Thanks okorange - I was just complaining/keeping the thread going. I'm working off of Phil's stuff, but these are quite nice!

It's not bad when you're cutting out cards for one game, but doing it for 100 is a little more tedious.

I reached out to one of the Brazil owners, and they obliged by sending me photos of their score/instruction cards. Now, I need a photo of the Havana cards... I'll likely make those from Singapore cards.

Made it to the T's - only 5 games with missing S/I cards.

All cards are implemented that I can do easily - the following are completely missing:

Havana

Monaco

Nevada

Better Serenade Score card?

South Seas

Tropicana

Tropics

3-4-5

At some point, I'll make up my own if real ones don't surface.

Something must be wrong with my picture-taking hand. Every time I go down to work on the physical machine, as I leave I realize that I didn't take any photos. D'oh!

I have been working on the button drawer! As mentioned previously, this holds the button overflow from the main footrail/cabinet control buttons.

As the code currently stands..... 7/20/17.... you can play every game using only the standard Magic Screen compliment and Pic-A-Play setup from a Red/Green/Blue/Yellow cab. Now, for those in the know, this is pretty cramped. Also: because I am repurposing buttons in various ways... it makes playing some games pretty odd.

So, the drawer concept was born. With the help of my woodworking friend Steve, the drawer was constructed. At the time I painted the cab, I also painted the drawer, and lightly stained and shellac'ed the pieces of footrail used to hold the buttons in place.

The drawer layout will contain two rows of buttons.

Row 1 - A-B-C-D-E-F and Orange/Gold button. These buttons are primarily used for moving number games, such as the Miss America series or the Magic Squares games. I am also going to use them for Magic Line games as the action will be more consistent for the player. Letter C will correspond with column 3, for example. See? Relatively simple. The alternative is the current setup. Column 3 corresponds to the R button on the footrail. What?! Haha.

Row 2 - D and R for 70s six cards. I am going to retain the use of the left and right footrail buttons for that purpose as well, but it's nice to press the real deal if you need it.

Hold All/Even/Odd. I do not have an Even button. This means that currently, I will need to repurpose another button. I am undecided as I purchased the Odd/All button in a lot with a bunch of other rough bingo buttons. I may end up using A/B/C and scrapping the idea, but that makes less sense than the use for Variety, etc. noted above.

White button - I'm going to have to graft an extension onto the end of the button, but the plan is to have a white button inside the drawer for the few games with special games coined separately. Currently, in the code, I repurpose the yellow button. Works, but is another mind-bender.

I will have one open space at the moment. I have thought about replacing the white button with 1-7,7-1 buttons for Ballerina. Might make more sense than A/B.

If anyone has any thoughts about the above, let me know. I am open to revision.

The thought was to put the most frequently used buttons in front, with the lesser used buttons in the back. The orange/gold button in the front is for convenience, but also because it is small and fits the space well.

Hopefully that description makes some kinda sense. If not, let me know that, too, and I'll actually get off my rear and take some pictures.

Thanks Vic - I am good on buttons, except for the Palm Springs/Surf Club/Ice Frolics hold feature buttons. The two out of three that I have are rough, but usable. I'll re-enamel the lettering, unless I find a better set.

Vic, if you happen to have a pockets unit attached to that playfield, I need a part. It's a funky coil, used only for hole #7.

I'm using a beautiful Gayety playfield for my pockets games, so otherwise, I think I'm ok. Thank you very much for the offer.

More clips procured!

Buttons installed. Switches need adjustment.

PHOTO!

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Where have I been? Working behind the scenes on something really cool for the Multi.

I have also made a little 'punch list' for finishing off the game. I'm trying to break down remaining tasks into little bite-sized pieces as in the summer it is tough for me to put together a lot of time to work on the game this year.

I am a list-making kinda guy, so I run down, knock out a thing, then cross it off the list.

I need to make a playtesting list, but that'll just be scary.

Thanks Vic! Getting there! More to come.

Oh, Vic, I also remembered the other stuff I need from that playfield. I will send you a PM. That would be really fantastic, thank you!

Vic, haven't forgotten - still need to get you part numbers and locations. Will do so this weekend.

I've been working late into the night again on code cleanup. Amazing what a little quality control will do for the cleanliness of your code. I've been logging errors into the integrated issue tracker in Github, which is relatively helpful, if slow. Stupidly, I started logging them in my private repository instead of the public one, so I'll need to move all those things into the public repo at some point.

The main thing this round of cleanup fixes are odd TODO comments that I pulled across to each game after Palm Beach (very early) in my boilerplate relay setup section, the odd 'print' statement where I was attempting to debug something and forgot, and changing over some comparators to be more Pythonic. I have found a couple of bugs, which is fantastic, and they have been fixed.

I am logging each game that needs blinky light support (455s), but am going to make a general 'coin flash' issue for handling those. Looking forward to getting that going, but one thing at a time.

I will also be working on hardware again this weekend. Will be nice to roll up my sleeves and get back into it (and hopefully play a game or two).

17 games into my first refactor pass. Going well. Some bugs squashed, others still alive. I've ported all the issues into the public repo. Most of which have to do with 455 emulation. For the curious, you can see them at https://github.com/bingopodcast/bingos/issues

I have a couple of genuine bugs in there, but nothing that prevents play.

I am still refactoring, but yesterday I took a (ok, several) break and installed a new footrail instruction plate.

I decided that I wanted to use an instruction plate from Golden Gate/Silver Sails, as it contained the most useful instructions for the control setup I have on the footrail. In case anyone was curious what this entailed, I took some pictures.

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This is what the footrail looked like when I remembered that I should take a photo... I've removed the tacks that were holding down each of the plates. I had lightly installed these tacks as I thought I might want to switch to the full footrail plate at some point.

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There are two pieces to the footrail plate - an underpiece, which is not finished/plated and a top piece which has the instructions. The under piece has guides for the buttons and the coin guide. The same guide is used regardless of denomination, but the restrictor plate is different.

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This is what it will look like when done. Just making sure this is what I wanted before beginning this non-reversible process.

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And here's the tools I used - a rubber mallet and a tack hammer. At this point, I should mention that I've only installed one other instruction plate. In that case, I ran into remnants of twist nails far below the surface that caused lots of problems for that plate. It worked, but it wasn't perfect - and I wanted this to be perfect!

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Here we go - it begins. I started working on opposite corners, alternating so that the plates would not have a tendency to shift as the next nail was installed.

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10 positions on the plate require these nail risers. It's very important that both the nails and risers do not escape your grasp - they are unobtainium.

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Here's an example of a nail riser installed.

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This is the coin restrictor plate. I want to use nickels, so here it is partially attached. This piece, being in the center, requires everything to be lined up absolutely correct. That's why you run opposite corners. It's incredibly nerve-wracking to install this piece, though - one slip and you've got a very visible ding.

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I think it turned out pretty perfectly, what about you?

Overall, the new stencil with the NOS instruction plate and polished nails are beautiful. I'm excited to have the public try it again in a few short weeks!

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Thank you fellas - I think it looks pretty great, myself! I have another big improvement coming soon. Can't wait to show you.

...but I've said too much for now!

I'm still re-factoring away. I'm into the Gs. I've found and fixed a number of really small, very irritating bugs. They would have been really tough to ferret out before the refactor, so this is a necessary process. I am also finding and fixing portioning bugs in very early games with less useful documentation for reverse-engineering.

Next up, before endless playtesting, I would like to experiment with yet another method of handling graphics. (I want 455 emulation, doggone it!).

Assuming this works at all, the full spotting disc coin flash animation will not be possible until after York. Just not enough time to get this done.

Re-factoring now into the Ps! I count 43 left.

I should also mention that I've found and fixed numerous really small bugs - things that would have caused my portioning to fail in certain circumstances, motors that didn't turn virtually, etc. Very pleased with the effort expended and the return for it.

Absolutely! I'll be bringing it back for the third annual Bingo Row, along with my giveaways for 4 or 5 in a row!

I'm not sure how many other games I'll be bringing, but this one for sure will go. I'm working really hard to make this year's showing very fun. Several other bingo collectors are also bringing games (thanks everyone, if you're reading this) or themselves to play.

@noquarters, do you think you can make it? Would love to meet you. I realize it's a bit of a haul.

Well, hope you make it one year - it's a really fun show - woodrails, metal rails, bingos, relaxed atmosphere and some great people! Hope you get something good at Expo!

14 left! Big plans for the weekend, hopefully a nice reveal at the end.

I've just been sleeping - ha! - nope, still working on the game. I've been through and finished all the tune-ups I had planned, the code is significantly easier to work with now.

I've found and squished a lot of bugs, and logged many more.

I'm working through the bugs across 138 games - a little daunting, but happily, the bugs are pretty minor (except for a scoring bug on Bally's Hawaii. Not sure why the same bug is not manifesting on Double-Up or any other Mystic Lines game...)

My big reveal was not possible due to unforeseen circumstances, but it will be coming soon.

I thought of a way to handle graphics (again) that I can use without costly (in time) rewrites.

Add an 'override' method that simply kills ALL animation on any switch hit. I think this was recommended to me in the custom pinball group at one point and I either didn't understand or chose to ignore that advice. Probably because I was close to a show... or foolish - one or the other!

Anyway, I'll give that a shot. If I can handle this properly, my problems are over.

I am squashing so many bugs! And finding so many more! It's getting pretty exciting as the machines start to really sound like their real-life counterparts. Due to limitations of my imagination, it's not exactly the same, but having two separate search effects for default screen positions and non-default, for example, is pretty neat.

Haha, why didn't I do this AGES ago? I've always been a fan of music, sound, auditory stuff. I've read that people who like math like making music, and I guess that's true.

What a huge difference. I've wired in proper(ish) sounds and completely reworked the sound profile for user-controlled search and timeout function.

It's much more like being in front of a real machine now.

I do have some dedicated noises that I need to capture - unfortunately, recording some of them will have to be done on a bench instead of within the game. Will add (eventually) dedicated noises for the Magic Screen movement, Magic Squares motor, and Mystic Lines motor. As you might imagine, plunking a microphone inside a game that is cranking with two motors is going to provide a lot of unwanted background noise.

If I can get this latest scheme to work with the coin flash, I'm pretty much done! Of course, animating the coin flash will be tricky - I have the spotting disc positions for most of the games '54(ish) and newer), but rivet-by-rivet, I'll be animating them. That's why I'm starting with 455 emulation. A lot simpler to turn 3-6 bulbs on or off. I can also start doing 16 pulse flashes for select now - I really miss those currently. I have flashes working for the 70s six cards, but that's because I can guarantee the state of the game in those.

These little touches - it's amazing how much they add to the game.

Anyway, in the process of reworking, I'm in the B's (again). Just finished Border Beauty.

There is a cam on the Mixer unit that has 16 notches. Each time it rotates, the switches move a guaranteed 16 times.

So, at 19RPM (the Multiproducts mixer motor - thanks baldtwit and @okorange) - the 16 pulse switches are moved 304 times a minute.

16 * 19 = 304

Now, let's see how frequently it needs to change state... 304/60 = 5.06 times a second.

That assumes no load, so I'm guessing that I can be anywhere in the 3-4 per second range and be good.

It's also possible that my math is off, but I've verified on a few Youtube videos now, and compared with my memory.

Now, why does this matter? For lamps like the 'Select now' that are lit on the backglass when you have one ball left before you're locked out of a feature, the game will flash it to alert you. It does this through the 16 pulse cam switches. From a player's perspective, it's pretty fast. It's really attention-grabbing, intentionally.

My game just lights the lamps solid right now - as mentioned (briefly) above, I'm doing it already on the 70s six cards with Double or Nothing. Again, the problem is that the animations supersede anything happening on the playfield. On the six cards, it doesn't matter as much - I'm not doing much with the game's state unless you blind fire a ball while it's blinking the lamp.

Picking up something at lunchtime today that will be fun to show off in a day or two...

..and now for something completely different...

Coos in the Netherlands offers backglass films or full backglass prints. These decals are printed using a very high quality printer with very high resolution. The decal material is easy to apply, and Coos recommends using the wet method.

I had him send me some for some glasses that I needed, after seeing the results from a friends' glass. I've printed translites before as repros, but these are wholly different. I've also used the double stacked translite prints that were available several years ago. As far as ease of application and assembly and quality - these are several marks above. Really really nice stuff.

Here's a photo of a Night Club print after applying to the glass.
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My Night Club came to me with a glass that was scraped free of all odds, features, and even the name. All were replaced with yellow post-it notes. I located one person who had a glass for sale, and after haranguing him about shipping it to me, he finally relented (thanks again). That made it all the more sad when I opened the crate and the glass was broken on one corner - about four inches diagonally from the left and bottom.

The break was relatively clean, so I tried all manner of gluing, fusing, etc. Nothing worked long term. I took it to York that year and all the vibration didn't help matters. People played it and enjoyed it, but I vowed not to take it back out in public again until I was able to address the backglass issue.

Cut to last night - I had some glass cut (with rounded edges) so that I could apply the film. Using the wet method (which allows for repositioning) I applied the backglass art for Night Club as well as another backglass, which I'll reveal later.

I've applied decals dry before, but never used the wet method. I have a bit to learn there. Unfortunately, despite frantic squeegeeing, I had some bubbles appear. After speaking with Coos, I most likely used too much soap. I've found a way to mitigate the bubbles - we'll see if that holds up.

I'm very impressed with the product, and if I could offer one piece of advice to anyone interested in trying it out - use one drop of soap for a spray bottle. It doesn't take much at all.

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Hmmm... what could this be?

More later!

P.S. I finished reworking the sound for all games last night and came up with a brilliant/terrible graphical fix, and then a fix for the fix. I'm working on that now, but it should allow for the best blinking of any game (maybe)!

Put the glass in to check fitment and make sure it looked cool. It does indeed. But, the screen reacts negatively with the transparent film. So...
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Beautiful hand-drawn artwork by comics artist RyanClaytor - the colors compliment the cab colors from the repaint, and the stage and curtains were implemented to attract while not overpowering the game currently running.

I am extremely pleased with how the backglass frames the monitor and how it compliments the game.

Ryan knocked it out of the park again. It really looks amazing. Those coming to York, wait'll you see this in person.

Thank you so much Dennis. I am just over the moon about this game.

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There's one!

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Here's another! As you can see, I'm a terrible photographer. But I am extremely impressed with the appearance.

By the way... My graphics technique WORKED! I have lots of tweaking to do, but the hardware supports it just fine. What a great day.

Thank you, Vic - I look forward to seeing you there! It's been a fun journey thus far, and I'm not done yet!

What, are those popular or something? I'll see if I can take one tonight. If you're lucky, a little movie?

I am quite thankful for Russ' contributions to the IPDB. And yours too, by the way! I wish I had had the chance to meet him.

I suspect if I hadn't decided to paint my gameroom dark dark blue, my photos would be a bit better. At least closer to your standard (I think your photos are very, very good, Dennis!).

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A little OK at lunch. Biggest hit was there in yellow super section for 96.

Vic, thank you for being so kind with that question - I receive it a lot.

My thought process as I entered into this is that I would create it as a one-off to share my passion for bingo pinball with folks who might not have ever seen or played one of these great machines before. Based on the better-than-expected response from last year, and hopefully continued good response now that it looks like a finished product, I think we can check this one off - I meet people all the time who are interested in the game, which opens a conversation about the wider world of bingo pinball.

My second goal was to be able to learn in-depth about the hardware design that went into parts of the game that I had never investigated deeply - things like the mixers and the reflex and their effect (or not) on the overall portioning. I think I've accomplished this goal as well.

Thirdly, I wanted to share the code with the world, so that anyone could produce one of these machines if they so choose. They will not have the art package used on the cabinet, backglass, nor the individual games' backglass artwork. But I have upheld this and continue to make public releases of my code. I have several interested parties who have voiced intentions of building their own game, and I suspect several others who are not so outspoken. So I consider this a work in progress, but progressing well.

The reason I thank you for being kind with it - and the answer I frequently give is that the time and money it would take would require me to quit my job and dedicate hundreds of hours of my time to making sure each game is perfect. As it stands currently, the wiring inside is ok(ish) for a one-off, but I would want to make harnesses and do things a bit different from a production standpoint.

I made an intentional choice to use off-the-shelf parts. I've frequently been tempted to use something custom or odd, but have resisted either due to cost or future repair possibilities. For example, the monitor installed is an off-the-shelf 32" TV. If they stop making them for some reason, I can purchase a few and stockpile them to guard against eventual failure.

Same with the boardset used - I chose Multimorphic's P3-ROC system and associated helper boards because they are an established company, have solid engineering, and I am reasonably certain I could order more if needed.

There are also considerations when thinking about production that I have not had to compromise on in order to achieve my vision:

1) Button drawer - I wanted the 'feel' of pressing the real button and getting that tactile feedback. Unfortunately, no one in their right mind would engineer something like that for a mass-produced game. Too many failure points.
2) Availability of parts - I don't know how many more NOS footrail plates there are in the world, for example, nor how many of each type of playfield. What does one expect if they order a game?
3) Distribution of artwork - I have intentionally kept the artwork (aside from schematic) to myself - I don't want to step on any toes with regard to copyright, trademark, etc.

This is a fun hobby for me - I have a job! I don't want to get completely burned out on my passion. This project has been so difficult that that has almost happened a couple of times. I have made concessions for practical purposes (replacing screen printed glass with decal film), but have never wavered in my resolve to complete this project.

I could not guarantee that I would feel the same after 100 builds...

Lastly, my wife would kill me. My family has been deeply wrapped up in this project as well. I could not do that to them. I try to only work on it late at night after my family is asleep, but I think that has taken a toll on me as well. I recently read through the whole thread and noticed that I start to sound a little strange after a while, and not my cheerful self. I think I need to just play the game after completing it.

At lunchtime today, I hit two red letter games, made multiple red, yellow and green hits, hit the supersection and played United's Serenade (on which I failed miserably). I need to get back to playing the game and having fun - something which I have backburnered for about a year and a half+. I love these games, I love the technical details, I love playing them.

I do not relish the thought of making more. But the tools are out there! I will publish a manual which will list the Jones Plug mapping and various operational and parts lists. The hard part (the code) is done. It can be done again. I just don't think I'm the guy to do it.

I hope that's not too disappointing. I truly appreciate the excitement that motivates the question and that makes me very happy. I take it as a very high compliment.

I have another different game build I'm doing which is also too ambitious, but it's next on the list after York.

Of course -- that's always an option! I have heating, air conditioning, and all the bingo pinball you can play!