1980s Fruit Machines

Charles August Fey, a Bavaria-born inventor, was living in San Francisco when he invented his first gambling machine in 1984. His games grew to be so popular at local bars, he quit his day job and opened a factory to start mass producing them, most notably the Liberty Bell machines in 1899. Classic free fruit machines at the online casinos in any emulator may look very similar to the ones that were once commonly found in land-based, regardless they are played for fun or for real money. They practically always are random and feature the same standard symbols and the 3 reels, single pay line format, but that doesn’t mean they offer the same old-fashioned play and quality.

Fruit Machine Online
1980s Fruit Machines Youtube
1980s Fruit Machines Machine
1980s Club Fruit Machines

Owning a vintage slot machine is one of those fun yet daunting ideas. Many old school one-armed bandits are beautifully designed and instant conversation pieces. Plus slot fans who own a machine don’t ever have to worry about losing money to the house.

Still, most antique machinery breaks down or wears out eventually and finding a repair person who knows how to fix a piece of equipment that’s over 50 years old can be tough. Thankfully, antique slot machine enthusiasts have figured out how to use the internet and uploaded plenty of great information about repairing these mechanical marvels.

Newer slots will require you to know a bit about computer circuitry, but the classics just need a screwdriver, wrench and a magic touch. (OK, you probably need more tools than that.) Watch the videos below to understand how the slot machines work and what’s required for common repairs. Even if you’re not ready to plunk down a grand or more for a classic slot machine, you’ll probably get a kick out of understanding what makes those coin swallowers tick. If you want to quickly itch your scratch for playing slots, you can also check out an online casino likeRoyal Vegas Online Slots. Finally, enthusiasts who are serious about buying a vintage machine may want to take a look at the Antique Slot Machine Pricing Guide.

Charles August Fey, a Bavaria-born inventor, was living in San Francisco when he invented his first gambling machine in 1984. His games grew to be so popular at local bars, he quit his day job and opened a factory to start mass producing them, most notably the Liberty Bell machines in 1899. A lot of the functionality from that early game remained in place through much of the 20th century. Watch this video to see the seven mechanical actions set into motion when you pull back the bandit’s arm. The inner workings are probably a little more complex than you expect.

Given that a lot of old slot machines are hand built, it isn’t surprising that coins can get jammed on their way through the mechanism. Big warning: If your machine jams, don’t force the arm or you can break, twist or damage a part inside. Different models and makes tend to have common jam points. The Mills model shown in the above video can have coins stuck in the “elevator” section that displays the last five coins dropped into the machine. Getting the slot working again can be as simple as cleaning the gunk off of an old part. You just need to be smart when you’re disassembling and reassembling the machinery.

Okay, there are plenty of more places where a coin can get stuck and the above video demonstrates how to fix a variety of jams. It also explains how to disassemble the major parts of the machine and where common problem areas are.

Curious how an antique slot machine knows how much money a winner gets? This video shows the punch-card like communication that trips payouts and how. If you ever need to replace the reel symbols or calibrate the machine you’ll need to understand how these work. Even if you don’t ever plan on owning a machine, the metallic “circuitry” is interesting to see.

Want to own a modern slot machine? New ones have plenty more bells, whistles and dings, and also a lot more advanced parts. If you plan on getting one, you may want to have an idea of what’s inside. In addition to the classic reels, there are speakers, motherboards filled with programming chips and plenty of wires. Unless you have a way with a soldering iron you probably won’t try and fix it. But in case you do, here’s a clip from Discovery showing what’s inside.

Did you know newer slot machines are smart enough to test themselves when a problem happens? This video shows you the procedure for having the machine check its own system. The host’s desert dry delivery is also enough to make this vid worth a watch.

'Fruit machine' is a term for a device developed in Canada by Frank Robert Wake^[1] that was supposed to be able to identify gay men (derogatorily referred to as 'fruits'). The subjects were made to view pornography; the device then measured the diameter of the pupils of the eyes (pupillary response test), perspiration, and pulse for a supposed erotic response.

The 'fruit machine' was employed in Canada in the 1950s and 1960s during a campaign to eliminate all gay men from the civil service, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), and the military. A substantial number of workers did lose their jobs. Although funding for the 'fruit machine' project was cut off in the late 1960s, the investigations continued, and the RCMP collected files on over 9,000 'suspected' gay people.^[2]

The chair employed resembled that used by dentists. It had a pulley with a camera going towards the pupils, with a black box located in front of it that displayed pictures. The pictures ranged from the mundane to sexually explicit photos of men and women. It had previously been determined that the pupils would dilate in relation to the amount of interest in the picture per the technique termed 'the pupillary response test'.^[3]

People were first led to believe that the machine's purpose was to rate stress. After knowledge of its real purpose became widespread, few people volunteered for it.

Faulty test parameters[edit]

The accuracy and functional mechanism of the 'fruit machine' was questionable. First, the pupillary response test was based on fatally flawed assumptions: that visual stimuli would give an involuntary reaction that can be measured scientifically; that homosexuals and heterosexuals would respond to these stimuli differently; and that there were only two types of sexuality.^[4] A physiological problem with the method was that the researchers failed to take into account the varying sizes of the pupils and the differing distances between the eyes.^[3]^[4] Other problems that existed were that the pictures of the subjects' eyes had to be taken from an angle, as the camera would have blocked the subjects' view of the photographs if it were placed directly in front. Also, the amount of light coming from the photographs changed with each slide, causing the subjects' pupils to dilate in a way that was unrelated to their interest in the picture. Finally, the dilation of the pupils was also exceedingly difficult to measure, as the change was often smaller than one millimeter.^[3]

The idea was based on a study done by an American university professor, which measured the sizes of the subjects' pupils as they walked through the aisles of grocery stores.^[3]

In popular culture[edit]

Brian Drader's 1998 play The Fruit Machine juxtaposes the fruit machine project with a parallel storyline about contemporary homophobia.^[5]

Fruit Machine Online

An abandoned attempt to employ a fruit machine during the interrogation of Canadian diplomat John Watkins was shown in the 2002 TV film, Agent of Influence.

Alex Brett's novel Cold Dark Matter (2005) uses the project as a plot device.^{[citation needed]}

Sarah Fodey's 2018 documentary film The Fruit Machine profiled the effects of the project on several of the people affected by it.^[6]