# Episode 455 - Pyprocgame issue, York Show Excitement, 1939 Bally Headliner

**Source:** For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2019-09-06  
**Duration:** 11m 40s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://foramusementonly.libsyn.com/episode-455-pyprocgame-issue-york-show-excitement-1939-bally-headliner

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## Analysis

Nick Baldridge discusses completing Multi-Races for the York Show, troubleshooting a complex pyprocgame/P3 Rock USB communication issue that required diving into libpinproc source code, and his excitement about exhibiting at York as both a Coin Op Carnival vendor and EM game curator. He also features a detailed analysis of the 1939 Bally Headliner, an art deco-themed game with dancing women, chevron bumpers, and ornate backglass artwork.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Multi-Races now has all 10 games playable and selectable via menu system — _Nick Baldridge, opening segment on Multi-Races completion_
- [HIGH] P3 Rock board version 2 and version 1 handle USB/FTDI chip identically; the problem was not board-specific — _Nick Baldridge, after swapping boards and consulting Jerry Stellenberg (Multimorphic)_
- [HIGH] The pyprocgame USB connection issue was ultimately solved by calling prdelete from the libpinproc source layer before thread teardown — _Nick Baldridge, technical debugging narrative_
- [HIGH] Multi-Races has 10 games, which is one-sixth of the total library of one-ball horse race games — _Nick Baldridge, York Show preparation segment_
- [HIGH] York Show will be Nick Baldridge's first year as a vendor, in addition to displaying games as part of Coin Op Carnival — _Nick Baldridge, York Show logistics discussion_
- [HIGH] The 1939 Bally Headliner has no available score or instruction card online — _Nick Baldridge, Headliner game analysis_
- [MEDIUM] Headliner's left and right rollover lanes near the arrow score approximately 100,000 points when lit — _Nick Baldridge, playfield analysis based on visual inspection_

### Notable Quotes

> "Everything worked great in a simulation mode, but once hooked up to the actual hardware, it no longer functioned."
> — **Nick Baldridge**, Early segment
> _Illustrates the gap between simulated and real-world pinball hardware behavior_

> "I have no idea why this doesn't work on Multiraces, but it worked on the Multibingo. This is very similar code, it's not exactly the same, but the actual code that's handling setup and teardown is the same."
> — **Nick Baldridge**, Technical debugging section
> _Highlights the complexity and unpredictability of hardware-specific threading/USB issues in custom pinball_

> "So I reached out to the custom pinball community and had quite a few suggestions and eventually just settled upon diving into the source for libpinproc to figure it out."
> — **Nick Baldridge**, Debugging narrative
> _Shows reliance on community collaboration and open-source code inspection for problem-solving_

> "For the first time in my years of attending the York show, I will also be a vendor."
> — **Nick Baldridge**, York Show segment
> _Mark of expanded commercial engagement at major EM/bingo pinball event_

> "The chevron bumper pattern has done well in numerous games throughout the years and I always find it very challenging especially with the post placement."
> — **Nick Baldridge**, Headliner analysis
> _Reflects on classic playfield design patterns and difficulty tuning in EM games_

> "The artwork on the playfield there are two dancing women down at the bottom and they're dancing over a musical staff with eighth notes hanging out on top. I'm a fan of the game."
> — **Nick Baldridge**, Headliner backglass/art analysis
> _Enthusiasm for art deco aesthetic and thematic cohesion in 1939 Bally game_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Nick Baldridge | person | Host of For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast; builder and curator of custom EM/homebrew machines |
| Multi-Races | product | Custom homebrew racing-themed pinball machine project by Nick Baldridge; features 10 playable games; debuting at York Show |
| Multi-Bingo | product | Custom homebrew bingo-themed pinball machine with 142 games; previously completed by Nick Baldridge; referenced as comparison point for USB/threading issues |
| Jerry Stellenberg | person | Head of Multimorphic; consulted by Nick Baldridge on P3 Rock board pinout and hardware troubleshooting |
| Multimorphic | company | Pinball hardware manufacturer; produces P3 Rock board platform used in custom homebrew machines |
| P3 Rock | product | Programmable pinball control board platform by Multimorphic; used in Multi-Races and Multi-Bingo; suffered USB/threading communication issues in Multi-Races |
| York Show | event | Major EM and bingo pinball exhibition; Nick Baldridge will exhibit Multi-Races and participate as vendor for Coin Op Carnival 2019 |
| Coin Op Carnival | organization | Traveling merchandise/book tour; 2019 release tour with York Show as one of last three stops; Nick Baldridge participating as vendor |
| Michael Parczynski | person | President of Cleanup (unclear context from audio); attending York Show; mentioned as teaching games and potentially providing repairs |
| libpinproc | product | Open-source Python library for communication with pinball hardware; Nick Baldridge investigated source code to debug pyprocgame USB issue |
| pyprocgame | product | Python-based pinball game framework; used in Multi-Races and Multi-Bingo; experienced USB/thread teardown issues in Multi-Races |
| Bally Headliner | game | 1939 Bally pinball machine; art deco theme with dancing women, chevron bumpers, ornate backglass with curtains; featured game of episode |
| Universal 5 Star | game | Pinball machine to be exhibited at York Show; described by Nick Baldridge as difficult and challenging but fun |
| Bingo Row | product | Book or publication by Nick Baldridge; will be available for purchase at York Show vendor booth |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Custom pinball machine development and troubleshooting, P3 Rock board and libpinproc hardware/software integration, York Show preparation and vendor participation, Electromechanical pinball machine design and artwork (1939 Bally Headliner), Pyprocgame USB threading and connection management
- **Secondary:** Coin Op Carnival 2019 tour logistics, EM pinball playfield mechanics (chevron bumpers, rollovers, scoring)

### Sentiment

**Neutral** (0)

### Signals

- **[product_launch]** Multi-Races custom pinball machine completed and ready for public debut at York Show with all 10 games playable (confidence: high) — Nick Baldridge: 'I finished up multi-races, at least as far as it's going to be finished before the York show. I've got all the buttons installed and everything functions as intended. All 10 games are now Now playable and selectable via the menu system.'
- **[technology_signal]** Complex pyprocgame/P3 Rock USB threading issue required diving into libpinproc source code; root cause was improper USB device teardown sequence in thread cleanup (confidence: high) — Nick Baldridge detailed debugging narrative showing USB device remained in use despite thread teardown; solution required calling prdelete from libpinproc layer before rejoining thread
- **[community_signal]** Custom pinball community provided troubleshooting suggestions; Multimorphic head Jerry Stellenberg consulted on P3 Rock board specifics (confidence: high) — Nick Baldridge: 'I reached out to the custom pinball community and had quite a few suggestions... I do very much appreciate all those folks for trying to help me'
- **[event_signal]** York Show confirmed as venue for Multi-Races debut and Universal 5 Star exhibition; Nick Baldridge expanding role to first-time vendor status for Coin Op Carnival (confidence: high) — Nick Baldridge: 'For the first time in my years of attending the York show, I will also be a vendor... This is one of the last three stops in the Coin Op Carnival 2019 release tour.'
- **[historical_signal]** Deep analysis of 1939 Bally Headliner; art deco design with dancing women, chevron bumpers, ornate backglass with curtains; no score/instruction card available online (confidence: high) — Nick Baldridge detailed playfield and backglass descriptions; noted 'There no score and Instruction card available online that I seen'
- **[design_innovation]** Multi-Races features custom menu system with threading architecture to manage game selection and teardown; presented significant technical challenges in real hardware vs. simulation (confidence: high) — Nick Baldridge: 'The menu system turned out to be a much bigger challenge than I anticipated. Everything worked great in a simulation mode, but once hooked up to the actual hardware, it no longer functioned.'
- **[technology_signal]** P3 Rock board version 2 and version 1 exhibit identical behavior with respect to USB/FTDI chip; issue not attributable to hardware revision differences (confidence: high) — Nick Baldridge: 'I swapped in the board from the multibingo after some quick advice from Jerry about pinouts and so forth, and the problem was the same. So it didn't follow the board...'
- **[content_signal]** For Amusement Only podcast serving as platform for custom pinball machine documentation, technical troubleshooting narratives, and EM game retrospectives (confidence: high) — Episode structure showing technical deep-dive on Multi-Races, York Show logistics, and featured game analysis of 1939 Headliner
- **[market_signal]** Nick Baldridge transitioning from curator/player role to vendor status at York Show; selling Coin Op Carnival merchandise (t-shirts, pins, books) (confidence: high) — Nick Baldridge: 'For the first time in my years of attending the York show, I will also be a vendor... I will have some surprises, some giveaways as usual, as well as the full complement of CoinOpCarnival merchandise available for purchase.'
- **[design_philosophy]** Analysis of chevron bumper design in 1939 Bally Headliner; complex post placement creates difficulty in hitting all bumpers due to waterfall risk (confidence: medium) — Nick Baldridge: 'The chevron bumper pattern has done well in numerous games throughout the years and I always find it very challenging especially with the post placement that I looking at here with posts arrayed just above the spring bumpers'

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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. Since last episode, I finished up multi-races, at least as far as it's going to be finished before the York show. I've got all the buttons installed and everything functions as intended. All 10 games are now Now playable and selectable via the menu system. The menu system turned out to be a much bigger challenge than I anticipated. Everything worked great in a simulation mode, but once hooked up to the actual hardware, it no longer functioned. And the way my menu works, I have essentially two threads, one main thread, which contains the menu system, and then a secondary thread is spawned and joined to that main thread in order to allow and some other things that you can use to play the game that you've selected. Franchihales, and then that thread is destroyed and you're back at the menu if you choose to stop playing the game for whatever reason. Franchihales, So when I hooked it up to the actual hardware, it was claiming that the USB device, the P3 Rock, was still in use. Franchihales, and I tried everything under the sun. I mean, I really tried everything. My jouney so all sticker one know we put above the issue is always the same. So like ended up doing was look into a source code for with pinznwart bioucs is the undere I'm a fan of the P3 Rock hardware and handles the setup and teardown of the connection between the USB device and the P3 Rock, the hardware. So, looking in there, I found a function called prdelete and I thought I was going to have to call that manually and just write a little C program to quickly set up and teardown that connection as needed. But it turned out that I was able to call that and the Pinball the Pinball pipe in proc function and this is the Python library that allows for communication between Bob Libbe pin proc and the actual hardware But within pipe in proc there was a similar delete command that actually just called peer delete under the surface so whereas before I was trying to use Pie proc game to set up and close a connection like I do on the multi bingo It turned out that I needed to make this extra call to extra super kill the communication between the USB device before I tried to enjoin that extra thread I was talking about So I have no idea why this doesn't work on Multiraces, but it worked on the Multibingo. This is very similar code. It's not exactly the same, but the actual code that's handling setup and teardown is the same where it was. And I just couldn't explain it. So at one point, I messaged Gerry Stellenberg, head of Multimorphic, who makes the I was asked to explain the board set that I use in Multiraces and asked, in Multiraces I'm using a version 2 of the board and in the Multibingo I was using a version 1 and about the only thing I could even suspect was that maybe version 2 had some kind of difference in the FTDI chip that it used that was causing this problem. But I swapped in the board from the multibingo after some quick advice from Jerry about pinouts and so forth, and the problem was the same. So it didn't follow the board, which means that there's some kind of underlying hardware slash software problem that's built into the computer itself. So I reached out to the custom pinball community and had quite a few suggestions and eventually just settled upon diving into the source for libpinproc to figure it out. But I do very much appreciate all those folks for trying to help me and taking the time to try to figure that out as well. jump, drag-t eines, 24 aspiration into kick cardio, The MultiBingo, which has 142 games ready to play. MultiRaces has 10, which is one-sixth of the total library of one-ball horse race games. Aside from those games, Universal's 5 Star will be there and I'm looking forward to seeing people play that game because it's quite difficult to do well on it, but it's very fun and very challenging. Mr Knapp and the video My name is Michael Parczynski I am president of cleanup is the part I serve and I am the seiner of the specialize goat And I very much looking forward to seeing everybody there and teaching people how to play some games and maybe even fixing one or two if a problem arises But I will also be there as part of Coin Op Carnival. This is one of the last three stops in the Coin Op Carnival 2019 release tour. And for the first time in my years of attending the York show, I will also be a vendor. So I'm looking forward to that. It'll be a different experience. Bingo Row I'm hoping to put right in front of the booth so that I don't have to jog very far in order to sell somebody a book if they would like to buy one. But please come see me there and come see Bingo Row. I will have some surprises, some giveaways as usual, as well as the full complement of CoinOpCarnival merchandise available for purchase. includes t-shirts, pins and books. So I have quite a bit more to do before York, so let's finish up with today's featured game which is Headliner from 1939 by Bally. Headliner at first glance reminds me very much of nightclub or frolics, nightclub being one of my favorite games of all time. Headliner has and a variety of women in the background who are standing on various stair stepper pedestals all the way up to the top and before them there are five different dancing women each holding a balloon and they are arranged in sort of a chevron pattern and below them is actually the orchestra pit with the band. It's pretty cool to see. But one of the big draws of this backglass aside from all the mirroring which is gorgeous are the curtains. It's been a while since I've talked about a game with curtains and this game has them and it's pretty cool looking. I really dig the artwork on the backglass. Um, looking at the playfield, as far as artwork goes, I really enjoy this too. Uh, there's a chevron of bumpers, one through five, each of which has one of the women with the balloon on top of it. And if you hit that bumper, I assume their balloon lights up. And of course that's the main sequence in the game. If you hit all five, I'm sure something good happens, be it to light the various rollover lanes or, uh, to award you replays. I not sure which There no score and Instruction card available online that I seen So I just looking at pictures and making some conjecture here But the chevron bumper pattern has done well in numerous games throughout the years and I always find it very challenging especially with the post placement that I looking at here with posts arrayed just above the spring bumpers making it very difficult to hit those as you coming down You can just kind of waterfall down one side or the other and hit all the bumpers You got to go in the Gaz,'Lasan esduro, did some history in Ar invert expenses Ee impexo do not want to que surgery on you procadsSo it can't be a cover card Igor CousGH. Summer, of part 2? Lefaksov, Ken perto na Lis strength, cava menstruale. Adadajajajaj, Belov Royal Mrollexia,yun, I'm gozoano, J administro, I'm not lit, I'm not sure, but I do know when it is lit, it's a thousand points. There are also rollovers to the left and right of the head of the arrow, which score what appears to be a hundred thousand points. So those are the most lucrative rollover on the playfield. Near the center, there are two V's, both green, comprised of three different spring bumpers and a rollover. The The pinball over when lit scores a thousand points and again I have no idea what it scores when unlit but the overall effect of red, yellow and green is very gratifying, it looks really awesome I think and the artwork on the playfield there are two dancing women down at the bottom and they're dancing over a musical staff with eighth notes hanging out on top. I'm a fan of the game, and it's one that I've never seen before, but it's one that I'm very interested in playing one day. Hopefully I come across it in my travels, because it looks like a lot of fun, and the artwork is deco, gorgeous, just wonderful. So, that's 1939 Bally Headliner. Well, thanks very much for listening. My name again is Nick Baldrige. You can reach me at foramusementonlypodcast at gmail.com, or you can call me on the bingos line. and the Bingo's Line, that's 724-BINGOS1, 724-246-4671. You can listen to me on iTunes, Stitcher, Pocketcast, via RSS, on Facebook, on Twitter, at Bingo Podcast. You can follow me on Instagram, also at Bingo Podcast, or you can listen to me on my website, which is 4amusementonly.libsyn.com. If you enjoy video games and you'd like to hear me talk about those with my friend Don, you can hear that at Gamingon10, that's Gamingon10.com. Thanks 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: 97a322f0-1ea7-4d52-95af-88f41ecda14e*