We will see. Was working in the spring. Motors need regreasing for roto and shutter, but should hold up for the show. May also have been a function of cold weather. Counts winners appropriately.

Thanks Vic. That Molentin artwork is something special. A beauty. Light flaking at top of glass. Otherwise appeared OK. Some patina on cabinet, but only minor rubs. I'm really excited to hit this machine for a huge amount of replays (and hope to see you do so as well)!

Oh, and this is after they moved to the more standard Bally style playfields, but internals should be similar. I like the recessed lamps that your tropics has. Excited to chat about that game.

Awesome Dennis! So cool to hear your story about Caravan.

Manhattan is beautiful. The pinball has deep purples which are really very nice.

I've never played a United, so I'm looking forward to it.

Who's that fella in the Gate? Better stop having me over if you don't want to work on it!

I think I know that Manhattan. I'm honestly looking for one of the Miss America series or a Sun Valley or Cypress Gardens. Would love a Hi-Fi. Maybe a Magic Ring/Big Wheel... the list goes on.

I'll think about it, but have to sell some flipper games.

Editing a cool interview tonight (will post when finished), helping some flipper and bingo guys fix stuff and trying to plan some cool York show giveaways.

Miss Universe will be at the show and I'm honestly ready to form my opinion about that game. Never played one, and it looks very interesting and difficult. Looks like it would pull money pretty quickly! I'm also curious how the playfield layout will function since it has an odd number of holes in a unique arrangement.

I think there's one for sale in Indiana right now.

How do you folks feel about Galaxy? Similar concept, and another layout.

Did Don Hooker design the 20 holes and Miss Universe/Galaxy? Just curious to fill in some knowledge gaps.

Back to editing...

Episode 194 - Interview with Gordon Hasse 9-17-15

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 Museum (see: http://www.pinballnews.com/news/ppmdonation.html).

Please visit the Pacific Pinball Museum at :

1510 Webster Street

Alameda, CA

94501

(510) 205-6959

Tues - Thurs: 2pm - 9pm

Friday: 2pm - midnight

Saturday: 11am - midnight

Sunday: 11am - 9pm

Monday: closed

Also closed on Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Day, and New Year's Day.

$15 for adults $7.50 for kids under 16 (and you can play all day and as late as midnight!)

Please consider donating some time, money or even games to keep the machines we love alive for future generations.

I hope to make it out there one day soon and play some of Gordon's great games!

Vic, I feel the same way!

Tonight's Episode: Episode 195 - 1948 Gottlieb Jack 'N Jill

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 backglass animation is also very cool, and in the style of the other early backglass animations on Gottlieb games.

A great overall package, and I hope to play one again one day!

Depends on how you read it - left to right reads Jill if you are reading the rollovers and not the inserts. The rollovers light the inserts, so that was likely the intention.

It's very hard to see the rollovers (about 2/3 of the way down the playfield) in that pic, but they're there. JI (back to bottom left) LL.

Haha - oh you're right! I'm certainly no expert - especially at reading, apparently.

Thanks again DefaultGen - I mentioned your correction in tonight's episode:

Episode 196 - 1947 Bally Ballyhoo

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 rollovers to light super special at the lower passive bumpers.

Episode 197 - 1958 Gottlieb Criss Cross

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.

Episode 198 - 1950 Gottlieb Knock Out

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!

Episode 199 - 1945 United Trade Winds

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!

Episode 200 - Interview with Jeffrey Lawton 9-23-15

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-depth gameplay discussions on a couple of games.

We also announce the contest for the Bingo Row at York:

Make a 4 or 5 in a line on any_ of the awesome bingos in the row, and you'll win your choice of an autographed Bally Bingo Pinball Machines or The Bingo Pinball War by Jeffrey Lawton!

I've got a case of books to give away, so I want to see some smiling new bingo players!

I am more than happy to explain these excellent games in depth to anyone that would like a tutorial. What more can you ask for?

I'm excited to see everyone at the show!

Well, more for folks who do not already have the books. If you're an 'old school' player and only have one or the other you could compete.

I'm thinking for folks that are new to bingos or older folks that haven't played bingos in years.

And of course everyone's welcome to play.

Thank you Vic and Ryan! Looking forward to seeing you, Vic, at the show, and Ryan, in spirit.

Tonight! Episode 201 - Night Club Replay Scoring Troubleshooting

Did a lot of pinball-related stuff this weekend, in preparation for York.

Had 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 schema on bingo.cdyn.com as I fix this issue.

Oh yeah it's working great now! Was 100% then I played it too much.

I haven't fully disassembled and cleaned everything on the control unit, which is why this happened. Game isn't super dirty, just a little dusty, and I'm creating some problems by playing it so much. It's back to 100% again and I absolutely love it. Gonna play a round or two at lunch, too. Nothing like the quadruple winner racking up replays.

I haven't been able to stop playing that game since I got the shutter installed, haha. Playing without siderails is a challenge, but I worked a bit on nudging the game from the lockdown bar. Now that siderails are installed, it's like 'easy mode' - I've been hitting that game for big numbers almost every game.

The corners scoring with the magic squares is a powerful feature. I love having squares through 'D' lit and seeing the corners come on. I steel myself to compete with the machine and 'square up' on it. A great player, and I'm glad it's lived up to my memory.

So happy to have this game in my collection, and it is extra special to me due to all the help I've had from the bingo luminaries (Vic, Steve, Dennis, and Jeffrey) in getting this particular machine up and running. Thank you all for your time and parts! The bingo pinball community is a special one, and I am proud to be a small part of it.

Excellent! Thanks Adam.

At lunch, got a four in a row on the night club for 48, not huge but I'll take it. Time to cash out and head back.

Ha! Yeah, lunch time is my main time to play the games. Keeps me focused on winning quickly, which is nice. On the weekend, I'll find myself puttering between all the games, but during the week, I stick with one game and try to win big.

Episode 202 - Bingo Serial Numbers

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 creditdotpinball.com to read some really fascinating articles about the hobby we love.

Episode 203 - 1932 Ballyhoo Cleaning Questions

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!

Episode 204 - Williams Same Player Shoots Again

Listener Tim writes in with a note on how the Williams multiplayer games have a superior method for letting the player know they have another ball.

The Same Player Shoots Again lamp does not go off until you score a point on your extra ball. This is completely different behavior to Gottlieb and Bally games, that would turn the lamp off as soon as the ball was served to the shooter lane.

Listen as I try to describe the circuits involved!

Big thank you to Tim for suggesting the topic and bonus points for sending a schematic snippet!

Episode 205 - 1954 Gottlieb Hawaiian Beauty

A listener writes in with a writeup on their grail machine: 1954's Hawaiian Beauty by Gottlieb.

This machine has a very unique layout that looks like it is very challenging and a lot of fun.

Wide flipper spacing, with three palm tree pop bumpers near the bottom, multiple lower exits from the playfield, and gobble holes all make this sequence-driven game look incredibly fun and difficult.

This listener also wanted to know if there were any bingo collectors in the Southern California area. The only folks in CA I know that have bingos readily available for play are the Pacific Pinball Museum.

Episode 206 - Sirmo Magic Screen

A divergence into solid state. While browsing Danny's site at danny.cdyn.com, I noticed he had some photos of the internals of the Magic Screen bingo manufactured by Sirmo in Belgium in 2005.

This is a solid state bingo with a very interesting boardset - using what appears to be PC hardware in a pinball machine, including multiple LED and an LCD monitor, manufactured almost a decade before Jersey Jack's Wizard of Oz - simply astounding!

I'm looking forward to spending a lot more time on a solid state bingo in the future, and part of the fun of any machine, for me, is knowing how they work.

Episode 207 - Williams Yukon

Continuing to browse Danny's site at danny.cdyn.com, I found another oddity:

Williams Yukon.

This game allows for winning up to 100 replays based on the cards that you hit on a bingo-style playfield.

I am interested in seeing one of these one day - this game is not in IPDB, so I'm not sure when it was made, but I'm guessing in the 1950s or early 1960s. Edit: looks like 1957 - on IPDB no photos.

It looks like a lot of fun, since you are able to choose a spotted card by landing in the 'Joker' hole (in the center of the playfield, similar to #16 on a Bally bingo).

Episode 208 - 1963 Bally 3-in-line

In 1963, Ted Zale designed a fascinating game called '3-in-line', based off of the bingo gameplay, but in a flipper package.

Ther eis a 9-digit bingo card in the playfield and backglass that lights as you hit various targets on the playfield.

Some neat swinging gates allow entry to the left and right pops.

I love that the flipper division made a game marketed to bingo players at the height of the bingo market.

Gonna be really slow to post for the next few days (wonder why?)

Tonight's episode: Episode 209 - Pull On Wires

Quick tech tip for tonight - pull on wires in order to expose problems in wiring or solder joints.

This will save you hours of frustration.

Don't go crazy - just a gentle, yet firm tug on each wire in question.

Loaded up a friend's game today, show gets closer every hour!

Episode 210 - 1934 Pamco Lite-A-Line
In 1934, Pacific Amusement Company made a three card bingo, almost 17 years before Bally's first bingo machine.

Each card is bought with its own coin slide.

Cool deco stylings, with especially neat wooden legs.

The 25 hole playfield uses a roulette wheel style tub like United's first bingo, ABC, but without the pop bumper in the center.

Oddly enough, there may be a tie between this and Bally's Lite-A-Line, which was designed in 1961!

Episode 211 - 1937 Bally Line-Up

Line-Up was Bally's first attempt at a bingo-style pinball machine.
25 holes arranged in a grid on the playfield in the same arrangement as the card on the backglass (1-5, 6-10, etc).
Due to the extreme spacing between numbers, it looks very difficult to actually win on this machine. Couple that with the fact that balls do not return to the player when they reach the bottom, and you've got a very player-unfriendly machine.
That said, I'd still play it

Episode 212 - Spring Importance and Diagnosis

Springs are incredibly important for successful operation of your game.

I attempt to discuss how to diagnose a spring problem and how to address - both correctly and incorrectly.

Up at York, bingo row is awesome. Some bugs shook out of the machines from moving them.

Loaded the truck with all my bingos and a couple other games last night, then took a 3 hr nap. Drove up to a collector's house to help him fix some stuff and load games.

12 at the moment!