The future of our hobby and collaboration

[treefrog]

Some may have noticed the spamming of the resource section of old flyers and info I have, which I plan to continue doing over the coming weeks and nice to see Rippypennyarcade also being collaborative as well.

One thing that will make our hobby happy, interesting, informative and collaborative, is for us all to share what we may have with others. They may be providing advice, spares etc, up also can be the hoarding of information, documentation and history that would in invaluable to others. Unfortunately sometimes people like to put a value to everything (even if you paid for it like I had to) and say “ it’s mine and why should I share”, but if you do, maybe others will follow. One day you will die and someone will dump the lot or bury you in it. As such I encourage all to make this a collaborative hobby and invigorate this site with your wealth of information, old newspapers clippings, pictures etc....

By the way, for those I know I will be badgering you in person, possibly physically.

[dickywink]

Hi Treefrog
absolutely agree, information like this is what keeps the hobby alive and gets the interest of new collectors and also helps keep the restorations as authentic as possible ... im from the older generation and we cant take it with us

all the best
Dicky

[coppinpr]

Also agree, all the flyers and info on the www.penny-arcade.info site are there to be used and im planing a section on flyers but not till i have more free time towards the winter

We cant take it with us!!
Really well thats bugger, still the coffin will be lighter without that sega constelation in it

[special when lit]

Totally agree. There's so little info about old slots, anything posted will be useful. I've got a couple of machines working that I would have not been able to had it not been for info that people had posted on this site.
I've been sorting through some boxes today, & come across a couple of old flyers, which I'll post up when I've scanned them.

[pennymachines]

Thank you TF for raising this topic, and thanks so much for all the flyers you posted. Thanks to Rippy too.

What you say is true. Relevant paperwork is exceedingly rare, especially for anything pre-1950s, but much of it remains to be seen here, which is a great shame. The post '50s material is great to see too, because often those images are all that's left of some of those great arcade pieces. I was especially interested to see the 'bijou' Wheel 'Em In. I'd love one of those, but didn't know such a game was made.

[dickywink]

After spending over a year researching Hawtins involvement with Ditchburn for my History website www.ditchburn.co.uk i was running out of places to look for new information, i then stumbled across a great resource, which is a searchable website that holds all the Billboard and Cashbox Magazines ( the USA equivalent of Worlds Fair and Coinslot )

whilst searching through the magazines of the 40s 50s and 60s i noticed that a lot of British Amusement machine manufacturers were mentioned in the weekly whats happening in Europe section although the magazine is really a great resource for the American machines

here is the Billboard section, just enter your keywords in the top right hand box .... you can also download each edition in PDF format
https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Bi ... gazine.htm
here is the Cashbox section
https://www.americanradiohistory.com/Ca ... gazine.htm

Hoping that these links will help others as much as they have helped me

All the best .... Dicky

[treefrog]

Thanks Dicky, the amount of times I get hits on this site, always lovely to see the small snippets of info they covered in Britain, more often geared around a trade exhibition or company info. Always wished the display on the search hits was better as zooming in always a challenge, well from an iPad.

It would be great if the British paper I believe called ATE, Amusement Trade was available electronically. I have only seen small bits or copies of ads.....anyone have these and how far did they go back

[pennymachines]

I think there were sporadic ATE publications associated with (and presumably distributed at) the annual British Amusements Trade Exhibition (later ATEI), but not as a regular trade paper. The primary British source seems to be the World's Fair. Nic Costa and Paul Braithwaite used this extensively in their research, but unfortunately it's not available online. Copies were purchased on microfiche for Carter's book and, I assume, copyright still applies. From 1974, a separate section of the World's Fair, called Coinslot, was devoted to coin-operated games. Coinslot was purchased in 2000 by ATE LTD., and in 2005 BACTA sold ATE to Clarion Events.

There are a few other online databases of old American trade publications, and another useful online resource is the archived Coin Slot collectors magazine.

As Dicky may know, a reproduction of a Hawtins catalogue was produced years go by Gary Goulding. I've lost touch with Gary, otherwise I would ask him about putting it up.

[dickywink]

great Info Thanks Mr PM
If Only the Coin Slot part of worlds fair was digitally scanned and available just like Billboard Magazine in the USA ...
if that suddenly appeared i'm sure it would answer a lot of our question overnight ....

Regarding Hawtins of Blackpool, I understand that Percy Hawtins grandson, Simon Hawtin still runs part of the Hawtins estate, does anyone here have any contact info or could put me in touch with him in anyway

all the best ... Dicky