Dipsy Doodle

Also released in single player version as Williams' 1971 'Doodle Bug'. An earlier game having a captive ball scoring feature similar to the Doodle Bug is Bally's 1938 'Paramount'. A solid-state game having this feature is Williams' 1981 'Solar Fire'. The game pictured in the manufacturer's flyer depicts a machine with 4-digit scoring. The name of the game is written on the woman�s top. The two white rollover buttons on the lower playfield, one in front of each slingshot, are marked as scoring 10 points. The two white inserts for the Doodle Bug Scores, located above the flippers, are marked for 1 point and 10 points. Production games have 5-digit scoring which extended the Player 1 score reels into the area of the woman�s top, likely the reason the game name was moved on the production games to the lower right corner of the backglass. The rollover buttons were changed to score 100 points, and the two Doodle Bug Score inserts were changed to indicate 10 points and 100 points. Pictured in this listing is a backbox with a 4-digit backglass thus indicating that some quantity of the 4-digit scoring games were actually produced. No serial number was provided to us but we have marked this image as Early Production. This particular backbox was attached to a lower cabinet having artwork for 5-digit scoring and, reportedly, this "mismatch" of backbox and lower cabinet appeared to score properly (assuming a dummy 1's digit). On a normal 5-digit production game, the extra ball light illuminates randomly via the match unit which steps during the game. The flyer seems to indicate that on the 4-digit game the extra ball is controlled by advancing the target lights. On this Early Production game with its apparent "mismatched" backbox and lower cabinet, it was reported to us that the owner had to add some additional circuitry to get the extra ball feature to work. This strongly indicates that the game did not leave the factory as a malfunctioning "mismatched" game. Interestingly, our Promotional Photo of the 5-digit game shows a playfield marked for 4-digit scoring. Games used for promo photos often were temporarily assembled just to get the photos made and did not have to operate nor were considered a final assembly.