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Epsode 371 - Game progress, 1962 Williams 3 Coins

For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·29m 30s·analyzed·Jun 1, 2016
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.028

TL;DR

MultiBingo hardware acquisition and Williams Three Coins deep-dive analysis.

Summary

Nick Baldridge reports on significant progress with his MultiBingo homebrew machine, having acquired critical bingo hardware from Dennis Dodell and beginning assembly with his daughters. He details the hardware sourcing, restoration philosophy, and installation plans, then provides an in-depth analysis of the Williams 1962 Three Coins replay game, discussing its playfield mechanics, artwork, and comparison to Jolly Jokers.

Key Claims

  • Three Coins uses the same playfield layout as Jolly Jokers but is a replay version rather than a bonus version

    high confidence · Nick Baldridge describing Three Coins mechanics in detail

  • Dennis Dodell sourced bingo hardware including a cabinet from Silver Sales, a playfield from an Ohio Dime game, and a head from a Touchdown magic numbers game

    high confidence · Nick Baldridge describing the hardware acquisition and parts sourcing

  • Phil Bogoma is bringing Gay Time and Bikini bingo games to the Rocky Mountain Pinball Showdown in Denver, June 10-12

    high confidence · Nick Baldridge announcing upcoming event

  • The Lotta Fun playfield installed in the MultiBingo cabinet has rollovers, which is unusual for that game model, possibly indicating Bally used it as a replacement playfield for worn originals

    medium confidence · Nick Baldridge discussing hardware sourcing and Dennis Dodell's theory

  • Three Coins playfield features a unique diamond-shaped island with four posts between the flippers that allows skilled nudging to save drains

    high confidence · Nick Baldridge providing detailed playfield description

  • The Three Coins back glass shows French currency (5 and 50 franc pieces) on the coins, suggesting it may be a French version of the game

    medium confidence · Nick Baldridge describing artwork and questioning origin

  • Nick is currently running 13 working bingo games: Bright Lights, Broadway 51, Coney Island, Spotlight, Atlantic City, Palm Beach, Zingo, Leader, Stars, Circus, Funway, Lotta Fun, and Barrel of Fun 1961

    high confidence · Nick Baldridge listing operational games

  • Nick played both Three Coins and Jolly Jokers at the York Show two years prior and prefers the Three Coins replay version

    high confidence · Nick Baldridge comparing personal gameplay experiences

Notable Quotes

  • “I wanted something that couldn't be restored. If it was something that could be restored, then it would tempt me to actually just restore the game.”

    Nick Baldridge @ ~15:30 — Explains his philosophy for sourcing the MultiBingo cabinet hardware—prioritizing unusable/trashed machines to avoid distraction

  • “That gas station actually held a lot of memories for me. That was the first place that I remember ever playing a pinball machine.”

    Nick Baldridge @ ~8:00 — Personal connection to pinball origin story; emotional weight to the hardware acquisition location choice

  • “I think this particular layout is pretty ingenious because there is a whole lot of danger around every flip, but also a whole lot of satisfaction that can be had just from bouncing the ball back into play.”

    Nick Baldridge @ ~42:00 — Design analysis of Three Coins' distinctive diamond-island playfield feature and its gameplay implications

  • “Williams was really fond of this particular mechanism... I happen to like these swinging targets quite a bit and think that they add a nice bit of challenge to the gameplay.”

    Nick Baldridge @ ~39:00 — Commentary on Williams design philosophy and the prevalence of swinging targets in early 1960s machines

  • “I'm going to draw a schematic before I wire everything up just to make sure that I use the appropriate wire colors in the appropriate places.”

    Nick Baldridge @ ~27:00 — Technical planning approach for MultiBingo wiring, showing methodical engineering discipline

  • “I would love to do something that ambitious. And I hesitate to even say it on the show because it's a really cool idea, but I'm not sure if I can actually make it happen.”

    Nick Baldridge @ ~34:00 — References an ambitious cabinet or head stencil design idea inspired by Dennis Dodell that he's uncertain about executing

Entities

Nick BaldridgepersonDennis DodellpersonPhil BogomapersonPhil HooperpersonChris DadepersonRyan ClaytorpersonSteve SmithpersonAva BaldridgepersonSophie BaldridgepersonJohnperson

Signals

  • ?

    product_launch: Nick Baldridge has acquired critical bingo hardware for MultiBingo and begun assembly phase with family; hardware includes salvaged cabinet, playfields, and head from multiple sources, representing significant project progress

    high · Detailed description of hardware acquisition from Dennis Dodell and assembly work beginning with daughters Ava and Sophie

  • ?

    community_signal: Dennis Dodell providing extensive technical guidance, photographic documentation, and hardware sourcing for Nick's MultiBingo project; represents collaborative community support

    high · Nick's repeated thanks to Dennis for 'invaluable resource' status and specific hardware contributions

  • ?

    design_innovation: Three Coins features distinctive diamond-shaped island with four posts between flippers that enables skill-based drain saves through nudging; swinging target mechanism used repeatedly by Williams in early 1960s

    high · Detailed technical description of playfield layout and mechanics; comparison to other Williams titles using same mechanism

  • ?

    historical_signal: Williams design patterns: swinging target mechanisms appear on Three Coins, Jolly Jokers, Riverboat, Swinger, Funfest, and Gay 90s; represents consistent mechanical design preference during early 1960s

    high · Nick's enumeration of multiple Williams games using swinging targets and commentary on Williams fondness for this mechanism

  • ?

    restoration_signal: Nick successfully sourced unusable/trashed bingo hardware intentionally to avoid temptation to restore original game; combines components from Silver Sales cabinet, Ohio Dime playfield, Touchdown head, Twist door

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.088

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 well it's been a couple weeks since i've uh put out a show and a whole heck of a lot has happened just like last time i have a feeling this is kind of par for the course from here on but um I've done a lot of work around town I've been fixing games I've been working on a little bit of my own stuff I did spend some time and I've played my own games just making sure everything is still working I haven't had a whole lot of time to play every game down here but I did make some time last weekend and I was able to go through the whole game room front to back and make sure everything is working.
1:03
But the biggest news, aside from typical new game developments, and I'll give you the rundown of all those, is that I have hardware now.
1:17
And not just any hardware. I had previously acquired all the computer hardware that I needed, but I didn't have the actual bingo hardware that I needed. And I know that sounds silly, having several bingo machines, but my goal was to get something that was trashed. You know, that couldn't be restored.
1:38
And if it was cosmetically okay, that'd be great. But, you know, the chances of finding that are pretty slim. well I've been talking with Dennis Dodell who has previously been on the show and he has been very generous with his time and with his knowledge as well as taking photos of games and answering questions and all that kind of stuff well he ended up hashing out a deal with me for the bingo hardware that I needed. So we ended up meeting at the midway point between us, which happened to be pretty close to my grandparents' small town in Kentucky.
For Amusement Only
organization
Rocky Mountain Pinball Showdownevent
Williams 1962 Three Coinsgame
Jolly Jokersgame
MultiBingoproduct
Gay Timegame
Bikinigame
Turf Kinggame
Barrel of Fungame
York Showevent
Silver Salescompany

high · Explicit statement of restoration philosophy and detailed breakdown of component sources

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Three Coins (replay version) preferred over Jolly Jokers (bonus version) despite same playfield layout; preference based on replay reward structure and gameplay preference pattern

    high · Nick stating personal preference for Three Coins and gravitation toward replay games despite Jolly Jokers having more power on shared row

  • ?

    content_signal: Nick releasing episodes bi-weekly with significant content updates; acknowledges irregular production schedule due to high activity levels in restoration and development work

    high · Opening statement: 'it's been a couple weeks since I've put out a show' and expectation this is 'par for the course'

  • ?

    event_signal: Rocky Mountain Pinball Showdown scheduled for Denver, Colorado, June 10-12; Phil Bogoma bringing two fully-working bingo machines (Gay Time and Bikini) representing rare opportunity for western US players

    high · Announcement with specific dates and attendee details from Phil Bogoma

  • ?

    technology_signal: Nick selecting modern TV with optimal boot time for MultiBingo backglass display; planning bezel construction with foam core and mat board to hide monitor trim and integrate with cabinet

    high · Detailed description of Memorial Day shopping trip for TV selection criteria and planned integration methodology

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Theory that Bally used Lotta Fun playfield with rollovers as replacement parts when originals wore out on other models; evidence from hardware sourced by Dennis Dodell showing unusual feature combination

    medium · Dennis Dodell's theory about Lotta Fun playfield with rollovers being repurposed replacements; Nick lending 'a lot of credence' to the explanation

  • ?

    collector_signal: Nick requesting high-resolution images of Barrel of Fun series backglass artwork (1961-63) and Fun Spot titles to complete MultiBingo game library; community sourcing for rare game documentation

    high · Explicit requests for phone/camera photos of game glass from collectors with specific titles mentioned

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Nick planning historically-accurate Bally-style wire trussing (cloth-wrapped appearance without cloth) rather than modern zip-tie approach for aesthetic and troubleshooting benefits; includes schematic planning and grounded service outlet

    high · Detailed description of wiring methodology mimicking original Bally techniques and rationale for approach

    • 2:34
    And so I ended up meeting him out there. Now, for this trip, what I did, I took Ava with me, and she was my traveling companion.
    2:48
    We got to spend a lot of time bonding and talking about school and life in general. We had a very good time.
    2:57
    But we also both got to meet Dennis. And Dennis had provided a lot of help with the Turf King restoration that Ava just completed recently. So it was a real treat for both of us to even just meet Dennis, much less pick up this hardware.
    3:18
    So Dennis and his friend John came down and met us there, and I had us meet in front of an abandoned gas station, which is right around the corner from my grandparents' house.
    3:32
    I know that must have seemed awfully weird, but that gas station actually held a lot of memories for me. That was the first place that I remember ever playing a pinball machine, and they had a pinball in there. and apparently in the back they had poker machines. So I'm not sure if they ever ran bingos, but it honestly wouldn't surprise me.
    3:59
    I've asked my grandfather several times. He used to play the poker machines frequently, but I'm not sure if he remembers specifically bingos. I've showed him a lot of the parts from games that I've picked up and so forth, and he's had things to say about all of them, but he doesn't specifically remember playing any particular titles.
    4:24
    So that was really cool and meaningful. And Dennis brought a whole bunch of parts, and this stuff is in a lot, a whole lot nicer shape than I would have ever dreamed. And so, you know, I was just floored with each shiny, nice part that he pulled out.
    4:53
    So now what I've got, I've got a full bingo cabinet that came from a Silver Sales. The lower cabinet came from a Silver Sales, rather. The playfield that's installed is a lot of fun playfield, but a lot of fun. was an Ohio Dime game and didn't have rollovers.
    5:16
    Well, this game has a lot of fun play field with rollovers, which is kind of weird. Dennis's thought was that maybe Bally ran some extra lot of funds and people used them as replacement play fields if the original wore out.
    5:32
    I lend a lot of credence to what Dennis has to say, especially. and it sure seems likely because what other reason would they make this play field with rollovers?
    5:47
    It was in 2006 at least running County Fair, which is yet another game, and had the score and instruction cards for those as well as a tax stamp from 2006. So it was being run fairly recently. the head came from a touchdown which is a magic numbers game and it's a very deep cabinet which is really good the back door came from a game called The Twist and then there are pieces and parts from all different games and so this multi-bingo will actually end up having parts from many of the different bingos that it's going to emulate, so that's pretty cool. So, Ava and I drove back home, and we got back on, let's see, Monday at about 1 a.m., somewhere in that neighborhood. Monday Ava and Sophie and I Sophie's my younger daughter all decided to start working on this thing so the first thing that we needed to do was to take the back door off and just assess the condition because that's going to be where all the hardware is mounted that runs the game including all the boards and the computer and all that good stuff So we took the door off and all the hardware had previously been stripped from it which was awesome. I mean, the biggest deal with this is that I wanted something that couldn't be restored. If it was something that could be restored, then it would tempt me to actually just restore the game.
    7:44
    So this was great. And with all the hardware off of that, it was very easy to see what needed to be done. I wanted it to have all of the mounting holes filled, because, of course, the screws that I'm going to use to hold the boards on are much different than the screws that are used to hold the steppers on.
    8:08
    So I set about filling in those holes, and Bally also used some staples to hold on these thin pieces of cardboard or leather I think it's just cardboard that shields some of the wires from the steppers or any pivot point where something could rub up against the wires it just protects the wire bundle and those little staples were still in there the cardboard or leather was gone which was great and all we had to do was pull out those little staples and then I had Ava and Sophie sign the back door they wanted to put their names on it so they did that and I went ahead and taped off, primed and painted the back door on the inside so I was able to get the boards installed and I did that last night now tonight my plan is to work more on the wiring between the boards and I've really got to look and make sure that my layout makes sense I may have to move some things around to ensure that I'm running things optimally. I also still have to install the bridge rectifiers which are going to control the coils and motors and lamps.
    9:43
    But, aside from that, I'm still working on game code, so when I hit kind of a snag with the hardware side, I'll be switching back to coding and vice versa.
    9:59
    This should keep me occupied for quite some time. Yesterday was Memorial Day here in the United States, and because of that, I was able to go out and get a TV for use as the back glass in this project, as well as some foam core and some mat board, which I will cut to make a bezel for the monitor, so I'll hide all of the gross trim on the monitor and make it so that I can have other equipment behind there and it'll be invisible. Because the monitor doesn't take up 100% of the head space. There's nothing that would fit precisely. But this one comes pretty close vertically. It's a few inches off. So I'm going to have to build in a couple pieces of wood, like a couple 2x4s, one on the bottom, one on the top, and then a couple on the sides. and then I'll mount the TV right in the center, cut the mats to fit, put that over top, and then slide in a piece of glass or plexi and should be good to go. So this is pretty exciting.
    11:24
    The wiring, my plan for that is to actually truss it up just like real bally wiring, and that means even though the wire that I'm going to use is not cloth-wrapped, I'm going to tie it in the same way that Bally did with their wire bundles. What this will do is it will make the wiring very neat and clean. You won't have the kind of garish zip-tie circles poking out everywhere, and it should make it fairly easy to troubleshoot as well.
    12:03
    I'm going to draw a schematic before I wire everything up just to make sure that I use the appropriate wire colors in the appropriate places. Everything will be grounded. What I'm going to do inside the head is put in a service outlet, just like Valley had, but this one will be grounded. That grounded service outlet is going to run either a UPS or a master-slave power strip. I'm not sure which one yet. With the master-slave power strips, what you can do is have a single device that when it turns on, it turns the rest of the devices on automatically.
    12:43
    So depending, what I'll do is wire in power for either the TV or the computer and then have that turn everything else on. And because the TV boots so slowly, modern TVs are not great as far as how long they take to turn on.
    13:07
    We've really moved beyond the point of absurdity there. You have a full embedded computer in your TV and it's just a little crazy. So I spent a lot of time yesterday going around town and looking for not only the best deal, but also the one that had the best boot time and the one that was least irritating, I guess you'd say, to work with. So the one that I picked is really nice, and it should throw that backlash up there very well and make it very playable. I'm really excited to get that going. I have some brackets which I can install temporarily just to hold the monitor in place and test everything and make sure that everything's going to work the way that I think it's going to work. So I may do that later on tonight. I don't know. Sky's the limit.
    14:04
    Molly and the kids are out at a friend's cookout. A friend of theirs from school. So, you know, I've got time. I've got inclination. What more do you need? so that's really what's been going on in my world with hardware and i've really got to thank dennis again he was just amazing and uh he has been an invaluable resource through this whole thing and i really hope that he enjoys the finished product once it once it actually done and hopefully I be traveling out that way sometime He can actually get to play it
    14:51
    But yeah, that's what's happening. So let's run down the list of games which are actually working at the moment. We have Bright Lights, Broadway 51,
    15:05
    Coney Island, Spotlight, Atlantic City, Palm Beach. On the United side, we have Zingo, Leader, Stars, and Circus. And then back to Valley, we have Funway, Lotta Fun, and Barrel of Fun 1961.
    15:32
    Now, I'll be able to very easily do the rest of the Barrel of Fun series. the gameplay is actually pretty much the same for all of those just with slightly different backlash graphics.
    15:47
    But I do need a better picture of any of the Barrel of Fun series. The original Barrel of Fun, the only image I was able to find is very, very low resolution.
    16:00
    So if there is somebody with one of those games, I would love, love, love, love a higher resolution picture.
    16:09
    For Barrel of Fun 61, 62, or 63, I would also love a higher resolution picture. And if anybody's got Fun Spot, and again, 61, 62, or 63, I would love an image of that, at least of the title. And for those of you that don't know, you know, who might be listening that have these games, I'm not asking you to take the glass out of the game. I just need you to take a picture of the glass head-on or as close as you can get and with a reasonably modern camera or cell phone so that it's not super blurry if I blow it up.
    16:58
    That would be amazingly helpful. So if anybody's got one of those games, I would love to see that. At the moment, what I'm going to do is implement it as I can, and so those games will show up in the menu. It's just that the artwork's not going to be fantastic because I don't have any fantastic artwork to go off of to begin with, and I am not very good at doing anything artwork-related. So I just know my limitations.
    17:30
    So, I'm looking at this big pile of wires over here, and it's really calling my name. I would love to go get that started, but before I do, I do have some other information to get out there. The first thing is that Phil Bogoma, who's been on the podcast a couple times, is bringing two games to the Rocky Mountain Pinball Showdown. The Rocky Mountain Pinball Showdown is in Denver, Colorado, June 10th through 12th.
    18:03
    And Phil will be bringing a Gay Time and a bikini. For those of you out west who have never played a fully working bingo, now is your opportunity. Two different models with two different feature sets. This should be a real treat. Gay Time, of course, is the Magic Pockets game, one of the two that Valley produced, where the top row of holes can actually be physically moved left and right if you trap a ball in one of them.
    18:36
    And then Bikini is a very desirable Magic Screen game with the futurity buildup of the Red Letter game.
    18:45
    So I hope to hear lots of people got out and played those games. so thank you Phil for agreeing to bring those games I know that's a big undertaking but it's at least appreciated over in Richmond, Virginia for whatever that's worth so the huge list of people that I need to thank continues to grow every week it seems more and more people are helping me out with questions and different issues that I'm running into.
    19:21
    Phil Hooper, again, has been amazing. I've asked him, I feel like, a ton of questions, and he's been very patient with me answering those. So thank you very much, Phil. And thank you, as always, to Chris Dade and Ryan Claytor and Steve Smith. Steve has agreed to help me with engineering the lockdown bar that I need to do that's going to be a huge undertaking for me and Dennis gave me a great idea for a stencil for the cab and the head I need to sit down and actually draw some stuff and figure out if it's something that I can actually do but I would love to do something that ambitious And I hesitate to even say it on the show because it's a really cool idea, but I'm not sure if I can actually make it happen. And at the moment, I'm just disappointing myself and Dennis, but not, you know, the entire listening populace. So aside from that, let's talk about a game, shall we? let's talk about Williams 1962 Three Coins is the replay version of Williams Jolly Jokers and it uses the same playfield layout up at the top as you fire out of the shooter lane you've got five different cards each with a rollover button right in the center from left to right you've got Ace, King, Queen, Jack and Ten And the whole game is kind of predicated on completing that hand, that particular hand, multiple times. So each time you complete the hand, one of the three coins on the playfield will illuminate.
    21:23
    And once you get all three, good things start to happen. When you complete that sequence twice, it will light special in the outlanes. and when you complete it three times, it'll light special at the swinging target, which is right in the center of the playfield. This same swinging target mechanism was used many times by Williams in the coming years on games like Riverboat, on games like Swinger or Funfest.
    21:57
    Williams was really fond of this particular mechanism. gay 90s There tons of examples but I happen to like these swinging targets quite a bit and think that they add a nice bit of challenge to the gameplay Now what sets Three Coins and Jolly Jokers a bit apart from many of the other games that Williams made at this time, and especially what Gottlieb was doing, you have two pops, which are basically about an inch and a half above each of the slings. and so depending on where the ball is rolling you're going to get that random pop away and back towards the flippers but the flippers are not oriented in the traditional position they will flip, of course left will flip up into the right and right will flip up into the left but in between the flippers there's a giant gap and in this gap there is a small island with a rubber around it made up of four posts, and this island is in a diamond shape.
    23:16
    So if you're having a good game, multiple times the ball will try to go down, and if you nudge the machine at just the right time, it will bounce back up onto one of the flippers. I think this particular layout is pretty ingenious because there is a whole lot of danger around every flip, but also a whole lot of satisfaction that can be had just from bouncing the ball back into play. It's pretty cool.
    23:49
    So up at the top, there is a cluster of three pop bumpers, two of which can be lit for 10 points. The two pop bumpers I mentioned, which are above the slings, can also be lit for 10 points. and then clustered around the playfield above those two pops, there are four stand-up targets,
    24:09
    and when the insert in front of them is lit, it will award the card as indicated. Upper left is king, upper right is jack, lower left is ace, and lower right is ten. So with those, instead of having to shoot all the way back up to the arch, you can add another card to your hand. On top of that, there's an alternating relay which will spot the next card that you need in either out lane.
    24:42
    It's not particularly helpful to get that next card and lose your ball at the same time. There are outlane posts, which are down at the very bottom of the outlane before the ball starts rolling towards the outhole. But it's really, really difficult to nudge a ball back into play from one of those. It's theoretically possible, though.
    25:11
    You'd have to have just the right spin on the ball and just the right nudge. but as I mentioned these games are very fun I've also played Jolly Jokers I played them both at the York Show two years ago both happened to be there Jolly Jokers seem to have a bit more power and I'm sure that was due to the number of games that were on that row with three coins but I tend to gravitate more towards replay games and three coins fit the bill. So let's talk about artwork. The artwork for this game is pretty neat. It's, you know, kind of typical of the era as far as a card theme goes. You've got the Jack and Queen going into separate tents on the left and right side of the playfield plastics. Below that you have two Jacks, which are shuffling a deck of cards. They're doing a card trick, and it appears. that they're playing a card accordion.
    26:17
    Down in the middle, you have two jacks holding a card that says, spots next card when lit. That's pretty cool.
    26:24
    In between, you have one of the queens above the three coins, or one of the maidens from the back glass.
    26:32
    And on the left and right side, you have two queens. In the center, you have a king counting his money, and that island that I mentioned that's diamond-shaped has three money bags on it. Now the three coins themselves show as 5 and 50 franc pieces.
    26:53
    Now I'm not sure if I'm looking at the French version or not on IPDB, and I don't remember the one that I played if it had the same artwork, but it sure looks original, and the rest of it's in English, so I have to imagine that that's original.
    27:09
    The back class has three queens on it. The Queen of Spades, the Queen of Clubs, and the Queen of Hearts. And they're sitting around a wishing well, and they're each pitching in a coin.
    27:26
    On the back glass you have multiple cards, each of which will light with one of the match numbers. And your scoring is on a sign that's actually posted in front of the well, the wishing well, that they're sitting inside. and that score can go up to 1999.
    27:49
    The cabinet graphics are very attractive, I think. They're purple and blue and then the base coat is a darker white or cream.
    28:05
    Not sure the best way to describe this particular color. Take a look in the show notes. I'll post a link and see what you think. But basically, on the sides of the head and the cab, there is a stylized coin, and the coin is actually a diamond shape with small lines coming off of it to represent illumination. I think that's pretty clever. Very beautiful and fun game, and if you get the chance, definitely check it out. this and Jolly Jokers are pretty much equally fun in my book and both have unusual cabinet graphics unusual paint colors and very attractive artwork well, that's all for tonight thank you very much for joining me 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. You can listen to us on Google Play Music. Or you can listen to us on our website, which is foramusementonly.libsyn.com.
    29:26
    Thank you very much for listening, and I'll talk to you next time.