Looking for valuation/advice about an old mechanical arcade machine...

Hi everyone,

My dad has handed this mechanical "Climbing Monkey" arcade machine on to me, and I'm thinking about selling it. His father bought it from Swingies Pinball Parlour Terrigal when it closed. The outside of the case, white paint with red and blue splotches, appears to have been Swingies' trademark. I strongly suspect that Swingies' owner has modified this machine somehow; I've found a few machines with this spiral ball-launcher shape, but none with this particular design, and most of the others seem to have wooden rather than metal cases.

The launcher mechanism for the machine is in working order, but the mechanism by which the monkey climbs up and down is not. I can't find a manufacturer's name.

Does anybody know anything about this sort of machine? Any ideas about how much it might be worth?

Hi Lachlan

What a ripper of a game can't say I've ever seen one like that before. Values to these machine are very hot and miss the English and American known branded ones can fetch big money most Aussie built ones not so much but I love them even more than the import machines.

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wont pull big money unfortunately the way it is,but it is helpful that it has some history, like you know where it came from

As I restore and some times sell these things, most people are chasing the popular brand name machines as @ddstoys has stated.

For example, Mutoscope, Exhibit Supply, Mills, ABT, Peo and many others, and then one of the most popular British makers is Bryans, an extremely popular maker for collectors here in Australia, when you talked about seeing other games with the spiral play-field with timber cabs, then you are most likely comparing to a Bryans Allwin game.

there is probably only a few collectors who would pay you the better money as they appreciate the history, some one Like ddstoys would be the best person to offer this too, as he is a Huge collector and is more about history than Just brand names, and at least with him it will get the right attention and want rot away in some hoarders garden shed.

some where between $250-$400 would be my guess, it is rough, if it was restored correctly or was in much better condition then you would get more money

The reason why most Aussie penny games dont pull the same money as over seas brands is a couple of reasons, often they are poorly made from scrap timber so less attractive looking, they are often home made, or made by some very small company that know one has ever heard of or remembers because they made maybe a couple of games then went belly up, Aussie games are often simple (primitive) and if they were good games that is because they often ripped off and copied USA and British made brand arcade games.

Then you get the game that confuses every one because Often arcades in the day would have a bunch of old junk games laying around and they would build one game from a bunch of other games. keep in mind in that era these things were expensive so they would recycle and build games out of junk and scrap and they wasted nothing.

So those points detract some interest away from Australian made games vs the big brand games for some collectors, but to some other Collectors it also makes them attractive. I guess the term Folk art would apply to many Australian games

However

Luna park games are very collectable, so you may see Australian made games that have proof were at any of the Luna theme parks pull good money.

so History is very important also

for example, this is An Australian made game, from Luna park, very very well made, By one of the few known makers, so due to all that would pull some serious money. http://www.oliviaspennyarcade.com/patienceluna

so what your item has going for it is it looks tobe well made, and it has good history and it doesn't look trashed so it would make for a good restoration.

So your item is collectable, it would also be a very good entry level machine for new collectors wanting to get their feet wet in the antique arcade hobby

Now non money talk, Great game and I really Love it, thanks for sharing @Lachlan_Keir do you have any inside pictures? Id love to see its mech.

If the lock cant be opened Please Dont drill that lock out, I would take it to a lock smith and get them to pick it and make a new key.

If it was a stock old cam lock id say drill it out, but that type of lock is rare and well worth the money to get a new key made.

If you decide you want it restored, Let me know, My website is http://www.oliviaspennyarcade.com

Hey everyone,

Cracked the case open and went on a bit of a photography spree with this one, got lots of new photos for you all.

Here's the goal section of the machine: you need to drop the ball into the "climb" holes to win.

Here is the monkey himself. Unfortunately the climbing mechanism doesn't seem to be working at the moment.

Here are the rules of the game (unfortunately upside-down because it seems to be difficult to convince this upload system to rotate things).

Here's the side and top of the machine. The top is fairly rusty but could be cleaned. There's a few spots of superficial rust elsewhere on the machine. The white & blue splodges of paint appear to have been the trademark of the arcade my grandfather bought this from.

Here's the back of the machine. There are some marks where it appears to have been mounted on a stand, as well as large holes that could be used for wall mounting.

Here the machine has been cracked open. The lock doesn't work and can be pried open with some jimmying (I'll be taping the machine together for transport if anyone buys it). The back of the machine is basically a hollow box, while the mechanism is attached to the front space. The machine also has quite a few old 1c and 2c coins littering the bottom.

Here's the mechanism itself. You can see quite a few parts have been repaired with wire, and at the top of the photo there's a counterweight that appears to have been improvisationally repaired with a lot of blue-tack.

Here's a close-up on the central wheel, with a closer view on some of those repairs.

Here's a sticker which bears the name of the people who were apparently in charge of repairing the arcade's machines.

I managed to find the ball that goes in the machine when I opened it, so here it is in the launch position. The launcher still works, although I haven't given it a good spin yet -- worried about losing the ball again :)

Love it thanks for the photos I'll. be sure to add photos once it's here and tidied up [emoji12]

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This is definitely the same maker as a game I did for Luna park on one of their games which was an Australian Made game, Please note Im not saying this is a luna game because there is no provenience to prove that it is, and because its made by one maker this doesnt make it exclusive to one arcade lol, but you already know where its from anyways which is a good

but it has pretty much the same construction on the mech as that game, so it is definitely Australian. and its a steel cab also which as you correctly stated is not typical for an Allwin style machine, I had a feeling it was, but now ive seen the Inside it has confirmed it,

both these games were primitively made in exactly the same way.

History is so cool, and thanks for sharing, I just need to see if i can find out who the manufacturer was and can list both these models in the database under the same maker.

But as you can see, How Primitive Most Australian games were made, lol If it was British or American the things are way better made in inside

Love it thanks for the photos I'll. be sure to add photos once it's here and tidied up [emoji12]

 

 

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I thought this post was a joke as I contacted him earlier and he replied with a selling price range and offer to help with shipping, no mention of it being sold.

Love it thanks for the photos I'll. be sure to add photos once it's here and tidied up [emoji12]

 

 

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Good to see it going to a good collection, Needs some work and a bit rough, so its good it will get fixed up