Welcome, if your here from the find/save this game thread... this game was saved. By me!

Reference there for additional backstory if interested in how I came across a free- near museum quality, 1950 Bally Turf King... .. . that was hand delivered to my house on a trailer across some of the hottest desserts in UT on a 100 plus degree day... by a dude I never met... .. . and he would not take any money or even a bottle of water in return. Apart from the hour and a half we spent touring my resored games and talking about their rules, he would accept no renumeration.

This thing landed in my lap because neither myself nor the guy doing the delivering- Mark, had the heart to see it thrown out or to do the throwing. So he towed it 300+ miles because he was coming to Salt Lake City anyway. He’s a stand up guy with a curious mind who wondered about the game and recognized it as something someone, somewhere, would want. I tried to get a friend to take it and posted it on pinside to have someone else save it for free (10 dollars was the actual advertised price).

When those efforts failed Mark and I hatched the plan and he brought it up- making it to my house at a bit past 11 pm, today.

Look at what he dropped off.
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I note- the 1951 license for operation is for Salt Lake City, Utah- which happens to be where I live.

I decided it found a permanent home and I am going to move it in to the space I had for the Gottlieb King Pin I am working on slowly.

I will have to restore this one by doing a crap ton of wire tracing and mending. For some reason, a ton of a major wire bundle for the cabinet (no wires from head were cut- jones intact) are cut. I don’t yet understand why but I don’t even know how to get the glass off. But it’s beautiful and it is going in as a display.

I will clean it and polish it carefully but that’s it. Not fixing a single thing cosmetically or replacing a single part unless required for functionality.

The wires scare me a little bit- but I think it’s handleable once I learn how to get at the game and actually see what’s down there.

Initial glimpses of mechanics reveal delightful engineering and amazingly cool design. They built the insides beautiful too.

Thanks everyone-

Please, can anyone can tell me how to do the complicated stuff- like take the glass off....

Or remove the playfield or about anything else

All help will be appreciated- or directions to a good resource. I gotta look around the interweb and see what’s out there for this era.

I rubbed a few spots and the dirt lifts off pretty cleanly- other than that I am out of my league currently, but having worked on EM’s will assuredly make this a heck of a lot easier!

Awesome information. Thank you!

My buddy noticed the Wing nuts last night and we almost went for it but it was very late and we held off for clearer heads.

I have cleaned a few dirty playfields in my time but wonder if there are special precautions to take with this era. Any gotchas that I need to know about-

I am tempted to use only a very very very slightly damp rag to wipe down and then move to isopropanol and very very gently magic eraser- barely at all- but I want to be able to scrub just a tiny bit and don’t want water anywhere near that really old wood.

Objections?

Else that is the plan. The cabinet paint is completely bomber- that I can clean somewhat aggressively and I will go ahead on that end.

As you said- fan is indeed bent and I have not powered on- no plans to do so until I see the electronics and dig a lot more.

Cool- I will have to check out the videos. Thanks!

Yeah- two balls... that’s the least of the problems! See below-
However I did include a pic of the two balls cause one is super cool. It’s bronze color and has an almost hammered finish. Is this original??

And then we have the wiring. I am now officially unsure how to tackle this.

Not sure why anyone would ever do what was done. But someone cut clear through the wire bundle coming from the under playfield mechanical and switch tray- to the cable connector mounting board. I am missing 4 large Jones plugs (24 pin- 2 rows of 12). Someone else (so I assume) has solders about 15 wires back together.

The good is I have plenty of slack and can easily accomplish the repair very neatly.

The bad part is I am so screwed trying to match up wires and ordering on jones plugs.

At this point if people can throw in pics of their Jones plug connectors to the connector board- some close up some back a ways- I can at least figure out what it’s supposed to look like and then start contemplating a plan.

I need 4 2x12 Jones plug males connectors first...

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The backglass is nearly perfect for this old of a game. The only real damage is to the white which i can actually fix but don’t have plans to do as of now.

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The switch stacks and reels and motor are all pretty good. Two stacks are taken apart and missing coils and mounting hardware- I think. There are cut wires associated with those. I am now wondering if this game was used for parts at some point. Just a few and nothing remotely expensive so it seems almost stupid to suggest. But if you needed 4 Jones plugs and a few switch coils and mounting stacks... that’s what i see missing. Everything else is factory and seems to function- motor may be sticky/stuck but that’s to be expected after 70 years.

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I need to slow down and appreciate the details like 5 ball and 1 ball games and fully read the manual and all instruction cards. I have three- one in the game and two rules cards that are probably slightly different but at first glance appear the same.

For a 5 ball game- that basically means 5 balls per credit right? I don’t see ya way of counting. The reset mech to return the balls is awesome- works like butter and is very ingenious.

As for the cut point.

I actually discovered that the Jones plugs for the display have all been repaired and all wires are somehat neatly soldered
(no shrink wrap!!>doh<

So it’s pretty clear that at some point in its history someone cut every wire between the jones plug and the main board.

So I think- assuming that above is true- that the cut points were probably fairly close to the jones plugs- but some of the wires have been rejoined and soldered together with no plug- so I basically don’t have a clue presently. I got it open- pulled out the mechanics- removed the playfield and got the backglass door to open by removing lock. So I feel a tiny bit satisfied and know how to get at the game. I need pics of a working game and some time to figure out what the hell got hacked.

No rush- it’s awesome to look at. I have to say- I am very surprised how cool this game is. The wire springs that line the playfield are art work and the general scheme and colors on the cabinet are very cool. Seems like about 90 bulbs behind the backglass! Holy cow!

Indeed the wiring to the female side is all there (about one plus feet), then a similar length has been unbraided on the other side. I can start trying to match wires for sure, ugh....

I think the household decision is to clean it cosmetically and bring it inside to stabilize and to admire. I need to finish King Pin before I rip into this. And I should also finish my Bally Play Boy before I rip into this. I will post as a clean up thread for now. This thread is going to stall hard (possibly years) once it’s cleaned up. My goal is to bring it back, but reality is it’s a random thing I even have this and I want to finish my other game first.

The more I look the more obvious it becomes that someone started to restore this and it never got done. The wire bundle is unbraided for a foot or two around the cut and many wires have been paired up and some soldered. I really wonder who started this. Obviously, you don’t need to unbraid to cut... so whomever started it, I will eventually check your work, but thank you for all of what appears accomplished.

Pics is available would be great and will certainly hold here as a great record once I do start with this, so please post if available and I promise they will be used at some point.

Ok- this is interesting. Is the “skill lane” the red covered bit just past the rebound rubber. I was trying to figure out what that was for. Is the idea that if you plunge with enough force (and maybe not too much?) that the ball would go under the red chute. What happens then?

Sounds like a fun game if it can be switched up like that.

So historical question- how did these work in the sense that they were easily used for a type of gambling. Would you be able to ask for a payout from the bar for credits on the game? And how then would they be removed? Just play and bet all a few times until they are gone? Or was it different and more like two people playing and wagering on the side?

Finally- just exactly how much skill is there in getting the ball to the hole you have selected? I am guessing it must be at least a very significant advantage but is still also somewhat random. I guess what i am asking is- would a modern game have a larger component of skill. That seems almost self evident give lack of flippers and the extremely heavy cabinet. Just curious how these were used and what the deal is with the gambling aspect.

Also- turns out the paint and art is basically 100% there and bright. Some cracks but basically no missing paint whatsoever. I have found on me tiny chip missing- like a 2-3 mM triangle piece.

Top roughly 2/3 has been

Damp rag
Isopropanol and Magic Eraser
Novus 2 polishes
Waxed with carnuba

Pretty excited to find that art under there.

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Absolutely-
See pic but it’s an AB game- so this leads me to the next bit...

Exactly right sir! And a very sharp eye! I need to take a look at the inners and figure out if it has the stepper or the fixed advance, it may be a bit hard for me to to tell just poking around in there unless it’s labeled but I am now curious!

Were there any other differences that I could look for to identify what’s up with this.

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That’s one beautiful looking backglass when it’s lit up!!

Thanks for sharing the features and pics. I will investigate serial numbers to see if any further information may come to light. I am now conflicted. I really want to at least get lights on to bring it inside... it may be the case that I can match up wires and do this quicker than I had anticipated.

A few people have PM with encouraging suggestions that this process may be easier than it appears. Now officially conflicted- work on this black hole or get back on existing projects! Arghhh

Well.. decided to get it out of the shop. I got the playfield and cabinet interior and exterior cleaned with magic eraser (not interior) and polsihed with Carnuba. It *looks* a fine specimen and much of the kick marks and dirt came off. Too tired to go take pics. But moving it inside now. Probably see ya in my King Pin thread. I want to clear coat that game and get it done. So will post pics of this non functional one in the line up as a art piece for now.

It was about as dirty as any game I have seen. I think I went through about 7 buckets of water and cleaner and two large boxes of magic eraser- it’s notably better in all respects and turns out to be a quiet decent example under all that grime. Even the rear of the cabinet cleaned up to a brightesh yellow with little (some) paint loss.

Pics soon.

All cleaned up.

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Thank you! It went really well- I did manage to rip a bit of the instruction card but the paper is so brittle it almost crumbles. I have them pressing to flatten and will get an acid free very light paper and back it with an archival glue- it will never be noticed.

Else It’s a survivor. It would appear I have someone willing to part with a set of Jones plugs. If that’s the case I think I will plug away at it slowly- when I have time and it’s too hot in the shop I can pick off a few wires! Time to stock up on some thin shrink wrap for wires!

I will do this, post tag. Sorry for such a delay but like I said, it’s not a project I was looking for and it’s been sitting. Next time I am next to it I will post pic. Thanks for photos!

I just passed this game along. It ended up not fitting in our home- but it found a new owner who will bring it back to life and whom loves it for the horse racing theme! Yeah!

Your game looks good! I would love to play one of these some day!

I have some fantastic news.

This game ended up not being one I could fit into my collection due to space concerns. I posted it here and finally on a local classifieds add. Long story short- we have a new pinside user to welcome- Kellynb

And Kellynb has a new game.

I have shared this thread with him and have told him to take over if he sees fit here- or he may start another thread. Anyhow- please offer any support possible to get this game going again. It was somewhat sad to see it go after looking at it for a year- but it was never going to be next in line for me so it needed to find a better spot. I think it has one.