Episode 460 - Houston Arcade Expo, Acrylic Bingo, Williams Deluxe Official Baseball, Loof's Lite-A-Line

For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·13m 11s·analyzed·Nov 28, 2019

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.023

TL;DR

EM bingo podcast covers Houston Expo acrylic Golden Gate, Williams Official Baseball repair, and gambling bingo venue.

Summary

Nicholas Baldrige discusses his experience at Houston Arcade Expo showcasing Sean Farwell's innovative acrylic Golden Gate bingo machine, details his restoration work on a Williams Deluxe Official Baseball (1960 woodrail), and shares listener impressions of Loops Leidelijn, a gambling bingo-pinball hybrid in Long Beach featuring skill-based plunging and fixed payouts.

Key Claims

Sean Farwell created a fully acrylic Golden Gate bingo machine with custom acrylic playfield, etched holes, and beveled edges allowing visibility of all internal mechanisms
high confidence · Nicholas Baldrige describing Sean's project at Houston Arcade Expo
The acrylic Golden Gate had only minor fabrication issues post-transport including a relay stuck due to insufficient clearance on the acrylic back door and a MagicScreen coil switch malfunction
high confidence · Nicholas Baldrige detailing troubleshooting work at Houston Arcade Expo
Williams Deluxe Official Baseball (1960 woodrail) uses actual physical player figures behind metal plates with holes in the playfield instead of traditional targets
high confidence · Nicholas Baldrige describing features of the Williams game he serviced
The Williams Deluxe Official Baseball's main issues were a blown fuse and excess lubrication preventing the trip bank mechanism from resetting properly
high confidence · Nicholas Baldrige recounting repair work on the woodrail
Loops Leidelijn in Long Beach features Automated Amusements gambling bingo-pinball hybrids where players plunge balls into color-sectioned lanes to achieve bingo patterns with fixed $15 payouts per win
high confidence · Listener account of Loops Leidelijn venue gameplay and mechanics
The acrylic Golden Gate debuted at Houston Arcade Expo without artwork on the backglass, requiring explanatory teaching from knowledgeable operators
high confidence · Nicholas Baldrige describing the debut experience and lack of backglass art
The acrylic Golden Gate will travel to the York show after Dennis Stoetel makes tweaks, as the machine requires exhibition and hands-on play to be properly appreciated
high confidence · Nicholas Baldrige on plans for the machine's future tour schedule
Houston Arcade Expo skews heavily toward arcade games with a party-like atmosphere operating extended hours, differing significantly from other pinball/arcade shows

Notable Quotes

“He also created a playfield out of acrylic and then etched it and beveled the holes. It was extremely impressive. The end result is that you can see all the mechanisms moving while you're playing the game.”
Nicholas Baldrige @ ~2:00-3:00 — Describes the technical innovation of the acrylic Golden Gate project, highlighting its unique visibility advantage
“It was not like working on a Golden Gate because the problems were problems of not construction but fabrication.”
Nicholas Baldrige @ ~5:00 — Emphasizes that the issues stemmed from custom fabrication rather than mechanical problems inherent to the game design
“The relay was actually screwed to the acrylic back door but there wasn't quite enough room for it to flex and move that spring. So the construction was correct, you know, it was in the right spot and it was doing the right things. It just needed that one sixty-fourth of an inch of clearance or whatever it was.”
Nicholas Baldrige @ ~6:30 — Illustrates the precise fabrication tolerances required when building acrylic machines, showing both the sophistication and challenges of the project
“It's definitely way more luck based as I was initially nudging a little bit and then read you're not allowed to do that.”
Listener (anonymous) @ ~18:00 — Characterizes Loops Leidelijn games as primarily luck-based with no nudging allowed, distinguishing them from traditional pinball
“It's Automated Amusements and if someone hits their bingo while your ball is bouncing around and you hit your final bingo on that ball, you also win.”
Listener (anonymous) @ ~20:30 — Explains the multiplayer win condition unique to this gambling bingo format
“Beautiful game. It's got players, actual physical figures on the field. They're mounted behind these metal plates. They're holes in the playfield instead of targets.”
Nicholas Baldrige @ ~10:00 — Describes the distinctive mechanical feature of the Williams Deluxe Official Baseball that differentiates it from standard pinball targets

Entities

Nicholas BaldrigepersonSean FarwellpersonDennis StoetelpersonJerryperson Houston Arcade ExpoeventYork showeventGolden GategameWilliams Deluxe Official BaseballgameLoops Leidelijnvenue

Signals

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design_innovation: Sean Farwell's acrylic Golden Gate bingo machine represents significant design innovation—custom acrylic cabinet and playfield with etched/beveled holes allowing full visibility of internal mechanisms during gameplay
high · Nicholas Baldrige's detailed description of the project: 'took a Golden Gate that was mostly functional and moved it over to a cabinet that he made custom out of acrylic. He also created a playfield out of acrylic and then etched it and beveled the holes.'
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product_launch: The acrylic Golden Gate had its official debut at Houston Arcade Expo with Nicholas and Dennis present for troubleshooting; planned next exhibition at York show
high · Nicholas attended as support, found minor issues post-transport, and game is scheduled for York show exhibition
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product_concern: Acrylic Golden Gate exhibited minor fabrication tolerance issues: relay clearance problem (requiring ~1/64 inch adjustment) and MagicScreen coil switch malfunction due to component mounting
high · Nicholas detailed specific issues: relay 'couldn't unlatch' due to insufficient acrylic back door clearance and MagicScreen index coil switch 'got stuck' preventing bingo card lights
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restoration_signal: Nicholas successfully restored a Williams Deluxe Official Baseball (1960 woodrail) using systematic troubleshooting: fuse verification and lubrication removal of trip bank pivot points
high · Nicholas detailed repair process: 'unplugging one of the fuses and then verifying that all the mechs' and addressing 'metal pivot points on the trip bank' that were 'gummed up'
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Topics

Acrylic machine fabrication and customizationprimaryBingo pinball machines and mechanicsprimaryElectromechanical game restoration and troubleshootingprimaryGambling pinball and bingo hybridsprimaryHouston Arcade Expo venue and atmospheresecondaryWilliams woodrail baseball gamessecondaryCustom pinball community and showssecondaryPinball game design and mechanicssecondary

Sentiment

positive(0.85)— Nicholas Baldrige expresses genuine enthusiasm for the acrylic Golden Gate project, the Houston Arcade Expo experience, the Williams Official Baseball restoration, and community connections. He praises attendees as 'nice' and describes events as 'fun' multiple times. Minor neutral elements include technical troubleshooting details, but overall tone is celebratory.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.040

What's that sound? It's 4 Amusement Only, the EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast. Welcome back to 4 Amusement Only, this is Nicholas Baldridge. I've been traveling around and taking care of some electromechanical stuff, so I thought I'd talk a little bit about that. First of all, I went to the Houston Arcade Expo a couple weeks back, and that That was my first time going to that show. It's a very different show than any other show that I've really been to. It skews very heavily towards arcade games and the atmosphere is very party-like. It's really pretty cool and it goes to all hours of the day and night. It's a lot of fun. So I went out to Houston Arcade Expo because Sean Farwell had created an acrylic bingo and not just any bingo, it was Golden Gate. What he did is took a GoldenGate that was mostly functional and moved it over to a cabinet that he made custom out of acrylic. He also created a playfield out of acrylic and then etched it and beveled the holes. It was extremely impressive. The end result is that you can see all the mechanisms moving while you're playing the game. Pretty neat. Very helpful for troubleshooting in some instances. So, Sean was right up to the deadline as far as finishing the project and I flew out there just in case there were any problems with it after transport. Bingoes were a new thing to Sean, so I wanted to make sure this had the best debut that it possibly could. So Dennis Stoetel and myself went out there and we were both on hand and inspected the game and played a couple rounds and found out there was some stuff that wasn't working right. So just real quickly, I wanted to talk about some of the fixes. They were all extremely minor and it was a lot of fun honestly to get this going because it was like working on a brand new game. It was not like working on a Golden Gate because the problems were problems of not construction but fabrication. So, for example, there was a relay bank that's attached to the back door and it has four relays. One of those relays controls the payout for the red letter game. Well, the red letter game was going all kinds of crazy. And it wasn't any of the traditional relays. It was just one of the relays was getting stuck that stops the forward movement of one of the steppers Code bursting 112307 8 Sten The relay was actually getting hung up when it actuated it couldn unlatch because the relay was actually screwed to the acrylic backdoor but there wasn quite enough room for it to flex and move that spring so the the construction was correct you know it was in the right spot and it was doing the right things it just couldn it needed that 1 64th of an inch of clearance or whatever it was pretty Pretty neat. And the MagicScreen coil, MagicScreen Index Coil switches, my old nemesis, caught up with me in Houston as well. So one of the switches shuts off the lights to the bingo card. So the lights just mysteriously stopped working all of a sudden and that was the cause. Aside from that, there were a couple other little minor things, but I thought the game held up very well. And I also thought it was a lot of fun to play being able to see the interior. Now, it did make it a little difficult to explain because for this debut release here there was no art on the back glass, it was just a piece of glass. So luckily both Dennis and I know these games pretty darn well I'd say. So I was able to I teach people how to play by pointing to the various parts of the backbox and saying, you'll have to take my word for it, but this is what this means. But people were very receptive. I got to meet several folks that I hadn't met before, but we communicated over the internet. I thought that was super cool. Everybody was really nice. I got to see some of the custom pinball folks, which I always have a blast talking to them. I got to sit on a couple custom pinball seminars and or a custom pinball seminar and then the Multimorphic seminar so I thought that was nice and I got to see Jerry again from Multimorphic. It's always a pleasure and he got to show me his bingo prowess so always good. So, that was Houston, and I think it was great. So, the game actually came back with Dennis and will be at the York show this year. At least that's the current plan. Sean wasn't going to be able to take it out over the next year to any shows, and as he said, this is a game that needs to be shown, so people need to be able to play it and see it. And York seems like a logical place for that to show up next, So Dennis has got it back with him and he is going to make a few tweaks and then it'll be out again for bingo row. In other news, I worked on a Williams Deluxe Official Baseball 1960 Woodrail Pitch and Bat from a very patient owner. He been waiting on the repair for a couple months while I was at York and traveling for work and so forth So thanks to him for the patience But also I got to fix a Williams Deluxe Official Baseball which I never seen one before Beautiful game it got players actual physical figures on the field They're mounted behind these metal plates. They're holes in the playfield instead of targets. So when you're hitting the ball, it sinks into one of these holes. Some of the time it will knock you out if you hit one of the players and other times the hole will be lit and it will score a single if you hit it. Pretty neat. Most of the high value targets are way in the back. The game doesn't count strikes or balls or anything like that, but it does play, you know, phenomenally well. I think it's a really neat game. It's two player and it has a feature where it Knew at the time things might worry more and more about playLastilos The Bad Things Can Happen Luckily in this case nothing bad happened No bulbs got fried none. No coil problems anything like that No transformer issues. It was just a matter of unplugging one of the fuses and then Verifying that all the mechs and everything were working and that fixed the majority of problems another problem excess lubrication The were metal pivot points on the trip bank On Williams trip bank. There's this big metal arm and a huge 120 volt coil when that pulls in it's got a Slam that arm into the bottom of the trip relays so that they reset well, it was so gummed up that it just kind of lazily flopped up against the bottom of the trip relays when they were tripped and Then went back down so Nothing was getting reset. The game was totally confused. Thought it was in game over mode. All kinds of problems were related from that. Once those two items were done, there were only a couple of things that needed some schematic tracing but uh... it was generally working pretty well at that point. Fun fun game and really beautiful. If you happen to come across one, give it a look. That brings us to some listener mail. Listener Gene dropped by a place in Long Beach, California called Loofs Leidelijn and he sent me some impressions of the games there. They're kind of bingo-esque games where you plunge and the balls have to go into particular lanes in order to win and when you win you get paid off Pretty interesting little gambling pinball game and and let see what he has to say Hey Nick so I dropped by Loose and checked it out I actually played with to start since it a game and I wasn sure if I would like it and or how much of a game of skill vs luck it is It's definitely way more luck based as I was initially nudging a little bit and then read you're not allowed to do that. It was hard to actually nudge since the machines are all in line and mounted to the place that you sit at. I did end up winning twice, so you earn 15 credits per win and each credit I guess is a dollar. There's a $2 perfect bonus and basically it's like pachinko bingo. You have a plunger, you plunge the balls and then they bounce around into color sectioned areas with the numbers 1 through 5 in them. So if you get all ones in each color, that's a bingo and I think you're spotted the red three in the middle to start with, like a free space I guess on regular bingo. There's a bit of skill to the plunge, but after that, it's a lot of lucky bounces, or not. You play against everyone and once someone wins, it stops the machines from letting you plunge. It's automated and if someone hits their bingo while your ball is bouncing around and you hit your final bingo on that ball, you also win. Payouts are fixed at $15 per win and I think the business model is the more people that are playing the more the house wins since someone has to win each round. The perfect I think would be four plunges to a bingo. It was pretty fun and I cashed out at $15 so I was $12 up. I'd suggest checking it out if you're in the area ever. Definitely worth a short visit and there's some more memorabilia there to check out as well. Gene. Well, Gene, thanks very much for writing in and I very much appreciate hearing about these interesting little gambling pinballs on the show. There's a few different kinds that I've heard of and I've heard of Loops Slide Align before but I've never really heard anyone's first hand account of playing the games. And that's all for tonight. Thank you very much for listening. My name again is Nick Baldrige. You can reach me at Thanks for theyin. Timing and Subtitles by the Amara.org community I'm going to take that dishwasher because that's what did it. One of these days I'm going to take it apart and cut that speaker out. I have no idea what that's for. It's alerting you that you've opened the dishwasher because you don't want it to make noise.