Help with a Hazy EM Memory

My father keeps raving about an old EM he used to play back in the day, which I'd love to identify (and perhaps acquire someday) but he can't seem to remember the name or even the theme.

All we have to go on is:
-- it was from the early 60s, or at least most likely before 1966
-- it had some sort of lane / tunnel up the middle, which was partially covered by a clear piece of plastic
-- he can't recall what was at the end of the lane / tunnel; perhaps a target or a saucer/kicker
-- there was a series of score-value indicator lights going up the lane/tunnel

Does this ring any bells (see what I did there?) for any of you fellow EM fans?

#2 6 years ago

FJB

FrankJ

Pinside member

Fremont, WI

11y 62,300 1,400 10

Sounds like Bally Space Time or Time Tunnel - but they were made in 1972

#3 6 years ago

RCP

SkyKing2301

Quoted from FrankJ:
Sounds like Bally Space Time or Time Tunnel - but they were made in 1972

Thanks for these suggestions. I checked and he re-affirmed the ball itself had to go up the center lane. On these you suggested, it doesn't appear the ball actually goes in those "tunnels".

#4 6 years ago

TAR

pinwiztom

Pinside member

http://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=1214&picno=45697&zoom=1

Again the dates do not match but this CCoin pin
Hollywood or Cinema
has a lane/tunnel shot up the middle that might fit the bill

pasted_image (resized).png

#5 6 years ago

TAR

pinwiztom

Pinside member

Can your dad remember if the game was single player or multi player?

#6 6 years ago

Darcy

Pinside member

Leduc, AB

11y 124K 6,360 17

Can remember the games theme? Any colours? Flipper size, and if it had more than 2 flippers?

#7 6 years ago

SBS

o-din

Pinside+ Addict

11y 158K 58,776

Was it like either one of these?

image-2 (resized).jpg

image-15 (resized).jpg

#8 6 years ago

RCP

SkyKing2301

Thanks for the suggestions, all...I'll check in with him on Saturday on these.

I pressed him with all these same questions Friday afternoon, re: theme, colors, multiplayer, layout; but couldn't squeeze anything else out. Will keep trying. (Whatever this game is, it's also overshadowed by Slick Chick, his all-time favorite.)

o-din -- we know it's not the first of the two you suggested, because that's Flying Chariots, and I have one of those! In fact, he never talked much about this particular machine until I got FC, so I'm thinking its target alley may have jogged his memory. I'd also previously asked about captive balls (like the second one you posted) but he said no to that too. I'll show him this one anyway.

#9 6 years ago

MJG

Mikala

Pinside+ Frequent

9y 78,800 1,390

Quoted from o-din:
Was it like either one of these?

#10 6 years ago

RCP

SkyKing2301

Ok, I squeezed a little more this morning. Firstly, he confirmed it's not any of those suggested already.

The era of play (based on where he'd played it and where he lived at that age) would have been 1962-1966 (while there's no guarantee the game couldn't be older than that, it certainly couldn't be newer.)

He's not certain if it was 1-or-2 players. It was definitely not a double lane like the captive ball game shown above. He says "All I can recall (so far) is that there was some sort of single lane with partial coverage, value-lights showing in a line (can't recall how much of the line was in the confined lane or out of it), and either a target or pop-hole at the end of it."

Sorry, I know this isn't much to go on ... but I figured the great team of pin experts here might have a chance!

#11 6 years ago

TAR

pinwiztom

Pinside member

wondering if it might be something like Aloha
while not exactly like a tunnel
your dad's memory might be foggy enough
to think this double bonus ladder track
was a tunnel to the plastic covering the KO and Gobble holes.

pasted_image (resized).png

#12 6 years ago

TAR

pinwiztom

Pinside member

Or Flipper Clown

pasted_image (resized).png

or
Olympics

pasted_image (resized).png

or Mayfair

pasted_image (resized).png

#13 6 years ago

TAR

pinwiztom

Pinside member

Doubt it is a Bally since most of those ZALE games are all asymmetrical
with exception of Gold Rush

pasted_image (resized).png

#14 6 years ago

TAR

pinwiztom

Pinside member

Not seeing anything for Williams either
closest might be their rollover buttons up the middle
to some target up top.
not unlike in Touchdown or Alpine Club or Vagabond etc

pasted_image (resized).png

#15 6 years ago

TAR

pinwiztom

Pinside member

only CCoin it could be is Hula Hula

pasted_image (resized).png

or maybe Kicker

pasted_image (resized).png

I doubt it was Beatniks

pasted_image (resized).png

or CCoin Astronaut/Moonshot from 1969

pasted_image (resized).png

#16 6 years ago

Darcy

Pinside member

Leduc, AB

11y 124K 6,360 17

Old Chicago? It has a small covered area in the center.

#17 6 years ago

JCH

embryonjohn

Pinside member

Marblehead, MA

11y 110K 5,754 4 7

Maybe he likes redheads

IMG_3266 (resized).PNG

IMG_3267 (resized).PNG

#18 6 years ago

Shapeshifter

Pinside member

13y 150K 10,466 8 144

Just double check it wasn't a woodrail - wooden lockdown bar etc - they would have still had them on location.

#19 6 years ago

RCP

SkyKing2301

You guys are awesome. I'll follow up with him on all of these.

#20 6 years ago

TAR

pinwiztom

Pinside member

http://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=816&picno=48821

Pretty Baby's precurser
Jumpin Jacks

pasted_image (resized).png

#21 6 years ago

JCH

embryonjohn

Pinside member

Marblehead, MA

11y 110K 5,754 4 7

The suspense is killing me

#22 6 years ago

JAY

I_P_D_B

Pinside member

10y 45,550 316

Hi guys, this is the part of my job I like the least, but please remember that IPDB images are copyrighted by their respective owners. Linking to images on the IPDB is the way to do it, instead of replicating the images themselves.

Here is an example of what I mean by a link:

Thank you.

Jay
IPDB

#23 6 years ago

FUN

fredsmythson

Pinside member

Austin, TX

8y 55,650 1,189 33

Quoted from I_P_D_B:
Hi guys, this is the part of my job I like the least, but please remember that IPDB images are copyrighted by their respective owners. Linking to images on the IPDB is the way to do it, instead of replicating the images themselves.

Here is an example of what I mean by a link:

http://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=816&picno=48821

Thank you.

Jay
IPDB

Can anyone explain why the photos in this thread, that were taken from IPDB, would not be under the Copyright Fair Use Act?

"In its most general sense, a fair use is any copying of copyrighted material done for a limited and “transformative” purpose, such as to comment upon, criticize, or parody a copyrighted work. Such uses can be done without permission from the copyright owner."

#24 6 years ago

WEN

jrpinball

Pinside+ Addict

10y 115K 10,722

Quoted from fredsmythson:
Can anyone explain why the photos in this thread, that were taken from IPDB, would not be under the Copyright Fair Use Act?
"In its most general sense, a fair use is any copying of copyrighted material done for a limited and “transformative” purpose, such as to comment upon, criticize, or parody a copyrighted work. Such uses can be done without permission from the copyright owner."

Not only that, but they were contributed by many of us in the first place.

#25 6 years ago

RCP

SkyKing2301

Update: I had him look through this thread, and he said these were great suggestions but he doesn't think any of these are it. Doh.

Feel free to toss out any other ideas you might have, in the meantime, he's going to go dig deeper on IPDB.

Thanks for all your efforts so far!

#26 6 years ago

???

Mopar

Pinside+ Member

Unknown

7y 80,050 4,178

Where did your Dad play this game, Florida? Does he remember the machine taking a dime to play and then
manually pushing in the rod below the plunger to get the ball up to the shooting lane? Trying to do a little jogging.
He can't recall if it's a single or multi-player, but might he have any recollection of the backglass?

#27 6 years ago

TAR

pinwiztom

Pinside member

Quoted from Mopar:
manually pushing in the rod below the plunger to get the ball up to the shooting lane

If it did not have a manual ball lift
that would rule out a lot of pins in the 1960-66 era, especially GTBs,
as most all GTBs had manual Ball Lifts up until end of 1966.
In June 1964 Bally had all pins converted to Auto ball lifts.
WMS made the change to auto ball lifts in early 1965.

Did the BG have a carryover feature, then it was likely a Bally.

#28 6 years ago

???

Mopar

Pinside+ Member

Unknown

7y 80,050 4,178

Quoted from pinwiztom:
that would rule out a lot of pins in the 1960-66 era, especially GTBs,

Yes, that very much wold narrow it down, which gets me thinking. What was the first machine
with the automatic ball eject?

#29 6 years ago

RCP

SkyKing2301

Quoted from Mopar:
Where did your Dad play this game, Florida?

No, it was down the shore in Bradley Beach, New Jersey. He spent a lot of time there in the the 60-66 timeframe, particularly in the summer of '63 when he fell in love with Slick Chick (while 'Just One Look' -- a big hit in 63 -- played over & over again on the arcade's jukebox). (Note: having acquired my own Slick Chick, I invited him over to play last Father's Day. His father's day gift: a 45 of 'Just One Look' that I'd loaded in my jukebox. Fired up the game and the song and transported the man back in time!)

Quoted from Mopar:
Does he remember the machine taking a dime to play

He says either dime or nickel, he's not certain.

Quoted from Mopar:
manually pushing in the rod below the plunger to get the ball up to the shooting lane?

He's pretty certain it was a manual-load game.

Quoted from Mopar:
might he have any recollection of the backglass?

I probed on this again, to which he replied "no backglass or theme recollection, though some images come to mind as *familiar* when seen, for example Cover Girl" (http://mirror2.ipdb.org/images/580/image-4.jpg)

Quoted from pinwiztom:
Did the BG have a carryover feature

He does not believe it had a carryover, as he was never a fan of that type of feature.

He also apologizes for not being of much help, lol.

#30 6 years ago

???

Mopar

Pinside+ Member

Unknown

7y 80,050 4,178

A couple other questions. If he thinks back to the Summer of 1963 while enjoying Slick Chick,
was this other machine there at that time? Does he remember playing this other game and then
Slick Chick came in and took over?
My guess is that it was a metal rail. Does he recall?

#31 6 years ago

TAR

pinwiztom

Pinside member

Quoted from Mopar:
What was the first machine
with the automatic ball eject?

For GTB I think it was Dancing Lady.

But think the first manufacturer, prior to Bally to use Auto ball lift
might be Keeney, possibly Eleven Belles in 1960.
It is a flipper game, but it is supposedly a one ball game, but it does not have a manual ball lift.

Keeney Go-Cart in May 1963 had auto ball feed, possibly the first standard 5 ball flipper game with such.

#32 6 years ago

DOC

drsfmd

Pinside member

10y 76,550 3,156 108

Quoted from pinwiztom:
But think the first manufacturer, prior to Bally to use Auto ball lift
might be Keeney, possibly Eleven Belles in 1960.
It is a flipper game, but it is supposedly a one ball game, but it does not have a manual ball lift.

In my Ted Zale research I very nearly came to the conclusion that it was a Bally innovation (they were certainly the first of the major manufacturers), but then the Keeney machines were brought to my attention. Eleven Belles was the earliest I could find that didn't have a manual ball lift, so I came to the same conclusion you have.

#33 6 years ago

TAR

pinwiztom

Pinside member

Quoted from drsfmd:
In my Ted Zale research I very nearly came to the conclusion that it was a Bally innovation (they were certainly the first of the major manufacturers), but then the Keeney machines were brought to my attention. Eleven Belles was the earliest I could find that didn't have a manual ball lift, so I came to the same conclusion you have.

You may have been right with your first instinct, and I was foolishly incorrect,
though Keeney was first to use an auto ball feed on flipper games consistently since its inception.
If you look at 1956 Bally's Balls A Poppin, I do not see a manual ball lift.
Nor does BLY Circus or Carnival or any of the 1 or 2 ball Bally's flipperless games (Queens series),
have manual ball lift.

#34 6 years ago

NWB

bingopodcast

For Amusement Only Games

Richmond, VA

11y 131K 5,841 26 9

Bally bingos from '52 on had an auto ball lift.

#35 6 years ago

TAR

pinwiztom

Pinside member

Quoted from bingopodcast:
Bally bingos

knew you would be chiming in with that tidbit,
but bingos are not flipper games, but you are correct as to when the feature was first utilized on a pinball related game.

#36 6 years ago

RCP

SkyKing2301

http://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=850&picno=19395

He's confident Slick Chick was on the scene before the mystery machine, and he's also confident it wasn't a woodrail.

With all this memory prodding, he realized he did visit the same arcade during a visit in 1972, and so is now wondering if perhaps it might've been a machine from that timeframe. He's poking around on IMDB this afternoon. Any suggestions from the early 70s that might fit the bill? (Though won't this conflict with the manual ball-lift?)

Fleeting memories from 50 years ago...this is challenging!

#37 6 years ago

MJG

Mikala

Pinside+ Frequent

9y 78,800 1,390

How about a '63 Chicago Coin Fire Cracker?

#38 6 years ago

TAR

pinwiztom

Pinside member