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Episode 118 – Celtic Roots

Head2Head Pinball·podcast_episode·1h 40m·analyzed·Nov 25, 2019
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.025

TL;DR

Educational tour of mechanical pinball components and custom exhibits at Mechanics Pinball Expo.

Summary

This Head2Head Pinball episode covers Mechanics Pinball Expo Part Three, focusing on Mark Gibson's traveling 'Fun with Pinball' educational exhibit featuring interactive displays of mechanical pinball components. The hosts and Gibson demonstrate various mechanical systems including flipper assemblies, stepper units, score motors, captive ball mechanisms, and custom-built games (horse racing, baseball), with explanations of how early electromechanical pinball machines functioned. A notable segment discusses the Magic City color wheel that was cut from production and later restored by Gibson as a proof-of-concept modification.

Key Claims

  • Mark Gibson has been building and traveling with his Fun with Pinball exhibit for five years

    high confidence · Mark Gibson directly states 'For five years' when asked how long he's been working on these games, in response to host question about exhibit duration

  • The roto wheel unit was last used in Close Encounters pinball machine

    high confidence · Host states 'I think the last use of it was unit... Close Encounters' while examining the roto wheel mechanism in the exhibit

  • Ball lift units disappeared from pinball machines around 1969-1970

    medium confidence · Host explains 'I think the last one disappeared in the beginning of 1970, maybe '69. There's new year there, but it's someplace around there' regarding manual ball lift mechanisms

  • The Magic City color wheel was cut from production and the game shipped with four 555s instead

    high confidence · Mark Gibson explains 'it shipped with four 555s instead of the color wheel. So it's shipped with the flashing balls, and I left those in to respect' the original design intent

  • Steve Young at Bull Resource is the only person in the country who lovingly rebuilds pinball score motors

    medium confidence · Host states 'There's only one guy in the whole country that will lovingly rebuild this motor. Steve Young and Bull Resource'

Notable Quotes

  • “Mechanical pinballs are what's stored at the industry, things that worked on relays and coils and push a button.”

    Host @ Opening segment — Sets the topic and scope of the episode—focus on electromechanical pinball systems

  • “There's only one guy in the whole country that will lovingly rebuild this motor. Steve Young and Bull Resource.”

    Host @ Score motor segment — Identifies a critical specialist in the pinball restoration ecosystem for score motor rebuilds

  • “Laurel Clark wanted the color wheel in Magic City, and he didn't get it right. He was cut from production.”

    Host @ Magic City segment — References a historical production decision and reveals designer intent vs. final product shipping difference

  • “The rules and how to make the rules work and how to make it interesting but not too hard... The game took you the most. Like the figure mostly the rules.”

    Mark Gibson @ Baseball game discussion — Reveals the design complexity behind mechanical game rules and the time investment required

  • “I made the boards. Yeah, and you can connect to it with your phone and change the color and all that.”

    Mark Gibson @ Magic City restoration segment — Demonstrates modern tech integration (phone control) into mechanical pinball restoration/modification projects

Entities

Mark GibsonpersonFun with PinballeventSteve YoungpersonMechanics Pinball ExpoeventLaurel ClarkpersonClose EncountersgameMagic Citygame

Signals

  • ?

    event_signal: Mechanics Pinball Expo featuring Mark Gibson's 'Fun with Pinball' traveling educational exhibit bringing interactive displays of mechanical pinball components to community members

    high · Multi-part video coverage at Expo with educational focus on mechanical systems; Gibson describes exhibit as traveling to various locations and being featured at Maker Faire

  • ?

    community_signal: Mark Gibson's design process emphasizes understanding mechanical complexity and making systems understandable through interactive exhibits; spent months on individual mechanical projects (e.g., baseball/horse racing games)

    high · Gibson states 'a few months just playing with it' on Magic City restoration; discusses extensive rule-development work on baseball game: 'The rules and how to make the rules work and how to make it interesting but not too hard'

  • ?

    historical_signal: Educational content documenting historical mechanical pinball systems and design evolution, including component obsolescence timeline (ball lifts phased out ~1969-1970, roto wheel last used in Close Encounters)

    high · Multiple detailed explanations of mechanical systems no longer in use; identification of Close Encounters as final roto wheel game; ball lift mechanism timeline 1969-1970

  • ?

    product_strategy: Mark Gibson restored the Magic City color wheel feature that was originally cut from production, integrating modern technology (phone control via custom boards) to recreate designer intent

    high · Host explains Magic City was designed with color wheel by Laurel Clark but cut from production and shipped with 555s instead; Gibson states 'I made the boards. Yeah, and you can connect to it with your phone and change the color and all that'

Transcript

youtube_mirror_subs · $0.000

0:15
[Music] [Applause] yes we do repair older machines yes we love mechanical issue no thank you actually we don't but mechanical pinball's are what's stored at the industry things that worked on relays and coils and push a button there round things at work to them mechanics pimble expo part three this video is a little different than usual because we're only highlighting one of the exhibition rooms that thank goodness i was tracked down and told about right before he closed mark gives a virus room no not a viral yet mark Gibson and his wife have a traveling exhibit it's called fun with pinball here's the website and this wonderful exhibit brings little affairs similar to this and sets them up and there's displays there's explanations all kinds of interesting things inside of mechanical games and that's what this video is going to highlight all of the wonderful things that this man put together for us to see but first I wanted to show you you know people are building pimples Ryan shared with me this picture of a pimple he's building and look we made the ranch shot am I on the ranch right now just our logo I'm on the ribs [Music] who's Frank corner no Frank isn't normally there but also at the expo Todd Friedman was there and here's a picture with him at the expo of course Jeremy was at the Expo and he got his picture with me and he also bought a post here we have the posters up did he know the picture three left oh god you can buy my poster for five dollars if you want he'll pay you five hours to take it this really means thanks by the way we had a party here the other night and two of the two of the guys in this picture case of James and Tom Rundle used to watch me and you actually because you were an infomercial for years and years ooh he finally came in and met me and I did my traditional poke but we are now ready folks we're ready to show you mechanical marvels in Mark Gibson's fun with pinball rooms here we go [Music]
3:33
we're gonna have a private tour let's see what's going on young man now you call it wacky stuff or let's say gets the door was shut we never saw it fun with pimple it's in private
4:11
Head2Head Pinballorganization
Todd Friedmanperson
Ryanperson
Jeremyperson
Robperson
Maker Faireevent
Bull Resourcecompany
?

technology_signal: Integration of modern electronics (phone control, custom microcontroller boards) into mechanical pinball restoration and modification projects

medium · Mark Gibson's Magic City color wheel restoration features phone connectivity: 'you can connect to it with your phone and change the color'; suggests emerging pattern of blending legacy mechanical systems with contemporary tech controls

he's activating it let's see the flip for assembly this is we push the button and it shows how the electromagnet works that's something turns on the electricity here that's the power supply they're wired for electric now over here this is obviously going to shift lighting that turns that one on this one goes back and forth so this turns on one half of the game when it flips it ends the other half so this is a stepper one space is on let us off so that's how it work yeah sure yeah many hours this man spent now look flipper and coil assembly now look because he has everything in the open we can actually see the operation now just like all flippers since the beginning of time has to have it in a strip switch and that's because the flipper winding has two windings a heavy and a light when you push the button booth windings turn one at the end of the stroke where the flipper flips up it separates the contacts and cuts off the voltage to the heavy winding the lightweight winding keeps the coil up he explains all of it there and look right there Bart could get in close so or see if any of you can scan that barcode okay with your phones to see if you can go to the video
5:54
[Music] see this I suspect this bulb is out yep it's blowed so that bulb is blown I'm gonna report this to the management so that should be one and when the flippers go in that's honestly don't know if those barcodes work but this one does good that's the main website there we go look at that so it's focusing as the white balance urges we need this bulb for playing keys I'm not happy I'm not happy
6:43
so when you hit this ring that's doing this which this and that's your point switch right there hope he has a work in progress see now look what we do is we're gonna push the button to start it watch the ball when the ball closes the top okay did you see how it pushes the switch and watch again it's coming in this pushes that it goes down and it opens up the points which so it scores points and it's all produced right here in the television set see slow-motion pinball pop up I like that this looks neat - courtesy of a mirror you can see the inside work now I'm gonna guess we pick this up oh we drop it back here now watch here we go
8:00
dispenses I like it I don't like that yes you do well this obviously is a traveling exhibit am i right yeah and he goes probably I would think a great place would be at school where they would have you come in and capture drop two different coils that meet drop target assembly it's out knock it down
8:46
this is a lot of work it is the roto unit I think the last use of it was could it have been Close Encounters and look that's the middle switch lately here hmm so it knows where each one is but I guess the switches on yes yeah when you touch it you can see it glow the light glow in the back that's one night yeah I understand six one three is over there Close Encounters what you picked it up by just looking at it there I finally picked to say that's neat the free play projection unit so this right here this little special eye here will reflect that turns in one and it tells us we have 14 games of it
10:07
so that would projected on a screen 1932 1940s so it used a lens just like a projection like a TV there's no quite just a projector okay the resetting 50 stepping unit now we'll see if we can figure this happen hit that reset it to zero okay so that would have been first player ball cap this is okay second OOP second second ball third ball fourth or fifth ball and then this resets the whole thing back to zero actually goes past one and it goes to zero because you're not cleaning it when you start the game then the first bowl would come up that's pretty good yeah tell us how long were you working on these games
11:18
I'm built a bit first set for Maker Faire place to go and show Creole and things that teach you something so you've been doing a few years for five years he must be retired he's yellow where are you from Colorado Colorado and you brought your beautiful wife with you and are you enjoying yourself here I
11:56
don't think she's rolling her eyes like my wife does and you're doing this pity little show sorry no she'll say oh you're going to another place here that's right and look we have the small switch so this would be a game when you win a free game when you win a free game and clicks it and then this backspace is it and here is a mechanism you can hold in your hand oh I think the next one and is seen you are these are computerized these are running by an Intel processor say what year adds up we show up here what's happening the nanami setting 50 step unit
13:02
so you see this unit with all these fingers see all these fingers each of these fingers trying to light up top here see that light now when it's in another position that same button that same switch I was moving operates that light so when this wheel spins it can change which lights are on and of course people making the Machine want to do a certain thing well now this is this is something none of you really would ever see they used to use this mechanism to bring the ball up to the playfield years and years ago I think the last one disappeared in the beginning of 1970 maybe 69 there's new year there but it's someplace around there and I love you would push this lever it dumps the ball up here you would shoot the ball up into the play field and then it would fall down and it would finally eventually get back here again and then you would literally push pump it up to the place yield again and then a drop standing Waits eventually they just had a coil shoot
14:38
[Music] and it's pretty neat there's more a lot more this is the
15:23
press the back row to reset the when the game first start a relay turns everything back to zero and then these units start spinning I want you to watch what happens when I get to nine and when I go to ten another set of switches moved and it makes this one move one and [Music]
15:54
it's all done simply it uses a total of one two three four five six seven switches to do all that inside this unit the spin unit then this button releases it but didn't select to advance them manually see this two sets here see this here see they're using existing parts to make the thing work
16:58
now look here is a captive ball unit the most recent - would have been the Black Knight big guns the center one is what rings the PAL so I can go all day long going through the others but only the center one gives you the points that maybe in this game the center one you get a free game there we go and of course your chimes [Music]
17:39
and then this is your record you remember hearing that when you win a free game you sent for Morse code send my brother a code where we are all right so I try to be nice I really do and a lot of people get upset because we say rob is the stupid brother he really owns that title so as we're getting ready a couple days before Chicago he actually asks with the utmost seriousness how are we going to communicate with you while you're in Chicago so I guess Facebook Instagram YouTube text messages or the good old standby telephone doesn't work and I figured if I tried to set fire on the hotel roof for smoke signals I get arrested and I figure I could fly back every night just to communicate to make sure that everything was okay at the shop but came up with something better I came up with the Rob taki communication center well go by the old standby Morse code so now all I have to do is plug her in and we can send him messages so this means I think you look pretty good this means I think you're a really big idiot and this means you're a really big super-deluxe idiot now let's not now we'll just ignore the fact that this sat here for about five days and Rob didn't notice it until today it sits here right here he walks by through here getting manuals back and forth trying to look busy like he's doing something he this notices big obnoxious contraption sitting here Oh at least you're grounded it infused it rounded it fused it everything's done myself I'm gonna hack what do you think do you think we should patent it already Oh is there a place to put your battery board yep good see for those I did have the battery but I was gonna take it off and smash it was horrible so I'm gonna develop a package double-a batteries right here and I'm gonna just drape a wire across because I'm such a better friend it's better than something that's made to fit on the game nope be vicious it was just about Jack's like to take them off and throw them away but that's great if you see my take it off your game and smash it right away because that means I can only solve more battery boards oh my poor brother like this one looks like fun the Moto unit motor unit or score motor used when the game needs to do several things now you see these are all processing chips okay and when this starts do you see what it's doing its commanding and he just has the bottom switches loaded with these little fingers there just like the fingers on one of the little music boxes they make these switches move you see all the different stacks he's cleaned off the wires solder to them these switches did a whole boatload of things [Music]
20:49
uses a motor okay this is the heart all promotion this little device now with this thing this makes the pin will work or not the motor turns on that spins the gears and it spins this here there's only one play one guy in the whole country that will lovingly rebuild this motor Steve Young and bull resource hey Steve yes I know you see now this is showing me the activity now remember most of these switches are not being used is marek none here nothing in none here and look just three or four switches are greeting this could be technically cool in this your central processing unit it's a series of one-off signals look the inside of Doodlebug and later used fire fire bolt to this little affair and look at all the nonsense needed to make it work and as it goes by this it pumps it right along and when you hit that point it would make a saint
22:25
the lights are blinking because of the switches so all this is done by a series of magnetic things [Music] now this looks like a Habitrail lift unit it looks neat let's see how it does
22:54
next the next one we're ready again how many games use a bowl if unit I don't know but I like it right at the right time they're getting loaded up this week of approaching the end of this wonderful exhibit please read the instructions before playing this is a puzzle builder of pinball parts for several games the object is to guess the sequence of buttons that will turn on all six lights
23:41
including the one the pop-up step one then press the reset button which I'm assuming it's this one it's loaded press button 1 to 6 until the first light turns on okay you gotta find that one you're wrong wrong again so that button give you that light right it's not gonna do anything else so remember I don't don't lose that button you have five buttons dials and you have five lights left and it's counting your guesses so you want to be mine oh it's like golf you want to minimize though I already got three guesses you remember which one you
24:27
so again the red one recess area so he can cheat that's what he wants to do okay so now I'm gonna start it you're gonna start over so remember I know that resolution which was the first this one yes so you're off to the races don't use that anymore we're gonna have to add 2 to the score at the end okay now number 2 then what happened is after he pushed that it dropped the relay out and now the game is waiting see when I was pushing the other ones the other lights weren't lit because the relay wasn't right so we know it's not this one so I think it's this one wrong okay good thing it doesn't electrocute you you mean trouble okay so we don't want to hit these two again so let's see this is three it's junk well I know it's not these three so it has to be this one yes yes finally and I did it for 13 we had to add 2 to that so I got 10 I got 13 points now tell us what's the best score now has anybody ever got that 6 yeah on the first try no but the second or third shine for sure
26:19
yes six I got all six spray I'm not worthless like my wife told me tonight
26:28
shall we get 50 points or 500 and bonus what am I gonna get when I push that button if you guessed the right number I just may buy you a soda if not you have to buy me a steak dinner hungry okay here we go looting this will drop off when it gets to that spot see that shut off the motor and gravity keeps it going oh I'm gonna give you another chance now look I want you to see he's got the light under here but I can't see it we lift it up there's a motor that runs it he's got the two lights to light the mechanism and little fingers are leaning on this so when the ball goes in the fingers they light up now parent games use this Gottlieb's teed-off that leaves Monte Carlo millipede they're militant millionaire all right let's see this component I say extra ball will you see the bonus and extra ball are going to be the hardest and a bonus I only get one chance bonus has three but 50 has the most choices five
27:50
what the dr. Smith say in lost in space when they got close to Earth so close and yet so far we're up to the magnet coil which can move a pinball without touching it now you've seen magnets in gorg or black night when I turn this on it's probably set to turn these switches here okay and it only sets stays on for a probably a set amount of time oh I see now now only understands we're gonna push the button and hold it as soon as it hits the switch on the side
28:49
now this one looks amazing this is a horse racing machine custom built from pimple parts from several games come on this side we're gonna bet on this thousand dollars for the shop okay this one will take a little explanation and I can talk good you guys day you're gonna start by resetting the whole game of the first button slavery there's six horses here you're gonna pick one of these horses to be your horse well the green one of course very what are you picking you're breaking out it's just one player one player one player so what queen you want the number three so hit there's six buttons here hit the third button that tells the game that you're number three
30:02
these are the forces that are going to move a lot so you think number three here when his light is on that tells you when he's gonna jump ahead so I don't want to tap it when the lights off only when the lights on so you can see that pattern they're not good at this
31:08
how at the envelope us keep going are you gonna win is Todd's gonna win let's see ya when one firm what I'm worthless that was fun that's hard yes if he wouldn't help you'd still be in a badess then remember this setup isn't using every switch oh yes every single switch on the back I think so so this has got Williams parts and godly parts and Bally parts glued together from which machine is the horses from this this one piece came out of a traitor's tube and the rest of these pieces came from who knows where editors see these holes this hung on the side of a pinball machine okay and then this is how to quickly release it if you wanted to take it off see so you kept the connectors these switches tell machine that that horse
32:35
that's enough at the races let's go to the baseball park it's time to gather baseball park well there's two we're still ahead of them packing up this is a baseball game once again filled with pinball machines press the start button
32:55
there you get 15 balls or three outs whichever comes first you're playing one inning of baseball let's see we got a bowl on this article so you're gonna shoot this this is a skill shot and you want the ball to stop on a single double triple or home run I know what you don't want to go although you'll want to avoid anything in red so their strikes down here oh they pull all the way that's hard every time so be gentle how long did it take you to make this thing okay now let's look we're gonna use the gauge here that's why they put the gauge this is on a pinball machine so I'm going to start I'm gonna pull it back so it's in the middle of the second blue I don't think that's gonna be let's see just go okay second pink again okay what I'm gonna go I'm gonna go back one more
34:42
Oh what are you gonna do now I didn't pull it forward Oh what was the last thing I want to show use Magic City Magic City what's the Magic City gonna make us disappear yes Laurel Clark wanted the color wheel in Magic City and he didn't get it right he was cut from production whose creaks Wow it would agree well the cellophane plastic color wheel with a motor and a light bulb what year was this and so they cut it from production and the story resurfaced not long ago on one of the forums online yes so it's shipped it shipped with four 55s instead of the color wheel so it's shipped with the flashing balls and I left those in to respect how long does take you to do Oh a few months just playing with it yeah is this something you sell maybe someday not today but you went to all this trouble to have this produced I did I made the boards yeah and you can connect to it with your phone and change the color and all that and I couldn't bring the whole game because I have other things to haul around but it goes well in a game but this is just to show off what it would look like and look fun with pinball calm and you'll travel to write I'm open to suggestions good sounds like you Tod you must have a moving truck really all this thank you sir thank you what baseball games did that come out of what baseball games did that come out of for the baseball players as well the running man all the other parts came from other games now what took you the longest to figure out what was the own runs and stuff whole game the rules and how to make the rules work and how to make it interesting but not too hard you know the way kids write and self-explanatory the game took you the most like the figure mostly the rules just thinking of how to make it small and worst thing we write because that one is fun but it's a little bit more complicated a lot of people don't understand them I saw one the biggest baseball as well these are more straightforward and easier to understand well it's personal you need somebody smart like me I see you did some well o runs on there and Crete I defended in you would never play the game way that's why you're the best thanks again for thanks for having us well we appreciate it did you enjoy that yes we're gonna learn a magic city trick right here thanks again folks thank you sir mechanical pitbulls are kind of neat huh by the way here's a baseball mechanical this is an old video video 51 you might enjoy watching how we worked on games I have another mechanical video these are kind of low quality but just so you can see we did do these years ago this is Spanish eyes with you number 57 blue Spanish eyes
39:22
we don't say anyway listen ramaa and in the end of the video I'm gonna have direct links to a Pixies bingo machine where we show how the mechanical machines work also a clear cabinet the bull machine that was a pimple Expo I did an extensive video about how that worked that'll be on the end credits also along with a mechanical arcade game sea devil right before sea wolf was made you gotta hang around and watch up is that the promote condition to mint
40:08
thanks for watching and the expo part 4 will be coming Parkins I'm came home one stayed behind cannonball
40:26
[Music] don't mind these York Center board is here come [Music]