# Episode 347 - My EM Happenings for 2-17-16 pt. 2 **Source:** For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast **Type:** podcast_episode **Published:** 2016-02-21 **Duration:** 15m 50s **Beat:** Pinball **URL:** https://foramusementonly.libsyn.com/episode-347-my-em-happenings-for-2-17-16-pt-2 --- ## Analysis Nick Baldrige recounts his third day in Ohio visiting a slot machine collector, discusses Bally bingo back glass manufacturing variations, covers EM flipper game repairs (Wizard, Flip-Flop, Satin Doll), and shares restoration work on Turf King with his daughter. He also announces platform updates for Pinside Archive with bingo games and discusses a pending bingo sub-forum proposal. ### Key Claims - [HIGH] Bally manufactured two different kinds of back glasses from the factory: some with mirrored inks in initial runs, and later runs without mirroring — _Nick Baldrige learned this directly from slot machine collector in Ohio and confirmed seeing a bikini back glass with zero mirroring that came from factory that way_ - [HIGH] Bally produced exactly three games with the flip flag feature: Wizard, Flip-Flop, and one other — _Nick Baldrige stated 'one of three games that Bally produced with the flip flag feature' when discussing Wizard and Flip-Flop_ - [HIGH] On Bally Wizard, each flip flag gives a different game advantage such as lighting pops or additional gameplay features — _Nick Baldrige described playing Wizard in Ohio and noted each flag's different function_ - [HIGH] Flip-Flop has 3-inch flippers at the mid-playfield and mushroom targets that flip all flags back — _Nick Baldrige provided detailed description after working on his Flip-Flop machine_ - [HIGH] Williams bonus steppers require careful nut adjustment and can be finicky about tightness between positions 0 and 1 — _Nick Baldrige detailed extensive troubleshooting of Satin Doll bonus stepper, identifying over-tightening as the issue_ - [HIGH] Nick Baldrige was given ability to add games to Pinside Archive and added all Bally and United bingos — _Nick stated 'I was given the ability to add games to the Pinside Archive and given the blessing to go ahead and add the bingos' and confirmed 'all of the Bally and United bingos to the archive'_ - [HIGH] A bingo sub-forum has been proposed for Pinside with an open poll but has not been implemented as of the recording date — _Nick stated 'at this point, as of today, they have not made a bingo subform yet. But there is a poll open'_ - [HIGH] Nick plans to move For Amusement Only from daily to bi-weekly format after episode 365 — _Nick explicitly stated 'I'm going to move to a bi-weekly format. So once every two weeks, you'll get your Nick Fix'_ ### Notable Quotes > "I saw an absolutely gorgeous bikini back glass the best I've ever seen but it had zero mirroring and I never would have guessed that it came from the factory that way but apparently that's the case" > — **Nick Baldrige**, ~2:30 > _Reveals important manufacturing knowledge about Bally bingo back glass variations that could help collectors distinguish factory originals from reproductions_ > "each of the flags gives you a different game advantage. It either lights the pops or gives you some additional gameplay feature." > — **Nick Baldrige**, ~3:45 > _Explains gameplay mechanics of flip flag feature on Bally Wizard, distinguishing it from other EM games_ > "William steppers, I've found, can be a little finicky in how far you have to tighten that nut" > — **Nick Baldrige**, ~9:00 > _Technical insight into Williams bonus stepper repair and adjustment tolerances that is useful for other EM game restorers_ > "It's equally important, even if the stepper is clean, to ensure that the movement is smooth from position 0 to 1. Because, as many of you know, the bonus amount does not start at 0 on many of these bonus games. It starts at 1." > — **Nick Baldrige**, ~8:15 > _Emphasizes critical technical detail about bonus counter initialization that affects game playability across many EM machines_ > "if you look real close you see there are still some bumps. But, as I say, the primary function is really the teacher. The secondary function is just to make it so it's comfortable to hold that side rail" > — **Nick Baldrige**, ~17:30 > _Reflects host's philosophy of using restoration work as educational opportunity with his daughter rather than pursuing perfect factory reproduction_ ### Entities | Name | Type | Context | |------|------|---------| | Nick Baldrige | person | Host of For Amusement Only podcast, EM and bingo pinball expert and restorer | | For Amusement Only | organization | EM and bingo pinball podcast hosted by Nick Baldrige | | Bally | company | Historical pinball and bingo machine manufacturer; produced flip flag games and back glasses discussed | | Williams | company | Historical pinball manufacturer; produced games with bonus steppers and specific mechanical features discussed | | Gottlieb | company | Historical pinball manufacturer mentioned in context of games played in Ohio (Captain Fantastic) | | United | company | Bingo machine manufacturer; games added to Pinside Archive | | Pinside | organization | Pinball community archive and forum platform; recently granted Nick ability to add bingo games | | Wizard | game | Bally pinball machine with flip flag feature; one of three such games produced | | Flip-Flop | game | Bally EM pinball game with flip flag feature; second of three such games; has 3-inch mid-playfield flippers and mushroom targets | | Satin Doll | game | Williams EM pinball game that Nick worked on; required bonus stepper and coil stop repairs | | Turf King | game | EM pinball game Nick is restoring with his daughter; undergoing selective cosmetic restoration and electroplating work | | Captain Fantastic | game | Gottlieb pinball game mentioned as played in Ohio | | Mystery Blue | game | Pinball machine in Nick's game room; main fuse blew during gameplay | | Ava | person | Nick's daughter; learning restoration techniques through hands-on work on Turf King, including electroplating | | Sophie | person | Nick's daughter; recently learned to read and is reading voraciously | ### Topics - **Primary:** EM pinball game mechanics and features, Bingo machine manufacturing and back glass variations, Machine restoration and repair techniques, Bonus counter and stepper troubleshooting - **Secondary:** Pinside Archive and community forum development, Educational restoration projects with family, Electroplating and chrome restoration, Podcast format and production schedule changes ### Sentiment **Positive** (0.82) — Nick expresses enthusiasm about his Ohio trip, restoration work, community contributions, and time with family. Very positive about technical discoveries and teaching opportunities. Minor frustration with mechanical issues quickly resolved. No negativity toward machines, people, or industry. ### Signals - **[restoration_signal]** Detailed troubleshooting of Williams Satin Doll bonus stepper involving coil stop screw loss, nut tension adjustment, and 0-1 position calibration issues (confidence: high) — Nick provided extensive step-by-step repair narrative including parts inspection, adjustment techniques, and final resolution through nut loosening - **[historical_signal]** Discovery that Bally manufactured two different back glass variants from factory: mirrored ink vs. non-mirrored on later runs, relevant to authenticity assessment (confidence: high) — Nick learned directly from collector in Ohio and confirmed with example of bikini back glass with zero mirroring that came from factory - **[community_signal]** Pinside Archive expanded to include all Bally and United bingo games; bingo sub-forum proposal pending community vote (confidence: high) — Nick stated he was granted ability to add bingos to archive and confirmed poll is open for bingo sub-forum creation - **[design_innovation]** Bally flip flag feature across three distinct machines (Wizard, Flip-Flop, and unnamed third) provides game-specific mechanical advantages and gameplay variation (confidence: high) — Nick described Wizard flags giving different advantages (pops, gameplay features) and Flip-Flop mushroom target interaction with flags - **[content_signal]** For Amusement Only will transition from daily to bi-weekly episodes after episode 365, representing production sustainability adjustment (confidence: high) — Nick explicitly announced 'I'm going to move to a bi-weekly format. So once every two weeks, you'll get your Nick Fix' after episode 365 - **[restoration_signal]** Nick using hands-on restoration projects (Turf King) as teaching tool for daughter Ava, including electroplating and chrome restoration techniques (confidence: high) — Nick stated primary function is teaching, secondary is cosmetic improvement; had Ava sand chrome and used plug-in plating system for side rails - **[community_signal]** Increasing numbers of new bingo collectors and enthusiasts joining Pinside community, generating demand for dedicated bingo sub-forum (confidence: medium) — Nick noted 'there are more and more new bingo folks coming on' and that the bingo sub-forum proposal was made due to scattered forum content - **[technology_signal]** Plug-in electroplating system ($35) provides accessible alternative to expensive or dangerous traditional electroplating for hobbyist restoration (confidence: medium) — Nick described using Walmart transformer-based plating system with gauze bandage and metallic wand for side rail replating on Turf King --- ## Transcript What's that sound? It's For Amusement Only, the EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast. Welcome back to For Amusement Only. This is Nick Baldrige. On my third day in Ohio, and for those just joining us yesterday, I did an episode about my time in Ohio and some games that I played and how I was mistaken or how much I enjoyed some of the features in these games that I hadn't tried before. Today I wanted to talk about my third day in Ohio when we went to a slot machine collector's house and saw some beautiful, beautiful restored slot machines and got to learn an awful lot about them. I hope to have that collector on here at some point in the near-ish future so that he may provide us all with the benefit of some of this knowledge. Super nice guy. Everybody in Ohio that I met, of course, super nice and And really, I'd love to get back there again sometime in the near-ish future as well. It was a good time. And had a whole lot of fun losing on a lot of different machines and different types of machines. So, back to the bingos. played a bunch of bingos on that night which was the final night I was there but I learned that from the factory Bally made two different kinds of back glasses they would either screen using mirrored inks in the initial run or they would do later runs of the back glasses without the mirroring and that's from the Bally factory so if John Youssi a back glass that has gray ink in place of the mirroring it's not necessarily a repro that was done without mirrored ink it could have come from the Bally factory that way I saw an absolutely gorgeous bikini back glass the best I've ever seen but it had zero mirroring and I never would have guessed that it came from the factory that way but apparently that's the case as far as EM flipper games I mentioned in the last episode Captain Fantastic and the Gottlieb Contest but I also played a Bally Wizard and that was great fun it's one of three games that Bally produced with the flip flag feature and on Wizard in particular each of the flags gives you a different game advantage It either lights the pops or gives you some additional gameplay feature. Cool game, a lot of fun. And when I got back to Richmond, I worked on a flip-flop. Flip-flop is the second of the three games that has the flip flags feature. This particular flip-flop had an issue with one of the relays that flips one of the flags. and in this case it was flipping when it should have been flopping. No, actually it would flop just fine, it's just that it would flip back again immediately. And so in lifting the playfield, you can see that there are different relays which control each of the flipping motions of each of the little domino targets And then there is a relay that holds in to indicate the state Well, the relay that holds in was working just fine, but the relay which initially fired needed a little bit of cleaning and some adjusting. and then all was well. That's a very fun game as well, flip-flop. You have the 3-inch flippers at the mid-play field, and mushroom targets, which will flip all the flags back. It's another one where you're trying to increase your bonus, of course, as many of those 70s EMs are, but I find that there's a lot to shoot for on flip-flop. Very fun. let's see, some solid state stuff, but as far as EMs go. I also worked on the satin doll that I worked on some time ago. It had developed a couple of issues after being brought back to life. And so I spent some time on that, got that one going, fix a couple of odd idiosyncrasies, but one thing that's important to note in any Williams game with bonus, or any game with bonus really, is to ensure that the bonus counter is stepping down and up appropriately. And of course, I've harped on and on about the importance of steppers and their smooth movement and yadda yadda. I'm sure you're all sick of hearing that, but But it's equally important, even if the stepper is clean, to ensure that the movement is smooth from position 0 to 1. Because, as many of you know, the bonus amount does not start at 0 on many of these bonus games. It starts at 1. It shows 1,000 lit by default. So it's very important that the game can reset and then step up from 0 to 1 easily. Well, in this case, the coil stop had tried to separate from the rest of the coil. It had actually lost one of the screws. So got that replaced and tightened way down. and then the stepper was having trouble stepping. So, loosened the nut. It's one of the Williams style where there's a gear in the back. You put a slotted screwdriver through the hole and wedge it in there, basically. And then you're able to loosen the nut on the front and access the stepper guts. Well, did that. Took it apart. went ahead and gave it another cleaning just to make sure, re-lubed it, re-assembled it, and it still had a little bit of difficulty stepping from zero to one. Well, William steppers, I've found, can be a little finicky in how far you have to tighten that nut, and in this case, I had over-tightened it a little bit, so I had to loosen it a bit. Well then, it still had a bit of an issue. If I stepped it manually, not a problem. It was flawless. Buttery smooth step or action. But in stepping from 0 to 1 the machine would sometimes have to cycle 2 3 times in order to do it Well this is a control unit problem because as part of the startup sequence from ball to ball the control unit has to cycle in order to count down your bonus. Then it has to cycle in order to reset your bonus, trigger the out-hole relay, kick the ball into the shooter lane, and then go from there. Of course, that can't happen unless the bonus has counted down and then back up to the first position. So, I will say again that that game is quite a lot of fun. I was again surprised at how smooth the gameplay is on that and how easy it is to feel like you're actually going to hit the appropriate target. And then you don't. So, let's see. Other than that, I got home and fired up the games in the game room. Ava had a friend spend the night, and the next morning, the father came over to pick up his daughter and turned on the games for him and the main fuse in mystery blue so I'm gonna take that away from the wall and take a peek inside the head and see what's going on there and other than that uh Ava and I have been chipping away at the Turf King. We've had various breaks as we go, but I've been updating the pin side thread with information on that. Now we're not doing a full restore, you know, we're not making it look factory fresh, but the cosmetic things that we're doing are either to enhance the feel of the game during gameplay, or just something that I want to teach her how to do. So, there's that. Tonight, for example, we did some simple electroplating in order to replace the missing chrome plate on the side rails where hundreds and hundreds of people's hands had been and worn away. So, had her sand, and we used this thing called a plug-in plate, which I did some research on and seemed like a good deal. And it was, I think, $35. And basically it just comes with a little Walmart transformer. You plug it in. You clip one end to the metal thing that you're trying to replate. And then you push the other end, which is a banana connector, into the back of this wand, which has some metallic strips bent at particular angles. You wrap it with a gauze bandage, dip the gauze bandage in a solution, and as you move the wet bandage across the metallic surface it will plate. Pretty cool, and it's a really simple way for me to teach her how electroplating works without having to go a much more expensive or dangerous route. Now as part of this we had to sand away some of the remaining chrome Of course the problem with doing just some is that if you look real close John Youssi there are still some bumps But, as I say, the primary function is really the teacher. The secondary function is just to make it so it's comfortable to hold that side rail, which it is. So, mission accomplished, I think, in both cases. I'm pretty proud of her. she made her first soup tonight and in Sophie news she has started to read and she is reading voraciously she's just reading everything that she possibly can which is pretty cool so things are going pretty good and everything is coming along here two other major developments here recently I was given the ability to add games to the Pinside Archive and given the blessing to go ahead and add the bingos to them and I've gone ahead and added all of the Bally and United bingos to the archive which is pretty great so at this point you can link any bingo to any topic of discussion which allows you to search through the archive to find a particular game. The other major thing related to Pinside is that someone has proposed that there be a bingo sub-forum. And I had done this some time ago, and that caused the creation of the Flipperless sub-forum, which I've enjoyed. But the Flipperless, of course, contains a bunch of stuff that is not bingo. And there are more and more new bingo folks coming on. And so the proposal was again made to make a bingo subform. Well, at this point, as of today, they have not made a bingo subform yet. But there is a poll open if you'd like for them to add a bingo subform. And essentially all this would let you do is filter straight down to bingo topics. So you could see, for example, the topic that I started about bingo finds on Craigslist and eBay. You can filter down to technical discussions on the bingos, artwork discussions, etc., which right now are just scattered to all corners of the earth, or the forum anyway. as anticipated. We're continuing our march towards episode 365, at which point I have something very special planned, as well as pulling back the reins a bit on the frequency of podcasting. So if you're expecting a daily update after episode 365, unfortunately, I'm going to move to a bi-weekly format. So once every two weeks, you'll get your Nick Fix, and other than that, you'll have the previous 365 episodes to which you can refer. Well, that's all for tonight. Thank you very much for joining me. My name again is Nick Baldrige. 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 Bingo Podcast. You can follow us on Instagram, also at Bingo Podcast. Or you can listen to us on our 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)_ --- *Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 8e50261f-8a1a-4d93-a156-011b12907fc0*