The first nickel slot was created in 1893 by an inventor named Gustav Schultze, whose Horseshoes game paid two nickels if the wheel landed on one of ten horseshoes—customers got a free drink if they landed on a joker, and the remaining 14 out of 25 symbols were worth. The Roll-A-Top coin-operated Slot Machine by Watling Manufacturing Co. (circa 1936), and it's history and background, photos, repair help, manuals, for sale and wanted lists, and census survey is brought to you by The International Arcade Museum at the Museum of the Game. Another thing worthy of emphasizing is that the amount you have to set aside to determine which slot machine is loose, depends greatly on the bankroll and most of all, on your stakes. Anyway, the amount of stakes is variable but the technique for playing with a fixed number of spins stays the same.

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The Bally 'Skill' series consisted of five games:

• Skill Roll, Bally #601, 3/58, 1500 produced.
• Lite-A-Diamond, Bally #609, 6/59.
• Skill Parade (standard and deluxe), Bally #616, 10/58, 500 total produced.
• Skill Score, Bally #653, 4/60, 250 produced.
• Skill Derby (standard and deluxe), Bally #656, 9/60.

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There were five Bally 'skill roll' type games made.Skill Roll #601 (3/58, 1500 produced) was the first in the series, and has eight nickel flipping levers (four on each side), and has no replay meter. Thiswas a genuine skill game, and is quite addictive to play.The object is to drop a coin in the top slot and 'flick' the eight handles to shoot it back and forth on eight rows. The better you shoot, the higher points. Highest score is 460 based on the max points on the way to the bottom.If the player gets to the bottom (eighth) row, the game will keep your coin at the bottom until a new game is started.The player can show his friends, 'hey I got to the last row!'Sort of a 'look what I did', kind of thing. Also if the player gets to the eighth row (regardless of their score), a star lights up on the backglass to the right of the'90' point graphic. This shows a 'hi-score.' (There's no free gameor anything to win, just the satisfaction you beat the game.)It's not easy to get to the bottom (eighth) row, let alone get 460 points.About 2/3 the way through the game, it starts to get harder. You can lose the coin in any one of the 'gobble' holes. Internally there is also a points adjustment from 320 to 380 points, which triggers a 'hi-score' mechanical counter for the operator. There is also an eighth rowmechanical counter. These let the operator know if the players arebeating the game.

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Next was Lite-A-Diamond #609 (6/59), which was the same game as Skill Roll for the first four nickel flips. But after that, the gameturns into pure chance, as the nickel randomly flips up and tries to light diamonds. Lite-A-Diamond plays out in credits (has a replay meter).Lite-a-Diamond is pretty rare too, probably the rarest model ofthe five Bally 'skill' games (please contact me if you have oneas I would like to buy it, or at least get pictures!)

Third up was Skill Parade #616(10/58, 500 produced). Skill Parade came in two versions, standard(novelty, first 250 produced) and deluxe (replay, last 250 produced). In the standard version, the player puts in a nickel, and plays with that nickel. Deluxe has a quarter or dimecoin chute which give multiple credits, and the game is played with a recirculating Bally nickel. Skill Parade is basically a slot machine withthree nickel flipping levers. If more nickels (coins) are added, theodds go up for a win. On Skill Parade you can change the replay awardson it via adjustment plugs in the back of the game. There are a set ofplexi cards that insert and show through the backglass to display thescores.

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Fourth was Skill Score #653 (4/60, 250 produced), which is very similar to Skill Parade, but with a few twists. First it's a sports theme(where Skill Parade is a carnival theme.) There are added score reels too, so the gamegives a score, and there are six shots per play. Skill Score also uses a recirculating Bally coin instead of the player's nickel. And Skill Score does not use theSkill Roll style flip levers. Instead the game uses two pinball style plungers.Bally marketed this game as an upright pinball machine because of this.These changes made the game less like a slot machine, but it's stilllargely a chance game. But this version is an upgrade from the earlier Skill Parade.There is *some* skill with this game, as the plunger can influence where thecoin lands in each of the three score areas. Also the game alwayshas '3000 triple', '4000 triple' or '5000 triple' lit. This means ifyou hit a 3000 point score lever and '3000 triple' was lit, your scoreis tripled (3000x3=12,000 points.) There is also a 15,000 point scorelane (or special) on the bottom score area. If lit and it's hit, youwin one game (no points), or get 15,000 points if not lit.Also this game can win from 1 to 100 credits per game!Note if the game is turned off with credits, upon the nextpower on, the game will remove all credits (much like a Bally bingo.)

Last (fifth) was Skill Derby #656 (9/60), which came instandard and deluxe versions. This machine had amechanical horse race on the top of the game. The player selected one of fivehorses before inserting their nickel. After the nickel was insert,the horse selector knob is frozen, and can not move.The player flipped the recycling Bally nickel through a pichinco type area, tryingto get their selected horse to win (no skill, purely chance). Because thereis only one player 'plunge', and three sets of pachincho score areas,there really is no skill in this game. Note the standard version hadno replay meter and no way to 'win' anything. Deluxe had a replay meter and the playercould win games if their horse came in first. This is a pretty cool variantof the Skill series of games because of the mechanical horses. But asidefrom that, the game play is pretty poor. Just plunge the nickel, and watchit pachincho down the game randomly. There may be some skill in the plungeto the first pachincho area, but after that it's definitely all chance.If the horse you selected before the game started (shown on the score glass)is the 'win' horse (also shown on the backglass), you have 'won' the game.But other than that, there's no scoring. Also the replay version has inserts on the right side of the vertical playfield, showing potentialreplays that can be won. Note this game often has problems with the horse motor (which runs at 120 volts, and runs forward or reverse.) Becausethe horses' chains and cogs were greased at the factory, this grease usuallyturns to solid gunk, and strains (kills) the motor. The motor likes to break the armituresfrom its shaft, rendering the motor useless. Just keep this in mind ifyou are looking to buy this game. The motor can be fixed, but it's not aneasy process.

Skill Roll (3/58) is the most fun of the series ofthese game, as the game actually takes a lot of skill to play. Skill Parade andSkill Derby are largely slot machines or chance machines where little skill is involved. Lite-a-Diamond is a mix of skill and chance. Skill Score has someskill and pinball style scoring, so it seem a bit more like a game of skill.Bally skill roll manual andschematics.

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There was also a modern version of Skill Roll made by HanaHo Games Inc. of Cerritos, California called Skill Shot.