What's that sound? It's 4 Amusement Only, the EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast. Welcome back to 4 Amusement Only, this is Nicholas Baldridge. Next in our chronological overview of all of the bingos that Bally has produced from 1951 all the way up to 1980, The next game would be 1974's Mystic Gate. However I've been over that one as well. So moving on. The next in line would be 1975'sMiss Universe. Now I've been over that one in a previous episode. That was the 18 hole bingo that relied on multiple spotted numbers in order to make some pretty crazy combinations. So next in the list would be 1976's Bull Market. Now unfortunately not a lot of information The only other information exists about Bowl Market except that it is a complete 100% remake of Bally's Blue Chip from 1974. According to bingo.cdyn.com there is speculation that it might have been made for export only. But other than that all the standard BlueChip game Play applies. The back glass is exactly the same just with the words bull market at the top instead of blue chip. You have the center spotted number that you can select via a dial on the front of the cab. Everything's the same. So we'll move on to 1976's Bonanza. Now, Bonanza is the last of the Magic Squares games. This game is a 40 coin max. That means that you can put in up to 40 coins per game and that's it. Now I'm not certain why they chose 40 coins as the max. I have to assume that this was some kind of regulation that they were getting around because there were other 40 coin max games. So what do you get for your money? Well, in Bonanza's case, what you get, your first coin will reset the machine and give you your default odds, which are three in a row gives you four replays, four in a row gives you twelve, and all five in a row gives you eighty replays. Pinballcoins, as they're fed, may advance your odds and give you up to 192 for three in a row, 384 for four in a row, and 640 for five in a row. Now there are four different colors of lines on the back glass, and the lines which connect the numbers correspond to one of the colors of odds. So there are red, green, yellow, and blue. In Bonanza, these all advance independently. You don't have two colors that are tied together, so this is true quadruple deck scoring. The main feature on Bonanza is Magic Squares. As I mentioned, this was the last Magic Squares game that was produced. And in Bonanza they moved the squares back to the corners of the bingo card. For a long while the squares were all adjacent to each other, clustered right in the center and top left of the bingo card. But in this case you have one square of four numbers in each of the four corners and then you have a magic line The magic line moves one position up or down and it's right in the center of the bingo card. Normally you're locked out of these moving numbers features before shooting your fourth ball. However this game has an extended time tree that you can earn through putting in more coins Which may switch to before shooting your fifth ball or after shooting your fifth ball. There are no rollovers on the playfield for Bonanza and therefore there's no way in gameplay to increase your time tree. Instead it has to be earned through coin play. The other feature that Bonanza gives you is all four corners score 100 or all four corners Score 200. And this is pretty low compared to many other games which just give you whatever the five in the line is for any one color or your max odds. But, considering that the max odds for this game are six hundred and forty, two hundred isn't bad. Now, it's worth noting That four bonanza bally changed a lot of the internals many of the units are unique to this game and most especially the magic squares slash line unit is pretty close to unique to this game the squares use a new design for the wipers which tell it which position it's in and this is more reminiscent of the semi-sealed discs used for the magic screen positions these discs are a lot bigger than the previous discs which is kind of interesting because they pack one additional mech in To the same space, but it is what it is. The other interesting thing is that rather than your traditional mixer, which has its own mixer motor, they have a thing called the program unit. The program unit handles a couple different things, mainly mixer-ish tasks, But one thing which I don't understand and I've only perused the manual, I haven't really delved deep into it. There's a diode board. And so this would be one of the only semi-solid state 25 hole games. The diode board puts a diode on many of the coils and I cannot fathom for the life of me just looking at the manual why. I would have to look at the schematic and it doesn't make a lot of sense. There appears to be no other computer board which is doing anything and there are only diodes on this diode board. So all they're doing is preventing backflow of current but again I'm not sure why. Okay, dear listener, because I cannot resist a challenge. I took a look at the schematic for Bonanza and I see that they're using these diodes really as protection for some of the coils from backflow from a bell. Now if you listened to one of my interviews with Vic Camp, he talked about Bonanza, what a great game it was. Jay back inenchanependant Khan Gre wages $3,208.해요! 10 the well in Something much like many of the older games there would be a knocker that went off Well in Bonanza there a bell that goes off which is pretty neat But what is kind of interesting is that this diode board is protecting, as I say, As I say, a bunch of coils, I'm not certain that it's strictly necessary for it to do so, but I'm sure that they wouldn't have included this diode board if it wasn't. That's just one of those things that's interesting to see because it's unusual. I mean it's not something that you see in really any other bingo that I've looked at to this point here. So instead of your traditional spotting disc, which is at the end of the mixer, they have something called the program disc, which I mentioned there's a program unit, that's That's what the program disc is mounted on. Well this program disc when it lands in various positions will trigger through the diode board certain things to happen. For example, it will step your scores independently. It'll step them one step, two steps, or three steps. And it can do Each color individually or all colors together. And all that is dependent upon what rivets it falls on on the program disk and something called the scrambler unit disk. Now there are diodes mounted all everywhere in between these various positions. It's really intriguing to me that they did this because I cannot fathom what the reason would be unless they were just completely out of space, which very well may be. If you take a look at some of the pictures of the inside of this game, you can see just how full this machine is of units. And there's really quite a bit in here. So getting back to the game, let's talk about the artwork. This game is one of a very few western themed bingos. On the back glass you have a cowboy holding a lasso and riding a horse towards some charging bulls. Longhorn Steer. And I suppose the idea is he's going to toss a lasso around one. I have no idea what his game plan is. The the action heavy back glass on one side of the bingo card you've got the horse whose knows is kind of poking into the back glass uh... bingo card area and then on the other side you've got one of the steer and it's poking its nose into the bingo card area on the right in between you have the horns from one of the steer with valleys name printed right in the center beneath that you have bonanza all four corners ABC and D are encircled with a lasso to show you exactly what you have to move your letters ABCD and E have a horseshoe around them Just to fit in with the theme. Then above that you have a Conestoga wagon and what looks like an oxen or a steer that is driving it. Underneath A, B, C, D, and E you have your odds. But above your odds and below your magic squares selection You have these teaser lights They little arrows that are orange in a yellow circle And as the machine spins part of the animation that it does and each bingo has a really cool animation They all different and the lights will flash in a very specific pattern when you put in a coin It gives you a little light show Each of these lights will light in sequence. And then at the end, it'll either jump or not. And so these aren't true teasers in that it doesn't just stay at one position. At least that's how it looks from the paperwork. And I have not seen one of these in action. I've I've heard from multiple people that it's a very fun game, and so I'm kind of on the lookout for it. There was one here in the Richmond area that was selling for, I think, sixty bucks, somewhere in that range. I believe initially he wanted a hundred bucks for it and he dropped his price before taking it off the market. Now, there is definitely a lot more than $60 worth of entertainment here. One thing to note is that there are no extra balls in this game. I suppose there was just no room for them. And especially with all these redesigned units, something had to go. That means that your games on Bonanza are going to be very quick. You're going to have five balls and that's it. So moving on to the cabinet, Bonanza has a very impressive stencil. You've got a horseshoe on the side of the head with a star in the center and above it Above and below there are two lines with a water barrel, kind of a coffee pot, and in between a brand which says EZ. The lower cabinet is very attractive and it is the skyline with buttes and mountains in In the background, in clouds with a red sky. On each of these mountains and buttes and outcroppings and what have you, there may or may not be a cactus. And each of the cacti is completely different. The cabinet only has one button. It's red. And that's because there are no extra balls. There's no yellow button. And then the playfield kind of reprises the theme from the back glass with the cowboy on one side and the steer on the other, but it extends it upwards so you can see a little more of what's happening in the environment. You've got cacti which are hanging out on either side. And then up at the top you have steers horns and those two covered wagons up at the top. Above each hole you have a horseshoe and each one has one of several different symbols in the center. Now I can't determine any specific pattern from those symbols but it is neat nonetheless. Well, that's all for tonight. Thank you very much for joining me. My name again is Nicholas Baldridge. You can reach me at 4amusementonlypodcast at gmail.com or you can call me on the bingos line at 724-BINGOS1, 724-246-4671. You can listen to us on iTunes, Stitcher, Pocket Casts via RSS, 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.