- gameplay_feature
- Spring Bumpers ×12
- ipdb.corporate_entity_name
- Bally Manufacturing Corporation
- ipdb_id
- 2323
- ipdb.image_urls
- ["https://www.ipdb.org/images/2323/image-1.jpg","https://www.ipdb.org/images/2323/image-2.jpg","https://www.ipdb.org/images/2323/image-3.jpg","https://www.ipdb.org/images/2323/image-4.jpg","https://www.ipdb.org/images/2323/image-5.jpg","https://www.ipdb.org/images/2323/image-6.jpg","https://www.ipdb.org/images/2323/image-7.jpg","https://www.ipdb.org/images/2323/image-8.jpg","https://www.ipdb.org/images/2323/image-9.jpg","https://www.ipdb.org/images/2323/image-10.jpg","https://www.ipdb.org/images/2323/image-11.jpg","https://www.ipdb.org/images/2323/image-12.jpg","https://www.ipdb.org/images/2323/image-13.jpg","https://www.ipdb.org/images/2323/image-14.jpg","https://www.ipdb.org/images/2323/image-15.jpg","https://www.ipdb.org/images/2323/image-16.jpg","https://www.ipdb.org/images/2323/image-17.jpg","https://www.ipdb.org/images/2323/image-18.png","https://www.ipdb.org/images/2323/image-19.png","https://www.ipdb.org/images/2323/image-20.png","https://www.ipdb.org/images/2323/image-21.png","https://www.ipdb.org/images/2323/image-22.png","https://www.ipdb.org/images/2323/image-23.png","https://www.ipdb.org/images/2323/image-24.png"]
- ipdb.manufacturer_trade_name
- Bally
- ipdb.model_number
- 324
- ipdb.notable_features
- 5 balls for 5 cents. Spring bumpers (12). Projection score totalizer. Time clock.
The following description was taken from a novelty version game (not free play version, which may be different):
At start of game, projected score resets to zero and all playfield bumpers and all numbers on backglass are not lit. A ball hitting an unlit bumper lights it up and also lights its corresponding number on the backglass. Once all twelve numbers are lit, hitting any bumper adds 1 point to the projected score. Each time the 7-bumper is hit, an outhole trough mechanism releases one ball from the tough back to the player to shoot again.
The player may be spotted two or four numbers at start of game. When this happens, the name SPOTTEM lights up on the backglass. A mechanism under the playfield controls this feature and steps once at start of each game to occasionally spot both the 4 and the 10, or both the 5 and the 6, or all four numbers. The operator can move posts on its gear wheel to change the randomness of spotting numbers.
Cabinet advertised as 44 inches long and 22 inches wide.
- ipdb.notes
- This game was first produced in February 1939 only as a Free Play (replay) model. In April 1939, Bally announced a Novelty Play model for sale.
Bally's records indicate only one model number for 'Spottem'.
The Instruction Card shown in this listing was transcribed from one seen online and does not perfectly fit the novelty game operation described in Notable Features as it indicates that bumpers will light "again". This card may be indicating a different "free play" game operation.
While Bally used a backbox projection unit in many of their other games to display replays to the player, a Bally sales rep at the time described only one difference between the two 'Spottem' models: "Novelty Spottem has all the features of the free-play model, including projector-type totalizer and meters - everything except the free-play coin chute."
The typical free play coin chute could be pushed in to start a game without having a coin in it, if replays were registered on the machine and the coin chute was notified of this. We wonder, then, how else the Free Play Model is different from the Novelty Play model in order for it to register the presence of free plays. Perhaps the Free Play model's projection unit was used to record replays after all and the sales rep muted this detail. Or perhaps the replay counter was part of a more complicated coin chute mechanism. This difference might also be reflected on the Instruction Card for each model and/or operator options inside the Free Play game.
We request owners of this game to contact us identifying whether or not their coin chute can operate without a coin and, if it can, how it knows that free plays have been earned. We seek to receive and show comparison pictures of both types of coin chute that are original to the game and any other differences between the two models.
We are also seeking images of the original Instruction Card(s) for each model.
- month
- 2
- player_count
- 1
- reward_type
- Free Play
- reward_type
- Novelty
- technology_generation
- electromechanical
- year
- 1939