Episode 218 - Bingo Row York Show 2015 pt. 3

For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·19m 59s·analyzed·Oct 15, 2015

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.024

TL;DR

Nick Baldridge's bingo machines at 2015 York Show draw strong interest; transport incident averts disaster.

Summary

Nick Baldridge recounts the Saturday portion of his experience bringing six bingo pinball machines to the 2015 York Show. He highlights community support, the arrival of a rare United Caravan bingo machine, and a harrowing return trip where machine heads shifted during transport, miraculously avoiding glass damage. The event was deemed a success with strong player interest and engagement.

Key Claims

The York Show runs Friday and Saturday open to public, Thursday setup only; Saturday is shorter (8 hours vs 12) due to 4pm breakdown start.
high confidence · Nick Baldridge describing York Show logistics
Vic Camp brought and set up a Coney Island bingo machine on Saturday morning.
high confidence · Nick Baldridge direct statement about Saturday attendance
John Robinette contributed pictures and content to Jeffrey's Bally Bingo Pinball Machines book.
high confidence · Nick Baldridge identifying Robinette's prior work
A United Caravan bingo was the only United bingo at the show and featured United's unique Roto (moving numbers) feature.
high confidence · Nick Baldridge describing the acquired machine
During return trip, Double Up and Nightclub machine heads shifted and fell; Double Up's back glass survived undamaged despite heavy impact.
high confidence · Nick Baldridge detailed first-person account of transport accident
Double Up's previously-glued back glass came unglued from the fall but did not break further.
high confidence · Nick Baldridge describing Double Up condition post-incident
Nightclub sustained mechanical damage: a fiber yoke/actuator plate on a relay broke.
high confidence · Nick Baldridge identifying mechanical damage to Nightclub
Steve Smith had a spare actuator plate available for Nightclub repair.
high confidence · Nick Baldridge mentioning parts availability from Steve Smith
Unloading all machines at home took 4 hours (10:30am-2:30pm) with help from multiple people.
high confidence · Nick Baldridge describing unload time
Next year Baldridge plans to bring fewer machines (at least one, but not five or six).

Notable Quotes

“It was very cool. And I really appreciate all the listeners who came up and said they appreciated listening to the show.”
Nick Baldridge @ early in episode — Shows community appreciation for the podcast and personal connection with listeners
“It was just really cool, and I got such a kick out of that, I took a pic of that too. But that machine saw pretty constant use.”
Nick Baldridge @ mid-episode — Describes enthusiast reaction to new United Caravan machine and its popularity
“And all of a sudden, wham! And the whole truck shakes and I start cursing loudly and frequently because I know what's happened is that one or more of the heads have come down.”
Nick Baldridge @ transport accident narrative — Dramatic moment capturing the tension of the transport mishap
“Miraculously, the back glass for double up is not broken. It's not split. It's not cracked. and I have no idea how that happened.”
Nick Baldridge @ post-accident assessment — Emphasis on unexpected survival of fragile component despite heavy impact
“I'm as surprised as you are, dear listener.”
Nick Baldridge @ describing Double Up's glued glass surviving unglued but unbroken — Self-aware commentary on improbable outcome
“And you know who knows they might have broken something mechanical too but the glass of course, is irreplaceable.”
Nick Baldridge @ initial concern after accident — Shows priority concern about irreplaceable components
“I just want to give a shout out to Mike and, uh, my neighbor again. And, uh, another guy who I've not asked for permission to release his name to the internet but they all helped me and I couldn't have done it without them.”
Nick Baldridge @ unload section — Recognition of community support and personal helpers
“It was a once in a lifetime thing as I've mentioned And, you know, next year I will probably bring a bingo. But I don't think I'm going to bring five or six.”

Entities

Nick BaldridgepersonVic CamppersonJohn RobinettepersonJeffrey LawtonpersonSteve SmithpersonYork ShoweventBingo RoweventFor Amusement OnlyorganizationDouble UpgameNightclubgameUnited Caravan

Signals

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event_signal: York Show 2015 successfully hosted Bingo Row, a dedicated exhibition of bingo pinball machines with strong community participation and player interest
high · Nick Baldridge's detailed first-person account of Saturday attendance, machine setup, and player engagement
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community_signal: Strong collaborative effort among bingo machine collectors and enthusiasts; assembly-line loading/unloading model established with community support
high · Baldridge's descriptions of community pitching in to help move machines, multiple collectors present, and unloading coordination
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collector_signal: Acquisition of rare United Caravan bingo with Roto (moving numbers) feature; noted as only United bingo at show
high · Direct statement about United Caravan being only United bingo present and its unique feature
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gameplay_signal: Bingo machines attracted sustained player interest at York Show; players appreciated replay mechanics and competitive depth; new players learned game mechanics
high · Baldridge describing constant machine use, new players expressing surprise at game variety, and player interest in replays and wins
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restoration_signal: Machine head shifted during transport causing glass impact; moving blankets and frame structure provided partial protection; glass replacement feasible but avoided
high · Detailed account of heads falling, glass surviving impact, and blanket cushioning effect

Topics

Bingo machines and bingo pinball mechanicsprimaryYork Show 2015 event logistics and experienceprimaryBingo Row community exhibitionprimaryMachine transportation and logistics challengesprimaryCommunity collaboration and supportsecondaryPinball machine restoration and repairsecondaryPlayer interest in bingo machinessecondary

Sentiment

positive(0.82)— Despite harrowing transport incident and mechanical damage, Baldridge maintains enthusiastic and grateful tone. Event deemed successful; community support highlighted. Anxiety during accident gives way to relief and appreciation. Looking forward to future Bingo Row events.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.060

What's that sound? It's For Amusement Only, the EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast. Welcome back to For Amusement Only. This is Nicholas Baldridge. So last night I talked about the Friday portion of the York Show. York runs on Friday and Saturday open to the public, and Thursday is only open for people who bring games, and it's there for setup, basically. So Saturday is the short day. It's the day when there are more people, typically, but it's also a day when breakdown starts to happen at 4 p.m., so instead of being open for a good 12 hours. The hall is open for about eight hours. So what was interesting about Saturday is that the big time ended up leaving on Friday. but I knew that Vic Camp was planning on coming and he arrived Saturday morning and set up his Coney Island which was awesome and I had one more book I had given away 11 books on Friday those bingos saw an amazing amount of use on Friday on Saturday we had a ton of people come through and play the bingos, have a great time. And unfortunately, I didn't have any more books, but we did give the last one out. And they were equally happy to anybody that we gave one to on Friday. It was very cool. And I really appreciate all the listeners who came up and said they appreciated listening to the show. I certainly enjoy doing it and enjoy sharing information about these great games. And hopefully that's reflected in my commitment to bring all these games up to York. So, on Saturday, Vic was there, and he was a great ambassador for the games. it was very nice to be able to interact with him in person again. And aside from that, John Robinette came. Now, John Robinette, for those who don't know, contributed an awful lot of pictures and content to Jeffrey's Bally Bingo Pinball Machines book. So I was very excited to meet John. I'd never talked to him before. and John was a super nice guy and I really enjoyed talking to him. We got talking a little bit about various games. I hope to convince him to come on the show at some point and talk about his passion. So, between us, we all got one good photo which I believe I've posted in the Pinside Thread and we got photos of winters and all that kind of stuff. I'm going to start a new Pinside Thread about the Orc Show and Bingo Row in particular and I'll be posting my entire story in there as well. Now on Saturday I had also made a deal to buy a United caravan. Now, this was the only United bingo that came to the show, and it had United's unique moving numbers feature, the Roto. I was super excited that this was coming, and it was great. It came, it was in as good shape as the picture showed, and the guy transported it from another part of PA, which was pretty far away and I was I was really happy that he did that very nice guy a great seller so I set it up because I just that crazy and put it right into the bingo row and it was pretty awesome you had all the bingo guys and they all huddled around the new machine just like every pinhead does with every new machine. It was just really cool, and I got such a kick out of that, I took a pic of that too. But that machine saw pretty constant use. And what's interesting about that United game is that it's really hard not to win. If you have any bingo proficiency really at all, it's pretty easy to put together a fairly nice winner on it. So it saw such constant use that I didn't even have a chance to put it on free play. But because people were winning so much on it, it wasn't really a big deal. Now, the end of the day approached, and the part I was dreading was coming up, and that was loading up all these bingos and starting the long drive home. and I was worried because a lot of bingo guys have bad backs and I don't want anyone to be put out or hurt helping me move these behemoths around. But what was awesome is everybody pitched in and I was just overwhelmed by everybody's help with this, but, uh, I had local Richmond people helping me. I had all the bingo guys working in an assembly line style. It was so awesome. Um, just getting these games disassembled. I was strapping them to the, uh, truck and got everything put in there really quickly. In between, we were taking Jim's games and leaving the heads on, taking the legs off and sliding them onto his pickup truck. And he was driving them one at a time back to his home. Helped Steve load his game. Vic had a friend help him load his Coney Island. And, you know, in the middle of all that and and everything turned out really well. Again, it was really cool. And unfortunately, I don't have any pics of that because I was in the middle of moving stuff. But I wish I did have some pics of that because it was cool. Then, it was time to head home, unfortunately. And I made some new contacts up there, some new friends. That was really awesome. I talked with several other collectors, and I hope to speak with them on the show or off the air and just keep our conversation going, because I think that that is important. An important part of the hobby is knowing folks and learning their stories, their history with the machines. But I started driving. And I drove and I drove. And I missed one of the highway entrances. And instead of just making a U-turn, because I'm in this big, unwieldy truck, I do what the GPS tells me. That's to go down a road which is not supposed to have trucks on it. There's a big sign as you turn onto the road. So I said, well, hmm, this is going to be interesting. So I drive down that road, and it's just a farm road. You know, there's no low-hanging branches or anything in the road that would prevent me from driving on it, really. Um, it's just bumpy. And so I'm driving on this bumpy road and all of a sudden, wham! And the whole truck shakes and I start cursing loudly and frequently because I know what's happened is that one or more of the heads have come down, uh, onto the floor of the truck. Now the way I had them stacked again was with the glass facing outward And so they landed full force on the glass And you know who knows they might have broken something mechanical too but the glass of course, is irreplaceable. So I was pretty concerned about that, as you might imagine. and I found the first turn off on solid ground. Parked the truck, opened up the back and realized, opened it up slowly, by the way, in case it was just full of glass, but opened it up slowly and realized that double up was the one that had come down. Now, double up has the heaviest head out of all of them. and also nightclub had come down poor nightclub so double up i didn't see any evidence of broken glass underneath of it and i said this thing is toast there is no possible way that this thing has survived because it is so heavy and it came down right on the frame now the moving blanket was underneath of it, and it didn't bunch up. And I have to imagine that that helped soften the blow a tiny bit, but, you know, it's gonna thud down and bounce. So I lift up the head. Miraculously, the back glass for double up is not broken. It's not split. It's not cracked. and I have no idea how that happened. I didn't open up the back. I just said, okay, I'm going to strap this back down, and I'll make sure that it will not jostle free, and we'll go from there. So I strapped it back down, made sure it was super tight, just like I had before, and then lifted up double up. Now double up, if you'll recall, had a broken back glass that had been glued back together. Well, continuing my streak as the luckiest person on planet Earth, I lifted the head, and the back glass was just fine. It had come unglued, big shock, in the portion that was broken, but no new broken sections. I'm as surprised as you are, dear listener. So I took the couple of broken shards and put them carefully into the cabin of the truck with me. lifted the head back up, strapped it down, you know, moving blankets, everything's good, and then I drove very carefully for the rest of the trip, I must have driven five miles under the speed limit the entire way, just freaked out that everything was going to come crashing down, so made it back to Richmond one piece backed the truck into the driveway turned the truck off went inside went to sleep it was 2 in the morning at this point woke back up at 7 and called for help to unload the truck and thankfully I have good friends with good backs who were willing to come help me, uh, unload. And, um, one of them had helped me in York to load. Uh, so I was surprised he, he came back for more punishment, but, uh, I just want to give a shout out to Mike and, uh, my neighbor again. And, uh, another guy who I've not asked for permission to release his name to the internet but they all helped me and I couldn't have done it without them and even with their help it took from 10.30am until 2.30pm to unload everything so I noticed that on nightclub You know the only problem mechanically was that one of the actuators on one of the relays the fiber yoke uh or actuator plate had broken and uh talked to Steve Smith and he had happened to have a spare one. Um, so once I grabbed that from him, I will get that taken care of. Now, I was actually at Steve's after that and helped him unload, but I stupidly set the fiber plate down and, you know, there it sits. So I'll go over there soon and get that and fix up the nightclub. I love that game dearly, so I really want to get that going again here soon. but all that said my bingo adventure was a big success I think I believe that with everybody's help getting the games there getting them set up making sure they continued to work and of course we had the finest bingo technicians in the United States over here all in one spot it was amazing at least that I know and we had some new players a lot of new players we taught a lot of people how to play the games we had a lot of interest in them a lot of people said my goodness I didn't know they made so many of these and a lot of people said boy I remember I used to play these games that happens pretty much every year with Jeffrey Lawton's games he brings two or three each year but there was such a choice and we had most of the moving numbers features represented so this was pretty cool this was a once in a lifetime thing as I've mentioned And, you know, next year I will probably bring a bingo. But I don't think I'm going to bring five or six. That was too many. I'm still paying for it today. But I loved every second of it. And I certainly wouldn't trade it. You know, just seeing the smiles on people's faces when they won a book or they made a hit and got those replays and they realized, oh yeah, these games allow you to win so many replays. And they provide such a challenge to a skilled pinball player. It's amazing. So I was thrilled with the turnout. I was thrilled with the players, even seasoned pinball folks. who come to the show every year, came and played the games, and I was really thankful that they took the time to do that. There's already talk of next year. Certainly I'm excited for that as well, and as I say, I'll be bringing at least one, and we'll go from there. well I hope you've enjoyed listening to my audio recap of the bingo row I'm starting a pin side thread to have the pictures for this monumental event and that's bingo row at the 2015 York show so look for that and see what you can see there. I took as many pictures as I was able to take. And, you know, I was in the middle of fixing and explaining the games and talking to people most of the time, so I was not able to take a whole lot of pictures. But what I took is going to be up on that thread. Thank you again for joining me. 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 us on itunes stitcher pocketcast via rss on facebook on twitter at bingo podcast you can follow me on instagram at n baldridge or you can listen to us on our website which is for amusement only.libsyn.com thank you very much for listening and i'll talk to you next time