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Episode 377 - Come to the York Show and Bingo Row 2016

For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·21m 28s·analyzed·Aug 25, 2016
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.026

TL;DR

Nick Baldridge previews Bingo Row 2016 at York Show with Multi-Bingo public debut and 24 games.

Summary

Nick Baldridge announces the second annual Bingo Row at the 2016 York Show in Pennsylvania, detailing the games he'll exhibit including his Multi-Bingo homebrew machine with 24 completed games. He discusses technical development challenges, specific bingo game features, and encourages attendance with a t-shirt contest for players who achieve four or five in a row. The episode also covers the quality and diversity of games at York and previews other collectors' contributions to Bingo Row.

Key Claims

  • Multi-Bingo will have 24 completed and working games as of Monday, March 22, 2016

    high confidence · Nick Baldridge, directly stating the status on the recording date

  • Gay Time is one of only two bingo games with Magic Pockets feature

    high confidence · Nick Baldridge describing the mechanical feature of Gay Time (1955 Bally game)

  • Williams Long Beach is the only bingo produced by Williams

    high confidence · Nick Baldridge, stated as a specific historical fact

  • Long Beach is the only bingo to feature a feature based on the return hole

    high confidence · Nick Baldridge describing the unique carryover stepper mechanic

  • Multi-Bingo has over 100 games still left to implement

    high confidence · Nick Baldridge discussing remaining development work

  • Nashville to Dixieland had zero percent change in how Bally's portioning was set up

    medium confidence · Nick Baldridge, discussing observations from reading schematics

  • York Show skews approximately 50-50 between solid state and EM games, with slight EM lean

    medium confidence · Nick Baldridge reflecting on show composition evolution

  • Bingo Butch is planning to bring Showboat (United 6-card) and Broadway 51 (rare single-card conversion of Bright Lights)

    high confidence · Nick Baldridge discussing planned exhibits at Bingo Row 2016

Notable Quotes

  • “Each year, starting last year, so this is the second annual, I guess, we try to put together a bingo row. And this is myself and a group of like-minded collectors try to bring a variety of good bingo games to play and enjoy for the public.”

    Nick Baldridge @ ~0:30 — Establishes Bingo Row as a recurring community initiative with collector participation

  • “This year, I worked with Ryan Claytor to illustrate a bingo row t-shirt... anybody who can make a four or five in a row can get a free bingo row t-shirt. That's right, free.”

    Nick Baldridge @ ~1:30 — Details community engagement strategy and contest mechanics for Bingo Row

  • “It is one of only two games with Magic Pockets. and those are the games where the holes for numbers 1 through 7 will kick left and right if you've qualified the feature before you shoot your fourth ball.”

    Nick Baldridge @ ~2:30 — Explains a rare and distinctive mechanical feature in bingo game design

  • “I have almost the entire line of Bally six card games, which were produced, built into the Multi Bingo.”

    Nick Baldridge @ ~5:00 — Confirms scope of Multi-Bingo's game library

  • “Williams long beach long beach is the only bingo produced by williams and it's the only bingo to feature a feature based on the return hole”

    Nick Baldridge @ ~7:00 — Highlights unique historical and mechanical significance of Williams Long Beach

  • “With OpenGL I can do all that with textures which kind of offloads the load from the central processor and onto the graphics card.”

    Nick Baldridge @ ~15:00 — Describes technical optimization strategy for Multi-Bingo software architecture

  • “it brings to light just how much I have left to do I still have I believe over 100 total left to do so I've got my work cut out for me but that said I can see the light at the end of the tunnel”

    Nick Baldridge @ ~18:30 — Reflects on project scale and remaining development burden for Multi-Bingo

Entities

Nick BaldridgepersonMulti-BingoproductBingo RoweventYork ShoweventJeffrey LawtonpersonBingo ButchpersonRyan ClaytorpersonDennis DodellpersonRobert CarrpersonGay Timegame

Signals

  • ?

    product_launch: Multi-Bingo homebrew machine making its public unveiling at York Show 2016 with 24 completed games

    high · Nick Baldridge: 'This year, I'll be bringing the multi-bingo for its public unveiling'

  • ?

    design_innovation: Multi-Bingo transitioning from sprite-layer rendering to OpenGL textures to offload graphics processing and improve switch response times

    high · Discussion of 455 emulation performance issues and planned OpenGL implementation to free processor resources

  • ?

    product_concern: Multi-Bingo has identified issues with ball lift code when red button is pressed repeatedly during ball loading, requiring workaround instruction card

    high · Nick Baldridge: 'if you hit the red button like a hundred times in a while all the balls are loading back into the trough. The issue is that the ball lift code doesn get called'

  • ?

    community_signal: Bingo Row demonstrates coordinated collector effort to exhibit and educate public about rare bingo machines at pinball shows

    high · Nick Baldridge organizing second annual Bingo Row with multiple collectors including Bingo Butch bringing rare machines

  • ?

    historical_signal: Research into Bally bingo production reveals manufacturing decisions at end of bingo era (1980), including unchanged portioning between Nashville and Dixieland

    medium · Nick Baldridge: 'from Nashville to Dixieland, 0% of how their portioning was set up changed at all' and 'towards the end of Valley's production on games, they just kind of gave up'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.064

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 well today we are just a few short weeks away from the york show in york pennsylvania the white rose game room show as you may or may not know if you've been listening to the show for a long time. Each year, starting last year, so this is the second annual, I guess, we try to put together a bingo row. And this is myself and a group of like-minded collectors try to bring a variety of good bingo games to play and enjoy for the public. This year, I'll be bringing the multi-bingo for its public unveiling,
1:00
and there will be many other standard electromechanical bingos there. So for those of you who might like to see a bingo in person, or get a lesson from me, I will be there on Friday and Saturday, and I will also be running a contest, just like last year.
1:27
This year, I worked with Ryan Claytor to illustrate a bingo row t-shirt. I'm going to bring many of those t-shirts with me to the bingo row, and anybody who can make a four or five in a row can get a free bingo row t-shirt. That's right, free.
1:48
So, I hope to see everybody there and everybody playing for one of those shirts. So let's talk about games.
2:00
This year I'm going to be bringing Gay Time, which is a 1955 ballet game. It is one of only two games with Magic Pockets. and those are the games where the holes for numbers 1 through 7 will kick left and right if you've qualified the feature before you shoot your fourth ball. It's a really neat feature and I'm excited to have people play that. That was one of the most popular bingos last year.

  • “I was really proud of what we accomplished together as a bingo community and all the new players that came out too.”

    Nick Baldridge @ ~20:30 — Emphasizes community building and newcomer engagement as key value of Bingo Row

    • Williams Long Beach
    game
    Bountygame
    Broadway 51game
    Showboatgame
    Ticker Tapegame
    Bright Lightsgame
    Stock Marketgame
    Wall Streetgame
    Nashvillegame
    Dixielandgame
    Coney Islandgame
    Spotlightgame
    Mayfair Amusementscompany
    For Amusement Onlyorganization
  • ?

    event_signal: York Show characterized by high-quality and rare game selection, approximately 50-50 EM to solid state split, significant vendor presence for parts and replacement glass

    high · Nick Baldridge describing York Show's game diversity, atmosphere, and vendor ecosystem

  • ?

    content_signal: For Amusement Only podcast actively promoting York Show attendance and Bingo Row participation with multiple contact channels and social media presence

    high · Episode ending with podcast contact information, social media handles, website, and phone line

  • ?

    restoration_signal: York Show vendors provide critical restoration infrastructure including replacement back glasses, electrical components, and specialized fixes like WPC reset modifications

    high · Discussion of Mayfair Amusements, Robert Carr's WPC reset fix vendor presence, and flea market restoration-condition games

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Nick Baldridge offering public education on bingo game mechanics through hands-on play, rules explanation, and internal machine demonstrations at York Show

    high · Nick Baldridge: 'I'll be on hand to teach anybody who would like to learn how to play a bingo' and 'impromptu tours of the inside of the head of a bingo'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Multi-Bingo development emphasizes comprehensive game library (24 of 120+ games), authentic sound recreation from original machines, and iterative playtesting with public feedback

    high · Nick Baldridge discussing 24 completed games, recorded sounds from real bingos, and request for constructive feedback at York Show

  • ?

    collector_signal: Nick Baldridge offering Ticker Tape flipper game for sale at York Show at reasonable price to make space in collection

    high · Nick Baldridge: 'I'll also be bringing ticker tape and ticker tape along with a flipper game will be for sale... I need some space'

    • 2:33
    I'll also be bringing ticker tape and ticker tape along with a flipper game will be for sale. So if you're looking to add a bingo to your collection, a fully working bingo, now's your opportunity. I'm selling it for a very reasonable price. So come see it, come play it, come learn how to beat it, and then come buy it.
    3:00
    I need some space. I'm also bringing Bounty, which is a Magic Screen game. It's the only Magic Screen game with the skill shot feature. After you finish coining up with the red, green, and blue buttons, you can press the white button to increase your odds on the skill shot. And on your first plunge, if you happen to land in the hole qualified by the skill shot, then you'll earn the number of replays indicated based on the number of times you press the white button. aside from those games there will be many many others there from a variety of other collectors including this year Bingo Butch is supposed to be there Bingo Butch for those of you who do not know was a major contributor to Jeffrey Lawton's Bally vs. United pinball book he's a major collector of both Bally and United bingos and he's planning to bring Showboat, which is a United 6 card, and he's also planning to bring Broadway 51, which is an incredibly rare game,
    4:12
    single card, and apparently a conversion of Bright Lights. I'm looking forward to meeting Butch and his son and also playing those games.
    4:23
    So speaking of games, let's talk about the Multibingo. The Multi Bingo is going to have, as of today, which is Monday the 22nd of 2016, it's got 24 games completed and working.
    4:44
    This is very exciting. I have almost the entire line of Bally six card games, which were produced, built into the Multi Bingo. I say almost because there are a few, namely those which will qualify cards 4, 5, and 6 on a mystery basis that I have not yet implemented in the multi-bingo. But big hitters like Bright Lights Stock Market Wall Street Ticker Tape Nashville Dixieland and several surprises are in store for anybody who comes to check out the Multibingo
    5:28
    Each of those games has different features and different artwork, of course. And then I've also implemented several of the Ohio Dime games.
    5:39
    Fun spot, a lot of fun, fun way. and then you've got more traditional bingos like Spotlight or Palm Beach.
    5:54
    And then games like Coney Island, Atlantic City, Miss California, Stars, and Circus, which are three-card bingos. and as a special surprise williams long beach long beach is the only bingo produced by williams and it's the only bingo to feature a feature based on the return hole if you manage to wind the ball all the way down the play field to the ball return the game will step up a special stepper and when it hits its 15th increment it will score double on the next game.
    6:39
    So the next winner that you have you'll score double on. And at the end of that game that stepper will reset. But it's a carryover feature. So if on your first game you tick it up three times and then your second game you tick it up two times, it still remains at position five.
    7:03
    That's an intriguing game. The layout of the cards is just slightly different from the standard valley layout, and it's just enough to drive you a little crazy.
    7:17
    That game also has extra balls, so there are three extra balls, and lighted scoring. There's no replay register on Long Beach. The artwork, however, is gorgeous. It is absolutely amazing. And multicolored, just beautiful.
    7:35
    So I look forward to seeing everybody come try the multi-bingo. Point out to me how terrible it is. Or what you would improve. Constructive feedback is always welcome. And I'll have my notebook with me to write down anybody's ideas. but hopefully for the most part you just play and enjoy and of course I've mentioned several times and this is true, I'll be on hand to teach anybody who would like to learn how to play a bingo I'm always more than happy to give a tutorial and last year I gave a couple of impromptu tours of the inside of the head of a bingo and I'd be happy to do the same as long as they're accessible.
    8:26
    They should be, though. And the York Show, just to speak a couple words about that, if you've never been, is a fantastic pinball show. What's great about it is not the quantity of games, although there are quite a few.
    8:42
    It's the quality and type of games which are shown. So when I first started going, it skewed more towards EM, and now it's probably about 50-50, maybe a little bit tilted in the favor of EM still, but 50-50 solid state versus EM. But what's great is that games come out to York that you would never see anywhere else. Maybe in some of the really huge shows, but I feel like they really get their due at York. You have everything from marble-style games from the 30s to wood rail games. There's usually a wood rail row.
    9:29
    Lots of Gottlieb EMs. Occasionally some Bally and Williams EMs. And it's a very laid-back atmosphere. There's a flea market outside, and there's usually several games available out there in various conditions, but mostly restorable and good looking games by default. And inside you've got several vendors. Mayfair Amusements is there with the selection of back glasses and replacement parts, which is always welcome because usually something will break that you don't happen to have a part 4 with you and then various other vendors of different parts I know Robert Carr from the WPC reset fix fame where it will divert some of the 12 volts to keeping the 5 volt active on the boards for WPC games is there lots of other great vendors there usually a beer sign person and occasionally there a pachinko vendor or something of that nature there as well So there's a little something for everyone.
    10:54
    Occasionally there's a few video games there. One year it seemed like there were half a dozen video games, but it's very, very heavy on the pinball.
    11:05
    So I think anybody who comes out, especially that listens to this show, will have a great time there. I've played some of my favorite all-time EMs there.
    11:16
    Every year there's something new to discover. There's always plenty of great games and things that you've never heard of either.
    11:26
    Just lots of great stuff. Although if you've been in the hobby a lot longer than I have, well, you've probably heard of them, but it's great to be able to play them in public like this. and see if you can get that elusive replay or added ball.
    11:44
    Great games and a great time. So come on out and give me a shout, play some bingo, and win a shirt. So aside from that, what else have I been working on? Well, pretty much reading schematics. That's really been the biggest thing I've been doing here in recent days, and it's been going very well.
    12:12
    I'm learning quite a bit about how Bally did portioning, especially in these later six cards towards the end. One of the most interesting things is that from Nashville to Dixieland, 0% of how their portioning was set up changed at all. That's kind of unusual. Every game before this pretty much had completely different portioning, and I find it really interesting that towards the end of Valley's production on games, they just kind of gave up. But it probably speaks to the pinch that they were feeling at the time. the climate had changed dramatically since 1951 when they started bingo production and almost all of the United States was blocked from sales so you know they had to make a decision and they did in 1980. For those of you who've been following along on the build blog on Pinside or on Facebook, I have been making a lot of noise about 455 emulation.
    13:26
    These are flashers that go behind, typically, the title of the game, and will give it a nice finished appearance, and it's a nice attract mode for any EM game.
    13:39
    Well, part of the reason for wanting to implement that before York was to prove, first of all, that a continuous back glass animation would work with no issues with the framework and hardware that I have currently in the MultiBingo.
    13:58
    And the other reason was to make it look really nice. So I went ahead and implemented 455 emulation in all the games that were existing at that time, all 16 of them, and turned it on. It worked great on my development computer, which is a little more powerful. and then I put it on the multi bingo and it started missing switch reads while it was drawing the changes to the back glass. So I decided to cut that off for now and one of the things I'm thinking of doing as far as development goes is implementing OpenGL. So right now I have everything drawing in sprite layers. So basically I just layer another image on top of the back glass image and that's how it renders. With OpenGL I can do all that with textures which kind of offloads the load from the central processor and onto the graphics card. What's nice about that is that it will free up the processor and theoretically allow things like that 455 emulation both to execute faster but also to allow those switch hits that I need especially the very quick switch hits like trough switch number eight or the ball gate at the top of the shooter lane.
    15:32
    I've been testing the multi bingo a whole lot as you might imagine since I'm getting ready to bring it out to the public and who knows what's going to happen. I've discovered a couple of minor issues.
    15:46
    The other day I played it really rough by my standards and managed to tilt it every time. It was no big deal But I did notice an issue if you hit the red button like a hundred times in a while all the balls are loading back into the trough The issue is that the ball lift code doesn get called You can fix this by pushing the ball lift button, but occasionally it gets upset about that and will not lift the final ball. The fix at the moment is to wait to press the red button for your second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, tenth, a millionth time until after your first ball has been lifted to the shooter lane. I'll print up a nice instruction card that can go in between the dynamic score and instruction cards which will note this, but it's important to remember that needs to happen or else all kinds of crazy stuff will go wrong.
    17:01
    If you happen to have a game where you're doing that, it's probably best to quit it and then go back into it. Since everything's on free play, it's not like you're losing a whole lot.
    17:13
    I've been through and tested Replay Reset on every game. It's beautiful and wonderful. And special thanks to Dennis Dodell. I've got a beautiful new replay register in the game, and that is really the finishing touch on the sounds. Oh, speaking of sounds, I haven't done an update in a while, but I've recorded a bunch of sounds from Real Bingos, stitched them together, and put them into the games. These are mostly six-card sounds at the moment. I'll go back and refine those as I get into games with moving number features, but it gives you a good feel for the motors turning and the search sounds that go on throughout the game.
    17:58
    It's really nice. I'm really, really loving playing the game, all the games, and I really can't wait until I get some of the more complex games in the system.
    18:12
    Dixieland is pretty complex. it's got all kinds of score multipliers which are a little difficult to implement but I figured out a clever for me way to do that and it's working great I'm testing another game which does things slightly differently and we'll see if that actually functions the way that I intend but so far so good I'm really really liking it with 24 games implemented it brings to light just how much I have left to do I still have I believe over 100 total left to do so I've got my work cut out for me but that said I can see the light at the end of the tunnel I think my path to implementation is pretty clear and easy except for the graphical challenge of any of these animated elements like, for example, magic lines, mystic lines, magic screens, or magic squares. Each of those needs careful consideration if I don't rewrite all the graphics at once in order to make that easier. But so far so good, and the game is great, come out and play it. I really look forward to seeing many of you there, as I do every year, and giving you a free t-shirt illustrated by Ryan Claytor.
    19:51
    In fact, Ryan himself will be at the show as well, so you'll get to meet me and Ryan and a variety of other bingo collectors from all over the United States. It's going to be a very exciting time. I had a fantastic time last year, and I was really proud of what we accomplished together as a bingo community and all the new players that came out too.
    20:18
    So unfortunately, I've got to make this a short one because I've got to keep working on this game, make sure it's in as good a condition as it can be before the show here in just about a month. So I'm going to sign off for now. No detailed game description, but I did talk about some of the unique features of Williams Long Beach. And I'll link to the images for Long Beach in the show notes so you can see for yourself how cool this game is.
    20:52
    All right, everybody. Thank you very much for listening. My name again is Nick Baldridge. 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 us on iTunes, Stitcher, Pocket Casts, via RSS, on Facebook, on Twitter, at Bingo Podcast. You can follow me on Instagram, also at Bingo Podcast. Or you can listen to us on our website, which is formusementonly.libsyn.com. Thank you very much for listening, and I'll talk to you next time.