these games, all the holes are not winning holes.
Even so, that is the generic name and all Brits know
the genre. At its simplest, the all win is similar to our
game called "Zoom" by Groetchen. You deposit a
coin and receive one ball bearing in return. There is
a spring-loaded hammer which you pull back to
shoot the ball around a circular vertical track. When
the ball slows, it drops into one of a series of holes,
normally on a horizontal shelf. The holes are
marked "win" and "lose." If you "win," you turn a
knob and get a coin retuned as well as ball for a sec-
ond chance. For all your effort, you are winning one
coin (usually a penny) at a time. There are many
variations on the theme. You can win several coins
at a time or "sweets" like rolls of candy mints.
Some of the allwins dispense cigarettes, tokens and
about anything else that you can think of which
could be vended from a coin-operated machine.
These games originated at the turn of the century
and continued into the 1960's. The strict anti-gam-
bling laws in Britain prohibited any games of
chance so these "amusement devices" were pretty
tame by American standards, at least in terms of the
payout.
Allwins come in many sizes and formats . There
will always be a "backflash" which is the backing
on the vertical playfield. The earliest games were
fabric-backed, usually made of velvet. Once the
technology of plastic entered the commerce of gam-
bling, the backflashes took on a much more themat-
ic appearance. Many of the later backflashes had a
distinctive picture that tied into the name of the
game. During the war, themes trended toward patri-
otism and combat. In gentler times, they showcased
anything you can imagine, from horse races to fairs
to sporting events to outer space. The intention was
to create an illusion of easy winning, beckoning the
young and the old to try their skill as well as their
pocket change. In many ways, the themes of the all-
wins were a reflection of Society's preoccupations
at the time. By attempting to capture the common
man's coins, they reflected his dreams.
have had on these plastic backflashes, particularly
on those made in the 1950's and 1960's. It is com-
mon to find that the plastic scenes which are so
enchanting have cracked and buckled. There is no
real remedy to this malady as the painted surface
will flake with most efforts to straighten the play-
field. This defect is better embraced as a "badge of
authenticity." In most cases, the troubled spots are
in non-essential areas and do not affect the play of
the game.
Back to the story. You're undoubtedly asking your-
self, why would anyone want me to come over for
appraisal duty when they could just list the item on
Ebay and sell it? The same thought occurred to me
when I started the negotiations for "Multiball." As
the discussion developed, the answer became readi-
ly apparent. These gentlemen did not have a few
orphan games which had floated over from England,
they had the whole damn British Armada: 60 plus
English machines with games stretching from 1913
though the 1960's. I was beside myself. In addition
to picking up my latest love, I would get to be a kid
in the candy store and see more live British games
in one place than I had seen total to date! I could
hardly wait!
The subject matter of coin-operated machines is
wide and varied. One of the better ways to enrich
your knowledge of the field is through the use of
well-researched books. We Americans have a ter-
rific advantage over our European contemporaries
in this regard through the superior quantity and
quality of our reference materials. We've lost sever-
al giants lately: Dick Bueschel and Bill Enes come
to mind. As much as they are missed, eventually
new authors will emerge to continue our collective
education. My collecting passion runs to the
European games with a special weakness for the
British machines. In addition to collecting these
games, I am always seeking out reference material
and books on the subject. Other than a handful of
books (and several of them in their native German
and French,) there is a pitiful dearth of information
on these wonderful foreign games. Why this should
be is a mystery to me. One idea I have is that the
As an aside, one of the unfortunate realities is the
deleterious effect that ultra-violet rays over time
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