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Episode 403 - Multi-Bingo Bugfixing and 1934 Exhibit Golden Gate

For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·26m 28s·analyzed·Aug 24, 2017
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.027

TL;DR

Multi-Bingo bug fixes pre-York Show; deep dive into 1934 Golden Gate mechanics.

Summary

Nick Baldridge discusses his ongoing efforts to debug and enhance Multi-Bingo ahead of the York Show (September 29-30), focusing on emulating electromechanical timeout mechanics and fixing delay-method bugs across 138 games. He also provides a detailed technical and gameplay analysis of 1934's Golden Gate, a flipperless bingo pinball featuring powered playfield elements including a return-out-balls mechanism, a trap gate, and an auto-kicker.

Key Claims

  • Multi-Bingo will be exhibited at York Show (September 29-30) in Bingo Row with at least 10 machines total.

    high confidence · Nick Baldridge, host, opening segment

  • Multi-Bingo currently contains 138 distinct games, each with custom timeout methods.

    high confidence · Nick Baldridge, discussing bug-fixing scope

  • Early EM bingo games use 40-step timer units; Bally later adopted 8-step units, but United never made that transition.

    high confidence · Nick Baldridge, technical explanation of timeout behavior

  • Golden Gate (1934) came in two different cabinet sizes: 19×38 inches and 21×44 inches, likely junior and senior models.

    medium confidence · Nick Baldridge, referencing advertising flyer; marked as unconfirmed

  • Golden Gate is powered by three separate batteries controlling different playfield elements: powered out-hole flap, center trap arm, and trough auto-kicker.

    high confidence · Nick Baldridge, detailed playfield analysis

  • Nick Baldridge averages one game every two to three days for coin-flash implementation, which requires manual mapping of rivets and wire colors on the spotting disk.

    high confidence · Nick Baldridge, discussing workload and methodology

  • Golden Gate batteries were accessible from within the coin door, allowing easy replacement.

    medium confidence · Nick Baldridge, citing IPDB documentation

  • RoboFrenzy development is on hold while Multi-Bingo bug-fixing is prioritized.

    high confidence · Nick Baldridge, status update

Notable Quotes

  • “I've been extremely just excruciatingly busy i am prepping the multi bingo for its second public play testing here at the york show”

    Nick Baldridge @ Opening — Sets context for entire episode focus on Multi-Bingo development and York Show preparation

  • “So the problem with that is if it's still running and didn't fully time out and I don't cancel the method, then you're going to hear this weird stepping and then all of a sudden it'll throw to tilt.”

    Nick Baldridge @ Technical bug explanation — Explains core technical challenge with delay-method cancellation in PyPyRockGame framework

  • “most of the time that I spend coding this is after my kids are asleep and in the wee hours before I am forced to go to sleep and get up in the morning and go to work”

    Nick Baldridge @ Mid-episode reflection — Personal context for development pace and constraints; reveals work-life balance challenges

  • “I average about one game every two to three days. That's how long it takes. And I work pretty fast.”

    Nick Baldridge @ Coin-flash discussion — Quantifies the labor-intensive nature of implementing visual authenticity across 138 games

  • “So I'm more likely to add bugs than I am to, uh, you know, make something better at this point.”

    Nick Baldridge @ Pre-show strategy discussion — Reveals conservative approach to feature-freezing before public event to avoid regression

  • “And in the center of the playfield, the thing that takes up the most real estate on this playfield, is this center area where balls can be trapped... there's a golden arm that traps the balls at the entrance to this area.”

    Nick Baldridge @ Golden Gate playfield analysis — Describes the signature mechanical gimmick of Golden Gate that defines its design identity

  • “I think this looks extremely difficult it's got a cool gimmick with the golden gate that you have to open. And, of course, returning balls to play.”

    Nick Baldridge — Summarizes appeal and challenge of the machine; identifies returning balls as valued feature

Entities

Nick BaldridgepersonMulti-BingoproductGolden GategameYork ShoweventPyPyRockGameproductIPDBorganizationRoboFrenzyproductBallycompanyUnitedcompany1934 Exhibit

Signals

  • ?

    product_launch: Multi-Bingo scheduled for second public play test at York Show (September 29-30); Bingo Row will feature at least 10 machines with giveaway incentives for 4/5-in-a-row

    high · Nick Baldridge: 'The York Show is September 29th and 30th And the Multi Bingo is going to be there in Bingo Row... I'm bringing a couple games... I've got giveaways for 4 and 5 in a row'

  • ?

    design_innovation: Nick Baldridge implementing authentic EM timeout behavior and delay-method cancellation across 138 games to match original 40-step and 8-step timer unit mechanics

    high · Detailed explanation of timeout logic, stepper unit emulation, and tilt relay behavior mirroring real EM machines

  • ?

    design_innovation: Advanced spotting-disk wiper simulation mapping rivets and wire colors; requires manual calculation per game; averages 2-3 days per game implementation

    high · Nick Baldridge: 'I average about one game every two to three days. That's how long it takes... going through the manual for each game, and then mapping each individual rivet on the spotting disk'

  • ?

    product_concern: Delay-method timeout logic triggered unintended tilt relay throws and blinking bugs; required systematic cancellation implementation across 138 games to prevent background method persistence

    high · Nick Baldridge: 'the problem with that is if it's still running and didn't fully time out and I don't cancel the method, then you're going to hear this weird stepping and then all of a sudden it'll throw to tilt'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Nick Baldridge choosing to halt new feature development before York Show to minimize bug introduction risk; prioritizing stability over additional polish

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.079

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 so i've been extremely just excruciatingly busy i am prepping the multi bingo for its second public play testing here at the york show The York Show is September 29th and 30th And the Multi Bingo is going to be there in Bingo Row is going to have It looks like at least 10 machines And it's going to be a whole heck of a lot of fun It certainly has been the last couple years I'm bringing a couple games There's going to be a lot of bingo pinball enthusiasts that are there And I've got giveaways for 4 and 5 in a row If you can make four or five on any of the machines, you'll get a special keepsake to bring home with you. So, what have I been so busy doing? Really bug fixing, tweaking, testing, play testing, making sure everything is not only rock solid and reliable, but it also, I want it to be fairly accurate to the EM experience. So some of the enhancements that I've added to the game recently, such as automatic timeout.
1:35
The early games, in fact most of the games, use a 40-step timer. And the way that works, it's just a 40-step stepper unit, and five steps are stepped as you play through the normal game. And then approximately every five seconds, the unit will take another step.
1:58
And so I've emulated that. And when it reaches the maximum extent, which is actually step number 39, then the game shuts off. It turns off the motors and theoretically saves some wear and tear, especially on those early games where the search disk is spinning all the time. It can wear down those wiper arms.
2:24
So to emulate the sounds properly, of course, I have to have a unit stepping every approximately five seconds, and it needs to start doing that after you shoot about your fourth or fifth ball. And I've got that all tied to the trough switches, and it's working perfectly. But I introduced a problem. And the problem is that the timeout method is a delay-triggered method. That's a thing in PyPyRockGame, which is the framework that I'm using. And these delay methods, you can cut off, but you have to call the cancel method in order to cancel that delay method if it's running in the background. So my timeout actions is actually the name of the method. It calls that every five seconds and then calls itself again. So the problem with that is if it's still running and didn't fully time out and I don't cancel the method, then you're going to hear this weird stepping and then all of a sudden it'll throw to tilt. That's what happened when those games reached the 39th step. It didn't shut the motors off nicely. Instead, what it did is actually trip the tilt relay. So there was no hope of going back to the game that you were just playing.
@ Golden Gate gameplay assessment
company

high · Nick Baldridge: 'I'm so close to the show that I almost want to stop adding features because I'm more likely to add bugs than I am to make something better at this point'

  • ?

    historical_signal: Golden Gate (1934) demonstrates early adoption of powered playfield elements (return-out-balls, auto-kicker, trap arm) during formative EM era; powered by dry-cell batteries with accessibility through coin door

    high · Nick Baldridge detailed analysis of three battery-powered mechanisms and cabinet design; IPDB documentation cited

  • ?

    historical_signal: Bally adopted 8-step timer units while United remained with 40-step units; architectural choice affected motor shutdown behavior and tilt integration

    high · Nick Baldridge: 'Bally eventually made the move to an eight-step timer unit. United never got there.'

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Golden Gate features challenging nudge-based gameplay; scoring opportunities concentrated in difficult-to-reach pockets surrounded by nail obstacles; return-out-balls mechanic creates strategic depth

    high · Nick Baldridge: 'it would be very difficult to get a ball to go in there without tilting... it's got a stool pigeon tilt which is that the ball that sits on the stool and if you knock it off the stool then you've tilted the game it looks very difficult'

  • ?

    content_signal: For Amusement Only Episode 403 features technical bug-fix documentation and detailed historical game analysis; demonstrates podcast's education-focused content strategy for EM/bingo enthusiasts

    high · Entire episode structure: technical developer diary followed by museum-quality game archaeology

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Nick Baldridge managing solo Multi-Bingo development while maintaining full-time employment and parental responsibilities; coding occurs evenings/early mornings; deferred local repair work

    high · Nick Baldridge: 'most of the time that I spend coding this is after my kids are asleep and in the wee hours... I don't want to neglect my job duties over this or my family... I've been putting off a lot of local repair work'

  • ?

    product_concern: Nick Baldridge discovered tendency to map spotting-disk rivets counterclockwise, causing lamps to light in reverse order; requires careful remapping for each game implementation

    high · Nick Baldridge: 'I have a tendency to map from counterclockwise on the spotting disc Unfortunately the way that that works causes the lamps to light backwards from the way that they should'

    • 3:43
    In a way, I like the way that functions. You know, in the real games, it's very final. It signals the end of the game, and that's that.
    3:53
    Bally eventually made the move to an eight-step timer unit. United never got there. But in the eight-step timer units, the way that it functions is it steps five steps for playing the game, and then it will automatically start stepping approximately every five seconds or so. And once it gets to step number eight, it shuts off both of the 120 volt motors. That's the mixer motor and the control unit motor, which provide the vast majority of the noise in a bingo pinball machine. So my game does this as well. The big problem, as I mentioned, isn't really the throwing the tilt. Of course, if you play the game long enough, that would happen. but there are certain things that reset the timer and so forth. And so the 40-step unit lasts about two minutes.
    4:43
    And so if you're playing a quick game, of course, you won't notice that. But the 8-step unit, you'll notice right away because it pretty much shuts off immediately, you know, after you've launched perhaps your second ball. So in those games, the way that it works, instead of throwing the tilt relay, what it does is it just shuts those motors off and pressing the R button will pull in the reset plunger on the timer unit which brings the motors roaring back to life. I feel like that's a little harder on the motors and I'm not sure how I feel about that overall. It also introduced a pretty wicked bug, hardware bug, into the actual Magic Screen games that can put the game into an unusable state while it's attempting to score replays. I've covered this before on the show, but they fixed that eventually, but they didn't catch it for a little while. And it's not something that was present on the earlier games. They were not able to get into the state because the tilt relay would throw. So, at any rate, that's an example of something weird that only occurs in the solid state world. You know, having this timeout method that continues to run after the game is started back up. You know, I run through the reset sequence and the way that I outline it in the code, it's very similar to the way that the EMs actually work. So it goes through and it resets all the units all the step units It throws all the tilt relay or all the tilt relays all the trip relays back into their default positions It resets the trip bank It changes the state of certain relays like the start relay so that it can tell if you're coining up or if you're actually playing the game. It loads a ball. It does all this stuff that the games themselves normally do. But the problem is when you diverge from that EM start sequence that I expect it to perform like, finding those bugs can be a little troublesome because, you know, it's out of the ordinary. It's not what I expect.
    7:11
    And that's how those bugs get introduced as well. And, of course, you take something like that and you multiply it by the number of games. So 138 games, each with their own distinct timeout methods. There is a more efficient way to write that. But I didn't write it like that. So basically, I've gone through and I've tweaked all of those. And now the method is named that's delayed, and it will be canceled on tilt and also on regular play. That's the name of the method that I gave. If you push the start button or you press the yellow button or really anything that accepts a coin calls this method. So that's fixed. But that's just one example of a bug. I also have a couple other things. But honestly, the bugs are pretty minimal. Let's see what I got here. I added blinking. You know, that was a big deal. I went through every single game, and for all the Select Now lights, I finally figured out how to display these graphics. That was really the Achilles heel of this project for over a year. I could not figure out how to do the coin flash.
    8:37
    And I'm not sure if I just discovered that after the last podcast or right before. I would have to go back and look, and unfortunately, I am short on time. but if I already talked about this, I'm sorry but basically the way that I'm doing it and for some reason this thought never occurred to me if I were to take say just the size of the select now light that flashes and I draw just the illuminated piece which I already had but then I replace it and draw only that section that was drawn with that illuminated piece with the back glass image, you know, without illumination, just that little piece. It's extremely fast. I mean, ridiculously fast in comparison to what I was doing before. So I was able to figure out how to do smooth 455 emulation using the fast blink that the original GE bulbs had. And then I found out that none of the bingos shipped with blinkers in the titles, and so I killed that idea. But I was able to use that method in order to handle my blinking for the Select Now lights. And there's a few different items that flash on a bingo pinball when the time tree has almost run its course. So those flash accurately. I've been through and tested all 138 games and made sure that they all flash properly. But the problem comes, again, with these delay methods. The way that the blinking works is another delay method. And I need to add the cancellation to my regular play method and my tilt actions method, both of which, again, are kind of... I'm in EM mode about 99% of the time. So when I write my code, I write it to work like the EMs work. And these kind of bugs can be introduced because I assume, oh, I've reset the unit. You know, there's no way for it to continue to blink because that unit's been completely reset. But that's not the way that it works. I should know better, but there's a problem that I have with time. most of the time that I spend coding this is after my kids are asleep and in the wee hours before I am forced to go to sleep and get up in the morning and go to work so I don't want to neglect my job duties over this or my family, my children so I just have to be very careful with the time that I spend on this because it's easy to get sucked in and it's really exciting to see one of these games come to life, and especially with Coin Flash, that's a very time-consuming process, going through the manual for each game, and then mapping each individual rivet on the spotting disk that corresponds to a lamp on the back glass. When you drop a coin in, the spotting disk spins, and it spins a random interval. It may be 25 positions. And so there are wipers that are wiping across a total of about 50 rivets, because there are two wipers that are spaced 25 rivets apart. So what my program has to do is calculate the number of rivets that each wiper is moving across, and then for each wiper, I need to map the wire colors and figure out exactly which lamps are lighting or unlighting, as the case may be, and if you don't have that feature awarded, then blank it back out, and if you do have it, then don't blank it. You want to keep the lamps lit that should be lit. So I figured out a way to do that, and I've been doing a lot of math and a lot of mapping and a lot of wire color matching, and it looks great when I've got it all mapped. Now, there's a couple problems. First of all, I have a tendency to map from counterclockwise on the spotting disc Unfortunately the way that that works causes the lamps to light backwards from the way that they should So when the wipers sweep across the spotting disc they generally sweep across clockwise
    13:22
    And because I've done that, I have a couple games where I've got them fully implemented, and then I fire it up and take a look, and it's awesome, the light show is there.
    13:33
    Then I look a little closer and I go, wait a minute, it's going exactly backwards of how it should. So I've got to go in and really, really carefully do this for every game. It takes a lot of time. I average about one game every two to three days. That's how long it takes. And I work pretty fast. So it's a lot of work to do this coin flash stuff, but boy, it's quite the finishing touch on each of these games. It's great. So right now what I'm doing is I'm going through and knocking out all the other bugs, minor as they are.
    14:14
    Once I've got everything in a really nice state, then I will go back in and start doing coin flash stuff. But I'm so close to the show that I almost want to stop adding features because I'm more likely to add bugs than I am to, uh, you know, make something better at this point. So that's kind of where I'm at. Uh, RoboFrenzy is on hold, uh, because I am doing all this stuff. So, uh, one thing at a time and, uh, I'll get there one day. Um, I've been putting off a lot of local repair work. Uh, I just, there's not enough of me to go around, unfortunately. So, um, I am going to get back on all that stuff as soon as York is over for sure.
    15:04
    So, that's kind of what's going on with me. In other news, it's the year of Flipper List. And it continues with 1934's exhibit, Golden Gate. And Golden Gate, apparently, and that's unconfirmed at the moment, came in two different models. Looking at the advertising flyer, they're not named differently. They're both named Golden Gate. One is 19 inches by 38 inches, and the other is 21 inches by 44.
    15:39
    So we can assume one is the junior model and one is the senior model if you were to go by other manufacturers' naming schemes.
    15:47
    Golden Gate is a bingo pinball that is near and dear to my heart, but this Golden Gate is also quite cool.
    15:57
    The thing that it's got, it's flipperless, but it's powered with three different batteries. And these batteries power different playfield components.
    16:12
    One, you have a powered out-hole area. So in these early flipperless games, basically you have a marble that's rolling down the playfield surface and if it makes it all the way down to the bottom without landing in one of the scoring pockets it lands in a section called out. Typically that is covered with a little metal piece that's part of the baffle and when you push in the coin slide that moves enough to drop all the balls similarly to the trap holes that are littered all over the playfield. On this game that little metal piece is actually a flap that's powered. And if you land in a particular pocket on the play field, it will allow all the out balls to return back to play, which is pretty cool and relatively unusual, especially for this time, which is very early in the electromechanical revolution. So the pocket that returns the outballs is located almost directly in the center of the playfield, and it is surrounded by nails in such a way that you could get a bounce into it, but it's unlikely. You have to basically aim for it.
    17:38
    One of the big features on this playfield, if you take a look at it, you'll see that as you leave the gate, there are four flag springs. And they're unusual. They're shaped differently than a normal flag spring, which are long and shaped like a pennant flag. These are kind of flat, and it's just spring steel mounted on a small standoff that's riveted. and the ball can travel through these little gates and go onto the playfield. And depending on which one you go through, the ball is going to be aimed towards something of value.
    18:24
    Up at the top, there is an interesting contraption. There's a hole that's marked opens gate. And in the center of the playfield, the thing that takes up the most real estate on this playfield, is this center area where balls can be trapped. And the playfield artwork is like an arrow that's pointing to this area. And there's essentially a staging area.
    18:51
    And there's a golden arm that traps the balls at the entrance to this area. When a ball lands in the open gate hole, it'll pull that arm aside and allow the balls to fall down. When they fall down, they will start jostling around down there, and you can nudge them into these different scoring pockets, or they can land down in the bottom center, which is kind of a trough. Okay, so that's the second powered element, that arm. There's a third powered element, and, oh, and by the way, if the ball lands in either the returns out balls hole or the opens gate hole, it will be returned back to play, so you can fire it off again. But if you land another ball in the opens gate hole it move that arm aside again but any balls that land down in that trough area down at the bottom middle will be kicked upwards So that the third powered element It kick the balls up into those high scoring holes So that trough area scores 600 per ball. Directly above it, there are three holes arranged diagonally falling to the left, and each is worth 1,000. then there's another row above that the center two holes are 1000 and then the hole on the left upper the part that's falling over is worth 2000 and then the part that's the feet the part that's at the bottom of the falling over person is worth 4000 points so it's probably wise to get a well timed nudge in as the ball starts to go into that opens gate hole and get the ball over to the right side of that trough so that you have a chance at landing in that 4,000 hole.
    20:50
    Arrayed around the playfield otherwise, this area is kind of enclosed, and then you have scoring pockets all around. Now, they're very low scoring in comparison until you get down near the out hole. So you have 200, 400, 600, and then down towards the bottom, you have a couple of 1,000 pockets. What's interesting about those, you have some nails that are near them, and the arrangement of these nails must make this a very interesting game to play, because you really have to have a strong nudge game in order to get the ball to go where you want it to go without tilting. those thousand point pockets are directly on the outside of that golden enclosed area in the center of the playfield and it would be very difficult to get a ball to go in there without tilting I think and it has to go in there without landing in the out hole now there's a tiny nail underneath of each of those pockets which if you have a directly centered ball will force it to rebound into the hole but let's face it, most of the time it's going to hit that peg and then roll off and go somewhere you don't want it to go, like the out-hole. Down below the 1,000 pockets, there is a consolation 600-point pocket, and if you land there, you know, at least you got something.
    22:18
    Of course, the best scenario is you land in the out-hole, and then you land the next ball in the returns out-balls. Of course, if it's your last ball, you're just out of luck.
    22:29
    One other thing, there is another 1,000 pocket that's on the right-hand side of the playfield. Basically, if you did a really soft plunge, it would bypass all those flag springs and then drop straight into that 1,000 pocket. You'd be hard-pressed to do that, I think. It would take a lot of practice, but it does look possible. The other thing I should note, if you have balls that are trapped at the gate, you know, without that arm moving out of the way, each ball there is worth 400 points. So you can stack up, you know, just by landing a bunch of balls there, quite a score compared to landing in a bunch of the 200-point holes or landing out. But most of your scoring opportunities are going to be found, of course, further down the play field, as is true with most of these games. There are a few different games pictured on IPDB, and it's unclear which ones are the larger size and which ones are the smaller size. So if you happen to have this game, if you could submit pictures and let them know which size that you have, so they give some recommended ways of measuring.
    23:48
    Oh, and the IPDB has a photo of one of the batteries, one of the dry cell batteries that powers this game. very cool nice little bit of history there so I think this game would be a lot of fun to play and it's quite a challenge from the looks of it it's got a stool pigeon tilt which is that the ball that sits on the stool and if you knock it off the stool then you've tilted the game it looks very difficult I think this looks extremely difficult it's got a cool gimmick with the golden gate that you have to open. And, of course, returning balls to play. I always like that feature, if they have it.
    24:30
    But, boy, it looks hard to get a good score on this game. If you have this game, let me know what you think of the gameplay.
    24:40
    It looks cool. And the cabinet itself is beautiful. Most of these 30s games have these beautiful wood cabinets, which are very ornate. It's got legs, which remind me of a rockola. Actually, they've got kind of that, I like to think of them as kind of gravestone type, where you've got this angled top to the wooden leg, and of course these bevels cut into the wood on either side. It's very appealing, very attractive. One other note from the IPDB, the batteries could actually be reached from within the coin door, which probably made it fairly easy to replace them should you need to.
    25:26
    So I'd be curious to know if this game got a lot of play on location or if it was kind of a dud. There were so many games that were released in 1934.
    25:37
    It would just be interesting to know which ones were big hits and which ones were sleeper hits and then which ones were just duds. I could see an argument with this game either way because of the large amount of playfield real estate that's taken up by that gimmick. But it's a cool gimmick, so I would like to know.
    25:56
    All right, well, that's all for tonight. My name again is Nick Baldrige. You can reach me at 4amusementonlypodcast at gmail.com, or you can call me on the bingos line. That's 724-BINGOS-1, 724-246-4671. You can listen to me on iTunes, Stitcher, Pocket Cast, via RSS, on Facebook, on Twitter, at bingopodcast. you can follow me on Instagram also at bingo podcast or you can listen to me on my website which is forumusementonly.libsyn.com alright back to work thanks very much I'll talk to you next time