“Slot Machines on Parade” could be a good reference guide IF .........
there were a Corrections Guide to it similar to a price guide.
The precursor to Parade was “Slot Machines A Pictorial Review” by David Christensen published in 1972. “It quickly became a cult classic as the only readily available record of slot machines in public print.”
Unfortunately, it was loaded with errors.
Fortunately, there was a reprint in 1976 with a lengthy foreword by Dick Bueschel that set the record straight. He provided 6 pages of corrections to the text that gave the book a new lease on life and allowed the book to live on and even serve as a good reference to this day.
The popularity and success of Pictorial Review probably led the guys at Mead to come out with Parade in 1980 when they saw that they would make some money on it. Now Parade is in dire need of a similar fix. There are enough comments scattered on this forum for a good start for someone to put together a Corrections Guide. It would be very informative and helpful in recognizing machines that are incorrect or have been over restored beyond their original state. It might even be a profitable venture; many, if not most, of the guys who have Parade would gladly pay a reasonable price to have a companion Corrections Guide.