For Amusement Only EM and Bingo Pinball Podcast

The York show is coming! October 12th and 13th, 2018, please join us in Bingo Row for several special spectacles. - A group of bingo pinball machines free to play all weekend - The Multi-Bingo, featuring all 142 domestically produced bingo pinball machines - A brand NEW Silver Sails, still sealed in the box, to be publicly unboxed on the show floor Friday. If it is playable, it will be available f...

I am back from a very special vacation - Dennis Dodel was willing to open his gameroom to a few of us traveling to Wayne Neyens' 100th birthday celebration! I had an excellent time and discuss some of the games and what makes them special. Thank you Dennis! Next, I traveled to Wayne's home to help him ring in his 100th year and discuss some of what made that special event so extremely special to m...

United's coin flash animations are in process - I discuss the mechanical differences between Bally and United games from the perspective of coin flash, then give some simple updates on Robo-Frenzy and Multi Races. Jones Plugs are fantastic for allowing simple connection/disconnection of the head of a game or a coin door from the cabinet body, but it's important to double check these plugs when you...

The biggest news for today's episode: the announcement of the Multi Races project. Thanks to Dennis Dodel for the name! The plan is to make another Multi-type game that will allow you to play all 49 of the one-ball horse race games. Very excited to get started. I've made a thread here: https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/multi-races-the-multi-one-ball-horserace-game The Multi-Bingo still needs...

Ryan Claytor (http://www.elephanteater.com) joins me for a discussion of all things vacation: Fixes for - 1) Williams "Penny Pitch" 2) Gottlieb "Paul Bunyan" (https://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=1768) 3) Bally "Sheba" (https://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=2115) 4) Chicago Coin "Fox Hunt" (https://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=945) 5) United "Thunderbird" Talk about 1) Williams "Rag Mop" (https://www....

A great story from Graham TerMarsch - three donated Bally Big Times were used to teach kids at his son's school about reverse engineering and they ended up restoring one of the games - congratulations everyone! https://vancouverisland.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=1407769 https://www.comoxvalleyrecord.com/news/pinball-machine-comes-back-to-life-thanks-to-nides-students/ This week I also wanted to highli...

I just came across an announcement that the Canada Pincon is going to have a history of pinball booth with: 1932 Bally Goofy 1935 Bally Bumper 1932 Bally Ballyhoo 1939 Keeney Thriller and a 1954 Bally Surf Club! If you're in the area, check out the show at http://canadapincon.com - and let me know how you enjoy the history of pinball games! Getting back to my roots a bit, thought I would talk a li...

Allentown Pinfest was last weekend and it was a lot of fun. Thank you to friends new and old that made it a huge success for the Multi and for me. The Multi played well at Allentown, despite a pretty bone-headed mistake I made in coding before the show... lots of compliments and lots of help forthcoming or received at the show. I did sneak away and play the beautiful custom "Nightmare Before Chris...

Allentown is coming next week - 5/3-5/5/18. I will be there with the Multi on Saturday only 5/5! Come say hello and try the game. I look forward to seeing everyone there. I talk about some of the development challenges in getting the game ready to show the new animations, including the small touches like flashing the insert lamps on coin flash. Today's Year of Flipperless is 1938's Bally "Arcade"....

Discussion of some of the difficulties with animating the coin flash for each game. Some discussion of outstanding bugs. Today's Year of Flipperless game is 1938's Chicago Coin "Swing". I love games with mechanical diverters as well as the captive ball feature. http://ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=2481

Robo-Frenzy is coming along, awaiting some new parts. I discuss a bit about how difficult it is for me to wire up a stepper from scratch. The Multi is progressing on several fronts, and I'm working on adding coin flash for every game. Our Year of Flipperless game is 1939's Exhibit Avalon. A very beautiful and interesting looking game, with uniquely shaped bumpers. http://ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=117...

Sing Along tear down started - and that playfield is really rough. I located a different used playfield that should clean up ok. Very excited to rebuild this game. Robo-Frenzy wiring continues, albeit slowly. I speak about some repairs, including Shoot-A-Line and a Dixieland that just would not stay fixed, ending it with a Williams Skylab. Finally, the Year of Flipperless has a new entry: 1946's B...

As usual, lots going on - I've begun work in depth in wiring Robo-Frenzy. All coils have power, but switches and steppers between still need to be wired. I also need to install a light board and wire lamps. Much of the game is driven by illuminated elements, so testing will not be much fun until I can see what I'm doing! I've also taken the first step to making a Multi Horse Race game. These prede...

Jeff is an avid collector of pre-war pinball (games produced prior to WWII), coordinates the History of Pinball booth at the Texas Pinball Festival, and helps reproduce rare and unique parts for games where reproductions do not already exist. The History of Pinball booth typically includes 15 playable machines from many pre-war collectors. This year's booth will be set up on March 16th-18th, 2018,...

I finished working on a '72 Williams "Line Drive". Well, enough to play, but the crowd doesn't go wild! Next, I talk a little bit about what I've been working on on Robo-Frenzy. Lots more to come. Finally, I go over 1935's Pamco "Roto Lite". This is an excellent example of how forward-thinking Don Hooker was, and how he was already making his mark on the industry in the 1930s! Thank you to Dennis...

Fox Hunt is done! Ryan came down and picked it up on a whirlwind trip. I filmed a short video of gameplay/features: https://youtu.be/TimlRylVL_Y Also, I wrote up a Pinside thread with lots of photos! https://pinside.com/pinball/forum/topic/1940-chicago-coin-fox-hunt Aside from this, I've been doing some repairs around town again, and had the pleasure to work on an original Shoot-A-Line. This parti...

The 1940 Chicago Coin Fox Hunt is just about finished. Two shorted 'coils in a can' are taken apart and rewound. I have a trip relay coil to replace, as well as two springs that are not doing their job, and a shorted lamp socket. Otherwise, things are working pretty darn well. Serenade was picked up by Bingo Butch and his son, Mike, and Mike already has it up and running. Great finish to the year...

A friend of mine asked me to pick any meter I wanted to, to replace my really poor DMM that I've been fighting forever (thanks Ryan!). A Sanwa SP-21 is what I chose: https://au.rs-online.com/web/p/analogue-multimeters/3534304/ Good balance of price and features. Has a continuity test, despite being an analog meter, as well as a diode test. Both are basically resistance tests, but nice to have. Use...

I hope all my American listeners had a great Thanksgiving. I am very thankful for all of you. Today is a cautionary tale. Managed to set the game I was working on on fire... sleep is necessary, but so is remembering to remove a jumper before stopping for the night. Today's Year of Flipperless - Exhibit's 1934 Lightning '36. http://ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=1440&picno=46488&zoom=1 Compared to PAMCO's...

Some discussion of a pre-war game I'm working on currently, and the Year of Flipperless game, Chicago Coin's 1934 Show Boat. http://ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=2136&picno=16947

Scott Gullicks is part of Riot Pinball, LLC, who are best known for their creation "Wrath of Olympus", a full-size DMD-style pinball machine. This year at Expo, Scott unveiled a new project, focused on portability and competition: "Dead Man's Hand", which is based heavily on the layout of the card-themed bingos. Scott joins me to discuss his experience with bingos and the motivation behind the cre...

Bingo Butch Glauda is an operator and serious bingo collector. He owns one of each Bally bingo pinball machine and needs only three more United games to complete his collection. Butch tells many great stories about operating, which games made the most money, and his fascinating history with these great machines. He was extremely generous with his time, and I am pleased to have spent time with him...

I recap the details from the York show! I had a lot of fun talking to everyone and watching them play the Multi-Bingo over three days! Thank you for coming out and giving the games a shot in the Bingo Row! The Multi had over 8000 Red/Yellow button presses over the weekend. That equates to roughly 400+ games. I'm thrilled with that number. Thank you to everyone that brought games and shared with th...

The Multi-Bingo will be available for you to play on September 29th and 30th, 2017! Come play it, say hello, and compete on any of the bingo pinball machines in the 3rd annual Bingo Row. Win a 4 or 5 in a row, come show me, and you'll receive this year's prize: beautifully illustrated key fobs by Ryan Claytor of Elephant Eater Comics. See if you can name all the bingo card styles represented! Toda...

I had some folks over to playtest the game - outsiders tend to play the game differently than I do, so it's valuable to see if anything new breaks. Out of many many games played and discussed, only one new bug appeared. I have figured out how to mitigate it. I've also been working really hard to put the polish on the game. It looks great, plays great, and I'm trying to make it as good as it can be...