# Episode 240 - Interview with Vic Camp 11-3-15

**Source:** For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2015-11-06  
**Duration:** 121m 59s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://foramusementonly.libsyn.com/episode-240-interview-with-vic-camp-11-3-15

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## Analysis

Vic Camp discusses his experience at the York Show's Bingo Row event in October 2015, highlighting the successful community gathering and subsequent sales of 10 bingo machines from a deceased collector's estate. He details how connections made at the show led to six buyers acquiring eight working games by November 7th, and emphasizes the podcast's role in promoting bingo pinball machines to new collectors across multiple states.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] The York Show's Bingo Row event (approximately October 2015) was exceptionally successful, with unprecedented foot traffic and interest compared to previous bingo exhibitions — _Vic Camp and Nick Baldrige discuss the event; Vic states he had never seen anything like the action and interaction at Bingo Row compared to previous shows he attended_
- [HIGH] Vic Camp facilitated the sale of 8 working bingo machines from a 10-machine estate collection to 6 different buyers across multiple states (Wisconsin, Ohio, Maryland, Pennsylvania, West Virginia) by November 7th, 2015 — _Vic Camp provides detailed breakdown of buyers: Dan (Wisconsin), Tommy (Ohio), Frank (Maryland), Gene (West Virginia), Egon (Pennsylvania), and James (West Virginia)_
- [HIGH] The podcast 'For Amusement Only' played a significant role in facilitating these sales and building collector interest in bingo machines — _Both Vic Camp and Nick Baldrige repeatedly acknowledge the podcast's promotional impact; Vic states he listed games on Mr. Pinball initially without success, then sales increased after podcast discussion_
- [HIGH] The original estate collection owner was a master electrician, ensuring all machines were in good working condition, which was a key selling point — _Vic Camp explicitly states: 'the great thing about his collection is he was a master electrician so all his games worked'_
- [HIGH] Vic Camp has been collecting and promoting bingo pinball machines for over 25 years — _Vic Camp states: 'I've been collecting for 25 plus years and I've been pushing the bingos ever since that day'_
- [HIGH] Jeffrey Lawton is the author of a comprehensive book on Bally Bingo Pinball Machines and regularly attends the York Show with machines — _Referenced multiple times as author of 'Bally Bingo Pinball Machine book' and as someone who brings 2-3 games to York Show every year_
- [HIGH] John Robinette made an unexpected appearance at Bingo Row and had previously helped Vic Camp acquire his first bingo machine — _Vic Camp states: 'we had the unexpected guest of John Robinette' and describes how John helped him find his first machine years ago_
- [MEDIUM] Bingo machines, particularly Gottlieb models, are highly reliable and durable when properly maintained, requiring minimal mechanical work compared to other machines — _Vic Camp and Nick Baldrige discuss reliability; Vic notes most of his machines have been very dependable and required only minimal maintenance on individual units_

### Notable Quotes

> "I didn't want to leave my seat by my Coney Island because everybody was coming up. It was busy all day there at Bingo Row at the York Show in Pennsylvania."
> — **Vic Camp**, ~6:30
> _Captures the unprecedented foot traffic and interest generated by the curated Bingo Row exhibition at York Show_

> "This particular show is never going to leave my memory unless I get dementia or something like that."
> — **Vic Camp**, ~8:00
> _Emphasizes the emotional impact and memorability of the event for a 25+ year collector_

> "I really feel for the first time that it's starting to happen and it's just scratching the surface though."
> — **Vic Camp**, ~20:00
> _Expresses optimism about growing mainstream interest in bingo pinball machines_

> "Sometimes you just got to bite the bullet and do things... if it wasn't for you, I don't think it was going to happen."
> — **Vic Camp**, ~4:00
> _Acknowledges Nick Baldrige's critical role in organizing and promoting Bingo Row_

> "I'm not just selling the games, I'm really taking the extra time out to talk to them... I'm giving them a great deal of knowledge and information quickly and they're getting it."
> — **Vic Camp**, ~42:00
> _Demonstrates Vic's commitment to supporting new collectors beyond transactional sales_

> "Word of mouth sometimes, even with a business, and you can advertise and advertise and advertise, but sometimes word of mouth is like the best thing."
> — **Vic Camp**, ~38:00
> _Articulates the community-driven, organic growth strategy for bingo pinball collecting_

> "Gottlieb machines are incredibly reliable, the Wedgeheads especially, but these games though were built to last and take a beating."
> — **Nick Baldrige**, ~58:00
> _Affirms the durability and reliability profile of classic bingo machines_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Vic Camp | person | Pinball collector, bingo machine enthusiast, operator, and promoter with 25+ years in the hobby; brought machines to Bingo Row event and facilitated estate machine sales |
| Nick Baldrige | person | Host of 'For Amusement Only' EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast; primary organizer and driving force behind Bingo Row at York Show |
| Jeffrey Lawton | person | Author of 'Bally Bingo Pinball Machines' book; bingo pinball expert and collector; regularly attends York Show with machines; signed books were given away at Bingo Row |
| John Robinette | person | Bingo pinball community figure; helped Vic Camp acquire his first bingo machine years prior; made unexpected appearance at Bingo Row |
| Steve Smith | person | Collector who brought Golden Gate bingo machine to Bingo Row; helped organize event by contacting other collectors |
| Hugh | person | Bingo machine collector of long standing; attended Bingo Row; brought Silver Seals machine |
| Jim Book | person | Bingo collector who brought newly restored Silver Seals machine to Bingo Row; described as lifetime viewing quality restoration |
| Dan | person | Wisconsin-based collector; purchased Bonanza and Palm Springs bingo machines from estate sale; obtained games via Silver Ball Museum connection |
| Tommy | person | Ohio-based collector; purchased Blue Chip and Ice Frolics from estate sale; coordinated van pickup with Frank from Maryland |
| Frank | person | Baltimore, Maryland-based collector; purchased Magic Screen and Roller Derby from estate sale; coordinated pickup logistics with Tommy |
| Gene | person | West Virginia-based collector; purchased Cypress Garden from estate sale; connected to Nick Baldrige at York Show; mentioned potential for additional warehouse find |
| Egon | person | Pennsylvania-based collector; purchased Beach Beauty bingo machine; referred by John who met him at the show |
| Ray | person | Operator of Silver Ball Museum in Asbury Park, New Jersey; facilitated shipping of two machines to Dan in Wisconsin |
| Lou | person | Deceased collector who maintained 10-machine bingo collection in New Jersey for 30 years; master electrician who kept all machines in working condition |
| York Show | event | Major pinball and arcade expo held in Pennsylvania; venue for Bingo Row exhibition (October 2015) |
| Bingo Row | event | Curated exhibition of bingo pinball machines at 2015 York Show; organized by Nick Baldrige and Vic Camp; featured 4+ collector-grade machines including Coney Island, Golden Gate, and Silver Seals |
| For Amusement Only | organization | EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast hosted by Nick Baldrige; primary media outlet for promoting bingo machines to collectors; credited with facilitating sales and growing community interest |
| Silver Ball Museum | organization | Arcade/museum in Asbury Park, New Jersey; operated by Ray; facilitated interstate shipping of bingo machines |
| Coney Island | game | Bally bingo machine brought by Vic Camp to Bingo Row; second bingo machine ever made; historic game featured at exhibition |
| Golden Gate | game | Bingo machine displayed by Steve Smith at Bingo Row; noted for quality restoration and cosmetic appearance |
| Silver Seals | game | Newly restored bingo machine brought by Jim Book to Bingo Row; described as one-lifetime viewing quality restoration |
| Bonanza | game | Bingo machine from estate sale; purchased by Dan from Wisconsin; to be shipped by Silver Ball Museum |
| Beach Beauty | game | Bingo machine from estate sale; purchased by Egon from Pennsylvania; noted as having beautiful playfield and artwork |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Bingo Row event success and impact at York Show, Estate bingo machine sales and collector acquisition, Podcast's role in growing bingo collector community, New collector recruitment and onboarding practices
- **Secondary:** Bingo machine reliability and maintenance, Interstate collector networking and distribution, Bingo machine restoration and cosmetic quality
- **Mentioned:** Gottlieb bingo machine durability

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.92) — Both speakers express genuine enthusiasm and satisfaction with the Bingo Row event, the successful estate sales, and the growing interest in bingo machines. Vic Camp conveys gratitude, optimism about the hobby's future, and pride in community building. Nick Baldrige expresses pride in the event's impact and pleasure in facilitating collector connections. Negative sentiment is minimal and contextual (initial difficulty selling games via Mr. Pinball).

### Signals

- **[event_signal]** Bingo Row at 2015 York Show generated unprecedented foot traffic and interest; converted casual observers to serious buyers (confidence: high) — Vic Camp: 'I'd never seen anything like that' and 'didn't want to leave my seat' due to constant visitor traffic; contrasted with previous 4-machine show that generated minimal engagement
- **[community_signal]** Nick Baldrige organized multi-state collector coalition to showcase bingo machines; demonstrates coordinated community advocacy effort (confidence: high) — Multiple collectors committed to bringing machines; Nick coordinated logistics; Jeffrey Lawton agreed to sign books; event resulted in new regional network
- **[sentiment_shift]** Vic Camp perceives genuine inflection point in bingo collecting: 'for the first time that it's starting to happen'; suggests long-stalled growth is now materializing (confidence: high) — Vic: 'I really feel for the first time... it's starting to happen and it's just scratching the surface though' after 25+ years in hobby
- **[content_signal]** For Amusement Only podcast demonstrated measurable impact on buyer acquisition and community growth; directly facilitated estate sale conversions (confidence: high) — Initial Mr. Pinball listing generated 1 call and scammers; after podcast discussion and promotion, 6 separate buyers acquired 8 machines; all new buyers expressed interest in podcast participation
- **[collector_signal]** Estate collections entering market are high-quality starter inventory for new collectors; deceased collector with technical expertise provides operational reliability advantage (confidence: high) — Lou's 10-machine collection sold via 6 buyers; all machines working due to master electrician maintenance; new buyers praised reliability as key factor
- **[operational_signal]** Vic Camp implements comprehensive new collector support: pre-delivery education, hands-on training, materials provision, responsive communication (confidence: high) — Vic describes spending extra time on phone with each buyer, providing materials, planning to teach glass removal, playfield care, head access, and basic maintenance
- **[venue_signal]** Emergence of multi-state bingo distribution network coordinating pickups, shipping, and local delivery; Ray at Silver Ball Museum active in facilitation (confidence: high) — Dan (Wisconsin) via Silver Ball Museum; Tommy/Frank coordinated van pickup across MD/OH/NJ; Gene in WV; Egon in PA; all within November 7th weekend
- **[product_concern]** Machines that have sat unused for extended periods require more extensive restoration work than machines in regular rotation (confidence: high) — Vic's recently acquired 1961 United Tropics needs 'extensive work' after 54 years of storage; contrasted with his other machines which required minimal maintenance
- **[community_signal]** Organic, community-driven promotion and word-of-mouth networks prove more effective for bingo hobby growth than traditional advertising (confidence: medium) — Vic emphasizes podcast and personal referral drove sales after Mr. Pinball ads failed; attributes success to networking at York Show and subsequent referrals
- **[market_signal]** Estate machine packages struggle to sell when priced as bulk lots but perform well when broken into individual units with personal buyer support (confidence: medium) — Initial $2,400 asking price for 10-machine bundle generated 1 low-ball offer; when listed individually with podcast promotion and personal outreach, all 8 working machines sold to 6 buyers
- **[personnel_signal]** Vic Camp positioned as key intermediary and advocate for new collectors; combines sales facilitation with education and long-term community building (confidence: medium) — Vic coordinating logistics, providing education, building relationships with 6 new collectors across 5 states; planning follow-up warehouse visit with Gene; all new buyers interested in ongoing podcast engagement

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## Transcript

 What's that sound? It's 4 Amusement Only, the EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast. Welcome back to 4 Amusement Only. This is Nick Baldrige and joining me today is my good friend, Vic Camp. Hey Vic, how are you? Doing great, Nick. All is good. Excellent. Well Vic, what's been going on in your world? It's been about a month since the bingo row and I wanted to check in and see what you thought about it and what's been happening. Well, there's still a lot of residue from bingo row. I had a great time down there for starters. I mean it was really a sensational event. I was so happy that I went. I got in the car early, 5 o'clock in the morning. Got there around quarter to 9. Set up at Coney Island and I had a great day. I mean, it was just all about bingos for me. I didn't manage to stroll around the show once or twice but quickly because I just wanted to get back and be part of that single extravaganza that we had in New York. You know, it was great seeing all you guys. I mean, I had, we had the unexpected guest of John Robinette. I mean that blew me away because John and I go way back and John saw me my first bingo when I was head over heels about trying to find one and I was having trouble and things weren't panning out and I somehow met John and made the connection and he just was wonderful. He just made it happen so easily. And, uh, I hadn't seen him since that time. We met on the New Jersey Turnpike, because that's where we met to pick up my Nashville that I bought and stock market. Uh, it was a great day that day too. The day I met Sean on the Turnpike, he drove halfway up and I drove halfway down to meet him. And I bought blankets and 300 foot extension cords so I could plug into the gas station we met at so I could check the games and power them up in the parking lot. And he was okay with that. Which is great because I kind of felt a little uncomfortable trying to tell him, listen, I just want to check the games, is it okay? I'm bringing all the... He's like, bring what you want. He said, the games are going to work perfect. And let me tell you something, they worked perfect. And it was a great day. And meeting him down there and meeting Hugh, that was another great event to meet all these big guys that I had heard about but never met. You know, these guys in the bingo hobby are huge. This is where, you know, I'm a small time guy next to these guys. These guys were doing it way before me. And that was a big part of being happy that I went to the show, you know. And of course you and then meeting Jim and meeting all the other guys that bought bingos and then just meeting all the people. I didn't want to leave my seat by my Coney Island because everybody was coming up. It was busy all day there at Bingo Row at the York Show in Pennsylvania. And that was a big part of my day being really nice. All the new people that were interested and were playing the games. I'd never seen anything like that. I put four bingos to a show one time here in New Jersey. It was Kevin McHugh's classic pinball summer show he had. I got a big box truck like you did and brought him in and I had big banner, 20 foot banner. I had demonstrations and I didn't get anywhere near the action that we got at the York show. Yeah, could you believe that? Yeah, tell me about it man. I didn't expect that at all and that's why I didn't leave from the row all day. I mean I took a couple strolls. I went out for a bite to eat with the West Virginia guys. They're so great. They took care of just about everybody and fed everybody back there. Wonderful guys they are. And then I came right back to bingo row. I must have played two games and did a whole show because I just didn't want to waste time on something I always did at shows when I could have been my bingo row and, you know, watching everybody come up and asking questions i'm glad that you and i uh had that one kid from new jersey and his brother they got to fall four in a row and they they won a book and jeffrey signed it we took pictures i mean this is an event that i'm never ever gonna forget i've been to so many shows i forget a lot of the shows i've been to and what i did This particular show is never going to leave my memory unless I get out high in high school, whatever they call that. So Reagan had it there. It was great. I can't tell you. I can't tell you. Everything that went down, I was glad to see your caravan get rolled in. I know you were excited to get that game. You got right on that and I was watching your face and Steve Smith and Jeffrey Lawton and you know all the new bingo guys that I hadn't met that you met that you brought to the show. That guy Jim Book, that Silver Seals, I mean come on, I'm never going to see a bingo that new again. I know, it was beautiful. That right there was a one lifetime viewing right there. He doesn't bring that one of his home again. And of course Steve Smith's Golden Gate looked just so nice next to it too. It's just hard to tell which one was the original game unless you've really been collecting a long time and you can find the difference. You know, but, you know, what more can I say? I'm not over it yet. I gotta be honest with you. And the best thing that happened out of the show was that I got a lot of connections of people who wanted bingo pinball machines. And you know as well as I do what's happening this Saturday, November 7th, here in New Jersey. I have a pretty big bingo event going on myself. It's the package deal of 10 bingo pinball machines from a collector here that has passed away and I'm helping his widow sell all these 10 games that he had in his collection for 30 years. And the great thing about his collection is he was a master electrician so all his games worked. And when I tested them the last couple of times that I was up there, they all worked. So I mean, meeting people at the York Show on Bingo Road that were interested in getting their first bingo or their second bingo, they are now going to be proud owners this Saturday coming up. So that was a great thing that happened out of that bingo extravaganza band. There's so many great things that happened that day that it's going to take me a while to enjoy them all. And here it is, November 3rd, I think, and I'm still getting flashbacks. I don't know about you, but I'd like to hear what you have to say about it too, because If it wasn't for you, I don't think it was going to happen. So I mean your passion and your drive and your making it look like an easy task, it just wouldn't happen if it wasn't for you. So I'm interested to know how you felt that you kind of got all these people together I came up with this concept about giving out free signed books by the author of the Bally Bingle Pinball Machine book by Jeffrey Lawton. I mean, it was a lot that was happening that was pretty great for the bingo pinball hobby. Yeah, I agree. And really, it's doing this show that's really got me thinking in those kind of 132 00rpgs And so I thought what better way, you know, Jeffrey always brings two or three games to the Orch Show every year. Why don't we see how big of a show we can make? And, you know, Steve was instrumental in that as well. He had talked to Hugh and asked him to come down. And between he and I, you know, I whipped everybody else into a frenzy, I guess. I got everybody to commit to bringing their games and, you know, I'm crazy about them. So I got the truck, whipped them all in there and brought them down. And I'll tell you, I mean, you mentioned flashbacks. It's something that I think about fondly often because on that first day I gave out all of the books except for that one that young man won on the Coney Island and just seeing the people's faces when they won the books, it was great. I mean that was a good feeling. They were elated. They were elated. I saw the pictures. Yeah. I'm so excited and I got to spend time talking with them about the games. I got to talk with collectors who were thinking of buying a bingo. They hadn't thought about it before until they saw the splendor of the bingo row. I got to talk with them about the internals a bit. There were some people who were concerned about working on these games and they said I'm a big fan of the podcast. I've heard that the podcast had really helped to demystify things a bit and that's the intent. So I was very pleased to hear that and I'm pretty proud of what we all accomplished together. Yes, that's the right word, Nick. Yes. And obviously I couldn't have done it without any of you and I want to thank you, Vic, very much for committing to come down. I know it's a journey, especially when you're leaving that early in the morning and you've got to break a game down and put it back together. When you get back home, it's a lot of work. I want to thank you for doing that and I hope that you feel it was really worthwhile to do that because I sure did. I thought it was great that you were able to come down and we could all kind of hobnob In the bingo circle together there. Oh, it was great. It was great. Yes, you know, I mean, when I was thinking about doing it, because I had to pull the Coney Island, I knew it was working, the Coney Island, but I had to pull it out and spruce it up a little bit. I wanted to wax it and freshen it up and I pulled it out a couple days before and I'm thinking, you know, four hour ride one way, six hours at the show and the four hour ride back. I kind of thought about it and just a little bit I kind of thought well it's gonna be all worth it and let me tell you something I drove it down in my car that car drove like a 747 I didn't even twitch once or have to get out I didn't even feel the why so the car really the car really made me get down there with no problem once I got down there I was so glad I did I have not one regret or anything yeah I do it again next weekend Well, that's funny. If I could get the same out of what I got out of the show, and I'm sure I would. So I was really glad I did do it. I would have been really upset if I didn't and I saw the pictures and I seen the turnout and that John Robinette showed up. I would have been one miserable guy for a long time. Sometimes you just got to bite the bullet and do things. I mean, again, like you said, the bottom line is to being at the show and doing this is to try to keep the games going because that's always been my motto is to try to get these bingos out to the collectors to see, to learn how to play and all of that. And I really feel for the first time I've been collecting for 25 plus shooters and I've been pushing the bingos ever since that day. I really feel for the first time that it's starting to happen and it's just scratching the surface though. I mean there's so much room for the bingos to evolve into so many more nice collections and I think if we continue to do what we're doing, you are really the driving force We have a lot of people behind this with the podcast, with your passion, with your love for the games, everything. And then, you know, if you get a couple more guys that feel like you do and can, you know, help you and, you know, push hard together, it's going to happen. And I'm really pleased with this Saturday coming up. I was having trouble selling the games. I really had them at a low price. I had all 10 bingos. Of course, two low points games, so really eight working games. I had them all listed for a mere $2,400 on Mr. Pinball. I got one call. I got one guy interested here in New Jersey and he tried to lowball me. So I mean, after that, I listed them one by one on Mr. Pinball. I got nothing but the crazy people that try to rip you off. I forget what they call it. Scammers. There you go. Thank you. And I was kind of thinking to myself, well, I don't know what's going to happen to the games. I don't know if they're going to sell. And then between the show, between you talking about it on the podcast, me talking about it on the podcast, having me on, I'm going to keep mentioning it. I know you did some legwork and it turned out that I think you got me, got my games sold a couple of them. You know, I'm not sure actually if you sold a couple of these or more. I'm not even sure. I got to keep talking. It's a little confusing for me. I got six different people buying eight games. So I have all the information here. I got one guy from Wisconsin that's going to be taking the Bonanza and the Palm Springs. That's his name is Dan, I know, I think you recall. Now, I don't know if Dan came from the podcast, he might have. Can you verify that or? I just spoke to him for the first time today actually, I think. Did you get an email from Dan on that? Yeah, yep. Yep. So do you recognize this gentleman that's going to be purchasing these two games? I don't. He took the time to introduce himself. Oh. Okay, great. I think a lot of people did contact me. This one guy in Ohio, Tommy, he got my name off the internet. You know, if you go to VidCamp Pinball on Google, you'll get a ton of information about myself. Mm-hmm. And he's going to be picking up the blue chip and ice frolics on Saturday. You know, I'm not a fan of the old-fashioned style of pinball games or anything like that, but I think it's worth checking out. So, I'm going to have a little chat with some of the players that I've only seen in a couple of games, and they've all been very good. And then another guy, Frank Somehow from Baltimore, Maryland. I've got to tell it straight now, when I see these guys on Saturday, I'll do some chatting with them and figure out on how they came about to knowing about this 10-game Packers deal here in New Jersey, and this way I can get a grip on just how the game sold so I I can mimic that in the future because I'm pretty stoked about all the games sold. I was actually going to take the Palm Springs. I might have mentioned it to you. But with my new pickup of the United 1953 Tropics, I think Palm Springs did come out in 1953 with Bowens. So I think they were neck and neck and stealing from each other. And I looked at the artwork and they look almost identical. Yeah, the only... What game do I keep? Right. What do I take? Which one do I take? Do I take the tropics that needs another hundred hours of work? Or do I take perfectly working Palm Springs? Well, as you know, I'm not taking the Palm Springs. Dan's going to be getting that game, like I said, but I don't know how I came to that conclusion. I'll probably, after I sell all the games on Saturday and there's nothing but an empty I'm really, really glad that for two reasons that the game sold. For one, this guy Lou who had this collection in New Jersey for 30 years really dedicated a tremendous amount of time to mechanically and electrically keeping these games running good. So fortunately for these buyers, they're getting a good working game which is going to help I'd say I'm in for a great one-on-one debate. I've been talking with a couple of important people while I was there. I apologize if I have trouble on you. I cван arribat polit valued with a rap quoteist back in opinion.ıkt And all of a professor Schwartz says Ogierkar's solution shows highly likely no 되고 festivitas. That means a serious deport system. Josh- Lashet. Brother Callie Sunilach, former United States' 2004 kle Driver Constantine tou��bus drinks and brevos are due for auction at schoolhome.com. I can't wait to have this go down on Saturday. I'll be going up there real early. I got two dollies, a lot of straps, a lot of cardboard, and I even did some of the organizing with these guys. I helped Tommy by calling Enterprise in Ohio, finding out where they were. I calculated all the mileage for Tommy. I got all the pricing for Tommy and I handed him over the agent down in Enterprise. I got the truck, made sure the truck is going to accommodate four machines because Tommy is driving from Ohio to pick up Frank in Baltimore and then they're coming to New Jersey and they'll be purchasing four games like I said and hopefully we're going to get it in a five I'm going to be a five foot wide by five foot high by 12 foot long van. Oh yeah, that should be no problem. Great, I'm glad you second that. And that's going to be great. Dan from Wisconsin is actually going to get his game shipped from Ray down in the Silver Ball Museum in Asbury Park, New Jersey. Dan had contacted Ray and Ray's going to be coming up and picking up the Bonanza and Palm Springs for Dan and then he's going to be making his way towards Wisconsin in the very near future and he's going to drop them games off to him. So the Cypress Garden is going to be picked up by Gene. I think that guy came from you, Nick, correct? Yeah, I talked to him. He's in, he's from West Virginia and I talked to Frank as well. So I think I sent both of them your way and yeah. All right Nick, I know you're looking for a cut. All right. Not at all. You know, I'm... I thought that was funny. I'm interested in getting these games and... I'm not going to be made with these low prices. Yeah, exactly. I don't think anybody's making anything, so anyway. Yeah, that's great. It is Frank and James, so that helps me out, Nick. The great stuff they came from, their source, I think they came from the pocket? Yeah, I think so, or they met me in York. I don't recall off the top of my head, but yeah, it's one of those things. I'm glad that these new collectors are getting these games and of course I'm really glad for them because these games are working. So as you say they won't have to spend a really long time figuring out how the mechanics work and getting them going from dead. Although, you know, it's not an insurmountable obstacle to do that but it sure helps if you've never played one before to see a working one first and know how they're supposed to work. So yeah, I'm excited for all these folks. Right, and then the last guy is going to be taking the Beach Beauty. Because Frank is taking both Magic Screen Games. Frank is taking the Golden Gate and the Roller Derby. Gene's taking the Cypress Garden. Tommy's taking the Blue Chip and the Ice Rollers. And Dan's taking the Bananas and the Palm Springs. So that left the Beach Beauty. Beach Beauty and that guy, his name is Egon, he's from PA, but some guy, John from the show, you recall Nick, John from the show? I met him. This friend John works with this guy Egon who's taking the Beach Beauty, said something about John met you at the show, so maybe I took John's number, he took my number, do you remember John, do you recall? I met a lot of Johns that day. I'm not sure. But anyway, that's where this gentleman is coming from. He's going to be picking up the Beach Beauty in his Volvo station wagon. He's going to be in New York. He's going to an event with his son and on the way back on Saturday, he's going to stop in New Jersey, pick up this Beach Beauty in the Volvo station wagon and then drive it home and he'll be playing that game. I played that Beach Beauty. It's a nice game. That's excellent. I move almost every leader on that card. Oh really? Yeah, I think so. I actually looked in Jeffrey's book and I played it briefly there at Eleanor's house. But, I mean, beautiful game, gorgeous play field, artwork. I think he's going to be happy with that. So, I think you and Gene are going to be doing something else going on. I think there's something else coming out of this. You might be looking at a double header? Potentially. Yeah, I'd talk with him about that. He knows of a warehouse where there's some games. So he wanted my thoughts on that. So I'd be happy to look at a double header. That's a rarity, as you know. You know, and I'd love to see one of those. Yeah, so I heard that there's some bingos available with Gene and you're going to be hopefully making the trip for him to go look at these games and see what they're all about. So, what we have here is, you know, something good coming out of something good again. There you go. You know, so I mean, you know, by networking and meeting people in West Virginia and Ohio and Baltimore and Wisconsin, where it's not on the East Coast, I mean, it's branching out, which is good. You know, so I'm real glad about all of this. I mean, it's just all good bingo talk, and this is really what I strive for for many years. I just love the games and I tried myself trying to... I have a lot of collectors here in New Jersey. I have a big circle of collectors from the tri-state area that's been visiting my collection now for around 15 years. I have big open house parties once a year and I meet all these guys from PA and Connecticut and New York and Pennsylvania. And you know what? They love when I demonstrate the bingos in my collection when they're here at the parties and they're, you know, they enjoy everything about them, but there's really nothing going on with them to a point where they actually want to add one. So, this happening now, again, I can't emphasize the point. I just feel that now it's starting to happen. I think I'm going to not give up and really try my best to build more of a base of people that are interested in the bingos. And all five of these new guys, Gene, Tom, Egon, Frank, Dan, they all want to get involved It's a podcast. We all want to get involved with getting on the Internet and posting up and talking about this. So this is really the way to go. I mean, word of mouth sometimes, even with a business, and you can advertise and advertise and advertise, but sometimes word of mouth is like the best thing. So, I'm forever grateful for you having the podcast and putting out the word and doing all these episodes which are great because they're going to be there for everybody that wants to get involved and add a bingo pinball machine to their collection. And, you know, the resources are really here now. We have people that are willing to help. We're networked, we're connected, we're branching out. So again, like I said, I'm hoping that you go with Gene and you see a whole bunch of bingos there and they're in, you know, good shape. I mean, they don't have to be working like this 10-game deal. I mean, that's pretty hard to find. Right. You don't really see where a collector is going to be selling some games, although a few years ago, one of the big collectors in Jeffrey Lawton's book was selling some fantastic games from his collection at very reasonable prices. And I mean the bingos themselves from this gentleman's collection. astronomical cosmetically mechanically and I never found out what happened I took the list from him like I did with this pen name game bingo deal and I I try to reach out to some people but I just didn't try my hardest because you weren't on the circuit yet and I'm thinking it was five years ago on Fantastic machines for sale and I'm wondering now, now that, you know, this deal's happening and I see that I can sell 8 to 10 bingos if I give it some time, I mean I'd like to do some research perhaps and see if he's still available and if he ever sold them games and if he just kind of did what I did when I listed these 10 games for sale around a few months ago when I got no hits. Maybe he got no hits and nobody in the collector hobby came through for him and he still has them and now there might be a chance for the newcomers coming in because I feel after this with the continuation of all these new guys getting these games on Saturday and want to participate in the podcast and reach out to others I sure once they get these games they just going to have to plug them in they be running they going to be calling other friends I know Dan from Wisconsin who's going to get the Bonanza in Palm Springs has a big collection of games. He's got all kinds of games, pitch and bats and I mean I did chat with him a little bit and it seems that he's got a nice collection so he has people over so now these people coming over are going to see these games and I feel that Dan, even though he's a first time bingo buyer and he's getting the Bonanza in Palm Springs, I can hear the excitement in his voice. I gave him some knowledge and information on the phone the last week or two. I've been doing it for all these guys that are buying the games. I'm not just selling the games, I'm really taking the extra time out to talk to them And, you know, we pull up the pictures of their games and I go over everything that the teachers do and they've been asking questions. So I'm giving them a great deal of knowledge and information quickly and they're getting it. So they're becoming more excited before they even get the game. So I'm hoping that by me, you know, taking the extra time to explain things and show them that I'm willing to help them in any way I can with them purchasing the games. I'm bringing hand cards and material for packing. I'm going to be explaining things. They're all going to come and play their game before they even put it in the truck. I mean, give them a lesson on how to take a lockdown bar off, slide the glass off, gently lift the playfield up, watch out for the shutter motor. You know, all the general basic things. Maintenance and I'll open up the head and show them the control unit or the, you know, simple things, the trip banks, just to get them acclimated. Right. Beyond just wanting a pinball and playing it, because if you take the time out to do things like this, I think that people get a better idea and it's easier for them to make them more comfortable and pull on to something because they see that, you know, there's so much help, you know? Mm-hmm. Yeah. And I think that's vitally important, especially for a new bingo owner, because I've heard over and over again, and I'm sure you have too, your whole time collecting these games, that they're so daunting or scary inside, you know? But really, they're not bad at all once you realize what, you know, some basic stuff like this is the trip I'm John Popadiuk, and I'll see you next time on Pinball Podcast. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. Bye. I have copies everywhere at my desk and in my bathroom, in the basement, in the game. I read it and I took it and when I read it I looked in the backbox and I learned about these things generally. And just generally you can gain so much knowledge, you know. The foundation of learning about the thing is there's so much to absorb in the very early stages with just learning features, learning literally how to play the game, learning basically The major components which in Russ Jensen's article, Inside Your Bingo, it's a really fabulous way to jumpstart your way into these games and really learn to understand them because he explains in detail kind of the bingo operation from the eight balls and the tree off getting raised up. It's simplified. It's nothing like retracing circuits and opening up the reflex unit and taking apart the circuits and then pulling the shift out. You know, I practiced that. I had some parts. I used to practice just taking the leather clutches off for, you know, just for practice in case one of the bingos went down, I could do it. Yeah, yeah. But these guys are not going to go that far. I really have to say, and this is just my experience, is that I had a lot of bingos. And yes, some of them needed work and I got them going, but once I got them going, they really ran fine. There's some I got that were kind of in people's homes and collectors that had them that kind of they didn't play them for a while so they had a few bugs and I brought them home, fixed a few bugs and never had problems with them. So I don't foresee, you know, people really doing what we do or what you do in particular with taking every unit apart and doing that. That's something that you want to do. Right. I don't know how necessary it is all the time. I don't know what game you have because I hear you talking about it all the time. And no, it's true, I do. And I find myself never doing that. I mean, yeah, I had a search that the plastic hub broke in there. You know what I'm talking about where the leather touches are where it's close to the fake type pieces. And you got to take everything apart and make sure you put it all. I've done work like that and I've had a machine break down but that's one bad problem, not even a bad problem, it's just one problem in so many years of having so many bingos. You know and then the gate time for instance with the motor, I think that's the only motor I ever lost. Yeah, these things are... Honestly, these guys that are going to get these games, I feel that these games guys are being sold on Saturday. I'm just going to plug playing and I think if they continue to play, they're not going to have problems. But then again, the games are really old. Things do happen. I don't want to make it sound like everything goes running great and it's always going to be better. Not that bad. There are some bad ones. And you've got to watch because if you go to these warehouses where they've been laying for 40 years, you're going to have to do what you do then. You know what I'm saying? But I just wanted to touch a little bit on that subject about how dependable all these bingos I've had through the years have really been. And I really didn't do extensive work on any of them, you know, mechanically on a lot of units. I did take just certain sticky stepping units and things that you literally have to take apart. One or two here and there. Now what I'm finding out is the tropics, the United has been sitting since 1961 in this town as home that I got it from a few weeks ago and this machine needs extensive work. So I think maybe for me I didn't get any that many games that really laid for long periods of time. So if you're going to get a game like that I think you're right on track of what you're dealing with some of these games, you know. Yeah, I mean most of mine have lain for a very long time and that's, I enjoy that. You know, I'm sure you can hear that in the podcast. I do enjoy taking these apart, finding the bugs and fixing them. But once they're going, unless there's a problem which I know is going to recur, like I've had a couple on the double up which will just continue to recur until I actually spend a A nickel and get a switch or two. All right. But aside from that, yeah, I mean, these are the most reliable machines that I've ever had in my collection for sure. Gottlieb machines are incredibly reliable, the Wedgeheads especially, but these games though were built to last and take a beating. So they are just fantastic. Right. I agree with you 100 percent and I'm glad we touched base on a little bit of that theory about getting your first bingo and you know I'm kind of trying to converse here to make people out there that are listening that you know think about if you are going to get a Bingo, try to get something that's been in someone's collection or only has a few problems and this way you can get to enjoy them, learn all the basics, the general well-being of the games and the operation and the features, how they work. Because if you get a bingo that's been sitting in a warehouse for 40 plus years or someone's I was home for 30, 40 years. You might have some difficulties getting that game to run, you know, for a long time. You know, we got to leave that to the experts like you and a lot of other people that see me. When you're younger, you can do this. You have the time, you have the passion. I've had 155 machines and at least 30 plus bingos. So, I mean, at this stage of the game for me, it's so wise for me to buy something that is near working, only has a few problems, even though I just picked up the tropics. That's 1961 and it's going to be a long journey for me to get that running. I'm taking my time because I have a lot of other games to play, fortunately. I just want to emphasize that point to everybody listening that's thinking about perhaps getting a game because I think it's going to start happening now. A lot of people are going to want to get pinballs now because there's going to be a lot of talk now that new people are getting them. People are going to be curious to see what they're all about. That's what's going to get them. Once they get one, they're going to be bitten. I'm sure that they're going to get fit because along with buying the thing though, hopefully they get a lot of knowledge about it so that they don't just get a game and not know what they're doing and have to figure it all out by themselves. And you know, there's a lot to get into like the game, you know, you literally have to learn how to play it too now. Once you learn the features and you learn the mechanics or the electric or anything else about the game, you literally have to take control of that game, grab it by the cabinet and get that silver ball to go where you want it to go, which is the best part for me as you're opening it. Oh yeah. That's the first time I listened. I just love to play it. Well, that's the other thing is they're fantastic players too. I mean, that's something I love as well is making that hole when, you know, the machine and everything that it has to throw at you is against you and you still come out on top. I mean, it's a great feeling. And it sure beats, in my estimation anyway, and my pinball playing experience, completing a sequence or, you know, starting a mode or finishing a mode or whatever. In a modern game, I just love getting that last ball for a five and a line. You know, you bring it down to the ball return three, four times in a row, just trying to I like that scenario about you saying, bringing it home three or four times, man. That's such a great feeling. You know you need the number for five in a row, and you miss it, but you get to play the ball over, and you had like a magnificent ball just coming down that play field and I'm already balling a hole as a blocker and whipping off one number and almost going into another and then squeezing it home and get it home, you know? Yeah. That's just a little, you know, even then, normal plays like that are exciting when you're going for final line because that's when you really, your blood starts rushing and you make that, you're kind of shocked and it does choke your body a little bit that you're in all them replays. We take arrays, bad to carry and naturally motion afterみ are notimmune. Any credit resistance to this or any kind of treatment in these workplace tests to maintain or at all, has beenaguessably PDA 3.0, Oanesketers.com, Ken maximis, WZ7, Leay, Oyster Any benefit to your loan is смогen to transfer income anatomy, level of pay, and long-term situation, reason to follow,If you do, living with your feelings and concerns as to you or your future, being a child later, you are not olharied to work or anything. TEAM TH clones team� Vice-President of tractors staff But I know you love this box plus trad square and cinema. I know there's a few more people out there interested. I've been hearing bits and pieces about, oh, I've got to find one. There's none by me. I hope I get one. I've been going frequently to your pinball podcast and putting some comments down, which is good. And I hope everybody else will continue to do that. And even these new guys that are picking their bingos up on Saturday. I know you're listening to the podcast now. You guys all have the link that I sent you and you've been telling me that you're listening. So, you know, think about coming out to the internet and going to Nick's podcast and placing a comment and getting involved and making this chat grow, you know? Yeah. So, I'm looking forward to that, seeing that happening. And not to change the subject, but I'm also interested in doing some wedgehead podcast. I can't forget about the Red Shirts. There's been a lot of bingo action here on the East Coast here in New Jersey with me. And there's nothing like it. I've been enjoying every minute of it because I go back and forth from the flipper games to the bingos. And, you know, I enjoy them both equally. And I'm hoping that I know you have mentioned something about Wedgetech. Was it putting out free play on one of your podcasts recently? Mm-hmm. So I feel Ricky's starting to get an itch too to perhaps do something a little different down the road when we have some time. Yeah, yeah. There's a lot of Wedgetech collectors out there now. I just got a text from a guy that visited my collection while he was at the Allentown show. He's from Texas. I got a little text today. He was interested to know what my thoughts were about the Golden Arrow versus a Top Guard. But all the EMs are great, so there's no end to promoting any EM. And there's so many other great ones out there. The bingos really are an EM that need to be put back into the hobby. Because all the other ones are there, even though the hobby today is mostly BMD guys. As we've discussed in the past, you know, when we look at this pinball hobby, I mean, EMs are really a fraction of the hobby now. Mm-hmm. Cool. And, you know, that's the other thing is EM advocacy, you know? I really love EM games. So, yeah, I'm right there with you, man. I think it's all good stuff. And I'd really encourage anybody to get EM games, be they wedge heads, be they reverse wedge heads, Chuckles, Saw my name on the internet. He moved from New York to New Jersey up here in Caldwell. And he fly jet planes for CEOs and stuff. And great guy. He called me and said, Hey, Vic, I got a call on to pick up 2 E.M. You want to give me a hand on Saturday? I said, sure. So Saturday, him and I went up to actually his hometown in Caldwell. There were only a few blocks away and we pulled out 1965 Williams Lucky Strike, single player EM. And I have to tell you, the condition in that game was remarkable. It had only 54,000 plays. And the corners on the head and the cabinet were sharp like razors. Half of it itself, I was looking for a scar or a mark and I couldn't find one. So, he did really well, and the other game was a Chicago coin. I know you're gonna like this. It's a beat mix. And, again, nice condition game. That one had 40,000 original plays on it. They've been in the homes for a long time. The lucky hand actually powered up and spit a ball out and with the broken deteriorated rubbers and shy out of the top gate went down a pop bumper powder puffed it around a little bit. The lights were on and the flippers worked out. The flippers worked pretty good. And I was surprised to see that after knowing that the homeowner had given me a complete history about the game and how long he had them John Popadiuk, San Diego, Warner Lab, Coming here I try to open up on Thursday nights now that the Carl Weathers is going to get cooler. I'm trying for two Thursday nights per month. I want to try to do a little bit more if I can because I have the collection set up. It's playing like factory new and there's no sense in not having everyone come down I'm going to go ahead and share and enjoy these games while they're here because, you know, turning 60 in March and actually next week I'm going out to our condo in Florida. I've been meeting a lot of people in the Florida pinball circuit. This past February I was at the Ape Show and the Silver Ball Museum in Asbury Park is opening up now. It's got the green light from the township in Delray Beach in Florida so they're gonna open up the Silver Ball Museum number two and a big collector here from my circle in Belleville, New Jersey is moving out to Florida. He has his home already that I visited while I was there in Florida. Not a fact, him and I went to the ape show together. He has all his games in Florida now in his new home and there's another close friend of mine that just left Sparta, New Jersey, took his collection of BMD games and old jukeboxes and soda machines and is putting all his collection there. So that's why I'm trying this year and the following couple of years to open up as much as I can here in case I'm going to be following them down to Florida soon. I don't know exactly, but you never know. It could be sooner than later. So Vic, on your way down, I mean you're going to stop in Richmond, right? Well, I'm going to have a big, big truck because I'm putting all 42 games in there. I'm not leaving them. I'm actually considering perhaps doing something for charity and opening up some kind of charity museum. I have some connections in Florida nowadays and there's some things going on, some opportunities for me. I don't want to open up to the general public. I don't want to for two reasons. Really, it's going to be a heavy load on me to operate and to upkeep, so I don't want to do that only because you lose a step as you get older and things change a little bit. I really like the whole idea about donating your proceeds to charities of some sort and Opening up at my leisure for tournaments or parties or anything because when you have this, actually Florida's a really easy state to do this. I've been inquiring a little bit so, you know, before that, before this takes place, if it does takes place, which I hope it does in the future, I still, I'm gonna miss all these guys that have been coming here for the longest time. I mean I have so many close pinball friends and we've shared so many great times here and I think I'm really gonna miss that more than anything. But again like I said I'm leaning towards this year kind of double up on opening up maybe have a couple more big parties during the year when I I have, you know, all the big collectors from the tri-state area come here, guys with 200 games, 100 games. We've got game rooms. We all come here and share eight to ten hours of pleasure with each other. So this is what the hobby brings. You know, I've done so many great things. You know, I'm anxious to meet these new guys. We're picking up the bingos on Saturday. So, you know, hopefully, The EMs will continue to, you know, last for as long as the hobby allows it. Oh yeah, yeah, I think they will because... Oh, a lot of DMD guys are getting them now. Yeah. A lot of first time EMers, I mean, they're not looking for bingos yet, but they will be. Yes. Yeah, once it's all about experience and comfort levels. So once they get kind of acclimated to the EMs and then maybe they know a guy with the bingo, come over and play it and say, you know, these are really fun games. So, I've been talking with quite a few new folks off the air, of course, and they've been asking for recommendations for bangos, so I think we're at a good point. Right. As you might feel. Yep. So, I'm excited. So, Vic, I did want to ask you, did you note your meter on the Coney Island? Tony Einwern? No. I forgot. I was so excited. I had so much to do. I had to get down there and I couldn't wait to get it up, man. I couldn't wait to join that row. It was, it was, you know, it was like, I don't know what it was like. It was, my mind was just like, wow, look at this, we gotta get, be part of it. I had to be part of it. Yeah. Who knows when that's gonna happen again. Well, I know because I knew it was a major event for you because I put four pinballers in a box truck. I know what it takes. Yeah, it was, well that was the other thing. I mean, at the end of the show, all the bingo guys, you know, formed a bingo assembly line and they, or disassembly line and they helped me take them all apart, put them in the truck. I mean, I couldn't have done it without all you guys because that was a massive undertaking. Yeah, that was a, you know what, a lot, we had a nice little pit stop here. Yeah, yeah. We had a little pit stop like the cars were getting rolled in and everything was happening quickly and up and into the truck and it was great and that was a good part of it too. It's all good. It's really hardly any not good feelings from doing something like that. Maybe the back hurts a little bit and you gotta work on your games when you get home, but that's alright. Well, I think, well, the backer, it's a big deal, but the, working on the games, I think that's a small price to pay for being able to share them with so many new people, and people that enjoyed them. You know, that's the other thing. So, and there was such a good selection there, I thought, I don't know how you felt about the actual titles that were there. Did you think there was a good breadth of choice as far as bingos go? Yes, because I had the early game. There were 60 games and Magic Screen games and Turning Corner games. There was United game. There were six card games. I mean, the selection was just superb. So, I mean, you could have put 13 other bingos in, aside from them titles, and you would have had the same superb showing because all of the bingos are great. I'll tell you right now, I've experienced a lot of the games and I haven't experienced a lot of the games, but the ones that I did were really, really terrific games, all of them, and for certain reasons. And the variety of styles and of new features that they installed, it just makes them, you might think they're the same, but they're not. You know, you look at them, people might say, 25 holes and cars on the back, it's all the same. It's not. Right. What they do mechanically and electrically is amazing. When I told some of these guys about the daytime, how it worked, I know they're getting Bonanza and they're getting Magic Screen games, but I just wanted to share with some of these guys that are purchasing the bingos on Saturday that there's other games out there that are really fantastic that Barry put out, you know. They're so true. They really are. Now, when you did that podcast on the twist, you really, really did something for me that I didn't know. And I'm learning constantly and I've been around them. I've read Jeff Lee's book ten times. I read it, but I'm still learning things. And that twist sounded such like a nice game. I agree. So unique. So unique with 12 positions on cards or something like that. And I went and read up on it and I looked at the coloring and I liked the whole music twist thing, you know. I think they did that after the record, the Checkers record to twist, right? Correct. Yeah. So when you started and I started listening to that, my eyes were widening open more. I'm like, wow, this is a game that I really would like to add to my collection, even though I don't have room for a toothpick. But, you know, I had to see the props, I don't know where to put it here. And I got the, I have the tropics in my little work area, I have to work on one game, and then the 42 other ones are surrounded by it. But, I mean, the twist down sounded so good and it got me thinking because I once went to a run, I did a, I went and looked at some bingos in Edwardsville, PA. It was a bank that was made in the late 1890s. It was filled with bingos and there sat a, the one that you have the shake button. A Hi-Fi. I was a kid back then. I was 5'5". And I always thought that that was the only like record music one. And somehow I didn't see that twist somewhere along my travels of reading a book and looking at pictures and going on Bingo C-D-Y-N for 50,000 hours and, you know, and then when you came up with the podcast I'm like wow! This game is sensational and I didn't even know about it. You know, because I saw that high five down there in that bank and I love the artwork with the records on the side. But me being the shaker that I am and I don think I want any bingo electrically pushing a button and shaking on its own I want to nudge when I need to nudge because that what the game is all about literally playing it You gotta know when to nudge and when not to nudge. Right. So, I kind of could have had that bingo that day at a really cheap price. There was about a hundred bingos in that bank and that was the only one because I think about 90 of the bingos are... Why is it so hard to get a high five? I didn't really strike by fancy but this twist really got me going. Well, Vic do you want to hear something that would make you want to get that high five? Sure do. So, I learned about this recently because I read the same section that you did in Jeffrey's book and I said, this doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Why would anybody want the game to nudge itself a limited number of times, you know? It's playing the game for you, that doesn't make any sense. So I was talking with Danny Leach and we were talking about Hi-5 and I was telling him, you know, how I thought it had a phenomenal art package and it looked really cool, but I didn't understand the bump feature and he told me that what that is, it's if you get, you play your balls and you have the bump feature lit, it'll actually shake the whole playfield up and down on these massive springs and kick the balls, all the balls, out of all the holes. And so it lets you navigate them down to the ball return or set up an entirely different game. And you can do that after shooting the first ball, I believe. So that's a pretty powerful feature, actually. It sounds pretty interesting to me. So you're telling me that it releases the balls out of the holes and they don't go in any other holes. Do you think that the ball will be straight down to the short again to be played over like a hold the odd, hold the even type of game? No, no, but that's the way that I think about it. You know, it's a similar chance for you to be able to navigate them down to the ball return. So it does kick them out and then they'll, you know, randomly bump around unless you navigate them down to the ball return. If you've got a lot of balls in the top line and you need... Further down, right. ...in the 23 or the 18 or 14, you could move one end at a time out or does it pop them all out according to how many balls you've played out already? It pops them all out according to how many balls you've played. That'd be crazy. That's like playing multiball on a bench. How am I going to sleep and make numbers? I don't know. Well, I think... I want control. I want control with that ball. Oh yeah. At all times. Like it's on a yo-yo string. But... I want to keep that ball where I can move it and get it where I want. I don't know, I'd be interested to play that high five, but it doesn't sound like, just for me, my own self, like I would enjoy, you know, that feature, just knocking all the I'm trying to get some type of win with five balls on the playfield. Well, where I see it as powerful is if you have played your game, but you don't have any winning combination at all, then it gives you a chance, possibly, to play your game over if you're able to. I mean some of them are probably going to get into holes but you know you might be able to play an entirely different game. It's like the hold odds or hold evens. Nick, you know you talk until I always get in line wins. I never have to. I forgot. It's five in a line every time. Hey, I don't have to release any boards, but every number I need to get that part of the line, baby. Well, in that case, yes, I guess you're right. That sounds like an amateur game where I'm obviously... Nah, I'm just kidding, I'm just kidding. I'd like to experience it. I would like to see it with the game that I like it. I did find that interesting that it did operate differently than I had assumed. Yeah, good point. That's good that you brought it up because I did think it was like a bump thing where it made a move for you instead of you shaking, you know. Yeah. You know, I didn't know. So, yeah, that's interesting. I'm really hopped up on that twist, though, bro. I'm sorry, my wife ever saw the colors on that game? Yeah, that's beautiful. I'd have to find a spot for her, but she sees into that hot pink, yellow, pastel stuff. That's a very attractive, shocking game that really jumps out at you art-wise and color-wise and all of that. But I mean, it looks like a great play with all of them. Yeah. What is it, 12? Is it 12 cards you can switch to? I think it's 12 or 17. You know what I really like is the two numbers. This is what intrigued me was the two numbers in one card because when I had the nine Miss Bowling Turbos, which was the remake of the 1957 Miss America, I enjoyed that game so much because you can bring numbers into the other card and the numbers double up. I had, I think I sent Danny Leach some pictures and he put it out on his webpage on how I put, I don't know how many numbers in one card and I don't know how many were doubled numbers. That missed bowling turbo with some special things because it was electronic of course. I love that whole concept about having double numbers in one card. Am I correct? Is that what the twist does? Yes. Right. So see now if you look around at Bally, how many more machines that they manufactured that did that? Not many. We'd have to survey that and look that up. I really now that I've told I've missed that miss Bowling Turbo actually I'm calling back some of these people that I saw the nine of them too mm-hmm I'd love to get that baby back you have a playfield from that one right yes and it's it's a beautiful playfield it's plastic coated like the the sonic EM games so there's not a speck of wear on it and it's just clean as a whistle you know I cleaned it and wax it it just looks That's good wall art for you. It is, well at the moment, but if anybody ever needs one, then it'll go in a game. Yeah, that's the game that was stolen turbo. Mm-hmm. You know, some of these electronic bingos are just outstanding for the, you know, serious player. Yeah. So, Vic, I don't know if you recall, but when we first started talking, you were telling me how you were trying to slow down a little bit. It seems like you're faster than ever now. Well, you know what happened? I really did shut down. I did good. About around three years ago, I decided that even maybe four, I really didn't bring anything in. I kind of just was doing a lot of preventive maintenance on the games, you know, yearly preventive maintenance and having a lot of people over and playing the games and I was, you know, I said to myself, you're maxed out, you had your fun, can't go on like this, just enjoy what you have and I did that for a while and then I met this guy who wanted I'm not selling anything because I haven't been selling anything. You can't buy a game from me. You can bring a Fort Knox, which I'm not going to sell. So I told him, come here. I'm not selling anything, but anything you want, I will get for you. I'll help you locate these games and build your own collection. And when he came here, he saw what I had. I enjoyed it so much and we started building his collection together for him and within a year and a half he bought around 30 games and I mean pristine, top of the line, impeccable machines and he put them into his location and I was doing that with him but he was doing all the physical work and I was just he took off on his own and i became real good friends with him and we started going to his house and him coming here and it kind of got me going again mhm no I can hear the excitement every single game he hailed at his collection and I remember doing that after you know I was myself having 155 machines pass through my collection, so I had that thrill so many times. That's why I had determined to stop around three, four years ago. But once I saw him and heard him and I can hear his reactions and everything, I says, man, he only lives once. I got to get back into his swing a little bit. I might have to renovate the garage game room to fit three more machines in. So that's what I started doing and it got me back on the wagon. I guess when you're on the wagon you're not doing anything. I guess I was off the wagon. And I started, you know, I picked up a few games, you know, what we did with the Gay Time and then I picked up a beautiful blue chip and I hit it with the golden arrow and I picked up a beautiful, well it came out beautiful, crosstown about the bloodstain because the newspaper contacted me here in New Jersey and they did an article and from the article someone called me and said hey I got an old game in the garage, why don't you come and look at it. I ended up purchasing the game and the Crosstown was the name of the game. I brought that here and I put 120 hours in that and then I bought another one that had a better playfield. So I had a better glass, another original one, so I made my Crosstown even better and then sold the one I picked up from the paper, the newspaper article that they did on me to a friend at work and then he bought the banker ball from a guy that moved to Florida I tell you the summer first he's going so it was a whole bunch of stuff going on with people moving and buying games and I was right in the mix of it so you know how it is sometimes things fall in your lap you can't say no to it and I didn't have the space it cost me six weeks of Taking out shells, I might even mention this on another podcast probably. Yeah. Uh, in the garage, and emptying out my wooden 10x16 shed in the back of the yard. And uh, you helped me along with that by taking the nightclub. And I gave away, you know, so much stuff and, and it made the room and, and I hit it these three games and I'm glad I did. And now, both of these guys are in Florida, so it's quiet around here. I don't intend to try to get going again. I really don't have any space, so I've had this, and a lot of collectors have this problem. But again, the most important thing is it's tougher for me to take a game in and put 120 hours into it. You know, years, 10 years ago, 20 years ago, I can, you know, get a game and put 120 hours in it in a few weekends. Because I would do 14 hour days back to back, 12 hour days, sleep in every hour I could, and get the games done quickly. Week 1 I'm tired Don't seem to committing to such a fight Still out there Lazio Fan Universe I had a nut apples Just what the world revolts around Inferno I prefer dirt You know, with the, you know, physical well-being, you know, you're hanging in them games all the night, all them hours it gets to you. I don't care how happy you are or how young you are. It puts you straight on the muscles. Yeah. So I'm trying to, you know, I got a different outlook now on what I want to do with the hobby, which way I want to go. I'm enjoying spending a lot of good quality time with the family and the wife now, which is very I'm a fan of the game. I'm a fan of the game. I think it's really important. And again, considering ending up in Florida and hopefully not having to, you know, not bring my collection, but you never know what's going to happen the next day, what's going to come. So I'm just kind of thinking in these terms now, trying to. That's why I let the Palm Springs go to Dan. I was going to take that game out of the 10-game package there, only because I thought I deserved it after that. I know I wanted it, but you know, it doesn't make sense to me. So I'm back on the road where I'm going to shut down, hopefully bringing anything new in and doing anything else and try to open up a lot and share my collection and have my friends over that I've had in the hobby for so many years and share some more good I'm going to take a whole nother care, I think. And this happens in life as you get older especially. Things change, things that were important at one time aren't and there's other important things now. I'm not saying that, you know, I'm losing any love for the games though. That's always going to be there, you know. I have to fight that off. It's almost like a heroin addict. People know that, collect pinball, and all it is is you just have to fight the temptation off and not do it, you know. And I'm finding out that it's easier to do that these days only because physically I can't look like I used to and think like I used to. It's not bad but it's slowing down some so I understand that and that's what happens. So a guy like you, you got a long way yet before you feel this way. But we're out of space too anyway. That's right. Well you've been squeaking games in too left and right, so you should talk either Nick. So um, Nick tell me what's up with your tropics, I've been dying to talk with you about that game. Do you have it playable? I almost have it started. What I did was when I brought it in I spent a lot of hours cosmetically I'm getting the most enjoyment out of that aspect these days from bringing a game in. I haven't brought many games in. The games that I did bring in like the Gay Time and the Golden Arrow and the Blue Chip were really, really, really spectacular. Don't have to do anything to wax the conditions. The cross down cost me 120 hours and then I did a top card three years ago. So, but anyway, Tropics is a whole long project. Like I said, from 1961 it was sitting in the guy's house, so I knew what I was up against when I saw the game, but the thing I really saw with the game when I first got to the guy's house was the really nice cosmetic shape it was in. The cabinet, the playfield, and the backglass for a 1953 machine was in a really, really nice condition. It does have some low plays on it, and neither does work because I did fire it up. So I thought perhaps some miracle that united because it's totally different than Bally mechanically wouldn't be so bad. Maybe it wouldn't be so big, but it's turning out that just cosmetically I have so, 20-2 hours in it. So that's what I did the first week when I got it. I was a little hyped up so I cleaned all the cabinet and the playfield and took the glass out and sealed it and touched it up and got new rubbers. And then I put in the cord on all the general stuff, easy stuff that I like to do, and then I started diving into it. So I noticed that someone that was in there through the years since 1961 that didn't know what they were doing. Actually, I talked to the son and he said his father was a TV repairman, purchased the game and thought he couldn't get it going. and his sons that had never played it's just been in the basement ever since and his father made hundreds of attempts out of it and when I opened it up I noticed where his attempts were there were a lot of dead switches there were a lot of pulled strings stretched strings so I says oh boy so literally I decided to start at the front door and take apart the select the spot knob and With a little help from one of my closest friends in the hobby who stopped over this past Thursday. We did that most recently, but before that I was, I worked on the, I know, I know we discussed it. I took some pictures at the York show about the ball lift motor and the spring there. I wanted to, I was so glad you got that caravan so that I can see something because it's a totally different breed than the Bally. So, you know, I'm so used to Bally's I can move around them real easily and get them going. And the United's are not like that. You have to stop and think and look at it and see what it's doing, the mechanism they built and how they have it, you know, operating. And so it's a slow process for me with the tropics. And I did get pretty far, but I'm taking my time. Normally, I've been playing in the past and probably would have the game running because I have it over a month or so. But at my leisure and there's been four or five consecutive nights I won't even touch it and that's my pace now from when I would work on games 14 hours, 12 hours straight, repetitious days in a row and nonstop and go to bed thinking about problems and waking up and before I went to work go look at it and fix it and then go to bed. I'm going to go back to work, you know. So I went through most of all the switches, all the relays first. I took apart all the step-in switches I needed to take apart so they can work freely with the touch of my finger because I know how loose they have to be. You get a little knack for them. You know which ones really have to come apart and which ones you don't. So I've been taking one at a time and doing it. So I've gotten to the point where I've done all the relay switches, gone through the trip bank, it's left yet, I didn't do the trip bank, I did all the big steps and switches and I did the ball lift motor oiled and I'm looking at, I'm still having a little problem with the ball lift motor. I think once I solve that ball getting up from the arm, the lifted arm up into the shooter lane, the game's going to react a little better. Because I'm doing it kind of, it wants to get there, it's just making it, but it's not, that's the only way I left off. So I'm pushing it with my finger and I'm shooting the ball out and the shutter motor's closing. But there's a ton of problems. There's still a ton of problems. I, uh, there's four motors like they look like dot-lit motors, you know? Yep. Because when we opened up your caravan, it looked like a bingo in the back. I was disappointed because I wanted to try to learn something there that day. I'm like, what's the piece? They sold Bally's whole, mechanical and electrical systems from the bingo. It's a 1954 or five, you know, and of course I picked the tropics. I'm a fan of the 1953 and they had the barrel hole mechanical. So it looks like a United Shuffler Bowler with a lot more components in it. So I haven't gone to the motors. The motors are kind of slow so I'm going to try to do one motor at a time and see if I can loosen them up a little more because they're sticky and they're not like the ball lift I'm going to be talking about the ball lift motor, but the ball lift motor takes a while, so I got to take a look at and figure out what these motors are going to take. I'm thinking about possibly contacting Ron. He has almost every single United bingo ever made except two or three, and I don't know where he ended up. I thought he was in New Jersey at one time back in the day, but I'm not sure. I'm going to continue to just move slowly on my own unless I can find somebody who had that particular game or somebody who has an operating game that wants to kind of work with me and jumpstart me and talk with me over the phone to get me moving more quickly. But no big deal. I'm looking at it as a long-term project. I may actually take it down and put it into the... I have a spot in the wooded shed. Perhaps I'm contemplating that because I've come across a Gottlieb North Star that I played actually when I was a kid in 1966 in a candy store where I lived in North New Jersey. I met a woman who was selling a North Star in Nutley, New Jersey, which is two miles from here. And when I got to get to her house to look at the game, she lived a couple doors from me and worked in that candy store where that particular game was and bought it off that vendor that I knew where I bought my first game, Sweethearts, from, which was R&Y Amusement. She bought this particular North Star from that R&Y amusement who had it in that candy store that I played when I was 10 years old. So I'm thinking perhaps after I just talked to you I'm not bringing any more games and I need 120 hours work but this North Star I forgot has been laying dormant for about 40 years in this woman's house that came from that candy store and she is really considering letting me have that game somehow. I have a great North Star now, but it's not a game that my fingers actually run the same flippers. So I may or may not trade it, this beautiful North Star in my collection, for this old 120 hours need of work North Star. I'm not sure what kind of deal we're going to make. I really want to try to buy it outright. I don't know if she wants that because I think she likes pinball, but I've not really gotten I'm going to the point and deal where I know where we're going to end up. But she did take it off of Craigslist here in North Jersey and told me that the game's either going to be with me or her down the road. But this was about actually a month ago and she went to Florida for a while. So I need to contact her back to see if I want to have her here just to come and see my collection and talk with her more because she knows everybody I grew up with, all my Alright guys thanks for the great game. So I got spouse and I guess I'm 7 MalำThank you for theedaom popeye Myyzar tomorrow Fix them all. But I've never had a game that I actually played literally, you know, 50 years ago. Right. So it's kind of like, do I look at this as a big thing? Or do I look at it just as an ordinary 120 hours of hard work I'm going to have to do and give up a beautiful most I already have so do I want to do it at this stage in the game I don't know I may need somebody to coach me on so all these guys that move to Florida now can't influence me I'm gonna make my own decision on everything so I mean actually getting back to the tropics next I really want to be honest which I I don't know if I'm even going to like this game because of the smaller balls. And I don't know if I'm going to like this game because it doesn't have the coil springs by the numbers where it is. You know what I mean? It's a little different setup. I don't really feel... I actually, you know, I shoot the balls out even though the game isn't working all the way through. It's starting up. It's loading the balls. It's going, you know, the shutters closing and I can, you know, play a game without anything happening. You know, the lot's going up. No numbers, whatever. And I'm just trying to get a feel for the game, you know, with the lighter balls and the smaller balls and the different playfield design. And I don't know. I'm not sure. I really didn't dedicate enough time to doing that. I might want to dedicate maybe just an hour of playing the game while it's dead, not even plugged in. Just plug it in and just get the balls up and just just level it real good and set it up so it's stiff so I can work my magic and make see if I can make some numbers and see how I feel about the smaller balls and the different play field. What I like about is it's the mechanical different aspect and the sounds are different and it's got a bell in it I think I gotta check again it might have a bell. Does your car have a bell? No bell, but yeah. Okay, I'll look again. I might have a bell. I saw a bell in there. Maybe I'm dreaming. But I don't know. I'm trying to say, I don't want to let this game go because it's in such cosmetic shape. Beautiful shape. It's perfect. Fabulous, man. I mean, that's amazing. It's really, I mean, I waxed the cabinet after I gave it a super clean bath and everything. I mean, it was just years of dust and dirt on it, tied in the paint, and it looked faded. And when I just wiped it, I wet my finger at the guy's house and wiped it, I could see the lacquer paint shining through. So when I got it home, it came out amazing cosmetically. And that's what's kind of steering me towards wanting to keep it, but I don't even have a spot for it right now. Even though I did the renovation on the garage game room, I have the golden hour in there, I got the cross down in there, I got the gate time in there, and then I have all my other bingos. You've been here, so you know exactly where I'm at. You can picture it in your head. So I don't really know what I'm going to do with this United. I may sell it, but I would only sell it to, it had to go to a really good home, but I I don't know yet. I don't know yet. I think I really want to continue working on it and I'm intrigued by the different mechanisms and different ways it works. I mean it's similar but it's different. And we see Once I continue to move forward and if I get it to work 100 I still might sell it after that because I don have a place for it I don want to leave it where it is It right by my work bench Right Look how high last year Oh he over it Oh all gone Well there keep you You can see the four holes now The rest is gone. No I'm really uncertain about it and like I said I may just put it in the shed I'll take the glass I'll keep it in a glass in the house and put the body and head out there if I have to get to North Star if I need to I really need that space to to shop games and work on games and because I'm a 42 game collector. I like to put a game in that little work area where the topics is down. I can work easily around it and do my maintenance and do things I've been wanting to do. It's not a lot of work I got to do with my collection because mostly all the 42 games are pretty much at their peak. But there's a couple that I know that I can fine tune even better in my own head and I'd like to do that, pull it out of the slot, put it in that spot. Really fine-tuning to bring it up to snuff all the rest of them. There's only a couple that really need a little more extensive fine-tuning and I really really love fine-tuning the games. You know, I'll put a hundred hours in the game and then I put 20 or 30 fine-tuning hours into a game. Which really sets the games apart for playability and you know and to try to get to that factory new play type of thing. So I don't know what to do with this tropics. Only the time will tell. And it's got the valley mechanics. I really enjoyed that. So what I'm really thinking is that this United game may not be the game for me. And that's what's in the back of my mind. What I'm thinking is, if I'm really going to... And I would love to add a United bingo to my collection. But I think I really need a newer game. One that's more inclined to me, more pleasure because I'm more comfortable with it, with everything. And that's from, I guess it's 54 or 1955, United and up, really took Stoll Valley's design completely. Yeah. I shouldn't say Stoll, I shouldn't say Stoll because really, even Gottlieb, Williams, Chicago coin valley they really there were no restrictions on you know copying yeah that day there was no no laws or restrictions and really God of the owner the original owner it really didn't mind that he knew that you know people are coming into the factory and and taking ideas and bring them over to Williams you think and and I'm sure they were got with people going over Williams and that's what they were doing back then and so Valley and United with the bingos was the same type of thing I mean they shared the artists I mean I heard that the art the artists that did the tropics would do Chicago coin games exhibit games I'm learning so much more now in the hobby and that's really where I want I don't want to devote some time, I don't want to devote any more physical labor to the games. I've done so many games, it's unbelievable sometimes I look back and think how much time I put into these games and all the games I sold because I have 42 games but I sold 110, I'm reading more things, I'm learning more things about interesting things that really I'm enjoying, you know, as far as things on the internet, I'm learning about, you know, just like I said with the, I learned this what I just said to you about how they shared, I didn't share ideas, but no one, they didn't, I guess they did something, but I didn't share anything. I guess they did steal them if you look at it that way. It's not the word to use. But no one really said, you know, what are you doing? What are you doing? How come your pop-up or caps look like mine? And why are you using that same unit that I made? No one did that. So I think United just said, you know what, they just wanted to be themselves and use their equipment and build bingles. But they came to the conclusion that Bally had the best design and let's just do it, baby. Let's just do it like them and see if we can sell games and compete with them and catch up to them because they were by far the leaders in the bingos. I mean, you know. Yeah. They came with the horse race. I heard you're getting a turf king tour. Let's get on the subject of that. I had two turf kings, you know. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, I had one up runner, beauty. I got this guy. He's just seven miles away. I sold it to him about 16 years ago. And I got him a little bit of a kick. I got him a little bit of a kick. I got him a little bit of a kick. I got him a little bit of a kick. I got him a little bit of a kick. I got him a little bit of a kick. And let me tell you, that's a nice game too, but it's only one ball. Right. But they're gorgeous and they have, you know, all the bingo parts in them and that's where Bally, you know, they were using everything that's in the bingos today. It was in them horse race games and they made them horse race games from I think 41 to 49 or 41 to 1950 I think. Correct. 1941 to 1950 so. Yep. I mean, they're great looking games, but the problem with the, for me, and just, you know, for me with the one ball game was, is you can't nudge them. Right. And if you take away my shaking or nudging skills on the bingo or any type of game, flipper game, any type of game, if there's no way you can nudge a game, then the game is not for me. Because the horse race games are so constructed cabinet-wise where they're there and the all the mechanics is right inside the cabinet so it's center heavy and the heads are very light it's the opposite of a bally bingo the heads are extremely heavy and the cabinets are extremely light with the turf king for a I'm not going to go into any of the citations or any one of them great horse race games. They're phenomenal. They look great. But the reason I let mine go was that I had it here for a while. We played the pants off of it. I got tired of not being able to maneuver the ball. It just became a kind of shoot the ball out, think you're shaking and moving the ball, nudging the ball, and you're not because I attempted to do it. And you literally can't really move that machine. It's just that heavy in the cabinet and the weight of that tray that pulls out of the lower cabinet on the one ball horse race games, it weighs a ton, but it's really easy to service. So you have all these pros and cons with all these games all the time and that's with anything in life. So, but for me, the real one point was not being able to nudge the game. I love that aspect of the game to take control of that silver ball and make it do what I want it to do. That's what I really get a kick out of. And then when you make that ball do what you want it to do and you get a big payout on it, that's when the rush comes in and the blood starts flowing, you know? Yeah. I mean if I had space, unlimited space, I'd have a whole bunch of one ball horse race games. I would forget about shaking them. Because I wouldn't have to because if there's a lot of space then you can enjoy the beauty of them and they are really beautiful. And you can enjoy all your other games that you can maneuver and nudge and you know, for For me, when you have limited space and you're a big player before you are a collector, you're a player and you enjoy the games, you literally love to play the games, whether it's flipper games or bingo games or shuffleboard games, any games, baseball, pitch and bat games, that's the number one priority. Then it didn't seem right for me to hold on to that turf team. Right. That's just my opinion. Everybody else is always thinking differently about how you could look at, you could put 10 of the same games in a row, you could put 10 people there and you'll get 100 different stories. Exactly. And you'll get 100 different opinions and likes and why they, you know what I'm saying? Yeah, and it's one of those things I've never experienced one that was working. You know, I've certainly admired their artwork and I've gone up and I've attempted to nudge the cabinet and just trying to get a feel for the game, but I've never played a working one. So getting one working, I'm not at all intimidated by that because it does look incredibly easy to service. I've heard that from multiple people. You slide out that tray and you got access to all the guts. And playability, I'll just have to form my own opinion once I get it going. I like to play the game. What I disliked the most was I couldn't nudge it. The playfields are really big. They're spacious. They're not jambled holes. They got a lot of pins like an older pinball tabletop game. A few little springs. You're really a wonderful game to play. It's a quick game. It's one ball and you're done. Build the odds up, get your horse, play the ball. And Turking was designed by Don Hooker who was the Bally Bingo designer. Right. They're nice games. They really are. And while I'm thinking, I don't mean to interrupt you. Sure. I have, like I said, I have two. So if you need a player, you can call me. I'll be happy to help you. I'll be happy to help you. I'll be happy to help you. Like I said, I had two, so if you need a part, I think I have in one of my old buildings. I used to service in the region here. I kept in the rafters in one of these big wooden sheds they made outside the building where we used to store parts for HVAC equipment. I have a whole mechanical center tray for a third thing. Not a problem. I bought a full down in my old building. I haven't been there in seven years. I spent 15 years there. I think it all emailed me like a couple years ago. You still want this pinball thing up in the rail? I said, yeah, I'll show that out. But to be the part, I've had some turnpike parts. Alright, I'll let you know. Well, I'm not guaranteed though. I gotta call, maybe I'll call tomorrow and see if it's still there. I got two guys that are trained down here that are still working here. Actually, just one that's down here. He's running the whole show now. I'm a fan of the Yeah, I might have some other, oh no, I got a box of Turf King parts too, Nick. You know what I did? When I got the Turf King, I got it off Bill Dahl in New York when he was forced to let go of his big warehouse where his collections were, and his email was Turf King, Bill Dahl. That was his, I enjoyed it too, but one had fallen off the truck, he told me when, so So I took them both anyway. I think I took a lower cabinet, smashed head with a broken glass and shattered pieces and a game that needed a little work. So I made one game work and I have some, you know, I don't know what I have, but I noticed I did mark the box. And when I made the transition from the attached garage with all the shelving and my parts into the wood set, I remember seeing that box again. So just remember that I wanted to mention to you because I'll forget. We'll lose that. No problem. Yeah, thank you very much. I'll let you know. That'll probably be in a month or two that I make my way down and pick that up. I have also a lot of Nashville parts. I had four Nashville so I got motors and stuff in case you took your tape or anybody with a six-car game always call me because that's some stuff that I didn't give away when I cleaned out the shed you know. Uh-huh okay um yeah I might I might have a uh part I need to bug you about. Yeah absolutely. I'll shoot you an email but um yeah real quick I did want to get back to um I'm talking about the competition between the companies. They did patent everything. Right. Right. I know that. But the enforcement of the patents, as you say, was pretty lax. So I'm just letting listeners know. Especially Gottlieb, he was really interested, as you say, in fostering competition. He thought it was good for the industry and it certainly was. That's why you have three different names for the same component. You know, it's a pop bumper if it's a Gottlieb, a thumper bumper if it's a Bally, and a jet bumper if it's a Williams. So you know, there was all that kind of stuff going on, even though it's the same thing mechanically and electrically. It's, they all have different names to kind of get around the patent enforcement thing. Well, yeah. Well, you know what I think it is too? There were people making the pop-up for Gotlet. I don't think they made them themselves. Oh, okay. You know, that's why I noticed on the Chicago Coin Beatniks, I learned something on Saturday making a run with my buddy Wayne over there. I noticed that. I said, what is a Gotlet Chicago Coin Beatniks? It's an old game, 60s, low, early. And look, he's got the Gotlet things. And then I'm looking around and I can see Williams in there, I can see Bally in there, so Chicago coin was using everybody. Yup, yup. You know, so even overseas you get these games that look very similar to Godler's. So, you know, it was, it had to happen, you know, it had to happen. I mean, of course people that intended to flip those, you know, literally intended to Timothy Sabato, I'll tell you, Chicago coins are starting to, I'm starting to look at them a little more now and finding out that they're getting a bad rap too. You know, there's a lot of negativity, people say, ah, that stinks, this stinks. Really, there's nothing that really stinks in pinball or coin art. That's the thing, yeah. It's all... I think these people generating some, even on IPDB with the ratings, I mean, you know, you hear some really poor ratings and some thoughts that just, I'm almost disconcerting. I mean, it's ridiculous. So, I mean, you know, I'm starting to look at the Chicago coin game. I'm looking at that beat and thinking, my wife really liked it. She goes like, wow, that's cool. Nice colored backglasses. And she says, he wanted to give it to you? I'm like, yeah, but I don't have a place to put it. We said, why don't you take the beat and they said, I just really want the lucky hand. I really can't take it. And when I started looking at that and I read up, it's got a carryover title letters feature like on silver. United. Yeah. That's cool. And then it has like, I'm starting to look on the flyers and I'm looking at the game, You know, I looked at the flyer and I looked at the game when we had it at his house. You know, I stayed with him that day and we did some work. I tried to get the two major bugs out of it right away so we can get a jump start. And I said, this game really doesn't look like much at all, this beat mix. Really, you look at the play field, it's like looking at your oppercard or popper card. You look at that game and you say, there ain't nothing to this game but we played and you love it. Same thing with the Chicago coin. Yeah, it's really cool. It's got some cool features going on. Well, I've told you before about the Twinkie that I have, right? That's right. I know about the Twinkie and I, you know, I had a, oh, by the way, thank you for going through that mystery podcast because, you know, I had the mystery. I never got it running. What's his name brought that off me real fast. I didn't want to work on that game because I didn't think I would want to keep it so I took it in and I sold it to the guy who sold his whole collection. What was his name? Yeah. So he knew because he loved all them games. So I got to get that game going but that's a cool game man. You explain, I'm like, look at this specials here and there. You gotta really be a nutter and I'm thinking, wow, these games are pretty nice too. Yes. That's, that's the thing. Flipperless games, you know, they don't get a lot of love. And, um, some of them are actually fantastically complicated. And, uh, they're really fun to play. You know, it's all about, it's just like with the bingos, Vic. You know, it's, you gotta know what you're doing. And once you've got those goals in mind, then suddenly the game becomes an awful lot more fun. It's not just shooting the ball and seeing what happens, it's really actively steering it towards your goal. Right, controlling that silver ball, making it do what you want it to do. That's right. So, yeah, mystery, it's a good feeling to get those specials. It's hard to do. I had a jolly and I got that jolly going. I had a gorgeous jolly. If you ever get a chance to look at it on pinballowners.com where I listed all 155 games that were in my collection. You can go there and look at pictures of it. This thing was gorgeous. I got that going but I didn't find that much enjoyment in that. Now, I don't know if Jolly is that. I don't even remember what manufacturer that was. If it was earlier than the mystery and maybe they got a little better as time went on or... I'd have to look into that. I forget what happened. I sold the Jolly to somebody else though. I think we sold it to Dave Cameron Silver. He was buying all them Flip N Out games at the time, but I put it on as the pinball. And some guy jumped on it. It had some nice shape. Really clean game. I found it in a home that was just sitting there. Actually the glass was broken but nothing ever happened to the playfield. It was gorgeous. I love the look of it. It's not the hard work. Just that vintage 40s look and the art from the 40s. You know it's the 40s when you see something like that. It's pretty interesting. Yep. That was actually... The next play... yeah. That was Chicago Coin. Oh it was? Yeah. I didn't know that. That's gotta be so long ago I got that game. It's got all the spring bumpers. Yeah. Remember the guy telling me, yeah, my father had this game and I remember I was seven years old playing this game. He was old, the guy I got it from, his son. So yeah, yeah, it's kind of interesting. I used to love that whole hunting the games down too, man. That's another whole aspect of the hobby that I enjoyed. So, something else I missed that I'm pretty good at too. But I had my take on it, man. I don't think I'll be going back to that. So, well, just a, we're in the home stretch here, Vic. I wanted to let you know, I don't know if I told or shared with you that Double Up, which was probably the bingo from my collection that got the least amount of play at the bingo row. I played it. I know you played it. I liked it. Yeah, it's different. Yeah, it's different, but I think it's it's it's fun. It's just it takes some getting used to the different playfield but What I was going to tell you is that I did check the replays on that one Where the total plays and it had over a thousand plays over the weekend It's pretty cool to think about and And that's, you know, one that didn't get a lot of play. Yeah, I gotta say, I observed that. I sat in that chair, which was nice. I had an open space by the Coney Island and I really didn't move from that chair. I mean, I know you were flying around and doing things and I watched Jim flying around. I mean, I was like the guard. I was just there the whole time and I noticed that there were some serious bingo players and I did want to mention before I forgot now it's coming up since you said that about the double up in the plays and stuff that Pennsylvania had some bingo players. Pennsylvania was a big state, an active state for bingo pinball machines in general. I know the East Coast here in New Jersey was big and a lot of action here but PA being the large state that it is there was a tremendous amount of pinball activity going on in the day out loud. So, with York being kind of where it's located, it was the perfect location to flush out and find out that PA is and has a lot of serious bingo players. Because I watched a couple of guys, they just went from one game and stayed on it and stayed on it and went to another game. I've seen the same faces. I know who the serious players were back then on that day. So it's interesting to note that PA is a big state for bingo pinball and players. And I know quite a few of them down here. Yeah, and I thought it was great just going back to the bingo row there. You know, got to meet people who listen to the podcast. At the end of the podcast they got to play their first bingo, walked them through it, and got to meet people from West Virginia, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, all these areas. It was really something very special. I did want to thank you again for being a part of that and bringing your game and being I'm a fan and advocate and a bingo ambassador with me there. What's that? I should do plenty of them. And yeah, just your love of the game is infectious, you know, and it's great. And I had a great time and I would do it again in a heartbeat as well. So I think we should load up all our bingos together and just move them all this weekend. What do you say? That sounds good but I want to take a step further and have a bingo museum. Oh I would love that. I would love that. I think that would be great to have one of every Bally and United game house somewhere where you could go play. I think that would be fantastic. Well, you know, there are people that have every bally and there are people that have almost every united. Well, we gotta get them together. Well, if you were to have to go and book that guy in there, there's a guy that's got almost every bally. His son's got a real nice collection of united stuff. Someday, something might happen like that because these old timers that are older than me and getting up there in age and have these, You know, almost full collection of United bingos and full collection of Valley bingos. The opportunity might come up where you can place these and it's a dream and I'm thinking, I'm dreaming while I'm talking, to put both of them in some kind of, you know, nonprofit organization, charitable museum type slash maybe mixed them in with some other type of coin up or something or somehow have them survive like that and have them all in one location that would just be the ultimate so in some way with these guys that have these games uh these full almost full collection of bingos you know what's going to happen to them where are they going to go yeah how are we going to be dispersed you know Yeah, I don't know. I mean, you got you got a couple of great gauntlet collectors says that guy in in I think it is Wisconsin. His name is Tom Taylor. Have you ever seen that gentleman's collection? No, I have not. I might send you the link if I can find it. I think I have it. He has every single gauntlet made. And then some. Every single one up and running in a giant facility. Two players, four players, wood rails, wedge heads, every single wedge head. Huh. That's amazing. That is crazy. That's amazing. Yep. I just wanted to share that with you. Stranger things have happened with massive collections. There's things that we don't know about. Every day we don't know about the hobby or the coin-op industry or the pinball world or whatever you want to call it in the day, in the year 2015. This is the future we're in and the game just won't work. And there's a ton that I don't know and I learn every day, absolutely. So it's great fun and it's been great fun to do this podcast and talk to people like yourself, get to meet you and I even got to come up and play your collection. That was fantastic, you know, yet another day that I'll remember for a very, very long time. So, well, Vic, I wanted to thank you again for coming on and I do want to talk with you again in the future about wedge heads and whatever you'd like to. So, as you know, my line is always open. All right, Vic. But thanks very much and I'll talk to you soon. All right, Nick. My pleasure all the time. Take care of yourself. See you soon. You too. Okay, bye. I want to thank my guest, Vic Camp, for coming on and sharing his experience at the bingo row. I'm also very excited for the new bingo folks who are coming along. I talked with another one today who may be picking up that, uh, Restorable Bikini from the York Show. It's nice to see some new folks excited about their first bingo purchases, And I hope they all enjoy them heavily, just as I do. Well, thank you very much for joining me. My name again is Nick Baldrige. You can reach me at 4amusementonlypodcasts at gmail.com, or you can call me on the bingos line at 724-BINGOS-1-724-246-4671. You can listen to us on iTunes, Stitcher, Pocket Casts, via RSS, on Facebook, on Twitter, at Pingo Podcast. You can follow me on Instagram at nbaldrich. You can listen to us on Google Play Music. Or you can listen to us on our website, which is foramusementonly.libsyn.com. Thank you very much for listening, and I'll talk to you next time. Subtitles by the Amara.org community

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 14281b66-3aa0-4c60-9253-af0a1bdf5c7e*