All hardware has been received for the ancillary score/instruction displays, and I've got source images of the 10 games currently present. I will need to modify award amounts for some of the later replay games (I have mine set to 160 for feature award, and the source images have 320).

I'll get those small tweaks done, and knock these images into shape, then it's back to building.

IMG_20190807_211116_045 (resized).jpg

Lookit that! Score and instruction displays! The raspberry pis are outputting too high a resolution, so I'll need to set them up on a different monitor then bring them back. Luckily, they are credit card sized so pretty darn portable.

I'll be working on this more as time allows and my time is quite filled at the moment.

More soon!

Thanks @luvthatapex2!

Those are flag springs - very cool and something which is no longer used (unfortunately). They add a really neat dimension to the game. Basically, they will sproing if a ball hits them, sending it at a predictable, but different, angle away from the spring. I use them to traverse the playfield if I am coming down the wrong side.

The placement of the pins is such that you can easily make a wrong move and bounce into a hole you don't intend if you are not paying attention.

It adds a very cool bit of visual stimulation as well. Looking at the "win" section of the playfield, those barrel springs are also pretty neat, but it's hard to make the ball travel from hole to hole like with a playfield post with a rubber on it. I would say that any of these spring types are less predictable than a rubber-covered post, but still predictable enough to let you know you are not going to succeed.

Last night, I had Raspberry Pi for dinner - I got the Pis set up with their own local network, wired to the main computer, and installed the various packages and configuration tweaks needed to hide the mouse cursor, etc. I also wrote the little shell scripts that display the content I require when prompted by the main computer. Finally, I tweaked the main computer to make those calls as the games are paged through - hey, it all works! Of course, I've done this all once before, but it's still a thrill to see something like that work seamlessly as designed.

I have one small package left to install on each pi (x11-utils to allow use of xset and turn off screen blanking), then they should be all good. A shame I didn't realize this before I plugged them back into the game last night...

Otherwise, the screens are pretty much done! Assuming I can still lower the playfield glass/lockbar/siderails into place with the wiring sticking out the sides (it shouldn't go past the apron), I'm one step closer to complete enough for the show/my tastes.

I got help from a guy named Bob on the pinball development group - he provided me with 3-D printed mounts for my proximity sensors, and information on how to wire them up! I will be attempting to do that soon. The sensors have to be screwed into the shutter board, and I am concerned about ball strikes. Thankfully, with only a single ball, that shouldn't be a big deal (hopefully). The prox sensors are used in only one or two games, but I am looking forward to at least getting it wired up and ready to use, even if they are not fully functional. I need a 1K Ohm resistor inline with each prox sensor, which I will be ordering shortly.

Woodworking is also in my future. I need to cut a back door, route a hole for the lock, route a hole for the cam in the head, and then start work on the much more high stakes lockbar. I have parts from a bingo friend en route. The bingos used much longer buttons than the one balls, but the springs and restrictor plates and such are similar or the same. I should have a good handle on this soon (hopefully). Going to test with some scrap wood before making the incredibly nerve-wracking cuts into the lockbar.

This weekend I will not have much time to work on the game as I will be going to the Roanoke Pinball Museum on the Coin-Op Carnival release tour, but I should be back onto it during the week next week. Next weekend is also called out... Can you tell I'm starting to get nervous about how much time I have left?

I tried out my handheld router for the first time and cut a back door for the game. It fits (mostly). The nice piece of plywood was pre-cut to 2' across and it is 25" across... which means that there's about an inch gap on the sides. I also learned that a router can jump when it hits a bad piece of wood/air inside the plywood. Luckily on the backdoor, who cares. But I WILL care on the lockbar. This is terrifying. Haha!

I'm awaiting some locks so that I can actually keep the back door closed, then will drill and route space for them.

Had a bright idea on the lockbar: could I swap the glass/lockbar/siderail combo from my Turf King to the Victory Derby cabinet for the show? The answer is no. Turf King's siderails extend another 1.5" or so beyond where Victory Derby's siderails end. I cannot remove the lockbar from TK by itself without breaking apart the frame for the glass and knocking the glue and nails apart.

One good thing I noted was that the buttons do, in fact, clear all of the coin door hardware bits that extend up so far. So that much is good. I have a good set of horse game buttons (minus play all and Extra Balls) that I will be installing.

I received a package from bingo collector Jim Holder with various bits and bobs that I needed for under the lockbar. I'll nervously think about working on that soon. It might contain a couple of rough magic screen buttons, which would work fine for the gameplay (and can be replaced with nicer, later).

You know, with some forethought... I could have probably found a lockbar from a sunshine park and swap out the siderails.

If anyone has one from a parts game, let me know. I'll keep moving towards this manual solution in the interim.

IMG_20190818_110816 (resized).jpg

Got some more router practice (and mistakes) in this morning on the backbox locks - success!

Now, on to the really scary part... The phot above contains all the measurements needed to replicate the Turf King lockbar. I am going to be installing one extra button.

Learned an interesting thing: the horserace buttons have no springs!!!! Very interesting. So they don't sit proud of the lockbar, the spoon switches are adjusted to the desired height. Pretty funky! Anyway, this gives me a bit of a margin for error, and I definitely need that.

First button routed. Need to widen the endges a smidge to get the fence installed. THIS IS NERVE WRACKING. I mean, totally simple and doesn't at all feel like I'm going to screw up this whole lockbar.

Hey, I didn't! (Mostly). All six holes cut and now I'm going to let it rest for today. Very hot outside.

It has been a busy week. I'm working on a fun thing for York that'll hopefully make it in time, and dealing with a lot in my day job.

But! I managed to squeeze in some time last night. I took apart two Magic Screen lockbars to procure button supplies, restrictor plates, etc. I also was able to go into the attic and dive through my parts stash to try to find spoon switches. It's amazing what a lack of over 100 degree heat will do for you. It was raining last night, so I took a chance. I was able to scrounge four sets of spoon switches from various harness bits I've accrued (thank goodness I never throw anything out). I also pulled two sets of slingshot switches, which I will try to install for the remaining switches.

I got the button restrictor plates installed on top of the lockbar, and test the alignment of all the buttons. I also took a fine circular file and cleaned out the holes for the buttons. Smooth as silk!

I have one button hole that is a little off-center. This became more apparent once the restrictor plate was nailed down. I will take the router to it this weekend and make it perform properly (it's too far off for a little filing/sanding).

I should be able to test fit and function this weekend, as well as installing that last package on the score/instruction display computers I mentioned. The very last thing I'd like to do before York has to do with the levelers. The two on the head are broken, but still attached. I would like to remove them as the playfield level is very steep, and see how it performs with the wooden feet on the ground. I suspect the angle will be more similar to Turf King at that point. I may thread in new levelers and put them all the way up - in case the floor at York is terribly uneven for some reason.

Just typing this out is getting me excited for this weekend! Very close to the finish line! Then it's just testing, testing, testing.

Fit & function: tested - the two bingo buttons are a little weird as I can't install a c-clip or split washer on them. Pulling hard enough makes them removable, therefore.

The other buttons sit proud of the surface just like the buttons on my Turf King and operate much the same. Very pleased.

The bingo buttons are a bit more stiff as I very slightly bent in the edges of the restrictor plate. Their amount of travel is only a couple of cm because of this, but they work.

I taught myself ufw as well (I'm an old ipchains and iptables kinda guy, and thought I'd branch out a bit. ufw stands for Uncomplicated FireWall, so - how hard could it be?). I route the pis ethernet connection through the main computer, enable ip forwarding, and then nat/masquerade the traffic so the pis could get those packages they needed direct from the wide, wide Internet.

It worked, but ufw has some... interesting syntax when it comes to NAT. I should probably spend more time with it, but you basically end up writing iptables commands if you are doing anything remotely complex, so I guess I'll stick with iptables from now on. Also, it overwrites all of your sysctl config when you enable ufw... that took me a couple of minutes to figure out (why is /proc/sys/net/ipv4/ip_forward set to zero?!? I just set it to 1!).

So here's the current status:
1) 10 games, totally working.
2) Ancillary displays, also totally working (now they do not turn off until the game is turned off).
3) Menu system written, and also working (star and flag to select between games, play all button to turn the game on).

But!

Using a newer version of Ubuntu as the base for the Multi-Races computer, I needed to install a newer version of libFTDI. This version seems to have a new bit of detection code that prevents starting multiple applications that require access to the device you're speaking to over USB. In this case, the P3-ROC. The way that the menu system works, it basically creates a connection to the P3-ROC to allow for button presses when selecting a game, then when play all is pressed, it imports the game code in a new thread. When the game code is imported, the game code itself also creates a connection to the P3-ROC (note that the menu code is still running, just in the background). This is part of why my menuing system is super fast. The menu never really disappears until you exit the game.

I've tried a variety of commands before initiating the thread to start the game, but the detection code seems to need a few minutes to cool down before it will allow another program to speak with the P3-ROC. I have no idea why this was added (probably to prevent crashes for USB devices that are less good ), but it's really annoying.

I will need to either fix this problem, or start over completely with this computer. That means installing an older version of the base Ubuntu, then installing all the ancillary packages needed to run the game, then downloading my code and assets for the game. A bit of a pain, and it will likely take me a day or so of concentrated work to get things back to normal, which I won't have time to do until (maybe) this weekend. Also I run the risk of not having the drivers that I need pre-installed with an older version, so compilation and more time + effort needed.

Until that time, I'm going to see if there's a way I can avoid having to do all that work. I'm nothing if not lazy.

Oh, and I fixed a race condition with the control unit that prevents it from shutting off when certain buttons are pressed in certain games. (hooray!)

Spent a moment this evening recompiling known good libraries. Did not help.

Next up is a more crazy test - killing all running python instances then restarting via a shell script. If that works, great! If not, then I'll try moving to another USB port/cable and if that doesn't work, then I'll reinstall an older version of the OS. Whatever is causing this is happening on the older libs, but it's unclear of libpinproc is linked against the old or the new. I'll run a few commands and figure it out.

Just a small update, but there's a plan.

Nothin worked.

I have reinstalled using an older OS as a last resort.

Unfortunately, when you do that with more updated hardware, sometimes you have to compile drivers that are missing from the kernel shipped. Thankfully Ubuntu updates their base OS every so often with a fresher kernel so new downloads are not left in the dust.

The only thing that didn't work (thankfully) was any type of networking. Not a huge deal. I had to download a driver on my phone, transfer to a USB drive, install build-essential from the DVD, then copy over the driver and compile it.

First try I blew it because secure boot was on. Hilariously, my UEFI does not have the option available in any menu. You have to search for it to disable it. So when I compiled the new driver, I couldn't insert it into the kernel. I tried a command-line option that requires you to put in a password then drop to a console interface on reboot to disable. That just caused the computer to stop booting... Sigh.

Another try! This time I got it installed, copied driver, compiled, annnnnnddddd - it worked.

Whew! Now to reinstall the entire build environment and pull my code. I checked in all the ancillary scripts, so it should go relatively quickly.

Hopefully this takes care of the problem. If not, I'm going to have to curate the selections at York.

Got everything working... Except for my monitor rotation. Intel no longer distributes their graphics driver source to build, from what I can find.

Since there's no way to update without updating the base OS... I'm upgrading to an intermediate step and hoping it works.

It will display at 1920x1080, but the monitor output can't rotate. Pretty annoying. I've added separate modelines and still nothing.

I will say that that used to be such a painful process in XF86, and now it's just a few commands. That part was nice. The time wasted....not so nice.

Again, I can just redo with the latest and when someone wants to play I can pull it up for them, but kinda defeats the purpose.

:-/

Ok, I have an idea. If the present doesn't work, and the past might not work (I'm trying an upgrade before setting up graphics, etc this time)...

Perhaps the future! I'll install the latest and upgrade if needed. There's something up with some surrounding library. I just don't know enough to say which one, and I'm manually compiling just about everything except for, say, kernel modules that handle USB...

Would really rather not compile my own kernel (haven't had to do that for several years and it is a big pain).

Bad news... I swapped the board between the Multi-Bingo and Multi-Races to the same result.

This rules out hardware problems with the board, but means that I still have some kind of hardware / driver problem with the computer. At this point, I'm wondering if it makes sense to try a different computer...

That's what I get for leaving menu support for last!

Well, a lot more went into it than the above, but I finally figured out something that would work.

Thanks to Gerry, Jan, Michael and Mark for their help trying to diagnose this thing.

I ended up reformatting the machine one more time then diving into several bits of source to see how the USB connection was supposed to be freed.

For some reason it wasn't being freed fast enough. I manually called the particular killing function (after digging it up) and that worked. This problem could only have been more annoying if I couldn't find the answer.

Persistence pays off! Played a few hours today with no issues.

To exit to the menu, you still do the 'three fingered salute' of star, clover and flag. Flag moves forward in time, star moves back.

Play all (furthest left button) starts the game. From then on button interactions are governed by the rules for that game.

I think it's ready for some third-party tests!

Very happy to have the game working - kids came down and played a bunch of different games tonight. Dozens on the 5 Star and a few tentative games on the Multi-Races, both of which will be at York in just a little over a month!

After a series of house-related issues, I am ready to have people over again tonight, just a week away from the York show. Let's hope everything goes well with the testing on Multi-Races tonight!

Several of my local friends will be in attendance tonight, hoping that either everything works or they find a nice solid bug that I can squish.

I'll try to finally take some photos!

Neither machine does currently - initially I wanted to have the reflex carry over as well - so if you really clock a machine and switch to another, you are in jail a bit.

I settled on a randomized position for the reflex with entry into each game, and no credit carrying. You can zero them out, and in the case of MR, some of the games will payout immediately vs. hold credits anyway.

A couple of friends were able to make it over yesterday and they put some time on Multi-Races.

I instructed them in how to play (very unflattering picture)...

2021804294 (resized).png

And one bug was found (here's a photo of the state of the game - ball landed in #3 win and didn't pay, but had been paying well at other times - suspect it is related to state of carry-over features at start of game): IMG_20191002_200458 (resized).jpg

Here's some lockbar photos - IMG_20191002_184249 (resized).jpg
IMG_20191002_184245 (resized).jpg

Held up very well. Aside from the bug mentioned above, there were a couple of very minor polish items to handle (graphics). There was also a semi-bug. Player hit jockey cap on a game with a wild stepper - this awards all seven selections on the next game. It did that part as expected, but the player played all before spooning the ball up to the shooter lane. This wiped out the selections. It doesn't do this if the ball makes it to the shooter lane first. I'll have to see if I can implement a protection for this, but it's a pretty minor concern.

I also need to wire in a new coin meter - the original one won't step!

Thank you, though I am sorry to hear you're getting out of the Turf King without getting it going! It's a great game!

This advice is all true, but I'd say that's pretty high for a one ball project in CA. From what I've seen for other gambling pinballs (bingos), CA tends to have much lower prices for non-working games than the East Coast. That said, easier to start up and go down than vice-versa.

Seems insane, but that's how it seems to be currently. Hopefully that will change one day.

As far as moving, thankfully it breaks down into multiple parts. Make sure you communicate that to potential buyers - head comes off, jones plug block through the back of the cab, siderails, lockbar and glass come off (one unit), playfield, and the plug and motor boards can all be removed from the cabinet, leaving a relatively lightweight cab to carry. Still awkward, but much less heavy than a piano (thankfully).

Doing some tweaking this morning. Managed to break the left instruction card screen. Time to see if I can have one overnighted.

Otherwise pretty productive. Couple of potential switch errors I saw the other night turned out to be a loose Jones plug for one and a broken solder joint for the other.

Spent some time this morning chucking the play all button up in a drill so I could clip it in. Right now it is held in with tension until I find the right size button. The issue happened while trying to adjust the playfield and lockbar after the aforementioned soldering. Didn't notice till I powered it on. It's only beat up in one corner, but I'd like to have a nice one for the show.

We'll see.

Overnight shipping gets it here Tuesday evening. Gonna be a busy time before the show... Haha!

Had my in-laws over tonight to celebrate a birthday... And we inevitably played some pinball.

I paid special attention to Multi-Races and all was well. Very excited for the debut on Thursday... Of this week!

Final touches: I built the menu graphics across two different computers and completely forgot the name of the font I used.

Had to make them all the same and fix a positioning error: done!

Next, there was a problem with the coin counter. I do not use digital counters in my EM sim games, I prefer pulsing a real deal counter.

Unfortunately, the real counter I had from the 40s didn't work! I manually poked the actuator and nothing happened.

Took it apart (coin counters are sealed), and the doggone reels were all frozen in place. Looking at the actuator, I believe a bit of the arm had broken off as well. Bummer! I replaced it with a 60s meter courtesy of DennisDodel - thank you Dennis! Currently at 15 plays and works perfectly. I'll be sure to document before the show.

Only 3 days left!!!!

New screen comes Tuesday. The current one works, it is only cracked in the bottom left corner, so worst case and the mail is delayed, it will still work, just be a little funky.

Made some other minor changes to graphics routines for projection credit units and added a reel strip without a zero for the hundreds position (used in Bally games).

So excited to share with everyone.

IMG_20191009_145028 (resized).jpg

Multi-Races held up pretty well for its first show! I taught quite a few folks how to play. Final meter photo will be taken once I set it back up (needed a couple days to relax after unloading).

On another note, I am looking for photos of the following backglasses, if anyone happens to have one! I am not very picky. I digitally touch up the glass where possible. Any leads or help would be appreciated:

MISSING ART
Thorobred Bally 0 Buttons
Kentucky (1938) Bally 2 Buttons
Man-O-War Gottlieb 0 Buttons
Multiple Races Gottlieb 0 Buttons
Derby Clock Western 0 Buttons
Across the Board Universal 0 Buttons
Flying Champ Western 0 Buttons, Payout
Quinella Western 0 Buttons
Seven Flashers Western 0 Buttons
Hot Tip Keeney 1 Button
Blue Grass Bally 0 Buttons, Payout
Kentucky (1941) Bally 0 Buttons
Sport King Bally 0 Buttons
Santa Anita Bally 0 Buttons, Payout
Record Time Bally 0 Buttons
Bally Entry (1938) Bally 2 Buttons, Payout

Still in relaxing mode, so decided to work on adding new games... I'm up to 14 now!

Preakness - the game that standardized the playfield layout for horserace games as we know them (1936)
Fair Grounds - early game with coin multiplier ('37) - before Arlington
Sport Page - made after Arlington (no multipliers), but multipliers are back!
41-Derby - early game with visible tilt on the backglass

I have code for most of the more complicated games complete, just filling in the (many) gaps now.

I have 25 where artwork in some form exists.

Right now I am working on Pace Maker... but I don't understand the sweepstakes function. There is an extra set of odds as well. I'm going to implement like a score booster in later Bally bingos while I try to figure out the answer. It's old enough that I'll likely need to find someone that happens to have one or find one myself to figure out the real feature, but unless the playfield is constructed differently (seems unlikely), it's probably a safe bet that it randomly lights and awards a score booster.

For an example of this feature under player control, see Bally's Acapulco with the "E" line.

Yes, the only games I will be implementing from here on will have some amount of backglass art that I can use. There is a person on ebay selling some one ball glasses. In some cases, it takes some time to figure out which game it is because the name of the game is on the playfield in the early 40s.

That said, almost all of the glasses he's selling are in fantastic shape, and I've been able to snag a few good images.

backglass_gi (resized).png
Preakness

backglass_gi (resized).png
Fair Grounds

Ah, the curse of going too fast. Turns out that the sweepstakes is likely the feature hole. There are five sets of odds, but I was reading them vertically instead of horizontally. *sad trombone*

Well, problem solved!

Almost finished with Grandstand (1938). Very similar to Pace Maker, with a sweepstakes feature.

Here's an interesting thing: check out this IPDB Billboard photo of another game: https://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=2533&picno=72068

Then compare to the backglass. There are supposedly two games with that title, released very close together. Perhaps the mystery has been solved? The wiring for the backglass on the IPDB would be vastly simplified. Bally typically used one 17V lamp behind a column of odds vs. a lamp for each number.

Sure! The Multiple is a simple coin multiplier. Most games that include them didn't expect more than 4 coins to be added per game, so the max multiplier is 4. This works exactly as you'd expect in that a winning ball will award up to 4x more replays than displayed in the odds section. One game coming up has a multiplier up to 10x!!! That might be the last game with a multiplier, though.

Reserve is like a holdback on a feature payout. The feature hole is located at the same spot (almost) as the ball return on the bingos, so very very tough to hit due to playfield design.

Some games have a way to build up the payout value over time. $50 would be 1000 nickels! I'm not sure, as the reel isn't pictured, what the value of the feature would show - a dollar amount or a value?

Yesterday's finished games:
1) Grandstand (1938)
2) Seabiscuit
3) Thistledowns

20 left to go!

And another 3:
1) Grand National
2) Dark Horse
3) Long Shot

The last two are replay and payout versions of the same glass, so that's kinda cheating, I guess. Anyway, 17 left!

Only 6 with no player buttons. The rest have already been programmed but have no graphics (yet). Graphics take the longest time in the process, now that the main features used by each game have been written.

On another topic, I've got some plans for the modifications needed for Sunshine Park... what if I use a bingo trough (with multiple switches) and a ball lift elevator/motor? Right now it's a manual lift, but SP has to count the number of balls lifted. I could count the number of balls lifted to the lane switch... and then the number of balls in the holes, but I can't control the release of 5 balls... I'm not certain a motor/trough would fit properly in the area, however. I think I'd have to build an addition or two.

Probably for now, I'll count the balls lifted and prevent scoring or tilt the game if you lift more than the number allowed.

Or... what if I had a coil-controlled gate in the existing trough? Like what Gottlieb used for a long time? I could technically use that on any game... and it would allow more speedy games (you don't have to wait for the ball to cycle) while retaining the manual ball lift!

The trick will be pulsing that coil quickly enough to drop only 1 ball...

OK, what if I place that coil right next to the lifter, in such a way that the armature cannot allow more than one ball into the lift mech at one time?

Well, another two today: Hawthorne and Jockey Club ('41).

Hawthorne has a 10x multiplier and the ability to build up and receive the feature award on the left or right side independently! (Precursor to the cap holes in later games). Pretty interesting game!

Jockey Club has spell a name, left/right cap scoring, feature build up, 40 coin automatic selection award (if you haven't won since the last 40 coins), bumpers in the show/place/win center springs that enable that entire section... and a 4x coin multiplier.

Jockey Club is my favorite of the two, despite the lower payouts and interesting left/right feature mechanic of Hawthorne. I just don't think Bally normally expected players to put in more than a handful of coins.