Episode 186 - 1961 Bally Bikini with Steve Smith

For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·19m 46s·analyzed·Sep 13, 2015

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.027

TL;DR

Deep dive into 1961 Bally Bikini's innovative Futurity mechanic and design features.

Summary

Nick Baldridge interviews Steve Smith about the 1961 Bally Bikini, a bingo pinball machine featuring a Magic Screen, triple-deck scoring, pick-a-play, up to three extra balls, and an innovative "Futurity" mechanic that allows players to bank OK games for future play. The hosts discuss Bikini's design innovations, rarity (estimated 850 produced), artwork quality, and upcoming appearance at the York Show, positioning it as part of the "Holy Trinity" of bingo pinball games alongside Golden Gate and Bounty.

Key Claims

Bikini is the sister game to Circus Queen, which was the first to have three in the orange
high confidence · Steve Smith, discussing game lineage and mechanical features
Bikini's Futurity feature was the first time Bally implemented the ability to bank OK games instead of playing them immediately
high confidence · Steve Smith, explaining the Futurity mechanic and its historical significance
Approximately 850 Bikini machines were produced
medium confidence · Nick Baldridge cites pinball database, though he notes skepticism in the bingo community about production numbers
Golden Gate, Bikini, and Bounty represent the "Holy Trinity" of bingo pinball
medium confidence · Steve Smith's stated opinion, noting he wrote this on the internet; implies these are considered the highest-quality bingo games
Many bingo machines were destroyed by law enforcement through confiscation, dumping in the ocean, and burning
high confidence · Nick Baldridge, discussing historical context of bingo machine rarity and preservation
Steve Smith acquired his Bikini for $200 and has since extensively restored it
high confidence · Steve Smith, discussing his acquisition and restoration work
Bikini and other bingo games will be displayed at the York Show
high confidence · Nick Baldridge, stated as a reason for discussing the game on the podcast

Notable Quotes

“Bikini is the sister game to Circus Queen. Circus Queen is the first one to have three in the orange.”
Steve Smith @ early — Establishes historical relationship between two key bingo games and clarifies mechanical lineage
“The Futurity game, you didn't really build it up as high as you could. It's a cool feature. I don't try to get it up to 12. I can't ever see that happening in a while.”
Steve Smith @ mid — Reveals gameplay difficulty and the aspirational challenge of maxing out the Futurity feature
“That button's got two slots, ring slots. Down below, it's got two places for a clip to go on. And one of them is you can make it proud of the foot rail which makes it easy to brush accidentally dumping your game.”
Steve Smith @ mid — Identifies a design flaw in the orange button that led to accidental activation and loss of games
“I back here playing this thing every night after I got it...I'm back here drinking beer by myself and playing my, I've been doing it every night for a couple weeks, pinball widow. I just got the thing.”
Steve Smith @ mid — Personal anecdote illustrating the addictive and engaging nature of the Bikini's design
“Golden Gate, Bikini, and Bounty. That's the royalty of bingo pinball. It's not my opinion. It's on the Internet. I wrote it. so it must be true”
Steve Smith @ late — Establishes the canonical 'Holy Trinity' of bingo pinball and uses humor to underscore authority via documentation
“These things were destroyed. Law enforcement confiscated them. They dumped them in the ocean. They'd break them up. They'd burn them. Usually they'd burn them.”
Nick Baldridge @ late — Contextualizes the rarity and scarcity of surviving bingo machines through historical suppression
“The mafia was very heavily involved, and government officials were paid off. This is the first time this has ever happened in the universe.”
Nick Baldridge @ late — Uses sarcasm to reference the documented history of organized crime involvement in bingo machine operation and suppression

Entities

Nick BaldridgepersonSteve SmithpersonBikinigame Circus Queengame Golden Gategame Silver Sailsgame Bountygame

Signals

?
restoration_signal: Steve Smith discusses extensive restoration work on his Bikini, transforming it from a $200 purchase into a polished, fully functional machine, demonstrating collector commitment to preservation.
high · Steve Smith: 'Well, it's certainly good looking now...That's the hard work, you know, the hard work.' and later 'Well, I paid $200 for it' followed by discussion of playing it nightly
?
historical_signal: Discussion of systematic destruction of bingo machines by law enforcement through confiscation, burning, and ocean dumping, contextualizing rarity of surviving machines.
high · Nick Baldridge: 'These things were destroyed. Law enforcement confiscated them. They dumped them in the ocean...Usually they'd burn them.'
?
product_concern: The orange button (Futurity play button) has a design flaw that allows accidental activation during gameplay, leading to unintended game termination. Steve Smith experienced this firsthand.
high · Steve Smith: 'That button's got two slots...And one of them is you can make it proud of the foot rail which makes it easy to brush accidentally dumping your game. And this is something that I did right after I got my bikini...I hit the yellow button to play for extra ball and all of a sudden...the extra ball light comes on and all three extra balls are watered...I'm leaning over the glass and dump the whole game with my elbow.'
?
design_innovation: Bikini introduced the Futurity mechanic, a novel feature allowing players to bank OK games for future play rather than immediate execution, representing a significant innovation in bingo pinball design.
high · Steve Smith: 'It's called a futurity...you hit the button and it takes that okay game and puts it in the bank. And then if you hit another OK game...you don't play it immediately. Correct. It sets it aside to be played at a future date that you pick.'

Topics

Bikini machine design and featuresprimaryFuturity mechanic innovationprimaryBingo pinball game lineage and sister gamesprimaryBikini rarity and production numberssecondaryBingo machine restoration and maintenancesecondaryHoly Trinity of bingo pinballsecondaryHistorical suppression of bingo machinessecondaryYork Show event and displaymentioned

Sentiment

positive(0.82)— Both speakers express genuine enthusiasm and admiration for the Bikini's design, mechanical features, and aesthetic appeal. Steve Smith demonstrates deep affection for his machine through anecdotal stories. The tone is celebratory and appreciative of the game's engineering and rarity. Minor self-deprecating humor about gameplay skill and accidental button pressing adds levity without detracting from the overall positive sentiment toward the machine and topic.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.059

what's that sound it's for amusement only the em and bingo pinball podcast welcome back to for amusement only this is Nicholas Baldridge and with me tonight steve smith i'm not telling it's a secret hi this is steve so i came over tonight to steve's house to get him to talk a little bit about Bikini. Bikini is one of the games that's going to be supposedly at the York Show. Not Steve's Bikini, but a different one. So continuing in my series of some bingos that'll be there, I thought we'd go over some of the features and how to play and all that good stuff. Playing it. Go on YouTube and look at that video of Jeffrey playing Bikini. Valley Bikini. What is it? 1961. He covers everything but the extra balls. And that said, I don't know that he talked about the three in the green. Nick says he just talked about that. I think that's a cool feature. I agree. He's bad on all the other stuff. The bikini, though, is artwork. It is the sister game to Circus Queen. Circus Queen is the first one to have three in the orange. I thought this was the sister game to Lito. No. It is not. It is only, that is false perception because of the futurity. These are the only two that have it. Like Golden Gate and Silver Sails are sister games. They're identical games, just different. Except for a couple of circuits to art. Laguna Beach is closed. but no, Lido's got a white button. Oh, okay. Okay, and I think that was the first time they had put one of those on. Okay. And this gives you a chance for the super sections only. Right. And then the follow-up, I would say the sister game to Lido would be Can-Can. Oh, that would make sense. Okay. I think that one came after it. Anyway. But the Bikini we're talking about. Genie has got the cool stuff. It's got all the cool stuff, man. Plus the Babel Killer and the Arx Killer. I think the Futurity game, you didn't really build it up as high as you could. It's a cool feature. I don't try to get it up to 12. I can't ever see that happening in a while. I guess you could try it if you're a maniac. I've never I didn't play one in a while Are we allowed to say that this is your first time playing one in a while so to speak? We're gambling guys Nick's playing bingo pinball for money and not doing well It's your first time and you learn the hard way you learn free and you got a certain style of playing now and when you're playing, I learned to play with money, and I didn't have much of it, so I was dingy with it. Yeah. Anyway, so it's got everything you need on a Magic screen except a Golden Game and triple OK like bounty. So it's got an OK feature, right? It's got the orange section, but the difference in Bikini from... Well, you want me to talk about the futurity part of it. Yes, I do. Well, why didn't you say that? Nick, you talked about the red letter games and OK features. Well, this one has that, except it's not called a red letter game. It's called a futurity. Futurity meaning future. And instead of playing a red letter game that you are awarded by the qualifier OK game, you use that qualifier OK game instead of and hit the R button you just hit it you don't have to hold it down normal OK game you have to push the R button and hold it down until the balls drop and the game resets this time on Bikini first time they did it you hit the button and it takes that okay game and puts it in the bank And then if you hit another OK game So you don't play it immediately. Correct. It sets it aside to be played at a future date that you pick. Right. And there's a caveat to that, mechanically. I'll get back to that. And then, so, you play another OK game, hit the orange for two or three then you'd be awarded some green score and then you hit the R button again and that gets added to whatever you already had so you go, basically they're doing a red letter game but you get numbers instead of letters that said, this comes at a price the OK Games giving you Futurity Games seven. There's seven games of different levels on all these red letter games or the Futurity Games, the Lido Bikini. With Bikini, that added little bonus of being able to save that comes at a price because your top red letter game like in Golden Gate the N would be the highest you could get your green odds have gone all the way up to 600 and the red letter follows it on with it because it's tied in same with Bikini and the teaser for what future do you win if you get two if you hit the orange right but if you get a 12 and this is you gotta look at this hit the pause button on that they built in teasers oh I only need one more okay hit and then I'll be able to get this game you gotta see this score and instruction cards cause it's all this bingos are built to take your money and they twinkle and they sparkle and they're pretty girls and they entice you and how they set up the next futurity level. It's just built in just like the rest of it. Ingenious design behind the entire game. Anyway, so back to what you don't get. You don't get, on Golden Gate, you get an N. That'd be as high as you get. It's number seven, probably at the end. The biggest game that's awarded on Golden Gate and all the others, it goes all the way up to all the odds, red, green, yellow, hit 600. So it maxes out the machine. It maxes out the scores. It does not max out. If you get all you can out of this Futurity game, your scores do not max on the Bikini. It stops at one. Yes. It's kind of, you know, I haven't studied each little thing that they don't give you that they do give you on that, but I know that the scores go down. I'm walking up here looking at it. So that's if you max out the futurity. So you have your odds all the way up to 192 in the green. That'll like 12 for any two in the orange on the futurity, correct? Affirmative. Right. And so then you tap the R button. You don't hold it. and it's going to search. It'll find your hit in the orange, and then start counting up the Futurity game in the upper right portion of the back glass. Correct. Then when you want to play the Futurity game, and at that point, if you've got 12, that's the max on the Futurity section. So to play it, you push the orange button on the foot rail. That's right. That button is right next to the R button. Yeah. Pretty convenient. Press that at any time, including during a game. Accidentally. And that, I was telling Nick earlier, that button's got two slots, ring slots. It's a long cylinder button thing. Down below, it's got two places for a clip to go on. And one of them is you can make it proud of the foot rail which makes it easy to brush accidentally dumping your game. And this is something that I did right after I got my bikini. I was telling him I think Danny got it too I copied it and sent it to him I back here playing this thing every night after I got it I had something up and I hit the yellow button to play for extra ball and all of a sudden the first time I ever seen in my life the extra ball light comes on and all three extra balls are watered all the way across Of course, one comes up and presents itself to the shooting lane, but the others are in line waiting to go off a nickel. And I'm like, kill it, man, this is awesome. And I'm back here drinking beer by myself and playing my, I've been doing it every night for a couple weeks, pinball widow. I just got the thing. Anyway, so I write it down. I go get a piece of paper and pencil and write it down. I'm leaning over the glass and dump the whole game with my elbow. All the extra balls and everything. Gone. Yeah. I was laughing like shit. I love it. And so that Futurity game, in Jeffrey's book he talks about when they had his dad's diner, they leave the games, forget they had it up there. And when we started playing tonight, I had a three up on there. I had to get it off. and again I think it's one of the prettiest Bally bingos I like the United Park best I think this one is I don't know which one looks which Bally would look better I never thought about it I'm picking Bikini alright that's one vote for Bikini we'll take a poll at the show no that won't matter I'll go complain on the internet if I don't like it So... It changes the world. So this game has triple deck scoring. It's got pick-a-play. It's got extra balls up to three. And it's got an extended time tree. Along with the yellow and red rollover, which I've talked about before, where if that feature's lit and you roll over it, it'll jump the time tree up to the next level. It has. Two in the blue score 600. That's an important one. So if this is the sister game... What came out with it? Circus Queen? Circus Queen was the first. Yeah. And so if this is the sister game, then that's the second, I guess. Now, it's also got the red and yellow super sections. and the three in the orange score is green. Now, I haven't seen that light up tonight. You had it lit? Well, I didn't get it. I saw it light. Did you? Yeah, you commented something. I think maybe it was a score or something. I can't remember, but it lit. You had it lit. Yeah. I did get a few trinity games, so I was pleased about that. Normally, I don't play for the OK very much. I mean, if it comes up, then that's great. But that's not a feature that I really shoot for. Unless, you know, it's there. But it's not one that I'm dumping in nickels trying to get. Well, this is something that, well, being in home use only, that Futurity thing is cool. Because you can make your playing session focused on that. Right. And I've done several different playing session strategies, you know, where I wanted to get all the bling, get everything lit up, you know. And that's part of the draw for these things. And this is what you see, and this is what you get to see for free. Yeah. And that's part of the attract mode. But it's not part of the make money off the thing mode, you know? Yeah. And then you've got strategies. And I had strategies where I would see how I would do with, I don't know if that's a strategy, just sitting back and shooting the balls and see what I got. And then use, and this is on just starting a game on four. Right. And then play extra balls and see what I could make happen with it. This is just I think that's more part of learning how to play right Manipulate all manipulate, you know, how do you hang your balls? You know plus you can see how the machines leveled and all that Oh yeah that the first one But with Golden Gate am I allowed to talk about that We'll get there. Let's finish up with Bikini here. Bikini is this your favorite player? I play Golden Gate more than Bikini. Golden Gate more than Bikini? So why did you pick Bikini as your first one? I picked it because of all the features and how good looking it was. Yeah. Well, it's certainly good looking now. Well, no. That's the hard work, you know, the hard work. Right. I wound up looking at a gold gate with a broken back glass. So I guess that was part of it. But, you know, I wasn't driving all that way for something I didn't want. And I had my either or and I was committed. I wasn't trembling, but I was jonesing for it. I know good games, and that's it. I said it on one once. It's Golden Gate slash Silver Sails, Bikini and Bounty. That's the royalty of bingo pinball. It's not my opinion. It's on the Internet. I wrote it. so it must be true it's true just go look if you're getting on on the pinball database I commented on that I think probably on all three of them it is true the more you get to know about these things that said those three it's hard if you get to play these things and you play these three I have a feeling you're going to end up feeling the same way about them. That said, everybody's got different tastes than all the other illegal disclaimers. Everything's illegal. Pinball machines, boys. It's contraband. So, but the Holy Trinity is there. It is, man. They are. Yeah, but what I was going to say, Golden Gate, Bikini, and Bounty are all going to be at the show. There aren't very many of them. You've got to remember, guys, these things were destroyed. Law enforcement confiscated them. They dumped them in the ocean. They'd break them up. They'd burn them. Usually they'd burn them. Smashed them and burned them. And though it's stated on the pinball database, confirmed by some folks in the circle, through the documentation available, There's stories on that stuff. Cool. 850 of these bikinis, that's a pretty damn low number. I don't believe that number. Most of us in the bingo circle don't believe the production numbers. The mafia was very heavily involved, and government officials were paid off. This is the first time this has ever happened in the universe. the government and organized crime people get together and lie to you but there's not that many these things don't go up for sale often and there's one for sale for $3.50 condition depending I think that's a good price if it's working mostly let's see if you're seeing this slideshow you know what condition this one was in I paid $200 for it well well it's a beauty now so alright well I think that'll do it for Bikini Bikini again Magic Screen Game 1961 and a beauty and it'll be at the York Show thank you to my guest Steve Smith tonight especially for having me over and letting me lose on his machines for a few hours there and thank you 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 724-246-4671 you can listen to us on iTunes Stitcher, Pocket Casts, via RSS on Facebook, on Twitter at bingopodcast you can follow me on Instagram at nbaldridge 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.