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Re: Old UK slot machine located Picadilly Circus

Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 2:20 pm
by malcymal
Ah yes, I was supposed to be doing this wasn't I??? Doh..... I will get down to Pagham amusements as soon as I can with camera.
There are two classics in there, the Streets Wheel Em In and another machine called Colorama which is a big roulette wheel with a large rubber ball. Bet on red and blue for 2, green for 4, yellow for 6 and white for 10. I have a memory like a Swiss cheese, full of holes...
I will try asking the owner if he can undo the back of machine... will wait and see. Malc

Re: Old UK slot machine located Picadilly Circus

Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 2:26 pm
by pennymachines
That would be fantastic Malc - we all wanna see the Wheel-Em-In's innards!

Re: Old UK slot machine located Picadilly Circus

Posted: Fri Nov 28, 2008 2:47 pm
by slotalot
Yes, I second that :D , always wondered how it worked :!?!: ...

Re: Old UK slot machine located Picadilly Circus

Posted: Sat Nov 29, 2008 4:16 pm
by malcymal
You might have to give the guy honorary membership, he's been there for at least 30 years at the arcade. Last time I heard he wasn't well and his wife and son were running it. My next free evening is Wednesday, I will try and pop by there on the way home from work. Malc

Streets Wheel Em In and Streets Colourama

Posted: Thu Jul 30, 2009 7:02 pm
by malcymal
At long last,
Streets Wheel Em In from Pagham Amusements, Bognor Regis:



Streets Wheel Em In:



Very rare now, Streets Colorama, one of only four machines left that are in working operation in the UK, see the Brenco Ring Vender top left of pic??



A gaggle of Bally's still in operation:




I had a pleasant day in the amusements, playing the Colorama and the Wheel Em In. The Wheel Em In was given to the owner 25 years ago from Havant Amusements, Hant. I also played their selection of Bally's. The owner told me they make a lot of income from these old machines as the local holiday campers just love the old equipment more than the new stuff. We are giving a Bally to him which will become a fully working machine for all and sundry to have fun with. Enjoy...any questions, fire away. Malc

Re: Wheel Em In identified at Picadilly Circus

Posted: Thu Feb 09, 2012 3:38 pm
by cleantex
Thanks to have given me information about the running auction on ebay :
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/220950164261? ... 1438.l2649

I asked the owner about some photos from the inner mechanics, but the machine is closed and too heavy for him to move.
I will continue to look after this, there is already a bid and I will try to contact the new happy owner in some times,
I really wish that after all this time finally we will see the inner construction of this machine. !!COOEE!!

Re: Wheel Em In identified at Picadilly Circus

Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 9:40 am
by slotalot
I see the Streets Wheel-Em-In went for a respectable price. If I had the room I might have given it a go. I hope that if the winner is a forum member, he will put us all out of our misery and post some photos of the mechanics... !WORSHIPFULL!
And good luck with the restoration, I am sure we all would like to see it working. !!THUMBSX2!!

Re: Wheel Em In identified at Picadilly Circus

Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 1:14 pm
by cleantex
!!THUMBSX2!! !!THUMBSX2!!
Anyway the seller promised me to provide contact to the new owner.

Re: Wheel Em In identified at Picadilly Circus

Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 5:49 pm
by pennymachines
That's good to know, Armand. Keep us informed. I'm as keen as you to see what's inside.
I didn't dare bid. It was a battle of the inner \|\/|/ !!DIABLO!! \|\/|/ (demons). I'm afraid the ones I share a house with won!

Clearly it's earlier than the one in the Pagham arcade, so must have been converted from old pennies to new. This couldn't be very easy. Presumably the belt would need narrower stripes too.

Re: Wheel Em In identified

Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 9:05 pm
by badpenny
I've always guessed it's as simple as three micro switches wired in series.
1st normally closed on first black line edge
2nd normally open in middle of white line
3rd same as 1st but on second black line edge.

So a coin in the white but not touching either black line will trigger the payout solenoid. If however the coin is out of the white, although it still trips the middle switch it will open one of the others thus isolating the payout switch in the middle..... no payout.

The ones that threw the coins at you down the glass top could have had some sort of belt or Archimedes screw that powered up when the coins in the payout got low and tripped a switch?

Alternatively it's smoke, mirrors, Crackerjack pencils and bacon rind. !!RAYOF!!

Re: Wheel Em In identified

Posted: Wed Feb 15, 2012 9:51 pm
by toibs
badpenny wrote: Alternatively it's smoke, mirrors, Crackerjack pencils and bacon rind. !!RAYOF!!
I prefer the smoke and mirrors theory....;)

Re: Wheel Em In identified

Posted: Thu Feb 16, 2012 3:15 pm
by cleantex
There was once a time that Japanese carry everything not attached to the homeland and put it into microscopical parts.
And when they found not yet patented inventions !!IDEA!!
I find one of this what could have been a Wheel 'Em In mechanism !PUZZLED!
Patent number: JP2004054551 (A)
Publication date: 2004-02-19
Inventor(s): KOBAYASHI KUNIHIKO

MEDAL CONVEYOR, MEDAL DISPENSER, AND GAME MACHINE

Coin-Conveyorbelt_1.jpg

:NBG:

Re: Wheel Em In identified

Posted: Wed Mar 07, 2012 8:36 pm
by jimmycowman
Watch this space...
I know the buyer of the 'Wheel Em In' off ebay...... he's picking it up tomorrow. He says he's going to join the site. I said he could borrow my van to fetch it, but it's too big to go in (one of the reasons he bid), so he's hired a bigger one. He now blames me for him bidding so much........ :lol:

Re: Wheel Em In identified

Posted: Wed Mar 14, 2012 2:03 pm
by pennymachines
jimmycowman wrote:Watch this space...
I know the buyer of the 'Wheel Em In' off ebay...
That's great. I hope to learn more about it.
Meantime, this is how Crompton's Roll A Win works (using microprocessors, stepper motors, etc.)


Re: Wheel Em In identified

Posted: Sun Apr 01, 2012 12:37 pm
by bryans fan
There is a Roll a Win Double Player on eBay if anyone is interested:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Roll-Win-doub ... 1c258051ef

Re: Wheel Em In identified

Posted: Sun Jun 17, 2012 11:01 am
by cleantex
Allow me to pull this out of the bin again :-(
I just asked myself if the MI5 !SOFA! has a thumb on the inner things of this machine, no other way to explicate for me the leak of photos. !!ESCAPE!!

Re: Wheel Em In identified

Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2013 7:52 pm
by trevb
Now I last worked with the Wheel 'Em In in 1978 in East Yorks, so my memory is rusty. However, they had a bank of small 'make-or-break' switches at the back with pairs of switches at both edges of each of the white payout strips. The coin coming off the back of the main belt simply 'made' a pair of switches if it was between the lines, triggering the payout. They had to be exactly in line, but sometimes ended out of alignment, either not paying out or paying out when they shouldn't, so we had to adjust them a lot, and this machine was notorious for giving you 'belts' due to all the exposed switches. Most electromechanical machines at the time used a solenoid payout which simply pulled back a slide with a hole containing the coin or stack of coins, the size of hole and depth of slide depending on the denomination and number of coins. In the 70s this was 3p and 6p with this machine, so the slide could hold 3 x 1p at a time and the slide pulled back once to drop three 1ps or twice to drop two lots of 1ps. There were usually three separate playing areas, each with a coin payout tube in the centre which rolled the payouts down the glass. A fault with the machine was a metal reinforcing strap which connected the front of the case at the top to the back of the case, which meant if you hit the side hard in the right place it jarred the switches, causing them to pay out. I found that disconnecting the strap stopped this. Apart from a coin on a string, a favourite trick with this machine was to roll up a strip of silver cigarette paper and try and push it down the coin shute in the hope it would fall onto the belt across two black lines, or try and push it in the gap at the side between the case and the glass lid.

Somebody on this strand mentioned the amusements in Piccadilly, London. Originally Playland, it got into the News of the World for various reasons and was renamed Piccadilly Amusements. I worked there in '80, but it was knocked down the following year to make way for the Trocadero leisure centre.

Re: Wheel Em In identified

Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2013 10:02 am
by bandito
There used to be a "Roll a Win" game down Barry Island years ago. Used to love playing it! The sound of the "bang" and all the coins flying down the glass towards you after you hit a win was great! Happy days........ !!BRRRR!!

Re: Wheel Em In identified

Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2013 11:52 am
by coppinpr
the amusements in Piccadilly, London. Originally Playland, it got into the News of the World for various reasons and was renamed Piccadilly Amusements. I worked there in '80,
I remember the old playland, I worked in Lots-o-Fun in Wardor St and Cambridge Circus in the late '70s ,they all cropped up in the News of the world, cant imagine why. I always hold that I was doing a public service by letting the street girls shelter in the arcade out of the rain. We had a workshop in the basement of Wardor St, it was nice and warm down there. Poor things, they often had to take their clothes off just to get dry !SAINT!

Re: Wheel Em In identified

Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2013 12:18 pm
by badpenny
Well it was called Lots-o-Fun, however I thought the "Roll a Win" games just took your money off you. :o