Icegol

Post subject: Re: The Peter Simper Stabilizer Revealed

With being up in the north up here in Yorkshire we didnt see hardly any Peter Simper machines on pub sites and as they didnt sell any on privately after operating them or sell them to the amusement trade so not many around.
Bell Fruit machines ( such as their Super Nudge Gambler) just relied on rotary contacts after inserting the coin whenever the player pressed start determined whether nudges were awarded after the spin, or holds on the next game depending on the position the wipers were on at that split second the start button was pressed. Higher % payout = more contacts connected , but these were pre set by operator and not variable and self regulating like Peter Simper machines .
We operated some electro mechanical and early processor mix Carfield machines ( by Dransfield Novelty of Leeds) which had a large sloping front glass with button panel below, and it was possible to look down inside the front glass under where the reels were and see one of the rotary switches which was used for determining nudges awarded 1 to 10. With practice it was possible for players to look inside and press the feature stop button and stop it on 10 nudges every time. Having discovered this and covered over the rotary switch so it couldnt be seen it wasn't long before we uncovered it again as the machine took a lot more money when players thought they could gain an advantage!

Post subject: Re: The Peter Simper Stabilizer Revealed

The reflex unit in its original form was designed to regulate games of skill, if you can call a bingo pinball such, to prevent a really good player winning too much. To my knowledge they were never used on gambling machines in the USA, although Bally did put them in some machines for export - I know for a fact there was one in the Bally Gold Cup EM machine. I don't know if it was always so but these days, changing the percentage automatically is prohibited by law in all the legal US gaming jurisdictions, where the regulations specifically state that the outcome of every play must have exactly the same probability. Knowing how things work over here it's quite likely that someone tried it and made a really popular machine, and then lobbyists for some other company handed the regulators fat brown envelopes and got a new rule made to outlaw them. Wouldn't be the only time something like that happened.

Post subject: Re: The Peter Simper Stabilizer Revealed

As Operator Bell points out the reflex unit was on the Bally 'skill' gambling pinballs so as to give the poorer players a better chance and to make play more difficult for the more skilled and experienced players and thus even out the payouts and thus the 'take'. The reflex units were also on the Bally Skill Parade (and similar) uprights even though there wasn't much skill involved in these in spite of the name. The reflex units were also on the earlier large upright gambling flashers such as the Bally Jumbo and the later in line readout Super Jumbo de Luxe etc. machines discussed here recently (see Cherry Parade Fruit Machine topic).
I had always assumed that Jumbo (which certainly had a reflex unit) would have been operated in the United States to compete with Keeneys Big Tent etc and Games Inc's Hunter and Double Shot etc. machines. Whilst I would expect that Super Treble Chance with its soccer football theme was primarily an export machine, I wonder whether the Bally Mazooma Bell and Super Jumbo (all of which had the in line readout displays as well as reflex units) were operated in the United States. or only meant for export. Operator Bell is most likely right in thinking that they were only for export as I don't remember any Bally 'flashers' ever having come up for sale on the American ebay site.
As you would expect the Peter Simper machines never reached here in Australia, which is a pity as they sound most interesting.

Post subject: Re: The Peter Simper Stabilizer Revealed

Here's some photos of some of the machines discussed above that I used to own

Post subject: Re: The Peter Simper Stabilizer Revealed

I know some of the flasher machines had a reflex, but in the USA they were sold as amusement-only machines, with a replay counter and no payout mechanism. They were pretty much a bingo pinball without a playfield - compare the payout schedule on the Super Jumbo, for example, to a typical bingo. I'm not aware that any flashers were ever made for the US market with a payout, though perhaps some were made after 1964 - a few years ago someone was selling several Keeney 'Sweet Shawnee' machines, one coin, payout, with hold. That would be a very unusual machine for the US though, so they may have been re-imports.
The original 1960 Keeney Red Arrow had a reflex unit (see pic). I once had a 1961 Keeney Wild Arrow, and that did not. It was one of 50 specially ordered by Jack Lavigna, the man who invented the hopper. These were the first ever slot machines with a hopper, but the hoppers couldn't be installed by Keeney in Chicago because then they would have been gambling machines, and in Illinois it was illegal to make them. Nor could they have been legally shipped interstate. So they came to Nevada as amusement only machines and Lavigna installed the hoppers himself. I don't have it any more - it was such a significant machine, I gave it to the Nevada State Museum.

Post subject: Re: The Peter Simper Stabilizer Revealed

Super Treble Chance had a coin and token payout by slides and the Mazooma Bell a hopper payout unit. The Super Jumbo had a replay only function, but the replays would be 'knocked off' when illegally paid out in cash by the shopkeeper or whatever when used here in Oz.

Post subject: Re: The Peter Simper Stabilizer Revealed

The Super Treble Chance was Bally model 735, 1963, and the Mazooma Bell was model 753, 1964. In between these two was model 741, the 1963 Money Honey. Part of Bally's preparation for the Money Honey was lobbying the Illinois legislature to legalize the manufacture of gambling devices, which passed in (I think) 1962, so these were some of the earliest payout Ballys. At that time, Bally had no market for payout machines in the USA, so the payout flashers were all intended for export.
Here's an interesting picture of the innards of the model 753 Mazooma Bell. On the back door, top center, is a reflex unit. Top left, mounted vertically, is a modified mixer unit straight out of a Bingo pinball with four disks, three for the reel flashers and the fourth probably for the odds unit. Each of them is stopped by a steel starwheel with 50 teeth, so this game had LOTS of stop combinations. At bottom left there's a Bingo control unit, with the drag arm intermittent motion mechanism just under the motor for randomizing. It has the standard Bingo three groups of cam switches on the shaft, each with its own clutch to allow it to turn independently. One probably runs the game process, one runs the odds gamble and the third runs the payout counter. There's another disk at the bottom left, also with a 50 tooth stop disk. This would be the search disk on a Bingo, but this one is not wired the same way - it looks like simple arcs of common contacts. I don't know what it does. Bottom, either side of the transformer, are two step-up units. The one on the right is the score counter. The one on the left puzzles me because it doesn't have a reset coil, so it goes round continuously. I can't read the label so I can only guess it's the token counter. These machines paid out a maximum of 100 to the replay counter, so for the 200 coin jackpot you got 100 on the counter and one token, for the 500 jackpot four tokens. If you doubled up, you got 100 counts plus 3 or 9 tokens, for triple 100 plus 5 or 14 tokens, and for 4X, 100 plus 7 or 19 tokens. The tokens were paid out one at a time as the count approached 100. The counter has six wires coming off it plus one for the wiper, so if it's the token multiplier for tokens that's the right number. Why it has no reset coil, I can't say. It must always make the same number of steps and end up at the same place. It sure would be nice to see a clearer photo of this mechanism where I could read the labels, if anyone has one.
Sorry, I've taken this thread a bit off the topic of the PS stabilizer. I should really have started a new thread. Damn, I love these old EMs.

Post subject: Re: The Peter Simper Stabilizer Revealed

One further question, Bob - since you owned the Mazooma Bell you should know. This was a single coin machine, but it has four paytables. Did it randomly select one of the paytables when a game started? If so, and if it was one of the higher paytables, did that table stay lit until there was a winner?

Post subject: Re: The Peter Simper Stabilizer Revealed

Mazooma Bell randomly selected one of these paytables at the start of the game (or as randomly as a Bally machine determined). If it was on one of the higher paytables it would not stay there if there was no win. For the next game there would be another selection of the paytable.
I also loved these Bally EM games and enjoyed working on them. It was the first EM flasher that I got and the only one that I worked on without a schematic or manual, which I only finally got from the UK about 20 years later. Consequently there were mysteries about this machine's operation that I never really understood. At the end of a game there was a unit that reset with a loud tac tac tac noise. This unit did not reset to a starting point but to another location on its one way rotating cycle. It did not have a reset coil and it is probably the one Operator Bell mentions although I seem to remember it as being near the top of the door. I never did work out what it was for. By the time I got the schematic I was busy with other things and had forgotten about Mazooma Bell's mysteries. I've still got the paperwork and will have a look to see if I can determine what the unit was for.
I'm also sorry if Operator Bell and I seem to have hijacked this topic away from the Peter Simper machines. I would have loved to have seen one of their machines out here.

Post subject: Re: The Peter Simper Stabilizer Revealed

In the light of your information, I think the disk at the end of the control unit must be what selects the paytable for each game. It has enough wires coming off it to account for that usage.
There is a 'tac tac tac' thingie near the top of the door, left of the reflex unit. A small one-way step up unit that looks a bit like a pinball score wheel without the drum. I can't imagine what it was for. If the one-way step up at the bottom is really for token payouts, it would only step back to its reset point after a token payout, and the chances are nobody would notice the sound of such an occasional event.