Episode 451 - Multi-Races, Super Star, Coin-Op Carnival Tour Update, 1938 Genco Klick

For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·10m 31s·analyzed·Jul 11, 2019

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.021

TL;DR

Multi-races development progress; Coin-Op Carnival tour updates; 1938 Genco Klick featured.

Summary

Nicholas Baldridge updates on his homebrew multi-races pinball machine project, detailing recent graphical and animation work on 60-70 racing games, upcoming physical modifications including new boards and switches, and his involvement with Coin-Op Carnival #2 publication. He also provides tour updates for the Coin-Op Carnival presentation series and features a deep dive into the 1938 Genco Klick, an early game with innovative clock-based backbox mechanics.

Key Claims

Multi-races project now includes approximately 60-70 games, with well over three-quarters being Bally games
high confidence · Nicholas Baldridge describing current development scope of multi-races project
Completed several games both graphically and with animations on multi-races; playing them on actual hardware and adding new games almost daily
high confidence · Nicholas Baldridge on his recent work pace and methodology
Planning to drill lock bar and add buttons, wire in replay register, and add payout limit and reset switches to multi-races machine
high confidence · Nicholas Baldridge describing necessary physical modifications to machine
Will need additional switch board and PD16 coil driver board for multi-races to support extra features
high confidence · Nicholas Baldridge on upcoming hardware requirements
Coin-Op Carnival #2 copies will be available at Southern Fried Game Room Expo with Brent and Whitney from Broken Token podcast
high confidence · Nicholas Baldridge announcement about publication availability
Coin-Op Carnival tour includes presentation by Ryan at San Diego Comic-Con on August 19th, followed by Houston planetarium presentation with both Ryan and Nicholas on August 3rd
high confidence · Nicholas Baldridge detailing tour schedule (note: dates appear to be from 2019 based on context)
1938 Genco Klick features a clock-based backbox mechanic where bumper/rollover hits advance a clock digit, and matching three lit numbers wins the game
high confidence · Nicholas Baldridge detailed analysis of Klick's gameplay mechanics

Notable Quotes

“I find it much more rewarding to play a game when it has graphics”
Nicholas Baldridge @ early in episode — Reflects design philosophy on the importance of visual presentation in gaming experience
“Well over three quarters of them are going to be ballet games Ballet was just a prodigious producer of these things”
Nicholas Baldridge @ mid-episode — Historical observation about Bally's dominance in horse race game production
“The playfield is so straightforward. You know, there's not a lot there, but the springs which are mounted on either side and the amount of room that you have to maneuver the ball by moving the table is enough that I think there's plenty of repeat play appeal.”
Nicholas Baldridge @ late episode discussing Klick — Explains how simple playfield design combined with table control mechanics creates engaging gameplay
“This must be extremely challenging to do, just looking at it, but I bet it would be an awful lot of fun to try to do it.”
Nicholas Baldridge @ during Klick analysis — Assessment of the difficulty and appeal of winning conditions in early pinball games

Entities

Nicholas Baldridgepersonmulti-racesproductCoin-Op Carnivalproduct1938 Genco KlickgameRyan ClaytonpersonBrentpersonWhitneypersonRyan WengerpersonWayne Neyensperson

Signals

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design_innovation: Multi-races project integrating 60-70 different racing games from multiple manufacturers onto single homebrew hardware platform with unified menu system and custom electrical modifications
high · Nicholas Baldridge's detailed description of consolidating diverse games with new switches, replay registers, and control modifications
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design_philosophy: Recognition that adding graphics to games significantly improves play appeal and engagement, driving priority on graphical implementation
high · Quote: 'I find it much more rewarding to play a game when it has graphics'
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historical_signal: Observation that Bally dominated horse race game production compared to other manufacturers in the era, producing over 75% of approximately 60-70 horse race games that exist
high · Nicholas Baldridge noting 'Well over three quarters of them are going to be ballet games' and 'Bally was just a prodigious producer of these things'
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content_signal: Coin-Op Carnival publication reaching second volume with distribution expanding through podcast partnerships and event appearances
high · Plans for Coin-Op Carnival #2 distribution at Southern Fried Game Room Expo via Broken Token podcast hosts
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event_signal: Coin-Op Carnival tour expanding with multiple city presentations including San Diego Comic-Con and Houston planetarium venue featuring private collection
high · Scheduled presentations on August 19th (San Diego) and August 3rd (Houston) with different formats and featured collections

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.031

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. Quite a few things have been going on since I recorded a normal episode last. First of all, my Chicago coin thing has left the building and has moved on to another collector. It was I'm going to get that fixed up here shortly. It's in excellent condition, but I've been working on multi races as much as possible over the past couple weeks, and I've completed several games, both graphically and with animations. and it's pretty exciting so I've played a few of them on the actual hardware and I continue to add new games almost daily previously I had written a bunch of the logic but now I'm actually doing the graphical work and for some reason I find it much more rewarding to play a game when it has graphics so right now I'm working on victory derby and victory special and then I'm going to be switching over my Most likely to the Universal games, Winter Photo Finish and Conversion Game Old Hilltop. But my plan is to get as many of these complete as possible here in the next week or so and then start doing the physical modifications to the machine necessary in order to support a menu system and all of the gameplay mechanics, meaning I need to drill the lock bar and put in some buttons. I have to take some very careful measurements which I will do from turf king which sits opposite it in the room and I also procured a new used replay register to put in for games which award replays versus payout I had previously purchased a replay register which was period correct it was you know from the right time period but unfortunately Norit ordered Shinayan Harder to find So I procured a complete one and I just wire that in And then I also need to wire in a few extra switches like a payout limit switch and a payout reset switch both of which will allow me to gauge when the game has actually paid out and it pays out in multiples of two Otherwise I going to have to do a timing based system and that's not going to work very well because of course the motor has to spin up that handles the payout because it's motorized so that's a little tricky if I don't add the switches so I figure the switches exist why not take advantage of it so that means I'll likely need to add another switch 16 board but that's not a huge deal I also have a extra coil or two that need to be driven and that'll necessitate a new PD16. So I've got a couple new boards in my future for multi races, but once I have those in place and have the extra features wired up, then the game should be pretty much playable for any of the approximately 60 to 70 games that exist. And that number has increased since the last time, if you've been listening for a while, I thought it was somewhere between 50 and 60. haiävćos viewing an or busy, Parkadoney I say well over three quarters of them are going to be ballet games Ballet was just a prodigious producer of these things And I understand why They made a lot of money This is before the bingos And the bingos of course also made a lot of money but are quite a different animal With the one ball horse race games you spend a lot of time coining up and once you've got the game where you want it to be then you plunge and hopefully you've aimed and you're relatively good at nudging because you have to knock it into uh... one of approximately and the and it takes some skill to win so uh... i'm looking forward to having all these games playable it was a blast i loaded it up on sunday and fired up turf king since it sits opposite the actual turkey game in my game room and played on that and it was great uh... the animations and portioning are not accurate yet Um, but they are animating and they are portioning, so it is an exciting time.

6:15

So that's what's been going on with me. I'm also diligently working on coin op carnival number two. And for those who are interested in coin op carnival and are attending the Southern fried game room expo this coming weekend, uh, I've got good news. Brent and Whitney from the broken token classic arcade and pinball podcast. We'll be at SFGE with a small selection of books and you're more than welcome to pick one up there if you haven't picked one up yet and would like to. Also the CoinOpCarnival 2019 tour rolls on and the next stop is with Ryan at San Diego ComicCon where he's giving a presentation this coming Friday, not this week but the following week, the 19th. So, go out, check out that presentation and let me know what you think. The next stop is coming up sooner than you think, August the 3rd and this will be both Ryan and I together in Houston and if you're in the area please come check it out. It's a planetarium presentation similar to the one that Ryan gave in Michigan with a view of Wayne Nines in his home, in his garage, A special treat a special gift and I excited to see how this goes and this is the first time that we given this presentation together so I looking forward to to that experience Today featured game is 1939 Click by Genko Click is at first glance an uninspired unappealing looking game The artwork is attractive enough but there not much game there If you look there are four bumpers and there are six rollovers and that's it there's a lot of open space on the playfield but what makes this an appealing game is the back box and the interaction between the back box and the playfield you have a what looks like a clock but there are only eight digits on its face and there are a bunch of circles which surround this clock face the deal is for every bumper hit and I assume every rollover hit, this clockface moves one step. And if the indicator remains in front of a number for an unspecified period of time, they must have some kind of delay mechanism in there, then the number on the clockface lights up. And if you get three numbers on the clockface lit up in a row, then you win. This must be extremely challenging to do, just looking at it, but I bet it would be an awful lot of fun to try to do it.