Italian Ascot bandits

[ottothemadandevil]

Great looking machine!
Wish I was brave enough to take on a project of that magnitude, It'll look brilliant when it's done.
Best of luck buddy and keep the photo's coming!!!!

[malcymal]

What a clean mech it's got, amazing considering the exterior condition. I'm sure from your previous transformations it's going to look great.

[aristomatic]

I managed to dig out pix of one Ascot I had. As I said previously, I thought the mechanism was very poor quality. I moved it on very quickly. Thankfully all the chrome was in very good nick when I picked it up so just a quick paint job.

[coppinpr]

Strange what you say about the mech, mine was very clean but I still stripped it right down and it seemed to be as well made as any other make. The fan is basic but strongly made and the thing works with a nice crisp movement. I wonder if this was a later mech used because the originals were crap? The token payout is interesting - originally there was a solenoid activated token slide attached to the case. The unit is still there but disconnected long long ago and a very simple and clever slide operated token unit attached to the front of the payout slide cover. The original looks like it would break down every two mins and the later one looks like it would never break so a clever move by some operator in the past.
Nobody commented on the bug I found on the mech. Has anyone seen the like before?

[malcymal]

The bug? Is this a form of cheat, to prevent the jackpot symbol, cherry win coming up or am I misunderstanding this? In which case if it's a cheat, I would say thieving swine.

[coppinpr]

Have you never found a "bug" on one of your machines? I'm surprised, and yes, hard as it is to believe, arcade operators did try and cheat the public. Although this is the most professional "bug" I have seen, I've also found clips to change the balance on the reels, pegs on the star wheels either blocked off or sawn off completely, mystery payout holes in the payout disc blocked off, and others, When I took this one off there was actually a red paint mark to show which stop to block so the "bar" never came up. so yes you're right "cheating swine".
But then again, the public was busy "spooning", using slugs, using coins on strings, pushing red hot needles through plastic payout windows so as to fix the reels in one position, and generally trying to get their money back. It added to the fun.

[coppinpr]

The payout card on my wreck was a worry so I thought I'd start with that and to be honest I'm pleased with it so far. Only an hours work and it's pretty close. Just a little spacing to the right and it's done. If the forum gurus think it's worth it, I'll gladly add it to the resources when it's ready. Some odd winning lines, "orange melon bar" and "orange melon melon"?

[malcymal]

Well those orange melon bar permutations are the same as most of the Sega Mystery Wins. I had two Segas with these combinations. But not 4 coins, they gave 10. Good job that award card. I assume GA is gold award token; do you have any tokens for it? I would be interested to see it and its dimensions. I haven't found any feature bugs as yet, not consciously. We did have a Bally Gold Award (Golden Girl) whereby two of the gold award payouts could never win and, as you say, the payout cutout was welded so the sensors could never trigger the token payout. This machine is actually in operation at a retro penny arcade locally; we traded it for a lovely 10p 2 play Esprit. The owner is aware of its illegality but funny enough he told me it's the machine that takes the most money each week in 2ps and the most reliable. I played on it last summer and re-noticed how two of the symbols had been substituted for others.

Malc

[coppinpr]

The original electric token payout has long been disconnected and a much better slide operated one added some years ago. The original seems to have taken a token not much bigger than a 6d, the new one takes a token bigger than a shilling. The old unit is a bit of a beast as you can see from the photo, the strangest thing about it is it seems to be the wrong way round. the clear panel in the belly glass was ,as always ,there to show the tube of tokens yet the tube was at the other end, reverse the unit and the tube would be in just the right place but then no payout cup for the token,a design fault,surely not ,but then it is Italian.

The payout card is finished now and attached to the original cleaned glass and really looks the part.I tried something new for me with this. I cropped about a dozen small jpeg photos of all the different fruits from a large photo of a buckingham payout card using paint shop pro then switched to microsoft word to build the payout card as I find it easier to adjust spacing with Word and you get a better use of fonts.When I had the correct size I scanned the result back in as a large Jpeg file and used paintshop to remove any marks left when inserting the fruit photos into word ,then printed it on satin photo paper and attached to the back of the original glass.

[laneri]

Here are a couple for sale in Sweden:
http://www.blocket.se/varmland/Enarmad_ ... ?ca=11&w=3
about 400 GBP

http://www.blocket.se/stockholm/Enarmad ... ?ca=11&w=3
about 270GBP

I kind of like the '60s Italian look on the blue one... You can almost imagine the smell of espresso and cigarrettes....

[widget2k4]

Copied and merged from Firman Poinsettia and Astor Check-Mate identified - Site Admin.

[aristomatic]

Posts split moved & merged - Site Admin.

I see the Elephant has some lots on the site for next couple of auctions. They have listed an Astor Check-mate as a prototype only one in existence (with an unless you know otherwise, caveat). There have been a number of threads here on the Italian Astor make machines, mostly on a less rare model and not on the rarer Hitop style Check-mate model. I am aware of two different options on the Checkmate, both non and twin jackpot. Interested to see if anyone here has either version, currently or previously owned. I know a senior member here certainty owned a blue twin jackpot model in 2012. I'm not sure if the Checkmate pictured in a thread here is the same machine he owned or a different example and or whether the one listed at auction is the same or another.

GP

[aristomatic]

I see the Elephant House has now added a pix of the Checkmate for sale in the auction. It seems to be a non jackpot version, but has a chess symbol marquee/embossing to the top right corner and has different lower centre marquee to other non jackpot versions and, interestingly, has chess symbol reel-strips and a correlating chess symbol award card. All the other checkmate machines seem to have standard fruit symbol strips and awards. As the nameplate is 'checkmate' on all versions, it seems appropriate that it has chess artwork. If the top right chess symbol is stamped within the casting you would either expect to see maybe a few more examples (now) if done as a special customer option, or many more if it was a standard production item. With maybe only one or a few (made at the time) if done as a prototype(s) then the Elephant House
may well be correct in its perceived rarity presently.

As with most slot/coin-op history, you need direct input from people associated with family or the business or linked commercially with first hand experience/history/knowledge to assist. Regardless of its rarity, it's not on my wanted list. I didn't upload the Elephant Auction image as copyrighted (moderators may do so).

[aristomatic]

Well it took a little time, but here is a picture of a machine with the same chess symbol, although the reel bundle and award card are fruits not chess symbols as E/H.

[pennymachines]

I didn't upload the Elephant Auction image as copyrighted (moderators may do so).

I'll try to get a snap of it on Sunday.

[aristomatic]

I didn't go to the auction. I was told the Checkmate had no back bonnet or back-door,

[treefrog]

Yes you are right, neither of them were present and not mentioned in the description either, so all the bidding was not in the room but by people leaving commission bids, probably not knowing the missing parts..... Oh dear... I would have had a go, as it had original paint and I quite liked the look, but in my opinion worth half what it went for. I think £280 + commission... You won't find the missing bits that easy, if at all.

[aristomatic]

Thanks TF.
I agree. As I said earlier, it's not on my list of machines, but I would have been none too pleased if the winning bidder. It's easy to get these details confirmed prior to an auction, but far more difficult to get a response from the Elephant prior to one of their auctions, so I have never left an absentee bid.

[pennymachines]

[aristomatic]

thx for pix