Description: Big Strike bowling, NSM (West Germany), 1969. Big Strike was sold by NSM of West Germany and has a couple different names and graphic formats such as "alle neune" ("all nine" or "all strikes" in English), due to its sale in both North American and Europe. On the North American sold games, a round sticker is covering the beer steins on the lower left playfield. This sticker says "bowling big strike", and looks like a bowling ball. Perhaps guys drinking beer isn't a great thing to celebrate in North American, hence the sticker covering the beer steins.

Big Strike is a fully mechanical game, with the only power being for the top fluorescent display light. North American versions work on a dime. After inserting money, and reset lever on the side of the game puts all the bowling pins in visible view. Then the player uses a spring loaded plunger shooting a ball to knock down each of the 9 pins. As the ball falls through a drain area, it mechanically de-advances a ball count reel. When the reel reaches zero, the ball will no longer fall through to the plunger, and the game ends. The operator can select from 8 to 16 ball plunges by changing a small bolt position on the score reel.

To get a final score, the player must add up their downed pin values to get the final score (much like a 1933-1935 prewar pinball machine!) The pin values can vary. But the most common seen is the center gold tip head pin is worth "9". But again this varies. It seems like the far left is hardest to score, and some games this has the largest score value. But the most common point order left to right is "135798642". When all the pins are downed, the words "play again" are spelled out by the downed pins, because the player has won a replay. If all pins are downed in a game, a mechanical lever falls enough so pulling the lever on the side of the game starts a new free game. Note if you want to print new score numbers I created a Photoshop document with them here.

The game can be easily wall mounted using an NSM jukebox metal I bracket, and this is the most commonly seen way the game is played. But it also was available with a blue metal floor stand.

Since this game is fully mechanical, there are a lot of plastic parts which can fail. To restore my game, had to draw and 3d print some of these parts:
- Black Ball holder (two identical pieces)
- Red Top mount
- Red Bottom mount
The black ball holder likes to crack where the screws mount. The 3d print file above is a good replacement, and two identical parts are needed. This same part is used for the pin system (ten are used for this.)

Another issue I have seen is the pins themselves. There is a small piece of L-shaped lead inside the bottom of each pin, which is a counter weight. If this is missing, the pins will not stay up when the game is reset. Luckily a new L lead weight can easily be fabricated by using a lead fishing weight, pounded into shape, to replace the missing piece. Hopefully no pins are missing on your game, as they are fragile and can break. Though I'm sure someone could 3d draw a new pin and 3d print it...

Note the springs used on the ball count reel are very important. If missing, it is nearly impossible to find replacements with the same spring weight. This is another challenge when repairing this game. Everything is very "balanced" as the game is fully mechanical, and the weight of the ball must be able to trip the pins and move the ball count reel. This depends on the springs involved being the proper size/strength.

Here is the manual for the game in PDF format: bigstrike_manual.pdf

If you have an NSM Big Strike game for sale please contact me at cfh@provide.net