Octopus
One of only a handful of surviving examples. The mirror makes the play area appear twice its actual size. The tentacles rotate and push the coins up a ramped track which prevents the player from knocking the machine to dislodge the coins prematurely. |
Jamieson 1960s


Swinging Swinger
My Brenco Swinging Swinger machine. I used to play this actual machine back in the mid 1970s in Barrys Amusements, Bangor N.I. and got the chance recently to purchase it along with a Ring a Bell machine. I restored the cabinet to original colour scheme. |
Brenco December 1967

Clown
British-made example of the very popular Clown game. Handan-Ni appear to have made several variants from around 1915, employing a rather different mechanism to the original German machines. This one operates on the old ha'penny coin. |
Handan-Ni 1915

Clown
Around 1905, newly founded German company Jentzsch & Meerz introduced the Clown game, based upon, and licensed under the patents of British pioneer JG Pessers' ball catching games. It was such a terrific success, British manufacturers returned the compliment by copying it, which they felt free to do after the outbreak of WWI. So did the French. This early British example by Handan Ni is distinguished by, amongst other things, the absence of a rolling ball beneath the clown, a different ball lifting mechanism, and the use of composite (in place of steel) balls. |
Handan-Ni 1915

Laughing Sailor
This machine is similar to the famous "Laughing Sal" that jiggled and laughed at so many of our now defunct amusement parks. Jolly Jack came as either an English Sailor or the rarer English "Bobby". After dropping a penny in the slot, a cam would lower a tone arm on to a 78 RPM record with a laugh track recorded on it, while Jack had a laughing fit (the speaker hidden in the door behind a metal plate). Four other cams were responsible for making Jack rock back and forth , and side to side, which also made his eyes roll around in his head. |
Modern Enterprises 1950s

Fascination
The top section is in fact only a selector, a small window in the award card section seems to be the result of a predetermined wheel, much like a "stock broker". The award card says 'amusement only' as the results are predetermined and "you can't gamble on a certainty". |
SS Automatic Machine Co 1937

Prospector
This is one of several designs of the Prospector produced over many years by Pugh Automatics. The object is to roll pennies between the gaps in the continuous moving conveyor so that they halt and are carried by the belt to the payout points, whereupon the indicated prizes are received in the payout cup below. |
Pugh Automatics 1960s

Electrodart
Press the button and watch the arrow progress around the dartboard. Release the button when it reaches a high score for a payout. Unlike real darts, skill was not a factor as the machine was final arbiter of where the arrow stopped. |
Jamieson 1960s