# Episode 396 - Sharpe Cincinnati Court Case - Multi-Bingo Progress - Hobby Burn-out (and redemption) - 1960 Keeney Eleven Belles **Source:** For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast **Type:** podcast_episode **Published:** 2017-05-18 **Duration:** 17m 21s **Beat:** Pinball **URL:** https://foramusementonly.libsyn.com/episode-396-sharpe-cincinnati-court-case-multi-bingo-progress-hobby-burn-out-and-redemption-1960-keeney-eleven-belles --- ## Analysis Nick Baldridge discusses a newly discovered Cincinnati court case where Roger Sharp (father of IFPA's Josh and Zach Sharp) testified about pinball's skill-based nature, updates on Multi-Bingo progress including two completed roulette-style games (ABC and Bolero) with 28 remaining, personal hobby burnout and recovery, and a featured 1960 Keeney Eleven Bells machine with innovative playfield design. ### Key Claims - [HIGH] Roger Sharp testified in a Cincinnati court case that legalized free play pinball in Ohio by arguing skill, not chance, determined winning free games — _Law firm letter from Dinsmore, Scholl, Coates and Dupree and partner testimony quoted directly in podcast_ - [HIGH] Josh and Zach Sharp are sons of Roger Sharp and run the IFPA — _Nick Baldridge states this as introduction to court case discussion_ - [HIGH] Nick Baldridge has completed 3 games on Multi-Bingo and now has 28 remaining to program — _Baldridge directly states: 'I finished United's ABC and Bolero... so now I'm down to 28'_ - [HIGH] ABC and Bolero are the only two games using roulette-style playfields in the Multi-Bingo collection — _Baldridge states: 'ABC and Bolero are the only two games that use a roulette style playfield'_ - [HIGH] United Serenade is a bingo game that was discovered in January and was previously unknown in the community — _Baldridge: 'the bingo that was found out of the blue... turned out that it was a game nobody had ever heard of'_ - [HIGH] Nick Baldridge experienced hobby burnout but recovered within 24 hours of listing his bingos for sale — _Baldridge describes listing bingos then pulling listing down next day: 'mind changed in about twenty four hours'_ - [HIGH] Eleven Bells was designed by Ed Krinsky and is noted as his first game design on IPDB — _Baldridge states: 'it was designed by Ed Krinsky and on the IPDB it notes that this was the first game that he designed'_ - [HIGH] One-balls were outlawed a decade before 1960 but Eleven Bells was still manufactured as a one-ball game — _Baldridge: 'one balls had been outlawed a decade before. But in this case Eleven Bells is a game... one interesting factoid about Eleven Bells'_ ### Notable Quotes > "Frankly, it's the first time in an American courtroom that the fascinating history of the amusement pinball novelty device has been laid out so eloquently and so colorfully." > — **Law firm letter (Dinsmore, Scholl, Coates and Dupree)**, Early in episode > _Recognition of Roger Sharp's legal significance in pinball history_ > "Sharp was one of our experts in the case where we legalized free play pinball machines in Ohio. The state took the position that if you could win a free game by getting a certain score, then the machine was a gambling device because it involved a game of chance. Our position was that it took skill to get the points, so there was no chance involved." > — **Law firm partner (involved in the case)**, Mid-episode > _Core legal argument that established pinball as a game of skill in Ohio_ > "He was shrewd enough to continue his testimony taking the glass off the machine and showing by hand how to use all the angles to score. We left the courtroom that day with the judge, still in his robes, standing and playing the machine. That was when we figured we would win." > — **Law firm partner**, Mid-episode > _Dramatic moment showing how the judge's hands-on demonstration of skill secured the verdict_ > "I reached a point not too long ago, maybe a couple weeks ago where I started looking around and wanting to have space and wanted some space to work." > — **Nick Baldridge**, Hobby burnout section > _Personal account of burnout driven by lack of workspace_ > "I had reached a frustration level that I had not reached previously. And it was all due to lack of space really and the fact that it was one of those things that felt like it wasn't progressing because of the lack of space." > — **Nick Baldridge**, Hobby burnout section > _Explanation that burnout was environmental rather than interest-related_ > "That's when we figured we would win. He remarks, that's when litigation was fun." > — **Law firm partner**, Court case section > _Nostalgic reflection on a pivotal moment in pinball legal history_ > "Eleven Bells is interesting because it's one of the games that was made in the early 60s that are one balls. I've always wondered how these were legally possible to manufacture, given that the one balls had been outlawed a decade before." > — **Nick Baldridge**, Featured game section > _Highlighting a historical curiosity about pinball regulation and one-ball games_ ### Entities | Name | Type | Context | |------|------|---------| | Roger Sharp | person | Father of IFPA operators Josh and Zach Sharp; testified in Cincinnati court case that established pinball as skill-based game to legalize free play in Ohio | | Josh Sharp | person | Son of Roger Sharp; operates IFPA with brother Zach | | Zach Sharp | person | Son of Roger Sharp; operates IFPA with brother Josh | | Nick Baldridge | person | Host of For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast; developer of Multi-Bingo homebrew project with 31 games total | | Ed Krinsky | person | Pinball designer who designed 1960 Keeney Eleven Bells; noted as his first game design on IPDB | | Dinsmore, Scholl, Coates and Dupree | organization | Law firm that represented the pro-pinball position in Cincinnati court case legalizing free play pinball in Ohio | | IFPA | organization | International Flipper Pinball Association; run by Josh and Zach Sharp | | Multi-Bingo | product | Homebrew multi-game bingo pinball machine project by Nick Baldridge featuring 70+ games, 31 total including newly completed ABC and Bolero | | Eleven Bells | game | 1960 Keeney bingo game designed by Ed Krinsky; one-ball game with pop-up targets and replay-based scoring | | ABC | game | United bingo game with roulette-style playfield; completed as part of Multi-Bingo project | | Bolero | game | Bingo game with roulette-style playfield; completed as part of Multi-Bingo project alongside ABC | | United Serenade | game | Previously unknown bingo game discovered in January; being programmed into Multi-Bingo; photos on IPDB | | RoboFrenzy | product | Homebrew pinball game project by Nick Baldridge; receiving mechanical units and expected to begin assembly | | Creature from the Black Lagoon | game | Modern pinball machine mentioned as having similar circular bowl ramp mechanics to ABC/Bolero roulette playfields | | Mustang | game | Modern pinball machine mentioned as having similar circular bowl mechanics to roulette-style bingo playfields | | Bally Beach Queens | game | Bally one-ball game with similar playfield design philosophy to Eleven Bells; intended for future podcast discussion | | Keeney | company | Manufacturer of Eleven Bells (1960) | | For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast | organization | Podcast hosted by Nick Baldridge covering EM and bingo pinball games and history | | IPDB | organization | Internet Pinball Database; referenced for game photos, design information, and historical documentation | ### Topics - **Primary:** Roger Sharp legal case and pinball legalization in Ohio, Multi-Bingo homebrew game development progress, Hobby burnout and personal space management in pinball collecting, 1960 Keeney Eleven Bells machine design and playfield mechanics - **Secondary:** One-ball pinball games and regulatory history, Roulette-style playfield design and mechanics (ABC, Bolero), United Serenade discovery and documentation - **Mentioned:** RoboFrenzy assembly progress ### Sentiment **Positive** (0.72) — Positive reception of legal history discovery and Multi-Bingo progress; brief negative period regarding hobby burnout but resolved positively; enthusiasm for featured game and continued community engagement ### Signals - **[historical_signal]** Roger Sharp's testimony in Cincinnati court case established precedent that pinball is a game of skill, enabling legalization of free play pinball in Ohio (confidence: high) — Law firm partner testimony and letter describing the case and judge's hands-on demonstration of skill - **[community_signal]** IFPA (run by Sharp's sons) publishing the Cincinnati court case letter to the community, preserving pinball legal history (confidence: high) — Baldridge references IFPA Facebook page posting the law firm letter for community access - **[product_signal]** Multi-Bingo project completed 3 games (ABC, Bolero, United Serenade in progress); 28 remaining games to program (confidence: high) — Baldridge: 'I finished United's ABC and Bolero... so now I'm down to 28' - **[design_innovation]** ABC and Bolero feature rare roulette-style playfields with motor-driven metal shutters and 25-hole circular targets; Baldridge documenting mechanics for homebrew implementation (confidence: high) — Detailed playfield description and Baldridge's research into IPDB photos showing underside mechanics - **[community_signal]** United Serenade, a previously unknown bingo game, discovered in January and now being documented and programmed into Multi-Bingo (confidence: high) — Baldridge: 'the bingo that was found out of the blue... turned out that it was a game nobody had ever heard of... photos are on the IPDB' - **[community_signal]** Nick Baldridge experienced hobby burnout due to space constraints and overwhelming workload but recovered within 24 hours; community friends expressed concern about his wellbeing (confidence: high) — Baldridge listed all bingos for sale then pulled listings next day; friends reached out asking if everything was okay - **[historical_signal]** Eleven Bells (1960) is a one-ball game manufactured over a decade after one-balls were outlawed; Baldridge notes curiosity about legal mechanism allowing this (confidence: medium) — Baldridge: 'one balls had been outlawed a decade before... I've always wondered how these were legally possible to manufacture' - **[design_philosophy]** Eleven Bells features risk-reward mechanics: hitting drain rollover doubles replay wins but requires precision; playfield designed by Ed Krinsky as his first game (confidence: high) — Baldridge's detailed playfield analysis describing pop-up target sequence and replay doubling mechanic - **[product_signal]** RoboFrenzy receiving final mechanical units needed; expected to begin assembly soon (confidence: high) — Baldridge: 'I received the last mechanical units that I think I need for RoboFrenzy' - **[operational_signal]** Nick Baldridge offering technical assistance to pinball enthusiasts for EM and bingo game repair and setup (confidence: high) — Baldridge: 'Feel free to reach out if you need help getting your game going, be it bingo or EM, and we'll see what we can do' --- ## 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 with a head cold. Sorry if I sound kind of weird. So first thing, I wanted to talk about the IFPA. That's the International The International Flipper Pinball Association, and for those of my listeners who may be more in tune with the flipperless variety of pinball, that organization is run by Josh and Zach Sharp, sons to Roger Sharp, who made the famous called shot in the court case in New York and legalized pinball. Interesting. From May the 12th, a letter from Dinsmore, Scholl, Coates and Dupree, a law firm in Cincinnati, to Roger Sharpe regarding his testimony in a courtroom there. The letter states, Frankly, it's the first time in an American courtroom that the fascinating history of the amusement pinball novelty device has been laid out so eloquently and so colorfully. And I asked for more details or a copy of the transcript and they posted an update from one of the partners at the law firm. This was not the transcript, however, it was one of the people who was directly involved with this case. The response was, I did the courtroom work. Sharp was one of our experts in the case where we legalized free play pinball machines in Ohio. The state took the position that if you could win a free game by getting a certain score, then the machine was a gambling device because it involved a game of chance. Our position was that it took skill to get the points, so there was no chance involved. beiden of these cameras may be present, but firstly references Filmwerk – not a video. That painting or painting style at those things that's interesting it thinks to themلا or RED and you become °**** waiting for Chancellor bye Raza then word represented by that you view it a Bob front. i'm not at a your the very confusing JavaScript 이리�laimer typical Network Investorsuing Knapp Arcade is a game designer from Bally Manufacturing who in practice could win free games every time. In court he almost blew it because the first ball went right in the gutter. He was shrewd enough to continue his testimony taking the glass off the machine and showing by hand how to use all the angles to score. We left the courtroom that day with the judge, still in his robes, standing and playing the machine. That was when we figured we would win. He remarks, that's when litigation was fun. I find that kind of history fascinating and especially these kind of individual court cases that rule in various localities. So take a moment and check out the IFPA, the International Flipper Pinball Association's Facebook page where they post a copy of the letter from the law firm which I just pulled 18.ницы니ч нassyosto¡ Very cool. So multi-bingo updates still working, of course. And I have finished another three games. I finished United's ABC and Bolero. ABC and Bolero are the only two games that use a roulette style playfield. These are games that you plunge the ball and it orbits around the bowl At the bottom of the bowl arranged in a circular pattern are 25 holes And in the center of the circle is a pop bumper If you manage to lose enough momentum, or just be going fast enough that you jump over the holes and ram into the pop bumper skirt, the ball will rocket into one of the holes. Now the way the shooter lane is arranged, when you plunge, it orbits around the top of the machine and then back down to start descending into the bowl on the side. What this means is that I think you have a fighting chance of figuring out a way to make your number. The big random element in this playfield is the pop bumper, but you can certainly push the machine The you managed to keep the ball in play. It's kinda like the uh... circular bowl elements of the ramps in Creature from the Black Lagoon or Mustang. Those modern pinball machines um... there's a tiny element that is kinda similar where you want to keep the ball in play long enough to land in the target hole. And uh... I'm really fascinated to try and play one of these. Now, I mentioned the code is done, the graphics are done, so how come I haven't played one? Well, the problem is I don't have a playfield for that. That takes a specialized playfield. It was only made for those two games, one of which is incredibly rare. The other one they made a bajillion of, as I've been told. So, I've been patiently watching and waiting. I did miss out on A free one, but it was a complete machine and that's another issue that I have. Unless there's something terribly wrong with the machine, I wouldn't want to rip a playfield out of it just to use in my game. So I'll keep watching and see if a playfield turns up one day at a show or I may even end up building my own or have one built for me. The roulette tub itself is made out of metal. Underneath there is a metal shutter which is motor driven and this motor pulls the holes aside or pushes them closed. It's actually a lot simpler now that I've seen photos of the underside there on IPDB than I imagined it would be. So, uh, that's pretty exciting. That's two more off the list, so now I'm down to 28. Well, last night I started working on the remaining two plain 25-hole games that I have left, one of which is United's 3-4-5. So after ABC and Bolero, they switched over to the Bally style 25-hole playfield with their own little flair, including I'm using just the Bally playfield because again, I don't want to rip up a game that is relatively rare just to get access to the playfield, which may or may not even fit in the cabinet. That's another thing that's a mark against the roulette playfields that were made originally. I'll have to do something to make them fit if I do find an original one. So what I'm working on right now is the bingo that was just unearthed in January, United Serenade. That's the bingo that was found out of the blue. Somebody messaged on the I was reading the tiltforms about a bingo game and what it might be worth and any other information about it and it turned out that it was a game nobody had ever heard of. Something that doesn happen all that often So the photos are on the IPDB and through those I am implementing that within the multi and that work is proceeding along right now In other news, I received the last mechanical units that I think I need for RoboFrenzy and I'm going to start whipping together an actual game here at some point in the Wax function. What yourиссyaniasus24 , is kind of like the waxing and waning as in the gospodum, I know that a lot of people experience kind of the waxing and waning of the hobby and I had reached a point not too long ago, maybe a couple weeks ago where I started looking around and wanting to have space and wanted some space to work. I was tired of crawling under games in order to fix them, all that kind of stuff. Part of that stemmed from doing too much. I've been burning the candle at both ends for quite some time, but the other part was just that I haven't been able to actually clean up my game's room for quite some time as I've been working on the multi and amassing parts for RoboFrenzy. So, um, I ended up posting, uh, all of my bingos, uh, for sale. And, uh, once I did that, I had several friends reach out and say, Hey, um, is everything okay? You know? Uh, and it, it was, I was just, uh, I had reached a frustration level that I had not reached previously. Um, And it was all due to lack of space really and the fact that it was one of those things that felt like it wasn't progressing because of the lack of space. The game room was just really messy and it was starting to grate on me. So I listed them all and then the next day I pulled them down. So mind changed. Commepa and ¿¿¿¿ in about twenty four hours I pulled that all down and the folks know that I was no longer interested in selling them but anyway that stuff happens and then after some stressful stuff that was going on personally I down stairs and cleaned up I was at the game room and all of a sudden things are waxing again so I was pretty excited and didn't really want to sell anymore. So that's kind of what's been going on with me. I've been really ludicrously busy. I've been helping people and that always feels good. So feel free to reach out if you need help getting your game going, be it bingo or EM, and we'll see what we can do. Today's featured game is the 1960 Keeney Eleven Bells. Eleven Bells is interesting because it's one of the games that was made in the early 60s that are one balls. I've always wondered how these were legally possible to manufacture, given that the one balls had been outlawed a decade before. But in this case Eleven Bells is a game that similar to Bally Beach Queens You have a single ball in order to light all the figures on the back glass and when you do, you earn a large number of replays. This game has a very intriguing playfield design which I'll get into in a moment as does Beach Queens, the Bally game which I'll talk about at some point In the future if I have no already but uh... one interesting factoid about Eleven Bells is that it was designed by Ed Krinsky and on the IPDB it notes that this was the first game that he designed uh... looking at the design let's talk about the playfield there are nine pop-upers arranged in a large Pentagon shape one at the top center uh... two and three to the left and right below that four and five again left and right and six seven eight nine on the bottom row uh... that bottom row is towards the middle of the playfield in between seven and eight and slightly up there is a passive bumper uh... which scores points And below 7 and 8, again centered on the playfield, is a kickout hole. This kickout hole will automatically spot one of the figures on the back glass, and there are 11 in total that need to be lit in order for replays to be awarded. This game has flippers. There are two reverse articulated flippers, Which are mounted on either side of a rollover. This rollover is also interesting because if you manage to drain and hit that rollover on your way down you not only earn points but you also double the number of replays that you'll win. This is all pretty fascinating from a risk-reward standpoint because You have to manage to hit that kick out hole in the center twice, it appears, as there are no bumpers for numbers 10 and 11 on the back glass. Fairly straightforward sequence game. You have to hit 1 through 11 in order to really win. And until you do, you just earn points. However, the points are not the main draw because you can win hundreds of replays. So again, this is a very interesting device as it was made a decade after it probably was outlawed. I don't know how this was okay to manufacture, but it was. That said, the The gameplay looks very compelling to me. This game also has what Bally referred to as the auto-mission coin divider. So an adjustable number of coins could go to a second cash box that was located on the side of the game. Pretty neat. I've always liked that feature and think it's pretty cool. The operator has their own set of keys and the bar owner has their own set of keys and there's never any question about splits. Theoretically. Well, I'm starting to lose my voice so I better stop. Thanks 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. You can listen to us on iTunes, Stitcher, Pocket Casts,VRSS, on Facebook, on Twitter, at Bingo Podcast. You can follow me 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: 98b7d201-8112-4a1f-91f1-2748bec04e9e*