What is it?

[CVslots]

Hi all.
 Can anyone identify this TV Poker machine?

[Op-Bell]

Compare the cabinet with the picture here - coin entry, belly shape, top flash, money tray, stand - even the "call attendant" switch on the stand to the right of the machine. I think it's beyond doubt that they're related.

This machine (below) is a "Computer Poker" made by Bally Distribution Co, which was Si Redd's company that eventually became IGT. I would guess that your machine (above) is the next generation, a very early video poker. I doubt if it was the first video poker, because Si Redd was a great copier. Fortune Coin probably did the first one. Si bought Fortune Coin later and held a monopoly on video poker for many years thereafter.

Is it color or B&W?

[CVslots]

What a excellent observation,  I'd say you were right on
I though the "Poker TV" dated it pretty good. Amazing when you compair it to what  we have now. I have a Dale and assocates poker machine that is pretty old but I think this pre dates it. Do you know anything about Dale?

[Op-Bell]

If you mean the Dale Pokermatic,, Dale is the older by many years. Pokermatic was the first automatic paying draw poker, 1967. The Bally Computer Poker above was a 1973 copy of it, after Si Redd hired Dale's designer. Neither of them had a microprocessor inside, they were too early. The first microprocessor was invented in 1971 and the first practically useful micros came out about 1975, but in 1975 a single 8080 chip cost over $300 and there were probably only about 100 guys in the country knew how to use it. Video had to wait a few years until people got more familiar with micros and they got a little cheaper. At a guess, I would say circa 1978 would be about right for your game.

I also have a Pokermatic, and for good measure I know the Dales - Dale Rodesch, former owner of Dale Electronics, and Dale Frey, designer of the games.

[CVslots]

I think your Pokermatic is older that the Dale I have. This one is a Dale & Assocates. Would  you by chance know witch Dale made it?

[Op-Bell]

Ah, I've never seen that one. I thought Dale was out of business before videos came along - well, you live and learn. Here's a picture of the 1967 Dale Pokermatic:

[CVslots]

What an awesome treasure and super clean. Not much information out there on the history of the old stuff. k+ for the picture.

[Op-Bell]

It is an awesome treasure - not many of those left - and it's in full working order too. True there's not much out there on the old stuff - well I would say on the middle stuff, say 1955-1985. There's reams written on the older stuff and manuals available for the newer, but that middle period is like a lost generation. All anyone knows about is Bally EMs. Yet those years were the period of greatest change and the most rapid development in the whole history of slot machines, when the old manufacturers were at the end of their lives, the new leaders hadn't emerged yet, and a whole bunch of upstart newcomers were filling the vacuum. I mean, who's ever heard of Gamex? Nobody has a Gamex machine. Yet they were the company that developed the stepper slot. Incidentally, Dale Rodesch's name is on the patent.