WMS Beat Time with different artwork.
Pinfella
Times. The background color on both the backglass and playfield is blue rather
than green as found on other games. In addition, some of the other backglass
colors are also different. Does anyone have any info on this? Also, he
wonders if this is a sample game. How does one identify a WMS sample game?
Any info/input appreciated. Joe Fela (Pinf...@aol.com).
TimCVB
I've never seen a Beat Time or know anything about the colors, but I may have a
Williams sample game. Using the Bieza's Priceguide serial # section as
reference, it gives the serial # range for the 10/68 Pitstop as 26461 thru
28813 for 5 know games. My Williams Pitstop is 6026 - a number way below the
range listed in the guide. This # is on both the cabinet and playfield arch
sticker. If you look at the game Ding Dong (2/68) you will notice this number
falls into this range. So maybe they just borrowed a cabinet from this
production run to make the sample/prototype games? The other clue that my
PitStop may be a sample game is that the original schematic that was inside the
game is an actual blueprint of the hand-drawn schematic - it's about 8 feet
long and a bitch to work with! Also included in the pack of loose sheets is a
paper titled "FOR PROTO TYPE ONLY" on the top and "Printed Material Check-Off
List" with about 16 items to check off to be included with the machine and
packed by with the signed initials "CS". I've never seen a sheet like this with
other Williams games I've had. I've never seen any other PitStop games to
compare to see if there are any playfield/artwork differences.
Lastly, the reported serial number range for Beat Time is 90714 thru 94757 for
11 reported games (again from Larry Bieza's great book "1999 Pinball Price
Guide"). What is the serial # of this Beat Time?
I hope this may shed some light on William sample machines. Maybe Duncan can
shed some light on this (or is he too busy trying to get his Stern games to
boot up?).
Tim Van Blarcom
(just another major brain damaged pinball idiot who should be down in the
basement burnishing contacts instead of wasting time on the internet about
trivial pinball history)
Duncan Brown
>I've never seen a Beat Time or know anything about the colors, but I may have a
>Williams sample game. Using the Bieza's Priceguide serial # section as
>reference, it gives the serial # range for the 10/68 Pitstop as 26461 thru
>28813 for 5 know games. My Williams Pitstop is 6026 - a number way below the
>range listed in the guide. This # is on both the cabinet and playfield arch
>sticker. If you look at the game Ding Dong (2/68) you will notice this number
>falls into this range. So maybe they just borrowed a cabinet from this
>production run to make the sample/prototype games? The other clue that my
You can empirically determine that way back when Williams used to just
start numbering games as they went out the door, starting from some
low number and just adding 1 each game, regardless of what it was. So
you can see the numbers climb year after year. They restarted the
numbers once or twice. The numbers went out of control once they got
to games like Defender and Stargate and Robotron, though! But it is a
decent way to date a particular game, by seeing what else had numbers
nearby.
So (assuming your theory on your Pitstop's number is correct) it
wasn't a matter of grabbing a cabinet from the production line of the
current game of the time; it simply got "the next number" when it was
finished and was headed out the door. Which would imply it was indeed
made way ahead of normal production for that game, ie it was some sort
of sample/prototype/test piece (whatever they were calling them back
then.)
If the guy with the Beat Time can compare his number to some known
range for Beat Time, it would be another clue that it's a really early
game.
Duncan
Ray Johnson
> The other clue that my
> PitStop may be a sample game is that the original schematic that was inside the
> game is an actual blueprint of the hand-drawn schematic - it's about 8 feet
> long and a bitch to work with!
Actually, this type of schematic may not necessarily be a sign of a
sample or prototype game, but possibly a schematic obtained from the
factory years after the game was produced. I actually ordered a
replacement schematic from Williams for my 1966 A-Go-Go back in 1984,
and I got a fold-out 10' x 3' blueprint copy- same type of thing.
I got tired of flipping and folding it, so I finally hung it on the wall
to read it easier...
Interesting-
--
Ray Johnson
Action Pinball & Amusement - Fully Restored Pinball Machines -
Salt Lake City, Utah - Sales, Parts, Service, Circuit Board Repair -
E-Mail: ray...@simsteel.com Finest quality, best service- guaranteed...
We're serious about pinball. Anything else is just for fun!