# Episode 398 - Multi-Bingo Progress - all 25 holes done - Magic Pockets - Flippers Arcade - Robo-Frenzy Cabinet - Bingo Questions - 1938 Exhibit Regatta

**Source:** For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2017-06-15  
**Duration:** 49m 14s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://foramusementonly.libsyn.com/episode-398-multi-bingo-progress-all-25-holes-done-magic-pockets-flippers-arcade-robo-frenzy-cabinet-bingo-questions-1938-exhibit-regatta

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## Analysis

Nick Baldridge discusses completion of Multi-Bingo's 25-hole games (Gaiety and Gay Time), implementation of Magic Pockets mechanics with protective code to prevent coil damage, progress on RoboFrenzy cabinet design with Ryan Claytor, plans for the White Rose Game Room Show's bingo row, and detailed technical Q&A about bingo game portioning mechanics, coin features, and design choices.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Only two Bally bingo games ever featured the Magic Pockets mechanism: Gaiety and Gay Time — _Nick Baldridge, host discussing Multi-Bingo project completion_
- [HIGH] Over 100 games can be played on Multi-Bingo using just the standard 25-hole playfield — _Nick Baldridge, response to Kate001 question on Pinside Multi-Bingo thread_
- [HIGH] The reflex unit in bingo machines is an advanced portioning device that allowed operators to adjust game difficulty by changing adjustment plugs or gearing — _Nick Baldridge, technical explanation of Bally game mechanics_
- [HIGH] Bally bingo games had very tight testing and analysis before factory release, with few unfair features — _Nick Baldridge, response to Kate001 questions about game fairness_
- [HIGH] The Twist bingo game provides guaranteed jumps for every coin, a feature unique to that game — _Nick Baldridge, discussing Bally game features_
- [HIGH] 20-hole bingo games removed the traditional bingo card in favor of four-color sectional scoring — _Nick Baldridge, explaining mechanical differences in 20-hole games_
- [HIGH] United bingo games used dual reflex units with different portioning behavior compared to Bally games — _Nick Baldridge, technical explanation of United vs. Bally reflex configurations_
- [HIGH] RoboFrenzy will use a standard penny pitch cabinet instead of a custom robot-shaped design due to play control concerns — _Nick Baldridge, discussing RoboFrenzy cabinet design decisions with Ryan Claytor_

### Notable Quotes

> "The Magic Pockets is a feature in Bingo Pinball that allows you to kick the balls left and right as long as they're within the top row, so the numbers 1 through 7."
> — **Nick Baldridge**, early in episode
> _Explains the unique mechanic implemented only on Gaiety and Gay Time_

> "The way that I set up my code to handle that, I set up my game to work very similarly to the way the original game works, and that's to exercise a delay relay...it locks out that button for approximately two seconds and gives the balls a chance to travel."
> — **Nick Baldridge**, early-mid episode
> _Technical solution to prevent coil collision damage on Magic Pockets mechanism_

> "Bingo Pinball is a contest of wills, human versus machine. The machine never has to provide any step-up of any unit beyond the guaranteed ones."
> — **Nick Baldridge**, mid episode
> _Philosophy on game fairness and player expectations in bingo pinball_

> "I really am so enthralled with Don Hooker and his designs because it's just incredible to think that anyone could come up with these designs mechanically."
> — **Nick Baldridge**, late episode
> _Expresses admiration for legendary bingo game designer Don Hooker_

> "The reflex is additive, but when stepped all the way down, it allows for 50 volts to completely bypass the initial portioning."
> — **Nick Baldridge**, mid episode
> _Technical explanation of reflex unit electrical function_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Nick Baldridge | person | Host of For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast; Multi-Bingo developer; RoboFrenzy builder |
| Ryan Claytor | person | Beloved comics artist collaborating with Nick Baldridge on RoboFrenzy cabinet design |
| Michael Ocean | person | Custom pinball development expert who reviewed Nick's Magic Pockets code for safety |
| David | person | Owner of Flippers Arcade in Grandy, North Carolina |
| Eddie | person | Technician at Flippers Arcade |
| Kate001 | person | Pinside user who asked technical questions about Multi-Bingo portioning mechanics |
| Phil Hooper | person | Documentation researcher for bingo game mechanics; collaborated with Steve Testa on Double or Nothing circuit documentation |
| Steve Testa | person | Contributor to bingo game portioning documentation on Phil Hooper's site |
| Jeffrey Lawton | person | Pinball expert whom Nick consulted about Magic Pockets virtualization; suggested Pinball 2000-style system |
| Don Hooker | person | Legendary bingo pinball designer praised for mechanical complexity of games like Magic Screen games |
| Multi-Bingo | game | Homebrew multi-game bingo pinball machine by Nick Baldridge featuring 100+ games on interchangeable playfields |
| RoboFrenzy | game | Custom electromechanical pinball machine project by Nick Baldridge and Ryan Claytor |
| Gaiety | game | Bally bingo game featuring Magic Pockets mechanism; recently completed in Multi-Bingo |
| Gay Time | game | Bally bingo game featuring Magic Pockets mechanism; recently completed in Multi-Bingo |
| Double Up | game | Bally 20-hole bingo game; previously owned by Nick Baldridge |
| The Twist | game | Bally bingo game with guaranteed jumps for every coin; noted as particularly liberal for players |
| Flippers Arcade | venue | Pinball arcade in Grandy, North Carolina near Outer Banks; owner's private collection; well-maintained games |
| White Rose Game Room Show | event | Annual pinball show featuring bingo row; September 29-30; third year running bingo row with Multi-Bingo featured |
| Carnival Queen | game | First Magic Screen game featuring time tree mechanism |
| Magic Screen games | game | Series of Bally bingo games (Carnival Queen through Malibu Beach) featuring complex time tree portioning |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Multi-Bingo development and implementation, Bingo pinball game mechanics and portioning systems, Magic Pockets mechanism and technical implementation, RoboFrenzy cabinet design and construction
- **Secondary:** Bally vs. United bingo game design differences, Homebrew pinball development and code frameworks, Pinball venue operations and arcade locations, Bingo game fairness and operator adjustments

### Sentiment

**Neutral** (0)

### Signals

- **[design_innovation]** Nick implemented delay relay logic in PyProcGame framework to prevent Magic Pockets coils from colliding when both buttons pressed simultaneously, protecting irreplaceable hardware (confidence: high) — Detailed technical explanation of delay relay method mimicking 1970s Bally hardware behavior to lock out button for ~2 seconds after coil pulse
- **[product_launch]** Multi-Bingo 25-hole games (Gaiety and Gay Time) are now complete; 20 games remain for first pass; additional 5 card-themed games under consideration (confidence: high) — Nick states 'I just finished up the very last 25 whole games that I had left to do' and outlines remaining 20-hole game implementation timeline
- **[design_philosophy]** Nick prioritizes using original hardware (Magic Pockets unit) over virtualization despite complexity, citing gameplay authenticity concerns with ball positioning (confidence: high) — Discussion with Jeffrey Lawton about Pinball 2000 virtualization; Nick decided 'it was best to use the real hardware for this unit' due to ball blocking mechanics affecting gameplay
- **[community_signal]** Michael Ocean provided expert code review for Magic Pockets safety implementation; Jeffrey Lawton consulted on virtualization challenges; indicates active custom pinball development community support (confidence: high) — Nick explicitly thanks both Michael Ocean and Jeffrey Lawton for consultation and references them as part of custom pinball development community
- **[product_strategy]** Nick planning to display Multi-Bingo at White Rose Game Room Show bingo row (Sept 29-30) with restored cabinet and most Bally/Williams/Keeney bingo games; undecided on alternate playfields (confidence: high) — Nick states 'This is the first year with the restored cabinet on the multi-bingo' and discusses playfield logistics with listeners
- **[restoration_signal]** RoboFrenzy cabinet build underway; switching from custom robot-shaped design to standard penny pitch cabinet due to play control concerns; frame construction starting Father's Day (confidence: high) — Nick discusses design collaboration with Ryan Claytor, mentions measuring penny pitch cabinet, plans to build plywood frame 'this Sunday which happens to be Father's Day'
- **[historical_signal]** Deep technical analysis of bingo game portioning reveals sophisticated mechanical design: reflex units, mixer combinations, spotting discs, and 16-pulse cam switches were highly tuned by manufacturers (confidence: high) — Extended Q&A with Kate001 covering reflex functionality, mixer behavior, multiple step mechanics, and operator adjustment capabilities
- **[design_philosophy]** Bally bingo games were deliberately balanced to take player money while providing high entertainment value; United games were even more liberal with guaranteed features but compensated with harder odds (confidence: high) — Nick's analysis: 'games are well balanced to take your money yes but to provide a large amount of entertainment for your nickels' and discussion of United's three-phase portioning approach
- **[venue_signal]** Flippers Arcade in Grandy, NC highlighted as exemplary pinball venue with excellent maintenance, owner's curated collection, good location, and community engagement (SFGE participation) (confidence: high) — Nick's detailed praise: 'fantastic place to play pinball...wonderful...great attention is paid to the upkeep...They were getting ready to load up to go to SFGE'
- **[design_innovation]** Bingo games hide beneficial mechanics from players: Magic Screen feature unit steps twice before visible indicators appear; multiple steps possible but invisible until featured reward is claimed (confidence: high) — Nick explains: 'The Magic Screen Feature Unit actually steps twice before you start seeing A, B, C, and D lighting up. And there's no teaser arrows or visible representation of that.'
- **[product_concern]** Card-themed bingo games (Twin Joker, Williams Yukon) may not fit in standard Multi-Bingo cabinet due to width; Nick undecided on including them in first pass rather than compromise play experience (confidence: high) — Nick states: 'The playfield for Twin Joker in particular is too wide to go in a standard bingo pinball cabinet...if the geometry doesn't work...I'd rather leave them out than implement them and make it so that it's not fun to play'
- **[community_signal]** Two-week podcast schedule makes covering pinball news difficult; daily show format was easier for staying current; impacts content organization (confidence: medium) — Nick reflects: 'doing this show on a two-week schedule is actually kind of rough for me because it's hard to keep all the news straight unless it happened that day'

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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 Nicholas Baldridge. A lot of stuff all the time. Seems like that's how I start every show now. But I've been continuing to work on the multi-bingo. That has been proceeding well. In fact, I just finished up the very last 25 whole games that I had left to do. Those were Gaiety and Gay Time. And for those of you who might have been listening for a long time, those two games are the only two Magic Pockets games that Bally produced. The Magic Pockets is a feature in Bingo Pinball that allows you to kick the balls left and right as long as they're within the top row, so the numbers 1 through 7. This feature was never used again on any of the other alternate playfields, like the 20-hole, the 18-hole, any of those. So it's specific to those two games, and those were the last 25-hole ones I had to complete, and they are now done. I've moved on to the 20-holes and more about those in a minute, but before that, I mentioned last episode that there were some protections that I needed to make to the unit itself. the Magic Pockets unit is very hard to find, and I was incredibly lucky to get a hold of one and install it on my spare gaiety playfield that I had. However, I've been very concerned about destroying that unit because there's no replacement, and there's no way to really fix any of the kickover claws if they break. So unlike a standard kickout, or a game like, say, Gottlieb's Sing-Along, where you have a kickout that feeds to another kickout, these are much more accurate. It's these large metal claws, which extend out and basically place the ball into the next hole. It's really cool to see. Very unusual and unique. but there's a problem. The way that it works, there are two different coils, both very powerful 120 volt coils, and when those are pulsed, it will push all the balls to the left or right. All well and good, but what happens if in my computer controlled environment, somebody presses both the left and right buttons at the same time, it's possible that the left and right claws could reach up and smash into each other. Do that enough, and one will break. So I don't want that to happen, and so I've been very cautious about it. The way that I set up my code to handle that, I set up my game to work very similarly to the way the original game works, and that's to exercise a delay relay. Now this delay relay is a virtual relay. It's not real in my game. But what it does is it locks out that button for approximately two seconds and gives the balls a chance to travel and the coils to release before checking the state of the holes and seeing if there's a ball in holes one through seven because it could have traveled down the play field or anything could happen. and then it will allow you to pulse either the opposite side, again locking it out, or the same side, continuing to move it left or right. In the PyProcGame framework, the way this works is through a delay method. So there's a built-in way to handle something that needs to happen in the future, which is very clever, and I use that all over the place for different things, from rendering the graphics, since I'm doing it outside of the default way to render the graphics, to something like this, where I need to ensure the state of a relay changes after a certain period of time. This is similar to the types of relays used in 1970s Bally games for handling tilt, especially multiplayers, where there is a 455 flash lamp, that goes across the hold switch in the coil for the tilt relay and it will keep that tilt relay engaged until enough current bleeds into the lamp to change its state to on and then it'll not have enough current to power both and drop the relay so Basically it holds that relay closed for two seconds and then lets it go and then that's what allows you to move it back and forth. Hopefully that's not too super technical. But that wasn't enough for my peace of mind because it works on my test machine, my development machine, but that's not to say that I couldn't plug it in and then have missed something and then smash a roo. So I ended up emailing, I've mentioned before with one of the custom pinball development folks. His name is Michael Ocean. He is incredibly helpful, and I'm very thankful for his time. He took a look at my code. He said that that should work, so I'm very excited. Getting that second opinion means a lot. And, again, I'm very thankful for his time. So thank you, Michael. And I hope you get to come check it out at some point. hopefully I'll be in your neck of the woods or vice versa at some point so delay relays aside what else has been going on I mentioned I started work on the 20 hole games this is the largest collection of games I have left to implement I have only 20 games left until I'm finished with my first pass at least of every game I have an additional 5 games listed that are the card-themed games, which are kind of novelties, kind of not novelties. Things like Bally's Twin Joker. And they use an alternate playfield layout. So I'm not sure if I'm going to implement them here in this first pass or not. I need a playfield that will fit. The playfield for Twin Joker in particular is too wide to go in a standard bingo pinball cabinet, at least to my eye. I could be wrong. I certainly haven't taken a measuring tape to it, so I'm not sure what I'm going to do with those yet, and whether or not they should be part of this project or a different one. I would like to include them, but if the geometry doesn't work, you know, if I can't ensure a consistent play experience, then I'd rather leave them out than implement them and make it so that it's not fun to play them. That would be a shame in my opinion because there's a couple of really beautiful games in there like Williams Yukon that I've been over in the podcast before. But, you know, we'll see what happens. And in other news, I've also gotten a little further on RoboFrenzy. Beloved comics artist Ryan Claytor and I sat down together. We had the opportunity during a much needed and wonderful vacation, during which we both got to go down with our families and enjoy Flippers Arcade. And do yourself a favor if you're heading down that way and go to Flippers. I'm sure many of you have heard this before, but it's a fantastic place to play pinball. It's the owner's collection of games, and they are wonderful. They all play very well, and great attention is paid to the upkeep of the games and the location. It's really quite wonderful. And it's a great location, too. It's right on your way to the Outer Banks before you hit the big bridge. So you can hit it going there and coming back, and even better, they have gas. so if you need to fuel up on your way back from vacation you can do that stop in, play some pinball and have a good time I was fortunate enough to meet the owner David as well as one of his techs, Eddie and hello to you both if you're listening had a great time really enjoyed getting to meet you all and getting to play your game so thanks very much and they were very busy. They were getting ready to load up to go to SFGE. So kudos to them for bringing all those games and sharing them with the public. Again, check out Flipper's Arcade down in Grandy, North Carolina. So Ryan and I sat down to discuss RoboFrenzy and the current state of that game. Where we left off, Ryan had wanted to design a new cabinet that would have an interesting profile. something that would look more like a physical robot. And this was in the RoboFrenzy thread. We'd been talking about that. Of course, I, with my super cheap nature, had suggested that we not do that. It seems like I'm always naysaying. But in this case, there were some practical concerns when we sat down and actually talked about it. With the design that he was thinking of, there might have been issues with play control because the bump outs in the cabinet you might have run your hands into them if you were in a spirited mode so what we're going to try is to use a standard penny pitch size cabinet and thankfully Ryan has one of those games and he was able to measure for me so this Sunday which happens to be Father's Day I'll pick up some plywood and go to town. We'll see what I can build and if I'm actually able to accomplish anything this Sunday. But that's kind of the goal. I'll be taking my customary blurry and too dark pictures as I go, so you can follow along. And once the cabinet's built, you know, in basic, then I'll start populating with units. everything has to be mounted in such a way that it's serviceable, and I have plenty of ideas about that. So I'll be working on that, and that may require that I build out a different size cabinet. Now, the way the cabinet's constructed is actually very simple. Thanks to some photos that Ryan provided, I saw that the penny pitch cabinet is basically just finish nailed together. So So it's really no joinery that needs to be made. So it should be really simple to make that thing. But we'll see. The back door, I plan to use bingo-style hinges. Again, I have lots of thoughts about serviceability, and bingo-style hinges for the back door means that you can actually pull the back door off and set it down somewhere to work on the relays inside. that should be very helpful to your back if you're working on the game for a long period of time, you know 30 years from now or much farther into the future long after I gone So I still have the custom controls to get made along with the gearing and so forth that I need to order but I need to have the actual physical unit in front of me so that I can take accurate measurements. Of course, those are key when you're talking about things like gearing. I want to make sure that stuff actually turns when it's supposed to. And again, that it's You know, it won't do any good if I have this monstrosity set up so that there's no way to work on it. I need to have enough space for, you know, a coin box, isolation between units so that if a piece falls, it's not going to short out everything in the game. Those kind of things. Still taking the project slowly. You know, I don't want to get burned out again. I feel like I'm just turning the corner on my last session of burnout. Really diving back into the code has helped quite a bit on that for me. So once that's finished and I feel like I've got things in a relatively playable state, it'll allow me to pause and really focus a lot of time and attention on the other hobby projects I've got going on. So I'm looking forward to that. And in other news, the Ork Show is right around the corner, it feels like. It's at the very end of September, I believe the 29th and 30th, and it's about that time. We need to start rallying together for the bingo row and see who might be bringing what. I plan to bring at least two games this year, and I'm going to start reaching out to the other bingo collectors and see if anybody can bring some stuff, and we'll go from there. If you haven't been out before, this will be the third year that we'll be doing the bingo row at the White Rose Game Room Show. This is the first year with the restored cabinet on the multi-bingo, and it will have almost all of the bingos ever produced, and some that haven't been, all in one cabinet. I'm undecided on how many playfields I'll be bringing, or if I'll be bringing alternate playfields. The majority of the games can be played with a single playfield, so I may just bring that standard playfield again, but we'll see. it's a little ways away and I can certainly be convinced so if there's something that you want to play let me know and I'll be sure to bring the appropriate play field for that as long as I have it there's a couple that I do not have at the moment but I have most everything in the works in some way or another so in the multi some of the treats include United Serenade which was only discovered this year and the entire United complement is already in the multi and then again all the 25 hole belly bingos ever produced and at least one that wasn't is in there and the Williams bingo and all the Keeney bingos so come on down, give it a shot, let me know what you think and then play some of the other fine traditional bingos that are there in bingo row. Okay, so other things that are happening, and I think I've mentioned before, doing this show on a two-week schedule is actually kind of rough for me because it's hard to keep all the news straight unless it happened that day. That was kind of the advantage of doing a daily show, but life is a balance. In the multi-bingo thread on Pinside, a user, Kate001, asked some really great questions about the project and about things that I found specifically in the circuitry of the different games. For example, one of the questions, how many different playfields would you need to play a majority of the games? And I responded, one, over 100 games can be played with the standard 25-hole playfield. You miss out on some really cool features, but if you swap that standard 25-hole playfield for a hold feature playfield, with 25 holes and rollovers, of which there's only two, Surf Club or Ice Frolics, you get another three games on top of the over 100, because you can play all the hold feature games. As far as the size of the game, that was another question, you can make it as small as you like. You could even make a scale model of the playfield if you choose. I'm providing all the documentation to wire up Jones plugs and the cabinet wiring. You'll be able to scale it up or down and do exactly as I've done fairly easily. Another question. In your examination of the portioning mechanisms, have you found any features that might have been secretly lucrative for a player, like some double or nothing circuits that actually gave greater than 50% odds? My response? well, the Reflex really handles portioning of the Double or Nothing in all Double or Nothing games and none of the games had that precisely documented until last month I mentioned that I need to go back and review my implementation to make sure it's correct now that that documentation is out there and thank you to Phil Hooper and the generous fellow who did that documentation credited as Steve Testa on Phil's site What I've found is that there are some features that are very lucrative for a player that require a crazy amount of fortuitous positioning to achieve. Several mixers, spotting disc, and lack of certain other features are required. However, these features should be difficult to achieve. They give a gigantic advantage. There are very, very few unfair things, though. In fact, all the games I've worked on so far, I can only recall one that had a funky method for preventing odd steps. As far as secretly lucrative, uh, I can't think of one. Many of the features, like the magic screen, were quite obviously lucrative, and usually required several coins in in order to achieve. These machines had a ton of analysis and testing done before leaving the factory. Certain games, like The Twist specifically, are very lucrative for the player. It's very easy to qualify jumps and odds are the feature. In fact, on The Twist, they are guaranteed jumps. Every coin gives you a jump of some kind or another. the feature was only used on this game and it's very very powerful the magic cards that work like the magic screen and actually change the layout of the bingo card i suspect that the idea was killed before it had the chance to take off because it was hampered by the weird coin setup one exception to this rule is the united side i think their games are incredibly liberal with guaranteed features per coin they address this by making odds more difficult to achieve it all balances out but in different ways if you follow the reflex was an incredible portioning device well ahead of its time it was very simple in its construction but the flexibility it allowed operators that understood it was incredible if the game was too stingy they could change an adjustment plug or the gearing on the reflex to make it more liberal if the game was too liberal they could do the opposite what i've found above all thus far is that the games are well balanced to take your money yes but to provide a large amount of entertainment for your nickels, at least as they left the factory. So Vic chimed in and asked what happens when you disconnect coils from the reflex. Do features light up easier in extra balls? And my response was that almost all the portioning runs through part of the reflex unit. If you disconnect the step-up coil with the unit stepped all the way down, the majority of portioning will bypass the mixer one reflex combination. The reflex is additive, but when stepped all the way down, it allows for 50 volts to completely bypass the initial portioning. You still have to make it through the typically two other mixers in the spotting disc to achieve an odds reward, for example. Extra balls also generally have to go through two mixers in the spotting disc. Features will be much easier to achieve as they generally only go through one additional mixer in the spotting disc. This only applies to ballet games, though. United games went through three distinct phases with their portioning. most of their games were produced with a dual reflex one could be reset inside the coin door and the other moved in a different way and operates more like a mixer if I recall correctly the first reflex needs to be able to move for that reason but the second could be disconnected in the reset position and you would get most of the benefit of a ballet game another question from Kate001 in a game like Surf Club what's it called when you add a credit and the game randomly gives you a feature a teaser, or just flashes and does nothing. I always assumed that was done somewhat unfairly to make things harder to get. My response? I call that the coin flash. The game never has to do anything. I don't think it's unfair, per se. Bingo Pinball is a contest of wills, human versus machine. The machine never has to provide any step-up of any unit beyond the guaranteed ones. For your money, you get the coin flash animation, and that's all you can expect. Many times the game happens to land in the appropriate position to give you an increase in your odds or award towards a feature. This portioning is actually very controlled despite running through all these different mechanical units. Each game is 100% different for this reason. Take four nickels and put them in any game and each will behave a little differently. But the beauty is that occasionally you'll get a double, triple, jump in odds from the extra step unit, or run to the top on extra balls or a feature. It's all dependent on how the last person played the game, how you're playing, and how the machine happens to land on each of those critical units. As far as unfair, I did think of something. Some of the games, Magic Screen and later, had a Mixer 2 or Mixer 4 relay that would engage when portioning was allowed to pass through the mixer. That relay shuts off when the units are in certain positions and will absolutely stop your otherwise easily awarded feature from coming up. somewhere during the 20 hole game the behavior of mixer 4 relay was changed so that when it was engaged no portioning could pass through I'm not there yet but that's how my double up behaved I think this is relatively unfair for some value of unfair it's part of the game and was a way to change the percentage frequency of step up so I don't personally consider this unfair that's kind of the other problem I almost have blinders onto that stuff since I've been so deep in it for so long now and I mentioned these questions are awesome and are making me stretch my brain a bit another question are you talking about teaser lights that go on but you're not yet awarded a feature when you mention increase your odds or awards toward a feature I always wondered if those teaser lights coming on actually meant your odds toward that feature were increasing or if they were just there to dazzle and distract the player if I put a coin in and nothing ends up happening after the coin flash Are there internal feature odds it might also be potentially increasing, even if nothing turns on with that credit? And I said, yep. The stepper unit that controls, say, a super card will light those teasers as it steps. The feature is only awarded on step number four. For games with a selection feature unit, a time tree, the teaser arrows show what position the time tree will be in once the magic screen is awarded. The next question, can a feature step all the way right away or multiple times at once? And if so, curious as to how rare an occurrence the multiple steps would be. And my response, this is where game-to-game specifics come in. Bally implemented a set of switches on the mixer and spotting disk unit called the 16-pulse cam switches. These switches allow for multiple steps when the spotting disk and other portioning fall in line Each game with stepper features a typical example is Extra Balls has a possibility of multiple steps In the case of Extra Balls it possible to put in a nickel and get it to run to the top, also known as awarding all three Extra Balls on one nickel or button press, but it's highly, highly, highly unlikely it'll happen. But it's a possibility. More likely you'll get a run to number two. More likely than that, you'll get a run to number one, and most likely you'll get the guaranteed single step lighting first. The portioning is fairly tightly controlled on multiple steps. In my run-to-the-top extra ball example, despite normal portioning that runs through typically two mixers and landing on a single rivet on the spotting disc, an additional check or checks are performed through the reflex and or mixer three or four, depending on the game. The reflex has to be in an almost completely liberal position and the mixer typically has a handful or less rivets that allow pass-through. Hopefully that illustrates how difficult that would be. Stars have to align pretty heavily. It's still possible, though. The bummer from a player's perspective is that it's invisible. So putting in your 40th nickel to try and get the third extra ball gets you a run to the top after your first two extra balls are already awarded. Big deal. Bally provided an operator adjustment plug to allow operators to set how frequently single or multiple steps would come up. It added additional rivets on the spotting disc. I have my game set in the least liberal position, and it still comes up frequently enough that I'm concerned I've misread that part of the portioning. But I do stuff in testing like putting in a thousand coins and observing every part to ensure portioning is working properly. So at least I have some relative idea of how frequently stuff is coming up. The next question, I don't understand what a time tree is. What games use it? The most obvious use of the time tree is the Magic Screen Game, starting with Carnival Queen and running through Bounty and Malibu Beach. On the right-hand side of the glass, there's a list of times that the movement feature will be locked out, beginning with before 4th and running all the way to after 5th. Advancing this unit is key to really getting massive amounts of replays on a Magic Screen Game, because you can win in multiple colors. Another question was regarding the Magic Pockets unit. the Magic Pockets feature seems like a very unique mechanic will there be an allowance for generic playfields to digitally emulate the Magic Pockets movement? my response was, I haven't written it as so I thought and thought and thought some more about this because that unit is so hard to find and I also spoke with Jeffrey Lawton about this problem a person whom I'm very glad to call a friend and he suggested a pinball 2000 type system where the balls could be observed to move, though they were stationary underneath. The problem with any virtualized movement from the pockets is that you might as well go full virtual for your playfield. The balls are set in a position that will block additional balls being shot from landing in a hole. This changes how you steer the ball and how you play the remainder of the game, and that's between one and four balls. In the end, I decided it was best to use the real hardware for this unit, though it was far more complex than I suspected. anyone can take my code and make a virtual pockets unit however it won't be hard to do change the behavior of switch left active and switch right active to remove from self.holes and add to self.holes adding that as an option would also be easy i have the code set to check the jones plug selector for the playfield installed simply check that switch and if it's not in the right position do emulation i might add that on a future pass through myself I maintain a notebook with a list of things that I would like to do for the code in the future and I've gone ahead and added that to my notebook whether or not those changes see the light of day in the future is up to the future but for now it's on my list and I think it'd be kind of an interesting challenge to have a system that could do both if it so chose I do see a lot of problem with doing that because that feature is already confusing to new players especially having to know which combinations will be made and how the balls actually move and interact with each other is something that is not completely intuitive when looking at it but it would be a fun design challenge at least so we'll see if that gets done I do have other things on the refactor list that are much shorter fuse things like adding appropriate search sounds for magic screen games going through all my portioning and making sure that everything is correct once I have my initial pass done going through and tightening up and playtesting all these new games that I've added to make sure that there's no hugely critical bugs adding scorn instruction cards for everything to my little scorn instruction displays. I've been really lax about that. I've got some work ahead of me, basically. This will be something that's backburnered for now, but I think it's interesting, so I might go ahead and do that. So, now you're caught up on the pin side thread. I know there's some folks that don't have Pinside accounts that listen to the show and others that don't really read Pinside. So I thought those were interesting questions and hopefully you did too. And they weren't too super technical and boring for the majority of you. But those questions were awesome and I really enjoyed, you know, the mental exercise of answering them. And it's really interesting and illustrates how much more I understand about the games now than I did. For example, as far as those teaser lamps, there was a question about whether or not, you know, the steppers could be moving in a way that was advantageous, but the player didn't notice. And my response was that that does happen, but rarely. But I couldn't think of an example right away. and then it came to me, the Magic Screen Feature Unit actually steps twice before you start seeing A, B, C, and D lighting up. And there's no teaser arrows or visible representation of that. It's just the way that it works. And I think that that's the way it works for all the Magic Screen games except for Ballerina. But I don't recall off the top of my head. Um, there are very, very few things like that. Uh, most of the time there's a one-to-one relationship. So like on that selection feature unit, uh, when it steps up and you get the teaser arrow on the right-hand side, uh, that's telling you where the time tree will be if you get the magic screen lit. so if that steps all the way up and points to after 5th well then you might as well put in some nickels and try to get the screen lit because you have the opportunity to win a whole lot of replays on that particular game so almost enough bingo talk it's only been half an hour so far let's talk a little bit about the 20 holes Those games are really quite different and difficult from a portioning perspective. They build off of the Magic Screen games themselves, which are hugely complex. I really am so enthralled with Don Hooker and his designs because it's just incredible to think that anyone could come up with these designs mechanically. The game has to do so much calculation in different ways based on the position of the screen. It's just really neat. So on the 20 holes, what's different about those is that they've done away with the regular bingo card. Instead, it's all sectional scoring. So you have a blue section, a yellow section, a red section, and a green section. And these sections correspond to four different colors in the odds instead of just three. And you can win in all four at once. if you have the numbers lined up appropriately. Now they took out five of the holes, so there's only 20 holes on the playfield, but at any given time, only 16 of the numbers on the back glass are actually winners. What I mean by that is only four numbers are in any given section, and then the fifth number corresponds with what's called a star zone hole, or star zone number, and that star zone only counts towards that particular color section if all the other numbers are lit within that section. So by default, it counts for nothing. This is quite a departure from the way that all the previous games worked, And the star zones themselves can score if you get all four star zones at once, so one in each color. However, that feature has to be lit for that to count. So if you pull off that feat without the feature lit, it doesn't matter because it won't work. It's very difficult to do. I only achieved it a small number of times when I owned Double Up, and I'm looking forward to that challenge again with this new set of games in the multi. So I'm starting with Border Beauty, and as far as the portioning goes, what's kind of fascinating about it is that they've changed the way that certain things are awarded, and they've really, really changed the way that extra balls work. It's quite different. I'm not sure if I'm interpreting it correctly it's so vastly different but we'll see in testing just from the console no graphics yet it looks like it's fairly trivial to get an extra ball but I could be wrong that has certainly happened before starting about four or five games in they added a fifth mixer so you already have multiple mixers that the game is running through for different checks and calculations they added a fifth one which of course increases the complexity and they changed the behavior of the mixer 4 relay which I talked about before so I'm going to have to be careful as I go not to make a really silly mistake and allow stuff through mixer 4 when it should be shutting off. But, in any case, I'm excited to get the first of these games done, and the portioning is almost identical for the first three to four games that are 20-hole. I've already taken a look, and everything from the wire color to the position of the mixers looks like it aligns. So the only thing I really have to check between those first four or five games are the spotting disc, and make sure that the same number of rivets in the same positions are used from game to game They probably not There a few other examples where they games which are very very close especially those United games where they were traveling across the world. If you recall, when I was working through those, it was like Mexico, Havana, Hawaii, Tahiti, those kind of place games. the portioning was almost identical and the only thing that changed were the positions on the spotting disc so anyway I'm really looking forward to digging in it's like a brand new challenge again it has kind of revitalized me so I'm really excited we'll see how it goes so after the tech heaviest forum amusement only podcast that has ever existed Are you ready for the featured game? I'm ready for the featured game. Let's go. Year of Flipperless. What was that sound? Oh, welcome to the year of Flipperless. Alright, this is my first in a year-long series about Flipperless pinball machines, not of the bingo variety, and just how fun and cool they are with different unique design elements that a lot of people overlook because they see that there are no flippers and figure that the game just isn't going to be fun. You don't need something that rockets the ball back up the play field in order to have fun, in my opinion. A lot of fun comes from the way the ball moves and the goal that you're attempting to achieve. And the goals for some of these games are actually really very interesting and distinct. when you think about the units and the layout of these different playfields, it's really quite astounding what they were able to achieve with just simple elements. So today's game is an example of that. It is 1938 Exhibit Regatta. And this pretty much exemplifies what I was talking about with simple design. Simple layout. Looking at the play field, there are a variety of bumpers labeled number 1 through 15. And these are passive spring bumpers. You smack into them and they move a thing on the back glass. Their layout is very interesting and I'll get to that in a moment. what is also interesting is that they're lit bumpers, which are lighted by two different lamps. One is yellow and one is red. On the back glass there are two different colors, yellow and red, to match those bumpers. There are numbers 1 through 15 in each color, and on the left hand side you have the red with the label lights out. And on the right-hand side, you have the yellow with the label lights on. And what you're attempting to do, hit the lit bumpers for the color in which you're trying to achieve. This is difficult because each bumper hit randomizes which bumpers are lit. And they can be lit, again, in either red or yellow. So you may be advancing your red when you need to be advancing your yellow and so forth. The other tricky thing is that this is a sequence game and not a straightforward sequence, meaning if I hit number one and it's lit in yellow, then it will advance my yellow by turning on the number one on the back glass, but that same bumper will never light another number. It will only light number one. So you have to be very particular in how you're plunging, how you're nudging, to make sure that you don't accidentally hit one that you don't need, as it may switch it to another color, or that you don't accidentally rebound down the playfield in a way that you don't want to access one of the bumpers that you do need. If you hit it and it's something that you didn't need, in a worst-case scenario, it would swap the color, in a best case scenario, it would randomize the layout of the rest of the playfield and change what you needed to shoot towards. So this looks very tricky by the layout. So let me describe that a little bit so you can get kind of an idea. The numbers 1, 2, 3, and 6 are arranged north, west, east, south, right at the top third of the playfield. numbers 4 and 5 flank the number 6 further down the playfield with 11 in the center 4 and 5 have a flag spring in front so the only way to hit those is from either side you can go around it or from the flag spring which is underneath number 4 and 5 and bouncing up that will take some quick maneuvering but even more difficult is the number 6 Number 6 can only be hit if you happen to land on the flag spring in front of number 4 or 5, or you hit the curled spring, which is mounted above number 11, and bounce upwards. There's a curled spring that's mounted above number 6 that prevents you from just hitting it from the side or dead on. That looks very challenging. Below number 11, you have numbers 7 and 8 flanking on the left and right. Again, there's a flag spring, which is in between those and numbers 4 and 5. So you can roll off the tip of the flag spring and land on number 7 or 8. In the center of those and below is number 12. So, again, the only way to hit 11 is to rebound from number 7 or 8. You'd have to be going very, very fast indeed. or hitting the double spring above number 12. Looks pretty tough. And then below that, you have arrayed in a V pattern, 9, 13, 15, 14, and 10. Hitting those numbers is easiest as you're going down. Of course, there are pins in the play field which also direct your movement. So steering the ball is going to be crucial. And doing so without tilting looks very difficult, at least to me. So I would love to play this game. It certainly looks very simple. The artwork on it is quite beautiful, however. The thing which is a little distracting is the bumper caps. So being spring bumpers, these don't have traditional bumper caps as we know them today. They have these screw-on washers, basically, that hold the spring assembly together and keep it in place. And all the numbers except the ones that are straight up the center, that's number 1, 6, 11, 12, and 15, are yellow. Those ones in the center are purple. I just feel like the color doesn't quite match the artwork on the play field. also as there's no score and instruction card available on the IPDB I'm not certain what the significance of the purple bumpers are so if anyone knows I'd love to know and I'll be happy to report back but as far as the artwork goes the cabinet artwork is relatively sparse this is a game from 1938 however it does have a stencil and the stencil is kind of cool you've got the hint of mountains on the sides and two blue stripes with a white stripe in between and that is representative of the ocean and I know this because of the front of the game which has a yacht on it that's participating in the regatta and then two seagulls which are flying away it's very cool It's, like, minimalist and unusual for the time period. So it's really, really neat, I think. The wooden legs on this game, the exhibit legs, are also pretty neat from this time period. They have kind of this ridge that's cut into either side of the leg. So it must be a very beautiful look at just the leg by itself. which says something right there. But looking at the back glass, at the top you've got exhibits regatta, and as was typical at the time, the game name is in quotes. You have lights out on the left and all the red numbers, and those are arrayed in one half of a V. The other half is lights on, on the right, and that's your yellow. In the bottom left there's a buoy, and that buoy is floating in the ocean, and you have a yacht that is in the midst of a race right in the center of the V, and in the distance you can see another couple yachts that are either further along in the race or something. I worked with a guy once who raced in regattas, and what he had told me about was anytime you saw a buoy, you were supposed to make a turn. So what's interesting is these boats in the distance, maybe they're not even participating in the regatta, but it'd be unusual for that boat not to start making a turn from what he told me. But I don't know. Looking at the playfield, the artwork is actually really cool. You've got a sun setting, and it's throwing out all these different colors, starting with yellow and working its way up to a pink or a purple near the top. In the very center of the play field and going all the way from number 15 all the way up to number one is the sail from the yacht and then the yacht itself. And arrayed in that bottom V, 9, 13, 15, 14, 10, those bumpers, is the bottom of the sunset, at the horizon line, and below that is the ocean with seagulls flying near the trough down at the bottom that holds the balls as you finish playing. Just beautiful artwork, and I think it's very cool, especially for the time period. So, again, this is just the beginning of the year of Flipper List. And that's all for tonight. Thank you very much for listening. My name again is Nicholas Baldridge. You can reach me at 4amusementonlypodcast at gmail.com, or you can call me on the bingos line. That's 724-BINGOS1, 724-246-4671. You can listen to us on iTunes, Pocket Casts, Stitcher. You can find me on Facebook at 4amusementonlypodcast. You can follow me on Instagram at bingopodcast, or on Twitter, also at bingopodcast. and you can listen to us on our website which is for amusement only dot libsyn dot com thank you very much for listening and I'll talk to you next time year of flipper list

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 1a861701-7c13-46b1-b54b-6439cbe46f7c*