For Amusement Only Em And Bingo Pinball Podcast

I talk with my friend Clark Fraley, who is a technician for an operator.  Clark has been with me on a couple of pick ups now, and is a great guy to boot.     Interviewed after we moved my new bingo and played for a bit.  I hope to have him on again soon(ish) to discuss his upcoming acquisition!  

Another new pickup!  Gigi described - gameplay to follow after I shop it. I describe how to perform adjustments on an EM game.

I interview Phil Hooper, creator and maintainer of http://bingo.cdyn.com, the Internet's source for technical information on Bally and United bingos.   Phil conducted this interview on 4/5/15 via email.

Ramps, lighted scoring, DC-driven coils, multi-level playfields - all were children of the 1930s, and continue to inform today's games.

What's the point of shaking a machine?  How much is too much?  How do you know? Are bingos games of skill or games of chance? Can older games make you a better player?

High voltage can hurt or even kill you.  This is a warning about how to identify high voltage in your machine at a glance and the super easy way you can avoid getting hurt. Your health is more important than getting a game running.

How does a bingo know to lock you out of features after shooting a certain ball?   How does it know _not_ to lock you out if you are able to reach the ball return without landing in a trap hole? 

When your bingo doesn't count replays approporiately, what do you do?  Manual, schematics and observation are a help, but knowing the units involved will set you on the right path faster.

How to break down and transport a game, then how to reassemble and start cleaning!

How to disassemble and clean a drop target bank, and how drop targets are typically constructed.   Not mentioned:  how much I dislike solid state Williams drop targets.

What are the main things to consider when looking at your first bingo?  Condition is king, but if you are like I was at first, you'd never seen one of these before.

Talk about how EMs are able to determine the game state.   Tech: How to properly adjust a relay, and when to hit it with a hammer (really)!

How were Bingos persecuted in the United States?  Why did Bingo production cease in the 80's?  These and other questions answered in this episode.

I talk about a toy invented in the woodrail era that is still in use today - the Pop Bumper.   Tech: Changing pop bumpers, and how to increase pop safely (by cleaning).

Woodrails gave us some of the toys and mechanical devices that we still use today.   Tech talk: flippers - how to disassemble and rebuild.  These same basic instructions apply to anything with an EOS switch (basically machines up to 1990ish).

I talk with Ava about Pop-A-Card, the first game I purchased, and the machine that brought me my love of repairing and playing Gottlieb machines (all eras) and EMs and Bingos!

I talk to Steve Smith and give him wide berth to tell his view of how we met and how I fell in love with bingos.  He discusses various topics, including differences between flipper vs. bingo pinball, playing on location as a kid, and how he got his first pinball.   Forgive sound quality - I was sitting too far from the mic and didn't notice.

Describing how to use the schematic for Pop-A-Card to troubleshoot both a scoring and a lamp problem.

Describing pictures is difficult.   Beginning talk about what the symbols represent and what those devices do.  I don't describe a switch in great detail, but will be doing so next time.

Double-Up is working now, but I re-learned the same lesson I've learned 1 million times already.  The simplest answer is often correct.