Chip or Bust
An unconventional allwin with a central lose hole situated a few inches along the track from the single winning target. Great delicacy of touch is required to prevent the ball from overshooting the target as it quickly spirals inwards. As the name suggests, it's all or nothing, but the 12 penny prize for success is high. The spiral layout used on first generation allwins is revived to create a tantalising and fast game. |
Wondermatics Unknown date
Chocolate
Handsome, no-nonsense chocolate vending allwin from the Shefras stable. The top signs on these are screen printed on glass and could be backlit, but are therefore prone to damage or loss. |
Morris Shefras 1950s
Dawn Patrol
This appears to be the rarest of several small war-themed allwins produced by BMCo either during World War Two or the immediate post-war period. Others were Fleet Air Arm, Bomber Command, and D Day. The ball must be dropped into the central gap between the two 'lose' cups, whereupon a bell rings, a coin is automatically delivered to the player and the ball returns for another shot. The target light, top left, is illuminated to show that the machine is 'on'. Originally it would appear these were powered by battery although surviving examples work from the mains supply via a transformer. |
BMCo 1940s
Earth Satellite
Delightful early space-age graphics characterize this giant allwin. You shoot the ball to the top, it rapidly orbits the earth before dropping down over the pinfield, then you hope it bounces into a winning cup. Like sister machine Hat Trick, cups could be arranged by the operator. Gold cups pay 6, blues pay 4, reds pay 2 and blacks lose. The playfield is curiously at odds with the allwin concept because the tight loop and pinfield effectively remove any semblance of skill. |
Ruffler and Walker 1960s
Elevenses
This was Bryans most successful machine. Most arcades had to have at least one because, in place of the long-established '5 win - 2 lose' format, it introduced a gallery of no less than eleven win positions. Beside its companions, it seemed an irresistible proposition. William Bryan got the idea for the wide gallery having inspected his friend Bernard Brenner's Ball Past the Arrow. In place of the usual bent wire gallery pins, Brenner set long spring pins into a metal block behind the gallery. This scheme, together with two angled ball stops at each end (which dump it downwards on contact), makes winning deceptively hard, as the ball prefers to bounce off the gallery. |
Bryans 1955
Fill ‘Em Up
This appears to be the first of the giant multi-ball games built by Corteen Ltd. for Ruffler & Walker. It adapts the column fill concept introduced by Bradley's Challenger to the allwin. The aim, of course, is to drop a ball into a column which is already full, whereupon it falls to the mechanism releasing the handle for a payout. Payouts are generous, ranging from 2D for the outer columns to 6D for the centre columns. Unfortunately, operators frequently removed the outer pins, making these into lose positions. A clever payout mechanism employing a stepped coin slide stack allowed the game to pay 2, 3, 4, 5 or 6 coins with a single turn of the handle. |
Ruffler and Walker 1950s
Fireworks
This five ball game is quite different from other allwins; its electromechanical mechanism with light-up scoring has something in common with a pinball machine. 33,000 wins your penny back. There's also a cigarette payout version. |
Stevenson and Lovett 1946
Register
Login