Journalist Tool

Kineticist

  • HDashboard
  • IItems
  • ↓Ingest
  • SSources
  • KBeats
  • BBriefs
  • RIntel
  • QSearch
  • NName Review
  • +Health

v0.1.0

← Back to items

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

For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·26m 10s·held·Mar 12, 2020
View original

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.028

TL;DR

Nick Baldridge discusses P3 platform development and upcoming Multimorphic games.

Summary

Nick Baldridge returns to the For Amusement Only podcast to discuss his development of a Quest for Glory-themed game for the Multimorphic P3 platform, detailing the P3's modular architecture, serviceability features, and Unity-based SDK for third-party developers. He announces that Multimorphic is releasing two new games: an update to Cosmic Cart Racing that adds traditional three-ball pinball mode, and a teased new game. The episode concludes with a feature on Barrel Roll, a 1935 Allied Amusement pre-war pinball game with innovative ramps and rotating wheel mechanisms.

Key Claims

  • Multimorphic has announced two new P3 games: an update to Cosmic Cart Racing with traditional three-ball pinball mode, and a new teased game coming soon

    high confidence · Nick Baldridge directly states 'Multimorphic has two new games that they've teased' and details the Cosmic Cart Racing update and mentions another game being 'teased'

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

    high confidence · Baldridge explicitly states 'I decided for my first project for the P3, I wanted to recreate the first Quest for Glory game' and provides extensive detail about the game structure and development progress

  • The P3 platform is built on the Unity game engine and uses C# as its programming language

    high confidence · Baldridge states 'From a programming standpoint, what they've done is they've built on top of the Unity game engine' and 'The programming language used is C Sharp'

  • The P3 features a built-in screen embedded below two-thirds of the playfield with full ball tracking capabilities

    high confidence · Baldridge explains 'the ball actually can glide over a screen which is embedded below the bottom two thirds of the playfield' with detailed description of tracking functionality

  • Nick Baldridge aims to have a relatively playable version of his Quest for Glory game ready by the York Show in October

    high confidence · Baldridge states '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'

Notable Quotes

  • “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”

    Nick Baldridge @ early in episode — Explains the shift in podcast focus due to his P3 development commitments

  • “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.”

    Nick Baldridge @ midway through episode — Defines the core philosophy and purpose of the P3 platform

  • “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. Really, really special. And I've not seen really anything of its like as far as serviceability goes.”

    Nick Baldridge @ mid-episode — Emphasizes the P3's innovative serviceability design compared to traditional pinball machines

  • “The SDK 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.”

    Nick Baldridge @ mid-episode — Provides technical assessment of the P3 SDK quality for third-party developers

  • “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”

    Nick Baldridge @ mid-episode — Explains his design philosophy for the Quest for Glory P3 game

  • “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 Cart 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”

Entities

Nick BaldridgepersonMultimorphiccompanyGerry StellenbergpersonP3productQuest for GlorygameCosmic Cart RacinggameBarrel Rollgame

Signals

  • ?

    product_launch: Multimorphic has teased two new P3 games: an update to Cosmic Kart Racing with traditional three-ball pinball mode, and a new unspecified game coming soon

    high · Nick Baldridge states 'Multimorphic has two new games that they've teased' with details on the Cosmic Kart Racing update and mentions 'they've teased a new game'

  • ?

    design_innovation: P3 platform features innovative serviceability design including modular playfield swapping, embedded screen with ball tracking, configurable button boxes, and engineered playfield lifting/balancing system

    high · Baldridge provides extensive technical details: 'apron area flips down and everything is slotted on rails', 'Multiple positions in which the playfield can be lifted, and it will balance by itself', 'monitor I mentioned earlier can be slid out and replaced'

  • ?

    technology_signal: Multimorphic P3 SDK is built on Unity game engine using C#, offers clear and concise documentation, enforces separation of form from function, and enables third-party game development

    high · Baldridge explains 'they've built on top of the Unity game engine' and 'The SDK is very clear and concise in almost every area and it builds on top of Unity in a very clever way'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Cosmic Kart Racing is being updated to include traditional three-ball pinball mode to address fairness and entertainment issues in multiplayer racing mode, particularly for newer players

    high · Baldridge states the update 'allows it to play like a traditional three ball pinball game' and explains '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'

  • ?

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 @ near end of episode — Discusses the rationale behind the Cosmic Kart Racing update and its benefits for casual multiplayer play

Allied Amusement Company
company
Unityproduct
RoboFrenzygame
Multi-Bingogame
Multi-Racesgame
[name withheld pending review]event
PyProcGameproduct
SkeletonGameproduct
Pinsideorganization
Cyclonegame
Donperson

personnel_signal: Nick Baldridge has shifted his professional focus almost entirely to P3 game development, reducing his EM pinball work and service calls

high · Baldridge explicitly states 'I am only working on my game for the P3 platform' and 'mainly I am hyper-focused on programming this new game'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Nick Baldridge is developing a P3 game based on Quest for Glory (1992 PC adventure/RPG) that implements point-and-click mechanics with walk/look/touch/take/talk/use commands across ~70 screens, designed to be complex and intellectually engaging rather than arcade-focused

    high · Baldridge explains 'I decided for my first project for the P3, I wanted to recreate the first Quest for Glory game' and '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'

  • ?

    product_launch: Quest for Glory P3 game development is in active progress with goal of reasonably playable version by York Show in October; features day-night cycle, ball interaction mechanics, walls/scoops mechanisms, and player profile save system

    high · Baldridge states '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' and 'I've got each of the screens set up in the game'

  • ?

    historical_signal: Barrel Roll (1935, Allied Amusement) represents pre-war pinball innovation with ramps, elevated habit trails, rotating wheel mechanisms, and multi-solution scoring paths that remain relevant to modern game design

    high · Baldridge describes 'It has multiple reels or moving wheels like the Ferris wheels on Cyclone. And it has more than one way to win' and 'Those habitrails are really neat. They are elevated above the playfield'

  • ?

    content_signal: For Amusement Only podcast is shifting focus from broad EM pinball coverage toward P3 development and programming details, though EM service calls and historical features will continue

    high · Baldridge states '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' but notes 'while it retains a focus on EMs'

  • ?

    community_signal: Multimorphic is actively encouraging third-party P3 game development through SDK availability and partnership opportunities, with developers like Nick Baldridge creating games for the platform

    high · Baldridge states 'they have an SDK that's available for anybody to use' and 'I would highly suggest contacting Multimorphic and getting a development kit' and maintains public development thread on Pinside

    • 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.