# Episode 269: Howard Dobson

**Source:** Pinball Profile  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2020-07-20  
**Duration:** 30m 27s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.pinballprofile.com/episode-269-howard-dobson/

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## Analysis

Pinball Profile episode 269 features Howard Dobson, a well-traveled competitive pinball player from Maryland known for juggling skills and tournament participation. The episode covers his tournament experiences (MAGFest, Indisc, Pinmasters), league organization work, Twitch streaming during COVID-19, and his innovative approach to practicing pinball through customized pin golf challenges on games like The Walking Dead and Jurassic Park Premium.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Howard achieved a WPPR ranking of approximately 190-200 at one point — _Howard mentions taking a screenshot of reaching day 190 in WPPR rankings; Jeff confirms IFPA says 200 is his ranking_
- [HIGH] MAGFest uses an all-you-can-play tournament format with admission covering unlimited entries — _Howard describes MAGFest as 'all you can pump and dump, but you don't actually have to buy anything' with admission covering as many entries as desired_
- [HIGH] Crab Town Pinball League is held at a crab restaurant in Glen Burnie, Maryland that has had arcade machines since the 1970s — _Howard details the venue's history, mentioning Asteroids copies and original solid state and newer Stern machines_
- [HIGH] Holy for Holies Pinball League in Baltimore expanded from Thursday-only to two nights per week — _Howard notes the league grew to 50 players on Thursday nights and is now two nights per week with additional volunteer directors_
- [HIGH] Howard traveled to Australia and New Zealand for tournaments approximately 16-17 months prior to this interview — _Howard confirms he attended Australian Championships, side tournaments, and Kiwi Pincade, with the trip coinciding with his planned travel_
- [HIGH] Pin Baltimore festival features approximately 60+ pinball machines during the tournament weekend, up from ~9-10 in regular operation — _Howard describes Holy for Holies normally having 9-10 pins but expanding to 60+ pins upstairs for Pin Baltimore tournament_
- [HIGH] Trent Augenstein won the main, classics, and head-to-head event at Pin Baltimore — _Howard states 'Trent Augenstein won everything. He won the main. He won the classics.'_
- [MEDIUM] Walking Dead code previously included a 'crossbow multiball' feature that was removed — _Howard mentions finding 'crossbow multiball' referenced in old code changelogs and speculates it was removed around the time a chord was introduced_

### Notable Quotes

> "Using pinballs as an excuse is always good. Shh, my wife might listen."
> — **Howard Dobson**, Early in interview
> _Humorously establishes Howard's travel habits and community awareness of his passion for pinball_

> "I mean, when you go into a league where the only way you're going to make any points is if you win it, you know, if you're, sometimes you feel that pressure"
> — **Howard Dobson**, Mid-interview
> _Reflects on why he chooses not to play in leagues he organizes; commentary on competitive pressure dynamics_

> "I really should be better at multiball than I am, given that I can juggle six balls."
> — **Howard Dobson**, Juggling discussion
> _Self-deprecating comment about transferable skills between juggling and pinball multiball control_

> "It's not a competition. I'm not cheating anyone. What I'm doing is using the facilities of the game to help me learn to play it better."
> — **Howard Dobson**, Game settings discussion
> _Articulates philosophy on using game settings for practice rather than competition, rejecting 'cheating' terminology_

> "The game was designed with 200 settings, 300 settings, and you paid five or six grand for it. You should be able to make use of those settings to do things that help you improve."
> — **Howard Dobson**, Settings/practice discussion
> _Justification for customizing game difficulty to facilitate learning; reflects on game design intent_

> "I'm used to practicing things. So if you're practicing juggling five balls and you drop a ball, you reach down and pick it up and you start juggling five balls."
> — **Howard Dobson**, Practice methodology section
> _Explains how juggling practice mindset transfers to pinball practice approach_

> "So I was on about a one-month binge of going for Last Man Standing, which I got to several times. The only cheats were death saves. I've never gotten there all the way without death saving."
> — **Howard Dobson**, Last Man Standing practice
> _Reveals specific extended practice goals and acknowledges limitations in one specific area_

> "Jeff Teolis: I mean, I'm banned from Australia because I went there in January, ran a tournament called the Pinball Profile World Tour, and I won it, and they won't bring me back."
> — **Jeff Teolis**, Mid-interview
> _Humorous commentary on North American players dominating Australian tournaments_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Howard Dobson | person | Well-traveled competitive pinball player from Maryland; juggler; tournament organizer; Twitch streamer (Pinball Howard); league director at Holy for Holies Pinball League; participates in Maryland, Virginia, and D.C. tournaments |
| Jeff Teolis | person | Host of Pinball Profile podcast; fellow well-traveled pinball player; co-host of Final Round Pinball Podcast; claims to be banned from Australia due to tournament wins |
| MAGFest | event | Annual pinball and gaming festival featuring unlimited-entry tournament format; January tournament kick-off; includes cosplay and other gaming activities |
| Indisc | event | Major annual pinball tournament (January); features IFPA Open; Howard competed in 2020 |
| Denver Pinmasters | event | Pinball tournament featuring pin golf format; attended by Howard in early 2020 |
| Australian Championships | event | Competitive pinball tournament in Australia; Howard participated approximately 16-17 months before interview |
| Kiwi Pincade | event | Pinball venue/tournament in New Zealand; part of Howard's trip to Australia/New Zealand |
| Holy for Holies | location | Restaurant in Hamden, Baltimore with pinball collection; hosts Holy for Holies Pinball League; Howard is league director |
| Crab Town Pinball League | event | Pinball league held at crab restaurant in Glen Burnie, Maryland; venue has had arcade machines since 1970s with original solid state pins and newer Sterns |
| Pin Baltimore | event | Annual pinball tournament festival at Holy for Holies featuring 60+ machines; Howard was tournament director; features classics, main, and head-to-head events |
| Justin Bath | person | Competitive pinball player from Maryland/Virginia/D.C. area; consistently ranks top 1-2 in state; plays in every Maryland, Virginia, D.C. tournament; known for one-handed play with beer |
| Trent Augenstein | person | Competitive pinball player; won main, classics, and head-to-head event at Pin Baltimore |
| Ian Harrower | person | Competitive pinball player; recent Pinball Profile guest; credits hand-eye coordination from juggling to pinball skill; Jeff's primary competitive rival |
| The Walking Dead (Stern) | game | Premium/Pro Stern pinball machine; Howard created pin golf challenge for it; features Siege mode, walker bombs, crossbow shots, multiball; Howard plays it extensively for practice |
| Jurassic Park Premium (Stern) | game | Premium Stern pinball machine; Howard owns it and created pin golf challenge for it; in-progress course design |
| Fishtails (Williams) | game | Classic/solid state pinball game; Howard plays with various focused practice strategies (multiball hunting, monster fish, captive ball) |
| Martin Robbins | person | Melbourne-based streamer (Melbourne Silver Ball); plays pinball on Twitch; interacts with Howard who provides expert rule knowledge |
| Snow | person | Colorado Pinball player known for strong Walking Dead rule knowledge; has both Pro and Premium versions |
| Division 82 | event | Pinball tournament/league; formerly called Titletown; held in Stevens Point area; runs pin skins format tournaments |
| Stern Rewards | program | Stern Pinball customer loyalty/rewards program; offers new in-box machines as incentive; Howard participated and earned two machines (Walking Dead and Jurassic Park Premium) |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Tournament travel and participation, Competitive WPPR rankings and strategy, League organization and management, Practice methodology and game settings customization
- **Secondary:** Pinball streaming during COVID-19 pandemic, Juggling and hand-eye coordination skills transfer, Pin golf and solitaire challenge formats
- **Mentioned:** Walking Dead rule set and code analysis

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.82) — Howard and Jeff maintain friendly, conversational tone throughout. Howard is enthusiastic about tournaments, community involvement, and practice methodology. Mild frustration expressed about competitive struggles (e.g., missing Classics finals, difficulty with specific challenges) but generally optimistic tone. Jeff expresses admiration for Howard's contributions and skills.

### Signals

- **[community_signal]** Howard organizes and runs Holy for Holies Pinball League without playing in it, prioritizing community facilitation over personal competition despite sacrificing WPPR points (confidence: high) — Howard states 'it's just there's too much pressure when you're in charge' and expanded league to two nights per week with volunteer director backup team
- **[community_signal]** Pin Baltimore growing as major regional festival; expansion from ~9-10 regular machines to 60+ for tournament weekend; multiple competition divisions (classics, main, head-to-head) (confidence: high) — Howard describes Pin Baltimore growth trajectory and reports 130 players in each division in recent year
- **[competitive_signal]** Pin golf and solitaire golf formats gaining traction as solo practice alternatives during COVID-19 pandemic; Howard creating structured challenges to improve specific game aspects (confidence: high) — Howard created nine-hole Walking Dead pin golf course and spreadsheet tracking system; presented concept to Pin Baltimore tournament with 200+ participants
- **[competitive_signal]** Regional player dominance patterns: Justin Bath consistently top 1-2 in Mid-Atlantic; Howard competing across multiple state championships (MD, VA, DC) (confidence: high) — Howard notes Justin 'plays in every tournament in Maryland, Virginia, or D.C., and he's always the top one or two player in the state'
- **[competitive_signal]** Players using game settings to customize difficulty and learning objectives; rejection of 'cheating' terminology for legitimate game feature utilization (confidence: high) — Howard adjusted Walking Dead ball count to facilitate Last Man Standing learning; emphasizes games were 'designed with 200 settings, 300 settings' justifying customization
- **[technology_signal]** Pinball streaming adoption during pandemic; Howard setting up Linux-based streaming setup despite platform complexity (confidence: medium) — Howard describes procuring streaming equipment and spending weeks setting up OBS on Linux with noted complications vs Windows version
- **[competitive_signal]** Tournament formats diversifying beyond traditional competition; head-to-head games with physical mechanics (penalty circles, costumed ref) appearing at regional festivals (confidence: medium) — Pin Baltimore featured head-to-head soccer-style game with drawn circles, referee, costume participation; attendees dressed in costumes

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## Transcript

 It's time for another Pinball Profile. I'm your host, Jeff Teels. You can find our group on Facebook. Don't forget to check out pinballprofile.com for all your subscription needs and past episodes. You can find us on Twitter and Instagram at pinballprofile. Email us, pinballprofile at gmail.com. We go to Maryland right now, and joining us, Howard Dobson. How are you doing, Howard? I'm just fine, thanks. You are normally not in Maryland because you seem to be everywhere. You're like me, a well-traveled pinball player, but obviously we're taking a step back with COVID-19. But, boy, do you ever get around. Yeah, I enjoy to travel. Using pinballs as an excuse is always good. Shh, my wife might listen. Don't say pinballs as an excuse. But, you know, you do get around. In fact, I think of not only things like Pinberg, which unfortunately just missed, but, I mean, really, you get around. Even this year alone, you did MAGFest. You did Denver Pinmasters. You did Indisc. You got it in in a few months before we had to stop moving around. Yeah, it's got back from Pinmasters in the nick of time. Let's talk about some of those tournaments. MAGFest, I've talked to Kevin Stone before. It's one of those ones I have to get to. It's kind of the real kickoff to the calendar year. What's it like for you at MAGFest? It's usually a good time. It's all you can pump and dump, but you don't actually have to buy anything. So your admission to MAGFest gives you as many entries as you can possibly use. And it's not 24 hours a day, but it seems like it. I've heard it's a long one, too. But that's a great way if you want to save some bucks and you just want to play pinball. It sounds like a good tournament. Yeah. Party atmosphere, too. Yeah, I mean, there's so much other stuff going on that people dress up, and I'm like, I have no idea who that person is supposed to be. But there's just stuff going on everywhere. So if you're into cosplay or any kind of gaming, there's something there at MAGFest for you. All right, Howard, I just got word that next year, the only way you, Howard Dobson, can get into MAGFest, which you like, is you have to dress up for cosplay. So what are you going to do? That's the only way you can get in, Howard. No, fortunately, I think it's going to conflict with states. So hopefully I will be... No, we're moving states. We're moving states. You have to go to MagFest. You have to do cosplay. You cannot avoid this question. Well, I do have a onesie of a turtle. I suppose I could put that on a pajama thing. Well-timed. I think that would work well. Yeah, okay. If states don't move, get that all ready. Maybe dry clean it or whatever, but I think you're going to be safe. And then I saw you at Indisc. Boy, they really stepped it up at the IFPA Open this year, didn't they? Yeah, yeah. I'm really, you know, my best chance is typically in Classics, so I pretty much have to focus. Well, at first I try and do both, but eventually I'll be on the bubble for Classics and have to ignore the mains at most of the big tournaments. So that's what I did, and I didn't manage to get in this year to any of the Classics finals. But last year you did, so it's not like you're a stranger to the playoffs by any means. And in fact, you really had a good year last year. I think you got up to, let me see, top 200 in the IFPA at one point. Yeah, I think I have a snapshot of the day I was 190. They must have been recomputing because it was only that day. And I took a screenshot. Yeah, I think IFPA says 200 is my time. Oh, I know what those snapshots are like. For maybe five minutes, I was ahead of Adam Becker for the first time in my life, and he quickly saw that and immediately updated the stats and put in whatever was needed. That lasted a second. I forgot to take a picture. Damn it. Screenshots. Good. I'm not sure where it is, but I know it's somewhere. Well, you'll just have to get back up there to the top 200. I know you can for sure because you do get around, and that's one thing too. We talked about the IFP Open. and we talk about MAGFest, and I don't want to forget about Pinmasters as well, what you went to. Do you find that these tournaments are more beneficial to you than leagues? Because I see the pros and cons of both leagues and tournaments. Definitely. I mean, on a points basis, they're definitely worth more, because I pretty much have to win any league I'm in for it to count much towards my IFPA standing. But I enjoy leagues. I actually run a league where I don't play, up at Holy for Holies, in Baltimore, and I sometimes play in Crab Town Pinball League in Glen Burnie, Maryland. Tell me about Crab Town League, because I've seen that on your IFPA scorecard a few times. So it's one that you've been to more than once, I noticed. Yeah, so that's a place, it's a crab restaurant, and they've actually had arcades and pinballs since the 70s. I think they had like, when Asteroids came out, I think they had five copies, and lines were down the street. I think they still have two of those. And most of the pins that are in there, they bought new in box. old Bally Kiss. They probably didn't buy the old Chicago new in box, but lots of the other. So they've got lots of old solid states, and they've got like five newer sterns now. So it's a good place to play. I also, as I said, I'm lead director up at Holy for Holies in Baltimore, at the Holy for Holies Pinball League. And you don't play in it. You just want to give back to the community. Yeah, it's just there's too much pressure when you're in charge. And it's very, those Thursday nights, we used to do it just on Thursday night and we got up to like 50 players. And yeah, it was just too hectic to feel comfortable playing and herding cats. Not a lot of people run tournaments where they don't participate. I mean, some of the bigger events, obviously, that, you know, Stern Pro Circuit caliber, but leagues and whatnot, You know, that's kind of a, it's there for social aspect. It's there, you know, sure there's some points involved, but really it's just kind of, in a lot of ways, introducing people to pinball. Yeah, I mean, when you go into a league where the only way you're going to make any points is if you win it, you know, if you're, sometimes you feel that pressure or, you know, it's easier just not, you know, sometimes I guess for a night where I just play around with the three-player group, but not often. I'm usually busy doing other things. But that takes quite a commitment from you to give up that time to do that and really for the benefit of others. Yeah, and now that we've moved to two nights a week, I mean, I used to try and do it all, but now I've got help. So I can always just say, yeah, I'm not going to make it this week. Can anyone cover? And three other people who will step in gladly and take care of it. So that's good. from your traveling going to different tournaments you see what is needed and how difficult these are to run and how many moving parts there are in tournaments just like there are on leagues we mentioned some of the tournaments that you went to but you know you've been to things like pinball the zoo last fall you were at free play florida and that's a major tournament as well and even you got a chance last year it's about 16 17 months ago you made the trip across the Pacific to Australia and checked out what their pinball action was like. Yeah I just happened to be over there and it coincided with the Australian championships I played in a couple of their side tournaments and then I went to the Kiwi Pincade as well which was the end of my trip was coming up and so I just went for an extra week over to New Zealand to run around and see how amazing New Zealand is and then go play some pinball with those guys. That was a lot of fun. When you say that coincided with your trip there, that wasn't the plan of going there? Because you got in like six events. Yeah, no, it was completely coincidental. My trip was already planned. And I don't think I knew about the Australian Championships going on until a week or two before. I knew that the pin cave was going to work out. But, yeah, it just worked out. Howard, do you know that I am banned from Australia? I mean, my partner on Final Round Pinball Podcast on the Pinball Network is Australian. But I'm banned from going to Australia because I went there in January, ran a tournament called the Pinball Profile World Tour, and I won it, and they won't bring me back. Now, I'm not allowed back because every time I go to Australia, every time I play pinball, I seem to win it. So I'm like the older version of Escher and Colin Urban, you know what I mean? You know, these North Americans taking their points. So I apparently am not allowed to cross the border, or it has something to do with COVID-19. One of the two, I can't remember. Yeah, maybe once. I got to tell you, one of my favorite memories of you is going back a few years ago at the Buffalo Pinball Summer Open. And it was at the Yacht Club. You don't even know I'm going to be saying this. Yeah. But the reason I remember it so well, I knew who you were. But then all of a sudden, I look out of the corner of my eye, and I'm like, this guy's a juggling master. Yeah. So that morning, the power had gone out. Yeah. And I guess they sent a blast out to Facebook telling people, you know, we'll let you know when we're back on power. but I didn't see it, so I showed up at the normal start time. So then I'm like twiddling my thumbs, and I happen to have, I don't know what, probably just juggling balls. Yep. I don't usually carry all my props anymore. So it was a nice day, so I decided to pull them out and do some practice, which I have greatly neglected since becoming addicted to pinball. Well, I remember seeing that, and I talked to my buddy. I'm like, hey, do you know who's a great juggler? because I know his juggling background, Ian Ian Harrower. Yes, yes. And Ian knew all about you being a great juggler as well. Yeah, I used to always wear juggling t-shirts to pinball events and pinball t-shirts to juggling events to see who would notice and strike up a conversation about it. Well, Ian was recently on Pinball Profile and he was talking about that hand-eye coordination has really helped him in pinball. I would assume the same for you too. Yeah, I guess so. I mean, there's lots of, I mean, yeah, I guess there's some shared skills. But, yeah, I really should be better at multiball than I am, given that I can juggle six balls. I definitely can't do that in a ball machine. You can juggle six? Yeah. God. I can juggle five for, you know, a reasonable amount of time. Six is a quick, if you blink, you'll miss it. And is three the max for one-handed? I've worked on four in one hand. I think I probably flashed it, so that's like four throws and four catches where you go into the pattern and then quickly grab all the balls, which I've done with seven balls as well in two hands. But I was working on that for months and never really progressed much past flashing. Okay, Howard, I already have great respect for you for your pinball and also your juggling. If you tell me you ride a unicycle, you're my new hero. I never got into the unicycle just because my family has a tradition of back problems. And I have thus far avoided that. And anything potentially jarring to my back, I try to avoid just in case. Good call. I don't want to go down that road. No. I'm seriously impressed with things like juggling. And when I see people on the unicycle, I'm like, how is that possible? So I put those in the same kind of category. And I'm still impressed, Howard. You're not at superhero status yet, but still very impressed. Thank you. Like many people during this shutdown, if you will, during COVID-19, a lot of people have taken to streaming. You are no exception. You are on Twitch, Pinball Howard. Yes. How are you finding that? It's a good excuse to play some pinball. You know, when I got the hint that the shutdown was coming, I quickly ordered some equipment, and then it took me a while to actually get around to starting to stream, probably a couple weeks. And I'm very anti-Windows, so I had to figure out how to do it all with Linux, which not many people do. So I'm still using OBS like everyone does, but it seems like the Linux version has some peculiarities. I've watched on Twitch. I can't notice a difference. Yeah, no, I mean, it's, you know, from the provider's point of view, things are different. You've got to do a lot of stuff more manually, I think. I've got the code. I could go try and figure out why, because it's the same code base. I don't know what's different about the compilation for Windows versus Linux. I haven't been so inspired to go dig into that. I don't have that much time. As mentioned, not only are you on Twitch, but you watch Martin Robbins occasionally. I've seen you on his Melbourne Silver Ball, and they were playing the Walking Dead, and you had every answer asked about the Walking Dead. Martin was playing at Ryan Seas and wasn't sure about certain walker bombs and how to get them, and I actually didn't know how you get the different walker bombs with the three drop targets. Yeah, so they were playing a premium, which I hardly ever play. So I had probably gleaned that knowledge from Colorado Pinball because Snow definitely knows all the rules, although she has a pro as well, but she had a mnemonic of how to remember what corresponded to what bomb. So the big walker guy, he likes food. If you're in a prison yard, it's good if you have a weapon. And then the horde bomb, I guess, is the other one, first aid. No, that's a good way to remember because they were trying to add a walker bomb, and they couldn't figure out how to do it, and the three drop targets were how to do it. Interesting. Yeah. What I really like about The Walking Dead is what you've created. You know, you went to Pin Masters, so you like pin golf, but you've kind of taken it almost a hybrid of pin golf, if you will, but really good for this time when we are isolated, kind of a solitaire golf. Do you want to explain what you've done with The Walking Dead? Yeah, so a couple of weekends ago there was a pin skins tournament. Yeah, it used to be Titletown, and they had to rename something Division 82, something maybe two. and yeah so they were playing they played a round of that and since I've been streaming I tend to like to go into my streams with a particular goal in mind so figure out how Siege works on Walking Dead was a recent one it's got this big insert there I've never seen anyone go for it I think it's not worth a ton of points that's why no one ever goes for it but it's like a hundred million if you don't multiply stuff once you finish At least that's a couple times I've gotten to it. That seems to be the value I get. But you know so I was just curious as to what it was So I did a stream where I looked at that I did a glass off stream where I looked at it just to make sure I understood the rules after the initial one But getting back to the pin golf solitaire thing after watching the stream, I was thinking of, how can I get some of that feel at home? So Walking Dead I know pretty well, and I know sort of what my capabilities are. So the idea is to construct a course on a game you know, the game you have at home, that you believe each hole you should make the objective something that you believe you can accomplish if you have a pretty good three-ball game. So on Walking Dead, I think my last hole is kill 30 walkers. So I've been going for last man standing a lot. So I've been in the mode where I'm trying to kill as many walkers as possible to get to 115. Let me run down what you've got here as your course here. This is for a Walking Dead pro. So hole one, again, the objective is to try to do it within three balls, but you set the game up for five balls, correct? That's correct. Okay. So hole one, this is something you can do at home. The Walking Dead Pro. Hole number one, try for three multi-kills. Hole number two, start bloodbath two times. Not easy to do, but five balls again. Hole number three, start prison two times. Hole number four, start well walker three times. That's a good one. That's got to be a tough hole. Yeah, I mean, I've run the course a couple times, And the first time I got like five over, and the second time I got one under. But I don't remember exactly which holes gave me problems and which ones didn't. Hole number five, two successful crossbow shots. Yeah, so for that you have to light weapons and drop the targets, one of our own weapons that lights your crossbow shot. Then you have to shoot the arena shot, the right ramp. It'll come around and light crossbow shots. And you have to successfully hit one of them. And you have to do that twice. And I can't find a good way to keep the ball under control coming down that left feed to then, you know, not just fire away at a shot. So I haven't been able to post-trap it or it's not going fast enough to ski jump over to the other flipper usually, so I tend to flail away. So I think I've gotten six both times on that hole. We all do that. Hole number six, three tower jackpots. Hole number seven, woodberry, collect two million. That's tough to do. Yeah, well, it's one of those that can be easy or very frustrating because you just have to light woodberry, you shoot it over there. I mean, you hit the woodberry shot and then successfully make the skill shot. Which is tough. Yeah, you have to do that, and you have to be able to do it twice. And so once you've done it the first time and you've lit the two million and you keep missing the skill shot the third and fourth time, it can get very frustrating. That's a tough hole there, I'm telling you right now. Hole number eight, complete a mode, finish one of CDC, Arena, or Tunnel. And I added Terminus to that as well. Okay. And you mentioned hole number nine, 30 walkers. That's neat. I'm going to post that if that's all right with you, Howard, because that's a fun little challenge. Yeah, and people should tailor it to their own skill and level and the way they have their game set up. But like you do on Twitch, you know, you have certain challenges each time you go on the stream. Well, this would be a great challenge and a fun way to play when you are by yourself. Yes. I mean, I posted on the PornTopia Facebook page this idea, because they had 200 people or something in that tournament. I'm like, do this with one of your machines at home. And it's a way you can play it multiple times and see, you know, am I getting better, am I getting worse? Is this hole too easy? How do I tweak it? So how are you playing your games differently than you normally would have? So with my juggling background, you know, I'm used to practicing things. So if you're practicing juggling five balls and you drop a ball, you reach down and pick it up and you start juggling five balls. So if you think of a pinball game as like a performance, you know, you've got steps and you've got a sequence of tricks and a performance that you have to stream together to have a successful performance. So, you know, a lot of people, they don't take advantage of all the things that are available to them on their machine because they choose to play it as a three ball game on default settings. And let's try to get to the wizard mode. So my approach is, I mean, I do that for a while, but then I have no problem with using. The game was designed with 200 settings, 300 settings, and you paid five or six grand for it. You should be able to make use of those settings to do things that help you improve. So I was on about a one-month binge of going for Last Man Standing, which I got to several times. The only cheats were death saves. I've never gotten there all the way without death saving. But, you know, the first time I got there, I then bombed out in like 10 seconds after a half-hour game. And so that can get disheartening after you do that a couple times. So what did I do? I added a couple extra balls based on score so that I could get there easier. And the first time I did it, I just set the balls to 10. And so the object of getting there was no longer the issue. The object of this game was to proceed through Last Man Standing to learn how it works and hopefully finish it the next time I get it using the non-cheater way. I don't really like using that term either. It's not a competition. I'm not cheating anyone. What I'm doing is using the facilities of the game to help me learn to play it better. It has helped me not get frustrated with, for example, going for last man standing, which I think is going to help me a lot in competitive pinball because I've never been a good woodchopper. Like if I get into a deep hole on ball three, the chances of me coming back historically is pretty slim because I'm not easily prepared for a 20-minute ball. But I am now because I've been working on Last Man Standing, where it typically takes me 30 minutes just to get to Last Man Standing. So I also like to look at breakdown individual aspects of the game. Like I was saying, figuring out how Siege worked. I was looking at the rule sheet, and it talked about crossbow frenzy, but it didn't really explain much about it. And I looked back at the old change logs, which used to mention a thing called crossbow multiball. And I'm like, what the heck is that? I've never seen crossbow multiball. Apparently it was in old code, and at some point they took it out, I think, about the time the chord was introduced. I haven't been playing that long, so I don't remember that. So it's, you know, I've been going through the rule sheet going, what's that, how does that work, and then trying to figure out, you know, how I can play a game that focuses more intently on that aspect. So then when I go play a normal game, you know, I understand the specifics of each of the little nuances. Good idea, too. I mean, you've got me wondering about the games I have about different settings and some different challenges I can do. Well the settings are also very valuable If you just sequence through them it tell you okay here are the options for Siege or for Multikills It tells you what the current number of each thing you need is So that then gives you a list of all the things that you can do to get a multi that have a setting associated with them. And so anytime you're looking at how does that thing work, it's good to step through the settings to see what talks about that particular mode on your machine, and maybe it'll give you some hints as to how it works. Because the rule sheets on Tilt forums, they're wikis, which means someone, you know, the designer did not write that. The coder did not write that. Someone thought they figured it out and wrote it down, which doesn't mean it's correct. And it also, like with Walking Dead, there's I don't know how many software revisions there's been. And I don't know that every time a new revision comes out that they've gone back and double-checked all the rules to see if they're slightly different than what they were. So it's good to look at that, I guess. For sure. I've been finding I've been playing some of my games differently than I've ever played them before. And it's the same kind of concept, trying to find new ways to do things. So I'll give you an example. On Fishtails, I'll play and I'll be like, all I care about is multiball. I don't care about monster fish, video mode, anything else like that. I'm just going, how many times can I start multiball and hopefully get that super jackpot? Another thing I do is then just do all monster fish. So it's the crisscrossing of the boat. Or maybe it's try to get to the end of captive ball. So there's lots of different things you could do with any game. And you've given a good example for The Walking Dead. And you've even created one for Jurassic Park Premium. Yeah, so that one I've only played once. And it was, what do you think, a one or a six on the whole? so they're not really dialed in yet. A work in progress. It's a work in progress. So the other thing is I created a spreadsheet where I can track my scores and probably play each of them once a week in a pin golf format and see how it goes. Have you gotten into the ICR? I haven't done any of that. Just not interested in it? I don't know. Again, these are great things to do while you're by yourself, but we are eventually going to get back to playing pinball and competition, and we all have our own nemesis. I know I play Ian Harrower, who we mentioned earlier. I play him more than anybody else, and yours is a guy who's a pretty good player. In fact, one time, like 16th in the world. He's been playing for years and years and years. Justin Bath seems to have your number, or you certainly play him a lot. Yeah, well, Justin plays in every tournament in Maryland, Virginia, or D.C., and he's always the top one or two player in the state. If you saw that video of him doing the one-handed monster fish, it was on Facebook a couple weeks ago while drinking a beer. That is pretty cool. Yeah, I mean, he'll play Adam's Family and Tour the Mansion twice with a beer in one hand and just playing one-handed. So, yeah, he's like the coolest guy in pinball. Now, if he could juggle with the other hand, then I would give him the coolest guy title. I mean, come on. I wouldn't be surprised. Where would he put the beer? So, good point. So, he plays a lot in the Maryland area, and obviously you do too. Tell us about Pin Baltimore. You're wearing a Pin Baltimore shirt right now. Yeah, so Pin Baltimore is a festival that has been in Holy for Holies, which is a restaurant up in Hamden in Baltimore. And the owner there has a large collection of pins. There's usually about nine or ten pins on the floor, I think. But for Pin Baltimore, it closes like half the restaurant and opens the upstairs, and I don't know how many they had, 60 pins. So the upstairs was used for the tournament, which I was one of the tournament directors for, running the Never Drain software and all that stuff. We ran classics and a main this past year. The first year we ran two one-day classics and a main. I think we had about 130 in each of them this year. Trent Augenstein won everything. He won the main. He won the classics. He won – they also had one of those head-to-head games. What the heck is the name of it? It's not joust. It's a – A soccer game? Maybe. Yeah, I mean, you're talking about goals. Yeah, so maybe a soccer. you know so they did uh split flipper teams on either side a lot of people wore costumes for it and uh there's no tilt bob in this machine so they had uh drawn circles on the ground around each of the legs they had a referee and if you were responsible for moving the machine out of the circle then your team had to take your hands off the uh the flippers until the next goal like a penalty shot almost. Yeah, I was like, yeah. So I was like... But again, cosplay Howard, that turtle outfit could have come in handy. Yeah, one of the guys shows up and I'm scorekeeping and he's in his costume and I'm like, well, that's not Neil. And he goes, yeah, that's me. He had like this wig with a with a... Yeah, he just he does nothing like himself. But yeah, it was a good time. I think it's one iPod, one pinball. I recorded it. So I think it's probably on their YouTube site, if they've got a YouTube site. Pin Baltimore. I've got to make sure I get there once all this COVID stuff goes away. Yeah, this year they're unsure as to what they're going to do. They might do a virtual kind of thing. I don't know. They haven't decided. But, yeah, that's, again, one of those things where I was running the tournament, so I didn't get to play in. So it's hard to see everyone else scoring all these points in the States. Oh, yeah, good point. You don't have the option. That's right, because you are a staple at the Maryland State Championship. Yeah. I've actually played in Maryland, Virginia, and D.C. It's nice to have options. Yeah, yeah. Well, the first year I started playing, I saw that Stern Rewards thing as a carrot, and so I was on the whopper hunt, and so I pretty much played in everything that year. And my goal the second year was to break the 1,000 mark, even though I had no idea if Stern Rewards was a good deal or not. That didn't matter. It was a goal that I could search for. That's a great program. The Storm Rewards program is a good one, too. I know a lot of people that have taken advantage of that, too. A great way to get your new in-box machine, for sure. I've actually done it twice. What machines? My Walking Dead and my Jurassic Park Premium. Good choices. Good choices. Howard, I look forward to seeing you again, turtle costume or not. You know it'll be at a pinball tournament. Make sure you bring some balls just in case the power goes out, and we'll check you out on Twitch as well. All right. We'll see you. Thanks. This has been your Pinball Profile. You can find our group on Facebook. Check out pinballprofile.com for all past episodes and how you can subscribe to this program. Don't forget to check us out on Instagram and Twitter at pinballprofile, and you can email us pinballprofile at gmail.com. I'm Jeff Teolis. Bye.

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 6436fa42-429c-4190-940b-2f678e51f209*