Italian Ascot bandits

[malcymal]

A Swedish crown too - according to Wikipedia this is about 1/2 mill bigger than the UK new ten pence piece so likely to work a treat over here in the UK. I like your machine a lot, it's quirky and although I'm fairly new to this game I can see various elements of it from so many other makes. How easy are these to come by in Sweden?? Do you fancy becoming an exporter to the UK because I would certainly buy one due to it being so unusual. Nice machine, I hope it gives you many more years of fun.

[fredslilja]

I think it is rather hard to find but I found two of those that are for sale here in Sweden.
Try these pages:
http://www.prylbanken.se/annons/hobby_o ... es/404292/
http://kopochsalj.eniro.se/query?what=g ... rid=dn_kos

[malcymal]

Topic merged - Site Admin.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Ascot ... 338e6b7684

A nice little project for somebody. I've often fancied one of these machines, particular the jackpot model. For anybody near Weston Super Mare it could be picked up for a steal. If it was near the south coast I would have had a punt myself. Malc

[treefrog]

The seller got it for a steal anyway......This and another bandit a Buckingham as well as two arcade machines, an old Chicago Coin shooter and a Globetrotter Pinball was on a buy-it-now in ebay about 3 weeks ago for £199 or offers......I pondered, but have no space for more junk and the buyer made an offer and got the lot, probably for £150 or so.......a big bargain me thinks if you have the space. The Buckingham mech is also on ebay......When he first listed the bandits, I think they were in the mid-hundreds.

arcade shooting game,pinball, bandits

[aristomatic]

Yes, originally a big lot and I emailed a friend as they had been looking for a cheap e/m shooting game project. Anyway, he decided against it so never went forward with an offer to the seller. However, I'm pretty sure that the two bandits were sold first by the seller as he then relisted using the same picture, but not including the two bandits, to sell the larger items on the second listing, this time asking £50 less than the original ad. So I would guess the buyer of the bandits got them for £50 or less (for the pair).

GP

[coppinpr]

The bandit is right up my street and I've had esnipe waiting to make a bid for me since day one.

[aristomatic]

This was how they ended first time around....

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Arcad ... 338dacb3e4

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Vintage-Arcad ... 338dacb662

I had an Ascot given to me once - I thought the mechanism was Aristocrat but soon realised it wasn't.
I sold it very quickly for around £300 a few years back but would never buy one for myself as I thought the mechanism was very poor in terms of build quality.

GP

[coppinpr]

Topic merged - Site Admin.

My latest project arrived today and it's just how I like 'em. Cheap and on the verge of scrap. I do like it when you can safely say "restore it" and not "should I leave it alone". I've never had one of these Italian made machines before and I'm looking forward to working on it. Looks pretty bad but I don't think it will be a problem with the possible exception of the payout card which needs rebuilding from scratch. The mech was a pleasant surprise being in perfect condition, clean and crisp running with all the payouts working correct.
It has the suppliers name printed inside so I've included a photo in case anyone has heard of them before. It reads "Holair Entertainments, Grange Locks, Sands Lea, Worton, nr. Cranforth, Lancs."
I'm guessing early '70s? Is that right? I'll restore in original colours and all the bits are there, cash box, hood, rear door. Only the lock is gone. Watch this space......

[jonesthegarage]

I'm not crazy about its rather angular form but I'm sure you'll make a grand job of it.

While Holair Entertainments might not be an everlasting memory Carnforth is famous for being the railway station on which Brief Encounter was filmed - don't make a special trip though!

[coppinpr]

Topic merged - Site Admin.

I've found a few "bugs" on machines over the years but not one as well made as this one I've found on the Italian made "Ascot" machine I'm working on. It looks good enough to have been factory made and has the letters "H" "E" and "C" on the retaining washer which could point to "Holair Entertainments of Cranforth" who are marked on the machine as either the supplier or operator.
It's been made so it can be easily adjusted to take out any one stop on the first reel. Anyone seen one like it before? A great little piece of history for this machine and quite a little work of engineering.

[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....