Internals
Rockola World Series has seven different mechanisms under the playfield.
- (yellow) reset when the coin is inserted ( and other anti- cheat devices)
- (dark blue) tilt mechanism that indicates excessive shaking of the game
- (red) winding mechanism that powers the turn table
- (light blue) the turn table itself, that rotates the runners around the baseball diamond
- (green) star wheel that makes the doubles, triples, and home runs happen
- (purple) the balls and strikes and out trigger keeps track of the count
- (orange) out counter that keeps track of how many outs and at three, prevents further play
Take a tour of the inside of the game.
Star Wheel
The star wheel provides the doubles, triples, and home runs. It is often missing, perhaps because the operator wanted to make the game more difficult to score. The star is turned by the gear concentric with the turn table. There are protrusions under the star wheel which hold the trip lever down for various durations, allowing the turn table to rotate more before the trip lever is released and the table stopped.
The frequency of the extra bases is predictable with a double happening after four singles. After an additional four hits, a triple will occur and again after four hits a home run will occur. Then the sequence repeats. Note the length of the protrusions as they indicate, starting at four o'clock, a double, triple, and at top, a home run.
Balls and Strikes
As the ball falls through the hole on either side of the tip table, indicating an out, the ball lands on one of the two plates shown above on the right. The plates rotate the shaft pointed to by the bottom arrow, incrementing the out count. The shaft also releases the tip plate causing the remaining count of balls and strikes to be released and fall through to the ball return, as shown by the bottom left arrow.
The shaft on the left prevents any further balls from being played after the third out.
Out Counter
The out counter keeps track of the number of outs. It starts at zero when the game is reset and will stop all further balls being played when the count reaches three.
The left arrow on the top points to the number plate where the outs are displayed in a window on top of the playfield. As it rotates to the right, each click of the ratchet wheel shows the next number. Right now the the window is showing a two.
The shaft at the bottom middle of the picture comes from the out tilt table. Each ball falling through one of the out holes rotates the shaft slightly, enough to let the ratchet mechanism tick one more notch.
The pin at the top will be depressed to the left when the game is reset, causing the display arc to move all the way to the left. It will show zero.
However when the next out causes the ratchet to click one more rotation clockwise, the number plate will push on the trip rod pointed at by the right arrow. This will cause the shaft it is mounted on to rotate, which blocks any further balls from being played.
There is an animation that provides additional explanation.