Slot Magazine History

General vintage slot machine related topics.
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treefrog
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Slot Magazine History

Post by treefrog »

Having been collecting since 2008, I subscribe to MMM, only missing a few copies, but keep hearing about the previous magazines that ran and disappeared in the past. I wondered what I had missed...Well there were two lots at the last Elephant sale with piles of magazines, which I picked up for a fiver each.

Now had a chance to go through them and apart from few MMM's most of them were Steve Hunt's and John Hanson's magazines... In fact I may have every single copy of both judging by the numbers, including all the supplements that came with them. What I am surprised at was with AAM running a rival magazine would attempt to run, eg John's, which lasted only 3 years. Also both were running auctions. Anyway, for those interested or not, and assuming the magazines I have are complete, below is the history... Certainly the magazines in the early 2000s made impressive reading. I do not envy those who put the effort in to produce and publish these and I am sure it requires dedication...

History: Steve Hunt's Mags
"Hunts Vintage Fair" - The Deal Directory started with issue 1 in Sept 1992. This only contained ads for the first year.
By issue 9 it changed its name to just "The Deal Directory" and started to have a bit more info in, but mainly still ads.
For Issue 25 in Sept 1994 the magazine then became the known as AAM (Antique Amusement Magazine) at £1.25. This increased to £3 in later years. The magazine by now had interesting articles submitted by many on this site in fact. It also had the "Gold Pages" for adverts, a bit like a mini Exchange and Mart.
From issue 97 in December 2000 the magazine was now a very professional glossy colour magazine with supplements.
The final issue I have is number 124 in February 2004.
From what I can tell, one of Steve's first auctions was launched in October 1993 in Cambs. There was a fixed fee commission, no % and through the life of the magazine there were many other auctions into mid 2000s...

John Hanson's Mag:
Hand Cranked Pleasures start in Jan 2001 with both adds and articles for £1.50.
By issue 14 in Feb 2002 it became Vintage Penny Arcadia.
Last magazine was a Xmas special in Dec/Jan 2003/04 issue 36/37. One of John's reason for not continuing was the lack of subscriptions... I wonder what the numbers were for AAM.
The magazine had a number of auctions associated in their supplements mainly at pubs: the Fox Inn, Nelson Inn and Old Barn Hotel... Unfortunately MR PM has no history of these sales or Steve's early one's on this site.

I am sure most of you older members will know all this history, but I got the impression by the numbers of people involved size of the contents of the magazines that the interest was a lot higher 15 years ago. I wonder what happened to "Paul" of Colchester who posted in the last of the Arcadia mags about his travelling arcade, given very local to me...

Anyway glad I bought hem as a lot of good reading ahead and reference material... !!THUMBSX2!!
slotsoffun
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Re: Slot Magazine History

Post by slotsoffun »

Thanks for the history of the slot magazines, interesting read.

I remember the early AAM magazines and its gold pages, especially as we only had Exchange & Mart for slot sales back then! Having published magazines myself years ago people don't appreciate how much time and effort goes in to even an amateur produced magazine, more so back then when computers were not as available as today.
Like all small magazines (or fanzines) once the internet came along hobbyists and collectors could get all their information and buy/sell machines with just a few clicks of a mouse (before eBay got all serious!!!!), and I admire the MMM still being published, not sure if it'll go on forever, but I do prefer to look forward to a magazine dropping through the letterbox and flicking through its pages at bedtime - The wife has a moment of excitement when I say I fancy an early night, the excitement is short lived when she realises I'm holding a copy of MMM!!!!!!

I've seen long established magazines, such as ABRA, a publication for magicians that came out every week for almost 70 years succumbed to the power of the internet, with websites loaded every day with news and articles for the magic fraternity. Shame there are not more UK published Vintage Slot Related Magazines!

BTW When you're finished reading all those magazines you bought treefrog, how about putting them back in auction so I can snap them up next and enjoy the past!!!! !!YABBADABBA!!
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coppinpr
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Re: Slot Magazine History

Post by coppinpr »

Hand Cranked Pleasures start in Jan 2001
sounds like sound advice for any boy born around 1991 :lol:
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badpenny
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Re: Slot Magazine History

Post by badpenny »

Unless £50 in used notes appears in the hollow tree on the common I shall reveal who suggested the name "Hand Cranked Pleasures"

;-)
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Re: Slot Magazine History

Post by jingle »

Was it ,,,,, Rolf Harris !SMARTY!
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coppinpr
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Re: Slot Magazine History

Post by coppinpr »

Was it ,,,,, Rolf Harris
looks much the same and has a similar Didgeridoo
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badpenny
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Re: Slot Magazine History

Post by badpenny »

Could you see what it was going to be then Bob?

I do believe the person I'm thinking of originally suggested "Hand Operated Pleasures"
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Re: Slot Magazine History

Post by pennymachines »


HandCrankedPleasures.jpg

Fifty quid duly deposited lest you think me guilty. !!UHOH!!
Eventually, in deference to subscribers who wished to disguise what they got up to in their private lives, it was euphemistically rechristened Vintage Penny Arcadia.
VintagePennyArcadia.jpg

A high quality but very short lived publication was the Vintage Amusement Magazine which ran from Autumn '91 to Summer '92 (see the Library).

Sometime slot machine collector/dealer and full time funeral director, Roger Gillman's occasional coin-op advertising pamphlets were a forerunner of the Deal Directory. Roger also edited and wrote the Penny Slot Supplement which formed part of the Pinball Owner's Magazine in the 1980s. John Hayward of the Penny Slot Preservation Society was an early contributor to this.

Finally, there were Nic Costa's articles for Coin Slot International and Coin Slot Location in the World's Fair, which ran from 04/07/81 to 18/11/88, recently reproduced as More Automatic Pleasures - The Slot Machine Revolution.
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operator bell
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Re: Slot Magazine History

Post by operator bell »

You might also enjoy Loose Change. It covers mostly American machines but as a historical archive it's very valuable. I have the Digital Edition, which is the entire publication scanned to PDF. Strangely, there are a few issues missing for later years, for which presumably the publishers didn't keep a copy.
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treefrog
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Re: Slot Magazine History

Post by treefrog »

Yes I have a few Loose Change magazines, especially the Ainsworth editions being an Aristocrat collector. Did see the digital version and worthwhile, just never got around to ordering one yet, but certainly will. !!THUMBSX2!!
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Re: Slot Magazine History

Post by pennymachines »

Americans take their hobbies to a different level, and this is reflected in the number of very high quality US slot machine collector magazines published over the years. In terms of print quality and depth of content, they're unrivalled.

Additional to Loose Change (1977 - 1998)
LooseChange.JPG

there was The Coin Slot (Sept. '74 - Spring 1999) which benefited greatly from the encyclopaedic knowledge of the late Dick Bueschell
CoinSlot.jpg

and Gameroom Magazine, (1988 - 2010) started by Indiana-based collectors, Dave and Donna Cooper.
GameroomMagazine.jpg

and Classic Amusements, which started life as Coin Box Collector, and was also edited by Dick Bueschell, but only ran for a single year from 1992.
ClassicAmusements.jpg

As OB's mentioned, most of Loose Change is available for purchase from Mead Publishing Co. on DVD.
What's more, up until 1983, The Coin Slot is available for free online.

Another magazine of note was the quarterly Automatix Das Automatenblatt created by German collector Martin Bötticher in 1994. I think this ceased around 2000.
Automatix.jpg

Bringing us up to date, fortunately we still have Jerry's Mechanical Memories Magazine, running in the UK since Arpil 2006
MechanicalMemoriesMagazine.jpg

and American collectors are served by COCA Times, the magazine of the Coin Operated Collectors Association.
COCATimes.jpg

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treefrog
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Re: Slot Magazine History

Post by treefrog »

Having a clear out and found a load of old pinball manufacturer guides and auction catalogues for slots etc. Also came across a load of magazines I had not looked at from the 1980s. I am sure some of the older collectors will recall it and it seems to predate the original list I wrote about in this thread, “Pinball player and Penny Slot Collector supplement” , I have copies from 1983 to late '80s.

A few old names in there I recognise key at the time who produced articles like John Gresham. Quite a lot of interesting stuff, including pictures, auction resorts and for sale supplements.....Editor seems to have been a Roger Gillman and other contributors like Lewis Morrison, John Girvan and Robert Smith who I do not know or if they are around. See the picture below and guess who the man on the right is and very young too. :cool:
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bryans fan
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Re: Slot Magazine History

Post by bryans fan »

Unlike the rest of us Clive hasn't changed a bit!
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treefrog
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Re: Slot Magazine History

Post by treefrog »

It appears it was a jolly boys outing to John Gresham’s arcade in his cinema in Pocklington. Clive turned up in on old Lada without fuel and had to use a magazine to fill up from a can. As you say, things don’t change :lol:

Funny, was reading slotty advice in an early article, firstly if your Allwin is locked without key, cut a hole in the back with a jigsaw !OMFG!

Secondly, if you have a rusty bandit handle, take the ball off and slide on a piece of chrome curtain rail tube to hide :lol:

Love it..
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treefrog
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Re: Slot Magazine History

Post by treefrog »

While reading these magazines, it appears that collectors in the eighties organised meet ups to show a selection of their finest machines, do swaps, or sell a couple of items or spares. I am not aware of anything having existing since I have been collecting and the only time you get to see a rare machine is when they turn up at auction or you happen to buy a machine from a collector and he invites you in.....

I wonder what appetite there would be for such an event :!?!:
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badpenny
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Re: Slot Magazine History

Post by badpenny »

At the beginning of the millennium, I was back to running pubs.

Apart from hosting a few auctions with John Hanson I also held three Collectors' events.
One at The Fox and two at The Nelson.
The idea was "Come and Meet" bring "Swoppsies and Spares"

Clearly from a publican's point of view the bottom line was getting thirsty and hungry slotties in my pub, as well as providing a venue for sharing a great day with the hobby and friends.
Every time I had to gently whisper in someone's ear that plonking yourself down in the middle of my pub, unwrapping your sandwiches and cracking you 2ltr bottle of Coke was extracting the urine somewhat, as it was how I earned my living. One in particular took pen to paper (pre pennymachines!) and accused me of wrecking the day by treating everyone like children with stupid rules.
When JC and I started The Coventry Auction our intention was always to make it a social event, however it was clear the average auction attendee didn't really want that.

So if we go for the covention formula, who'd be interested?
In exchange for a day dedicated to the hobby, buying without waiting for it to appear on the catalogue, looking at a price tag and deciding, pay and go. Paying for a table to display your books and spares? Open to all comers, entry fee including an information pack.

BP
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geordy55
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Re: Slot Magazine History

Post by geordy55 »

Hi BP, I’d certainly be interested in the convention formula, they certainly seem popular in the US.
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