Line-Up
About This Machine
The 1937 Bally Line-Up (model 189) is a single-player electro-mechanical bingo/novelty machine from Bally's early catalog. Like other bingo-style games of the period, it uses chance to set up scoring before play even begins: starting the game causes five columns of odds on the backglass to flash and then randomly stop on one column, spotting a corresponding set of numbers on the backglass card before the first of five balls is shot into play.
Some surviving examples of Line-Up operate on 1-cent coins despite having a coin slide sized for a nickel, suggesting an after-factory price conversion on at least some units.
As a novelty/bingo machine rather than a straightforward scoring game, Line-Up reflects Bally's early experimentation with chance-based mechanics that would go on to define its long-running line of bingo pinball machines in the decades that followed.
Images (12)
Technical Details
- Model Number:
- 189
- Notable Features:
- 5 balls per play. Starting the game causes the five columns of odds on the backglass to flash before randomly stopping on one of them which spots a set of corresponding numbers on the backglass card before the first ball is shot into play.