Helco : New Five

Game Parameters
Game Type magic lines
Game Number unknown
Manufacture Date 1984
Number of Holes 25
Number of Odds Steps 11
Max Payout 2000
Max Extra Balls 5
Features
Resources
Backglass
 - bg 1


New Five

Date is just a guess. Geert over in belgium says this:
I never had heard from this company before. Helco seems to have stopped trading completely. It's not in the phone book any more and the fax number that's printed on the backglass is disconnected. The only trace I found of it was a single line in some Belgian Gaming Commission Proceedings report I found online: "Helco has stopped making gambling machines". I've never seen an complete "New Five" machine (or any other Helco machine).

Game appears to have been a Miss America Deluxe style machine with a couple extra features. A ballyhole feature would award the first extra ball. Hole #15 appers to be special also.

Like many later games from belgium, extra balls may have been purchased for a displayed number of credits, rather than gambling for them.

magic lines games

The first feature that mechanically moved numbers!

The numbers on the bingo card were on strips that could be moved one position by turning knobs/pushing buttons on the foot rail.

Usually, the numbered strips were the vertical columns of the card, and they could be shifted up/down one position. When a column was shifted up, the top number "wrapped" and became the bottom number. The bottom number wrapped to the top when shifting down.

Miss America introduced horizontally shifting lines that used two 5x5 cards next to each other. A number could be slid from one card to the other.

12 8 14 3
3 12 8 14
14 3 12 8
8 14 3 12
The third type of magic line is the cleverest. It is a horizontal line consisting of four numbers. The numbers would shift right through all four positions. When a number fell off the right side, it reappeared on the left. For example, here is the four possible magic line positions on Cypress Gardens:


Alphabetical
Chronological