# Episode 176 - EM Oddities Week of 9-1-15

**Source:** For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2015-09-03  
**Duration:** 7m 42s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://foramusementonly.libsyn.com/episode-176-em-oddities-week-of-9-1-15

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## Analysis

Nicholas Baldridge discusses technical oddities encountered while working on EM and bingo pinball machines, including unconventional Jones plug mounting in Gottlieb four-player games and incompatibility between bingo and pinball wood rails. He also promotes guest appearances on Don's Pinball Podcast and Spooky Pinball's EM Dungeon podcast.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Gottlieb used floating Jones plug panels in several four-player games, including some wedge head models, where plugs hang freely in the cabinet rather than mounting to fixed positions — _Nicholas Baldridge describing observation of Super Soccer and confirmation from Vic that this was a known Gottlieb practice across multiple games_
- [HIGH] Bingo wood rails are shaped completely differently from standard pinball wood rails and cannot be easily substituted or modified to fit — _Nicholas Baldridge's direct experience attempting to retrofit rails on a Ballet Nightclub Bingo restoration project_
- [HIGH] Nicholas Baldridge appeared as guest on Don's Pinball Podcast episode 63 discussing Gottlieb's Circus and on Spooky Pinball's EM Dungeon with James Willing discussing cost reduction effects in pinball machines — _Host promotion of recent guest podcast appearances_

### Notable Quotes

> "Most of their stuff is really thoroughly designed and thought out. So I found that kind of strange and jarring compared to what I would have expected."
> — **Nicholas Baldridge**, ~2:30
> _Establishes the unexpectedness of the Jones plug design quirk given Gottlieb's reputation for thorough engineering_

> "you just have this panel, which is wired up with all the female sides of the Jones plugs, and you dangle it down from the head into the cabinet through the neck, and then you take your Jones plugs and the male side and you plug them into that panel and it just floats there in the air"
> — **Nicholas Baldridge**, ~3:00
> _Technical description of the unconventional Gottlieb Jones plug mounting system_

> "Turns out I was wrong. The bingo wood rails are shaped completely differently from the pinball wood rails."
> — **Nicholas Baldridge**, ~5:30
> _Key technical discovery about incompatibility between bingo and pinball machine components_

> "I was so sure that any rails would work. So, oh well."
> — **Nicholas Baldridge**, ~6:30
> _Humorous acknowledgment of assumption error in restoration work_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Nicholas Baldridge | person | Host of For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast; EM pinball technician and restorer with expertise in Gottlieb machines and bingo games |
| Don Garrison | person | Host of Don's Pinball Podcast; had Nicholas Baldridge as guest on episode 63 |
| James Willing | person | Host of EM Dungeon on Spooky Pinball Podcast; had Nicholas Baldridge as guest discussing cost reduction in pinball machines |
| Taylor | person | Friend who owns a Gottlieb Super Soccer machine; showed Nicholas Baldridge the unusual Jones plug mounting system |
| Vic | person | Pinball enthusiast/expert who confirmed that Gottlieb used the floating Jones plug design on multiple games including wedge heads |
| Gottlieb | company | EM pinball manufacturer known for thorough design; used unconventional Jones plug mounting and created incompatible wood rail designs for bingo vs standard pinball machines |
| Super Soccer | game | Gottlieb four-player game featuring the unusual floating Jones plug mounting system in the head |
| Ballet Nightclub Bingo | game | Bingo pinball machine being restored by Nicholas Baldridge; requires specialized bingo wood rails incompatible with standard pinball rails |
| Circus | game | Gottlieb solid-state game from 1980s discussed in Nicholas Baldridge's appearance on Don's Pinball Podcast episode 63 |
| Don's Pinball Podcast | organization | Pinball podcast where Nicholas Baldridge was guest; episodes available at pinballpodcast.com |
| Spooky Pinball Podcast | organization | Features EM Dungeon show; hosted James Willing interviews with Nicholas Baldridge about cost reduction in pinball; available at spookypinball.com/podcast |
| For Amusement Only | organization | EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast hosted by Nicholas Baldridge; focuses on electromechanical and bingo pinball machines |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Gottlieb engineering and design quirks in EM machines, EM pinball machine restoration and repair, Bingo pinball machine compatibility and parts sourcing
- **Secondary:** Jones plugs and electrical connector design in EM games, Wood rail construction and standardization across manufacturers, Pinball podcast ecosystem and cross-promotion
- **Mentioned:** Cost reduction in pinball machine manufacturing

### Sentiment

**Neutral** (0.5) — Tone is informative and conversational with light humor about restoration challenges. Baldridge expresses genuine curiosity about design oddities rather than criticism. Some self-deprecating humor about incorrect assumptions.

### Signals

- **[community_signal]** Nicholas Baldridge actively guest-posting across multiple pinball podcasts (Don's Pinball Podcast, Spooky Pinball EM Dungeon) to build audience and cross-promote content (confidence: high) — Host explicitly mentions recent guest appearances and encourages listeners to check out those shows, providing URLs and episode numbers
- **[design_philosophy]** Gottlieb used unconventional, cost-saving approaches like floating Jones plug panels in multi-player heads, suggesting design pragmatism over conventional mounting standards (confidence: medium) — Baldridge notes this as unusual and uncharacteristic given Gottlieb's reputation, but Vic confirms it was used on multiple games, suggesting intentional design choice
- **[technology_signal]** Identification of significant incompatibility between bingo and standard pinball wood rail designs, suggesting different manufacturing standards and tooling between machine types (confidence: high) — Direct hands-on experience with Ballet Nightclub Bingo restoration where bingo rails could not be modified to fit standard pinball frames

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## Transcript

 what's that sound it's for amusement only the em and bingo pinball podcast welcome back to for amusement only this is Nicholas Baldridge for those of you who can't get enough of my dulcet tones here um i have made several guest spots recently on various other pinball podcasts, so I thought I'd take a moment and plug those. I was just on the pinball podcast with Don and Jeff, episode 63, where we talk about Gottlieb's solid-state masterpiece, 1980s Circus. I was also a guest in the EM Dungeon with James Willing on the Spooky Pinball Podcast for the last two months, where we talked about the effects of cost reduction in pinball machines. this month's conversation turned much more towards the bingos and those of you looking for more bingo talk will enjoy that episode as well so again if you just can't get your fix of Nick if waiting 24 hours is unacceptable to hear more of what I have to say then I'm just broadening the amount of Nick talk that's out there. So, check out those shows. You can find the Pinball Podcast at pinballpodcast.com and you can find Spooky Pinball home of the EM Dungeon at spookypinball slash podcast Both of those shows are phenomenal The hosts are very gracious and generous to have me on their show, and I very much appreciate it. Check it out. So I mentioned last night that I saw something very odd, and I wanted to confirm that it was actually real and intentional before I mentioned anything about it. I haven't worked on a huge number of four-player Gottlieb games, and I went over to my friend Taylor's last night and played his awesome Super Soccer. And he showed me in the back of the head that the Jones plugs for that game, which connect the playfield and the cabinet to the head, or the head, vice versa, just kind of flop down and hang in the back of the game. And I've honestly never seen anything like that. And it's very unlike a lot of what Gottlieb did. Most of their stuff is really thoroughly designed and thought out. So I found that kind of strange and jarring compared to what I would have expected. But what they do is they just have this panel, which is wired up with all the female sides of the Jones plugs, and you dangle it down from the head into the cabinet through the neck, and then you take your Jones plugs and the male side and you plug them in to that panel and it just floats there in the air And I was talking with Vic Camp tonight and he told me that Gottlieb did this on several games, including some wedge heads, he thought. So that's kind of crazy. I never would have suspected that. and I will say, you know, Taylor told me straight up, take a look, there's no place for these to go, and I said, that just doesn't seem right, so I looked all around, lifted up the play field even, and was just looking for the place where those Jones plugs would mount on that panel, couldn't find it. It's because it didn't exist. It's just very, very strange. So the other thing I learned today is that not all wood rails were created equally. I have been working on refurbishing this ballet nightclub, Bingo, and one of the things that I needed were some new side rails. The old ones were not in a shape that was easily restorable. So I decided to, you know, see what was out there. And I talked to a guy and told him I needed some rails and I said, pretty much anything should fit on here. Turns out I was wrong The bingo wood rails are shaped completely differently from the pinball wood rails The regular non-flipper, the flipperless games, but made by other manufacturers and at different times. So I thought I was going to be able to take these rails and just nail them into the machine and I'd be all good. that's not the case so in fact they're constructed in such a way that I can't even easily route out a portion of them to make them fit so as it turns out they have to actually be the right shape who would have thought so working on some ways to get some other ones. I'm talking with the guy that I got the other rails from. I'm going to send him measurements, which probably would have helped in the first place. But I was so sure that any rails would work. So, oh well. So that's all the oddities I've run into this week. I'm sure I'll run into more here soon but 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 Stitcher, Pocket Casts, via RSS on Facebook, on Twitter at bingopodcast you can follow me on Instagram at nbaldridge, or you can listen to me on my website, which is forumusementonly.libsyn.com. Thank you very much for listening, and I'll talk to you next time.

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 63c7e457-574a-4186-b972-9ab8be752828*