Pinball Machines in pool rooms

[!Smorgass Bored]

C'mon Magic Screen.....Let Me Hit The 'OK' Section

There were 3 Magic Screen nickel machines on the north side of Hwy.90 in Waveland, Miss. and they paid off, but that was before hurricane Katrina. I don't know how badly Katrina damaged that area. It was on the highway right before the turnoff to Casino Magic and Casino Magic was damaged from the hurricane.

Dougthe
( I can BIFF the ball out of the bottom three numbers )

 

[fdambi]

cool thread

I have played much pinball in my time, and was good at it from when I was barely tall enough to see over the flippers. I have never seen one that pays you back money when you win. I've won a ton of credits on them, so many that I've walked away from a many a machine from being exhausted. I sure would like to play one someday that pays you back.
I remember being like 10 years old, and meeting my dad for the 1st time. The airport had a little arcade with some machines. He said he liked pinball, and didn't know I could play, so I chose the PinBot because I already knew the machine from another place, and I beat his ass good. He hasn't meant much to me in my life, but pinball memories and stumbling across a good machine do resonate well enough. I'm in Arizona. If anyone knows of some machines that pay you back that are in the Southwest, well, I sure would like to know about it partner, cause I doubt my horse will take me to damned Mississippi or North Carolina or Tennessee or wherever the hell to find one there.

 

[JoeyA]

I have played much pinball in my time, and was good at it from when I was barely tall enough to see over the flippers. I have never seen one that pays you back money when you win. I've won a ton of credits on them, so many that I've walked away from a many a machine from being exhausted. I sure would like to play one someday that pays you back.
I remember being like 10 years old, and meeting my dad for the 1st time. The airport had a little arcade with some machines. He said he liked pinball, and didn't know I could play, so I chose the PinBot because I already knew the machine from another place, and I beat his ass good. He hasn't meant much to me in my life, but pinball memories and stumbling across a good machine do resonate well enough. I'm in Arizona. If anyone knows of some machines that pay you back that are in the Southwest, well, I sure would like to know about it partner, cause I doubt my horse will take me to damned Mississippi or North Carolina or Tennessee or wherever the hell to find one there.

LOL.

You got me laughing this evening. I played those flipper pinball machines prior to playing the gambling ones and like you I excelled at them. I would hit the bowling alley early Saturday morning before the "rich" kids showed up. The machine took nickels and I would beat the machine and win the maximum number of games which was 15 and then sell off the games to the "rich" kids for a nickel a game. This was a long time ago but that was how I made my first spending money. When "my" games got down to 5, I would run it back up to 15. Were you able to "biff" a ball up off the bottom below the flippers and put the ball back in play?

JoeyA

BTW, the gambling pinball machines did not have flippers. See Smorgass Bored's Avatar for a picture of them.

 

[JoeyA]

There were 3 Magic Screen nickel machines on the north side of Hwy.90 in Waveland, Miss. and they paid off, but that was before hurricane Katrina. I don't know how badly Katrina damaged that area. It was on the highway right before the turnoff to Casino Magic and Casino Magic was damaged from the hurricane.

Dougthe
( I can BIFF the ball out of the bottom three numbers )

If the machine was hard to tilt, I could sometimes get the 19 ball and the 22 ball out of its hole. Once I got the 19 out the hole and made it go into the return hole and then made the 6 for a three red letter game with 120 red odds. Yes, when the new game started I won 480 x 2= 960 games for four in yellow. That's without putting in a nickel in the machine. Someone else had two numbers in the red letter game, I think a one and maybe 17. The six got me a new game for nada. Almost a $50 score when $50 was a score.
God we must be getting old.

JoeyA

 

[pern13]

joey, you sure are making me feel old we called them spot em machines i never saw a .25 cent one thats what i learned to gamble on like you said when a 50 dollar score was a 50 dollar score. have not seen one in years forgot about them untill your post thanks for the memories pern13

 

[SJDinPHX]

The machines I used to play you could put in as many coins as you wanted. It never got full and the more coins you put in, the more likely it was to give you better odds but FIVE coins?

The pinball machines here in New Orleans kept many a pool room, bar or restaurant open and people would come in after working all week long and sit there and play the machine until their paycheck was gone. And yes, if you didn't keep the tilt real sensitive, I beat 'em. Oh yeah, the machine had to give decent odds too.

I tried everything to beat them. Sometimes the owners of the establishment would just let me try practically anything because they didn't think the machines could be beat and would turn a blind eye toward me when I tried something really stupid like, slipping my toes under the front two legs of the machine to make the ball travel more slowly. These machines were so heavy they would crush my toes, so I would wear extra large shoes and just let the machine sit on the front part of my shoes without crushing my toes. That slowed the ball movement up a great deal but didn't really make me a better player. What made me a good player was my mongoose-like reflexes. I could strike a machine with lightning fast hits that could even dislodge balls already sitting in the hole (if the tilt wasn't set too light) The bouncing ball could be manipulated the same way into holes that you wanted them to lodge in.

When I would play the machines and beat them fairly regularly, the bar room owners would tell the machine route operator/owner and he would come out and either tighten up the odds or make the machine tilt easier, then I would quit and the rest of the locals would pitch a fit with the owner and then the owner of the establishment would call out the pinball machine owner and tell them no one was playing their machines, then they would come out and loosen up the odds and make it harder to tilt. (God, that Travis Trotter virus must be going around) The cycle would then start all over. I tried not to be too greedy but those machine owners didn't like anyone to beat them, ever.

JoeyA

You are right Joey, I remember now, you could put any amt. of coins in
to increase your odds or buy an extra ball. It might come on the second
coin or the 72nd. I had forgotten. I never played them myself.

 

[Fatboy]

i want one, i like that kind of stuff

 

[ribdoner]

i want one, i like that kind of stuff

Is it legal to pay yourself if you beat it?????????

 

[JimS]

I spent a lot of hours and bucks on the one in Brads PH when I was a pup... 14 or so. I was a thief as kid so I always had money and quite a bit of it went into that machine.

 

[Rick S.]

i want one, i like that kind of stuff

Contact JOB....he used to be in the vending business big time. He might even have one still around. If not, I'm sure he can find one for you.

I would imagine they would be reasonably priced since they have been outlawed there in Tennessee.

Rick S.

 

[JoeyA]

i want one, i like that kind of stuff

Get one, make the machine tilt kind of hard, give reasonable odds and I'll come play it for $1 a game.

The extra ball was lagniappe but occasionally I could biff the ball back out of the 19, 22, 23, 24 & 25 hole so if I didn't need those numbers I could use that ball to form a win somewhere else on the board, if I was lucky.

Oh, yeah, you have to allow me to biff the ball out of those numbers.
JoeyA

 

[JoeyA]

i want one, i like that kind of stuff

BTW, the machines are still available but come in different levels of condition. I would buy two or even three, one for spare parts......
JoeyA

 

[!Smorgass Bored]

Piball Addicts Are Worse Than Poker Machine Addicts

Back when the nickel machines were popular, you could actually accumulate enough credits to cash in at five cents apiece to buy something. I mean, gas was .29 gal., bread was .25 loaf and a movie was .50

What would it take today to get payoff pinball back into the bars ? I don't think .25 a game would do it, but poker machines range from .25 - $1.00 a game don't they ? You'd need a cash feeder that would accept paper money up to ?????? $20 bill or a $100 bill.

Same old style 25 hole machines, but for a bigger payout. I wouldn't mind getting in on the ground floor of THAT business...
Doug

 

[JoeyA]

Back when the nickel machines were popular, you could actually accumulate enough credits to cash in at five cents apiece to buy something. I mean, gas was .29 gal., bread was .25 loaf and a movie was .50

What would it take today to get payoff pinball back into the bars ? I don't think .25 a game would do it, but poker machines range from .25 - $1.00 a game don't they ? You'd need a cash feeder that would accept paper money up to ?????? $20 bill or a $100 bill.

Same old style 25 hole machines, but for a bigger payout. I wouldn't mind getting in on the ground floor of THAT business...
Doug

You're right. Pinball machine addicts were worse because most believed that their physical actions would positively affect the outcome of the game. Only a small percentage of players truly came out ahead. I'm guessing less than 5% of all the players came out ahead. Yeah, at a dollar per game, that would be the business to be in. But don't worry there would be plenty of customers, especially the old guys trying to "feather their nest".

I remember some of the better players not necessarily by name but by numbers of players and in the whole city there were probably not more than 5 or ten who could consistently travel the circuit and beat the machines. This is in the days of Carlos Marcello and the rest of the machine operators when there was a pinball machine in practically every bar and restaurant, not just the pool halls.

JoeyA

 

[!Smorgass Bored]

LAGUNA BEACH.... Baby

You're right. Pinball machine addicts were worse because most believed that their physical actions would positively affect the outcome of the game. Only a small percentage of players truly came out ahead. I'm guessing less than 5% of all the players came out ahead. Yeah, at a dollar per game, that would be the business to be in. But don't worry there would be plenty of customers, especially the old guys trying to "feather their nest".

I remember some of the better players not necessarily by name but by numbers of players and in the whole city there were probably not more than 5 or ten who could consistently travel the circuit and beat the machines. This is in the days of Carlos Marcello and the rest of the machine operators when there was a pinball machine in practically every bar and restaurant, not just the pool halls.

JoeyA

You could go into the 'bus barn' on Canal St. (next to Warren Easton High School) and there were half a dozen pinball machines lining the wall and there was ALWAYS a waiting list of bus drivers dying to lose their days pay in the machines. Bus rides were .07 and you got a 'transfer' which allowed you make four transfers to other connecting bus routes. The drivers were paid daily if I remember correctly.
Doug
( every 'sweet shop' had pinball machines )

Good pinball link: http://1930s.com/pinball/


.

 

[hemicudas]

Click??????????

You guys remember that tell-tale, extra click, on the 6 card machines? You heard an extra click at the end of the clatter on the 3rd, 4th and 5th card if the next card was coming with an additional coin. I know they put that extra click in on purpose to make you think you had some kind of advantage though all it really did was make you poke more cash in the machine.

 

[JoeyA]

You could go into the 'bus barn' on Canal St. (next to Warren Easton High School) and there were half a dozen pinball machines lining the wall and there was ALWAYS a waiting list of bus drivers dying to lose their days pay in the machines. Bus rides were .07 and you got a 'transfer' which allowed you make four transfers to other connecting bus routes. The drivers were paid daily if I remember correctly.
Doug
( every 'sweet shop' had pinball machines )

Good pinball link: http://1930s.com/pinball/


.

Tell 'em what a sweet shop was/is.
JoeyA

 

[JoeyA]

You guys remember that tell-tale, extra click, on the 6 card machines? You heard an extra click at the end of the clatter on the 3rd, 4th and 5th card if the next card was coming with an additional coin. I know they put that extra click in on purpose to make you think you had some kind of advantage though all it really did was make you poke more cash in the machine.

That's kind of like the little R button on top of the front of the machine which you pushed to collect your winning games. I always thought that the extra ball would come quicker if when you dropped a coin in the slot, you pressed the R button furiously fast, syncronizing it with the simulataneously pushing the extra ball button multiple times as you were dropping a coin in the slot. I could have sworn it worked on some machines. Really!

JoeyA