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Episode 385 - All the Miss Americas, 83 Games, Next Steps

For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·25m 4s·analyzed·Dec 15, 2016
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.028

TL;DR

MultiBingo reaches 83 games; Baldridge completes Miss America series, plans cabinet restoration at 105 games.

Summary

Nicholas Baldridge reports reaching 83 games in his MultiBingo homebrew machine and announces plans to pause game development at 105 games to focus on cabinet restoration and artwork. He details his recent completion of all four Miss America bingo games, highlighting their mechanical features like horizontal magic lines and double-or-nothing play, and discusses upcoming work on Magic Screen games and other complex bingo variants. He also mentions selling his Double-Up machine and promoting the The Pinball Podcast 100th episode merchandise.

Key Claims

  • Nicholas Baldridge has completed 83 games in his MultiBingo machine and plans to reach 105 games before pausing to focus on cabinet restoration and artwork

    high confidence · Nicholas Baldridge, host, opening statement of podcast episode

  • Miss America 57 features five horizontal magic lines (instead of vertical) that move left or right, with two 5x5 grids side by side

    high confidence · Nicholas Baldridge describing Miss America 57 gameplay mechanics based on playing an actual cabinet

  • Bally made subtle number layout changes between Miss America 75 and Miss America Supreme, swapping numbers 15 and 7, and possibly moving 3 and 9

    medium confidence · Nicholas Baldridge reporting discovery from analyzing all four Miss America games side by side

  • The red letter feature in Miss America Supreme requires getting two or three in the star zones (north, south, east, westmost points) on the second card

    high confidence · Nicholas Baldridge explaining Miss America Supreme mechanics

  • Miss America Deluxe adds striped diagonals to the feature set from Miss America Supreme, enabling random scoring on off-diagonal positions

    high confidence · Nicholas Baldridge describing Miss America Deluxe as the pinnacle of the series

  • Bally retained the same number portioning from Miss America 57 through Miss America Deluxe (1977), essentially unchanged for 20 years

    high confidence · Nicholas Baldridge commenting on design consistency across the Miss America line

  • Nicholas Baldridge sold his Double-Up game to a first-time bingo owner and plans to get more people into their first bingo machines

    high confidence · Nicholas Baldridge reporting on recent sale and expressing interest in bringing new collectors into the hobby

  • Ryan Claytor has created a poster and T-shirt design for the The Pinball Podcast 100th episode with in-jokes and custom lettering

    high confidence · Nicholas Baldridge promoting merchandise and crediting Ryan Claytor as guest and good friend

Notable Quotes

  • “once I hit 105 games, I should have all of the games complete for the standard 25-hole playfield with rollovers or without”

    Nicholas Baldridge @ ~0:30-1:00 — States his development target and transition point to cabinet restoration work

  • “Miss America 57 has five magic lines, but instead of being arranged in the standard vertical fashion, they're horizontal, meaning that you can move the numbers one position to the right or one position to the left”

    Nicholas Baldridge @ ~3:20-3:50 — Key mechanical differentiator of Miss America 57 from other bingo games

  • “It is a really powerful feature, and Bally and Don Hooker were very clever in the number placement and allowing you to move certain numbers into the same card twice”

    Nicholas Baldridge @ ~4:15-4:35 — Demonstrates appreciation for the design sophistication of the Miss America series

  • “It really is quite exceptional, I think, to have something from 1957 exist essentially unchanged up through 1977 when Miss America Deluxe came out”

    Nicholas Baldridge @ ~7:45-8:05 — Highlights Bally's remarkable design consistency across the Miss America line

  • “My favorite in the series is the first Miss America, Miss America 57. I just like the overall art package, the fact that it's a wood rail, and some of the extra nuance in that game”

    Nicholas Baldridge @ ~8:30-8:50 — Personal preference statement influencing his prioritization of games to emulate

  • “In the wood rail cabinet, it just makes this beautiful, wonderful, deep, rich sound. and it's really something to hear in person”

    Nicholas Baldridge @ ~9:20-9:40 — Demonstrates attention to authentic sound design in emulation work

  • “Bally changed the number layout. I never would have noticed that. But between Miss America 57 and Miss America 75, everything was unchanged”

    Nicholas Baldridge @ ~10:40-11:00 — Discovery of subtle game balance changes that would be invisible to casual players

Entities

Nicholas BaldridgepersonMultiBingoproductMiss America 57gameMiss America 75gameMiss America SupremegameMiss America DeluxegameDouble-Upgame

Signals

  • ?

    design_innovation: Nicholas Baldridge is implementing smooth transition animations for magic lines movement in his MultiBingo emulation, replacing instant position changes with pixel-based animated transitions while maintaining game state functionality

    high · Baldridge explains planned improvement: 'I'll just make a transition function, which will basically decrement a count until it reaches zero and then it's finished animating. And this will allow the game framework to continue ticking while it's moving those lines.'

  • ?

    design_innovation: Baldridge is using virtual stepper implementation with four-position cycling to emulate real game dials for magic lines control, proven on Variety and Big Time before applying to Miss America series

    high · Detailed explanation of virtual stepper with four positions (default/center, right, center again, left) that cycles like physical foot rail dials

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Analysis of Miss America series reveals escalating feature complexity across four games: horizontal magic lines in 57, double-or-nothing in 75, red letter in Supreme, and striped diagonals in Deluxe

    high · Baldridge systematically compares all four games, noting each iteration's additions and mechanical sophistication

  • ?

    historical_signal: Twenty-year design consistency in Bally's Miss America series (1957-1977) with identical number portioning, indicating deliberate avoidance of major changes despite adding new features

    high · Baldridge states: 'It really is quite exceptional, I think, to have something from 1957 exist essentially unchanged up through 1977 when Miss America Deluxe came out.'

  • ?

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.075

0:00
what's that sound it's for amusement only the em and bingo pinball podcast welcome back to for amusement only this is nick baldridge big news as always um i'm up to 83 games in the multi bingo uh i've also made some decisions about what I'm going to do next.
0:29
I may or may not have announced those last time, but once I hit 105 games, I should have all of the games complete for the standard 25-hole playfield with rollovers or without.
0:47
That'll leave games like Surf Club and Palm Springs, which utilize playfield features which are unique to those games, Gay Time, Gaiety, and the 20-hole games, as well as games like Shooter Line, Shooter Line 63, Galaxy, and Miss Universe.
1:13
But the vast majority of games will be complete. so at that point what I'm going to do is stop and focus on the artwork and fixing up the cabinet doing a cabinet restore I've already begun just barely work on a stencil and I'm going to develop the stencil fully and fix up my cabinet and then apply my stencil, repaint the cabinet, put on some new side rails, make it really pretty. And that should get me pretty far there, but I also have big plans for the back glass. Right now I just have a couple pieces of plexiglass and what I'm planning to do is to make an actual back glass as suggested by a fellow collector at the Orc Show once all this art is complete then I'll switch back to wiring up play fields and start working on the ancillary game so I'll probably start with the largest set of games which is the 20 holes or I'll start with one of the smallest sets you know, just see how difficult it is to do. But, uh, at that point, what I should have left is buttons, you know, getting the extra buttons installed right now. I'm, uh, cheating a little bit by forcing buttons into double and triple duty and, uh, doing tricks like, uh, holding them down provides a different function than pressing them and stuff like that. this lets me test the games out, but, uh, having actual buttons would make a huge difference,

  • “These games are very, very complex, and I'm pretty thrilled that most of them are going down without a huge fight”

    Nicholas Baldridge @ ~17:10-17:30 — Expresses satisfaction with progress on Magic Screen games despite their complexity

  • “I sold a game. I know it's crazy but it's a rare event. I did sell a game, and it's Double-Up. My beloved Double-Up is no longer in the house”

    Nicholas Baldridge @ ~18:20-18:50 — Significant personal event; indicates new focus on spreading hobby participation

  • “More people need to order that poster. I would like to get a poster. I've pre-ordered mine, and they're only going to make them if a certain number of people order them”

    Nicholas Baldridge @ ~19:30-19:50 — Community engagement promotion; indicates limited production runs and crowdsourced merchandise

    • Ballerina
    game
    Bikinigame
    Magic Screen gamesproduct
    Ballycompany
    Don Hookerperson
    Ryan Claytorperson
    For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcastorganization
    A Pinball Podcastorganization
    Avaperson
    Magic Squares gamesproduct
    Roto gamesproduct
    Magic Numbers gamesproduct
    [name withheld pending review]event

    product_launch: MultiBingo development at 83/105 games; completion of all four Miss America games represents major content milestone in ongoing homebrew project

    high · Baldridge announces 83 games complete and plans to pause at 105 for cabinet restoration, with Miss America quartet just completed

  • ?

    content_signal: Pinball Podcast's 100th episode merchandise (poster/T-shirt by Ryan Claytor) uses limited production crowdsourcing model requiring minimum pre-orders

    high · Baldridge states: 'they're only going to make them if a certain number of people order them' and encourages orders

  • ?

    restoration_signal: Nicholas Baldridge is planning comprehensive cabinet restoration including stencil artwork, repainting, new side rails, custom back glass, and sound tuning for his MultiBingo machine

    high · Detailed plans to work on stencil, cabinet repaint, side rails, back glass construction, and knocker sound adjustment after reaching 105 games

  • ?

    community_signal: Baldridge selling Double Up to first-time bingo owner and stating plan to help more people enter hobby with bingo machines indicates active community engagement and collector mentorship

    high · Baldridge: 'I hope to get some more people into their first bingos, and I have a plan for getting at least one bingo into the hands of many people'

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Detailed analysis of Miss America 57's dual-card magic line mechanics reveals sophisticated game balance design allowing numbers to swap between cards and occupy same position on different grids

    high · Baldridge describes the ability to 'place the last number of the left-hand card into the first position of the right-hand card, and the first position of the right-hand card into the last position of the left-hand card'

  • ?

    historical_signal: Don Hooker credited as designer of Miss America 57 with recognition for 'very clever in the number placement' and sophisticated feature engineering

    medium · Baldridge specifically attributes design sophistication to Hooker's work on number placement and card mechanics

  • ?

    product_concern: Current MultiBingo magic lines animations are simplified (instant position changes) rather than smooth transitions; Baldridge acknowledges need for improvement but delayed due to implementation complexity concerns

    high · Baldridge explains current animation as 'starts in one position and poof, it's in the next position' and cites fear of breaking something or taking extensive development time

  • ?

    venue_signal: Sale of Double Up game to first-time bingo collector indicates active secondary market and willingness of experienced collectors to facilitate hobby entry

    high · Baldridge reports successful sale and describes new owner's positive experience: 'went to a new bingo owner, first time bingo owner. He was very excited and got it home and set up'

    • 3:12
    especially in games like, uh, Sun Valley or, uh, Miss America. Speaking of Miss America, one of the biggest coups, uh, since the last time I spoke on the podcast, I think I was just working on Variety, and I had started big time, uh, when I was last speaking. Uh, since that time, I've developed and completed all four of the Miss America games. Those games are fantastic and fascinating. They're quite similar, is one way to say it, but the features that they added over time are compelling features. So starting with Miss America 57, which I've been lucky enough to play an actual cabinet of. Miss America 57 has five magic lines, but instead of being arranged in the standard vertical fashion, they're horizontal, meaning that you can move the numbers one position to the right or one position to the left if you have that line enabled. and they enable on a random basis and so on and so forth, you know, just like any other bingo.
    4:29
    But where things get interesting is that there are two different cards. So instead of a single 5x5 grid, you have two 5x5 grids side by side. And those lines move back and forth between the cards, which means you can place the last number of the left-hand card into the first position of the right-hand card, and the first position of the right-hand card into the last position of the left-hand card. It is a really powerful feature, and Bally and Don Hooker were very clever in the number placement and allowing you to move certain numbers into the same card twice. This is similar to the feature of the twist, which allows for different number configurations, but only one at a time. In this case, you have two different number configurations at all times if you have the second card enabled, and it's only enabled on a mystery basis, meaning it takes a certain amount of coin to get that second card to light. it generally lights pretty easily though that was not a feature that bally was really stingy with so here's some stuff that i learned from miss america 57 to the next miss america game which is miss america 75 nothing in the portioning changed one little bit it's the same feature set the odds steps, there's only seven of them instead of eight, but there are four different colors, two per card You have the mystery enabling of the second card and what they added in Miss America 75 was double or nothing like the 76 cards This is a really cool feature and that portioning I had already written for all the 76 cards so I was able to port that directly and basically wire it up into Miss America 75.
    6:31
    That is a great risk-reward element, I think. I really enjoy the double or nothing play, especially on a game that has moving numbers.
    6:46
    So, moving on from there, the next game they put out in the Miss America line was Miss America Supreme.
    6:54
    Now, Miss America Supreme and the final Miss America game, Miss America Deluxe, I always used to get confused in my head. I just could not keep them separate, even though the art packages could not be more different.
    7:10
    Miss America Supreme removed the Double or Nothing play that I was just talking about being such a good thing, and instead what they did is added the red letter feature.
    7:23
    So the red letter feature, if you'll recall, allows you to win a guaranteed free game if you have the red letter feature enabled, which typically improves your chances of winning over what you would have had otherwise. But the way the red letter feature works is a little different in these games than it is in the Magic Screen games. In the Magic Screen games, a separate special section would be enabled, the orange section, which was shaped like a reverse capital L. and if you got two in that section then you would win your red letter game you hold down the R button, the machine clicks and clacks and then eventually drops all the balls and starts making a fantastic noise racking up odds and features getting you up to where the game had guaranteed well the red letter game on Miss America Supreme, you have to get two or three, depending on which is enabled randomly. Most of the time, you're going to get a two, at least using the default portioning, if I read that correctly. uh three it does give you but by the time that that feature enables typically uh just a few more coins gets you two so most of the time that you play you're probably going to get two at any rate two or three in the star zones and remember that because that'll come back with the 20 holes, but the star zones in this are the north, south, east, and westmost points on the second card. So in order to get your red letter game, you actually have to enable the second card and get two or three in those star zones in order to win. Again, it does the searching, it drops the balls, it resets the game, starts ticking everything up. It's amazing.
    9:42
    So that feature is wonderful. And then we come to Miss America Deluxe. And again, I remembered the name twice in a row. I can't believe it. Miss America Deluxe is the pinnacle of the Miss America series.
    9:58
    It retains everything from Miss America Supreme, but it adds striped diagonals. Striped diagonals are kind of like the red diagonals on 70s six cards, where the off diagonals will score. You still have your primary diagonals which score, but now the off diagonal score as well. So you can get a three or four in a row that way, even if you're a terrible player like me. So the thing about that is that it's enabled randomly. On the 76 cards, it's a guaranteed feature if you feed in enough money. On these games, it's not guaranteed. or this game rather. But one thing that I will say, Miss America Supreme and Miss America Deluxe retain the same portioning from Miss America 57.
    10:53
    It really is quite exceptional, I think, to have something from 1957 exist essentially unchanged up through 1977 when Miss America Deluxe came out. Now, Miss America Deluxe is a fantastic game, and it's really a lot of fun to play. But my favorite in the series is the first Miss America, Miss America 57. I just like the overall art package, the fact that it's a wood rail, and some of the extra nuance in that game. So in Miss America 57, Bally was still using a knocker. They called it a sounder. And it would fire every time one of the odd steppers went up or any time one of the selection feature unit, which is the magic lines unit, any time that increased, the knocker would sound. In the wood rail cabinet, it just makes this beautiful, wonderful, deep, rich sound. and it's really something to hear in person.
    12:03
    In the multi-bingo, I'm emulating that, of course, and I'm firing off the knocker when it's supposed to, but it's in the metal rail cabinet, so it makes a slightly different sound. I'm probably going to get in there once I do my cabinet restoration and tweak that a bit to make it sound a little more like the older games. I think I have a little too much room for it to fire right now and it very loud which I enjoy but it doesn feel quite right So that's my personal preference, but here's the other thing I found out, and I never would have known this if I hadn't been looking at all four games side by side, basically.
    12:50
    Bally changed the number layout. I never would have noticed that. But between Miss America 57 and Miss America 75, everything was unchanged.
    13:03
    For Miss America Supreme, ballet switched up the number 15 and the number 7. And they might have moved a 3 and maybe a 9. I forget what the last two numbers were. but they made these changes, and they are very subtle.
    13:26
    Without knowing what to look for, you wouldn't even notice. But they do change the gameplay a little bit.
    13:37
    Where before, the number 7 would have been one of the, it would have been the westernmost point on the extra card, which would have been in the star zone. now it's number 15 which is a much harder number so things are a little different between Miss America 75 and Miss America Supreme but other than that everything's the same from Miss America Supreme to Miss America Deluxe great games a lot of fun it's great to have all five moving lines and and be able to move them back and forth the way I do magic lines is pretty simple at the moment. One of the things I'm going to do once I finish every game is to go back through and improve my animations. Right now, basically, it starts in one position and poof, it's in the next position. There's really no animation to speak of. But what I'm going to do is soften that up. So I know it has to move X number of pixels between position one and position two. So I'll just make a transition function, which will basically decrement a count until it reaches zero and then it's finished animating. And this will allow the game framework to continue ticking while it's moving those lines. So basically the game can continue to function, register switch hits, all that kind of stuff, while it's animating. I haven't taken the time to write that yet because I am afraid it's going to break something or take a month or so or, you know, any of those. So I'll get to it. But for now, the way that the magic lines work is that I have a fake virtual stepper. In the real games, for variety and big time, for example, the magic lines are controlled by dials on the foot rail.
    15:49
    They will, if you turn them to the left, the numbers will jump up, and if you turn them to the right, they'll shoot down, and in the center, they'll be centered.
    16:02
    Well, the way that I'm doing it, I have a virtual stepper. The stepper is comprised of four different positions. There's the default position, which is centered.
    16:13
    Position one, which is to the right in Miss America Games. Position two, which is centered again. And then position three, which is all the way over to the left. This is indexed at zero. So, essentially, if you hold the button down or keep pressing it, it will cycle through all four positions, just like the real game. Miss America, there's no way to set a specific place for it. So, when I did Variety and Big Time, I essentially cribbed the way I was going to do that for Miss America and set it up on Variety and big time is kind of a proof of concept, make sure it worked. It did, and so I used that for all the Miss America games.
    17:02
    This is exactly how I'm going to do the Magic Squares games, which I've left for some of the last games.
    17:10
    I'm not sure why, but I'm a little intimidated by them. They were some of the first games that I attempted before I started on Coney Island, and something about them just kind of freaks me out. Mostly the animation aspect, because I don't have animations right now.
    17:30
    That's a big part of the game for me for Magic Squares games, is actually watching everything rotate, which you won't be able to do just yet.
    17:41
    So, I'll get there. I'll get there. But they're in the queue next, I'll get the games developed, and then I'll implement a single animation function, change my calls, everything will be beautiful.
    17:54
    Um, so, what am I working on now? Well, uh, I finished all of the Miss Americas, and I started back into work on Magic Screen Games. One of the Magic Screen Games I was holding off on was Ballerina. And I was holding off on it because it needed extra buttons.
    18:14
    Ballerina has a special feature, 1 to 7 and 7 to 1. basically if you have this feature enabled which can enable by itself separate from the magic screen you can swap the positions of the numbers on the first row but not physically like in gay time or with the magic pockets this is kind of a virtual switch over uh and it's brain bending to look at Um it is a really challenging game I find find I just have trouble keeping that straight for some reason That just completely confuses me. It's kind of like the diagonals on Yacht Club. I just have a really hard time visually tracking those.
    19:05
    But that said, it is really exciting to be able to have that. And my daughter Ava was super excited. I was working on Ballerina. So I think she's really ready to try that out.
    19:24
    So I finished that up at lunchtime today, actually. And I started work on Bikini. Bikini is the first game with Futurity. And basically that's a way to stockpile your red letter game.
    19:38
    I've gotten all the portioning written. which is very, very similar to Circus Queen. Just a minor change in how the units work and the futurity and the red letter payoff works.
    19:53
    But otherwise, pretty much unchanged. And that game should be complete shortly. I have to do all the graphics, which is the slowest thing for me. And then it'll be on to either Can-Can or Leto. And once that's done, it's either Can-Can or Bounty. And then when that's done, it's just Can-Can or just Bounty. And then all the Magic Screen games will be done.
    20:25
    This is very exciting to me. These games are very, very complex, and I'm pretty thrilled that most of them are going down without a huge fight. The Magic Squares games, I just have to do the first one, and then my confidence is going to increase, and the rest should flow pretty well. I still have the Roto games to do from United. There's three of those, and then the Magic Numbers games. There's two of those, and those are kind of like giant magic screen games, so I'm excited to get into those but it's going to be a while those will probably be the last ones that I tackle because they're different that's a word so enough bingo update there let's talk about some other things that are happening I sold a game I know it's crazy but it's a rare event I did sell a game, and it's Double Up. My beloved Double Up is no longer in the house. I don't have that one emulated yet, so I need to get on that. But went to a new bingo owner, first time bingo owner. He was very excited and got it home and set up and everything's good. So I'm really happy about that. I think that went to a good home.
    22:00
    And yeah, that was a great experience. So I hope to get some more people into their first bingos, and I have a plan for getting at least one bingo into the hands of many people, and more details on that to come.
    22:23
    So, as I mentioned last episode, Ryan Claytor, guest on this very podcast and good friend of mine, comics artist, illustrator, all-around good human being, has illustrated a beautiful poster and T-shirt for the Pinball Podcast's upcoming 100th episode.
    22:51
    More people need to order that poster. I would like to get a poster. I've pre-ordered mine, and they're only going to make them if a certain number of people order them. So get on the stick.
    23:05
    That needs to be made. There's a lot of in-jokes to the Pinball Podcast on that illustration, and I really like the coloring, the lettering, just about everything about it. I'm a pretty huge Ryan Claytor fan, as you've probably gathered by the two illustrations I've commissioned for this podcast, and he's a great guy to work with, and he does a lot for the pinball community and the hobby in general. So, and Don and Jeff are great guys as well. They've both been on the podcast here.
    23:48
    I know they've both gotten some EMs and which I fully support and now they just need some bingos. So let's make it happen.
    24:01
    Bingos forever. Well, that's about it 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-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, also at bingopodcast, or you can listen to us on our website, which is foramusementonly.libsyn.com And if you celebrate Christmas, Merry Christmas to you. This should be the last episode before Christmas, but I believe on the 27th will be the next release. And I should hopefully have something special for you, a little post-Christmas treat. So keep your ears open for that.
    24:57
    And I will talk to you next time. Thank you very much for listening.