# # 17 - Thanksgiving Show - The Classic Pinball Podcast

**Source:** The Classic Pinball Podcast  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2019-11-26  
**Duration:** 22m 3s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/george272/episodes/17---Thanksgiving-Show---The-Classic-Pinball-Podcast-e96bhj

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## Analysis

George and Dave discuss their experiences at Freeplay (a pinball tournament/event), with George sharing travel stories from Houston including food, nightlife, and pinball machines he played. They discuss games like Jurassic Park, TNA, Elvira, and newer Stern titles, as well as George's restoration work on classic machines like Haunted House, Black Hole, and Superman. George also mentions upcoming media appearances and his restoration business pipeline.

### Key Claims

- [MEDIUM] Eric won both classics and regular tournaments at Freeplay, possibly three tournaments total — _Dave mentions Eric 'won both tournaments, classics and the regular. He did all three, I guess' but admits uncertainty about the third tournament_
- [HIGH] Stern's Jurassic Park is a 'home run' game and George played it at Freeplay before competing — _George: 'Stern does have a home run on that game, I got to say.' and 'they had four of them there, and I took advantage of it...on Friday before the tournament'_
- [HIGH] George has an NBC Boston interview scheduled for first week of December — _George confirms 'The date's going to be in first week of December is shoot date.'_
- [HIGH] George's interview for Chronicle Boston is pushed back to mid-December from early December — _George: 'He pushed it back to mid-December because some of the – I'm sorry, one more time. He pushed it back to mid-December. It was going to be first week of December.'_
- [MEDIUM] Black Hole is the most complex game Gottlieb ever made; Twilight Zone is the most complex Williams/Bally game ever made — _George: 'It's the most complex game that Gottlieb ever made. It would kind of go nicely with the most complex game that Williams ever made...Twilight Zone.'_
- [HIGH] George plans to replace Paragon and Pinball Pool with Black Hole and Flash Gordon in his game room lineup — _George: 'I'm thinking of putting that in my lineup, taking down Paragon, putting up black hole in its place, and swapping out pinball pool'_
- [HIGH] George is attempting to get the Superman restoration complete by Thanksgiving for Steve Ritchie — _George: 'I really want to get this game to him by Thanksgiving that's my plan I'm in the 11th hour here trying to get it done'_
- [LOW] Jonathan Bergeron (referred to as 'Johnny Crap') is the artist who did Jurassic Park artwork — _George confuses the name, saying 'Jonathan Bergdorf or something. He wants to sit at the cool kids table. Let's call him Jonathan Bergeron' regarding the Jurassic Park artist_

### Notable Quotes

> "Stern does have a home run on that game, I got to say."
> — **George**, ~43:00
> _Strong praise for Jurassic Park as a Stern release; indicates positive reception of a recent Stern title_

> "The short order cooks have it down to a science. They move like two feet in each direction and can cook an entire meal for five people. It's fun to watch."
> — **Dave**, ~5:00
> _Personal anecdote about Waffle House experience during Houston trip_

> "I am such a jerk... That must happen a lot to you guys. More than you can count."
> — **George (and Scott Denisey response)**, ~30:00
> _George deliberately mispronounced Scott Denisey's name; shows personality and interaction with pinball artist/designer community at Freeplay_

> "I'm playing all this new stuff like the remake for Attack from Mars. That's a fun game. I understand why Mike bought the original."
> — **George**, ~35:00
> _George acknowledging appeal of newer remake titles and understanding collector preferences_

> "WPC to the rescue. They did the flippers for me. That worked out great."
> — **George**, ~65:00
> _Reference to using Williams WPC-era parts as solutions for restoring older games_

> "The problem I have with a lot of the Rampers stuff is that when you want to play your own music, you can't because it competes like a Chinese opera with their music in the game."
> — **George**, ~37:00
> _Criticism of newer Spooky Pinball (Ramp manufacturer) games' audio design_

> "Goat milk is the future. I just had my first thing of goat milk. That is freaking fantastic. Way better than regular cow's milk."
> — **Dave**, ~12:00
> _Personal preference shared; tangential to pinball discussion_

> "I don't really know the exact date yet. But it's going to be mid-December, before Christmas."
> — **George**, ~52:00
> _Confirmation of Chronicle interview timing_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| George | person | Co-host of Classic Pinball Podcast, pinball machine restorer, collector, podcast speaker |
| Dave | person | Co-host of Classic Pinball Podcast, discusses experiences at Freeplay event and Houston trip |
| Eric | person | Competitive pinball player who won tournaments at Freeplay (classics and main event tournaments) |
| Janice | person | Pinball player at Freeplay who played Head to Head with George |
| Scott Denisey | person | Pinball artist/designer who did TNA; George met him at Freeplay event |
| Dirty Donnie | person | Pinball artist present at Freeplay; George met him there; filming videos with special iPhone rig |
| Jonathan Bergeron | person | Artist who designed Jurassic Park (George refers to him with confusion about his actual name) |
| Steve Ritchie | person | Pinball designer (historical context: Williams designer); George is restoring Superman game for him to be delivered by Thanksgiving |
| Tony Zizek | person | Known for hand-painting Haunted House checkerboards; mentioned as restoration reference |
| Maureen | person | Playfield restoration specialist who helps George with machine restoration work |
| Paul | person | George's friend who will receive the Flash Gordon machine George restored |
| John | person | Visited George for Superman machine playtests; inspected original flipper mechanisms |
| Raman | person | Producer of Chronicle (Boston TV show); scheduled George's interview, pushed it to mid-December |
| Freeplay | event | Major pinball tournament/event that George and Dave attended; Eric won tournaments there |
| Classic Pinball Podcast | organization | Podcast show featuring George and Dave discussing pinball culture and machines |
| Stern | company | Pinball manufacturer; George praised Jurassic Park, also discussed Elvira; parts used in restorations |
| Williams | company | Historical pinball manufacturer; made Twilight Zone (most complex game); WPC parts used in restorations; Steve Ritchie connection |
| Bally | company | Historical pinball manufacturer; possibly made Twilight Zone (George uncertain) |
| Gottlieb | company | Historical pinball manufacturer; made Black Hole (most complex) and Haunted House (System 80) |
| Jurassic Park | game | Stern release; George played at Freeplay, praised it as a 'home run'; four machines available at event |
| TNA | game | Spooky Pinball game; George played and enjoyed; designed by Scott Denisey |
| Black Hole | game | Gottlieb game; George plans to purchase and add to his game room lineup, replacing Paragon |
| Twilight Zone | game | Williams or Bally game (George uncertain); described as most complex game either company made |
| Superman | game | Atari game; George is restoring for Steve Ritchie; target deadline Thanksgiving; has flipper mechanism issues |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Freeplay Tournament/Event Experience, Game Restoration and Maintenance, Recent Stern Releases (Jurassic Park, Elvira), Classic Gottlieb and Williams Games
- **Secondary:** Travel and Food in Houston/Texas, Newer Spooky Pinball/Ramp Games (TNA, Alice Cooper), Pinball Artist Community, Media Appearances and Press

### Sentiment

**Neutral** (0)

### Signals

- **[competitive_signal]** Eric won multiple tournaments at Freeplay including classics and main event (possibly three tournaments total) (confidence: medium) — Dave: 'He won both tournaments, classics and the regular. He did all three, I guess' with noted uncertainty about the third tournament
- **[product_concern]** Newer Spooky Pinball games have audio design that competes with players wanting to play their own music (confidence: high) — George: 'The problem I have with a lot of the Rampers stuff is that when you want to play your own music, you can't because it competes like a Chinese opera with their music in the game'
- **[product_concern]** Older games use 'unobtainium' parts that are difficult or expensive to source for restoration (confidence: high) — George discussing Atari Superman: 'they're made of unobtainium you can't find the stuff and if you can you're gonna you're gonna pay up'
- **[gameplay_signal]** Jurassic Park praised as strong Stern release; George played multiple copies and considers it a success (confidence: high) — George: 'Stern does have a home run on that game, I got to say' and 'they had four of them there'
- **[restoration_signal]** George using Williams WPC-era flipper bushings to repair worn-out drop target assemblies on older games (confidence: high) — George: 'WPC to the rescue. They did the flippers for me. That worked out great. And now I took the flipper bushings, the little bronze bushings that go in the flipper plunger link assembly. And I used those and tucked those into where it was rounded out'
- **[content_signal]** George has two upcoming TV appearances: NBC Boston (first week of December) and Chronicle Boston (mid-December, rescheduled from early December) (confidence: high) — George confirms both interviews with updated Chronicle date: 'He pushed it back to mid-December. It was going to be first week of December'
- **[community_signal]** George interacted with Scott Denisey (TNA artist) and Dirty Donnie at Freeplay; Freeplay is hub for designer/artist connections (confidence: high) — George met and spoke with both artists at event; 'he was taking videos. He had a really cool rig hooked up to his iPhone'
- **[operational_signal]** George's restoration business queue is full but clearing; recently took new orders and managing timeline expectations (confidence: high) — George: 'I just took another order just now...My cue is kind of whittling down a little bit. I can actually restore my own stuff'
- **[collector_signal]** George actively trading machines in and out of his lineup; considering Fonzie 8-Ball sale; planning Black Hole acquisition (confidence: high) — George: 'I might be saying bye-bye and not having that game again' (Fonzie 8-Ball) and detailed plans to acquire Black Hole and reconfigure game room
- **[product_strategy]** George curating home game room lineup by replacing older games with both classic iconic machines and restored classics (confidence: high) — George's planned lineup: 'black hole, Flash Gordon, Xenon, Fathom and 8-Ball Deluxe upstairs in my game room. That'd be a nice setup'
- **[historical_signal]** Steve Ritchie's games remain relevant and valued; George using Williams parts to restore Ritchie-designed Superman for him (confidence: high) — George: 'Steve Ritchie went to Williams and I'm using some Williams parts to bring his game back to life so it all works out'
- **[gameplay_signal]** George enjoying newer ramp-heavy games (TNA, Attack from Mars remake) but prefers classics; acknowledges appeal but wouldn't own multiple (confidence: medium) — George: 'They are. I like the Rampers. They're nice places to visit. Wouldn't really want to own too many of them, but they're nice to play'

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## Transcript

 OOKA JAGA OOKA OOKA... I can't stop this feeling Deep inside of me Girl you just don't realize What you do to me Hello everyone and welcome to episode 17 of the Classic Pinball Podcast. My name is George and today I am joined by my co-host Dave. Hello Dave. Hello George. Well Dave, what have you been doing? Building an ark? Yeah, pretty much. Coming down in sheets here. It's pretty rainy and nasty, but that's November for you. I'm guessing you just said buckets because it cut out. Yes, buckets, torrential rain, sheets of rain, that kind of thing. Yeah, we haven't seen rain like this in a while. Did you have a chance to watch any of Freeplay? I did. I watched Eric kick some butt, as usual, and playing Guardians of the Galaxy did really well. He just texted me about two minutes ago saying he won both tournaments, classics and the regular. He did all three, I guess. What was the third one? There was classics, the main event, which was today. What was the other one? And I think he also won the children's tournament. Do you know what the third one was? No, I don't know. I want to ask you questions about, you said some stuff about your experiences down in Houston, like the Waffle House and some other stuff, some other weird stuff that went on. You said you had some stories about some characters or something, no? No, the Waffle House, I'm surprised that you've never eaten at one. The Waffle House is the Waffle House. It's not anything spectacular. It's just, you know, what you're going to get when you get there. It's like a McDonald's. But it's, you know, the people behind the counter do everything. And the short order cooks have it down to a science. They move like two feet in each direction and can cook an entire meal for five people. It's fun to watch. Do they offer any? There's none around here, so unless you travel to the south, that's the only way you'd experience it. Did they offer any vegetarian selections or any goat milk? Yeah. Yeah. If sausage, bacon, pancakes, and syrup qualify, then yeah. How about some goat milk? No goat milk there? No, no goat milk. No, what's that? Quinoa? Quinoa. No Quinoa. Tastes like sawdust. Yeah, Quinoa, none of that. Quinoa. Right. I'm telling you, George. No. Goat milk is the future. I just had my first thing of goat milk. That is freaking fantastic. Way better than regular cow's milk. It's awesome. But I'll put a plug in again. The taste of Texas. Oh, man. Texas steak, there's nothing like having a steak in Texas. And it's what? Is it five or 20 pounds of steak they give you on a plate? No, no, no, no. Actually, well, you could. I think the biggest steak on the menu was 38 ounces. That's well beyond my pay grade. Although I had a really good cowboy steak. No, and not an inexpensive place to eat either, but terrific. I mean, top-notch service. If you're going out to eat and you want dining, they give you a dining experience. it's not just shove the food on a plate did you go to small salt grass no i did not no i did not i saw that but no i did not and uh what else did you want to ask me about papasitos papasitos papados i love those places when i was there uh chain tried to stay away although i did eat chain mexican unknowingly uh it was very good though again i think it was more of what I would call a higher end, but their whole claim to fame, I forget the name, it was close to the hotel. They bring out this like hibachi box where you cook your own fajitas. So it's got like a live fire in it and you're roasting all the stuff on top. I tend not to like to cook my own food. I go to a restaurant to have somebody else do that for me, but it looked really cool. I really liked Pappasitos when I was down there. I was down in Houston maybe, I don't know, 10 years ago. And when they came out. Yeah they there and Papa Doze is there There some you don have enough time Dan You got so much going on That why I went a day earlier I kind of prowled around a little bit But it just goes by. If you haven't had table-side guac made for you at the table, that is something special. That's my first experience with it. It's like, wow, what have I been missing? Table-side guac. They offered it at the restaurant I went to. We did not have it. It's the best. the plates of food though they brought out i could barely finish what they brought me so that would have just added insult to injury but it was uh it was i'm definitely going to go again you haven't asked me about the nightlife thing that was the nightlife thing okay tell me was it uh like it was like cambridge like cambridge on halloween or different oh the cosplay yeah i have this video i have this video i dare not i don't think i should release it the 8-bit thing but i don't it was like a panda bear and people were doing really weird things to the panda bear with the lightsabers it was just strange and he just throws a great rock and roll party uh there's plenty to do it was just fun people getting loaded i mean atari matt was swigging uh was swigging tequila like there was no tomorrow yeah that'll hurt if you're gonna go to a show and you want to be entertained that is the show to go to it's very unique that sounds great i need to hit that show i definitely i need to hit i haven't hit a show of from far away from here. I haven't gone on a plane for a while and I need to. I've loosened up on my plane riding. I'm going to get out more. I've been shut here in New Hampshire for a little too long. I have to get out and experience the world. But you want to talk about real estate prices. Man. Yeah, meaning good value or way too expensive? Let's put it this way. A brand new, again, it's on a lot, so you don't have a lot of real estate, but a brand new home, 2,500 square feet, I found outside of Houston. It's not in Houston proper. $230,000. Wow. How much do you get for a home? Like 25? Four bedrooms. Wow. Right. And a garage. And a garage. No, that's a big thing out there. Your car gets fried in the sun if you don't have a garage. Wow. Well, I'm glad my house is almost paid for so I can sell my place for a good chunk of change, a little bit of extra savings, and we can move somewhere nice like that. I couldn't take the heat. It was beautiful the day we left, but the way everybody talked about Texas in the summer, no thank you. Too humid? Just too everything. Hot, humid, hell. Hell. Anyway, any other things you would like to talk about? Any other things? Let's see. any other thing I should ask you about your trip there what about your any other funky things that went on any other cool stories from that show I don't know about cool stories I have I did play with Janice Janice actually obliged me and played this game called head to head two connected pinballs by who is it P-Rock or P3 the company that makes boards, whoever they are. The game was called Head to Head. And think of six lanes, all lit, either red or green. And it's like a knockout. You're trying to turn everything green to red. And if you do that, you shut the other guy's game off and you continue to play and score. And it's a timed game. It's 90 seconds. Janice beat me on the first game I took her to task on the next two games but we had a lot of fun playing it would I own it? No a lot of fun to play though in an arcade setting like that played TNA for the first time I liked that a lot I'm starting to go to the dark side you are George you're getting some bad influences I think well you're not there I'm playing all this new stuff like the remake for Attack from Mars. That's a fun game. I understand why Mike bought the original. That's a fun game to play. They are. I like the Rampers. They're nice places to visit. Wouldn't really want to own too many of them, but they're nice to play. The problem I have with a lot of the Rampers stuff is that when you want to play your own music, you can't because it competes like a Chinese opera with their music in the game. and forget hearing anything I mean I played Alice Cooper That game was fun I think it would have been a lot more fun if it was you know if I was in a room by myself with it playing it, it would probably be a lot more fun. TNA, again, I liked. I haven't even talked about this, and I'm saving it for the end to see if anybody even makes it this far. Elvira and Jurassic Park. Elvira, fun, too much money. Jurassic Park, they got a home run here. That game's, that, gotta say, Dave, I don't know if you have any customers with you. I have not had the chance. I have not played that game yet. Well, they had four of them there, and I took advantage of it, thank God, on Friday before the tournament, because that was the first game I played against the little kids. So at least I had a leg up and I had played the game before. But Stern does have a home run on that game, I got to say. And in the last show that we did together, remember us talking about Johnny Crap? No, Johnny Crap. Oh, the crapper. Yes, Johnny Crap, the crapper. No, no, we were talking about Johnny Crap, the artist. And I said that he had done Star Wars. No, he didn't do Star Wars. He did Jurassic Park. Jonathan Bergeron. He's full of S. I don't know. That's not even his name. It's like Jonathan Bergdorf or something. He wants to sit at the cool kids table. Let's call him Jonathan Bergeron. Actually, I met Dirty Donnie. He was there, the other artist, in that video with the bear. He was in the video. He was taking videos. He had a really cool rig hooked up to his iPhone. you know, that kind of balanced and panned and did all kinds of weird things. He said, go out on Amazon. It's a really cool thing. And it's not expensive. I'm like, okay, okay, Dirty Donnie. And I met, and I met, what's his name? The guy, Scott Denisey, who did TNA. And he's standing right next to me when we're watching Keith. And I turned to him and I said, I am such a jerk. hey, you're Scott Dinizy. I did it on purpose. He goes, yes, I am. Deadpan. I'm like, that must happen a lot to you guys. More than you can count. So I'm not the only turd out there. There are others. Oh, and there's another thing. There is a poop emoji Christmas hat. Well, thank God for that. I could say I like you not, but yes, there is a poop emoji christmas thank god for that we do need that in this day and age a poop emoji christmas hat because what would we do without that you know i know i need one well hey you never know what santa's gonna bring you a pile of poop no never mind okay i have one question for you when when are we gonna see you on tv you were gonna see i just talked to raman the producer of chronicle and he said he pushed back the interview to probably mid-December because some of the – I'm sorry, one more time. He pushed it back to mid-December. It was going to be first week of December. Now it's going to be mid-December. He will let me know the exact date in the coming weeks, but I don't really know the exact date yet. But it's going to be mid-December, before Christmas. Let's say that. It's going to be before Christmas. Not sure exactly when, but before then – Well, I say I should get I get an NBC, Boston NBC interview coming up soon, too. We're actually going to be interviewed for that soon. I should say I'm not sure when that one's going to come out. But what are you what are you filming? I'm filming what I do. They're going to come over and and see, see what I do, how I do do some repairs on. No, no. But have they set a date? They set a date. Yes, a date. You don't have to tell me that. You don't have to tell me the date. Oh, yeah, yeah. No, the date's going to be in first week of December is shoot date. Yeah, first week. Good. So these things will be going back to back. I'm sure the Chronicle thing will come out and then this other thing will come out. Can only be good things. Oh, yeah. And I just took another order just now. I have someone wants me to restore one of my games in my queue full up for decent money. I'm going to be doing that. Another person just called me up and wants me to take Another one of mine is a cue. So it's good. My cue is kind of whittling down a little bit. I can actually restore my own stuff and get it out of here and restore it up and make some more. So that's all good. Okay. Let me see if there's anything else that I forgot. I got my notes here. I think that covers almost everything. I might be saying goodbye to an old friend, my Fonzie 8-ball. My only Fonzie 8-ball that's left. I just got a guy today who I think might want it. And I might be saying bye-bye and not having that game again. Any bites on Kiss? Kiss? No. No one is grabbing the Kiss right now. No. After I did that whole damn commercial. I know. I know. No. Not yet. That's all right. I don mind having it for a while longer Whatever No rush That okay I haven put any of this on my website Nothing on my website for sale I haven done any marketing It all just under the wire, whatever. Under the cover of night marketing. Whatever. I'm plenty busy. You've had it this long. Another month or two. I'm going to change my lineup a little bit. I'm actually thinking of I just worked on a haunted house the other day. Boy, that's a big challenge working on any System 80 Gottlieb. You'll have to probably get a pass couple. Say it one more time. Haunted house. System 80. System 80 Gottlieb. Haunted house. Right. No, I remember Tony Zizek, however you say his name, when he was telling me he hand-painted all those little checkerboards on a blown out one he had wow maureen to the rescue no this one actually is in nice shape i mean it's it's uh it was at a customer's house i worked over there for about five hours and worked on the board the board was like pretty trash because it had tons of battery damage on it uh battery leakage and uh it worked for a while after i repaired it but then it failed again say all right we're gonna have to like replace all the stuff with pascal so I'm going to go back again and do that. Now another game came up, A Black Hole, which I've always kind of wanted. It's the most complex game that Gottlieb ever made. It would kind of go nicely with the most complex game that Williams ever made. I believe it's Williams. Maybe it's Bally. It's hard to find which one made what, but Twilight Zone. Bally or Williams, one of those two. That's the most complex game they ever made. WPC. and I have a chance to buy a really nice one, a black hole, and I'm thinking of putting that in my lineup, taking down Paragon, putting up black hole in its place, and swapping out pinball pool that I have up here and loaning it to my friend Paul and getting the Flash Gordon I restored for him, because he hasn't been set up right now, bring it back over here in my lineup. So my lineup will be black hole, Flash Gordon, Xenon, Fathom and 8-Ball Deluxe upstairs in my game room. That'd be a nice setup. So John came over the other day? Yeah, John came over the other day. I wanted to do some playtests on Superman, so he played pretty well. Played nice. Just needed a little bit of tweaking and looked at the different stuff on it and that kind of thing. He saw the original flipper mechs that were in the game. He goes, wow, these were garbage. I go, yeah, they were. Just a bad setup from Atari. The way they did the flippers on them. well at least you have at least you have a solution i mean oh yeah that's that's a good thing i i just you know the the bad thing with you know games like that is if you can't find another solution or you can't like you said parts are well here speaking of that here's i had we were looking at the uh the drop target assembly and it's like wow it's all loose and rounded out the flipper the plate that raises the targets is rounded out it sometimes works sometimes didn't and it must have been i could tell by the playfield was worn into the wood and maureen did her magic on it and just made a beautiful playfield that looks new all stock now versus what it was and and uh but the the mechs underneath were all worn out so you know they're made of unobtainium you can't find the stuff and if you can you're gonna you're gonna pay up and so i was trying to think how can i make how can i rebuild this this flipper plate is not i mean a drop target plate assembly and make it so that it's tight again and make it work right and you know again WPC to the rescue. They did the flippers for me. That worked out great. And now I took the flipper bushings, the little bronze bushings that go in the flipper plunger link assembly. And I used those and tucked those into where it was rounded out. I drilled a little bit, put them in there. Now it's nice and tight again. I added new life to it. So now it's all tight. Thanks to Williams again with their flipper parts. They're coming in really handy. Steve Ritchie went to Williams and I'm using some Williams parts to bring his game back to life so it all works out I really want to get this game to him by Thanksgiving that's my plan I'm in the 11th hour here trying to get it done for him I want to wish everybody a happy Thanksgiving take a couple of minutes to be thankful for your friends and family everybody have a great great Thanksgiving. Enjoy it. Stay out of the political realm and be good and be well. The Thanksgiving, you know, it's time to be thankful. As I always say, have a blessed day and be grateful. And also with Thanksgiving, be thankful for what you have and everything be thankful. Bright lights, using this hot tonight

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 08ebdcc5-1d77-466e-b7eb-ebf131ce136b*