# Episode 6 – Winging It In Buffalo

**Source:** Slam Tilt Podcast  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2016-08-18  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.slamtiltpodcast.com/2016/08/18/episode-6-winging-it-in-buffalo/

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## Analysis

Slam Tilt Podcast Episode 6 covers Stern Pinball's 30th anniversary party at Pinball Expo (featuring guests Ed Robertson, Ernie Hudson, and Adam West), speculation about new game releases (Batman re-theme and Aerosmith with LCD), vendor concerns about party location changes, pinball machine repair projects (Centaur, Stars, Terminator 3 color DMD LED installation), and coverage of the Buffalo Pinball Summer Open tournament. Hosts discuss games they like/hate and provide tournament format details.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Stern announced a 30th anniversary party at Pinball Expo that will be held at a separate location (not the hotel) with a $30-35 admission and free shuttle — _Ron Hallett and Bruce Nightingale discussing Stern's official Expo announcement_
- [HIGH] The party will feature Ed Robertson of Bare Naked Ladies, a Sword Swallower, and Ernie Hudson of Ghostbusters as musical/entertainment guests — _Bruce Nightingale listing confirmed entertainment guests_
- [HIGH] Adam West will be available for VIP meet-and-greet at the party — _Bruce Nightingale stating Adam West will be signing memorabilia at VIP package_
- [MEDIUM] A Batman re-theme is expected to be released at the Stern party, likely timed with Adam West's appearance — _Bruce Nightingale speculating about Batman release: 'And what would that VE be? A re-themed Batman... A re-theme Batman.' Based on Adam West attendance as inference._
- [MEDIUM] An Aerosmith game with LCD display is expected to be released at the party — _Ron Hallett: 'Yeah, Aerosmith with the LCD. Yes. Yeah.' Bruce responding with expectations of two game releases._
- [MEDIUM] Bruce expects two games to be released at the Stern party (Batman and Aerosmith) — _Bruce Nightingale: 'I definitely think there's going to be two game releases. That's my feeling, and I can't confirm it, but I'm thinking it's going to be two.'_
- [MEDIUM] Stern has had issues with clear coat coming off playfields in sheets on recent machines — _Ron Hallett: 'I see more and more pictures that are scaring the hell out of me. Clear coat just literally coming off in sheets off play fields.'_
- [MEDIUM] Pinball Life's annual party is not happening this year because it got too large and exceeded fire code safety limits — _Bruce discussing past Pinball Life party: 'It was way beyond the point of fire code safety. I can tell you that from some of the pictures I've seen.'_
- [MEDIUM] Moving the Stern party to a separate location will hurt vendors and the overall Expo show because it removes the best vendor night (Friday) — _Ron Hallett as vendor: 'Friday night is like one of the best vendor nights. And now being taken away, it really will hurt the vendors.'_
- [HIGH] The Buffalo Pinball Summer Open tournament had 10 games in the main bank with players' best 5 scores counting for 500 max points — _Tournament format description by hosts detailing main tournament structure_

### Notable Quotes

> "I definitely think there's going to be two game releases. That's my feeling, and I can't confirm it, but I'm thinking it's going to be two."
> — **Bruce Nightingale**, ~13:30
> _Key speculation about double game announcement at Stern 30th anniversary party_

> "And now being taken away, it really will hurt the vendors. I mean, it might hurt the whole show because of having this separate party."
> — **Ron Hallett**, ~8:45
> _Vendor perspective on negative impact of moving Stern party off-site_

> "Clear coat just literally coming off in sheets off play fields. It's very, very disturbing footage."
> — **Ron Hallett**, ~17:00
> _Reports of manufacturing quality issues with recent Stern games_

> "It was way beyond the point of fire code safety. I can tell you that from some of the pictures I've seen of the party."
> — **Bruce Nightingale**, ~9:30
> _Explanation for cancellation of Pinball Life's annual party_

> "The rules are bad. The game is bad. Everything about it is bad. It's like you hit a shot and watch a movie."
> — **Ron Hallett**, ~52:00
> _Critical opinion on Indiana Jones 4 (Stern version) game design_

> "Quicksilver is fucking awesome. It's got some nice shots... you have a diagonal drop target almost in the center of the machine."
> — **Bruce Nightingale**, ~54:30
> _Enthusiastic endorsement of classic Stern game with innovative design feature_

> "I actually think it's probably some kind of code issue, where I'll be playing, and occasionally the score display, the DMD display, will just go blank."
> — **Ron Hallett**, ~38:00
> _Troubleshooting issue with color DMD LED installation on Terminator 3_

> "The thing is, Terminator 3, it has okay DMD animations, but it's nothing like if you look at any of their footage of, say, Metallica... but it is also cheaper than the LCD."
> — **Ron Hallett**, ~46:00
> _Value assessment of color DMD LED upgrade for machines with less impressive animations_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Stern Pinball | company | Major pinball manufacturer announcing 30th anniversary party at Pinball Expo with entertainment guests and rumored game releases |
| Ron Hallett | person | Co-host of Slam Tilt Podcast, pinball machine collector/restorer, former Pinball Expo vendor for 12 years |
| Bruce Nightingale | person | Co-host of Slam Tilt Podcast, pinball game designer/engineer, machine restoration specialist |
| Adam West | person | Actor who will appear at Stern 30th anniversary party for VIP meet-and-greet/signing |
| Ed Robertson | person | Member of Bare Naked Ladies, confirmed entertainment guest at Stern 30th anniversary party |
| Ernie Hudson | person | Actor from Ghostbusters franchise, confirmed entertainment guest at Stern 30th anniversary party |
| Jack Danger | person | Host of Stern's party at Pinball Expo, returning as host for 30th anniversary party |
| Josh Sharp | person | IFPA tournament organizer at Pinball Expo, participant in Buffalo Pinball Summer Open tournament |
| Zach | person | Collaborator with Bruce Nightingale on pinball machine restoration projects, helped with Centaur and Hotdogging repairs |
| Zach Sharp | person | Tournament participant at Buffalo Pinball Summer Open, scored 480 points at one stage of competition |
| Scott | person | Stern collector from former Allentown, has spare plastic pop-upper ring assemblies for trade |
| Pinball Expo | event | Major annual pinball industry trade show and tournament in Chicago where Stern hosts Friday night party |
| Buffalo Pinball Summer Open | event | Tournament held in Chittenango, New York at Pocketeer Billiards with main tournament and classic tournaments |
| Centaur | game | Classic Stern electromechanical pinball machine being restored by Bruce; scheduled to be playable at Western NY League Night |
| Terminator 3 | game | Stern pinball machine where Ron installed a color DMD LED display; has insert panel creating installation constraints |
| Medieval Madness | game | Classic Williams/Bally pinball game mentioned in context (referenced in podcast context) |
| Dragon Fist | game | Late-era classic Stern game praised by Ron; last regular pinball before Orbiter |
| Quicksilver | game | Classic Stern game designed by Joe Joes; featured at Expo, praised for diagonal drop target layout |
| Indiana Jones 4 | game | Stern pinball criticized by Ron for poor rules, excessive movie clips, and waiting time in gameplay |
| Stargate | game | Gottlieb System 3 game criticized by Bruce for overpowered skill shot multiball and repetitive audio |
| Paragon | game | Classic pinball machine brought back to working condition by Bruce for Buffalo tournament |
| Hotdogging | game | Pinball machine with sound board issue; EEPROM was installed upside down and fried |
| Stars | game | Stern machine being restored by Ron with pop-upper rod and ring assembly requiring plastic replacement part |
| AC/DC | game | Stern machine in Ron's collection; has 3D train topper mod and outgassing DMD display issue |
| Dracula | game | Game in Ron's collection with outgassing DMD that goes cloudy and slow to startup |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Stern 30th Anniversary Party at Pinball Expo, Rumors of Batman re-theme game release, Aerosmith game with LCD display expected release, Vendor impact from Stern party location change, Buffalo Pinball Summer Open tournament
- **Secondary:** Clear coat quality issues on recent Stern machines, Pinball machine restoration and repair projects, Color DMD LED display installation and performance

### Sentiment

**Mixed** (0.45) — Positive enthusiasm about upcoming Stern party and new game releases, but concern about quality issues (ghosting/clear coat problems) and vendor impact of logistics changes. Mixed feelings on game design philosophies and classic vs. modern games.

### Signals

- **[announcement]** Stern Pinball announced 30th anniversary party at Pinball Expo will be held at separate off-site location with paid admission ($30-35) and shuttle service, departing from traditional hotel venue (confidence: high) — Ron and Bruce discussing official announcement: 'they announced this year, instead of being at the hotel, it will just be at a separate location with a free shuttle to the location. Unfortunately, the party itself will not be free.'
- **[announcement]** Stern confirmed Ed Robertson (Bare Naked Ladies), Ernie Hudson (Ghostbusters), and Adam West (Family Guy/Batman) as entertainment guests and VIP signing opportunity (confidence: high) — Bruce listing confirmed guests: 'Ed Robertson of Bare Naked Ladies... Ernie Hudson of Ghostbusters fame will be there... And that certain person will be Adam West.'
- **[rumor_hype]** Bruce speculates two games will be released at Stern party, specifically Batman re-theme and Aerosmith with LCD, inferred from guest list and party scale (confidence: medium) — Bruce: 'I definitely think there's going to be two game releases... I definitely think there's going to be a Batman and there's going to be Aerosmith.'
- **[machine_intel]** Speculation that Batman will be re-themed/re-released at Stern 30th anniversary party, timed with Adam West appearance for signing (confidence: medium) — Bruce's inference: 'And what would that VE be? A re-themed Batman... And what a perfect time to bring out your next VE.'
- **[machine_intel]** Aerosmith pinball game with LCD display expected at Stern party, mentioned as likely second game release alongside Batman (confidence: medium) — Bruce: 'Yeah, Aerosmith with the LCD. Yes.' With expectation of double game announcement: 'Double whammy.'
- **[product_concern]** Multiple reports of clear coat coming off Stern playfields in sheets, causing significant community concern; issue remains unaddressed by Stern (confidence: high) — Ron: 'I see more and more pictures that are scaring the hell out of me. Clear coat just literally coming off in sheets off play fields. It's very, very disturbing footage.'
- **[venue_signal]** Moving Stern party off-site to separate paid venue during Expo is expected to negatively impact vendor sales during prime vendor night (Friday) (confidence: high) — Ron as former vendor: 'Friday night is like one of the best vendor nights. And now being taken away, it really will hurt the vendors... only have one good vendor night, which would be Thursday.'
- **[community_signal]** Pinball Life's annual Expo party is cancelled this year due to previous event exceeding fire code safety limits and overcrowding (confidence: medium) — Bruce: 'It was way beyond the point of fire code safety. I can tell you that from some of the pictures I've seen of the party.'
- **[technology_signal]** Color DMD LED display upgrade for White Star pinball machines provides alternative to LCD; installation generally straightforward but documentation could be clearer (confidence: high) — Ron's detailed installation experience: 'Ease of installation... I'd say 3 or 4... It takes some time because you've got to undo all the connectors... It was easy.'
- **[product_concern]** Color DMD LED upgrade instructions lack clarity on bracket transfer from old display and grounding procedures; community has noted similar issues on Pinside (confidence: high) — Ron: 'it doesn't really show it in any of the pictures... they have chimed in and said that, because somebody had the same question. Like, the holes don't line up.'
- **[code_update]** Color DMD LED has code versions with improvements; recommendation to use specific version due to previous DMD display issues in earlier revisions (confidence: medium) — Ron: 'I know I have the latest and greatest code... there were newer ones that were recommended to put on there, because I think there were some DMD issues originally with it.'
- **[event_signal]** Buffalo Pinball Summer Open used pump-and-dump format with main 10-game bank (best 5 count) and two separate classic tournaments with 6 games each (best 4 count); finals on Sunday (confidence: high) — Detailed tournament format description: 'main tournament... ten games was it in the main bank... your best five counted... two classic tournaments... each featuring... six games... best four.'

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## Transcript

 Nurse, the test tubes holding our entire stock of sperm have been destroyed. I need new specimens right away. Well, their test should be finished in a few hours, Doctor. There's no time for that! I've got clients with me right now! I want your sperm! There's more where that came from. Where's your container? I was supposed to use a container? Coming to you from beautiful upstate New York, this is the Slam Tilt Podcast, the show about all things pinball. I'm Ron Hallett here with my co-host, Bruce Nightingale. Yeah, hello. And welcome to Episode 6, Revenge of the Sith. Yes, yes it is. We're running out of Star Wars movies. We've got one more. Well, actually, what's the eighth one? Well, they don't have an official name yet. Oh, they have no official title? No, but we do have Rogue One. Rogue One, okay. What's Rogue One again? It's actually how they got the plans for the original Death Star. Oh, yeah, okay, you told me this. So, all right, all right. We have that. and then we'll have, I already know what I want to go next. So you'll have to tune in and stay tuned. Tune in, stay tuned. Same bat time, same bat channel. But yes. Speaking of that, I know we said we didn't have any news, but that is one news item. And you actually brought up what you think one of the games is because of who one of the guests is, which I didn't even catch on to, but you're probably right. Yeah, it's going to be Batman. They're going to re-theme Batman. We'll give some background. Stern announced this past week they're going to have a, I guess you'd call it a 30th anniversary party. Yes. At Expo. Well, not at Expo. See that? For those who've never attended Pinball Expo in Chicago, typically every year they'll be like, it's like Friday night with Stern Pinball. and they'll have like just in one of the, they're not called conference rooms. What are they called? Whatever. One of the rooms. They're not conference rooms. They're called like, not a suite, but they're like a convention center. They're like part of the convention center. Yeah. In one of the rooms, they will have a, just Friday evening, Western Pinball. And they'll have, usually they have an IFPA tournament that's usually run by Josh Sharpe. and then they'll have, like last year they had a DJ, then they had, I think, hosted by Jack Danger last year. And this one, too, this year. Yeah, they usually have free beer. Unfortunately, it looks like that's not happening for this party. And then they'll usually, whatever the newest game is out, like last year they had, it was Game of Thrones, the premium, or the LE. It might have been the LE. It was the LE. Yeah, it was one of the first appearances of it. So first chance to see the upper play field in action. So they announced this year, instead of being at the hotel, it will just be at a separate location with a free shuttle to the location. Unfortunately, the party itself will not be free. No, it's $35 or $30 if you pre-buy. Pre-buy. Well, I think it was $30, and I think they've already upped it to $35. Like they filled up the 30 spots, something like that? I think they only gave it three days, and then that was two or three days, and then bang. Yeah. What really irks me – Oh, grind your gears? Grind my gears again is as being a vendor, I used to vend at Expo for 12 years until my father got a little ill, so it's a little harder for me to go out that far. But Friday night is like one of the best vendor nights. And now being taken away, it really will hurt the vendors. I mean, it might hurt the whole show because of having this separate party. And I don't mind if it's during the day. It even hurts a little bit with Pinball Life's party. Which they're not having this year. We haven't heard anything yet. No, it was – people I consider in the know pretty much have said, no, it's not happening this year. Yeah, it got a little too big. It actually got really big. Well, it was way beyond the point of fire code safety. I can tell you that from some of the pictures I've seen of the party. And it was really crowded one of the first years they had when I went there. It just got even more crowded. I actually went to one that was at his house. So what does that tell you? And they would usually have that on Friday, if I remember. It would be Friday during the day. It would be during the day when the vendor hall was closed. Exactly. But now with the vendor hall open and possibly 150 people who might be purchasing something at this, you really only have one good vendor night, which would be Thursday. Because Saturday night, guess what? You have the freaking banquet. Saturday you have the hall, but there's only one good night now. And I think it's going to hurt the show and the vendors. And I hope it doesn't because, you know, vendors go out there and try to make the show as good as they can. So if you are going to the show and you are going to go do the Stern thing, please buy your stuff on Thursday. Tell them why you're buying it Thursday. Maybe, you know, just show some support to the vendors. Vendors are very important to shows. We love our vendors. Yes, and don't forget, bring a game. Very big and important to bring games. I just brought three games to a show this week. A show this weekend. What show would that be, Bruce? Oh, that's the Buffalo Pinball. But we're going to talk about the Little Littles. We'll talk about that. Stay on target. Stay on target. But the Stern Party, it will be hosted by Jack Danger again. Yes, it will. It's basically the same. It seems like the same party, except they're going to have some musical guests. They're going to have Ed Ed Robertson of Bare Naked Ladies. So if you want to make that. Sword Swallower. I saw that. What was that? I think there was a Sword Swallower there also. Oh, yes. The Sword Swallower. Oh, my. They're going to have Ernie Hudson of Ghostbusters fame will be there. But interestingly. What's the pre-person? Yeah, there is the VIP package where you can meet a certain person. And that certain person will be Adam West. If he doesn't die before then. Oh, wow. Come on. What would Family Guy be without Mayor West? Come on. I agree. I agree. I actually would rather have him sign my Family Guy memorabilia than a Batman memorabilia. I'm Batman. I'm Batman. But he's actually going to be the signing of the stuff. So I said to Ron, and I've heard from other people saying it, hey, what a perfect time to bring out your next VE. And what would that VE be? A re-themed Batman. They say it's the biggest party they're going to have. So they're going to release their next game, which I think I know what it is, and I've had hints and everything like that for Aerosmith. Yeah, Aerosmith with the LCD. Yes. Yeah. But what a great thing is, like, here, first thing, look, we're bringing out a new VE, Batman. Oh, wow. Oh, wow. Oh, by the way, in the next two hours, we're going to show you something else. And then double whammo. Double. That would be very impressive. Big bucks, no whammies, stop. Stop. Yes. Hammer Time. Hammer Time. Oh, God. Speaking of dated references. But, yes, so I think there's going to be two game releases. That's my feeling, and I can't confirm it, but I'm thinking it's going to be two. I think they're going to do a double whammy. It's going to be a great double whammy if it all works out. And you're going to see, you know, maybe even a premium there. You hope. You can only hope. You can only hope. But, yeah, I definitely think there's going to be a Batman and there's going to be Aerosmith. And still nothing from Stern, at least nothing officially from Stern, about the whole ghosting issues that we discussed in the last show. And other people have also on another podcast. Yes, and I see more and more pictures that are scaring the hell out of me. Clear coat just literally coming off in sheets off playfields. It's very, very disturbing footage. Yeah, but we'll see what happens. We'll see what happens in the next couple of weeks. So interesting. Yes, that was our news, our little news. We only had a little bit this week. Yeah, not much happened as far as news items. So what are you still working on, Bruce? Oh, me? What's in the shop? Centaur. We're back on Centaur. Zach came over actually tonight. Another Zach reference. Another Zach reference. We offered to have him on the show, but he declined. Zach is very shy. He doesn't want to talk to anybody. But he does like to help out. He loves to work on pinball machines. So we now have all light sockets working on Centaur. We have all flippers now working on Centaur. We have adjusted all the switches. We found one little thing that's bothering me with one of the screw holes I drilled and made because that's where they punched it down on the CPR. It's a little off, a little tight, but hopefully I can work with it and bang it around and tweak it a little bit. Other than that, I think we're going to have a fully working centaur for a league night for Western New York League Night next Saturday at my house. Excellent. With 30 people showing in the league, so they'll get the first chance to play centaur. Centaur. Well, let's see. Anything else? House Freedom Firewood is it Firewood yet or is it still Freedom actually I barely worked on anything else except for bringing back Paragon from what we're going to be talking about in a few minutes the show I brought three games out as we've told you in the past Paragon is back in all back together and running like a champ running like a champ well let's see in my shop I don't really have a shop oh one more thing one more thing The sound board, we're trying to get an EEPROM for the sound board to get the sound working on hotdogging, but unfortunately, Zach put the EEPROM in upside down, and we blew the EEPROM. It's still a fried hotdog. It's still a fried hotdog when it comes to sound. The game works great. So in my – And then we'll go over the other repair stuff from when we talked about pinball. Yes. So in my shop, I'm still working on the stars, and of course. My stars. Yeah, it's not your stars. And, you know, you get close to the finish line, and it just, then it fails. It's just like, you know, I try to get out, but they keep pulling me back in. Basically, I had everything tore off the top of the play field, and I actually had the play field up, and I noticed on the bottom of the cabinet, I see a sheared off screw with a nut on it. I'm like, hmm. And just looking at it, I kind of guessed where it was probably from, and I was correct. And it was from the pop-upper. The rod and ring assembly, basically, it goes through a metal yoke and a fiber yoke. And where it screws in, it just sheared right off on one side. Like they do. Like they do. So, and of course, this is not a part that's available, once again. So I have had to work to procure something. I've actually – I could use – They don't make stern rings? No. They're not the same as ballys? No. I don't believe so. Oh, epic fail. And it's – well, you tell me, are ballys like a two-piece type system? No. Because it's not – the rod and rings are separate. Oh, my God. Yeah, yeah. I had to look at my sea witch then. Well, your sea witch has plastic ones probably. It may or may not have plastic. I don't think it does. Okay, because my nine ball and the Stargazer both have the plastic ones, which I have been told that they basically never break, which is kind of funny. You have the metal ones that break, but the plastic ones that never break. So I'm kind of working out a trade for one of my spare plastic ones with a fellow sternite who you know of former Allentown fame, who has a lot of sterns formerly from Allentown. You know who I'm talking about. I think we mentioned it before. His first name is Scott. I won't say his last name. But he basically just removes all the metal ones from his games and replaces them with the plastic ones. So we're doing a trade because I kind of want to keep it original and whatever. So that's coming. So that's going to be delayed again, getting that done. Is the LED in? Oh, yes, yes. I totally forgot about that. So, yeah, I got the color DMD LED display and put it into my Terminator 3. The installation instructions, they may want to work on those a little bit more. As in? Well, number one, there's something to be said for something printed. But no one does that. It just says, go to the site for instructions. Sorry. Sorry. I actually print mine. Yeah, and I had issues with that. Like when they were making mountains for Getaway, the Getaway Mountain, and I had actually printed out the instructions. And a good thing I did because like three years later when I went to install it, I went to the site and it was no longer there. It no longer existed. Lovely. So in the instructions, they're fairly thorough instructions, but I thought some of it wasn't entirely clear about where it says, you know, remove the old one. It's not explicitly clear enough, I think, to say, like, remove the brackets from the old one and put them on the new one. Because it doesn't really show it in any of the pictures. Okay, okay. And the way it says to ground it is extremely – with the brackets on, there's an extremely difficult way, which would be to try to put the grounding strap on before you put the brackets on. And then there's an easier way that you can actually put them on, like, through the bracket and still ground it properly on the actual display. But I got it in. Okay, now I have a question. I'm going to go a little higher tech in this. Ooh, higher tech. So they're still using on a White Star board. This is actually White Star. Yep. They use a board since almost Guns N' Roses, even earlier. They call it a DMD graphics board. Yes, yes. They're still using that? Yes. For those at home, the White Star units actually had an entirely different CPU and a different board just for the display graphics. Yes. It wasn't run off of the regular CPU board. And that is the same. Basically, you take that board off of the old – because the old DMD display is like on a – it's like a metal plate, and it's like screwed to it with standoffs. You actually remove the board, and you put it – they give you like plastic standoffs, and you put it on the new display. Oh, I can see a lot of problems with that. No, it is mounted the same as the old one. It's just plastic standoffs, and it's a much smaller – the whole package is smaller than the original DMD. It's very, very easy to get in there. Hey, hey, hey, don't be talking about my small package. Oh, your small package. Yeah, it's very – the size of it, it's very easy. I could see this would be a great solution for the hard-to-install – the ones where you don't have room. Like in Terminator 3, it actually has an insert panel. It has like the RPG. You would not be able to put a regular color DMD LCD and fit it in, unless you did some major modifications to the insert port. So I installed it, and my initial impressions are, well, I had to adjust. I was unaware that it just came like with no code on it, because when you order it, you order it, you know, for a specific game, but you still have to put the software on it. So I did that. And I had to lower the brightness a little bit. It was a little too bright for me. It has a brightness level of like five. I put it down to like three. I found that a little better for my eyes. The colors look good. I mean, it's definitely dots. So if you're used to the colored AMD LCDs where you can, you know, upscale them and make them smooth, none of that's there. This is going to look like dots. Yes, I love it. You love dots. I do. That's what they are. The smoothing, it's not what it should be. I'm sorry. You're going to get the feel for this from day one for me. I'm an incandescent boy. I don't like LEDs. I like my machines being mostly stopped. Get off of my lawn, you little bastard. Back in my day games were simple No not that I just saying you know when you look at Indiana Jones you see dots You look at other games you see dots So when I see color DMD all my color DMDs still are dots I don't have them on smoothing at all because I like it still to look the same way. You like your dots. I do like my dots. Oh, we got a new one. Inspect your hole and like your dots. Yes. Remember that. Okay. Or can I inspect your dots? So I've been, you know, played a bunch of games on it. Just give it a test run. And really, I've only seen one issue, and I'm kind of researching it. If I can figure out exactly what's causing it, I will contact the color DMD guys, because I actually think it's probably some kind of code issue, where I'll be playing, and occasionally the score display, the DMD display, will just go blank. And at first I thought it was like a loose connection. I didn't put something together right. But then I notice it only goes blank during specific times. Okay, now I have a question for you. I just thought of it. Okay. Are you using the newest code or the code they're recommending? Oh, is it the code they're recommending, not the newest code? I don't know. I don't know. But that's what you got to check because it could be the programmer had a newer or older code possibly. I'll have to check that. I'll have to check that. I just thought of it two seconds ago when you said it. Yeah, because what I'm having an issue with is specifically when it goes into the pop-up area. And not every time, but in certain situations when it goes into the pop-up area, the display will just be blank. It doesn't show anything. And when it comes out of the pop-up area and starts hitting other things, then it comes back on again. So I'm thinking there's something not – there's a display animation that's not in there. And when you mentioned the code, I know one of the things they added in later revisions was the power surge stuff. But I did see it say Power Surge on the display at one point, so I don't know. But I will check that. I know I have the latest and greatest code and DMD, the display board code, because there was newer ones that were recommended to put on there, because I think there were some DMD issues originally with it. Okay, so ease of installation. For me, it was pretty easy. Okay, but I mean for anyone out there. Except without the, like I said, if they made it a little clearer that, you know, please, and I noticed on some of the Pinside posts, they have chimed in and said that, because somebody had the same question. Like, the holes don't line up. And they were like, you have to take the brackets off of the original one and move them to the new, but it doesn't say that specifically. And just like a picture, like on their site, would actually showing like the brackets off and on the new one would be helpful. So once I got past that part of my brain, I'm like, oh, okay. And I just – it was easy. It was easy to install. It's got plastic standoffs. Number, one through ten. Ten being hard, one being easy. Four. Okay. Three or four. I mean, it wasn't – it'll take like 20 minutes. It takes some time because you've got to undo all the connectors, take the thing out. The biggest pain is running – it runs – and I don't know if the color DMD LCDs do this. I don't remember having to do this with the one I – the other one. I have one in my Star Trek. Not next gen, but the regular Star Trek. I have their Sigma display in there just because I wanted the blue color. And I figure in the future they'll almost certainly have a Star Trek. God, they better. They better. So I don't remember doing this, but on the color DMD LED, they have the long cord that goes to the 12-volt supply in the front of the game, which I'll give them props. They do it with a, like, they have a Y connector. So in case you have another mod, you know, like all the 30 zillion mods that connect to that 12-volt supply in the front, you can use their Y connector to put this into it so you don't have to. I have a question. Yes. What's a mod? A mod is like all those toppers you got in the background and are lit up. You see, you probably have those run to your 12-vault in the front, unless you forgot that you did that. Okay, now I'm back to my original question. I don't know what these mods we are talking about. What is it? Like, are you anti-mod? Come on. Like, you don't have some mods. Mr. Tron, when you had the Tron, you had the arcade mod thing in there. That's because it's cool. Come on. And I did the lights. Yes, yes, you did the lights. But you could say that was on the LE version, so I was just picking it like an LE. Okay, so hold on. The only mods I can see physically on my game is only one. And that is? On ACDC, I have the 3D train topper. Oh, my God. You need to remove that immediately. Now, hold on, hold on. That's 35 games. one out of 35 is still a very low percentage. Only 35? We've got to get you back to 36, man. Don't even get me started. But you just did! I just did? Okay. No, we're almost done. So ease of use is a four, installation-wise. Value. What do you think of the value for it? The thing is, Terminator 3, it has okay DMD animations, but it's nothing like if you look at any of their footage of, say, Metallica, some of their other games that have really cool-looking dots. T3 doesn't have really cool-looking dots, but it is also cheaper than the LCD. And it's... It depends. Is anything really... Is a display really worth... Well, the question would be, what's a regular DMD worth? Right now, $179. Yeah. So is color worth $200 to you? Yeah. That's what it comes down to. You ask yourself that question. If you answer no, well, then... You're boned. Then you know you don't need one of these. But the good thing is, when I look at it, when I buy an LCD, a DMD color, DMD and that kind of stuff, I look at it and guess what? I have now a spare DMD for any of my other games. Yeah, that's also what I think of. but when I look at my outgassing DMD on my Dracula, it's like, I know I have a replacement when it finally goes. Yep. It's doing the deal where you turn the game on, and it takes a little bit for it to come on. It's cloudy. It actually fits the theme. Yeah, yeah, just like my ACDC play field. Yeah. The cloudy. Yeah, I don't want to go into that. Okay. So before we go on to the Buffalo Open, we're going to do our quick little games you like, games you hate. And I'll start off this time. Wow. Yes. Let's see. Game, games I like. I'm going to try to get more obscure here. And I don't think I, well, he's looking at me here. I don't think I brought this up on a previous one. I hope I didn't. I look bad. You'll know me. I'll remember everything. Dragon Fist. Did I bring that up on a previous one? Never. Never. Dragon Fist. It was the last, sounds like I've said, I'm having deja vu like I've definitely said this, but maybe it was in another subject. but Dragon Fist was I think the first the last regular pinball game that classic old Stern made after Dragon Fist they did Orbiter and then after Orbiter they had the horrifically bad Q which was another bizarre game it was it just has some of these really cool like mini like orbit shots with drop targets so you hit like an orbit and it sweeps the drop simultaneously It's fast as hell, like in typical Stern fashion. It's got Bruce Lee on it, although it's not called Bruce Lee. They put a headband on him, but it's obviously Bruce Lee. And I just always liked that game. That game kicks ass. I played it at a couple shows where guys have brought their nice Sterns in. So games I hate. Another one we brought up. We said it was a turd already, but it's really a turd. And that's IJ4, Indiana Jones. The stern version. It is a turd. Burglar. It is horrifically bad. The rules are bad. The game is bad. Everything about it is bad. It's like you hit a shot and watch a movie. Hit a shot, watch a movie. Everything I hate about games. The waiting this has in droves. It is a turd. Terrible. Terrible. It's like ass. Now your turn. Okay. Game I like. I'm actually going to change it. I just changed it after you just talked about one. It made me go, oh, I forgot about this one. I actually played it at Expo this year. Love it. I'm jealous of Chuck Webster. Just got one. Shout out to Chuck. It is Quicksilver. Quicksilver is fucking awesome. It's a fucking awesome third. Oh, I love that game. So you have, it's got some nice shots. It's designed by the same guy who did Dragon Fist, Joe Joes. But you have a diagonal drop target almost in the center of the machine. What a fucking great idea. Why don't they do this more often? Which you can sweep in one shot, all four targets. Yes. Three great pop bumpers up top. You got a spinner. You got two spinners. and then you've got an out-hole where you can actually increase your score for each sweep or each target you take down. Eject hole. Well, out-hole is the out-hole. No, that's the drain hole. That's the drain hole. Shut your drain hole. Shut your drain hole. It's great. It's a great game. It's a fast game. Trust me, if I could find one, I would give up some of my good stuff for that. Yeah, it has wonderful green artwork. I don't mind the green. I actually like the artwork. With some weird woman with a weird head thing. It's cool. It's very cool. It's very cool. Okay, what do you hate, sir? Shoot the pyramid! Shoot the pyramid! Oh, Stargate. Come on, everyone says that is Gottlieb's best System 3 game. How can you hate that? Because there's one better, of course. And what is that? Big hurt? Nope. Nice camera action. That's the System 3? Yes, it is. It's the first System 3. Oh, good trivia. Yes, first System 3. Great game. That is. Stargate, F you. It's actually worse than Stern's from that era, I mean, the later eras. Automatically, if you make the skill shot on the first ball, hey, what do I get? I get skill shot and multiball. It's not like you get on Starship Troopers where you get the pity third ball one. You can get it right off the bat. And then you get to hear the stupid shoot the pyramid, shoot the pyramid. Shoot the pyramid. Shoot the pyramid. And you get the clunky Gottlieb flippers and the sling kickers. And the only thing good about the rules is, and not many people know about this, is hitting the drop targets in order. So the first drop targets were 5 million. The second drop targets were 10 million. The third Tigers were 20 and then 40 and then I think it's 40. So if you hit them in, you know, first one, second one, third one, fourth one, you're going to rank up some kick-ass points. If you don't, you've got to take them all down to get the restarted again. So that's the only thing good about the game. I'm a big Stargate nut. It just kills me. Terrible game. I wish Williams got that title, and then we would have had a good game. Wow. Well, maybe not because they were making Popeye then, so who knows? Well, obviously you said you like lights, camera, action, so we can't call you a Gottlieb hater. No, I'm not a Gottlieb hater. No, no. That's a great game. You have TX Sector a little later on. I actually like the single-level games too, like Hoops. I think they're great because it's just pure shooting, like an old Bally. Yes, Bally Bruce. Yes, Bally Bruce. But when they started adding ramps and everything like that, and if a company was going to make – What was the last game you were going to make before they went out of business? Oh, the Brooks and Dunn. Yeah, thank you. If you're going to make that damn, damn game, you're destined to fail. Sorry. You are. You don't think that was a good license? Yeah, I do. Yeah, Barbed Wire was probably a better license, and that movie was a bomb. Oh, and the game's terrible, too. So, yeah. But, no, I am not a Gottlieb hater. I like certain ones, just not many. All right. So do we have anything else we want to go into before we go into the main part, the main event, if you will? Well, we did talk about we were going to talk about 2017, the year of Stern or JJP. Yeah, I think we could do that the next episode. Okay, we'll make you wait around. Yeah, make him wait. And I think there'll be enough to fill out the rest of the episode talking about the Buffalo Pinball Summer Open, I think was the full name. I want to get that right. Yes, yes. That took place in Chikatagua, New York. Chikatagua, New York at Pocketeer Billiards. I must bow first. I must stay. Oh, we're going to do this already? Okay. If you remember the previous show, we took the Josh Sharpe Challenge where we were going to say who would finish higher. Yes. So let me get my score sheets up because I actually had to submit to get the scores already since I am the statistician. And while he does that, I'll just do a brief synopsis of the way the tournament, the way it worked was they had their main tournament, which they had is a classic pump and dump, you know, game-based. You could just keep playing the game over and over, try to get the highest score you can. And they had, that went Friday and Saturday qualifying with finals on Sunday. And they had, how many games was it in the main bank? Ten. Ten, of which your best six counted. Five. Or best five, sorry. Your best five counted. So there's – it was – The max points you can get is 500. Yeah, yeah, which I think at one point, Zach Sharp, I think he had 480 I saw at one point. He did. Then they also had two classic tournaments. They had one on Friday and one on Saturday, each featuring, I believe, six games, and it would be your best four. And it went from, that tournament would go from 10, I believe, in the morning, till 6 p.m. And then the finals. So that was the format. So you had two Classics champions and a main champion. And the Classics were also the pump and dump. Which, when you're talking about the Classic games and how short they play, it can get really painful really fast yes it was so uh first day was classic one and uh ron hallett finished in 16th just out of the qualifying yes thanks it's a top 12 thanks to my favorite player uh trent augustine wolverine well actually he was not my favorite player because he took me out because because basically i was just in at the very bottom and i had the high score on sorcerer I think it was like 3.5 million. Yes. And he, to show you the level of talent of some of the better players, he played in the classics earlier and was the number one, the highest qualifier. He was in first place for most of the day. Then at one point he dropped down to second and Steven Bowden was in first. So, and he wasn't even around. I think he left for a while and he came back and saw like, oh, I'm not in first anymore. I want to be first. Because if you're in first, you get to pick all the games in the final. You drive the bus. You drive the bus. The classic, you drive the bus. So I'm sure he was looking at you. What game do I think I can get the best score at and beat this? So he picked Sorcerer and proceeded to get 3.7 million, like right as qualifying was ending, which for those, the math heads out there, I had 100 points for that game. By getting knocked down to second, I now have 90 points. and I lost 10 points in a ton of spaces and ended up missing the playoffs. But you did better than me. Yes, but I blame it. Well, in Bruce's defense, Bruce was scorekeeping, so the amount of time he had to actually qualify was curtailed significantly, and especially on Thursday because we did not even get there until 3 o'clock. I had three hours to try to qualify. And I only had two hours. Yes. So I finished the 27th. 27th. So Ron took day one. Yeah. And a friend of Buffalo Pinball and a friend of myself is Jeff Teolis took first place in the classics. Yes. With Levy, Naaman, another great friend of the show and great player, took second. Steven Bowden rounded up the top three. And that's fun with bonus, Steven Bowden. Don't forget that. Yes. And who was fourth Don forget Mr Fourth Adam Becker Adam Becker So that was the first day of Classics And what were the games for those playing at home What wonderful titles did we have? We had, getting to it right now, Classics 1. We had Sorcerer. Sorcerer. A Ball Deluxe. Centaur 2. Black Knight, Space Shuttle, and what's FC? What's FC? FC. You know, we were just there. You'd think we'd remember these games. Hold on. I've got to go to the... FC was... Fireball Classic. Oh, yes, Fireball Classic. Yes, I played way too many games on that. It was not treating me well at all. So that was Classics 1. Yes, and while people were playing Classic 1, you can also qualify in the main tournament, and that was going very well. And people were going to be qualifying on the next day. So the finals happened at 6 o'clock. Now, the funny thing is, here's where my – I actually volunteered almost 17, 18 hours the whole weekend. You were the scorekeeper for the finals. I was actually tournament director for the Classics and everything, so I made the final rulings on all the Classics, and I made most of the rulings on the main tournament, but with, of course, going first to Nick on very touchy situations. Nick Lane, the tournament director. Yes, the main tournament director. But I was running the bus for the classics, and then when it came to the main tournament, I was the guy in the back of the fire truck doing the big turning wheel, and he had the front. So that's how it worked out for that. But it worked out pretty well. We didn't have many problems. Actually, all three days worked out really well. Yes, they did. Day two. Day two, what did we have in Classic? Let's do the games first. What did we have available? Blackjack. Black Knight again. Future Spa. Nitro Ground Shaker. Paragon. And we brought back Space Shuttle again. Yes. And three of those games were from a certain Bruce Nightingale, the Paragon, the Future Spa, and the Blackjack, which when we got there at 9, 9.30, we had an immediate problem with Blackjack, which really I think basically one of the lights wasn't working in the lanes. Yes, the one in lane, the spades. It has each, each in lane has a card type. So spades, hearts, diamonds, and clubs. And one wasn't working. So I saw it when we set it up and I was like, ah, it's probably a bulb or a bad board. No problem. I got both of those. I'll start on that, you know, Saturday morning. So Saturday morning, get there at nine o'clock, pull the bulb out, test it. Good. Okay. It's got to be the board. Pop the board in. No, no, no, no. We went for the socket next. Oh, that's right. We did do the socket next. We replaced the socket and fail. Fail. And then I think I – Then we put the board in. Yeah. Well, even before we did that, I think we jumpered it. Yes, we jumpered it and it didn't work. No, it did work. Oh, it did work. That's right. It did work. So we knew the socket was good. It's like, okay, it's not a socket problem. So, yes, then we went for the board. And did that work? Nope. Nope. We pulled the pin out of the connector and made a whole new pin and put it in the old connector. Did that work? Fail again. So for those at home, we replaced basically everything you can replace except for one thing. The wire. The wire, yes. So I went in the back and asked Dave Fix. Luckily, Dave Fix had a bunch of harnesses around. I cut out about a good six, five-foot piece of harness, put a connector on it. We pulled the old connector that we just redid, pulled that one off. we put that new connector in and directly ran the wire right to the socket. And what happened? It worked! Yes! Broken wire in a harness. Freaking broken wire. That doesn't happen that often. It's a connector long before it ever was a broken wire. So I'll be getting that back hopefully this weekend and I'll be running a wire along the edge properly make it look proper, but it will be fixed. It's fixed now, actually. It works perfect. So how did you do in Classics 2, Bruce? I suck moose balls. Suck moose balls. My game, Blackjack, well, here's the problem we have with Blackjack. I guess somebody moved it during the middle of the day, and what was happening is if you get the out hole on the right, what would you like to call it, Ron? The saucer. The saucer. When you get the saucer and you're beating the dealer, you get 5,000 points and you get a multiplier. And cool times. And great times. Yes. So what was happening is it got moved and what was happening, it was kicking out, hitting off a rubber and going right back in the saucer. Over and over. Over and over. So after you get the three times and the five times, you then get the special. Well, I don't have the extra ball set up on my games. So what did it do? It gave you 50,000 points each time. At one point, I saw somebody get it nine times in a row. Okay. That explains some of the scores there. It didn't work for me when I played it. Wait a second. I own the game. I played it eight times in the tournament. Guess how many times it did it for me? Big old goose egg zero. Actually, it did do it for me a couple times, but guess what? I wasn't beating the dealer. So it meant nothing. So at the end of that qualifying. How'd you do? I finished. Hold on. I'm getting to the score sheets right now. I was Classics 2. I finished a little better this time, 21st, not in it. But unfortunately, the co-host of mine, Mr. Hallett, qualified, I think, 8th or 9th? 6th. Oh, no, you finished 6th. I thought I qualified sixth. Nope, you were qualified higher. Hold on, let me double check that. Because I had another situation again where I was in a certain place and got knocked down within like the last. Seven. Okay, seven. Yeah, I was fourth, which would mean a bye in the first round. Now, my buddy here took me out of my, when we were playing, he beat my my future spa score what a nice guy he was oh I'm sorry but you know I got well I paid for that because I was I was in fourth which the way they do this is the top 12 make it and the top four get a buy so you always want to get a buy buys are good and I'm like fourth well with like I would say five ten minutes left in qualifying um dj what's his last name dj real dj real who was not in yet he was trying desperately to quality get in he played future spa and he was like right next to me i was on blackjack while he was doing this and he put up 470 i think i had like 450 he beat me by like 20 000 again i had the number one score on future spa so i go from 100 points and lose 10 points down to 90 i dropped from fourth to seventh so that that was kind of upsetting but i made it yes you did and i did get through my first round of playoffs to get into the second round so technically it didn't really matter because i i got where i would have been you did yeah so how did that second round go oh god well Well, the second round, we played the first game. We played Paragon. Yes, and you all suck at it. Yeah, Paragon was not in a good mood at all. I think there was some... Okay, now who set that Paragon up? Some dick. I don't know. The Paragon scores, only one person got over 300,000 in the whole... The whole thing, yes. Actually, no, sorry, two people did. Yeah, and if I remember, in the second round, someone had like 100. Someone had a good score. And then the other ones were like nothing. They were like 40, 40, 30. My memory's bad? Your memory's bad. 51, 900. Okay. 41, 830. 39, 680. 26, 710 in your match. So basically I ended up third where if I hit like one saucer, I'm saying it wrong now, or one target bank, anything, I could have got second. So I already am in pain here. Then we go to Future Spa, which I believe, and just to give some background, in my group you had me, Fred, John Clinton, and Phil Birnbaum. So I'm player three. I think my first play I did nothing. Second ball on future spa, I totally destroy it. There's no other way. I spell future spa twice, got six X. For those who know how to play future spa, it's almost all bonus. So you get future spa once, it's 18,000. You get it twice, it's 36,000 times six. For those at home, that's over 200,000. So at that point, you should only be having one thought in your head, and that is do not tilt under any circumstances. and if you ever play Future Spa, there is a... In the right end lane, there's like this gap that the ball frequently drops into, and you always want to save it when you see it doing that, and I had it in my head, like if the ball goes there, do not try to save it under any circumstances. So suffice it to say, I get a full trap on my right flipper, and at this point, when you spell Future Spa twice, you have 6x. One of the only things to really go for at this point, just hit the spinner. It's like 1,000 a spin. No, you go for the freaking – you go for that target again. Yeah, whatever. So I'm going for the spinner. I hit the left spinner. And I hear behind me, I just hear like, oh, man, oh, man. And I'm thinking, because the other foursome that's in the semifinals, they're playing Black Knight. And I figure, oh, man, some idiot must have tilted on Black Knight. And then I'm hitting my flippers, and the flippers are dead. And I realize, no, I tilted. Yes. And in a typical tournament player fashion, it's like, I did not tilt this game. I did not fucking tilt this game. But that's what we all say. Well, I was really convinced I did not tilt this game. And then Phil, who was in my group, he's there. I saw him do that on someone else. It's been doing that all day. I'm like, okay, okay. And it was a tight tilt. And suffice it to say, guess where I finished on that game? Second. Guess where I would have finished if I got the bonus? First. Yes. Yes. So then we played, what did we play? Nitro Butt Shaker? Yes. I like Nitro Ground Shaker, but this one was... Nasty. This one was nasty Ground Shaker. It was not very nice. Every time you got in the saucer, it would go right down the middle. Yeah. Now, oh, yeah, the left saucer. And it started doing that really badly in the finals to the point where you just did not want to even, you just avoided it. Yes. Actually, you'd have it on your right flipper, and it's like, what do I do? I was running backhand stuff. Yeah, because I didn't really want to try to tap pass. I don't believe that was working. So I think I finished third. Kind of flamed out. Near, near, near, near, near, near, near, near. So at that point, I kind of get to relax. I go over and watch TV in a very comfortable couch they have at Pocketeer, and they got all the guys at the Olympics on. They had some preseason football. Baseball. Yeah. So after like, I don't know, 20 minutes, I hear, run, tie break for fifth place. And I'm like, well, why? Who cares? It's money. It's for the top five get paid. So fifth place was money. Oh, okay. So we played on, what's the space shuttle? Space shuttle. You played Trent. Me, Fred, and Trent Augustine played. And Trent did not have a good game. He's player one. He kind of, it was between me and Fred. Fred had what do you have like 2 million yes he really did I had like 1.5 million and I had the last ball so I had a chance I made like 4 consecutive slap saves and it freaking trained anyway it just was a yeah it was a drain seeking ball there was damn you did everything possible to save that ball it's like yup and it didn't matter so I finished 6th Yes. And then they had the... John Clinton finished first. Yep, they had the finals. DJ Real finished second. Phil Birnbaum finished third. And Adam Becker finished fourth again. Yes. Now, here's the weird thing. When DJ was playing, he tilted. But he tilted a different way. He actually was trying... DJ, if you don't know DJ, he's very rough on the games. but it got me thinking why is this thing tilting so much so afterwards i checked out the tilt bob and it looked okay yes and then and then ron you know pokes his nose over and says hey let's let's let's replicate what happened to me so we we basically i just put all the uh inline drop targets down to get to 6x and just shot the spinner on the left spinner and what did it do it tilted it tilted and i'm like oh okay so after some more research we discovered i believe it was the 4x target yes if the 4x target was down and you hit the left spinner it would tilt yes so we figured it's either either a diode issue in the switch matrix or possibly a cpu board issue PIA issue, I would say. Which at that point, you know, I asked Bruce, like, you got a CPU board? I got one in the car. Want to try it? Sure, let's try it. So it's an all-tech, one of the newer, it's a brand-new CPU board. So you're 99% sure that there's nothing wrong with the CPU board. So we installed it and put all the inline drop targets down and tested the left spinner again, and what happened? Didn't tell. Didn't tell. but now i'm gonna when i get it home it's not home yet so when i get it home i'm actually going to look and see if it any of the other stuff in that switch row and then i'll put the board back in and then i'll try another pia so yeah and we'll be a to be continued yes it will be a to be continued but it was bad luck for ron but it was bad luck but the thing is even in a tournament ruling situation it was the same for everybody yes so i couldn't even say like you know i want a replayed game. It's like, well, the other three players played the game in the same condition you did. There's nothing you can really do. It's just bad luck. I just think it's funny because tournament players are always like, I didn't kill the game. I didn't do it. I said the same thing. For one time, it was actually true. It was time. Ron's now up on me. 2-0. Yes. To go up, yes, 2-0. In the battle. What are we now? It was 25 to 24, so it's now... 27-24. 24. And if you're wondering about the main tournament, about midway through the day, Friday, or no, Saturday, I decided, like, I really want to get in the Classics. If I play in the main and happen to qualify, then I have to come back Sunday. And at that point, you know, it's a five-hour drive. And I knew Bruce. I figured Bruce would be doing stuff there, like either scorekeeping or... I was doing everything. Yeah, he'd be around Sunday a little later, and I probably wouldn't end up getting home until midnight or something. So I figured, what the hell, I'm just going to do classics. We'll leave the main alone. And I drove back Sunday morning and got to watch the finals on Twitch. Yes, you got to see me on Twitch. Yes, that's the first thing I saw. I was like, there's Bruce. He's going to put score. uh but uh so the finals i had that night i played terrible uh after getting finally by the time we got done it was like 10 o'clock after the classic so i had about two hours for i don't qualify i was actually in 58th or 59th place i worked my way up to 35th i needed one good game and i kept on hammering on Walking Dead, and I just couldn't get anything on it. And if I just got 20 points on Walking Dead, I would have been right up in 24, 23rd. But I didn't. I finished 35th. But Mr. Hallett finished 43, so 27, 25. There you go. And the thing is, in all honesty, I mean, you were severely handicapped. How many hours did you volunteer? How many hours were you not able to actually play? 18 hours almost. so there you go and also babysitting the games and I did do well on money intake on the games here a funny fact I had three games that were set up just for Saturday So from 10 o to 6 o and in the finals And they were 50 cents, I believe. 50 cents each. I had over two, sorry, 520 plays on my three games alone. Do the math. Do the math. $260. Jackpot. Jackpot! I split half with the place because it's their location. They used electricity and everything like that and heat and everything like that, AC and that kind of stuff. So we split. It was $130. I brought home. Not bad. But if I need a CPU board, I'm down $70. Oh, and then my entries. I'm really down. But I could have been worse. There was at least one person. I'm not going to say any names. but you can always look it up on the Never Drain site. There was a person who, I think they had well over 105 entries. Yes, which is $105. And this was mostly in the main area where several of the games were at $1. Yes. All of them were at least 50 cents. So even if you do the 50-cent math, you can figure out how much money was spent. They spent over $200 almost. Yeah, $200 to $300. That's a lot of money to try to just to qualify. And if you didn't get in the top 12, you got nothing. Or top 10, you got nothing. Nothing. Nothing. Just like me. Nothing. So we had the finals on Sunday. And the finals went really well, actually, I thought. And there was a cool, like, I saw there was this discussion going on in, like, the tilt forums about like that something happened on avatar with like like that that there's really no specific rule for well there is a way around it i thought about it afterwards well they were talking about that there's nothing specifically written and basically what happened is on avatar and i think this was discovered during the tournament if you hit the link shot which it traps your ball it's like a like captive ball situation and if you shove the game hard enough, you can get the ball to go back and actually register like a hit, like you hit it. And what happened, I think it was Zen, Nick Sendejas, who was playing. He drained the ball. And as his ball's draining and he knows he's done, he just shoved it forward and it registered the link shot, which started multiball, I believe, is what happened. And the question was, is that like, you know, how is that different than like a death save or something like that because the ball was beyond the area, like the outlaying, like it was drained at that point. Yeah, it was. But then people were arguing, how is this any different than like missed multiball where the thing's going across where technically it could be like drained and you shove it and you get it off the magnet and the multiball starts. How is it any different than that? Or Simpsons getting the free points at the end. If you need so little points, you can shove it so the skateboard guy, you know, Bart's Skateboard reacts and gets you, you know, super bumpers, super jets, you know, that kind of stuff, you know. So it is a thing. There is a way around it now. I've already thought of it. And what is that? That would be making it so it kicks out the lock. Oh, yeah. That was one of the ways they mentioned, too, do virtual locks, and then you don't have that problem. You got no problems at all. I just thought that was interesting. But overall, what would you say? I would say that was a rousing success. It was a rousing success. I mean, there were some typical, I mean, some mechanical issues, but over everything stayed up and running. The food trucks were awesome. I liked that. What was the one on? Anderson's. Yeah. I went out there for turkey sandwich. Then I went out there for chocolate shake. Then I went out there for chocolate sundae. So I was liking Anderson's. Yes, Anderson's really good. And then they also had a Polish Villa, which had kielbasa. And they came back Sunday morning, the Polish Villa, Then they had breakfast, and then they had kielbasa again and potato pancakes and pierogies. Anderson's definitely was a hit because of the roast beef and the beef on wick. Really good. Nick, Kevin, great job. Barry and Dave Fix kept them all running. I think there was only a couple of major malfunctions, but most of them worked through. They had Kiss apart for at least an hour because one of the opto-wires broke behind Gene. Well, Gene is always a pain in the ass. He's an asshole, literally. Just always. That's actually one of his solo albums. Asshole. How appropriate. How appropriate. And you would know that being Mr. Kiss. Yes, since I have that album. Oh, God. I do have the album. It's great. Yes, folks. He has the Kiss member solo albums. That's how hardcore he is. Yes, I am. Yes. Very much so. But overall, great show. Actually, not a great show. An excellent show. I would recommend it as a tournament. Yes. I mean, and it finished relatively on time. I mean, as on time as tournaments go. I had to leave at 5 o'clock, so guess what? Yeah, I noticed you were gone, but, I mean, it didn't go to, like, 11 at night or the next morning or anything insane. I like the location. I'd never been there before. I wish there was something like that where I am. I think everyone would love to have that place. But there isn't. That's just the way it goes. I mean, I'd recommend it to anyone. I had a fun time. A splendid time was guaranteed for all. Definitely, I think they're already talking about next year, if they can get the Open again. You know, that's going to be the... But I think it worked out really, really well. Who knows? You probably won't see my games there next year, though, unfortunately, because I want to play. You want to play? I want to kick Ron's ass. Oh, you want to kick Ron's ass? I was thinking if I have another vehicle by then, maybe I'd bring a game. I'd like to see stars destroy people. Oh, God. I'm sick like that. I like bringing the really hard games and just watching them destroy players that are better than me. I just get off on that for some reason. Well, here's the deal. Here's the deal. Okay. If you bring stars, I will bring Sea Witch. Okay. Okay, so we have, if you haven't sold to me by then. So we have a thing. We have a thing. We'll see. And surely we will still be on the air this time next year for episode 100 by then, I'm sure. But let's go over the main people who won in the main tournament. Trent Augustine was our winner. Winning his 3,000th tournament. Yeah. This week. Yeah. Zach Sharp was second. Alberto Santana was third. Great showing by Alberto. And Steven Bowden, friend of the show, fun with bonus, was fourth. with Levy rounding out the top five. Yeah, like Alberto blew up Walking Dead that last game. What did he have, like 400 million, whatever it was? Well, you didn't see actually Tim Sexton. The one thing I wish you guys did see, and they talked about it later on, was Tim Sexton's World Cup Cup. Two billion on that stupid World Cup? Three billion. Three billion on World Cup soccer, which if you played this thing, it had the Titan rubber things on there. But that wasn't really the issue for me. The issue was the goalie. It was one of these goalies, like, it didn't move at all. It would move like an inch either way. It hardly moved. So you would get multiball started. It was a 400-pound goalie. Yeah, yeah. It was the most of the goal. Yes. It did not have full range of motion. So when you get multiball and you started shooting for the goals, all you would hear is just, save! What an incredible save! This guy's a wall! And that got really old. He just could not score a goal. So Tim actually beat Germany the one way through getting all the goals and going through all the competitors in multiball. Then he also got to Germany going through in L.A., going through to left spinner and getting all the tickets to actually go. So he did it both in that same thing. Now, poor Eric Russell and DJ were all just looking there like, holy. And then after he got the multiball done and he beat Germany, he just cranked on the victory laps. And he did, it had to be 20 victory laps. And a victory lap in a World Cup soccer is just hitting the ramp. So all he was doing, he was hitting the ramp. He had one ball stuck on his left flipper. And all he was doing was hitting with his right flipper, left ramp. Came back, came back. He did it 20 times in a row. And it just crushed. So the left ramp, doesn't it divert it like after the second time? No, not in the victory laps. Oh, okay. I did not know that. And I own the game, and I did not know that. He keeps on cranking. I was just laughing my ass off. Of course, you would know that. You've owned, like, what, seven of them or something? Three. Three. At one time. Three at one time. Oh, man. Just, you need help, dude. No, I don't. I don't. I apologize to our listeners for not being quite as silly as usual. I had several comments from people at the tournament that listened to our podcast and liked the silliness. I'll try to up the silliness for our next episode. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes. No one liked Jar Jar, though. Oh, come on. No, nobody liked Jar Jar. But me. Yes, yes, yes. So I talked to Gene, who's from California. He is at Orange Photography. You may have seen his photos in a lot of the shows. You'll see him pop up. You'll see Orange Photography in the corner. And he's from California. And he was there. And I'm like, dude, you came from California? Buffalo Flames started. It's like, yeah, yeah. And I was listening to your guys' podcast on the plane flight. I'm like, really? Damn. No, it's nice. That was very nice. Hi, Gene. Hi, Gene. We're real famous in California and Poland now. So two places. Two places. So now if you come up to us and say, hey, we're going to talk about you. We're going to talk about you. We're whores. We'll just plug you on the show. Yes. Yes, we will. So get ready for slutting out. So just for a preview for our next show, we will be talking about the – because we said this the last episode that we were talking about this, and we kind of lied because we didn't talk about it. But we will be talking about Stern's upcoming – their games for this upcoming year of 2017. I know it's August. Or maybe JJP. Or maybe JJP. Or maybe Highway. Who knows? Maybe. Who knows? Maybe. Who knows? there's one tournament this week in upstate New York my favorite title the pins and needles cloud city not pins and needles this is going to be the characters and pinball and characters pinball and caricatures I love it it is so hard to say oh don't worry the next one is even worse I saw he posted today what his next one is supercalifragilisticexpialidocious no it's even worse well the winner for the next tournament and gets a $20 gift card to a bakery, but not a real bakery, I don't call it. I call it a vegan bakery. A vegan bakery. The way your tone changed. What? Exactly. A vegan bakery, like, what does that even mean? Vegetable bread? Maybe, but we'll find out. Oh, that is weird. Okay. Yes, so we'll talk about that next week, and we'll talk about, as I said, and maybe my surprise we don't know yet the surprise we mentioned the possible surprise we mentioned the next show it's going exactly as I told you it would as badly as thought and delays you'll find out either way what's going on oh man you just killed our viewership with that comment I'm going to have to edit that out Pinsiders you are awesome we love you all Your tools. The blue cell on Pinsider tools. Oh, the views expressed by Bruce Nightingale do not necessarily represent the entire Slam Hotel podcast staff. Okay, wait a sec. Hold on. Three games I've tried to buy in the past month. Yes. With cash. And not little cash, like $500. Almost what they're asking for. And I'm still getting dicked around. Tools. All our tools. Don't listen to him. We love Pinsiders. Yes, we love Facebook. Especially, we love our Facebookers even more, though, because they go to our site. Yes, yes. Somebody's kissing ass here, and I'm not the ass kisser. So, are we done? No, we're not done. We're not done? Are you going to bash more Pinsiders? No, I'm going to pay the bills. You're going to pay the bills. That's what I meant. Are we ready to pay the bills? I think we're ready to pay the bills. Let's pay the bills. Okay, so coming up, where is it? The Rock Fantasy, what's it called? Gridiron. Gridiron Greats. Gridiron Greats. Rock Fantasy. The only way you'll miss it is if you're in jail, and if you are, break out. That's September 11th. I think I'm going to go to that one, actually. It's on a Sunday, isn't it? It is on a Sunday. Yeah, that's the only issue for me. I've got to finagle stuff around. Rock Fantasy Summer Bash is September 17th. Good time by all. Western New York Pinball and Buffalo Pinball are starting up this month. So for me, it's more leagues and Central New York Pinball. Now, if I can just get Ron to come out to Central New York Pinball, because guess what? Guess what? It's on a Friday that they're talking about now. Still, it's like. No, no, and here's what you do. Here's what you do. How often is this league? Once every month. Okay. Here's what you do. You come out to Central New York and you come to my house. You stay at my house and you can leave whenever you want. Yes, yes. See? I'm trying. He's trying, folks, but this is like a three-and-a-half-hour drive to Bruce's house. Once a month to play in a league. I'll go with Zach and I'll drive your car back. I just, ugh. That's an easy one. Oh, I'm just not into the driving thing as much anymore. Come on, you know you want to do it. It's killing me. To be continued. Magic pinball points for Upstate New York, which are going to big-time change after the tournament. Okay. Anything else? Don't forget, www.pinballlifter.com. Buy them, love them, lift them, lift your games in awesomeness and safety. Save your back. They will be at York, which will be when? September 30th, October 1st. And plus, what do you guys want to hear from us? There you go. What do you guys want to hear more of? Are you sick of tournaments? They suck? Well, we're going to talk about what we want to talk about. But we will talk about new stuff if you want us to talk about it. So send your comments or your ideas to either you can go to our Facebook page, Slam Tilt Podcast, or you can send these suggestions and comments and how much you love us and Pinsiders. Or hate us. Or hate me. Yeah, Pinsiders might hate us now. No, they hate me. You can email Bruce how he's a dick for hating you at slamtiltpodcast at gmail.com. That's slamtiltpodcast at gmail.com. Unless you're selling me something, then you're cool. If you actually do sell it to me. And in our YouTube channel, whenever I do get the stars finished, I will eventually have that up there. I'll be putting that on my own YouTube channel also because I kind of got a video series going with the stars. But I figure just since we've been mentioning that on the show so many times, and when Bruce gets the centaur finished, maybe we could put that video up on the Slam Tilt Podcast YouTube channel, see the fruits of our labors. And when freedom is working 100%, we could do the same thing. Yes, centaurs, good. Centaur's good. Centaur's very good. Hold on. Give me two seconds. I'm going to play something really funny. He's going to play something really funny. Yes, I am. So hold on. Hold on. Give me two seconds. Two seconds. I'm doing something off the cuff. He's doing something off the cuff. Should I do voices now? Yeah, go ahead. Do wacky, wacky, and flammable voting. This is Krusty. You're listening to the Slam Tilt Podcast. Where's my money? Here we go. Oh, it won't do it for me because of the freaking... Hold on. Massive fail. Yeah, I kind of hear centaur. Yes, I can't get it because I don't have the balls, and it won't go to the demo mode. You don't have the balls to get it? Well, come on, man. My balls are breaking. I don't have the balls in it, so it won't go into it. No, I'm breaking your balls. That's the way it works. It won't go into the demo mode without the balls in it. Oh. And that's the best mode of all. That's the best mode of all. All right, then. So that was all. I failed. Okay. Well, that was Episode 6, Revenge of the Sith. We'll be returning with Episode 7, The Force Awakens. Is that what that is? Yes, definitely. The horse awakens. Yes, the pinball is awakened. Yes, the pinball is awakening, and the Schwartz will be with you. The Schwartz will be with you. So thank you, everyone, and see you later. Thank you, guys. Have a good night. Night. you

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 1674c557-ee5c-4268-9625-08fa0ca51328*