I interviewed Robert Medl, a bingo collector and enthusiast who has just purchased many machines.
Robert discusses his first experience and purchase, his current lineup, and some of the games in his restoration queue.
The bingo repair videos discussed are available at the following sources:
Bally Bingo ball troughs are some of the best designed pinball mechanics ever produced. Working on a bingo, then switching to a modern solid state with trough issues always irks me.
Bingo ball troughs are bulletproof and another marvel of engineering.
Ryan Claytor, pinball illustrator extraordinaire comes on to talk about his EM resurrection project - a two player Williams called Swinger. Those who may be afraid of working on an EM should listen to this episode, as Ryan had never worked on an EM before this project.
Also: thanks to Ryan, we now have T-Shirts! See our post above to order.
I'm incredibly excited and honored to have worked with Ryan.
Ryan's Website: http://www.elephantea
Ryan's Swinger Restore: https://pinside.com/pinball/fo
The roto feature enabled the player to spin the innermost circle of numbers on a bingo card. This was only used by United, and used on three games between 1955 and 1956, never to be seen again.
EM and purely mechanical slot machines are very interesting creatures, mostly due to the way the mechanisms work together.
I am highly impressed with anything that is purely mechanical, though some of the EM machines have unusual or captivating features.
For this episode, I focus on two manufacturers, Bally and Mills.
Trade Stimulators were small countertop amusement devices - typically modeled after slot machines.
These games would vend something similar to a gumball or other small trinket - to skirt gambling laws. The gameplay was typically gambling. If the slot came up a winner, you would notify the bar owner or shopkeep and win a free beer or other prize, or in some cases, a payout.
For amusement only, indeed!
Magic Pockets are a unique under playfield mechanism, only used on two Bally Bingos in 1955 - Gayety and Gay Time. These bingos allowed you to reposition balls in the top row of the bingo playfield (numbers 1-7).
If this wasn't enough, these machines also had the magic lines feature that allowed you to reposition numbers on the backglass. This allowed for the ability to make some great winning combinations.
Gottlieb was famously against payout games, however in 1951, they produced a bingo style game with a throwback playfield.
There are several interesting and unusual features in this game, which are detailed within!
Most of the big amusement manufacturers made EM rifle games, some early examples with lighted scoring, and most with score reels.
These games are very interesting in the way they present the targets to the player vs. what is actually happening inside the game.
Adjustments, game mechanics and cabinet style are discussed.
