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Episode 430 - Multi-Bingo almost finished, Pingames and Gambling, 1932 Piracy Case, Ottawa Pinball Show, 1950 Genco Canasta

For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·19m 16s·analyzed·Sep 13, 2018
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.021

TL;DR

Multi-Bingo nearing completion with audio work; 1932 pinball piracy case highlighted ahead of Ottawa show.

Summary

Nick Baldridge reports that Multi-Bingo mechanical animations are complete and he is adding full audio support to all 142 games, with completion expected within days. He discusses a co-authored article on gambling and pinball published on Pinball News, shares a 1932 piracy case involving the game Goofy that will be displayed at the Ottawa Pinball Show, and provides detailed analysis of a 1950 Genco Canasta turret shooter machine.

Key Claims

  • Multi-Bingo mechanical animations are complete, including magic lines, magic squares, magic screens, magic numbers, and oddball games

    high confidence · Nick Baldridge, host, describing his work on the machine

  • All 142 games released domestically will be re-implemented in Multi-Bingo once audio is finished, expected within days

    high confidence · Nick Baldridge, stating completion timeline for original project scope

  • Nick Baldridge co-authored an article titled 'Gambling Pin Games and Manufacturer Perspectives' with Stephen Dolefeld and Dennis Kriesel published on Pinball News

    high confidence · Nick Baldridge announcing publication and co-authors

  • The first reported case of pinball piracy occurred in 1932 when Lion Manufacturing Company obtained an injunction against another Chicago company for manufacturing a game similar to Goofy

    high confidence · Article from Automatic Age, October 1932, submitted by listener Kate and read by Nick Baldridge

  • The knockoff game referenced in the 1932 piracy case was called 'Who's Goofy? You're Goofy' and will be displayed alongside the original Goofy at the Ottawa Pinball and Game Room Show

    high confidence · Nick Baldridge citing listener Kate's submission and announcement of upcoming display

  • 1950 Genco Canasta is the first game Genco produced with a game over insert

    medium confidence · Nick Baldridge analyzing the machine's features, reasoning based on observable design elements

  • Genco Canasta features a turret shooter launch mechanism and is a sequence game with numbers 1-6 arrayed in a semicircle at the top

    medium confidence · Nick Baldridge describing playfield layout from flyer and images, acknowledging uncertainty about exact rules

Notable Quotes

  • “once I finish with the audio changes that I'm planning to make, the game is, for all intents and purposes, done”

    Nick Baldridge @ early in episode — Confirms Multi-Bingo is approaching completion with audio as final major work item

  • “It is important that manufacturers can find protection from wholesale piracy, which has been gnawing at the industry's very heart”

    Automatic Age article (1932) @ mid-episode — Historical industry sentiment on design theft and IP protection in early pinball era

  • “I find that very fascinating. It came from Automatic Age in October of 1932”

    Nick Baldridge @ mid-episode — Highlights historical importance and diplomatic tone of early IP dispute documentation

  • “I've never seen a turret shooter on a Genco before, so I'm not certain how they worked it, but that's the way that Gottliebs work”

    Nick Baldridge @ late in episode — Acknowledges knowledge gap while contextualizing Genco's design choices against contemporary manufacturers

  • “I think that's pretty neat since Genco would be DC powered bumpers. It's interesting that they would advertise as such. That would be a big deal in 1950 especially”

    Nick Baldridge @ late in episode — Identifies technical innovation in 1950 Genco design as marketable feature of the era

Entities

Nick BaldridgepersonMulti-BingoproductStephen DolefeldpersonDennis KrieselpersonPinball NewscompanyKatepersonLion Manufacturing CompanycompanyGoofygameWho's Goofy? You're Goofygame

Signals

  • ?

    product_launch: Multi-Bingo mechanical animations completed; full audio support underway with completion expected within days

    high · Nick Baldridge stating mechanical work finished and audio work near completion as final major task

  • ?

    historical_signal: First documented case of pinball game piracy and IP protection lawsuit from 1932 involves Lion Manufacturing Company and Goofy knockoff

    high · 1932 Automatic Age article documenting injunction against manufacturer of game similar to Goofy, read verbatim on podcast

  • ?

    content_signal: Nick Baldridge published co-authored article on gambling and pinball manufacturing on Pinball News with Stephen Dolefeld and Dennis Kriesel

    high · Nick Baldridge announcing article publication and crediting co-authors

  • ?

    event_signal: Ottawa Pinball and Game Room Show scheduled September 22-23 will feature original Goofy and knockoff Who's Goofy side-by-side with Pin History booth

    high · Nick Baldridge announcing show details and Kate's participation with both games

  • ?

    design_innovation: 1950 Genco Canasta identified as first Genco game with game over insert, tracking shots from turret shooter launch mechanism

    medium · Nick Baldridge analyzing machine features and noting first game over insert inclusion by manufacturer

  • ?

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.058

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 it as usual has been a busy couple of weeks and uh i am here to report to you that i have finished all of the mechanical back box animation for the multibingo. That includes all of the different types of animations, including magic lines that are coil-driven, magic lines that are motor-driven, mystic lines, those are motor-driven, magic squares, magic screens, magic numbers, and the oddball games, as I like to call them Galaxy and Miss Universe, which have a moving numbers feature that's either similar to squares or similar to the magic screen, but not quite the same. And then the offshoots of those as well. So all of that is complete. And so what I'm doing right now is circling back around and adding full audio support for every game. What this means is I'm going, again, manual by manual, schematic by schematic, and making sure that I'm playing an appropriate sound when a trip relay trips, for example. When you're playing these games, some of the magic that comes across is through hearing these relays trip and knowing that you're either going to be awarded something cool or that, hey, you just got something cool. Look up at the back glass those kind of things during the coining phase are pretty important and there's nothing like hitting that rollover and hearing that satisfying click of the trip relay falling shooting your fourth ball and hearing the click of the selector lock relay which enables the search those kind of things all extremely important and I've left these for sort of a final touch because once I finish with the audio changes that I'm planning to make, the game is, for all intents and purposes, done.
2:30
The next thing that I want to do is to make new games in the style of the old games, and I have several ideas that have been contributed by people throughout the bingo community, and I'm planning to implement those. however, the original scope of the project was to re-implement, reverse engineer and re-implement, I should say all 142 games that were released domestically and I've done so at least once the audio is finished and it will be in a couple days I feel confident saying that on this episode other finishing touches I have one final finishing touch which I will reveal probably next episode. It should be done before then, but I don't want to spoil the surprise. It's a fun little touch.
Ottawa Pinball and Game Room Show
event
Genco Canastagame
Judge William J. Lindsayperson
Eclectic Gamersorganization
Roy Parkerperson

design_innovation: 1950 Genco Canasta features motorized turret shooter launch mechanism with variable aim angles

medium · Nick Baldridge describing turret movement and comparing to Gottlieb turret shooter design

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: 1950 Genco Canasta appears to be a sequence game with two sets of numbers 1-6 and kick-out holes, though complete rules uncertain

    medium · Nick Baldridge analyzing playfield layout and admitting uncertainty about exact rules

    • 3:26
    But the other thing that I've done in the past couple weeks was to create and distribute the manual for the multi-bingo.
    3:35
    Now, the manual is essentially a parts list so that you can make your own. It also contains the Jones plug mappings that I used Which again, not the most efficient Jones plug mappings But I was trying to keep things the same as Bally made them That turned out to be not a great decision If I could go back, I would probably redo it so that I could use fewer Jones plugs Because as it stands, I really don't need to have three separate Jones plugs for the playfield support and three separate for the cabinet.
    4:19
    Because of the switches which have been removed from the game, the lack of the control unit, there's really no need to run all that wire back and forth.
    4:29
    But I tried to keep it the same, and unfortunately that bit me right away as well because Bally didn't keep their layouts consistent and their plugs from game to game.
    4:43
    So that is what it is But anyway it all documented there and I going to print off a copy and have that bound and keep it in the game so that I can refer back to the Jones plug section as I do frequently now. But what I'm using now are these little paper notes where I wrote the Jones plug layout initially, and it'll be nice to have an actual bound copy that's easier to read than my terrible handwriting.
    5:20
    The other things in the manual I liberally pulled from the United manuals. United, their manuals put out fantastic information, just general EM maintenance stuff. And I really liked a lot of the verbiage that they used. some of the terms that they used to discuss chattering relays and that kind of thing, I just found very charming. And so I pulled a lot of that wording over and modified it slightly so that it referred to the digital mechanisms or the mechanisms within the multi, where it is EM. Um, and, uh, anyway, I'm pretty pleased with the result. So, uh, that's available on the GitHub page, and it'll be linked in the show notes. Um, and please check it out. In other news from me, that, that's all the multi-news for this week. So, moving on to the next thing. Uh, I neglected to mention last episode that I was co-author on a, uh, piece about gambling. and pinball. And that piece is available on Pinball News, and it's called Gambling Pin Games and Manufacturer Perspectives. And it was written by myself, Stephen Dolefeld, and Dennis Creasel. Dennis is one of the hosts from the Eclectic Gamers podcast, which is another fantastic podcast that you should definitely listen to. this article is basically about manufacturer's stances as well as the legal climate when these games were manufactured and the portion that I wrote details the differences in the various types of games and how they came about it was a lot of fun to work with these other two fellows and they certainly did a ton of research and I think it shows in the finished product Definitely check that out if you haven't already. I certainly enjoyed writing it and hope to write something else at some point soon.
    7:42
    Next up, a listener, Kate, submitted a very interesting article about the first reported case of piracy in the pinball industry.
    7:51
    I'm going to go ahead and read this article in total. The title is, This Indicates a Turning Point. On Friday, September 30th, the Lion Manufacturing Company of Chicago, one of the largest manufacturers of coin-operated amusement machines, was granted an injunction against another Chicago company.
    8:10
    The writ of injunction was granted by Superior Court Judge William J. Lindsay on the grounds of unfair competition. The offending company was enjoined from manufacturing, distributing, or selling a game, which was alleged to be similar to Goofy, which is the property of the Lion Manufacturing Company. The injunction also prevents the advertising of the said game or distribution of literature regarding it. That this action will establish a long-needed precedent should be obvious to all who have the interests of the industry at heart. It is unimportant who secured the injunction or who it was directed against. It is important that manufacturers can find protection from wholesale piracy, which has been gnawing at the industry's very heart. Many companies have been guilty of borrowing another's design and commercializing upon it. For that reason, no particular stigma should attach to this case. We have no doubt that the offending company in this instance can see this matter from the same light, and can use the same method to protect their own designs from future piracy and price cutting. And I find that very interesting. It came from Automatic Age in October of 1932.
    9:19
    And Kate brings this to my attention because she is going to be bringing her Goofy to Ottawa Pinball and Game Room Show which runs September 22nd and 23rd at the Nippian Sportsplex And there will be a link to the show website in the show notes But aside from Goofy the knockoff game which is referenced in this automatic age will be on display, and the game is called Who's Goofy?
    9:49
    Who's Goofy? You're Goofy. So, Who's Goofy and Goofy will be there. As part of the Pin History booth, which will have extra penny machines and pachinkos this year.
    10:05
    So best of luck, Kate, and thank you very much for the submission. And I look forward to seeing some photos of Goofy and Who's Goofy side by side. I think that is very fascinating to see that and to see just how tactfully that article was written. If you notice, it didn't call out the manufacturer in question and didn't say anything of real negativity towards them, which I find, again, extremely fascinating.
    10:37
    Today's game is 1950s Genko Canasta. Canasta is a very interesting game, and unfortunately I don't know very much about the rules. So rather than try to guess what the rules are, instead I will say it appears to be a sequence game, and there may be multiple sequences.
    11:05
    There are two sets of numbers on the playfield, 1 through 6, and it appears that you are trying to fire up towards the top of the playfield. where the numbers 1 through 6 are arrayed in a semicircle with the center being the extra special kick-out. So each of these are kick-out holes, 1 through 6, and then the ones which are arrayed around the playfield, 1 through 6, also kick-out holes.
    11:40
    That's about as much as I know as far as rules go, but looking at this playfield layout, it's very interesting. First of all, this is a turret shooter game. So when it's time to serve your ball, the turret moves back and forth.
    11:57
    It's motorized. And the area that it's pointing to is where the ball is going to launch when you tell it to do so. And you do this, I presume, from the flipper buttons. I've never seen a turret shooter on a Genko before, so I'm not certain how they worked it, but that's the way that Gottliebs work.
    12:21
    So these turret shooters, again, I'm thinking that you want to shoot towards the top of the playfield because you have all the numbers arrayed in an easy arc up there. You do have flippers on this game. They are very wide apart, so actually getting to a flipper is really the challenging part. If you shoot towards the number one or the number six, you know, the extremes of the playfield, I feel like it would be easier to do so. And the ball would come down and hopefully go down one of the side lanes, which brings you right to a flipper.
    13:01
    The small plastics, which are down below the side lanes, are worth 100,000 points. and arrayed near the center of the playfield on either side are pop pumpers and they have cool caps, they're daisy caps with the word POWER written on them.
    13:20
    I think that's pretty neat since Genco would be DC powered bumpers. It's interesting that they would advertise as such. That would be a big deal in 1950 especially.
    13:36
    Those side lanes that I mentioned earlier can light for special, and that has something to do with the sequence, but I don't know what. And then extra special, as I mentioned, is at the top center. And in order to get there, you would either have to have the world's luckiest bounce off of these rubbers that are arrayed around the side of the playfield, or you would have to shoot directly straight vertically up from the turret. There are two posts which flank this kick-out hole and it would make entrance impossible unless your aim is very true.
    14:21
    Now why did I pick this game not knowing anything about the rules really Well there a couple reasons First the layout is really interesting But second this is the first game that Genco produced with a game over insert So when the game goes into game over mode, which is most games didn't have a game over mode before this unless they were on a mechanical timer. this game did have a game over mode and the game figured out when it was game over by keeping track of your shots your balls that are shot from the turret and on the playfield arrayed in a vertical column right above the turret are the number of shots 1 through 5 and then the big game over insert I think that's pretty cool and it's neat that this is their first one.
    15:19
    The flyer also notes that there's a new mechanical gate that stops runaway balls. Looking at the image of the playfield, I see the mechanical gate, and it is very large. It covers essentially the entire bottom of the playfield under the flippers, and its purpose is to prevent balls from shooting up and rolling right back into the turret because you'd essentially get a free shot if that were to happen.
    15:57
    Looking at the artwork on this game, it certainly looks like a Roy Parker or it was someone who was very adept at imitating his style.
    16:08
    You've got a goofy looking guy on the left-hand side of the playfield and a blonde lady on the right-hand side looking at the back glass.
    16:18
    A very different rendition of the same characters that are shown on the playfield plastics. They are apparently reading the score sheet from Canasta. I'm not really sure how that game is played. It's a card game. and they're sitting there, the guy with his feet up on the card table and the lady sitting on his lap, and they're looking at this scroll together. In the background, there's a cuckoo clock,
    16:55
    and if you tilt the game, the cuckoo says tilt. I think that's a neat touch as well. Lighted scoring in the millions. So you can get up to 4 million and 900,000 and I'm sure 99,000.
    17:18
    Very appealing color scheme. Dark blue in the background. Lighter blue behind Canasta on the playfield. The same color is repeated. on the left and right hand sides. The majority of the play field is kind of the bare wood, the natural wood look.
    17:43
    And the area with the shots is encapsulated in orange and red and yellow. And it appears to be a ball firing upward. That's kind of the graphic representation there. And then you have a hand of cards and I don't know if that hand holds any significance other than there's a joker as the third card in the hand.
    18:10
    Again, what that means, I'm not sure. And then up above it, the extra special area is called out in green with a yellow surround. The kick-out holes are the beautiful red, which are lit from underneath, and I find those very appealing on these Kenkos.
    18:31
    So, there you have it. 1950s Genco Canasta. Thank you very much for listening. My name again is Nick Baldrige. You can reach me at 4amusementonlypodcasts at gmail.com or you can call me on the bingos line. That's 724-BINGOS1. 724-246-4671. You can listen to me on iTunes, Stitcher, Pocket Casts, Google Play Music. You can follow me on Instagram at bingopodcast, on Twitter also at bingopodcast. You can listen on Facebook, or you can listen on my website, which is foramusementonly.libsyn.com. Thank you very much for listening, and I'll talk to you next time.