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Episode 346 - My EM Happenings for 2-17-16 pt. 1

For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·16m 6s·analyzed·Feb 20, 2016
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.020

TL;DR

Nicholas Backbone reviews EM/bingo pinball features and gameplay from Ohio trip.

Summary

Nicholas Backbone recounts his recent trip to Ohio where he played and analyzed numerous electromechanical (EM) and bingo pinball machines, discussing unique mechanical features like hold mechanics, magic screens, moving numbers, and special gameplay elements across games including Palm Springs, County Fair, Cypress Gardens, Ballerina, Key West, Yacht Club, and others. He clarifies previous misconceptions about certain features, explains how various games' mechanics function, and shares observations about gameplay difficulty and design innovation.

Key Claims

  • Palm Springs was the first game that had the hold feature allowing players to return either even or odd balls at the end of the game.

    medium confidence · Nicholas Backbone discussing Palm Springs mechanics

  • County Fair is a magic screen game without pick-a-play, meaning each coin provides a random jump in features, odds, or both.

    high confidence · Nicholas Backbone describing County Fair gameplay

  • Cypress Gardens features Stop and Shop feature that doesn't jump frequently once you're in the middle of the game.

    high confidence · Nicholas Backbone citing Jeffrey Lawton and Robert Madel as sources

  • Ballerina is the only machine with the 1 to 7, 7 to 1 feature that allows flipping the first row of numbers numerically rather than physically.

    high confidence · Nicholas Backbone describing Ballerina's unique feature

  • Touchdown is a magic numbers game with groups of six numbers that rotate (24 total) and has triple deck scoring.

    high confidence · Nicholas Backbone explaining Touchdown mechanics

  • Key West is the only game with select a score feature using two buttons on the foot rail to swap yellow and red odds.

    high confidence · Nicholas Backbone describing Key West's unique feature

  • Surf Club is the second game with hold feature and allows holding twice instead of once.

    high confidence · Nicholas Backbone discussing Surf Club mechanics

  • Yacht Club is the only game that shows all five potential positions of a bingo card at once using illuminated strips and a dial selector.

    high confidence · Nicholas Backbone citing Jeffrey in interview as source for illuminated strips detail

  • Miss America 57 was the first Miss America game Nicholas Backbone had played.

    high confidence · Nicholas Backbone recounting his Ohio trip experience

Notable Quotes

  • “The beautiful thing about this feature is that it allows you to essentially shoot an entire second game. gives you the chance to redo a whole bunch of bad playing, and it's great.”

    Nicholas Backbone @ early in episode — Explains the appeal and impact of the hold feature in Palm Springs

  • “Ballerina I had not played previously, and this is the only machine with the 1 to 7, 7 to 1 feature. And this allows you to play the first row of numbers either straight or actually flip them”

    Nicholas Backbone @ mid-episode — Introduces unique mechanical innovation in Ballerina

  • “The biggest problem that I saw with Touchdown is that it has triple deck scoring, but almost every combination that you can make normally is in the green.”

    Nicholas Backbone @ mid-episode — Identifies design imbalance issue in Touchdown

  • “Yacht Club is the only game that shows all five potential positions of a bingo card all at once and allows you to select between them using a dial on the front of the cab.”

    Nicholas Backbone @ later in episode — Describes proto-magic screen technology in Yacht Club

  • “the lights if they were out or malfunctioning would make it so you had absolutely no idea what card you were on what you were actually playing for”

    Nicholas Backbone (citing Jeffrey) @ later in episode — Highlights critical design dependency on illuminated strips in Yacht Club

Entities

Nicholas BackbonepersonJeffrey LawtonpersonRobert MadelpersonFor Amusement OnlyorganizationPalm SpringsgameCounty FairgameCypress GardensgameGolden GategameBallerinagame

Signals

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Nicholas notes that Ballerina's 1-7-7-1 feature is powerful but requires significant mental overhead during play, suggesting design complexity trade-offs

    high · It's just difficult for me to use in practice but that's just me. So that feature felt a little too complicated to my meager brain

  • ?

    design_innovation: Multiple games feature innovative mechanical systems: hold features (Palm Springs, Surf Club), magic screens with selector dials (Yacht Club), and rotating number groups (Touchdown, Cypress Gardens)

    high · Palm Springs was the first with hold feature; Yacht Club shows all five card positions with illuminated strips; Touchdown has rotating groups of six numbers

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Touchdown and other triple deck scoring games face design challenges with color balance; green odds step slowly making certain color combinations unwinnable without high skill

    high · green odds don't step very easily... you might have your yellow or red odds way up but your ability to make a yellow or red winner is actually very limited

  • ?

    product_concern: Yacht Club's illuminated strips are critical to playability; if lights malfunction, players cannot determine which card they're playing

    high · the lights if they were out or malfunctioning would make it so you had absolutely no idea what card you were on

  • ?

    restoration_signal: Nicholas and Robert worked on restoring Miss America 57 during the Ohio trip, suggesting active restoration community engagement

    high · Robert and I spent some time and got a Miss America 57 up and running

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.048

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 a lot of stuff's been happening in uh my em world here so i wanted to catch you all up on my recent trip to ohio and i got a chance to play some games that I hadn't played before, and I just wanted to talk briefly about some of them, some of the features, which I was either wrong about, or I just wanted to clarify a bit about how powerful and useful these features were. So the first one that springs to mind is Palm Springs. Palm Springs was the first game that had the hold feature that allows you to return either the even or the odd balls at the end of the game.
1:02
So after you shoot five balls, you have to make a choice. Do you want to keep all the balls as they are and get your winner if you've got one, or do you want to return all the even-numbered balls or all the odd-numbered balls?
1:18
What's kind of cool about this feature is if you press the button down a normal amount, like you would expect to press in order for the machine to do something, it will indicate to you on the back glass that the odd numbers or the even numbers will go away. And then you have to apply much more force in order to make the machine actually return the balls.
1:44
The beautiful thing about this feature is that it allows you to essentially shoot an entire second game. gives you the chance to redo a whole bunch of bad playing, and it's pretty great.
2:02
Touchdowngame
Key Westgame
Varietygame
Showtimegame
Surf Clubgame
Gottlieb Contestgame
Captain Fantasticgame
Yacht Clubgame
Miss America 57game
Circus Queengame
Ohioevent
  • ?

    community_signal: Jeffrey Lawton and Robert Madel share specialized knowledge about game mechanics with Nicholas; collaborative learning during Ohio trip

    high · As I was told by Jeffrey Lawton and by Robert Madel... Jeffrey mentioned in our interview while I was up in Ohio

    • So, with the super cards that this game has, and the spotted numbers, I mean, this is a sensational game. It's really quite good. So, moving on, I played another Sun Valley, and And this is a different Sun Valley than the one I had played previously. And this one kicked my butt pretty badly. I mean, I could not put together a winner. I think I won eight credits on it and spent a whole heck of a lot.
    2:37
    It doesn't diminish my enthusiasm, though. So moving on, I played a County Fair. County Fair is a beautiful game. I love the art package on it. It's a magic screen game without pick-a-play, and so there's only a red button, which means that for each coin that you put in, you're going to get a random jump in either features, odds, or both. And I had not previously played a magic screen game without pick-a-play, so this was an interesting experience. And the example that I played had just a gorgeous backlash. I mean, it was perfect. And the game itself is very fun, as you might imagine.
    3:23
    So moving on, we've got Cypress Gardens. I was very excited to try Cypress Gardens because that's one of the games with Stop and Shop. now in that game you have magic squares but they're all arranged, clustered right beside each other so you have, instead of the quadrants at the corners of the bingo card, you have A, B, C and D and it's the four quadrant switcher directly beside each other, the right hand column doesn move at all and then the bottom row up until the last number actually rotates around on a chain And so this is similar to Sun Valley except for the magic line F
    4:10
    So the beautiful thing about Cypress Gardens is not only all the moving numbers features, but the ability to stop and shop. And that feature, I got to make a jump one time. I didn't spend an awful lot of coins on it, because as I was told by Jeffrey Lawton and by Robert Madel, the feature doesn't jump all that frequently. So once you're in the middle of the game, of course the game knows, and it restricts that down. So you're much less likely to actually get an odds jump in the middle of the game, which makes sense. On top of that, with triple deck scoring, the biggest problem with Stop and Shop is that you're going to get a random jump in the odds only, but you don't know which kind of jump you're going to get, even if you are awarded a jump. So that's kind of tricky.
    5:08
    Moving on, Golden Gate. I've played a lot of Golden Gate. This one was no exception, very fun. Got a golden game, had a very dramatic game playing through. managed to completely miss winning my golden game which I was very excited about and then Robert played and managed to get his golden game no trouble at all and that's how it goes so moving on there was a circus queen and circus queen had a beautiful Backglass as well. That's another beautiful art package. Magic screen game. And then Ballerina. So Ballerina I had not played previously, and this is the only machine with the 1 to 7, 7 to 1 feature. And this allows you to play the first row of numbers either straight or actually flip them, but it doesn't do them physically like on, say, Gay Time or Gayety with the Magic Pockets. this allows you to do it in uh so say you make the number two and you have that feature lit you press seven to one and suddenly your two becomes six now this can be powerful especially if you've got the super sections lit and the magic screen going but the bad news is that it required me to think quite a bit more about every shot than any shot I had previously made. So that feature felt a little too complicated to my meager brain, but it is a very fun game, and I do like that feature. It's just difficult for me to use in practice, but that's just me. so touchdown was also there and that was the first time i played a magic numbers game touchdown has groups of six numbers that rotate around four groups of six so that's 24 numbers for those of you counting and that leaves the center number immobile well the biggest problem that I saw with Touchdown is that it has triple deck scoring, but almost every combination that you can make normally is in the green. Well, for those of you who've played a red letter game, you know that the green odds don't step very easily. Touchdown also seemed to have the same issue even though it wasn a red letter game So you know you might have your yellow or red odds way up but your ability to make a yellow or red winner is actually very limited and you have to be really good at making numbers, which, of course, I am not.
    8:17
    So, moving on, there was Key West. Key West is a really cool Magic Squares game. you've got your typical corners placement of the magic squares so each of the four corners will rotate but this is the only game with select a score and there are two buttons on the foot rail you can either play normally or you can swap your yellow and red odds and so with the scores swapped there's an indication on the back glass but it doesn't actually change of course the position of the steppers for the yellow and red odds. So that actually worked to my advantage one time, believe it or not. I won an extra four replays, I think, using that select a score. But that's four replays I wouldn't have had otherwise, so it wasn't all bad.
    9:14
    I believe Robert made corners on that game, which was cool to see. I think that's how we ended the first night there.
    9:24
    Um, one other game, uh, was Variety. And Variety is the first moving numbers game. Uh, that one has magic lines. The first three columns will move up or down one position.
    9:37
    And Jeffrey managed to make a five and a line on that game. And that was really cool to see. He also made a really neat pattern on the super card. So the next night, we played some more bingos. this time we played Showtime and Showtime was set up very steeply it was actually really hard to make a number but that game is another Magic Squares game with triple deck scoring no select to score so you have to make your numbers played a different Key West and played a Surf Club. Now, Surf Club is the second game with that hold feature, like on Palm Springs.
    10:30
    Now, on Surf Club, the deal is that you can actually hold twice. So you can hold once, and then shoot your balls again, realize that you're terrible, and then dump them again. so it's pretty rare for that machine to light the double hold feature. You're more likely to get the single hold, which works exactly as it does in Palm Springs.
    10:58
    Now the other feature of that game is the spotted numbers, just like on Palm Springs, but the difference is that you can select any group of three to be your super line,
    11:08
    and these will score differently. and one of the players there that night was able to make a super line hit that was really cool to see of course it wasn't me as uh you might be hearing a pattern but um aside from that let's see what else did we play played a Gottlieb contest and that is a really fun flipper machine you've got a roto target which your goal is to try to maximize your multiplier off the roto target and then collect but there are safe ways to collect and dangerous ways to collect and there are a couple gobble holes on the play field it was a beautiful example and it was very very fun Let see
    12:09
    Oh, this is kind of funny. I played a Captain Fantastic. That was actually the first time I played that game, believe it or not. And it's a fun game.
    12:20
    I was pretty impressed. it's all about like most of those later 70s ems uh racking up your bonus to the highest amount and uh doing that in the safest way possible ah yacht club i played a yacht club and this is the first time that i've played that game uh on my episode about yacht club i mentioned that there is essentially a screen in front that allows you to select the bingo card. Yacht Club is the only game that shows all five potential positions of a bingo card all at once and allows you to select between them using a dial on the front of the cab. Well, I mentioned that it's some kind of plastic sheet and that it's always present, but the truth is that it's actually two illuminated strips and so as Jeffrey mentioned in our interview while I was up in Ohio the lights if they were out or malfunctioning would make it so you had absolutely no idea what card you were on what you were actually playing for you would have to go based off of the numbers as they illuminated which would be pretty difficult so that game though is very fun the biggest problem that I had with Yacht Club was in kind of conceptualizing the diagonals so if you look at Yacht Club and the back glass you'll notice that the diagonal numbers are not connected by a line and I didn't realize how very important that was to me until I didn't have it Um, so, I think that is pretty interesting.
    14:16
    But that select a card is really cool, and I still think, you know, it's kind of like a proto-magic screen, uh, allowing you to change your card at will. Very neat. So while I was up there, Robert and I spent some time and got a Miss America 57 up and running, and that was the first Miss America game that I had played. Uh, I was very impressed with the gameplay on that one. I didn't get a whole lot of time in on it, but I will say that I still think the repositionable numbers that allow you to put more than one number on a single card is fantastic.
    14:56
    Also, having two cards is always better, especially because you can reposition potentially every number on both cards. this allows for some crazy good gameplay and the ability to win quite a bit.
    15:15
    So, all that said, that's going to do it for tonight. Tomorrow I'll have a couple more anecdotes from my trip and then we'll be on to a couple flipper topics.
    15:31
    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, VRSS, on Facebook, on Twitter at bingopodcast. You can follow me on Instagram, also at bingopodcast, or you can listen to us on our website, which is 4amusementonly.libsyn.com. thank you very much for listening and I'll talk to you next time