Back Bingo Cards

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  1. By Flipcommons AI Descriptions (GameplayFeature)
    description
    The bingo card is the scoring heart of a [[game-format:bingo-pinball]] machine: a grid of numbers — classically five by five — printed across the backglass, the upright glass panel in the machine's head, each number matching one of the numbered [[gameplay-feature:trap-holes]] on the playfield below. A ball resting in a hole lights its number, and three or more lit numbers in a row pays, the award climbing steeply with the length of the line — on the earliest machines, four in a row paid roughly four times what three did, and five in a row paid 100 replays.[1] ## Origins The card arrived with *[[title:bright-lights]]* (1951, [[manufacturer:bally]]), where the play is at its most elemental: a coin buys a card, five balls go up the shooter, three in a line wins.[2] Bright Lights carried six cards, each purchasable in turn for another nickel.[3][4] [[manufacturer:united]] had actually reached the market first with *[[title:a-b-c]]* (1951), whose short roulette-tub playfield players rejected as too random; Bally's long field of holes let a practiced shooter aim at the numbers a card needed, and by United's third bingo its layout had been copied outright, becoming the pattern the whole genre followed.[5][6] ## Rearranging the card The card is where the format's invention played out. Through the 1950s and 1960s Bally's designers kept finding new ways to let a player — for more coins — reshape a losing card into a paying one:[7] rotating blocks of numbers with [[gameplay-feature:magic-squares]], shifting whole columns with [[gameplay-feature:magic-lines]], sliding a painted screen across stationary numbers with the [[gameplay-feature:magic-screen]], abandoning lines for color groups with [[gameplay-feature:mystic-lines]], and hanging small [[gameplay-feature:super-cards]] beside the main card with payouts of their own.
    1.
    Kineticist — https://www.kineticist.com/news/a-beginners-guide-to-bingo-pinball
    You only had to line up three numbers on the card to win a small amount of replays. 4 in a row earned about 4 times the amount for 3. And 5 in a row earned 100 replays.
    2.
    Bingo Pinballs — https://bingo.cdyn.com/machines/bally/bright_lights
    Deposit one coin/credit per card, and shoot the five balls. If you get three or more in a line, you win.
    3.
    Kineticist — https://www.kineticist.com/news/a-beginners-guide-to-bingo-pinball
    The first game from Bally had six cards – each card could be bought, in order, for one nickel.
    4.
    Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) — Internet Pinball Database (IPDB) #374
    Trap holes (25), Six Cards.
    5.
    Kineticist — https://www.kineticist.com/news/a-beginners-guide-to-bingo-pinball
    A competitor was actually first to market with their version of the bingo pinball. [...] Bally's playfield design was far superior, and allowed for a skilled player to make the numbers needed to win. [...] with United's third bingo design, which almost mirrored the layout from Bally.
    6.
    Bingo Pinballs — https://bingo.cdyn.com/machines/bally/bright_lights
    While United's ABC beat Bally to market by a couple months, Bally's playfield layout became the standard for bingo's.
    7.
    Kineticist — https://www.kineticist.com/news/a-beginners-guide-to-bingo-pinball
    Subsequent games would get increasingly complex, adding things such as mechanically moving numbers on the bingo card [...] mechanical rearrangement of the card design itself
  2. By Flipcommons Catalog
    name
    Bingo Cards
    slug
    bingo-cards
    status
    active