The step-by-step, mechanical logic of old pinball machines

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[@LakeNipissing]

Alec, make sure the ball plunger soft tip is in good shape. Once the rubber wears too thin, the ball gets pitted / dented and the playfield artwork will get scratched and worn by the ball. Playfield wax helps a bit, but make sure the ball is perfectly smooth and the plunger tip is decent. They are cheap compared with the damage that can occur to to the playfield artwork.

[@jabo0553]

This Guy Pinballs

[@AcornElectron]

Actual useful advice in the KZbin comments? What witchcraft is this?!

[@heyspookyboogie644]

Not debating the accuracy of all that, but curious how that’s possible, don’t they use stainless steel ball bearings for the pinball? They’re hard AF, how do they get dented just from the plunger?

[@S.J.C._Entertainment]

⁠@@heyspookyboogie644Usually Carbon Steel. Pinballs get pits fairly commonly, mainly on machines used on location that don’t get regular rubber replacements and maintenance.

[@alejogonzalez4997]

@@AcornElectron I can do some stupid advise to balance things out. Once a month you are suposed to use a meatball as a a ball, this is to apply grease over the playfield and protect it. You have to make the meatball hard enough so the plunger doesn't explode it when it hit it, but soft enough so it can lay down the grease.

[@heyspookyboogie644]

It boggles my mind the amount of work it must have taken to dissect this machine and its schematics, figure out where everything is irl vs the circuit diagram, and build a whole script to actually explain it to general viewers and film it all to demonstrate it. We’re clearly not in no effort November anymore.

[@eddiewillers1]

Indeed, it was a clear and cogent explanation of a complex, mechanical logic scheme.

[@goosenotmaverick1156]

He said something under another comment about replacing parts multiple years ago, so I assume you'd be correct in thinking it took a long time, I've found that lots of longer term owners of machines like this, seem to learn and understand a TON about these machines.

[@Damien.D]

@@goosenotmaverick1156 ineed, I fixed my first EM pinball machine when I was 10 and I can diagnose Williams games faults by the sound they make. The diagram and placement of parts and circuits is pretty logical and easy to follow. It was made for common people (arcade tech guys) to work with after all. On the other hand, Gottlieb machines are a nightmare to service ^^'

[@RainaThrownAway]

Maximum Effort Mecember.

[@Jeremy-jm3lz]

this is clearly Damn, that's a lot of research December.

[@pissingeverywhere]

Dude almost APOLOGIZED for producing more content we all want. Wonderful.

[@juancarrera5524]

It checks out. Midwest for life.

[@Darxide23]

@@juancarrera5524 The Canada of the US. Sorry about that.

[@Pauldjreadman]

Alex, has apologized before. He just does it due to the video length.

[@DavidAtwell]

I love how his apology for the length of the video was the most verbose part of the intro. Perfection.

[@kilodeltaeight]

Ahh yes, a true midwesterner

[@sirmongoose]

I had a wife before this channel, a family. I gave them up so I could keep watching this step-by-step logic of pinball machines and technology videos. They simply got in the way.

[@jxchamb]

😂 I was worried that I wouldn't be able to get my kids to school this morning because I couldn't stop watching. And now I'm reading the comments instead of working.

[@vincentcleaver1925]

Good man! (I'm assuming sir mongoose is a guy!8-)

[@Pauldjreadman]

Lololololol

[@SuperFlashDriver]

Well, why did you bother having a family in the first place then if you were so committed to watching these?? You might as well wait unil 11pm in the evening to watch these and such, and watch it in parts and such (about 15 to 20 minutes apart and then stop).

[@kiligir]

This has the energy of "I had to look at this schematic for days and now you have to as well." And because it's Alec, you bet your pinballs I'm going to watch it all.

[@floorpizza8074]

Perfect summary; that's exactly how it felt.

[@Codexionyx101]

It's videos like yours that have made me appreciate just how incredibly clever, complex, and elegant technologies and systems that seem "old fashioned" truly are. It feels like a common misconception that people were somehow less smart in those days when they were anything but.

[@YourFavouriteComment]

... And yet things were still repairable because components were accessible and serviceable. Today if a 10c capacitor on a TV breaks it goes straight to the dump

[@jeffs1571]

​@@YourFavouriteComment Only if you're not willing to find and replace the part. Problem nowadays is that replacements are so cheap it's often not worth the time to have a pro work on it

[@Mike-oz4cv]

And they designed and manufactured all of this without CAD and simulations! That’s what always amazes me most, especially when it comes to big machines or buildings.

[@mctit]

We stand on the shoulders of giants

[@Bob-1802]

@@YourFavouriteComment Indeed, just to get access to that capacitor is a nightmare.

[@dadahlberg3]

"2 bits of trivia," immediately following the discussion of the quarter mechanism, was an awesome dad joke. nicely done!

[@dadahlberg3]

And now that I've made it to the end, I see it's explained in the closed caption. Also, nice! (And, so, yes, at least one of us caught it.)

[@kellyfrench]

I both caught and appreciated that joke, it was quite good.

[@davidhittner4989]

My parents got us a "home" version of the AZTEC machine from a local pinball distributor. The home version was modified to add a push button that would add players rather than having to insert coins. The machine was delivered with all schematics. It was serviced by the distributor as needed until I was old enough to assume the care and feeding of the machine. Alec, if you didn't know it, if you flip the power switch off and back on quickly when the last ball of the last player went out of play and the machine had not yet finished counting down the last points, it would finish counting down and then give a free ball. Infinite balls if you did it correctly. Enjoy. :-)

[@VeniceInventors]

Pinball exploits! I didn't know about that one. We had a rather ugly hack to get free plays: If you lifted the machine up a few degrees and dropped it, the impact would cause the coin lever or wire to swing down as if a coin had been inserted. It wasn't exactly discreet, but in a loud environment full of drunk people we'd get away with it. I didn't really like that method as it felt like it would damage something sooner or later. Instead, I eventually learned to master the "Devil's Dare" by Gottlieb and could play all night from a single coin. Unfortunately it was hard to find a pub or arcade with that specific model.

[@marckyle5895]

Pinball lifehacks

[@TechnologyConnections]

Regarding the free ball trick - that wouldn't work with the coin-op version. There's a relay in the machine known as the Lock Relay and its only job is to fire the game over relay trip coil on power-up. Literally all it has is a single normally-closed switch feeding the game over relay trip coil, and the relay is always energized whenever it's powered on. But since its switch closes every time you switch the game off, when you re-apply power the game over relay trip coil will always fire. It's there for the very reason you've identified! If it weren't there, it would be pretty easy to cheat.

[@davidhittner4989]

I'm not not 100% sure whether this would work on the coin-only version, unless I take a look inside mine or look at the drawings. The home AZTEC version _does_ have working coin slots, so you could use either coins or the special home credit button to give credits to start the game. You had to be very fast when flipping the power switch off and back on at the end of the game (simulating a momentary power glitch), or the game would, as you said, flip the Game Over relay if you were too slow flipping the switch.

[@apearofscissors7058]

The OG Reset Glitch Hack before you yung whipper snappers came along with your Xbox 360 and your yoohoo tubes. Back in my day we played with real money that we made from delivering bicycle loads of newspapers before breakfast. I had a real good throw, I tell you, and it made me a good pinball player. Microtransactions were what they paid us, and mine all went on pinball, icecream at the beach, and bicycle parts. That was the grind, kids! That was the grind.

[@1996champs]

With all the relays, contacts, and bulbs with very real limited lifespans, it's pretty amazing that these things actually worked well enough and long enough to make any money for the owner at all.

[@The_DuMont_Network]

Well, yes, but "in the day", things were generally overbuilt. ISTR someone saying, for instancce, that later studies have determined that the Empire State Building actually used about four times as much steel as was really needed. In the absence of "modern" abilities of metallurgy, structural analysis and calculation, the idea was just to "build it stronger". Look at the size and thickness of the contact points, for example. Those babies will take many many more cycles of break and make than nowadays.

[@henrypile2385]

AFAIK the pinball machines were built for a 5-year lifecycle… and don‘t forget these „beasts“ had to work for a reasonable time w/o operator intervention. The rugged design of all the parts helps to achieve that goal, and we are lucky that even 60 or 70 years later they still are in working condition, thanks to that ruggedness!

[@mikeznel6048]

lol it’s amazing any of the new ones work for more than a day with all the fragile electronics in them. These older ones are built to last. Hence why they still exist in working condition today. It sure if you noticed the cycle counter on this one. Do the math on it.

[@TechnologyConnections]

I intend to talk about this in part three - these are WAY more reliable than you think. I have much, MUCH more trouble with my solid-state machines - mostly because they have more intricate mechanisms and the ball moves faster, but partly because electronics are old and tired and they were being pushed to their limits. Everything in this is electromagnets and a single motor. About the only thing that goes wrong with them are issues with switch contacts - either they're getting dirty and need sanding, or they've gotten out of adjustment. And switches don't even get that dirty - they are all self-cleaning! They're designed to overextend with each actuation precisely so the contacts rub against each other and scrape carbon deposits off. As a matter of fact, I actually had Aztec on location in a restaurant for a couple of years. In thousands of games, not a single issue with the controls popped up beyond it occasionally eating a quarter when the coin unit didn't step up correctly. Otherwise I had to fix a broken flipper and adjust the kickers a couple of times as they slipped out from behind the rubbers.

[@RockieOnly]

@@TechnologyConnectionsthat’s a really good point and makes me wonder some times. So many modern semiconductor based devices are run or optimized to be so close to their red lines and limits even though they are actually much reduced ware items just because they can be and it’s cheaper (to make money like you said) that it make me wonder how far something could go if it was designed instead for long lasting lifespans and endurance rather then just lighter/more powerful/efficient/cheaper BOM. Like could we really actually see devices that could run for centuries or millennium with our technology like we see in sci-fi stories sometimes? But I guess we only really get to partially see that in some things that nasa sends out in space, where the environments are far harsher, there’s no maintenance and so they still really only designed lifespans to last out the limited power sources because they are still concerned about weight.

[@spaszek195362]

hey alec, if you’d ever like to do a video regarding automatic pinsetters in bowling centers, let me know and i’d love to help and even invite you to my center in metro detroit. AMF machines are electromechanical entertainment at a borderline industrial size. many of the electrical stuff on my machines have been converted to integrated circuit boards, but there’s still machines near me running off steppers and relays such as these. there’s an entire center as well in iowa i think that runs Entirely off steppers and relays and still retains all of the original functionality.

[@jonothanthrace1530]

I for one would love to see this!

[@joschi4148]

same!

[@mangamaster03]

I would love to see that one day!

[@stevethepocket]

Hell yes. The first time I went bowling as a kid, I was so transfixed by the pin setter that my parents got them to take me back behind and show me the workings. I seem to recall pins being sent through a track that does a loop-the-loop at some point, but not knowing why.

[@kevinr8336]

That would be cool. I worked on 82/30 pinsetters way back in 1977. Would have been a neat career but I went another way.

[@lordmemester8798]

The fact that the captions were raised at a few points so as not to block some of the visual details made my day. Thank you.

[@2barrell]

I was an industrial electrician before I retired. I cut my teeth on relay logic programming and troubleshooting, needless to say I had to go through complex schematica on a daily basis. These pinball videos take me back to my early years before the machinery I worked on were controlled by PLCs. Your explination on relay logic operation is spot on.

[@joshmyer9]

@2barrell How did this sort of thing get planned? Trying to keep all those sequences going and in the right order is one (nontrivial) thing, but then reducing down to a minimal set of cams seems very challenging. I can't imagine doing it without a formalized way to what drives what, as a dependency or Gantt chart kind of thing.

[@AaronOfMpls]

@@joshmyer9 Probably a fair amount of incremental changes from earlier, simpler designs too, rather than designing from scratch. Not "let's make a whole new pinball machine," rather, "let's make some slightly better pinball machines than last year's."

[@airthrowDBT]

​@joshmyer9 I did a PLC project in ladder logic at tech school once, and for a final project we had to design the ladder logic for a brewery making beer. I copied a lot of logic from the washing machine example and modified it, so I think w/pinball there would be a lot of reuseable logic blocks for certain toys

[@2barrell]

@joshmyer9 I always started from the motion back to all the conditions needed to control it. Preliminary drawings will get the project started and then redrawn as it is manufactured. After AUTOCad came along it made drawing and editing much easier.

[@2barrell]

@@airthrowDBT I never worked on pinball. My career was in the manufacturing realm. The controllers for machines that made items or for the packaging of them.

[@MichaelPiz]

Re: stepper motors Back in the mid-80s, I was working for what was then AT&T Microelectronics. At our plant, we made microchips and I worked in the chip testing department. Chips were manufactured thus: the circuits for a number of chips were etched onto thin silicon wafers, about the size and shape of a DVD. The chips were then tested on the wafers in machines that would spin the wafer to set each chip into position for very thin probes to contact it and run various inputs into and take outputs from the chip. The wafers were then literally sawed apart into individual chips, which were placed into their familiar centipede-looking "packages", then tested again in the packages before being shipped out. At some point, the plan was to also have bar codes etched into the wafers for inventory tracking. Bar code readers were fit to the testing machines for this purpose. But the bar codes consistently failed to scan properly. It didn't take long to figure out why: the machines used stepper motors to position the wafers for the probes but stepper motors are lousy at the smooth rotation required for reading bar codes. Panic ensued. (Well, people got kinda worked up about it, anyway.) Then my cubicle mate, Dave, a great and very smart guy, found a solution. He researched a mathematical formula that produced a sinusoidal curve which, if cut into a drive shaft, provided perfectly smooth, uniform back and forth motion for a pin riding in the groove. What made the formula unique was that there was no acceleration/deceleration at either end of the shaft, which was necessary for proper reading of the bar codes. He designed a small motor with this shaft/pin configuration, which could be mounted on a test machine to spin the wafer independently of the stepper motor to correctly read the bar code. This ingenious solution got Dave a patent. It was very cool.

[@lordmemester8798]

Neat! Out of curiosity, would you happen to know where this patent can be found (if at all)?

[@MichaelPiz]

@@lordmemester8798 Sorry, I don't know the patent number or anything that might help find it, except Dave's name. I don't want to publish that because privacy, of course.

[@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721]

Dave seems cool.

[@randomsomeguy156]

@@MichaelPiz the patent number would hold Dave's full name no? If I'm correct then it's a little weird to say "for privacy reasons" in regard to something that is public

[@MichaelPiz]

@@randomsomeguy156 True, but I don't know the patent number and, the internet being what it is, I don't want to be the one to give out any identifying information without permission. As of today, I have no way of contacting Dave to get permission.

[@mynameisbone13]

TC is always remarkable with their captions. At 19:30, the captions were even bumped up so you could see the subject in action! Thank you so much for making good captions.

[@Aweoe]

His

[@neo_uwuowo]

@@Aweoeplease tell me you did not get offended by a word

[@Ziess]

​​@@AweoeTwo things. One: They is in fact grammatically correct in the singular case, and two, even if it wasn't, you assume Alec is the only person working on these videos.

[@Aweoe]

They is not in fact grammatically correct when the gender of the subject is known, and yeah he's independent right now@@Ziess

[@RichTapestry]

@@Aweoe You know the gender of the captioner? Single they is also grammatically correct and has been for centuries, get a grip.

[@tookitogo]

19:39 The fact that it’s split 8-12 and not 10-10 is likely another artifact of the original design having 16 reels: it would have been 8-8. When they tacked on another reel to each bank, they just paralleled it up with one of the banks, because redesigning it to do a 10-10 split would have been a much larger architectural change.

[@grex2595]

I feel like even in a 20 reel original design, they would have done 8-12 given that the lower 3 on every score ticks together. If they did 10-10, it would have required running whole scores together or else have some scores tick differently than other scores. Maybe they didn't care enough about aesthetics to worry about that, but I would have certainly chosen the current option over a 10-10 implementation unless there were power limitations.

[@JDfromWitness]

Congratulations! Back in the 1970s, I worked for an amusement and vending company and had to learn all of this. In watching your video, I can easily state that you are far better at explaining the operations of E/M machines than any of our instructors/co-workers. (who would usually tell me to just lay the schematic out on the floor and "figure it out") Yes, finally got good at it, but a video like this would have been worth it's weight in gold back then. (which would have been a lot as it would have to have been on 2 inch quad R-R tape!)

[@MrDuncl]

It could have been on U-Matic Cassette :-) There again fixing those would have probably been better paid.

[@selami32]

Fixing too complex devices like this should have been very nightmarish challenging. I'm respecting to who invented, built and fixed these devices.

[@davemccage7918]

If I were an armchair psychologist, I would diagnose Alec with ADD & state that electromechanical devices are definitely a subject of great interest to him. Source: My own ADD and obsessive need to understand how mechanical devices work. If you find a subject your fascinated with, you can do amazing things that a neurotypical person would never even think of.

[@danoconnell1833]

I worked in a shop cleaning and repairing these machines in the '70s, and I am blown away by your detailed knowledge and clear explanations. Damn, man. You're the best!

[@LakeNipissing]

Mechanical "memory" in these EM pinball machines is really complex... and amazing. You have done an excellent job explaining all of this... the 6 foot long schematic for these machines is insane. This is a great resource for me, since I have a Williams 4 player EM machine from 1977, _Argosy._ Very similar schematic and functionality, with different playfield and backglass. Thanks again!

[@RickTashma]

@LakeNipissing -- Amen. I also had a Williams machine from that 1970s era. (Don't recall for sure, but it might have been Grand Prix, which was *insanely* complicated.) I don't have the machine any longer, but without someone like Alec to make the schematic even moderately understandable, I might as well have been trying to figure out the Saturn V booster! LOL. Cheers!

[@pomonabill220]

Just fascinating what was done before micro processors were used for these games! Of course, part of the fun was the noise the relays, steppers, solenoids and motors made. Thanks for the detailed explanation!

[@scrambledmandible]

Someone should really revisit these classic designs with modern steppers and such All the sound, the third the electricity!

[@HenryLoenwind]

It becomes a bit less fascinating when you realise that those processors are programmed with the exact same operations, just in text form instead of wire diagrams. There are some really amazing electromechanical marvels, but this machine is not one of them. Other than every condition operating in parallel all the time, instead of being triggered by program flow and being sequential, they are exactly what one would put into a computer program. In fact, it would be trivial to translate those schematics into a computer program. Ironically, the sequence wheel, which looks the most like computer programming, would be the hardest part of that.

[@eagle8burgerVA]

My Dad bought a Bally Wizard for our house when I was in highschool. I always remember opening up the cabinet and seeing that mess of wires underneath it, wondering how the heck it worked - especially how it could tell if you had the double bonus lit and award you double points when the ball went out of play. Thanks for scratching a decades long mental itch!

[@Queso2469]

"2 bits of trivia" might be one of your most niche puns to date.

[@BabeCalculator]

I just wanted to throw my appreciation in at how you made the subtitles get out of the way around 19:15 for when the focus was near the bottom of the screen and would have otherwise been covered. I always move the subtitles when needed but this was nice to not have to get distracted by moving them :)

[@BradNakken]

Yeah, usually visible new lines like that on YT captions bother me, but I could tell they were inserted on purpose. Too bad YT's caption editing tools don't include position metadata, which I've seen on third-party captions uploaded to YT.

[@Formedras]

@@BradNakken YT needs to add support for Substation Alpha subtitles. Maybe not custom fonts or Advanced Substation Alpha features (such as animation), but at least colors and positioning. I think YT only supports SRT or the format used for commercial broadcast closed captioning systems for upload...

[@taylorsutherland6973]

Electro-mechainical aka relay logic was how the world worked up until the 1950s. This type of stuff filled rooms in factories, power plants, and pretty much everything. Relays, and roller cams are simply 1s and 0s which is what we do with solid state processing now. Love this!

[@scrambledmandible]

Yeah, sadly only the older stuff gives you a symphony as it works 😢

[@MrDuncl]

Check out the ANITA calculator. A fully electronic calculator that used neon logic !

[@__-fm5qv]

I do love the "thats right! The XYZ relay!" it really reminds me of putting the shapes in the holes...

[@newq]

Alec sure plays a mean pinball video.

[@BlipperOfRays]

From Soho down to Brighton, he must have played them all.

[@nighttow8780]

👍🎶🎵

[@electronash]

He's a Wizard.

[@electronash]

And owns a pair of giant boots, probably.

[@rdaltry777]

Plays by induction, the digit relays click

[@brewski118sempire]

I work woth wiring diagrams and schematics every day and this... Makes my head hurt. It's massive and complex. Amazing effort you put in to understand this.

[@jykejokinen]

I'd like to meet the people who designed these

[@chrisfranklin2104]

You need to study time travel !!

[@oasntet]

Imagine being an engineer on a project like this, and your game designer comes to you with a new feature they want in the next project. LIke, you're on the project that has the first "bonus game" feature... Instead of a couple lines of code, you need to work out which relays you have to interrupt to add the new logic, and you have to consider how it interacts with every other feature that could interact with those relays. Crazy.

[@TheAlby87Project]

Hi from Italy, one of those countries where pinball was banned because of coin counters. It's quiete an interesting story, can not wait to hear your take about it :) One "funny" thing about reset procedures is that is the simply the most "broken" thing on a EM pinball: if you put a coin or press start and you hear the main drum running without stopping, you know one of the score drum is not opening it's zero-switch. I've witnessed a lot! And, a little bit of trivia: in this one, the ball counter reset to "Game Over", then goes "up" one by one via every ball played. Older pinball like Gottlieb ones, "upped" their ball counter steppers and went down when the ball drained. Some pinballs ever attached animations (like a horse kicking on Buckaroo) to this one, doubling both as an animation for start and an animation for extra balls. Keep going, I adore this series!

[@rossthompson1635]

That is really interesting; your post prompted me to do a search as to why Italy (and other countries) banned pinball. It seems that the award of extra plays was considered gambling - even though there was no cash prize as such. Some machines were allowed if they removed the possibility of winning a replay. I have to say, having never played pinball, this has turned in to a surprisingly fascinating subject from the electromechanical and social point of view!

[@TheAlby87Project]

@@rossthompson1635 American companies even created pinball machine custom made for Italy and some other places (Italy being the biggest market). Those "Add-a-ball" even have the phrase "Senza ripetizione della partita" (Without replay)

[@rossthompson1635]

@@TheAlby87Project Thank you - interesting. (And hello from the UK to you in bello Italia - I have very happy memories from a wonderful visit last summer).

[@turinggirl6432]

I had the absolute pleasure of playing one of these a few days after thanksgiving and I got to have a wonderful conversation with the owners of the arcade where it was. I showed them your video and am looking forward to show them this one as well.

[@becauseimafan]

Oh that's so cool! 😊

[@AmvC]

a girl!!!! RUN! 😂

[@Geist12311]

I would be interested in seeing a similar breakdown of an old slot-machine. It would be neat to see how the jackpot & payout rates could be tuned with just relay-logic.

[@becauseimafan]

Ooh this would be interesting to see!!

[@blindsofficial8347]

I might just do that when I restore my Slot Machine I bought this next week. Thanks for the idea, I’ll upload that on my PribsPinballRepair channel

[@Urko2005]

The old non electric one armed bandits were works of art outside and in.

[@friedrichvonsnatch3501]

​@@blindsofficial8347just subbed, looking forward to seeing it

[@LastElf42]

I was thinking the same thing seeing this, be interesting to see how it does "random" rotation and win detection

[@kliff5601]

The ability to change out coin mechanisms is also how you can get coin mechs that only accept *specially made tokens for the arcade*! I've been to an arcade or two that used tokens instead of quarters before.

[@Formedras]

Tips and Tricks Magazine had a "Token of the Month" feature that showcased the various designs that those tokens had. (Also apparently, a whole lot of people kept sending in tokens for Pak Mann Arcade in Pasadena, CA not knowing that it already did get featured.)

[@chefchaudard3580]

… and foreign currencies for export. We had one of these pinball machines in every « café » here in France.

[@danisaac]

Love the electro mechanical age! Where you can actually see and hear the logic in action. Machines like this definitely have a certain charm and feel about them. Unbelievably complex relay/stepper logic for the time and not a capacitor in sight to dry out, so they age very well and are theoretically infinitely serviceable! 😃

[@05Matz]

I've gotta wonder about the degradation of all the arcing contacts though, and the heat generated by all those electromagnets and incandescent bulbs changing material properties over time causing things to crumble. Still, the presence of _actual schematics_ and design for servicing probably greatly assists their lifespan by making any failure easy to correct, and these were probably built with magnets and contacts far larger/more expensive/more robust than would be typical these days, where relays are generally designed to be compact, low-drive-current, and most importantly cheap above all else.

[@gopernoperstrains3160]

Never been this fast to a video. Your first part was so good and I found it so interesting I bought a pinball machine. I’m currently restoring a 1967 Williams Beat time and can’t wait to play it!

[@TechnologyConnections]

Oh I love Beat Time if for no other reason - The Bootles!

[@bob218]

It's incredibly rare to have a topic I actually can follow with and KNOW what you're talking about. I recently restored an old Williams Space Odyssey for my kids and learned a TON about these machines. I love hearing your perspective and knowledge on them.

[@CSD-CSD]

Another great educational video! However, using this pinball machine for educational purposes violates its clear and centrally stated "For Amusement Only" directive. Per pinball law your fine must be paid in quarters.

[@mothbones169]

i just need to take a moment to thank Alec for how much thought they put into the captions at 19:30 the captions being moved is the first time ive seen a creator do that

[@Alexander_Evans]

I love these long videos. My favorite videos on this channel are long ones that sound boring when I tell people about them, but are actually super interesting, like the one on rice cookers.

[@becauseimafan]

I love his videos too, and the rice cooker video is actually one I've sent to friends irl! One in particular who had given up cooking rice cuz of failed attempts. Alec definitely got a few people to try out rice cookers who wouldn't have otherwise! 😁🍚😋

[@geoffreychadwick9229]

I work in an engineering company and have a bunch of guys that I work with and every time there's a new technology connections video, we shared amongst ourselves. We're not here for short form content, We are here for every glorious pedantic detailed infused and overcomplicated nuance. Also for hatred of blue LEDs.

[@Alexander_Evans]

@@becauseimafan I worked in a Chinese delivery restaurant for 5 years, and my wife is Filipino, and it is the only way that I've ever seen anyone in Asia make rice.

[@Alexander_Evans]

@@geoffreychadwick9229 blue LEDs have driven me crazy since they came out. My eyes can't focus on them, so they always look out of focus and I hate it. Neighbors that use all blue LEDs for Christmas lights are the worst.

[@Squonk06]

@@Alexander_Evans I have a theory about the focus thing, since I have the same problem and I've talked to/heard from others who have as well. We have the fewest short wavelength sensitive cones in our eyes out of the three kinds most humans have, and since LEDs are monochromatic, blue LEDs only stimulate that small subset of cones. Since cones are responsible for high resolution vision, having most of them inactive results in a blurry image. Just a theory, of course. Even if this is true, doubtless there are other factors involved.

[@JamieStuff]

As an old school EE, I really love these deep dives into old electromechanical systems.

[@shock6906]

I used to own a couple pinball machines (1984 Space Shuttle and Judge Dredd) so this series definitely has my interest. I've watched the two videos now, and there are a few things. 1 - MAN, the pinball companies must have been thrilled with IC's and solid state stuff came along. It must have made manufacturing those machines a hell of a lot faster. 2 - Pinball repair techs probably dreaded that march in technology because reliability had to go up. 3 - The amount of thought involved in engineering all those circuits to accomplish the logic in those EM machines is staggering, especially when you watch through the video and see the litany of different conditions the game can be in based on score and play progression. 4 - Achieving all that logic with a handful of parts, those being relays, solenoids, and switches, is really fucking impressive. The score motor was really cool, and I never knew about those before. 5 - Those leaf switch stacks are insane. Seems like it would be a pretty common failure point since it wouldn't take much rough handling to throw them out of alignment. 6 - TONS of arcing! 7 - I always knew I never wanted an EM machine, and these videos have definitely sealed that deal! lol These videos are outstanding. You've obviously got an extraordinary amount of time in producing them, and I can't imagine anybody doing a better job than what we've seen here.

[@defaultuserid1559]

This is a great series. I used to work on pinball machines for a summer job but never got into this depth of understanding. The guy I learned from used to troubleshoot by opening up the top and running a screwdriver over the relay contacts until he found a dead "zone" as he called it. He worked backward from there. Looking forward to part 3, and if necessary, part 4.

[@pdrg]

I absolutely love ladder logic electromechanical systems and wanted to *understand* how pinball tables actually worked - but couldn't find the life force to buy a machine, and follow it all through. You really are doing such a sterling job in this. This series is absolutely my favourite of your episodes, and I'd love to see you do the same with other vintage gaming machines too.

[@carolinavenger]

I've played a lot of old pinball machines and always just assumed they were magic. Today I learned! If anyone who's made it here somehow doesn't know about the pinball Hall of Fame in Las Vegas, btw, I highly recommend it! It's not just a museum, you can play all the machines, classic and modern alike. On the east coast we have Allentown pinfest, although I've heard from friends that it's kinda crowded and annoying the past couple years, but might still be worth a trip if you're nearby!

[@zeusapollo8688]

Shorty's in Seattle

[@krallja]

Asheville NC has a playable pinball museum too

[@The_DuMont_Network]

Well, you just convinced me that I need to attend the National Association of Broadcasters convention in Vegas this April. I'm retired, but I think - nay - KNOW I will go to that museum.

[@becauseimafan]

Today I learned pinball machines have museums, and that they just might be The Coolest ™️ cuz you can play them! Interactive museums for the win!

[@MagicManICT]

@@becauseimafan Old arcade cabinets, too. There was a traveling exhibit going pre-pandemic. No idea if it's still going around these days. Makes you appreciate how easy video games are these days!

[@johnsmallberries3035]

Wow, this takes me back. I restored an old broken down pinball machine that I bought from another kid when I was in middle school. I learned how to read the schematics by just looking at the machine. I think that might have started me towards my career as an EE.

[@ElectronIsABadTuber]

Mechanical engineering is a true testament to how crazy useful the simple logic gates are. All a computer is, at its core, is a bunch of tiny electronic relays and gears and switches that are moving at near the speed of light to do basically the same exact things this pinball machine does! It's even crazier to realise we had to invent the language and logic just so we could try to piece it together to make a wonderful money-sucker like this. And on top of all of that, he's so delightfully snarky I could listen to Alec talk about toasters for all I care!

[@nyc90]

I just joined the Patreon this week. What an amazing first early release for me!

[@jamiechampion299]

It's finally here! I really enjoyed the first pinball video, so I'm looking forward to this one.

[@VittorioZamparella]

I never received such high quality lessons at engineering university. We humans need more people like you Alec.

[@HunterJE]

Ooh I've been so excited for part 2 of this! Deep dives in to how complicated electromechanical stuff works are one of my favorite sorts of video on this channel.

[@SmellTheCheeeez]

Man, it is actually amazing how much thought had to go into designing these - and without a computer to help optimize!

[@occamraiser]

Fascinating! being in my 60s these electro-mechanical pinballs were just being phased out - in our Student-Union building there were several pinballs - an electromechanical 'KISS' themed one, a crossover between mechanical and early solid-state 'Black Knight' and a wonderful all-singing-all-dancing 'Alien' with no screens but fantastic quality sound and a play-field the size of a pool-table. Ahh, happy days..... they must have cost me at least one grade on my degree, if not 2.

[@just_some_donkus]

I played an Aztec machine at the pinball museum in Seattle. It was so neat feeling the mechanics move around and hearing everything. Thank you for this awesome deep dive!!!

[@thesoupin8or673]

I've only ever played modern pinball machines, and only once or twice, but this series might be my favorite that you've done. The schematic animations to add to your incredible explanations, all the cool mechanical logic on display for all to see, and those kick-ass spinning ones that look like arcane sigils. Incredibly cool!

[@AaronOfMpls]

Yah, I've mostly played modern pinball machines, growing up in the 1990s. But one youth group had a 70s electromechanical machine a lot like this one (though its theming was more Dakota-ish teepees rather than Aztec). It was probably 20+ years old at the time, but it still worked just fine. I think it was set to free-play too, rather than using its coin slots. 5-digit scores IIRC, though the last digit might've alternated between 0 and 5, rather than being a true 0-9 or just a dummy like here (not sure, been ~25 years since I saw it). (They also had a small built-into-a-table Pac-Man machine where the two players sat at opposite ends, albeit with Ms Pac-Man graphics on the joystick panels.)

[@juaja1197]

These 2 pinball machine videos were among my favorites on your channel. Im excited for the third one. Thank you for the content!

[@Tigrou7777]

I'm so happy you released that second part on the Pinball mechanics. I have been looking for that video every week. Feel like another Xmas present.

[@woated87]

These pin ball videos are phenomenal and in my opinion your best work ever. They must have taken hours to research/shoot/edit etc. I appreciate you doing them, thanks.

[@dashcamandy2242]

The "weird clicking" you get when recording is due to the arcing of contacts. I don't know the actual science-y reasons why, but I'm going to guess it's got something to do with Electromagnetic/RF Interference. Thank you for Part Two Of Many, it's quite interesting how electro-mechanical pinball machines operate. It also goes to show us just how much engineering was involved to provide entertainment that later was done via software and microprocessors. The fact these machines still function as designed after so many years also proves how robust the low-tech solutions really were.

[@CARLiCON]

Any time you create an electrical arc, it generates rf signals that are wide spectrum. That's how early spark gap telegraph transmitters worked, e.g., like on Titanic

[@dashcamandy2242]

@@CARLiCON Thank you! I was pretty sure it was along those technical lines, but I didn't want to type it all out in the chance that I was using a poor or inaccurate explanation - this is an educational channel of course, albeit a _fun_ educational channel - while Googling to make certain I was accurate in my thoughts, all I couldy really find was Reddit forum posts and Quora questions about electrical noise in audio recordings - relating to audio line imbalance issues, ground-loop issues, or "noisy" AC from the wall. Not always the most reliable sources to begin with, and the posts weren't anything close to my actual inquiry. (Sidenote: Is it me, or have Google Search results really gone down the toilet over the past several years?) I do remember learning somewhere here on KZbin the basic idea of how the Titanic's telegraph worked, but I didn't make the connection to this. Now that you've drawn that parallel, it makes sense. I've actually encountered the same thing in videos recorded on my dashcam - I drive by a house daily where the homeowner has a pet cow. He's installed an electric fence - hacked would be a more appropriate term - along the fence surrounding the cow. Each and every time I drive past it, there is a once-per-second sound of electric spark audible to the ear through my open window. After several weeks, I stopped to investigate. Part of the perimeter of the penned-in area, the guy used trees. The electrified cable of the fence is attached to the trees with lag screw eyes, and the electrified cable where it passes through the eye is simply wrapped with two layers of electrical tape! No insulated standoffs here! 😱 Every time the power supply builds up it's charge, it releases (shorting to the tree trunk), and the power supply restarts. If I listen to it carefully, on rainy/foggy days I can hear four or five different places the fence shorts to ground and arcs. (On a dry day, two.) The long-winded point I was getting to, which I deleted from the original comment, was that upon playback of the video file from my dashcam as I passed the closest spark-to-tree point, there was a distinct sharp "click" in the audio track at a volume above the ambient volume of my vehicle, visible in the waveform. I also recorded cell phone video of me actually inspecting the tree when I discovered the electrical tape and eyes in the tree trunk, but I haven't taken a look at that video file yet.

[@Imthefake]

5:50 quick correction: that's the wotorola logo actually

[@blakksheep736]

Sounds like Wario founded it.

[@Gutsquasher]

I love these videos. I had an old Wurlitzer 950TA, a beautiful electromechanical organ with schematics almost as. Once you get into signal modulation with electromechanical parts, not to mention the tone-wheels on older machines, the space of what can be done without solid state electronics explodes. I would love to see you do a video on tone-wheel, or really any electromechanical organ. Sound generation is just fascinating!

[@garritmadman]

I am so thankful for you making this. These machines are so fascinating. I have a few EM machines so this is giving me a better understanding on how they operate. You’re awesome!

[@Brykun777]

I never thought I'd be so invested in an old-school pinball machine video essay series. Great job breaking this stuff down!

[@davelamora7736]

Im liking the videos on the old electromechanical games, i work for a company that operates and repairs a bunch of these old pinballs and ball bowler games that use alot of the same mechanics, the wiring and analog logic in some of them are mind blowing

[@SuperFromND]

absolutely loving this extensive pinball coverage on here as of late, as i've been getting increasingly into the hobby and having a blast (albeit not with physical machines since those are hard to find near me; thank goodness for VPX)

[@xxrocketshark216xx4]

0:52 Dude busted out the big words like he was trying to hit an arbitrary page limit for a high school essay XD

[@geoffhurley8103]

This was incredible! I can't imagine how hard it must have been to figure this out. Looking forward to a part 3. Thanks for making these!

[@garyansell9735]

You have successfully turned a wiring diagram into a 42 minute video. I (mostly) understand schematics but could never explain one to another person within an hour. Bravo sir.

[@lomiification]

Hmm. Ive gotta go check joe hills' minecraft pinball machine to see if its mechanical. This is all super redstone-able though, with the steppers being piston feed tapes, and the relays being pulsed sticky pistons

[@mar4kl]

My late father would have loved your channel, especially this video. He was an MD, but was also an avid do-it-yourselfer who loved to learn how things worked. He was also a kid during what many consider the golden age of pinball. I've never been all that interested in pinball, beyond playing the occasional game, but even I loved watching and learning this.

[@ID_PHOTOGRAPHY]

My grandfather had a company that specialized in coin operated games, seeing this video gave me such a flashback to when I used to hang out with him and watch him repair pinball machines and juke boxes

[@Greger88]

I'm always in awe when seeing old pre transistor technology with complex functions and the intricate (and often insane) design to make it work.

[@EriksPlace]

I was lucky enough to have one of these as a kid growing up. My best friend's dad sold it to us, Jungle Queen, and I can still hear the sounds of every hit and bonus point. I can remember so vividly peering behind the front door into the vast glowing cave of wires and electronics that I couldn't nor desired to make sense of. Anyway, thank you for this video ❤

[@Firetail-tx1rg]

I LOVE old machines and learning how they work! Also love how satisfying all the analog noises are that this machine makes 👌

[@rngesus8057]

1:00 I really appreciate your forthright commitment to brevity and your communication of that commitment.

[@Vid_Master]

Yes!!!!! Ive been waiting for this video. Your previous video on this was so interesting! Thanks for all your hard work on creating these videos

[@marshallwebber9682]

Thanks so much for this. As a onetime pinball repair tech, and current programmer, I think understanding the logic in such a system would be a fantastic way to teach many programming techniques. Especially debugging! Looking forward to pt 3!

[@92Hidden]

In the end this is kind of like a very basic programming language in physical space.

[@Nicky_Otto]

This series is so detailed, I wonder how much time it took you to get this all figured out and recorded. I thank you for showing this stuff, really makes you appreciate how much work went into getting these machines working, without having a single computer chip in there.

[@Sublimarcher]

These pinball videos have been an absolute joy to watch. I had no clue this much design went in to making all these mechanical devices work in tandem so well.

[@henrypile2385]

Been watching part one and was amazed. Now part two: fantastic! Love the in depth- look at this fascinating machine! I own a 1968 Gottlieb „Rockmakers“ and maintain it myself. Works like a charm now for more than 50 years. One thing: Looking at that flaking backglass of your machine makes me sad… Alec, if you ever need a replacement for it: I can provide the scanned and retouched AZTEC backglass artwork, so you can have it printed on glass at a local printer. This is not a business thing, I do these retouches just for good friends, on a private basis, no money involved.

[@aaronskartveit9376]

I love the sounds of those old mechanical pinball machines.

[@braderickson9996]

I've found the pinball videos immensely interesting. The way you drilled down, following circuit paths, makes you appreciate how this was all done mechanically. You have a Thanks! coming before the end of the month. Looking forward to Part 3.

[@davidc1878]

Great videos, I love the sounds... brings back memories of my youth in the 80s arcades and the wonderful sounds of many pinball machines and videogame cabinets clicking, beeping, and buzzing all at the same time. So it was great to see how all that sound was generated in pingball cabinets. Thanks for these two videos.

[@trashmail8]

Your channel is just such a wonderful source for learning. Your channel is how TV channels like Discovery, The Learning Channels and other 'big names' should be. Just about an hour of solid material explained clearly and at a very pleasant pace without starting with showing e.g. a pinball machine from 50 different angles in the first minute, switching to ads again and spending the next 5 minutes talking about what was talked about in the 5 minutes before the ads. 😜 I really, really thank you for creating and sharing this hight quality content with the world and I already wish you and your channel the very best for 2024! 🙏😊

[@minotaurbison]

well done, fantastic job explaining this so simply that even I could understand it... or at least not feel like a cat trying to learn calculus.

[@Mutisi0n]

This video ended too soon. In all seriousness, thank you for putting together a second part to this. I've become obsessed with pinball lately, and setting how the guts of an EM table work just hits all the right spots.

[@jasonbrindamour903]

LOL, you hurt my brain on that first paragraph. It made me laugh and I love watching your episodes. I follow Joe's pinball videos and that gives me extreme insight on how intense relay or contact logic really is. So if I've seen already how these things work, why am I about to continue watching...because of the same exact reason mentioned above. You bring your own value to the table and it's worth my click and time. You are extremely unique and do a great job at what you do....I can't wait till the end of the videos as I hope to see the out-takes for that first paragraph. Enjoy the new year!

[@jayducharme]

I have two old pinball machines. I love them, but I find them so mind-numbingly complicated to work on, even with the schematics. Your videos are very helpful.

[@dielaughing73]

I can barely imagine. Have you ever called in a pro for help? I assume it's a pretty rare skillet these days

[@DirtyRobot]

Go check Joe's classic ..... Ron has many videos up fixing these machines

[@jayducharme]

@@DirtyRobot I follow that channel. He’s really good.

[@jayducharme]

@@dielaughing73 I’ve asked a couple friends who are electrical engineers. Even they find it a bit overwhelming. But I’ll eventually figure it out.

[@dielaughing73]

@@jayducharme not really in the wheelhouse of your modern-day EE

[@digitalcatcher]

This dude really spent 0:40 to 1:09 to tell us he tried to make the video as short as possible in MLA format 💀💀💀💀

[@johnmehaffey4060]

You win the comment section!

[@jblob5764]

Such a cool process. A guy from my gym repairs old pinball and arcade machines, and after watching both parts of this series that now seems a lot cooler

[@gtoger]

"free ball play" and "out hole relay" are definitely not terms that make me chuckle.

[@coolest10293]

New Technology connections videos are always a treat!

[@timmersoft]

How are these comments 1 day old tho? Shows video just uploaded?

[@MlleAdler]

@@timmersoftPatreon prerelease

[@coolest10293]

Yeah, I’m pretty sure theyre from the patreon prerelease

[@AMDRADEONRUBY]

Nice a new Alec video about Pinball machine you're the best mate

[@sharplessguy]

Some 50 odd years ago I was a pinball machine and jukebox repairman. I learned electronics while working for a "novelty company"....

[@redsquirrelftw]

It's incredible how these remind me so much of an old style telephone exchange, it's essentially the same concepts applied for something completely different. I can imagine actual telco engineers being involved in the design of these things back in the day.

[@richard180961]

Amazing, My father used to run a business, servicing these things some years ago. So complex, pretty much a mechanical computer inside. The team who designed these things must have been ingenious. What a shame we don't still have them machines, would be worth a bit now. 🧐

[@acidhelm]

18:14 Nice!

[@frankj.hoffmann7030]

I've worked on many relais-operated machines back in the day. I don't envy the guy who had to solder all of this into place. Kudos to Alec for another concise and easy-to-listen-to dissection of the inner workings of this pinball!!

[@JusticeAlways]

Imagine one lousy *ground wire* connection happening...I had taken a one week vacation from a plant I worked at...a relay control panel stopped working...they called in electricians...couldn't fix it! Plant was down for 3 days until I got back from vacation...LoL!

[@TTS-TP]

2:05 Coin acceptor pron😋 I used to be one of the go-to guys in the area for rebuilding coin acceptors. Mostly laundromats, but I've got a couple pinball servicing under my belt with the help of a true master. They really are brilliantly done.

[@apmcx]

I love the design of this. Its amazing how much complexity you can get out of a few hardware if statements and for loops. Edit: (slightly more than a few)

[@KhangoBongo]

It's really relay time!

[@elias5000]

I have kind of a penchant for ridiculously engineered analog stuff that would be so dramatically easier when implemented in digital technology. This video totally made my day. Your style of presentation makes it so enjoyable. Thanks for your great content!

[@nathansmith9820]

I'm so excited for this sequel, i couldn't wait after the first one. I love the pinball content and your usual attention to detail!