# Episode 24 - Pinball Setup **Source:** Wedgehead Pinball Podcast **Type:** podcast_episode **Published:** 2024-04-01 **Duration:** 60m 0s **Beat:** Pinball **URL:** Buzzsprout-14750595 --- ## Analysis Alan and Alex from Wedgehead Pinball Podcast discuss pinball machine setup, covering pitch level (steepness), rubber compound types, tilt settings, and slingshot sensitivity. They emphasize that setup is subjective and varies by operator preference, while debunking obsessive fine-tuning culture (e.g., measuring pitch to tenths of degrees). They share their own Wedgehead preferences: steep pitch, standard black rubber, tight tilts, and sensitive slingshots. ### Key Claims - [HIGH] Spooky games are typically set at 6.5 degrees pitch level — _Alan citing Spooky's official communication on forums about Rick and Morty pitch_ - [MEDIUM] Scott Griesbach (Rick and Morty designer) measured his personal game at 6.9 degrees when asked on forums — _Alan paraphrasing a forum exchange, notes uncertainty in memory_ - [HIGH] All major manufacturers (Stern, JJP, Spooky) ship games with standard rubber, not synthetic alternatives — _Alan and Alex discussing factory defaults across manufacturers_ - [MEDIUM] Standard rubber is much cheaper (one-third the price or less) than synthetic bands like Titan — _Alex discussing cost differential for operators_ - [HIGH] Scandinavian Flipper Rubbers are newly available but not yet distributed in the U.S. — _Alan describing Wedgehead's recent adoption of this brand; they're currently sourced from Taiwan factory_ - [HIGH] Tilt bob is a physical plumb bob mechanism that has been standard since the 1940s — _Alex explaining tilt detection mechanism in American pinball machines_ - [HIGH] Modern Stern games have tilt debounce settings (typically ~500 milliseconds) that allow recovery between danger warnings — _Alex describing tilt debounce mechanism on modern Stern games_ - [HIGH] Wedgehead uses tight tilt settings specifically to prevent death saves and excessive nudging — _Alan explaining setup philosophy for location machines_ - [HIGH] Pitch level obsession (measuring to tenths of degrees) is not representative of professional operator practice — _Both hosts criticizing internet culture around precise pitch measurement; Alan as operator states they don't measure_ - [HIGH] Jack Danger is a Stern employee who streamed pinball regularly and is known as a great ambassador — _Alan providing direct knowledge of Jack Danger's role and streaming history_ ### Notable Quotes > "don't complain about the way others set up games... people set up their games differently. That's just the way it is." > — **Alan**, early in episode > _Sets episode's core philosophy: setup is subjective, not prescriptive_ > "It's not an exact science. The shit changes. There's a lot of variables. It's a physical game." > — **Alan**, pitch discussion > _Captures frustration with internet obsession over precise pitch measurement_ > "I think it's embarrassing that people are trying to measure this. I truly find it strange because being an operator and setting up many, many, many games, it's like we just set them up." > — **Alex**, pitch obsession section > _Operator perspective dismissing online culture of exact measurement_ > "if you have fresh flippers and the game does not want to get up a ramp no matter how clean you hit a shot that's your sign that it's too steep" > — **Alan**, pitch adjustment section > _Practical feedback mechanism for adjusting pitch based on gameplay feel_ > "I like the standard feel of standard rubbers... I want the ball to be kinetic. I want it to be, I want the game to, like, I want to have to fight the game a little bit for control." > — **Alan**, rubber preference section > _Explains philosophical preference for standard rubber: player agency and challenge_ > "I don't want people death saving games so i set them up tight because i want you if you're going to try death saves i want you to either tilt out that ball or get damn close" > — **Alan**, tilt settings section > _Explains operator rationale for tight tilts at location venues_ > "when you're rocking a game like a normal nudge it's like that's something that kind of needs to be fine-tuned but that's also something that most people don't touch" > — **Alex**, tilt debounce discussion > _Notes that debounce is a factory setting most operators ignore_ > "the simplest thing i make the sling sensitive... if you don't lose a ball ever pinball becomes fucking boring." > — **Alan**, slingshot sensitivity section > _Core philosophy: slingshots create necessary chaos and difficulty_ > "literally my argument is that's what they're there for they're there to do that... they're there to create chaos and so i just close the gap so it's tighter" > — **Alan**, slingshot sensitivity section > _Justifies sensitive slingshot tuning as core to game design intent_ > "every game is set up different. It can set up games however you want when it's your own game. uh when it's on location you just kind of have to be aware of how it's set up and there's no wrong way" > — **Alan**, tilt bob section > _Summarizes episode philosophy: setup freedom at home vs. operator prerogative at locations_ ### Entities | Name | Type | Context | |------|------|---------| | Alan | person | Co-host of Wedgehead Pinball Podcast, co-owner of Portland Pinball Bar Wedgehead, operator perspective on machine setup | | Alex the Waterboy | person | Co-host of Wedgehead Pinball Podcast, has studio in basement, operator and collector with experience tuning machines | | Jack Danger | person | Stern Pinball employee, pinball streamer, community ambassador, known for skilled nudging/death saves | | Scott Griesbach | person | Designer of Rick and Morty pinball, active on forums, quoted as measuring his personal game at 6.9 degrees pitch | | Wedgehead Pinball Podcast | content | Podcast series hosted by Alan and Alex, discusses pinball culture, operations, and community | | Portland Pinball Bar Wedgehead | venue | Pinball bar owned by Alan and Alex, uses steep pitch, standard rubber, tight tilts, and sensitive slingshots | | Rick and Morty | game | Spooky Pinball game, shipped with 6.5 degree pitch spec, clear rubber, discussed as example of setup variations | | Star Trek: The Next Generation | game | Pinball machine owned by Alan, set to approximately 6.5 degrees pitch, used as example of mid-range setup | | Stern Pinball | company | Major pinball manufacturer, ships games with standard rubber, has tilt debounce settings on modern games | | Spooky Pinball | company | Pinball manufacturer known for interacting with community on forums, ships games at 6.5 degree pitch | | Jersey Jack Pinball | company | Major pinball manufacturer (referenced as JJP), ships games with standard rubber | | Scandinavian Flipper Rubbers | company | New rubber manufacturer with factory in Taiwan, not yet distributed in U.S., creates synthetic blend designed to feel like standard rubber | | Super Bands | product | Brand of synthetic rubber flipper bands, popular alternative to standard rubber | | Titan Bands | product | Brand of synthetic rubber flipper bands, longer-lasting alternative to standard rubber, approximately 3x cost of standard rubber | | Dura Bands | product | Brand of synthetic rubber flipper bands available through parts distributors | | Lord of the Rings | game | Pinball game referenced in tournament setup discussion, mentioned as being set flat and wide outlanes for tournament play | ### Topics - **Primary:** Pitch level (steepness) and internet obsession with precise measurement, Rubber compound types (standard, silicone, polyurethane) and performance differences, Tilt settings, tilt bob mechanism, and debounce configuration, Slingshot sensitivity tuning and gap adjustment, Operator setup philosophy vs. home collector preferences, Wedgehead's specific setup preferences and operational approach - **Secondary:** Death saves, nudging, and how setup enables or prevents them, Community culture on internet forums (PinSide) and obsessive tuning discussions, Durability and maintenance of rubber compounds at location venues - **Mentioned:** Playfield cleanliness and dust/wear management ### Sentiment **Mixed** (0.55) — Hosts are passionate and humorous about setup preferences but take a fundamentally non-judgmental stance. They express frustration with internet culture of obsessive measurement and pedantic arguments, but respect that different players prefer different setups. Positive about their own Wedgehead approach and new suppliers (Scandinavian Rubbers). Critical of online communities but affectionate toward the hobby. ### Signals - **[operational_signal]** Wedgehead operates with deliberately tight tilt settings, steep pitch, standard rubber, and sensitive slingshots to prevent exploitative play (death saves) and maintain challenge/engagement (confidence: high) — Alan: 'I don't want people death saving games so i set them up tight... I make the sling sensitive... if you don't lose a ball ever pinball becomes fucking boring.' - **[community_signal]** Hosts critique online pinball community's obsession with precise measurement of pitch (to tenths of degrees) as disconnected from operator reality and unnecessary gatekeeping (confidence: high) — Alex: 'I think it's embarrassing that people are trying to measure this... being an operator... it's like we just set them up.' Alan: 'It's not an exact science. The shit changes.' - **[product_signal]** Wedgehead has recently adopted Scandinavian Flipper Rubbers (synthetic blend formulated to feel like standard rubber) as alternative to popular Titan/Super Bands; sourced from Taiwan factory, not yet U.S. distributed (confidence: high) — Alan: 'at Wedgehead we use standard black rubber... we have recently found a new manufacturer and they're called Scandinavian Flipper Rubbers... He has a factory in Taiwan... they seem to last longer and they have very similar play... they play like rubber.' - **[gameplay_signal]** Hosts identify rubber compound as more impactful than pitch level; slingshot sensitivity and tilt settings significantly affect playability; precise pitch measurement has minimal practical effect (confidence: high) — Alan: 'the other things make such a bigger difference than that' (pitch); demonstrates sensitivity differences with silicone vs. standard rubber for catching mechanics - **[design_philosophy]** Both hosts reject prescriptive setup guidance; emphasize operator/owner autonomy and experiential tuning ('how it feels') over specifications; no universal 'correct' setup (confidence: high) — Alan: 'don't complain about the way others set up games'; 'I don't fucking know i don't measure that it doesn't matter to me i'm like i know the way the game's supposed to feel' - **[product_signal]** Modern Stern games ship with tilt debounce settings (~500ms) allowing multiple danger warnings; Spooky games spec'd at 6.5 degrees; all major manufacturers use standard rubber as default (confidence: high) — Alex: 'on modern Stern games there's a tilt debounce... usually like a 500 millisecond'; 'all of them i think even JJP does they all ship with real rubber' - **[operational_signal]** Standard rubber is cheaper (~1/3 Titan price) but requires frequent replacement at locations; synthetic bands (Titan, Super) last longer and are easier to clean; playfield dust is primarily metal shavings from ball/coil interaction, not rubber degradation (confidence: high) — Alex: 'real rubber will break often... Titan bands will last longer... real rubber is also cheaper, much cheaper'; discussion of metal shavings vs. rubber degradation - **[gameplay_signal]** Synthetic rubber (silicone/polyurethane) creates dead bounces, higher friction, easier catch mechanics; standard rubber allows more ball bounce/kinetic energy, requires more player control, enables 'bobble' situations (confidence: high) — Alan: 'the synthetic bands... they'll slow the ball... they make dead bounces... I like the bounce... they bounce more. The ball will kind of bounce around your flippers'; comparison to 'Pinball FX physics change' drastic difference - **[operational_signal]** Slingshot sensitivity (leaf switch gap) degrades over time as rubber bands stretch; rarely reported as issues by players; operators must proactively tighten gaps or replace bands; affects game difficulty and playstyle significantly (confidence: high) — Alan: 'if a sling isn't working or isn't sensitive nobody will report it... the leaf came out... band will stretch out over time it'll get looser... I never had a single person report' this issue - **[content_signal]** Wedgehead Pinball Podcast produces informal, lengthy discussions on operational topics; reaches operator/collector audience; uses humor and insider language; hosts are approachable and willing to share proprietary operational details (confidence: medium) — Episode structure: meandering discussion with multiple tangents, jokes, disclaimers; Alan and Alex share Wedgehead's specific setup philosophy openly; reference to previous episodes on reporting issues to operators - **[personnel_signal]** Jack Danger identified as Stern employee and active community streamer who is well-regarded as pinball ambassador; known for skilled nudging/death saves on location machines (confidence: high) — Alan: 'he works at Stern Pinball his name is Jack Danger. He used to stream pinball machines every night of the week on weekdays. He's a great guy great ambassador' --- ## Transcript Thanks for watching! Hello everybody and welcome to another episode of the Wedgehead Pinball Podcast. My name is Alan, host of the Wedgehead Pinball Podcast and one half owner of the Portland Pinball Bar Wedgehead. I'm in the basement studio of my co-host Alex the Waterboy. What are we talking about? Today we're talking about something that we've kind of touched on in a lot of episodes because it's something we discuss in our daily lives a lot and that's pinball setup. We want to just talk about what we mean by the setup, the kind of different aspects, what we do, what we like to see, and just kind of give you an idea of like the terminology, the differences you might see from the individual copies of games to the next. And I want to preface this whole episode by saying something that we said in a newbie episode, which is don't complain about the way others set up games. So when we're saying setup of a pinball machine, people set up their games differently. That's just the way it is. Some people like lots of mods. Some people like games steep. Some people like flat. There's tight tills, not tills. We're going to talk about all these things here, and we're going to talk about how I like to set them up, and I think we're pretty much kindred spirits, but we'll talk about the way... You're going into this. Yeah, we'll find out. We will find out. I don't think this is our guide to set up. Is that your intention? Is this supposed to be how to get your game to play like a Wedgehead game? No, no, no. I was kind of running down the differences and how it'll affect the game. Yeah. I think we're going to try to talk about the ways to set up games and then talk about our own preferences. And that's all they are. They're preferences. Like if you come to Wedgehead, I will tell you how we set up our games and then you can make up your own mind. Yeah, I could, we'll get to the end, but I think I can set up or I can sum up the Wedgehead setup. Yeah. We'll save that for the end. Yeah. Yeah. We'll save that for the end. I'd like to hear what I think of it and then what you think of it as a regular customer. So the first thing we're talking about, which if you've listened to the podcast much, you've heard us a bitch about a lot. And that's pitch level, which is like steepness. How steep the game is. Or not steep it is. Yeah. Or yeah, how flat the game is alternatively. Yeah. That's one thing that people really get particular about online. And in real life, normal people don't know the difference. And it's kind of funny because it's like there is like a number. like they will tell you a number a lot of the times i don't know if stern will tell you a number but like spooky if enough people ask on the pin side on the online forums spooky will usually come out and be like our game set at 6.5 and i think spooky does that because they like interacting with people they also like toying with people and i think it's just a way to get people to like shut up about the topic yeah let the thread move on and so like a lot of the time it's like rick and morty typically i've got a rick and morty sitting here and uh typically spooky games are set at 6.5 there was all this talk when the game came out about how it doesn't shoot right and how it's too hard and this shot doesn't work and that shot doesn't work and someone was like scott scott's the designer of the game and he's active on the forums or he sometimes is and someone eventually tagged him and was scott what is the official pitch level of the game and he goes i don't know then i'm paraphrasing here i apologize if i'm remembering this wrong but i remember him going I don't know, I just measured my game and it's at 6.9 degrees. And so from that moment on, every Rick and Morty, if someone complained about the shots, every owner in that thread would go, well, do you have it set at 6.9 degrees? And you're like, that stuff, it's not an exact science. The shit changes. There's a lot of variables. It's a physical game. There's so many things going on that it's just not that serious. Yes. There's a new thing that's cropped up, and it's people have a fraction of a degree. Yeah. A fraction of one degree. Tenths of degrees. Tenths of a degree that people are obsessed over right now. And I think it's embarrassing that people are trying to measure this. I truly find it strange because being an operator and setting up many, many, many, many, many games, it's like we just set them up. Like, we just kind of put them up, and we make sure they're level side to side. That's all I do. The pitch, I will say that we err on steep. Yeah. Here's the way I set up a game. Back legs pretty much all the way up, couple threads, you know, still remaining. The back legs, front legs, all the way down. So some people will say as steep as possible, right? And you're like, okay. It could get steeper. Sure. Count your blessings, because it could get steeper. Yeah, you could put them on like a 2x4 or something. It could get longer risers. Like I'm sitting here looking at one of my games has longer feet in the back because it didn't go steep enough. And it's like you can do stuff to make them steeper. And it's a preference thing. We like both Alan and I like our games playing. We like them steep. We like how it feels. We like the ball returning fast. We like getting punished when you fumble a shot and you get a ramp reject. We want that to come down fast. And people will argue. We've been talking about this a lot, Alan and I, because I saw a tournament director say the way to set up Lord of the Rings to play a reasonable length in a tournament is to put the, well, we'll get into the outlanes, but to get the outlanes wide open and keep it shallow, keep it flat. So it makes the game floatier and you get more outlane drains. But the reality is when you're, for me anyway, when you set a game flat, it makes the side-to-side action, the ball just kind of feels floaty. It feels slow and it gives you more time to react to things, which you realize on a lot of games, if you have more time, you can save almost anything. If you played pinball in slow motion, you could save almost anything the ball's always touching something yeah i think a skilled player even a moderately skilled player you give them more time to react maybe the ball floats a little bit more side to side but it's moving so much slower that it just gives you the reaction time to save more stuff the argument that like um actually flatter games are harder that maybe because they'll bore you to fucking death and then you want to walk away from them and i digress like I said at the beginning of the episode, if you like your games flat or if you want to set your pitch to exactly 6.5, that's fine. You own a game or you have a location you want to do that. That's up to you, man. Set your games however you want. But when other people set them up, I just know that for the longest time, operators, people that have the most experience setting up games and working on games for the longest time, man, it was just put them up, set them up, play a couple games. Feels good. It's good to go. And I will say that we do typically err on steep, like I said. yeah jacked up in the back flat on the front but i will lower games when i play them star trek the next generation it's not set up like that i have it set kind of maybe middle of the threads i mean maybe if you put a bubble level on it would be 6.5 degrees on star trek next generation but i don't fucking know i don't measure that it doesn't matter to me i'm like i know the way the game's supposed to feel yeah so to me it's like i'm trying to get a feeling when i play it if i get fucking bored and the ball is just like bouncing slowly side to side to side i'm just like i hate this and i make it steeper and if i feel like games are rejecting certain shots or something then i'll flatten it out that's what i was gonna say if you have fresh if you have like fresh flippers and the game does not want to get up a ramp no matter how clean you hit a shot that's your sign that it's too steep and usually i find it on side ramps yeah it's really where it's like The side ramp because of the way just the pitch matters more on a side ramp than it does on the ramps from the bottom of the flippers because of the angle that it goes up. So it's like I'll flatten the game out, but I'm never measuring pitch level. I don't know a lot of operators that do. And so you're just going to have to get over this shit if you're going to play on location. Yeah, absolutely. So next on the list would be rubber compound types, which is the actual rubber that goes around. we're mostly going to talk about what's on the flippers but you can change the rubber on everything on a pinball machine all the bands everywhere on the game yeah slings yeah yep post anything yep and the the kind of standards are i don't know what it even is what the compound is but there's rubber which is just like the typical quote-unquote rubber yeah it's probably not actually it's not okay so the thing is is like we have rubber we have silicone we have polyurethane are the three main types of rubbers that people will put on games. However, when we say rubber, quote unquote, it's because real rubber from rubber trees is really, really rare now. It grows on trees. They can only grow in certain forests. Like a lot of things like coffee, chocolate. Like we're losing our... This is what Portland should be known for is an organic rubber. Yeah, exactly. It's a different blend now. Now it's all a blend and it's some synthetic stuff. but it's made to bounce sort of like real rubber used to. Right? And more than anything, it's just kind of the standard compound that's been on games forever. And it's like, if you get a rubber on like the flipper rubbers that ship on a new stern are going to be pretty close in feel. And I don't know, I'm not a chemist. I'm not a materials engineer. Neither of us are. And people on the internet that argue about this aren't either. That's the thing. Like you'll get into forms, you'll get into the weeds on this. the rubber that you pull off of like a stern if you go put that on you know a 1980 got leap game it will it will not affect like it'll feel similar it might be a little different than if the game was spec'd because back in the day the colors would change the compound and it was like red was a little softer than black and stuff like that rubber rubbers yeah there'd be red or there'd be black and then there'd be white bands or there'd be black bands all of that is kind of splitting hairs once you bring what i i don't know how to silicone in poly still to this day games from manufacturers they ship with real rubber yes as far i think all of them i think even jjp does they all ship with real rubber so or real quote unquote i just say this because i know there's pedants out there that will be like um actually right so yeah when we're talking about this we're not chemists neither are you we know that we're trying to speak about the way speak people speak in real life yes right so rubber is what comes on all games silicone and polyurethane are two different types of materials oftentimes though that you'll just hear them called silicone yeah i don't call silicone or polyurethane they'll just call them silicone what they mean is like i've never heard an owner refer to their bands as poly bands maybe when they're talking specifically comparing them online like maybe you run into that but i've never seen a person in real life ever say like poly bands everyone calls them silicone and we're only again harping on this because i think alan and i have both individually been like in arguments with guys online where they're trying to correct us calling something silicone when it's poly or vice versa yeah exactly you're like you know what i meant get into that whole thing like um actually and you're like okay man like whatever yeah exactly you're like whatever this isn't the argument i want to have it's just when you disengage when you walk away from the computer it's just what we're talking about is like the way they play right so the reason why this matters this might sound to some people like what the fuck and you're like you're like exactly what the fuck right but but it matters it does matter a little bit like it does change the way the game plays so we're going to speak in generalities if you're not aware what we're talking about the silicone polyurethane bands you see them some operators like putting them on they're usually identifiable because they're bright colors or if they are black they'll be like a glossy like a high sheen black whereas standard rubber it might be glossy right when a game's new but it gets kind of faded right away it's matte yeah it looks like car tires versus when you see like silicone bands they look like they're made out of shiny like they look like piano or sometimes of them they'll look translucent yep like they can be opaque but they'll be shiny or they'll be the clear and i think the ones that are clear are the fucking worst well that's what like rick and morty shipped with clear standard rubber and it's clear and it gets filthy yeah because i haven't changed her i've changed the flipper bands but nothing else in the game but yeah some people like the way so those all they do feel different they make a big difference on how the game plays some brands feel different than other brands some brands are popular brands are like super bands titan bands dura bands right like yep those are kind of like the popular ones that you'll see on the websites the parts stores will sell these different ones and you can also buy just standard rubber uh i will say at wedge use standard black rubber on all of our stuff we have recently found a new manufacturer and they're called scandinavian flipper rubbers they currently don't sell to any of the parts yeah they're not distributed in the u.s they're not distributed in the u.s he has a factory in taiwan and the guy that owns it set it up he makes flipper rubbers and all rubbers and he's trying to spec them they are a blend they're a synthetic blend but they're made to feel like real rubber and i think out me they come in colors yeah so you can still do color matching so you can do like the silicone polyurethane and they're actually they're awesome because they seem to last longer and they have very similar play i don't know if i would notice a difference they play like rubber yeah and so like for me it's like i want the game to play like rubber that's what i'm used to that's what the game ship with i feel like that's it's amazing that guys will complain about pitch level being 6.5 but then they'll be like the second i get my game i put i rip it all out and i put titans on there because the designers don't know how this game's supposed to be played or whatever exactly because that's what like that's why we kind of laugh about the pitch so much it's because it's like the other things make such a bigger difference than that and when you play a game if you're kind of new to the hobby you'll play a game with silicone bands on it for the first time and if you can do like drop catches and stuff you'll realized like sometimes those the synthetic or whatever the other the alternative rubber flippers flipper rubbers jesus christ it's too many too much of the same word but the the silicone bands if you're playing with them you'll notice that you can kind of grab the ball easier on like drop catches they they'll slow the ball in some compounds do different than others they all play different but generally speaking they kind of absorb energy from the ball so they make dead bounces it makes it easier to catch the ball and they usually seem to have higher friction again I would love for a materials engineer to honestly come out and categorize all this so I could figure out why I like standard rubber more People are going to argue this People have their different feelings I like the standard feel of standard rubbers And again now we get Scandinavian rubbers that are formulated to feel like standard rubber. And the reason why is I like the way they feel. I like the bounce. They seem to have more oomph to them. They bounce more. The ball will kind of bounce around your flippers when you're trying to live catch or drop catch. You'll get some more bounce. since I do feel that on average, the synthetic bands, say Titan or Super or whatever, they're grippy. Like, I feel like I can grab any ball out of the air anytime I want. And on regular rubber, I can grab balls, but sometimes I could bobble a ball. And I like that feeling of just that the ball is wild. I want the ball to be kinetic. I want it to be, I want the game to, like, I want to have to fight the game a little bit for control. I personally why a lot of people like those silicone and those polyurethane bands are the reason why I don't like them because I feel like it makes the game easy don't kill me for that statement but I do feel like it's easier the game inarguably different and that's different it's weird because it's like when you play when you play with silicone bands you can have a ball with a lot of spin just barely glance a rubber and it'll take off in a way that doesn't it the physics feel different it's like when you play uh like if you play pinball fx or whatever and you can change the physics on there from like arcade to like sim or whatever it's honestly feels like that drastic of a difference you're like the game plays different and to me it plays unpredictable because it's not what i'm used to some guys love it some operators love them because they're easier to clean they shed less so you see them you see the location i think that they last longer so i think they're more expensive why they're so popular i think it's that they're you can get them in a lot of different colors so you can kind of like customize the look of your game with them So I think that's very popular. I also think that they have a longer lifespan. Yes. So real rubber will break often. Yeah, pretty quick. It's on location. And so, you know, real rubber is also cheaper, much cheaper. It's like a third of the price or less even than, like, say, Titan bands. The Titan bands will last longer. Last five, you know, they will be worth your money to get them. Sure. And if you like the way those play for your game, they're a good product. They're going to last a while. i've heard some operators think that it keeps some of the dirt off the playfield i agree with that because rick and morty sheds like like some i've just had different games shed different so some of the dirt on a playfield is definitely rubber degrading most of it though is just iron shavings from the ball moving around and hitting metal parts and then the coils that move everything under the playfield are magnets and they magnetize micro shavings and the dust it sticks to itself so a lot of it like because if you're under a play field and you're working on a flipper all that stuff is just like covered in dust there's no rubber under that play field right so but like that makes this way up to the plate like yeah so it's like it's a combination i think some people think it keeps it cleaner maybe it does a little bit but you're still going to have the micro shavings and the dust is still going to be there you're still going to need to clean and wax your playfields it's not going to solve that and some people just prefer the way those play and that's great i think next we should talk about tilt settings yeah because it's kind of like these are the well uh we were kind of going all out of order but tilt settings is a good one i think a good segue because these are all things i like this first section because it's it's also excuses you can use when you do bad at a game yeah you shouldn't but these people will do that all affect the game how it plays really like the the pitch to lesser degree the rubber to a bigger degree to us in tilt settings for sure uh we set our games tight yeah that's i mean i'm not i'm open about that i believe that tight though you always say that and i always have this feeling like like when i first came i only say that because people will tell me that dude that's true like people will be like oh my god i didn't even touch it like oh god dude your games are not you can nudge our games every single one of our games you can nudge a ball yes like it's not a whisper tilt but some people are very sensitive they play a certain way they're used to kind of like rocking the game every time they hit the flipper button and if they're rocking it in motion and i've set it tighter they'll tilt and go i didn't even touch it i play at this other place and that's not tilt well it's just like that's the setup like that's the thing i don't want people death saving games so i set them up tight because i want you if you're going to try death saves i want you to either tilt out that ball or get damn close you know what i mean like so it's like i set them tight because of bad actors it's really all it is for anyone listening that if you haven't seen a tilt bob before it's an actual physical so what detects like a tilt and a pinball machine since the 40s or whatever it's an actual physical little you know like a plumb bob it's like a hanging weight inside of a metal ring and when it strikes the ring it makes contact with the ring from the game moving too much that's when you get a warning or a tilt and it's a conical thing so you can slide it up and down to make that effectively you know the gap between the tilt in the ring tighter or looser so it's like in every operator when you open a game you have to put that on so every operator sets it sets it yeah that was set intentionally by somebody at some point it's not like it shifts from the factory there's no factory default tilt setting but with new games there are factory default the bounce settings the bounce and that to me is one thing i don't hear people talk about at all but like on a modern stern game i don't i've never messed with it on my spooky so i don't know if it's in the settings but on modern stern games there's a tilt debounced and it's like the amount like the cool down time where the tilt bob so you can strike it once you'll get a danger on a modern game right you get two dangers before you tilt and so you strike the tilt once you get a danger and then it'll have usually like a 500 millisecond has like a half second where it can kind of slap around and it can hit that ring again and it won't register another danger after that half second if it hits again if you move the game so much it's still swinging it will register a second danger and then the debounce resets you have another like half second and when you say half a second it doesn't sound like much but if you mess with that setting you realize just how much a tilt hits that ring in that half second because if you try to remove that it'll immediately like you may as well not have dangers yeah and it'll just go danger danger tilt yep all right yep which is what the debounce is supposed to do and all that kind stuff that has a that has an effect though because you can really slam a game around and if you do it violently enough its momentum will kind of cancel out on the tilt bob and if it's within that debounce setting you know on the factory settings it's like that's how you end up doing death saves slide in a game three inches and you only get a single danger yeah and that's one thing i would love to like take the opportunity like at some point i'd like to mess with the debounce settings on a stern and try death saving it and kind of figure out where's the the like the middle ground there but it just makes it tough because it's like when you're rocking a game like a normal nudge it's like that's something that kind of needs to be fine-tuned but that's also something that most people don't touch so some people like again i've brought him up i've met him a few times he's a lovely human being he works at stern pinball his name is jack danger he used to stream pinball machines every night of the week on weekdays he's a great guy great ambassador for the game I used to jokingly jump on his streams or send him messages like, hey, nice move, Jack. Why don't you put a tilt bob in there? Or like, you know, joking like he didn't even have it set up because some of the moves he would make were wild. Yeah. And like on a tournament set game to tournament spec or like how we do in my wedge head, those will be tilt. Like so many tilts, right? That's kind of what this episode is about is it's like every game is set up different. It can set up games however you want when it's your own game. uh when it's on location you just kind of have to be aware of how it's set up and there's no wrong way like you could take the tilt box if you're at home and you're like oh i did like i want to do that like you can do that that's up to you my first em i took the tilt bob out of it was like a 300 game or whatever and i just would be sliding it around because i was like trying to you know because i was like trying to figure out how to like nudge at the time it was like when i was still very new to pinball and it was just like oh yeah because it didn't have any warnings right yeah totally and so you're sitting there and you're like yeah and it's funny it's like when you have your own game you can do whatever you want you do whatever you want that's the fun part about this is that is probably one of the most fun parts about having your own games like you can do yeah all this setup stuff you can buy silicone bands and take them off and then put them on and see how it does that you can see how to make the game really flat or you can make it really steep and see how that plays for you and like change your tilt settings and all that kind of stuff like you can do all that i think i'm going to keep skipping around the order of things you have listed here but last i think in this section we talked we got to go to slingshot sensitivity though that's one that makes a big difference and also doesn't get discussed much at all i put that on this outline because i think when people play our games they go oh there's this you know like games are steep whatever like the rubbers are there the real rubber so they're bouncier right like the tilt's tight and i always go really the thing you're not recognizing is the simplest thing i make the sling sensitive yeah and so all i do is i don't turbo charge the slings or anything like that all i do is i make the leaf switches that register it i make those the gap closer together so that a ball grazing it like coming off in orbit and grazing it will cause it to fire and firecracker back and forth between the two slings yeah because as soon as the ball like slings are an inherently dangerous thing and then ball and so it's like if you can catch the ball in the slings more often that's going to make the game feel like that'll make the game play shorter it'll play shorter it'll be harder you have to fight for more control but literally my argument is that's what they're there for they're there to do that if you don't lose a ball ever pinball becomes fucking boring yeah and tedious and like they don't score a lot of points in any game ever right but they're there to add kinetic energy and randomization to the ball like they're not even they're not even worth like what pop bumpers are worth in some games they're like worth like nothing and so they're there to create chaos and so i just close the gap so it's tighter and what's really funny is this is an issue that literally no one will ever report if a sling isn't working or isn't sensitive nobody will report it i've never had a single person report love it when says they love it you're like oh the game's a little easier today and you're like yeah the left sling's not firing because that leaf came out like so that's one of those in a previous episode we talked about how to talk to an operator report issues ain't nobody reporting that so that's something i gotta be playing i'm like why is the ball rolling off the orbit and then it's just kind of like bouncing on this sling and not doing nothing i hate this like i'm gonna go in there and i'm gonna tune that thing up like and i will say that if you're doing it for yourself at your home like you notice your slings are like not really responsive they will like as the band get stretched out over time it'll get looser so like what it ships as and what it comes to later it's like you need to like tighten that gap because the band will stretch out or you could put a fresh new band on it all those kinds of things that is one thing that i never really thought about prior to coming to wedgehead and it's like i was always trying to get my games to play i just don't like it when my games play too long at home because it kind of feels like what's the point and that was one of the setup things that i don't think i had ever really heard anyone to talk about because it's always like oh well yeah we you know you just turn like disable extra balls and set the tilt tighter like that's kind of all people talk about yeah with with like how to make a game harder and it's like uh the slings i think the biggest thing is you make the slings really sensitive and that game is hard now yeah it just becomes hard like you said just like that that's the only reason they're there is to punish like no shot no i can't think of any games anyway where you make a successful shot and it returns it into a sling. No. It's like... It's missed shots. It's banging stuff around. Missed shots, fumbled balls. You always have an opportunity to not do that. So it's just one of those things that it's like, yeah, it's there to make you fight for control. And like me and Alan talk about a lot, fighting for control is the best part about pinball. I mean, it's a big part of what keeps it interesting to me. Yeah. That's what makes it more fun than playing like an arcade game. So, okay. Going from there, last one, I keep saying this, but last one in these excuses would be outlane posts okay so yeah so this is like on most games there are posts on the outlanes and a lot of games they have like maybe like three holes and an operator can closer to the flippers further away from the flippers or right in the middle and that's just making the literal physical size of the outlane where a ball can drain wider or thinner yep so it's if it's wider more balls are going to drain out there if it's thinner it's going to be harder to drain off the side it's not rocket science but in some people a lot of like big tournaments and tournament directors when you're dealing with really good players they'll just pull post out completely and again or if you're a player like i know serious tournament players that have a game at their house that they practice on and they will do that to their own games because they want to bastardized really hard version of that game super tight still right like because it's like and and they'll pull the outlanes out because they're like it's like training in weighted clothing that's exactly like a weighted bat it's like when you go swing a weighted bat and then you go pick up your own bat and you feel like superman yeah because you're like that's the nice part about these things that you can do easily they put these in pinball machines they want you to have the ability to tune things like this to make the gameplay how you want to play with like the outlane posts it's just funny because it's like they do have a factory default setting i know at wedge you respect the factory default settings i can't think of a single game you have on the floor where you open them but in the old manuals i can't remember what i had a game that i was flipping through the manual on and it specifically identified the outlane posts it must have been a solid state where they were still novel yeah and uh and it was like and there was a way to check in the audits it was it was probably high speed because i think high speed was one of the first games with audits and so you could check if the ball had been draining left center or right so you could check they let you do that in stern games too so you could see where most of the drains are and it was like if you notice one of these numbers is out of like if if they're getting it doesn't seem equal yeah that the outlane posts exist to equal out those drains so that way it doesn't always feel like when you go play that game you don't want a game where it's like you always drain straight down the middle you always go down the left out lane you always go down the right outline my interpretation of that anyway is that ideally you want it to be one third one third one third and that way the game feels fair it feels like it's not just fucking you one way over and over sure and they let that happen like you could tune that as the owner as the operator until it's like you can equal it out make the gameplay fair it's not like it was a thing there and it's like hey increase your earnings do this it's a way to just kind of like balance out the game because when the games leave the factory they don't know it's going to be perfect or not like a game you never know how it going to be received until it out on the Y And it adjustable right It just like what we saying It adjustable for the operator or if you a home collector or whatever It how do you want them to play How hungry do you want the outlanes to be? And you can change them. We typically keep our outlanes factory. There are a few games where I'll be like, God, this game plays forever. And I'll open them all the way up. We don't really usually remove post ever. But sometimes there's also rubbers on post. I pull rubbers a lot on my games because I'm lazy and that's the easiest way. So some people will say that makes it harder because it's harder to kind of bounce it off the post. Some people will say it makes it easier. I don't know. I don't like to get into the weeds of that because I think it's like sometimes it is easier, sometimes it is harder. It's how the ball is bouncing. But also what some people got to realize is a game will ship from the factory like Foo Fighters without rubbers on the post. Deadpool will ship from the factory without rubbers on the post. And people are like, what happened? And this guy pulled these rubbers off to make the game harder and to steal all our money. I was like, that's how it shipped, dude. I didn't take those rubbers off. They just shipped that way. Yeah, that's always funny when people think they, like, have spotted something. That's a lot of, like, this setup stuff, I think, why we wanted to talk about this, is so many people will identify something and they think the operator's doing this to, like, get them. And 99% of the time, it's factory default. And if you've seen it a different way, someone did it to make the game easier. A lot of times they'll change things to make it easier. It's rare that people really, outside of tournament directors at big tournaments, they're the only people I can think of that regularly set games to be harder. Yes. Home collectors set them to be easier. Almost always. Almost always. Yeah. That's it. It's funny because it's like we joke about that a lot. It's like, when are there mods coming out that make the game harder? Yeah. Because there's so many games that I think would benefit from being shorter playing, and you just don't see it. But that's why. These are the things to be aware of. these are the things you can change to make a game more difficult okay so going back going back up the list a little bit uh we should talk about aftermarket toy mods and uh lighting changes i think you can kind of lump those together maybe yeah i would say that aftermarket toy mods some people will add like little action figures there's a whole mod community that will make like little interactive toys or little light up toys yeah uh that you can kind of wire into your machines they didn't come from the factory some people like the look of them they put them in their game that's fine we don't put them on any of our games one they're expensive two i think they rarely look very good some do don't jump on me for saying that i think most of them look 3d printed and they're fine they're if they're your taste and you want them on your game at your house that's totally fine the reason i don't do them is one they cost money two they weren't factory and i don't like the way they look most of the time three they create ball traps that's what i was gonna say every time i've played like a heavily modded game on location like full of like figures and stuff you just get a stuck ball and you're like why would you do that to a game on location i mean even why would you do that to a game on at home pulling the least at home at least at home you could pull it off and you've made that decision you were the one that bought the mod you were the one that installed the mod the one that's playing the game oh you're like i hate pulling the glass every other game but stone cold steve austin looks so sick on my wwe you're like you got a little action figure and there's might be one that i'd be okay with ramp and you're like oh yeah but it is funny because it's like that's this isn't really that's why i kind of wanted to talk about this in lighting since like these are cosmetic setup things they're not things that i wanted to say that i'm not going to name the place but i went to a place in a large u.s city i won't even name the city because i don't want to i don't want to call them out they're a great location they do a great job they buy a lot of really nice games and they put every single mod in each one of them and when i was there balls got stuck on three different games i was there for like an hour and three different games multiple times balls got stuck and i had to leave those games i went to go tell the person working the desk they didn't even have the keys and i just had to stop playing they had to turn it's just it became this thing where i'm like man we'd still be playing and we're not playing now thing with like because of these mods cosmetic mods and there are also this is kind of getting outside of like a what i'd consider setup but there are functional mods too like the jerry ramp for rick and morty or sort of rage pro someone has changed like have you ever seen that where the left oh yeah that bond actually looks freaking cool dude i'm trying to get that mod actually that's what i'm saying there are functional mods that's kind of a different thing and i would say that's kind of outside of setup yeah as far as like cosmetic changes to games to me it's like do what you want until it impacts like the playability of the game once you start getting stuck balls it's like i've seen some godzillas that have you know they got really like really well done cool little like building facades added to them that are you know all shaped and stuff again it's not really my preference because it looks inconsistent with the rest of the game and that really bugs me i like things to be like a cohesive package but if like if they're done well there are some mods that are gorgeous and uh that as long as it doesn't impact the game i'm like dude by all means if an operator likes a game enough to be dumping the money into it you know that guy likes pinball and so to me i'm always like that's cool like whatever it's not my game like you don't need like i'm not gonna go dump more money into a game that has cosmetic mods and doesn't but it doesn't hurt me we're cautious of like ball stick anyway after being factory tested from the factory adding extra shit as soon as you start adding like 3d figures it's like okay there's a whole bunch of ball trap yeah and i and i've experienced it on location and we're not going to be that one that location that does that the last thing i'll say about mods if you're going to put them in your game when you go to sell your game whatever you spend on your mods does not add to the price of your game that's like a car okay yes just like a car modifying mod it mod it however you want but don't expect to get that money back the only mod that you can that everyone thinks is a good upgrade and will pay you the cost of the mod on the price of your game is a color dmd swap that's the only one if you have an old like game that has a dmd and somebody puts in a color dmd you can be like and those things cost like whatever 500 bucks your game could be 500 bucks like higher than it would be and people should be willing to pay it because that display, they're taking it from high voltage plasma displays that are starting to outgas now. They're upgrading it to an LED or an LCD, so they run on lower voltage. They can change the colors. So everyone knows that that's an upgrade. Yeah, those ones seem to have a set value. Yeah. And it's like, other than that, mods are so subjective that you just will never... Like, if you price it higher because of the mods, the stars have to align. You have to find the guy that's exactly like you. exactly and and they won't be that's not going to happen so that's kind of our two cents on it i guess as high as if you like them yeah but don't expect to get your money back but as far as other cosmetics like a setup goes lighting lighting this is a big one there's a lot of people call it clown puke or rainbow puke yeah there was the thing when led technology came into existence and they could make different colored LEDs. And a lot of guys bought these colored LEDs and will put them all over their games. I think it should be a crime to do it in GI. Like GI means general illumination. They're the lights that are always on in your game. So you could see like flippers, you can see the slingshots, you can see the entrances to ramps, that kind of stuff. Those lights, not inserts, but like just the GI. Some people go in and put in purple or red or green. It's just terrible. makes this is this pretty subjective because it's like obviously the guys that do this stuff they're like oh well this part this looks great they're like this part of the play field has water on it so i'm going to change the gi around it to blue because water is blue and so now this whole part of the play field is blue but water's clear dude what happens good water's clear this what happens it washes out all of the art on the play again i i don't want to like we said we're not trying to just like preach about what we like because obviously some people like the color Janos Kiss and maybe you could show me one where i would come this is the one where i'm taking a strong stance i'm taking a strong stance on color gi it's a crime don't fucking do it it's trash it's and if you're gonna say i did an led swap and you did that i'll take money off what i'm offering you it's if you have color gi it's terrible you'll see them posted on facebook or craigslist or whatever and like just gi swap and it'll just look terrible there are some operators even in the region who will remain nameless that will do this it's the one thing because that's like with like a when we're talking about that's why i wanted to talk about the um aftermarket toys or whatever because it's like cosmetic mods like knock yourself out it's not as long as it doesn't impact the gameplay and it's like if you do color gi and it's strong enough it does impact the game Yeah, it makes it darker. It makes it difficult to see, and the game just looks like ass. Past that, it's like, and the wrong, if that's done poorly, it really is like the single fastest way to just make a game look horrible to me. And then you get into stuff like under the play field, like inserts, things that light up to show a shot. Now, some people, again, back in the day, these were all light bulbs. They were all incandescent light bulbs. So they were all a warm white, kind of yellowish hue light. If that insert was blue or it was green or it was red, that plastic would be blue, green, or red. So what some guys will go in and do, and they go, oh, green plastic, green light, red plastic, red light, et cetera. I also think that that's asinine because it's like the insert does the color. They're not clear inserts. Now, modern pinball machines that have RGB lights where the lights change, they have clear inserts, and then in the programming, they change what color is showing when. That's a different thing. what people do is they go back on these 90s games or whatever and they they match it again to each their own that is less offensive to me although it's still it's still something that i do not do and do not like if i'm speaking for myself personally i think color gi is a crime i think insert like color leds color is whatever okay whatever man if that's what you want to do that's fine it looks off it usually makes them look darker to me than they should it's like you see like a blue insert instead of being like a bright blue insert that you can read the text it's like a dark blue yeah it's like indigo like violet blue you're looking at like a christmas light or like an led christmas light yeah you can't read it usually and so it's to me it's kind of like it's like a misstep but it's not like it's it's offensive and it doesn't like make the game more difficult to play yeah but it's just like why would you do it it's a see it's just It's aesthetics. If you're LED swap in a solid state, like, what are you doing, man? There's a reason to swap from incandescence to LEDs, and it's heat. Yeah. And it's brightness. Okay, so. And just the length of time, like, between bulb swaps. When you're running the machine 12 hours a day. Yeah, so LEDs don't burn out. They don't cup. Almost ever. Run on way less voltage. They don't cup inserts from the heat over time. And I do believe in swapping. If you're on location, even if you're taking EMs or solid states, doing an LED swap makes sense because those games will be on. If you're a home collector, like Alex leaves incandescents in his older games, and it's fine because he doesn't have them on most of the time. It's fine. But I think it is worth it. What we do is we swap all of our LEDs with warm white. Everything's warm white. GI is warm white, warm white under every insert because incandescent bulbs, when these games came out, were all warm white. That's the way they came from the factory. That's the way I think they look best. Me and my partner, Rhodesy, that's what we do. It's always warm white. And so we only buy one type of bulb. It's warm white. That's what I was going to say. I don't know why you would choose to overthink this. And it's like, I think people, it's like, it's tinkering. It's like they want to make it their own. And it's fine. I was like, well, this is going to look cool. And it's like, dude, it was designed one way. Why? Again, why would you overthink it? Why would you go against that? If you want to do it, that's on you. It's not an upgrade if you make me have to pull out all these colored LEDs and put in warm white LEDs like it should have. Oh, absolutely. Like, it's like, oh, this is worse than if you had given to me. Now, if you had incandescence and you did a full warm white LED swap for me and I didn't have to do that, I'm like, oh, cool. Thanks. Like, if you did like the LEDs add up. Like, that's actually, like, a couple hundred bucks. Yeah, it'll cost me over a hundred bucks to do an LED swap on a game. What's next on our list here? I think there's just sort of, like... Software... Oh, software modifications. Software modifications. That's actually... Okay, I kind of got into the... So, software modifications to game settings, which you just mean modifying, like, factory settings. Yeah, so every game starts with factory default, means you hit this thing three times, it lights the lock, you lock three balls, right? You start a multiball. You can, on pretty much every game, you can change those settings. You can change them a lot. You can change them a lot. We don't. I leave them factory. I was going to say, it's pretty rare. I've played a lot of locations and the games that I know well enough to recognize factory default settings. It's pretty rare to see a game in the wild that's not on factory default. It's like a modern game, that is. Yeah. And that's kind of for a reason, because when you start messing with that, it really will make it difficult for the player to know like you can change stuff if you've never owned a pinball machine if you've never messed with the settings yourself it's like you can go in there and you can make it so you only need to hit one shot before you qualify a mode or you need to hit 30 shots and the default might be six that stuff really changes how a game plays so operators don't touch it don't really touch it you don't really i don't think a ton of home collectors do but there is a some there is a some collectors that'll change it to five ball play they'll put extra balls to the max they'll they'll do that kind of stuff my i change software settings at home a ton on my stuff oh really okay quite a bit it depends i guess you're one of the only ones that makes it harder that's what i was gonna say it's nice because it's a really really really easy way because it's like no fear right we've talked about no fear on the show before and it's kind of a one note game you're kind of trying to get to this wizard mode every time that's like the big multiball or whatever and that's very easy if you can get like three multi-balls so having the game set or three extra balls i mean so it's like having the game set to one extra ball instead of the whatever the default might be i can't even remember right yeah yeah it's like that's one of those games where it's like i really want to get the extra balls and and you save the outlane saver yep i mean where you actually have to hit the targets yeah the outline yep so the outlane save does not start lit you have to go manually light it whereas a normal richie game they give you a free outlane save off the bat and so it like there are little tweaks like that i mean it not unheard of like operators will change some of that stuff in the older games you would probably run into it more like especially solid states because a lot of the time that's like not really a clear factory default but for the most part it's like modern games don't get touched and it's uh like on the old still only do it on locate they'll again big tournaments they'll change it the big tournaments they'll change it but really they'll usually tell you what they changed yeah right they'll usually tell you what they changed on 30s and so it's just something to be aware of if you own a game i think by all means like dig into the setting and see what you can change because it can be kind of fun sometimes it can be like if you're if you're bad at the game if you're about to sell it i know a lot of people set the game to 10 ball make sure they see the wizard mode before they list it up for sale i don't do that because i'm not a coward i want to earn my stuff yeah exactly dude but stolen bauer but by all means when you own a seven thousand dollar toy yeah it's your it's your toy you want and i think that's kind of the the big gist of this episode is it's like when you own the thing you can do whatever you want we wanted to make this so you kind of are aware of what to look for and how it'll there are different ways to adjust games and you're not just crazy you go to different places than they play different yeah it's because there's so many different variables on each game so yep these are some of the variables the last thing i think we gotta touch on is a new thing and i think it's sort of like snake oil shit it's we're talking about flipper modifications which are the the modifications made to the actual flipper mechs themselves and namely like precision flippers which are like the cnc machined flipper bats out of aluminum and they're supposed to be more precise than the plastic bat that goes through it's this whole system they cost a few hundred dollars or don't they cost like expensive i think it's like 100 or 200 bucks for yeah it's like 200 bucks for like two bucks a bat okay yeah that's 150 of a three flipper game kind of thing yeah and yeah it's literally replacing the plastic bat you know the thing that never matters like that that you play pinball with everywhere that has the cheap plastic bat that always works have you ever watched so there's that youtube channel the slow-mo guys or what i can't remember what it is and they they did that feature i think it was on a wonka where they have like super super yeah and they show the way the ball bounces off the bat right and they show the the rubber lifting off of the bat yeah and it flexes yeah the rubber is lifting the bat you can watch that the bat doesn't bend at all the bat's not absorbing the energy the rubber is moving so much under the ball that's what's doing it and so to me it's like i've not played with a precision flipper i know a lot of guys online will swear by them now they're not awful because they're awful in and of itself they're awful because every game ever has plastic bats and if you're spending the money to do this then you're just getting yourself accustomed to the micro changes that the aluminum bat is and then it ruins you for other shit that's like like to me what's the point why you always every game you've ever played has these plastic bats and it plays fine you're able to hit shots you're able to hit ramps it's a game of skill everyone knows that these things are like why would you need these and it's exactly there's nothing against the guy that created them or whatever the people that buy them it's just they're complete they're so unnecessary it's kind of crazy to me it would be like if you how big is a normal pinball is it seven eighths of an inch i think i can't remember something like that it would be like if you made a pinball that was 90 the size and it was compatible with every game and you start talking online about how this pinball makes the games faster and the shots easier and it's great and every game should have this pinball and my question would be why yeah it's and that's the thing you're like even if these bats do everything they're advertised like advertised to i'm just like is that what the goal is with this game argument is like we just can't dial in your shots with regular flippers that's not true the best players in the world play on plastic bats it doesn't it is you watch a good player play they have no problem repeating the same shot over and over on plastic bats these precision flippers are in my opinion snake oil that's it like so then next flipper modification has become like very popular online recently and gets discussed on certain games a lot and never once on other games is cooling fans on the flipper coils this is the worst i feel like precision flippers at least you're basically it's kind of an expensive way to do the same thing right like so this is one where i might disagree with you because i think i think flipper fade is like i definitely notice flipper fade now i was just shaking his head silently no very disappointed to be saying that no dude flipper fade is so whack like so what we're saying is there's people out there that claim that as flippers get used the coils heat up it makes them weaker and they go here's the laws of thermodynamics as things get hotter they become less effective that's true do coils heat up yes however that's just how things work and they heat up within spec they change from cold to hot a small percentage of strength like a few percentage points three percent five percent nobody's really measured it really other than pointing a fucking laser uh at at it and measuring an infrared temperature and they're like look it's 10 or 10 degrees hotter without the fans okay but how and they'll they'll miss a shot on a ramp and they'll be like i hit that shot earlier yeah that's how pinball works sometimes you can hit a shot sometimes you can't because you fucking didn't hit the shot you blaming the flipper for suddenly getting too hot and failing is the weakest fucking move i think it's so corny and i find it hard not to just completely dress you down and embarrass you if i see you doing this in real life like i will make fun of you to your fucking face seriously i cannot stress this enough like it's so embarrassing to me i genuinely feel like if people are playing like bram stoker's got a difficult left ramp i genuinely feel like if i play a bram stoker's dracula cold i am able to hit the left ramp easier than after people are playing it that being said i do not think i've ever played a game where i've not i don't think i'm 100 confident i've never played a game where i was unable to make a ramp unless the game was like a complete like neglected copy you know that what the fans will say about the fans is that you're playing a game you're hitting they'll use it mostly on certain games well they're also the games that collectors buy the games are out there and they have the strongest flippers and they make the steep the games with the steepest ramps because they have the strongest flippers that have ever been put in a pinball machine they'll be like oh i have no problem hitting these ramps on godzilla and then all of a sudden they'll be playing long games so they'll be sessioning it and they're like oh i feel like i can't hit that ramp anymore let's go it's not that that ramp is unhittable now because the coils are hot quote unquote it is that you're you've been playing a while and you're not as sharp that's it that's it's just attention and i think it's like you're just you can watch a stream of a great player like you can watch bowen kerns play or you can watch you know people and there's some streamers that that are good players that buy into this and i find it so embarrassing that they're like zoe back on the show and see what she thinks we need to get someone that is like a very high level competitive player and the problem is think about this zoe problem is is that these fans cost 300 okay and they bolt onto your game and they're not doing shit they're they're giving you a placebo effect that's all they are they're placebo now you can measure it you can point a thermometer at it and you can be like hey look at it it's 10 degrees cooler with these flipper fans what the fuck does 10 degrees cooler mean it's bullshit it's now here's the thing people can do whatever they want with their games what you cannot do is go out and tell other people that the game is not right because it doesn't have these $300 fucking fans in it. Yeah, fans that didn't exist five years ago. And that's what I was going to say is it's like none of this shit existed and the games were still being played. What you need is a flipper rebuild. If you can't make a ramp, that game needs a flipper rebuild. It doesn't need fans. I think about this. I would agree with. Think about this, man. If you're sitting there, like as a casual person listening to this episode, think about it in your head. what makes more of a difference all the mechanical pieces being worn out just like your brakes on your car or your tires or whatever if you pulled all that out and put in new replacement parts do you think that's going to make more of a difference or do you think putting a fan on the outside of your car pointed at your brakes is going to make more of a difference think about it you're supposed to do both alan yeah that's i mean that we'll end that there well wait wait wait are we going to do a quick summary of so how do we like to how do we like to set up our games because i would say we do like setting up our games the same yeah i think we're pretty similar yeah what would you how would you describe the wedge head setup uh i would set it up as factory settings on all the software i would set it up on the steeper side although not always the case some games get kind of in the middle but for we'll say steep real rubber warm white led lighting I will add some extra lighting in the trough to illuminate the flippers. I will add some extra spotlights around the playfield, but they're all warm white, no colored LEDs. And I say tight. I think they're moderately tight, but I've been told that they're crazy tight. I just think that those people haven't been to, you know, a big tournament where they've actually had like really tight tilts. I think they're reasonably tight and the slingshots are, those are tight. Yeah. Those are very tight. And I think that's the setup that we do at Wedge. Yeah. And I would agree with that. I would say like the Wedgehead games, like if you've never, if you're a listener and you've never been to Wedgehead, I would just say like, basically it's steep, tight factory. Everything there, you don't modify games to look or play different than they were supposed to when they left the factory. The games are put out of like a reasonably steep angle. they're just not floaty is how I would describe them yeah and the tilts and slings are tight tighter than you would normally see I guess on location but it's like to me it was just funny I really had gassed up like wedgehead before I moved out here to Portland over COVID and so I wasn't able to go to wedge for the first bit after we moved here and I had just really heard of it being like this like fucking pinball thunderdome like it's just like all these games are like the most brutal hardcore games like you've ever played in your life and I showed up and I'm like oh the games like they're more difficult than you know you might run into like at your average bar but i'm like this is all reasonable like it's all like like i really had it in my head like i was gonna go in there and it was gonna be like a big you know like a papa tournament where you're pulling center posts on everything and it's like dude no yeah they're factory they're fair and the best part is they're free play now so you can't complain about any of it i don't think that i really don't believe in my heart of hearts i lean into them people are like oh your games are hard to go thank you you know i just take it as a compliment i just go thank you so much or like no this game is set up so hard they're like you're walking dead it's so hard your fish is so hard to go thank you like you really are trying to flirt with me like thank you so much but it's really not i'm not trying to make them now i know there are some locations that host a lot of tournaments like we say we've mentioned them on the show before my business partner's been down there but lynn's arcade they put lightning flippers which so slow back to our first episode they changed the length of the flipper bats on theirs and that will make the games a little bit harder it's so sick they will make them a little bit harder to go visit lens and so we don't do that i admire it because i personally as a player i like a hard game yeah but we keep ours pretty factory despite all that what you'll hear it's like despite the reputation it's nothing too extreme no i don't think so that's why i just don't want people listening to this i thought it was good to end on that because i don't want people listening to this be like scared of the wedgehead setup or think this is some extreme take it's just like these are all the things to be aware of gives you an excuse to bitch to your buddies if nothing else yeah which really that's what pinball is all about it's about complaining yeah people will complain about they have the wrong rubbers or they got silicone or they don't have silicone or the tilt's too tight or whatever like you're allowed to have your preferences but you're also like you're playing someone else's game and if you're playing your own game then it's like by all means take this information and go mess with your game a bit 100 i think that pretty much covers the setup episode and uh everyone sets up their games differently and that's each their own sort of that's where i'm it's a pinball setup so each their own it is bad taste to go to an operator and complain about the way they're set up i go places where they have you know silenco bands on or they have these you know and i don't that's not my taste that's the or they'll have some like colored LEDs. That's not my taste. They'll have games that are flat. That's not my taste, but I'll play them as long as they're in good working order. And that's totally fine. And I'm not there to complain about the choices they made. Yeah. It may impact which locations I like playing at more than others, but I'm not going to tell someone else what to do with their games. Absolutely not. And sometimes it's nice to take a walk on the other side. You know, when I go out and I play, I'm like, oh, these are so different than the way I set up. Yeah. So sometimes it's like, you're like, oh, this is interesting, right? Like it's just It's so different, right? And that's the beauty of pinball. But to all the listeners out there, we'd like to thank you for listening and just encourage you to go out, play some pinball. Play some pinball on location. If you have games at home, mess with your setup. Buy something out. Next time you place a parts order, buy some different flipper rubbers. Buy some Titans or buy some Durabands. Or if you've already swapped, try playing with regular rubber for a while again and sort of see how that plays or change your tilt settings or whatever. Go into the options like Alex was saying and, like, jump it up or down in levels of difficulty and see how that feels for you. If you've got a Lord of the Rings, really recommend sending it to one ball max. Makes the game way more engaging to me. Alex was speaking from experience. Yeah. And, yeah, just have fun with it. But, yeah, we thank you for listening. Until next time, good luck. Don't suck. _(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_ --- *Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 25b92ecf-f15b-409a-a7d0-b0c2a08946ae*