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Episode 411 - New Meter Day, Kings and Queens, Demagnetizer Tool and 1935 Rockola Screamo

For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·18m 6s·analyzed·Dec 14, 2017
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.019

TL;DR

EM pinball repairs, analog meter tools, and historical 1935 Rockola Screamo proto-bingo gameplay

Summary

Nick Baldridge discusses his restoration work on Fox Hunt, a service call repair on Kings and Queens, tool recommendations from a listener, and a deep dive into the 1935 Rockola Screamo proto-bingo game. He highlights the value of analog meters for electromechanical game repair and documents challenges with voltage issues, cold solder joints, and component failures on vintage machines.

Key Claims

  • Fox Hunt has no 6-volt supply on its main 6-volt line; transformer replacement is needed

    high confidence · Nick Baldridge, speaker, diagnosed after careful voltage testing with new meter

  • Gottlieb machines from the Kings and Queens era typically have numerous cold solder joints due to flux or production speed issues

    medium confidence · Nick Baldridge, based on observed pattern across similar vintage games

  • Inexpensive magnetizer/demagnetizer tools are available for under $10 at Amazon, Walmart, and garage sales

    high confidence · Frank, listener, email correspondence

  • Screamo (1935 Rockola) is a proto-bingo game predating modern bingo machines with complex scoring combinations

    high confidence · Nick Baldridge, detailed game analysis

  • Analog meters are superior to digital meters for pinball repair because they require minimal processing and only decimal-place math

    medium confidence · Nick Baldridge, opinion based on recent experience switching to Sanwa analog meter

Notable Quotes

  • “If I had just bought a new meter several years ago, many years ago now... I might have saved myself a lot of fooling around with false readings”

    Nick Baldridge @ ~0:45 — Reflects on how long he used an unreliable digital meter; motivates the discussion of proper tools

  • “There's a needle. It moves it. You do a little math, and then you have your answer... the math involved is moving a decimal place, basically.”

    Nick Baldridge @ ~1:30 — Core reasoning for preferring analog meters in EM pinball repair

  • “It was blowing fuses on the 24-volt line... wires were popping off of that set of trip relays”

    Nick Baldridge @ ~4:00 — Describes the extent of the Kings and Queens repair challenge

  • “The right tool for the right job”

    Frank (listener) @ ~8:45 — Listener feedback validating proper tooling for demagnetization over improvised methods

  • “Getting that X win means that you need to make only red numbers on the bottom card... that would be pretty tricky because you have to make it all the way through all the black numbers first”

    Nick Baldridge @ ~14:00 — Highlights the strategic depth and difficulty of Screamo's bingo card mechanics

Entities

Nick BaldridgepersonRyan ClaytorpersonFrankpersonFor Amusement OnlyorganizationFox HuntgameKings and QueensgameRoboFrenzygameScreamogameRockolacompanyGottliebcompany

Signals

  • ?

    restoration_signal: Shift from digital to analog meters for EM pinball troubleshooting; speaker emphasizes superiority of analog meters for avoiding false readings in complex electrical systems

    high · Nick Baldridge switched to Sanwa analog meter, noted it solved years of frustration with digital meter probe positioning and false readings

  • ?

    product_concern: Gottlieb machines from Kings and Queens era exhibit systematic cold solder joint issues attributed to flux or production speed problems

    medium · Nick found numerous cold solder joints on trip relays during Kings and Queens service call; noted this as typical pattern for vintage Gottlieb games

  • ?

    restoration_signal: Availability of low-cost demagnetizer/magnetizer tools ($10 or less) at common retail and secondhand venues; DIY construction feasible

    high · Frank listener email describing tools at Amazon, Walmart, garage sales; suggested DIY construction using motor windings

  • ?

    operational_signal: Preventive wire tension checks on trip relays and solder joints critical for Gottlieb EM machines to avoid intermittent failures becoming permanent

    high · Nick documented that gentle tugging on wires reveals cold solder joints before they become permanent failures; replaced broken solder tabs on score motor switch

  • ?

    historical_signal: Screamo (1935) represents proto-bingo design with complex bingo card mechanics, free-play holes, and dual playfield card arrangement predating modern bingo machines

    high · Detailed technical description of Screamo's playfield, scoring combinations (diagonal/vertical/horizontal/T-shape/X-shape), and back glass bingo card mechanics

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.054

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 working on that fox hunt since trying to burn it to the ground and uh made a little progress uh the main news that i have is that I got a new meter, and that's thanks to Ryan Claytor.
0:30
Ryan let me pick out a meter and shot one over to me, and I will say I cannot believe sometimes how cheap I am, because if I had just bought a new meter several years ago, many years ago now, That's actually the meter that I've had since high school, I want to say, or right after.
1:00
I'm not sure. Anyway, I might have had one before that and it died. But I spent a lot of time fooling with that digital meter that I had and getting false readings and having to reposition the probes and making sure everything's okay, and then the probe slips, and then I get a different reading than I anticipated, and then I have to check everything. As it turns out, it was completely unnecessary.
1:30
So anyway, I picked out a Sanwa analog meter, and the reason why I chose that brand is just because they were the only ones I could find that made a reasonably inexpensive analog meter that had a continuity beep and a diode test. So analog meters are different than digital meters in that there's nothing that the meter itself has to process. There's a needle. It moves it. You do a little math, and then you have your answer. I find that to be pretty convenient because the math involved is moving a decimal place, basically. So I used it the other day. I went out on a service call, and it was incredibly helpful. so I'm really enjoying that and have started poking around at Foxhunt and found out that the 6 volts that I was measuring that seemed to go everywhere in the game is actually nowhere there's no voltage whatsoever on the 6 volt line had I known that I would have gone down the road of replacing the transformer and stuck with it but live and learn So, here I am with the Fox Hunt. I'm fairly certain now I need to replace the Transformer and figure out how to get 6 volts where it needs to go. And then things should be working very well on that game. I still have a couple of burn coils that I need to have made, but we'll see how that goes and then the game should be done. it's amazing to me that this game has taken this long but I'm only working on it maybe a couple hours a week because things in work and personal life are quite busy right now so anyway, hopefully I'm nearing the end of this one I have another one in queue and then I have a lot of work to do on some other projects that I want to do. So, including RoboFrenzy, I've got the back door, and every time I go down to go work on Fox, I pass by the door, which has all the units on it, and shed a silent tear that I haven't yet wired that up. But I will. All in time. Everything in time. So for now I just need to get that meter down there and start measuring some stuff But I having a good time using that and watching the needle move and reliving some of my early days with meters because I used an analog meter in school but I haven used one since And I forgot how much I missed them.
Sanwacompany
  • ?

    restoration_signal: Fox Hunt experiencing complete 6-volt rail failure requiring transformer replacement; demonstrates importance of proper voltage diagnostics

    high · Nick measured zero volts on 6-volt line using new analog meter; identified transformer as root cause after initial misdiagnosis

  • ?

    restoration_signal: Nick juggling multiple restoration projects (Fox Hunt, RoboFrenzy) with limited weekly time commitment (~2 hours/week on Fox Hunt) due to work/life obligations

    high · Nick stated Fox Hunt has taken long time due to limited schedule; RoboFrenzy awaiting wiring with multiple other projects queued

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Screamo features doubled scoring on central 'Screamo hole' (compass rose artwork), enabling 40-coin payouts from single diagonal win; demonstrates early special hole concept

    high · Nick described Screamo hole mechanics and score doubling feature, traced to common era design pattern

    • 4:44
    So, let's talk about repairs. I did go out on a service call, I mentioned. I fixed up a Kings and Queens, and the Kings and Queens came to me.
    4:54
    Well, it didn't come to me, I came to it. But I was informed of the situation with it. It was blowing fuses on the 24-volt line. It had been shipped a long distance, and so I assumed that in shipment there had been some things that had shaken loose or just needed some basic tightening.
    5:17
    So I go over to check it out, and there were some fairly extensive problems. one of which there's a red and yellow wire which was attached to the frame of the 0 to 9 unit which is used for match as well as a few other things in the game like there's a moving special I believe and it moves a special and changing the value of the pops. so this wire though when connected to the frame caused the fuse to blow and it had been connected for some time I'm not sure if it came that way or or if it was reconnected in that position after chasing down all the other problems I wasn't able to fix that on this go-round and I'll get into those other problems here in a second, but basically, when that was hooked up, it blew the fuse and also blew a fusible link, also known as a wire, that carried the 24 volts on the back of the trip bank, one of the trip banks on the bottom of the game, between the tilt relay and the game over relay. so with that 24 volts ran to a few dedicated solenoids for example the relay that drives the kicker holes that will return the ball back to you if the game is tilted and you start a new game and a few other items like that but most of the underplay field 24 volts was just not there so I found the broken wire of course it was inside the insulation so that was an interesting thing but I found it because on games of that vintage from Gottlieb there's something up possibly with the flux or the speed at which the games were produced and there are typically a lot of cold solder joints if someone hasn't gone through and giving a gentle tug on the wires in the game, then you're likely to experience these intermittent problems that will eventually become permanent problems.
    7:41
    Permanent, a relative term, because, of course, anything's fixable. But anyway, there were a ton of cold solder joints, and wires were popping off of that set of trip relays, and that was really the place where most of the cold solder joints were. Of course, those were all fixed, and the score motor had a switch where the solder tab was broken, and a previous tech had soldered the wire directly to the outside of the switch.
    8:11
    That works, except that the flexion in that switch will eventually cause the solder to give up its hold, and then you'll just have a free-floating wire around the score motor.
    8:27
    And there's lots of stuff for it to short to in that area. So, replaced that switch, and everything was good there. So, all that said, the game went from not working at all to almost fully working. And things are looking up. A fairly quick return trip will have the 0-9 unit fixed up. So thank you to Ryan Claytor again for that meter I mean that is a fantastic gift I very much appreciate it And while we speaking about gifts and because this is the holiday season here I just wanted to say thank you to each and every listener I know that there are some new listeners and some people who are just discovering the world of bingos, and thank you very much from the bottom of my heart.
    9:19
    And while we're on the topic of listeners, listener Frank emailed me and mentioned episode number 24. This is way back in the catalog about a method for demagnetizing a component by giving it a whack with a mallet.
    9:37
    He says, this works. However, if you don't want to deform the component, I suggest you use a magnetizer demagnetizer. It's a simple thing that's sold at tool suppliers from Amazon to Walmart for less than $10.
    9:50
    Watch for them at garage sales. Most folks have no idea what they do. he says the right tool for the right job I would agree with that however I was unaware of the existence of inexpensive magnetizer demagnetizers I always think of degas tools or something that is of course much more powerful but the things that Frank is talking about are these small little blocks that you can actually stick a screwdriver tip into, which is kind of a cool thing as well, to magnetize or demagnetize it.
    10:30
    I'll probably pick one up just for that purpose. But unfortunately, a little more correspondence with him, I said it looks like the cheap ones don't allow you to fit an entire armature plate inside from a relay. And he says, well, the windings from any size motor can be made into a magnetizing or demagnetizing tool.
    10:55
    So I will include a video link that he sent me about how to make a demagnetizer tool. And hopefully that helps some folks. And I'll see about making this in the future. I have some different parts lying around now. and I can use some of those to construct this. So thank you to Frank for listening and for the feedback. Always appreciated.
    11:25
    So, let's move on to the year of Flipperless. Today's game is October of 1935's Screamo by Rockola. Screamo is a proto-bingo. It's an early bingo-style game, where you have a bingo card on the back glass, and different combinations of balls in different holes on the play field will give you a different award.
    11:57
    The combinations are pretty interesting, too. So there are diagonal wins and vertical and horizontal wins. and vertical wins give you two skill points or two coins horizontal wins give you three skill points diagonal starting from the upper right and falling to the left give you five skill points diagonal falling from a start of the upper left down to the bottom right give you seven skill points And then balls in a T shape on the bingo card give you 16 skill points.
    12:46
    And balls in an X shape on the bingo card give you 20 skill points. So on the play field, you have two bingo cards.
    13:02
    The bingo cards both have a free space in the center. and then you have an arrangement of holes in squares inside the bingo cards. The arrangement of squares is opposite. So the first card contains certain squares that have holes. The second card contains the other holes. So if you were to look at it, it looks like there are two different bingo cards. The top one is half of it The bottom one is the other half if that makes sense and on the back glass you have the card in its entirety So you have a single card in the back glass which is comprised of all the different holes on the play field and in the upper part and the lower part of the play field. So looking at the back glass, you have numbers ranging from 11 to 21 to 31 to 41 to 51. But they alternate. So 11 is a red number, 21 is a black number, 31 is a red number, 41 is a black number, and 51 is a red number again.
    14:06
    This means that all the black numbers are in the upper card on the playfield, all the red numbers are in the lower card. That means that you've got to alternate.
    14:16
    You not only have to make your number, but you have to make your number in the appropriate card so that it lights up the appropriate spot on the back glass. This looks extremely challenging and super fun. I would love to play one of these, because it looks extremely difficult, actually, to get a good win. Getting that X win means that you need to make only red numbers on the bottom card, of course, in both diagonals. that would be pretty tricky because you have to make it all the way through all the black numbers first you get 10 balls to play and down at the bottom of the play field the very bottom are two free play holes this is a concept on these earlier games especially the mechanical ones where instead of the ball being lost at the bottom in an out area there was a way to bring it back to the shooter lane through the free play hole.
    15:23
    Again, that's extremely similar to the bingos. The tilt in this is a pedestal tilt, or a stool pigeon tilt, where there's a ball that sits on a little platform. If it falls off the platform, you're tilted, and that's it. But otherwise, you're in good shape. So the payoff appears to be by the bar owner instead of on the game itself. but around this time, maybe a few years later this same game, if it were to be made would have automatic payout and that would be a cool addition but otherwise this game looks amazing if the game is tilted the ball actually makes contact with the area underneath the stool, which is metal and it will light tilted on the back glass that's pretty cool now on the play field there is other artwork there are what appears to be a crowd of people I guess in a bingo hall crowded around a screen at the top which is labeled Screamo and there appears to be a spot for a ball in the upper center of that artwork It kind of looks like a compass rose or something in the middle of that square that says Screamo.
    16:47
    In most games of this time period, your score would be doubled if you landed in that hole, and it appears it is that way in this game as well.
    16:58
    That hole is labeled the Screamo hole, and if you land in there, any score that you get is doubled. That's pretty amazing. so you can get up to 40 coins or 40 replays, if you want to speak of it in later bingo terms, from a single diagonal win.
    17:20
    That's pretty neat. So there's Screamo. That's a game I'd love to play or own, but more realistically play one day.
    17:31
    And 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.
    17:46
    You can listen to me on iTunes, Stitcher, Pocket Cast via RSS, on Google Play Music, on Facebook, on Twitter, at bingopodcast. You can follow me on Instagram, also at bingopodcast. Or you can listen to me on my website, which is 4amusementonly.libsyn.com. Thank you very much for listening, and I'll talk to you next time.