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Episode 465 - P3 Development, New Games Announced, 1935 Allied Amusement Barrel Roll

For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·26m 10s·analyzed·Mar 12, 2020
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.028

TL;DR

Nick Baldridge discusses P3 development and Multimorphic announces two new games.

Summary

Nick Baldridge returns to the For Amusement Only podcast after a hiatus to discuss his development work on a Quest for Glory-themed game for the Multimorphic P3 platform. He provides a detailed technical overview of the P3's modular architecture, serviceability, Unity-based programming framework, and SDK capabilities, while announcing that Multimorphic has teased two new games: an update to Cosmic Kart Racing that adds traditional three-ball pinball gameplay, and an unannounced new title. The episode concludes with a featured game segment on the 1935 Allied Amusement Barrel Roll.

Key Claims

  • Nick Baldridge is developing a Quest for Glory-themed game for the P3 platform with nearly 70 screens and complex adventure-game mechanics integrated with pinball gameplay

    high confidence · Nick Baldridge, host, discussing his development work in detail throughout the episode

  • The P3 platform uses Unity game engine and C# programming language with an available SDK for third-party developers

    high confidence · Nick Baldridge explaining technical architecture of the P3

  • Multimorphic has teased two new games: an update to Cosmic Kart Racing enabling traditional three-ball pinball play, and an unannounced new game

    high confidence · Nick Baldridge stating 'Multimorphic has two new games that they've teased' and describing them

  • Nick aims to have his Quest for Glory P3 game in a playable state by the York Show in October 2025

    high confidence · Nick Baldridge: 'my goal is to have something relatively playable... by the York Show in October of this year'

  • The P3 platform features modular playfield swapping, embedded monitor with ball tracking, configurable button boxes, and innovative serviceability engineering with rail-based component removal

    high confidence · Nick Baldridge detailed technical explanation of P3 hardware features

Notable Quotes

  • “I am only working on my game for the P3 platform. So this podcast, while it retains a focus on EMs... mainly I am hyper-focused on programming this new game, and I feel like there's not a lot of information out there regarding programming for this platform in a digestible format.”

    Nick Baldridge @ ~2:30 — Explains the episode focus shift and motivation for detailed P3 development discussion

  • “The P3 platform, the reason it's called a platform, is that it is modular. So in a similar vein as the multi-bingo, you're able to swap out play fields and change the entire game.”

    Nick Baldridge @ ~5:00 — Core concept of P3's modular design architecture

  • “Working on it is a dream. It is really nice. There are multiple positions in which the playfield can be lifted, and it will balance by itself... I've not seen really anything of its like as far as serviceability goes.”

    Nick Baldridge @ ~10:30 — Praise for P3's engineering and serviceability, contrasting with traditional pinball machines

  • “I decided that I wanted to make a game that was going to be complex, and I really enjoy complexity in games, rather games that make you think... I decided for my first project for the P3, I wanted to recreate the first Quest for Glory game.”

    Nick Baldridge @ ~17:00 — Design philosophy and motivation for his specific P3 game project

  • “There are almost 70 screens within the game, so for each of those I need a companion mode perhaps two, perhaps more... just a tremendous amount of work has gone into it so far”

    Nick Baldridge @ ~20:00 — Scope and complexity of the Quest for Glory P3 game development

  • “Multimorphic has two new games that they've teased. One is an update to Cosmic Kart Racing which allows it to play like a traditional three ball pinball game”

    Nick Baldridge @ ~42:00 — Official announcement of Cosmic Kart Racing update and new unannounced game

  • “I think it's going to bring a level of entertainment and fun to the game when you're not in that racing mode, when you want to play more of a traditional pinball game.”

Entities

Nick BaldridgepersonMultimorphiccompanyJerry StellenbergpersonQuest for GlorygameP3productCosmic Kart RacinggameBarrel RollgameAllied Amusement CompanycompanyUnityproduct

Signals

  • ?

    technology_signal: Nick Baldridge provides detailed technical overview of the Multimorphic P3 platform architecture, including Unity game engine integration, C# programming, modular playfield swapping, embedded ball-tracking monitor, configurable button boxes, and innovative serviceability features with rail-based components

    high · Extensive technical discussion covering SDK availability, separation of form/function, asset store integration, and comparison to open-source frameworks like PyProcGame

  • ?

    product_launch: Multimorphic has teased two new games: an update to Cosmic Kart Racing enabling traditional three-ball pinball mode, and an unannounced new game title, both coming 'soon'

    high · Nick Baldridge: 'Multimorphic has two new games that they've teased. One is an update to Cosmic Kart Racing which allows it to play like a traditional three ball pinball game... The other thing is they've teased a new game, and those things are coming soon'

  • ?

    machine_intel: Nick Baldridge is developing a Quest for Glory-themed adventure game for the P3 platform, targeting playable state by York Show in October 2025, featuring ~70 screens, point-and-click adventure mechanics, day-night cycles, and integrated pinball modes using P3's walls and scoops mechanisms

    high · Detailed development discussion including screen count, mechanics, goal timeline, and mention of development thread on Pinside

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Nick Baldridge emphasizes preference for complex, thinking-oriented game design inspired by classic adventure games like Quest for Glory, contrasting with simple arcade shooters, and plans to integrate these principles into both his P3 game and ongoing EM projects

    high · Discussion of Quest for Glory's multi-solution puzzle design and explicitly stated philosophy: 'I really enjoy complexity in games, rather games that make you think'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.078

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's been quite a while it feels since i talked with you last uh my schedule had completely changed uh due to some stuff that was going on uh with family and with work, but those things have now, not work and family have come to an end, but those particular obligations have come to an end. So now there is time again with which I can record. So you'll have to put up with me for a little while longer at least. Now, I do have some good news and I have some bad news. The good news is here I am. I'm recording. We're talking. everything's great. It's exactly what you remember, except not quite, because of the bad news. The bad news is I am doing much less EM or, frankly, any other pinball-related stuff these days, because I am only working on my game for the P3 platform. So this podcast, while it retains a focus on EMs, and any time that I do a service call, for example, or have a particular quandary that I'm working with somebody on to try to fix a game, you know, I'll try to point those out, but mainly I am hyper-focused on programming this new game, and I feel like there's not a lot of information out there regarding programming for this platform in a digestible format. So in a similar way to how I handled the multi-bingo or multi-races, and of course updates for those will still be forthcoming on the show if there's any, or my work on RoboFrenzy, which is still in process. Art is being worked on in between other projects that both Ryan and myself have going on. But I thought we could get started today just so I can give you a little overview of what the P3 is and what it is that I'm working on. So I've talked a little about both of these things in the past. In fact, I had the creator of the P3, Jerry Stellenberg, on the show to discuss multimorphic in general, whose boards I use in the multi-bingo and multi-races, as well as the P3 itself, the entire physical pinball platform. So the P3, the general concept is that it's a pinball machine with several evolutions to make it more serviceable while presenting something interesting to consumers, that people putting money into the game. So the P3 platform, the reason it's called a platform, is that it is modular. So in a similar vein as the multi-bingo, you're able to swap out play fields and change the entire game. So while you may order a P3 and it has a particular game installed, you can change the play fields, as I mentioned, or you can change out just the software.

Nick Baldridge @ ~44:30 — Rationale for value of Cosmic Kart Racing traditional mode update

  • “The Barrel Roll... has ramps or habit trails. It has multiple reels or moving wheels like the Ferris wheels on Cyclone. And it has more than one way to win.”

    Nick Baldridge @ ~48:00 — Description of unusual 1935 game features for its era

    • RoboFrenzy
    game
    For Amusement Onlyproduct
    Gaming on 10product
    Donperson
    York Showevent
  • ?

    product_strategy: Cosmic Kart Racing update addresses a design issue with extended race mode play times in multiplayer scenarios by adding traditional three-ball pinball mode option for more balanced, accessible gameplay

    high · Nick Baldridge explains racing mode can 'take a very long time and it can be quite unfair to one person' and traditional mode will improve 'entertainment and fun'

  • ?

    community_signal: Nick Baldridge is using his podcast to create digestible content about P3 platform programming, filling a perceived gap in available developer documentation and sharing specific challenges, problem-solving approaches, and development logs to help interested custom developers

    high · Stated motivation: 'I feel like there's not a lot of information out there regarding programming for this platform in a digestible format' and commitment to regularly discuss specific technical challenges

  • ?

    design_innovation: Quest for Glory P3 game innovatively combines point-and-click adventure game mechanics (walk, look, touch, take, talk, use actions) with traditional pinball gameplay on modular screens, using P3's monitor and mechanical systems for dynamic interaction

    high · Detailed design discussion of screen-based interactions, scene-specific programming, animations, and integration with pinball mechanisms like walls and scoops

  • ?

    historical_signal: 1935 Allied Amusement Barrel Roll features innovative design elements for its era including ramps/habit trails, multiple rotating wheels with illumination, and multiple scoring paths with ball retention mechanics to incentivize continued play

    high · Detailed game analysis: 'This is a really interesting pre-war game... it's got ramps or habit trails... multiple reels or moving wheels... more than one way to win'

  • ?

    content_signal: Nick Baldridge's podcast is shifting primary focus from EM/bingo machines to P3 platform development education, though maintaining EM service call content and remaining engaged with historical pinball design analysis

    high · Nick explicitly states: 'I am only working on my game for the P3 platform... mainly I am hyper-focused on programming this new game' but 'will try to point out' service calls and notes podcast retains EM focus

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: P3 platform demonstrates significant engineering advances in serviceability including self-balancing playfield at multiple positions, rail-based modular component removal, and embedded monitor accessibility, representing notable innovation in pinball machine design and maintenance

    high · Extensive discussion of engineering features: 'I've not seen really anything of its like as far as serviceability goes' and specific examples of quick component access and repair

  • ?

    event_signal: York Show in October 2025 is targeted as launch/demonstration event for Nick Baldridge's Quest for Glory P3 game in playable beta state

    high · Nick Baldridge: 'my goal is to have something relatively playable, not in a finished state, obviously, but reasonably playable by the York Show in October of this year'

    • 3:36
    And the game has a launcher menu, similar to the Multibingo, where you choose the game that you wish to play, and at that point it'll fire up and you're playing that game. It's pretty slick. It's really slick, in fact. So, a couple of the unique features of it. There are button boxes on the sides. Instead of the traditional single flipper button, or perhaps dual flipper button if there's a MagnaSave, there are boxes which are completely configurable. So by default, they ship with three button boxes on either side. There are red buttons, yellow buttons, and white buttons. The red buttons are flipper, and then the yellow buttons and white buttons do different things depending on the context in which you find yourself. Multimorphic tends to use them all in the same way, which is a very consistent thing for a platform. third party developers do things in a slightly different way so it's been interesting to see just how that feature has been used another feature of the P3 is the ball tracking so the ball actually can glide over a screen which is embedded below the bottom two thirds of the playfield so in a traditional pinball game, your playfield's made entirely out of wood, and you have inserts which light up to tell you to do something, or that something's worth a certain number of points, or that you've completed a sequence, or you're this close to completing a sequence, or something in that vein.
    5:21
    Well, on the P3, there's actually a screen that is the playfield, and so you can have dynamic inserts, inserts that move around and can provide call-outs or do other things, wiggle in enticing ways. All that can happen with the screen on the P3, and the ball is fully tracked as it's moving over that surface, so you can tell if the ball moves into a particular area and then have the program react accordingly. Really clever and very cool feature.
    6:01
    The back third is made out of wood. It's a traditional playfield. It's engineered in a particular way to make it easy to move and store. And it slots right into a couple of rails in the back. You just slide it on down, it clicks into place. And then there are somewhere between three and four connectors that need to be moved. and that it Swapping that playfield module is very quick and easy The other cool thing from a serviceability standpoint is that the apron area flips down and everything is slotted on rails and you can slide it out So that monitor I mentioned earlier can be slid out and replaced, worked on if needed, cleaned, anything. And it's really slick. I mean, just a couple of seconds and you can pull just about any piece out of this game, and working on it is a dream. It is really nice.
    7:05
    There are multiple positions in which the playfield can be lifted, and it will balance by itself. It's been engineered to sit vertically close to the technician if you need to pull it forward and work on something underneath the playfield.
    7:24
    Really, really special. And I've not seen really anything of its like as far as serviceability goes. I've only had a couple of little tweaks that I've needed to make on mine, and they were very quick things and even quicker because of the modularity. Like I had a pop bumper that wasn't quite as sensitive as it needed to be. pop out the entire module, flip it over, and then adjust that switch is super quick to do.
    7:56
    So those are some of the advantages of the platform. From a programming standpoint, what they've done is they've built on top of the Unity game engine, and Unity is an extremely popular game engine, and it's used in a ton of different video games produced across all different types of hardware, so cell phones, as well as computers, as well as video game consoles, and even various PC devices. It's everywhere. It's a really clever idea because There are a ton of great Unity content creators, and Unity itself has a built-in asset store where you can pull specific things that you might need that somebody's put up on the store for you to pull, like various little scriptlets or maybe some simple 3D models or even more complex 3D models, various items that you might have in your home or fantasy items or whatever you can imagine, basically. There's something for it in the Asset Store.
    9:20
    And if there's not, that's where what I've been doing comes in. So the thing that appealed to me about the P3, and I talked about it a little bit on my episode with Jerry, is that they have an SDK that's available for anybody to use. And that was something that I was extremely interested in, and they'd announced that long ago, back when they were first starting to talk about selling this P3. so that had been on my radar for a long time and I was able to take a look at the SDK and it is very clear and concise in almost every area and it builds on top of Unity in a very clever way I think that's extremely extensible They do a good job of separating kind of form from function, which is important, especially if you're maintaining a large code base.
    10:29
    And the SDK enforces that in some ways, which I think is wise. So the programming language used is C Sharp. and for the other open source frameworks for pinball creation, they're generally Python. And I actually happen to prefer Python in a lot of ways, but working with this was like getting back on a bike. It's something that you almost instinctively remember how to do. it flows pretty seamlessly from the various open source frameworks like PyProcGame or SkeletonGame. So if you've done any custom development or if you're interested in any custom development at all, I would highly suggest contacting Multimorphic and getting a development kit and taking a look at it. and once you have taken a look, I believe that you'll see the same things that I saw, the ability to bring your creations to life in a very easy and quick way. So I've taken that great framework, and here's what I've done with it to destroy it.
    11:51
    I decided that I wanted to make a game that was going to be complex, and I really enjoy complexity in games, rather games that make you think, so even on the video game side. While I do enjoy a good space shooter every now and again, you know, a Gradius or something of that nature, I also enjoy thinking games, adventure games specifically. So when I was a kid, there was a game called Quest for Glory that came out on the PC, and Quest for Glory is a mixture of an adventure game, point and click, and a role-playing game. So the role-playing elements are that you pick a character class at the beginning of the game. It's either fighter, thief, or magic user, and those character classes have their own associated sets of skills, and those skills are improved with use. Beyond that, the game, as I mentioned, is point and click, So you trying to gather items and then use them in order to affect the world around you I found this concept endlessly fascinating because most of the puzzles within the game instead of a simple use this item here type concept that most point-and-click adventures have,
    13:15
    allowed you to have three or more solutions to any given puzzle. Just really fascinating from a design standpoint.
    13:24
    I was always impressed. There were five games in the initial series, and I was always impressed with how generally bug-free they were. The fourth one had quite a few bugs, and actually I had the most crashes with the third one, but even still, they were masterpieces in my mind. Just all the interactions that were needed and how much programming went into them, as well as the adventure itself being very entertaining. So, I decided for my first project for the P3, I wanted to recreate the first Quest for Glory game. The reason being, it would give me a really detailed look at how to make a game. You know, this is much more complex than hit the flippers and, you know, see a number show up on the screen. I am actually handling interactions in a very similar way to the point-and-click PC game.
    14:26
    There, in fact, is the ability to walk, look, touch, or take, talk, and then use on every screen. And there are almost 70 screens within the game. so for each of those I need a companion mode perhaps two, perhaps more just depending on what is happening in the scene and then there's the programming for the scene itself including animations and so on and so forth so just a tremendous amount of work has gone into it so far now, what I want to talk about on the show is really specifics about the programming So this may or may not be of interest to you. If you have any interest whatsoever in creating a custom pinball machine or in creating a game for the P3, then I think this will speak to you. if however you're here for the types of games that I have been speaking about the entire time that I've done this show then you may also find something of interest here because this informs the other work that I do on EMs, believe it or not the whole thing is that everything is related, you know, you can't have something modern without it building off of something from the past. And I feel the same way with pinball game design. There needs to be some element that makes it fun. And I'm trying to shoot for that while also learning the ropes of this new framework. And so far it's going well. I've got each of the screens set up in the game. and what I'm doing is putting in the specific programming for those various modes that I mentioned, as well as any programming that is specific to any given scene. So there might be a scene that you walk into and a pre-scripted action happens. Well, none of that scripting just happens. I have to write it. And then I have to make sure it's never repeated.
    16:49
    Couple that with the fact that there's an active day-night cycle that cycles through four different positions during different times of day, and a goodly amount of ball interaction with various targets. So it's a real sharpshooter's game, the way that I have it configured right now. And then there will be special pinball modes. So with the P3, there's a suite of mechanisms called Walls and Scoops, and they basically divide that monitor area from the wooden playfield area. And you can pop them up individually and there's a little back area that you can pop up and it's a scoop. Or you can pop up an area in front and it's a wall. Or you can pop up them both and then drop the wall and it becomes a scoop that's hidden by what's essentially a drop target.
    17:44
    So it's a pretty versatile suite of mechs and because they go all the way across the width of the playfield, what you can do is actually divide the playfield and keep the ball on the screen area interacting with the smaller area which allows for more dynamic gameplay and more frantic and harried gameplay as well so I'm having fun thinking up scenarios that will utilize the entire length and width of the playfield and thus far I've got a few pretty fun ideas But the whole point is that you'll be able to progress through this entire adventure. And the way that that works is that the P3 supports profiles. And these profiles can be used to save data about a given game to a particular name. So if I make a profile named Nick, then I can save all of the game state to that profile and then resume it where I left off. In this way, you can complete a very lengthy adventure like this is over several sittings. So, my goal is to have something relatively playable, not in a finished state, obviously, but reasonably playable by the York Show in October of this year.
    19:07
    We'll see how things are looking as we get closer, but at this point, I have something that is at least somewhat playable, and people could get an idea of it. Very shortly, with the next push that I'm going to make, it will be much more playable, and you'll be able to traverse the width and breadth of the world, as well as utilize several different types of shots on every screen.
    19:33
    I have clear goals laid out in my development thread on Pinside and I working to achieve those every day And I try to log you know any specific challenges or problems and certain things I'm going to call out here on the podcast, you know, weird things that I, or what I think are weird that I had to discover, problems that I was able to overcome with how I'm going to lay out something conceptually. Sometimes it takes a couple of attempts for me to get something right, like if I want to make a specific action happen, maybe I need to do it in a different way that's much more organized than the first way that I tried it. Things like that. So I'm constantly experimenting with it, and And at this point, I feel like I've got the basics down enough that I'm able to expand it and fill out the rest of the scenes and then go through and then refine from there. So I've got some specific ideas that I'm going to be talking about in future episodes, and I'm excited to share more info with you. Before I let you go, there's a few more things I want to talk about. First, Multimorphic has two new games that they've teased. One is an update to Cosmic Kart Racing Which allows it to play like a traditional three ball pinball game For those of you who haven't seen Cosmic Kart Racing It currently plays like a Mario Kart Or some other kind of kart racing game Where you're competing against the computer In a race And you have to hit certain shots in order to Speed ahead of the computer and if you do, you move on to the next race and if you don't, then your game's over. This leads to situations where if you're playing locally with more than one player, it can take a very long time and it can be quite unfair to one person, especially if it's their first game, for example. On Cosmic Kart Racing, they don't know the shots or how things are supposed to line up. So I'm looking forward to this update because I think it's going to bring a level of entertainment and fun to the game when you're not in that racing mode, when you want to play more of a traditional pinball game. I think that'll be pretty exciting. The other thing is they've teased a new game, and those things are coming soon, so they say, so I'm looking forward to hearing more. in the show notes I'll have links to various threads and we'll go from there today's featured game is Barrel Roll made in February of 1935 by Allied Amusement Company of Los Angeles this is a really interesting pre-war game and in a bit of an unusual turn for a pre-war game it's got ramps or habit trails It has multiple reels or moving wheels like the Ferris wheels on Cyclone. And it has more than one way to win. So as is typical with games from this era, there are pockets all over the playfield and you want to hit the pockets that have the highest scores. What is not typical is that there's a rollover near the center of the playfield. and if you hit that, then each of the wheels will advance. The wheels themselves are also illuminated, which is pretty cool for the time, and those habitrails are really neat. They are elevated above the playfield, so there's still the playing surface that you would expect underneath, which allows you to steer the ball into those scoring wheels that are down at the bottom. So I guess the unfortunate thing about that is that right in the critical area, your view is blocked by part of the habit trail.
    23:48
    But I think that's a small price to pay for something so versatile. This game looks like a lot of fun. And I know I say that on almost every game that I talk about, and there's a reason I pick the games that look like they're fun. but this game is colorful it looks like it's fast and friendly and there's a little bit of something that would appeal to even modern pinball players and I think that's a good thing again, looking into the past in order to develop something for the future is something that I find quite appealing and one thing which I didn't discuss about this is that the balls will remain in those wheels until the wheels rotate several times so if you land in the wheel at one point and then advance the wheel two or three more times then you'll score whatever additional amount that is so if you land in the wheel maybe you score 1500 or 2000 points But if you see the balls on the wheel, then it entices you to put in money to try and advance the balls further and increase your own score, because at the bottom they all dump into 2,000-point pockets.
    25:11
    So, very clever. And I've never seen one of these. I most likely never will. But it is a really fascinating-looking game. and I'm curious if there are any others that are similar to it. All right, well, that's all for tonight. Thank you very much for listening. My name again is Nick Baldrige. 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 me on iTunes, Stitcher Pocket Cast VRSS, on Facebook, on Twitter, at bingopodcast. You can follow me on Instagram, also at bingopodcast, or you can listen to me on my website, which is 4amusementonly, dot libsyn dot com. Thank you very much for listening, and if you like video games, you may enjoy my other podcast, which is Gaming on 10, which I do with Don from formerly of the Pinball Podcast.
    26:07
    Thanks again, and I'll talk to you next time.