Full description not available
J**E
Fascinating machines
I've seen a few photos here and there of the old penny arcade machines and even came across mutoscopes here and there but this is the first opportunity I've had to see what many of these machines were. These are catalog reproductions from one company (Mike Munves) which used to sell many of these machines to arcades.Unfortunately, the black-and-white illustrations used in the original catalogs are typical for the era and not that good. Despite the book having content for a number of years, the exact same illustrations pop up again and again, as new illustrations for many of the same old games were apparantly not necessary. Also, the descriptions tend to be limited for many of the machines... they certainly don't explain the operating principle behind many of the machines, which was something I was interested in.However, this book provides an illustrated collection of predicters, vendors, meters, kiddy rides and shooters. It also includes catalog items needed to run a penny arcede and a Mike Munvees booklet, "Profits in Pennies," which explains to businesses how to make money with arcade machines. I'm glad I got it!
K**S
Great for researching the era
There is so much information in these small ads that its hard to take in at first. You see where games were at the time of the printing, and what was working. The evolution of the era from War to peace, and somewhere in between.Because the ads were given dates, and information on their printing, it becomes a great source of info for research. You can see the shooting games of the War period, and the pinball machines of the 50's as they were advertised.It is a short book, but it contains a lot of information that will be turned to several times for research.
