Vague memories needing clarity

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beromat
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Vague memories needing clarity

Post by beromat »

First off, don't be misled by my username, it was picked for me and implies nothing!

Back in the early 60s my favourite mechanical bandit had these features (I think!).....

It had 3 reels. Each reel consisted of number symbols. The winning combinations were combinations of 1/2/3. These numbers had red lines through them. As 1/1/1 was the highest payout the ones had 3 red lines, the twos had 2 red lines and the threes had one red line (I'm fairly sure, but hey, this was over 50 years ago). It was 1D per play.

And that I'm afraid is about all I can remember, sorry. So if anyone can satisfy my curiosity by identifying the make and model I would be most grateful.

I discovered from the admin chap who helped me join (thanks) that this might be a Beromat. Which is why he picked my user name and also why I started by saying you should read nothing into it (other than extreme ignorance). But please consider other brands if necessary, ta.

Thanks in advance.
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treefrog
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Re: Vague memories needing clarity

Post by treefrog »

Welcome,

As has been guided to you already, the machine is most likely a German based Günther Wulff machine, but these machines were also heavily revamped by many makers in the U.K. some plastic, metal and Formica covered. See linked below for lots to go through

Revamped Beromat-type Bandits

If original machine, would be a oblong wooden box with one if a variety of names like Triomat, Novimat, Primus, Exacta, Type B etc

Do you remember anything other than the reel strips
pennymachines
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Re: Vague memories needing clarity

Post by pennymachines »

Here are some in German format showing red horizontal stripes across winning numbers (and multiple stripes across winning fruits).
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Beromat.jpg
Rotomat.jpg
kansas.jpg
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coppinpr
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Re: Vague memories needing clarity

Post by coppinpr »

you might like to visit this page to see a little about the man who made these

http://www.penny-arcade.info/the-gunter ... collection
beromat
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Re: Vague memories needing clarity

Post by beromat »

Thanks people. I shall peruse all that with interest!
beromat
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Re: Vague memories needing clarity

Post by beromat »

Hmmm. Interesting.

A few pictures come close, in particular the ones above. But there is a memory gap. Maybe that is irrelevant and I'm seeing variations of what I was looking for? Anyway, I've now indeed seen pictures of machines with numbers with red bands through them. The memory mismatch is that what I clearly remember is .....
  • *red lines, not red bands, e.g. for number 1, take the width of a red band as illustrated but replace it with a thin red line where the top of the band is, one at the bottom and one in the middle
    *the fonts look too informal, I suspect that means something like a serif font was what I had in mind, the 1 may have been decorated with white lines inside one or more edges, not sure about other numbers
    *the backgrounds are coloured or black, what I remember was white backgrounds for all numbers and the numbers were black
.

I'm not really helping am I? Sorry!

What I was going to do was write a simple software simulator to play, but not the animated graphics, I never learnt computer graphics, just programming in general. So I guess the goal of the quest is actually reel layouts and pay tables. Is that more answerable?

Thanks again for everything so far.
beromat
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Re: Vague memories needing clarity

Post by beromat »

So yeah, having thought about it and looked at many pretty pictures, I'm sure you're right and I was thinking about a Beromat machine. And I'm pretty sure now that the machine is probably one with numbers 1 to 6 on the reels.

Sadly many of the photos are a bit blurry in the pay table area. Does anybody know what the typical payouts would be for a 1 to 6 machine?

Pushing my luck, but the layouts of the reels would be wonderful if anyone has them, then I can hide away for a while and write a PC fun money version!

Ta.
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coppinpr
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Re: Vague memories needing clarity

Post by coppinpr »

Payout varied between models and operators. For an interesting setup like you're looking for here is a full payout list from a Beromat. I don't have a German machine at the moment so can't give the reel strip order for the three reels but someone on here will. The set up below was a high payout set up. Many machines would have had less winning combos.

111 =10
211 =10
311 =10
411 = 8
511 = 8
121 = 6
221 = 6
321 = 6
421 = 6
521 = 6
141 = 4
241 = 4
341 = 4
441 = 4
541 = 4
- - 1 =2
- - 2 =2
- - 3 =2 (on some machines one of these last three was changed to "free play" which gave 1 free pull)

If you look carefully at the third of Mr P.'s photos you will see that does indeed have thin red line background to the reel symbols you mentioned. Only the numbers that could make up a win had the red bars of any kind.
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badpenny
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Re: Vague memories needing clarity

Post by badpenny »

I must have had a hundred of these since I began, and I can't recall ever seeing one without additional single lemons sprayed all over the reels to diminish what it forks out.
I'm currently working on one of the English conversions now, a beautifully robust case, heavy quality chroming, lights and a perfect mech which is so shiny it looks like aluminium in places and no signs of attack by Monkey Metal Moth.
It demonstrated the common malfunction of paying out two coins every pull regardless of result, 5 minutes sorted that out.
So then I put 100 coins through it and won nothing. So I peeled off the single strips of lemons and ground out the brass bridges that filled in the pay out plates. Another 100 coins later and I'd won 105!
So back to the drawing board :!?!:

These mechanisms unlike American 3 reelers are precision machines. The American mechs are made to last but the tolerances are "near enough is good enough" When one misfires or doesn't quite make the grade it usually benefits from a piece of pressed steel being bent to align better.
These German ones are the opposite, they're made of a nasty alloy which tends to delaminate, especially if allowed to live in a damp environment. Also not being impervious to shock most of the actions are quite gentle, but most of all some of the tolerances between moving parts almost need a feeler gauge to adjust. The pay out bar for example can fail if it's so much as 1/8th of an inch out. And it's kept in line by two gentle springs pulling it up against the vertical weight of a plumb bob trying to make it drop.

BP :cool:
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coppinpr
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Re: Vague memories needing clarity

Post by coppinpr »

I must have had a hundred of these since I began, and I can't recall ever seeing one without additional single lemons sprayed all over the reels to diminish what it forks out.
on numbers machine read "6" for "lemon" :lol:
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Re: Vague memories needing clarity

Post by pennymachines »

A few more typical Wulff variants from recent auctions. The first of these has the number reels and a readable score card. The last one is the classic, and to my mind, most stylish of the Beromat line.
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PP-6.jpg
B-M-235.jpg
PP-7.jpg
PP-8.jpg
WAH-20.jpg
Chiswick-616a.jpg
Peebles-210B.jpg
ATB-726.jpg
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badpenny
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Re: Vague memories needing clarity

Post by badpenny »

badpenny wrote: Wed Oct 31, 2018 11:43 am
I'm currently working on one of the English conversions now, a beautifully robust case, heavy quality chroming, lights and a perfect mech which is so shiny it looks like aluminium in places and no signs of attack by Monkey Metal Moth.
It demonstrated the common malfunction of paying out two coins every pull regardless of result, 5 minutes sorted that out.
So then I put 100 coins through it and won nothing. So I peeled off the single strips of lemons and ground out the brass bridges that filled in the pay out plates. Another 100 coins later and I'd won 105!
So back to the drawing board :!?!:
Update ……… So I've swopped a few around and had another go. I've now got an average pay out of 56% which seems a bit mean from a purists point but probably quite generous from a fairground's.


BP
malcymal
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Re: Vague memories needing clarity

Post by malcymal »

My British conversion 'Roma' (as in the revamped Beromat threads) is also very tight on payout. I calculated 58% and did the tests three times getting around same percentage rate. The other thing I noticed on my conversion is the restart middle reel function is still attached to the mechanism itself, in curiosity manually operated it and it reel shot round at tremendous speed, but of course starter button not present on the case of machine. I still love the slow 15 second operation, it's good when two winning symbols line up and you have that time to see third reel delicately roll and stop, often to lose! !!RANT!!
highfield
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Re: Vague memories needing clarity

Post by highfield »

Yes the 15 second approach to slowing gambling would have been a good fix to some of the addiction on betting shop FOBT’s
malcymal
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Re: Vague memories needing clarity

Post by malcymal »

highfield wrote: Wed Nov 07, 2018 8:56 am Yes the 15 second approach to slowing gambling would have been a good fix to some of the addiction on betting shop FOBT’s
absolutely, I agree.
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coppinpr
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Re: Vague memories needing clarity

Post by coppinpr »

I agree BUT the world seems to move so much faster for the modern man (?), he's always in a hurry. I have this really nice German "Jupiter" which conforms to the "value for money" rules for German machines at the time, a great machine to play but it seems to take forever to get there. On machines with a restart I'm loath to press the button and wait even longer !!! :dammit:
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malcymal
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Re: Vague memories needing clarity

Post by malcymal »

That's a very nice machine coppinpr, unusual spheres for reels. Out of curiosity, what year was it made? Is it around the time of sputnik project space race etc? Thanks for sharing.
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badpenny
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Re: Vague memories needing clarity

Post by badpenny »

malcymal wrote: Wed Nov 07, 2018 8:38 am My British conversion 'Roma' (as in the revamped Beromat threads) is also very tight on payout. I calculated 58% and did the tests three times getting around same percentage rate. The other thing i noticed on my conversion is the restart middle reel function is still attached to the mechanism itself, in curiosity manually operated it and it reel shot round at tremendous speed, but of course starter button not present on the case of machine. I still love the slow 15 second operation, its good when two winning symbols line up and you have that time to see third reel delicately roll and stop, often to lose! !!RANT!!
I put this post on 5 years ago, it burbles on about GW conversions, re-spin buttons and My Uncle Gordon.

Re: Revamped Beromat-type Bandits

BP :cool:
pennymachines
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Re: Vague memories needing clarity

Post by pennymachines »

malcymal wrote: Wed Nov 07, 2018 1:09 pm That's a very nice machine coppinpr, unusual spheres for reels. Out of curiosity, what year was it made? Is it around the time of Sputnik project space race etc?
Sputnik was launched the end of '57 and Wulff made the Jupiter in 1960, by which time things were hotting up. Pressing the buttons on this can only speed the game up (slightly). The first globe can be restarted when the button lights if you're unhappy with where it lands, and the other two can be stopped early by hitting the buttons when they're lit.

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Re: Vague memories needing clarity

Post by malcymal »

Thanks for the info pennymachines and the video. It does appear to be a very long game play, however when I timed the cycle it's roughly 15 seconds.
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