For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast

A listener writes in with a question about cleaning their 1932 Ballyhoo pinball playfield. The short answer of how to do this is 'carefully'. Ensure that you are not accidentally removing the artwork from the playfield as you remove the dirt. The second question involves how to shore up the cabinet. Thanks Mike!

Bingo serial numbers are shrouded in mystery. Rod McLarge, aka CreditDotPinball asks how one may find the serials, their location, and any interesting information about them. I do my best to answer these questions, and ask that anyone post their serials to ipsnd.net, and bingo owners, also contact Danny at danny.cdyn.com as he is collecting bingo serials as well. Check out Rod's site at creditdotp...

Did a lot of pinball-related stuff this weekend, in preparation for York. Has new siderails put on the Night Club and have been playing it like crazy. Unfortunately, the replays would never score - didn't matter if I had three, four or five in a line, or whether the winners were in the magic squares units or elsewhere! So, it's time to bust out the schematic. Follow along with me by reading the sc...

Jeffrey Lawton is the premier bingo technician - we initially chatted on air on episode 54 with Steve Smith. Jeffrey wrote the books Bally Bingo Pinball Machines and The Bingo Pinball War, both excellent books still in print today. We discuss the York show, his involvement, parts and a little technical chat, some of his recollections of working for two different amusement vendors, and some in-dept...

United made this conversion game during World War II for the game Sky Blazer. A sequence game - you try to unlight all 12 bumpers on the playfield, which will light super special at the bottom kickout hole. There are two bumpers near the ball arch in an unusual arrangement. A very fun game - if this was the game that I played... I forget!

Gottlieb's Knock Out woodrail is a beautiful game. A V-shaped mechanism prevents your ball from draining until you complete certain goals. Your main goal is to knock down a mannikin boxer in a three dimensional boxing ring in the upper middle of the playfield! You do this by hitting the 5 bumpers, the rollovers, or the center target. The 5" bell when you knock down your opponent is great fun!

Criss Cross has an interesting gameplay feature - make three in a line or four corners to earn replays... sound familiar? This game has a unique roto target with colored standups that light the bumpers of corresponding color. Lighting four corners lights the gobble holes for special! Really fun gameplay with very interesting artwork.

Bally reprised the name Ballyhoo in 1947 with this super fun layout. This flipperless game has a unique feature - two diamond shapes on the playfield with a total of seven kickout holes arranged in those diamonds. The ball will travel from hole to hole and around a bottom arch back into another kickout hole (hopefully). You win on score, and the only sequence opportunity is to hit one of the side...

Jack 'N Jill was manufactured by Gottlieb in 1948 as part of the 'fairy tale' series - the first games manufactured with flippers. This game's dominant feature is the amazing artwork. There are multiple ways to earn replays, and the flippers allow you to move the ball back and forth across the playfield as you descend. Jack's eyes at the bottom flash when you hit various items rapidly. The backgla...

Gordon Hasse, the famous woodrail pinball collector, discusses his recollections playing these beautiful games on location, where he learned pinball repair and maintenance, some of his favorite games and his upcoming book on 1954 Gottlieb woodrails! To be put on the list for his book, please email hasse.gordon at gmail dot com Gordon made an incredibly generous donation to the Pacific Pinball Muse...

I forgot one! And it's the one that I'm most excited about - a game I've made a deal on to pick up at York - 1956's Caravan by United. Way too many ways to win, gorgeous artwork, and the unique United moving numbers feature. What an excellent game. Confirmed for Saturday at York!

These three games may make it to the York show: 1960-63 (Unknown) - Bally Spot 'Em 1950s Keeney (Converted to Single Coin) 1956 Bally Night Club - my own game is almost complete and may make the trip!

Dixieland was Bally's last and greatest EM six card game. It has all the features of Nashville, plus a randomly awarded Double-Double feature that will award you quadruple the replays if you make your hit on an indicated card and make the magic number. The maximum payout on card #6 is 300 ordinarily, but if you double that with a magic number win, you get 600, and if you quadruple that you get 120...

Bally's Silver Sails is the sister game to Golden Gate, and contains all the features of Golden Gate, but has a completely different art package. In this episode, I talk about those differences, then stumble on the one minor electrical difference in the backbox. Aside from this, artwork and playability are discussed. In Jeffrey Lawton's Bally Bingo Pinball Machines, pg. 107, you can read about how...

The first game to feature the separate Red Letter Game or OK game, County Fair has some of the most impressive artwork of any Bally Bingo. It has the blue section scores as green, and triple deck scoring. A gorgeous game, I hope it comes to York so that I can play it!

A surprise for those who don't read the Pinside thread for the show - I managed to fix a pesky problem with Double-Up and it is ready for the show! It will be the only example of a 20 hole game there. I've discussed Double-Up's features and scoring on a previous episode, so I thought I'd go over the troubleshooting process on this episode. I got frustrated enough to reach out to Phil Hooper, and a...

Steve's back to talk about his other game, which will be making an appearance at this year's York show: 1962's Golden Gate. Golden Gate is a really fun magic screen game that has an entire game unique to only Golden Gate and Silver Sails (the sister game of Golden Gate) - the Golden Game. Qualifying this game by landing three in the purple section (the area surrounding the orange section for the O...

Bikini is the sister game to Circus Queen (as I learned tonight). It has all the features of Circus Queen, plus a new way to store your OK game for later play. You can build up this 'futurity' game to 12 different positions, each which give a different game. The normal red letter game has seven different positions. The 3 in the orange scores as green makes a return, normal magic screen gameplay, i...

Nashville is a late-era 6 card game - it came out in 1978, with only one more 6 card to arrive after before Bally closed their production down in 1980. Nashville has all the features of Ticker Tape, but adds rollover buttons to achieve super lines and corner scoring on all 6 cards simultaneously, the magic number, which, when hit, will double all scores on each card, and the lovely red diagonals,...

Bally's Circus Queen is a magic screen game with an unusual feature: three balls in the orange section, when the feature is lit, will score as three in the green! This was the first game with dedicated blue section scoring. This allows for 3 or 2 in the blue section to score 300 or 600 replays. Triple deck scoring, an extended time tree with the rollovers, and the OK game round out the package.

Coney Island is a fantastic game - the second bingo Bally produced, it came out in 1951 with three cards, and the first appearance of the extra ball feature. Up to 8 balls in play at once, and the game will discover and award replays on each of the three cards. The first bingo appearance of the reflex and mixer units, along with the automatic ball lifter. Max payout was 100. Great artwork, a nice...

Bally's Miss Universe is a very unusual bingo - with only three balls, and the majority of the gameplay involved with spotted numbers. This is the only 18-hole bingo produced, made in 1975, five years before Bally closed down bingo production. A very interesting game, and I look forward to playing one at York, hopefully! Check out this video: https://youtu.be/l33K5a9RoN0

The Bounty - one of the most highly-prized magic screen games - is packed with features to keep players coming back. Triple-deck scoring, three separate OK features, Magic screen with two super sections and a blue section scoring, an extended time tree, and of course, the skill shot. Bounty was released only as an export game in 1963.

A special guest joins me tonight to talk about her favorite bingo: 1972's Bally Ticker Tape. As you heard on Episode 177, Ticker Tape is a 6 card bingo, with super lines, corner scoring and a 'Double or Nothing' feature.

Gay Time is a fantastic player that has features and gameplay well ahead of its time. The Magic Pockets feature, which has always sounded so cool, is actually incredibly cool. The game will sense when there is a ball in the first row of holes, and allow or prevent you from moving based on the position. Aside from that, there are spotted numbers, corners scoring, and the magic lines. All explained...