Episode 284 - 1953 Bally Palm Springs

For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·15m 4s·held·Dec 20, 2015

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.019

TL;DR

Deep dive into 1953 Bally Palm Springs bingo mechanics and rare Hold feature.

Summary

Nicholas Baldridge discusses Bally's 1953 Palm Springs, a single-card bingo game with advancing odds, corner scoring, super cards, and two rare mechanical features: Select-a-Spot (a player-controlled dial) and Hold (allowing players to selectively replay odd/even/all balls). The episode opens with listener corrections regarding Dude Ranch's separate card scoring and identifies Rodeo as a third western-themed bingo game.

Key Claims

Dude Ranch scores separately on each card, requiring a tri-clear mechanism—a very powerful but rarely used feature
high confidence · Vic Camp correction posted on podcast thread
Palm Springs is one of only a few bingo games with the Select-a-Spot feature (a dial with seven positions earned by coins)
high confidence · Nicholas Baldridge, host analysis
Palm Springs is the first Bally bingo game with controls on the foot rail, establishing a design pattern used thereafter
high confidence · Nicholas Baldridge, based on production sequence analysis
The Hold feature works via two separate shutter boards that slide out of the way in unison to drop either even or odd numbered balls
high confidence · Interview with Jeffrey Lawton, design explanation
Only three bingo games (possibly two) use the Hold feature
medium confidence · Nicholas Baldridge acknowledges uncertainty about exact count
Rodeo was a third western-themed bingo game alongside Dude Ranch and Bonanza
high confidence · Dennis Dodell listener correction

Notable Quotes

“Dude Ranch actually scores separately on each card. This is a very powerful feature which was but rarely used because it requires a whole tri Clear The game is a single-card.”
Nicholas Baldridge @ ~0:30 — Clarifies a rarely-documented bingo mechanic that affects scoring strategy
“Palm Springs is a single card bingo that has select a spot. Select a spot is a dial on the front of the game The pinball show is a game that has seven different positions, which you have to earn by putting in coins.”
Nicholas Baldridge @ ~1:15 — Explains the unique Select-a-Spot feature that defines Palm Springs gameplay
“This is the first game Bally produced in the bingo line with controls on the foot rail. This is important because they use them from here on out and they became a very important and integral part of the bingo experience.”
Nicholas Baldridge @ ~4:30 — Identifies Palm Springs as a watershed moment in bingo UI design evolution
“The cool thing about this whole feature is it works anytime until the end of the game so this is a pretty powerful feature that essentially allows you to replay about half of your game At any point that's pretty killer there.”
Nicholas Baldridge @ ~6:00 — Highlights the Hold feature's strategic depth and rarity in bingo design
“The shutter is essentially the board that comes down and blocks the holes preventing the balls from falling through. At the start of the game the shutter opens, all the balls fall through onto a board that's hidden underneath and rolls back to the trough in order to be shot. But on this game there are two separate shutterboards which will essentially slide out of the way over to the side allowing for either the evens or odds to drop out very clever very very clever.”
Nicholas Baldridge @ ~7:00 — Technical deep-dive into the mechanical complexity of the Hold feature

Entities

Nicholas BaldridgepersonVic CamppersonDennis DodellpersonJeffrey LawtonpersonBallycompanyUnitedcompanyPalm Springsgame Dude Ranchgame Bonanzagame

Signals

?
historical_signal: Palm Springs identified as first Bally bingo with foot rail controls, establishing UI/control placement pattern used in subsequent games (controls on foot rail during play, cabinet buttons for pre/post-game selection)
high · Baldridge explicitly states 'This is the first game Bally produced in the bingo line with controls on the foot rail' and notes this became integral to subsequent bingo design
?
design_innovation: Hold feature uses dual shutter boards that slide in unison to selectively drop even/odd numbered balls mid-game, enabling replay of ~50% of game state at any point
high · Jeffrey Lawton interview detailing dual shutter mechanism; Baldridge confirms rarity (only 2-3 games used feature)
?
design_innovation: Select-a-Spot dial (seven coin-earned positions) allows player adjustment before 4th ball shot, representing early player agency mechanic in bingo design
high · Baldridge describes dial as 'almost unique feature' used in 'only a couple other games'
?
historical_signal: Western-themed bingo games are scarce; only three identified: Dude Ranch, Bonanza, and United's Rodeo. United's Rodeo actively sought by collector Dennis Dodell
high · Listener corrections identify only three western bingo titles; Dodell actively seeking game parts
?
restoration_signal: Dennis Dodell has broken back glass on United's Rodeo and is soliciting contact from owners/operators who may have access to replacement or parts
high · Baldridge announces Dodell's request on air: 'If you need his contact information just let me know'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.045

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. Tonight I wanted to talk about another bingo in the ballet line, but before I did so, I wanted to get a correction out there. I'm here. Vic Camp posted on the podcast thread and let me know that Dude Ranch actually scores separately on each card. This is a very powerful feature which was but rarely used because it requires a whole tri Clear The game is a single-card. It's pretty cool. Now, he also notes that this is one of the few games that had a cowboy theme. I mentioned that this and Bonanza were the only two that I knew of, and Dennis Dodell sent in a note saying that actually United's Rodeo was a third western-themed bingo. His back glass is broken and he's asking for anybody who happens to have this game, United's Rodeo, to contact him. If you need his contact information just let me know. So, tonight I wanted to talk about Bally's 1953 Palm Springs. Now Palm Springs is a game I'm excited to talk about because it's got an almost unique feature. It was only used in a couple other games which we'll get to later on. ButPalm Springs is a single card bingo that has select a spot. Select a spot is a dial on the front of the game The pinball show is a game that has seven different positions, which you have to earn by putting in coins. And if you have all seven lit, you can adjust that dial up until before you shoot your fourth ball. Now when I say it's a single card bingo, I mean that there is one large central card, it's a grid of 25 numbers, and if you get 3, 4, or 5 in a row, then you'll earn a certain amount of replays. In this case, the game has advancing odds, which means that you don't imaginar on its auto portioning circuits and based on the features that you earned it goes from a minimum of four replays for three in a row sixteen replays for four in a row and ninety-six replays for five in a row all the way up to sixty-four replays for three in a row two hundred replays for four and three hundred replays for five in a row now this game has corner scoring is exactly as it sounds if you sink a ball in all four corners of the bingo card then you'll earn two hundred replays nothing to sneeze at it's also got two separate super cards Now we've talked about super cards a few times in the past but they are essentially smaller three by three grids of numbers and if you get three in a row on one of the super cards it scores as if you had made four in a row on the main card this game also has the ever popular extra ball feature and that is after you finish your five ball game You can pay in money to earn a random chance at getting an extra ball.

5:11

Now the machine will auto-portion this just as it does with odds or feature increases. And so if you've been on a really big winning streak then the machine will tighten up and it's less likely to award you an extra ball. There's also an adjustment inside the game which will help or hinder your quest for extra balls as well so you can earn up to three extra balls which means that you have a total of eight chances in order to achieve your five in a line in most cases earning all three extra balls is quite pricey so it's something that you want to Exercise restraint with. Now, I'm excited to talk about this game for a couple of reasons. The first being that this is the first game Bally produced in the bingo line with controls on the foot rail. This is important because they use them from here on out and they became a very important and integral part of the bingo experience we've talked before about pick-a-play which are the buttons on the front of the cabinet that allow you to play for either features odds or features and odds this game doesn't have those if you think about that and you think about how the select-a-spot works with them Big dial on the front of the coin door. There's not much room for other player controls. And so previously Bally had gotten around that by designing things around a single button press. But as you'll see, I'm starting to kind of do these games in order here. And as you'll see the evolution of these games is such that the player controls in game wind up on the foot rail and the player controls before and after the game are on the front of the cabinet This is a pretty wise decision because you don have to worry about any of those buttons on the front of the cabinet after the game has actually started, after you've shot your first ball. So the only thing you have to focus on is the game itself and the footrail. So the second reason I'm excited to talk about this game is its almost unique feature, which is called hold. Now what this lets you do is to hold either the even or the odd or all numbers. And what you do is use The pinball show is a pinball show, where you can shoot a pinball between two or three foot rail buttons. Odd, even or all. And whatever you don't select will be dropped and it will allow you to shoot those balls again. So for example, if you really needed a six for some reason and none of the odd numbers The or perhaps just one of them was helping you it may make sense to dump them all and try again now the cool thing about this whole feature is it works anytime until the end of the game so this is a pretty powerful feature that essentially allows you to replay about half of your game At any point that's pretty killer there now in a recent interview with jeffrey lawton i asked him how exactly this feature works because i've never played a game with this feature or seen it to work on and he let me know that there are multiple shutter boards underneath Now the shutter is essentially the board that comes down and blocks the holes preventing the balls from falling through. At the start of the game the shutter opens, all the balls fall through onto a board that's hidden underneath and rolls back to the trough in order to be shot. But on this game there are two separate shutterboards which will essentially slide out of the way over to the side allowing for either the evens or odds to drop out very clever very very clever and they both move in unison to drop all the balls

10:43

I'm really excited to see one of these here one day because That's just a really unusual and neat feature. There was one here in Richmond that came up on Craigslist and I let that one slip through my fingers. The cabinet was a little rough and it was on one of those angle iron baskets. So the cosmetics weren the best The playfield and backglass were okay And it was super cheap And I totally should have gone and picked that up but I was out of space at the time. Which is a problem. So anyway, let's talk about the artwork on this game. We're back at a resort, this time at Palm Springs, it's a named resort. The artwork on the back glass is incredibly beautiful. The majority of the back glass is taken up by blue sky. The central bingo card is yellow and the two super cards are red. You have multiple teaser arrows which lead up to Your select a Spot and your Hold feature and then you've got seven or possibly eight ladies hanging out at the pool, one maybe in a chaise lounge in the background the advancing odds as was typical at this time are part of the background imagery itself so you have numbers going on a building in the background a palm tree a small fern in the foreground the back of that chaise lounge, an umbrella a cactus another building and another palm tree as I've said before I always love when they do that I think it just makes the game the cabinet has some beautiful swirly ferns some buildings and lots of beautiful blue sky the playfield has a great many blondes at the pool staring out at you there's some other ladies swimming Mountain in the background and what appears to be the edge of the building zigzagging into the frame on the right hand side that's a very attractive playfield as well I will say if one of these came up again locally I would probably snatch it up I think the gameplay just looks so dynamic and fun with the Hold feature which again was a pretty rare thing i think there's a total of three games that use it although there may only be two trying to recall off the top of my head doesn't work so well that's all for tonight thank you very much for joining me my name again is nick baldrige you can reach me at four amusement only podcast at gmail dot com Thank you very much for listening and I'll talk to you next time.