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Official Baseball, Williams #232, 2/60, two players, woodrail with players on the playfield and animated umpire and pitcher, plus a running man unit. Uses 3/4″ balls. Very often the playfield men get broken from the ball play (or the catcher is just plain missing!) A very cool woodrail (maple side rail) baseball arcade game with hole style scoring (opposed to the 1963 and later target scoring scheme), and a very good looking game. Two player game, so competitive play is encouraged. High score is kept, with a default of 15 runs as the minimum high score to beat. Game can be set for one to three innings per game. Game uses a buzzer which sounds between innings and players. Most of the players have lights under their fielding hole. If the light is on, the runner advances if the ball goes in this hole. If the light is out, the field hole is an out. Whether the light is on or off is determined by how many players are currently on base (via the running man unit in the backbox). So hitting to the first basemen’s field hole could get the player an out or a single. Official baseball is easily the best looking of all post-WW2 pitch and bat baseballs. With the metal playfield men and classic design, it’s a handsome game. It is not though the best playing of the Williams pitch and bats. Since it does not have a home-run deck (like most of the other Williams p&b games), it’s not riveting from a game play perspective. But the pitching unit (the umpire hands the ball to the pitcher, and then the pitcher moves forward to pitch the ball). -
Photo Booth 2 Strips of Photos – $5 THIS PHOTO BOOTH WAS AT PALACE AMUSEMENTS ! You’re standing in front of the photo booth which operated at Asbury Park’s famous Palace Amusements for nearly three decades. The Palace was a huge indoor entertainment center with hundreds of arcade games and full size rides, including a ferris wheel that extended up through the roof of the building. It was located three blocks south of here at the corner of Cookman Avenue & Kingsley Street, just west of the Casino carousel building. The site is now a parking lot. Installed by Palace owners Edward Lange and Zimel Resnik in the late 1950s or early 1960s, this photo booth delighted thousands of patrons until November 27, 1988 when the Palace closed its doors for the final time. The building sat vacant and decaying for more than 15 years until it was demolished in May 2004, despite massive public opposition and offers from local developers to save and renovate the historic 1888 structure. After the Palace closed the booth was moved to Sandy’s Arcade, which at that time was located in the First Avenue Pavilion on the Asbury Park boardwalk. Today Cubacan Restaurant occupies the arcade’s former space. Sandy’s went out of business in the early 1990s and the photo booth was put up for sale. The offering caught the attention of Slim and Pamela Smith, Jersey Shore natives who had migrated to Vermont but were vacationing near Asbury Park. The Smiths stumbled upon the closed arcade and purchased the photo booth. They moved it 342 miles north to Burlington, Vermont and installed it in their small gift shop known as “Folkheart”. Eventually the machine was moved to a second Folkheart location in the tiny village of Bristol, Vermont where it resided among Nepalese clothing, Himalayan bric-a-brac and various trinkets. For thirteen years the Palace photo booth vended pictures for the Smith’s customers. In 2003 the strobe unit which powers the flash tubes failed, and after several unsuccessful repair attempts the booth sat unused for three years. In December 2006 Folkheart went out of business. Slim and Pamela Smith knew the rich history of their beloved photo booth and wanted to see it preserved, but they could no longer keep it. They generously donated the machine to Save Tillie, a nonprofit organization made up of fans of Asbury Park, the Palace and Bruce Springsteen, dedicated to preservation of Palace artifacts. In early 2007 a Save Tillie volunteer restored the booth at an arcade in New York state, and on May 31, 2007 it was brought back home to Asbury Park. It was installed on the lower level of the Shoppes at the Arcade at 658 Cookman Avenue, where it was lovingly maintained by the nonprofit group for more than six years. In 2013 Save Tillie sold the booth. It was relocated to the Silverball Museum on December 2, 2013, where it will be preserved for the enjoyment of generations to come.
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This Gottlieb game is one of the five in the museum of the “flipper” series from Gottlieb. These games are all add-a-ball games. The layout of this game parallels a future Gottlieb classic by the name of “Buckaroo” (also in the museum). 1,550 of these machines were manufactured. Wayne Neyens designed the game and Roy Parker established the art package. Fifteen targets on the roto-target are present and spinning the roto would bring up new numbers to complete. If you are skillful enough to sequence four numbers in a row, an extra ball is awarded. The bull’s-eye target awards an extra ball also. Each time an extra ball is awarded, the backglass animation activates. The cowboy shoots at the targets, which causes them to spin. No match feature here and tilting the game forfeits the ball in play as well as a future ball in play. -
Wayne Neyens designed this classic with Roy Parker penning the artwork. 2,700 of these were fabricated. This game has a holdover feature, which holds the monkeys’ positioning on the backglass from game to game. If you’re skillful enough to hit the A, B, C, and D targets, a monkey is advanced up the tree on the backglass. If one monkey makes it to the top, one replay is awarded: two monkeys score two replays, and three monkeys score three replays. Obviously if you pass this game and notice the third monkey nearing the top, feeding the coin slot was a natural for your just reward. Rolling over the 1 – 5 rollovers at the top of the playfield lights the side specials and awards 200 points once you drain the ball. A nice, well balanced game and quite a challenge not to lose your ball in play. -
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This electromechanical two-player game was designed by Steve Kordek. The game reminds one of an older game, as an animated golfer is on board that you aim to hopefully sink a ball in the appropriate hole. The nine scattered holes are tough to sink, especially the back ones. The lower your score in strokes, the better with this game (no handicap is given). Free games may be awarded set by the operator for low-stroke counts after completing so many holes. A neat and rare game. -
This classic game is currently rated as the number two game of its generation. 4,650 units were produced in April of the year with design credits going to Roy Parker for artwork and Wayne Neyens for design. The game was produced to coincide with the New York World’s Fair of 1964-1965. The 11 ferris wheel cars depicted on the backglass are represented on the play field by roll overs and targets. Hitting a numbered car lights the corresponding backglass car. The interesting gadget developed for this game is the center spinning disc (i.e. ferris wheel) in the middle of the game. By spinning the disc, one randomly spots a ferris wheel car on the backglass. Completing all the cars awards a replay and the randomly advancing lighting of a rollover which, if you’re skilled enough, would award a replay if hit. Score is another way to conquer the machine. Enjoy trying your hand at this classic machine. -
The last game of ’65 is a two-player add-a-ball game. It was designed by Ed Krynski with art by Roy Parker. A replay model also exists by the name of Paradise. Production run was a meager 265 units; the replay game had 2,100 units fabricated. The animated backglass on this game contains a dancing hula girl. When extra balls are won, they are represented as beach balls on the backglass. If you complete the sequence A, B, C, and D in that order, a free ball is your reward. Roto lights advance and indicate the value of the kickout holes. Points set by the operator award free balls also. An interesting guide rail is on either side of the flipper drains, a variation on a theme. This game is very rare due to its low production numbers. -
This game is a classic and is rated # 5 in collectible machines of the ‘60s. The game was created by Wayne Neyens with artwork by Roy Parker. Production run was 2,875 units. The main action in the game comes from the four in-line kickout holes set across the center playfield. The object of the machine is to hit a suit of four cards vertically under the kickout holes. If you get all four, a hole will randomly light up to score a free game (i.e., a special). The challenge here is to sink the ball in the kickout holes once a special is lit. All four holes can light up if you’re lucky enough to score all 16 cards. Finally, another special in the top rollover lanes randomly lights if you score just the four top cards on the pattern of cards. Score also was a factor as dropping balls in the kickout holes with many cards lit scored a lot of points very quickly. -
Gottlieb Subway arrived in October ’66. It was designed by the classic team of Ed Krynski and art by Gordon Morison. This add-a-ball version of the game closely resembled the replay version by the name of Crosstown. This wedgehead Gottlieb has an animated backglass. Every time 100 points are scored, the door of the subway opens, revealing passengers jammed together in a comical pose. The center target is where all the action is in the game. If you happened to match the two columns horizontally by advancing the columns by hitting various spots on the game and hit the center target, the award indicated would be given. Otherwise 10 points were awarded. This game was a tough game to play, as the opening between the flippers was rather large and a hit to the center target would regularly cost you a lost ball. -
This four-player machine was produced in November of the year with 2,675 units fabricated. It was designed by Ed Krynski with art penned by Art Stenholm. Technically, a couple of firsts were incorporated into this machine for Gottlieb, like an automatic ball lifter, decagon score reels and carousel roto-targets. The carousel roto-target allow one to shoot at one or two targets at a time if flipper savvy. The star on the unit awards an extra ball. The object of the game is to achieve high-enough scores to award replays. The big points are awarded when the two 10x lights under a roto-target light up, awarding 100 times the value of the number hit. The most attractive gadget built into the game is the dancing ballerina in the backglass, which dances when certain elements of the play field are achieved. A highly collectible game in its own right. -
