(Topic ID: 317315)

German Press-Photos and Magazine-Reports from 1959 onwards

By Mardi-Gras-Man

1 year ago


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27
#1 1 year ago

I just found these cool pictures while searching something else on a hard-drive...
Surely the woodrail-fans will have joy watching them.

PLEASE NOTE - I stored those pictures at least 13 years ago on a hard-drive and I can't remember where or by whom I got them from. If anybody feels his copyright insured please tell me and I will drain this post immediately !!!

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#2 1 year ago

What’s funny is it looks like all the games are turned off. Even the ones being played. You’d think they’d leave them on for a bit after they played a game.

Thanks for sharing!

#3 1 year ago

1956 Williams Super Score on the far right, never seen that one before.

http://www.pinrepair.com/wmswood/sscore.htm

#4 1 year ago

Very cool, love vintage photos of arcades and games on location

#5 1 year ago

Ahh, so there’s my elusive Seven Seas! One day I will find you.

#6 1 year ago

Cool Pics!
Maybe the owner was a WW2 veteran?
Translation:
Spiel-Halle ----- Game Room
Spiel Automat ------ Slot Machine

#7 1 year ago

Pinball machine is also a 'Spiel Automat'.

#8 1 year ago
Quoted from Tuukka:

Pinball machine is also a 'Spiel Automat'.

Oder, "kugelspielautomat".

#9 1 year ago

Danke schön!

Does anybody recognize the wall mounted vending machines? Candy, bubblegum or stamps? And on the upper right corner "Kaufe" or "buy" with some clothing hanging under that - what would they be buying (might not be related to games arcade, but its neighbour) ?

#10 1 year ago

Very cool photos. The building looks very basic and the men look like the typical dodgy characters I often encountered in amusement arcades in Manchester in the early 80s.

#11 1 year ago

Thank you all for your nice comments.
Tuukka - the small left vending machine is a VIVIL chewing-gum machine. They were dark-green and very popular over here...on the right "Kaufe Pflanzen" means "Buy Plants"
The buildings are typical for post-war Germany. Those "very basic" buildings could be found on destroyed areas, in the first place to sell food or clothing for the fucked-up germans. During the 50ies, when the so-called "german Wirtschftswunder" (economic boom) arose those buildings slowly disappeared, some were used, as you can see, for other purposes for some time. I think it wasn't long before the buildings you can see on these pictures disappeared too.
And yes, the owner really looks like a typical german war-veteran. May he rest in peace...

1 year later
#12 4 months ago

Here's some other interesting german stuff.

This was published in April 1980 in a german Health-Magazine called VITAL (Issue May 1980) ... It's about the fact more and more people buying Amusement-Machines, especially Pinball of course, for their homes.

Keep in mind that no one called them "Pinball" back then, they were called FLIPPER over here ... the "official" word was FLIPPER-AUTOMAT (Automat ---> Machine) and "playing Pinball" was called "flippern" or "Flipper spielen" (spielen ---> to play)
But since there is Internet the word PINBALL is quite common over here too, and less and less people call them FLIPPER anymore.

I guess the machine on the first page can be recognized immediately (!!!) ...
...on page 3 you see the back then very successful and meanwhile legendary "Automaten-Hoffmann" (located Essen-Kettwig) who was the first professional 2nd-hand-Distributor over here and offered his machines in nice colored catalogues. His cheapest offer in 1980 was CAPERSVILLE for 445,- DeutschMark (2 DM ---> 1 Dollar).
The machines behind are from left to right - AMIGO - spanish NEW WORLD - CAMPUS QUEEN (right behind him) - DIPSY DOODLE - JUBILEE and in the front right there's a spanish Lady Luck-Cabinet and a spanish Criterium-Top.

Vital Mai 1980 -  3 (resized).jpgVital Mai 1980 - 3 (resized).jpgVital Mai 1980 - 1-2 (resized).jpgVital Mai 1980 - 1-2 (resized).jpg

1 week later
#13 4 months ago

Here's another german magazine-report ... in this case sadly just 1 picture, I couldn't find the complete report yet ... from a german women-magazine "PETRA" Issue April 1981 ... you can see the same "Automaten Hoffmann, Essen-Kettwig" as above in the 1980-VITAL-Issue.

It reads - "Essen-Kettwig's Ekkehard Hoffmann deals with Pinball-Machines, the Game of America"
The headline reads "FLIPPERN - nur ein Männersport ?" ( means "Pinball - a Sport just for Men?" )

From left to right you see these machines ...

BLY RO GO - CDI GOLD RECORD - BLY BOW AND ARROW - a spanish CRITERIUM 75 - WMS TRAVEL TIME (it's rather not a SUMMER TIME because Add-A-Ball ...or in this special case rather "Add-Time"... -machines were uncommon in Germany , but it could also be a licensed spanish "Segasa-Sonic" Travel Time which looked quite identical ) - BLY FREEDOM SS - GTB ROYAL FLUSH - WMS SMART SET - WMS STRATO-FLITE - WMS DEALERS CHOICE - BLY FIREBALL (Fireball being Mr. Hoffmann's personal favorite as he stated in several interviews) ... If you look closely at FIREBALL you'll see that it's not a german version - the middle coin-insert is closed. All official imported german models had 3 chutes (50 Pfennig, 1 DeutschMark, 2 DeutschMark) so this was a "grey imported" machine.
Automaten Hoffmann Petra April 1981 (resized).jpgAutomaten Hoffmann Petra April 1981 (resized).jpg

#14 4 months ago

Great stuff, thanks for posting. It must have taken a lot of work to set those games up outside.

#15 4 months ago

We sent them a Ro Go???? Wasn't losing the war bad enough? LOL

2 months later
#16 71 days ago

In this week it's exactly 44 years ago when GORGAR was officially presented in Germany at the "IMA 1980" in Frankfurt am Main ("IMA" ---> "Internationale Münz-Automaten-Ausstellung" or "International Coin-Machine-Exhibition")
As everyone born before the 70ies will remember, Pinball was absolutely huge in those days, also in Germany. GORGAR was mentioned in the news and even in ordinary family-magazines like this ...

It reads:
PINBALL-MACHINE CAN EVEN SPEAK
The latest Hit for Pinball-Fans: A Machine that's able to speak. If Gorgar, the red Monster, gets hit, he moans: YOU HURT ME. And he praises the Winner with shattering Voice: YOU BEAT ME. Gorgar only speaks english though. Pinball-Fans put a Billion Deutschmark in Machines every year.
Below Picture: GORGAR growls if the Player beats him.

DSCI0013 (resized).JPGDSCI0013 (resized).JPG
#17 71 days ago

Very interesting to see what was happening in Germany as far as the arcade scene. Are the articles from trade magazines or the regular newspaper? We had a couple different mags like Gameroom magazine and Pingame Journal, and wondering if Germany had something similar?

#18 71 days ago
Quoted from poppapin:

Very interesting to see what was happening in Germany as far as the arcade scene. Are the articles from trade magazines or the regular newspaper? We had a couple different mags like Gameroom magazine and Pingame Journal, and wondering if Germany had something similar?

I guess I wrote to each of the 2 large reports above where they're from but no problem, I can write it again to make it clear ... The report "Flippern macht frei" is from the german health-magazine VITAL Mai 1980 and the report below featuring Ekkehard "Automaten" Hoffmann is from the german Women's-Magazine PETRA April 1981.
Sadly I can't tell where the small GORGAR-article comes from - but most probably from a german family-magazine February 1980 like "Stern" (yes, but not from Gary ) or "Quick" or "Bunte" ...

In the 90ies there were small magazines like "The Juke-Joint" (mainly J-Boxes but with a Pinball-Section), then there was the magazine "PinBall" by Norbert Kramer and the best known was a magazine by Uwe Stippler but I can't remember its name at the moment, I guess it was one of those "very original and unique" titles like "Special when lit" or "Shoot Again" ... nevertheless it was a good magazine and available until 2001 I think ... the Internet ended all of this.
Then there is or was (?) the GPA (German Pinball Association) with their own magazine ... for some time each GPA-member got a free issue of the Pingame Journal.

Be sure that Pinball was very heavy in Europe, especially in Germany, Austria, Netherlands and Belgium. But I guess the country with the largest percentage of Pinball-Machines compared to the number of people must have been France. But since France was totally dominated by Gottlieb it's clear that Bally and Williams did not make that much money in France. Spain is another story - them too were Pinball-crazy but they had their own Pinball-Industry. Some of them were licensed machines, most others were original.

#19 65 days ago

For anyone who's interested in the european scene of today I can give some hints and show some recent stuff.

At first this one, which "might" be of special interest for Pyromedic ... this TV-report shows a very good friend of mine, Holger Laub, who collects everything that's coin-operated plus "some" other interesting stuff, including great american cars as you can see. If you look closely you'll spot a red-white 1958 Fairlane-Convertible too. At the moment he proudly owns a Capersville, which is his alltime-favorite, a Paradise and 2 SS-Machines, Globetrotter and Ground Shaker. He also owns 10 or even 20 pre-war "Bagatelle"-Games which were called "Nadelspiel" (=Pingame) in Germany. But I'm not into that and can't tell more about it.

In 2014 he offered a Student Prince in (german) Ebay and I remember well a story he told me regarding this ... an American contacted him because he saw that this Student Prince had an Instructinon-Card in german and asked Holger for a copy. He got his card and was very nice and thankful.

Now, since poor Student Prince doesn't seem to have much friends in the USA it came to mind that this friendly guy could have been you, Pyromedic ??? If so, that man in the Video is the one who sent you the german card.

https://www.swrfernsehen.de/landesschau-rp/hierzuland/video-schauernheim-100.html

Here are some Newspaper-Reports and a Video featuring another well-known Collector from Germany, just a few miles away from Mr.Laub. He also is the one who maintains Mr Laub's machines.

https://www.rnz.de/region/metropolregion-mannheim_artikel,-Metropolregion-Der-Flipper-Sammler-Jochen-Bauhoff-besitzt-insgesamt-135-Automaten-_arid,190337.html
https://www.n-tv.de/der_tag/Das-ist-der-Flipper-Koenig-aus-der-Pfalz-article17635091.html

Automaten-Hoffmann who's mentioned above is still active today but doesn't deal with Pinball anymore, since there are meanwhile some other very specialized Pinball-Distributors for the private home-market. He's now specialized in Billards and Table-Soccer (the small version of the stupid sport which 90% of the male Germans live and die for)
Automaten Hoffmann now (resized).jpgAutomaten Hoffmann now (resized).jpg

And here some hints for everyone who's interested what's on the market and how the prizes are in the most important european Pinball-Countries.

But please note and don't forget - The word PINBALL, though becoming more and more popular, is not that usual in Europe. In Germany it's still called FLIPPER, also Flipperautomat or Flipper-Automat ... so if you look for machines you have to search for all of these names, otherwise you will miss a lot.
Millenials, of course, call them Pinball or, because they want to be hip, just "Pins" but the older guys still call them FLIPPER (singular and plural). Me I prefer the word FLIPPER too because it's much more appropriate to the machine itself. There aren't anymore Pins on the Playfields for a long, long Time now, right? But there are Flippers. Besides that I hate the Song "Pinball Wizard" and that terrible 70ies-Massacre-Movie.

In France they are still called FLIPPER (singular) or FLIPPERS (plural) ... some old Frenchmen still call them "Billiard Electrique" like in the 50ies.
And for a search in the Netherlands you have to look for FLIPPERKAST or FLIPPERKASTEN.

Here are the links for the most popular sites.

Germany - https://www.kleinanzeigen.de/s-flipper/k0

France, the former Gottlieb-Country - https://www.leboncoin.fr/recherche?text=flipper

Austria - https://www.willhaben.at/iad/kaufen-und-verkaufen/marktplatz?isNavigation=true&isISRL=true&srcType=vertical-search-box&keyword=Flipper

And, last but not least, the Netherlands - https://www.marktplaats.nl/q/flipperkast/

...and here some examples for anyone who likes to see how much GOTTLIEB dominated France ... in general you can spot a Pinball-Machine in 3 out of 4 french movies from the late 50ies until the early 90ies and be it just for a short glimpse.
But there are some movies with absolute wonderful Pinball-scenes. Search them and have a look - you won't regret it!

"L'Alpagueur" (english title "Hunter will get you") filmed in the Winter 75/76
"Le Marginal" filmed in early 1983
"Le Clan des Siciliens" ("The sicilian Clan") from 1969
and "Coup de Tete", filmed in late 1978.

Another "must-movie" is The French Connection-2 from 1975, which sadly wasn't such a success as the first part. It was shot on Location in Marseille with another great Gottlieb-Scene. Please watch it!

I can promise you, especially the Gottlieb-Fans, you won't regret looking at them.

#20 64 days ago
Quoted from Mardi-Gras-Man:

For anyone who's interested in the european scene of today I can give some hints and show some recent stuff.
At first this one, which "might" be of special interest for Pyromedic ... this TV-report shows a very good friend of mine, Holger Laub, who collects everything that's coin-operated plus "some" other interesting stuff, including great american cars as you can see. If you look closely you'll spot a red-white 1958 Fairlane-Convertible too. At the moment he proudly owns a Capersville, which is his all time-favorite, a Paradise and 2 SS-Machines, Globetrotter and Ground Shaker.
In 2014 he offered a Student Prince in (german) Ebay and I remember well a story he told me regarding this ... an American contacted him because he saw that this Student Prince had an Instructinon-Card in german and asked Holger for a copy. He got his card and was very nice and thankful.
Now, since poor Student Prince doesn't seem to have much friends in the USA it came to mind that this friendly guy could have been you, Pyromedic ??? If so, that man in the Video is the one who sent you the german card.
.

Great post!
Thanks, but no, that was not me. I would like to find a German apron card for Student Prince. thanks as always for such great posts and history!

#21 63 days ago
Quoted from Pyromedic:

Great post!
Thanks, but no, that was not me. I would like to find a German apron card for Student Prince. thanks as always for such great posts and history!

So it wasn't you? Well, at least this proves that there's more than just 1 american Collector who doesn't hate poor Student Prince. I will ask Holger Laub if he saved that Scan of the Card - and if so I will publish it on Pinside, OK? But I guess he didn't save it.

Talking about this Machine there are 2 nice Press-Releases taken from german magazine "Automatenmarkt". I already published them on the Splash-Page but they surely will reach more Pinsiders right here I guess.

That's the way german Operators looked like 55 years ago, very cool.
The name "Seevend" meant this was the european Company distributing Seeburg. And surely everyone remembers that Williams belonged to Seeburg in the 60ies.

Another interesting point regarding these pictures is the man standing on the left of the 2 small upper images ... that's Mr. Hans-H. Rosenzweig, one of the most important men in german Flipper-History. He even had the kinda official nickname "Mister Flipper". As his name indicates he must have been jewish and surely went along great with the jewish-dominated Pinball-Industry (and just for the record - I KNOW it's very dangerous for a German talking about that but I say thiis out of great respect !!! I mentioned several times that I give a Sh** about being german and would rather like to be an American like you)

This Mister Rosenzweig is the one who is mentioned, for example, in the dvd "The Battle to save Pinball". I think it's George Gomez who described him as "the 500-Pound-Gorilla" for Williams. Rosenzweig later had a Beard and was depicted on the Playfield of Rollergames.

Pinside_archive_1789_2148629 (resized).jpgPinside_archive_1789_2148629 (resized).jpgPinside_archive_1789_3690800 (resized).jpgPinside_archive_1789_3690800 (resized).jpg
Rosenzweig Rollergames (resized).jpgRosenzweig Rollergames (resized).jpg

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