# Patience Pays Off

**Source:** NYC PinPod  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2024-09-09  
**Duration:** 47m 11s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.spreaker.com/episode/patience-pays-off--61296397

---

## Analysis

NYC PinPod hosts Benjamin Furega, Eric Sweetland, and Madeline Lynn discussing competitive pinball in New York City. The episode covers recent tournament results (South Slope Strikes, Bells and Chimes finals, Jack Bar tournaments), previews upcoming Pinball NYC league matchups, provides detailed coverage of Buttermilk Bar venue and its pinball lineup, and reflects on how the NYC pinball community has evolved and expanded post-COVID with decentralized leagues replacing the previous monoculture centered at Sunshine.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] NYC has 280 pinball machines across 85 public locations as of September 6, 2024 — _Benjamin Furega citing Pinball Map data_
- [HIGH] Buttermilk Bar expanded from 3-5 pinball machines pre-pandemic to 7 machines currently — _Eric Sweetland discussing venue changes_
- [MEDIUM] Sunshine arcade previously had 18 pinball machines but had been shuffling lineup, down to 16 as of the episode — _Benjamin Furega checking Pinball Map_
- [MEDIUM] No NYC venue has reached 20 unique pinball machines post-pandemic — _Benjamin Furega and Eric Sweetland discussing venue capacity_
- [HIGH] Barcade Brooklyn Pinball League requires minimum 6-week format per IFPA rules — _Eric Sweetland explaining league structure changes_
- [MEDIUM] Jack Bar has hosted Thursday night tournaments with only one or two weeks missed since IFPA competitive play restarted in 2021 — _Benjamin Furega praising Jack Bar reliability_
- [HIGH] Buttermilk Bar opened in 2002 (22 years old as of June 2024) — _Benjamin Furega citing venue research_
- [HIGH] Taylor Connelly called Benjamin Furega his 'nemesis' after losing consecutive games at South Slope Strikes — _Benjamin Furega recounting personal tournament experience_

### Notable Quotes

> "Well, you're officially my nemesis."
> — **Taylor Connelly**, early in episode
> _Humorous moment establishing Benjamin Furega's tournament dominance over Taylor Connelly_

> "Bells was the first league that I had joined in New York City... everyone is super nice. Like between games, everyone's just chatting with each other... It's a very friendly and welcoming space for any person who identifies as any kind of woman."
> — **Madeline Lynn**, mid-episode
> _Describes inclusive community culture of Bells and Chimes league_

> "It pays to be patient on that particular [game]"
> — **Benjamin Furega**, mid-episode
> _Game strategy advice given to Madeline Lynn about Game of Thrones, ties to episode title 'Patience Pays Off'_

> "I think all three of us have a special place in our heart for this place in a certain way."
> — **Benjamin Furega**, late in venue discussion
> _Expresses hosts' shared affection for Buttermilk Bar as a venue_

> "I feel like the community is a much bigger tent now than it was before."
> — **Benjamin Furega**, community discussion section
> _Key observation about post-pandemic pinball community growth and decentralization_

> "I'm a part of if you said that it was a problem that we have a bifurcated pinball community... I'm one of the driving forces that's causing it because I go to the neighborhood tournaments."
> — **Benjamin Furega**, community landscape discussion
> _Self-aware acknowledgment of contributing to decentralized league structure_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Benjamin Furega | person | Host/panelist, competitive pinball player, tournament participant, pinball enthusiast |
| Eric Sweetland | person | Host/panelist, tournament director in NYC, SSPL/Barcade Brooklyn Pinball League organizer |
| Madeline Lynn | person | Host/panelist, winner of Bells and Chimes Summer 2 2024 C Division, pinball league participant |
| Jason Knight | person | Winner of South Slope Strikes tournament at Rolos (17 players, 3-strike head-to-head knockout) |
| Taylor Connelly | person | Competitive pinball player, placed third at South Slope Strikes, called Benjamin Furega his nemesis |
| Kate Martin | person | Pinball player, won Bells and Chimes A Division, SSPL organizer |
| Jess Warren | person | Tournament organizer for South Slope Strikes and other tournaments at venues like Buttermilk Bar |
| Wes Ulfig | person | Winner of Jack Bar Thursday Night Strikes tournament with 29 attendees |
| Eric Degas | person | Team member of Ball Drainers team in Pinball NYC Right Flipper Division |
| South Slope Strikes | event | 3-strike head-to-head knockout tournament held at rotating venues (Rolos/Buttermilk), organized by Jess Warren |
| Bells and Chimes | organization | NYC pinball league with inclusive community focus, seasonal divisions (Summer 2 2024 finals featured A/B/C divisions) |
| Pinball NYC | organization | Team-based competitive pinball league in NYC with Left Flipper Division and Right Flipper Division starting matches week of September 9 |
| SSPL | organization | South Slope Pinball League, sixth iteration, run by Kate Martin, weekly meetings at Buttermilk Bar |
| Barcade Brooklyn Pinball League | organization | Wednesday night league directed by Eric Sweetland, Woody Richmond, and Uchendun Washuku with 6-week minimum format per IFPA rules |
| Buttermilk Bar | venue | Dive bar in South Slope, Brooklyn (corner of 16th St and 5th Ave) with 7 modern Stern pinball machines, opened 2002, hosts multiple leagues |
| Scrapple Land | venue | Pinball venue in Greenpoint, Brooklyn hosting competitive pinball |
| Jack Bar | venue | Pinball venue hosting reliable Thursday night strikes tournaments since 2021 IFPA restart |
| Sunshine | venue | Previously central NYC pinball venue pre-pandemic with 18 machines at peak; now 16 machines, still significant presence |
| Rolos | venue | South Brooklyn pinball venue hosting South Slope Strikes and other tournaments |
| Gebhardt's | venue | NYC venue hosting monthly tournaments including pin golf format |
| Game of Thrones | game | Modern Stern pinball machine at Buttermilk Bar; Madeline Lynn describes requiring patient strategy with multi-ball opportunities |
| Metallica | game | 2013 Stern machine at Buttermilk Bar; one of oldest Sterns in lineup, replaced a 90s Williams game |
| Ghostbusters | game | 2016 Stern machine at Buttermilk and other venues; Eric Sweetland reports satisfying gameplay experience |
| Pinball Map | technology | Community-sourced database used to track pinball machine locations and updates across NYC |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Competitive tournament results and announcements, NYC pinball league structure and organization, Post-COVID pinball community transformation, Buttermilk Bar venue profile and machine lineup
- **Secondary:** Venue infrastructure and pinball machine distribution across NYC, Community culture and inclusivity in pinball, Decentralization of NYC pinball versus historical monoculture
- **Mentioned:** Game strategy and gameplay mechanics

### Sentiment

**Neutral** (0)

### Signals

- **[community_signal]** NYC pinball community has grown significantly post-pandemic with more players, more venues with pinball, and broader geographic participation replacing the previous Wednesday-night Sunshine monoculture (confidence: high) — Benjamin Furega: 'The community has expanded... I have seen... more people playing pinball in more different places.' Discusses shift from centralized Sunshine league to decentralized neighborhood tournaments.
- **[venue_signal]** NYC venues have significantly expanded pinball machine counts post-pandemic; Buttermilk expanded from 3-5 to 7 machines, Barcades went from minimal to serious pinball support with Arcade Brooklyn at 14 machines (confidence: high) — Benjamin Furega: 'Buttermilk was a place that had three maybe four maybe sometimes five pinball machines before the pandemic and it now has seven... all of the barcades have serious pinball support now.'
- **[community_signal]** Pinball community demonstrates increasing inclusivity with explicit LGBTQ+ spaces (Brooklyn Pin Pride referenced, APAB trans/non-binary hangouts), welcoming culture in leagues like Bells and Chimes (confidence: high) — Madeline Lynn describes Bells as 'a very friendly and welcoming space for any person who identifies as any kind of woman.' Episode announces Saturday event 'APAB assigned pinball at birth' as 'trans, non-binary and genderqueer pinball hang.'
- **[venue_signal]** Post-pandemic venue landscape includes notable closures; Benjamin Furega mentions RIP list including venues south of Prospect Expressway in South Slope (specific names garbled in transcript), 718 venue in South Slope (confidence: medium) — Benjamin Furega: 'I've been disavowed of one of them today... a few just south of Prospect Expressway on Fifth Ave... Seven One Eight... had a one little machine or two machines jammed in that tiny little space.'
- **[operational_signal]** IFPA-sanctioned leagues now require minimum 6-week formats instead of 3-4 week formats, affecting league structure and scheduling across NYC (confidence: high) — Eric Sweetland: 'The minimum now for the IFPA to run the league is six weeks... we've had to expand and change in order to maximize some toppers.'
- **[competitive_signal]** NYC pinball scene features diverse tournament formats: head-to-head knockout strikes tournaments, group leagues with divisions, finals-based competitions, and specialty events (pin golf, themed hangouts) (confidence: high) — Episode covers South Slope Strikes (head-to-head 3-strike), Bells and Chimes (league with A/B/C divisions), Jack Bar Thursday Strikes, SSPL group leagues, Gebhardt's pin golf format, APAB hangouts
- **[community_signal]** Benjamin Furega acknowledges that the shift from centralized Sunshine venue to distributed neighborhood tournaments has created a 'bifurcated' community structure, with hosts themselves contributing to this by playing locally (confidence: high) — Benjamin Furega: 'I'm one of the driving forces that's causing it because I go to the neighborhood tournaments. I don't leave that often.' Contrasts with 2021-2022 when 'Jack Bar definitely stood out as... completely reliable.'
- **[venue_signal]** Buttermilk Bar demonstrates thoughtful machine curation with mix of older (Metallica 2013) and newer (Jaws 2024) Stern machines, providing good competitive practice environment for diverse Stern eras (confidence: high) — Benjamin Furega analyzes Buttermilk's lineup: 'Metallica with 2013... Walking Dead is 2014... Jaws with 24... Godzilla with 21, Iron Maiden 18, Ghostbusters 16, Game of Thrones 15... good way to practice perhaps the newer versus the older Stern tables.'
- **[operational_signal]** Buttermilk Bar maintains well-playable machines under Max's Games route management with appropriate tilt settings, demonstrating operator commitment to competitive pinball despite not always pristine condition (confidence: medium) — Benjamin Furega: 'While Max's Games are not always in pristine condition... that tilt setting... gives that gives the player a lot. Buttermilk's lineup, especially on Max's route those machines play well.'
- **[market_signal]** New venues continue appearing on pinball map; Quarter Club in Williamsburg identified as brand new venue on September 1, 2024, suggesting ongoing venue ecosystem evolution (confidence: medium) — Benjamin Furega: 'As of Friday, September 6, 2024, there are 280 pinball machines in New York City at 85 public locations... a brand new venue showed up on the map, the Quarter Club, in Williamsburg.'
- **[community_signal]** NYC pinball community faces challenges with event discoverability; IFPA calendar lacks visibility, league information is scattered across platforms (email lists, Match Play, IFPA leagues page), with no central unified discovery mechanism (confidence: high) — Hosts discuss difficulty finding leagues on IFPA; Benjamin Furega: 'A lot of people miss it and they're also not as easy to search for.' Discussion of needing better event advertising and centralized promotion despite decentralized league structure.
- **[operational_signal]** Buttermilk Bar accessibility documented via multiple transit options (R to Prospect Avenue, F/G to 4th Ave/9th St, B63 bus), positioned as centrally accessible despite South Slope location (confidence: high) — Benjamin Furega provides detailed transit analysis: 'R to the Prospect Avenue station... F or G to 4th Avenue... B63 bus... if you're on the F/G, it's a not terribly inconvenient place.'

---

## Transcript

 Har real bad happened again International The This is NYC PinPod in which a panel talks location pinball in New York City and nearby surrounding Areas. My name is Benjamin Furega, my initials are BCF, and I've just become somebody's nemesis. My name is Eric Sweetland, my initials are HIP, and I'm a pinball tournament director in New York City. Hey, all, my name is Madeline Lynn, she, her, hers, my initials are MXL, and I am the proud winner of the New York City Bells and Chimes Summer 2 Season 2024 Sea Division chore İn riesdiny the last week, kilometerautoball for跳ng a ought up in a This week, however, we've got a bunch of tournaments that went down. Startingpenday, starting last Saturday with South Slope Strikes run by Jess Warren. This edition of it was at Rolos. This particular tournament goes back and forth between Rolos and Buttermilk. If enough people attend, it is sometimes contested at both venues simultaneously. The overflow goes to the other joint. 17 players showed up for a head-to-head knockout, not a group knockout. Three-strike tournament at Rolos. Jason Knight won the day. Yours truly came in second. Taylorconnelly got third. Thank you. And Robert Wong got fourth. I had a couple of really good and really close games with Taylorconnelly close to the end of this. I gave him all three of his strikes. He had zero. I had one. I gave him all three, I think, in the next four matches. I might have done it in, you know, three straight, but I think it was four matches until I gave him all three of his strikes. He leaned over to me after the last game, which was Banzai Run, and he leaned over to me and said, Well, you're officially my nemesis. So I'm somebody's nemesis. And I presume that also means I have assistant director Charlie risesn'tdoc head ofولpumen The Yeah, it's definitely a story at Long Island cities at the south end of Queens and yeah, that's right story is north of it It's I mean, yeah, it's yeah of that of the peninsula coming off Queens there. Yeah north of Newtown Creek. I think Newtown Creek, right? That's the one that divides. Yeah. Yes. Yeah Regardless Chris Dooley listed as Chris Dooley NY in match play won the day in ten rounds He bested nine street여�er Taliban's picture we won't say much to our project Ugh! Why'd you say the 383? Listen to that hash reactativists Look at that! Hello? kann Basically k cask Like the I think the O Me Me JI Look at that You have so many Me 103 Yes 전번 Jesus Yeah Tit skurя ш지к, è ❦untarşñy Corywendušč infrastruktiţ On Tuesday, September 3rd, Bells and Chimes met for their finals meeting of the second Summer Season, Madeline, is that right? Summer 2. I wrote down the AMB winners, but Madeline, you played in the C Division. Correct. Kate Martin beat Miriam Nadler on a tiebreaker to win the whole league, to win the whole A-League. The final group also included Lindsay Rhodes and amy poulin. Nice job everyone. The B division fellow collider Monica Whitecamp won Courtney wetzel came in second. Sydney, I don't know Sydney zeldas I think came in third and Rachel Grim got fourth. Congrats to all of you. Madeline, I'm pretty sure I know who won the C division, but tell us all about it please and thanks. Yes, C or C. I did indeed win the C Division. I'm very pleased with 25 points. Because I was in Ithaca this past summer, I was only able to attend one of the Bells Summer 2 weekly events, actually very similar to last year's Summer 2 event as well. Bells was the first league that I had joined in New York City, I am a pinball enthusiast and I have been working for Pinball right before the NYC Proper League with the Colliders. What I like about Bells is that everyone is super nice. Like between games, everyone's just chatting with each other. People that maybe I've seen or haven't seen for months or just met. We're swapping cat pics, we're talking about our hometowns, we're talking about the stuff we do on the weekends. It's a very friendly and welcoming space for any person who identifies as any kind of woman. The two tables that stood out to me or maybe three, the first would be the Game of Thrones, there was a game where I was going third and for the first two balls I was at two million and then 20 million while the other two players were at like 80 or 90 million and I was getting kind of stressed but Benjamin I was remembering your strategy about the short plunge, you post pass, you get the two locks and then you get your black water plus your double battles and all that and I finally landed that on the last ball as the last player. I play the multiball, it drains kind of quickly. and then I look up and it says 200 I was like oh well okay that works I guess thanks Benjamin so I had some stress there honestly you know it's supposed to be a fun game but it yeah it was stressful for me it pays to be patient on that particular had to be more than on others oh my gosh I know we made the joke of being patient and yet then you get like season seven and eight and then what was the patients for I don't know alongside that the running the game, game of thrones, two Godzilla, and no friendly games. That's a very frustrating game. We were all sub-10 mil or sub-20 mil and the game was over very quickly. I was like, what is going on? We blamed the open door and the copious marijuana and tobacco wafting in. Maybe our reflexes are just a little depressed nowadays. We were all just hanging out and in the end I did win a medal at the beginning of the night. Kate said it looks like the Army medal and I was like there's no way like that's copyrighted and then I flip it over like yo this is goarmy.com right here. So that's proudly sitting on my shelf but as always it's about having fun. It's a game, it's community, you're meant to have fun with it. So I indeed very much enjoyed my night of community and fun on Tuesday with the bells and chimes. Awesome. $118,143 average enters at the same time testing stuff in the near future. Jack Barr presents Thursday Night Strikes was met with 29 attendees. That's a big boom. Wes Ulfig won the night with two strikes to his name It's a three strike head to head knockout tournament. Congrats to Wes Alex Kelly came in second Greg for telling who tied for third also on Thursday, September 5th, fourteen players gathered at Buttermilk for the second meeting of South Slope Pinball League's sixth, I think iteration. Is that right, Eric? Where it's S. S. P. L. Six now, I believe run by Kate Martin. Yes, that's right. Matthew Carlson. Tom Milburn, came in third and Tom has also been playing just great this summer. Other It not massive it big But I did do that so I was happy about that Eric did you do anything exciting last night I had a particularly satisfying game of Ghostbusters. I don't normally relish being put on Ghostbusters competitively, I don't think it's a strong point for me. But the strat that I employ, like, I hit all the starting shots. They just went one, two, three, four. I'm like, oh, wow. You know, it went exactly to plan and then everything started and I got a lot of points and it was, that was fun. And you know, it's satisfying when it, when it pays off because it so rarely does. Next week, Pinball NYC starts, y'all. On Monday night in the, I think we call it the right, oh, the left flipper division. The left flipper division, which is the greater organization under which those playoffs are subsumed. Special when lit will go to Barcade Brooklyn to face the Deluxe Horses. The two for oners will visit us colliders at Buttermilk Bar. See you there! Pinball Union will go to Midway to play Balls of Steel. Parliament will go to Commonwealth to face Intermission Dolores.The Pinpals will go to At the Wallace to face Eric's own NYC FSA. I'm actually going to make a prediction about that one and say that four or fewer people from the pin pals will make it to North Manhattan on Monday night. That's our scuttlebutt about in the team app that's going crazy because schedules just came out. Yeah, we're wondering. Looks like we're going to have a good attendance from NYC FSA. Excellent. Lion Persons will go to Rolos. They'll be just Atomic laptinder from Madeline and me at Rolo's across the field. Yeah. And the Mutants will go to Barcade Chelsea to face lesser players. In the right flipper division, the Ball Drainers will go to face the Butterballers. Eric, that's your team, right? Eric Degas Yeah. AtButterball. Eric Degas That's nice. I get two home games for the first week. Mr. Six will face Restin Pinball at Barcade Brooklyn Danger Danger will go to Milo's Yard to face Neptune's Treasure Kettle's Hand Grenades will go to Bar Great Harry to face the Trolls Go Trolls, by the way, I'm a big fanboy and also there are now three, I believe, trolliders common players between the trolls and the colliders at present Troll multiball The Wallis to face the Harlem Globe Flippers which might be my favorite named team. The Replays will go to Jack Bar to visit the Schlubs. And No Quarters for Laundry will go to Birdies to visit the Pin Babes. On Wednesday night, Eric, the Barcade, say the full name of the league properly since I have not written it down. Sure, Barcade Brooklyn Pinball League with directors myself, Woody Richmond and Uchendun Washuku. Thursday night, SSPL will, I believe, have its third meeting of this sixth season. Also, Thursday night, Jackbar will host its weekly tournament, which I believe is, again, a head-to-head strikes tournament. and additionally at Debeharts on Thursday night there will be a weekly tournament so you have a lot of options if you want to play competitive pinball next Thursday night you can play in South Brooklyn, you can play in North Brooklyn, you can play in Manhattan on the Upper Westside. You got a lot of options. On Saturday September 14th APAB assigned pinball at birth will be met at Barcade Brooklyn with your hosts Eric and Eric. It is a trans, non-binary and genderqueer pinball hang. On Sunday, the Rob Wong Invitational will be met at Rolo's and the Gebhard's Monthly tournament will be met. So again, on Sunday, you've got two options. You can play in South Brooklyn, you can play in North Manhattan. Gebhard's will be pin golf. Oh, there you go. That's exciting. Are they at the same time? Could one attend both in one day? I don't imagine or at least you might have to get through the pin golf real fast for it to work. Get in an uber helicopter. First group leaves the clubhouse at 2 p.m. and the rob wong will be 5 30. Yeah, I don't I don't imagine you could get through nine holes. It takes about an hour. Yeah. Plunge all of them. Nine games in two hours. Yeah, nah, I don't think as you point out Madeline, a helicopter might almost be enough to help. Timeline Time for location updates, thanks to the creators and users of Pinball Map. As of Friday, September 6, 2024, there are 280 pinball machines in New York City at 85 public locations. Here are machine updates from the past week. On September 1, a brand new venue showed up on the map, the Quarter Club, in Williamsburg, Port Guin trazer, Fosing west coast town Director Martin America, Ew sligeyspigney際 on formerly 결국undiya Wite ejemplo. Also on September 4th, user Sithiangram commented on the Ghostbusters at Barcade St. Marks that the left ramp doesn't register, and neither do center hits to Ghost to trigger Slimer, so gameplay is severely limited, and then the same user Sithiangram stopped by Kettle of Fish and tried their Ghostbusters, but found that the machine won't accept bills and coins aren't available at the bars. On September 5th, user SLPenza stopped by PioneersNYC to say that the GodzillaPro pop bumper is working intermittently but playing well otherwise. That's it for location updates this week. Let's talk about buttermilk. At the corner of 16th Street and 5th Avenue in Park Slope, you can take the R to the Prospect Avenue station. The F or G to 4th Avenue or 9th Street, if you're coming from the south, you might get off the F and G at 7th avenue and walk down, but the closest station is definitely the R at Prospect Avenue. It's just right down the hill and a little bit around the corner. You can also take the B63 bus if you're somewhere near 5th Avenue in Brooklyn. Convenient if you're in Bay Ridge or Sunset Park. Sunset Park, thank you, was the name I was trying to come up with. Where I'm coming from. Indeed, indeed. And it's pretty easy to get there, as long as it's pretty easy for you to get to Atlantic Avenue Barclays Center. You're really just a few stops away once you've got there from getting to this place. and also if you're on the FNG, it's a not terribly inconvenient place to get, I suppose, if you're coming from North Brooklyn. That said, I don't go up there a lot. I think a lot of the folks who live up there don't come down here a lot, in large part because we've got other places. But, Buttermilk... Pinball Mile. Indeed, Pinball Mile on Fifth Avenue. AtomicArinas decor is dive bar chic circa 2010, which probably means they were super forward thinking cuz I think we just discovered that they opened in 2002. It would seem so 22 years old as of June 17 HBD buttermilk. There you go. So that seems like that's a little forward thinking. It is illuminated almost entirely by Christmas lights. The light hanging over the pool table and pinball machines. It's pretty dark in there. The bar's on the right when you walk in and it spans about 20 feet. There's a pool table just a few degrees to your left on a raised platform. And the pinball machines start directly to your left when you walk in the front door. There's a forebank up front. and if you proceed past the bar toward the bathrooms also past the dartboard you'll find three more pinball machines in the back. I love the history of holidays past reflected in the decorations still hanging on the walls of buttermilk long ago, Halloween's and pinball proms, little bits of glitter here and there. It's an old dive bar, it's my favorite kind of place. The Christmas is past, but also Christmases without the apostrophe past. Christmas lights or fairy lights all year round. Plenty of movies playing on the TV as well. I think I've watched Iron Man 3, The Election, Legally Blonde, and The Money all during various tournaments there. I always make sure I catch Jeopardy just before most of your weeknight tournaments. Jeperty is played with the sound on at Buttermilk. This is the one time that you can count on the television sound being on and the playlist being off is during Jeopardy on weeknights. Ah. Every once in a while. Serious fans among the regulars. Yes. Every once in a while there is a sports event that you hear at Buttermilk, but that is the exception and not the rule. You will always hear Jeopardy. The game's are, and I'm gonna list them from the front to the back. You walk in, Godzilla's immediately on your left, just to its right, also Keith Elwin, Iron Maiden, just to its right, also Keith Elwin, Jaws, just to its right, Ghostbusters. If you go in the back, you'll see The Walking Dead, you'll see the back of the cabinet, in fact, just behind the ATM to the right, just past the bar. You face toward the door, this is the only game that you face in this direction, you do not face directly into a wall, playing at Buttermilk. The If you turn around directly behind your playing position and take four steps forward From The Walking Dead you'd be standing at Game of Thrones and Then if you took another step to your left you be standing at Metallica I like most of these games they all modern sterns which is, you know, pluses and minuses I will not lie, I love metallica, metallica is one of my favorite games there absolutely when I was told that it was coming in and it was going to replace a 90s Williams game The last 90s Williams game that was at Buttermilk. It made me a little sad as someone who plays there all the time. I've also done a quick scroll through the pinball map looking at some of the years. What I do appreciate about the curation of these is that we do have a pretty decent spread of older in quotes Stern and newer in quotes Stern. The oldest Stern is Metallica with 2013 Walkingwalkingdead is2014, and then we go all the way up to jaws with24, but we also have the Godzilla with21, Iron Maiden18, Ghostbusters16, Game of Thrones15. You do get a nice spread of the older and newer Stern, and I think if you were to go into a competition that had mostly Stern tables, this would be a good way or a good venue to practice perhaps the newer versus the older Stern tables. Raza Palestin intihu encours thatocket The I would like to suggest that while Max's Games are not always in pristine Condition that that tilt setting. Oh, they're eminently playable Yeah, gives that gives the player a lot. Buttermilks lineup, especially On Max's route those machines play well. Yeah. Yeah, they do. It's it's a great place to play I also don't think that I actually have mentioned this before now or any of us have mentioned this before now. I think that all three of us have probably used the possessive pronouns here to say we have and I don't think I've pointed out that all three of us play at buttermilk on, well, Madeline and I on Monday nights, Eric on Tuesday nights in the Pinball NYC League. I'm sure that we had mentioned that at some point in time, but it is worth noting that I think all three of us, there's a special We have a special place in our heart for this place in a certain way. Absolutely. Yeah, right. And I mean, Thursday nights, I love playing. I love playing on the tournament, the weekend tournaments that pop up there, mostly run by Jess Warren, occasionally by Kate. I, I love this venue. I do enjoy how there's a quarter machine. I always get kind of stressed when I'm at a venue that asks for quarters and I don't have very many. conversely App 뭐하고 associ laufen니다 콘드전р blending영 philosophical 저 kas negotiate Six �yy 집안 중국 tilwhy persons with talents from 22402 and older from the DC Sa GrabA 5x Aую2193-A2356p. Scott korner, pe duo, Stecos mold, TrainingDact遠Haf, Drom Didnah még YooA badwad1-1-2 borín parrik, saramak 만들 Congress.com gmo covering leaked the I think it's safe to say we all love this place. Yeah. Let's talk about the changed landscape of pinball in New York City since the COVID-19 pandemic. COVID-19 took all of us by surprise. I'm not saying anything revelatory there. It was probably the pain that we felt as a society related to it was probably extended in time to some degree by our The . reporter at Streetnook me supper is trying Chuckie résže par esté FB jr. 0 like 228 I I don't wanna preach dalbatans act %HESITATION well we may not have quite hit the so villa the Greek new normal that I would've liked at the time that I started having those thoughts that we sure have hit a pinball new normal. The community has expanded. Venues have come and gone. Venues have changed drastically from what they were before the pandemic to what they are now. And in fact, it is still an evolving situation. Just last week, Eric told me earlier this week, Thums up peacock's withholding Bob Sneak The machine's in their lineups Since that buttermilk was a place that had three maybe four maybe sometimes five pinball machines before the pandemic and it now has seven Mm-hmm Rolo arcade in total. Yeah, yes, arcade Brooklyn especially Now has 14 and all of the barcades have serious pinball support now I'm at this pinball map right now. Sunshine is at 16 currently which is definitely more than when I played in spring of 21. I think they had 18 maybe within the last couple of weeks at one point. 18 pinball machines! I'm not sure. They've been shuffling around and as we noticed before a lot of them are going up to single cut. Yeah, I really got to get up to single cut. I don't know, is there any venue yet that's broken 20 machines, Unique machines, Post-Covid or Post, if you will, in quotes, Pandemic? No. That's a great question. Yeah. I don't think so. No 20s. Oh. I'm trying to be the top right now. GebHards showed up. GebHards was not a player in the market, I think. Very news. Yeah. Yeah. Both venues. I wrote down some, my RIP list. I've been disavowed of one of them today Jocelynal bryant abrupt oliveio Son clips forBE biggest anecdoteeexüurs Tasks saya grabbing solid Rudy harron screen currently AP role that would ever be numerous as a lesson the problem the deinement reason of artist still officers other of Jason so Ak갑 Sarge R. the top rated player on the world right now ran that business that逆 The modern feels like a big loss. I'm positive that there are dozens of venues that had one pinball machine in them that either are no longer a venue, no longer the business that they were before the pandemic or that they don't have pinball in them anymore. But I think a few just south of Prospect Expressway on Fifth Ave and part in South Slope that have disappeared. The Jacks had a couple machines that moved around and then across the street was it called seven one eight? Yes, I forgot about seven one eight that had a one little machine or two machines jammed in that tiny little space It was really fun to play it was it was it also there was some strange loft area in that like that you had to like crawl up a little ladder to get to that I think was like the You know bar managers office or something. It was J.R.R.I.P. Sneak in game Yeah, but yeah, that's that had a really sweet playing fishtails the time I visited I think Interestingly, you know venues come and go obviously there are new games designed every year. There are gonna be a few I'm not sure that that's really the you know where my head is at in terms of like oh now there's jaws everywhere in New York City I don't think that that's that's as important to me in terms of a change in the landscape The I know I have seen a real change in the community. I have seen Not only more people but more people playing pinball in more different places where before the pandemic Wednesday night at sunshine was where all the serious individual competitive players. Everyone was going to be there as often as they could. That was that was the league to play in it and it had the best players in the city playing all the time. Storm played every time. Alberto played often. Zen, Nick Zendejas played all the time. Greg Pavarelli played all the time. It was a great, great league. It was a lot of fun. We've got a lot of other things This is the only time that we have a game that is going on right now, including something that is effectively a direct replacement for that Timewise, Eric, that you're running right now. The Barcade Brooklyn Pinball League, yeah. With Woody's, you know, Woody's inspiration was hey, what if we had a Wednesday thing like we used to have? Yeah, very similar. J.P. Yeah. And, you know, the, the, the whopper scenario have changed. And so I guess we've probably changed some of the ways where Sunshine used to be four weeks and then a finals or three weeks and then a finals that I think we've had to expand and change in order to maximize some whoppers that you do a six week now instead of a three week, right? J.P. That's, yeah, that's the minimum now for the IFPA to run the league is six weeks. The So that a few things like that have changed but again that not really where my head is at I feel like I have seen I Taylor The I believe in in large part that that Sentiment came from the myopic point of view of people who were rich and could afford to leave and they were like Well, all my friends have left and so like no one is ever gonna be in New York City again because you know they weren't but I Think that you know, we did lose some people who moved away and we might also have Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe also what we did was just gained people who already lived here and found us, but it feels to me like the community is a much bigger tent now than it was before. And it might not have that same exactly centralized weekly monoculture event The Subcultural events that serve a larger community I think Well, that's that kind of reminds me. I mean I'm not trying to get too into a field I don't really know about but like the the social idea of like the loss of the third space you can hang out at an arcade and meet people you haven't met before and Versus now where a lot of things are intentional you that's harder to do or The Offices and office buildings are no longer in use because everyone's remote Well, then yeah who's gonna live in the city? You got people go to the city for the industrialization And then once you don't you move the factories to the edge of the towns or wherever the POCs live and you move out there and Said and you leave the city then maybe you come back to the city because all the finance goes there and then you leave the city when it's time to Go remote and then I came here in in fall 19 originally because of teaching and That's a bit of a long story from the beginning. I'm a little worried about the lack of a centralized location. I can see the trade-offs to that, because I was like, where's the one place? And I was doing all this internet research, internet in quotes, research in quotes, on my own, Fall 21, and I was like, so where do we go? Before, I'd be like, you know, I'd just take this train down to Sunshine now. Michal Klobender Listeningi whiteよろしく play As competitive pinball was returning in 2021 and then 2022 and things were just sputtering forward and a lot had been lost, Jack Bar definitely stood out as, you know, it was there, it was every Thursday, it was, yeah, completely reliable for since the IPA started up again until now. The As far as I can count there's been one two weeks off that they've missed since then they yeah, it's Remarkably, you know ongoing you're right. You're absolutely right I I don't mean to discount that when I suggest the that the sunshine thing was somehow Better or more normal and that that wasn't the attack I was taking no, but I know it's a worthy The I just suggested that you know we had a monoculture and we lost it But but there there has been a continuation of this monoculture and in fact, let's let's be honest That also means that I play into because I Want to play somewhere near me Yeah, I am that guy I have probably been not The You know not in any outsized way over the the magnitude that is one person but I have I'm a part of if you said that it was a problem that We have a bifurcated pinball community or a you know individual pockets that all come under one big umbrella, but not as often I'm one of the driving forces that's causing it because I go to the neighborhood tournaments. I don't leave that often The way I was thinking about it was in you know 2021 in August The first IFPA started up again, so it was a little less than half a year and 2022 was a lot of figuring out what's going on, but the last couple of years, so many new people and growing to meet it is a lot of new events at new spots and I think that's really cool. Yeah, I agree. I agree. Very, very exciting. The community changes I've seen in the, you know, the new people, the new faces. And thankfully, I'm not going to make I've heard people say on podcasts, you know, roughly like pin folk are the best folk in the world. And I'm not going to quite get into that kind of hyperbole. But I do feel a lot more confident I think socially in the pinball community now than I did before the pandemic. I think that I've got, I see a lot of faces that I'm really happy to see all the time. And it's not that I didn't before, but it feels like the variety of those faces is change is, is, has increased. w3o3j nea4-twith a 2 p International Agives XII x4-t tour finiffable Timing Antar bear na Baker dare i MR median Fore métal nhenshand ting nithiyay t Vanessa Wil Travel, particularlyarkksi, F Nin hedhatuxé pysiro Mike sandbox, he dehratl rigajiseu kursko n plat BBC Strugny Spect ahora iaumên ancestryn aštrž mod благодар escrito aafafur Pinball markets, yada yada, future topic, who knows. I barely use Facebook. I don't use any social media. I barely log in to just find stuff or see how my old cross-country teammates are doing from high school. It's kind of fun to, you know, I like how Bells also has the email list, but how the events are organized, maybe there's something to the idea of the virtual pockets of spaces. Yeah, yeah, that's interesting. There is always the IFPA calendar, although that's Contributors to the event, the event is not listed on IFPA.com. That said, that's not going to list leagues, that's only going to list one-off events. It's a separate page for leagues. Oh, is that right? Yeah. Oh, it lists leagues. It does list leagues but you've got to know where to look. It's, a lot of people miss it and they're also not as easy to search for. Let me google IFPA. It's ifpapinball.com. RazaJuliaas at Spźniejpinballnectime slash calendar if you want, in fact. This gave me International Fitnessprofessionals Association. You don't want the calendar. You see. Tournament calendar. We don't want tournament calendar. Oh, I see. Interesting. Yeah. You wanna go to the tournament's drop down and then a several selections below the calendar is leagues. Ah, leagues. Oh. Okay. I've Pimpinball dot com slash leagues is the URL. Active leagues. Oh, Jesus. It's a lot of people. And now it's just a giant long list, they're arranged chronologically, but today is somewhere in the middle. So... Okay. So it starts in history, you mean to say? Scroll for a while. The ones that are currently active, but you know, we're five weeks in. Right. So our start date is when we're listed, back five weeks ago, if you're looking for us. and then we should be listed again in the upcoming section which is somewhere further if you scroll I think. I should go look at this. Okay, so maybe this tent needs some more doors and advertising then. The calendar inside of Match Play does a pretty good job nowadays. Match Play. Interesting. But see, you'd have to be, yeah, all of these things are advertising to pinball players. Right. And Madeline's talking about advertising to someone who's How do you find us? I googled NYC Pinball and I just got the website for the City League and I was like, oh, Match Play on Facebook after scrolling a bit and then I joined the Match Play on Facebook and then I saw Gina advertising the pin golf and then I clicked on that one and that's how I found out about the first tournament. So I had to go down a bit of a mini rabbit hole, a mini mode, if you will. I see the pain points. Hopefully, NYC Pin Pod being back can help to solve this exact problem. Well that means all of you listeners, do your part, make the game more accessible to the wider community, like, share and subscribe, send this to all of your followers, get us out on the airwaves, thank you very much. That's all for this week's pod. On next week's pod, we'll rundown pinball competition results in New York City and nearby surrounding Areas in Ball 1. In Ball 2, we'll review Barcade Williamsburg as a pinball venue. And in Ball 3, we'll have Eric's travel log to Hudson, New York. Keep an eye also, please, on your RSS feeds and your inboxes because you just may find an episode 302 ToA in your inboxes tomorrow morning where we break down the strength of schedule for PinballNYC this season. Follow us on the Socials. Thank you for listening. Join us next week and whether you're playing pinball or not, go get em, Pinfo. Spbedingt Patricia eigenoradio.co.uk Page 1-730-8isso-kanal.google-n-Р остρι Window

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

---

*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 5033c5d5-5664-46fd-9712-16da592d524c*
