Episode 452 - Universal 5 Star, Multi-Races at York, Junior in Ottawa, Genco Golden Nugget, 1939 Daval Gems

For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·28m 47s·analyzed·Jul 25, 2019

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.028

TL;DR

EM restoration, York show prep, and deep dive into rare 1939 Daval Gems mechanics.

Summary

Nicholas Backbone discusses restoration work on Universal 5 Star (a proto-bingo machine), the upcoming York Show featuring Universal 5 Star, Multi-Bingo, and Multi-Races homebrew machines, and recent sales of games including Genco Junior to Caitlin Pascal for the Ottawa Pinball Show. The episode features detailed technical discussion of game mechanics, including fixes to Golden Nugget's transformer and an in-depth analysis of Daval's Gems (1939).

Key Claims

Universal 5 Star has an open playfield design where holes remain open throughout the entire game, unlike typical bingo machines with shutterboards
high confidence · Nicholas Backbone describing the game's unique layout
A disconnected wire on Universal 5 Star's ball count unit was causing the game to malfunction; the problem was fixed by jumpering it to an adjacent coil
high confidence · Nicholas Backbone detailing the repair process with Sophie
Universal 5 Star has a race condition where if the ball count unit is at zero position, the game will never reset
high confidence · Nicholas Backbone describing a discovered edge case during testing
Multi-Races will have 10 games ready for the York Show, with full animations and sequences for each
high confidence · Nicholas Backbone announcing his development progress
Genco Junior was sold to Caitlin Pascal, who runs a booth at the Ottawa Pinball and Game Room Show on September 21-22, 2019
high confidence · Nicholas Backbone announcing the sale
Golden Nugget's transformer was not outputting 30 volts AC; the problem was a broken wire between the transformer body and the external connection
high confidence · Nicholas Backbone describing the repair and solution
Daval's Gems (1939) features magnets under the playfield in captive ball areas that activate based on rollover switches
medium confidence · Nicholas Backbone speculating about the game mechanism based on Internet Pinball Database photos
Multi-Bingo has 60+ horse race games total, and Nicholas plans to implement approximately one-sixth of them across 10 games for York
high confidence · Nicholas Backbone discussing his implementation goals

Notable Quotes

“there is little More Brewing Company frustrating than hitting 11 twice because there's no way to block the shot”
Nicholas Backbone @ early in episode — Illustrates a core gameplay frustration in bingo pinball machines that Universal 5 Star attempts to address
“Both sides of that switch were supposed to go to a particular area. And essentially, all they were supposed to do is Step Up the Ball Count.”
Nicholas Backbone @ technical restoration segment — Key diagnostic moment identifying the disconnected wire causing Universal 5 Star's malfunction
“there is a ball lift elevator which is Papa Duke unusual for the time period. Most of the very early bingos had manual lifts”
Nicholas Backbone @ describing Universal 5 Star features — Highlights an advanced mechanical feature that was uncommon in early bingo machines
“if it's stuck on the zero position for whatever reason...the game will never reset...It will remain on the available credits. It will just lock on the decrement coil”
Nicholas Backbone @ discussing race condition — Describes an edge case bug that Nicholas is investigating further
“I lucked out. That wire happened to have a The Break somewhere in the piece that I cut out.”
Nicholas Backbone @ Golden Nugget repair story — Describes the successful troubleshooting approach to fixing Golden Nugget's transformer issue
“you can hit the same number twice so there's a a very The Irritating feeling that you can get with that game”
Nicholas Backbone @ describing Golden Nugget gameplay — Reflects on the challenge and frustration of Golden Nugget's lane-based gameplay
“I would love to know or see some footage and see what's actually going on”
Nicholas Backbone @ discussing Daval's Gems captive ball areas — Shows Nicholas seeking community input on unclear game mechanics from 1939

Entities

Nicholas BackbonepersonSophiepersonCaitlin PascalpersonDennis KrieselpersonDennis TotalpersonUniversal 5 StargameMulti-BingogameMulti-RacesgameGenco JuniorgameGolden Nuggetgame

Signals

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product_concern: Universal 5 Star exhibits a race condition where if the ball count unit is stuck at zero position, the game will never reset and locks on the decrement coil. Nicholas Backbone is investigating whether this is a design flaw in the original machine or introduced during repair work.
high · Nicholas documented and replicated the bug by playing one game, then firing up another while the ball count was at zero; game became unresponsive.
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restoration_signal: Work on Universal 5 Star involved teaching Sophie to read schematics and solder, while also dealing with non-standard wiring (wire-nutted connections) not clearly matching schematic documentation.
high · Nicholas Backbone taught Sophie schematic reading and soldering; found a zero position switch wire-nutted to playfield ball count step-up switches that didn't match typical design logic.
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manufacturing_signal: Universal 5 Star features an automated ball lift elevator rather than manual lifts, which Nicholas Backbone notes was unusual for early bingo machines of that era.
high · Nicholas Backbone specifically called out the elevator as 'Papa Duke unusual for the time period' and noted most early bingos had manual lifts.
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event_signal: York Show (White Rose Game Room) 2019 will feature expanded bingo row with Universal 5 Star, Multi-Bingo, and Multi-Races (first public appearance); additional games being finalized.
high · Nicholas Backbone confirmed all three machines attending; Multi-Races will have 10 games ready; described bingo row as having 'Papa Duke great games' with some new titles not seen before at the show.
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Transcript

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0:00

What's that sound? It's 4 Amusement Only, the EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast. Welcome back to 4 Amusement Only. This is Nick Baldridge. So, Sophie and I have finished

0:16

fixing the Universal 5 Star. The Universal 5 Star is a kind of proto-bingo. It has bingo The game has bingo cards which are 3x3, so a bit more manageable than the typical 5x5 bingo card.

0:32

But the big deal with this playfield layout is that instead of the balls being trapped as soon as you launch the first ball and a shutterboard closing off the various holes in the playfield, the holes remain open throughout the entire game. So on a typical bingo pinball machine, and I can attest that there is little more frustrating than hitting 11 twice because there's no way to block the shot. So this game had an interesting problem and I thought it was worth repeating for the show here. and the playfield. And I've worked on a few games that have had something like this and there's generally a broken wire somewhere on the way to the female portion of the Jones plug. So I fully expected that that would be the problem but as Sophie and I dug into it I taught her how to read schematics and taught her how to solder and we were looking at that particular circuit and nothing was making sense. There's a zero position switch on the ball count unit that was wire-nutted to the playfield ball count step-up switches. And I couldn't make sense of it. And the ball count wasn't stepping up. So I found this pretty odd and relatively suspect. And looking at the schematic, you know, both sides of that switch were supposed to go to a particular area. And essentially, all they were supposed to do is and the last one is Step Up the Ball Count. Thankfully the labels still existed under the playfield to tell us what the switches were supposed to do because otherwise it would be a little difficult. There are stacks of three or four different switches which do different things under each number and so it's not immediately obvious without those labels what the switch in question is supposed to do. But anyway, this is the BallCount switch and uh... all it was supposed to do was provide the uh... thirty volts to the ball count unit step up coil and so I had her unhook the uh... wire nut and take the wire and use a uh... jumper uh... plug with alligator clips just a jumper wire and connect it to and there's a there's a coil right beside there which we used did that fired up the game and guess what bang worked right away no problem so Sophie soldered it to to that place unhooked the wire that was in question and now there's nothing running outside of the Jones plugs and the game does function there is still a race condition which happens in the game and I haven't had a chance to look back at the schematic yet and work with Sophie and try to figure this out. But there's a problem that can happen if the ball count unit is at zero where the game will never cycle. So this normally can't happen. The way the game keeps track of balls is actually pretty ingenious and it won't actually increment the ball count until after a ball is in one of the playfield pockets. So there's not a way and where you can start a game and then start another game right away. You have to play at least one ball and that moves it off of the zero position on the ball count unit. Well, if it's stuck on the zero position for whatever reason, and I'll give an example here, the game will never reset. For some reason, the way the logic is wired, if it's already on zero, it thinks The only thing that's not working is the reset cycle. It will remain on the available credits. It will just lock on the decrement coil on the credit unit. Which is pretty weird, but that's how it works. So there's some kind of problem and I don't know, like I say, if it's a bug in the way the machine is wired. I'm not a fan of the word pinball because I don't see any logic, you know, at a glance that says, oh yeah, if the game happens to be at zero position, bypass all this stuff. No, it shows that it's supposed to go through everything every time and there's not, for example, a limit switch which would prevent that, kind of like that switch that was unhooked. And you might say, well, that's pretty obvious, but it's not. That switch doesn't appear on the schematic and it seems kinda questionable as to what's going on. But anyway, the way that I managed to get it into this situation was to play a game and then fire up another game and this game has a ball lift elevator which is pretty unusual for the time period. Most of the very early bingos had manual lifts and so this is very impressive that it has a ball elevator. and it's an extremely tall one. It has to lift the ball so very far. It's amazing. And it lifts it straight up. So it's like a real elevator, you know, seeing this thing in action. It's pretty cool. But anyway, had it lift the ball to the playfield and remember the ball count is at zero at this point. It only increments as soon as that ball goes down through the playfield. So I turned the game off and back on and then I pushed the replay reset button, which knocks off about 10 credits at a clip.

Ottawa Pinball and Game Room Showevent

For Amusement Onlyorganization

Eclectic Gamers Podcastorganization

Nick Baldridgeperson

design_innovation: Multi-Races homebrew machine featuring horse race games with full animations and rule sequences; Nicholas Backbone implementing approximately 10 of 60+ total games with custom animation work.

high · Nicholas completed 8 games and working toward 10 for York; added animations, sequences, portioning for each game; requires Switch 16 boards (adding to 4 total) and PD16 driver boards.

restoration_signal: Golden Nugget's transformer had a broken wire in the 30V AC output circuit, discovered by Nicholas Backbone who successfully bypassed the damaged section with new wiring.

high · Nicholas identified that transformer was outputting all DC voltages but not 30V AC; determined break was between transformer internals and external connection; cut wire and installed new one, which resolved the issue.

gameplay_signal: Both Universal 5 Star and Golden Nugget feature lane/number-based scoring where players can hit the same number multiple times, creating frustration when optimal play isn't achievable. This is identified as inherent to the game design.

high · Nicholas Backbone noted 'little frustrating than hitting 11 twice because there's no way to block the shot' and later described Golden Nugget's similar issue with its 13 lanes.

historical_signal: Daval's Gems (1939) features several mechanically innovative elements for its era: spring-style passive bumpers (pre-modern pop bumper design), light towers with rollover switching, and mysterious magnetically-activated captive ball areas.

medium · Nicholas Backbone analyzed playfield layout, identified pre-modern spring bumpers with cardman ring triggers, noted light towers marking bottom rollover for 1000 points, and speculated about magnet-activated captive ball mechanism based on Internet Pinball Database photos.

community_signal: Nicholas Backbone seeking community input on Daval's Gems (1939) mechanics, particularly regarding captive ball areas and magnet activation, and requesting footage or direct experience from owners.

high · Nicholas explicitly requested: 'If anybody has this game I would love to know or see some footage and see what's actually going on' and asked about lighting mechanics for captive areas.

restoration_signal: Nicholas Backbone sold two machines (United's Caravan and Genco Junior) primarily due to space constraints in his game room; building new machines requires room equivalent to two pinball machines worth of space.

high · Nicholas stated 'I desperately need the space in order to keep building games' and 'building games requires a lot of space you essentially need at least the size of two pinball machines in order to make one.'

operational_signal: Caitlin Pascal operates a booth at Ottawa Pinball and Game Room Show (September 21-22, 2019) where she will display Genco Junior, indicating active local pinball venue/community infrastructure.

high · Nicholas Backbone confirmed Junior 'went to Caitlin Pascal, whom you've heard about before on the podcast, and she runs Pre booth at the Ottawa Pinball and Game Room Show which runs on September 21st and 22nd.'

technology_signal: Multi-Races development requires multiple Switch 16 boards (bringing total to 4) and PD16 driver boards (adding second one) to accommodate expanded game suite and audio system for relay-based payout mechanism.

high · Nicholas stated plans to install 'a new Switch 16 board and a new PD16 board' and 'This will bring the number of Switch 16 boards up to four and the number of driver boards up to two.'