Bally : Big Show

Game Parameters
Game Type magic squares
Game Number 585
Manufacture Date 1956
Number of Holes 25
Number of Odds Steps 8
Max Payout 600
Max Extra Balls 3
Features
Resources
Backglass
 - chris dade image
 - bg 1
 - bg 2

Cabinet
 - front
 - side

Flyers
 - fly 1

Internals
 - back door
 - back door bottom
 - coin door
 - inside head
 - mixers
 - spotting wipers

Game Manual
 - manual (pdf) : 5.92MB
 - unoptimized manual (pdf) : 34.35MB

Mixer Diagrams
 - 1: w-735b
 - 2: mixer 2
 - 3: mixer 3
 - 4: w-738b

Press Image
 - mp 1

Playfield
 - bottom
 - chris dade image
 - middle
 - overview
 - top

Reflex Diagrams
 - w-661b

Schematic
 - schematic : 9.54MB

S/I Card Reproduction
 - sirepro

S/I Card Scan
 - siscan 1
 - siscan 2


Big Show

For those of you that like racking up a large number of credits, the possibilities started with this game - well, almost.

Triple-deck advancing scores was a cute way of saying that there were three sets of odds values on the machine - one set for each of the red, yellow and green colored lines. These odds sets stepped up independently of each other, and in addition, scored separately. If you got 3-in-line on a red line and 3-in-line on a yellow line, you got paid the corrsponding odds for both of them. Almost all previous games just paid the highest of the two.

So why was this game almost a high scorer? Scoring didn't start until you shot the 5th ball, at which time you couldn't move the numbers anymore. Generally you shot four balls, arrange the numbers in whatever combination would pay the most, and then shot the 5th ball to start the scoring. If you were lucky, the 5th ball might turn a 3-in-line into a 4-in-line, a 4-in-line into a 5-in-line, or maybe give you a 3-in-line in another color, but that's about it.

Big money opportunities didn't start until the next two games - Key West and Show-Time.

The Ballyhole awarded the first extra ball, and the corners of the main card scored the green 5-in-line odds.

magic squares games

Some of the numbers on the bingo card are are mounted on wheels (behind the backglass), and pushing buttons on the foot rail allows you to rotate the wheels to rearrange the numbers into paying combinations.

A 1 9
19 4
A 9 4
1 19
The wheels have 4 numbers mounted on each. Here is the standard layout for magic square A. The first table shows the "home" position of the numbers, and the second table shows the numbers rotated one position:

The 4-number squares were initially used in the corners of the card, so people also called the feature "turning corners".

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