WEBVTT - Pinball: From Electromechanical Machines to Solid State Tables 0:00:04.480 --> 0:00:12.360 Welcome to tech Stuff, a production from iHeartRadio. Hey there, 0:00:12.360 --> 0:00:15.960 and welcome to tech Stuff. I'm your host, Jovin Strickland. 0:00:15.960 --> 0:00:19.279 I'm an executive producer with iHeart Podcasts and how the 0:00:19.360 --> 0:00:22.720 tech are you. We are continuing our look at the 0:00:22.840 --> 0:00:26.239 evolution of pinball, which was inspired by my visit to 0:00:26.360 --> 0:00:30.480 the Southern Fried Gaming Expo where I appeared as media, 0:00:30.680 --> 0:00:33.680 appeared at as too strong a word, I attended as media. 0:00:34.159 --> 0:00:37.400 So in the last episode, we learned that pinball's origins 0:00:37.479 --> 0:00:41.519 trace back to lawn games that eventually were moving indoors 0:00:41.560 --> 0:00:44.800 because not everyone had a lawn and there is disagreement 0:00:44.920 --> 0:00:50.040 over what game constitutes the first true pinball table. But 0:00:50.120 --> 0:00:54.280 we learned how a gradual evolution brought us from simple 0:00:54.360 --> 0:00:57.960 machines outfitted only with like a spring loaded plunger up 0:00:58.040 --> 0:01:01.600 to the early days of electro mechanical pinball tables, and 0:01:01.720 --> 0:01:05.200 some of the things that were added were really a 0:01:05.240 --> 0:01:08.040 big deal. I would argue probably the most important was 0:01:08.080 --> 0:01:11.520 the addition of a coin slot. One early title Bally, 0:01:11.560 --> 0:01:15.959 who reportedly sold around fifty thousand units to various shop 0:01:15.959 --> 0:01:20.440 owners and other proprietors. Fifty thousand units, that's no small shakes. 0:01:20.520 --> 0:01:23.080 Remember this is in the nineteen thirties when this happened. 0:01:23.319 --> 0:01:25.920 That really helped put the company Bally on the map, 0:01:25.920 --> 0:01:28.200 and Bally would play a huge role in the development 0:01:28.280 --> 0:01:31.000 of pinball here in the United States. But yeah, these 0:01:31.080 --> 0:01:34.160 coin operated machines like it became a new source of 0:01:34.240 --> 0:01:38.440 revenue for shop owners and bar owners and such. They 0:01:38.440 --> 0:01:41.640 would buy a machine for a large amount of money, 0:01:41.640 --> 0:01:44.760 but then they would get to keep the proceeds the 0:01:44.800 --> 0:01:47.280 coins made up. And so you know, if you had 0:01:47.280 --> 0:01:51.280 a really popular machine, you could earn back what you 0:01:51.360 --> 0:01:54.120 spent on it within a relatively short amount of time. 0:01:54.160 --> 0:01:56.560 And then everything on top of that is profit, apart 0:01:56.560 --> 0:01:59.160 from whatever you have to spend to keep the machine working. 0:01:59.200 --> 0:02:02.440 But these early machine, because they really had very few 0:02:02.480 --> 0:02:06.400 moving parts, they were relatively easy to maintain. But let's 0:02:06.440 --> 0:02:10.920 talk about some of the electro mechanical components in later 0:02:11.120 --> 0:02:14.880 pinball machines and how those components work. Now, as I 0:02:15.000 --> 0:02:19.440 mentioned in the last episode, the earliest electrified pinball machines 0:02:19.560 --> 0:02:23.080 didn't really have much going for them. Usually there was 0:02:23.120 --> 0:02:26.200 some sort of noise making element that would signify scoring 0:02:26.520 --> 0:02:29.040 and help draw attention to the table so that more 0:02:29.040 --> 0:02:32.919 people would want to play, but there were few components 0:02:32.919 --> 0:02:37.120 that actually used electricity to create mechanical motion. But it 0:02:37.120 --> 0:02:40.200 didn't take long for that to change. Harry Williams of 0:02:40.280 --> 0:02:44.680 Williams Manufacturing Williams is another important pinball company, came up 0:02:44.720 --> 0:02:47.680 with an idea to set up a game that would 0:02:47.840 --> 0:02:50.120 make it stand apart from the competition that was on 0:02:50.160 --> 0:02:53.480 the market. So this was way back in nineteen thirty three, 0:02:53.960 --> 0:02:56.640 and his idea was a relatively simple one, which was 0:02:56.680 --> 0:03:02.280 the inclusion of solenoids. Solinoid is an electro mechanical component 0:03:02.639 --> 0:03:06.800 that works through electromagnetism. In many ways, it's similar to 0:03:06.880 --> 0:03:11.160 your basic electromagnet. So if you think of a standard electromagnet, 0:03:11.280 --> 0:03:15.919 you have a coil of conductive wire, typically copper wire, 0:03:16.160 --> 0:03:19.680 and it's wrapped around a core of some sort like 0:03:19.880 --> 0:03:23.320 sometimes it's just iron, right, And when you run electricity 0:03:23.360 --> 0:03:26.600 through the coil of wire, it creates an electromagnet, and 0:03:26.680 --> 0:03:32.399 you can interact with ferromagnetic stuff using this electromagnet, and 0:03:33.120 --> 0:03:35.920 with a solenoid it's pretty similar. You've got your coil 0:03:35.960 --> 0:03:39.640 of conductive wire. When you pass a current through this coil, 0:03:39.840 --> 0:03:43.200 it creates a magnetic field, and you have a sleeve 0:03:43.560 --> 0:03:48.600 inside this coil. Nestled in the sleeve is a movable plunger, 0:03:49.080 --> 0:03:52.600 so the plunger can slide in or out of this coil. 0:03:52.840 --> 0:03:56.640 Sometimes it's called the armature. When the magnetic field is on, 0:03:57.320 --> 0:04:01.520 it pulls the plunger into the coil. There's a stop 0:04:01.680 --> 0:04:06.240 on either end so that the plunger doesn't just shoot 0:04:06.240 --> 0:04:10.800 through the coil or or fall out of the coil, 0:04:11.120 --> 0:04:13.200 so that it can come to a stop where it's 0:04:13.240 --> 0:04:16.360 partially inside the coil. But when you run electricity through 0:04:16.360 --> 0:04:19.640 the coil, it pulls the plunger in entirely. So when 0:04:19.680 --> 0:04:22.760 the magnetic field is on, the plunger is inside the coil. 0:04:22.760 --> 0:04:25.320 When the magnetic field goes off, like when the current 0:04:25.320 --> 0:04:30.000 stops flowing through this coil, the plunger moves back out 0:04:30.200 --> 0:04:34.640 of the coil and mounting a post at the end 0:04:34.720 --> 0:04:37.479 of the plunger, like extending the plunger so that it 0:04:37.520 --> 0:04:40.520 can punch through something. You have a little device capable 0:04:40.560 --> 0:04:43.920 of giving a quick push. Whenever the electric current flows 0:04:43.960 --> 0:04:46.839 through the wire, the plunger moves in. It pushes this 0:04:47.560 --> 0:04:51.640 arm out and it's pretty fast. It's a pretty simple 0:04:51.680 --> 0:04:56.119 electro mechanical device, and effectively it turns electric current into 0:04:56.200 --> 0:05:00.320 mechanical work. That's its main purpose. Solenoids would in up 0:05:00.320 --> 0:05:05.080 being kind of the heartbeat, the lifeblood of pinball machines. 0:05:05.160 --> 0:05:09.280 They power so much like a lot of the elements 0:05:09.600 --> 0:05:13.960 in your basic pinball machine are worked with solenoids. So 0:05:14.080 --> 0:05:18.599 Williams pinball machine had this name called Contact, which is 0:05:18.680 --> 0:05:22.960 very clever because contact is what we would say was 0:05:23.080 --> 0:05:27.080 made within the circuit to activate the solenoid in the 0:05:27.120 --> 0:05:32.279 first place. So the playfield of Contact had holes with 0:05:32.520 --> 0:05:36.360 little barriers around them. So the ball you know, your 0:05:36.400 --> 0:05:39.400 goal is to get the ball into the highest scoring 0:05:39.520 --> 0:05:43.240 holes in the playfield. Those were closer to the bottom 0:05:43.320 --> 0:05:45.640 of the playfield, which meant that the ball needed to 0:05:45.720 --> 0:05:49.720 pass over or around the holes that were higher up, 0:05:49.800 --> 0:05:52.160 because otherwise you would get a lower score. Well, at 0:05:52.200 --> 0:05:55.960 the very top of the playfield was this solenoid, so 0:05:56.000 --> 0:05:59.599 it's facing downward like toward you. It's at the top 0:05:59.600 --> 0:06:02.200 of the play you're playing at the bottom of the playfield. 0:06:02.600 --> 0:06:05.760 If you were to fire a ball up so that 0:06:06.080 --> 0:06:09.920 it would activate a switch, a contact at the top 0:06:09.960 --> 0:06:13.000 of this playfield, the solenoid would activate and it would 0:06:13.040 --> 0:06:16.200 hit the ball, and if you were lucky, it would 0:06:16.240 --> 0:06:19.039 propel the ball so that it would roll over the 0:06:19.120 --> 0:06:22.560 lower scoring holes and the ball would settle into one 0:06:22.600 --> 0:06:25.479 of the ones that had a higher score if you 0:06:25.520 --> 0:06:30.400 were pretty lucky. Contact relied on a dry cell battery 0:06:30.560 --> 0:06:33.200 to provide this electrical current, and according to Williams, the 0:06:33.240 --> 0:06:36.320 battery would hold a sufficient charge to provide three months 0:06:36.360 --> 0:06:39.120 of play. After that, I assume you would swap the 0:06:39.160 --> 0:06:42.839 battery out. I mean possible that you could recharge it, 0:06:42.880 --> 0:06:45.080 but you would definitely have to swap it out if 0:06:45.080 --> 0:06:47.560 you wanted to be able to play after that time 0:06:47.680 --> 0:06:50.680 and to have the electro mechanical elements work. Contact was 0:06:50.720 --> 0:06:53.120 a game that went through some changes. This is something 0:06:53.160 --> 0:06:57.200 that still happens with the pinball machines now, where manufacturers 0:06:57.240 --> 0:07:00.000 will make changes to a machine and later versions will 0:07:00.120 --> 0:07:03.120 be slightly different, or they will these days because things 0:07:03.160 --> 0:07:07.039 are running on microcomputers. They will update the firmware of 0:07:07.120 --> 0:07:10.040 a machine and it will include new modes and such. 0:07:10.120 --> 0:07:14.080 We'll talk about modes later. So the company, William's Company 0:07:14.120 --> 0:07:17.240 would incorporate a door bell into the machine so that 0:07:17.800 --> 0:07:22.040 when the ball made contact with this switch, that would 0:07:22.080 --> 0:07:25.040 activate the solenoid, it would also ring the bell, and 0:07:25.280 --> 0:07:28.440 Williams also included his anti tilt measure. I talked about 0:07:28.440 --> 0:07:31.760 this in the last episode. So his anti tilt design 0:07:32.000 --> 0:07:35.440 was there was inside the machine was a post. On 0:07:35.520 --> 0:07:38.680 top of this post was a ball, and if the 0:07:38.760 --> 0:07:42.280 player were to shake the machine in an attempt to cheat, 0:07:42.680 --> 0:07:45.200 the ball could roll off this post and it would 0:07:45.200 --> 0:07:48.800 then signal a tilt, which would invalidate the accumulated score 0:07:48.920 --> 0:07:53.040 at that point. Back to solenoids, These would become incredibly 0:07:53.040 --> 0:07:57.840 important components for pinball machines. They are pretty darn simple, 0:07:57.960 --> 0:08:01.400 which is good right. Simple means they're fewer points of failure. 0:08:01.600 --> 0:08:05.400 They can fail if you run electricity through wire. One 0:08:05.480 --> 0:08:09.680 of the byproducts you get is heat, and if electricity 0:08:09.760 --> 0:08:12.400 is running through wire for a long time, a lot 0:08:12.440 --> 0:08:15.960 of heat can build up and that can cause damage 0:08:16.320 --> 0:08:20.240 to the components. So there are points of failure, but 0:08:20.480 --> 0:08:23.080 there are few of them. Solenoids are used not just 0:08:23.120 --> 0:08:25.080 to knock a pinball around. They can also be used 0:08:25.080 --> 0:08:28.000 as noise makers, they can strike a bell, or they 0:08:28.040 --> 0:08:31.600 can be used as knockers. So if you're really good 0:08:31.600 --> 0:08:35.800 at pinball, you have probably experienced a replay or you know, 0:08:35.840 --> 0:08:39.400 if you've ever matched. Matching is when you know modern 0:08:39.400 --> 0:08:42.160 pinball machines, they'll take the last two digits of your 0:08:42.160 --> 0:08:46.120 score and then they'll display kind of a random selection 0:08:46.400 --> 0:08:49.719 of other scores, and if you end up matching, then 0:08:49.760 --> 0:08:52.240 you get a replay. Well, a lot of pinball machines 0:08:52.280 --> 0:08:55.840 include a knocker to signal that a player has managed 0:08:55.880 --> 0:08:58.800 to get a replay and they have a free game. 0:08:59.200 --> 0:09:03.040 The pinball machine lets out this very loud knocking sound. Well, 0:09:03.080 --> 0:09:06.440 a solenoid is what is actually making that sound. There's 0:09:06.480 --> 0:09:09.840 a dedicated knocker or solenoid mounted in the machine to 0:09:09.880 --> 0:09:12.520 do this, and there are a couple of different types 0:09:12.559 --> 0:09:15.680 that you could find in various machines. One would be 0:09:15.760 --> 0:09:19.920 a spring mounted solenoid. So the spring would typically keep 0:09:19.960 --> 0:09:22.880 the plunger out of the coil, but when an electric 0:09:22.960 --> 0:09:26.320 current runs through the coil, the magnetic pole is strong 0:09:26.440 --> 0:09:29.760 enough to compress the spring, pull the plunger in quickly, 0:09:30.080 --> 0:09:32.280 and mounted on the top of the plunger as a 0:09:32.320 --> 0:09:36.040 post that's capped in plastic. This post strikes a plate 0:09:36.600 --> 0:09:40.640 typically mounted near the pinball machine's back box, and the 0:09:40.720 --> 0:09:42.920 current only passes through the wire for a fraction of 0:09:42.920 --> 0:09:46.680 a second, so the spring decompresses, the plunger is pulled 0:09:46.720 --> 0:09:50.120 into the coil, and the cap strikes the plate and boom, 0:09:50.120 --> 0:09:52.920 you get your old knocking noise, which could be quite loud. 0:09:53.240 --> 0:09:58.160 Usually there's like a fifty volt current that's being put 0:09:58.240 --> 0:10:01.240 through the device order to make this happen, and if 0:10:01.280 --> 0:10:04.040 you have a lower power supply, the knock's going to 0:10:04.120 --> 0:10:09.199 be less impressive. Many knocker solenoids actually are simpler than 0:10:09.240 --> 0:10:13.439 this design. They don't have the spring loaded piston at all. Instead, 0:10:13.480 --> 0:10:16.520 they rely on gravity. So these solenoids have to be 0:10:16.640 --> 0:10:20.920 mounted vertically so that the plunger naturally slides down. Like 0:10:21.640 --> 0:10:24.480 if there's no current running through the coil, the plunger 0:10:24.559 --> 0:10:26.880 is going to be resting on a rest plate, so 0:10:26.920 --> 0:10:31.200 it's only partly inside the coil. Then when current runs 0:10:31.200 --> 0:10:34.600 through the coil, it pulls the plunger up right because 0:10:34.720 --> 0:10:40.200 magnetic attraction and the plunger the post mounted on the 0:10:40.240 --> 0:10:42.959 end of the plunger will strike the striking plate and make 0:10:43.000 --> 0:10:46.360 the knocking noise. And then when the current is shut off, 0:10:46.960 --> 0:10:50.880 the plunger will naturally slide back down the sleeve inside 0:10:50.920 --> 0:10:54.360 the coil and rest against the resting plate, so you 0:10:54.480 --> 0:10:57.360 have to have it mounted vertically so that gravity will 0:10:57.360 --> 0:11:00.520 pull the plunger back down. But this does simple things 0:11:00.559 --> 0:11:03.680 quite a bit. But what about other elements inside a 0:11:03.679 --> 0:11:07.400 pinball machine? What about flippers? These are pretty common today, 0:11:07.440 --> 0:11:11.000 I mean, they're almost universal in modern pinball machines. Again, 0:11:11.040 --> 0:11:13.040 it wasn't until nineteen forty seven that we got the 0:11:13.040 --> 0:11:16.280 first pinball machine that had flippers. And even then they 0:11:16.320 --> 0:11:20.280 were oriented opposite, like they were facing outward on the 0:11:20.320 --> 0:11:23.360 machine rather than inward, and they were along the sides 0:11:23.400 --> 0:11:24.959 and there were six of them, so it was very 0:11:24.960 --> 0:11:28.080 different from the way flippers are today. But yeah, it 0:11:28.080 --> 0:11:30.560 wasn't until nineteen forty seven that we even got flippers, 0:11:30.559 --> 0:11:34.719 and now they're pretty much standard on pinball machines. How 0:11:34.720 --> 0:11:39.359 do they work, well, no, big surprise. They also use solenoids, 0:11:39.679 --> 0:11:42.720 which are mounted below the playfield where they're out of sight. 0:11:43.080 --> 0:11:45.880 But a solenoid works, you know, like a piston. Right, 0:11:45.920 --> 0:11:49.840 The plunger moves linearly, it moves in and out, so 0:11:49.920 --> 0:11:54.040 you need to have something that translates this action. Because 0:11:54.040 --> 0:11:57.480 a flipper acts like a bat, It swings, it rotates, 0:11:57.960 --> 0:12:03.040 So mounted on the solenoid plunger is a little piece 0:12:03.200 --> 0:12:06.600 typically called a linkage, and the linkage connects to a 0:12:06.800 --> 0:12:10.520 rotating element that in turn is mounted on a spindle. 0:12:10.679 --> 0:12:14.000 The spindle is connected to the flipper, so the rotating 0:12:14.000 --> 0:12:18.640 element translates the linear action into a rotational action and 0:12:18.720 --> 0:12:21.720 then transmits that through the spindle to the flipper. So 0:12:21.760 --> 0:12:25.000 the flipper can swing and there's a stop. Typically that 0:12:25.080 --> 0:12:27.800 all may mean the flipper can only rotate so far. 0:12:27.920 --> 0:12:30.760 It's not gonna make the flipper go all the way around. 0:12:30.800 --> 0:12:34.480 It'll just rise up when you're looking down from the 0:12:34.559 --> 0:12:38.080 position of a player. So when the solenoid activates, the 0:12:38.080 --> 0:12:43.120 mechanical motion causes the flipper to swing, and a spring 0:12:43.280 --> 0:12:46.320 on the spindle will return the flipper to its resting 0:12:46.320 --> 0:12:49.200 position afterwards, so it's not just relying on gravity to 0:12:49.280 --> 0:12:52.240 return the flipper to its downward position. There is a 0:12:52.280 --> 0:12:56.360 spring there so that it adds resistance and pushes back 0:12:56.400 --> 0:13:00.000 against the flipper so it returns to its normal downward state. 0:13:00.600 --> 0:13:03.240 When you connect this assembly to a power supply and 0:13:03.280 --> 0:13:06.040 a flipper button, the flipper button serves as a switch. 0:13:06.440 --> 0:13:08.559 You have your classic pinball flipper as long as you're 0:13:08.559 --> 0:13:11.600 holding the switch down the flipper will remain up, but 0:13:11.679 --> 0:13:14.160 it does get a little more complicated, and in my opinion, 0:13:14.240 --> 0:13:17.640 this is a really cool element for flippers because it's 0:13:18.120 --> 0:13:21.880 engineering a solution to a real problem. So again, pinball 0:13:21.920 --> 0:13:25.840 machines typically have balls that are made out of solid steel, 0:13:26.280 --> 0:13:28.320 which allows for some other fun gimmicks that we'll talk 0:13:28.360 --> 0:13:31.000 about a bit later. These balls weigh in and around 0:13:31.200 --> 0:13:34.600 eighty grams, which is significant, so the flipper bats have 0:13:34.679 --> 0:13:37.760 to be strong enough to whack an eighty gram steel 0:13:37.880 --> 0:13:41.200 ball around a playfield. Anyone who has played a machine 0:13:41.200 --> 0:13:43.520 that has really weak flippers can tell you it's a 0:13:43.679 --> 0:13:48.439 very frustrating experience. So the solidoids powering these flippers need 0:13:48.480 --> 0:13:52.319 to be sufficiently strong to generate the mechanical force necessary 0:13:52.360 --> 0:13:54.920 to give the ball a good whack across the playfield, 0:13:55.080 --> 0:13:58.000 and that means having a fairly significant coil to generate 0:13:58.080 --> 0:14:01.520 a strong enough magnetic field to pull the plunger with force. 0:14:01.960 --> 0:14:04.079 But this also creates an issue if someone is holding 0:14:04.120 --> 0:14:06.720 the flipper button down to keep the flipper raised up, 0:14:07.040 --> 0:14:09.600 and players will often do this, like you might want 0:14:09.600 --> 0:14:12.240 to pause so that you can prepare for a specific shot. 0:14:12.840 --> 0:14:15.520 Maybe you're lining up a shot so you can shoot 0:14:15.520 --> 0:14:18.760 a ball up a ramp, for example, and you kind 0:14:18.760 --> 0:14:20.600 of have a feel for where on the flipper that 0:14:20.640 --> 0:14:22.440 needs to happen, but you need to get control of 0:14:22.440 --> 0:14:24.000 the ball first in order to be able to do 0:14:24.040 --> 0:14:26.920 it reliably. So you've trapped the ball and you're holding 0:14:26.960 --> 0:14:29.120 it in place before you make your shot. You could 0:14:29.120 --> 0:14:31.000 be holding the ball the button down for a bit. 0:14:31.360 --> 0:14:34.000 Maybe you've also decided, Hey, I'm going to take a 0:14:34.200 --> 0:14:37.880 swig of my frosty beverage that I have next to me, 0:14:38.280 --> 0:14:40.880 and I'm going to pause gameplay a little bit by 0:14:40.920 --> 0:14:44.120 holding the ball in place while I do this. The 0:14:44.160 --> 0:14:47.080 issue here is that a high powered solnoid's going to 0:14:47.120 --> 0:14:50.000 generate a lot of heat as that electric current runs 0:14:50.000 --> 0:14:52.600 through that coil, which it will keep doing while you're 0:14:52.640 --> 0:14:57.480 holding the button down, right, because that button's a switch. This, 0:14:57.640 --> 0:15:00.520 as I said, can damage the machine over time. Specifically, 0:15:00.560 --> 0:15:04.000 can damage the solenoids and melt them so that they 0:15:04.040 --> 0:15:09.080 become less effective, and eventually they become ineffective and you're 0:15:09.120 --> 0:15:12.080 going to have to replace the solenoids in the pinball machine. 0:15:12.440 --> 0:15:15.400 So what was needed was a way to switch from 0:15:15.440 --> 0:15:19.520 the high powered coil to perhaps a secondary coil that 0:15:19.640 --> 0:15:21.920 was just strong enough to keep the plunger in position 0:15:22.320 --> 0:15:25.520 once it already had been pulled into the coil itself. 0:15:25.600 --> 0:15:28.320 It takes a lot of energy to move the plunger 0:15:28.480 --> 0:15:31.320 into place, but once it's there, it doesn't take as 0:15:31.400 --> 0:15:35.640 much energy to hold it there. So flippers solenoids often 0:15:35.680 --> 0:15:39.880 have two coils, one essentially kind of nested inside the other. 0:15:40.280 --> 0:15:42.520 One coil is the high powered one that pulls the 0:15:42.560 --> 0:15:45.840 plunger in the other one requires much less power and 0:15:46.000 --> 0:15:48.880 is just there to hold the plunger once it's in place. 0:15:49.160 --> 0:15:52.280 The rotating element of the flipper's spindle actually breaks a 0:15:52.400 --> 0:15:57.320 contact that is for the heavy duty coil, so once 0:15:57.440 --> 0:16:01.520 the flipper is in full upright position, it is no 0:16:01.640 --> 0:16:04.560 longer under the power of the main coil. It is 0:16:04.640 --> 0:16:07.880 swapped to the secondary coil, which requires much less power 0:16:07.880 --> 0:16:11.000 to operate. It also generates much less heat, so the 0:16:11.160 --> 0:16:13.680 power coil does the heavy lifting of pulling the plunger 0:16:13.760 --> 0:16:15.800 in the later coil just holds it in place once 0:16:15.840 --> 0:16:20.760 it's there. All because a mechanical element physically changes the 0:16:20.800 --> 0:16:25.320 circuit underneath by breaking this one contact and making another. 0:16:25.400 --> 0:16:28.440 And I think that's really super cool, Okay, I've got 0:16:28.480 --> 0:16:30.760 a lot more to talk about with pinball machines, but 0:16:30.840 --> 0:16:33.479 first let's take a quick break to thank our sponsors. 0:16:42.920 --> 0:16:45.360 So before the break, I was talking about flippers and 0:16:45.440 --> 0:16:49.280 solenoids and how a pair of different coils can allow 0:16:49.360 --> 0:16:53.360 you to hold a flipper an upright position without burning 0:16:53.360 --> 0:16:56.640 out your solenoids. Well, we are starting to get into 0:16:56.720 --> 0:17:00.440 why some pinball machines have really weak flippers, and there 0:17:00.480 --> 0:17:02.760 can be a few different things that contribute to this. 0:17:03.240 --> 0:17:07.240 One is that the power supply that's going to the solenoids, 0:17:07.280 --> 0:17:10.119 that power of the flippers is in turn weak. That 0:17:10.160 --> 0:17:13.040 could be an issue. And you know, a lot of 0:17:13.040 --> 0:17:16.119 these pinball machines get pretty janky over time, with people 0:17:16.200 --> 0:17:20.439 replacing components with stuff that wasn't necessarily designed to go 0:17:20.480 --> 0:17:23.040 in a pinball machine, or wasn't the same sort of 0:17:23.040 --> 0:17:25.560 power supply that was used in a previous version of 0:17:25.600 --> 0:17:28.800 the machine, which means that some of these solenoids might 0:17:28.840 --> 0:17:31.719 be receiving far less power than they typically would, and 0:17:31.760 --> 0:17:33.760 that means when you push the button, you get a 0:17:33.840 --> 0:17:37.239 kind of weak flipper and you're not really able to 0:17:37.359 --> 0:17:40.480 play the game very effectively. Other times, it can be 0:17:40.520 --> 0:17:44.359 an issue where there's a problem with the actual mechanical 0:17:44.400 --> 0:17:47.440 components where they're not able to turn or move as 0:17:47.600 --> 0:17:51.320 freely as they usually would. They might need some cleaning 0:17:51.520 --> 0:17:55.440 or replacing in order to do that, and sometimes it's 0:17:55.480 --> 0:17:59.800 because the solenoids themselves have become damage due to overheating. 0:18:00.280 --> 0:18:02.960 This is a good point to remind y'all that if 0:18:03.000 --> 0:18:06.159 you do ever play a pinball machine, or if you 0:18:06.640 --> 0:18:09.080 happen to be rolling in the bucks and you own 0:18:09.119 --> 0:18:13.080 a pinball machine, because these things are expensive, y'all, don't 0:18:13.200 --> 0:18:15.280 push a flipper button a whole bunch of times in 0:18:15.359 --> 0:18:19.879 quick succession. When you do that, you're activating that primary coil. 0:18:20.000 --> 0:18:21.840 Each time you push the button and release it and 0:18:21.880 --> 0:18:25.080 then push it again, they're activating that primary coil and 0:18:25.119 --> 0:18:28.080 you're building up heat. So if you hold the button down, 0:18:28.160 --> 0:18:31.159 that's less damaging because you're using that secondary coil that 0:18:31.280 --> 0:18:34.439 consumes less energy and doesn't generate as much heat. But 0:18:34.520 --> 0:18:37.560 if you press the button really quickly over and over 0:18:37.560 --> 0:18:39.720 and over and over and over again, that can make 0:18:39.720 --> 0:18:42.399 the coil heat up, and the coil can actually melt 0:18:42.760 --> 0:18:46.080 and the flippers will stop working. Eventually, you'll have to 0:18:46.119 --> 0:18:49.520 replace the solenoid underneath, and that could be that's a 0:18:49.560 --> 0:18:52.359 bit of a thing, like it's not impossible, people do 0:18:52.400 --> 0:18:55.400 it all the time, but it is a bit complicated. 0:18:56.119 --> 0:19:00.560 Another common feature in pinball machines are bumpers. So in 0:19:00.600 --> 0:19:03.200 the previous episode I talked about a game called Bollow 0:19:03.600 --> 0:19:07.120 Bolo and it had passive bumpers that has had these 0:19:07.119 --> 0:19:09.520 little obstacles. So in Bollow they were the shape of 0:19:09.600 --> 0:19:13.000 bowling pins and they were mounted on rods that in 0:19:13.040 --> 0:19:16.400 turn were attached to springs. They otherwise had no other 0:19:16.480 --> 0:19:19.720 mechanism attached to them, so they were what you would 0:19:19.760 --> 0:19:22.919 call passive bumpers. So a ball could hit them and 0:19:23.000 --> 0:19:25.600 bounce off of them, and they would wiggle around in stuff. 0:19:25.800 --> 0:19:27.800 But that was pretty much it. Well, I say that 0:19:27.840 --> 0:19:29.800 was it, But there were also passive bumpers that could 0:19:29.840 --> 0:19:33.280 actually send a signal for the purposes of scorekeeping. Ballow 0:19:33.320 --> 0:19:36.320 as far as I can determine, wasn't this way, but 0:19:36.400 --> 0:19:40.800 others were. And sometimes these bumpers are called mushroom bumpers 0:19:40.800 --> 0:19:44.399 because they look kind of like mushrooms. So these bumpers 0:19:44.440 --> 0:19:47.800 are also passive. They don't bounce back, but they can 0:19:47.880 --> 0:19:51.120 register when they've been hit and that can then go 0:19:51.240 --> 0:19:55.719 toward the progressive scorekeeping part of the pinball machine. And 0:19:55.760 --> 0:19:58.920 the way that this typically works is that these bumpers 0:19:59.000 --> 0:20:02.520 have a diss sitting near the top of the post 0:20:03.160 --> 0:20:04.840 of the bumper. So if you think of the bumper, 0:20:05.040 --> 0:20:09.719 you got the post that's the centralized stand, the pedestal 0:20:10.040 --> 0:20:12.280 kind of that makes up the bumper. Then you've got 0:20:12.280 --> 0:20:14.679 a disc on top, and then maybe you've got like 0:20:14.920 --> 0:20:17.680 a cap on the very top that shows how many 0:20:17.760 --> 0:20:21.040 points the bumper is worth. So when a ball makes 0:20:21.200 --> 0:20:26.480 contact with the pedestal, the rod the post of this bumper, 0:20:26.880 --> 0:20:30.000 there's this little disc that the ball impacts and it 0:20:30.080 --> 0:20:32.840 lifts the disc up slightly. Now the disc, in turn 0:20:32.960 --> 0:20:36.440 is connected to a stem. That stem is ultimately connected 0:20:36.480 --> 0:20:39.359 to a leaf switch, and when the disc lifts up, 0:20:39.400 --> 0:20:42.479 the leaf switch is activated and it sends a signal 0:20:42.560 --> 0:20:45.840 to indicate scoring. These simple bumpers date back to the 0:20:45.920 --> 0:20:48.760 nineteen forties, but they would get much more attention in 0:20:48.800 --> 0:20:52.440 the sixties and seventies. They would become kind of emblematic 0:20:52.920 --> 0:20:55.960 of pinball machines of that era. Just as flippers were 0:20:56.160 --> 0:20:59.520 really important for pinball machines to take off, these bumpers 0:20:59.560 --> 0:21:03.360 would become something that people just associate with pinball machines. 0:21:03.800 --> 0:21:07.560 There are also active bumpers, however, they have different names. 0:21:07.560 --> 0:21:11.320 Some people call them pop bumpers, or jet bumpers or 0:21:11.920 --> 0:21:16.480 thumper bumpers, among other things. So these react when they're struck. 0:21:16.520 --> 0:21:19.920 They strike back, so they propel the ball in the process. 0:21:19.960 --> 0:21:23.639 These are electro mechanical bumpers, and the basic pop bumper 0:21:23.720 --> 0:21:26.560 is a pretty clever design. So typically at the very 0:21:26.640 --> 0:21:31.200 base of the bumper's post or pedestal on the playfield side, 0:21:31.320 --> 0:21:33.920 there's a little plastic disc that's raised up just to 0:21:33.920 --> 0:21:37.199 touch off the playfield itself. Now, it's low enough that 0:21:37.440 --> 0:21:40.600 a ball can roll onto this plastic disc, and when 0:21:40.600 --> 0:21:44.160 that happens, the weight of the ball tilts the disc 0:21:44.359 --> 0:21:48.399 slightly so. Connected to this disc, underneath the playfield is 0:21:48.520 --> 0:21:51.919 a stem, and that stem rests inside a kind of 0:21:51.920 --> 0:21:56.280 a shallow bowl or spoon under this playfield. Now, when 0:21:56.359 --> 0:21:59.080 the disc is in its resting position, the stem's not 0:21:59.119 --> 0:22:02.240 really making content with the bowl. It's almost but not 0:22:02.320 --> 0:22:04.879 quite touching, or if it's touching, it's touching so lightly 0:22:04.920 --> 0:22:08.320 as to not displace the bowl. When the disc tilts, 0:22:08.720 --> 0:22:12.040 the stem is deflected, and it starts to push against 0:22:12.080 --> 0:22:15.080 the rising sides of this bowl, and it makes the 0:22:15.080 --> 0:22:19.400 whole bowl push downward. This is what completes a switch. 0:22:19.640 --> 0:22:21.960 That switch does a couple of things. It sends a 0:22:22.000 --> 0:22:25.360 signal to the progressive score keeping system, so it increases 0:22:25.400 --> 0:22:27.880 the score to the appropriate amount depending on how much 0:22:27.920 --> 0:22:31.680 the bumper is worth. And it completes a command that 0:22:32.000 --> 0:22:35.240 ultimately sends a signal to a solenoid that's attached to 0:22:35.280 --> 0:22:39.480 this bumper. That's a separate circuit typically, but that circuit 0:22:39.680 --> 0:22:43.800 is what gives the bumper the bump. The solenoid in 0:22:43.840 --> 0:22:47.520 turn connects to a metal ring that is also around 0:22:47.520 --> 0:22:49.560 the bumper's post. So you have a disc at the 0:22:49.600 --> 0:22:52.439 base of the ring. On the playfield side, you've got 0:22:52.480 --> 0:22:54.240 the post that extends up and at the top of 0:22:54.240 --> 0:22:57.960 the post typically you have this metal ring that connects 0:22:58.040 --> 0:23:01.280 down through the playfield to the solemn So the solenoid, 0:23:01.280 --> 0:23:04.640 when it activates, it pulls the plunger in. This pulls 0:23:04.720 --> 0:23:09.120 the ring downward, and the ring acts as a bumper. 0:23:09.200 --> 0:23:12.880 It hits the ball and knocks it away. So once again, 0:23:12.960 --> 0:23:15.520 solenoids are the work courses of the pinball world, and 0:23:15.560 --> 0:23:18.199 Typically you would find pinball machines that would group a 0:23:18.320 --> 0:23:22.439