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Episode 400 - Multi-Bingo Progress - Programming Complete - Robo-Frenzy Progress - 1938 Exhibit Coney Island

For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·27m 20s·analyzed·Jul 12, 2017
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.026

TL;DR

Multi-Bingo code complete at episode 400; RoboFrenzy cabinet build underway; York show debut planned.

Summary

Nicholas Backbone celebrates completing BASIC programming for all 138 games in his custom Multi-Bingo machine by episode 400, marking 70 weeks of biweekly development. He has open-sourced the code and schematics under GPL3, is now building the RoboFrenzy cabinet using a Penny Pitch design, and plans to exhibit Multi-Bingo at the York Fairgrounds Show (September 29-30). The episode features a historical deep-dive on Exhibit's 1938 Coney Island with motorized ferris wheel backbox animation.

Key Claims

  • Completed BASIC programming for all 138 games in the Multi-Bingo machine

    high confidence · Nicholas Backbone, host, opening segment of episode 400

  • Code and schematics for Multi-Bingo pushed to public repository under GPL3 license

    high confidence · Nicholas Backbone, episode content regarding code release

  • Multi-Bingo will be exhibited at York Fairgrounds Show (White Rose Game Room Show) on September 29-30

    high confidence · Nicholas Backbone, near end of episode

  • RoboFrenzy cabinet design based on Williams' Penny Pitch with approximately 15-inch depth at widest point

    high confidence · Nicholas Backbone discussing cabinet construction and measurements from Ryan Claytor

  • Graphics rendering is CPU-bound and causing timing issues with animation display and switch hit detection

    high confidence · Nicholas Backbone, detailed technical explanation of display processor constraints

  • Ball count logic uses early-game ball gate method rather than timer-based detection

    high confidence · Nicholas Backbone, technical explanation of Multi-Bingo ball counting implementation

  • Exhibit's 1938 Coney Island features motorized backbox animation of a ferris wheel with chrome bumpers and metal playing field

    medium confidence · Nicholas Backbone, Year of Flipper List historical segment (based on flyer; no color photos or video exist)

Notable Quotes

  • “I've finished the very last of the BASIC game programming for the 138th game. That's a lot of games with a lot of very specific game logic.”

    Nicholas Backbone @ Early in episode — Marks completion of core programming milestone after 70 weeks of biweekly development

  • “It's been a labor of love and I have really enjoyed this entire process so far. But by far the best thing is the public reaction.”

    Nicholas Backbone @ Mid-episode regarding Multi-Bingo reception — Reflects speaker's motivation and community engagement value

  • “The depth of a ringer darts penny pitch is only approximately fifteen inches at the widest... that doesn't leave a whole lot of room for components like multiple years turning the player control or coin box area.”

    Nicholas Backbone @ RoboFrenzy cabinet design section — Identifies spatial constraints and design challenges for custom cabinet build

  • “The problem with the graphics being decoupled like that is every time you leave the ball gate it increments the ball count... You hit the ball gate really fast and the game is still attempting to draw some bit of animation.”

    Nicholas Backbone @ Technical debugging section — Explains known bug requiring preemption of animation rendering before York show

  • “I am going to use an 80's style Bally coin door which contains a Rain City Free Play switch built into it and it's stainless steel.”

    Nicholas Backbone @ RoboFrenzy coin door selection — Identifies specific component choice for commercial-spec cabinet

  • “What makes Coney Island unique are a couple things. First of all, there's a motorized backbox animation and that's a ferris wheel. It starts in motion as soon as you push in your coin.”

    Nicholas Backbone @ Year of Flipper List segment — Describes rare 1938 mechanical innovation in pinball design

Entities

Nicholas BackbonepersonRyan ClaytorpersonMulti-BingoproductRoboFrenzyproductFor Amusement OnlyorganizationYork Fairgrounds Show (White Rose Game Room Show)eventExhibit Coney IslandproductDennis DodellpersonVic RamppersonJeffrey LawtonpersonRobert Madelperson

Signals

  • ?

    product_launch: Multi-Bingo code and schematics released to public repository under GPL3 license with invitation for community contributions and improvements

    high · Nicholas Backbone: 'I pushed it up to the public repository a few days ago. So if you've been waiting on the code to see how I implemented something or to make your own multibingo, it's there. Along with the schematic.'

  • ?

    product_launch: Multi-Bingo machine scheduled for public exhibition at York Fairgrounds (White Rose Game Room Show) on September 29-30

    high · Nicholas Backbone: 'I am bringing the game next to the York show. It's also known as the White Rose Game Room Show, and that's September 29th and 30th at the York Fairgrounds.'

  • ?

    product_concern: CPU-bound display rendering causing timing issues with animation playback and switch hit detection; ball count logic can increment during animation sequences, confusing game state

    high · Nicholas Backbone detailed explanation: 'The problem with the graphics being decoupled like that is every time you leave the ball gate it increments the ball count... while the animation is going, if you fire another ball, the game gets all confused and doesn't read the second ball as having been fired.'

  • ?

    technology_signal: Multi-Bingo uses P-ROC hardware controller with Raspberry Pi(s) for display management; development includes custom screen/display infrastructure requiring expensive components

    high · Nicholas Backbone: 'I use two different Pi's but I use multiple screens... Those screens are Papa Duke expensive so, and because I'm really cheap I've not bought more than one set but I need to do that.'

  • ?

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.082

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. And it's a very excited Nick Baldridge because just a few short days ago I finished the very last game in the multi-bingo. The game in the multibingo. Yep, before we get into that, let's acknowledge for a moment that this is episode 400. I began this project, announced it publicly anyway, on episode 365. At that point I switched to a biweekly release to allow me time to work on the multibingo, and in only 35 episodes, or 70 weeks, I was able to complete the final game. I'm pretty excited. I've finished the very last of the basic game programming for the 138th game. That's a lot of games with a lot of very specific game logic. So each of the games should be playable. However, ones that require unique or oddball playfields have not been tested in the game yet. I have a lengthy period of testing ahead of me. But, this is a huge, huge, huge deal. Because bug fixing is one thing, but figuring out how I'm going to do something like, let's take Big Wheel or Magic Ring for example. Those games are so unique and in the pantheon of the 138 different US manufactured bingos, it's pretty insane to think about how you would implement that in solid state, but it's been done. Now, Big Wheel and MagicRing had partial solid state. They were hybrid games that used the solid state mechanism to detect your winners and to allow for the double or nothing play. But in my game, I just have to keep track of the state of a whole bunch of different things all at once and constantly recheck the state as you rotate the wheel. The big thing that messes those games up as far as programming logic goes is the fact that you can rotate the wheel after the fifth ball has landed. If that were not the case, the logic could be reduced by at least twenty lines, I'd say, maybe more. There's a whole lot of extra stuff that goes into having to re-figure every time you press a button. Regardless, it is done. It's been tested on my development computer which is separate from the actual game. And every game scores appropriately. It plays red letter games appropriately. It allows for moving number features to work properly. It displays graphics in the right spots at the right times. So I'm feeling pretty darn good about that. So, what have I been doing with all this free time? After I finished that up, I switched right over to working on RoboFrenzy and for RoboFrenzy what I've been doing is cutting my own cabinet. I based the design on Penny Pitch, which is a Williams game or ringer or darts. Those were alternate games with the same play using the same style of cabinet. And Ryan Claytor, who I am developing RoboFrenzy with, provided me measurements from his penny pitch and I started cutting just a couple days ago. I am not a woodworker. I'm not very good with sawing stuff. I can measure stuff. I can do math. But cutting things, I've got a circular saw and that's pretty much it. I do have a manual miter box, but that doesn't really count and it certainly won't help me with this. So my father-in-law needed some computer work and I said, hey, while I'm out there, do you mind if I use your table saw? And got out there and he wanted to see what I was planning to do and he offered to help me with it. And then we realized very quickly that that table saw wasn't going to do the trick because there was no kind of bench built up around it. So running these huge sheets of plywood through it is just not possible. So my father-in-law, who is a woodworker and he's actually quite good, especially at adaptations, you know, figuring out what to do with the tools that you have. So, rather than run everything through the table saw and worry about getting straight cuts, especially with these large pieces of wood, what we ended up doing was building a fence and then running a circular saw along that fence. The fence is clamped to the wood at specific measurements to allow the saw to travel past and that lets you make straight cuts and it looks pretty darn good. So, I haven't assembled the cab yet. This weekend is going to be fairly busy, but I'm hopeful that next week I'll have some time to sit down and start gluing and nailing. So, I'm assembling the cab in the style of penny pitch, ring or darts, and that basically just used brads to tack in the sides of the cab, hold it all together while the glue dried. I'm going to show you how to make a pinball with a pinball. I'm going to use a pinball cutter. It's going to function like a bingo backdoor. So it'll be hinged and uh... if I'm able to locate some bingo hinges then it'll work exactly like a bingo backdoor as in you'll be able to take it off of the game and uh... do your work and unlike a bingo what I'll do is make Jones plugs directly on the opposite side you know on the interior of the game uh to hold the door on and then you be able to take the door completely away from the game and service it if you choose that should make life pretty easy i think and we'll see how that goes now the depth of the cab is kind of interesting uh... i'm curious to see how this is going to work because the depth of a ringer darts penny pitch is only uh... approximately fifteen inches at the widest that should be but it doesn't leave a whole lot of room for components like uh... multiple years turning the uh... player control or uh... coin box you know coin door area or any of that so that's part of why i want to build the cab first is to see if uh... Marco coses Techniques, PlaneUnis Washington B. wondering Period March, ham communion胑 dwrcy, Now the reason for that, the interior of the door needs to be primed so that I don't have to remove all the equipment when I go to paint it. Instead, I'll affix labels and do all that stuff. I'm doing initial layout right now. Once I have the coin door cut, which I don't right now, I hadn't settled yet on the type of coin door I'm going to use, but I believe that's settled now. I am going to use an 80's style bally coin door which contains a free play switch built into it and it's stainless steel. Robots love it. So we'll see how that goes. I've got to locate some trim that goes on the outside of the coin door but that should be good. And then a coin box should be able to build that up. Um, the big deal is that I wanted to be able to accept coins like a commercial piece of equipment because I want to build it to commercial specs basically.
Steve Smith
person
Phil Boguemaperson
Bingo Butchperson
Jim Willingperson
Williamscompany
Ballycompany
Exhibitcompany
P-ROCproduct

design_innovation: RoboFrenzy cabinet features bingo-style hinged back door with quick-disconnect plugs on interior for modular service access; hybrid commercial/hobbyist construction approach

high · Nicholas Backbone: 'I'm going to use a back door. It's going to function like a bingo back door... I'll do is make quick disconnect plugs directly on the opposite side... you be able to take the door completely away from the game and service it.'

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: RoboFrenzy cabinet cuts built using circular saw with clamped fence guide rather than table saw due to large plywood sheet sizing constraints; constructed with assistance from father-in-law woodworker

    high · Nicholas Backbone: 'we ended up doing was building a fence and then running a circular saw along that fence. The fence is clamped to the wood at specific measurements to allow the saw to travel past and that lets you make straight cuts.'

  • ?

    restoration_signal: Exhibit's 1938 Coney Island machine lacks color photographs or video; Nicholas Backbone requesting community documentation to clarify metal playfield specifications and ferris wheel motor mechanics

    medium · Nicholas Backbone: 'Unfortunately no color pictures exist of the game, no video that I've found... If anybody happens to have one, um, snap a photo or two and send them over to the Internet Pinball Database.'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Multi-Bingo games with unique/oddball playfields (Big Wheel, Magic Ring) require complex state tracking for features like post-fifth-ball wheel rotation; adding ~20+ lines of logic for this edge case

    high · Nicholas Backbone: 'Big Wheel and Magic Ring... you can rotate the wheel after the fifth ball has landed. If that were not the case, the logic could be reduced by at least twenty lines, I'd say, maybe more.'

  • ?

    community_signal: Multi-Bingo project credited to extensive network of long-time and newer bingo collectors, custom pinball community members, and playtesting feedback contributors

    high · Nicholas Backbone: 'Thank you to everybody who has helped... including folks like Bingo Butch and Jim Willing or my friend Steve Smith... Phil Boguema who came all the way out here just to try the game and he provided fantastic insight.'

  • ?

    historical_signal: 1938 Exhibit Coney Island features motorized ferris wheel backbox animation as rare early mechanical enhancement; also experiments with metal playing field predating or paralleling Bally's metal playfield machines

    medium · Nicholas Backbone: 'I wasn't aware that uh... Exhibit had experimented with this. I knew Bally had... they put out a couple games. One of them was named Zephyr. Um... but... this is the first I'd heard of Exhibit doing the same.'

  • ?

    content_signal: For Amusement Only reached episode 400 after adopting biweekly release schedule (starting episode 365) to accommodate Multi-Bingo development; 70 weeks to complete programming phase

    high · Nicholas Backbone: 'I began this project, announced it publicly anyway, on episode 365. At that point I switched to a biweekly release to allow me time to work on the multibingo, and in only 35 episodes, or 70 weeks, I was able to complete the final game.'

    • 9:50
    So, we'll see how that goes. And I'll be sure to report when I have more to report. In other news, I have been working on different cosmetic pieces of the multi bingo and I have some very exciting news My name is browse kaikkidisciplinaria84 and toyedachirlin1, which is the trials of PA north ata extremory in talking story tonight they're D And pushed it up to the public repository a few days ago. So if you've been waiting on the code to see how I implemented something or to make your own multibingo, it's there. Along with the schematic. I have not yet typed up a manual but that's on my to-do list. And I will upload that when it's ready. And please, you know, if you take a look at it, let me know. Uh, if you think it's, you know, worthwhile or if there's improvements to be made. Uh, it's licensed under GPL3 with the idea being if you make any improvements for your own game, um, push them back and let me take a look at them and if they're good solid improvements I'll integrate them. Um, what's left to do? Uh, that's really the big question. On the code side, all the games are feature Complete. As I mentioned, they work and score appropriately. The only thing that is not wired up appropriately is the coin flash graphics. When you drop a coin in the game, it does not go through each position on the spotting disc like it does in the real game and give you a little show. Instead, what I've done is wired up these little animation functions that essentially pick a number at random and display one part of the animation. The reason for that is really more to do with the slowness of the display processor and less with the fact that it couldn't be done. I also have a Q&A for you. I'm not going to answer all of your questions. Just let me know if there's something you want answered. I'm going to answer your questions. In fact, I know exactly how I'm going to do it. The problem is that I need something that's doing 3D rendering instead of 2D, basically. Right now my renderer is CPU bound. And unfortunately, the CPU can't keep up with sending out that display refresh call to the big monitor and read all the switch hits appropriately. Theoretically, they'd be banked and sent over from the P3 rock, but the computer is basically spending just a ridiculous amount of time on this and has probably accepted the switch hit but is doing nothing about it. So what happens is all your timing gets thrown off. Let's take a simple example like the ball count. The way that I have the ball count wired up is like the early games and that may or may not be a problem It hasn been yet really But the problem with the graphics being decoupled like that is every time you leave the ball gate it increments the ball count This doesn work at all like the later games which used a timer unit along with the trough switches to determine the ball count That's much, much more accurate because you know exactly how many balls are sitting on switches and you can use that coupled with the position of the timer to know how many balls have been shot. Well, I can't use something like the list of numbers that have been hit because spotted numbers exist and not each of those triggers a relay. Some of them directly add to the list of numbers that have been hit. So, can't use that. And so, what I'm left with is reading a switch hit and that's the ball gate. That's what I settled on. Well, problem there. You hit the ball gate really fast and the game is still attempting to draw some bit of animation. Let's take the magic number from the late late six cards like Dixieland, Nashville and Continental. When you shoot the ball through the gate, the magic number motor engages and it will stop at random on one or two of five different positions. Or is it seven? Anyway, it lands on one or two numbers.
    15:01
    But it goes through and does this cool animation. Well, unfortunately, while the animation is going, if you fire another ball, the game gets all confused and doesn't read the second ball as having been fired, so it lifts a third ball, but only counts it as ball number two. Um, that's really where the problem comes in.
    15:20
    You can have the same problem with animations when starting a game. So, I tell people and on my instruction card that I wrote for the machine, if you push the red button a whole bunch of times before it lifts the first ball, it can get confused as it's trying to bank and display those animations and continue to lift balls to the shooter lane even though one ball, two balls, maybe even three balls already exist in the shooter lane. It'll keep going in fact even if they're all eight balls lifted. So, that's a problem. And preempting the animation is something that I intend to do and hopefully I can do that before York. Last year I didn't have that written in and this year I might not. It all depends on how far I get on everything between now and then. The end. But that's just an example of a bug, a huge bug that I know exists and if anyone wants to take a look at that and take a stab at it, definitely be my guest because I'm not certain exactly how I'm going to tackle it and if I can tackle it in 2D that's even better. 3D I have a powerful enough 3D chip in the computer that's driving it that it won't be I'm not sure if that's a problem, but there's almost certainly a way that I can preempt the rendering and allow switch hits to keep happening. I'm using a delay method. That's not delay enough, unfortunately. So once I figure that out, that'll unlock the last mystery of the code, and I'll get that going. And beyond that, I need to make score and instruction cards for every game. The Scorn instruction cards are mostly available online and where they're not, I can certainly make my own. They have to be made to a custom size and pushed. And the way that I do it, I have them in my repository. Those are the only graphics along with lit elements that I push in the public repository. But I take those and push them to the Raspberry Pi's cards and then they'll load up appropriately. Now I push all of them for every single game to the Pi's. I only use two different Pi's but I use multiple screens. At least that's the plan. Those screens are pretty expensive so, and because I'm really cheap I've not bought more than one set but I need to do that. I was looking into them a few weeks ago and they were sold out. I had a minor heart attack and then looked again a few weeks later and they were back in stock. So I think it's just one of those things that they sell through occasionally. So you, member of the bingo playing or bingo interested public, where can you find this machine? If you're not interested in code at all, I apologize for the last 17 minutes or other things that I'm building, and you just want to play the game, that's totally fine. In fact, I welcome and encourage that. I am bringing the game next to the York show. It's also known as the White Rose Game Room Show, and that's September 29th and 30th at the York Fairgrounds. Please, come out, give it a go, let me know what you think. Tell me how bad you think the display animations are. And, you know, let me know what you think. It's been a labor of love and I have really enjoyed pretty much this entire process so far. But by far the best thing is the public reaction. You know, come out and give it a shot and let me know what you think. I am happy to hear what you think. And with that in mind, thank you to everybody who has helped with this game. Everybody from long time bingo collectors, Dennis Dodell, Vic Camp, Jeffrey Lawton, and newer bingo collectors, Robert Madel, some of the other folks that I've been talking to and will hopefully be I'll be talking to on the podcast soon. Everybody who's provided me pictures and everybody who has provided me with technical advice including custom pinball folks. Ryan Claytor commissioned him for various artwork which you'll see at the York show if you come out there. I've also put up a picture or two in the Multibingo thread and on Facebook and Instagram and so forth. Check that out if you get a chance That is kind of the default background image and i think it pitch perfect appropriate uh so what's going on now as i say robo frenzy and uh... i'm catching up on some service calls that i had backlogged and uh... you know just generally getting into uh... the summer here It's uh... always kinda crazy but things are going great and uh... I'm really excited. I just can't express how excited I am that uh... that initial push for the code is finished uh... anyway as I say, hope you all enjoy it. If you come out and play let me know what you think and uh... we'll go from there. Alright, well you know what that means. It's time for the Year of Flipper List!
    21:22
    Today's example is 1938's exhibit Coney Island. And Coney Island is themed after New York entertainment destination. What makes Coney Island the pinball machine, and this is only one of many games that was named Coney Island, what makes it unique are a couple things. First of all, there's a motorized backbox animation and that's a ferris wheel. It starts in motion as soon as you push in your coin, so it's rotating through the whole game. It's huge on the back glass as well. Unfortunately no color pictures exist of the game, no video that I've found, so some of this is going to be speculation based on the flyer and what I can see there, but I will say that it is really quite cool looking. You've got kind of spotlights going up around the ferris wheel and point values which are located on the cars of the ferris wheel and then the larger point values in circles on a banner which is shaped like a flag at the top of the backbox. The playfield itself is apparently Made of metal. The flyer says it's a smooth rolling chrome Miro metal playing field and up near the top well I'll just say it looks like a ramp uh... if you manage to land in a particular spot it appears that uh... the ball will roll over this uh... this ramp otherwise it's funneled across and down And this is in kind of the upper left corner where you'd expect the rebound rubber to be. So, uh... on top of that there are multiple bumpers on the playing field. These are passive bumpers, spring bumpers.
    23:37
    Thirteen is what I count. The thirteen bumpers are individually lit and they have chrome caps according to the flyer And this game must be blinding when it's being played with all the lights on a metal playing field along with the lights in the backbox and the rotating Ferris wheel. I think this would be quite an attractive game. Now as far as the metal playing field goes, that of course can cause its own problems because it's essentially a big conductive plane Uh... as opposed to one made out of wood. Um... I wasn't aware that uh... Xzibit had experimented with this. I knew Bally had. Uh... they put out a couple games. One of them was named Zephyr. Um... but... this is the first I'd heard of Xzibit doing the same. So either the flyer is uh... vague, which this wouldn't be the first time, and what they mean is that uh... ramp is actually made of metal. Um, or the playfield is metal, so I'm not sure which is what, but uh, it's pretty neat. Um, I will say that uh, I would love to see one of these. If anybody happens to have one, um, snap a photo or two and send them over to the IPDB. Um, it would be great to know exactly how that ferris wheel motor functioned and if it changed the position of anything on the backbox. The actual cars moved as well as what i'm talking about probably doesn't but uh... one can dream and uh... aside from that uh... i just want to say you know thank you to everybody who has helped again uh... as well as those who came out to play the multi bingo last year at york you know all your support everybody support uh... whether you've just been following along Whether you've helped out with photos and information including folks like Bingo Butch and Jim Willing or my friend Steve Smith who helped build the drawer and was instrumental in testing that first game. Whether you've come out to try it like Phil Boguema who came all the way out here just to try the game and he provided fantastic insight into the way the mixers and spotting Units should be stopping, which caused me to go back and really examine how my games functioned and also really, really truly helped get my portioning more correct. Thank you all very much and thank you for following along with the podcast. I'm going to continue to do that and next up I'll be documenting, of course, RoboFrenzy in my same scattered way.
    26:43
    So that's all for tonight. 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 me on my website, which is Thank you very much for listening and I'll talk to you next time.