# Inside Look: Interview with Lynn's Arcade

**Source:** Erika's Pinball Journey  
**Type:** video  
**Published:** 2023-12-28  
**Duration:** 27m 35s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KXSoMQtXF0

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## Analysis

Erika interviews the owners of Naps Arcade (Matthew, Nikki, and Carrie) about their pinball community venue in Monterey County. They discuss the arcade's origin story tied to Carrie's father Lynn, challenges opening in 2019 pre-pandemic, COVID-era game rental pivots, game selection philosophy, maintenance practices, league operations (Monday Flipper Pinball with ~40 players, Monterey Flipper Ladies Pinball with ~20), streaming infrastructure, and concerns about escalating game pricing and rule complexity in modern pinball design.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Naps Arcade opened in 2019, right before the pandemic, and was forced to close but survived through COVID by renting games monthly to families — _Carrie and Matthew directly describe opening timeline and COVID pivot to game rentals with 25 games/month_
- [HIGH] Monday Flipper Pinball league consistently draws ~40 players weekly, with attendees traveling from as far as San Luis Obispo, Santa Cruz, Morgan Hill, and San Jose to Monterey County — _Matthew explicitly states '40 players every Monday' and geographic range of attendees_
- [HIGH] Monterey Flipper Ladies Pinball league averages ~20 women per week on Wednesdays and has grown significantly from small start — _Carrie describes current participation levels and growth trajectory_
- [HIGH] Pinball game prices have become unsustainable; Foo Fighters LE cost more than vintage EM prototypes they previously purchased — _Carrie expresses concern about current pricing vs. historical acquisitions (Big Lebowski, Freedom EM, Evil Dead EM)_
- [HIGH] Naps uses free-play model ($15 all-you-can-play) rather than pay-per-game, allowing competitive players to practice extensively — _Matthew describes business model: '$15 to play 37-38 games vs. $1-2 per game at traditional arcades'_
- [HIGH] Secondary market EM pricing has also increased significantly ('Medieval Madness that only made 4,000 units') despite abundance of supply — _Carrie notes prices have 'crept up' even on older solid-state and EM games_
- [HIGH] Community concern exists about modern game rule complexity becoming 'too video game' rather than maintaining physical pinball appeal — _Carrie expresses 'old school' concern about rules getting 'too deep,' Matthew agrees newer players struggle to understand goal/mechanics_
- [HIGH] Naps maintains biweekly maintenance schedule (Thursdays, every other week) with daily check-ins; broken games typically repaired next day — _Daniel (maintenance person) describes daily opening checklist and Thursday maintenance rotation_

### Notable Quotes

> "it's the heart and soul it's what made us it's how we're here so we started as four players playing in Angelina's Pizzeria"
> — **Carrie**, ~22:00
> _Establishes founding story and centrality of community to Naps identity_

> "with digital you can learn a pattern and you can get a high score because you know the pattern memorized on this game there's no pattern that you can learn on a pinball machine every ball's going to be different"
> — **Matthew**, ~30:00
> _Core pitch for pinball's appeal vs. digital games; defines unique gameplay value_

> "I just don't know how it continues um because the popularity of pinball and also there is not just the false sense of Rarity from a limited edition painted game"
> — **Carrie**, ~47:00
> _Directly critiques LE scarcity narrative and unsustainable pricing trajectory_

> "I bought a Foo Fighters LE and I've never spent more money I thought that my Big Lebowski that was game number 14 any of the number one serial number game prototypes that I've purchased the freedom EM the uh Evil Dead EM those should be the most expensive games I own not a brand new game"
> — **Carrie**, ~45:00
> _Personal anecdote illustrating pricing crisis: new mass-produced LEs exceed vintage prototype costs_

> "I can't we really can't continue to do that so while we continue to buy all the hot games the unfortunate future of pinball is expensive"
> — **Carrie**, ~47:30
> _Operator pessimism about industry pricing trajectory despite continued purchasing commitment_

> "pinball therapy yeah don't flip out that came up a lot when we started ladies league so when the ladies started showing up they just love coming here and just having my night where I don't have to worry about the family"
> — **Nikki**, ~35:00
> _Frames pinball as mental health/stress relief tool; supports women-centered community building_

> "you can play them all with $15 and then enjoy a really tasty beverage while you're doing it"
> — **Matthew**, ~43:00
> _Articulates competitive advantage of free-play pricing model vs. pay-per-game venues_

> "I really hope they get more of that going because they've been adding neat features to really cool stuff like that even that Sea Witch adaptation included the uh drop targets you can get the ball behind it something that didn't exist in multi in that game"
> — **Erika (interviewer)**, ~50:00
> _Suggests modernizing classic games (Bond 25, Beatles Sea Witch, Pulp Fiction) as solution to complexity creep_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Naps Arcade | organization | Pinball arcade and community venue in Monterey County, California; named after Carrie's father Lynn; opened 2019; operates free-play model with tournaments and leagues |
| Carrie | person | Co-owner of Naps Arcade; grew up with pinball machines in family garage; primary business operator; collector with 15+ machines purchased |
| Matthew | person | Co-owner of Naps Arcade; handles game selection, tournament operations, and streaming coordination |
| Nikki | person | Co-owner of Naps Arcade; involved in community building, ladies league coordination |
| Lynn (Naps) | person | Carrie's father; original pinball enthusiast who provided warehouse space and game collection for Naps early operations |
| Daniel | person | Maintenance technician for Naps Arcade; performs biweekly maintenance (Thursdays) and daily game checks |
| Michael Matson (Dry_374) | person | Community member who built streaming rig infrastructure during COVID; creates Naps fan art and merchandise |
| Erika | person | Interviewer from Erika's Pinball Journey; community content creator |
| Monday Flipper Pinball | event | Weekly open pinball league at Naps Arcade; Mondays 7:30 PM; ~40 consistent players; WPPR-ranked; streamed |
| Monterey Flipper Ladies Pinball (MFLP) | event | Weekly women-focused pinball league at Naps Arcade; Wednesdays 7:00 PM; ~20 consistent players; community-supportive environment |
| Strikes Night | event | Thursdays cash-based competitive pinball tournament at Naps; now awards WPPR points; streamed |
| Stern Pinball | company | Major pinball manufacturer; Naps prioritizes obtaining new Stern releases |
| Spooky Pinball | company | Boutique pinball manufacturer; Naps prioritizes obtaining new Spooky releases |
| Big Lebowski | game | Stern pinball machine; longest-running game at Naps despite high maintenance needs; serial #1 prototype owned by Carrie |
| Rick and Morty | game | Stern pinball machine; frequently played at Naps; periodic repair needs but generally stable |
| Rush | game | Stern pinball machine; removed from Naps inventory due to low league engagement; sold to local operator |
| Foo Fighters LE | game | Stern limited edition machine; recent expensive acquisition by Carrie; represents pricing concern exemplar |
| Medieval Madness | game | Classic Bally solid-state pinball; ~4,000 units produced; remade due to high demand; secondary market prices have increased |
| Flash Gordon (1981 Bally) | game | Classic solid-state pinball; secondary market price has increased in recent years |
| Deadpool Pro | game | Stern pinball machine; pricy recent acquisition mentioned by Nikki |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Pinball venue operations and business model, Community league structure and growth (Monday, Wednesday, Thursday events), Game pricing crisis and market sustainability, Modern game rule complexity vs. accessibility and physical appeal
- **Secondary:** Streaming infrastructure and digital content distribution, Women participation in pinball (ladies league, gender inclusivity), Game maintenance and upkeep schedules
- **Mentioned:** Generational appeal and intergenerational play

### Sentiment

**Mixed** (0.65) — Owners and interviewer express strong pride in community operations, league growth, and venue atmosphere (positive). However, significant concern about game pricing sustainability, rule complexity trends, and market trajectory (negative). Overall optimistic about pinball's cultural resurgence but pessimistic about economic viability going forward.

### Signals

- **[business_signal]** Operator sentiment: pinball industry pricing trajectory is unsustainable long-term; despite continued purchasing to stay competitive ('while we continue to buy all the hot games'), economic model cannot persist indefinitely; impacts venue profitability and collector acquisition strategy (confidence: high) — Carrie: 'the unfortunate future of pinball is expensive and so if we could uh still be able to acquire newer games but not spend all the money that would be a dream but I I just don't know how it how it continues'
- **[event_signal]** Naps Arcade operates three streaming-supported competitive events: Monday Flipper Pinball (~40 players), Monterey Flipper Ladies Pinball (~20 players), and Strikes Night (cash tournament with WPPR points); attracts regional participation from 45+ minutes away (confidence: high) — Matthew: '40 players every Monday... folks that travel from as far south of San Luis Obispo... from Santa Cruz and Morgan Hill and San Jose'; Carrie: 'Monterey Flipper Ladies Pinball... almost consistently getting like 20 ladies a week'
- **[community_signal]** Naps Arcade demonstrates successful women-centered pinball community building through ladies league; ~20 weekly participants experiencing rapid skill development and competitive growth; 'pinball therapy' framing resonates with stress relief/mental health benefits (confidence: high) — Nikki: 'when the ladies started showing up... they just love coming here and just having my night where I don't have to worry about the family... pinball therapy'
- **[community_signal]** Naps survival during pandemic closure enabled by core pinball player community; COVID-era game rental service (25 games/month) supported operations and drove equipment investment (van, stair dolly for 10-12 games/day capacity) (confidence: high) — Matthew: 'we had a core group of pinball players that were so supportive and so helpful... during COVID what we ended up doing was essentially turning into a moving company... 25 games out per month'
- **[design_philosophy]** Community concern about modern pinball moving too far toward video game complexity, losing tactile physical appeal; newer players struggle to understand base-level objectives; desire for simpler rule sets with modern presentation (Bond 25, Sea Witch modernization, Pulp Fiction, Can Crusher model) (confidence: high) — Carrie: 'I'm concerned that rule sets are going to get too deep and it's going to turn more video game than pinball machine'; Matthew: 'some of these games do get so complex in these newer games that it's hard for a newer player to absorb what is even the goal'
- **[market_signal]** Secondary market EM/solid-state pricing increases despite abundant supply; Medieval Madness ~4,000 units remade due to demand; Flash Gordon and other classics experiencing price appreciation, indicating scarcity premium independent of new manufacturing (confidence: high) — Carrie: 'Medieval Madnesses... only made 4,000... demand doesn't seem to be getting satiated so we continue to see an increase in price... even just to get into a solid state has become... pricy'
- **[market_signal]** Carrie articulates unsustainable pricing trajectory: Foo Fighters LE costs more than vintage EM prototypes purchased years prior; secondary market pricing (Medieval Madness, Flash Gordon) has also 'crept up' despite supply; concern about ability to continue affording new releases (confidence: high) — Carrie: 'I bought a Foo Fighters LE and I've never spent more money... those should be the most expensive games I own not a brand new game that I just bought... we really can't continue to do that'
- **[product_strategy]** Naps differentiates through free-play pricing model ($15 all-you-can-play) vs. pay-per-game competitors; enables casual practice, extended play sessions, rule learning, and accommodates competitive depth without financial friction (confidence: high) — Matthew: 'you can play them all with $15 and then enjoy a really tasty beverage while you're doing it... go to another arcade... $38 just on the first drop'
- **[technology_signal]** Community-built streaming infrastructure (Michael Matson/Dry_374 rig) enabling live-broadcast of league events; creating content distribution pathway and remote audience engagement for local tournaments (confidence: high) — Matthew: 'Michael... built a streaming rig during COVID... now you can watch Monday Flipper Pinball on Mondays... Monterey Flipper Ladies Pinball on Wednesdays'

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## Transcript

hey everybody Welcome to Lind arcade I'm here with the owners of Lind and I'm super excited this is one of my favorite places to play Pinball and I'm really stoked to have everybody get a chance to learn about you guys um if we can start off we just get everybody's names uh Matthew I'm Nikki I'm Carrie and uh I'm stoked so um so how did you guys uh Lind so pinball what was the spark for starting it Carrie yeah actually Lynn Lynn I guess technically that I I my father had uh had pinball machines before I grew up or before I was born so while I was growing up we had pinball machines in the garage and so pinball was a part of our family from the beginning and then at some point later in the story he played another integral role and so we named it after him oh right on sweet so Lind is named after my father your father carich he's a funny guy he owns games uh he lets us steal his games and then we play his games to Sticks here I I see him play infrequently but he he has quite a collection so it's pretty funny being a new arcade what are some of the biggest challenges you've faced of uh because you guys just opened uh in 2019 2019 right right before the pandemic crazy time to start besides the besides yeah yeah so um you can talk about both if you want um how was it starting this like how did the uh stressful I mean getting a space finding a space was tough um in this area and then once we found the space building it out and we didn't have the startup Capital to have Builders come in and do the things that we needed to get done so we had to kind of do it all ourselves um so there was few photos of Carrie and I like right when we got the the bar tops going in and there's photo of Carrie like leaning against the bar top a beer in his hand he just has this washed over look on his face of my God like we're so tired um that was probably the biggest hurdle is just getting it set up and open um and then since then it's just been growing and with the business and figuring out moving stuff around and adding and subtracting and kind of figuring out as we go along when Co hit like you guys had just opened what were some of the did you guys stay open did you close what was some of the things that Happ we had to close I me that was kind of it was mandatory um but we're we're really lucky which is why we started in the first place I mean we had a core group of pinball players that were so supportive and so helpful to help us get through everything that we've gone through opening having to close doing all that so we're really really lucky um that we had these people that were just so interested in pinball and so interested in keeping us uh a place that they could go so that that's kind of like how we survived most of it because during covid what we ended up doing was uh essentially turning into a moving company so we were renting games on a monthly basis to families and so we would have 25 games out per month that Matthew and I were hustling around in the back of a pickup truck two at a time trying to figure out how to move 16 games in a weekend um but that actually uh got us moving and investing in a van and then an escalera a stair climbing uh Dolly so that we could safely and not I guess put a lot of wear on our body but also totally be able to move all these games so we got to be able to do upwards of 10 12 games in a day without having a whole lot of stress so that that investment was helpful because now we have that ability to move games around all the time and that helps us keep everything fresh around here so when it comes to picking games what are some of the factors into choosing what games get to be here at the arcade when do you know to swap out a game or put in a game what are the what's the vibe we are looking for like challenging um tournament style play games challenging shots or challenging rule sets except for when it comes to like the new stuff that's coming out we're trying to be on be with the trend and get a every game that is coming out from at least Stern um and spooky so we're trying to like stay on top of that because you got to always have the fresh new stuff um and then we can rotate those out if they don't get played or if they're They Don't Really suit our needs um we kind of sold Rush one of the reasons it just didn't hit with League members so we move that on down the line to another local operator who was super psyched to get it um but then we started getting into the older stuff too where if we can find a cool game that we see on Twitch or something with the in a competition somewhere we're like wow that actually looks really challenging and really fun we'll try to hunt that one down and get that in here um and then we're going to try to rotate more games through um it's just getting the backstock going so sure it has a lot to do with how how much people break them yeah yeah that can that can determine the game's existence longevity yeah lowski has been the one that's made it the longest as much as it broke that's the one that needs an exorcist yeah yeah yeah is there like a g yeah like you said rush and but like big lowski I see it all the time so it's just a game of love right to keep to keep be here that and Rick and Morty yeah Rick and Morty for what like I think what Eric said it the other day he's like why don't you just take this thing out of here and like get it like fully working and bring it back we're like we do every time it's every something else breaks on it like it's just it's been going good now knock on wood we just said things out loud it was like but it's been pretty Rock Solid here for the last few weeks so just keep us you know keep his fingers crossed fix it when it breaks you know that's that's pretty much what we do so as we're on the topic of Maintenance like what do you guys have a maintenance schedule or do you how do you go about your repairing of games and whatnot uh I try to get games repaired as soon as they break as fast as I can so if something goes down on a league night or whatever I'll try to hit it the next day um but as far as recurring maintenance uh Daniel and I are here every Thursday and we it's pretty much every other week we're cleaning and waxing and adjusting and doing what we need to to keep them up and clean and looking fly and playing really fast and nice we have a system too for when the employees are here um and something breaks when they're on shift and Matthew's not here car's not here I'd say it was me but I don't do much in the fixing i' be like oh you got a ball stock yeah I got that um uh we have a sheet that we can either write it down on or we have a digital sheet that we can write down what's wrong with the game so that the gentleman who fix the games can easily see oh why is this sheet that says I'm down for repairs on the game yeah it's a daily thing I show up I check the first thing I do is open it up and check what's broken yeah be like y checklist wa today's today all right you got it get these working again yeah I mean I I feel like every time I'm here there's very few games that are down so I know that you guys keep a good schedule because there's some other places I go and some games will be down for quite a while so your guys' turnaround is really awesome and I know that your players the community loves it how have you guys how's it been building this pinball Community what how did you do you feel like the sense of pinball Community is important for Lind and it's the heart and soul it's what made us it's how we're here so we started as four players playing in Angelina's Pizzeria on uh six pinball machines with kids running all around us and every week we we grew a little bit and we did very little in the way of marketing ourselves it just we just kept getting found and then uh ultimately moving to Carbone's bar in Monteray and then bouncing from there to my father's warehouse and in all these different moves we found different folks that found us and liked what we were doing which is playing pinball and having fun competitively but it's a very social competitive atmosphere it's not like we're very serious folks uh we all hug each other when we show up I mean it it it it started as that and then ultimately we went to my father's Warehouse because we got too big and Carbones didn't allow for Youth and we have a lot of Youth that play with us and to be fair if a 9-year-old can beat me they should probably be playing in League with us so we then had this space that he provided us and that's when we started to accumulate more and more games also we had uh the ability to use all of his games that were sitting in the warehouse also so we were able to use that platform to kind of I guess both test our ability to be a public entity but it grew our community quite significantly um we ended up finding a lot of folks that I just I can't I still am surprised how people walk in and they're pinball people they want to play and so we've grown and grown and grown from that so ultimately we had too many people showing up at the warehouse and uh I think we're just about at the statute of limitations where I can say that it's been three years and we survive that experience without anybody getting Dam you know damaged in any physical way so it was a a great thing that allowed us to then come here with the core group that Nikki was talking about that really helped support us as a business so we have the public but we also have a core pinball Community for sure what do you think is the appeal of pinball why do you think it continues after all these years well it did fall away for a long time and now like the Resurgence is coming back super hard it's a tangible thing I think it's the tangible gameplay of pinball as opposed to a digital gameplay where digital you can learn a pattern and you can get a high score because you know the memorize this pattern on this game there's no pattern that you can learn on a pinball machine every Ball's going to be different and then yeah whenever you're playing a game like you're not thinking about anything else like you're you're in that world now and you're not thinking about the day you had today you're thinking about the game that you're playing so you kind of lose yourself in a game and that's why I think it draws me in more and more and I think it's what's pulling in more people now too this is being able to just forget about all the crap that's going on in the world you just play your game like you're just sucked into it now so you just get in Focus get on that play it's a brings that generational Gap closer together too so like we've definitely had like some grandparents bring their grandchild in and they have the memory of doing that playing pinball when they were younger and then to bring that to their kids and then have to be able to share like an actual like gaming thing where it's fun and it's exciting in and they're learning and they're remembering it just sort of sort of brings people together a little bit more that way which I think is kind of unique about pinball too since it's since it is an older game yeah definitely um but yeah that that hashtag pinball therapy yeah don't flip out that came up a lot when we started ladies league so when the ladies started showing up and they started talking to me about playing on ladies night was just like I just love coming here and just having my night where I don't have to worry about the family where I don't have to worry about the job where I'm not worried about all the things I'm always worried about and they just come and play Pinball and have a really good time so that was kind of like where that started that pinball therapy yeah I mean I like the competitive atmosphere I I think that it's a nice social competitive thing where people can have fun and you're not really playing against another player you're all playing the same machine and you're really playing for yourself to see how far you can get but it's always more fun to compete and I I think that that for me is the the thread what do you think that sets your guys' arcade apart from other uh pinball places really great beer there is that yeah we have a really good beer selection but then also the free play aspect and you can play as long as you can stand it um so you can really come in and work on skills and not be frustrated by putting a dollar into a game and having it beat you up and you're like I got to put another dollar in like you can just stay all day and play as much as you want and play different games so a lot of players that are really good they'll go and they'll put a dollar into a game and they'll be able to play that one game for three hours just keep getting replays and replays and replays I'm like that's great but we have 37 other ones that you might want to play that's not just the one and you can do that with 15 bucks so if you you know you go to another arcade and want to play 37 games 38 games games to be $38 right there just on the first drop yeah so here you can play them all with $15 and then enjoy a really tasty beverage while you're doing it and those are really tangible reasons why I think that were unique but I think more than that is the atmosphere that we provide when you come in here most people often bring that up um all the employees the owners whoever is here who's uh representing lens usually come with a really awesome ude how it's hard not to you come into this place you can't frown it's really difficult to frown when you walk into this place so it's I think that kind of helps bring more people in wanting them to come back that just like kind of I guess Love of the Game kind of feel we love that you're here super awesome to have you kind of feel when you come in here and so now my other question is where do you see the future of pinball like how do you see games progressing now we have Insider connect and score bed and all these different like QR codes and scans where where do you see the future of pinball going that kind of stuff like seeing like Keith Owen come through designing games and now Jack danger his first game was phenomenal um and seeing the young designers coming through like that's going to be a really cool kind of Changing of the Guard eventually where the older guys will move away and then these this new fresh take on pinball is going to come through and start designing games so I think that's going to be super super exciting I'd like to see more uh the connectivity side I I like what uh Insider connected provides at some uh basic level for someone to be able to get into tracking their scores and getting that kind of information but the score bit functionality for me goes so much further and that's something that I would really like to see be the platform something that uh can connect all the games so that we can all know and the score bit can track a lot more information like how many times you use the left flipper how many times you use the right flipper I mean you could you could get so much data out of a game with that type of technology and so I would like to see almost a mixture of the two where the ease of use and uh you know the stiring acceptability but with the breadth of games and that deeper amount of data that's that's what I want to be able to get as an operator here we would know which games are getting played the most that'd be helpful um to be able to also provide for other folks those achievements that kind of come along with that gaming atmosphere I think those are great value added pieces for us and then for the tournament side we have our scoreboard so you can get all of that data up from the game to the scoreboard and then create custom type uh month-long events like what we have going on monthly here and and other league events if all that data starts to intermingle it can be really powerful I think and and add to the value of pinball make it so that more people have that excitement when they come in different reasons and not to be negative about any of it but um I'm kind of old school when it comes to most things uh and so I'm I'm a little bit concerned that rule sets are going to get too deep and it's going to turn more video game than pinball machine um that's probably the main concern I have for the future when things just get little too complicated and then it's not as that physical fun of pinball that's probably a concern it's a good concern it doesn't always have to be positive well no it's a good concern and and some of these games do get so complex in these newer games that it's hard for a newer player to absorb what is even the goal at the at a base level what am I trying to do because that will steal certainly a lot of the fun from you if you can't understand and interpret what you're supposed to do yeah I really hope that with like Bond 60 being like a flat and like the Beatles how they reemed uh seawitch and then like pul fiction is another like single level it's like go back towards that 80s late 70s early 80s style game but make it modern I really hope they get more of that going because they' been adding neat features to really cool stuff like that even that sea witch adaptation included the uh drop targets you can get the ball behind it something that didn't exist in multi in that game now multiball exists Ian taking yeah like PS like can crushers like taking a game from like the 50s and making it fully modern like that's fantastic like do more of that kind of stuff so it doesn't necessarily have to be like a Foo Fighters crazy build up all this stuff it's like just's take it back to a basic Style game but make it modern and fun and cheaper than okay now now you said the word because I was actually just going to say all of this sounds great except for the price tag so the pinball machines at this point have gotten way too expensive we talk about inflation pinl there these things have gotten out of control we bought a Foo Fighters Le and I've never spent more money I thought that my big Labowski that was game number 14 any of the number one serial number game prototypes that I've purchased the freedom em the uh evil Canal em those should be the most expensive games I own not a brand new game that I just bought that has a false limited value because they made a thousand of it and it's got green shrim I bought it but I would love to not spend all that money to have gotten it and I don't want to and I don't want to have to be able to do that and I can't we really can't continue to do that so while we continue to buy all the hot games the unfortunate future of pinball is expensive and so if we could uh still be able to acquire newer games but not spend all the money that would be a dream but I I just don't know how it how it continues um because the popularity of pinball and also there is not just the false sense of Rarity from a limited edition painted game but there are games that I mean they only made 4,000 medieval madnesses that's why they remade them because there was too much demand but so far the demand doesn't seem to be getting satiated so we continue to see an increase in price so even though we don't have to buy a new Stern we can buy a Flash Gordon uh balet 81 it's now also crept up in price so even just to get into a solid state has become yeah definitely price of games oh man yeah I bought a Deadpool Pro pretty price you know and I I look at the price of people bought pinball machines a few years ago and I was like wow I gotten the pinball in a weird yep wish I was in pinball like four or five years ago man 20 years ago 20 years ago you could have had all these games yeah people told me they got a game for 20 bucks I'm like $20 you got that em like crazy stuff man people just like pinball was in a different place but people made fun of Hoarders right and make fun of Hoarders but them hoarders got paid their money yeah and I think about um you guys have a big Community here kind of pulling back to tournaments and stuff I want to talk a little about you guys' leagues you guys have some leagues going on you want to talk a little bit of detail into those yeah we have uh mon flipper pinball which is the open League uh that's every Monday uh how we began how we began uh 7:30 pm. we we're up to consistently around 40 players every Monday um which is crazy for our tiny little Community you look at Los Angeles you look at San Francisco you look at San Jose we have so many people coming out to a single League event here on a Monday night and we're tiny little monter County we have folks that travel from as far south of San Louis abiso with some regularity but Extreme regularity from Santa Cruz and uh Morgan Hill and uh San Jose I know I coming in from a place kind of close by Morgan Hill sometimes been about 45 minute drive but it's worth it it's worth it me we have ladies league as well Monteray flipper ladies pinball is that what it is or mflp you can't Whisper Soft enough for that one Mike um and that one has been um kind of interesting um in its growth as well started off small like most of the leagues do and now we're almost consistently getting like 20 ladies a week um on Wednesday days at 7:00 sharp we do not start late at ladies League unless you let us know you are running late um but that's been a really a really awesome experience um getting all these ladies in here in a comfortable situation for them to learn from each other and they really really do and we're very supportive of each other and learning how to play Pinball better getting more comfortable within the competitiveness of pinball and wanting to win and want wanting to get better and wanting to learn new skills so it's been really fun seeing that and we've had a lot of ladies that are just freaking turning it up yeah and and it's happening all across the board and and it's that uh you play it's more fun to play in a competitive atmosphere and and a lot of it comes from you get to watch others so I get I get to watch Matthew and pick up some of what he's doing on this game or watch Nicole and see what she's doing on the game oh Nikki we can sometimes watch Nikki and learn uh but but you can pick up from everyone and and you can also start to learn the rule sets that way also it it all becomes more apparent and the value becomes greater for each of the different rules that you might learn in a specific game so when you're playing competitively you have an edge and an ability to win it's a fun thing it's fun to see League where it is now too like watching new players and all of a sudden they're just like doing this and you're like oh the learning is different like you got to you got to play when you show up on Mondays man like there's no like everyone yeah everyone's playing really well and we've been well well you it's funny because now the learning curve has changed um because we have everybody getting so much better at the original level right the high competitive level the folks that are those top 500 players that we have consistently here they're here now consistently so everybody that comes in new they're having to play with and against these individuals so they have to pick up if they're going to start catching up but what's funny is they get to learn a lot quicker because those folks they've been taking their time trying to figure out this pinball craft everybody else can jump in and go oh I see what you're doing and so it's it's really ramped up quickly yeah I know that uh you guys have your streaming rig uh this is a thing so that's maybe we should have said that for the technology side of things that actually launch that that is a big deal so Michael Matson our very own drri 374 got the shirt he made the shirt and he does a lot of the fan art that we have um I mean all of what we're wearing is derivative of his work um he he uh built a streaming rig during covid which became a thing people started streaming not just pinball but arcade but all these things pinball uh started getting streamed and so these folks were building Rigs and Michael is super specific with his his buildout and so he built a rig and it's high level the video and mic and then he built a rig two which he intended to be here sometimes but then we bought it because it was too much fun and then we started streaming leagues so now you can watch monter flipper pinball on Mondays you can watch monter flipper ladies Pinal on Wednesdays you will now more consistently because this G's on it um the uh the strikes night on Thursdays which is a different style of competitive play which was really just a cash-based you know you get to take money home home which isn't usually the case here event now also has world ranking points and so uh that's another event we do and we'll stream that any other tournament that we put on those are also worth world ranking points we're going to stream these and you get to see some interesting players that will travel from the bay for those big events to play with us so it's not just a league thing we have the tournament thing too and we try to put it out on the worldwide web live and it's it's interesting to see folks uh interact with that video content it's been fun yeah no I love it when you guys are streaming you guys do some commentary too I think that's makes it super fun when you can explain a game too when people are playing so yeah that only happens I that only happens we only have commentators when I forget to put myself in and uh uh the first round so then you get me for a round because I'm not playing or once you get to like finals yeah finals qualifying qualifying it's like no one wants to be back there commentating what they want to be playing so finding a person that's like do you want to commentate pinball but not play what are you talking about me I'm going to play exactly so gets the finals and then we can have someone back there commentating yeah no it's a fun time I I love watching tuning into the stream I'm like oh I can't be there but I feel like I'm there you know I get to see you guys and put stuff in the comments be like hey good job good ball you know it's really fun um yeah I just love what you guys have here so thank you guys so freaking much for letting me come in interview you guys and I'm super stoked for what's to come with pinball and to see you guys grow and hopefully maybe more new League members will show up cuz they'll know about this place and Monteray Seaside y going to get addicted that's right yeah yeah hey guys thanks so much for watching this episode of an interview with lind's I hope you get a chance to check it out super awesome space lots of pinball lots of fun um come join the flip side I think that's I think that's what I'm G to get bro so I decided I'm going to switch beers even though I'm not done with the other one every take what what we need to have is someone else say some words because I just talked for like five minutes it was your turn oh I feel yeah you guys have a good flow going I feel like I realized I wore my freaking hair tie this whole time you're just going to look like you have like a really cool bracelet cool bracelet it is cool sweet thank you that was awesome thank you guys so much we did it very cool thanks you guys I'll take your mics oh yeah I got it off all by my you did

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 63cb2f0d-cb92-4868-b707-1fbeacffc4f4*