High Top with a Pace Star....

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High Top with a Pace Star....

Postby TheFatman » Fri Oct 17, 2014 6:37 pm

http://www.ebay.com/feed/19178127
I have never seen this before.... anyone have an idea what the scoop is on this one?
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Re: High Top with a Pace Star....

Postby Midcoast Vintage » Fri Oct 17, 2014 7:04 pm

somebody just used a 1940's pace star hub to try to jazz up their machine.
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Re: High Top with a Pace Star....

Postby TheFatman » Fri Oct 17, 2014 8:18 pm

Well if thats the case ... I think the elevtor goes all the way to the top floor ..... but the doors dont open. Something just aint right
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Re: High Top with a Pace Star....

Postby nvmos2 » Sat Oct 18, 2014 8:16 am

I think somebody put this machine together in their workshop.

In addition to the non-Mills gear shift handle/Pace star;

There is no payout tray casting; looks like just a wood bowl cut into base.

Home-made wood cash box.

Looks like the castings don't fit the cabinet quite right; there is definitely a very poor fit between upper and lower casting.

Criss Cross award plate, but no mention of Criss Cross feature in JP award card or on upper casting name plate or reel ornament.

Not a Mills serial number; if it were, it would place it in the 1920s Operator Bell era. Has a 3 letter prefix, possibly the initials of the guy who built the machine.
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Re: High Top with a Pace Star....

Postby aristocrat » Mon Nov 03, 2014 8:46 am

http://www.ebay.com/itm/ANTIQUE-VINTAGE ... 7675.l2557


this is the ebay listing for the machine that the OP posted.

[link in opening post is now dead for some reason i think]


i hadnt seen a mashup as this before and was interested

to see what replies were forthcoming to the thread.


the general consensus from posts seemed to be that it was

a one off mash up mongrel of a machine?


however, i think its an ace novelty manufactured machine.

eg an ace novelty cabinet using ex pace mechanism and star

boss, combined with mills stamped castings and outer trim.


it should have an ace and not mills above reelglass trim piece

with playing card embossing & should have an ace award card,

ace brand decals on side? and ace paper serial sticker on inside.


the initials stamped on the base at the rear would have matched

serial number on paper decal inside, MD? 000 then serial number


ace were i believe the reincarnation of pace in someway and that

would explain useage of ex pace hardware and mechanisms too?

however, doesnt explain useage of mills castings and backdoors

unless they bought some tooling or were in arrangement similar

to pace jackpots castings on mills/jennings machines tieins etc



although i am not familiar with the demise of pace and the

emergence of ace.


i am not based in US so would appreciate if the more knowledgeable

people here could at least give me a heads up on ace novelty or ace

inc or whatever they were known as.
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Re: High Top with a Pace Star....

Postby Frank » Mon Nov 03, 2014 9:28 am

What pace/ace mech? Sure looks like a high top with a star tacked on.
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Re: High Top with a Pace Star....

Postby aristocrat » Mon Nov 03, 2014 11:22 am

im not saying this ebay machine has a pace/ace mechanism

just in the same way a mills bluebell may now have a sega

mechanism inside. this ebay machine may have a mills or sega or

pace mechanism in it now, however


i believe this model style machine was made by ace manufacturing

or ace novelty or whatever it was called after the demise of pace

and when the model was originally made up it was made up utilising

ex pace and ex mills parts but branded as ace manufactured item.




so this pace star boss hitop will have an ace original serial paperwork badge

inside it and the serial number embossed in the wood isnt someones initials

as a one off but an ace manufacturing code for that model machine,

if someone can confirm how ace was set up and further info on them, i would

appreciate greatly
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Re: High Top with a Pace Star....

Postby nvmos2 » Tue Nov 04, 2014 10:47 am

Interesting, but I doubt it is an Ace cabinet even though the Pace star could lead to that conclusion.

There were a bunch of companies that revamped or produced their own version of the Hightop, many using Mills mechanisms.

Ace produced their Hightop starting in 1953 with a Pace mechanism.
At that time, they were in direct competition with Mills and it is highly unlikely they would let a machine out the door with a Mills nameplate.
I don’t know if Ace produced a model called Star Boss, but this one has a Criss Cross award plate. Typically, Criss Cross models have the feature prominently announced to attract the player, not just in small print. I think this award plate is actually off a Buckley machine. Ace made a later Open Front Criss Cross and the feature was highlighted in big letters at the top of the award plate.

Auto Bell made a Hightop with a Mills mech and they were known to leave the Mills nameplate on their machines.
They were also known to use a straight handle. Ace machines typically have a bend in the gear shift handle and a round ball on top.

I do not recognize the 2 trim pieces on each side of where the payout casting should be, which poorly conform to the cabinet base.

Someone on this forum should be able to say who made the cabinet (at least the wood part) from the serial number. Hopefully someone will recognize the letter/number combination. I have no Ace serial number info, but I would think that Ace may have continued the Pace system; this number is not a continuation of the Pace numbers or codes. If Ace started their own system, they would have had to make a lot of machines to get over 10,000 during their Hightop phase. When letter codes were used in serials, they were typically the same size and spacing as the numbers. The letters used on this machine look to be added separately/later, possibly just the initials of the guy who put this composite machine together.
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Re: High Top with a Pace Star....

Postby aristocrat » Tue Nov 04, 2014 11:48 am

heres a couple of images taken off a friends machine

it has pace star boss as the ebay machine, with pace

mechanism & ace trim above reelglass marquee plate.

[eg the one with the embossed playing card symbols]

an award card is not present on his machine, however

all other parts are stamped mills, eg castings, casting

trim and bumper apron etc.

his numbers stamped in the wooden cabinet match the

paper serial number glued to the inside.


so am more likely to believe that the embossing on the

ebay machine is ace stamping, just the paper is missing

on this machine.


would still like to know more about pace to ace to space.

thx
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Re: High Top with a Pace Star....

Postby nvmos2 » Tue Nov 04, 2014 10:00 pm

Very interesting. It would have been nice if all the info and photos were shared earlier.
Can we see any additional photos of the complete machine for comparison to the one on flebay?

It appears that Ace did indeed set up their own serial number system. It would help if other Ace serials come forward.
The serial of 307 is very low and seems strange since Ace did not move to Maryland until about 1964. Perhaps the Maryland operation started over with a new line of serials. It is even stranger that the flebay machine has such a high number indicating Ace was still making Hightops in the era of all steel cabinets.

You can trace the evolution of Pace to Ace to Space in Lemons, Cherries and Bell Fruit Gum by Dick Bueschel.
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