For Amusement Only Em And Bingo Pinball Podcast

The Multi-Bingo is coming along!  New parts, new machines, new playfields - great!   Phil Bogema is bringing a beautifully restored Parade and a Show-Time to the Rocky Mountain Pinball Showdown!  Check out those great (and unusual in the case of Parade) games. June 9-11th in Denver, CO -    Universal 5 Star is a bingo pinball-style machine made before the first widely accepted bingo pinball machine!  Check out the pics on the right side.  Weird, attractive game that looks very challenging.

Lots of interesting topics this episode - unfortunately, I have a head cold that is making me sound odd.  Sorry about that. IFPA posts an interesting document from a law firm representing the Amusement Devices Association to legalize pinball in Cincinnati.  https://www.facebook.com/ifpapinball/photos/a.670610496321546.1073741827.208963032486297/1343263932389529/?type=3 The Multi-Bingo continues to progress - three more games are complete - in my cold-filled stupor I forgot to name the third or really any information about them.  I also have other news on the Multi front.  Something to look forward to for next episode? Hobby Burn-out - I had a series of stressful events happen in close succession and felt like I wasn't enjoying owning games any longer due to not having time to play them.  I posted them for sale and was contacted by multiple friends in quick succession asking me (politely) if I'd lost my mind.  I thought about it, finished off some stressful things, cleaned up my gameroom, and did a complete 1

I've been making my own harnesses and wiring up some new playfields in the Multi. 1) Shoot-A-Line 2) Gayety 3) Double-Up Double-Up is only about 1/3 complete, but this will allow me to add another 20 games into the Multi, bringing me much closer to 100%.   In other news, shows everywhere this weekend!  The VFW show including one of the lost playfield designs of Harry Williams (built by Duncan Brown) and the EM world championships, and Allentown are both this weekend.  I hope everyone has a great time, and I hope to hear how the lost Williams game plays!   Ryan Claytor has produced another 3 sets of reproduction 1950's Gottlieb woodrail plastics!  Coronation, Shindig and Joker are now available from the Pinball Resource.  Put in your order today! http://www.pbresource.com/news.html   Today's featured game is PEO Manufacturing Corp's All American Football!  A very unique and interesting game for 1935.   http://ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=4948

My stencil has been sprayed and it looks pretty good!  See the Facebook page or the Pinside thread for pics. I detail some of the mistakes made, and the good parts too. I'm in the process of building the drawer wiring, now that the drawer is physically installed in the game. So satisfying to see the cosmetics start to come together.

The Multi is progressing.  I get over my existential art crisis and finish the stencil graphics and cut my stencils. I discuss some of the things I have left to do and some that has already been done! Big thanks (this two weeks) to Ryan Claytor for help with coloration consistency (elephanteater.com) Steve Smith (woodworker extraordinaire) Phil Hooper (bingo documentarian and technician - bingo.cdyn.com) Thank you for listening!

Wayne Neyens was a very prolific pinball designer, most famous for his time at Gottlieb. We discuss everything from his time at Western Electric and Supply to his career at Gottlieb and a bit beyond.  He is almost 99 years old, and as such, has seen a LOT of interesting happenings in coin op since he started at Western. Wayne was incredibly generous with his time and willingness to discuss some of these items of curiosity. Thank you again, Wayne!

Chicago Coin's 'Thing' is up and running in my home! I go over some of the challenges and gloss over some others.  The game has several fairly fragile-looking components.  Odd and unique relay ladders, and tons and tons of relays under the playfield. Great game, and I'm happy it's done!  Almost every shot earns at least 10,000 points, and the two passive bumpers at the bottom earn 100,000 at certain times.  In this game, increase in score will open the ball save gate sooner, allowing a ball to drain, so it is in your best interest to make accurate shots. I also got a correction from a friend  (and friend of the show), and discussed a very interesting thread on Pinside about cheating and bingos: Thanks for listening!

Some interesting fun things happened this past weekend, and I discuss a few standout games I played at the Pinball Hall of Fame and Flipperspiel Underground.   I also thought it wise to cover a game again!  Today's game is Baker Big Time.  This game has 8 different ways to win, multiple sequences, and a neat playfield design that reminds me of the horse race games. You can win up to 60 replays on this game! http://ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=282

I dislike the construction of Williams solid state drop targets - I give some reasons why and discuss the mechanical problems of a steel ball hitting plastic affixed to metal with more plastic... I also discuss a short circuit troubleshooting session from a recent repair.  Lack of heat shrink in my travel toolbox caused me to improvise. I picked up a Chicago Coin 'Thing' and have been removing the multiple coats of white latex paint from the cabinet - I give a breakdown of some techniques used to remove on this cabinet in particular. Lastly, there is a person from TX (Nicovolta) that is traveling across the US, teaching EM repair in home - very intriguing idea and I wish him all the best.

I've been working on graphics for the Multi cabinet, and had a coding weekend to take my mind off of artwork...  The Hold feature allows you to return some or all of the balls during a normal game.  Pretty cool feature!  Used on only three games, Palm Springs, Surf Club and Ice Frolics. I also describe the gameplay and some of the features of Robo-Frenzy, the new EM arcade game being made by myself and Ryan Claytor. Speaking of Ryan, he has started working with Pinball Resource to produce new plastic sets for 1950s games.  He began with Score-Board, and his work is absolutely stunning.  If you need plastics, call PBR now!  It was an extremely limited run. Also, I found out recently that Marco Specialties carries 'dead' rubber.  I ordered a bunch and will be outfitting all my playfields with dead rubber on the red posts (as they came from the factory). All for now!

Multi Progress: 105 out of 107 games that utilize the standard 25 hole playfield (with no additional coils) are complete! One of those two remaining games was just discovered this week!  United's Serenade appeared out of nowhere.  I assume it was a prototype game that never made it into full production. A listener asks how to deal with a noisy coin lockout relay. Steve Smith is putting together a list of folks interested in a reproduction Bally Bounty backglass - currently impossible to find in the US.  Please contact me or see this thread:  Another very interesting development: Ryan Claytor and I have teamed up and are designing a brand new EM arcade game!  I've already finished the schematic, and am acquiring parts.  This is being worked on in-between other hobby projects.

My first attempt at a courtroom audio drama.   This one involves a court case between the City of Baltimore, MD and Bally Bounty - yes, the pinball machine!   Special thanks to Ryan Claytor (elephanteater.com) for providing some of the voices in the drama.   Just a silly, fun, educational thing to get you started in the New Year.   Happy New Year, everyone!  

Miss America - all four of these games have been implemented.  In fact, I'm up to 83 games implemented!  I talk about some of how the games changed over the years, my favorite games, features of all the Miss America games, and how I've implemented the moving numbers within Miss America.   Hey!  You like podcasts, you like pinball - friend of the show Ryan Claytor has illustrated another podcast masterpiece.  Pre-order a poster or t-shirt here:   (Especially a poster - I want it to be produced.)

Talk about the way United games work and portion, and lots of interesting news: 70 games in the Multi-Bingo!   Ryan Claytor has illustrated artwork for The Pinball Podcast's 100th episode!  Check out    Robert Medl has put together a fantastic document about reflex adjustment:     Check it out!

Phil makes a special 'in-person' appearance on the podcast! We went over the codebase for a Magic Screen game and I explained how and why each of the functions work the way that they do within the program. Phil provided me with a good clue as to why the machines seemed too 'tight' - my mixers were able to move between 1 and 23 positions with each spin.  In reality, they only move a small subset. Speaking of code, I've pushed up a very large amount of code, for the first 50 games to the public repository:

My interview today is with bingo collector/repair person/player Keith Nickalo. Keith has a fascinating website with information about some of the machines he has repaired, as well as documentation on various oddities:   The heavily modified Lotta Fun that Keith mentions is here:    Some documentation on the Belgian games Keith converted are here: 

There's no shortcutting the implementation of these games in the Multi-Bingo. Duncan Brown's Expo seminar on the unproduced games of Harry Williams is an amazing story:  It's the biggest EM news in many years.  Well worth the read!   The Pacific Pinball Expo is happening on Nov 10-13 in Alameda, CA.  Attend and play some of the great woodrail and EM games (and some bingos, too!):    The featured game is 1947's Williams Torchy: http://ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=2596    

This year's York show wrap-up!  I discuss how the Bingo Row went, some feedback from players of the Multi, a short interview with my friend Ryan Claytor, and lots and lots of 'thank yous'. The thread on the Multi-Bingo that Ryan mentions is here: and Ryan and I each wrote some wrap-up posts on the 'row here:   Thank you to all the bingo folks (new and old), especially: Chad, Len, Ed Jeffrey Robert and Sal Jim Steve Butch and Mike Ryan Vic Dennis Phil H Phil B ...and all the players.  It was great getting to meet so many new players, and new Multi-Bingo fans.  It was absolutely fantastic!   Can't wait for next year!

Sing Along is one of my favorite Gottlieb wedgeheads - beautiful theme execution and great, challenging gameplay.   CORRECTION:  I said this was a Parker art package.  Couldn't have been more wrong.  It was Art Stenholm.  My apologies.   I also speak a bit about Duncan Brown's excellent upcoming seminar at Expo 2016: "From The Lost Playfield Drawings Of Harry Williams: A Pinball Machine 40 Years In The Making" He is making a brand new EM whitewood from the drawings of Harry Williams.  Wonderful!     Next week is the York show - come to Bingo Row and compete for a free t-shirt, illustrated by Ryan Claytor!

Troubleshooting a game of your own creation can be very difficult; especially when you are marrying the worlds of electro-mechanical and solid state! Join me as I track down a misadjusted switch and a bug in my lifter logic. Also, I discuss several of the games gracing the multi, along with today's featured game, Bally's Hole-In-One. Only one unit is known to exist, but no paperwork is available, and the owner does not know the rules of gameplay.  Therefore, I got to try my hand at creating a bingo ruleset on a one-off oddity.