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Episode 325 - 1968 Bally Venice

For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·13m 33s·analyzed·Jan 30, 2016
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.015

TL;DR

Deep dive into 1968 Bally Venice: mechanics, odds, mystic lines, and artwork critique.

Summary

Nicholas Baldridge provides a detailed technical and thematic breakdown of the 1968 Bally Venice, a 20-hole bingo pinball machine. The episode covers gameplay mechanics including the multi-coin system, pick-a-play button options, odds progression, the super double-up game feature, mystic lines manipulation, star zone scoring complications, and artwork design. Baldridge praises the playfield and backglass artwork but criticizes the cabinet's color scheme choice.

Key Claims

  • Venice is the second production example of a bingo machine with a double-up game (after Orient), with the only real difference being higher odds payouts in the super double-up feature

    high confidence · Nicholas Baldridge, direct statement comparing Venice to Orient's double-up mechanics

  • 20-hole Bally bingo machines use pure section scoring rather than in-line scoring, eliminating the need for adjacent balls

    high confidence · Nicholas Baldridge explaining Bally's design philosophy for the 20-hole series

  • Star zones exist in every section of Venice's playfield but do not count toward section wins unless all five positions in a section are filled or they are occupied with other special features

    high confidence · Nicholas Baldridge detailed explanation of star zone mechanics

  • Mystic lines feature allows players to manipulate number placement through three progressive unlock stages (A: center column movement, B: swap leftmost columns, C: swap rightmost columns)

    high confidence · Nicholas Baldridge comprehensive walkthrough of mystic lines mechanics

  • The cabinet artwork uses a white background with yellow and green floral designs, which Baldridge believes would have been more effective with a blue base coat matching the backglass

    high confidence · Nicholas Baldridge subjective critique of cabinet design

Notable Quotes

  • “Venice is the second and the only real difference in this super double up from the regular double up game is that your odds change”

    Nicholas Baldridge @ ~2:30 — Clarifies Venice's mechanical distinction from Orient, emphasizing the odds progression enhancement

  • “So on these 20-hole games, Bally did away with in-line scoring. You know, the thing that really makes you think of bingo when you see a bingo pinball machine.”

    Nicholas Baldridge @ ~4:15 — Explains a fundamental design decision that separates 20-hole bingo machines from earlier bingo-style gameplay

  • “The mystic lines are a feature. Each section of the mystic lines is lit independently, but it advances.”

    Nicholas Baldridge @ ~5:45 — Introduces the progressive mystic lines system that defines player agency in Venice

  • “If you get 11, 15, and 16, for example, those are all in the blue, but 16's in the star zone, then you don't have a winner.”

    Nicholas Baldridge @ ~4:45 — Concrete example illustrating how star zones complicate section scoring and player planning

  • “I think the playfield artwork is beautiful. I think the backless artwork is quite good. And I'm really not fond of the cabinet artwork.”

    Nicholas Baldridge @ ~20:30 — Summary of Baldridge's aesthetic evaluation across three design elements, showing mixed reception

Entities

Nicholas BaldridgepersonBallycompanyVenicegameOrientgameFor Amusement Onlyorganization

Signals

  • ?

    historical_signal: Venice represents evolution in bingo pinball design, with enhanced double-up odds and maintained mystic lines feature carried forward from earlier 20-hole series

    high · Baldridge traces Venice as second production double-up game after Orient, notes design decisions specific to 20-hole series including pure section scoring and mystic lines

  • ?

    design_innovation: Mystic lines feature provides sophisticated player manipulation mechanics through three progressive unlock stages, allowing skilled players to recover from unfavorable ball placements

    high · Detailed explanation of A/B/C stages of mystic lines, including strategic locking mechanics that restrict player control at specific game phases

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Star zones create scoring complexity by occupying positions in every section without counting toward wins, forcing skilled execution from players who want to avoid them or integrate them into winning combinations

    high · Baldridge's examples showing how star zones block section wins (11/15/16 fail scenario) and require either skill or mystic lines use to overcome

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Venice's cabinet design represents a missed opportunity in Baldridge's view—white background with yellow/green florals could have been enhanced with blue base coat matching backglass artwork

    medium · Baldridge's subjective but detailed critique of color harmony between cabinet stencil and backglass, noting blue as preferable choice

  • ?

    historical_signal: Bally's 20-hole series abandoned traditional in-line scoring in favor of pure section scoring, representing deliberate departure from classic bingo pinball conventions

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.041

0:00
What's that sound? It's 4 Amusement Only, the EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast. Welcome back to 4 Amusement Only, this is Nick Baldridge. Tonight I wanted to talk about 1968's Venice by Bally.
0:20
Venice is a 20-hole bingo pinball machine. As such, it's a multi-coin pinball machine. You put your first coin in and the game will reset. Lift your first ball and at that point you can put in additional coins to play for advances in odds, features, or both. Or, in this game, to play the special super double up game.
0:46
In order to do so, you use the pick a play buttons on the front of the cabinet. Red plays for a chance at advancing features and odds.
0:56
Green plays for a chance at advancing features only, and blue plays for a chance at advancing odds only. Your odds can go from 4 for 3 in a section, 16 for 4 in a section, and 75 for 5 in a section, all the way up to 192 for 3 in a section, 480 for 4 in a section, and 600 for 5 in a section. the white button is what coins up the super double up game now if you listen to last night's episode you know that orient had the double up game and you know that this was special because orient is the first example of a production solid state bingo venice is the second and the only real difference in this super double up from the regular double up game is that your odds change. So you go all the way from three for your third alternating ball to 72 for your third alternating ball. And I guess I should explain how the game is played because that would probably help. The idea is that you shoot for either an even or an odd hole. It does not matter which one, just so long as it is an even number or an odd number. Your first ball has to be an even number, your second ball has to be odd, and then your third ball has to be even again.

high · Baldridge explicitly contrasts 20-hole design approach with traditional bingo mechanics that emphasize adjacent ball placement

2:29
And if you manage to do that, you can collect, again, anywhere from 3 to 72. Your fourth ball, you have a choice. If you've collected on your third ball, you can't play for your fourth ball. But if you didn't, and you managed to make an odd hole, you've doubled your odds.
2:53
It goes up to six, all the way up to 144, depending on how many coins you've put in. Now, you can collect that, or you can double it again, anywhere from 12 to 288.
3:07
and the primary difference between this and Orient is just the amount of max payout of this super double up game the actual gameplay is exactly the same so let talk about the other features this game has The rest of the game being electromechanical it has all of the features that the previous 20 whole games had but there is one other minor difference. In this case, if you get numbers in all four of the star zones lit, then you'll earn either 450 or 900. That's a lot of replays for that particular action, so that is very lucrative. Now let's talk about the star zones, because they're kind of a sticking point on these 20-hole machines. They give you absolutely nothing if you land in them, unless you have special features lit, or it happens to be the fifth in a particular section. So on these 20-hole games, Bally did away with in-line scoring. You know, the thing that really makes you think of bingo when you see a bingo pinball machine. So what they replaced it with was pure section scoring. So you don't have to have balls adjacent to each other in order to win. You just have to have three, four, or five in a section.
4:35
The issue with this is that that star zone exists in every section. and it doesn't count. So if you get 11, 15, and 16, for example, those are all in the blue, but 16's in the star zone, then you don't have a winner. If you got 11, 15, and 14, however, you would have a winner, or 11, 15, and 5, and so on. But if you get 11, 15, 14, 5, and 16, then you've got your five in a row odds, or five in a section odds, and you've got a winner.
5:12
So in that way you can use the star zones, but you have to be very good at making your numbers. Now Bally made this a little easier on you by carrying over the mystic lines feature from game to game in these 20-hole series. The mystic lines are a feature. Each section of the mystic lines is lit independently, but it advances. So the first to light is A. A allows you to move the center column up and down.
5:46
Then it will light B. B allows you to swap the leftmost two columns, and then C will light. C allows you to swap the rightmost two columns.
5:58
So in this way, you can pull a number out of the star zone. But you have to be careful, because sometimes you wind up with a worse situation than you had before. So let's take our 11, 15, and 16 example. If you were to push B, it would swap it with the column to its right. This would put 16 in the blue section, but would move 11 to the yellow. And 15 would jump into the yellow star zone. So pretty much absolutely not a move you want to make. Unless you had other numbers in the yellow lit. So this game also has the ability to lock you out of moving those numbers As a player you typically want to have control of those numbers for the entire game but Bally was pretty clever, so what they did is lock you out of moving those numbers before shooting your fourth ball.
7:00
But they gave you a chance. They let you earn the ability to move them before shooting your fifth, or even after shooting your fifth. And of course, after fifth is most desirable.
7:14
This allows you, if you're a skilled player and get your numbers absolutely correct, to win in more than one section.
7:28
This game also has an extra ball feature. You can pay for a chance at earning an extra ball. You can earn up to three. So maximum, you have 8 into 20.
7:42
This game also has doubling or tripling of any one color. And your colors are red, green, yellow, and blue.
7:55
And those are the colors of the sections, and also the colors of the corresponding odds for each section. now the star zones I mentioned where you can have any four star zones lit to get 450 or 900 there's another star zone feature and it's the red letter game one of the letters in Venice will light up red and it corresponds with the step in the red odds beyond a certain point if you sink three balls into any of the three star zones or two balls into any two-star zones, depending on which is lit, then the game will award you a new free game that has guaranteed odds and features based on the letter that's lit. And so all that information is on the score and instruction cards down at the apron area. And depending on how high your odds are before you get this red letter game is going to determine how good of a red letter game you get. So typically, your odds will jump several times what they are before you drop all your bowls and start a new game. So it's normally to your great benefit to play a red letter game, but at that point, you actually have to make your numbers and win. So there's always a challenge. So let's talk about the artwork.
9:22
Venice, as you might imagine, takes place. In Venice, Italy, a city famed for gondolas rowing down the streets, which are flooded.
9:37
You have multiple female tourists riding on the gondolas in the foreground. And then you've got gondoliers just rowing back and forth as you go further and further back into the distance. Instead of seagulls we not at the beach remember there are other birds either pigeons or some kind of bird of prey I can quite tell what kind it is An awful lot of blue in this back glass and I happen to like blue quite a bit so I really like this artwork therefore. The cabinet, however, is another thing. I think if it used blue as a base coat and some different colors for the stencil, it really would have popped quite a bit and really matched with the back glass artwork. But in this case, what they chose was a white background with a yellow and green kind of representation of flowers, perhaps, or just odd-shaped ovals of different colors, and where they intersect, it is white. So, not super fond of that cabinet, just because of the color chosen. Again, if it was blue, I really think it would have been quite killer, but, oh well. Missed opportunity. So, for the play field, you have line drawings representing the different people, which I think is quite cool. They're not colored, they're not shaded, they are just simply outlines of all the people. And then as far as the playfield artwork, you have alternating triangles of blue and red, which cascade down, and in between each number there is a tan triangle which points upwards. And on this tan triangle, you have alternating symbols, which are supposed to represent water.
12:06
I think the playfield artwork is beautiful. I think the backless artwork is quite good. And I'm really not fond of the cabinet artwork. But art is subjective. Everybody has an opinion, and that's just mine.
12:20
The gameplay, however, looks like it is quite fun. So where you have the wonderful gameplay of Orient, you also have the expanded options of having these huge wins on your four in a star zone. So that is pretty enticing.
12:42
And the double-up game remains pretty cool with the super double-up game. the fact that you get paid more at the top of your odds charts I think just put some icing on the cake there well that's all for tonight thank you very much for joining me my name again is Nick Baldridge you can reach me at 4amusementonlypodcast at gmail.com or you can call me on the bingos line that's 724 bingos 1 724 246 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 foramusementonly.libsyn.com Thank you very much for listening, and I will talk to you next time.