Windsor Castle

Description

Windsor Castle was a Bally electromechanical floor console made for the British market in the mid to late 1960's. It contained a standard 4 reel 22 stop EM mechanism, three reels for play and the fourth for an odds reel. The handle worked in a slot in the cabinet, so the sides were flat. It had a hold and draw feature, whereby you could hold any or all of the three play reels if (a) the previous game wasn't a winner and (b) you didn't hold the previous game. Payout display was on the vertical back glass and had two columns, one for standard payouts and one for double (see below). There was a 4-digit electromechanical credit counter in the back glass, and a hopper payout.

Basic payouts ranged from 2 (1 cherry) to 200 (three castles).

Odds reel The fourth odds reel spun with the other three reels, but was normally covered by a metal plate under the glass. On hitting a winner you were given the opportunity to take the win or gamble it. If you chose to gamble, the three play reels went to "hold" (with an impressive click) and the handle was released. On pulling the handle, the fourth reel spun and the metal plate slowly withdrew upwards so that the reel could be seen. The fourth reel strip symbols were Lose, Even, Double, Triple and Four Times, and when it stopped, the machine paid off according to the result. The metal plate returned to cover the reel on the next play. The odds reel wasn't a fair bet; it paid off around 75-85%, depending on the generosity of the operator.

Double Payoffs During play, backlights flashed rapidly between the standard and double odds tables, stopping with the first reel. If the machine stopped on double odds, it stayed there (didn't flash on subsequent games) until you hit a winner, when it paid off double. Note that your winner actually had to pay off to cancel the feature. If you gambled your win and lost, the odds stayed on double. There arose the curious phenomenon of people gambling small cherry payouts and actually HOPING TO LOSE, so that the double odds would stay lit for (hopefully) a larger winner.

My favorite memory of this machine was seeing a woman playing one for the first time and hitting three castles (200). Not sure what to do when it didn't immediately pay off, she started pressing buttons and unwittingly pressed Gamble. She tried for about 10 minutes to undo the damage, but there was no going back. Eventually she pulled the handle in despair. It came up .. FOUR TIMES.

Windsor Castle was produced by Bally Manufacturing Co. in 1968.

Bally Manufacturing Co. released 867 machines in our database under this trade name, starting in 1930. Bally Manufacturing Co. was based in United States.

Other machines made by Bally Manufacturing Co. during the time period Windsor Castle was produced include: Venus, Monkey Bash, Orient, Rocket III, Boot-A-Ball, 831, Deuce Wild, Dixieland, Dogies, and Easy Ace