about a year ago, i looked into finding an old "BINGO" type pinball machine. when i was working on nuke plant control rooms at TVA, we pumped more quarters can i can ever count into these bingos just trying to win back our beer money! although it was, of course, illegal to gamble on them, everybody that operated them paid-off on winners.

anyway...

i found a guy about 30 miles from my house that restoes and sells them. approx $2500 for a completly rebuilt machine. he started doing it after he retired, and completly rewires and replaces anything suspect, AND warranties his machines. the number of hours spent is unbelievable. he usually has about 10-20 bingos "ready to go", and travels all over the US delivering and buy/sell/trading them.

i wanted one badly, but the $ and space requirements are high.

i revisited his site last nite, and found a link to a group that "builds" pinball games software, that includes "bingo" type games as well as all the newer games as well.

long story short...

about 45 mins later, im playing the very game i played back in 78.
it looks right, sounds right, bumps right, and best of all:
it TAKES all my "virtual quarters" out of my pocket,
just like the real machine did so long ago and far away.
it also has many options to customize the way it "plays/feels"

i will post a link to the site/software if anyone is interested.
looks there there is hundreds of popular pinballs there.
they even have the resources to "build your own" machines.

it "appears" to ALL be freeware. not even any NAG boxes to close.

happy new year - TB

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