Jennings 8 Ball Special with free play feature

Somebody knows... Maybe you?
Post Reply
User avatar
clubconsoles
Posts: 363
Joined: Sun Jan 13, 2008 9:36 pm
Reaction score: 2
Location: Lowestoft, Suffolk

Jennings 8 Ball Special with free play feature

Post by clubconsoles »

Anyone seen one of these before? Cannot find another example on the web.
Attachments
bfd23e1f-847b-49df-b6d3-fb4d0d4a6645a.jpg
User avatar
badpenny
Forum Moderator
Posts: 7211
Joined: Thu May 05, 2005 12:41 pm
Reaction score: 25
Location: East Midlands

Re: Jennings 8 ball special with free play feature

Post by badpenny »

From the photo it looks like every Governor out there apart from the top flash.
To see inside would be really interesting, I've not come across a Jennings' mech that dishes out free plays.

BP !!IDEA!!
User avatar
clubconsoles
Posts: 363
Joined: Sun Jan 13, 2008 9:36 pm
Reaction score: 2
Location: Lowestoft, Suffolk

Re: Jennings 8 ball special with free play feature

Post by clubconsoles »

BP, I am trying to arrange a viewing. It is part of an estate sale. It says an empty gap in escalator indicates free-play, so the hardware must be on the escalator! If I get to view it, will post the pics here!
User avatar
geordy55
Posts: 283
Joined: Wed Apr 19, 2017 8:33 am
Reaction score: 0

Re: Jennings 8 ball special with free play feature

Post by geordy55 »

Presumably the escalator has been modified so that when the space appears in the window, the coin stays where it is to force a free play, before the escalator then moves the coin along.
User avatar
badpenny
Forum Moderator
Posts: 7211
Joined: Thu May 05, 2005 12:41 pm
Reaction score: 25
Location: East Midlands

Re: Jennings 8 ball special with free play feature

Post by badpenny »

I see what you're saying Dave.
But how does the player know if they have a free play? I can't see anything on the reels to tell you. The gap in the escalator only appears because you've pulled the handle.
I'm imagining you put your coin in, pull the handle, but the escalator holds your coin back. The gap appears as the cycle starts. Then you can pull it again as your previous coin comes into play. Does the beginning of the escalator swing back so the coin locator finds the coin but the grip on the chain doesn't move it?
Or does a pin hold the coin, stopping it from dropping into the escalator, while at the same time holding back the coin locator?
Or something else?
Fascinating.

BP !PUZZLED!
aristomatic
Posts: 1123
Joined: Thu Sep 10, 2009 8:13 pm
Reaction score: 4

Re: Jennings 8 ball special with free play feature

Post by aristomatic »

There was one of these at the EH Auction last September...
I've seen a few over the years but not had one on the bench.
User avatar
brigham
Posts: 1180
Joined: Tue Oct 31, 2017 3:37 pm
Reaction score: 2

Re: Jennings 8 ball special with free play feature

Post by brigham »

Can we have a close-up of the WORDING describing the 'free play' feature?
It may give us a clue.
aristomatic
Posts: 1123
Joined: Thu Sep 10, 2009 8:13 pm
Reaction score: 4

Re: Jennings 8 ball special with free play feature

Post by aristomatic »

WATCH FOR FREE PLAY INDICATED BY BLANK SPACE IN THE ESCALATOR
I'm not sure if allowed to upload EH image?
User avatar
badpenny
Forum Moderator
Posts: 7211
Joined: Thu May 05, 2005 12:41 pm
Reaction score: 25
Location: East Midlands

Re: Jennings 8 ball special with free play feature

Post by badpenny »

Well I suppose it may be like the old gum vendors on the wall outside the newsagents by the school gates. They used to give out 2 packs every fourth turn.
I'm surprised this is the first time I've heard of it on a bandit (unless I've just forgotten). It seems a fair bit of kerfuffle without the advantage of tying it into a WIN on the reels, or making a song and dance about the benefit to the punter. And all to give away a free game?

Günter Wulff had a free spin option on Primus. But it was well advertised and appeared on the reel.

I once saw a Pace bandit that had a small sign painted on the case that said "Secret Plays!!" and when I opened it up the mech was disgustingly filthy with grease, grit and lazy springs. Totally lacking in any TLC, the coins weren't dropping from the gate, they were just queuing up beneath it. Relying on the coin above to push the line down towards the tube. Subsequently every now and again one would overlap one beneath and it would go into free play until the vibrations etc. unjammed it.
I suppose it would be easier to reach for the paint brush than remove the mech and do it properly?

I'd like to get to the bottom of this though.

BP SkEpTiCaL
pennymachines
Site Admin
Posts: 6638
Joined: Wed Nov 06, 2002 12:12 am
Reaction score: 56
Location: The Black Country

Re: Jennings 8 ball special with free play feature

Post by pennymachines »

aristomatic wrote: Mon Jun 15, 2020 1:41 pm I'm not sure if allowed to upload EH image?
Lot 132 in the Arena:
Attachments
132.jpg
User avatar
geordy55
Posts: 283
Joined: Wed Apr 19, 2017 8:33 am
Reaction score: 0

Re: Jennings 8 ball special with free play feature

Post by geordy55 »

badpenny wrote: Mon Jun 15, 2020 12:26 am I see what you're saying Dave.
But how does the player know if they have a free play? I can't see anything on the reels to tell you. The gap in the escalator only appears because you've pulled the handle.
I'm imagining you put your coin in, pull the handle, but the escalator holds your coin back. The gap appears as the cycle starts. Then you can pull it again as your previous coin comes into play. Does the beginning of the escalator swing back so the coin locator finds the coin but the grip on the chain doesn't move it?
Or does a pin hold the coin, stopping it from dropping into the escalator, while at the same time holding back the coin locator?
Or something else?
Fascinating.

BP !PUZZLED!
I was thinking that the teeth on the escalator are selectively removed or modified so that when the gap appears in the window, then there will also be a missing tooth where the coin sits meaning it will not move until the second pull of the handle.
User avatar
coppinpr
Posts: 5111
Joined: Sun Oct 10, 2010 2:01 pm
Reaction score: 20
Location: Lewes, East Sussex
Contact:

Re: Jennings 8 Ball Special with free play feature

Post by coppinpr »

I don't see why this is any different from half the "two pulls for one coin" Jennings out there. Very few use the much better system using two coin detector pin. Most have every other escalator stub removed to allow two pulls for one coin. This is not a perfect way of doing the two pull idea; the coin will sometimes jump forward and cost the player his second game, or on rare occasions, stay in place and give a third play.

This one I guess simply has random stubs removed to allow the odd surprise free play! The eight ball model is, I think, only a UK conversion which is when the converter would have introduced the random free play. If the idea (which actually is not a bad one) is to offer a surprise free play then there would be no reason to tell the player when it's coming. Just the opposite in fact. Keep them playing in hope of a free play. I did this replacement glass a year ago, and it's the same.


8 ball top start 11 A.jpg

badpenny wrote: Mon Jun 15, 2020 12:26 amDoes the beginning of the escalator swing back so the coin locator finds the coin but the grip on the chain doesn't move it?
Or does a pin hold the coin, stopping it from dropping into the escalator, while at the same time holding back the coin locator?
It's not as complex as that. The missing stub simply runs past the coin on the second pull leaving the coin in in front of the detector pin. This is possible because, unlike the Mills escalator, the Jennings version does not work on a forward/backward motion, but is moving constantly in one direction. The coin is in fact free to move but usually does not. Like I said, it's not perfect.
User avatar
badpenny
Forum Moderator
Posts: 7211
Joined: Thu May 05, 2005 12:41 pm
Reaction score: 25
Location: East Midlands

Re: Jennings 8 ball special with free play feature

Post by badpenny »

geordy55 wrote: I was thinking that the teeth on the escalator are selectively removed or modified so that when the gap appears in the window, then there will also be a missing tooth where the coin sits meaning it will not move until the second pull of the handle.
I agree, it's the easiest and quickest way to do it as well as controlling the number of free plays per cycle of the escalator chain (1 in every 12 if that's how many tabs there are, I haven't counted).
Two things about this theory ....
* It smacks to me more of an operator kind of thing to do than a factory adjustment.
* If you're not paying attention and insert a sixpence not noticing the previous coin is still in the gate/the gap has appeared, you could jam it as our tanners are good at slipping alongside each other. And we all know what a jammed escalator does to an operator's blood pressure.
User avatar
clubconsoles
Posts: 363
Joined: Sun Jan 13, 2008 9:36 pm
Reaction score: 2
Location: Lowestoft, Suffolk

Re: Jennings 8 Ball Special with free play feature

Post by clubconsoles »

coppinpr wrote: Mon Jun 15, 2020 7:49 pm I don't see why this is any different from half the "two pulls for one coin" Jennings out there. Very few use the much better system using two coin detector pin. Most have every other escalator stub removed to allow two pulls for one coin. This is not a perfect way of doing the two pull idea; the coin will sometimes jump forward and cost the player his second game, or on rare occasions, stay in place and give a third play.

This one I guess simply has random stubs removed to allow the odd surprise free play!

...The missing stub simply runs past the coin on the second pull leaving the coin in front of the detector pin. This is possible because, unlike the Mills escalator, the Jennings version does not work on a forward/backward motion, but is moving constantly in one direction. The coin is in fact free to move but usually does not. Like I said, it's not perfect.

Hi Coppin.
Well you are almost right except there is a little "J" shaped spring that holds the coin in place (see pic).

So this is how the free play works.
12 tabs on escalator chain and one missing, so when the missing tab is at the point when a normal tab would advance the coin this missing one skips over and leaves the coin at the sensing stage and a little J shaped spring holds it there until the normal tab advances it next pull.
Thus, every 12th pull gets a free play!
Attachments
db170a6d-a3e3-4c1e-b74e-508860e098caa.jpg
User avatar
badpenny
Forum Moderator
Posts: 7211
Joined: Thu May 05, 2005 12:41 pm
Reaction score: 25
Location: East Midlands

Re: Jennings 8 Ball Special with free play feature

Post by badpenny »

Thanks for that.
So allowing for the fact you may not know a free play is next, and are likely to have inserted an unnecessary coin, everything is relying on the previous coin and the current one not being thin or damaged. As they are going to meet edge to edge due to gravity and nothing to separate them it would only take an overlap to jam the escalator and put it on free play.
Most of the sixpences in circulation in the 50/60s weren't uncirculated like the ones we favour now. Many of them were of high silver content and thin.

BP :!?!:
User avatar
clubconsoles
Posts: 363
Joined: Sun Jan 13, 2008 9:36 pm
Reaction score: 2
Location: Lowestoft, Suffolk

Re: Jennings 8 Ball Special with free play feature

Post by clubconsoles »

No problem BP.
So, I can see where you are coming from, but all Jennings of this era have a second coin return.
Thus, another sensor behind the coin that toggles to interrupt the coin chute to ensure any subsequent coins are returned to the little reject hole LH side of the Indian bust.

I can imagine this causing much confusion to the punters in the day, as it is easy to overlook the Gap in the escalator. You would imagine the punter having two or three coins rejected and thinking the machine was out of order and moving along to next in line resulting in poor takings for this 8 ball machine?
Perhaps that's why this is such a uncommon feature on a Jennings?
It is the only free play Jennings I have ever heard of, however love to be proved wrong on that assumption!
User avatar
coppinpr
Posts: 5111
Joined: Sun Oct 10, 2010 2:01 pm
Reaction score: 20
Location: Lewes, East Sussex
Contact:

Re: Jennings 8 Ball Special with free play feature

Post by coppinpr »

The j shaped wire is a good addition. The "two pulls" machines lack this and any extra unneeded coin kicks the first one forward, losing the player the second pull. I like the idea that the machine gives the player a coin back when it offers the player a free go. :lol:
Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: coppinpr, Google [Bot] and 39 guests