Episode 337 - 1976 Bally Bonanza

For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·18m 17s·analyzed·Feb 11, 2016

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.018

TL;DR

Deep dive into 1976 Bally Bonanza bingo: last Magic Squares arcade game with innovative internals and western theme.

Summary

Nicholas Backbone provides a detailed chronological overview of 1976 Bally bingo games, focusing primarily on Bonanza, the last arcade Magic Squares game produced by Bally. He covers Bull Market (a Blue Chip remake) briefly, then extensively analyzes Bonanza's gameplay mechanics, innovative internal design including a unique program unit with diode board protection, western-themed artwork, and cabinet aesthetics. The episode emphasizes the game's technical complexity, compact internal design, and quick five-ball gameplay.

Key Claims

Bull Market is a 100% remake of Bally's Blue Chip from 1974
high confidence · Nicholas Backbone states this as fact regarding the Bull Market game
Bull Market may have been made for export only
low confidence · Nicholas Backbone cites speculation from bingo.cdyn without definitive confirmation
Bonanza is the last arcade Magic Squares game produced by Bally
high confidence · Nicholas Backbone explicitly states this as a defining characteristic of Bonanza
Bonanza has a 40 coin maximum, possibly due to regulation
high confidence · Nicholas Backbone confirms the 40 coin max and speculates it was a regulatory requirement
Bonanza features quadruple deck scoring with four independent color lines (red, green, yellow, blue)
high confidence · Nicholas Backbone provides detailed explanation of the scoring system
Bonanza contains a unique diode board providing semi-solid state functionality
high confidence · Nicholas Backbone examines the manual and schematic, finding diodes protecting coils from backflow from a bell
Bonanza uses a program unit instead of a traditional mixer with its own motor
high confidence · Nicholas Backbone details the program unit's role in handling mixer-ish tasks
Bonanza has no extra balls, only five balls of play
high confidence · Nicholas Backbone attributes this to space constraints with all redesigned units

Notable Quotes

“Bonanza is The Last Arcade of the Magic Squares games.”
Nicholas Backbone — Defines Bonanza's historical importance as the final Magic Squares arcade bingo from Bally
“In Bonanza they moved the squares back to the four 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.”
Nicholas Backbone — Explains design evolution of Magic Squares positioning across Bally bingo games
“This diode board is protecting, as I say, a bunch of coils... protecting from backflow from a bell. But what is kind of interesting is that this diode board is protecting, 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.”
Nicholas Backbone — Shows detective work in reverse-engineering the schematic to understand unusual design choices
“This game is one of a very few western themed bingos.”
Nicholas Backbone — Highlights the rarity of western-themed bingo machines in the Bally catalog
“There were 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.”
Nicholas Backbone — Provides market intel on Bonanza availability and pricing in the collector market

Entities

Nicholas BackbonepersonBallycompany Bonanzagame Bull Marketgame Blue Chipgame Mystic Gategame Miss Universegame Vicperson

Signals

?
historical_signal: Bonanza documented as the last arcade Magic Squares bingo game from Bally, marking end of that feature type in arcade production
high · Nicholas Backbone: 'Bonanza is The Last Arcade of the Magic Squares games.'
?
design_innovation: Bonanza features unusual semi-solid state design with diode board protecting coils from bell backflow; program unit replaces traditional mixer, representing rare technical innovation in bingo design
high · Nicholas Backbone examined manual and schematic, confirming diodes for backflow protection and program unit handling mixer tasks
?
design_philosophy: Bonanza's internal redesign shows extreme space optimization; multiple custom units packed into tight configuration, resulting in elimination of extra balls feature
high · Nicholas Backbone: 'There's really quite a bit in here' and notes extra balls were cut due to space constraints from redesigned units
?
collector_signal: Bonanza sighting in Richmond area at $60 (dropped from $100 asking price), indicating collector interest but limited circulation
medium · Nicholas Backbone notes machine was on market in Richmond area; rare example suggests scarcity
?
gameplay_signal: Bonanza designed for rapid play with five balls only, no extra balls, resulting in quick game sessions
high · Nicholas Backbone: 'Your games on Bonanza are going to be very quick. You're going to have five balls and that's it.'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.055

0:00

What's that sound? It's 4 Amusement Only, the EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast. Welcome back to 4 Amusement Only, this is Nick 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.

1:55

You have the center spotted number that you can select via a dial on the front of the cab. Everything's the same.

2:04

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 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.