# Pinball Tips with Eric Stone 2025

**Source:** Pintastic New England  
**Type:** video  
**Published:** 2026-02-02  
**Duration:** 45m 28s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uPEXxd9AHik

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## Analysis

Eric Stone, a competitive pinball player and meteorologist, conducts a pinball tutorial with a new player named Alicia on a Gottlieb Premier game from the 1984-1985 era. The session demonstrates the importance of learning game rules and mastering ball control techniques like live catches and trap-ups, showing how understanding strategy significantly improves scores. Stone contrasts the difficulty and flipper mechanics of older Gottlieb games with modern Stern machines, emphasizing the challenge curve for new players.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Eric Stone played Hollywood Heat at a bowling alley when he is 10 years old — _Stone discusses personal history: 'This game, believe it or not, I actually played this when I was 10 years old at a bowling alley... they had this Hollywood Heat.'_
- [HIGH] The Gottlieb Premier game is from 1984-1985 era — _Stone states: 'This may be the first what we call a Gottlieb Premier game that come out. I think it had to be 1984, 1985, because that's about when I was 10 years old.'_
- [HIGH] Modern Stern games have easier flipper control and ball management compared to 1980s Gottlieb games — _Stone repeatedly emphasizes: 'It's not like a modern Stern where you kind of have some play with the flippers' and contrasts flipper mechanics throughout the tutorial._
- [HIGH] Alicia's first game score on the Gottlieb Premier was 458,000 points — _Stone confirms during rules explanation: 'So 458,000. All right? So the rule is you want to shoot these holes...'_
- [HIGH] Stone's first game score on the Gottlieb Premier was approximately 1,001,000 points — _Stone states: 'you guys remember the score I got on the first game, I got a million one, okay, and I didn't know where the shots were'_
- [HIGH] X-Men pinball has offset flippers on the left side with a large open space on the right, similar to this Gottlieb game's layout — _Stone draws comparison: 'have any of you guys played the new X-Men game? You notice that the flippers are kind of offset on this, right? So the flippers are on the left hand side. There's no flipper over here, but there's a big space...'_
- [HIGH] Older Gottlieb Premier games have weak flipper strength making it difficult to reach certain ramps — _Stone recalls: 'I remember the flippers when I was a kid being so weak that you were lucky to get the ball up this ramp.'_
- [HIGH] The Gottlieb Premier game does not tilt easily, allowing aggressive nudging without penalty — _Stone assures: 'Do you tilt? No, you can see it doesn't tilt, so feel free to go like this. You won't tilt this. I guarantee it, because if I can't tilt it, then you won't tilt it.'_

### Notable Quotes

> "So people that don't know me, I do the weather in Florida, you know, meteorologists, all that good stuff, and then somehow I got into playing pinball."
> — **Eric Stone**, Opening
> _Establishes Stone's professional background and how he became involved in competitive pinball._

> "The first thing you want to do is you want to hit these locks. As soon as the ball comes down, you want to shoot it right back up top. That's all you want to do."
> — **Eric Stone**, Mid-session strategy explanation
> _Core teaching point summarizing the primary objective for this game's strategy._

> "It's not like a modern Stern where you kind of have some play with the flippers. It's not easy."
> — **Eric Stone**, Difficulty comparison
> _Highlights the mechanical challenge difference between eras of pinball machines._

> "They screwed me."
> — **Eric Stone**, During gameplay demonstration
> _Stone explains this phrase as a tribute to a deceased friend who would use it when Star Wars pinball had glitchy code._

> "So you're seeing me improve. And that really correlates to everybody. You're going to be able to do that every single time. I have faith in you."
> — **Eric Stone**, End of tutorial section
> _Summarizes the core lesson about score improvement through learning and practice._

> "Now, you don't want to hold the flipper up. Okay, now just flip. Because when you hold the flipper up on these old Gottlieb games, you get into trouble."
> — **Eric Stone**, Advanced technique coaching
> _Key technical difference in playing vintage vs. modern pinball machines._

> "I like to repeat the same shots over and over, especially if there's a playfield that's upper. Like an upper playfield where I know that I can't lose the ball."
> — **Eric Stone**, Strategy explanation
> _Explains Stone's 'chopping wood' gameplay philosophy for risk management._

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Eric Stone | person | Professional competitive pinball player, meteorologist from Florida, known for providing pinball strategy tips and tutorials; plays in tournaments and is referenced as an elite competitive player (The Meteorologist). Conducts this tutorial session. |
| Alicia | person | Student/new player from Rhode Island participating in pinball tutorial with Eric Stone. First-time player on this Gottlieb Premier game. |
| Dwight Sullivan | person | Deceased friend of Eric Stone who was a Star Wars pinball player and would say 'they screwed me' when experiencing glitches in the original Star Wars code. Passed away from cancer a couple years prior to this recording. |
| Jim Sullivan | person | Coded or designed the original Star Wars pinball game that had glitchy elements referenced by Dwight Sullivan. |
| Chris Joe | person | Referenced in passing during closing remarks; mentioned in context of tournament performance comparison. |
| Sierra | person | Previously participated in Eric Stone's tutorials and almost beat one of his high scores a couple years ago. |
| Hollywood Heat | game | Pinball machine from bowling alley where Eric Stone played at age 10; described as an obscure game. |
| Gottlieb Premier | game | Vintage pinball machine from 1984-1985 era featured in this tutorial. Notable for weak flippers, off-center flipper layout, difficult ball control compared to modern games. |
| X-Men | game | Modern Stern Pinball game referenced for comparison. Features offset flippers and the 'Danger Room' (Jack Danger room) with large open space, similar layout concept to the Gottlieb game being demonstrated. |
| Star Wars | game | Pinball machine that had glitchy code in its original release, referenced through anecdote about Dwight Sullivan's experience. |
| Medieval Madness | game | Referenced during gameplay as part of bonus multiplier sequence discussion alongside Heavy Metal Meltdown. |
| Heavy Metal Meltdown | game | Referenced during gameplay as part of bonus multiplier sequence discussion alongside Medieval Madness. |
| Banana Flipper games | game | Generic reference to pinball machines with difficult or unusual flipper mechanics, mentioned as less desirable than Stern machines. |
| Whirlwind | game | Referenced as a classic game with standard flipper layout, contrasted with the Gottlieb Premier's off-center design. |
| Walking Dead | game | Referenced as a modern game with standard flipper mechanics, used for comparison with Gottlieb Premier's challenging layout. |
| Stern Pinball | company | Modern pinball manufacturer. Games are repeatedly referenced as having superior flipper control and easier playability compared to vintage Gottlieb machines. |
| Gottlieb | company | Vintage pinball manufacturer. Their 1980s machines are featured as examples of difficult ball control and weak flipper design. |
| Bally | company | Classic pinball manufacturer; games referenced as having better flipper mechanics than Gottlieb but different characteristics than modern Stern games. |
| Williams | company | Classic pinball manufacturer referenced alongside Bally in discussions of historical flipper mechanics. |
| Pintastic New England | event | Event where this pinball tutorial is being conducted. |
| Jack Danger | person | Pinball designer referenced in context of X-Men machine's 'Danger Room' feature on the playfield. |
| Robin | person | Person referenced as having taught Eric Stone a ball control technique ('Good stop there. Control the ball. I learned that from you, Robin.'). |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Ball control and trapping techniques, Live catch and flipper timing, Game rules learning and strategy comprehension, Vintage Gottlieb vs modern Stern machine differences, Flipper mechanics and weak flipper design challenges, Score progression through skill development, Pinball tutorial and teaching methodology
- **Secondary:** Competitive pinball strategy

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.85) — Eric Stone is encouraging and patient with Alicia throughout the tutorial. He demonstrates genuine passion for pinball and its mechanics, uses humor and personal anecdotes effectively. The tone is educational and mentoring. Some frustration emerges when explaining the difficulty of certain shots, but this is directed at the game mechanics, not the student. Overall very supportive coaching atmosphere.

### Signals

- **[community_signal]** Eric Stone conducting educational pinball tutorial at Pintastic New England event, demonstrating commitment to growing the player base and teaching new players proper techniques. (confidence: high) — Full tutorial session showing Stone methodically teaching ball control, rules learning, and strategy to a new player with patience and clear instruction.
- **[competitive_signal]** Emphasis on consistent shot execution and ball control as primary competitive skills, with multiball strategy as core game objective for this title. (confidence: high) — Stone's strategy centers on locking balls and shooting ramps for multiball, then hitting drop targets repeatedly (50,000 points each). 'What I like to do is what's called chopping wood... repeat the same shots over and over.'
- **[design_philosophy]** Stark mechanical differences between 1980s Gottlieb flipper design (weak, offset, difficult control) and modern Stern machines (responsive, user-friendly, forgiving) demonstrated through direct comparison and gameplay. (confidence: high) — Stone repeatedly contrasts the machines: 'It's not like a modern Stern where you kind of have some play with the flippers' and demonstrates how holding flipper position works differently on Gottlieb vs Stern games.

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## Transcript

 Who's our student today? So what's your name? Alicia. Alicia. Do you play football? Okay. Where are you from? Oh, you're from Rhode Island. Okay. She plays in New Hampshire and Rhode Island. So people that don't know me, I do the Carl Weathers in Florida, you know, meteorologists, all that good stuff, and then somehow I got into playing pinball. This game, believe it or not, I actually played this when I was 10 years old in a bowling alley. I used to sneak out. My parents wouldn't know that I'd ride my bike to the bowling alley, and they had this Hollywood heat. So I'm very familiar with this game, believe it or not, even though it's kind of an obscure game. So as usual, what I'm going to do is I'm going to have Alicia play a game without saying a word. And I just want to show the importance of, first of all, knowing the rules of the game. And then second of all, being able to control the ball, trap the ball up, try to catch the ball, keep the ball under control. And I want to see the scores progress from the very first game that you walk up to a game. Now, you've never played this before, right? Not many people have. This may be the first what we call Gottlieb Premier game that come out. I think it had to be 1984, 1985, because that's about when I was 10 years old. So we're going to have her play one game. We're going to see what score she gets. And then after that, I'm going to tell her what to do, like the objectives and the strategy of the game. And I'll actually show her how to do that and show her a couple of the ways to control the ball. Now, this is a very interesting layout. I don't know if you can see. I guess you can't really see. Okay, there we go. So, right here, have any of you guys played the new X-Men game? You notice that the flippers are kind of offset on this, right? So the flippers are on the left hand side. There's no flipper over here, but there's a big space, so you kind of want to stay away. This would be the danger room on X-Men. So again, when you plunge the ball, the ball is going to come up top here, and you've got a couple of flippers, and then obviously, you know, once that comes down, it'll come down to this flipper and then I'll tell you what to do after that. So Alicia, here, we'll go ahead, we'll play one game. Yep, yep, yeah it is. So yep, so just play one game and we're going to watch what she does and I'm going to play a game and go through the strategy and then once she knows the strategy, we're going to see how her score improves, which you guys' score will improve too, from when you start playing the game for the first time and then you start to know what you're doing. It's very important in pinball. Know what you're doing first and then try to control the ball. So go ahead and plunge the ball. And we'll see what happens. Oh, look at that. Now, what she just did, she just did a live catch. Without me even saying anything, she caught the ball with that top right flipper. So that's a really good skill to do. Very good. Okay, here it comes. This has got that funky 80s music. I mean, I really love it, you know. Any of you guys that know pinballs from this era, the music is always really, really good. All right, now, yeah, you can see at the very top there's small flippers. Now, see, right now she's just shooting for whatever because she doesn't really know the rules of the game. That was a good stop there. Control the ball. I learned that from you, Robin. Good, good. You probably learned that from me last night. I had to play banana flipper games, and so that didn't work out too well. Did you? You did? Yeah, I didn't. I'd much rather have played a couple of sterns than banana flippers. Now, that was very good what you did there. So what she's already doing is she realized that when the ball comes out from the top, she can flip it right as the ball's coming out. That's what we call a live catch. So right now, she's in no danger whatsoever, and she has a lot of control. So that's really the key of what you want to do in pinball. You want to be able to trap that ball any way possible so that now she can make whatever shot she wants. Right, right. But again, right now, you don't know what you're doing because you don't know the rules of this game. You've never played this before. And that's how I am on a lot of games that, you know, older games that I don't know. Do you like the music? Oh, it's great. Isn't it? So once you start locking balls, the music really starts amping up. Have any of you guys ever seen this game before? Oh, okay. So a lot of you have. This isn't one... I don't think I've seen this game since maybe I was a kid. I never see it in tournaments, but I would love to have it in tournaments. Look at that. All right. Oh. Now remember, there's Tom Clippers up there. Oh, look at that. Oh, that was bad. Bad luck there. All right. So now we're going to see what the score was. So you got your initials in there. You know how to put initials in this? No. So these buttons. Here's another way to play pinball. These buttons on these older games, see how it's alternating the. Yep. And then when you have the letter you want, you hit the start button. Okay? And now do the second letter. There you go. And you can go backwards with it. Oh, yeah, I should go backwards. Yep, there you go. This is the hardest part of the game, is trying to put your initials when you get a high score. Alright, there we go. Okay, so now we're going to go over the rules. So what you want to do is, what's that? What's the score? 458,000. So 458,000. All right? So the rule is you want to shoot these holes because these are locks. Okay? So when you have the ball here, you want to shoot this side to get that lock. And where's the other one? Right around. Around the corner. Yep, yep, yep. Right around the corner. When you shoot both locks, the way to get multiball is to shoot this ramp. And I remember the flippers when I was a kid being so weak that you were lucky to get the ball up this ramp. But I saw her do it already. So that's good. Now, when the ball's down here, the only thing I want to do is get it back up top. Okay? The way I play a game is called chopping wood. Anybody that's seen me play before, I like to repeat the same shots over and over, especially if there's a play field that's upper, right? Like an upper play field where I know that I can't lose the ball. So what you want to do, what I'm going to do is I'm going to play a game. Obviously, the 1, 2, 3, that's the bonus multiplier. And a lot of the older games, you know, the top lanes are bonus multipliers. So you actually had, I think, up to 3 or 4X. So that was good. But you can alternate. So I'm going to play this game. You can alternate the lanes 1, 2, and 3 because it's a new enough game. Some of the older games, you can't alternate the lanes. You're just kind of stuck with it. alternate where it's lit. Yeah, alternate where it's lit. So all I'm going to try to do is I'm going to try to get these two, okay, and then shoot it back up here. So what you want to do is you all you want to see the wide open space. The ramp isn't really wide open, right? But this space is wide open. So what I want to do is I want to shoot that, okay? So the first thing I'm going to do is I'm going to try to lock balls, all right? Now you had a very interesting thing where you could stop the ball. I didn't quite do it. Almost. Now see how I let the flipper go so it bounced back up on it. I mean, that's, you don't know it's going to do that. Let's see if we can get that. That's when we say, Norman, they screwed me. And you are allowed to say that. So anybody that's hearing me say that, Norman was a really, really, really, really good friend of mine. and she passed away of cancer a couple of years ago. So she would always say, Dwight, you know, like she bought Mandalorian and in the original code, there were a few things that were a little glitchy, if you know Mandalorian. And Dwight Sullivan, I guess, you know, coded the game or made the game. So she would always say, oh, they screwed me. And I said, they? Who's they? So I always say, Norman, they screwed me. So anyway, so now you guys know. So now see how the numbers up there, I can alternate them? Mm-hmm. Okay. So now the music will change, I think. See how the music changed? Okay, now I've got that. Now this is my favorite music. Now we can dance to it. Yeah, can we? No, no, it might mess with the audio. I mean, if it was up to me. Okay, so now see how the two's lit? Now the one's lit. So now I got everything done up top. So all I want to do is hit the drop targets, which I didn't really talk about. Now watch this. Do you see how I ski passed it over? Now I got control. Isn't that cool? So normally you would think, okay, I got to make one shot, right? But I held this flipper up, it passed it over, and it worked this time. So it's like, oh, great, I got control. Now if I want to get the ball over here, I'm going to try to do a post pass. I don't know if it's going to work on this game because it's a little bit, it's wide. So if I flip really quick, it's going to hit here, bounce here. I want it on this flipper, right? Nope, it didn't work. Let's try it again. Nope. So I say, okay, can't do it. Or maybe you can, but you got to do it harder. But again, there's a lot of experimentation with games when you haven't played them. All right, so here we go. So the drop targets, see how the drop targets are at, I believe it's like 10,000. So we're going to do it again. Now I can already tell that's going to go too far. So that's probably not a good idea. So let's try to shoot that ramp. So now I got multiball. So now I'm just going to go crazy here, right? And remember, when the ball is down bottom, all I'm going to try to do is hit the ball up top. That's all you want to do. Hit the ball up top. and you can hit the ball up top just like that. Did you see that? That little trick over there? That was pretty cool. So I'm watching the bottom and the top, which it can be hard, you know, to try to keep track. Oh, there goes that. Okay. So the drop targets, see how they're up to 50,000 now? Each time you complete one, it lights one light. Okay. When you complete the other, it lights the other light. The only way you can advance to the next light is if you hit both sets. So in multiball, that's the best thing to do. All right, so here we go. So now I got the lock slid again. I'm going to try to hit the lock. And there's really not much control in the top because the flippers are really small. So I usually just shoot on the fly. So here we go. Let's try to hit up. Now there no not quite It actually not an easy shot So you see what I did I decided not to hold the flipper up to bring it over here I just shot what we call a one shot So as soon as it comes down try to shoot up here Okay So now I got the one lit. All right. So now I need to hit the ramp again. But I want to hit the drop targets because that's all I got left. I can't do anything else up top except hit the drop targets. And I believe they're 50,000 every time I complete. So that's actually a lot of points in this game. So all I'm doing right now, now I'm going to try to hit the ramp. Oh, missed it. Now, see that? That was what we call a drop catch. so I'm going to try to shat it over which is kind of trying to move it over okay that's another thing we do do we need that microphone that fell off the pinball is also testing the tilt okay so I guess we'll throw my initials in here now remember you're not allowed to beat this score okay? Because they won't let me do any seminars if you beat the score. Okay, well, I'm just checking, you know, because Sierra almost did a couple years ago. Okay, so now you know what to do, all right? The first thing you want to do is you want to hit these locks. As soon as the ball comes down, you want to shoot it right back up top. That's all you want to do. And as soon as these locks, you have both of these, shoot the drop targets and then try to shoot this. This game down below, as you can see, is very hard to get control. I may play one more game just to test one other thing on it, but now that you know the rules, I want you to play it, and I want you to see if you get more than the $458,000, which you should because now you know what you're doing. These numbers, I don't really worry about these numbers. I think they just add bonus. and you asked about this captive ball. So if you happen to hit this, it will pop this ball into the pop bumper. So you'll get free points, but it's risky. And you're not really getting that much in free points. So when the ball comes down here, you want to try to shoot this one. Yep, or with this shot. Yep, yep, yep. All right, here we go. Let's see if it worked, everybody. Okay. Good, yeah, there we go. Now remember the numbers will alternate, so you want to make sure you hit a lit one. See it's one, two, there you go. Now try to get the other lock. Okay now try to shoot up top. Oh yeah, very nice. Now remember you want to keep the number, okay. Shoot up top. All right, oh boy, try to hold the ball. Now, this is a hard shot to do, but if you hit it on the end of the flipper, you can shoot it back up here, up to the top. So try doing that. Almost. Now hold it. Okay, flip. Now, did you see the ball was about ready to go down, so she flipped. There you go. Okay, that's good. Now hold the flipper up. There you go. That's the ski pass. So by holding the flipper up, she was able to have it come down and go here and then try to take a shot at it. So again, so what I like to do is, I like to have a shot with each flipper. What am I going to do if the ball is on the right flipper? What am I going to do if the ball is on the left flipper? So the ball is on the right flipper. I want to shoot this. It's very risky because it's a hard shot, but it's the only way with this flipper to get it up top. So go for it. Oh, almost. Again. Okay. There you go. Okay, it's going down. Now see? So as soon as the ball was going up like this, you know it's going down, so you want to try to flip it. Okay, so now try to get the one, but remember your flipper's moving, so flip, flip. Okay. Shoot that lock. Now shoot it back up top. Almost. Okay, very nice how you caught that. Once you get this shot down, it's going to be a lot easier for you. Okay, not quite. Pull the flipper up. There you go. Now see that? She held the flipper up. It's all about control. Okay, now try to shoot back up top. Almost. Now it's gonna go! Ah, see that? So again, this is a very, very hard game. It's not like a modern Stern where you kind of have some play with the flippers. It's not easy. All right, flip flip. Yeah, sometimes it's like... Okay, hit that other lock. Now shoot back up top. There you go. All right. Very nice. Now shoot it late. Okay. I know, yeah. It's not easy. Uh-oh. Very nice. Now shoot it. Nope. Ooh, okay, here we go. Lock shot. Oh, see, it was coming up top. So that ramp will feed up top. Now hold it there. Okay, now shoot in the very end of the flipper to hit it up this thing. Uh-oh. All right. That's okay. That's alright. Not quite the other score, so we'll just do this. Alright, so I'm gonna have you do it again. So when you hit this ramp, it's gonna go to this flipper up top. So you wanna flip. You see what I'm saying? Yep. all right so you kind of know the rules now right all right so try to flip late okay now hold it all right very oh that's hit it that's a normal they screwed you but that's okay almost okay now just try to get back up top oh boy you got to flip on that one Okay, so I could tell up here that it was going to... Again, this is a very, very hard game to learn on because it's these wonky, gottly, premier flippers from the 80s. Yeah, and they're off-center too. So it's not like Whirlwind and Walking Dead, you know, the things we've done in the past. There you go. Okay, okay, now shoot it right away up top. There you go. One. There you go. Nice. Okay, almost. and I'll shoot it right away when it comes down. Alright, that's fine. Uh oh. Very nice. Now you can hold...no. Okay, good. Now, on this game you don't...I'm gonna flip. Yeah, see? It's a very, very hard game. It's a hard game to learn. Alright, here we go. Now don't tell me your best score is gonna be when you didn't know what you were doing. Probably. We can't have that. No, that would just keep your tutorial. Now, okay. Now shoot it. There you go. Now when you shoot up there, when you shoot it up top like that. Okay. Try to get control there. Okay. Ah, all right. Blew it. Well, let's see how close you got. Oh, you were close. All right. So I'm going to play one more. Just to try to, I'm going to try to simplify it even more. So let's see control wise what we can do up top. So when it came up top you were able to stop it a couple times, right? So I'm going to see if I can stop it. See that? Okay, so I'm going to have you try to do that. So when the ball gets to about here I want you to flip. That's what you call a live catch. So the ball is live and you're flipping up right as the ball gets to the flipper. So now I'm in control. So now I'm going to try to shoot this really hard shot, which is hard, believe it or not. Now I'm going to try to do the same exact thing, okay? And it's very hard to do on little flippers, but you can see you can do it, okay? So now what I'm going to try to do is I'm going to try to shoot up here so it comes back down here and then get the other lock, all right? So there's that, there's that, and I missed it. So now see how I let it bounce? Oh, so there we go. So normally they screwed me again, right? So now I'm just trying to keep it up top as long as I can because I'm getting points and there's no risk, right? So I just gave the game a little bit of a nudge because I saw that it was bouncing. It was bouncing off of here. If I didn't nudge it, it would have gone down. I gave it a little nudge this way so that it hit here and bounced over. So even though this is so small up here, the flippers are small, you can still nudge the game with the balls up top. So here we go. We're going to try to get that lock. So there it is. So again, the shot when you come down here, it's very soon. It's like right here on the flipper. You don't want to wait too long or you're going to get, you know, messed up with all that. So now all I'm going to do is just try to, so that's what I want you to work on. I want you to try to stop it up here every time because if I can do it then I know I saw I saw you do it too so so there was a nudge again so it didn't go down the middle okay so now we're gonna go right away and I can't control it so we're gonna go so now we got multiball now remember there's a flipper up here see that and then this is the best music right is this music great oh that ramp is so easy where was that ramp when I was a kid so now all I'm trying to do is get the balls up top you can't really control like I mean I do have control but you know there's not much you can do I'm just trying to catch the ball control the ball but you can see on this game compared to a lot of the games you might have played it's very very hard to control the ball right so there you go so ideally you want to try to have two balls controlled like that it's not easy on this kind of game if we're playing a stern it'd be a lot easier so I'm going to try to shoot the ball on top and yeah so some some games you can do what's called stage flip which means I can flip the bottom flipper the top flipper but not the bottom flipper this one you can't do it so you might as well you just just have both balls going up one of these is an extra ball but extra balls might be turned off oh yeah that's right oh that was the extra ball right there, because I recognize the music, so again, every time I hit those drops out, I'm getting 50,000, so see, even me, okay, you guys remember the score I got on the first game, I got a million one, okay, and I didn't know where the shots were, well, now I know where the shots are, and I've already got the million one plus on ball one, so it goes to show that really, no matter who you are you going to improve once you kind of know the rules and know where the shots are So there we are so you know basically it the same thing We got locks So now we got locks lit again So now we're, and with this game, that's all it is. It's just, you lock the balls, you get multiball. So let's see if we can do it again. See that? And you were doing that all the time. So I know you can do it again. So there it is. And so, you know, here we go again. Stop the ball. I was a little early on that, but that's okay. hit the drop targets because I got multiball, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And, you know, if it gets boring, just let me know and I'll turn the game off. And then so right away you want to try to hit the ramp. But, you know, so what I would like is a way, now I don't really advise this. What I like to do is what's called shats. If I want this ball on this flipper and I can't post pass, I'll try to just kind of slide it over. So let's see if that works. Almost. almost let's try it again okay well it worked you know one way or another but again uh i wouldn't advise that on this game it's just these these flippers and this era of game it's very difficult now see that's what you call a slap save so when the ball and of course that's going to go almost down i want to try to get control of the ball when the ball is right at the end of your flipper like that and you go like it's basically you saw that the little slap save from the bottom of the flipper it'll catch the bottom but it only has enough of to get it over here so you go bam bam and it'll slap save the ball out and that's what uh that's what wound up happening it's kind of a cool feature with that captain ball um i don't know it's it's just it's neat so So I'll try to get one more multiball, and I'll just end the game because I may be here the whole duration of the hour if I, you know. So actually, you know what? We'll just kind of end the game now because. So you see my progression. So everybody's going to have a progression of when you first play the game, and then you get the feel of the shots, and you get the feel of the flippers, and you get the feel of how much you can control the ball. And my first game on a game is usually the worst because I don't know how the feeds are going to come down. I don't know if I can hold the flipper up to jump over. I don't know if I can post pass. I don't know if I can catch the ball on top. You know, you just don't know. So you're seeing me improve. And that really correlates to everybody. So see that? So you're going to be able to do that every single time. I have faith in you. And then you're going to shoot it over there and hit that lock. So what we're going to do is Obviously you pretty much see everything on this game So I'm just going to let these balls go I could turn it off and on but You know The music's kind of cool You know what I mean So You know what I want to try to do I want to see if I can shat it over Gosh come on Yeah See this metal post If you guys can see this metal post right here is above the flipper so what I'm trying to do is I'm trying to shoot this into the gate to keep it on this flipper and it's it well this is a one-way gate so this gates not gonna so so yeah so I'm gonna do is hold it up bring it over here and I'm gonna try to move it over but what it's doing is it's it's hitting this little post so that's why it's not working but it doesn't matter. I wouldn't have you do that anyway. Do you tilt? No, you can see it doesn't tilt, so feel free to go like this. You won't tilt this. I guarantee it, because if I can't tilt it, then you won't tilt it. All right, well, we've got to have my initials up there so that whoever owns the game is going to say, oh, look at that, it's EJS again. Okay, Okay so, there we go. Alright so what I want you to do this time around is every time it comes down here, right before the ball comes down, hold this flipper up. But you don't hold it up initially because it will bounce up and go over. So you want to hold it up right about when the ball is there and what that does is it kind of slows the momentum of the ball. It's called a live catch. And then you can catch the ball there and then try to shoot that lock. Now you got to get more than 458,000, otherwise I'm going to get fired. And I can't get fired. I'm a poor meteorologist. Or otherwise, Chris Joe would have done better without Wessie's. No, no, no. Alright so again, what I want you to do is try to catch the ball. Now, hold it. Alright, we got something, alright. Now try to shoot over there. late on the flipper. Now, yep, now, almost. Okay, now remember it's early on this flipper. Okay, yeah. I'm telling you, it's a difficult game. If you don't make your shots on this game, it's not like a Stern, you know, or a Valley Williams. It's really hard. No, no, you're doing all right all right now try to catch it now it's not gonna work so now don't try to catch it again up top all right because it it's so hard to catch on those little flippers it's so hard to catch on those little flippers yeah that once you catch it and shoot it just try to shoot you know I'm saying because even I don't try to control it up top it's very this game is very hard to control. All right, go ahead. Now try to catch it with that flipper. Now remember what I said? Don't, yeah, don't, now don't try to, okay, now try to shoot it early. You got, you got to shoot it earlier than that. And don't hold the flipper up. One, now, okay, one thing that you don't want to do is, you don't want to hold the flipper up, because if you're holding the flipper up and the ball is bouncing around it's more likely to go down so you want to flip and then done all right so let's try so try and try the trick there but remember don't flip this flipper till the ball is right about here otherwise it's gonna do what it just did last time so right now now hold it okay now it's toward the end so wait till the ball is almost at the end of the flipper to make that shot okay Now don't now just shoot it early. Okay, almost you almost got that now hold the flipper up now see that Because the ball didn't really go that far I could tell that if you held the flipper up you were gonna catch the ball and a lot of you will be able to Tell when you can catch the ball and when you can't so now what you want to do is you want to shoot way back Here and back to the top which again isn't easy hold it. Yeah, there you go. Now. It's not oh Boy yeah, see Oh lucky that was good Now yep, now don't even try to control right now. Just try to flip okay now you can see you didn't want to bounce it See on normal Stern or Bally Williams flippers if you try to bounce it you'll bounce over you see what I mean But these old got leaves they're totally different. It's really hard to learn on these All right Now try to catch it again right now Okay, you've got to wait until the ball is almost on the end of the flipper before you make that shot. Okay, that was good. Okay, you almost got it. Now it's coming to the flipper up top. See that? See? Yep, see? Yep. So you also have to know where the ball is coming to. Now hold this flipper up. Just hold it up. Now shoot with that one. that? Yep. So, oh there you go. Come on, get over. Boy, you're supposed to have this game the first game. This isn't supposed to happen. What's going on here? Oh, well you're on ball three, so you got one more chance. All right, so right, now flip. Now flip it because it, now did you see what was gonna happen there? Yep. So now you gotta flip early. You gotta flip way early. There you gotta flip way late. All right, Alright, alright, now. Okay, that was, that's good. So now it's back top. Now right, now flip. Okay. Okay, that worked. Now flip late. It's so hard to hit that shot, isn't it? It sure is. Yep, yep, it is. It's not easy. Now see what you did? And you've done that three times. So you don't want to do that. Okay, here we go. I have to remind myself not to do that. Alright, we're, we got 25 minutes for you to beat that score. Otherwise, they're going to fire me. They don't pay me to be funny. All right, here we go. But you guys can see how hard this game is compared to Sterns and all that. It's really hard to learn on a game like this. All right. But she's got control right away. Now, see how you held the flipper up. You don't want to hold the flipper up. Okay, now just flip. Because when you hold the flipper up on these old Gottlieb games, you get in trouble. In the Sterns and the Ballys, you don't get in trouble. You can get away with it. You see what I'm saying? It's really difficult. Okay, go ahead. So now, right about now. Now, it's early on this flipper. Okay, that was good. There you go. Okay. Now, again, you got to hold that flipper right now. Okay. Now, very, very late on the flipper. Now, there you go. Yep. Yeah, I mean, it's really, really, really difficult. It's a really difficult game, I'm telling you. I was better off not knowing what to do. You know, sometimes people are better off not knowing what to do. But at least you've got one thing down, and that's the top. So once you figure out that shot, you know, it'll be a lot easier. Oh! All right, now we'll do it again. Wow, that was good. I may be able to keep the job here. I don't know. Okay, hold it up. Now you want to do the same thing. And then when it comes to this flipper, you want to shoot that one. Yep. So here we go. Okay, good. Oh, you weren't fast enough. Now bounce it over. Okay, now that one you could have bounced over, but it's okay. Okay. Now, there you go. Now, so what she did is, now catch it again. Now it's not going to stay. So, yep. Now it's out of control. Okay. Hit it early, early. You've got to hit that flipper early. Hold the flipper up. Hold the flipper up See Okay Oh oh oh oh now that wasn too bad oh she beat her first score look at that but it's okay you know why you beat your first score because I'm just gonna do this just for time sake what I want you to do is I I would love I would love to see you get into a multiball which again is very very very difficult in this game. It's not easy at all. And you guys can see how kind of funky this game plays, like with the flippers and everything. You can't really do a lot of the normal tricks that you can do on a Bally Williams or Stern. Alright, so let's see if we can get that lock again. Because once you got that, that was great. Right? Now hit it. Now. Alright. I wish you would flip earlier on that shot. Oh, now that was the shot I was looking for. She did it. There you go. Okay, now it's going to come to the flipper up top. There you go. That flipper. So your reflexes have to be really, really fast. All right, there you go. Uh-oh. It's coming back. There you go. Oh, now it's coming to the top flipper. Almost. Remember, yep. There you go. Oh, almost. Almost. Oh, there you go. Okay. Here it comes to the... Very nice. Hold the floor. Okay. All right. Almost. Almost got it. Hey, we can enjoy the music, though. Sure can. Yep. All right, there you go. Very nice, very nice. Now see how she's getting away with a lot because she's not holding the flippers up. As soon as you start holding the flipper up, that's when bad things happen. Here we go. Okay, not quite. Get up there. Come on now. Yeah, you can do it. I have faith. Otherwise, I'm in trouble. trouble. Uh-oh. Very nice. Very nice. Now, I can see she's starting to get a feel for the flippers, all right? It does take repetition. It takes several games to play before she starts making these. She made about four or five really good saves there. You know what I'm saying? Okay, so now we're back. So you already got $300,000. Thank the Lord. No, no, no. Okay, so we're going to do it again and we're going to try to catch it on that side and see if you can, there you go, good job. So right now, now see how it's, there you go. Oh, now the key is when you knew it wasn't going to stay there, that's when you flip. You don't just hold the flipper up and say, oh no, it's not going to stay there and then it goes down. You did the right thing there and because you did the right thing, you got the ball to lock. Pretty good, huh? Okay, so now what I like to do actually is I like to start on the one and then plunge the ball and then see where the ball is going and then hit the flipper yeah because if it's on the three sometimes you're like oh wait a minute I gotta flip because I gotta go all the way back to the one it's it makes it a little more simple okay so plunge that ball and try to hit the lit one okay flip all right well that didn't work anyway catch the ball okay so now try to hit that other lock oh no okay now here's the fun part you want to hit that ramp and then you'll have multiball and if you do that then I will consider this a success okay only if you do that no pressure all right so now uh so lately the plunge has been going to the three have you noticed that yeah the plunge has been going to the three so I'm going to set it up what you want to do which I did for you set it up so that it's on the three and if you see the plunge go to a different one then you then you move it yep so go ahead and plunge the ball. Okay hit it. Oh that's okay now catch the ball anyway. Now it's not gonna stay so flip. Good job. Now just hit, now you want to hit the ramp. Almost, almost. There it goes. Oh okay that's okay you got one more ball left. Oh she beat her score on ball two. She beat her score on ball two. Yeah. Okay Okay, so now set this up to the three. Okay, there you go. Now, when the ball comes here, I tell you to flip early. So as soon as the ball is on this part of the flipper, like the heel part of the flipper, that's when you want to flip. Okay, flip, flip. Okay, that's okay. Just catch the ball. Now, it's not going to stay, so try to hit the drop targets. There you go. Good job. Okay, now early, early on the flipper. Oh, yeah! Now flip, flip, just go nuts. Just go crazy. Watch the balls down here. Just flip. Everybody dance. Dance to the music. Dance to the music. There we go. And you just flip. Just go crazy. Just try to hit the drop targets. Try to hit whatever you want. This is where you're having fun getting points. Okay. Now catch the ball at top and try to hit the lock again. Nope. That's fine. Go back up top just like you did. Oh, very nice, very nice. Okay, good job. Very good, I like it, I like it. Oh yeah, you made the hard shot and you made the lock. I'm going to keep my job. Yeah. Okay. Hit, okay, that's okay. Now try to catch it there. That's fine. So now again you want to try to shoot it up here because yeah, because you want to hit that lock shot. All right That's okay again, okay, and you hurt early. Oh and now it's coming up top. It's coming up top Oh, yeah, a million points will be huge. Oh I'm not gonna play you in this in a tournament. I'm done Okay so So set it up to set it up to actually keep it on one and see what happens Okay, flip twice. Yeah, see it doesn't respond well. Try to catch it. Okay, hit the targets. Hit the targets. Okay, now try to hit that ramp again. Oh, good, good, good. Hit that last target. Very nice. Now try to hit the ramp again early. Okay, that's okay. Oh, but that's okay. You didn't blow it. You got multiball. So you went from 400,000, triple the score, to a million two. Now it took a few games, but you could see how comfortable she was manipulating the flippers up top and down bottom. Valley William Stern, it's a little easier to try to get used to it, But you did great on that. I'm so proud of you. Okay, so again Yeah, so a million two on this game is actually a really really really good game So we actually probably have time for questions because at 11 o'clock swim we got to skid out Yeah, okay Okay, anybody have any questions I Hate banana flippers I I actually don't even know how to steer banana, or how to aim banana flippers. I don't know if I've ever played them before, but they were awful. No, I don't want banana flippers. No, no, Dave, we are not doing a banana flipper game. Did you all learn something? That's good. And you all saw, you know, the catches, especially up top, controlling the ball, and how knowing the rules and knowing how to control the ball really increases your score. And once she found the shots and knew how to control the ball in these flippers, I mean, she tripled her first score, which is what we're looking for. Anybody else have any questions? With the newer games, the cool sets a lot deeper. How do you sort of apply this to something that has multiple shots everywhere? Right. So basically, you know, you've got games like Star Wars. Have you ever played Star Wars? Star Wars or Star Trek or, I mean, Guardians of the Galaxy. I mean, most turns, you walk up to the game and you're like, wow, there's 50 different ways I can play this. So you can either kind of do trial by error, or what I like to do is I like to watch people online, right? So I have a channel called Batcave, if anybody knows, and we're on YouTube and Twitch and everything like that. And what I try to do is I try to show people the best way to blow up games. I say, okay, let's play. We played Dungeons and Dragons a few weeks ago. So we went through the modes, and I said, okay, let's start with this mode and see what happens. And it's like, oh, well, this mode was pretty good. And progress through the whole game so that you can see the scoring of every mode. So it might sound boring. A lot of people don't want to watch YouTube videos or Twitch videos, okay? But I do it for tournaments. Like in the Silver Ball Rumble, there's a lot of games I never even heard of. Never heard of Big Top, never heard of Raw High, never heard of, you know, Truck Stop. I mean, there's a lot of games that I don't know, okay? Just don't tell my opponents what I'm telling you I don't know. But so I'll go on YouTube or Twitch or pinballvideos.com, and I'll watch some of the really good players play. Jason Zahler, a good friend of mine, Escher Lefkoff, Raymond Davidson, and Bowen. Bowen does really good tutorials as well, and they'll tell you how to do things. And so these new rule set games like Star Wars, which is you could pick Han Solo, and then you have all these different other modes you can pick, and you're like, wow, what do I do? So you either experiment or you watch videos and see what some of the top players in the world are doing, and you can really learn a lot of stuff. You know what I'm saying? And so beyond, you know, the flipper control, catching the ball, and this and that, you can be like, all right, I'm going to do this first, I'm going to do this second, do this third, and you progress. And eventually you're like, all right, you know, now I know what I'm doing. And you're actually more confident when you know what you're doing. When I walk up to a game and I don't know what I'm doing, I'm just, I don't know, I'm flailing the ball like banana flippers. I don't know what I'm doing. But if I know what I'm doing, then I'm more likely to, in my mind, I'm more focused. Like, okay, hit this shot, this shot, this, do this, do this, do this, and then I can blow a game up. So hopefully that answered, yeah. Anybody else? You want to know what the Carl Weathers's going to be? Awful up here. Move to Florida. I grew up in New Hampshire, so I've dealt with 30 below zero going to school and everything like that. But now I'm in Florida and it was only because of work, but the winter times are amazing. Summertime is not. Well, thank you very much, Eric. Thanks. Great job. And Alicia.

_(Acquisition: youtube_groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 327edba9-feb6-49f0-a554-e76d6017415d*