Confucius Say

Rotortable 1935

Rotortable with players

Confucius Say is a pinball under a round table. The game rotates under the glass to face the current player. The table stays and so your glasses and food remains in front of you. This game was not listed in any of the books and was apparently a new discovery. It has what may have been a 20th Century Fox inventory number and may have been created as a prop for a movie.

A nice fellow bought the game at a flea market and brought it home. While researching the game on the Internet, he discovered my web site and gave me a call.

I tried to help him get it running by phone as he was over 400 miles away. After a period, I managed to find an excuse to travel to see the game. I got it running and maintained a wonderful friendship with the owner. The game later became an article in pinGame journal and the score mechanism appears in my mechanisms section where it is animated.

The challenge was discovering that half the game ran on six volts and the other half on 12 volts. Worse, the ground was shared in many places. The various devices and relays may be driven by six or 12 voltes and may switch either six or 12 volts. There are numerous interlocks that prevent cheating and these also may switch six or 12. In general it was very difficult to adjust the game without making an entire schematic. Since this was a prototype or low production game, the quality of the wiring was variable.

It was a puzzle and very satisfying once completed.