# Episode 1 – Hello World!!

**Source:** Slam Tilt Podcast  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2016-07-14  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.slamtiltpodcast.com/2016/07/14/episode-1-hello-world/

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## Analysis

Ron Hallett and Bruce Nightingale debut the Slam Tilt Podcast, introducing themselves as pinball enthusiasts and operators in upstate New York. They discuss IFPA regional rankings, Stern production delays (particularly with Ghostbusters), and provide an extensive breakdown of the Pintastic New England show, covering vendors, seminars, auctions, and free play areas with detailed game-by-game impressions.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Stern Pinball is behind in production, with Ghostbusters delayed at Premium Edition stage — _Ron and Bruce discussing recent industry news; Bruce notes Standard Edition shipped, Limited Edition delayed, and Premium Edition hasn't shipped yet_
- [HIGH] Steve Ritchie acknowledged Stern's production delays unprovoked during his Pintastic seminar — _Ron reporting on Steve Ritchie's seminar at Pintastic New England_
- [HIGH] Pabst Blue Ribbon pinball machine announced, based on Woe Nelly platform, sold through PBR website not distributors — _Ron discussing Stern news released during the episode recording_
- [LOW] An Australian buyer reportedly purchased ~20 pinball machines at Pintastic for ~$50,000 — _Bruce relaying rumor heard at the show; explicitly states 'Is it true? Is it not true? Who knows?'_
- [HIGH] Ghostbusters has been out for over a month and a half with delayed releases across edition tiers — _Ron noting Kevin Manning just getting his first in-box Ghostbusters and production timeline discussion_
- [HIGH] Buffalo Pinball Open scheduled for August 12-14 with Sharp Brothers attending and 33 pre-registrations — _Bruce announcing upcoming tournament details_
- [HIGH] Pintastic New England had over 200 playable games in the free play room — _Ron stating 'over 200' when discussing game availability at the show_
- [MEDIUM] Defender (1982 Williams) is a rare game with only ~400 made and typically only appears at York show annually — _Ron and Bruce discussing Defender vendor machine at Pintastic; Bruce provides rarity estimate_
- [MEDIUM] Spectrum is the only Bally with two full lamp boards due to extensive lighting — _Bruce explaining technical details of the Spectrum machine sold at auction_

### Notable Quotes

> "It's 106 miles to Tee'd Off Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses. Hit it!"
> — **Ron Hallett**, opening
> _Blues Brothers reference to open the inaugural episode; establishes the podcast's irreverent, pop-culture-savvy tone_

> "I went to a crack house. I didn't know it was a crack house, but me and my mom brought me down there. Your mom was into crack. My mom was not into crack. Maybe now she is, but maybe back then she wasn't."
> — **Bruce Nightingale**, intro section
> _Humorous personal anecdote about acquiring his first pinball machine (Bally Kiss) at age 14; establishes Bruce's long history in the hobby_

> "I've had one person say that they've had playfield issues, who knows if it's that, but it's really weird for a new machine to come out and have be put on really the back burner like Ghostbusters."
> — **Ron Hallett**, industry news section
> _Speculation about the cause of Ghostbusters delays; signals potential quality control issues_

> "This is the first time I can actually say since Indiana Jones that they're releasing at the same time as the movie is being released or a theme with the movie to make it more interesting."
> — **Ron Hallett**, Ghostbusters discussion
> _Industry observation about Stern's movie tie-in timing strategy; notes it's rare timing opportunity_

> "That game is a turd. Yes, it is a turd."
> — **Ron Hallett and Bruce Nightingale (agreement)**, Indiana Jones discussion
> _Unfiltered opinion about Indiana Jones Stern machine; establishes podcast's candid review approach_

> "If the vendor is paying out $180 for a booth, that's too much. Really is. As a vendor, I sell the pinball lifter. I do a lot of stuff. That's a lot to be putting out because you've got to spend there three days for the hotel, gas, tolls, everything else."
> — **Bruce Nightingale**, Pintastic vendor discussion
> _Insider vendor perspective on show economics and pricing barriers; identifies structural issue affecting show viability_

> "There are shows. I won't name them. But as we do other show reports, as our podcast continues, you will know what I'm talking about. But there are certain shows you go to where that Sam May have, say, way more. Like how many The Games would you say were at the show? Over 200. they said. Over 200. So say there's shows we go to that have over 200. There's way more The Games than this. But maybe 40% of them are shit."
> — **Ron Hallett**, free play room assessment
> _Comparative show analysis; Pintastic praised for game quality despite lower quantity at other shows_

> "Jersey Jack Pinball is making Beetlejuice and going to. Just tell our listeners, if you ever see that he's giving a seminar, go because there will be free pizza. And free food, yes."
> — **Ron Hallett and Bruce Nightingale**, seminar discussion
> _Practical recommendation about JJP seminars; casual mention of Beetlejuice in production (unconfirmed)_

> "I think you see that at some shows. I mean, other shows, like, for example, the Allentown show. Best show that you've hosted. As far as, you know, especially if you're a vendor, I mean, people buy stuff for vendors there. Yes. Like crazy."
> — **Ron Hallett and Bruce Nightingale**, vendor discussion
> _Benchmarking Pintastic against Allentown show; identifies Allentown as the gold standard_

> "I'd rather go to a show and have all pinball parts there, pinball stuff there, instead of a bank trying to give me a loan or something else. I'm not going for my home finance or my new car from Ford."
> — **Bruce Nightingale**, vendor hall critique
> _Critique of vendor mix at Pintastic; advocates for pure pinball-focused vendor strategy_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Ron Hallett | person | Co-host of Slam Tilt Podcast; pinball enthusiast from upstate New York who attends multiple shows annually, creates video content of shows, and has extensive pinball knowledge |
| Bruce Nightingale | person | Co-host of Slam Tilt Podcast; pinball collector with 31+ years in hobby, owns 35+ machines, runs Western New York pinball leagues, repairs machines, tournament organizer, vendor selling pinball lifter product |
| Stern Pinball | company | Major pinball manufacturer experiencing production delays; released Pabst Blue Ribbon machine announcement and Ghostbusters facing multiple edition delays |
| Steve Ritchie | person | Pinball designer/Stern representative; guest speaker at Pintastic New England who publicly acknowledged Stern's production delays |
| Josh Sharp | person | President of IFPA (International Flipper Pinball Association); approved upstate New York regional division at Slam Tilt hosts' request |
| Buffalo Pinball Open | event | IFPA circuit tournament scheduled August 12-14 in upstate New York; first circuit event in region with Sharp Brothers attending and 33 pre-registrations |
| Pintastic New England | event | Second annual pinball show held in Sturbridge, Massachusetts at Sturbridge Hotel; featured 200+ games in free play, vendor hall, seminars, and auction room |
| Kevin Manning | person | Upstate New York pinball enthusiast, Vice President of Buffalo Pinball, receiving his first new in-box Stern machine (Ghostbusters) |
| Jersey Jack Pinball | company | Pinball manufacturer with presence at Pintastic; Josh Bell conducting seminars and allegedly producing Beetlejuice machine |
| John Yossi | person | Guest speaker at Pintastic New England |
| John Trudeau | person | Guest speaker at Pintastic New England |
| Lyman Sheets | person | Special guest at Pintastic New England |
| Josh Bell | person | Jersey Jack Pinball representative; conducts seminars at shows with free food offerings |
| Trent Augustine | person | Tournament player mentioned in anecdote about playing Spectrum machine at Texas show for ~45 minutes |
| Gabe | person | Pintastic event organizer who coordinated seminars; praised for quality speaker lineup |
| Dave Marston | person | Pinball enthusiast from New Hampshire with vanity plate 'pinball'; reportedly attended every Pinball Expo; involved in Pintastic seminar organization |
| Greg Pavarelli | person | Highly ranked IFPA player (40th nationally) with 305 points for New York State as of episode recording |
| Allentown Pinball Show | event | Annual pinball show benchmarked as gold standard for vendor participation and attendance; Ron and Bruce attended 2004 inaugural show |
| Pinball Lifter | product | Bruce Nightingale's product sold at shows; described as a useful pinball machine accessory/tool |
| New American Pinball | company | Company associated with Ron Hallett per KB context; mentioned in relationship to Slam Tilt podcast communications |
| Ghostbusters (Stern 2024) | game | New Stern pinball machine with movie tie-in; experiencing significant production delays across Standard, Limited, and Premium editions |
| Pabst Blue Ribbon | game | New Stern pinball machine announced; based on Woe Nelly platform; sold exclusively through PBR website, not traditional distributors |
| Defender (1982 Williams) | game | Rare Williams machine with ~400 produced; featured at Pintastic vendor booth; only typically appears at York show |
| Spectrum (Bally) | game | Bally pinball machine sold at Pintastic auction for $400; unique as only Bally with two lamp boards; features plastic apron instead of traditional apron |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Stern Pinball production delays and quality issues, IFPA competitive pinball and regional rankings, Pintastic New England show report and evaluation, Pinball show vendor economics and participation barriers, Ghostbusters machine release and delays
- **Secondary:** Pinball collecting and acquisition, Pinball machine repair and maintenance, Comparative show quality and game playability

### Sentiment

**Mixed** (0.55) — Positive toward Pintastic show organization and game quality, but critical of Stern's production issues and show vendor economics. Dismissive of Indiana Jones machine. Enthusiastic about the new podcast and community engagement. Hosts are irreverent and candid, which creates an engaging but somewhat negative tone toward industry pain points.

### Signals

- **[product_launch]** Pabst Blue Ribbon pinball machine officially announced by Stern; based on Woe Nelly platform; sold through PBR website instead of traditional distributor channels (confidence: high) — Ron: 'Stern Pinball might be a little behind in their production. They are a little behind, but they actually today released the news we've been waiting for for some time with the Pabst Blue Ribbon pinball machine being released. It's actually not being sold through distributors, actually, which is the weird part.'
- **[product_concern]** Ghostbusters experiencing significant delays across edition tiers (Standard shipped, Limited Edition delayed then halted, Premium Edition not yet shipped); publicly acknowledged by Steve Ritchie (confidence: high) — Bruce: 'They had the Standard Edition. The initial Standard Edition came out. Then the Limited Edition were delayed... they shipped out some of them, but then they halted production for some kind of major issue... But the Premium Edition, have any Premium Edition gone out yet? No, no, no, no, no.'
- **[industry_signal]** Stern's Steve Ritchie publicly acknowledged production delays during seminar, breaking from typical manufacturer silence on such issues (confidence: high) — Ron: 'unprovoked, I may add, just came out and said that they were having production delays and they are currently behind. So it's being acknowledged. It's being acknowledged, finally.'
- **[market_signal]** Rumor of large single buyer (Australian) purchasing ~20 machines for ~$50K at Pintastic, suggesting strong collector demand and capital flow (confidence: low) — Bruce: 'I remember hearing a story, perhaps you can include me in, of some Australian buyer who came in and was buying a lot of things, supposedly. Before even the show started, they were buying a ton of games, and supposedly he walked out of there with about 20 games. He spent supposedly 50K. Is it true? Is it not true? Who knows?'
- **[event_signal]** Pintastic New England well-organized with 200+ working games, good seminar speakers, but vendor participation hampered by $180 booth fee and lack of buyer traffic (confidence: high) — Ron: 'it's one of the better shows as far as if you wanted to play actual working The Games.' Bruce: 'If the vendor is paying out $180 for a booth, that's too much. Really is.'
- **[competitive_signal]** Buffalo Pinball Open scheduled for August 12-14 as IFPA circuit event with Sharp Brothers confirmed attendance and 33 pre-registrations (confidence: high) — Bruce: 'There will be a big points grab in the next month on August 12th to the 14th with the Buffalo Pinball Open, our first IFPA pinball tournament up in upstate New York... 33 pre-registrations. I think if you pre-register before July 31st, for your $5, you get five free entries.'
- **[sentiment_shift]** Indiana Jones (Stern) regarded as universally poor; both hosts agree game is 'a turd' with incomplete rules and design issues (confidence: high) — Ron/Bruce: 'It never completed the rules. It never completed everything. Unfortunately, it was bad all around. It was a rehash of everything, too.' Both agree: 'That game is a turd. Yes, it is a turd.'
- **[venue_signal]** Pintastic improved from year 1 to year 2 by adding dedicated tournament room (previously in vendor hall) and separate auction room; free play room open until 2am (confidence: high) — Ron: 'Last year, I believe, the tournament was in the vendor room. It was. So this year, they actually had its own room, which is nice... air-conditioned, very nicely done. Plus, they also had an auction room.'
- **[community_signal]** Launch of Slam Tilt Podcast as new community media outlet; hosts position themselves as accessible, unfiltered voices covering regional and national pinball scenes (confidence: high) — Ron: 'Coming to you from beautiful upstate New York, this is the Slam Tilt (pinball podcast) Podcast, a show about all things pinball.' Bruce: 'I'm actually really excited about the first show and actually talking about our fun stuff plus regional issues.'
- **[licensing_signal]** Ghostbusters release timed with new Ghostbusters movie; noted as rare instance of Stern syncing machine release with movie premiere (first since Indiana Jones) (confidence: high) — Ron: 'It's a great time to actually be releasing Ghostbusters with the new movie coming out with the girls and everything like that... This is the first time I can actually say since Indiana Jones that they're releasing at the same time as the movie is being released or a theme with the movie.'
- **[machine_intel]** Jersey Jack Pinball's Beetlejuice mentioned casually as forthcoming; no additional details provided (confidence: low) — Ron (discussing Josh Bell seminars): 'Jersey Jack Pinball is making Beetlejuice and going to...'

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## Transcript

 It's 106 miles to Chicago, we got a full tank of gas, half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark, and we're wearing sunglasses. Hit it! Coming to you from beautiful upstate New York, this is the Slam Tilt Podcast, a show about all things pinball. I'm Ron Hallett, here with my co-host and partner in crime, Bruce Nightingale. Yeah, hello. And welcome to our first and hopefully not last show where we will be discussing ourselves because introductions are in order. We will also be discussing some pinball news and we will be going in depth into the recent Pintastic New Robert Englunds show. So how's it going, Bruce? It's going really well. I'm actually really excited about the first show and actually talking about our fun stuff plus regional issues and fun stuff that actually happens all around the area. There are no issues, Bruce. Everything is great. Everything is always great. No. No? No. Okay. No. No. So let's introduce ourselves and why anyone would want to listen to us with the, I don't know, 300 other pinball podcasts out there. Why don't you go first? Just tell us a little about yourself, how long you've been in this wonderful hobby. I've been in this hobby for over 31 years. Yeah, my first pinball machine was a Bally Kiss. I bought it from a crack house, actually, in Patterson, New Jersey, when I was 14 years old, and worked my way up from there. I've actually, at the time, right now, own over 35 pinball machines, including the newest one I've just purchased this past weekend at Pintastic, a 9-ball. which is up and running and fully rocking away, except for the number two drop target, which Ron's warned me that drop targets stink on stars. Oh, they're terrible. So you were doing crack, and then you just saw a pinball machine and had to buy it? Nope. I went to a crack house. I didn't know it was a crack house, but me and my mom brought me down there. Your mom was into crack. My mom was not into crack. Maybe now she is, but maybe back then she wasn't. But we went to this house, and we bought the pinball machine, and three days later, we're watching the news, and my mom's like, isn't that the house we just went to a couple days ago? And it was, and they all got arrested for selling crack. Excellent. I didn't care because I got my first pinball machine, 14 years old, really cool. So since then, I've actually owned over 200 pinball machines. I repair most of my stuff. I actually repair and run Western New York pinball leagues and groups. I also have tournaments in my house, and I'm also one of the members of the officials of Buffalo Pinball. I go to also Central New York pinball shows and tournaments, and I also go down to Orange County pinball shows. So if it's in New York State, upstate, I am there. I also run and cover the upstate New York championships for the IFPA. So you know something about pinball? Yeah, just a little something. Okay. Just a hair. All right. Tell me about yourself. Well, let's see. I don't have that much. I don't have 30 years of active experience. I actually didn't get into this until I was in my 30s, probably. Actually, I can tell you what, your 2004. was the... I actually got into this through MAME. If anyone's familiar with MAME, it's an arcade emulator. You can play all the old arcade games on it. And I kind of got addicted to that, playing on the old video games, because that's what I was into as a kid. And from that, I got a MAME cabinet, but it had buttons on the side. And I wanted to get other emulators other than MAME, so there was a PinMAME emulator. So I put that on there, and I started playing the pinball machines. And Visual Pinball was called, and then Pin Mame ran like the ROMs. And I found I was playing that more than any of the other actual Mame games on there. So I don't know how, probably through the Internet, I found out about the Allentown Pinball Show, the 2004 Allentown Pinball Show. And I asked my father, who was the actual pinhead in the family. He actually was the one. He played them, probably started in the late 70s, and he didn't really play video games. Pinball was more his thing. So I asked him, like, hey, Dad, would you be interested in this? He said, yeah, sure, I'd do that. So we drove down to Allentown, and that's when I went from, like, maybe I'll get a pinball machine someday to after the show, I need to get a pinball machine now. So, and, you know, started the way a lot of collectors do. I think I bought a retail one, Black Knight, way overpaid for it. Oh, my. Had immediate issues with it, just immediate issues. Sound board died, lights not working, so I had to learn to fix it pretty quickly. And it's a Williams 6-7, so definitely you had to learn it really quickly to fix it. Yeah, when I lifted the play field, and if you've ever seen the bottom of Black Knight, It is quite crowded down there, and it was a scary experience, I'd say. But I don't know. My father was an appliance repairman. I took things apart when I was a kid just to take things apart. So I kind of took to that pretty quickly, I think, for that reason. So, I mean, I didn't have room for any of the games. I had up to seven games set up in my house at a time. I lived in a 600-foot slab. I had eventually four in one bedroom. And then my buddy Bruce here told me how I really didn't need a couch in the living room and did I ever use it. And he was right. I never used a couch. So we got rid of that and put three more in the living room. And that's the most I could put. So I started doing a one-in-one out basis with a storage bin. And by the time I was said and done, I moved out. I had, I think, 20 games. Yeah, and who sold you one of those games? That would be you, Bruce. What game would that be? That would be Black Knight 2000. That is the best game of all time, the 30-minute game per person. Yes, most games are 30 minutes of Black Knight 2000. So I recently, last year, moved into a much larger house with a basement. The aforementioned Bruce helped me pretty much almost by himself move the 20 games down into the basement through our build code doors, and there they go. That's where I am. Attended pinball shows around the country. I've tried to do walkthrough videos of a lot of the shows back when that really wasn't done that often. And now it's done a lot now. But years ago, the only video you'd see of games usually were really crappy cell phone videos. The early days of YouTube where you can only post 10-minute videos. but that's pretty much me we have gone to a lot of shows together a lot of shows California Extreme California Extreme, Texas Pinball Festival Allentown, Pinball Expo Pintastic Pintastic Miss York Chicago Expo itself the biggest show of all Chicago Expo the granddaddy of them all granddaddy of them all All right. Actually, Florida, too. We've gone to the Florida. Oh, yeah, Free Play Florida. How could I forget Free Play Florida? Yes. So now after our introductions have bored everyone, we can get into pinball news. So this is the free form part of the show where there is no script whatsoever, and I will just edit things down if it gets too boring. Oh, yes. So what do we want to talk about? First, we have updated the points for the Upstate New York Championships this week, and they are fully updated with a different batch of 16 people compared to last year. There is six different newcomers into the top 16. For those who are listening and are saying, what the heck is the upstate IFPA points? What's the IFPA? Well, the IFPA is the International Flipper Pinball Association, and they actually track states. The problem with New York State and with some other certain states, a.k.a. Chicago and Washington and also Oregon and even California, that the states are so big that one region can monopolize more points because they have a bigger population. So what we've asked Josh, who actually runs – who is the president of IFPA to actually – That's Josh Sharpe for those at home. Yes, Josh Sharpe, to actually make a upstate by itself. We are still included into the New York State points, but we actually have our own upstate. And last year it was held in a beautiful castle on the – Castleton on the Hudson, New York. Which would be my house. We'll just call it Skodak because it's actually – it's in Skodak. The mailing address is Castleton. At the ground zero. Ground zero? Level Zero. Level Zero Arcade. Yes, yes, it was. And for those listening, you can probably guess in the case of New York State, what area monopolizes the points, especially when they have the Super League. When you look at Greg, who is a great player, who's ranked actually 40th right now in the IFPA, Greg Pavarelli, He is at 305 points for the whole state of New York just for since January 1st. The highest upstate player, which is myself, is at 79 points. So you see how it's a little hard for the regions to keep even, which I actually prefer to split, and I like it better actually, and it's more fun. But there will be a big points grab in the next month on August 12th to the 14th with the Buffalo Pinball Open, our first IFPA pinball tournament up in upstate New York. That's a Papa tournament event. Yes, a circuit event, which will actually have the Sharp Brothers themselves will be coming. Yes, they will. There's actually, as they stated, I think, yesterday, 33 pre-registrations. I think if you pre-register before July 31st, for your $5, you get five free entries. And there's going to be a classics division for each day. And then the qualifying for the main tournament is both days. And then Sunday is the finals for the final tournament. Very nice. So I will be there. So you can come see World Famous Bruce Steininger. World Famous, okay. World Famous in Poland. and you can come check us out. And I hope Mr. Hallett will be coming out also. I'm kind of pushing him. It all depends. It's all a work thing. It depends what's going on at work. It does. So for those who haven't dozed off for the IFPA competition stuff, I know there are the listeners out there who do not care about anything having to do with tournaments. What kind of industry news do we have? It seems that Stern Pinball might be a little behind in their production. They are a little behind, but they actually today released the news we've been waiting for for some time with the Pabst Blue Ribbon pinball machine being released. It's actually not being sold through distributors, actually, which is the weird part. It's actually based off the Woe Nelly and a regular pinball cabinet. No price yet, of course, but it's going to be distributed through Pabst Blue Ribbon. It's actually going to be sold through their website. so it's actually kind of a different marketing yeah, God knows what the price is going to be on that yeah, the price is probably pretty with the Woe Nelly being, what, $64.99 something like that it was pretty high I'm expecting Pabst Fool Ribbon maybe around that same pricing but the artwork from Donny Gillies (Dirty Donny) is incredible I actually like the color, the pop you actually, the colors pop out on it, unfortunately it still is Continental 1964 pinball machine underneath I played it a couple times this is okay it's different two inch flippers again totally different I'll totally agree with you on that until you get to the price tag that's going to be interesting that's the bad part I know Stern has been having some production delays and interestingly enough, we can get to this when we talk about Pentastic, during Steve Ritchie's seminar, he actually, unprovoked I may add, just came out and said that they were having production delays and they are currently behind. So, it's being acknowledged. It's being acknowledged, finally. With Ghostbusters, they actually put that, which is really weird for them, on the back burner I've had one person say that they've had playfield issues, who knows if it's that but it really weird for a new machine to come out and have be put on really the back burner like Kevin Manning who ordered his Ghostbusters is coming in actually Friday Kevin Manning, one of our upstate pinheads. Yes, he is actually the vice president of Buffalo Pinball. He's getting his first new in-box pro. Now, think about it. This is a pro. The machine's been out for what now? Over a month and a half? Yeah. And they're just starting to release more now. It's kind of weird. Usually they do that big push for the pros. Then you'll fill in the LEs, and then after that, we'll talk about premiums. Yeah, they had the pros. The initial pros came out. Then the LEs were delayed. Yes. And then actually they shipped out some of them, but then they halted production for some kind of major issue, and then they eventually went out. But the premiums, have any premiums gone out yet? No, no, no, no, no. And now they're doing the pros again. Yep. And I know for a while they were just shipping what they had in stock of other games. So whatever issues they've had, they've been major enough to – I mean, because Ghostbusters is, I mean, killer license for them. Whether, I mean – Well, it's a great time to actually be releasing Ghostbusters with the new movie coming out with the girls and everything like that. This week, think about it. This is the first time I can actually say since IJ that they're releasing at the same time as the movie is being released or a theme with the movie to make it more interesting. And IJ would be Indiana Jones. Yes, Indiana Jones, Stern. Stern, Indiana Jones. Yes. One of the just turd game. Our opinions will be very clear. This will be a very unfiltered podcast. I did put the little warning. Well, when you see this on the podcast side, it will have the little strong language warning. Not that we're just going to be sitting here doing F-bombs just for the sake of F-bombs, but that game is a turd. Yes, it is a turd. Plus, it never completed the rules. It never completed everything. Unfortunately, it was bad all around. It was a rehash of everything, too. So any other worthy news items? Besides the Stern News today. I mean, have we heard anything? Well, some of it kind of ties into the Pintastic show. Have we heard anything? I don't think there's been no alien news. I don't think there's really been any Big Lebowski news. The Big Lebowski, at least at the Pintastic, they had two of them running with the Dutch pinball guys there. One played really slow on the left-hand side. One played really fast on the right-hand side. Well, okay, since we're through with the news items, well, let's get on to the show. Yes. Weren't you the returning champion for that show in the tournament? Well, we'll get into that. We'll get into that. Oh, okay, okay. But this is the Pentastic New Robert Englunds, I believe is the official name. This is their second show, their first show last year. Both shows at the same hotel, the Sturbridge, Massachusetts. I think it's the Sturbridge Hotel. Yes, it is. It's next text to Lake. Very nice location. And the show, it has a free play room, a vendor room, and a tournament room this year. Last year, I believe, the tournament was in the vendor room. It was. So this year, they actually had its own room, which is nice. Yep. The air-conditioned, very nicely done. Plus, they also had an auction room. Oh, yeah, yes. They had an auction room. which, I mean, the games, I don't know. I know some things sold, but I saw them carting a lot of the stuff out of there after that. Yeah, actually, I'll include the story of one of the Upstate New York members bought the Spectrum that was there. Oh, God, Spectrum. Actually, $400. It was well-worn. Yeah, it'd be good for parts. Take the boards out of it. The boards and the displays are all crisp on it and everything. There you go. You get two lamp boards with that game. Actually, it's one of the few ballets that actually has two full lamp boards. But for $400, steal. So the show basically consisted of, it's a Thursday, Friday, Saturday show. The Thursday, they open just the free playroom. Yes. I think it's later in the day. And then Friday, it's the free playroom in the vendor room. And Saturday, free playroom in the vendor room. The free playroom was open to 2 a.m. on, I'm not sure about Thursday, but I know Friday and Saturday nights is open to 2 a.m. And because the show ends on Saturday, you had less of an issue with games walking. Yes. So just let's get into impressions of the show in the second show. Let's do some – Let's rate it all. Let's rate it all. Let's go vendors. What do you think of the vendor hall? Well, okay. So for the vendors, the thing is, well, just to clue in the audience, Bruce frequently is a vendor at many of the shows. So he knows a lot of the vendors who are actually there, so he can give a lot better insight in how well or not well they did. I can say just from what I saw, the vendor room, it definitely needed more people as far as, like, actually buying things in the vendor hall. A lot of the vendors seem to be – I know there was some packing up fairly early on Saturday. Yes. Like, I mean, before, like, early – like, late morning, early afternoon, which was – Well, Rocket Land always does, or whatever the one that's with the games in the corner where we were actually getting our pictures done was packing up around 12 o'clock, actually, with all of his games. All right. So let's go through some of the vendors. So, yeah, we had Mayfair. Yep. We had, I think, Cointaker was there. Yep. Seller LEDs. Then we had Classic Arcades was there. Had Pinballs. I'm just trying to think of the top of my head. Pingraphics. Pingraphics. The repair guy who was repairing boards. The guy who actually makes the playfield parts to make artwork. He was there also. You can get a loan there. That was really good and important. If you want to buy a game there, you can get a loan. Because if you can't afford the game, it's best to get a loan and end up in debt to pay to get the game. Well, the interesting thing about the vendor hall wasn't that I remember hearing a story, perhaps you can include me in, of some Australian buyer who came in and was buying a lot of things, supposedly. Before even the show started, they were buying a ton of games, and supposedly he walked out of there with about 20 games. He spent supposedly 50K. Is it true? Is it not true? Who knows? But that rumor was going around, and him and his wife and a couple other people were with him in the entourage. Oh. Oh, yes. But people did say that some games were gone earlier than they expected. Luckily, mine was not. Yeah, well, we'll get into that. And they had, okay, in the free play room? Well, the vendor hall, I got the vibe of it was okay. Okay. What they really need to do is, in my opinion, nothing against the show. The show was actually really run well. I was really impressed with it. The T-shirts were really nice, everything, the posters. The guests who they had there, which was Steve Ritchie, John Yousi, and John Trudeau. And Lyman Sheets as special guests. As special guests. You know, that was a great guest showing. Plus, even Jersey Jack was there, you know, talking about stuff. That was the great part. The problem is to get people to come to a show, you have to make the vendors want to come. If the vendor is paying out $180 for a booth, that's too much money. It really is. As a vendor, I sell the pinball lifter. I do a lot of stuff. That's a lot of money to be putting out because you've got to spend there three days for the hotel, gas, tolls, everything else. You want to make a show good, make the vendors come cheaper. When the vendors come there, then people come. There's got to be a way to get a little more traffic in there. And a lot of the issues you have with these kind of shows is most of your people who go there, they want to play games. A lot of them, they don't own games. They don't have a collection. This is their chance, like, wow, look at all these games. I mean, so they're not going to go in a vendor area to buy parts when they don't own any games. I think you see that at some shows. I mean, other shows, like, for example, the Allentown show. Best show that you've hosted. As far as, you know, especially if you're a vendor, I mean, people buy stuff for vendors there. Yes. Like crazy. And he does have to try to do the flea market. If he can push more towards flea market people, that'd be great also. How was the flea market? I saw one truck. There was three, actually. There was three trucks there. But actually, York has a better flea market area than that did. But guess what? I'd rather have those people inside and not have an outdoor flea market if we didn't have the loan people and a couple of the other not-needed booths being taken. I'd rather go to a show and have all pinball parts there, pinball stuff there, instead of a bank trying to give me a loan or something else. I'm not going for my home finance or my new car from Ford. Yeah, yeah. I probably didn't ask you. Your new Ghostbusters machine. Yes. But there was a couple other boosts that were really important. I liked the Central New Hampshire Pinball Club. They actually brought games, set them all up, had them all for free play. Great advertising for them. There was one vendor. I don't remember who it was that had the Defender machine there. Now, I played Defender before and really just thought it was a turd. But playing this game, actually, that worked. It was a fairly complicated game for a 1982, 83 Williams game. It had drop targets that were actually all individually controlled, going up and down, trying to simulate parts of the video game. I don't think I ever played when it actually was working. It was very interesting. Very difficult lock shot, too, in the side. So I just thought I'd throw that out there because it's just something you don't typically see at a show. You don't usually see a defender. No, you actually don't. There's only, I think, 400 of them made. So it is a rare game right off the bat. There's one usually at York every year, which is a good thing. And actually, we have a collector up in upstate New York. I won't mention his name because I don't know if he wants to know, but he actually has one. And it's a really unique, fun game, two-player. That's another rare and unique thing about it, actually, is only a two-player display game instead of a four-player display game. I didn't even notice that, actually, when I was playing. And for those at home, York is York, Pennsylvania, where they have a show usually, I think it's right, is it before or after the Chicago Expo? It is before Expo this year. It's actually one week before now. It's actually starting on September 30th and October 1st. Ah, interesting. Yes, I already have the booths paid for. Of course you do. For Pinball Lifter. Hey, got to get that wink in. Pinballlifter.com. Pinballlifter.com, that's Bruce's product. Try it. I use one. Yes. So, okay, that's the vendor room. So moving on from the vendor room, if you walked outside the vendor room, they had a couple of tables set up with, they had like a Nintendo, like an NES there, with like Super Mario Brothers on it. They had another console with something else. They had a console in the corner, I noticed. They had like the kids were around it playing most of the time. They had fighting tournament games going on. Yeah, fighting tournament games. And then if you went through there, through the hallway, there was the seminar room. Yes, on the right-hand side. On the right-hand side where they had seminars and a lot of interesting seminars. They had Steve Ritchie was there. I know it was kind of standing room only for him because when I was in there, the seats filled up and people were standing in the back of the room. And you had Josh Bell. Jersey Jack. Jersey Jack is always good to go to. Just tell our listeners, if you ever see that he's giving a seminar, go because there will be free pizza. And free food, yes. And free food. And usually there was so much free pizza this time. They were announcing in the free playroom, please come to the seminar room. There is free pizza. And, of course, I had already just eaten, so my timing was poor. My timing was good because I was across the hallway at the tournament room playing and eating at the same time. Yes, yes. So we'll save the tournament room for last because there's some interesting experiences for the both of us in there. I will say one thing, though. Also, the seminars that went on there was how to own a pinball machine, how to repair a pinball machine. Great stuff. I will compliment Gabe on that. He had a lot of good speakers there. Actually, I was expecting a little less quality with the speakers. They actually were all really good and really enjoyed it. I'd like to compliment Dave Marston. I think he has a lot to do with that setup. I've known Dave. Dave is one of the few people, I think he's been to every single Chicago pinball expo. Oh, my. Oh, yes. He lives in New Hampshire, and his vanity license plate says pinball, like with no weird spelling. The actual just spelled out. So you know he had that sucker for a long long time Now we go to the auction next because the auction was a smaller thing They had about 40 pieces The auction was near the front of the hotel when you came in And, yes, they had video games. They had jukeboxes. They had a Rush 2049 was there. Yes. They had some shooting games. There was just a lot of mix of things there. They also had a haunted house that went for over $1,000. Oh. And Argo seeded did not hit reserve. It was at a 175, and then the machine went right into the free play area. That's why I was saving for the free play area next. And the thing to remember about these auctions is it's not just the auction price. It's what? It's the commission and then the sales tax. Yeah, so that was 17% extra. Yeah. So the Spectrum was $400. And the weird thing was the – what was the other EM back there? It wasn't a Big Ben. And it was sort of like, oh, Lucky Ace. Lucky Ace? Okay. That went for $275. Williams EM from $74, which is, I'd say. Did it work? Barely. Barely. Okay. Barely. Barely. Sometimes it would, when you hit the extra, you know, the start button, you know, the stepper motors would just keep on spinning. Keep on spinning. Because it couldn't see the contact. So, yes. So, all right, and we had a fellow upstater who purchased the Spectrum. Yep, and it's working perfectly now. I actually was over at his house on Tuesday working on it with him. For those who've never played Spectrum, it's very, I believe it was mostly built because they had leftover parts, and they made a game. It's based on the, what's the name of the game? Mastermind. Masterminds. It has all these colors. It's very confusing. I saw it in a tournament once, and I just remember one of the tournament players, I won't say his name, well, it was Trent Augustine, if anyone knows who Trent is, who's in the competition. He was at the Texas show, and he played the spectrum for, I'd say, almost an hour because he was playing it. I went into the free play area, came back like 45 minutes later, and he's still playing it. I'm there, I'm saying, is he on the same game? I'm like, yep. It had something wrong with the tilt where it wouldn't tilt at all. So he was basically walking it out the tournament area. I think it was, you know, five feet one way, five feet the other way. And it just, yeah. So that was interesting. That's my Spectrum story. I have one also I did not notice until actually this week besides two things. First, it's the only bally with two light boards because there's so many lights on it. Second, there is no apron on this game. The apron is actually plastics. Oh, that's right. It kind of shoots the ball out. It shoots the ball out like some of the old EMs did in the 60s, but there's no apron. It's actually all plastics on the bottom. But the apron is where the shooter assembly, shooter ball trough and everything is covered usually by a little apron. Not this game. That game. Pretty interesting. So that was the auction area. And then we get to the ever, probably most popular, well, definitely the most popular room, the free play room. Very busy. And very busy. And I will say, you know, it's tough not to mention other shows and make them seem bad. But as far as shows go, this was one of the better shows as far as if you wanted to play actual working games. Yes. I mean, games that you could actually play. There are shows. I won't name them. But as we do other show reports, as our podcast continues, you will know what I'm talking about. But there are certain shows you go to where that may have, say, way more. Like how many games would you say were at the show? Over 200. they said. Over 200. So say there's shows we go to that have over 200. There's way more games than this. But maybe 40% of them are shit. I mean, they're just total... They're lucky they even start. Yes. These games, mostly collectors bring their games in. And it was definitely a buyer's market as far as... There was a lot of good deals. I mean, on... The Countdown for $500? Yeah, which sold. I was looking at that one. If I had a larger vehicle, that might have been coming with me. I'm always a fan of Countdown. I would have bought that in a second. It was actually a really good deal. Even some of them, like, you see, like, they had a Fire Champagne Edition. Yes, a Dinoite. That was like $1,800. I mean, but it's a Champagne Edition. I mean, you don't see too many of those. I mean, fortunately, it was off because it had a flipper issue, so who knows if the important parts worked. Three Jokers all set for Super Loud. Yes, they had three. Jokers wild. If anyone has ever played Jokers, and that's Jokers ending with Z. It is like a late 80s Williams System 11 game. Only one with stereo. Oh, yes, it had stereo. Stereo crap. It's just, oh, I hate that game. I just hate it. I don't think I've ever played one where you can actually hit the ramps, for God's sake. And the whole gimmick of the game is on the last ball, you can hit both ramps to double your score. Good luck doing that. Yeah, and this has got a guy that, I mean, the whole game is basically just starting multiball and just trying to hit the same lock shot over and over and over again and hearing, Joker's wow, woo, woo, woo, and that's all you heard. One was up particularly loud. and if you go to pinball shows you'll find there will always be those couple of games that are just up a little bit louder than the other ones and they'll just be ingrained in your brain whether it's exterminate exterminate like Doctor Who or a Black Knight 2000 that's up way too loud yes that is possible for that to be too loud so what were the three best games you thought there that were play wise best games the thing is I'm sure through the podcast we'll get into the whole LED discussion, but me and Bruce are not the biggest on LEDs, but unfortunately, we're in the minority, so most of the games were heavily LED'd out, so you play games with like one section of the play field is red, another's green, or maybe the whole thing is yellow or blue or it's just, and they do what they like to do a lot at these shows now, when it gets late in the night, they will turn the lights down or off. And when they do that, if my eyesight isn't the greatest, and when you have the LEDs in your face, you start to lose the ball. You can't look like we played Terminator 2 once at a show. It had LEDs, and we went into payback time, and literally it was like strobe multiball. We completely lost track of the ball. But forgiving that, there were a lot of nice games there. Yes, there was. I don't even know where to start. The lights camera action we played was nice. I mean, it was missing the topper, but, I mean, it was nice. It was not nice getting slaughtered on it, but it was a nice game, yes. So, I mean, there was a lot of nice games there. Did you see who won best in the show of game there? I think I was on Pinside, the go-to forum for all things pinball. I think the same guy won for, like, a couple of the EMs or something like that. They had a Black Knight 2000. and I know one. Best of show. Metallica Pro. Oh, okay. With a colored DMD. You can't lose with colored DMD. You can't lose with Metallica. No, yes, you can. It should not be best of show. The best of show should be at least 10 years old. Sorry. Because guess what? Anyone can slap anything on it. If you have a nice countdown or a really nice original, you know, even the Charlie's Angels really looked really nice there. the backlash you know those kind of games i feel more appreciative of a best of show title it's the interesting thing about the charlie's angels is the lanes on the top spell chick yes i just thought wow that that would not fly today at all that no what do you mean i think it flies perfectly well yeah look at the paps blue ribbon game if anyone's seen the art so if anyone is uh offended by like the women in artwork and depicted and not the most um how do i say this delicately non-sexist manner. Do not look at the Pabst Blue Ribbon artwork. Yeah, yeah. Chicks are cool. Beavis likes it. So we see Bruce's commentary on, so okay, Best in Show needs to be at least 10 years old because if it's too new, you can just put it out there with mods on it and boom, win. That's kind of your argument? Oh, a big time argument. But it looked nice. It played great. I played it. But it needs to be older. Sorry. Best in Show, don't slap something new. I laughed at it last year at Allentown this year. You know what was best in the show? Ghostbusters. Really? Really? So we had a lot of nice games there. You can't beat the – The prices, selection. Yeah, the selection and the time. I mean, 2 in the morning, open 2. I mean, that's like the only other show that's really close – one of the only shows I know is like Chicago Pinball Expo where they have like the free playroom that's open 24 hours. I know I was pinballed out by like 11, 12 o'clock. So was I. I mean, so I wasn't there until 2 in the morning, but it's excellent. Highly recommended. Highly recommended. Right outside and things like this hotel, there's been a lot of talk on Pinside about the crappiness of the hotel. I mean, it is an old, like ratty hotel. The carpet is probably from the 70s. But guess what? I'd rather have an old, at least comfortable place than some of these places that you see that you're paying $220. Well, here's a little – I'll go into a little rant here. And it's one of those places – it's the kind of environment where you can bring in your own beer. I mean, people were just bringing their own beer in in coolers. The concessions area was for selling beer was – when I left at like midnight, they were still open selling beer. It's one of those areas where you can do anything you want. You can just, like, you could roll games through the hallways, put a game in your hotel room. It's one, it's, as opposed to, say, for example, Chicago Expo is at the Westin. Westin is extremely strict as far as what you can do and what you can't do. They don't want to see any games in the hallways. You have to take all the games in and out through the back, which, if I recall, is not the easiest thing to do. And they just have very strict policies. The last thing I'm going to talk about in the free play room is what I got. Oh, yes, yes. What did I buy? What did you buy? Now, Bruce, now I own a nine ball. And Bruce has been on me to sell me, to sell him my nine ball, which I like my nine ball. Which I've never bought anything from you. You have bought at least one. Yes. Yes. So, of course, Bruce has to find a nicer nine ball than mine at the show. Of course. It had to be nicer. It couldn't be crappier. And? Grabbed it and ran away. And I fixed the flipper. The flipper was actually a... Are we going to say the price or we don't want to go into that? No, we never talk price. No, we never talk price. See, that's one of the rules. You never talk price. Never talk price. Never talk price. If you saw it, you're good. And I tried to warn Bruce, you know, that it has, for those who don't have ever seen a nine ball, it has a eight bank drop target mechanism that has eight coils on it because it individually controls seven of the eight targets and then has a humongous reset coil and eight switches. And basically everything has to be working 100% or you will be in severe pain. Well, number two is not working for me perfectly. There you go. But the drop target is worn. So if I can get a drop target, I think we'll be good. Okay. So that's the good thing. The coil was bad when I got it. The flipper coil started failing when I got it home. I saw it was arcing on the diode. The diode was a little not soldered properly. And the lead going to the windings was a little disordered. Put some more glob of solder on there. We're working good. Adjusted the EOS switches with Zach yesterday. And it's a runner. Just so people know, Zach is... The one who bought the Spectrum. And he is also, he goes to Rochester. Rochester and Buffalo and Central New York. The school he goes to. Oh, he goes to RIT. Yeah, he goes to RIT. He's going to RIT. And he's a buddy of Bruce and stops by to help him in his repairs. Yes, and restorations, which we'll be talking about later on in later shows. And he makes me feel old when I saw his birth year is actually, I've been working where I work now longer than he's been alive. Yeah. Yeah. I started where I started like a year before he was born. Yeah. I mean, for those at home, we're both in our 40s. So, yeah, I kind of feel really old at this point. Yes. So that was the free play area. Yes. And right outside the free play area, you had the concessions area, but you also had a Big Bang Bar, which was on, I believe, $2 for charity. It was like some kind of charity. It was. It was the exact same thing last year. I think it was probably the same Big Bang Bar for the same charity. It was sitting out there. So you got that And then the last part of the Pintastic Pintastic And probably we close our show out with a little some stories of the tournament area Tournament Hopefully people don't tune out now. We won't get too much into points or anything, but the Pintastic tournament is being run by the guys from the Sanctum. Yes. For those that don't know, the Sanctum is a location in Connecticut. and it's actually in a large, like, what do you even call that, industrial building? It's an industrial building. They just moved to a bigger location. Well, a bigger floor within the building. It's run by James Swain and who was the other one? Mark Harvey, both of very good players. They throw two tournaments a year. they're actually having the 24 hour battle of the Sanctum is a pop-up event this year I did last year's and I will never do it again no offense guys but it killed me for a week we're too old I didn't do it at all because I'm just too old yeah it's really rough after 18 hours of pinball you think you would not get sick of it you get sick of it so the Sanctum guys they ran the tournament last year which somehow I actually I won yes you were talking to the return that was the defending champion And so I felt like, and the way it works is they have two days, or I say one and a half days of qualifying, and it's Papa style, meaning it's entry-based. So you play five games, and your ranking on each game goes to your overall score, and it's by entry. So if you have one good game and four crappy ones, your entry sucks. Yes, it does. You can't just keep trying to play the same game over and over to up your score. So it requires more consistency, which typically I'm not good at and have rarely qualified in that format. All the years, I think only a couple times I've ever qualified, but it just so happened on the second entry that I put in this year, I qualified. So I actually at least made it to the playoffs. So I could say at least I made it to the playoffs the year after I won it. You did. Bruce did even better. Yes. As he qualified higher than me. I qualified 15th. Yep, and I was 5th at one point and dropped all the way down to, I don't know, 19th? 18th. 18th? It's amazing how just he dropped down. Yes, you bleed out. We call it bleeding out. You bleed out, yes. Take away your scores and get better than you and beat you down more and more. And there was a lot of, I mean, you had some, I mean, top players there. at Steven Bowden, friend of the show, I'd like to say, from the Coast to Coast Pinball Podcast, amongst other podcasts he's been on. And Fun with Bonus. The plug is Fun with Bonus. He was there, and also since Lyman Sheets, the multiple former world time, let me try that again, former multiple time world champion, who was there because he was a guest of the show, so of course he wasn't going to pass up the tournament area. He came in, And Jerry Bernard, best players in upstate New York. And Connecticut champion, state champion. Connecticut state champion. And the thing about Lyman, just the different level that some guys play on. He spent like $20, again, because it was $10 for an entry and then $5 each additional. So I think a lot of people are just doing like $20 for the three entries. So Lyman, he played three entries. Two of his three entries would have been good enough to qualify. So I paid four. That's all he played. He just played his three entries, and then he was gone until the playoffs started. I paid four, and two of my entries would have made the playoffs. So I was actually feeling good about that. So in the playoffs, it turns out of all people to play, I end up playing Bruce. Of course. And the format is three out of five. Yes. High seed picks gamer order. and then the loser of the game picks Gamer Order. Yes. So – What was our first game we played? So we started on – well, you picked the first game. Which I did. It was Medieval Madness, I believe. Yes, it was Medieval Madness, which I lost, of course. So I took Bruce over to Victory. Now, all these games were chosen because they either had art by John Yousi, who was one of the guests, were designed by John Trudeau, or designed by Steve Ritchie, or they were programmed by Lyman Sheets. Yes. So a lot of these games, Lyman was playing games, of course, that he programmed. Yes, he did. Yes. So after I lost at Medieval Madness, I took him to a victory, beat you in victory. Yes, handily. Yes, then you took me to TX Sector, which I was feeling good about. I thought I had a decent game, but it just wasn't good enough. I just didn't hit that spinner enough times, you know. Yep. So then Ron picked... I picked Creature from the Black Lagoon, which... You were way ahead. I thought I had a decent game. I had like 100 million. I know, to the true A Division players, it's laughable, and they're laughing right now. It was a hard setup game. It was a hard setup. Yep, Lyman didn't have much higher. Well, he did, but we'll get into that. We'll get into that later. We'll get into that. So, yes, I had like, I don't know, $112 million? $111 million, sir. $111 million. So Bruce on his last ball, well, we get to the point where in Bruce's last ball, he's like, he's right behind me. He's at a point where he just needs to hit a couple things to pass me, where disaster almost struck. But unfortunately for me, it didn't. And I took him 115 to 111. And there's a picture circulating around. Yeah, he posted a picture on Facebook. Yeah, yeah. So then Bruce took his momentum and went all the way to the semifinals where he gets to face Lyman. Yes, Lyman Sheets. You actually had a two games to one lead on Lyman. I did. Well, first game we played was we played Jackbot. And he crushed me. He crushed me. He had over $2 billion, and I had $400,000 or $400 million. So I was like, oh, okay. So I got to pick the next game. So I actually made a joke about it, turning around and saying, hey, we're going to play the game which your face is on. And he looked at me kind of funny, and he's like, what? I said, World Poker Tour. And he's like, oh. He goes, I haven't played that in years. We played World Poker Tour, and I actually beat him on World Poker Tour. So the next game he got to pick, and it was ACDC. Great. One of the games he programs. So I beat him in ACDC. Okay, I'm feeling pretty good. 2-1 against... However, then he picked Medieval Madness, which was kind of his go-to game. He was picking it in any situation where he needed a win. I noticed it was definitely his go-to game. And he was a top qualifier for that game, but I was second top qualifier in that game. But Bruce found out why he was picking Medieval Madness. What was his score? 69 million to my 12. I had a bad game. It was the worst game I had on Medium of Madness the whole weekend was on that game. So we're tied. 2-2. I have a couple games to pick left. I'm not going to pick Bride of Pimbot. I'm not going to pick Victory. I'm not going to pick what else is in that other side row. What was the fourth game next to Victory? Oh, well there was a Congo. There was a Congo. That's Congo. And I saw him crushing those. I'm like, not going to do that. So you picked one of the perennial Papa favorites. It was either Metallica or Creature from the Black Lagoon. And I saw him the past three rounds crush every one of Metallica. Crush. So I said, well, I'm going to go to Creature from the Black Lagoon. My dad owns one. I play it a lot. I've been getting used to this one. It's really played up hard. So first ball, he came out to a good sizable lead, 30 million. I had a crap first ball. Second ball, I came back, and I was up 190. I actually got the jackpot, which I didn't want because I was trying for the hole. Actually, I lost the ball, but it didn't register in the trial fast enough, and I was already pre-shooting the snack bar to reset the multiball. Well, instead of resetting it, I got the jackpot. Which, which funny, was one of the few jackpots I saw. Not as many people were getting the jackpots. Most of the bigger scores were actually the, you know, shoot the right rep, shoot the left rep, and looping that over and over. There were very few jackpots. So after that ball, I had $198 million against $30 million or $40 million for Lyman. I'm like, okay, I feel okay, but this is Lyman. Yeah, you felt more than okay. Bruce was like, yeah, yeah, yeah. No, I wasn't that. You definitely looked like you were like that. No, I was like, I just need a good ball, a couple more balls. You know, that's all I need, a couple more. Well, Lyman then showed the schooling of what he can only do, and he not only once but twice went into multiball on his ball two with the second time collecting the jackpot. And just in the last second when he drained his ball, got the super jackpot of 208 million points. He even got a fist pump from Lyman on that one. Yes, which is very rare. He was not very emotional, which was actually, I was actually cheering him on also because I was like, it was, everyone was around us. Pretty much everyone was around filming it because it's Lyman and, you know, that people have to do that. So I was playing probably above my level at that time, but it was really good to enjoy. So then third ball, I get it. and I got about 240 and then blanked out and got a bad bounce. Nothing to do about it. It was a good matchup pinball, and then Lyman went on and took the complete win against Jerry. He swept Jerry, actually, 3-0. Yes, he played Jerry Bernard in the final, and he swept Jerry. Bruce played in the battle for third place. The battle of the baldness. Against Levy. I never can say his last name right. But, yes, Levy was up 2-0 on me. C. Levy for those on Pinside. CME, very colorful post, always on Pinside. And you were down 2-0. I was down 2-0. And I came back on him on Medieval. Ghostbusters in our final game, I beat him on TX, TX, TX. TX sector. Yes. And luckily, I beat him 3-2. Really fun, great time. The points just came out today, which is funny. It's the most points I've ever won in a tournament. Even beforehand, it's 31.75 points I won. So a big thumbs up for the fantastic show from the Slam Tilt crew. Yes. I'd like to thank everyone for listening to the podcast. Comments can be sent to, and we don't really have, well, we have a Facebook page. We do. We have a Facebook page. It's Slam Tilt Podcast. So just search for Slam Tilt Podcast on Facebook. We have an email address. You send questions or comments, it's very easy to remember. It's slamtiltpodcast at gmail.com. Thank God that was available. We have to use a different name for the podcast. And just to leave our listeners with one funny story, Lyman Sheets is multiple-time world champion, probably way better than most of us listening to this podcast. But when he was playing Metallica in one of his matches, he had the crank it up lit, which was one of the mini wizard mode for Metallica. and he's trying to hit the scoop shot on the right. Anyone's ever played Metallica? That's a very hard shot. And he missed it, like, twice and drained, and as he turns around, he just, like, says, fucking scoop shot. And I just thought that was funny. Even Lyman said, like, when it comes to it, it doesn't matter how good you are. We're all in the same boat here. So I figured I'd just leave the listeners with that little... I have a little funny story really fast. Okay, a little funny story. Okay, one last little funny story. When we're playing Medieval Madness and we're all in the same room playing in a tournament, I turned around and I said, son of a bitch, the freaking Medieval Madness sucks. Who programmed this game? And I yelled it out. And everyone looks around like, look at my alignment. I go, I love you. And I said, just joking with you. And he smiled. It was very easy going about it. He was actually the best. Most of the competition players are very good, but he is just super, super good. I'd like to give props to the alignment because most of the higher end players, Usually after the tournament's over, they're done. They leave. I mean, not all of them, but a good number of them. Because a lot of them have plane flights and they want to leave. And they're sick of playing after. Because a lot of them, that's all they play for is the tournaments. But Lyman stuck around. He was playing foursomes with everyone else in the group. That was very nice. Very good. So I'd just like to thank everyone for listening to the podcast again. Thank you. We're Slam Tilt Podcast on Facebook. questions and comments can be sent to slamtiltpodcast at gmail.com thanks guys later bye

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 41003273-c132-4c7c-8934-40c400af4216*