# Episode 276 - 1935 Gottlieb Plus and Minus **Source:** For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast **Type:** podcast_episode **Published:** 2015-12-12 **Duration:** 7m 4s **Beat:** Pinball **URL:** https://foramusementonly.libsyn.com/episode-276-1935-gottlieb-plus-and-minus --- ## Analysis Nicholas Baldridge discusses Gottlieb's 1935 payout game Plus and Minus, a follow-on to Liberty Bell that used matching mechanics with positive/negative-labeled holes. The episode covers the game's design philosophy (including a mint vendor as a gambling workaround), tilt mechanism, payout system with solenoid and stepper units, and cabinet graphics. ### Key Claims - [HIGH] Plus and Minus was the follow-on game to Liberty Bell and reused the same Liberty Bell graphic and mint vendor — _Nicholas Baldridge, host of For Amusement Only podcast, directly states this as historical fact about the game design lineage_ - [HIGH] The mint vendor served a legal purpose to circumvent gambling laws by claiming players were buying mints with the opportunity to win back money — _Nicholas Baldridge explains the mint vendor rationale: 'The reason for this is so that you got something for every coin that you put in. You couldn't argue that you were gambling because really what you were doing was buying mints and you got the opportunity to win back the money that you paid for the mints.'_ - [HIGH] Plus and Minus featured a needle tilt mechanism with an arrow indicator showing 'OK' or 'TILTED' — _Nicholas Baldridge describes the tilt mechanism in detail, comparing it to Looney Tunes cartoons_ - [HIGH] The game used a brass tube payout system with a solenoid and stepper unit to dispense coins based on matched playfield combinations — _Nicholas Baldridge references IPDB photos showing intact payout setup and explains the mechanism: 'there's essentially brass tube that each penny or nickel goes into straight from the coin slide'_ - [HIGH] The game had 10 balls and a free play hole that returned the ball without scoring — _Nicholas Baldridge states: 'you have 10 on this game' and describes the free play hole mechanism at the bottom of the playfield_ ### Notable Quotes > "You couldn't argue that you were gambling because really what you were doing was buying mints and you got the opportunity to win back the money that you paid for the mints. Who wouldn't love that?" > — **Nicholas Baldridge**, ~4:30 > _Explains the clever legal workaround using the mint vendor to legitimize payout games during an era of gambling restrictions_ > "Plus and minus was the follow on game to Libertybell and in fact it used the same libertybell graphic at the top of the playfield and the same libertybell mint vendor" > — **Nicholas Baldridge**, ~1:00 > _Establishes the design lineage and component reuse strategy from Gottlieb, which caused confusion about the actual title_ > "I would love to have one of these early payout games. This one in particular is really beautiful as is Liberty Bell especially because of that Fancy tilt mechanism. And the mint vendor just takes the cake." > — **Nicholas Baldridge**, ~11:30 > _Personal enthusiasm for the historical design innovations and aesthetic appeal of the era's payout mechanisms_ ### Entities | Name | Type | Context | |------|------|---------| | Nicholas Baldridge | person | Host of For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast, historian and analyst of early pinball machines | | Gottlieb | company | Historic pinball manufacturer, produced Plus and Minus in August 1935 | | Plus and Minus | game | Gottlieb payout game from August 1935, follow-on to Liberty Bell with matching mechanics and mint vendor | | Liberty Bell | game | Gottlieb payout game that preceded Plus and Minus; shared mint vendor and graphics | | [name withheld pending review] | game | Gottlieb game that shared cabinet graphics with Liberty Bell and Plus and Minus | | IPDB | organization | Internet Pinball Database; source for photos of Plus and Minus payout mechanism that Baldridge analyzed | ### Signals - **[historical_signal]** Detailed analysis of 1935 Gottlieb payout game mechanics, including mint vendor workaround for gambling laws, needle tilt indicators, and solenoid-stepper payout systems (confidence: high) — Baldridge provides technical breakdown of Plus and Minus' payout mechanism with reference to IPDB documentation and component-level design details - **[design_innovation]** Mint vendor device functioned as a legal compliance mechanism to frame payout games as commodity sales rather than gambling (confidence: high) — Baldridge explicitly explains mint vendor rationale: players bought mints and had opportunity to win back purchase price, legitimizing payouts legally - **[design_innovation]** Needle tilt mechanism with 'OK' and 'TILTED' arrow indicator was an early precision safety feature preventing score manipulation (confidence: high) — Baldridge describes visual design and function of the needle tilt mechanism with aesthetic comparison to vintage cartoons - **[design_philosophy]** Gottlieb practiced component reuse across consecutive game releases (Liberty Bell graphics, mint vendor, cabinet design used in Plus and Minus and Matchplay) (confidence: high) — Baldridge notes Plus and Minus 'used the same libertybell graphic at the top of the playfield and the same libertybell mint vendor' and same cabinet graphics as Matchplay - **[game_mechanic]** Plus and Minus employed matching mechanics with positive/negative-labeled holes to determine payout amounts via stepper unit (confidence: medium) — Baldridge states 'the game will activate this gigantic solenoid which apparently has two functions it will allow a coin to drop and also step a stepper' and 'it will stop at a preset amount based on which two items on your playfield you matched' - **[gameplay_signal]** Exact goal and scoring rules of Plus and Minus remain unclear to the host despite detailed mechanical analysis (confidence: high) — Baldridge admits: 'I have no idea what your goal is. If you're trying to get 100 points, if you're trying to get a specific value, if you're trying to get matches on either positive or negative, I don't know.' - **[restoration_signal]** IPDB documentation includes intact examples with visible payout mechanisms that enable reverse-engineering of early Gottlieb solenoid and stepper designs (confidence: high) — Baldridge references IPDB photos showing 'an intact payout setup' that allowed him to document how the payout system functions --- ## 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. Tonight I wanted to talk about yet another Gottlieb payout game. This is August of 1935's Plus and Minus. Plus and minus was the follow on game to Libertybell and in fact it used the same libertybell graphic at the top of the playfield and the same libertybell mint vendor which as I mentioned in last episode caused some confusion as to the actual title of this game. Now it's called plus and minus because each hole labeled on the playfield that can trap Knapp one of your balls, and you have 10 on this game, is labeled with either a positive value or a negative value. Now, unfortunately, I have no idea what your goal is. If you're trying to get 100 points, if you're trying to get a specific value, if you're trying to get matches on either positive or negative, I don't know. but what I do know is that the playfield has a variety of holes each of which is labeled with both the number again either positive or negative and a picture now I assuming because each hole has a picture that this is actually a matching game Similar to Gottlieb two previous efforts But I have no guarantee of that Down at the bottom of the playfield, there's actually a free play hole and if you land in that the ball actually just returns to you, similar to the ball return on a ballybingo. Now the cabinet on this game used the same cabinet graphic as Libertybell and Matchplay before it with the stripes. The wood itself is much lighter than the colors used on the previous two efforts. Now let's talk mechanisms. I mentioned at the top of the episode that this game had the same Libertybell mint vendor that the previous game did. So every time that you put in a coin, it would actually give you a roll of mints, whether you wanted them or not. The reason for this is so that you got something for every coin that you put in. You couldn't argue that you were gambling because really what you were doing was buying mints and you got the opportunity to win back the money that you paid for the mints. Who wouldn't love that? Now this game has a needle tilt mechanism which are very cool They remind me of older Looney Tunes cartoons but there essentially an arrow that say okay on one side and if it moves to the left it'll say tilted if it's tilted then uh... your score is void and you don't get your payout now I mentioned in yesterday's episode that I didn't know how the payout functioned exactly but luckily there are a ton of pictures of plus and minus on IPDB this person has an intact payout setup and i can tell you exactly how it works there's essentially brass tube that each penny or nickel goes into straight from the coin slide and that tube contains all the money which is used to pay out Now the way it works is when it detects a match then the game will activate this gigantic solenoid which apparently has two functions it will allow a coin to drop and also step a stepper now the stepper unit that shown in this picture you can tell is before godly really uh got the design of steppers down cold yes it a stepper as you might Fast vario Kind cortex Knapp golden sullaphony altijd knights tip This is obviously counting the number of coins that is paid out and it will stop at a preset amount based on which two items on your playfield you matched. I think it's super cool. I would love to have one of these early payout games. This one in particular is really beautiful as is Liberty Bell especially because of that Fancy tilt mechanism. And the mint vendor just takes the cake. Who doesn't love mints? And the way it's designed, it's supposed to give the appearance of always being chock full of mints. Well, that's all for tonight. Thank you very much for joining me. 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 Cast via RSS, on Facebook, on Twitter at bingopodcast. You can follow me on Instagram also at bingopodcast 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. _(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_ --- *Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-08-04 | Item ID: 8119290f-3cdc-4ce2-9247-e55a4a9a327a*