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Today a machine came to mind from around the late '70s/early '80s, seen in one of the Gt. Yarmouth seafront arcades - it was a fairly standard electromechanical, floor-standing fruit machine, but with the unusual feature of a small "bagatelle" incorporated into the top glass. With the feature activated, a tiny ball would be "pinged" upwards onto the playfield, and it would trickle down through pins to land in any one of several slots, presumably to add bonus points. Amusingly, it would sometimes take two or more attempts for the ball to be shot high enough to be able to negotiate the pins!

Do any of our knowledgeable members know the model's name and maker, or have any photos of this engaging machine?

I operated a rebuild version of one of these, which was housed in a dome top cabinet, the gimmick being if you won a higher award on the reels it would pay out and then on your next game allow you a genuine 50/50 chance in the small bagatelle feature, of a repeat win, by flicking the ball up and falling down over pins into: win/lose/win/lose/win/lose at the bottom. It was a low number production game and I can't remember the name of it but it was a rebuild in a Barcrest base machine. I recall the main game itself wasn't particularly strong, so it wasn't kept long. The bagatelle game was over too fast as the pins the balls fell down over were too wide apart, an example of blink and you'd miss the feature.

Thanks for the information moonriver, now I know that I didn't dream that the machine existed - it's strange how very selective the memory becomes; quirky features, such as the bagatelle, stand out like sore thumbs!

Combining a bagatelle with a bandit (to obscure the gambling issue) was tried a few times. United States Congress hearing of 1962:

I would like to tell you about one more subterfuge though, that went. all the way up in the courts of Maryland. This was a one-armed bandit, the plain, original one-armed bandit, but the console size, a big one. On the side of it was a little box that had a pinball plunger and a ball that you had to shoot up over a hump so it fell into a hole. This you couldn't miss. You hit the ball and it had to go over the hump. In that machine, when the ball dropped you could play the slot machine. That went all the way to the Court of Appeals of Maryland on the argument that it was a skill device instead of a chance device, that it took skill to shoot the ball over the hump.

Mills Hoke Snake could only be played once a ball was fired into the snake's mouth.

Interesting stuff pennymachines - I just wish I had the kind of cash that could buy as many machines as the American collector has!

That American collector has the cash now, not the machines.
This German wall machine called Saturn, made in 1954 by Wilhelm Söker, combined a miniature allwin-type game with a spinning disc.

Previously on pennymachines....

I'd forgotten the Jennings Silver Chief 'Melon'.
Last year a collector mentioned buying an American bandit with a bagatelle attachment - not sure if it was this or something else.

Seems the bagatelle feature has been around for some time!

It will be a Bally EM
Something like Texas Twin or Top Hat

Here are the two Ballys you mention. Not floor-standers, and they use the coin as projectile (not a ball) but otherwise come close to what Potless described.

Bally Texas Twin


Bally Top Hat