Wer zahlt die Runde
About This Machine
Wer zahlt die Runde, produced by Siegfried Schumacher of Germany in 1968, is an electro-mechanical (EM) conversion built from T.H. Bergmann & Co.'s earlier games, 1957's 'Turf' and 1954's 'Clipper' - two of Bergmann's more successful titles. The name roughly translates to 'He who loses has to buy drinks,' fitting for a game aimed at German pub and bar players.
The conversion used technology comparable to contemporary Rally-style games and was offered with or without pop bumpers, giving German operators an option to reduce noise for players who disliked it. According to German collector Christian Jacobs, the conversion appears not to have been commercially successful, as he has never encountered an actual unit.
Specific gameplay details beyond the base conversion are not well documented, but as a rebadged and modestly reworked Bergmann title, Wer zahlt die Runde offers a small but interesting footnote in German EM pinball history.