop bumper.
We don't know how professionally the name change was made on the backglass. It may have been done by an operator which is not uncommon. Or, it may have been done by Keeney. In The Pinball Compendium 1930s-1960s, designer Ed Krynski commented that, when he started at Keeney in 1956, their main product was the so-called "electronic uprights" (slot machines) which, he said, they exported to the UK in addition to stateside locations. Royal Belles (and Eleven Belles) counts credits up to 999 which was indicative of machines used for gambling with the payoff being made by the location. Perhaps Keeney had a reason for changing the name for export.
If it was for export, we also found an owner's report in January 2020 of a Royal Belles in possession in Ohio, USA. The game in Italy went back on ebay.it in 2021 by the same seller there. Therefore, this would mean two examples of this game exist.
If anyone has access to this game, please contact us.
- player_count
- 1
- reward_type
- Replay
- technology_generation
- electromechanical
- theme
- Pageantry
- theme
- Dancing
- year
- 1960