Punch bags, penny pushers and Hillbilly shootouts: the 10 best classic seaside arcade machines

The Guardian

2 days ago

The seaside day trip remains an almost essential component of the school summer holidays, and although the big beachfront arcades have changed a lot over the last decade, they are still a magnet for small kids with handfuls of change, as well as adults hoping to spy an old Space Invaders cabinet in the back. As a child of the 1980s, coin-op video games were an obsession, but what really fascinated me were the older machines, the electro-mechanical oddities that hung on into the digital age. Here are 10 of the best – please add your own in the comments.
Long before the arrival of computer chips and CRT monitors, arcade driving games featured projected images of landscapes or even scrolling paintings to give the impression of hurtling along a road. The first examples arrived in the 1930s and a few later models, such as Chicago Coin's Speedway and Sega's Grand Prix stuck around in seaside arcades well into the 1980s. I remember playing a later example, Kasco's astonishing 1979 arcade game The Driver, on the pier at Blackpool. It used 16mm footage of a real race to put you right in the action.
There was a time when the rapid-fire noise of plastic pucks rebounding around large snooker-like tables was a constant soundtrack in larger arcades. Air Hockey was invented by US company Brunswick Billiards in 1969 and it quickly caught on across the globe offering a fast-paced alternative to pool and table football. You can still find them in retro arcades, especially in traditional seaside towns such as Great Yarmouth, Blackpool and Southend.
These large installations feature tin horses lining up on a race track – six to eight players each sit at a cabinet in front of the course and throw balls at a target in order to move their equine racer toward the finishing line: the most accurate player wins. It seems the original version of the game, Kentucky Derby, was brought to Blackpool Pleasure Beach in the 1920s by George Valentine Tonner, an Irish-American soldier, jockey and amusement park concessionaire who also patented an early version of dodgems. Later examples swap horses for donkeys or camels, while a smaller variant, The Derby by Whittaker Bros, invited multiple players to bet on the outcome of automated horse races for a modest payback.
Toy vending machines followed gumball machines into American stores, cafes and station platforms in the 1930s, but it was in 1965 that the first gachapon machine was installed in a shop in Tokyo by entrepreneur Ryuzo Shigeta. These dispensed their wares in cute little plastic capsules, and the idea caught on. More commonly known as egg machines in the UK, most 1980s seaside arcades would have a couple outside the entrance, the most famous examples being Glendale's Oranges and Lemons and Lucky Eggs machines, the later of which would dispense your prize from a rotating, clucking hen – which made it that much more special.
You'd get rows of these large machines, often at the back of the arcade, giving players a number of chances to lob a basketball through a hoop, usually within a caged play area so you didn't accidentally launch the ball across the room. Classics such as Hoop Shot, Triple Jam and Full Court Fever added features including moving hoops and connected play so you could compete against pals on nearby machines. This was always where the rowdy teens hung out.
Originating in the late 19th century these arcade and boardwalk amusements usually feature animated automatons, often stereotypical representations of Gypsies, witches or ancient Middle Eastern royalty. Put in a coin and the mystic character gestures, breathes and speaks your fortune (or deposits a card with your fortune written on it), accompanied by special effects such as a glowing crystal ball. Notable examples include Madame Zita, the creepy 1977 innovation Morgana, whose face is a video projection on to a featureless foam head, and Zoltar, which inspired the 1988 movie Big. Other automaton machines feature dancing puppets and absolutely terrifying laughing clowns.
Beloved of young men keen to prove their masculinity, these have been around since at least 190o when the Chicago-based Mills Novelty Co released its Punching Bag model, complete with ornate oak stand. Modern versions have digital displays featuring accurate strength read-outs, but you're still just hitting a ball as hard as you can. Other strength testing machines include the Mr Muscle machine from Italian manufacturer Zamperla, which challenged you to arm wrestle with an intimidating plastic man.
Also known as claw machines, these remain a staple arcade experience. You slot in a coin and use the joystick to direct an ineffectual grabber towards your desired toy. Usually, it makes a pathetic attempt before dropping the item millimetres away from the delivery chute (mostly because the claws can be set to only grip at full strength for a minority of attempts). The first commercial example is thought to be the Erie Digger manufactured in the US through the 1920s but since then well-known arcade manufacturers such as Sega and Bally have created their own examples, the former revolutionising the market in the 1980s with its UFO Catcher machines offering larger prizes and a brighter kawaii look. They remain irresistible.
Light gun shooting galleries were in every arcade in the 70s and 80s, but my favourite examples were the large installations featuring lifesize scenes to shoot at, often with a wild west, pirate or gangster theme. The one I most remember playing – I think in Blackpool's Coral Island arcade – was called Hillybilly Moonshine and it had several mannequins dressed in overalls as well as a big copper distiller and various barrels and critters. If you hit the hillbillies they fired water pistols at you. You can still find these dotted about in surviving coin-op houses and they're really worth a go.
Invented by Ramsgate-based manufacturing firm Cromptons in 1966 (though there were earlier variants), coin push games are the kings of the seaside arcade, dominating the floor space and enticing players with their piles of sparkling treasure surely ready to fall at any second. The original was called Penny Falls, but there are hundreds of variations now, including virtual coin pushers, which move the action on to a screen with lots of special effects. Oh, the hours I spent during summer holidays wandering the arcades of Blackpool and Morecambe, a plastic cup of 2p coins in my hand, scrutinising these seductive machines. 'Penny pushers are absolutely pivotal to the success of the British amusement arcade,' says lecturer and historian Alan Meades, author of Arcade Britannia: A Social History of the British Amusement Arcade. 'Alongside the fruit machine they are where the arcades made their money – penny pushers could last for decades – retooled with currency changes – and recouped their costs time and again.'