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. Well, I continue to work on the multi-bingo, which I know is a huge surprise. Looking back, there have been 10 episodes or 20 weeks worth of progress since I first made the announcement. Now, I did start working on the multi-bingo a little bit before the announcement at episode 365, but not very much. So, if we take that at face value, about 20 weeks ago, this was just a concept. And now it's a reality, which is pretty darn cool. So I've been going through and bug fixing, troubleshooting, bug fixing some more, wiring in a few more switches, doing lots of graphical work, and really trying to optimize certain paths in the code to make it as fast as the EM counterparts. And so far that's been going very well. I've really gotten a handle on where the pain points are in the code as far as what problems I'm introducing that are making it slow. So that's been going well. From my initial schematic version, I've had to wire in four additional switches, and those include the yellow and red rollover switches, which sadly I left off the schematic, as well as trough switch number eight and the shutter motor runout switch. Now, the run-out switch allows me to detect when the shutter is either fully open or fully closed with the help of the shutter switch, which I already had wired in. But trough number eight is especially important. That switch allows me to detect when a ball is returned with great accuracy. So I mentioned, I believe, last episode that I was thinking about wiring in an additional switch under the playfield. because that's how the earliest games handled ball return. Well, in this case, the eighth trough switch is basically right under the ball return, and that tells me very quickly if a ball has come back. So the way that I'm handling that in the code and the way I've rewritten Bright Lights and Broadway 51 at the moment, and I'm porting these changes to everything, is that if trough switch number 8 is hit in the course of normal gameplay, it decrements the ball counter, which is basically just a model of a stepper unit. And if the ball count is below whatever the max limit is for the game, it will continue to lift balls. The ball counter is incremented when the ball goes through the ball gate, which is different before I had it incrementing as soon as it hit the shooter lane but I realized that that's not going to work really well. I have some things which are keyed to specific ball numbers so I have to be very careful about ball count and more importantly I'm looking ahead and thinking specifically about games like, for example, Williams' Long Beach. That's a bingo that Williams made, and one of its notable features is a carryover feature. Every time the ball is returned, it advances a stepper, which will grant you an extra feature. That's one of the only games that I'm aware of that operates in that fashion, but it's important that I have the hardware necessary to model it in software, and now I do. I believe I mentioned last episode that trough switch number four was also acting up. That one is sistered in the default trough orientation to trough switch number three, so basically I had to wire that in directly. So all in all, here's some things that I've learned. first of all, it's wildly ambitious to think or hubristic I guess to think that I would be able to utilize multiple playfields in a swappable system without having to do any modification or very much modification as it turns out I have to do an awful awful lot of modification for each playfield and I just wouldn't have anticipated that. Many of the things that Bally did made it easier for them to assemble the bingos over time, but the fact that they had a separate playfield wiring harness for every single game is pretty crazy to think about, you know. You have a standard set of switches until you get to the shutter motor, and everything else is going to be basically in the same place, right? Wrong. So that's been interesting. Other than that, you know, I think I've mentioned several times that the board set that I'm using, the P3 Rock and the Switch 16 boards and the Power Driver 16 boards, those are a dream to work with. They are really phenomenally well laid out. And Jerry over at Multimorphic, and he also does pinballcontrollers.com, has really, really thought of pretty much everything that you'd need hardware-wise from these boards. One of the major selling points for me was the diodes for each switch are actually mounted on the switch boards. In a solid-state game, you have to have diodes to prevent odd, funky things happening with the current when a switch is closed. If you have several switches matrixed together, meaning they all have one common side and then a switch side, when you close the switch, it's going to send a ripple through all the other switches which are tied together on the common, and a diode prevents this. So the diodes being mounted on the board prevents you from having to wire a diode onto each switch individually, and that is a lifesaver when you're talking about manipulating EM switches, putting a diode on every single one would be a recipe for disaster. I would never have been able to do this as quickly if I had to wire my own diodes. Also, quite likely, I would have blown something on one of the boards if I had had to wire my own diodes, because just inevitably, you're going to wire the first one backwards. So, you know, that was fantastic. Aside from that, the power driver board is quite nice. There are two different banks, and you can control them with any input voltage that you want up to, I believe, 75 volts, much higher than I need for my purposes So all of my switched coils operate at 48 volts A normal EM bingo runs all its coils at 50 volts and two volts difference not a big deal Now I am running all of my lamps off of 5 volts, and I will say my 5 volt draw is not very heavy. I've got 10 total lamps, which can be lit, and then I've got the logic power for the P3 rock, runs off of 5 volts, and that's pretty much it. So the really nice thing about this bingo project is that it's not incredibly power hungry, so I haven't had a situation where I'm trying to fire too many coils, or I am trying to do too much that's draining too much power and causing resets and other funky things on that logic line, the 5 volts. So that's been great. The Raspberry Pis, I believe I might have mentioned last time that I was having reboot issues with those. Basically, not enough power was getting to the Pis themselves. they're pretty sensitive and I was using phone chargers they used just a micro USB to power and I figured hey I can get away with using a phone charger well the unfortunate thing is that phone chargers are not really built to exact specifications they do basically around what they're supposed to do, and then they stop. So I ended up having to order some new power supplies from Adafruit, who sells a lot of Raspberry Pi stuff, and they're slightly higher voltage and slightly higher current capacity, and those have worked very well. I still have one Pi which I may have damaged with the bad power supply that requires a single reboot each time that I start the multi-bingo, but the other one fires up just fine. I've modified several of the startup scripts, and I fixed a booting problem. I was having an issue where the computer, which ran it, wouldn't start successfully about half of the time. So I ended up looking into all these different kernel boot options it really started to bother me after a while and then I got the bright idea to check in the BIOS well, there is a boot option where you can tell the computer what OS it's using and of course that changes a lot of parameters that the kernel has to set up when the computer boots, so I changed it from the default, which was Windows 8, to Linux and lo and behold, that made all the difference. So that's been good. I've been on the hardware front. Everything else is working very well. My switches are adjusted very well. Everything is functioning as intended. The only thing that's a little funky, and it's not bad yet, but it's a little funky, is that trough switch number one. Now, previously I had wired that in, but I wasn't able to take advantage of it because I didn't have all the trough switches working. So I've ended up rewriting my lifter routines to function exactly like the EM bingos do, and what that means is that the lifter motor, which actually runs this little elevator arm that pushes a ball up to the shooter lane, is supposed to travel all the way back down and allow a ball to land on trough switch number one. Previously, when I had the game just working, it would lift the ball up, and as soon as it touched the shooter lane switch, it would stop the motor. Well, the issue with this is that you have to wait a variable amount of time before the next ball is lifted. On top of that, if all of your trough switches are working properly, you're not able to keep an accurate ball count without the ball being able to travel to trough switch number one. So I rewrote everything so that it functions just like the EM bingos do, and it's beautiful. It's so wonderful. It's great. On top of that, I rewrote the shutter routines. Those were working mostly, but I was getting some weird phantom issues with switch closures, and it wasn't phantom issues. The problem was that my graphics routines were so intensive that it wasn't able to detect the switch closure until the graphics routines had finished. So what I did was rewrite those graphics routines, that animation that happens as soon as you push the start button, and now it works perfectly. So, yet again, simple tweaks make all the difference. The last thing that I did was make an animation for replay reset. So, when you first turn a game on, it's supposed to rack down all the credits on the counter. But, because of the multi-bingo's nature, I can't just hit the power switch off and on. And I also can't just zero out the credits when you go back into the game from the menu. So instead, what I've done is wired up a separate switch. And I've mentioned this before, but when you hit that switch, it's supposed to knock all the credits off. Well, I had that working ages ago, but I didn't have a nice animation. So now it functions just like the Yam Bingo Studio. You'll notice that being reprised here. But you push the switch. It basically disengages the anti-cheat relay. And in the EM bingos, what that does is it turns off your lamps. Then it turns it back on quickly and drops the tilt relay. and at this point it starts taking the credits down. Well, that works exactly as it does in the EM world. It's pretty cool. So, since we last talked, I've done the portioning and artwork for Ticker Tape, for Stock Market, and for the original Barrel of Fun. now barrel of fun is the simplest of those three it is a six card with yellow lines the second line from the bottom that basically a super line so you earn more replays for getting three four or five in a row in the yellow line than you do for the rest of the card i'm sorry actually five in a counts the same whether or not you're in the yellow section. The only advantage it gives to the player, aside from that automatic super line, is a spotted number, which can happen randomly when the ball leaves the gate on the first ball. So the way this works internally there a stepper and depending on the position of that stepper after you finish coining up it may or may not be on rivet where it will grant you a spotted number This is a continuous stepper and carries over from game to game. The way that I'm handling the portioning when you first go into the game is that it randomly gives it a wild spin and just picks an integer, you know, a wiper, a rivet for it to stop on. And from there, as you coin, it actually steps that unit. so that's barrel of fun and it took me a very long time to find a good back glass image for barrel of fun because those games are not as highly collectible as some of the other games but i think it's important to archive them in this multi bingo because they're part of the history. And they're fascinating to me. They have lighted scoring. They operate similarly to the other bingos, but not entirely. So it is pretty fascinating stuff. I also did Stock Market, as I mentioned. Stock Market is the first 70s six card that has player controlled scoring. So on the foot rail of later bingos, starting in the magic screen era, there's an R button, which is present on the foot rail, and when you press it, it will initiate the search if you've shot at least four balls. Stock market has the same basic feature. You push the C button and it will start the search. But Stock Market allows for score doubling through the press of a double or nothing button. So the way this works, you put together a winner on one of your cards. You push the C button after you shoot four or five balls and the game finds it, latches on, and starts blinking a helpful square that says, double or nothing feature when lit. Press the D button for double or nothing, or the R button for regular scores. Through the use of portioning, the game will either grant you double replays, there's approximately a 40-ish percent chance of that, or nothing. Or, you can just take the regular scores, and depending on what kind of hit you've put together and what kind of night you've had as far as putting money in, it may or may not make sense to try for double or nothing. That game also has corner scoring and the corners are awarded on a random basis. Now, Ticker Tape is one that I actually physically own and it's a six card from the 70s. It's actually the follow-on to Stock Market In this one, you have the player-controlled scoring with double or nothing. You also have the corner scoring, but it also adds a random super line. So it's possible, as you're coining up, to be granted either super line or corners on any of the cards. I don't believe, if I recall correctly, that they can ever trip at the same time for a particular card. the portioning on that seems to be working appropriately I am backporting some fixes to the lifter and shutter as I mentioned before and I'm also making big changes to the graphics I've noticed that even though I've optimized and optimized my graphics routines to make them as fast as possible because of the way that I'm doing my illuminated numbers when you have 5, 6, 7, 8 illuminated numbers at once, the whole game slows way down each time it has to render another new layer on top of the basic back glass. So the way that I was doing it was incredibly lazy, but I will say it was very simple. I basically made a full resolution so 720 by 1280 image for each lit element. So let's take the number 1. On a 6 card, there would be 6 illuminated circles, which would lay on top of the back glass image. Those illuminated circles would be fully transparent outside of the illuminated portion and partially transparent in the illuminated portion. that's what gives it the nice glow well it's really really really slow to make a full resolution image and overlay it with true transparency over top of the back glass especially with SDL which is the rendering library which is underneath Pygame which is underneath MyGame So, what I'm doing now is actually making the elements that I should have made before. So, a separate one for each area, which is geometrically different. And it will only be as wide as necessary to render the nice fade in the transparent pixels moving outward from the lit portion. and I'm going to include those at exactly the coordinates they need to be shown at in order to display appropriately. And we'll see if that improves the speed. It should greatly. So far, I've done some testing on Atlantic City, which has an animation when you insert a coin. Well, those animations are where the pain was felt the most. When you put in a coin, it would sometimes take several seconds for it to return, which is not correct. That animation speed should be fairly quick. So, I'm working on that. That's going to take a little while. I have 16 games functional in the multi-bingo at the moment, but each one needs just a little bit of tweaking aside from Bright Lights and Broadway 51, which I believe are 100% complete. So, that's probably enough multibango talk, right? Is everybody sick of hearing about it yet? Well, unfortunately, I still have over 100 games left to do, but as far as the artwork is concerned, I went on a bit of a tear, and I have completed the base artwork for many more games. I do have to go through and read the schematics and do the portioning and actually the coding for each one but I've done quite a few and I'm really looking forward to getting those implemented in the game so what else is going on? I mentioned that I was looking into portioning on some of those later games and I took a look at Dixieland which was the last six card that Valley produced in mass quantities. And the portioning on that is much more difficult. They've completely changed between Tickertape and Dixieland how everything is done. Now there are several games in between there and I be getting into those as well but I just wanted to take a quick glance at Dixieland and see what was happening Ah well So Dan Burfield who runs Tilt Cycle he is a guy who creates artwork from typically damaged or discarded playfields, cabinets, or playfield parts like bumper caps. he has found a United Manhattan and Manhattan happens to be our featured game this time Manhattan is a 1948 flipperless game by United this was actually the last flipperless game that United created famously the designer Lynn Durant said he would never add flippers to a game obviously he lost that battle in 1948 but before then Manhattan is a great flipperless design so one of your goals is to increase and collect your bonus and your bonus is immediately appended to your score if you're able to collect it and the way that you increase your bonus is by hitting various playfield switches and bumpers. In order to collect the bonus, you have to land in the saucer to the left and right of the trough down at the bottom, the out hole. So, doing this is not particularly easy. Increasing your bonus is not difficult, but collecting it is. On top of that, you have the ability to double that bonus by spelling Manhattan. And this is a familiar theme for many of the United games. You had certain switches that you could hit which could spell it individually, or you could collect three letters at a time, Manhattan, by hitting rollovers on the left and right side of the playfield. Collecting them individually is very difficult, at least from appearances. I've never played Manhattan, but you have three bumpers at the top that spell man. Hat is spelled with two diamond bumpers and a regular passive bumper on the left-hand side of the playfield. And tan is the mirror of hat, so it's on the right-hand side of the playfield. There are 5,000 bumpers in the middle of the playfield, and the typical United kicker arrangement of three beautiful red saucers right in the center of the playfield is present on this game as well. those saucers, if you haven't seen them, are like one giant insert and they are beveled in such a way that when the ball starts to roll in there, it tends to settle down right in the center. It's beautiful. Exhibit had some saucers like this as well, but United's are carried to an extreme. The artwork on Manhattan is one of its greatest selling points. Aside from the fantastic and difficult gameplay, you also have a gorgeous game. The playfield has a couple dancing with the Manhattan skyline towards the center of the playfield, and it's like you're looking down on it at an angle. The playfield is very colorful with blue, red, yellow, and white all taking a turn. Looking at the back glass, you can see real beauty. So on this back glass, you have a very well-drawn couple dancing. Beautiful purples, blues, greens, and reds. Your score is actually a rainbow of colors, the purple, red, orange, yellow, green, and blue alternating. And the score is on a ribbon, which is basically traversing the whole image surrounding it. It is beautiful. And then on the left-hand side, you have a marquee that says United's Manhattan. Just beautiful. And I've got to say this again for emphasis. The detail in the figures that are drawn and the background image is astonishing. I really love this back glass. the cabinet has a bluish green base coat and has several dancing top hats and canes adorning the front and sides the cabinet head has a lamp post and the color chosen is unique for the base color and the stencil is beautiful just the whole game is a very nice artistic package I think so I mentioned Dan has one for sale contact him in order to find out more details I've seen pictures of his example and am sorely tempted to get in the truck and go pick it up even though I have no space whatsoever it's that beautiful but his example has all the bumper caps which are pretty much unique to this game It has a beautiful back glass. The playfield looks great. It appears to have all the mechanics. It does need a little bit of cabinet work. The bottom board, for example, has a piece that has broken or rotted away in the front. The cabinet may need to be re-glued in that area as well. And it's missing legs and a lockdown bar. But aside from that, the game looks fantastic. So contact Dan at dan at tiltcycle.com. He's a great guy, and I really enjoy talking to him. He's up in the Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania area, so somebody go grab that game before I do. well that about does it for tonight I know this week is replay effects and there's a large Richmond contingent headed that way so good luck to all them in that pinball tournament I was also recently on the pinball podcast with Don and Jeff episode 85 if you'd like to hear my thoughts about modern games I'm available there as well, thepinballpodcast.com. Don and Jeff are great guys, and I really enjoy talking to them. If you would like to get in touch with me, you can contact 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. You can listen to us on Google Play Music, or you can listen to us on our website, which is foramusementonly.libsyn.com. Thank you very much for listening, and I'll talk to you next time.