Thursday, March 6, 2014

'Slot Machines' by Marshall Fey - Book Review


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Slot Machines A pictorial history of the primary 100 Years, is Marshall Fey's masterpiece of slot machine history. This Sixth Edition is 256 pages, with a number of narrative concerning the evolution of coin-op gaming devices into what's considered to be the primary true slot machine, Charles Fey's 1899 Liberty Bell. Author Marshall Fey brings his family's history of success and struggles with the brand new age of slot machines to life and treats the reader to photos of the family's heirlooms - the very slot machines and gaming devices the book is all about.

High Points

  • Large 9x12 format
  • 630 photographs
  • Authored by the grandson of the inventor of the 3-reel slot machine. Marshall Fey has a pleasant, easy to read variety of writing and fills the pages in an intriguing directness.

Low Points

  • It's hard to fault a book with over 600 photos, but there's no uniformity to the photo layouts. Some pages contain photos in borders, some bleed to the page edge, some have backgrounds and a few "float" at the page.

Description

  • Slot Machines by Marshall Fey was first released in 1983 and is now in its Sixth Edition.
  • 256 Pages, over 600 photos
  • Publisher: Liberty Belle Books

Guide Review - 'Slot Machines' by Marshall Fey - Book Review

Photo Courtesy of (Liberty Belle Books)

1899 Liberty Bell Slot Machine

Photo Courtesy of (Liberty Belle Books)

Slot Machines starts right out with the "anything goes" era of San Francisco's growing population within the late 1890's. Marshall Fey delves into coin operated gaming devices built in the course of the time and gives photographs of some of the actual machines from the decade of the 1800's.

As author Fey's grandfather, Charles Fey, struggled to support his family, San Francisco became a haven for every type of gaming devices which grew in popularity among the bars, clubs and cigar stores within the sprawling city. Fey takes the reader throughout the invention of the primary reel-type machine, Charles Fey's Liberty Bell, and the race to provide enough machines to offer the growing demand for his new invention.

Later chapters follow the evolution of slot machines as manufacturers copied the Fey machine and produced their very own slots to stick competitive. Over 600 photos accompany the various chapters that take the reader on a 100-year journey throughout the Roaring Twenties, the Golden Age of slots, the post war boom, and the move into electro-mechanical and electronic slot machines.

Short chapters also include advice on collecting, restoration, how machines work, and the way the math of chance and payoffs are arrived at for brand new machines. While Slot Machines was not the primary book to be aware of slot machines, it's informatively written by a educated source and offers more for the reader than most other books about gaming devices.


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