It's happening again! Another group of like-minded bingo collectors are bringing games for the public to play for the weekend!

IMG_20170927_172954 (resized).jpg

This year, I'm driving a cavernous van. Tempted to fill it to the brim with games, but I brought only two.

The beloved classic, Gay Time, one of two games with Magic Pockets...

IMG_20170927_174037 (resized).jpg

And the Multi-Bingo.

For those that are not familiar, this is a huge project that recreates every EM bingo pinball machine in one physical game. Using EM playfield parts and solid state electronics, I've got 138 possible games to play in one cabinet.

My friend and helper for the loading is @zimjoe.

IMG_20170927_190057 (resized).jpg

We got the games loaded, and the next morning, I left.

IMG_20170928_105520 (resized).jpg

Oh? Here already?

Well, better unload, then.

IMG_20170928_120507 (resized).jpg

There was an issue with the electrical, so I helped set up some tables for a minute.

Waiting is truly the hardest part.

IMG_20170928_135800 (resized).jpg

While I wait, the flea market and vendors are starting to unload and set up. What's this? A series of Baltimore tax plates on a beautiful Miami Beach. Original glass, very nice playfield. Snapped up by one of the folks in Bingo Row.

A Stock Market also appeared in the flea market!

Setup is always a fun time. Wonderful to see everyone again.

IMG_20170928_175203 (resized).jpg

Steve and Jeffrey chatting. Some pretty games in the background.

IMG_20170928_175232 (resized).jpg

Jim Holder tests out his Miss Universe.

IMG_20170928_180433 (resized).jpg

Bingo Row is coming together. More tomorrow!

Sorry for the delay, so much still going on!

Vic, love the photos. It was great to see you again and see you make a series of really great hits!

So, where I left off, Thursday was almost finished. We all checked out machines for playability, and @okorange, who flew out from the Western US, got to meet some of the East Coast bingo folks.

Chad and Len, and Ed were there with new a new bingo guy - (a different Ed). All four are extremely nice folks and they always bring some interesting games. Len brought an absolutely beautiful Ice Frolics and a Sun Valley. The Ice Frolics had a near-perfect glass, and a really beautiful cabinet. There were many people buzzing about the game (it's a hard-to-find title and he had a great price on it for the condition). It stayed until late Saturday and got played quite a bit. More on the gameplay later.

Jim Holder brought his Miss Universe, which played very well.

Jon R. brought a Galaxy(!), which I was curious to see. The moving numbers feature doesn't work like I thought it did, so I was pleased that he brought it. Jon let me know that it was a real challenge to get it going, and he really put a ton of work into it in a short period of time to get it there.

Jeffrey Lawton was there with a Roller Derby for sale. It played great all weekend, of course. Jeffrey is one of the folks that really drew me in to the bingos. Every year he would bring two games by himself and set them up, until we all started bringing games for the Bingo Row.

I brought the Gay Time and the Multi.

Pete brought his Circus Queen (another Magic Screen game like Roller Derby).

So we had two Magic Screen games, a Magic Squares game, a Hold feature game, a Magic Pockets/Lines game, Galaxy (ball return and moving numbers), 24 holes, and a Miss U - 3 balls, 18 holes, moving lines.

Great selection of games, and a great group of people who brought them!

I picked up a small, older game in the flea market and put it in the van. But wait! What's that? I got a text with the photo of the first four in a line winner!

download_20171002_133016 (resized).jpg

At that point, it was time to sleep.

Friday!! Time to rise and shine.

Now, I am hopeful that someone else has some photos. My time to take pics was extremely limited. I spoke with many many people and had a fantastic time teaching people how to play the machines, and congratulating winners.

The row was hopping, too! Here it is, just getting started for the day.

IMG_20170929_110851 (resized).jpg

and another few moments that I was able to capture:

IMG_20170929_121853 (resized).jpg

IMG_20170929_121902 (resized).jpg

IMG_20170929_135045 (resized).jpg

The position of the row this year was just about perfect. Many, many people would give the games a shot.

People played many different games on the Multi and I was extremely excited by how the machine was performing.

Friday was over before I knew it. Only one day left.

Friday morning I was told that a bug had crept into my beloved Gay Time. The pockets would not kick the ball right! There is a single-pole double-throw switch located under the left button that was not making good contact. I tweaked it and then played this game...

IMG_20170929_084457 (resized).jpg

That's a good omen, right?

Well, the rest of the day was pretty much flawless. The Multi had a crash to desktop on Ballerina. I've had that trouble before on that game, but haven't been able to isolate. Something about the interplay of the 1-7 feature and the Magic Screen cause it in rare circumstances when scoring. Miss America Deluxe would score a red letter game, but would not score two red letter games in a row. Otherwise, everything worked perfectly.

Saturday, however, was even busier!

We had one hardware issue:

IMG_20170929_164502 (resized).jpg

The replay register stepdown coil bracket broke on Pete's Circus Queen during a game! The coil fried, and the bracket was toast. Luckily, Jeffrey Lawton had the part and the repair was very quick.

IMG_20170929_175257 (resized).jpg

Many people played the games and it was fantastic to see some folks that have been coming to Bingo Row for the past few years.

You may have noticed that we had some additional games come through! On Friday, the Stock Market from the flea market area was put onto the row. It would play through a game, but it was awarding corners on every card. That can happen in extremely rare circumstances, but I watched it do it two games in a row. I'm not sure if it scored correctly. On Saturday, it was gone.

And on Saturday, a Dixieland appeared in the row! It would not search nor score. I tweaked a couple of switches and got it searching, and scoring properly on regular wins. Double or Nothing play always resulted in nothing, but always nice to have another game in the lineup.

The core games worked great. On Saturday, at least one game was not lifting extra balls correctly on the Multi. I believe this to be a switch issue and not a programming issue, but further testing is needed to make sure. I'll definitely have that tweaked for next year, not to worry.

That brings me to one of my favorite parts of Bingo Row... the winners!

I run a little contest every year - anyone that can make a four or five in a row will win a prize.

This year, I had key fobs made up to celebrate the new cosmetics of the Multi-Bingo!

IMG_20170920_220502_231 (1) (resized).jpg

I think they turned out pretty darn nicely! There are five different card styles represented on the fob - Magic Screen, Mystic Lines, Extra Lines, Ring, and Squares (specifically Parade).

I didn't get a photo of everyone - pulled in too many directions at once! But here are some of the winners:

IMG_20170929_162531-COLLAGE (resized).jpg
IMG_20170928_191452-COLLAGE (resized).jpg
IMG_20170930_094309-COLLAGE (resized).jpg

Congratulations to everyone that won! You may notice that some of the games are tilted, and others have only one ball on the playfield...

The older games automatically time out and throw to tilt. These were legitimate winners. The other is caused by people wanting to play again and not wait for me to get them a keychain, haha!

I want to say a heartfelt "thank you" to everyone that brought a game to make the Bingo Row a success. I am extremely pleased with the continued success of the row. It couldn't happen without games, and without people willing to teach others about the games! To Jon, Jim, Jeffrey, Pete, Len, Chad, Ed and Ed. Thank you. Thank you to Phil, who made a cross-country trip just to see the row.

And to the players: thank you. This year was very special for me. I appreciate all of you with kind words about the project or that stopped by to tell me that they were following along with the project and wanted to make a special stop to see the Multi, and ended up learning about these amazing games.

Can't wait to do it all again next year!

The Multi had a lot of plays:

IMG_20170927_190032 (resized).jpg

During load in.

IMG_20171003_123847 (resized).jpg

After unloading.

Thank you! More are always welcome.

Folks like yourself that learn about the games and then start down the road to ownership, make it all worthwhile.

It was great to see you again!

Tentative dates for next year are October 12th/13th. I've made that drive before! It's a pretty drive, if nothing else.

The more, the merrier.