An Introduction to Wall
Games
by Robert Carroll
What are they?
Wall games are a class of coin-operated games, played with a remote control transmitter and a framed game panel which is mounted on the wall. Game action is displayed on the large framed game panel utilizing lamps mounted below the plastic backglass, which are appropriately illuminated by the game electronics to simulate the game action.
Who made them?
These games were manufactured by several different companies, including Gremlin Industries, Midway, Sunbird, Rowe International, PMC, and most recently, by Creative Electronics and Software.
Gremlin games
Most commonly found are the Gremlin Industries wall games. These games were manufactured in the early- and mid- 1970's and again in the 1980's. They stand 2 ½ feet tall, 5 feet wide, and 5 ½ inches deep. The framed game panel weight is just under fifty pounds. Gremlin wall games were prominently hung in taverns, pizza parlors, and game rooms. A single-player (and often a two-player) game could be played for a quarter.
There are three major components to a Gremlin wall game: The coin box, similar to those used with coin-operated children’s rides, the single push-button radio transmitter box, and the aluminum-framed game panel. The electronics for the wall game are mounted within the framed game panel.
The circuitry
One very large printed circuit board, just slightly smaller than the frame, is used to support the lamp holders and the circuit traces between the lamp holders and the headers. Other circuit boards are attached to the headers on this main circuit board. The combination power supply/sound board and logic board are attached to headers on the back side of this main board, while the radio receiver board is attached to headers on the front side of the main board.
Early Gremlin games used a thin white plastic display panel, without any external graphics or markings. When turned off, they appeared to be blank white panels mounted on a wall. With the power turned on, the game lit up in "attract mode". The games were often turned off in the daytime, possibly so as not to disturb diners at lunchtime, or to discourage lunchtime dawdling, and appeared as indistinct, plain white panels hanging on the wall.
Later games improved upon these panels, constructing them of a much thicker polycarbonate plastic, black in color, with some of the game components silk-screened on the black exterior surface. Operators liked the thicker plastic backglass, which was far more resistant to puncture, scratching, and heat damage/discoloration than the white panel games. Another plus was that potential players could tell that the panel hanging on the wall was a game. This meant that potential players were more likely to ask the bartender to turn the game on so they could play.
Most Gremlin games are played with RF (radio frequency) remote controls, operating in the 27 MHz band. Each game used a different frequency, allowing a location to operate multiple games on their walls simultaneously without interference. Two later Gremlin games, Grand Slam and Skeet Shoot, introduced an infrared wireless remote, in an effort to limit the problems associated with RF transmitters losing synchronization with the game receiver, going "out of tune", or the accidental game play caused by batteries weakened by the high current draw of the RF transmitter.
My Indiana University Connection
My first encounter with a wall game came as a graduate student at Indiana University in Bloomington, Indiana in 1977-79. A friend, Bruce Kovacsics, and I played Gremlin’s "Play Ball" game at a local restaurant/tavern known as the Peanut Barrel. While others drank beer and gradually worsened their game performance, I stayed sober (I never found the taste of beer to my liking) and sharpened my skills.
My first wall game purchase came a few years later when I was dating an Indiana University undergraduate, Julie Roach. Julie was a very competitive young woman who worked Summers for Showbiz Pizza in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Working around video games offered her the opportunity to hone her coin-operated game skills, and this became one of our common interests. While dating, we attended a video game auction in Indianapolis, where there were two wall games for sale: a Gremlin Play Ball, and a Gremlin Ten Pin. I bought them both, much to the disappointment of the backup bidder, who hoped I would select only one game at $100, and allow the bidding to begin anew. I really only wanted the Play Ball, which was the only wall game I had ever played, but the Ten Pin game looked interesting and complete, so I took them both.
The Ten Pin game worked, and I hung it up at the Fort Wayne Jaycees clubhouse. It was a popular game, and it competed with my Mappy and Popeye video games, and my Williams 1957 Deluxe Baseball game for quarters. The games remained in this location for many months until they were broken into by some visiting high school students/delinquents. I removed the games, and while loading them up, a gust of wind caught the Ten Pin game, slamming it to the ground on top of a door stop, shattering the backglass.
The Play Ball didn’t work, and it eventually went into storage for almost fifteen years. I "saved" it in 2002, while the storage building was being torn down.
The theft of several machines that had been in this storage building somehow shocked me back into an interest in pinball and other coin-operated games, and I began my old hobby again. Searching for information on Gremlin wall games through Google and Yahoo, I realized there was almost no information available, and that games still in existence were in danger of being tossed out by frustrated owners. I was surprised to find that no one had yet registered the wallgames.com domain name, and I registered it immediately. Over the next six months I researched the subject thoroughly, and acquired as many manuals, schematics, and advertising brochures as I could find. The end result is this web site, which will continue to expand in usefulness to both collectors and operators of these games.
The Future of Wallgames.com
Pages from game instruction manuals will eventually become a part of this site, as well as repair tips and procedures.
Expanded histories of the various manufacturers will be added.
More GIF animations, depicting game play as accurately as possible.
A Majordomo-type mailing list for discussion and repair questions is being considered.
A listing of games and parts available for sale or wanted to buy.
And the most ambitious project of all - Reproduction of silk-screened game panels to replace the many damaged games out there. Replacement transmitters and receiver boards. Depot repair of logic boards. Replacement discrete electronic components.
The Future of Wall Games
As the cost of large plasma flat-panel televisions drop, it only seems natural that someone will create more realistic games, possibly high-resolution video games, which can be played with wireless remote controls. They may even revert back to television use during the Super Bowl, or other sporting events. Dollar bill acceptors will become the norm.