What a curious thing.
- Thread starter Pharo
- Start date
I think it’s great when the antique machines surface from long time storage… it often gives an insight into how games developed from purely mechanical to semi electrical.
Not sure how that weighing machine worked but like the squeze box or pull string teddy bears of the time which said . Hug me or I love you etc a pre recorded plastic disc with several track positions ran on a stylus and small diaphragm sound box to increase volume ( I still have a couple of boxes full of pull string teddy voice box inserts) don’t repeat same phrase every time so could be similar? Some of the novelty games were quite well thought out and well designed…. Ahead of their time ?
Perhaps the arcade owner can recall it if he ever ran it or saw it working years ago? Or as you said someone on here might be more familiar with it and fully understand it?
I can recall my first owned driving game in the 70s was an INDY 500 with a bench seat attached ( early sit down driver made in 1960s? ) it had some adaptations from technology already in domestic use. Record player parts were used in that.
Inserting the coin set up a clockwork style timer not unsimilar to a one arm bandit, or trip relay mechanical timer like early rides. A light lit up inside a revolving roadway drum with bends and other hazards driven by a small motor.
The sound system was an adaptation of a gramophone . A tone arm was balanced on a spring tensioned piano wire (in place of the stylus needle) and linked to a bendy guide rail which revolved with the drum .
The car was like a dinky toy racing car attached to a wire loop belt , allowing it to move side to side as the steering turned and under good driving never touched the bendy guide rail?
If it ran off on to the grass, the guide rail acted on the links to the piano wire , vibrating it, giving a rough grinding noise while running off the edge of the road .. domestic parts which I only really discovered when we smashed it up in the late 70s and although I had been tinkering with amusements for a few years I didn’t really study the workings beyond coin jams or bulb replacement at that time.
Sorry to drift on to another game ….
Things either worked or broke down and luckily most of the juke box and pinball repairs I cut my teeth on in the 70s were electro-mechanical on relays etc so bad contacts or loose or badly soldered wires were the only faults? So it may restore quite easily ?
Not sure how that weighing machine worked but like the squeze box or pull string teddy bears of the time which said . Hug me or I love you etc a pre recorded plastic disc with several track positions ran on a stylus and small diaphragm sound box to increase volume ( I still have a couple of boxes full of pull string teddy voice box inserts) don’t repeat same phrase every time so could be similar? Some of the novelty games were quite well thought out and well designed…. Ahead of their time ?
Perhaps the arcade owner can recall it if he ever ran it or saw it working years ago? Or as you said someone on here might be more familiar with it and fully understand it?
I can recall my first owned driving game in the 70s was an INDY 500 with a bench seat attached ( early sit down driver made in 1960s? ) it had some adaptations from technology already in domestic use. Record player parts were used in that.
Inserting the coin set up a clockwork style timer not unsimilar to a one arm bandit, or trip relay mechanical timer like early rides. A light lit up inside a revolving roadway drum with bends and other hazards driven by a small motor.
The sound system was an adaptation of a gramophone . A tone arm was balanced on a spring tensioned piano wire (in place of the stylus needle) and linked to a bendy guide rail which revolved with the drum .
The car was like a dinky toy racing car attached to a wire loop belt , allowing it to move side to side as the steering turned and under good driving never touched the bendy guide rail?
If it ran off on to the grass, the guide rail acted on the links to the piano wire , vibrating it, giving a rough grinding noise while running off the edge of the road .. domestic parts which I only really discovered when we smashed it up in the late 70s and although I had been tinkering with amusements for a few years I didn’t really study the workings beyond coin jams or bulb replacement at that time.
Sorry to drift on to another game ….
Things either worked or broke down and luckily most of the juke box and pinball repairs I cut my teeth on in the 70s were electro-mechanical on relays etc so bad contacts or loose or badly soldered wires were the only faults? So it may restore quite easily ?
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Thanks for the info very interesting, the operator remembers it working when he was a boy it turns out you stand on the scale and the needle goes up to whatever your weight is and when you step off the scale the needle comes down on to the record at your weight the record goes round and tells you what your weight is.
