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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
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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

  • ?

    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.

  • ?

    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.

  • ?

    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.

  • ?

    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.

  • ?

Topics

EM/Bingo Machine Restoration and RepairprimaryCustom Homebrew Pinball Machine DevelopmentprimaryPinball Game Mechanics and Design (1930s-1970s era)primaryYork Show 2019 Preparation and Bingo Row LineupprimaryTransformer and Electrical TroubleshootingsecondarySchematic Reading and Soldering Skills TrainingsecondaryMulti-Game Implementation and Animation DesignsecondaryRare 1939 Daval Game Analysis and Reverse Engineeringsecondary

Sentiment

positive(0.78)— Nicholas Backbone expresses genuine enthusiasm about restoration work, excitement about upcoming show appearances, and appreciation for receiving games in good homes. Some minor frustration with space constraints and technical challenges, but overall optimistic and engaged tone throughout.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.086

What's that sound? It's 4 Amusement Only, the EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast. Welcome back to 4 Amusement Only. This is Nicholas Baldridge. So, Sophie and I have finished 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. 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 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. And then tried to start a game, guess what? Locked on. So that not a situation that can happen normally and I don believe it be a situation that can happen at any show but I am curious to know if it actually a flaw in the way the game was created or if it a flaw that I introduced by having Sophie solder that wire where it goes So it's unclear at the moment, but I am excited to dig into it further. So, in other news, that game, Universal's 5 Star, will be headed with me to the York Show, courtesy of Dennis Total. And aside from Universal's 5 Star, the Multibingo will make another return appearance, and this year for the very first time, Multiraces will be making an appearance. Throwback Sense這 ☆◡� municipalities源 ,凡☆jed喀这样行�Оulent★门 43 tracing™ открыв Etc.ailed from Titan Самaticщ metropolitan cór cănとうs retard größzą ust ł28 This one is going to be a bit more polished. I've gone through and added not just rules and not just lit elements, but I've added animations, full animations and sequences for those animations and portioning for all the games that I've added so far. My plan is to have ten games ready for York. I have just finished the eighth game, so this is a truly attainable goal. But I do have some physical modifications Minimalist Tim Eaga. Coronavirusaskingalabyte The buffers along with C clips퓨 a,葢punkt؟ so we'll see if I can get that done I'm a little nervous about that, despite using callipers and measuring things out uh, I'm definitely a , mä Fahrer16 Multiple times and cut once kinda person p architect but even still, the potential for a mistake is pretty high and there's not a way for me to easily get a replacement lock bar should this go awry. So, hoping that things will work out great. That's one item. I have a new Switch 16 board and a new PD16 board which need to go in there as well. This will bring the number of Switch 16 boards up to four and the number of driver boards up to two. With that, I should have all the room that I Sons perspective, and this is going to provide the sound for replay games. The payout games are already handled through the existing wiring which I modified to work with a relay and I do need to add a couple switches on the payout mechanism itself so that it knows when it has paid but that will come soon enough. And then aside from that it's really just play testing like crazy and making sure the thing I'm not sure how this actually functions the way that I want it to. I have done some playtesting of the first game, Turf King, that I implemented within the system, but with so many games with their own rulesets and various combinations of things that I need to test, it's going to be quite challenging to get that all done. So that's why I'm committing to just a flat 10. It's a nice round number. It is actually about one-sixth of the total number of games. and some of those games don't have backlash photos anywhere that I can find online or owners that I'm aware of. So without that, I'm not going to be able to implement all 60 of the games, but I should be able to get a large chunk. Anyway, my point being that this is about one-sixth of the total output of these horse race games. and I'm looking forward to the public's reaction so if you are available please come by the coin op carnival booth which will be at the White Rose game room show in York Pennsylvania and say hello and play the games as part of bingo row so bingo row this year is going to have some pretty great games from the folks that I've talked to and I'm looking forward to to them all getting firmed up and and ready to go and the the announcing game titles yet but uh... i am very excited about the lineup this year it should be uh... very interesting and quite a few games that we haven't had before uh... in the lineup so uh... looking forward to it and uh... i'm sure there will be some returning classics as well please come on by play the games and uh... say hello looking looking very much for to it in other news sold a couple games uh... united's caravan and kenko's junior are out of the game room at the moment uh... I desperately need the space in order to keep uh... building games uh... that's the big problem is that building games requires a lot of space you essentially need at least the size of two pinball machines in order to make one and um... it really weighs on me when I have to crawl under and around machines in order to get to the backbox to do something in a game, so um... this was a needed move, but it is always a little bittersweet. Thankfully, both games went to great homes. 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 of 2019 I looking forward to seeing pictures of the event Unfortunately I unable to attend but I hope to see lots of smiling faces playing Genkos Jr In other Genko news, I don't think I mentioned on the podcast, but I did fix the problem with Golden Nugget. and that is now fully working machine. Golden Nugget had a very interesting problem in that the transformer was outputting every voltage necessary except for 30 volts AC. It was outputting all the DC voltages just fine and everything was working properly as far as lamps and so forth. It's just this 30 volts AC which happens to run all the motors in the game Video Clip I figured there was a break in that wire somewhere, but the problem is I would have to unwind the transformer in order to know. This is deep in the bowels of the transformer and there was no easy way for me to test it. I knew it was bad somewhere between the inside of the transformer and the outside of the transformer. So I posted it on RGP and I don't think I conveyed the message very well, but I was hoping that somebody might have a I'm a fan of the game, so I decided to take a chance and cut the wire that led into the transformer as close to the transformer body as I could and then just put a new wire on and see what happened. Well, I lucked out. That wire happened to have a break somewhere in the piece that I cut out. So, the new wire that I wired in did the trick and the game is back to life. It's a pretty fun game. It's very challenging. Essentially, there is a conveyor belt on the right side of the game that runs continuously and it brings balls up, six balls, and they roll over switch at the top of this shoot and that switch increments the ball count unit. As they come down they bounce against this flipper which is mounted on the side and you can flip it and it gives you a tiny tiny bit of control as the balls kinda hopped down into one of the lanes below and there are 13 lanes that the ball can go down and of course you can hit the same number twice so there's a a very The Irritating feeling that you can get with that game just like with Universal's five star Where you hit the same number several times in a row and you just curse yourself Because you know that you you could have done it slightly differently So as the ball comes down you want to guide it into One set or the other so there's there's six numbers on either side of this center lane and and the numbers are red or green and you want to have them sequentially on either the red or the green side. If you get one, two, and three that gives you a certain number of replays. If you add four on top of that it gives you more, five more, and six much more. Now you can actually light up and achieve all twelve and the thirteenth rollovers because the game has spotted numbers. and there are a variety of settings inside the game for the spotted numbers and it can spot you either one or two numbers in a game but this is handled through a spotting disc not in the typical bally sense but it's a stepper kinda like older style spotted number units like in bally's bright spot the center lane will award you an automatic replay if you're playing for extra ball so i didn't mention this but you can play up fuels to sign up for G&K prosecution paypal group because the and the ball count unit will increment and then decrement. It's pretty neat to watch and pretty unusual. So, as I say, my game is complete and it is working and I am really enjoying it. It's something quite different. So it's a nice change of pace, you know, if I want to just play something different. 0.2 again it is missing the rocks They are all here. So, Dennis Creasel of the EclecticGamers Podcast and I were talking the other day about a very interesting game and I thought I would bring it up here and discuss it as the featured game for today. It is Duval's Gems made in 1939 and gems at first glance, I was a bit confused. I thought there are three separate scoring types built into this game. Knapp Arcade Henry Sp pliers Illustuclear Albert Thesire the rubee column between five hundred nine hundred is the emerald column So as you incrementing the score with the bumpers on the playfield it's going to move from the ruby to the emerald and I believe what happens is When you're in the ruby or the emerald column, it's going to light up the same bumper type on the playfield The Playfield At the top there's like a skill shot area with three different exits. The one in the center awards a thousand points and It only awards that though if diamonds are lit. On the left hand side there's the ruby area which when lit awards a thousand points and on the right hand side there's the emerald area which awards a thousand points when hit. I believe all the bumpers award a hundred points apiece. The playfield itself is a really interesting kind of reverse chevron pattern as the ball goes down there's bumper right in the center of the playfield but these are the old style spring bumpers before they settled on kind of the more modern pop style bodies you know that didn't pop, they're passive bumpers but these These are spring style, so they have the cardman ring mounted in the front towards the player with a nail sticking up through the playfield and as the ball hits the side of the spring it will make contact with the nail with that cardman ring. Very finicky little setup but it is very cool to see in action. There's nothing quite like it. So Junior had those as well, the game that just left for me. So going down the playfield though, there's this two very interesting columns here and knowing what these do requires looking under the playfield as well. I'm very thankful that the IPDB has quite a few different pictures of this playfield, both above and below, which gave me a good clue as to what was going on. There are magnets mounted under these little captive areas and I'm not certain if these are captive areas or if the ball is supposed to fall into this area but either there's a ball which is installed in each of these and when there is a trigger at the rollover at the top the magnets activate and kick the ball up into the captive ball up into the one that's sitting on the rollover and knock it off. I'm not certain if that's what happens or not. Another guess is that the magnets under the playfield are activated by the rollover switches and as the ball travels down into that captive area, the magnets muster enough strength that it kicks the ball back up and out. In looking at this more closely, I have a feeling that those balls are captive and there should be one ball installed on either side and if a ball happens to land on the top it hits this rollover and the magnets will activate and kick the ball that's in the captive area up into the one which is stuck at the top. That just seems more feasible but I don't know for sure. If anybody has this game I would love to know or see some footage and see what's actually going on. There's two beautiful light towers which are mounted below these and these light towers mark the bottom rollover as worth a thousand points when lit. This is likely lit at various points on the zero to a thousand stepper, but where that might be, I don't know. So one other word about the captive areas, actually, those are marked that they score a thousand when lit. Now is that a thousand for How far ahead can agameneangton remarkable soundstorm I am? My name is Jujutsu Kota-san. I am seatisten тобie-tan of Manhattan figne-shen. As always, I can control my screen in a lighter setting for the어queran, I canwarly make subtitles and filling out subtitles and northern I would like to know if anybody has this game and if they would mind explaining some of the features. Unfortunately, the playfield which is pictured well on the IPDB does not have a good copy of the score and Instruction card. There are some handmade cards which are pictured, especially in the cashbox photo, but those don't really tell the picture. It looks like the operator of this one was using it as a three-ball game, which I find very The As far as the artwork on the playfield I Just love this deco period of artwork especially in pinball, it's just so Interesting and intriguing there the straight lines and the beautiful scroll work and other touches on the playfield It's just very cool in the backbox I'm curious where they display replays. This is not a payout game and they must be displaying the replays somewhere, either through a projection unit and I see on the back glass in one of the photos there are two circular spots. I have a feeling that one of those is going to be tilt and the other is going to be the credits. But I'm curious what the large diamond sections are for right in the middle and how you light the diamond roller. Pronunciation Pawn Mage, Knapp, canal patek, Dreaming of a Cambius Timeline Instagram So hombreagogue Twitter at bingo podcast. You can listen to me on iTunes, Stitcher, Pocket Cast, via RSS on Facebook. And you can also listen to me on my website which is for amusementonly.libsyn.com. Thank you very much for listening and I'll talk to you next time.
Daval's Gems
game
York Showevent
Ottawa Pinball and Game Room Showevent
Internet Pinball Databaseorganization
RGPorganization
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.'