Fascination

Fascination is a game commonly found in North American amusement parks, boardwalks and arcades. The game would be considered in the same family as skee ball, in that prizes are often won for playing the game. The game dates to the 1920s as evidenced in pictures of Chutes at the Beach in San Francisco, a park that operated from 1903 - 1928 (when it became Playland at the Beach).

Game design and play
The game consists of a wooden table, roughly 1.3 meters long, 50 centimeters wide and 1 meter high. The player sits at one narrow end of the table. At the other end of the table is a series of 25 holes, roughly 5 cm in diameter, arranged in a five-by-five square matrix. The player rolls a rubber ball, similar to a racquetball or handball, toward the holes; the ball is only slightly smaller than the holes. As the ball falls through one of the holes, a light on a backboard behind the holes lights up, in a pattern corresponding to the hole the ball fell through. The ball then rolls back to the player on a slight incline slanted back from the holes. The process is repeated until a player lights five lights in a row, either across the matrix, in a vertical column, or on a diagonal, much like bingo&mdash;indeed, like bingo, the hole in the center of the matrix is a "free space." A glass plate over the front part of the table keeps players from reaching too far over the table to improve their aim.

Fascination tables are installed in groups from 20 to 50, and are interlocked through an electromechanical system. Players play against each other, with the first player to complete a row of five being the winner, with the interlocking system determining which was first and locking out all others. If two or more players tie, each is declared a winner. Games usually cost 10 or 20 cents each, normally placed on the glass plate where a game operator can collect it shortly after each game begins. Games usually last between 60 and 90 seconds, with a new game starting soon after the end of the previous one.

Winners receive a prize coupon or token, which can be redeemed for a small prize, or collected to redeem for bigger prizes later. Bonus coupons or tokens can be won by winning with all spots lighted on a certain row marked by colored lights; usually, the top row on the board (the back row of holes) is red and wins three to five times the normal rate, and the fourth row from the top (the second row of holes from the front) is gold and wins double the normal rate. Some operators have additional bonuses for certain lines. At Olympic Fascination in Wildwood, NJ there are often special games and line challenges to add interest and fun to the game such as four corners, multi-ball(5 ball) coverall and hour long specials for a low flat price such as $5 for an entire hour.

An announcer, sitting on an elevated platform, presides over the activities. He or she starts each game by pressing a button which rings a bell and activates all machines. He or she also announces the winner when the bell rings again, which the machines does automatically when a win is detected. One or more assistants collect the fees and pay winners. Other employees run a prize booth, where winners redeem their coupons or tokens. The prizes range from cheap trinkets for one or two wins to appliances, radios, televisions, toys and more expensive items for large numbers of coupons or tokens, often numbering into the thousands for the best prizes.

History
The game was a popular attraction at amusement parks before the modern theme park drained visitors away to the newer, more modern facilities. When the old-line amusement parks died off, the Fascination parlors went with them. The game was also popular in oceanside resort towns, particularly those with boardwalks and especially on the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic shorelines of the Atlantic Ocean. Atlantic City and Wildwood, New Jersey were popular places with multiple Fascination parlors; Wildwood is home to three remaining parlors. On the west coast there is a Fascination parlor on Seaside Oregon.

The game has declined not only because of the demise of old-style amusement parks, but also the age of the machines themselves. The heart of the system relied on relays used in telephone system, which have long been obsolete; moreover, manufacturers of the tables have long ago shut down, so spare parts have to be salvaged from old tables. Operation is also labor intensive, with at least three employees (often more) at a time required to run a game. The game could easily be made more reliable and less labor-intensive with updated computer-based technology and automatic coin collection and coupon dispensing equipment such as that on a skee ball game, but the closure of many Fascination parlors has made such an effort unlikely.

A modern arcade game called "Lite-a-Line" can be found today, with roots in Fascination in that it features the same basic game play and pays off in redemption tickets. However, Lite-a-Line is a stand-alone game, played against "the house" as with skee ball and the like. It is commonly found in places such as Chuck E. Cheese. (It should not be confused with a 1930s pinball machine of the same name. Moreover, some Internet sites indicate that there may have been Fascination parlors that instead operated under the name "Lite-a-Line," but the evidence is inconclusive.) Fascination was invented in Salt Lake City Utah by John Taylor Gibbs who moved to Beverly Hills California, where he formed the business Taylor Engineering Corp. fascination games were installed and owned outright by my father, along with being sold and leased to amusement parks all over the United States.

Known Fascination parlors still operating

 * Playland-Not-At-The-Beach Museum of Fun El Cerrito, California
 * Indiana Beach, Monticello, Indiana
 * Knoebels Amusement Resort, Elysburg, Pennsylvania
 * Flipper's Fascination, Wildwood, New Jersey
 * Olympic Enterprises, Wildwood, New Jersey
 * Sylvan Beach Amusement Park, Sylvan Beach, New York
 * Darien Lake Theme Park Resort, ,
 * Nantasket Beach, Hull, Massachusetts,
 * Funland, Seaside, Oregon
 * Fascination Parlor, Geneva-on-the-Lake, OH,

Past locations
Roseland Park, Canandaigua, NY
 * Agawam, MA (Riverside Park, now Six Flags New England)
 * Asbury Park, New Jersey (Boardwalk)
 * Atlantic City, New Jersey (The Boardwalk)
 * Bowling Green, Kentucky (Beech Bend Park)
 * Conneaut Lake, Pennsylvania (Conneaut Lake Park)
 * Elitchs Gardens Denver Colorado (The old park, I went back in the late eighties and the game as already gone)
 * Farmingdale, New York (Adventureland. Removed in early 1990s)
 * Fort Lee, New Jersey (Palisades Amusement Park)
 * Hershey, Pennsylvania (Hersheypark)
 * Keansburg, New Jersey (Keansburg Amusement Park)
 * Lincoln Park (Dartmouth, Massachusetts), game building burned down.
 * Long Beach, LI, New York
 * Lunenburg, Massachusetts, (Whalom Park)
 * Mason, Ohio, (Kings Island)
 * Monroe, Ohio, (Americana/Lesourdesville Lake Amusement Park, closed 2002)
 * New York City, (Times Square, closed 1981)
 * Rockaway Beach, New York (Pinky's Fascination)
 * Salem, NH (Canobie Lake Park, removed for "Jackpot Casino")
 * Salem, Virginia (Lakeside)
 * Sandusky, Ohio (Cedar Point; removed 2001)
 * San Francisco, California (1027 Market Street) (Note: This parlor was reported as "Closed for Remodeling" in 2005, but may reopen; it is still listed in online phone listings. It was the last known Fascination parlor not located in a park or resort area, and paid winners money instead of prize credits.)
 * Santa Claus, Indiana (Holiday World)
 * Santa Cruz, California (Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk, converted into restrooms in 2007)
 * Seaside Heights, New Jersey (Seaside Heights Boardwalk)
 * South Whitehall Township, Pennsylvania (Dorney Park)
 * Surfers Paradise, QLD, AUSTRALIA (Grund's, Paradise Centre)
 * Warwick, Rhode Island (Rocky Point Park)
 * West Mifflin, Pennsylvania (Kennywood)
 * Brooklyn, New York (Coney Island Amusement Park)
 * Portland, Oregon (Jantzen Beach Amusement Park)
 * Farmington, Utah (Lagoon Amusement Park)
 * Las Vegas, Nevada (Circus Circus)