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Episode 269 - 1952 Bally Palm Beach

For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·20m 33s·analyzed·Dec 5, 2015
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.021

TL;DR

Nick Baldridge analyzes 1952 Bally Palm Beach: first game with rollovers and super cards.

Summary

Nick Baldridge provides a comprehensive technical and historical analysis of the 1952 Bally Palm Beach bingo pinball machine, detailing its gameplay mechanics (rollovers, super cards, Pick A Play buttons), scoring systems, and artistic design. He emphasizes the game's innovations as the first with rollovers and super cards, explains the complex mixer and reflex unit auto-portioning circuits, and documents a significant mid-production design change from ball counter to trough switch mechanisms.

Key Claims

  • Palm Beach was the first game with rollovers and super cards

    high confidence · Nick Baldridge, episode opening: 'It's the first game with rollovers and super cards. It's the first game with those.'

  • Pick A Play was absent from games for nine years after Palm Beach

    medium confidence · Nick Baldridge: 'and this was the last game with Pick A Play for nine years. Pick A Play basically went out the window.'

  • Palm Beach underwent significant design changes during production, switching from ball counter to trough switch design

    high confidence · Nick Baldridge citing Phil Hooper's documentation: 'Early machines used a ball counter which stepped up or stepped down... Later machines removed the ball counter unit and replaced it with a trough switch design.'

  • Rollover buttons on Palm Beach could spot up to five numbers, with eight additional chances for extra ball play, totaling 13 possible lit numbers out of 25

    high confidence · Nick Baldridge: 'the rollover buttons on this game could spot up to five numbers and if you played for extra ball, you had eight chances. So, you have 13 possible numbers that could be lit on a single game out of 25.'

  • The yellow button in Palm Beach is a feature button rather than an extra ball button, unlike most other games

    high confidence · Nick Baldridge: 'Yellow is basically your feature button. Instead of being the extra ball button as it is in most other games, this one plays for features.'

  • Palm Beach features three-in-a-line diagonal wins that award more replays than vertical or horizontal three-in-a-line wins

    high confidence · Nick Baldridge: 'your three in a line, depending on the position of the line it will award you a different amount of replays... will award you actually more replays than the vertical or horizontal.'

Notable Quotes

  • “It's the first game with rollovers and super cards. It's the first game with those.”

    Nick Baldridge @ opening — Establishes Palm Beach's historical significance as the first bingo machine with these features

  • “I think that's genius because you really have to work for it in order to get a diagonal win.”

    Nick Baldridge @ scoring mechanics section — Highlights design philosophy differentiating win difficulty by line orientation

  • “The bingo cabs are just beautiful. Multiple colors and the way that the stencils are laid out, it's just gorgeous.”

    Nick Baldridge @ cabinet artwork section — Expresses appreciation for bingo cabinet aesthetic quality relative to flipper games

  • “Having the game spot 15, 16, and 17 is very, very powerful.”

    Nick Baldridge @ spotted numbers section — Explains strategic importance of specific spotted numbers in bingo gameplay

  • “The problem with this is that your whole machine requires precise timing in order to function, especially games with an extra ball feature.”

    Nick Baldridge @ technical note section — Identifies maintenance challenges with early ball counter design

Entities

Nick BaldridgepersonPhil HooperpersonBallycompanyPalm BeachgameSpotlightgameAtlantic CitygameConey IslandgameBright LightsgameFor Amusement Only Podcast

Signals

  • ?

    historical_signal: Palm Beach (1952) documented as first bingo machine with rollovers and super cards; represents significant innovation in bingo pinball feature set

    high · Nick Baldridge: 'It's the first game with rollovers and super cards. It's the first game with those.'

  • ?

    design_innovation: Palm Beach introduced differentiated scoring for three-in-a-line wins based on line orientation (diagonal > vertical > horizontal), rewarding harder-to-achieve patterns with higher payouts

    high · Nick Baldridge detailed breakdown: diagonal = 6 replays (max 128), vertical = 4 (max 96), horizontal = 2 (max 64)

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Palm Beach's Pick A Play button system allows players to select different earning strategies (red=all features, blue=odds only, yellow=features only, green=extra ball post-game), representing early game design without settled standards

    high · Nick Baldridge: 'this being an early game with Pick A Play, they hadn't really settled on where the buttons were located yet, or even really what their functions were'

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Palm Beach production run underwent significant technical redesign mid-cycle: early machines used ball counter mechanism, later models switched to trough switch design due to reliability concerns

    high · Nick Baldridge citing Phil Hooper: 'Palm Beach underwent significant design changes during the production run. The early machines used a ball counter... Later machines removed the ball counter unit and replaced it with a trough switch design'

  • ?

    product_concern: Ball counter design in early Palm Beach units created timing dependencies throughout machine operation, especially problematic for extra ball features; later trough switch design addressed this

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.062

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 the next game on Bally's assembly Line. That was 1952's Palm Beach. Now Palm Beach basically Now, Palm Beach basically brought back the features from Spotlight that we're missing in Atlantic City and it added rollover buttons. It's the first game with rollovers and super cards. It's the first game with those. Now, the rollover buttons on this game could spot up to five numbers and if you played for extra ball, you had eight chances. So, You have 13 possible numbers that could be lit on a single game out of 25. That's pretty good odds there. But as Phil Hooper says on bingo.cdyn.com that the mixers in the game make getting this The game is a bit of a challenge, but it's pretty hard. So the mixers, as I've talked about before, are part of the auto-portioning circuits that prevent you or allow you to earn features or odds increases and so forth in the various machines. Now this game has advancing odds, which of course we're missing from Atlantic City. It brought those back from spotlight. It also has Pick A Play and this was the last game with Pick A Play for nine years. Pick A Play basically went out the window. Now Pick A Play for those who don't remember gives you multiple buttons on the front of the cab and based on which button you press Before you deposit your coin, the game will potentially give you a better chance at earning odds jumps, features jumps, or both. Now, you might say, why don't you just play for both all the time? Well, those mixers are involved and the reflex unit, which is the other portion of the auto portioning circuit and based on those positions in the position of something called the spotting desk which is attached to the mixer it'll either give you something or it won't and you have a better chance of getting something if you play the blue button say to try to increase your odds then if you were to Just press the red button, which will advance everything generally. Now this being an early game with Pick A Play, they hadn't really settled on where the buttons were located yet, or even really what their functions were. So red I mentioned will play for everything generally. It'll give you a chance at an increase in odds or features. Blue gives you an increase in odds only, so you don't earn any features from the blue button. Yellow is basically your feature button. Instead of being the extra ball button as it is in most other games, this one plays for features. And it can advance supercard arrows, light the corners panel, light the rollover stars, advance extra balls arrows, or spot a number. Now, one of the things that's interesting is that it can advance the extra ball unit even if you haven't played a game yet. So it's possible for you to earn an extra ball by playing the yellow button where you wouldn't normally be able to earn it, I don't believe, by just playing the red button.
organization
bingo.cdyn.comorganization

high · Nick Baldridge: 'The problem with this is that your whole machine requires precise timing in order to function, especially games with an extra ball feature'

  • ?

    restoration_signal: Phil Hooper's bingo.cdyn.com identified as comprehensive reference resource for bingo machine restoration, containing schematics, manuals, images, and design documentation

    high · Nick Baldridge: 'Phil documents on his site, again, bingo.cdyn.com, which is really the place that you need to go if you are thinking about fixing one of these machines'

  • ?

    historical_signal: Pick A Play mechanic absent from bingo games for approximately nine years after Palm Beach (1952), suggesting feature was discontinued and later reintroduced

    medium · Nick Baldridge: 'and this was the last game with Pick A Play for nine years'

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Palm Beach features advancing odds system allowing replays to increase from default (50/8/6/4/2) up to maximum (200/200/128/96/64), with super card feature providing strategic advantage through 3x3 grid harder to complete than main 5x5 card

    high · Nick Baldridge detailed odds progression and supercard mechanics explanation

    • 4:27
    And once your game is over, you can play for extra ball only by pushing the green button. If you were to push the yellow button after your game is over, then it would start a new game. My Bastard The game has advancing odds as i mentioned up to two hundred replays earned it also has corner scoring and you earn two hundred replays for getting a ball in each of the four corners one thing i didn't mention just because that would have been too easy This game is a single card game. So it's not a three card game like Atlantic City or Coney Island. It's not a six card game like Bright Lights.
    5:42
    It's a single card. Now, I say single card but really it's a single card with two super cards. Now the super cards light on mystery intervals and that means that it'll randomly award you those. and when you earn them if you get three in a row on the supercard it awards you your four in a row odds so what's a supercard? supercard is a three by three grid of numbers which is arranged in a different format than of course the main card which is a five by five grid what's interesting is these early games with advancing odds I did something a little unusual. You have your five in a line wins earn a certain amount of replays your four in a line earn a certain amount of replays but your three in a line, depending on the position of the line it will award you a different amount of replays so a three in a line diagonal, because that is so much harder to achieve than a three in a line vertical or horizontal will award you actually more replays Then the vertical or horizontal and likewise the vertical being a little more difficult to achieve than the horizontal awards you just a few more replays I think that's genius uh... because you really have to work for it uh... in order to get a diagonal win if you get your set which is two numbers uh... without a third you get your set of saying nine and sixteen sixteen being center number of the card in nine being the upper left corner then you have to make the number nineteen to win have to if you get twenty one without getting nineteen then you can still win if you get three or nineteen if you have the set of nine sixteen You really want to work to get nineteenteen. The default odds are fifty for five in a line, eight for four in a line, six for three in a line diagonal, four for three in a line vertical, and two for three in a line horizontal. Your maximum odds are two hundred for five in a line, two hundred for four in a line, hundred and twenty-eight for three in a line diagonal, ninety-six for three in a line vertical, and sixtyfour for three in a line horizontal. Now as you can tell this is one of the games where your maximum odds award you the same for four or five in a line. Where this is a great benefit is when you have the supercard lit because it'll award you the four in a line score. But because the supercards are three by three grid or nine numbers it's much harder to get three in a line. This game has spotted numbers as well. You spot numbers in one of two ways. Either it's randomly awarded based on your button presses, but as I mentioned at the beginning of the show, you spot numbers by hitting the rollovers. Now, unlike many other bingos where if you earn a feature it will light both rollovers, In this case it works kinda like the extended time tree where it'll only light one or the other rollover. And when you hit it, it'll spot any of the following numbers 2, 5, 15, 16, and 17. Now having the game spot 15, 16, and 17 is very, very powerful. Speaking from a bingo player's perspective, 16 of course being the hardest number to achieve, 17 being a good close second at least for me and uh... 15 being of course right in that row with the 16 and the 17. So that row being in the center of the playfield is really just dreadfully hard to earn a ball in one of those holes You have to have your plunge just right and you have to nudge off of the posts and the dead balls as you come down and you really have to work the machine to get it to go in Well 카메�あれx Parrle is here in liked by a youtube стоит on postcard weave rhythm gleich 그렇지 Attract teen evident must stand a puttinos in case hum opion bhi Может the Kurth rio chanc rate increasing too on after The game, since it's the center, can earn you a vertical, a diagonal, or a horizontal win. Let's talk about artwork. Now this game has a different kind of back glass from previous efforts. There's essentially a small scene at the top that's very, very detailed. There's an ocean view with the beach. Big surprise. It's called Palm Beach after all. On the left and right sides you see palm trees, you see boats in the background, and then you see ladies on the beach on towels. And the beach is curved around this waterfront in a very appealing way. I mean it's a cool effect that they have on this back glass There's a lady on the left who is hitting a ball up in the air and your eye is drawn to Palm Beach which of course is the title but it is uh... arranged in kind of a semi-circle that dips down into the foam of the waves crashing on the sand It's pretty cool. It's like a fisheye effect. Now the artist chose pink or purple to symbolize the five in a line wins, orange for the four in a line and blue, yellow, or red for the three in a line wins. The bingo card itself has yellow fielded numbers that are actually written in blue uh... The game is based on a dark blue background with a pink border surrounding them. The replay register and the corners are bordered by pink and the corner score is white on dark blue.
    13:09
    The super cards to left and right are kind of the main feature that your eyes are drawn to. This is the first game with that feature and so of course they wanted people to be aware of them. There are arrows which are in kind of a darker blue than the background light light blue
    13:28
    With teaser arrows inside Pointing to the word supercard and of course supercard lights when the teaser arrows step all the way up
    13:38
    The super cards are dark blue With a red border they stand out quite a bit the numbers themselves are on a field of white and they're written in dark blue The Supercards Below the Supercards, there's a red star and a yellow star, and those symbolize the rollovers which are lit on the playfield. Remember, only one lights at a time. And then below that, you have extra balls. And this is one of those games that has all the teaser The first texture balls second extra bar third extra also instead of lighting second and an extra and then finally ball when you earn it like on a magic screen game this game shows you first set extra ball second extra ball and third extra ball just in an orange oval doubt the bottom and above them are the teaser errors that will light one at a time until it awards you the extra ball Now, extra balls and the teaser arrows are yellow on a field of darker blue than the light blue of the background. And as I mentioned before, the ovals that contain the text, first extra ball and so forth are orange with white writing. Now, the cabinet has a very attractive beach stencil. And there's a palm tree or two or three, uh which extend from the cabinet all the way up through the head And you have a line of palm trees in the background You have a beach 37 Who there that man 47 I AM DOING STRIKING 29
    15:49
    In the background, you have some palm trees and as you get closer you'll see the towels spread out on the beach and so forth and of course all that's in the stencil. I've mentioned before how beautiful the stencils are for bingo cabinets and I am 100% serious. The stencils on bingo cabs put many other games to shame. I'm at a loss at the moment for something which is even comparable in the flipper world, but the bingo cabs are just beautiful. Multiple colors and the way that the stencils are laid out, it's just gorgeous. The playfield we inexplicably move from the beach to a pool, which I assume is some distance away from the beach. There are multiple ladies hanging out at the pool and there's some in the water and some on the shore there of the pool. Down at the bottom you have a palm tree which encompasses 23, 24, 25 and the ball return home. On the left and right side of the playfield you have huge white circles that contain the stars for the rollovers. Red on the left, yellow on the right. And up at the top above the pool you have kind of a resort scene with more palm trees in the background. And of course, more great perspective here. It's like you're looking down on almost from up within a palm tree onto this scene, which leads to some questions actually. But at any rate. Now, before I let you go, a technical note here. As Phil documents on his site, again, bingo.cdyn.com, which is really the place that you need to go if you are thinking about fixing one of these machines for reference material, as well as images of the machines and schematics and manuals, all that good stuff. Phil's site is the best.
    18:20
    Palm Beach underwent significant design changes during the production run. The early machines used a ball counter which stepped up or stepped down as balls were lifted up to the playfield or fell through the ball return. Later machines removed the ball counter unit and replaced it with a trough switch design that was used on the following bingos. So I've talked at length about the trough switches before in bingos and how great of a design I think they are. Well, the same can't be said of these earlier machines with the ball counter unit. The problem with this is that your whole machine requires precise timing in order to function, especially games with an extra ball feature. Snow свидdlees. I love you. N
    19:24
    A uh... because there's no uh... reliance on uh... unit functioning properly with multiple uh... solenoids and a spider you know it's just leaf switches the whole row of them and when the ball's at rest it's going to be closing certain switches and when it's not those switches will be open Pretty straightforward, you can't get much simpler than that. 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 at 724-BINGOS1, 724-246-4671. You can listen to us on iTunes, Stitcher, Pocket Cast, VRSS, on Facebook, on Twitter at bingopodcast. You can follow me on Instagram at bingopodcast or you can listen to us on our website which is For amusement only dot libsyn dot com. Thank you very much for listening and I'll talk to you next time.