# #47 Hot Doggin - The Classic Pinball Podcast

**Source:** The Classic Pinball Podcast  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2021-02-16  
**Duration:** 74m 39s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/george272/episodes/47-Hot-Doggin---The-Classic-Pinball-Podcast-eq65ca

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## Analysis

George and Dave discuss Bally's Hot Doggin' (1980), a classic wide-body pinball machine with skiing theme. The conversation covers the game's design features, modifications (including Dave's extreme pitch adjustment using a 2x4), the rarity and condition of pristine examples, and designer Greg Frears' broader body of work. They also discuss Dave's Cape Cod repair route and a Williams Pinball 2000 Star Wars Episode 1 restoration project.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Hot Doggin' was made in 1980 by Bally and designed by Harry Gaten. — _George and Dave, opening discussion of the game_
- [HIGH] Embryon (1981) was the last wide-body machine Bally produced, not Hot Doggin'. — _Dave correcting his previous YouTube statements; George confirms having 1979, 1980, and 1981 wide-bodies_
- [HIGH] Bally referred to wide-bodies as 'supersized terrain' in their sales brochure. — _Dave referencing Bally's original marketing materials_
- [HIGH] Only about 2,000 Hot Doggin' machines were produced, making pristine examples extremely rare. — _George citing Griffin's observation and his own knowledge_
- [HIGH] Greg Frears' notable pinball designs include Fathom, Medieval Madness, Wizard of Oz, and Elvira House of Horrors (2019). — _George discussing Frears' career, mentioning both classic and modern titles_
- [MEDIUM] Williams Pinball 2000 Star Wars Episode 1 was the last breath of Williams before they exited pinball. — _Dave discussing the machine's historical significance; made in 2000_
- [HIGH] Dave has modified his Hot Doggin' by elevating the back legs with a 2x4 to create extreme pitch difficulty. — _Dave's detailed description of creating a 'double black diamond' pitch modification_
- [HIGH] Hot Doggin' machines are commonly roached out (worn/damaged) in commercial locations. — _George and Dave discussing Griffin's observation that all Hot Doggin's he's seen are roached out_

### Notable Quotes

> "I took them to heart and did that. Yeah, sounds like you did. I don't know if my flippers would do that. I'd have to probably take them apart and rebuild them again just to make sure."
> — **George**, ~11:30
> _Humorous exchange about Dave's extreme pitch modification attempt_

> "Maybe their definition of fun and your definition of fun are different, it must be."
> — **George**, ~13:45
> _Joking about the 'fun targets' that often drain the ball between flippers_

> "Go sliding into the saucer. You know, another wintertime reference. It should be. Go sliding right past the saucer. Very interesting game. Go sliding right past the saucer, actually, the way they designed it."
> — **Dave**, ~16:30
> _Humorous critique of the saucer shot's difficulty and the game's design flaw_

> "He unsurps me many fold as far as pinball knowledge. Scott's done a real good job raising a fine young boy from what I could hear."
> — **George**, ~25:15
> _Praising Griffin (age 11) from previous Space Riders episode for exceptional pinball knowledge_

> "I hate it. But hopefully this this gets rid of it and I won't talk about me being old anymore I apologize for saying it again."
> — **Dave**, ~28:00
> _Acknowledging audio volume concerns that have plagued previous episodes; technical issue being addressed_

> "it's a lot it's very beast layer like like on paragon they kind of borrowed from there a little bit with that when they put that there"
> — **Dave**, ~15:00
> _Discussing similarities between Hot Doggin' and Paragon mechanical design_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| George | person | Co-host of The Classic Pinball Podcast; owns multiple pristine Hot Doggin' and Embryon machines; speaks about restoration and SKI modifications |
| Dave | person | Co-host of The Classic Pinball Podcast; pinball technician and restorer; owns modified Hot Doggin' with extreme pitch; does location repair routes |
| Greg Frears | person | Legendary pinball designer known for Fathom, Medieval Madness, Wizard of Oz, and recent Elvira House of Horrors (2019) |
| Harry Gaten | person | Designer of Hot Doggin' (1980); also designed Evel Knievel, Lost Cause, Star Trek, Strikes and Spares, and Fireball 2 |
| Bill Davis | person | Source of new old stock clear-coated playfields for Hot Doggin' restoration; helped both George and friend Jack with playfield swaps |
| Jack | person | Friend of George; original Jersey Jack; owns Hot Doggin' machine whose cabinet was destroyed in Hurricane Sandy; helped restore George's Hot Doggin' |
| Mike | person | Owner of Church of the Silver Ball arcade in Mississauga, Ontario; supplied Hot Doggin' machines to George and Jack from Canada |
| Griffin | person | 11-year-old pinball enthusiast; guest on Space Riders episode; noted for exceptional pinball knowledge; identified flipper kicker on Hot Doggin' |
| Scott | person | Griffin's father; guest on Space Riders episode; discussed Atari game disposal practices |
| Grant King | person | Listener from Australia; sent email praising the podcast and encouraging Dave to pursue mainstream podcast opportunities |
| Bally | company | Manufacturer of Hot Doggin', Paragon, Embryon, and other wide-body machines discussed in episode |
| Williams | company | Manufacturer of Pinball 2000 Star Wars Episode 1; exited pinball business after 2000 |
| Jersey Jack Pinball | company | Modern pinball manufacturer; referenced in context of Wizard of Oz (designed by Greg Frears) |
| Hot Doggin' | game | 1980 Bally wide-body ski-themed pinball machine; subject of main episode discussion; approximately 2,000 produced |
| Embryon | game | 1981 Bally wide-body; last wide-body machine produced by Bally |
| Paragon | game | Bally wide-body; compared to Hot Doggin' for similar mechanical features (bumper, lane structure) |
| Wizard of Oz | game | Jersey Jack Pinball game designed by Greg Frears; mentioned as major title in his career |
| Medieval Madness | game | Bally game designed by Greg Frears; mentioned as significant title |
| Evel Knievel | game | Game designed by Harry Gaten; George has soft spot for this title; played at ice cream shop in his youth |
| Fathom | game | Bally game designed by Greg Frears; his 'big claim to fame' |
| Elvira House of Horrors | game | Game designed by Greg Frears; released 2019; his most recent title mentioned |
| Star Wars Episode 1 | game | Williams Pinball 2000 machine from 2000; discussed in Cape Cod restoration story; dead machine needing repair |
| Addams Family | game | Pinball machine that Dave worked on during Cape Cod trip (last client on Saturday) |
| The Classic Pinball Podcast | organization | Podcast hosted by George and Dave; episode #47 discussed here |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Hot Doggin' design and mechanics, Pinball machine restoration and modification techniques, Bally wide-body era and historical context, Rarity and collector value of Hot Doggin' machines
- **Secondary:** Greg Frears' pinball design career, Pinball repair and technician routes, Skiing theme in pinball design
- **Mentioned:** Podcast production and audio quality

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.82) — Hosts express genuine enthusiasm for Hot Doggin', appreciate the game's design and challenge, and celebrate its rarity. Warm, collegial tone between hosts. Some self-deprecating humor about age/audio quality, but overall affirming and constructive. Community praise for the Space Riders episode adds to positive sentiment.

### Signals

- **[restoration_signal]** Dave describes modifying Hot Doggin' by elevating back legs with a 2x4 to create extreme pitch ('double black diamond' difficulty), making flipper shots nearly impossible and requiring flipper rebuilds (confidence: high) — Dave's detailed description: 'I put a two by four and jacked the legs all the way up in the back so it's real steep... it's like a black double black diamond kind of skiing'
- **[restoration_signal]** Both George and Dave sourced new old stock (NOS) clear-coated playfields for Hot Doggin' restoration; Bill Davis was key supplier; finding pristine NOS parts is rare and valuable (confidence: high) — George: 'My game had the clear play field like yours did from Bill Davis'; Dave describes scoring NOS playfield and back glass ahead of acquiring the machine itself
- **[collector_signal]** Hot Doggin' machines are extremely rare in pristine condition (~2,000 produced); most commercial examples are heavily worn ('roached out'); only 3 known pristine examples mentioned (confidence: high) — George: 'they only made 2,000 of them... I know of three that were pristine. One being mine.'
- **[restoration_signal]** Dave modified Hot Doggin' saucer shot using pin technique learned from Xenon—added pin above saucer to slow ball speed and prevent overshooting; compensates for design flaw where direct shots bypass multiplier drops (confidence: high) — Dave: 'I added a pin right above the saucer... when the ball would go around the inline drops... it would hit this pin, slow its speed down, and it would drop in that saucer'
- **[content_signal]** Space Riders episode (featuring Griffin, age 11, and Scott) received positive community feedback; Grant King (Australia) encouraged mainstream podcast expansion; audience engagement indicates growing reach (confidence: high) — Grant King email: 'I'd love to hear you on more mainstream podcasts'; George: 'Griffin... unsurps me many fold as far as pinball knowledge'; both hosts praise the episode
- **[operational_signal]** Dave manages multi-game repair routes by clustering clients geographically (Connecticut route, Cape Cod route); carries diverse parts inventory for EM and solid-state machines; operates as independent technician/restorer (confidence: high) — Dave: 'I try to group these things in... got a bunch of clients lined up... packed up in all different generations of games... EM stuff, modern stuff, middle of the road stuff'
- **[product_concern]** Hot Doggin' has inherent design flaw: inline drop targets (3x, 4x, 5x multiplier) can be bypassed with direct saucer shots from left flipper or backhand, making them nearly useless for their intended purpose (confidence: high) — George: 'you can get that saucer shot from a direct shot from... your backhand or from the left flipper... So I was thinking, put like a nice one-way gate across there so you can't go in the wrong way'
- **[gameplay_signal]** Hot Doggin' has dangerous outlanes, particularly on the left; George reports warp in playfield contributing to excessive drains; 'fun targets' in front of flippers frequently drain balls between them (confidence: high) — George: 'The left side drain is a lot more dangerous than the right'; Dave: 'the left one is is pretty tough'; both discuss 'fun targets' being 'absolutely no fun'
- **[historical_signal]** Greg Frears discussed as prolific classic Bally designer with mixed track record (major hits like Fathom, Medieval Madness, failures like Hardbody); continued working into modern era (Wizard of Oz for JJP 2013, Elvira House of Horrors 2019) (confidence: high) — George: 'he did great games like... Fathom, Skateball... Medieval Madness... Star Trek Next Gen, Scared Stiff... Wizard of Oz... Elvira house of horrors... so you're entitled for a couple goose eggs'
- **[venue_signal]** Commercial Hot Doggin' machines at venues are heavily worn/damaged; A&W root beer stands on Cape Cod historically hosted pinball machines; vintage machines from 1950s-era venues being recovered/restored (confidence: medium) — Dave: 'Williams pinball 2000 star wars episode one that was dead... it came out of the a and w store'; George: 'Griffin... saying that most hot doggins are burned out... he'd be correct'
- **[manufacturing_signal]** Bally Hot Doggin' production run was limited to approximately 2,000 units (1980); Bally wide-body era spanned 1979-1981 with games like Future Spa, Space Invaders, Hot Doggin', Paragon, Embryon (confidence: high) — George: 'they only made 2,000 of them'; George owns 1979, 1980, and 1981 wide-bodies; Dave confirms production timeline
- **[product_strategy]** Bally's sales brochure referred to wide-body machines as 'supersized terrain' (not 'wide-body'); later industry adopted 'Super Pinball' and 'Super Wide' terminology to differentiate from Gottlieb and Atari wide-bodies (confidence: high) — Dave: 'in their sales brochure, they don't refer to it as a wide body... they call it... supersized terrain'; George: 'I think i know what you mean... super wide'

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## Transcript

 Hello and welcome to the Classic Pinball Podcast. My name is George and I'm joined today by my co-host Dave. Hello Dave. Hello George. Today we open with a game Dave spoke about in the Space Riders episode, Bally's Hot Doggin'. Dave, please get us started. Bailey Hotdog, and yes, a Winebody classic from 1980. Great table. Help me out, George. Who else? Harry Gaten. And I heard you on your YouTube channel talking about this game and all the different games he did. Do you remember any of them? Yeah, I do. He didn't do a heck of a lot of really out-of-the-parkers, you know, except for Evel Knievel, really, and Hot Dog in here. The other ones were, you know, decent. But, you know, like Lost Cause, Star Trek, Strikes and Spares, Fireball 2. But I think out of all those, Evel Knievel was, I don't know, I have a soft spot in my heart for that game. I remember playing it at an ice cream shop when it first came out many years ago and I just would keep getting winning specials on that game. It's a lot of fun. Hot Dog is a great game. I made a mistake when I was doing my YouTube thing on it and even went on my last podcast. I was trying to, you know, I didn't have it in front of me, but of course, 81 Embryon was the last Wide Body Belly did, not Hot Dog. Hot Dog was right near the end, but Embryon. I was going to wait to talk about that. I believe your young guest said that it was the last one and you were agreed I agreed and I didn't want to uh I didn't want to dash his hopes plus you know I wasn't sure at the top of my head I didn't have it in front of me it's like I completely understand I I went and looked after you had talked about it I'm like oh wow okay embryon's the last one I own one from every year so I own a 79 and own an 80 and I own an 81. They're wide bodies. They had some good stuff and some just okay stuff. But, you know, Future Spa, great tournament game, not the greatest artwork package in the world. Space Invaders, kind of a wide body silver ball mania. So, you know, decent game, but don't need to own it. Doggin, great game, especially if you like skiing and lots of drop targets. And Embryon. And I think that's about it for wide bodies, right? Is there one more I'm missing? No, you've got them all. It's funny in their sales brochure, they don't refer to it as a wide body. Do you know what they call it? Wait, Paragon. I forgot Paragon. The best one. You did. Thank you. The best one they did. Wasn't paying close attention. Thank you. I asked the question, do you know what they called it other than a wide body? Valley had a phrase for it. well i know later on they called it super pin super wides super wides and then williams what was super pin yeah super wide i thought i thought that was a good name yeah because i mean but then again in that time frame there were other wide body pins they probably want to differentiate themselves from um from the other ones like the like the godly genies of the world and atari only made wide body pins for all the production except for that one neutron star one they did it was a prototype they made one regular sized one let's talk about this in skiing terms in their sales brochure again they refer to it as supersized terrain i think anybody who's played hot dog and would definitely agree with that there's a lot of open real estate on this game there certainly is and uh i've actually made my hot dog and into a uh double black diamond what i did what it means is i put a two by four and i jacked the legs all the way up in the back so it's real steep so steep in fact that to try to get that ball up the right spinner that long shot across tail up the right spinner and up to the top uh lane rollovers up there that's quite the feat to do because the flip is all rebuilt everything's strong but it's so steep now that it's uh it's like a black double black diamond kind of skiing like that it's fun Well, they call that area at the top there, Ski the Top. That was also in their brochure. Well, I took them to heart and did that. Yeah, it sounds like you did. I don't know if my flippers would do that. I'd have to probably take them apart and rebuild them again just to make sure. Well, did you do the, you took out those dumb inline heavy plungers in there and put in the ones from a couple years back from like Monohari time frame? the nice fiber link instead it's a way better flip way more uh power out of it i'll be honest dave this game has worked i don't want to jinx myself for so long i haven't been under the hood i don't remember if i did or didn't replace them i would say yes but i'm not sure i think it plays it plays well it plays it plays good but i'm thinking of the two by four and it's got me it's got me scared you should try that you're you're a big skier you should uh put it down there for you know easy to easy to get rid of it if you didn't like it you know something to try something different yeah it's easy enough like you said let's talk about the the features of the game you mentioned drop targets and it's got the inline targets three of them on the upper left of the play field, which is for the multiplier, 3, 4, and 5x. Then you have the targets directly in front of the flippers, the fun targets, and those are absolutely no fun. If you hit those, you know as well as I do, there's a very good chance that ball will be careening right between those flippers. Maybe their definition of fun and your definition of fun are different, it must be. Well, I think the operators really like this game because everyone I've seen and I heard our young friend Griffin speak about this, that they're all roached out. And I have a story we'll tell after this about the game that I acquired, and I'm sure you have one as well. The object of the game, obviously, is to spell Ski Fun Hot Dog, which is all the, well, there's another target bank on the left-hand side of the play field that has D-O-G-G. And up top, the rollover lanes, as you said, S-K-I. So the only thing we're missing are the stellar targets on the right-hand side of the play field, correct? Correct. Correct. I-N and hot, right? Yeah, I-N and hot. Those are the only ones I forgot. So all these drop targets, they all, well, they spell hot dog and ski fun. And you're right, the standups there spell hot. And then the other two ones are I-N for hot dog. Right. So if you were to look at the bottom of the play field, there's all those letters with light bezels at the base of the play field to spell all those out it's basically a target shooting game i i happen to like it i heard that you and your youtube and i think with griffin and scott that you're thinking of putting it on the market which it's a beautiful looking game so i'm sure and rare so if anybody's looking for one of these yeah Obviously a nice specimen, as they say. Yeah, with a new old stock automotive clear-coated playfield, it's hard-pressed to find one nicer. Yours is no slouch either, George. You get the same situation with a new old stock clear-coated playfield too. Came out of the same person. So, yeah, it's from good stock. The only other thing that I think we forgot to talk about as far as features on the game is the kicker on the right-hand side of the playfield, which I think is a big part of this game. you say i think it is and they borrowed it from they didn't use this much they borrowed it from silver ball mania because they have that in the center of the play field near right near a drain when you're going to drain uh this one here is vital though to have this little pin that borrows itself from from bagatelle games when they had actually pin ball they had pins like this and the little metal ball would go around and just bang around the pins and the pins be able to The spring is to him. So that pin is right below where the section you're talking about there, where the kickback is. And the kickback, you have to light it so it comes up, kicks the ball back. If it's not lit, it goes right down. That little pin below it is missing, which sometimes is in this game. It'll go right down and out, and out the out lane, and you're done, which is kind of, I don't know. You're basically watching this whole thing happen before you for this, like, no, for the longest time, and it goes out. So that pin is great because it gives you a 50-50 shot or even more like a 70-30 shot. I'm not even sure. I'm not even sure it's that. It's on my game. Well, you know what? You got to make sure. I'm glad you brought it up because I was looking at it. I played the game earlier before we started recording. And I said, I hope we talk about this because it should do what you're saying. But it is so tight to that. You know what? You know what, George? I think with your play, you've got a little bit of a warpage going on. So you're fighting that warp, I think, on yours. I'm going to say yes, but I'm also going to say that other people talk about the outlanes in this game. And so, yes, I think mine is probably a little bit more than normal. But at the same time, they're really big and wide and they go in there a lot. For me, it's a left hand one. That seems like a cavern going out. The left side drain is a lot more dangerous than the right. The right side I can play with and kind of bang it a little bit and get it out of there. But the left one is is pretty tough. I definitely agree with that. And we didn't talk about the bumper in the lower left-hand side of the play field. Sort of like Paragon, but not really. You have below that the triple in lane. And if that doesn't give you a false sense of reassurance, I don't know what does. Because like you said, that left out lane is brutal. yeah it's a lot it's very beast layer like like on paragon they kind of borrowed from there a little bit with that when they put that there i think i think it's like a magnet one of the other features and again i keep bringing it up because guys talked about it is uh young griffin saying wow it's got a flipper in the flea shot on the right hand side that was like you know epiphany for him it was like i never saw that before well he's all of 11 so yeah i get it yeah but yeah i think uh refreshing my memories i don't have the embryon in front of me but doesn't embryon have one on the upper left same kind of thing but the left hand side or am i thinking something else do you do off the top of your left upper left hand side no you know like like basically reverse this reverse the hot dog and so instead of the right No, no, there's no kicker. Okay. Maybe it's the little hole that's there that let the ball go through there instead, I'm thinking. Okay. No, no kicker over there. So that's another unique thing. And I happen to like the game. I can understand people, you know, maybe saying, hey, it's a little sparse with the mechanisms on it. But mine plays fast, again, like you said, because it's clear-coded. You wax that thing up. It runs. And I can't imagine. I will try it just because I'm a glutton for punishment and not a great player. I'll put a 2x4 under and see what it's like. I think I would like it better on an Embryon than I would on my Hot Dog. But it might be worth trying it on both just to try to get a little bit more oomph out of those games. because they are a little draggy. They can be. They can be really fast, too, but they can be draggy. The one modification, I didn't understand the person that designed this game. You know, one thing I would change, because I know what he was thinking, but going into those inlines, like on Paragon, it's a goal to get the inline so you can get that saucer, and you're trying to fight for that extra ball, and maybe a special, but definitely extra ball. You know, two, three, and five times bonus there, than the, well, five times for the saucer the first time, then an extra ball. But on this one here, you get three, four, and five times bonus with those three in-line drops. But they don't really matter because you can get that saucer shot from a direct shot from the, especially your backhand or from the left flipper or even from the right flipper, you can get it in there with a direct shot going all the way around. So I was thinking, put like a nice one-way gate across there so you can't go in the wrong way. you have to get those inline drops down and go around to get that saucer. That would be my modification. I'd do. But I'm going to just say that that will have to be made out of titanium because you can bang that directly from the left-hand flipper into that saucer, and that ball has no obstacles in its way. So it's cruising. You'd be bending that thing up pretty good. And no one else, too. I did a modification of mine as well, going around those inline drops and around. My foot was so strong that it was going right through and blowing past the saucer all the time. It would go through and blow past it. It wouldn't slow down. So I took a thing I learned from Xenon because Xenon was doing the same thing to me for a while years ago, and I slowed that down by adding or adjusting a pin in there. The ball would come down, hit the pin, slow down in speed, and drop in the saucer. Well, I did the same thing with this game. I added a pin right above the saucer. So when the ball would go around the inline drops and get a drop in the saucer, if it's coming around really at a high rate of speed, it would hit this pin, slow its speed down, and it would drop in that saucer now. So no more flying by. So it would kind of plink it, slow the inertia down, so it would drop into the saucer. Right. That's another one of the brochure highlights. Go sliding into the saucer. You know, another wintertime reference. It should be. Go sliding right past the saucer. Very interesting game. Go sliding right past the saucer, actually, the way they designed it. But we fixed that over here. So a lot better. So overall, Dave, do you like the game? Yeah. Yeah. Great game. especially I had it up for this whole winter season for something different. And, yeah, I was watching a lot of old reruns of X Games and knuckle hockey and all this kind of skiing stuff. It's like I haven't skied in a long time. I said, well, if I can't ski out there right now and I don't know if my knees are up to it, I'm going to play some hot dog and kind of live it that way. You missed the X Games last weekend. I was thinking of you and recorded it, and I'll save it, because they did have the knuckle-hucking ski event. It's been an epic night of competition here on our third and final day of X Games Aspen 2021. But before we say goodbye, we've still got one more gold medal to hand out here tonight. It's the Wendy Ski Knuckle Huck. Awesome. And now's a good time. Again, I always ask you questions. We'll see how adept you are. Do you know why it's called knuckle hucking? I'm thinking, I'm not absolutely sure, but my thing is that because when you go over that last hill, when you're going to do a trick, you'd have to touch your hand on that hill as you're going over. That edge of the jump is called the knuckle. Okay. And you're hucking yourself over it, right? You kind of huck over it? I'm guessing if, well, that's what hucking means, throwing. So, yeah. So you're throwing your body over the end of the slope. And they are. Or that hill or jump, call it whatever you like. And some of these guys throw themselves head over heels instead of like a sideways twist. They're doing a head over heels knuckle huck, which is awesome to look at. so much so that it looks like their head upside down is just barely clearing that knuckle. It's like maybe an inch of clearance, they could easily wipe their head against the snow and have a bad day. But these are thrill to say the least We a pinball show so I don want to keep going into the skiing references there a glacier in switzerland where all the snowboarders and skiers go in october to get prepared for the season and they were going for the highest spot out of the half pipe they were going higher than 22 feet out of the 20 foot high half pipe. Here's to them. Oh, you're, oh, you're doing it again to me. I'm not, and I'm not playing. I have a water in front of me, but I'm going to get one in a second. I want to follow up folks. Okay. Griffin was very astute in saying that most hot doggins are burned out. Hot doggins, not hot doggins. Hot doggins are burned out. And for the most part, he'd be correct because they only made 2,000 of them. Yeah. I know of three that were pristine. One being mine. One being my friend, Jack, who you've heard me talk about. the original Jersey Jack. We both took a ride from Seaside Heights, New Jersey to Rochester, New York one Saturday morning in the summer a long time ago. We met up with a guy which people on this podcast probably know. He owns a place in Mississauga, Ontario called the Church of the Silver Ball. His first name's Mike. Forgive me, Mike. I don't remember your last name, But he delivered two games to me from Canada to Rochester, New York with my friend Jack. These were pretty beat up. I believe out of the two games, we got two decent cabinets, one decent back glass. I think that's it. I was able to find two new old stock playfields, two original new old stock plastic sets and a new old stock back glass to redo our games. My friend Jack in New Jersey, not only did the play field swap for his game, but did my game as well. My game had the clear play field like yours did from Bill Davis. Yes. Bill Davis. Sorry, brain fart. So Jack did both games. Mine is the survivor. Unfortunately, Jack's met its demise during Hurricane Sandy. So six hours each direction to get games from a guy who hauled them across the border from Canada. I know you have a really nice game because I've seen it up close. Where'd your game come from? my game came from actually florida by way of texas so as you know texas is known for its skiing not really that's why it yeah is it at mount alamo i think it's mount alamo yeah you ski on the sand and uh the dirt and uh it's good times um but yeah i got it from someone in florida years ago. I was kind of looking for one for a while, like just haphazardly. I wasn't really on a big quest, but one braced my path and I saw one. I think it was an RGP or Pinside. I forget how I came into this one, but shipped it up. Playfield was pretty beat. Cat was decent. Backglass was nice, but I scored a Newell's Stock Backglass for it. I scored a Newell's Stock Playfield for it. I actually had the Playfield before the game because as soon as I saw the play field out there I grabbed it because I knew eventually I was going to get this game I think I might have had the play field maybe two or three years before I got the game and maybe the maybe the back last two I think I got ahead of time so I was all getting my ducks in a row before that game actually graced my path and uh scored the game and put it all together I think it took me I think I had one of the quickest play field swaps ever ever done that I think that was like a two-day thing two-day adventure including metal buffing and everything else to get that one up and ready to go. Nice, George. Nice. What is your beverage of choice today? I'm drinking a Fiddlehead IPA from Vermont. Not bad. Green can, right? Yes, lime green writing. Yep. I have one of those in my fridge right now, but my go-to these days is a Troggs Perpetual IPA. I'm really liking that. I'm digging that these days. Yeah, you're doing the West Coast thing. I have one more item that I found, believe it or not. One of the games did not have the ski spinner. I found one from somebody in California. New old stock, if you can believe that. Nice. It's not on my game. I don't leave it on because it's perfect. It's like, nah, I'll just put it. I have a bally arrow on there. Put it on your game, George. All you got to do is take some nice mylar, mylar over it, and you'll never break it up. You'll be fine. The only person that would ever know that is probably you. Probably. And my friend Jack. Hey, but it's there to enjoy. You got to enjoy your game. You can give it to the next guy to enjoy, you know? No, we've had that discussion before. No. Is there anything else that you'd like to talk about this game? I think we were fairly thorough. Yeah, Greg Freres. He was more known for more – is it Greg Freres? I think that's how you pronounce his name. Anyway, his big claim to fame was Fathom. You better watch out. The word police will be after you. I know, I know. That's right. We'll hear about it later. Bally, Bally. Down goes Greg Freres. I don't know. It's okay. We know who he is. We know who he is. Everyone knows who he is. He did great games like a lot of games, like Fathom, Skateball, Harlem Globetrotters, Rolling Stones, Vector, Frontier. He also did games like Hardbody. Not some of his best work. That was, well, we'll leave that one alone. But let's see what else he did. Later on in his work, Star Trek Next Gen, Scared Stiff, Medieval Madness. That's a big one. He did Wizard of Oz for Jersey Jack. that's a lot of that's a lot of big titles i think we've talked about him obviously before but that's that's a lot of home runs he did a lot of home runs so you're entitled for a couple goose eggs but uh you know he did a lot of a lot of great stuff he did and i guess still does actually because that was 2019 was the last one elvira house of horrors so you spoke with the scott and griffin in the atari space riders episode and i had a couple of things that stuck out as part of the interview the first one was scott the father talking about Atari out in California where they were disposing of games into the dumpsters. And it reminded me of the two stories that we had spoken about early in one of our episodes where I spoke to a guy who saw the bulldozer run the games over in the landfill and you getting punked by your fellow friends at the local arcade if i recall correctly yeah you're talking about you're talking about uh fun and games arcade yeah didn't they punk you with the throwing the game in the dumpster or asking you to break the back glass or something like that no no no they didn't punk me this was like a story from the funny game oh oh i thought they punked you and like broke one in front of you or something like that no no they just told me the story about how they basically they they had a rite of passage for the people that worked there back in that time frame i was only a kid at that point but i heard about this story later on in life from people that were there but uh they would actually go up to uh you know the kids would work work there you know he's probably like a teenager and giving out quarters whatever and he's in the back room helping fixing some games and it's sometime they had to take a game off the floor wasn't burning anymore they're gonna put a new one out there and said okay well johnny you gotta take the game out back and basically shoot it in the head it's almost like a mafia thing well i don't want to shoot in there no you have to take you so here's a sledgehammer bash it up good and put in the dumpster so like almost like crying the kid has to bash up this game and throw it away because they didn't want to sell it to the competition that's might make money on back in that time frame so uh i don't know i think the kid's still in uh still seeing a doctor. I would cry if I saw that. So with that said, that was the one thing that struck me. Again, I've referenced them several times already. Griffin did a nice job for an 11-year-old kid. He unsurps me many fold as far as pinball knowledge. Scott's done a real good job raising a fine young boy from what I could hear. So great job. A lot of people enjoyed it. I did as well. I learned a few things I didn't know about you. So that's always good. That means that means we're we're expanding the knowledge of each other. So it was it was it was real well done, Dave. Good job. yeah thanks i i enjoyed doing that i enjoyed uh doing the finding the bumper music to play on on both ends of that too um that was fun getting a little creative with that uh i've always enjoyed uh listening to old-time radio shows as a youth and uh i always kind of wanted to be in like a radio thing either behind the scenes whatever so i actually got my chance to kind of do a lot of at this time you know and uh it was it was a blast you know having uh some creative uh rain on the situation on that one i i was going to save this for the end but i think it's appropriate to insert here you sent me an email from a gentleman by the name of grant king grant king yes i was just going to talk about him from australia and i read this and wrote this down i'd love to hear you on more mainstream podcasts. I'm starting to get afraid, Dave. People this week could be in a big week with the podcast by yourself, and now this guy chiming in saying, hey, you know, hopefully the big boys pick you up. Where's that going to leave little old me? Oh, not allowed. Sorry, not allowed to use the word old. Jeez. Sorry. sorry yeah he's the guy said good work guys a day i'd love to hear more i'd like to hear you more in mainstream podcasts also very knowledgeable came across very well he said good work guys george stop saying you're too old just turn up the mic so this is our chance to turn up the mic so george should be able to hear me as well as well as me these days on this this one we're doing grant i have to be honest with you this has driven me nuts with the volume that i project in our podcast. Again, remember, we use Anchor. There are no, there's nothing that I can do to boost my volume because of the way it's recorded. So I'm sorry for that. We're hoping that this one, this episode does that. We're going to find out after we're all done. Hopefully, it's a plus. So it's been our concern for a long time, mine. I hate it. But hopefully this this gets rid of it and I won't talk about me being old anymore I apologize for saying it again yeah because I already broke out one guy out of Cuomo's death camp I don't want to break you out of there too George so stop oh stop oh I just saw somebody jump on another person I think they call that piling on let's let's move to uh the next thing on the sheet i talked about that a couple episodes ago uh i'm starting to put notes together because if i don't i forget about what i want to talk to dave about and we haven't again rehearsed this i haven't talked to dave in over a week so this is this is fun dave went on a little adventure again i think he alluded to it in one of the last podcasts, he went to Cape Cod for an extended period of time. So I'm going to turn the floor over to Dave, and he's going to tell us about his adventures in Cape Cod. And for those who are in other parts of the world, Cape Cod is, make it like you're going to be Popeye. You're going to make the muscle. That's kind of what Cape Cod looks like, jutting into the Atlantic on the right-hand side of the United States of America. So Dave was down there doing some pinball escapades. With that said, Dave, the floor is yours. Okay. What I did on my Cape Cod pinball adventure. So I try to group these things in. So the last time we did this was a couple weeks ago going to Connecticut. And I got a bunch of clients lined up and got them all done in a row and stayed in Connecticut at a friend's house. And did a bunch of work down there for like four days in a row. So this time I had Cape Cod people that were looking for some work done. So I lined them all up. And in fact, when I had three lined up, ready to go, packed up in all different generations of games. I really had to pack the car full of, you know, EM stuff, modern stuff, middle of the road stuff, really solid state stuff, all different stuff. And I have tons of parts and tons of specialty parts and unique plastics to certain titles that I wanted to make sure I had. So just about to leave, I got an email one last time and someone else piped in, hey, have you ever on the Cape anytime soon? We're looking to get some work done. It's like, you're just the right place, right time. I'm just about to leave. Get back to me ASAP what you need because I can pack it right now. So she did. And so that's number four. So that's actually an Adam's family we saved for the last day on Saturday. So we went down Wednesday to Harwich, which is uh almost on the way to p town and right on the elbow of the cape let's call it and uh they really good ice cream place down there called sunday school okay okay there yeah real homemade hot fudge awesome and homemade ice cream really good stuff so harwich and um he had a williams pinball 2000 star wars episode one that was dead he got it for basically nothing from a friend of his and it came out of the a and w store which is like that thing's been around uh like a little five and dime store a and w you get almost like a soda jerk with root beer and you get the whole 1950s uh so i think a and w is kind of like the same generation that you had the A&P grocery stores back in New Robert Englunds at that time, especially on the Cape. They were all there. The old joke was Stop and Shop and A&P merged and they called it Stop and P. So, interesting. I'm here all week, folks. Get on with the Star Wars. I'm not familiar with Star Wars Episode 1, so if I'm not, maybe our audience isn't as well. Do you have any idea what year this thing was made that was yeah it was a pinball 2000 so 2000 okay okay it's a it was the last breath of williams before they went on when they went on the pinball biz uh you know everyone that's into pinball knows that pinball was kind of looking for a new direction they're trying to do different things they're trying to almost have like a video game 3d effect with the pinball machine so they made this pinball 2000 which had a a real tv screen in there with the plate filled glass that had like a smoky glass reflective coating on it. So you threw an image down the glass and all you see back there is cartoon characters or whatever and virtual spinners and virtual things. You hit the ball, the ball would be doing something in the game that you couldn't see with real stuff you're hitting. But so instead of hitting a real target down below, you'd be hitting a virtual target that would actually go down or whatever. So it was an interesting concept what they did. They're really trying to do some different stuff, but it had, you know, the problem with these games is they're good for a couple of years, maybe for reliability and that kind of thing. But it's an old computer. It's an ATX power supply. And it's an old, you know, it's going to it's going to wear out and have problems just like bringing an old computer back from the imagining a computer from the year 2000 or so. 20 years later now trying to get it to work and having issues with it and compatibility issues and um and that kind of thing so when i got in sight this guy told me it was dead in fact i could do anything with it so i i did a lot of reading on it seemed that i could try certain things like replacing the little coin battery in there um for its bios sb3 volts it was down 2.8 it's possibility didn't go so it's one of those that's oh yeah you just did one of these did one of these and the Wizard of Oz, which bought me a lot and Wizard of Oz is 2013. This thing was 2000. And it was actually more antique of a computer system than 2013. So I tried some other stuff and different things I tried with it But basically I just basically I didn charge him a heck of a lot and I just gave him a good you know i give the old college try and i showed him what i was doing he just wanted to know more more about it and what he could sell for we needed to i was like you know said you can still sell this game it's in it's in decent shape someone who knows how to work on this that wants this game you know they'll they'll pay i don't know i said anywhere from this is a this is a game that you need to bring in have some computer experience oh yeah and be able to tinker for a while to get it work you need this is not a regular somebody like you to do this is just time-consuming crazy it is because this game even in nice shape uh at a full retail shop somewhere they're getting you know around five grand four and a half to five grand for one of these and that's in nice shape this one's in very nice shape but it has a little bit of you know a little bit of hiccups here and there with the cabinets and that kind of thing but you know i i think the guy can get easily even non-working between 500 and 1500 bucks for this and i told him that i said you can definitely don't throw it away he's like oh should i just throw it away it's like no don't don't throw it away well you're gonna throw it away throw it my way yeah yeah i i don't have any room for it you know even if it was free it's like i i don't think i'd want to take it the only way i take it i take it and flip it but i'd rather i don't want to do that i'd rather have him flip it you know here i'm not gonna rob it off the guy and do that to or have him do it. Understood. So if there's nothing else really about that game, tell us about day two. So that was day one. That was arriving Wednesday afternoon, a couple hours in that, gave him all the down and dirty, left there, stayed over at our friend's condo, and then on to Thursday morning, went to East Sandwich for a day spa on a Gottlieb 1977 Jacks Open, which is the replay version of Lucky Hand, the Anaball Lucky Hand. Fun little Gottlieb wedge hit. Spent seven hours on site with that one. Did the old replace all the drop target bank in this game with, oh, I don't know, I think 10 drop targets, something like that, right in the center. And I've been out of – if you're out of practice doing the Gottlieb drop targets, I had to do a whole learning process all over again because it's a whole – Did you just talk about this? I did. Yeah, I haven't done it in a while. Why am I having, like, Groundhog Day all over again here? I'm like, he talked about the battery before. He talked about this before. You got some more things you're going to talk about? Different games. Because this game is – I understand. Guy with a Sinbad. And I said, well, you know, good luck to you. You know, let me know if you're going to – Sinbad. Sinbad. But this one – but I finally got back to see it. It's like, oh, yeah, okay, that's how I do it. So, you know, I got it done probably within, like, maybe an hour, hour, hour and 15. you know, something like that. So it wasn't four hours, which is good. At least the drop target part. And then went through the usual steppers and everything else. But we're all said and done. The game played fantastic. The guy, when he came down, he's like, wow, this looks like a whole new game. He was psyched, but that was seven hours. And we were ready for dinner at that point, if we could find something down there. Hey guy, you're going to give us the restaurant you ate at? The restaurant I ate at? Down there? It was a guy, Fieri. I'm making fun of you. Oh, guy. You're doing the restaurant. Not only are we talking about beer, pinball, restaurants. Have I left anything else out? I don't know. I'll come up with something. Music. Yeah, well, you're going to be surprised at what I picked for this show. It's very period specific. We went to one place for dinner after that, and it just didn't seem – It was really nice like early, like a year or two ago, but in the current situation with our lovely governor making people grumpy, the place seemed a lot grumpy when we went in there. It seemed just very grumpy bartenders and grumpy owner. It's like, yeah, we're not going. We left. That was like, I think it was some kind of East End tap room in Falmouth somewhere. Okay. We're not going to put that in there. Yeah. Move to day three. All right. Day. Two, three. Yeah. Friday. That's Thursday. Okay. Okay. Friday. Friday comes and that brings us to Mashpee, where we have a Paragon that hasn't seen any love for a long time, at least 15 years. This thing, I don't know where it was stored, but it had remnants of some mouse poop going on and some other stuff. and plate feels pretty worn battery damage big time uh corrosion on the connectors this they need a lot of work and sounds like a real beaut oh yeah yeah um not nice nice place nice nice all these houses i was at nice properties very nice properties this guy had the game as a child but it was stored in his mother's house for years and didn't see you know any action it was in the not in the barn it looked like it was in a barn but it's in a garage somewhere i guess for years so um so basically the inserts were falling out you know i started to glue those in and and that kind of thing we spent after 10 hours this is the longest service call in one day of every night usually i think eight hours my previous record is going non-stop and when i go work on these things i don't take a break i don't take a break for lunch for a snack or for nothing i don't even drink enough water my wife is there helping me work the games because you need to drink more water so basically i stop for a second chug water and keep going then she'll she actually you know bring some lunch and bring snacks she starts feeding me while i'm working because i don't want to stop it is i want to get it done so i spent 10 hours straight working on this thing that was a long day a long day to be in your feet um but when we're all said and done the game worked fantastic the guy was psyched about it it all worked great and uh that was uh for the guy fairy thing by the time we were done with that was like i think 10 o'clock at night so that was we had some leftover pizza at 11 o'clock at night with a couple beers i think went to bed around one or two so it's pretty good going to sleep after a pizza and beer and uh i don't know didn't get the best night's sleep on that one but you know so where did game four come in that the person called you at the last minute about that so that's saturday she was so psyched i was going to come Oh, so you worked Saturday, too. Oh, yeah. Saturday is day four. Yep. Saturday. So we packed up all our stuff, basically a clown car. I can't believe years ago we actually fit a dog in this car, too. But we had so many pinball parts and luggage and everything else. It was stacked to the – it's like the National Lampoon's Vacation, you know, loaded car on top of the roof and that kind of thing. so um so we went to saturday on the way out after we got all packed up to uh to born which is right on the on the uh border of the man right by the bridge yep and worked on an adam's family that i did a little bit of work on not a restoration a couple years ago but like a little bit of a shop job slightly because they didn't have a lot of a lot of money to spend on it so i kind of worked within their budget and got to kind of working from last time new rubbers and cleaning and some board work. But this time around, Uncle Fester's scoop was falling down into the cabinet, and they wondered why the ball wouldn't come out of there reliably when you hit the scoop. Well, because the thing was, like, falling down. Was it the ball would hit it and it would rattle? It would rattle. It would try to shoot it up, but it would shoot up into the bottom of the cabinet instead of going up out of the play field. It would keep hitting over and over. That must have been really good for that scoop. Was it all beat up? No, no, the scoop was actually fine. It was actually, you know, I noticed some switches in there. Everything, things were hanging on by a thread. And I said, they're going to call me back tomorrow with another problem. So I decided to go through all of the wires and all these thin wires on coils and cut them and re-strip them and re-solder those in. So I did some preventive maintenance while I was in there. But I basically had to use bamboo skewers and glue and re-tap holes for that scoop to attach. So now it's in there nice and solid. um and then this thing had a weird problem that i i took a note of last time but i forgot my note last time and they really didn't care but it has uh this game has a special thing called thing thing flips so when you go down the uh an in lane of the flipper left hand side it lights the main ramp the middle to shoot for it and you go in there and it lights an opto for thing to flip by itself so the ball goes through an opto and a small little flipper on the left when the ball So the opto, the thing, the game shoots the flipper by itself, sort of like mysterious thing flipping for you. And it calibrates itself to shoot into the swamp. And you do it over and over again. It'll get it, you know, maybe nine times out of ten to get the million point or five million point shot. So their game, I had the wires cut to that for some reason. It was a couple of years ago. I said, why did I cut these wires? I forget why I did this for, you know, because, again, they were on a budget and they didn't have money for me. so I realized like yeah because last time they didn't want to spend the money on making that thing work so they've been playing just with their regular three flippers no thing flips at all you cannot use that flipper at all was just dead so I decided to attach it again this time out just to refresh my memory and now I know why you hit the flipper and it stays up and doesn't come down you get to try to force it down by hand it'll come back down but it always wants to be on like the transistor uh is always just when it's on it's on it doesn't want to turn off like the like it's supposed to. So I did some research while I was on site, and I think it said transistor 15 and transistor 7 are responsible for that. Other people replaced those two, and it worked. These transistors are where? On the main driver board. Okay. Obviously, I'm not familiar with that architecture. I'm just trying to clear it up for people who aren't familiar with it as well. Sure. So the main driver board is a bunch of transistors, So these two are responsible for that flipper in general for its correct behavior. So they were basically locking on or not acting right or something with the gain of them, whatever it is, but they were just not within spec. So – but it was beyond the scope of what she wanted to really spend for that day, and she didn't really care that much about it anyway. She goes, well, down the road – I said, okay, I'll make a note of it. And down the road when you – well, let us save up some more money, and we'll do some more stuff in the game. So that's fine. You know, plus on top of that, I was out of time anyway, because I, while I'm down in the Cape, I visited my mother and my sister, spent, you know, I haven't seen them in many, many months. So I spent a lot of the day with that. I kind of, and I was already tight on time because I wanted to go back home for a meeting with a bunch of, a bunch of newfound friends, really cool guys I met online, hit it off with, you know, what we're all into and that kind of thing. and we're having a big meeting, big pizza meeting and some beers out near Worcester. And I want to be in time for that. So I'm glad she didn't want to go for the additional work because I didn't have any time anyway. So it all worked out. So I got paid for that. So, yeah, the whole thing was it was a nice little week's worth of work and a little bit of a vacation away and just like the Connecticut thing. So who knows, next time maybe New Hampshire, Maine, Vermont. I don't know. Who knows where it will take us. if our last three podcasts or any indication, we are, as they say, trending up left to right. So people like listening to Dave's adventures. I'm getting concerned that I'm going to get squeezed out because all these people want more Dave time. and uh i'm gonna get a little jealous dave oh well let me you don't know no need there george will you allay my fears i'll lay your fears i will we'll lay here i'm gonna lay my fears all right there you go let's go hey oh you know what that reminds me while we're down the cave and at this i won't mention the restaurant name but uh but i got i got into a fight at a chinese restaurant down there but the weird thing was a half hour later i was angry again george george george so i said this joke to a bunch of people today and i want to see i threw out this see who would get it i'd say the 94 year old i told who didn't get it the phd who's like hitting 40 very smart guy he didn't get it but other people did so you're the one so here's here's the joke when you eat chinese food a half hour later you're hungry again right yes so i got into a fight at a chinese restaurant a half hour later i was angry again bang boom chocolata don't quit your day job do not quit your day job okay i'm gonna go to the sheet unless there's more to add on dave's cape cod adventure i'll ask two questions first well no i'll ask one question do you have any more intra-state adventures planned? Yes, I do. Rhode Island is coming up next. Southern Rhode Island, right in the water. Look at you, little Mr. New Robert Englunds. Yeah. Doing the whole state thing. No, it's smart. I don't know. Forgive me, person, whoever you are, but there was a EM person that used to travel around the country helping people repair their EM machines because I remember that guy I remember like Pinside had that guy right right I always found that fascinating and now in the world we live in that could be a YouTube channel a podcast and like nine other things. Was that Pinball Ninja? I'm going to put crickets in there. Boy, that was like a long, long delay. Yeah, you know what? I missed that too. Like your Chinese joke with me. Anyway, I have, I was going to save this for the last. No, I'm not. I'll save it for last. I have a couple of things on my sheet that I'd like to talk about. Sure. Okay? All right. So, first thing I want to talk about is yesterday. While you were working, I was sitting around watching the match play and three-strike tournament in Green Bay, Wisconsin. That sounds like fun. I want to watch that in a replay. That sounds good. It was actually good. And you want to know why it was good? Why was it good? Because I don't recall. Forgive me, people, if you watched. And I'm saving this for last because it's been proven that most people don't want to listen to tournament talk. So whatever. I don't care. I like the person who does the video on YouTube is a guy named Tom Graff. Fox Cities is the name of the channel. And they did a really nice job with Match Play. They have 102 machines. The gentleman, I don't know your last name, but Eric owns this facility in Green Bay. It used to be called Tidal Town. It's now called Distro 82. What a great – they did a 13-hour broadcast yesterday, I think. It was great. Long overdue. But a couple of the games that stuck out and I wanted to talk to you about was – the one was – and I know you had it set up at one time, and you haven't in a while. Flight 2000 was one of the tournament games. Yeah, you know what? I am due to set that game up for a couple of reasons. I want you to set it up so we can do an episode on it. And I want to be able to play it more than once. Oh, you know what? I have a big reason why I want to set it up. So keep going. I'll tell you why in a minute. I remember playing it at your house. I have not played it a lot. I want to learn how to play it because that looked like so much fun. But we'll save that for another episode. here's the game that I would hate in a tournament and they did Electronimo yeah not a very deep game not a lot going on with that game that game is the Punisher people were just getting drilled it was great and then they put a game this was just stupid let me first say the first was match play the first tournament was match play the winner was a guy named Jordan Semro IFPA ranking number 58 the one thing that this place did draw they had a lot of top 100 players in tournament 2 which was the 3 strike number 1 rated Raymond Davidson was there. Traveled four hours, I guess, from Chicago in a snowstorm to go to this place. I would have done the same thing. It's a cool place. What about our friend Eric Stone? Did he make an appearance? We're going to talk about Eric in a couple of minutes. Because I haven't heard boo from him. We're going to talk about him in a couple of minutes. So hang tight. I'm almost done. So District 82, the Electronimo game just blew people out of the water. I would not own that game. I would not like that game in a tournament. I don't like that game, period. So CERN, scratch that one. Second game came down, or the second tournament, three-strike tournament, came down to Raymond Davidson and a guy named Luke Nahorniak. Love the last name. Nahorniak Another I think he top 50 player He might even be higher than that He ended up winning the tournament So that was great So anybody who hasn't watched it, I'll start with the tournament talk there. It was great. They had some EMs. They did not have any new Stern games. It was just a lot of fun. They didn't do GMD games either because they didn't want people playing for hours. Sweet. Beautiful. Yay. But the one mistake they made is they had Black Knight 2000. That's a mistake. Three players. It took 45 minutes. Of course it did. A grand game. Of course it did. Awful. Awful. Anybody who does tournaments, do not ever include that game in there. Awful. You're going to have classic games because they eat your lunch and it's a nice quick game instead of this. The other stuff is way too easy. You're going to love the final game for this three-strike tournament, a game called Williams-Palooka, an EM from 1964. I love seeing that stuff because, you see, everybody always playing the ramp games and all the newer terms. When you see somebody play an old EM, there's definitely a skill set that's totally different than playing a modern game. so a Steve Kordick game only 700 of those games made I had never seen it before it was a lot of fun to watch that I'm looking right now so you got two little flippers and to the left of each flipper there's a little lane that goes out it's like a little shotgun I don't know what else you would call it that game it's five points for that while it's not lit but it's 50 when it's lit so you can you can shoot that thing and hit up in the corner by where the slingshot kind is it'll bounce back down again and you just keep running that thing from left to right the horny act was just racking points it was it was fun to watch that's a lot like and that's and that's why i like watching tournaments that have older games something different anybody can show the latest and greatest but to watch old games is a lot of fun and it's a lot tougher these games and you know the uh men from the boys kind of thing and at this game you were talking palooka that's a lot like space mission same thing where they did the same it's a williams game too they use the same situation but with bigger flippers on space mission it was just fun to see a final with an old em yeah oh yeah oh you know what though i'm sure our our friend from up our friend from up north there, our friend in our state there. He doesn't like these because he calls them his more luck. Our friend? Oh, that friend. That friend, yeah. He doesn't like that game? He doesn't like older games like this because it's more luck. It's a luck fest versus a skill fest. I don't agree with that. I don't agree with it either. You mean our neighbor. You don't mean our friend. Not our friend. We haven't talked about our neighbor in a while. We haven't. He's been off, I don't know. He's still doing the spooky thing, but they stopped doing a podcast. I don't know what's going on in the spooky camp. Hopefully we'll hear some new game coming from them. I'm becoming attached to Total Nuclear Annihilation. I don't know why. It's not a bad game. I played it. It's fun and it's fast. Yeah, if I saw it in a bar somewhere, I'd definitely play it. I wouldn't need to own that game. I'd like to own it for a couple of months. If I could find it cheap enough and I have a feeling that day is going to come, I would buy that game for a short period of time just to have it, you know, play the crap out of it and then let it go. You'd probably be able to flip it for the same price you bought it for. Well, that's why, because they didn't make enough of them. So I have two more items. One I want to reach out to, and this is where the Eric Stone reference comes in. The pinball asylum in Fort Myers, Florida, got an email the other day from David Denholtz. He's one of a group of five or six people that runs this place. And on Saturday, March 6th, they're having an outdoor tailgate pinball tournament. I like it. They're doing a pin golf, I believe. So where is this at again? Fort Myers, Florida. Oh, good. You know, Florida is very, very friendly to, oh, let's say, like a two years ago situation, how we all want to be like two years ago. Let's put it that way. I've been wanting to go there. They're going to hold the world championships. Obviously, that's all based on foreign travel. We'll leave that to be. But look, folks, I only announced this because they've been really nice to me. We should probably have him on. Hey, why not? I like it. I mean, Florida seems great. It seems very more relaxed. We should probably have them on or have him on at some point in time to promote this. For 15 bucks, if I lived anywhere near Fort Myers, Florida, I would go there for the day. That sounds like a lot of fun. I guess they've entered into some kind of agreement with Stern. I'm sure that's tied to the world championships that they were supposed to hold last May 2020 it was supposed to be sometime this year who knows when it's going to be I haven't heard the latest and maybe we should have David on here to talk about that they're going to have an Avengers Infinity Quest I've seen that game on you know tons of Twitch broadcasts looks like a fun game i i look if you're in florida anywhere near another tournament i mean they're starting to come back we're starting to see the little glimmers of hope so i think it has to be in in states that have like uh let's call it a no fear pinball you know with uh more open to going back how things were that sort of thing i don't think it's going to happen in this state in massachusetts it's not anytime soon. Florida. Sure. South Dakota. Sure. Other than that, I don't know, but I'd be, I'm guessing that the, the Pintastic show is not going to happen in May. No, no, no. In fact, we're in discussions right now. We're going to be talking about it soon about what, what to do going forward. And they're going to talk just about that, you know, coming up and, and we'll, we'll see. It's like, I don't know. I know that if I'm going to be a part of it at all, I want to be more of a relaxed situation. I don't want to be stressed out by any nonsense. Not relaxing and fun. Let's put it that way. So I have a customer nearby in Sudbury who's moving from Sudbury to Holliston. He has a mini pool, a Godly Wedget mini pool from late 60s that I restored for many years ago, I think 10 years ago. And he's moving. and he wants me to hold him for a while while he gets rid of the place here and moving away. And I say, sure, and I'll move it to his new place. So now I have a mini pool, and I'm basically like that movie, and I wish I had it in front of me. I think it's the Marx Brothers' Animal Crackers. I don't know if you know Marx Brothers movies. I love the Marx Brothers. Okay, do you remember the scene where they're in a Antonio Cruz ship, and it's a really small room they're staying in, and they're trying to get people to come to the door. Oh, we have your dry cleaning. Oh, bring it on in. Oh, we have your food. So bring it on in. Everybody keeps coming in this room. It's like packed with people. And they keep packing. Yes, I do remember that. It was like a small state room. And everybody who comes stays. And by the time the end of it, it's just asses to elbows in that room. And the door breaks open. They all fall out. Somebody had many to send up a bigger room, too, you know? Stuart? Ah, come right ahead. it reminded me of that because i have so many machines here at my at my site right now i'm bulging at the seams and i said yeah i'll hold your mini pool for a while now you know where i'm gonna put it i have no room down down my tech area at all it's full i'm putting it in your bed so it's in your bedroom not that bad yet we're getting there it's gonna be in the living room for a week or two and I don't mind it I'm gonna that's my that's my guest spot I get to play the game in the living room for a little bit as a guest spot it's small it's a wedge head so it's all right um but and so that's fine it's a fun little edible and I've seen it actually on um uh in tournament play it looks like a great tournament game so I can't wait to like have a beer or two and play that with some nice music behind it but then I got a call today from a lady and she has a uh a cocktail table pinball machine that she's moving and wants to get rid of and won't give me a good price on it it's like well i'm not usually into cocktail but the last time i played a cocktail table pin which i actually liked like the roy clock entertainer boo no all that stuff in the 70s no but i played one called night moves from gottlieb that's a late 80s one actually it's like you know not a bad for cocktail table pinball machine pretty good game it was actually very enjoyable well this one's called caribbean Antonio Cruz and they only made 377 units it's got like an eight out of four rating uh people love the game and i looked at the artwork of the game it's like great artwork so i so i'm gonna return focus let me look at this game real quick my immediate thing is say no but i looked at the play sales like you know what it looks like a a caribbean Antonio Cruz i always want i always love the caribbean you know and it has the same layout as night moves but better artwork and it's from 89 it's a got leaf system 3 and it looks like a really fun table people well well reviewed it's rare and it's like you know i think i i don't mind having a cocktail pin like this like this sounds like this is made for me so i called it back i'll take it i'm picking it up tomorrow so so so i have a couple of questions about these. One, folklore or not, were these type of games designed for Antonio Cruz ships? Hmm. I don't know about that. Okay, number two. On this particular game, can you if you were to have four people at 0, 90 degrees, 180, 270, can you swing the play field around without getting up? No, I think you have to change players. I think, yeah, everybody has to keep sitting down on the same side. You sit down and you plunge. You understand what I'm saying though, right? Yeah, you're not playing four players at once. Are you trying to say? Well, four players at once, but the play field would spin. So if there were four seats, you get what I'm saying. No, that's called they have a rotation eight, which is like that. This is not that game. There is a game like that, though, right? Yeah, Rotation 8. Okay. Yeah, no, this is just like a sit down and play pinball and put your beer on the glass situation. And it looks like a lot of fun. And actually, she just sent me pictures of it. And it's like, yeah, I could definitely do that. So I'm going to pick that up tomorrow ahead of the snowstorm. And I think that's going to go eventually, I think, in the living room somewhere. I don't know. Somewhere. So is this a short time, let me play it, see what it's like, and then it goes on the list, as they say? I think so. It doesn't work, so it's definitely going to go in the restoration pile. Kind of like the pile at the end of Indiana Jones. We walk it to the, you know, hopefully not that bad, but we're getting there. It's getting to that thing where you walk it all the way back to the end, and top men. Who? Top men, you know, goes all the way to the back there. You can play that little clip too, George. I'll send those to you. I have no idea what you just talked about. George, you are not a movie guy. And all the leaves are brown and the wind blows And the birds have all flown for the summer I'm calling, hear me calling, hear me calling Here's my last item on the sheet. Where was that Jeepster? That Jeepster, yes, yes. That was actually a 1950 Jeepster, but you get a plate for 49, even if you're a 50, he was telling me. That was at the Paragon place in Bourne. That thing is gorgeous. He had it redone. What did you say to him when you saw it? And how did that come about? That's the best part. All right. So I'm driving up to his driveway. Again, nice property. Out in the snow, not covered and protected, are a Maserati, a couple Range Rovers. These are all, like, you know, recent models. and I said okay that's nice I'm glad I have some nice clientele like this and as I'm going into his garage I see two other cars that are covered up in the garage he likes his toys one of them I can tell I could tell just even with it covered I said that's George's car I can just tell it was a jeepster just the way it looked what did you see the what did you see the fender or the bumper I saw the bumper and it's like the bumper and then the bump out back with the tire and I said, is that a Jeepster? Is that a, I said, yeah. So I said, and I never thought- Was the person surprised? A little bit, yeah. And I said, my buddy George has one. He's like, oh, if he wants to buy one, I'm gonna be wanting to sell this one pretty soon. It's like, oh, maybe let me get some pictures. So as I'm leaving there, after I'm doing the whole work, oh yeah, take some pictures. So, I mean, he, immaculate. I mean, I think it has, it had pretty low miles anyway, But, I mean, it looked like you could eat off it. The engine was perfect. He had a K&N air filter on the top there. He even bought this little thing for $50 because these, as you know, George, they were built for World War II people coming back from the war. No turn signals, no seat belts, you know, danger box. But you can buy for $50 to hook into the whole system turn signals that actually work, that will actually work with the thing without going too crazy. So he has that with his car. But it's a nice little, it's very classy. I mean, it looked nice in red. It looked really cute. Don't see a lot of them in maroon like that. It was a great picture to see. I was stoked. I knew you'd be. That was a teaser. I gave you that as a teaser. I got more to send you, so that's a teaser. So, folks, if there's nothing else you've learned today, A, we don't rehearse this. B, this is a perfect example because I had no idea. I got the picture and I was so psyched to see it. I'm like, okay, there's a story behind this, but I'm not going to ruin it. I want to hear it first. And obviously you have as well. Dave. Who? Dave. D-A-V-E. Yeah, Dave. Dave. Right. So anyone out there that wants to explore getting their games worked on, getting the games restored or buying a restored game from me, you can check out my website at pinballdoctor.com. That's pinballdoctor, all spelled out. Or you can reach me at dave at pinballdoctor.com. Or you can reach me at drdavespinball at gmail. And that's D-R-D-A-V-E-S, pinball, at gmail. We'll be right back. We'll be right back.

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 1b18d2f8-e28d-4a88-8a68-114ee212925a*