# Episode 404 - Brackets found

**Source:** NYC PinPod  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2025-03-17  
**Duration:** 65m 54s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.spreaker.com/episode/episode-404-brackets-found--64924130

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## Analysis

NYC PinPod Episode 404 covers local NYC pinball competition results from early March 2025, venue updates including Red Hook Pinball Museum reopenings and machine status changes, and announces the inaugural NYC Pinpod Awesomeness (NYCPPA) bracket tournament—a 64-game single-elimination bracket across four eras (electromechanical, solid state, flat screen, DMD) with fan predictions and prizes.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] As of March 14, 2025, there are 274 pinball machines in New York City at 83 public locations — _Benjamin Furiga citing Pinball Map data on NYC PinPod Episode 404_
- [HIGH] South Slope Pinball League Season 1 Finals have been set with 8 players in A division and 8 in B division — _Eric Sweetland reporting SSPL results from March 13, 2025_
- [HIGH] Max Adventures Kid Birthday Party Place at 2378 Flatbush Avenue in Marine Park, Brooklyn has a 1976 Gottlieb New York machine, bookable for parties starting around $1,000 for two hours — _Benjamin Furiga reporting Pinball Map update from March 9, 2025_
- [HIGH] Pabst Can Crusher was made by Stern as a contract game on a layout based on Continental Cafe, with artwork by Dirty Donnie — _Eric Sweetland discussing Pabst Can Crusher in bracket context_
- [HIGH] Metallica is the #1 seed in the flat screen/DMD era of the NYCPPA bracket, with Addams Family at #8 — _Benjamin Furiga and Eric Sweetland revealing bracket seedings_
- [HIGH] Black Knight 2000 is the first pinball machine Eric Sweetland remembers playing — _Eric Sweetland's personal statement during bracket discussion_
- [HIGH] Jeff Anderson won the Jersey City Flippers Winter 2025 tournament on March 8 with two strikes — _Benjamin Furiga reporting tournament results_
- [HIGH] George Underwood won No Bro Presents Slaptism 3-9 on March 9 in pin golf format with 18 games, best 9 counted — _Benjamin Furiga reporting tournament results_
- [HIGH] NYCPPA bracket deadline is Friday, March 21, 2025 at 5 p.m. for predictions to be eligible — _Benjamin Furiga announcing bracket submission rules_
- [HIGH] Red Hook Pinball Museum held open days at Seaborne Bar with plans to reopen April 6, 2025 — _Benjamin Furiga reporting venue updates from March 9_

### Notable Quotes

> "I got a big trophy with a guy doing a karate kick on top of it. And it is now the largest trophy sitting on my small little trophy shelf."
> — **Benjamin Furiga**, ~0:02:00
> _Reflects host personality and tournament participation; sets casual, humorous tone for the episode_

> "I want to be the NYC pinball Illuminati. I don't know if that... Yeah. I would like for that to refer to me."
> — **Benjamin Furiga**, ~0:17:00
> _Humorous reaction to machine maintenance comment; shows community in-jokes and cultural references_

> "Pabst Can Crusher... it plays like an EM. It's got some fantastic rules. Maybe it's a little beyond what had been done in the EM era. And it's a little faster with snappy stern parts."
> — **Eric Sweetland**, ~0:35:00
> _Technical analysis of modern EM-style game design; shows design philosophy discussion_

> "Doodlebug is just... Fun and chaotic. Yeah, yeah. It has a ball under. It is entirely electromechanical, but one of the things that you do is to create a condition such that a ball under the playfield bounces back and forth between two targets."
> — **Benjamin Furiga / Eric Sweetland**, ~0:43:00
> _Appreciation for innovative mechanical design in vintage machines; illustrates design innovation discussion_

> "You fill out the bracket, you're trying to predict which one we will advance. That's right. You leaning on what you might know about or think about hosts preferences here would probably be smart knowledge to leverage."
> — **Eric Sweetland**, ~0:28:00
> _Explains bracket competition mechanics and strategic element; shows meta-awareness of host preferences_

> "Black Knight 2000 specifically is my sentimental choice. It is the first pinball machine that I know I played."
> — **Eric Sweetland**, ~0:57:00
> _Personal connection to classic machine; relates to community nostalgia and formative experiences_

> "Spanish Eyes is a no-brainer to me it's beautiful and it's everywhere every great competition I feel like I see a Spanish Eyes pop up somewhere as someone is pissed off about that pop bumper center drain."
> — **Benjamin Furiga**, ~0:31:00
> _Game quality assessment based on both aesthetics and competitive prevalence; shows evaluation methodology_

> "I wanted one of the high-speed series to be in these brackets, which is why high-speed was on my list."
> — **Eric Sweetland**, ~0:39:00
> _Shows curator preference and deliberate selection strategy for bracket construction_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Benjamin Furiga | person | Co-host of NYC PinPod, tournament participant, and bracket curator for NYCPPA competition |
| Eric Sweetland | person | Co-host of NYC PinPod, pinball tournament director in New York City, bracket curator |
| Madeline | person | Regular NYC PinPod panel member, absent on this episode (on assignment), bracket curator |
| Chris Landry | person | Tournament director for Jersey City Flippers Winter 2025 tournament on March 8 |
| Jeff Anderson | person | Winner of Jersey City Flippers Winter 2025 tournament with two strikes |
| George Underwood | person | Winner of No Bro Presents Slaptism 3-9 pin golf tournament on March 9 |
| Matthew Grady | person | Winner of Jersey City Open monthly tournament on March 9 |
| Zen Zokniak | person | SSPL participant with highest points (29) in Season 1 meet number six |
| Rob Wong | person | SSPL A division finalist, organizer of Rob Wong Invitational at Rulo's on March 23 |
| Kate Martin | person | SSPL director, A division finalist, designated alternate if other A finalists unavailable |
| Connor Calista | person | Winner of No Bro Presents Thursday Night Strikes with 30 players on March 13 |
| Alex Kelly | person | New York State champion, tied for third in Thursday Night Strikes |
| Glenn Gillyard | person | Donated Harvest Pinball Tournament pint glass as prize for NYCPPA bracket winner |
| Joe Shirovino | person | Progenitor of pinball degenerates, previous NYCPPA bracket winner, inducted into NYC Pinpod Awesomeness Archive |
| Dirty Donnie | person | Pinball artist, created artwork for three games including Pabst Can Crusher |
| Suzanne Chiani | person | Pinball sound designer, created sound effects for Xenon machine |
| Pat Lawler | person | Pinball designer, created multiple games in solid state era including Fun House and High Speed series |
| Steve Kirk | person | Pinball designer, created Meteor, Stars, and other solid state games |
| NYC PinPod | organization | Podcast covering location pinball in NYC and surrounding areas, hosted by Benjamin Furiga and Eric Sweetland |
| Pinball Map | organization | Source of NYC machine location and availability data cited by NYC PinPod |
| IFPA | organization | International Federation of Pinball Players, referenced for tournament classification systems |
| No Bro Presents | organization | Tournament organizer hosting Slaptism 3-9 and Thursday Night Strikes events |
| New York City Flipper Sport Association | organization | Organizes team-based pinball league play (Pinball NYC) across NYC venues |

### Topics

- **Primary:** NYC pinball tournament results and league play, NYCPPA 64-game pinball bracket tournament, Pinball venue updates and machine status in NYC, Electromechanical era pinball machine discussion and analysis, Solid state era pinball machine discussion and analysis
- **Secondary:** Modern/DMD era pinball machines and bracket seedings, Pinball game design philosophy and mechanical innovation, Pinball collector and community engagement

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.82) — Episode is celebratory and enthusiastic about NYC pinball community, tournament results, and the new bracket initiative. Hosts express genuine passion for machines across all eras and appreciate community participation. Occasional light frustration with machine availability or performance, but overwhelmingly constructive and joyful tone.

### Signals

- **[competitive_signal]** Dense schedule of competitive pinball events across NYC in March 2025, including multiple league matches weekly, specialized tournaments (pin golf, split flipper strikes), and large player counts (30+ player events) (confidence: high) — Multiple tournament reports with 13-30 player counts, weekly Pinball NYC league matches, SSPL tournaments, No Bro Presents events
- **[venue_signal]** New venue identified at Max Adventures Kid Birthday Party Place in Marine Park, Brooklyn with a 1976 Gottlieb New York machine, though only available via booked parties (confidence: high) — March 9 Pinball Map entry at 2378 Flatbush Avenue, Marine Park; Benjamin Furiga's research confirming party-booking-only model at ~$1,000 for 2 hours
- **[venue_signal]** Red Hook Pinball Museum reopening with regular monthly open days at Seaborne Bar location, with stated return date of April 6, 2025 (confidence: high) — Multiple open day sessions reported March 9 and scheduled for April 6; Instagram documentation of busy events
- **[operational_signal]** Community-driven machine status updates via Pinball Map, documenting flipper locks, multi-ball repairs, replay settings, and machine removals across NYC venues (confidence: high) — Detailed weekly venue reports: Treadwell Park removals, Jack Bar Cactus Canyon repair, Barcade Chelsea Future Spa issues, Burger & Shake NASCAR revival, Harlem flipper alignment problems
- **[community_signal]** Community-wide participatory bracket tournament announced (NYCPPA) with significant prizes and curator voting, creating meta-engagement around host preferences and pinball machine rankings (confidence: high) — 64-game single-elimination bracket across four eras, submission deadline March 21 at 5 p.m., Google Sheet format, winner prize of Venom Translite and Harvest pint glass, inducting winner into NYC Pinpod Awesomeness Archive
- **[historical_signal]** Deliberate curation of pinball machines across four eras (electromechanical, solid state, flat screen, DMD) with detailed discussion of design innovations, artist contributions, and historical context (confidence: high) — Extended discussion of Pabst Can Crusher as modern EM-style game, Suzanne Chiani's Xenon sound design, Dirty Donnie's artwork, Pat Lawler and Steve Kirk designer legacies
- **[design_philosophy]** Hosts demonstrate preference for both artistic presentation (art packages, sound design) and mechanical innovation (drop targets, back glass toys, playfield mechanics) in game evaluation (confidence: high) — Hosts discuss Spanish Eyes art package as major factor, Pabst artwork by Dirty Donnie as personal favorite, Top Score back box toy design, Doodlebug ball-under mechanism innovation
- **[content_signal]** NYC PinPod expanding content beyond match reporting to include interactive community tournaments and detailed game curation, signaling growth in production scope and audience engagement (confidence: high) — New NYCPPA bracket tournament with prize structure, detailed game discussion transcripts, Pinball Map data integration, scheduled multi-week tournament timeline through April 6
- **[sentiment_shift]** Nuanced appreciation for Red Hook Pinball Museum expansion, with hosts addressing earlier criticism about crowd levels and affirming venue quality regardless of attendance (confidence: medium) — Benjamin Furiga's self-reflective comment about being 'an asshole' about crowding, pivot to appreciating 'kick-ass party room' and requesting more frequent openings
- **[collector_signal]** Eric Sweetland's bracket choices driven partly by personal nostalgia (Black Knight 2000 as first remembered machine) rather than purely competitive ranking, reflecting collector emotionality (confidence: high) — Eric explicitly framing Black Knight 2000 as 'sentimental choice' and 'first pinball machine I remember playing,' placing it in bracket despite lower competitive ranking
- **[market_signal]** Scarcity of public pinball locations (83 venues for 274 machines across NYC) and innovative workarounds (party rental venue with machine access) indicating limited casual play infrastructure (confidence: high) — Pinball Map census data: 274 machines at 83 public locations as of March 14, 2025; party rental venue as only way to access Gottlieb New York machine

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## Transcript

 Happy Sunday, pinfolk, or whatever day you're listening. This is NYC Pin Pod, in which a panel talks location pinball in New York City and sometimes nearby surrounding areas. My name is Benjamin Furiga. My initials are BCF. And I had a clever thing to say here. My name is Eric Sweetland. My initials are HIP, and I'm a pinball tournament director in New York City. Madeline is on assignment this week On this week's pod we'll run down local competition results In ball two, we'll have venue updates And in ball three, we will reveal the NYC PPA brackets and explain how you can fill out your predictions and win an awesome prize Let's get started Let's talk about competitive results from New York City in the last week on Saturday, March 8th, the Jersey City Flippers Winter 2025 tournament was held at Barcade Jersey City under the direction of Chris Landry. This was a non-IFPA tournament. It was a three-strike knockout attended by 19 players. In the end, Jeff Anderson won the day with two strikes. Second place was myself. Third, Scott Overall. And fourth, Ash D. I got a big trophy with a guy doing a karate kick on top of it. And it is now the largest trophy sitting on my small little trophy shelf. Also on Saturday, at a private location in New Jersey called The Warehouse, a two strikes late night tournament was held called Jeff Day. 29 players played in this. I was knocked out immediately in the first two rounds, but it was pretty late in the party at that point. Dom won the whole thing with one strike. Second place, Adam Rau. Third, Barbara Whitehurst. And fourth, Rob Wong. On Sunday, March 9th, No Bro Presents Slaptism 3-9, which of course is the date, was met at Jack Bar under Sam Hall's steady hand. 20 players were met for 18 games of pin golf, wherein their best nine holes counted, is what the rules say on match play. I wasn't there and did not experience this. I'm going to believe match play. That sounds complicated. George Underwood took the day, besting Daniel Herrera, Nint Hu, and David Patlak in the last four rounds of Papa-style match play. Congrats to George. Also on Sunday, at Barcade Jersey City, for a second straight day, competitive pinball at Barcade Jersey City, the monthly Jersey City Open was convened. 13 players got together. Matthew XYZ led the way. It was five rounds of match play and then four players played three rounds of finals. At the end, Matthew Grady bested Dante Oliva, Matt Warwick, and Kate Martin, respectively, in the final four. Also on Sunday, the Red Hook Pinball Museum had another open day it was listed as from noon to late at seaborne bar they'll be doing it again on april 6th they saw some instagram photos from this past week's events and it looks like they were pretty busy again that's great that's great i i would love for them to be open a little bit more often so that i could just happen by sometime i also uh will definitely go by again sometime agreed whether or not it's busy i like i said i was an asshole the first time i went about how busy it was but i i also i don't want to begrudge anybody their uh their kick-ass party room in the back of their bar you know on monday march 10th in pinball nyc's left flipper division the aristocrats went to upstate manhattan and nyc fsa took a 13 to 3 win the mutants many time champions went to sky lark to visit the pin pals and they came away with a win those mutants but only by an eight to eight margin balls of steel went to barcade brooklyn and picked up their first win against pinball union it's very late in the season as the third game for balls of steel to pick up their first win but they are indeed one and two so far that would be pinball union's first loss also look at that Everybody got a new thing in a column. The two for oners went to Gebhard's Beer Culture to visit the Lion Persons, and the home team took away a 12-4 win. Special Wenlet hosted the lesser players at Rulo's, and Special Wenlet won 9-7. Parliament hosted the Deluxe Horses at Owl Farm, and the away team picked up their first win, 9-7. Intermission Dolores came to visit us Colliders, and they picked up a 13-3 win, and we were cute. I wasn't there, but I'm pretty confident to say that. On Tuesday, March 11th, Danger Danger went to Bar Great Harry to visit the Trolls, and Danger Danger picked up a 14-2 win. Eric, did you clock a troll story? Are they doing that this season? There have been some, but I don't think I saw one. Oh, there was some. I definitely, there was a story. I saw the troll tar this week. The troll tar? Yeah, the small altar that they erect to the spirit of the trolls. The troll tar. Schlubbs went to Barcade Brooklyn to visit Rest in Pinball, parenthetically RIP, and the Schlubbs picked up an 11-5 away win. No quarters for Laundrie went to Birdies and simply trounced the Pin Babes at home 15-1. Neptune's Treasure hosted Harlem Globe Flippers at Milo's Yard and picked up a tight 10-6 home win. Penrister 6 came to Buttermilk Bar to face we Butterballers. The away team swept the first round. We split the singles rounds. And then the home team swept the final round to take us to 8-8. There was a tiebreak on Metallica. AJ and I versus Paul and Zen. And they played a good multiball and we didn't. Let's be perfectly clear here. You said two players and that is to say that you played split flipper. If you had said three players' names, then we would have known that it was player per ball. These were the two options for the tiebreaker. Were you the right or the left? I took the left flipper on Metallica. But you are right-handed. Yeah, normally AJ and I split flip, and I'll generally be the right flipper. But I decided to go for the left because of Metallica. Maybe that was a mistake, but they got us. They had a solid multiball. They beat us. Penister Six gets the 8-8 tie win. No shade on calling it a tie win, I swear. The replays went to Sunshine Laundromat, and Scrapples Squad bested them 9-7 at home, and the Ball Drainers got nine points for their bye week. If you ask, like, well, why is someone getting nine points for a bye week? The answer is that because of the number of teams and the number of weeks, some teams will not get a bye and therefore a 9-0 win is the only thing that could possibly keep the standings anywhere near aligned if there has to be a bye week so that is why there is a 9-0 win in a bye week on thursday march 13th no bro presents thursday night strikes was convened at Jack Bar in Williamsburg by Zach, in this case, 30 players gathered. 30 players gathered. I just need to say that again. And Connor Calista came out on top after 10 rounds of action. Adam Kane, second. Alex Kelly, that's New York State champion Alex Kelly. And Ian Leone tied for third. Also on Thursday, the South Slope Pinball League 2025 Season 1 meet number six was held at Buttermilk Bar under the direction of Kate Martin. 19 players came out in this last chance to add points to their season total. Zen Zokniak did it the best with 29 points. Matt Carlson got 28. Caitlin James Rees, 27, and Billy Vazine, 25. after six the finals which will be held next week have been set thus eight players in a eight players in b the a players are rob wong matt grady matt carlson zen zokniak taylor connelly myself billy vazine and stephen christopher and the b finalists are kate martin aj gould rob adler Mason Matthew, Monica Weidekamp, Caitlin James Rees, Thomas Milburn, and David Weeks. Should anyone in the A division not be able to attend to their offices, Kate Martin would move up. And should David Weeks or anyone in B not be able to attend to their offices, Scott Strong and subsequently Jenna Altamirano would move up into B. Silver ball, show me the future. What upcoming tournaments do we have in 2025? On Monday, March 17th, New York City Flipper Sport Association will go to Barcade Brooklyn to visit the Deluxe Horses. Special When Lit will go to McKenna's Pub to visit the Two for Oners. They call them that because of the prices of the drinks. Pinball Union will go to Solid State and visit the Mutants. The Lesser Players will go to Midway to visit Balls of Steel. The Pin Pals will have their friends Parliament over to Skylark. We, the Colliders, will go to Rulo's to visit the Aristocrats, one of two teams calling Rulo's home this week. And the Lion Persons will go to the Monroe to visit Intermission Dolores at their brand new home on Tuesday, March 18th. Trolls, Trolls, Trolls will go to the replays at Rulo's, Rulo's, Rulo's. The Butterballers will visit the Harlem Globe Flippers at the Wallace at the Wallace. The Pin Babes will visit the schlubs at Jack Bar, Pinister 6, and No Quarters for Laundry will square off at Solid State, despite the fact that New York is very much not a square state. Scrapples Squad will go to Barcade Brooklyn to visit Reston Pinball. The ball drainers will drain on down from Williamsburg to the South Slope to visit Buttermilk and Danger, Danger. Neptune's Treasure will have a bye week. On Thursday, March 20th, No Bro Presents Thursday Night Split Flipper Strikes and SSPL's 2025 Season 1 Finals. The first will be at Jack Bar, the second will be at Buttermilk. On Sunday, March 23rd, Stern Army's Rob Wong Invitational, you're invited. We'll be at Rulo's. Sign-ups will be at 4.30. As of March 14th, 2025, there are 274 pinball machines in New York City at 83 public locations. Thanks to the creators and users of Pinball Map for this data, here are the machine updates from the past week. On Friday, March 7th, a Mandalorian and a Ghostbusters were both removed from Treadwell Park. And Treadwell Park is no longer a venue on the pinball map. User TurnerT223 stopped by Jack Bar and said of their Cactus Canyon machine is back up and running. on Saturday, March 8th. User JNS went to Barcade Chelsea and let us know that the Future Spa was turned off this visit and on Apollo 13, left flipper locks up even after drain. On Sunday, March 9th, a new venue was added to the pinball map at 2378 Flatbush Avenue in the Marine Park of Brooklyn. Max Adventures Kid Birthday Party Place has a 1976 Gottlieb, New York. This is a party rental place. It's not open for walking in and playing. You can only book parties. I went down a bit of a rabbit hole checking this place out on the web today, and I learned that a thing called Glow Hairspray exists. On Thursday, March 13th, user JNS was at Burger and Shake Company in Harlem and said of their NASCAR that it's back on. Access is clear. multiball working. Replay is dumb low, like 10 million. and user Sean of the Dead was at solid state and said, the NYC pinball Illuminati will be happy to know the upper left flipper on Harlem is dead. Perhaps the alignment issue will be resolved. Carry on. I want to be the NYC pinball Illuminati. I don't know if that... Yeah. I would like for that to refer to me. I would also like to point out that before we do the little sound effect thing, that Eric posted in our script a photo that comes up of this birthday party place. And it is a number of costumed adults holding emoji beach balls in a beach ball ball pit. The image is mind-blowing. two hour parties started around a thousand dollars that doesn't seem terrible doesn't seem terrible you know a lot of cool arcade games and laser tag and stuff I don't know and maybe the best designed pinball machine on location anywhere in New York City. Maybe that too. If they have New York and it's working. Man, I love that game. We'll talk about that in a minute. Let's talk about the NYCPPAA brackets. This is a thing I did several years ago I thought it was a lot of fun I think a lot of listeners thought it was a lot of fun It a bracket thing just like everyone else is doing right now in March And just like on the day that we will release this podcast there will be a big television show naming 68 college basketball teams to a bracket. We're going to name 64 pinball machines to a bracket. Pinball machines, not college basketball teams. Pinball machines here. We do it classier. You will have the opportunity to fill out a bracket and predict which game we will determine to be the greatest pinball machine of all time, at least for right now. And it will be inducted into the NYC PPA itself, the NYC Pinpod Awesomeness Archive, which truly is just a page on the blog. Joe Shirovino, the progenitor of pinball degenerates, is inducted, as is Iron Maiden, which the last time we did this was voted the greatest pinball machine of all time, at least for now. And Joe had the winning bracket. That's right. Joe had the winning bracket. That's why he was inducted. And you can be inducted. And you will also win an awesome prize. I'm pleased to say that the awesome prize will be a Venom Translite and, and not just one thing, but two and a pint glass from the Harvest Pinball Tournament, thanks to Glenn Gillyard. Where do our listeners go to fill out a bracket? Will it be on nycpinpod.wordpress.com? There will be a link on nycpinpod.wordpress.com. And when our listeners fill out the bracket, when do they need to get it back to us? Since we record on Fridays in the afternoon, if you get it to us by next Friday, that's March 21st at 5 p.m., then no one can accuse you of cheating because that's when we will record the next episode and that's when we will determine who moves on to round two. By 5 o'clock on Friday. And by who you mean, which pinball machine? That's right, it. Yeah. I mean, it. These are the main points to know. Right. Go get a bracket. You'll find the link at nycpinpod.wordpress.com. fill it out, get it back to us by Friday, March 21st at 5 p.m. How do they get it back to us? Is it a Google Sheet? Is it an email? They will download a shared Google Sheet and email it to us. They want to pick from each of the groups. We're going to, and when I say we, I mean myself and Benjamin and Madeline, will be doing these groups. So you're, you know, you filling out the bracket, you're trying to predict which one we will advance. That's right. You leaning on what you might know about or think about hosts preferences here would probably be smart knowledge to leverage. Or you could fill it out much like how I fill out a basketball bracket, which is just like, you know, I don't know which one sounds nicer. Right. Do you like Watford or Dayton? 64 pinball machines next week we're going to whittle them all down to 16 there's only going to be 4 left in each region that I just said before the flat screens, the DMDs the solid states and the electromechanicals that'll be on March 23rd on March 30th we will announce the winner of each region the pinball machine that best represents the electromechanical the solid state, the flat screen and the DMD and then on Sunday, April 6th, we will announce the greatest pinball machine of all time, at least for right now, and we'll tally up all the points of everybody who has entered the bracket challenge and we will announce a winner who will get an awesome prize and be inducted into the NYC PPAA. See full rules and details at nycpinpod.wordpress.com. Should we talk about this bracket? Let's talk about it. All right. Here's what you will have the opportunity to predict as we go from the electromechanical era. If you are somehow a casual pinballer who found us, I just want to point out that what that effectively means is that your score is kept by physical reels on the back. The first group, which is to say the first seed, eighth seed, ninth seed, and 16th seed, after Eric and I ranked our preferences as we described before. Our El Dorado as the very first seed in the electromechanical era, Top Score as the 8th seed, Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboys as the 9th seed, and Centigrade 37 as the 16th seed. To clarify, only one of the games in each of these groups that we described throughout this bracket description here will be able to advance into the next week of the tournament. So only one game from each of these groups of four will be able to advance due to host voting. I want to say one thing about this group. I think that Eric also had two of these, but maybe not in the specific way that I called them out. Is that right? I did have two of these, yeah. You did not have Captain Fantastic or Centigrade 37, but you had El Dorado and Top Score, but maybe not specifically those two games. Is that right? Eldorado, I had listed as target alpha. They are essentially the same layout, same game pretty much. Yeah, and if you don't know these games, there is a 13 bank of drop targets across way up play field. There's a little hole. There are two top flippers that are barely effective in almost any scenario. And there's a lower five bank of drop targets, lower right play field. It's a really cool old game. And they made a bunch of different titles based on this layout continuing on for a while. It was very popular. It is a drop target, you know, sharpshooter favorite. I just love those long shots and nailing that one particular target. The one that's lit, yeah. At the number eight seed top score, which I had put in as either top score or 300. One of those is the two-player, one's the four-player. I don't remember which. I find that one very charming. It counts the bonus using physical balls in the back glass. And it looks like Bowling Alley's ball return. Yes. And they come in and they go, ka-chunk, ka-chunk, ka-chunk, when that counts them out for your bonus. it's a great backbox toy. It's awesome. Yeah, it's a charming game. If memory serves, there is or at least has at times been one at the Pinball Museum at Asbury Park. That top score or 300, one or the other, I think I have seen there pretty regularly. In the second group where the winner of that group would face the winner of these next three groups, this one is Spanish Eyes in the four seed Dimension in the five seed Bali in the 12 seed and Captain Card in the 13 seed Spanish Eyes is a no-brainer to me it's beautiful and it's everywhere every great competition I feel like I see a Spanish Eyes pop up somewhere as someone is pissed off about that pop bumper center drain and maybe this is strategic knowledge for someone who's filling out a bracket. I ranked and will be voting some of these games based on their art packages, how pretty they are. Spanish Eyes gets a very high vote for me for the art package. It's outstanding. It's like no other in pinball. It's also, yeah, I think a fantastic competitive game. It shows off a different set of skills. The center pop is crazy, but you play the center pop with nudges. That's right. Dimension and Volley, both two more great drop target games. Yeah. Those are, yeah, love those. Captain Card, too. Captain Card is your four suits, right? I have never seen a Captain Card. I don't know anything about it. This was your, based on your ranking. And I had it, I left it in in part because I played it in max match play at Rochester, which probably means a bunch of other people played it in the New York City area in max match play at Rochester. It also has a corollary whose name I'm forgetting, but, you know, an add a ball and a two player and a whatever. And in fact, I was put on it and its corollary back-to-back games in Max Match Play at Rochester, where there are 80 pinball machines. Somehow I got assigned to the same one twice just because it didn't have the same title. It's a Gottlieb, and they made a million of them the way that Gottlieb was making a million of them in the 70s. And it's pretty cool. It's got a bunch of drop targets and on banks that are challenging. In group three, the number two seed, Old Chicago. The number seven seed, the Pabst can crusher. The number 10 seed, Wizard. And the number 15 seed, New York. I told you we might talk about that. Yeah. Right. So we've got to get this one done. You got it. So look, Old Chicago is another one of those no brainers. We both had it listed very high. Neither of us had it number one, I don't think, right? Your number one was... No, I had number one, no. Yeah. Mine, well... Mine was El Dorado. Mine was Pabst Can Crusher. That's right. That's right. Yes, right. Yours was Pabst Can Crusher. I wanted to make sure it got in the conversation. Well, if it was number one, it would get in the conversation. That's for sure. But Old Chicago, we both had very high. That's why it's a two seed. Now, please, about Pabst Can Crusher. all right uh it is you know it was a modern stern made in the style of an em it has a scoring reel in the backbox all of the playfield elements are much like you would find on an em machine there's no ramps it plays like an em it has em rules the playfield layout is based on an old Gottlieb called Continental Cafe. This is one of three made on the same layout by Stern. Yes. The first one... Will not be mentioned. And also Primus made. Both Pabst and Primus were made as contract games. I think it is a good EM-style game. Plays like an EM. It's got some fantastic rules. maybe it's a little beyond what had been done in the EM era. And it's a little faster with snappy stern parts. Sure. If it was in a tournament and it had to be in an old, mid, or new, you know, how the IFPA is splitting them up, where would you put it? People put TNA in old or mid. None of that feels right to me. Well, I mean, look, just because it doesn't feel right to me doesn't mean it's not right. Yeah, this is heavily helped by its artwork with an art package by Dirty Donnie, one of three that he did. I think it's fantastic. It's my favorite pinball artwork of all time. It hits a lot of check marks. I will say New York. I do actually like the game a lot, but also it's NYC Pinpot. And so the New York version of this game that was made in 1976, which was also Spirit of 76 and one other thing, I don't remember what the other one was. It is also it's worthy of mention. And it's just recently on location in the city. As it turns out. You have to book a party. Right. For a thousand bucks a day. Two hours. Yeah, two hours. Wizard. I just love it. It has these weird clappers on its play field that determine what you're scoring. Like actual relays that are changing that you are seeing the state of on the play field. It's cool. Group four, we've got at the number three seed, Argosy. At the sixth seed, Skyjump. At the 11th seed, Bow and Arrow. And at the fourth seed, Doodlebug or Dipsy Doodle or Lovebug. 14th I think that was just to clarify in case that sounded like 4th Argosy is a great game yeah I think it's one of the best EMs obviously I ranked it second it was high for me it was not quite that high it was 11th also it has a nautical theming and I'm a sucker for a nautical theme sure I just like Sky Jump I played it a lot in competition last year and I really like it you hit a touch target to move a light and then you hit a drop target It looks neat. I don't think I've ever played it. Bow and Arrow is a solid game if you can make yourself okay with the theme and the artwork. Right, right, right. Doodlebug is just... Fun and chaotic. Yeah, yeah. It has a ball under. It is entirely electromechanical, but one of the things that you do is to create a condition such that a ball under the playfield bounces back and forth between two targets and scores a lot of points. And there's another thing that you multiply what the points are that are being scored down there. It's wonderful. It's such a genius mechanism. It's wonderful. It's so good. In the solid state era, it should surprise no one that the number one seed is the Harlem Globetrotters on tour. The number eight seed is Gorgar. the number nine seed is Stargazer and the number 16 seed is Banzai Run that is group one Harlem Globetrotters, Gorgar, Stargazer and Banzai Run there's some good games there I love I love Banzai Run a lot it's hard for me to make it the best of this era because it it was right on the cusp of the next era and Pat Lawler did so many wonderful things with what happened in the next era but it's so good who doesn't love harlem globetrotters stargazer is pretty it is pretty and it's its rules are very fun and it is if you can get a hold of that game you can get a hold of that game yeah i like that gorgar you know it's it's gorgar everybody likes gorgar or at least nobody hates gorgar gorgar hurt you right uh first game i think with vocal sound effects i think the first uh synthesized voice or not not synthesized voice i believe he has a vocabulary of about eight words right and uh gorgar is most of them and there's there's a there's a little notice on the apron to not press the start button while he's talking oh interesting in group two we have stars at the four seed high speed in fifth seed fun house at 12th seed and space shuttle at 13th seed everybody loves and hates stars stars is brutal stars is good part of the steve kirk series of awesome games. Love Stars. Talk about Space Shuttle because that was on your list and not mine I never loved that game It saved the pinball division at Williams in 83 84 it came out Video games blew up in 1980 with Pac-Man. Right, yeah. And then the Atari hits. And pinball in 80, 81, 82 was in bad shape. Right, dire straits, yeah. It represented a lot of advancements. Sure. First ramps. It was new. It was futuristic. The theme was pretty popular. NASA's space shuttle program was on a high at the moment here. I just think it's a good game. I think it's a good competitive game. I like to play the game. I find it simple but frustrating and tough. Sure. I will simply add here that I like groups with Pat Lawler games in them and fun houses here. and I wanted one of the high-speed series to be in these brackets, which is why high-speed was on my list. In group three, the second seed is 8-Ball Deluxe. The seventh seed is Meteor. The tenth seed is Flash. The fifteenth seed is Xenon. 8-Ball Deluxe, once again, no-brainer. A lot of these look like they were on my list and maybe not yours, or at least the bottom two. I think this will be now I don't I'm pretty sure I did not rank Meteor I think we're going to see a lot of your choices in this group and just because we've got the scene worked out a lot of my choices in the other group alright so look Meteor is exceptional another of the Steve Kirk centerpin wonderful games that you know we hack now and do the thing where ideally you get five of the six letters of meteor so that you get the spinner lit as much as it can be lit but you also like to get uh yeah to make sure the m and the r are included because they're higher values right it has a hacky way to play it but it is also just fun to play in the way that you spell meteor as many times as you can and knock down all those drop targets as many times as you can. It has a similar feel to me to Stargazer when I'm standing at the apron. I put those of a piece with stars and nine ball from a certain class right then when Steve Kirk was working for Stern Electronics. I have Flash on here. You know what this looks like? This looks like Skateball. It does look like Skateball. This looks a lot like Skateball. Yeah. Skateball is a game that we should have been talking about too. Yeah. Zinon. Suzanne Ciani's sound design is brilliant. If you think you know what someone pouring a Coca-Cola over ice sounds like, that's because she made a sound effect that makes you think that that's what it sounds like. Suzanne Ciani is a genius. And for my purposes, Zinon needed to be on this list somewhere. In group four, we have the three seed, Dolly Parton, the six seed mouse and around the 11 seed black knight 2000 and the 14 seed frontier this now in this group we both ranked dolly parton but the other three were just mine i had mouse and around but i had it much lower than you did i think ah yes and and i and i will admit a certain amount of envy when i saw frontier on your list that i was not smart enough to have put it on mine. But, alright, so Dolly Parton, National Treasure. Yeah. Mousing around, that's a fun game. Dolly Parton also, incidentally, that playfield design and the playfield design of Harlem Globe Trotters on Tour are remarkably similar but flipped. Or at least a lot of the, you know, there's a set of inline drop targets, there's a spinner that you light up, there's a lot going on that's very similar in those. I would say there are similarities, but a wider difference than some of the things we were talking about before, like Target Alpha and El Dorado. Sure. Yeah. Agreed. Agreed. Mousing Around is goofy fun. Yeah. Yeah, it is goofy fun. And I played it at Gebhard's last night and I played in this group. I played Dolly Parton and Frontier both in a pump and dump in Buffalo this past year. and I played Mouse and Around at the Harvest. Three of the games in this group I played in this past year in competition. Nice. I chose Black Knight. I wanted one of them to be represented, and to me, that was the one. I had it low enough, it didn't make it, but Black Knight 2000 is the one that made it because you had it a little bit higher. But what about that? Why Black Knight? Black Knight 2000 specifically is my sentimental choice. it is the first pinball machine that I know I played. Got it. First one I remember playing. I'm sure I played one as a kid and I don't remember it. Sure. But this is the one I remember. So cool. It sings. Frontier is a fantastic tournament game. It's brutal. Very. I like it a lot. You can chop wood on it safely if you really feel like it. But my goodness, you're chopping wood if you do. And if you take the risks, the rewards are high on Frontier. In group one, the top seed is Metallica. The eighth seed is the Addams Family. I'm going to go right ahead and point out that that was respectively Eric's top seed and my top seed for our lists right there. Number one was his because I agreed with it. It's up at number one. Number eight is mine because I was the only one who had it. Attack from Mars is our nine seed. And Whitewater is our 16 seed. Do you want to talk about Metallica? I think most anyone who's talked to me has probably had to sit through my little rant about Metallica. Seems about right. It's just about the best game ever made. 30 Donnie's second best artwork behind Pabst behind Pabst fantastic rules great layout by Borg love it agreed everything except the band see the band for me is actually it's so rare that the band is part of the draw but I listen to a lot of Metallica in the 90s Attack from Mars you know it's it's what it is it's it's the best of the Brian Eddy playfield layouts great game yeah another one i played a lot when it came out when i uh went to grad school there was a dive bar just off campus i went to a lot they used to have uh punk shows and they had an attack from mars when i got there and then one day i came in and attack from mars had been taken out so long before i know anything about how the pinball world works how coin-op works whatever is happening there's a different pinball machine in the bar and i was like oh i wanted to play attack from mars that was a great game in my head right around the same time the movie mars attacks the tim burton movie had had come out yes and i thought that attack from mars was made as like a rip-off of that IP to ride on their coattails. I didn't know how things were made or what the production schedules were or how any of those things worked. But I liked the movie. I liked the pinball game. It was goofy aliens in a very similar way. Yeah, fun call-outs. So I came in and there's a new pinball machine there. I was really disappointed. First time I've ever seen it, it's called Medieval Madness. I start playing it and I'm like, holy shit. I wonder if the people who made Attack from Mars know. This game totally ripped their game off. It's the same thing. There's a thing in the middle that you blow up. Right. It's got these two ramps and yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Lyman fixed it. Attack from Mars was a necessary element here. In the second group, the fourth seed is Twilight Zone. The fifth seed is Iron Man. The twelfth seed is The Shadow. and the 13th seed is Fishtails. I love this as a group to just figure out which of those four games is the best of the games, because it's kind of all over the map. Those are some different games, yeah. You got the Lawler in the Twilight Zone and the Widebody Lawler. You got Iron Man, which is just the fast, richy game. Iron Man is John Borg, I'm pretty sure. Oh, that was a Borg? Oh, that makes sense. I have to double-check that. That makes sense. It's got all the... Yeah, it's got the kicker. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, Shadow of the Sometimes Overlooked, Brian Eddy of the 90s. No pop-upers, great shooter. Weird. Played that at Gebhard's last night too. Weird. Yeah, it doesn't play like anything else. It's a little different. That and I think Bram Stoker's Dracula in that way too. Fish Tales, it's just Fish Tales. I didn't rank it. I mean, I did because I felt like it had to be here. You know, everybody knows fishtails. Everybody has a relationship with fishtails that is probably better than their racist uncle at Thanksgiving. You know, in group three, the second seed is Spider-Man. The seventh seed is ACDC. The 10th seed is Tron. And I was right. The 15th seed is Indianapolis 500. We both rank Spider-Man and ACDC. ACDC, those are both amazing. Steve Ritchie, Playfield. That's right. ACDC was a big resurgence when it came out. It sold a lot for Stern. It was them coming out of the stripped-down era. It was the perfection of the canon. He finally got it. He finally figured out the canon, and it was there. Yeah. To me, that's what ACDC is. is like he's had that canon on a bunch of games, but he finally figured it out there. So good. Huge jackpot if you do it at the right time and in the right set of circumstances. I feel like Spider-Man is the canonical Steve Ritchie upper flipper side ramp. Yep. Go fast. Leads to what? The Stern Star Trek. And then you've got an upper flipper side ramp combo on Tron. That's a John Borg design. Yeah. right up there. I mean, I think you're seeing a lot of John Borg games throughout this era, and that's because those are some of my favorite games. Yeah. Turns out I like his playfields. Yeah. I really like with Tron that if you just played old-style pinball and tried to hit combos, you'd do real well. You'll back your way into some other shit, too, but you'd do real well if you were just like, hey, I just want to keep hitting end-of-the-line combos. That's it. Indianapolis 500, I just love it. It's fast. It's brutal. It's mean. And in group four, the number three seed is Theater of Magic. The number six seed is World Cup Soccer 94. The number 11 seed is Game of Thrones. And the number 14 seed is Indiana Jones, the pinball adventure, the 1990s Williams wide body. Yes, wide body. Super wide body. Yes. Wide body. Theater of Magic is just a good pinball game. It's just a good pinball game. There's four or five John Papadiuk games that he did in the 90s. Three of the four in this group, Theater of Magic, World Cup Soccer 94, and Indiana Jones, a pinball adventure. Oh, they're all within a few years. Those were three of the four games in the bowling alley in the basement of the student union of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where I went every day for lunch and played pinball. A few years after I was there, the Sharp brothers were there and they started a league at the Student Union bowling alley. That's cool. Game of Thrones, excellent competitive game. Steve Ritchie layout. Shortly after I got back into pinball in the teens, it was brand new. I remember having had a conversation with someone wherein, like, I'm sure I had mentioned pinball casually two or three times throughout the course of the day, and they were like, you seem to know a lot about pinball. How long would it take you to tell me everything you know about pinball? And I think my response was roughly like, well, if you got seven hours, I can explain Game of Thrones pinball to you, and then we can talk about everything else after that. I don't remember something being quite that deep. And it was my entree into that after not having played much since the late 90s. So it was a good way to enter the space, was with something that deep to understand that like, oh, you mean this is just the most complicated it gets right now? Great, I got it. Yeah, I had a very similar experience in that Game of Thrones was new right when I was getting into competitive pinball in the mid-20-teens. And boy, it confused the heck out of me. I did not know what was going on. I really disliked it. And then, yeah, a friend got it, taught it to me, and it's become a competitive favorite of mine. Is there anything to say about Indiana Jones Pinball Adventure before we move on? It's really the game that got me into liking to play pinball. Okay. I remember playing Black Knight 2000 in high school. But when I ran across the Indiana Jones game in college, I just like, I loved the theme so much that I learned how to play pinball. Sure. And the DMD certainly, you know, it provided another ability. It was so cool. All the movie bits and the sound on it was amazing. And I would just like every day as I walked out of the student union, I'd say, see you tomorrow, Indiana Jones. It was really my first pinball love. In the flat screen era, I expect that this top seed will be controversial. But I also think it's in a group that is probably controversial. Stern's Jurassic Park is the number one seed on the flat screen era in group one here. It will compete against Elton John, The Big Lebowski, and Star Wars. Yeah, in respectively the 8th, 9th, and 16th seats. So Jurassic Park, Elton John, Big Lebowski, Star Wars. Jurassic Park, we have, I think, every Keith Elwin game represented in our list. I don't know if all of them made the 16, but both of us, I think, between the two of us, we had every Keith Elwin game, I think. Yeah. And Jurassic Park. I don't imagine that if you asked either of us if it was his best game that we would say that it is. You think it is I think so I think it yeah it up there next to Metallica in my top few pinball games made I just I really It good It got flaws but I really love playing that game. You love the chaos, such as it were. Elton John is new enough. I have only put my hands on the flippers a few times, but boy oh boy, I loved it. I really enjoyed playing it. It's a flowy game. You know, one of those one of those Jersey Jack flowy games. And yeah, but Steve Ritchie came in and made it shoot like a Steve Ritchie. It's the best shooting Jersey Jack game by an order of magnitude. The Big Lebowski was my top game in the flat screen era. And I will defend that choice to the death if I had to. It is simple in terms of its rules. If you know how to play pinball, you will not be confused by it. It is elegant in terms of its execution. Every shot that you hit, if you hit it cleanly, there is a predictable return feed. it has a bash toy on center that behaves like all the Brian Eddy bash toys on center and eventually gives you mode scoring instead of just some dumb multiball it has a multiball for every single character of the five shots that you can hit four shots that you can hit, maud, dude oh, jesus, no, five Maude, Dude, Donnie, Jesus, and Walter. You can get a multiball for each of them. You can stack all of those on top of something you got going on on a rug mode. You can throw a Dude multiball or whatever the main multiball of the game is on top of all of that. There is so much going on in this game. And all of it can be rewarding if you chase it and know how to chase it and it's really fun i think it's a really fair knock to say that it plays too long for competition that's a really fair knock on the big lebowski but i don't know that that makes it not a good game i find it charming and didn't rank it the call outs are wonderful it's a bounce pass game in its heart and uh i'm a bounce pass guy in my heart i like it star wars had to be represented to my mind because of the way that the action button is treated it is brand new thing it is something that obviously i'm the only person in the world who likes because it has not continued on other titles in group two the number four seed is dialed in the number five seed iron maiden the 12th seed is 007 60th anniversary and the 13th seed is batman 66 dialed in an iron maiden you know it's it's my favorite old designers new game and my favorite new designers old game i really like seeing the two of them square off against each other i i love both of those games If you want to talk about the old game, how about then your new favorite designer's old style game? Because this has two Elwins in it. That's right. That 60th anniversary 007. And that's my fault, I think, right? Did you even have that on your list? No, no, I didn't. I didn't like that one. I love that spinner. I love the way that you have to lock a ball to score jackpots, at least as I understand the rules. I haven't touched it all that much, but it was... I immediately understood that I was going to love the flipping of this game. I might eventually come to love the flipping off of this game also because it seemed brutal and fast at the Beast, but it was at a tournament, so maybe it'll be easier sometime. Oh, no. I mean, I've played the Sunshine one a number of times. It's very brutal. It didn't make our combined top 16. I didn't rank this one. I did rank the other 007 Bond, the George Gomez game. right yeah i did not rank that batman 66 was on your list and that's another one like frontier i was a little bit jealous well you want to have another george gomez here and if boy talk about deep like game of thrones oh wow like so many things you can stack your major and minor villains and the multi balls and the different little spinner modes and that rotating mechanism yeah Boy, it's just nifty and bright and colorful. The artwork really pops out at you. And it's like, you know, the Batman 66 theme is super, like, charming. It is. I grew up watching the reruns. Yeah. On a little 15-inch black and white TV downstairs. I remember very well, yeah. I dig a Batman 66. At almost every turn, you can wait to cash something in. you can decide that you can keep playing before you cash in your jackpot for the mode that you're playing or you know start the mode but you can increase the value of the hurry up that starts the mode and then once you start the mode before you actually you know you you can hit all of your minor shots before you hit your major shot or you can just hit one minor shot often or a combination and then collect something. And I really appreciate that it gives you the ability to scale the strategy to your needs. Group three. The second seed, you might notice a trend here, is Godzilla. The seventh seed is Deadpool. The 10th seed, you might notice a trend here, is Metallica Remastered. And the 15th seed is Total Nuclear Annihilation in naming a game, admittedly, that could have landed in two different regions. And did you have it in the other region? No, no, I didn't. I didn't have it in any. Godzilla, you know. Duh. Right. Duh. Deadpool. Yeah. You want to talk about it? Yeah. It wasn't on my list. It was on yours. It's a nifty layout from George Gomez. it's got like that sort of so many different things can all stack on each other i like it as a competitive game it's good game metallica remastered is there anything to say about it other than that it was remastered over what you said about metallica before yeah they took the best game they ever made and they just put out a new version of it and everything's better i I miss the Dirty Donnie art, but the new art looks really sharp. Holy cow. The animations are best in class. Best that's ever been done. Total nuclear annihilation. I will go ahead and again take credit for the guy who likes to play old pinball machines. I admit that the screen on this, it's helpful in understanding what is happening. but if you just had the counting screen in the middle of the play field and did not have the flat screen in the back you could easily play this game and understand what's happening in it this was a complete homebrew by scott denisey he built all the parts he works at a place called pinball life so he had access to all the parts i think he used all williams parts also uh really really really great sound design he now works with multimorphic he is their sound designer that sound even for that physical pinball machine it's a really really really great sound package and you know well programmed not not just is the music cool but it is well programmed and well sequenced and it's it's really well done and the fourth group in the flat screen era is the three seed Jaws, the six seed Elvira's House of Horrors, the 11 seed Guardians of the Galaxy, and the 14 seed Black Knight Sword of Rage. These are largely some of the things that I ranked, but Benjamin did not. But we both ranked Jaws. Sorry, I just wanted to make sure Waffles could have her say there since she was so vocal. That's good. We did both rank Jaws because again, duh. We had the Elwins and it was because we had to have the Elwins. In part because he has been the primary designer at the primary manufacturer for a significant chunk of this era of games. It is partially that he hasn't made a game that doesn't fit this bill. Right? or at least not not commercially and as such this this is the place that his games were going to be and he has been the prolific designer of recent note so it makes sense that this is flooded this way that said i would 100 stand by number one jurassic park number two godzilla number three jaws number four iron maiden although we actually have dialed in at four and iron maiden at five but like all four of those are absolutely top class games i chose elvira's house of horrors personally i think we both had it on the list but i had it on mine because i wanted one elvira title i thought it made sense to have an elvira title i like scared stiff fine although scared stiff it's just it's a little small it's a little quick to get to the end of like i feel like i can get to the wizard mode pretty regularly in it yeah i i ranked scared stiff somewhere low in the dmd era but it didn't didn't make our bracket but yeah i think elvira's house of horrors is the best of the trilogy and it's super fun it's campy it is campy it's it's goofy it's comic it is It's funny. The call-outs, but especially the custom videos Elvira did for the display are wow. And also, the animations are beautiful. The animated back glass that you're like, aren't you hitting into, like, isn't there a lineup of which shot is which on the screen? Isn't it pretty? Am I wrong about that? I could be wrong about that. I'm picturing it. It's okay. I don't have to be right about that. I can cut that out. I thought it was pretty. Yeah. It's Elvira. Yeah. National treasure. Yeah. Black Knight Sword of Rage is not... I had, as I said, when we talked about the Solid State era, I had one Black Knight and it was Black Knight the first, not Black Knight 2000. You have Sword of Rage on this. Would you talk about that, please? I had a sort of rage in my apartment for a number of years on loan from a friend. Right. And I played the heck out of it. I really like it. Do you prefer the LE apropos of preferring Black Knight 2000? If it's properly a Black Knight game, it has to have an upper play field. Okay, very good. It does change. It changes the game significantly. Oh, yes. Strategically. Oh, yes. Typically, you know, a premium or LE scoring will be much higher than a pro scoring. Anything on Guardians? The play field and the rule set both sort of evolved over a number of games. Yes. KISS sort of evolved into Aerosmith. Aerosmith, when it first came out, the rules were bare bones. It had been rushed out, and it was like, these are exactly the KISS rules. And then they sort of worked through the code, updated, and it became its own game. And then Guardians of the Galaxy is very much the same play field and the same set of rules again, but then iterated another time to a point where I just think they're really fantastic. Like, I dislike Kiss. I have a fondness for Aerosmith. I think I love the art package. It was the third art package from Dirty Donnie. And then I really like it. Guardians of the Galaxy. I like the IP. I love the play field. The rules are the best iteration of where they were going. So listen, this is a bracket. All of those groups we just talked about, you will be able to choose one game, one game from each of those groups, and then choose one game. You should choose all of these in the same week, all at once. we're going to reveal the winners week by week over the next three weeks but you should submit to us a bracket fully filled out with a winner in each of the places that there's a little drop down arrow that tells you to pick a winner they're also labeled if there's anything about this that that like tickles you in the least please give it a shot there are awesome prizes you could win a venom trans light stuffed in a cone inside a harvest pint glass awesome prizes there are also some other harvest swag items that i imagine we might give out to some second place and or third place and or fourth place friends so and hey you get to be inducted into the nycppaa alongside alongside whichever game eventually becomes our champion. And alongside Iron Maiden, which has been for the last several years, the greatest pinball game of all time, at least for them. And we're going to see, maybe it will continue to hold its title. Maybe it can get out of its group with dialed in 007 60th anniversary and Batman. And then maybe it can get out of the flat screen era. and maybe it can beat one game from the electromechanical era, one game from the solid state era, and one game from the DMD era to be the greatest pinball game of all time, at least for right now. Fill out the bracket, get it to us by next week. That's all for this week's pod. Join us next week when we'll run down local competition results, including Pinball NYC's fourth week, and we'll probably talk about the standings there. We'll talk about the finals in SSPL. We may have an update about the Scrapple Land tournaments that are upcoming, and I'm very excited to say that we will reveal the winners of the first round of the NYC PPA tournament. join us next week between now and then whatever you're up to go get them pinball it's my favorite pinball artwork of all time interesting not the noid laughing

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: 92c845c3-8204-4288-afcc-368a47542a99*