Mechanical Memories Magazine

The History of the Wall Machine
Part Two - Catchers
In this series of articles, I shall be tracing the history and development of that
broad genre of games - the Wall Machine. In part one we looked at the most basic
of gaming machines, the drop case game. It's now time to move on to what was to
become one of the most popular wall mounted games ever: the Catcher.
The children's game of cup and ball dates back centuries, and indeed, the concept of
catching a small object in some form of receptacle, as a form of amusement, probably
goes back to the time man learned to walk on two legs. It's perhaps strange then, that the
idea of incorporating this simple game into a coin-freed device came relatively late in
the development of the slot machine.
Toward the end of the nineteenth century, the simple drop case game started to
evolve into what was to become a completely new genre of machine. The first
innovation was to substitute one or a number of balls as the projectile, rather than the
player's coin. On insertion of a coin, a simple mechanism would release one or more
balls ready for play. Balls were then fired to the top of the playfield, just as the player's
coin was fired in the tivoli. However, the greatest innovation came in 1900, with Henry
Pesser's patent (No. 23431) for the Pickwick; a game which, with it's derivatives, were
to become known generically as Catchers.
The feature which set the Pickwick apart from all other contemporary games was
the provision of a moveable cup, which the player could manipulate in an attempt to
catch balls as they descended from the top of the playfield. This innovation not only
made the game more fun to play, but introduced a perception of skill which would be the
subject, and indeed the victor, of a future court case.
The operation of the Pickwick was somewhat cumbersome, to say the least; even
the appearance of these 'long case' machines was clumsy. On insertion of a coin, one or
more balls were released ready for play. The player was required to tum, push or pull a
knob to feed the ball ready for firing. In Pesser's original patent, a trigger was used to
fire the ball to the top of the playfield, although on many machines, a spring-loaded
plunger mounted below the playfield was provided for this purpose. Once the ball
reached the top of the playfield and started it's decent, the player attempted to catch the
ball in the moveable cup. Although Pesser's patent provided a lever which moved the
cup via a linkage, inside the machine, the more common method of effecting movement
was a slide or bar which passed through the width of the machine, from left to right.
This was presumably to allow the player to use either his left or right hand. If the ball
was successfully caught, a button was depressed in order to obtain a token, which would
then be exchanged for a prize, or (if the establishment could get away with it) cash.
The Pickwick was produced in fairly large numbers, not only by Pesser's various
partnerships, but by others including, in particular, Cresset Automatic Machine Co. and
Page6