# The Spinner Is Lit - Episode 50 Wow, 50

**Source:** The Spinner Is Lit Pinball Podcast  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2022-09-18  
**Duration:** 108m 29s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://soundcloud.com/thespinnerislit/the-spinner-is-lit-episode-50-wow-50

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## Analysis

On Episode 50 (Sept 11, 2022), Spencer, Dan, and Mark discuss the imminent Tuesday launch of Stern's James Bond pinball machine, speculating on Sean Connery-era theming, designer assignments (rumored Gomez takeover from Steve Ritchie), and playfield mechanics. Mark updates on Press Start Reno's thriving tournament scene, venue expansions in the region, and classroom integration of pinball for teaching place value.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] James Bond pinball by Stern dropping Tuesday (presumably Sept 13, 2022) — _Spencer: 'But I believe this Tuesday they drop, Stern Pinball will drop James Bond.'_
- [MEDIUM] James Bond game is rumored to feature Sean Connery-era films — _Spencer: 'if it's Sean Connery, what the rumor is, if that's the ones they're going to be choosing'_
- [MEDIUM] Designer originally Steve Ritchie; now Gomez has taken over and redesigned from scratch — _Spencer: 'the rumor is it's Gomez right he took over it was going to be originally Steve Ritchie if that's when I'm correct...and gomez took it over and I guess he just totally redesigned it and just started from scratch'_
- [HIGH] Stern has not released a new game since January (Rush) — _Spencer: 'September, and we haven't had a Stern release since January. We haven't had pinball releases for a long time... January was rushed'_
- [HIGH] Deadpool had a katana shot that frequently fails as the main shot — _Spencer: 'when the main shot on the game fails half the time...I know some Deadpools are better than others. But if the main shot on your game doesn't work, that should not be the main shot on your game.'_
- [HIGH] Press Start Reno Tuesday pinball nights fill to 27-28 players by 6:30pm — _Mark: 'On Tuesday nights, we have Tuesday pinball. Usually from between...we usually fill up by 6.30 with 27 to 28 people.'_
- [MEDIUM] Weird Al (Multimorphic) expected October/November at Press Start — _Mark: 'Still not a lot of people playing it. Just the theme just doesn't do it for people...We are going to get a Weird Al and that will replace the heist'_
- [HIGH] Sean Connery Bond films include six titles (Goldfinger, You Only Live Twice, etc.) — _Dan: 'Well, there's six Connery movies, right?'_
- [HIGH] Black Hole has the most plays of any game at Press Start — _Mark: 'the game that has the most plays out of any game is Black Hole. Go figure.'_
- [HIGH] Nugget arcade in Sparks getting 10 pinball machines from Roger Brown — _Mark: 'The Nugget in Sparks is going to be having 10 pinball machines soon from Roger Brown same person who provides the machines over at Playfield 76.'_

### Notable Quotes

> "I'm a thousand percent surprised that it's not Daniel Craig. Like the Daniel Craig movies, I mean, I know that they just put a bow on that part of the franchise with his last movie, but his movies were so successful and he's so recognized in the role of James Bond."
> — **Dan**, ~14:00
> _Expresses shock at Connery theming choice over modern Craig era; reflects on franchise recency and cultural impact_

> "I really think, you know, when they have that nostalgic music and maybe they'll have music from the different Bond movies...it definitely will sound like it's going to be fun to shoot and it'll be a fun experience."
> — **Dan**, ~28:00
> _Speculation on thematic integration and music licensing opportunities_

> "If the main shot on your game doesn't work, that should not be the main shot on your game."
> — **Spencer**, ~45:00
> _Criticism of Deadpool's katana shot reliability; concern that Bond might repeat similar issues_

> "Steve's not at Stern anymore. And I think that a lot of people, by the end, they were kind of tired of the Steve Ritchie act at Stern."
> — **Spencer**, ~38:00
> _Commentary on designer fatigue and community sentiment toward Ritchie's style_

> "It's kind of funny because there's no really any leaks, which is kind of fun in a way, because it's like we're waiting until Tuesday is the official reveal."
> — **Spencer**, ~50:00
> _Unusual secrecy around Bond release; community anticipation without rumor mill_

> "I love what gomez did with deadpool with that one shot you know with the katana shot and I don't know what he's going to do with this straight garbage man it is the worst thing about that game"
> — **Spencer**, ~43:00
> _Mixed assessment of Gomez's design talent; acknowledges great concepts undermined by execution_

> "Going back into the classroom was definitely a culture shock...it definitely stressed me out big time."
> — **Mark**, ~65:00
> _Career context shift explaining Mark's reduced availability; return to 4th grade teaching after 17 years_

> "We don't have any new games except we did get a Scared Stiff added to the collection. And it's a nice one...it didn't have the classic weak flippers where you go up the ramp and if you don't make it it goes straight down the middle"
> — **Mark**, ~72:00
> _Positive venue update on new vintage acquisition quality_

> "Could you picture if that game was called Grand Theft Auto? We wouldn't even be having Weird Al yet because they'd probably be still running those."
> — **Spencer**, ~80:00
> _Commentary on theme/IP impact on game adoption; The Heist's underperformance attributed to branding_

> "And what I did is I played pinball arcade on my iPad, and I had it displayed on the projector. And when I drained the ball, they had to write the score down on their whiteboards, and then they had to write in expanded form."
> — **Mark**, ~105:00
> _Creative pedagogy: using pinball as tangible math learning tool in 4th grade curriculum_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Spencer | person | Co-host of Spinner Is Lit podcast; primary discussion driver on Bond release, code quality concerns, designer politics |
| Dan | person | Co-host; Bond franchise enthusiast; surprised by Connery theming over Daniel Craig; compares modern vs. nostalgic appeal |
| Mark | person | Co-host; 4th grade teacher (returned from 17-year classroom absence); operator/tournament organizer at Press Start Reno |
| James Bond (Stern) | game | Stern Pinball upcoming title; Tuesday (Sept 13, 2022) launch; Connery-era rumored; designer switched from Ritchie to Gomez; six possible film modes |
| Gomez | person | Designer who took over James Bond from Steve Ritchie mid-development; redesigned from scratch; prior work: Deadpool, Batman 66, Lord of the Rings, Avengers, Transformers |
| Steve Ritchie | person | Originally assigned James Bond designer; no longer at Stern; moved to Jersey Jack; community fatigue over his 'sameness' in Star Wars, Star Trek, Black Knight, Led Zeppelin |
| Christopher Franchi | person | Pinball artist not contracted for Bond artwork despite being 'perfect' for the theme; speculated as working on other projects (possibly with Brian Eddy) |
| Rush | game | Stern game released January 2022; praised by Spencer as 'nicest shooting game' from Stern; rock band nostalgia theme |
| Weird Al | game | Multimorphic title; expected Oct/Nov 2022 at Press Start; will replace The Heist; positive gameplay reports despite theme underperformance |
| Deadpool | game | Gomez design; katana shot main mechanic frequently fails; playfield praised but execution issues; didn't receive full development cycle |
| Batman 66 | game | Gomez design; praised for LCD video footage integration and carousel ball recovery mechanic; community nostalgia benchmark |
| Godzilla | game | Recent Stern release; mentioned for ramp quality and mode design (building destruction vs. ramp strategy) |
| Black Hole | game | Classic EM game at Press Start; most-played game at venue; strong nostalgia appeal for 40-50yo players |
| Scared Stiff | game | Recently added to Press Start Reno; excellent condition; strong flipper mechanics; possible LED conversion pending |
| The Heist | game | Multimorphic game at Press Start; underperforming due to theme/title; will be replaced by Weird Al |
| Star Trek | game | Steve Ritchie design at Press Start; described as 'most gorgeous Star Trek'; consistent play but noted for Ritchie design similarities |
| Press Start Reno | venue | Arcade/pinball venue in Nevada; hosts Tuesday pinball (27-28 players), monthly Flipper Frenzy tournament; strong community growth |
| Nugget Casino (Sparks) | venue | Arcade in Sparks, Nevada; receiving 10 pinball machines from Roger Brown; machines sourced from Rick Bartlett collection and Brown's collection |
| South 40 | venue | New arcade in south Reno; minimal pinball (only Jurassic Park Pro with broken left ramp); owner not acquiring additional games |
| Roger Brown | person | Machine provider/operator; supplying games to Nugget (Sparks) and Playfield 76; now part owner of Nugget arcade |
| Rick Bartlett | person | Collector whose machines are being placed at Nugget arcade via Roger Brown |
| Greg | person | Reno-based collector hosting speakeasy-themed retro tournament at his house; operates jukeboxes, electromechanical bar signs, extensive EM collection |
| Playfield 76 | venue | Reno venue; receives machines from Roger Brown |
| Lemon Valley Elementary School | venue | School where Mark teaches 4th grade; 30 students; used pinball arcade app for place value math lessons |

### Topics

- **Primary:** James Bond Stern release (Sept 2022), Designer assignment: Gomez vs. Steve Ritchie, Sean Connery vs. Daniel Craig era theming, Code quality and development cycles (Deadpool comparison), Press Start Reno tournament operations and growth
- **Secondary:** Reno venue expansion and machine placement, Pinball in education (math curriculum integration), Vintage EM game nostalgia and community nostalgia

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.72) — Hosts express excitement about Bond release but tempered by concerns about code maturity and designer track record. Mark's venue updates are uniformly positive. Some frustration with underperforming themes (The Heist, Deadpool) and venue limitations (South 40), but overall tone reflects growing Reno community and optimism about future releases.

### Signals

- **[announcement]** James Bond pinball by Stern officially launching Tuesday, Sept 13, 2022 (confidence: high) — Spencer: 'But I believe this Tuesday they drop, Stern Pinball will drop James Bond'
- **[product_strategy]** Gomez took over James Bond design from originally-assigned Steve Ritchie, redesigned from scratch mid-development (confidence: medium) — Spencer: 'the rumor is it's Gomez right he took over it was going to be originally Steve Ritchie...and gomez took it over and I guess he just totally redesigned it and just started from scratch'
- **[sentiment_shift]** Community fatigue with Steve Ritchie's design patterns at Stern; preference for Gomez approach despite mixed track record (confidence: high) — Spencer: 'by the end, they were kind of tired of the Steve Ritchie act at Stern...Stern fans are not looking for so I would rather see Gomez take his crack at it'
- **[design_innovation]** Host speculation on gadget-based power-up mechanics mirroring Batman 66 and Godzilla customization systems (confidence: medium) — Spencer: 'James Bond really lends itself well to you hitting a few shots and getting a piece of equipment. That's going to be a game modifier for you.'
- **[product_concern]** Deadpool's katana shot (main shot) has chronic failure rate on many machines; hosts concerned Bond might replicate issue (confidence: high) — Spencer: 'when the main shot on the game fails half the time...if the main shot on your game doesn't work, that should not be the main shot on your game'
- **[market_signal]** Stern's 8+ month gap between January (Rush) and September (Bond) release; community notes supply/production constraints (confidence: high) — Spencer: 'September, and we haven't had a Stern release since January...we all kind of thought it was going to be Venom'
- **[venue_signal]** Press Start Reno thriving with 27-28 players weekly; Nugget Sparks adding 10 machines; South 40 minimal pinball presence (confidence: high) — Mark: 'we usually fill up by 6.30 with 27 to 28 people...The Nugget in Sparks is going to be having 10 pinball machines soon'
- **[operational_signal]** Press Start implementing 4-2-1-0 scoring, match play format with 16-round target instead of 12; Flipper Frenzy monthly head-to-head model (confidence: high) — Mark: 'we changed the format a little bit and had it with 4-2-1-0 scoring and a target match play instead of to 10...or it could go even two additional rounds'
- **[rumor_hype]** Pre-Bond release, community heavily speculated Stern's next title would be Venom; designer and artist rumored known (confidence: medium) — Spencer: 'we all kind of thought it was going to be Venom because that was like, you know, the running thing...there were so many solid feeling rumors about Venom'
- **[design_philosophy]** Stern alternating contemporary (Daniel Craig) vs. nostalgia (Connery) themed releases; community suggests Connery choice fits 'nostalgic cadence' (confidence: medium) — Spencer: 'if it's not Venom, the interesting thing is...this is the nostalgia theme, because they seem to have that contemporary and nostalgia cadence'
- **[licensing_signal]** Christopher Franchi not contracted for Bond artwork; hosts speculate he's working on other projects or Stern has brought in new talent (confidence: medium) — Spencer: 'It's too bad that Christopher Franchi is not helping or is not contracted to do the artwork for Stern...Maybe they have a newcomer'
- **[content_signal]** Mark using pinball arcade app in 4th grade classroom for place value math lessons; strong student engagement reported (confidence: high) — Mark: 'I played pinball arcade on my iPad, and I had it displayed on the projector...they were learning place value with me playing pinball...all the students were totally engaged'

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## Transcript

Welcome to the Spinner's Lip Pinball Podcast. I'm your host, Spencer, and with me are my co-hosts, Dan. Hey, how's it going? And Mark. Hello, how's everybody doing today or tonight or whenever you're listening to this? There you go. Tonight's episode, episode 50. Wow, 50? And it's a weird date for it. It's September 11th, Sunday, September 11th, 2022. So we're going to kick it right off, man. Not going to know anything more than the little trailer teaser video a lot of people have seen, But I believe this Tuesday they drop, Stern Pinball will drop James Bond. Bond. James Bond. I'm excited, man. I think that that is a great theme, and I think that a lot of people are going to jump on it. I think so, too. And if it's Sean Connery, what the rumor is, if that's the ones they're going to be choosing, there's some good footage to get from that. I really hope they do get clips from the different scenes. That would be so awesome, like they did for Batman 66. It would be great to see those scenes on the LCD. Yes, the rumor is that it's me. How it goes in. Conch shot. That's what I've heard, too. It's a Connery game, right? And I'm surprised about that. Like, is anybody else sort of like, really? I am surprised a little bit Only because you have such a long history If you think about Yobankos from the 60s And then in the 70s And the 80s with Roger Moore And then in the 90s with GoldenEye And GoldenEye was such They had a GoldenEye pinball which was pretty cool But pinball was kind of a downturn But the GoldenEye video game Every kid, every adult That was in my 20s then still They had that game It was huge Yeah, one of the best first shooters for Nintendo, for sure. Oh, yeah. And it kept going on. So, I mean, you can go back, you know, 60 years. And, you know, so you can go, you know, I can, you know, you can go to, you know, my older kids, to, you know, me, to my dad, you know, and in between. And everybody has, oh, yeah, I remember that Bond movie. Like, I remember as a kid going to the movies with my dad and mom and seeing, like, Thunderball. And I can remember a little later on, like just me and my dad going to see him. I can remember Spy Love Me with the Lotus that was like, we talked about this. Oh, yeah. Yeah, we did. We did talk about it. And then Moonraker, you know, and Jaws. And I mean, the catalog is so huge, you know. And so, you know, a wide variety to work with. But I can't see it because like Batman 66 with the video footage and the throwback. and I mean that's that's that classic era and people honestly think especially younger people and millennials and stuff dig that older throwback stuff because as kids they watched it with their parents or even their grandparents and went oh yeah like you know like Adam's family like most are like oh I remember that as a little kid watching it in reruns I remember Batman 66 watching it in reruns so I think I think a lot of people really take to it right away for the just for the nostalgia factor. Go for it, man. You go, Dan. I'm a thousand percent surprised that it's not Daniel Craig. Like the Daniel Craig movies, I mean, I know that they just put a bow on that part of the franchise with his last movie, but his movies were so successful and he's so recognized in the role of James Bond. I just really, really thought that if they were going to put Bond on a pinball machine that they would use the most current era and the most successful era. Is that the most successful? I really haven't watched any of the Daniel Craig stuff. Yeah, Daniel Craig is the true... He played the true Bond from the novels, for sure. Oh, really? Yeah. I know you're our resident expert on Bond, so... I'm not quite an expert on it, but I am a fan. I do like the Bond movies. I love all the chase scenes and they all get mixed up in all the different movies. I go, oh, which one is that one from? Oh, yeah, that's right. The boat scene is live and let die when he does that. I remember having the Guinness Book of World Records and it was like the longest boat jump or whatever. I forgot how many feet it was, but yeah, I love those. They're great. I love the gadgets. Gadgets are great. It'll be interesting to see if you have to collect different gadgets or you have gadgets that are power-ups. It would make a lot of sense if you had that in the gameplay. Obviously, from what the rumor is, and I'm sure you heard this too, Dan, that there might be an ejector seat of some kind of mech. That would be sweet if they had the Austin Martin and had it come out of it. I hadn't heard that, but that sounds really cool. Yeah, and it'd be easy. Just a Vuk in the car. Well, there has to be something to catch it besides the glass. Yeah, that's true. I've had that experience happen, and it's very startling. Oh, yeah. I think that one of the greatest things about James Bond I think you just touched on, it's the fact that they've kind of loved to do gadgets. Batman 66, you could collect gadgets, and they were just basically regular pinball things. And in a lot of the games lately, you know, the customization, being able to pick your Godzilla power up, stuff like that is a part of the game. And James Bond really lends itself well to you hitting a few shots and getting a piece of equipment. That's going to be a game modifier for you. And what would be amazing is if they did so much research that each mode was a different episode or different movie. and then the gadgets would correlate with that movie to get further in that mode or something. That would be sweet. Well, there's six Connery movies, right? Right. And they're not the most gadget-heavy of the movies, but there definitely are, you know, different weapons, different pieces of equipment, different vehicles. Like, you can definitely find some bond to throw at that theme. Yeah. I bet under 30 you have like oh no is Goldfinger yeah Goldfinger was on Conrad so Goldfinger, Multiball or something like that did he do six including You Only Live Twice because after Roger Moore at the time Roger Moore remember he came back and did another one that was Never Say Never Again yes officially that's not really a Bond movie okay that's what I heard It's not by Eon. Correct. Okay. It's not considered the, what do they call it, canon. It's not considered canon. It's considered canon, but it was considered canon from when it was called Moonraker and starred Roger Moore. Yeah. All right. Yeah. Yeah, I was actually reading on Pinside, I think, where various pinball aficionados were talking about their favorite Bond movies. And Never Say Never Again got a surprising amount of mentions. Oh, it's got a great motorcycle chase in that movie. I was going to mention that. Oh, and the boat jump, I looked it up. You know, the world. Because I remember that, too. We were talking about that a while back. It's 110 feet. That's pretty far for a boat jump. That's pretty far for a car. It's like, let's get this baby up in the air, man. This is, you know, Cooper stuff. Anyway. I haven't seen that movie since it first came out I might have to sit down and watch it again but I recall really enjoying it you know at the time yeah it'll be really interesting to see how they do the theme integration the rumor is it's Gomez right he took over it was going to be originally Steve Ritchie if that's when I'm correct I don't know if that's true or not and then Gomez took it over and I guess he just totally redesigned it and just started from scratch yeah kind of kind of like with Deadpool yeah and and gomez he's got winners i mean i love deadpool i'm sure you do too batman 66 i said you know it's funny because it uh the ball does get stuck back there but at least it does come loose when it turns the carousel so um that's kind of a neat mac when you think about it of how they did that and maybe they'll utilize that gomez is good yeah i like his design lord of the Rings, Deadpool. Right, but the flip side is the original Avengers is a Gomez. I know, I know. Transformers is a Gomez. I like Transformers. I like Transformers too, but I'm just saying they're not all triple. And I mean, I don't love Deadpool, but I don't blame the play field on Deadpool as much as I don't love some aspects of the presentation. Right, right. I don't know, man. I mean, don't get me wrong. It would have been a cool game to have seen what Steve Ritchie did with it. But Steve's not at Stern anymore. And I think that a lot of people, by the end, they were kind of tired of the Steve Ritchie act at Stern. You know, a lot of people still won't give Led Zepp a chance. And Led Zepp's actually a pretty decent game, but it is a Steve Ritchie game. Black Knight was a Steve Ritchie game Star Wars was a Steve Ritchie game Star Trek was a Steve Ritchie game and they all have that Steve Ritchie sameness that I think right now Stern fans are not looking for so I would rather see Gomez take his crack at it and see what Gomez and I'm assuming it's Sex Tempton because he was the one working mostly with Steve there at the end but I would like to see what they're going to do with it rather than seeing Steve Ritchie put out a game and, you know, all the Stern fanboys just taking one more big dump on him. And, you know, he can save his he can save his expertise for Jersey Jack. Yep. Yeah, it's curious who's going to do the artwork. It's too bad that Christopher Franchi is not helping or is not contracted to do the artwork for Stern. But that's right. Who do you think it will be? Who do you think the artist will be? Franchi would have been just too perfect, right? He would have been perfect for Bond. Yeah, perfect. I think, I mean, I haven't listened to the whole, the latest episode of Super Awesome. You know, Franchi's basically saying that things are good with him and Stern, just no work's been coming his way. Part of me is really hoping that Franchi is just being Franchi and just keeping his mouth shut and actually kind of trying to throw people off of the case. And maybe it'll turn out that he really did it. But it's obviously not Yeti since Yeti is supposed to be working on his next title with Brian Eddy. And I don't know who else they really have in the Stern wheelhouse. I mean, they seem to be bringing in a lot of new talent. So maybe they have a newcomer who's going to bring us Conchonery. Yeah, it'll be really interesting to see what happens. I'm excited about it. It's kind of funny because there's no really any leaks, which is kind of fun in a way, because it's like we're waiting until Tuesday is the official reveal. Is that correct, Dan? Yeah, I believe so. I think so. It's Tuesday, right? I think that's what everybody's assuming. Okay. Well, maybe there will probably be a leak on Monday. Think about it. It's September, and we haven't had a Stern release since January. We haven't had pinball releases for a long time. I mean, you're right. Toy Story? Oh, yeah. Toy Story. Well, no. Yeah, we had Weird Al. Weird Al was a little earlier, right? Weird Al, well, it was at Golden State. So Weird Al was like March, I want to say. That's a while back. And January was rushed because, I mean, they released it. And like two, three weeks later, I was out. That was the last time I was in California. and Dan and I were playing it because they got one in all the cons the first one there and we were up there playing that bad boy and I was playing Rush today and I still maintain that that is the nicest shooting game that's come out of Stern ever that's a great board game for flow and for speed that's a great game it's a fantastic game it really is like the best of it's kind of like a compilation of the best games from Borg yeah, it really is yeah, but yeah, so this is the first game we've had we had Toy Story, but the first game from Star Wars since January and we all kind of thought it was going to be Venom because that was like, you know, the running thing like, that's Venom, it's Venom yeah, there were so many solid feeling rumors about Venom the designer was known the artist was known, and it kind of checked off all the boxes. Like Venom seemed to be really, really practical. And if it's not Venom, the interesting thing is, so you're going into the, like I guess maybe Venom wouldn't be contemporary or would be too contemporary, and this is the nostalgia theme, because they seem to have that contemporary and nostalgia cadence. Right, right. That makes sense. and Rush, well, Rush was pretty nostalgic too. Yeah, but Rush is definitely banned. Yeah, I got contemporary banned nostalgia. Got it. Okay. I thought you meant contemporary banned and then nostalgia. It's banned. You can't have it. No, not that kind of band. Like, Stretchy? No, not that kind of band. Like rock and roll. It's like a rock and roll band. Goodbye, Boston. Those guys know how to rock. Yeah, yeah. yeah i think it's gonna yeah i think it's gonna sell really well and the reason why is it's gonna appeal to the baby boomers it's gonna appeal to us our generation and the new ones so yeah it's gonna be i don't think it's gonna have any problem selling a lot of machines i don't think so i'm excited i have no idea what to expect i don't want to get at my expectations high because i always get disappointed but i i love what gomez did with deadpool with that one shot you know with the katana shot and i don't know what he's going to do with this straight garbage man it is the worst thing about that game i mean it's a it's a great shot when it goes but like when the main shot on the game fails half the time oh my god come on i think the snick shot is a lot more to be the snick shot is almost just sort of accidental like it's supposed to be hard The katana shot's supposed to be hittable. That'd be like the main ramp on Rush being completely unhittable. I love that shot. Yeah, it's great. It's just so satisfying when you hit it. It's so satisfying. Or Godzilla. I finally got to spend, I mean, I've spent a lot of time on Godzilla, but I finally got a little bit better grasp of what's going on in Godzilla and why instead of shooting for the building and all the targets and stuff, you want to ramp it out. And while that game doesn't have your traditional ramp entrances, at least on the left ramp, you kind of go in that alleyway and it turns out to be a ramp. You know, the ramps on that game are great. You know, like they're just really super good ramps. You hit them and the ball does what it's supposed to do. The right ramp's a little bit steeper and you get some rollbacks off of it. But, you know, there's nothing worse than a game where you hit the ramp and you know you hit the freaking ramp and it doesn't go or it runs around. And to me, Deadpool, like I can hit that lane, you know, that's supposed to lead to the katana shot. Great. And it just dribbles off the other side. And I'm like, I know some Deadpools are better than others. But if the main shot on your game doesn't work, that should not be the main shot on your game. And I do know that Deadpool, you know, it didn't it didn't enjoy a full development cycle because it was basically, you know, it got picked up and got fixed. But I think that, you know, Bond is kind of in that boat, too. So I'm hoping that I'm hoping that Gomez, you know, really, really gave this one some time to bake in the oven. I don't want to have another Deadpool. Well, had what, six, seven months because they weren't producing anything else new besides Rush. So, yeah, I'd be curious to see how developed the code is. And I really think, you know, when they have that nostalgic music and maybe they'll have music from the different Bond movies, I don't know. But it definitely will sound like it's going to be fun to shoot and it'll be a fun experience. Because you'll feel like, I don't know how they're going to do it. If you're going to be like, you are the character as Bond or, yeah, I don't know. It'll be interesting. If you remember in the Dada East game, Secret Service, we had one in our game room, our rec room, in our barracks when I was at Pearl Harbor. And it would just randomly go off. And in track mode, start playing, nobody does it better. Oh, really? Yeah, that's right. You're right. Right? It was so cool. That's Crystal Gale. Crystal Gale. Was that Crystal Gale? Okay. All right. I think. What did I think it was? It was Shayna Easton. Was it Shayna Easton? I think you're right. No, that's Three Eyes Only. Wait, it was Carly Simon. Okay, that sounds good. That's right. I didn't think about it. No, I really had to think about that. But, no, it was great because it was – remember, those games were the first pinball games that have stereo. And you'd be walking to the game room, and that thing would go off. You're like, oh, that's so cool. And the game was good. So, you know, I loved it. But anyway, I digress. But, you know, there's a ton of cool stuff you can do with it. So, but we're just going to have to wait until Tuesday and see. So by the time we get this episode out, it'll already be out. So it won't be conjecture anymore. Unless I can work and work magic, but probably not. Yeah, you got to work tomorrow. Speaking of work, what you got going, man? Mark, we haven't, because everybody's been on vacation and then, which you still got to send those pics. But anyway, for your last vacation. Oh, I thought you got those. Okay. I'll make sure you get them. All right. And then, yeah, so what do you got, man? Update us. What's going on in Reno? What's going on in Press Start? What's going on in Mark's world? Well, as far as starting off with Mark's world, things have changed drastically, I guess you could say. I originally was helping teachers integrate technology in the classroom, and I was a program specialist with 21st Century Learning and helping them learn how to do skills that are very meaningful for the 21st Century workplace to get kids prepared. and there is a teacher shortage here in Washoe County School District. And they decided to take all of the TOSAs, which stands for Teachers on Special Assignment. And what that means is there are people that are out of the classroom but still have a certified degree. And they decided to take all the TOSAs and put them in classrooms. Uh, we were given, in fact, I was in Sacramento and it was, uh, it was like around August and we found out two days before school started that we were assigned to a certain school. So we had two days to prepare the classroom. I had to use up my whole weekend on Saturday and Sunday. And I ended up as a fourth grade teacher over at Lemon Valley Elementary School. I have 30 students and it is quite an adventure trying to remember how to teach because I've been out of the classroom for 17 years. So going back into the classroom was definitely a culture shock. And I'm starting to now get my feet wet and starting to feel a little more comfortable with it. But when I found out that I go back to the classroom, it it definitely it definitely stressed me out big time. But now things are good and still on the pinball scene. We have press start going strong. On Tuesday nights, we have Tuesday pinball. Usually from between, it really is supposed to start at 7, but we usually fill up by 6.30 with 27 to 28 people. It's kind of decreased a little bit. I think it's just because of with school starting and everything, there might be schedule conflicts. but still a great showing for people. And every week we always get a new player. I don't think there's one time where we had all the same players and nobody was new. There's always somebody that joins, which is wonderful. So that's Tuesday nights at press start. And we have that from 630 and it usually goes to nine. Originally we had it set up where we only had four rounds and then we were done, but we changed the format a little bit and had it with 4-2-1-0 scoring and a target match play instead of to 10 like we had originally, or actually it was 12, it now goes to 16. So it could be done in four rounds, or it could go even two additional rounds, which it has done in the last two tournaments that we had. And then monthly we have a flipper frenzy tournament, and basically what that is is players play randomly against each other head to head so it's just two players on a machine and then you play the first place the first position and then you get assigned the second position and then you go put in a queue so you're then entered in a queue and then you wait until it's your turn and then you're matched up with other players. And you play for three or four hours, depending on how you want to set it up in the program in match play. And it's wonderful because you can get in like 20 rounds, 22 rounds of pinball. And it's wonderful because it's so easy. It just runs itself. You just go to the computer, you enter who wins, who loses, and then the computer assigns the next group to play. It's really fun. So we have that monthly. It's usually the third week of the month at press start, and that is always at 1 o'clock, and it goes all the way until 5 o'clock. So it's wonderful. We don't have any new games except we did get a Scared Stiff added to the collection. And it's a nice one. It plays really well. I don't think they shopped it out yet, but when I played it, it played perfectly. it it the trunk registered it went up the ramps it didn't have the the classic weak flippers where you go up the ramp and if you don't make it it goes straight down the middle it doesn't do that which is nice and so it's a it's fun i don't know if there's if it's all leds or not yet i think they're still working on it it was added to the list of games which is great we're still waiting on weird al that's going to be coming hopefully in october or maybe november now it seems like things have been pushed back from Multimorphic. So we are going to get a Weird Al and that will replace the heist that we have. Still not a lot of people playing it. Just the theme just doesn't do it for people. I like it and I think it's fun. They just haven't experienced it. It's such a good game. Yeah, it's a really cool game, but you got to kind of get past that art and that title. Yeah, it's just you got to give it a chance. Could you picture if that game was called Grand Theft Auto? We wouldn't even be having Weird Al yet because they'd probably be still running those. Yeah, Grand Theft Auto, you're right. People would lose their mind. And it didn't even have to be that different of a game. It just really has like a GTA sort of vibe. Yeah. It's great. I just wish the flippers felt a little better. I think it's something with maybe the older mechs that are in that game because it was more of an earlier P3. I heard the newer ones are a little more snappier, but there's just something weird about it when I try to shoot it up with just going the forehand. It just has an issue with it not going smoothly up the ramp as I like to, but it's still fun. I really enjoy it. We love the Star Trek. That's the most gorgeous Star Trek that I've seen that is there. People play that all the time, but here's the interesting thing. the game that has the most plays out of any game is Black Hole. Go figure. You have to think about when people come in and it's very retro and it's like especially people in my age group and they remember seeing that. It's just like when they see a Black Knight or anytime pinball comes up and it's somebody 40s to 50s like, oh my god, I used to play Black Knight or Black Knight 2000 and that was their jam. That game comes up all the time in conversation And I would say, oh, yeah, fantastic, Kim, because both of them are. But, you know, the same kind of thing with Black Hole. That's a very recognizable game. They made a ton of them. It was so iconic for the time because of the W play field and all that. So it makes sense. The other thing I had an opportunity to do, which was really fun, is we went over to Greg's house, and he put on a tournament. It was a really classic retro tournament. So he had a lot of godly wedge heads and his house is going to get demolished in the future. So he turned it all into a huge arcade with all vintage machines We talking all EMs I don think there were any digital ones And also shooter games crane games the shovel game He has all of those. And what he did is he also, or what he also has is a collection of jukeboxes. so what he did is he had all the jukeboxes programmed to go on a certain timer and play certain songs throughout the tournament and it played one song in the beginning and when it played that song again you knew that it was getting towards the end of the tournament and then he used that light you know that's on slot machines he has it segmented with the different colors so you can see how soon the tournament is over and the cool thing about it is the house is themed after a speakeasy bar. So he's got all of these electromechanical signs, so all these beer signs that are all mechanical on the wall, just all over the place. It's really a fun time to play pinball. If you're ever in town and it happens to fall on that day, it is such a blast because we're just like, almost like we're back in time. Right, like back in 1969 or 72 or something. Yeah, pretty much. And he was playing music from the 70s and then more energetic music as it went on. But he had all of the jukeboxes programmed to go exactly for three hours, and then it would play this music. So, yeah, it was really cool, really fun. And then afterwards, he has a huge screen set up on the side of a storage container, and we watch The Big Lebowski. and it's like a that's great it was fun and the only reason we watched it is because Huntsman is getting a big Lebowski soon and some people haven't even seen the movie so we all watched it and that was a fun movie the other news is Nugget the Nugget in Sparks is going to be having 10 pinball machines soon from Roger Brown same person who provides the machines over at Playfield 76. He's putting in 10 machines at the arcade. He's actually now part owner of the arcade, and he's going to put it on one side away from the Redemption games, and there's going to be 10 games. Some are going to be from Rick Bartlett's collection, and some are going to be from his. So that's exciting. I didn't even know that Nugget still had an arcade. It did, but it was really... I haven't been in a Nugget since the 80s. Yeah. wow yeah no no i have 10 pinball machines there so i drive by it like every time i get to reno yep and then we have a another place called south 40 that opened up and that's out in the south side of reno which is a double diamond damani ranch area and it has so much potential to have tons of uh pinball machines but unfortunately the owner only has jurassic park and I was excited because I was like, okay, I'll play the pro, no problem. The left ramp didn't even register. So if the left ramp doesn't register, you're not going to be able to start any modes or start T-Rex multiball or nothing. So I was just like, well, this sucks. And there was no other pinball machines. I called them and I said, hey, are you getting any more? And they're like, oh, no, we got our orders in of all our games now and that's it. And I'm like, well, are you going to get any in the future? and it was kind of like null and void. And I was like, well, I guess press start is still king. So there you go. There you go. Well, you know, I mean, it's getting better. You know, it's getting better. Reno's – I mean, it's gone so much. You know, you take a couple of little bad bumps in the road with all the good stuff that's going on. You know, so that's not – it's all good news. That's all good to hear. You know, Reno's really turning into a – because I remember not that many years ago, Reno was, there wasn't a lot going on in pinball, man. You know, there really wasn't. Yeah, I was pretty dead. And it's funny, I have a funny story with my classroom. We were studying place value. And what I did is I played pinball arcade on my iPad, and I had it displayed on the projector. And when I drained the ball, they had to write the score down on their whiteboards, and then they had to write in expanded form. So they were learning place value with me playing pinball on the screen, which was pretty funny. And it was great because all the students were totally engaged in the lesson. And then I threw it in some long addition and long subtraction, but got to play pinball for about an hour in the class. If Susie hit three left rams and Billy hit four right rams, how many times did Bobby tilt? Yeah, right. Well, you know what, man? You're taking something that you love, that you're passionate about. You're showing the kids it's something real. It's tangible. It's like, oh, okay, that makes sense to me. I can make sense of this. I can take this mathematical, theoretical formula or theoretical whatever, but I can give it a tangible object to work with. Right. It's like whatever it takes to get it into their head, to show them the way. And if you've got a way to do it, man, that you're passionate about, because you can't take passion. When somebody really digs something and they really love it and they're passionate about it, that shows. You're excited about it. Well, get the kids excited. That's awesome, Mark. Yeah, I would like to get a pinball machine in my classroom, but I have no room for it. If I had room, I know my principal would let me. What about something like a Zizzle or one of those mini arcade games? Yeah or like in the digital One of the little you know Oh what's the guys Because we don't have them here Costco like a little Costco Digital pinball or Oh yeah yeah Something like that because I know we have a we have Sam's Club I know they haven't won a while back It's been a while since I've been in there I don't know if there's a will or there's a way you know Yeah we'll see what happens maybe We don't have a desk anymore but you know We've got a pinball machine so Yeah and it's great because the rooms are pretty soundproof and I don't think it would disturb anybody but then again we'd have to find out but it's perfect because our lessons that we have is on magnetism, electricity circuits so it's like well duh it's perfect for that and it's a great chance for you know kids to throw down dollar games at recess right? exactly Julie's up five bucks Okay, so you guys obviously, you know, you're of a certain age. Marbles. You remember playing marbles? Hell yes. Marbles and pogs and trading cards and whatever. Like, kids always come up with a gambling game. I mean, obviously, you don't play for real money. That'd probably be frowned upon. But, yeah, you know, anything that kids can do to compete and, you know. We played for our marbles, you know. Yeah, right. If you had a favorite marble, you didn't want to lose it. Oh, yeah. You lose your cat's eye. it's a bad day. Yeah, you're right. You know, you remember that too. It's a bad day. There you go. Yeah. No, that's – but that's excellent, you know, and you can hopefully, you know, I mean, you can open up the Pimbal machine and say, you know, stuff you're studying, there it is. And speaking of press start tournaments, I'm seeing tons of winner's circle pictures with Mark Scoff in them, flashing those big wads of pin cash. I see that, but I also see several. Congratulations, Mr. Mark. Yeah. Congratulations, Mark. I also see several with Dan. I see several with Dan in them, too. There's been one. Just one? I thought there was a couple. Just one. And I went up there and I taught Mark and Teddy how to play pinball one night. And ever since then, they've been dominating that whole town. Yeah. Isn't that right, Mark? Well, yeah, it's usually it's usually Ted and me are always in the top five. Yeah. I think every week I always see those a couple of those other guys like, OK, I don't know who they are, but I see them all the time. And almost every week I was like, well, there's Mark. Awesome. You know, because I get the Facebook feeds. So, you know. Yeah, and they have some good players. Like, there are some real solid players up there in that town. There's good players in Reno. And for Mark to be up there in the top three week after week, that's a heck of a statement. Somebody has definitely upped their game. Yeah, Teddy's probably just really good at cheating. Well, it's also good to hear that you're getting a new person every week, too. You know, it's growing. You guys are growing the competitive. You're growing the scene. You're growing the hobby in Reno. You know, and it's all I mean, this is just like one of those like little segments. I mean, tonight's especially cool because I haven't done it in a while. But it's just like, oh, we got this going. We got this going. It's just, you know, it's it's supporting community through pinball. It's just it's a really great thing now. You know, everybody has a great time. It is competitive, but it's in a fun environment. Yeah. No one gets mad. You know, and there's things that happen. I played Superman and somebody did a tilt through and they were cool about it. They knew the rules. You know, we go through the rules every single time. We've all done it once or twice. Yeah. Like, well, it's great. It's really wonderful to see so many people wanting to play and be a part of it. And it's great because we always hit 28. That's usually the, we haven't hit 32 yet, but that's usually our limit anyway, just because it's the most comfortable and not so crowded. But it's a blast. It's really fun. And I'm hoping more people check it out and try it out. In fact, I found out my teacher loves pinball, my colleague who teaches fourth grade with me. She likes pinball. I'm like, well, you got to come to Press Start and try out one day. Absolutely You'd be amazed how many We were just talking about this How many teachers we know are into pinball Speaking of Talking about the community The pinball community growing it Dan's helping continue to grow The Sacramento NorCal community Because you finished up the garage remodel I don't know how that's growing the community But it does give me a nicer place To play games and practice for league But yes I did So we got the flooring down. We got the insulation in. We got the games out there. Everything's powered. Everything's set up. Most importantly, with the way the weather has been the last week and a half or so around here, we've got extremely efficient air conditioning. So it's an air-conditioned space now. And with the lighting and everything, the way that we got it set up, it's a really cool, comfortable place to have a couple buddies and play games. we did host a league night there for CCPL Lodi League right before we had the air conditioning installed and it worked for what we do we had everybody on each side of the room it's four person groups especially when you can have the garage door open I mean I don't think you could stuff 20 people in there but with the garage door being able to be open people are able to overflow outside People can go in the house. And it was actually a really, really nice environment for Pinball League. So I'm glad it worked out for that. Looks like we're going to be hosting a CCPL Folsom night sometime in the next season. So that'll be fun. I had a chance to get over there, but unfortunately it took a while to get to his house. And by the time I would have got there, I would have missed out on the league. but it was great to actually go over there afterwards and see how it looked. And it was, you did a really nice job, Dan. I really like your Space Invader and you were worried that it would get covered up from the games and it did. Yeah, that turned out great. No, and it was really nice to have you over. You showed up like basically right after league. We still have some guys there. So we got, we got to throw down some games. We got 10 games out there right now. I have room for an 11th. So as soon as another arrival shows up, we'll be at capacity. Dartboard, got my Ultra Kade all fixed up, playing really, really nice. That's a multi-arcade game. I got a TV on the wall, got some sound, got a little bit of art. It's really a comfortable space to play games in. And it's a nice use for those of us in California where we don't have awesome basements to keep our pinball machines in, to have a large-ish collection yet not have it completely take over my home. On the other hand, we do still have three games in our dining room. We weren't able to get them all out of the house. And my wife insisted that her favorites stay inside. So Black Knight, 2000, Theater of Magic, and World Cup Soccer all stayed in the house. Yeah, I knew right away the teams were going to be still in the house. So it makes sense. So, you know, I really want to put World Cup soccer out in the garage just because it's such a great player. But, you know, it's not too hard to step inside and play a game of it. It's just the noise factor. You know, Jamie's usually in here doing something on her computer. You know, she does Twitch streams and podcasts. And so one of the big reasons that I wanted to get a separate space was just so that, you know, the noise still comes through the walls. but it's not quite as overwhelming as it is when you're in the house under the vaulted ceiling and it's just echoing all around. Right. Well, where's Creature? Creature is still disassembled. Oh, that's what I thought. The play field is behind me here in the studio, and the cabinet is at George's house. Now, George is slowly but surely making progress on it, and I'm sure that when it's finished, it will be beyond gorgeous. and by the time we get it put back together it'll be like having a game that I've never had before that's exciting if you've ever played Dan's Creature before it was really nice then so I can't wait to see how nice it's going to be now I just want to say Dan that your games played awesome I played every single one of them and they played great really awesome, my favorite was Whitewater, that was just so dialed in perfectly as well as the Indy 500. See, I feel like Whitewater, honestly, it's just a happy accident because I haven't done anything to that game except for clean it up. God, it's shooted good. I shot good. Just enough to make it work. Didn't rebuild the flippers. Haven't changed a rubber on it. I did throw some LEDs in it so you could actually see it and I can verify that all the lighting was working. But yeah, that game hasn't even been touched. Indy 500, on the other hand, was a Brian Kass job. He really did a super deep shop job on that thing. We put ramps. We put all sorts of parts in it. And that really, really made it play nicely. Beautiful machine. I'll give Ryan. We've got to have Ryan back on the show. I know he's been super busy with his new job and with his boys. And listen, man, just a real brief back and forth on our Slack group a while back. I didn't mean to reach out and give him a call. I've been with the holidays and everything, all the travel, and I've been doing. but yeah man it's like if you need a game shop you know Dan does great work but Brian's stuff is just it's another level I can shop a game but yeah I don't do what Brian does Brian is detail oriented and it's it's great that you know Brian has other things to do but man it really really bothers me because I was getting really really used to him just shopping out games for me me and Henry and a couple of the other guys in the group were just sort of like, how can we come up with enough money just to have Brian be our full-time Pentech? And I'm sure Brian would be into it to an extent. Uh, but I think that what you really run into when you have his level of, of passion is when you're into it, you're going to do the best job ever. And when you don't want to do it, you don't want to go out there and, and half-ass it. So I think that it's one of those things. He doesn't want pinball to be a full-time job. He just wants it to be something that he can do when he wants to decompress. Right. No, no, that makes sense. That's why I said I never want to do any kind of work for a living in pinball because it will take away the enjoyment. This is my decompression. This is my fun time, my hobby time. That's why I don't want to make any money doing the podcast. It's not like people would actually pay us anyway. But, you know, it's like, oh, you can charge. I'm like, no, man. I don't want to use this. This is for fun. When it starts becoming work, I don't want to do it anymore, you know. We can make dozens and dozens of dollars. We can. We can make enough to live off. We can make pinball money to play the pinballs. There is that. There is that couple of quarters of it. Yeah. We can afford beer and dollar games. and top roman yeah uh uh speaking of well shopping the games out um a nice segue you're coming uh american pinball is now using titan silicone rings on all their games cool cool first company to do that as far as i know to do to go with a silicone ring instead of the old you know whatever rubber No. No? Oh, J.J.P. did first? J.J.P. does, but I don't think J.J.P. uses Titans. Okay. I don't know where they source their silicone rings from, but it seems like, at least on Guns N' Roses, I had a couple snap, so I don't think that they're quite as good as Titans. And, again, you know, Titans aren't invincible either. They will break. No, but they're a good product. I just put tights on pinball about a month ago and I had a couple pairs of red ones sitting in a bag for a while and I'm like, fuck, why don't I switch these out and I did and I played so much better I have so much more control it's easier to trap the ball and get trapped up and get control with those on there and I'm like, god, why didn't I do this months ago But now I'm thinking, oh, I need to go order a blue set so I can have the one red, one blue. Don't do that. I'm just kidding. I'm going to keep it red probably. First of all, it's annoying. And second of all, if you look at his fingers on the play field, they're all red. Yeah, no, I noticed that too. Well, beyond that, it's like they're a pain in the butt to get on. So I'm like, no, I don't want to deal with this. They're on now. Just roll with it. Are you thinking of pins or super bands? I'm pretty sure they're Titans. They might be Super Bands. I bought these pre-COVID, okay? Titans are easy to put on. Super Bands are ball breakers. You have to be like, ah! Yes, they're Super Bands. I think I got them from, I want to say I got them from Marco. Like I said, I ordered like three or four sets. Titans you're only going to get from Titan. No, I didn't even order them. I picked them up at Golden State like 2019. Yeah, yeah. Titans, you're only going to get from Titan, though. Like if you order from the Marco booth, they're Super Bands. They're Super Bands. Okay. Well, so they're not even Titans, but they're really good and they work. And Titans, I'm sure, work good, too. Oh, you know what? I have Titans, I think, on Flash Gordon. I have a bit of a mix, and, like, I really preferred Super Bands for a long time, and everybody, like, would just ride me. Like they're just like, oh, you got to get these super bands off. The games are uncontrollable and the whole works. And so I transitioned over to Titans. And I got to admit, like super bands, they give the game a pop. Like they have their denser. So it feels like the flipper really like pops the ball. But I see why people are less enchanted with those. Okay. I've gained a lot more control with them on pin box they're stickier right yeah the super bands are right but they're denser so like I said they put the ball into play and I think it's a little bit harder to catch with them I don't know that's just what people have been telling me and eventually I just stopped ordering because I was ordering Titans for my rings I was ordering Cliffy for my post, which I will forever do because Cliffy's posts are the best. I was getting super bands for my flippers. I think I just started lazing out and going with Titans for my flippers. I ended up just going like, oh yeah, Titans are where it's at. I need to get orange Titans for my Hot Wheels. I still have the regular black ones that came with it, which they're not bad, but I'm sure it would make a difference. It will. Do it like tomorrow or tonight. But yeah, but no, I think it's great that other companies are finally going, you know, because remember, I remember when I first got in the hobby, you know, they were still using incandescent bulbs in new games. You know, Stern at that time, you know, 18, 17, 18 years ago was still using incandescent bulbs, you know, up to, oh God, what was the first game they did LEDs? I don't remember. You know, we were talking about this the other day, right? Wasn't it ACDC? I want to say it was ACDC. I'm almost positive. But it wasn't the original release of ACDC. It was like the Vault or like one of the Vaults, I think. Well, you could get the premium or the LED, right? They did Metallica, which was like a Vault LED version. And I thought they did ACDC. Yeah, I think ACDC was one of the first ones with the LEDs. Because this was, I think, coming up, we were talking about, maybe it was me and Brian, we were talking about Tron, because I have Henry's Tron right now. And it's it's led i i believe but uh the apron lights i didn't think they were working but they are i've seen them work since then and we were talking about them and somebody said something about them being old leds and i was like i don't even think they're led i thought that they were incandescent and especially the way that they light up they seem to have a real slow kind of pulse that i don't think that your leds would do so it's funny that you know when you have a game that's LED next to a game that's incandescent, which I do right now, Whitewater is still largely incandescent and the games around it are LED. They just they almost seem to have the lights off. But I know that some people, they prefer the shadowier, warmer kind of light from the elite or from the incandescence. And I mean, I've gone completely the other way. If the games aren't LED anymore, I'm almost like, wow, I just I can't even understand this. I kind of like both I mean both have their place you know like because like I remember my first pin bot I had was all incandescent oh gosh 14 15 years ago something like that been a long time 12 years ago whatever and I would just turn it on sometimes just stare at it you know just bathe in that warm incandescent glow and remember a time when it was in this little local pizza place and it was always dark. In the summer, it was great because it was always dark, and they had all the curtains over the windows, so it stayed dark and cool, you know, and it was just really like time stood still, and I remember that still, and it's like, oh, man. And I don't care if you have one game or five games or ten games, sometimes you just want to turn that thing on while you're in that space and just sort of enjoy the lights and watch the track mode and the light show go off. Like to me, you know, and this is going to sound a little bit weird, especially with some of the electricity concerns that we've been having. But with that garage space, I love going out there having the LEDs on because I have like LED lighting around the edge of the room and just turning the games on and letting that be the room's light source and just enjoying the look of the games and the flicker of the lights. And it's really, really nice, even with LEDs as opposed to incandescent. incandescent but back in the day it was you know it was incandescent light and i'll turn on my my lineup and just sort of sit there and you know sip a drink and let the games do their thing and it was you know it's it's it's amazing creatures especially because when it's incandescent it has that nice sort of like wash it's supposed to look like waves i think i don't know if you know i'm talking about yeah it seems just to sort of wave down and like just that was just a fun game to sit there and look at the lights. But, you know, back to back to Titans and Superbands and all that. It's it's really smart of American to to put those on standard. It saves you a step as an owner. Like I know that when I have a game now with traditional rubber, I basically count the days until I can go ahead and do a conversion and get those switched over to silicone because they're just they're cleaner, they're bouncier, you know, they feel more alive and they look great. yeah well like the black rubber that stern puts on all the games it dirties the game up so quickly too you know because it just degrades rapidly yeah so i mean it makes sense you know everybody you and everybody else that gets a new game like that you know the first thing i want to do is pull the stock rubber rings off and put on some kind of silicon ring you know i'll be honest i'm way too lazy for that. Like Ghostbusters, I think, I mean, I have a set of Titans ready to go but it still got the black rings Pretty sure ACDC still has the original black rings I pretty sure that Henry Tron still has the original black rings on it and those suckers are at least, what, 10 years, 12 years old? 10 or 11, maybe 12, yeah. They are looking pretty rough. I think I want to say 2011 for Tron, so yeah. Yeah, 10 years, man. So, yeah, wow. that's a trip that came to 10 years old now so it was acdc but well yeah my acdc is a later vault so but i did i did go through and do the rubbers on metallica and yeah it definitely you know i was playing my metallica today i'm gonna have it home here pretty soon and yeah it just it is just an upgrade you know it just makes that game look so much better i use the glow in the dark green i have a set of those ready to go on Ghostbusters as well. And I think that they just, they look really, really sharp. I did those on Monster Bash as well before I swapped it away. I remember that. I remember they looked great on Monster Bash. Yeah, that was stupid. Probably should have hung on to that one, huh? But yeah, I just, I don't think you can go wrong. And I think if that's what American Pinball is doing, yeah, you know, go with the name brand, you know. And I think that they should call that out. Hey, our games come with Titan rubbers. Our games come with Comet LEDs. Those are going to mean something to your pinball aficionados. Maybe they won't mean anything to just the regular mom and pops. And it might cost them another nickel or another dime. But, you know, go with the name brand and people will know that they're getting quality. because I know that's not Stern, but JJP's caught a little bit of hell for the snapping rings on Guns N' Roses. At least Guns N' Roses. I don't know about their other games. Yeah, and I remember hearing a few things about it. It wasn't a big, big deal, but a few people mentioned it. So, I don't know. Well, you know, go from one thing to the other. It's just, I mean, there is a lot going on, actually. Real, real quick before we break into that. We talked about Mark, and we talked about me and my garage setup. Didn't you go out and do something really cool? Yeah, man, I've been on the road a lot with the family. So, well, okay, I'm going to backtrack and go. Okay, so I went to Oregon first, all right, back in July, end of June, beginning of July. And all I did is because we went to Trulife, like a regional jamboree. So there's trips from all over the western United States, including Alaska. And the only reason this is related to pinball is because we're on the way back. We're in the middle of nowhere, eastern Oregon, almost to the Idaho border. And some little truck stopped. Here comes Mickey coming out of the bathroom. Hey, Dad, you know, on the other side of the bathroom, there's a Rush Pro. I'm like, no, no kidding. It's like, everybody's like, Rush has a pinball machine? I'm like, yeah, you guys didn't know this? Anyway, so, yeah. So last weekend, Labor Day weekend, I took the family. We drove from our home in Casper, Wyoming, over to the suburbs of Minneapolis, St. Paul, Minnesota, Bloomington, Minnesota, to be exact, to the Mall of America. And on the fourth floor, they have a pretty cool arcade. It's called the Fair on Fourth. So they had like Fair Food, Axe Throwing, video games, go-kart racing, and they had pinball. They had a nice little lineup. They had a Minimal Madness remake, Sopranos, and then more modern stars, Godzilla, Avengers, all pros. And that was real fun. And we played a few games there and had a good time. Ninja Turtles, Rusty just mopped up the floor with me on Ninja Turtles. But then Sunday night, I went back to the hotel after dinner, and the boys were like, well, we're just going to go to the pool. Like, that's fine. So Russ and I went over the 15, 20-minute drive. It was like 17, 18 minutes, actually. And we went to visit Lloyd, LTG, Lloyd Olson at SS Billiards, who's celebrating his 50th anniversary next weekend. So we got to meet Lloyd. He's charming as all get gone Just a sweetheart of a guy Very welcoming so we talked for A good hour and a half We played some pinball Finally I got to play I'm evil madness I'm sorry I played much time to play at your house Finally I got to play a big bang bar Lloyd has one of the original Prototype Big bang bar games not The ones put together by Illinois Pinball Which are still made from parts made from The factory at Capcom before they closed. But he has one of the original, I think, 9 or 10 prototypes. Yeah, the real Capcom stuff. The real Capcom stuff, yeah. So it played fine. It played good. Everything seemed to be working. I had a good time playing. Everything was turned up. That was one of the things Rusty commented on. I was like, you could hear everything really loud. Of course, it was a Sunday night, probably an hour and a half, two hours before closing. So it wasn't super busy. on Labor Day weekend, so it wasn't super busy, but we had a good time, man, and it was really great to be able to shake Lloyd's hand and thank him for all he's done. The guy's a pillar of the community. It's funny, we talked about it. He had actually never met Steve Sharlin or Cliffy, but he communicated with him back in the old RPG days. He talked to him both on the phone on different occasions, so we all had that connection. And that was really neat, talking to another, you know, another old school, another OG pinball guy, you know, who knew these guys and that, you know, could have had stories, you know. So that was really cool. He's still doing tech support. He's still doing tech support for Chicago Gaming. Can I think American Pinball? Yeah. So he's still doing that. He's having his 15th anniversary. If you're going to be in the area like this weekend of kids' plays, Get down and celebrate with him, man. Put some money into his games. If you can't make it this weekend, if you're any time, get out and see Lloyd. Shake his hand. Thank him for all he's done over the years for the pinball community. And, I mean, dude, he has kept this place open for 50 years through good and bad times in pinball and the economies and everything else. And, I mean, the lineup there is stellar. You know, everything was working. Everything is pretty clean I got a few games on On Whodunit His Whodunit played nicely I played a couple games on I did play as Pirates And I meant to But I played a couple games on Willy Wonka Because I hadn't played that in a while And I really enjoyed that game What else did I play I played a bunch I played a couple games on his medieval On his remake I didn't play the original, it was back in the back. I was going to play the Addams Family Golden, but I never got to that either because we were talking a lot. I played a game on his pinball pool, which was the very first pinball machine that he bought new in box. Oh, that's cool. He still got it. It played good, sounded good. That early 80s Gottlieb, like late 70s actually, Gottlieb, you know, digital solid-state sound effects. They're so cheesy now, but I don't know It's such nostalgia for me to hear those Because I just don't hear those very often And I gotta get another Old System 1 game Even though they can be a real Pain in the butt to work on What else did I play? I played a bunch of pinball in there I played Cactus Canyon He's got all the Chicago Gaming Company Games in there In a row So, you know, those are available He's got the Bing Bang Bar He's got, you know, Adam's Family Gold I mean, he's got a hell of a lineup You know But it was just really cool To be able to go there And meet him and play pinball And talk pinball And just, you know Have that experience of getting to meet One more of the old Old school guys That's been doing coin-off Literally been doing coin-off for five decades. Well, and you know, he's not just, you know, an old school pinball guy or an old school operator, but like the thing about Lloyd is as long as pinball has been online, he's been here. Like he was on RGP, he's all over Pinside. He does, you know, online support for companies at times. I don't know if he's still with them or not, but like he's just always been there and he's always helpful and he's always friendly and his advice is always good. And I don't care if, you know, you've been in pinball for a year or if you've been in pinball for 20 years. You know, it's always an it's always like super exciting when you interact with Lloyd because, you know, the guy is is he's a legend. He's that's all there is to it. And, you know, congratulations to him on, you know, being in business for 50 years. And that is amazing. Yes, it's mind blowing. And just, you know, congratulations. You know, he hasn't gotten jaded and he hasn't gotten irritable. You know, he puts up with all of the pinball bullshit with, you know, a smile and good humor. And, you know, he opens a shop and he goes to work and he takes care of business. And in this day and age, you can't ask for anything more than that. It was really funny. He was saying he was in an old, like, work shirt as staying on. It's like, well, get a picture. He goes, well, I guess. Yeah, well, nobody cares, man. Come on, let's get a picture, you know. It's like I'm just happy to see you, man. I'm just – I'm here to – yeah, I'm here to play pinball. But, you know, Lloyd, I came to meet you, brother, you know. And, yeah, yeah, exactly. It's like if you've been online in the last 20-plus years and needed help with anything pinball-related, Lloyd's been there for you, you know. And that's, you know, I think back when Ken Layton, you know, was another one of those guys who passed away a couple of years ago. Maybe a year ago. I don't even know if it was a couple of years ago. It was pretty like a year ago. It was really recent. Yeah, maybe not even. Yeah, so I'll even take a spin here. I think you're right. But he was another one of those type of guys, one of those old school point out guys who would jump on and go, oh, yeah, this is what you do. Oh, yeah. It's been a while since I've seen one of those. But here's how you that, you know, here's how you make that work again. And, yeah, it's really funny. They're, you know, they're really don't take for granted those guys because we keep losing them. Because, I mean, we're all getting older, you know. Lloyd started that place. His mom and him bought it together. And then she retired probably 20 plus years ago from the place, you know. And he's just gone on and just kept it going. Just him, basically. And You know he's done a ton of Seminars and expos and everything else But yeah I mean if there's If there's been a problem with a game Ever you know and you Needed a solution you know Lloyd was going to pop he's still going to pop up And go okay here's how you fix that Or here's how you you know Do the mod on that to get like the Addams Family mod To keep the seance magnets From burning out you know that kind of so there's just that's cool you know what's really interesting about that is i went to school at the university of minnesota in the minneapolis twin cities campus and i worked in a place called edina which is right next to hopkins where ss billiards is i am so pissed i can't go back in time and go back there because i could have literally gone over there after work and played pinball every day. You could play Adams Family Golden and Taxi every day. Yeah. It just ticks me off. We did have internet back then, you know, in the 90s, in the early 90s. And damn, I wish I knew about that place. It might be a good thing. It was right next to where I was working. That's what I was telling him pre-show before we started recording. And I think you went to grab your glass of water. I'm like, dude, you never would have finished school. You'd still be in college. Right. It might be a good thing. You might have flipped out of school because you were so distracted by, you know, pinball and billiards. Maybe you'd be a world-famous pinball hustler. There we go. I want to say about Big Bang Bar, it gets a lot of flack about not having it. Yeah, tell us what you thought of Big Bang Bar, Spencer. I think the rule set's better than a lot of people give it credit for. That's it. So I decided to get that out. And it does look cool. It has that almost it looks like neon, like it glows under the light. It's it's got a cool look to it. I think it's I think it's got the best thing. And I know the sound is kind of irritating to a lot of people. You know, the the, you know, upstairs. But, you know, I think that that's a great game. I got to spend a lot of time on a Illinois pinball version that belonged to our friend Todd for years and years. and I've played an original a few times. There's a guy who brings one to California Extreme and I've just always, you know, one of the first things when I got into pinball, you know, visual pinball and pinball specifically was you could play a recreation of Big Bang Bar on it and it was one of those games and it was like, oh my gosh, you know, this is as close as, you know, we'll probably ever get to the real thing unless you see these things at shows and I hadn't been to a pinball show yet, so I didn't know I'd get to play one a whole bunch of times. And the remakes, I guess, maybe they'd been announced, but maybe they were just on the horizon. Maybe they were just a gleam in Gene Cunningham's eye. But, like, you never thought you'd get to play this thing in real life, and it was just like, ah, this is going to be the coolest game. And to actually see it made, you know, plastic and wood and steel, and, you know, to see the little alien heads moving and the cool light-up ramp with the arrows, that I'm super surprised that no one's ever done. and the tube dancer, the way the tube dancer moves in the tube, like that's just such a sweet game. Like, I really do think that that game could be a giant hit. Like if it got the remake treatment, I think a lot of people would jump on big bang, not just because they, they know that it was a hard to find game and that it's rare that it sells for a lot of money, but just because, you know, even as a game on its own, uh, on its own merits, it's a really cool, good-looking, fun game that maybe didn't have the deepest rules, but it gets it done. So I really hope that, you know, when they do decide to get back to the remake game, you know, nothing against the people who own an original or an Illinois pinball version. I don't, you know, I don't wish for them to lose value, but I do really wish that more people in this world would have a chance to own or get their hands on Big Bang Bar. Because if there was a Big bang bar like out there for the eight nine thousand dollars that uh chicago gaming seems to charge for the remakes i would be hard pressed to not put my name down for one right well that's the thing man we talked about that you know like when medieval first you know they announced the remade oh we're gonna lose our money well they really haven't i mean the the they did take a little dip in in price but they've kind of gone back up again you know well they did right like people who own medieval madnesses lost money when the remakes came along because it gave people and all like people like me an alternative i went from hey i won't own a medieval madness to oh i can get one for eight thousand dollars and then you know a year or so down the road i picked one up for seven thousand um from a friend it was it was a friend deal you know don't i stress that it was a friend deal but you know it was it was a great buy and you know sure it's come back around but that's not to say that in a year or two years there won't be another run of remakes and it is going to hurt some people's value but i would also say that look don't pay more than you can afford for something assuming you're going to get all your money back and don't buy pinball machines as an investment, buy them as a toy, buy them for fun. And, you know, if you can, you know, buy when they're cheap and sell when they're expensive and make money, great, more power to you. But I just don't want to hear people bellyaching, oh, I lost money, it cost me money, I lost value. Because now people like me or people like the guy down the street who weren't going to spend $15,000 on one, but hey, maybe $7,500 is doable, can have one. Right. Well, it's like with the Monster Bash remakes and the Remember Attack from Mars, when you could still get those for six grand. Yeah, when they were making that, yeah, that standard edition, which I think is a real shame that they've gone away from that business model. Because even if they were like 7,000 for the standards now allowing for the increase in cost, I just think that it was great for someone to have an alternative to a Stern Pro that's a legit bonafide classic. you know attack from mars is better at least you know i mean i don't want to you know put that out because i know a lot of people will scream and shout and carry on but attack from mars at six thousand dollars was the best deal in pinball monster bash cactus cactus canyon at eight thousand dollars is probably the best deal in pinball if you're going to talk about playfield complexity and you know the artistry that went into making it and maybe the rules aren't as sophisticated as a new game but 99% of people aren't going to touch the depths of the rules in Cactus Canyon let alone the depths of the rules in Godzilla so they probably are appropriate for most pinball fans. Right well it's like the value for the money like you said man it's pretty hard to tell it's like when we're all talking about like when Hot Wheels first came out and you could get a Hot Wheels for like right around 7k at the time So pretty much right in line with what a Stern Pro was doing. Yeah, but it had better art, side blades, you know, a topper, color-changing lighting, all kinds of stuff that the Sterns don't. And a fantastic game, too, which I know, Mark, you're still happy with your purchase, aren't you? I still enjoy that game. Every time I play it, I'm like, man, this game is fun. And I was so close to getting to the Wizard Mode. I was so close. You'll get it eventually. Eventually I will. And I'm sorry, I didn't mean to cut you off earlier. I just that popped into my head. I had to get it out before I forgot it because, you know, I get. But I drove we drove by parts of the university, a beautiful university campus, by the way. Did you have a White Castle nearby when you were a student there? Yes, we did. Yeah, I think I went to that same White Castle because it was near our hotel. So because it was right close to the mall, it was the closest one. And the boys wanted White Castle because they'd never had it except, you know, the frozen one. And then we tried a Culver's on the way home. Nice. So, yeah. That's awesome. Well, that sounds like you had a fun trip. We've all been so busy with stuff, you know. Dan, you've been busy with work and remodeling the garage and Mark back to the classroom. Career change, pretty much. Yeah, pretty much, man. And, you know, you were on the – we talked about last episode. you were on a cruise to Europe and that I've been, you know, I've been on the road a lot this summer. And just seeing America now, and it's really neat to be able to see different parts of America for the first time. You know, I recommend everybody, you know, do what Mark Twain used to say, get out into the territories. See America. Meet somebody. Make a new friend. We've got, well, I'm going to let Dan take this one because you're going to know more about than any of the rest of us. You have, you got skin in the game on this delays and price increases over at Multimorphic. Oh, I was wondering where you were going with that. I was like, really, what, what, what are you going to throw at me? So, yes, was that good? Was that a good segment? I feel like it was fine. I just didn't realize it was coming. We've gone so far off the show notes and I'm just like, I don't know where the fuck Spencer's taking us now. Let's just see what happens. Right. So, yes, all of us pre-orders got an email from our good buddy, Jerry, who let us know that there were going to be some delays on our Weird Al Museum of Natural Herities, which is disappointing. and they also advised that there were going to be some price increases, not for people who had already put their money down. And in fact, they even gave us an opportunity. They said, hey, if you order by, and I think it was the end of September. Maybe it was the end of August. I'd have to look at it again. But we had an opportunity that if we wanted to order additional modules for the original price, we still could. However, that there would be pretty much a $500 increase across the board for modules. So it sounds like they've been very, very successful with their pre-order campaign for Weird Al. It sounds like they are getting them built, but it is a longer process, a harder process than they expected. I'm sure they probably all in all with the LEs and the standards and the modules probably sold close to a thousand units. And I think that going into that, there were only a couple hundred P3s out in the world. So, yeah, they essentially, you know, immediately decided to, you know, quadruple their business. So it's not too surprising that there was going to be a delay. It's a little disappointing. You know, some of us were already deep, deep in line. Like I was already as late as next March, and now I'm probably a little bit closer to next May. But at the same time, it seems like as the months go by, they've done code updates. They've done hardware revisions. The units are just getting better and more reliable and more streamlined. And, you know, the new code has new songs and new modes. The wizard mode's been instituted. So I'm in this game for the long haul. I'm not going to lose my mind if I have to wait a couple more months. So it doesn't bother me too much. And I don't think I've heard of any other Weird Al pre-orders that have just been like, oh, my God, I can't believe that this just happened. But, you know, it's part of the game, right? When you're working with these small companies, you got to understand that, you know, sometimes good things, you know, are worth waiting for. Yeah, no, well said. Well, you know what else? It's really great that they didn't just like, okay, we're just going to raise the price, you know, give us more money. Like if you're already invested and then giving people a chance to say, hey, we'll give you until the end of this time. If you want to go ahead and order, it'll be a while till you get it, but we'll give it to you at the original price. That was really, really a really high class and, you know, taking the high road way to do it. So and not alienating their customer base. So because, you know, there have been a few people that have stepped on a few toes lately in a lot of industries, not just, you know, pinball and gaming. But it's nice to see that they made the effort, you know. So, well, I mean, since we've all played, you know, Weird Al, we know, I mean, because we all love the thing. You bought one. But, you know, all of us who play the game know how awesome this game is, you know. It's so much fun to play. I'm so excited when our module gets here eventually. Probably we won't get it until, I'm guessing, probably not until Christmas time, but we'll see. Unless James Bond or something else comes out that really, really wows me, I'm going to give it Game of the Year as of right now. I know it's a little early to pull that trigger, but that's my opinion. And I love Rush, don't get me wrong. But, I mean, people constantly squawk online about innovation, innovation. you know if you want innovation well there it is you know that kid's got real innovation yeah packing a whole play field and one-third of it yeah it's pretty amazing well not just the whole play field but all the gizmos are in that damn thing yeah well that's i mean i mean packed what's on what would be on a full play field right on a one one-third of a of a space It's pretty amazing how they compact that all into a very fun shooting game where most of it is up on the top. Right. I just feel like, you know, the P3 platform, which is not new, you know, I guess it's going on to five, six, ten years old. Like, it's been out for a while. it has been doing for years and years and years what companies you know are just starting to get their machines to do now you know online updates you know internet connectivity head-to-head play uh you know it is a really innovative platform i think that where a lot of people get left out in the cold is it does have those differences from your original pinball machine right You know, it has that weird flipper and pop bumper on a stick sort of thing, you know, because of the fact that they're suspended above the TV screen play field. And yeah, a lot of the action is unfortunately at the rear of the play field. You have side targets, you have return ramps. Weirdo has a crossover, which is, you know, really cool. It's a new thing. But, you know, it's it's, you know, very much like at the back of the game. And I think that if they ever figured out how to bring stuff down the play field I think it would really help them But it would probably also really hurt the quick swap modularity that it supposed to have I will say this about Weird Al When you see that thing in person, it looks real. You know, a lot of people say it's not real pinball. And I'm like, you can't look at that game and not think that that looks like a pinball machine. It's got the plastics. It's got the art. It's got the ramps. You know, it's got what, five flippers. you know it's got wire forms and and loop-de-loops and everything that you could want in a pinball machine and i think that you know when you looked at some of the earlier p3 stuff like lexi light speed uh or you know even heist like heist is awesome for p3 because that's another one of those games that like it was the first one that i think really worked some artistry into it it's got the buildings and it's got the crane that comes out and moves around the play field. I think that as they continue to make titles, you're seeing the progression of their art. And, you know, I can't wait to see what comes out next. I think that they're really hitting their stride. The platform is getting better and better. And yeah, it's expensive. But once you're into it, you know, you're going to be getting the ability to have games for a third the cost of what a Stern premium is going to cost you, you know, maybe a little bit less than half the cost of a Stern Pro. And that's pretty cool. You know, I've said before and I'll say again, you know, I would have loved for Weird Al, whoever made it, to have done it as a traditional machine. I wasn't excited about having to adopt the P3 platform. But, you know, I've watched a lot of videos and, you know, I figured I'm going to buy this thing. I better know what it's about. And I have a lot of respect for Jerry and for his designers and what they've created. And I really hope that, you know, they figure out how to build them quick. I want one. Hurry up. No kidding. And you know, the other thing that I like that's innovative is the scoops, how they all raise up separately or together or they create a wall. That's pretty innovative. And it does add a lot to how you can kind of divide the playing play field to shoot more for things that are on the lower play field. Yeah, it gives you. It's cool. It's really cool how he does that. Like mid play field action. Plus, a lot of the downloadable games will use that. You know. Yeah, right. Exactly. You know, the craziest thing about the P3 is that the trough supports like 100 balls. You know, I was just going to say I saw that opened up one time. And I was like, dang, that holds a lot. I mean, you could actually have like a Hyperball or whatever that – what is that game? That one where the balls just keep coming out. Yeah, Hyperball and Rapid Fire. Both Weird Al and I believe Heist both have like 15-ball multiballs. That is crazy. So, yes. So, I screw your Apollo 13. Yeah, that takes it over. There you go. Well, you know, again, that's why I said you should lean on this one because you got skin in the game. We love the game, but we're not buying one. You're getting one at Reno Mark at your location and me being out here in God's country. I don't know what the hell I'm going to do. So, no, but you know what? I'll save some money because I'm going to have to sell something, probably something that you're going to want. Yeah, like an E500. I don't think I'm selling an E500. You're bolting that to the floor, aren't you? I don't think I'm bolting it to the floor, but I'll tell you what, everybody in the goddamn city wants it. Well, because that's the only one around. They didn't make a lot of those. You know, I saw one for sale in SoCal or the Bay Area pretty recently. But, yeah, you don't see them too, too often. It's just I see why people want to sell. It's such a good game. It's a stupid, fun game. It's so beautifully rolled, too. It's so much fun. That turbo is so cool how that works. The turbo bobby, yeah. And it's just such a fun game. It's crazy fun. Yeah, it's really fun. I didn't even put this in the notes because everything has gone in the last few weeks. But, you know, the weekend before last weekend was Maya Rusty's 19th anniversary. And so she, since we moved here a year and change ago, she wanted to go over to Thermopolis, which is only about a two-hour drive. and if you know anything about Thermopolis if you want to dig for dinosaur bones or fossils it's a great place to do that there's an area of small hills with ancient Indian carvings like pictographs and it's got so much rich history over there and it's got all kinds of natural thermal holes so they have two water parks right next to each other with water slides and pools and stuff, and they empty the water out every night and refill it naturally from the warm springs. And they cool it off a little bit, and then there's two. There's an indoor giant pool, wading pool, hot tub thing, whatever, and there's an outdoor one where they keep it just natural and right around 104 degrees in their mineral spring. So, again, they don't put any chemicals in. At the end of the day, they drain the pools and they refill them in the morning just with nature. It's really cool. They got a lot of the cool stuff there. They have the dinosaur museum near there. We had a really good time. But near there, and I'll post the picture on Facebook because anybody that's ever seen Beavis and Butthead do America will get this reference. about another hour down the road, about 30 minutes from where the Indian pictographs are, ancient, you know, picture drawings on sides of rocks. And these can be hundreds of thousands of years old. So I'm going to post some pictures of those too. They're really cool. Anyway, it's the town of Metice, Wyoming. And the reason that's funny, if you watch the Views and Butthead movie, Do America, they're traveling on a tour bus and they go through all the funny named towns like Butte, Montana and Bald Mob and Piney and they go through Wyoming and Buess is driving past the city limit sign for Métis Buess is all, Métis so there's a picture of me all posted on Facebook on our page in a Metallica shirt throwing up the devil horns right in front of the Métis sign Well, Metiti's like 340 people, right? It's tiny. So we're wandering. We stopped at the little gas station, mini-mart town center. And there's like that. And it was like a Sunday. So it was like everything's closed. There's like the bars open and like something else. Anyway, so we're just walking through the little downtown. We got a drink, and we're just wandering. And this guy lets us into a shop. He's got a little shop, and it's like he kind of makes what his daughter was doing. She's grown enough, living her own life now. So he has a Simpsons pinball party, and his name is Lee. And he has a couple old video games like the arcade one-ups and Lego stuff and art projects. And he just kind of team-centered a place for the kids to hang out because there's nothing else for them to do in Metis. But it was like so cool. He has this beautiful, clean, well-working Simpsons pinball party. So even in the town of Metis, 300 and change people, you know, we managed to find the one dude who's got a pinball machine. So shout out to Lee in Metice, Wyoming So if you're ever in Metice Stop by and say hi to Lee Check out his cool art and his Legos And play some pinball with him So that's my Metice story Metice So yeah, see you get that joke So thank you I posted it And then people were asking What does that mean? It kind of takes fun out of it when I have to explain it So I just posted a link with the video segment where they're driving on the bus. Well, you guys know Beavis and Butthead is back, right? Yeah, back in a big way. Yeah, they did another movie and they've got a new episode. The movie was awesome. They just made a brand new movie. They just made a new TV series, which isn't bad. It's definitely true to the spirit of the original. And I know that that's a theme that a lot of dudes of our specific age would definitely put on their stupid pants and order. Sight unseen, that would sell out instantly. Like an American pinball or a spooky pinball. Like, you know, I don't know if Stern's going to sell, you know, however many thousands Stern would expect to sell. You know, I don't know if Jersey Jack is going to, you know, if it's going to be enough of an epic for Jersey Jack to really build a whole Jersey Jack pinball world around. But, man, I do feel like that's a game that spooky pinball could just really do something with. Or, you know, hopefully American pinball. You know, don't get me wrong, Hot Wheels is great. But I would still love to see them sink their teeth into, you know, a theme that, you know, people would really, really want. Yeah, well, if you get stern to let you use the couch, you can just recycle the Simpsons pinball party couch, you know. Or you could make a new couch. Make a new couch. You don't need the stern Simpsons pinball party couch. Although, you know, that would actually be pretty perfect. See, it would work. So, you know, you have the TV and, you know, so, yeah, I'd have to sell some plasma or something to that game. I still think that Simpsons pinball party, like, living room, upper play field, and the whole, like, even though it's just short little shots, like, that couch lock shot is you know it's so cool you shoot it up under the tv and it holds it for a second and it lets it go and you pop it up onto the couch and it goes i mean i've always thought that was just a really cool satisfying sequence of shots it is it yeah it's you know they did such a nice job on that game and it's still you know what man it's still well they they sold the crap out of those they've made those for a while you know because it's a great game and you can get like so many cool mods from our good pal sparky so shout out to sparky yeah if you if you got money and you got a simpson pinball party he is he has made it for you yeah yeah you can yeah you can go for days and still find you know what there you're making that one too okay yeah but yeah it's really cool um yeah so that's uh what i that's what i got about all that now um we do have, let me, I'm just kind of going over and make sure we're covering everything. Yeah, we've covered just about everything. We do have some sad news in the world of pinball, and not to be on a downer, but if you know who Wayne Nance or Wayne Neyens was, if you don't, well, I'm going to tell you. Wayne Neyens, or Wayne Nance, I'm really not sure which way it's pronounced, was a Gottlieb pinball. He started Gottlieb pinball in like 1939. And he worked there all the way up until like 1983. He started out testing playfields and worked his way all the way up to become the vice president of engineering and product development. And he passed away on July 30th, the day after his 104th birthday. And this guy had like the record of producing more pinball machines or not producing, but designing more than anybody else. He actually was on the design team. He wasn't the lead designer, but he was working with a man named Harry Mabbs, who invented the flipper in 1947 for a game originally they were going to call Flipper. And then old man Gottlieb was like, I don't like that. We're going to do Humpty Dumpty. So he was actually working on that. His last game was the last game he actually helped design was Spirit of 76, which they had had a discussion in the lunchroom. He told this story years ago, and there's video of him telling it where they're going around the room. It's 1976. Like, how many of that game do you think we're going to sell? Somebody said, ah, 3,500. Somebody said, you know, 5,500. And Wayne said, 10,000, which was unheard of, you know, in that frame because they moved through games so quick. and so the old man, old man Golly, D or David Golly said, you know what, Wayne, if we sell 10,000, I will deliver number 10,000 to your house. So a few months later, they're in the lunchroom and David Golly walks in and says, hey, Wayne, where do you want your game? He's like, what can't you be talking about, boss? He goes, we're running number 10,000 right now on the line. I'm going to deliver it to your house. He kept that game. It's the only game he had in his home until he turned 100. He donated that game to the Pacific Pinball Museum. The last time, just before, I mean, just four or five weeks before COVID came into the world, I was at the Pacific Pinball Museum playing his Spirit of 76. And without a doubt, the cleanest, nicest, most perfect playing, most beautiful Spirit of 76 I'd ever played. They also have, they made a two-player version called Pioneer, and they also made a Anibal version for New York called New York City. And the museum has one of those there. So Wayne Neyens, Wayne Neyens, prolific pinball guy, really big part of the pinball history, lived to the wonderful age of 104, but passed away July 30th. So we want to remember him. If you get the chance, and I have the DVD somewhere still, was a documentary, kind of a rare one. It's called Pinball Passion. And they have a really good interview with Wayne. And in that interview, he tells that story about the game. That's cool. Yeah, he talks a lot about being with Harry Mavs when he invented the flipper and how, you know, that's just, you know. I mean, when they released that, it was off to the races because it completely changed pinball forever. And he was part of that. One of my favorite games from him is Slick Check. That's such a great game to bring up. It was one of his favorites. Among that era of Gottliebs, it is so highly regarded for the rule set. another side note, if you've played Woe Nelly or any of the other games, Primus or the Pabst Can Crusher, I forget the name of the game, but that layout is a Wayne Names layout. The funny thing about that is when they used it to make the original Woe Nelly, you looked at it and went, that's one of my worst games, so why don't you pick a good one? Because they didn't want to ruin anything good. They wanted to, you know, improve something that was not, you know, not worth saving. Yeah, he was like, he goes, yeah, that's not really one of my good designs. I kind of was, you know, I kind of like, you know, kept scratching my head going, I really could have done that one better. You know, he was so humble about it. Like, yeah, I should have picked a better one. You know, but yeah, slick chip, fantastic game. Yeah, so I mean, that's just a quick overview of the life of Wayne Nance or Wayne Nance. I'm not 100% sure which is the pronunciation, but if you didn't know who he was before, you kind of have a you can look it up, read about him, you know, maybe catch that documentary. But he was a real huge, I mean, a real huge part of Gottlieb's history and the history of pinball in general. So we wish his family the best in remembering him. So that's all our regular topics. I do have a quick list of shows to go down. But, you know, I just want to go to upcoming shows because we haven't done upcoming shows in a while. I'll start out with September. We have the next weekend, the Saratoga Silver Ball, September 17th and 18th in Saratoga Springs, New York. You guys can Google it for more information. Y'all got Goo gle. And then October 7th and 8th, we have the White Rose Game Show in York, Pennsylvania. We also have the long-running pinball show west of the Mississippi, October 7th through 9th, is Pinnagogo in Dixon, California. Yeah, I knew that would make you happy. The original pinball show coming up, Chicago Expo, October 19th through the 22nd. And now that same weekend, we have the Rocky Mountain close to me, We have the Rocky Mountain Pinball and Game Room Expo, and that's this Friday, Saturday, Sunday, October 21st through 23rd, and that's in Denver, Colorado. You guys can Google this. I won't go where it is and all that. You guys know, but if you're interested, look it up, get more information. November 11th through 13th, we have the Houston Arcade Expo. That's, of course, in Houston, Texas. And then December, we're going to round out the year, December 2nd through the 4th, Pinsonati Pinball Show in Pinsonati, Cincinnati, Ohio. So that covers some of the pinball shows. There's some going on in Europe and stuff and, you know, Australia, but I figure we keep this stuff just close to home for now and in the States. But you can look up online and find pinball shows in your area. And if you are in Europe or Australia, my apologies, you can just look up. The show's coming up all through the rest of the year. So that's what I've got for the show, man. And what's our email address again? Our email address, thank you, Dan, for that, is thespinnerislit at gmail.com. So everybody from Europe and Australia who's offended that Spencer didn't mention your shows? Just send me hate mail. The Spinner is lit at gmail.com. Attention, Spencer. And let them know what you think of them. And thank you for listening. Thank you for listening to our people in Russia. We have listeners in Russia. So thank you, guys and gals, ladies. I know there's ladies listening. But that's our show for tonight. Shout-outs and thank yous. Mark, go for it. all right my shout out is to you spencer for making it to 50 episodes for the spinner is lit i remember you first started it off and you were single and you were just interviewing people and talking just about pinball by yourself and then you had the round table crew and now we have another round table crew as it evolved so congratulations on keeping this show going and it's just gotten better and better. Hear, hear. Spencer is definitely our fearless leader and he drags us to the microphones even when we don't necessarily want to be. And he comes up with the show notes and he drives the bus. Sometimes he drives us off the road. Sometimes he drives us down the wrong way. Sometimes he finds all new and innovative roads that have little to do with pinball. but you know this whole thing is his fault so if you don't like the show email thespinnerslit at gmail.com attention spencer let him know what you think of him you know you know i gotta say thank you to you guys because um you know and and to everybody you know going back like i said the the first people to come on and do interviews uh you know uh you know chris bannister and michael Hozier and Adam Pressler, you guys, you know, Justin Kelly. And we've got some more. I've got actually some more interviews and stuff lined up here for the future. We'll have interview shows. We'll have special guests again. You know, former hosts, you know, Brian and Alex and, you know, the whole Roundtable crew and Seth Holder, who, you know, hosted the show with me for a year and a half, two years. You know, and... To be fair, I don't think anyone's a former host. They're just not here right now. Yeah, it's not former. They just showed up. We would immediately hand them a microphone and say, well, it's going to be a little bit messier, but that's okay. Mark will clean it up. Yeah, right. Exactly. Yeah, Seth did the cleanup work for a while when, you know, we were first starting out. I'm like, I mean, I've gotten better. We've all gotten, we've improved, you know, with everybody's help. We've improved in 50 episodes, you know. And it's still fun, man. And as long as it's still, like you said, it's still fun driving the bus, even driving down the wrong road. Like, you know, I just realized now after you said something, Dan, you're kind of like, oh, wow, that really went a weird way. Because we were actually, I saw it. We were first still on American Pitbull and Titans. We'd already gone to and through the Mall of America and SS Billiards of Lloyd. I'm like, oh, I don't know where the fuck we are. That's where the magic of editing is. Smoking and abandoning it and crashing through roadblocks and jumping over rivers. You know what? I think that for anyone who's listened to us, I mean, you know, how many, how many episodes has it been since our current format with Mark? Like, is this, are we like 10 in, you know, Yeah, I think we're about to have him. you know, coming up, Hey, you know, I want to do a podcast. Who's with me. And to the guys who got you off the ground, you know, to the practical Steve's who's still associated with the show, uh, to, you know, Seth, who I barely hear from anymore because he's a bastard. He probably won't listen anyway. Nobody likes you, Seth. Um, that's not true. We all have Seth and, uh, you know, to Mark and, and, uh, and you and to everybody who has contributed or continues to contribute or just listens and let us knows what they think or doesn't bother to let us know what they think but listens you know thanks a lot for for being around you know also i you know as always i want to thank ccpl uh congratulations to uh mike hosier who won fulsome today and to adam pressler who won b on a tie breaker. I still say, you know, I got worked, but he beat me fair and square. I probably cheated. So thank you to all. Thank you to all you guys, all the local pen pals, all the all the local listeners and everybody. Well, I'm excited for our next episode after I get back from Green Bay because I'm going to the Super Series with Rick Demmel. So it'll be a fun episode to talk about the experience at the Super Series tournament in Green Bay. So stay tuned for that in our next episode. And we need to bring Rick into the studio. Like, you can come into my house for this, because we've been trying to get him on the show for a while. Yeah, we definitely need to have him on. I've got a list of people we've got to get to. So we'll start now. You know, not this fall. We're all back home. We're all back at work. Summer vacations are over. We'll get all these people on. We'll start getting them on. But, yeah, thank you to you guys, man. Thank you for all the listeners. The number one compliment I still get whenever I'm out and about or at a show, people go, oh, my God, I listened to the show. I'm like, oh, all right, I'm sorry. No, they always get the same compliment. You always make it feel, I always feel like when I'm listening, I'm there in the room with you, sitting at the round, sitting at the card table, eating pizza, and just hanging out, talking about pinball. And which is, again, which is the goal for the show has always been, I just want people, you know, you're out of your car and your commute or you're cleaning the house or whatever you're doing. You're listening to the show. I feel like I'm in the middle of the gang. Because you are part of the gang. If you dig pinball, you're part of the gang. Hear, hear. That's it, man. Yeah, man. That's the wrap up. I think that's a good place to leave off for now until episode 51 when Mark goes to Green Bay and Dan has a cooler day in the garage, in the game room garage, and we get our first snow here in Wyoming. Well, you know what? By the time that we get back for episode 51, I'm sure that we'll have some Pentagogo news for you. There'll be a new Stern game that we've all played to talk about. Mark will have gone someplace and kicked ass at pinball, and Spencer will have taken a trip where he probably drove down a lot of roads he didn't expect to drive down. There's a lot of cornfields. I'll give you that. Lots of corn. Like, I've never been to Nebraska yet, but talking to other people, like, oh, you've been all the way through South Dakota and, like, seven, eight of Minnesota. It's like, yeah, you've seen Nebraska. It's all corn, too. So literally, like, five and a half, six hours on the road. Both sides of the road, nothing but corn. Beautiful area, though. Anyway, that's it, man. So we'll take it out. Hey, everybody, keep playing pinball. Keep America strong.

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v4)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 369423de-7745-43d6-b8c3-9af49fb6ba0c*