German Exacta

[malcymal]

Came across a really nice Exacta bandit at the weekend. Ive posted up a picture from the automatix site as to what one looks like as didnt have a camera on me. The one I saw was two toned cream and green coloured, as orginal not painted and it had very striking wooden size in striped wood, dark then light. Working on 1 old penny the mechanism was incredibly silky smooth in operation and all the starter worked too complete with keys. Anybody owned one of these machines? It was priced in the early £400 and apart from the old scratch it looked to be near mint condition. On another note, has anybody successfully converted an old 1d machine like this to 2 new pence?? Is it possible?? Malc

[speedwell]

Hi Malcymal. I have an Exacta and its a great machine to play. When I finally get my camera working I'll post a picture. Mine has veneer and formica ( which actually looks very good) . Mine works on old penny and I haven't seen one on a 2p. I would only comment that whilst whatever you are comfortable with is a good price I personally think its top of price range. We share an interest in the German wall machines and I was interested in the 2 player machine you mentioned some time ago.....did you get it or if not is it still available....? whatever the position I would be interested in any details.

[treefrog]

I recently bought a Exacta from an auction, awaiting restoration. The striped venneer is standard and appears on a number of the Beromats variants and does look great.
viewtopic.php?f=10&t=1713

I have often seen people suggest they have used 2p coins in these, but suspect unmodified. I recently bought a 1p Beromant variant, but have yet to get to the mechanism as the key was lost. It looks like an old conversion, so can only assume the slides were created for the purpose or possibly modified. Hopefully will get around to checking in the near future.

There is someone selling aluminium slides for beromats on here and on ebay. Given this must have been made from scratch, it must be possible to produce some on other coinage. Of course you still have the coin tubes and other coin entry slides etc that would need to take the coinage.

That is top price and a more than what Henry has been selling a typical restored machine for.

[malcymal]

Thanks guys for your replies. I think it is a very stunning looking machine. When I first started with slots a couple of years back I looked on these machines with some distaste and wanted the run of the mill. Since I've been collecting, I've sold on two bandits: a Continental that I renovated and a really nice chrome intact Riviera to buy some German machines.
The German machines do it for me purely due to their small footprint, they are lighter to move about and easier to store; I am very intrigued by these hybrid early UK conversions of the Beromats etc., hence getting the Vale Roma. I liken similarities with the early German machines with the current Japanese laws on pachislo and pachinko (out in Japan all machines once two years old must be destroyed or exported, thank god for guys like Steve Hood who would ship in 420 at a time in a big container). I believe there were similar laws regarding the German licensing. Consequently I believe this is why we see so many varieties of German wall machines on the Automatix site; please tell me if I'm misinformed about this. I guess what I'm concluding is that German machines bring variety and excitement of the hunt too for hundreds of different variants as opposed to very familiar U.S., Australian and British bandits. I guess this is why Allwins are so dearly loved, so much variety. I must post up some videos of my Rialto and Hobby in use, as these are fascinating to play. The Hobby has a coin changer device in it too, on the side. Letter from Harold inside informs us that these coin changers are rare in such a machine.
Appreciate what you are saying about the high end of price, I can only imagine this price is in reflection to its exceptional condition. The two player machine is still for sale at £245 and is based in Southsea. I can confirm I played on it and it was very good fun yet quite difficult to get anywhere near 1000 points to get a fortune card. Reasons I passed on it were this:
The width and height were considerably greater than my three existing German based machines. There were some imperfections in the casing with some unsightly knocks on the top rear section, side casing finish was fairly bland, certainly no wood exposed. There was also evidence of cigarette damage to the starter button. The playfield was very good, it all functioned beautifully, the lighting worked very well and the whole front image in its striking red theme all worked to good effect. I also had doubts about its age, only Harold would truly know as it was one of his machines. They had it up as sixties but my doubts about this were two LED displays on left and right (for one player or two player). Now, I know historically the concept of the LED was invented in the 1920s by a Russian (I think) but I'm pretty sure that these didn't get realised in commercial use until the seventies; mind you the Germans are a clever bunch and their engineering pretty much second to none. I also had issues with the coinage whereby you could insert 50pg or 1DM... a multicoin sensor on the same slot?!?!? So gut feeling overall was to pass on it, although its gameplay is fantastic and quite exciting.

I didn't know Henry sold renovated German machines; what prices are we talking?? Once postage is applied these prices soon bump up. Malc