For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast

3-Ring Circus was the first game that provided a score card from the manufacturer that listed payoffs for particular score thresholds. The playfield has beautiful pin work, accentuating the 3 rings of the circus. The flier for this game has all kinds of interesting details.

Bingo was one of the first, if not the first coin operated pinball machine. Bingo Novelty Manufacturing was the designer and initial manufacturer, however, it was quickly licensed to D. Gottlieb & Co. (a name you may recognize), newly formed, who themselves appeared to have some difficulty keeping up with the demand. Production was sublicensed to other distributors, including Keeney (another later...

Miss America '75 is the second incarnation of Bally's popular Miss America series of games. A new artist and the double or nothing feature, ported from the 6 card bingos of the early 1970s, makes this game take on another entire dimension. Any ability to earn double the replays normally awarded is pretty cool. The ability to move every number on the backglass on both cards is still the main draw.

Leader was the first United game to have the extra ball feature. It also used a playfield layout almost exactly the same as the competing Bally for the first time. This game has attractive coloration on the backglass and playfield, and reminds me very much of games that United made in the 1940s. The cabinet is one of the floor-length models similar to the earlier United bingo games.

Todd is a former NBA player, pinball collector, and operator in the Pacific Northwest. He joins me to talk about some of the fantastic EM arcade games in his collection, along with a few new additions. Todd has a variety of modern games at various establishments around Seattle - be sure to look up those establishments next time you're in town!

Just catching up on what's happening in my bingo world. I was interviewed by Nate @ coast2coastpinball.com regarding the bingo row and my love of the games. Thanks Nate! I joined a pinball league and actually played pretty well on my first night (total accident, I assure you). The ebay auctions I reference:http://www.ebay.com/sch/biggie36/m.html?_nkw=&_armrs=1&_ipg=&_from=

Miss America was an incredibly popular bingo produced by Bally starting in 1957. They brought this idea out several times throughout the years they were producing bingos. Magic Lines A-E will light to shift the numbers on each row horizontally, allowing for some interesting combinations. This game has two cards, and will light card #2 (also called the Extra Card) on a mystery interval (read: multi...

Ballerina was an interesting experiment in bingo history. A Magic Screen game with positions up to 'H' (the last with this feature), the game gets really interesting when you have the ability to increase the Magic Screen feature awarded by hitting rollovers on the playfield, and the ability to reverse the top row of holes (ex: 1 becomes 7 and 7 becomes 1). Beautiful artwork (another curtain!), and...

In 1947, Gottlieb made their last payout pinball - New Daily-Races. It was so named because it was the spiritual sequel to the Daily-Races that Gottlieb produced before the war. I'm highly intrigued by the gameplay and features on this machine, along with the unusual Parker artwork. There is one currently for sale in Ohio!

Replay games can all be set to free play very simply (pretty much). Find the switch or switches that tell the game you're at max credits and jump it out of the circuit.

Creditdotpinball asks why Williams went to using DC bumpers in their games. Stretching what I say in this episode out a bit - if you have a coil driven by DC, dirt and wear are masked a bit by the DC drivers.

New score and instruction cards are a great way to increase the attractiveness of your game. Instructions for how to print and cut out cards, and affix them to the apron (if there are not dedicated holders).

Issues found and corrected in the Bounty. 1) General Cleaning 2) Skill shot not lighting in certain instances 3) Red letter game not awarding correctly in all cases 4) Magic screen unit dirty or misaligned causing extra number to spot on the backglass. Solutions to all these problems found within!

Vic Camp, expert bingo pinball player, joins me to talk about the bingo row, new bingo players that are getting games, his latest acquisition, and more!

Bally's Spot-Lite was the third bingo game that Bally produced after the one-ball era had ended in 1950. Spot-Lite has the first use of Pick-a-play in a Bally bingo (although the button colors are slightly different), and has the first use of spotted numbers in a bingo. The internals are unique for a bingo as well - the control unit and several steppers are contained in a board inside the cabinet,...

Acapulco is Bally's second (and last) Magic Numbers game. These games have a set of 2x6 numbers on a chain that operate in a similar fashion to Magic Squares. These are disabled before you shoot your fourth ball or via the extended time tree, before fifth or after fifth. On top of this feature, the game allows for up to 1200 replays on a single game, and brings back the Ballyhole (though it is not...

Bingo legs have a hidden feature that could save your game or your life - there is an extra plate welded in towards the top of the leg to add strength and prevent collapse. Inspect your metal bingo legs carefully to ensure that the extra plate is installed or the game could come crashing down!

I worked on a customer's Bikini today, and spent some time cleaning and troubleshooting. The technician that worked on this game on location made a variety of interesting tweaks and apparently documented very well. Unfortunately, the documentation did not survive. Listen as I go through the troubleshooting process I used to figure out what was wrong and how to correct.

Happy Halloween everyone! Midway's Mystery Score is one of the few pitch and bat games that are not themed after baseball. It has a monster theme, with artwork filled with small jokes and interesting details. Two sets of score reels to keep track of a single player game? It's true, and unusual. Red and Green score separately, each with their own threshold for free games.

Setting bingos on free play is actually relatively straightforward - there are really only two major differences during the entire Bally run. One thing I believe I forgot to fully flesh out: The 'anti-cheat' switch that I reference is also known as the anti free-play switch, and is located on the left (or numerically high) side of the replay register.

How do you put your wedgehead into free play? I have a few suggestions. My main recommendation does not require an additional switch, however, there are several ways, depending on the era and type of circuit used to count coin drops. A few are listed here!

Chad is a fellow EM collector with a Bally Beach Club bingo in his collection. After experiencing the bingo row, he is now looking for another great bingo game for his collection. He is a heck of a nice guy, with a love for the mechanical aspects of these fantastic machines. I hope he's playing a new bingo soon!

Bally's Yacht Club used a mechanism that was not used in any other bingo! The numbers on the backbox are arranged in a 9x5 grid. By default, the second through the sixth column of numbers are surrounded by a yellow border. This is the card you are playing for. If you earn the feature, you can move those yellow lines to surround a different set of 5x5 numbers! This changes the makeup of each row as...

Run down of the items that had issues before/at York in Bounty and how I plan to correct. Disassembly and reassembly of magic screen, lubricating clutches, checking all steppers and re-cleaning them. Replay register tear down, clean and rebuild, and more. Basically, finishing the rest of the shop job that I started on this game when I got it.

In 1962, the Magic Screen games were kings of bingo production. During this time, Bally experimented with a new way to use the same mechanism - instead of sections that allow for different scoring, what if the player could control the makeup of the bingo card, one column at a time. Seemingly a natural evolution to the typical ways that a player can control the makeup of their cards, this method wa...