# Episode 367 - Artwork, 1950 Bally Turf King, Interview with Ava Baldridge, MD Bingos for Sale

**Source:** For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2016-04-07  
**Duration:** 44m 57s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://foramusementonly.libsyn.com/episode-367-artwork-1950-bally-turf-king-interview-with-ava-baldridge-md-bingos-for-sale

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## Analysis

Nick Baldridge discusses his multi-bingo emulator project's progress on Coney Island artwork and coding, then extensively covers the 1950 Bally Turf King one-ball horse race game—its gameplay mechanics, design innovations, and electrical/mechanical systems. He interviews his daughter Ava Baldridge about her first machine restoration experience on Turf King, revealing her different play style and the skills she learned during the refurbishment.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Turf King features guaranteed advancing odds that never decrease, an innovation brought by designer Don Hooker — _Nick Baldridge describing Turf King design philosophy; credits Don Hooker as designer of majority of bingos_
- [HIGH] The shooter lane switch is critical—if broken or dirty, the game will continually reset even when coins are inserted — _Nick Baldridge explaining common troubleshooting for Turf King reset issues_
- [HIGH] Ava learned soldering, stepper adjustment/lubrication, switch cleaning/adjustment, troubleshooting with schematics, electroplating, sanding, staining, polishing, and playfield cleaning during Turf King restoration — _Nick Baldridge listing all skills Ava acquired; Ava confirms soldering was her favorite part_
- [HIGH] The major wire bundle between the bottom board and back box had broken wires due to board movement; typically held together with electrical tape or waxed thread from factory — _Nick Baldridge identifying weakness in Turf King design discovered during restoration_
- [HIGH] Ava prefers selections 2, 6, or 4 and typically stops at 64 odds; she rarely tilts the machine and is good at ball plunge accuracy — _Ava describing her play style vs. Nick's; Nick confirming her precision plunging and lack of tilts_
- [HIGH] When all seven selections are lit (fan relay trips), the game becomes much harder to advance odds, requiring 5-10x more coins for single steps — _Nick Baldridge explaining Turf King's built-in difficulty adjustment mechanism_
- [HIGH] Chris Dade provided a previously scanned and touched-up Coney Island back glass image for Nick's multi-bingo emulator project — _Nick Baldridge crediting Chris Dade for artwork contribution_
- [HIGH] Ryan Claytor from Elephant Eater Comics provided a tutorial on glow effects for illustrations in GIMP — _Nick Baldridge acknowledging Ryan Claytor's technical assistance_
- [HIGH] Nick is currently struggling with PyGame rendering bugs—multiple sprites with alpha channels don't render transparently, causing meter to appear over transparent images — _Nick Baldridge describing technical obstacle in multi-bingo emulator development_
- [HIGH] Nick's younger daughter is interested in getting into machine restoration; there's a one-ball game at a nearby thrift store he's considering acquiring — _Nick Baldridge mentioning family expansion of hobby and inventory planning_

### Notable Quotes

> "And so if you have a problem with the game continually resetting, that would be the first thing I'd check is the shooter lane switch."
> — **Nick Baldridge**, ~8:30
> _Critical troubleshooting advice for Turf King ownership; identifies single most common issue_

> "My favorite is when it lights 1, 3, 5, and 7. But generally, anything with the number 4 is the best."
> — **Nick Baldridge**, ~25:00
> _Reveals strategic play preference and understanding of playfield geometry; Ava later confirms she also likes 4_

> "Be careful! That is the most important one."
> — **Ava Baldridge**, ~42:15
> _Ava's practical tip for new solderers after her first soldering experience_

> "And I will lose. So when we play together I tend to use your replays because we switch off back and forth."
> — **Nick Baldridge**, ~58:00
> _Humorous admission of play skill difference; acknowledges Ava's superior abilities on this machine_

> "I used to be at one. Back in the old days."
> — **Ava Baldridge**, ~1:10:00
> _Reveals Ava's previous hands-on experience with Ballerina bingo from her childhood_

> "The biggest difference is that everything is very accessible since it's all right there in front of your face on this bottom board, rather than way up high at the top of the back door of a bingo."
> — **Nick Baldridge**, ~32:00
> _Comparative design analysis showing Turf King's ergonomic advantage over bingo machines for service_

> "Once I advance A, B, C, and D all the way to the top, then it will score double on my next win."
> — **Nick Baldridge**, ~27:00
> _Explains the hidden bumper sequence mechanic in Turf King—a persistent feature carryover between games_

> "I can do it. It's easy. You can make it all the way down to the bottom, like, every time."
> — **Ava Baldridge**, ~54:30
> _Demonstrates Ava's exceptional precision at hitting the difficult feature hole_

> "Because it heats up very fast, and it cools down very fast. and you can set it down without worrying about burning your floor, setting things on fire, you know, all that good stuff."
> — **Nick Baldridge**, ~43:00
> _Technical reasoning for soldering gun preference over iron—safety and efficiency trade-offs_

> "You've never tilted. That's true. You've tilted before. Well, maybe once. Yeah. Once. One hundred times. Once!"
> — **Ava Baldridge and Nick Baldridge**, ~56:00
> _Humorous exchange about Ava's remarkable ability to avoid tilts on Turf King_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Nick Baldridge | person | Host of For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast; designer/restorer of pinball machines; creator of multi-bingo emulator project; Turf King restorer |
| Ava Baldridge | person | Nick's daughter; completed first machine restoration on 1950 Turf King; learned soldering, stepper maintenance, electroplating, schematic reading; demonstrates superior play skill on Turf King |
| Chris Dade | person | Provided previously scanned and touched-up Coney Island back glass image to Nick for multi-bingo emulator project |
| Ryan Claytor | person | Creator of Elephant Eater Comics; provided GIMP glow effect tutorial to Nick for illustration work |
| Don Hooker | person | Designer of vast majority of bingo machines; credited as innovator of guaranteed advancing odds mechanism used in Turf King |
| Bally | company | Manufacturer of 1950 Turf King one-ball horse race pinball machine |
| Turf King | game | 1950 Bally one-ball horse race pinball machine; features advancing odds, selection system, bumper sequence carryover; recently refurbished by Nick and Ava Baldridge; extensively analyzed for mechanics and gameplay in this episode |
| Coney Island | game | Vintage Bally bingo pinball game; second bingo machine to feature extra balls; artwork and code nearly complete in Nick's multi-bingo emulator project |
| Multi-Bingo | product | Nick Baldridge's ongoing emulator project featuring multiple bingo-style games with mechanical animations; Coney Island artwork/code near completion; facing PyGame alpha channel rendering bugs |
| Ticker Tape | game | Ava's favorite bingo machine; compared with Turf King for gameplay and theme differences |
| Ballerina | game | Bingo machine from Ava's childhood; identified by Ava as desired next restoration project |
| For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast | organization | Podcast hosted by Nick Baldridge; Episode 367 focused on Turf King and multi-bingo emulator project |
| Elephant Eater Comics | company | Operated by Ryan Claytor; provided graphic design mentorship to Nick |
| York Show | event | Pinball event in October; Nick is planning which machines to bring to exhibit/sell |
| PyGame | technology | Game development library Nick is using for multi-bingo emulator; currently experiencing alpha channel rendering issues with transparent sprites |
| GIMP | technology | Graphics editing software Nick is using for multi-bingo emulator artwork; source of difficulty for non-expert user |
| Maryland | location | Mentioned as location of bingo machines for sale in episode title; implied to be referenced in content |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Turf King mechanical design and gameplay systems, Multi-bingo emulator development progress, Ava Baldridge's machine restoration learning experience
- **Secondary:** Comparative play styles and strategy on one-ball games, EM and bingo machine maintenance and troubleshooting, Soldering and restoration techniques, Design evolution from bingo to one-ball games
- **Mentioned:** Vintage pinball game restoration projects

### Sentiment

**Neutral** (0)

### Signals

- **[restoration_signal]** Turf King restoration completed; Ava acquired comprehensive skill set including soldering, stepper maintenance, electroplating, schematic reading, and aesthetic refinishing (confidence: high) — Nick lists all skills learned: 'She learned how to clean and adjust stepper units...how to replate side rails...how to sand...to stain...to polish metal...and she learned how to play the game'
- **[design_philosophy]** Don Hooker's guaranteed advancing odds innovation in Turf King reflects design philosophy balancing player psychology with mechanical feasibility (confidence: high) — Nick: 'In this game, your odds will never go down. But in some of the earlier one-ball games, they would. And this innovation was brought to you by Don Hooker'
- **[product_concern]** Turf King has identified structural weakness: wire bundle between bottom board and back box deteriorates due to repeated board movement; original factory binding (waxed thread or electrical tape) breaks, causing wire damage (confidence: high) — Nick: 'The problem is that several of the wires had broken. They had been cut, and that's because of the board moving back and forth...waxed thread had either broken or been removed or cut'
- **[gameplay_signal]** Ava demonstrates exceptional plunge accuracy and nudging restraint on Turf King; she rarely tilts and succeeds at difficult feature hole hits consistently, indicating high skill ceiling and playfield-specific mastery (confidence: high) — Nick: 'You've never tilted...You can make it all the way down to the bottom, like, every time.' Ava: 'I can do it. It's easy.'
- **[technology_signal]** Multi-bingo emulator project stalled on PyGame alpha channel rendering bug; transparent sprite layering fails, causing visual distortion and functional issues (confidence: high) — Nick: 'When I render multiple sprites with actual alpha channels, it will not render them transparently or fully transparent...my meter...appears over top of all of my transparent images'
- **[community_signal]** Nick actively mentoring family members (Ava and younger daughter) in machine restoration; expanding community engagement through intergenerational skill development (confidence: high) — Nick taught Ava soldering; mentions younger daughter wanting to start restoration; planning acquisition of another one-ball game for her
- **[collector_signal]** Nick considering purchasing another one-ball game from thrift store but hesitant due to collection space constraints; must divest existing machine; acquisition decisions constrained by seasonal planning (York Show in October) (confidence: medium) — Nick: 'I'm seriously considering it, but I'll have to get rid of another one of my games...I need to start figuring out what I'm going to bring to the York Show this October'
- **[design_innovation]** Turf King cabinet design features centrally mounted large board with kickstand, making interior component access significantly easier than comparable bingo machines (confidence: high) — Nick: 'The biggest difference is that everything is very accessible since it's all right there in front of your face on this bottom board, rather than way up high at the top of the back door of a bingo'
- **[gameplay_signal]** Turf King implements built-in difficulty scaling: when all seven selections are lit via fan relay, odds advancement rate drops to 5-10x slower, intentionally penalizing players who've obtained maximum advantage (confidence: high) — Nick: 'The game knows that it's giving you a freebie...it doesn't really want to give you all that much money in return. You can pump in five or ten times the dollar amount...that you would have ordinarily'
- **[event_signal]** York Show (October) mentioned as upcoming event for which Nick must prepare machine inventory and selections (confidence: medium) — Nick: 'I need to start figuring out what I'm going to bring to the York Show this October'
- **[personnel_signal]** Ava Baldridge now capable of independent bingo and one-ball game restoration work; acquired full technical competency after single Turf King project (confidence: high) — Nick: 'I'm confident that she could work on a bingo no problem. And I know for sure she could do another one of these one-ball games very easily'
- **[historical_signal]** Episode documents design continuity: Turf King borrows heavily from bingo machine architecture (control unit, mixers, stepper logic, relay systems) while adapting for one-ball gameplay model (confidence: high) — Nick: 'Moving from a bingo to one of these one-ball games is actually very, very easy...there's a separate manual and schematic just like for the bingos'

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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. Today we're going to talk all about Bally's 1950 Turf King. Before we get into that, I thought I'd give you a brief update on my multi-bingo emulator project and let you know that I have Coney Island pretty much complete from the artwork perspective as well as from the coding perspective. I got in contact with Chris Dade, and he was nice enough to allow me to use his previously scanned and touched up Coney Island back glass image in my project. So I used that as a base and then played around with illumination. And I mentioned in the last episode using a specialized lamp class to determine which lamps were lit. And I ended up throwing that idea away because things got way too difficult for me artistically too quickly. I have used the GIMP and Photoshop before in my life. I am using the GIMP to do all the graphics for this project, but I am not an expert at either of those pieces of software, nor am I an expert at Illustrator or Inkscape. and I really would like to get back to the coding portion because that's where my strength is even though I'm not a very good programmer. I can make something work. Ryan Claytor from Elephant Eater Comics was nice enough to give me a short tutorial on how to make a portion of an illustration appear to glow and using his technique I was able to complete the GI and the illumination for each of the numbers on the bingo card as well as the selection, so extra balls or the first, second, or third card. Those will all illuminate now and each of those are on a separate layer and have been exported separately. and now the problem that I'm running into has to do with bugs in PyGame. When I render multiple sprites with actual alpha channels, it will not render them transparently or fully transparent. And so my meter, which I have rendered in a completely different way, appears over top of all of my transparent images and that looks really weird, number one, and also doesn't quite work. Now, the unfortunate thing is that I can see that my illustration or my image, my sprites, are looking great. It's just that the meter is rendering over top of the other things. And so once I figure that out, then I should be able to post a couple screenshots screenshots and I will be happy to do that. And then I just need to make these functions a little more general. I want to be able to use the same graphics routines for pretty much every game. And so there will be separate subroutines for Coney Island and so forth. Okay, so programming update over. I am working on graphics and combining them with the code that I've already written. so let's get into Turf King Turf King is done Ava has finished the refurb it is completely refurbed and working very well indeed and so I wanted to talk about the gameplay and a little bit about what we've done and then I have my special guest Ava back on again to discuss everything that she's learned and her gameplay style, which is a little different from mine. And from there, we'll talk about some bigos that are for sale up in Maryland. So, Turf King is a one-ball horse race game. You've heard me talk about it before in several episodes. I did the pickup and talked about some of the fixes that Ava and I have done. But the general idea is that you have advancing odds, and this was a big deal for the time, guaranteed advancing odds. In this game, your odds will never go down. But in some of the earlier one-ball games, they would. And this innovation was brought to you by Don Hooker, the man who was the designer for the vast majority of the bingos. and so it should come as no surprise that this plays similarly to the bingos from a player's perspective. You put in your first coin, the game will reset down to the minimum odds and the ball will return to you. At that point, you have to lift the ball to the playfield manually by pushing the ball plunger, the spoon. This is unlike the majority of the bingos, which have the automatic ball lift and you don't have to worry about putting in a second coin. Now, if you put a second coin in before you lift the ball, then the game just resets again. It has no idea that the ball is in the trough. There are no switches in there. It only knows that the ball has been lifted or not. And so if the ball is not resting on the switch in the shooter lane, then it's going to assume that the game needs to reset again. And so if you have a problem with the game continually resetting, that would be the first thing I'd check is the shooter lane switch. But at any rate, you've reset the game, you've lifted the ball, and now you get to put in additional coins. If you put in coins without pressing any buttons, it will play for all features and for a chance at increasing your odds. But there are four different player-controlled buttons, five if you count the play all button, but we'll get to that later. Your four buttons are odds which is shaped like a star. If you press this then you play for a chance at advancing your odds. There is a mechanism which is similar to the score extra step on Turf King where if you put in a single coin the game can advance your odds four or five or possibly even more steps with that single coin. there's also a selections button, and that is next to the star button. That is shaped like a horseshoe, and this picks your horses. Your horses are one of seven different lighted panels, which are at the bottom of the back glass, and one or more will light with each press of the selection button and dump in of a coin. now under each of the numbers you'll see the word held listed if a number is held which is illuminated separately then your next coin or any further coins on that game that you play in selections will not change that number it's pretty simple in theory right well there's a problem with that. The problem is that only numbers 3, 4, or 5 can be held on any given game. Numbers 1, 2, 6, and 7 can be held, but only if the wild selection stepper steps all the way to the top. Now, the wild selection stepper you'll see will show wild by default in the bottom left of the back glass, and as you push in more coins in selections, it has a chance at stepping one or more positions, and once it steps all the way to the top, a separate relay will trip called the fan relay, which will light all seven selections held. And at that point, any additional coins you dump into selections are just wasted because it's already given you the complete advantage that you can possibly have. Well, there is an exception that I just realized. There's something shaped like a jockey cap, and it's yellow on the left and red on the right. And each coin in selection will alternate between yellow on the left and red on the right if you have that feature lit. Now, it will light at random. and we'll get into exactly how to score that here in a moment. So you got your odds where you want. You got your selections where you want. Now it's time to determine if you want to play for a chance at doubling your score in purse or show. to do this you press the clover button and then you dump in a coin or more and the game will randomly award that advantage finally you have the feature, the feature on this game is a flag and when you push that button and dump in coins it has the chance of lighting a pennant that matches the shape of the flag on the button on the back glass. When that pennant is lit and you land in the pennant hole, the feature hole, which is at the bottom center of the play field, very difficult to hit, you'll win 160 or 320 replays. And this is based on a Jones plug adjustment. Ours is set to 160 replays. And since you'll likely see a unicorn before you actually hit that, It doesn't really matter. Now, I have hit it before. It is just very, very rare that you're actually going to do it, especially when it's lit. So aside from all this when you press odds there is a chance that your light purse or show scores win odds and either or both can be lit at the same time Purse scores win odds is of course the best The play field goes in order of purse show place or win And the trap holes go 7 to 1 left to right in purse, 1 to 7 left to right in show, 7 to 1 left to right in place, and 1 to 7 left to right in win. Now each of those places on the playfield have their own corresponding odds value. And so just like in the bingos where you have multiple sets of odds to keep track of, you have the same thing here. Each section of the playfield will score differently. Purse scores the least value, win scores the most value. purse is the least dangerous and the most likely place that you're going to stop your short horse race career and therefore it makes sense to get your odds up to a high enough threshold that you won't be saddened if you win in purse if the purse scores win odds lights then it's time to stop and start playing stop putting in coins if you have your odds up to about the fourth or fifth step it's time to stop and shoot but a key component of all this is your selection if you only have a single number selected say the number seven it's incredibly unlikely that you're going to make that number and so I'll dump in more money into selections trying to light two to four different selections at the same time. My favorite is when it lights 1, 3, 5, and 7. But generally, anything with the number 4 is the best. Number 4 is in the center of the playfield in each section, and the placement of the pins which surround number 4 makes it very difficult for you to nudge into or out of that number. If you have number 4 lit, then you let fly. You see what happens. These games are difficult to nudge, but what I found is that nudging from the lock bar, or indeed the way that I nudge the bingos up on the side rails, is actually fairly convenient. It's possible to do it. I had surmised that nudging these machines would be very, very difficult, and it is to a degree. Nudging a bingo is much, much easier, but nudging the Turf King is a pretty interesting experience. The tilt bob is in the head, in the upper right, and therefore you can nudge it fairly heavily before the machine tilts. I have the tilt adjusted relatively loose, not super tight, and that's because you do have to nudge the game. You have to be able to move the ball into or out of holes. The playfield design does fight against you. you do have to work for it because there are pins which shape the ball's travel. If you land in one of the Vs, which funnel you into number two or number five, especially as you get into place, then you wind up in trouble very quickly. And down at the bottom of the play field, there are conical springs, which are shaped in such a way that if you hit them, as the ball travels down into the win area, it's going to bounce you either left or right and therefore you have to have quick reflexes and nudge as the ball hits that spring or else the ball is going to go flying into a hole that you don't want it to go into I have yet to make the ball walk up several springs it typically loses a ton of force with the first impact of the spring and therefore you have to be very good at aiming before it gets to one of those conical springs because essentially the ball has lost enough force that you won't be able to recover. Now, I talked about the jockey caps and lighting those. So what happens if you actually hit the lit one? Well, similar to the bingos where it would light one star rollover and you had to hit the lit one and it would alternate with coin, the jockey cap works the same way. If you hit the lit jockey cap, then it will step the wild selection all the way up to the top, right then, which will light all seven selections for your next game automatically. That's a super powerful advantage, but one thing I didn't tell you is that when all seven selections are lit, when that fan relay has tripped, the game becomes much more difficult as far as stepping up advantages. So you can pump in five or ten times the dollar amount that you would have ordinarily by dollar amount, I mean nickel amount, of course, that you would have ordinarily to get a single step in the odds without that fan relay trip. So the game knows that it's giving you a freebie. It's giving you a free win. And therefore, it doesn't really want to give you all that much money in return. So all that is pretty fascinating to me, just the fact that all this interplay happens all at the same time. But let's talk about the mechanicals, because I think that's another fascinating thing in the Turf King. So you have two steppers up in the head, one of which is your wild selection stepper, and that has 17 discrete steps. Each one lights an individual lamp underneath your selections, where it'll step from wild, purse, show, place, or win. And then the second stepper is for A, B, C, and D. Now, I didn't mention this at all, but there are four passive bumpers on the play field. A in the upper left, B in the upper right, C in the lower left, and D in the lower right. You have to hit these in order, and this is a carryover feature from game to game. So if I hit A on my first ball, my first game, then my next game I have to go for B. Well, I don't have to, but if I hit C or D, it's not going to count. I have to hit B in order to advance that A, B, C, D stepper. Once I advance A, B, C, and D all the way to the top, then it will score double on my next win. And in that case, you really want to go for your win odds, because otherwise, if you double three replays, it's a whopping six. No big deal. So those two steppers are in the head. Your tilt bob's in the head. You've got your Jones plug panel in the head, and just a few relays, most of which handle stepping the wild selection steppers or the A, B, C, and D. So, no big deal. Nothing really in there. The head is very lightweight, and the back glass is on a hinge. The whiteboard, the lamp board, which is behind the back glass, folds down, and it's on a chain. This chain can be disconnected, and then you can fold the headboard all the way down. To get easier access to the replay counter, which is mounted at the top center of the light board. So, let's move into the cabinet. The cabinet is a floor-length cabinet, as I've talked about in the past, and in the center of it, there is one massive board which can be pulled out. When you pull this board out, there's a little kickstand, and the kickstand will hold up the board while you work on any of the components in the middle. I think this is a fantastic design. It really makes it easy to work on. I have found one weakness in the design, and I'll go over that in a moment. But mounted to the left-hand side of the board is your control unit. Anyone who's seen the inside of a bingo will be familiar with the control unit. The difference in this one is that it also is the same motor that turns your mixers. And in the bingos, you know those were handled by two separate motors. The motor in one of these one-ball games will only turn as you put in a coin. It will also turn during payout or replay reset. There are multiple clutches, just like in the bingos, which will govern which pieces of the control unit turn at any given time. And the same mixer stop bars are present in the Turf King that are present in the bingos. The biggest difference is that everything is very accessible since it's all right there in front of your face on this bottom board, rather than way up high at the top of the back door of a bingo. And so, like I say, I like this design quite a bit. Further back, you have the replay counter, and this is just a simple stepper, and behind that you have a selenium rectifier. Over to the right-hand side, you've got your odd stepper, and then below that on the right-hand side is a bank of relays. each relay that corresponds to one of the buttons on the foot rail, as well as relays for start, which is generally any time you put in a coin, or replay reset, or anti-cheat. All those are present, and they all serve essentially the same function that they do on a bingo. And so moving from a bingo to one of these one-ball games is actually very, very easy. there's a separate manual and schematic just like for the bingos and generally everything is labeled very well as far as trip relays those are also mounted beside the control unit and they're mounted on this big bar which is pulled via solenoid on initial reset now the game is smart enough not to trip that at any time during gameplay because of that lane switch, the shooter lane switch. So again it very important that that be set appropriately and that it be clean In fact if you plunge the ball as you putting in a coin the game will reset It has no concept of where the ball is in the game. It doesn't really care. It doesn't have to. It only knows if the ball is on that switch or not. so that's the basics of the electrical systems and here's the one weakness that I've found in my game part of the major wire bundle that goes between this large board back to the backbox through the Jones plugs was undone this is typically held together with either electrical tape and it was done so from the factory or waxed thread. Now, the waxed thread had either broken or been removed or cut, or perhaps it was cut by the board itself moving in and out. But in any case, what had happened is that several of the wires had broken. They had been cut, and that's because of the board moving back and forth. And so one of the things that Ava had to do was to repair it. And I had to teach her how to solder in order to do this. So Ava learned several things during the course of this restoration or refurbishment. She learned how to clean and adjust stepper units. She learned how to lubricate stepper units, you know, basically care and maintenance, feeding of steppers. She learned how to clean switches. She learned how to adjust switches. She learned how to troubleshoot with the schematic to find a faulty switch in any given circuit. She learned how to replate side rails using a simple plating kit. She learned how to sand. She learned how to stain. She learned how to polish metal. And she learned how to play the game. She also learned how to clean and polish the play field. and though she swears that I've never had her do this before, I know that I've had her clean at least one play field in the past. So, at any rate, she learned a tremendous amount, and now I'm confident that she could work on a bingo no problem. And I know for sure she could do another one of these one-ball games very easily. My younger daughter is looking to get into the game now. She wants to do a restoration. and there is another one-ball game that's in a thrift store near me, and they're asking an exorbitant amount of money, but it's been sitting there for months and months and months, and I've been told it's one of the best one-ball games out there. So I'm seriously considering it, but I'll have to get rid of another one of my games, and I'm pretty hesitant to do that now, especially as summer's setting in. I need to start figuring out what I'm going to bring to the York Show this October. But all that said, let's hear from Ava, see what she has to say about this. I have here Ava. Hello. Ava's back, and she's finished her first game restoration, Turf King. Mm-hmm. What did you think about all that? I really liked doing all the work with you. Yeah? Mm-hmm. Even though I did most of it, you didn't do anything. Well, that's true. What was your favorite part? My favorite part was probably the soldering because I had never been able to do that before. Yep. And do you have any tips for any new solderers out there? Be careful! That is the most important one. Now I had you using a soldering gun. Yeah. And that's the big, heavy... Yeah! Yeah, it makes that noise. And was that fun, or would you prefer the pencil-type iron that I have? Which do you like better, do you think? I think I like the sardine gun better, I think. I do too, that's an excellent choice. And do you know why I prefer it? Why? Because it heats up very fast, and it cools down very fast. and you can set it down without worrying about burning your floor, setting things on fire, you know, all that good stuff. And it's less likely that you're going to accidentally grab one of the hot parts or, you know, graze it with part of your hand. Yes. Yeah. My dad even got burned. I have been burned before. No, like a couple days ago. I got burned a couple days ago. Like when I got on your finger or something. Oh, I did. That's right. Okay. Okay. So the final soldering that had to be done on Turf King was underneath the bottom board. Uh-huh. And I... I just burned the wires. Ava gave it a shot. I had her try from above the top of the bottom board. That sounds weird. But I had you try it that way, and you burned back some of the insulation on the wires. And these are cloth-wrapped wires. Yeah, which is good. It was good. Which is good that it's cloth-wrapped, or else I would burn the wires. You would burn the plastic insulation, which smells a lot worse than the cloth-wrapped, believe it or not. Yeah. So. Cloth-wrapped smells... Ugh. So what I ended up doing was climbing underneath of the bottom board and then doing it that way. And because there was a chance that the solder could drip on you, I didn't want you to do that. Yeah, I ended up dripping a blob of solder onto my arm, and that felt great. But it's all good. Now for the real stuff. Which is exactly, precisely why I didn't want you to do it. Well, I didn't do it. You are the one who did it to yourself. It's true. It's true. So that's all good. I didn't do one bit of it. All right. Well, for the people who are listening, can you go over all the stuff that you did? Well, we did cleaning on the play field. And we also did some, we also replaced one label because it was getting, like, it wasn't sticking very well anymore. It ripped. Yeah, it ripped. And then we also stained the glass. I mean, not the glass, the wood. Of the lock bar. Uh-huh. And we also did all the mechanical stuff. And we did some of the backwards stuff. And cleaned Jones plugs. Cleaned Jones plugs. And we checked light bulbs. Well, that's the one who did it. My dad just cleaned them. I just watch. and uh i taught you how to clean the slip ring wipers when you're like flossing them and i taught you how to read schematics uh-huh and colors are the best yeah ava loves to find wire colors. I know why. It's just fun. Yeah. Everybody needs a hobby, right? Yeah, I guess that one's mine. Right. And your other hobby, now that people are coming over, is showing off the game, right? Uh-huh. You like to show your friends and relatives. Uh-huh. Just about. Uh-huh. And what I think is most funny about that is that you'll show them and then you'll have them play a game and then you'll play a game and you'll win almost every single time. Which is weird. Yeah, they'll try and they'll lose really badly and then you'll step up and you're like, here's how you do it. Plop, plop, plop. You put in some coins and then all of a sudden the replays start counting up. So when you play the game, I noticed that you play it differently than I do, and I haven't really taught you how I play the game. So, can you tell people how you play it? Well, usually I put in one. So, my dad and I always have to, the first step is to load the coin in, and then you always have to push. There are two levers, the ball Ball lifter and the shooting rod. Right. And so first you push the ball lifter. Uh-huh. And then you can load another coin in. And for selections, there is a horseshoe. Uh-huh. And then for odds, it's a star. Right. And for double, it's a clover. And for features, it's a flag. Right. And so what do you spend your second nickel on? I usually spend it on selections. And what do you try to get? Is there a number that you like better than... I usually try to get two and six or four. So you like having the spread across the play field? Uh-huh. Okay. I like four myself because I tend to land in number four almost every time. Yeah. Not the reason why I like it, because my sister is almost, well, she used to be, well, she's a, well, I don't know what I'm saying. At one point you were four as well, is that? I know, I was four four years ago. You know, at one point I was four too. I know, like you were four like 32 years ago. Pretty close, pretty close. Your math has failed you, but it's alright. I can never write. With your second coin, you play for selections. You try to get two, six, or four. Uh-huh. And then do you shoot from there, or do you try to increase your odds? I try to, um, so I don't usually shoot from there. I ramp up my odds to whatever I can get, and then once I got it where I want it, then I usually shoot the ball. Now where do you typically stop We looking at the odds right now Yeah I usually stop like at 64 at 64 okay yeah so i think uh the difference between your play style and mine is that you'll put more coins in trying to beef up your odds but the thing is that you can usually make your numbers and i can't and so you end up winning like 64 right off the bat and you put in like 10 or 12 coins while I'll put in 5 or 6 coins and I will lose. So when we play together I tend to use your replays because we switch off back and forth. Yeah and you can use, please stop using all my replays. One time he went like this and I only had I had like 64 replays and it was like and he used up all of them in like 5 seconds. I didn't use up 64 replays in 5 seconds. Well not 64 but like 32. I did use a good chunk of them. Because I got a good jump on the odds and so I was trying to get a better selection. But it wouldn't give me the selection I wanted. And so I wasted a whole bunch of money. But I'd love to do it with, like, five. You're good. That's all you need. Seriously? Do you ever put a nickel in for the double or for the feature? Sometimes I do. Not very often. Yeah, I feel the same way. I tend to always sacrifice one nickel to one or the other of those. But the feature lights so very rarely. Yeah. and the chance that you're going to make it all the way down to that hole are pretty slim. I can do it. It's easy. You can make it all the way down to the bottom, like, every time. I think the difference between your play style and mine as well is that I'm a nudger. I mean, I will really shake the machine to get it to go where it needs to go. Yeah, and I am not tilted at all. You've never tilted. That's true. On this machine. Never. You've tilted before. Well, maybe once. Yeah. Once. Once. Once. One hundred times. Once! Anyway, what you will do is line up your plunge, and you know where it's going from that, which is a skill that I don't have. And you're good at that with the bingos, too. Yeah, for some reason, if I say I'm going to get the top or bottom, it lands in the top or bottom. Yeah, yeah. It's weird. Now, do you stop putting money in if you get the per scores win or the show scores win? That's tied to the odds up here? Sometimes. Sometimes. What do you think about this jockey cap feature that increments up and then gives you all seven selections? Do you like that? Yeah. Jockey caps are, I can actually get the jockey caps pretty often. I can too. It's weird. You can get feature, but you can get the jockey caps, and the jockey caps are right next to the feature. Yeah, yeah. But I think the play field is laid out in such a way that it's easy to hit those for terrible players like myself. Hey, you're not a terrible player. I'm a terrible player. Oh, I don't think so, Miss64, on your first shot. But anyway, do you like the fact that it'll give you all seven selections? Do you think that's good or bad? That's actually pretty good so that you can get a chance of winning more. Well, you can win no matter where you land. Yeah, and you only get one chance. One chance. Don't land in the jockey cap for the feature. Yep. Yeah, I've done that before. Yeah. There's no ball return. No ball return. Yes, that is true. So, yeah, what do you think about the difference between this and, say, Ticker Tape, which is your favorite bingo? I'd say that it's pretty different because Ticker Tape also has a different style of art and different things on it. That's definitely true. Mm-hmm. So, you know, aside from the theme, what do you think about the playfield layout? Do you like the bumpers on Turf King? Well, I also like, yeah, I like the bumpers on Turf King. So you also did electroplating on the side rails. What did you think of that? What does electroplating mean? Oh, you've forgotten it all now. Well, electroplating is where we took the wand and we plugged it into the wall. Oh, yeah. And we got all the rusty stuff off. Yeah. Because we covered it with new metal. Yep. So did you like that process? Uh-huh. That was really neat. Was that interesting? Uh-huh. And then we also polished the buttons on the foot rail. Yep. and you repainted them, right? Uh-huh. With a toothpick at first. Mm-hmm. And then we switched up and I had you use... A paintbrush. Right. And then you had to wipe off the excess red paint. Yep. And then we hit them with another round of polish. Yep. And now they're beautiful. Yep. All that's left is another coat of wax and then it'll be done. Our project will be done finally. All done forever. Once and for all. Now, there's always more stuff to do. Aw. Yeah. But it plays perfectly and it looks beautiful right now, right? Yep. Okay. So, Ava. What? What should our next project be? We should work on... What other machines are there? to work on. Well, we were just looking at pictures of machines and you said there was one that you wanted me to get. Ballerina! And what did you like about Ballerina? I used to be at one. Back in the old days. So, do you think that that would be a fun machine? Yep. Well, I've played that machine. You have? Yep. And do you know... In Ohio? I thought it was really fun, but the big feature on that machine is that you can reverse the top row of numbers. So you know on Gay Time how you can move the balls in the top row? Uh-huh. Well, on this, the balls don't move. They just switch. They do? Yeah. That's weird. So 1 becomes 7, or 7 becomes 1. But the ball is still in the number 7. Yeah. Okay, that's confusing Yeah, it just flips them What? It's weird I found that feature pretty hard to use Like Caribbean? Huh? Like Caribbean? No Not like Caribbean? No Not like Caribbean? Not at all Not like Caribbean? No, not a bit Not like a Caribbean? So, okay, Ava, last question Alright, what was your favorite part of the whole process? My favorite part was everything. Everything? Probably my most favorite part would be finding the colors. Color matching? Color matching. That's right, because you did some touch-up on the cabinet too. No, I mean the color. No, no. Matching the wire colors. Oh, yeah. On the schematic. Right, I forgot. You're not even talking about the right thing. I forgot about your hobby. You forgot about my hobby already. We just talked about it like five minutes ago. So I need to show you some schematics from Williams and Gottlieb because they're completely different. They don't use the neat chart for the wire colors. At all? No. That's weird. They just print the wire color directly on the schematic. What Valley did saved a lot of space. It did? Mm-hmm. Seriously? Mm-hmm. Really? Mm-hmm. Are you serious? No kidding? No, I'm joking. What? All right. Say goodbye. Bye-bye. So before I sign off here, I wanted to talk about a bingo deal that's happening in Baltimore, Maryland. there's a guy on Facebook who is attempting to sell several different titles both 20 and 25 hole bingos they look like they've sat for quite a period of time most of them have quite a thick layer of dust on the playfield glass but he's got some very good titles like Golden Gate he's got the beautiful Zodiac which has great back glass Golden Gate's back glass appears to be flaking quite a bit and I'm not sure about the playfield condition or mice or any of that good news, but it looks like it's a good deal, and he's selling them for $100 apiece. So anyone who's in the Baltimore area, get in touch with me, and I will send you their information, and we'll see what we can do. some other machines he's got I saw a Roller Derby I saw a Dixieland and I don't know any other titles that he's got but he's apparently got quite a few and again both 20 and 25 whole so if you're in the market for a bingo and you're near Baltimore $100 it's hard to go wrong especially with some of those titles 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 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 me on Instagram, also at Bingo Podcast. Or you can listen to us on our website, which is 4amusementonly.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: c71b1a84-70ff-4d70-b67b-15e7a9d5615b*