My first vending machine, a used Northwestern Model 49, provided a steady income during my high school years. I did not realize at the time that the Model 49 introduced many bulk vending features common in today's machines.
Harvey Heiss demonstrated his prototype Baby in the Hole roll down game at Pinball Expo '88. This game was instantly familiar and apealing to those of us who had played Fascination, Pokerino, and other roll down games in Times Square or at the Jersey shore.
My wall mounted Mizuho pachinko machine looked great, but would frequently exhaust its ball supply during heavy play. Then I had to walk down the hall, open a closet, and transfer used balls back to the supply tray atop the game. Now a motorized pachinko ball lifter keeps that pachinko machine supplied with balls.
The Star Money Maker inspired me to purchase my first gumball machine. This small book provides 53 pages of first-hand reports from youths who found clever ways to make money. What I didn't realize when I purchased the book in 1967, was that it had been published 60 years earlier!
Joe Kaminkow designed Data East's first pinball machine, Laser War. This whitewood playfield, dated 1/22/1987, has a layout similar to the production game released in March 1987. Data East displayed this whitewood at Pinball Expo '88.
Today's Washington Post reported the death last Wednesday of John Houghtaling, 92, who invented Magic Fingers, the coin-operated gadget that would vibrate a motel bed at the cost of 25¢ for one quarter hour. When one of those motels remodeled in the mid-1970s, they sold their Magic Fingers units and some came my way. The photos show the inner workings of my last one.
Adventures with Vending Machines and Rack Merchandising, by an Old Time Vendor as told to Ray Burkett, teaches you how to find profitable locations for gum and candy vendors, penny scales, jukeboxes, nut machines, and other coin operated devices. This 110-page book provides insights into smalltime vending operations in mid-20th century America.
On October 7, 1988, with help from the Data East team, the Pinball Expo '88 audience designed Olympiad Pinball by consensus. Data East chief designer Joe Kaminkow led the design seminar to demonstrate the myriad decisions that lead to a successful pinball machine design.
