GB943545A - Improvements in or relating to coin-freed gaming apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

943,545. Tivoli billiards. G. WULFF, [trading as GUNTER WULFF-APPARATEBAU]. May 23, 1960 [May 21, 1959], No. 18095/60. Heading A6H. [Also in Division G4] A coin-freed gaming apparatus comprises a ball game 16 with drop channels 24 having associated symbols, such as 1, 2, 3, 4, and an indicator 3 showing different combinations of three of these symbols in vertical rows 4-10, the first playing period causing the symbols according to the drop channel through which the ball passes to be illuminated in the top horizontal row of the indicator and the second playing period similarly illuminating numbers in the second row, thus allowing the player, in the third and final period, to try for a symbol in the third horizontal row which will give a vertical combination of three symbols offering a higher prize, as indicated by the coin values shown in a fourth horizontal row 12. The ball is shot along a curved track 14 by a trigger 13 and falls through guide pins 17 and pass bouncing pins 18 into the drop channels 24. The pins are flexible and coated with resilient material and pass through enlarged holes in a wall of the apparatus into a rail which may also be made of flexible material. The balls are guided through the channels 24 by tongues 26 on the separating arms 25 and operate an indicator switch 27 in each channel before striking guide springs 29, 30 and passing into a blocking channel 31. In the channel 31, the ball actuates a control switch 32 and falls to a catch pin 35 which is withdrawn periodically and ensures that the game lasts a specified minimum period independently of the time taken by the ball to fall through the apparatus. On release of the ball by the pin 35, it falls to the trigger 13 and a lamp 37 is illuminated to indicate that another playing period can begin. A motor-driven control shaft makes four quarter rotations during the course of the game, the first being started by the coin inserted and stopped by a cam on the control shaft to give the first period of play. Further cams, together with operation of the switch 32 by the ball, start the second and third quarter-rotations and operate a solenoid controlling the catch pin 35 so that the ball is released. One particular cam is associated with each combination 4-10 and has a number of ratchet teeth corresponding to the prize amount of the particular combination. Step switches associated with the individual symbols are also provided with cams and together with the switches 27 in the drop channels, serve for switching on the lamps in the indicator 3 and for establishing a circuit for actuating the pay-out solenoid by way of the " winning " cam on the control shaft, during the last quarter-rotation of the control shaft. The winnings fall to a tray 39 and it is possible to re-illuminate the indicator, up to the start of the next game, by operating a knob 38.