Episode 206 - Sirmo Magic Screen Boardset

For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·14m 58s·analyzed·Oct 3, 2015

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.021

TL;DR

Nick Baldridge analyzes Sirmo Magic Screen bingo boardset, highlights pre-2005 LCD adoption.

Summary

Nick Baldridge discusses the Sirmo Magic Screen bingo machine, a Belgian solid-state bingo from 2004 that featured an LCD monitor in the backbox years before flipper games adopted the technology. He examines the boardset architecture, including the MPU/driver board, I/O board, IDE ribbon cables, and multiple display systems, highlighting how solid-state bingos continued to innovate after domestic production ceased. Baldridge also promotes the upcoming York Show with a record bingo row and contest featuring autographed Jeffrey Lawton books.

Key Claims

Bally's Continental was the first solid-state bingo, produced in 1980, and was shipped to Belgium where manufacturers reverse-engineered and continued production
high confidence · Nick Baldridge, host, discussing Continental's history and Belgian amusement company acquisition
Sirmo Magic Screen bingo machine from 2004 featured an LCD monitor in the backbox, predating Wizard of Oz flipper game's first flipper LCD by approximately 11 years
high confidence · Nick Baldridge, analyzing Sirmo game details from Danny Leach's documentation site
Solid-state bingos used microswitches for the 25 playfield holes, unlike Bally bingos which used a special type of switch activator
high confidence · Nick Baldridge, describing Sirmo boardset architecture based on visual inspection
The Sirmo boardset uses a three-board system with IDE connector-style ribbon cables for playfield interconnection
high confidence · Nick Baldridge, analyzing photographs of Sirmo boardset internals
Belgian parts manufacturers continue to offer bulk orders of bingo components shipped to the United States
medium confidence · Nick Baldridge, discussing ongoing availability of bingo parts from Belgium
The York Show will feature a record number of bingo machines in the first ever dedicated bingo row
high confidence · Nick Baldridge, promoting York Show October 9-10 event
Solid-state bingos can change coin value and multipliers, enabling rapid money circulation and high potential rewards
high confidence · Nick Baldridge, reflecting on gameplay mechanics from experience at Vic Camp's machine
Sirmo and WeeMe were among several Belgian solid-state bingo manufacturers, though exact business succession is unclear
medium confidence · Nick Baldridge, acknowledging knowledge gap about Belgian manufacturer consolidation

Notable Quotes

“These computer-controlled bingos were the offshoots of Bally's first solid-state bingo, which was Bally's Continental... And what they did is ship them all overseas to Belgium.”
Nick Baldridge @ ~2:30 — Establishes the origin story of solid-state bingos and their migration to Belgium after Continental's 1980 production
“And they may have been doing this for at least a year prior. I believe there's someone in the Pinside thread for the show that talks about a game from 2003.”
Nick Baldridge @ ~5:15 — Suggests Sirmo may have used LCD technology as early as 2003, further predating flipper LCD adoption
“And bingos, even though they were no longer produced in the United States, continued to push the envelope for innovation for years after Bally stopped producing the bingos.”
Nick Baldridge @ ~10:45 — Key insight about bingo industry's continued technological advancement despite domestic market decline
“The marriage of low voltage and high voltage in a single system is pretty impressive.”
Nick Baldridge @ ~6:30 — Reflects Baldridge's appreciation for early solid-state engineering elegance
“I will say that they are very clearly manufactured to take a lot of money very quickly. And they do.”
Nick Baldridge @ ~8:45 — Commentary on solid-state bingo design philosophy prioritizing revenue extraction over casual play

Entities

Nick BaldridgepersonJeffrey LawtonpersonDanny LeachpersonVic CamppersonBallycompanySirmocompanyWeeMecompanyFor Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball PodcastorganizationYork ShoweventContinentalgame

Signals

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historical_signal: Sirmo Magic Screen from 2004 featured LCD backbox display predating flipper game LCD adoption by ~11 years, suggesting bingo industry continued technological innovation after domestic U.S. production ceased
high · Nick Baldridge: 'this game has an LCD monitor and it was manufactured back in 2004... quite some time before the first LCD was used in a flipper game with Wizard of Oz'
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historical_signal: Bally Continental (1980) exported to Belgium where amusement company reverse-engineered design and spawned decades of continued bingo manufacturing by firms like Sirmo and WeeMe
high · Nick Baldridge: 'Continental was produced in 1980... they took them and they figured out how they worked... they were able to take these and produce all new bingos And they have been for years and years, way, way into the 2000s'
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technology_signal: Sirmo boardset uses three-board architecture with IDE-style ribbon cable connectors and integrated MPU/driver/voltage regulator design, reflecting early 2000s solid-state bingo engineering approach
high · Nick Baldridge analyzing boardset photographs: 'three-board system and a power supply... a large MPU slash driver board... This driver board also does the voltage regulation'
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design_innovation: Solid-state bingos enabled novel playfield designs impossible in electromechanical games, such as all-adjacent-hole scoring or special trails with computer-driven logic
high · Nick Baldridge: 'with the solid state board set... you can do things like have every adjacent hole score or like on Vic Camp's game having a special trail down the middle score in a particular way'
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Topics

Solid-state bingo technology and evolutionprimaryBelgian bingo manufacturing industry and post-1980 innovationprimarySirmo Magic Screen boardset architecture and LCD integrationprimaryYork Show 2024 and bingo row eventprimaryEarly solid-state circuit board design and voltage regulationsecondaryBingo machine gameplay mechanics and operator economicssecondaryLCD technology adoption timeline in pinball and bingosecondaryBingo collector community and preservationmentioned

Sentiment

neutral(0)

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.045

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 gearing up for the York Show over here. Still so excited I can hardly stand it. Got a little bit over a week to go. There's supposed to be a hurricane or tropical storm Seems like they can't decide which yet It's going to make landfall around Virginia So looking forward to that That should be happening this weekend And that's not going to dampen my spirits though Because the Yorkshire is just around the corner York shows in York, Pennsylvania October 9th and 10th I will be there along with bingo collectors From all over the eastern United States And we are Piling together and bringing A record number of bingos To Have the first ever bingo row At a show Now at this bingo row This first ever Bingo row I'm going to be running a little contest Jeffrey Lawton Bally Bingo Pinball Machines and Bingo Pinball War author has autographed a case of books and I will be giving those away to anyone who can make a four or five in a line on one of these great machines that we bring so bring your skills your enthusiasm for the game and your willingness to learn and you could be one of the lucky winners. For tonight's topic, I wanted to talk about one of the solid state bingo games. This is a Surmo bingo, and for eagle-eared listeners who've been listening for a long time, I played my first ever solid state bingo up at Vic Camps a month or so ago now, and it was quite the experience. There's an awful lot that that computer does, not just for the player, but also kind of against the player. You can lose an amazing number of credits very, very quickly. You can also win an amazing number of credits really, really quickly. But tonight what I wanted to talk about was a bit of the board set in one of these games. These computer-controlled bingos were the offshoots of Bally's first solid-state bingo, which was Bally's Continental. Continental was produced in 1980, pretty much right as the bingos were shutting down. And what they did is ship them all overseas to Belgium. Now the folks in Belgium, what they did is they took them, and this was an amusement company that purchased the entire run of these machines. They took them and they figured out how they worked. I not sure if they reverse engineered the board set or what exactly they did but they were able to take these and produce all new bingos And they have been for years and years, way, way into the 2000s. I'm not sure if the Belgian companies are still producing bingos, but I know that there are parts manufacturers that you can still get in touch with in Belgium. and get big bulk orders shipped over here to the United States. Now, I was browsing around on Danny Leach's site, which is on danny.cdyn.com, and found this little oddity, which is the internals of a Magic Screen game. so I clicked into it and it's not the Bally magic screen that we're used to when we think of the bingos it was the Surmo game now Surmo I'm not sure exactly, I really need to research the solid state bingos more because I don't know exactly what happened, there was a Surmo, there was a WeeMe there were several companies in Belgium I don't know if it was, you know, one went out of business and another picked up where they left off, or what exactly happened. At any rate, this is a Sermo, and the magic screen in reference is an LCD monitor. Now, it displays all these different games that you can play. there's one called Superball, Magic Wheel, Penalty three numbers game and then one that's simply called Bingo Game now I'm not sure what any of these are there's only one picture with the screen active but I just want to point out that this game has an LCD monitor and it was manufactured back in 2004 Now if you think about that, that's 11 years ago, and quite some time before the first LCD was used in a flipper game with Wizard of Oz. And they may have been doing this for at least a year prior. I believe there's someone in the Pinside thread for the show that talks about a game from 2003. But I wanted to talk about the board set for this because it's very interesting. I'm looking at the pictures and it's fascinating. It is what appears to be a three-board system and a power supply. Now, for those of you who don't know, I am fascinated by computers. is something that I really enjoy, despite my love of the electromechanical. I do love computers as well, and most of the things that I find fascinating are how they've evolved over time. So similarly to my love of the electromechanical, I do love early solid state, and even later solid state. I just love seeing the evolution of the technology And pinball is such a fascinating use of the technology The marriage of low voltage and high voltage in a single system is pretty impressive. Some board sets are better designed, in my opinion, as a non-engineer than others, but they all share this fascinating trait of a computer being able to determine when a transistor should be fired, that transistor turning on higher voltage to a coil or something, and away it goes. Pretty neat. So looking at the board set, we've got a large MPU slash driver board, and this is connected to the various systems with ribbon cables. Now, this driver board also does the voltage regulation. So it functions as kind of a power supply board with a driver board, kind of like an aux power driver in a late solid state Williams game. The ribbon cables that they used are similar to IDE connectors for those familiar with them. It's a multi-pin cable in a flat package. But they used punchdowns on some of the larger, higher voltage wires. Interesting choice, but their connectors, by and large, are very solid. And having looked under a playfield, or actually having taken apart a playfield for a solid-state bingo, I can tell you the way that those playfields work. All 25 holes in the playfield are connected via these IDE cables in parallel. and it uses microswitches. Now this is different than the Ballybingos. They didn't use microswitches. They used a special type of switch activator. But the function's the same. Now, what the large IDE cable that I mentioned is doing is probably driving the shutter motor, which requires much less voltage than in a Ballybingo, but it still requires a higher voltage than, say, 5 volts. So, aside from this large driver board slash MPU slash voltage regulator, over to the right you have what looks like an I.O. board. And it's producing the video and audio for the game. That's right, I said audio. There is a speaker mounted in the game. Now the video runs to the power supply And this power supply drives the LCD monitor in the game Now that LCD is not the only display in the game And in fact there's a whole back glass with the bingo cards Which are static and do not move the LCD simply provides instructions and other helpful advice as you play and animation and so forth. But on each bingo card, there are three different LED displays on this game, and there's a large LED display over to the left, which is maybe a fifth of the size of the LCD monitor. It's very cool. So, this game looks incredibly fun and I will say that I would not mind spending a lot more time on a solid state bingo. I think they are very fun from the brief time that I spent on one at VicCamps, and you can hear my thoughts on that on a previous episode. But I will say that they are very clearly manufactured to take a lot of money very quickly. And they do. The way that you can change the value of your coin and change the multiplier means that you're putting in a ton of money. Your potential reward is certainly greater, but at what cost? so other than that I will say that the gameplay is very cool because with the solid state board set where you don't have to worry about finding a place to put additional units in the game you can do things like have every adjacent hole score or like on Vic Camp's game having a special trail down the middle score in a particular way. I just think that's really cool and very unique for most bingos, at least that I know of. So, again, would not mind spending more time with one in the future. And this is a point that I want to bring home here. Again, this game, years before the first flipper LCD, had an LCD in the backbox. And bingos, even though they were no longer produced in the United States, continued to push the envelope for innovation for years after Bally stopped producing the bingos. I find this incredibly fascinating, and if anyone who's listening has a lot of experience with solid-state bingos, I would love to talk to you. I hope to talk to Vic again soon about the Solid State bingos because he has had some experience with them. And he owns one, so I mean, that's quite a bit of experience. So, other than that, I think that's all for tonight. So, thank you very much for joining me. My name again is Nicholas Baldridge. You can reach me at 4amusementonlypodcast at gmail.com. Or you can call me on the bingos line at 724-BINGO. bingos1, 724-246-4671. You can listen to us on iTunes, Stitcher, Pocket Cast, via RSS, on Facebook, on Twitter, at Bingo Podcast. You can follow me on Instagram at nbaldridge, or you can listen to us on our website, which is 4amusementonly.libsyn.com. Thank you very much for listening, and I'll talk to you next time.