# Episode 36 - Steve Bowden (Fun With Bonus - deeproot Pinball) **Source:** Special When Lit **Type:** podcast_episode **Published:** 2019-01-30 **Duration:** 71m 50s **Beat:** Pinball **URL:** https://specialwhenlitpinballpodcast.com/episode-36-steve-bowden-fun-with-bonus-deeproot-pinball --- ## Analysis Steve Bowden, host of Fun With Bonus and world-ranked pinball player working for Deep Root Pinball, discusses his background transitioning from 16 years in education to competitive pinball and media. He explains his daily content curation strategy, clarifies his "no one wants to talk about competitive pinball" meme, and provides insights into tournament formats, competitive strategy, and what drives elite players. ### Key Claims - [HIGH] Fun With Bonus has been posting daily content for the past six and a half years, starting July 1, 2012 — _Steve Bowden, directly stated in conversation_ - [HIGH] Steve Bowden was a teacher/educator for 16 years (7 in classroom, then IT and administration) — _Steve Bowden, clarified when asked about timeline_ - [HIGH] Steve began competitive pinball play around 2004 — _Steve Bowden, stated directly_ - [HIGH] Steve now works for Deep Root Pinball in a professional capacity that includes competitive play — _Steve Bowden, stated directly_ - [HIGH] Match play tournament format prevents player elimination throughout the day and groups players by skill level progressively — _Steve Bowden, detailed explanation of tournament mechanics_ - [MEDIUM] The difference between elite and casual competitive pinball players is often only 1-2% fewer missed shots — _Steve Bowden, offered as analytical observation about competitive edge_ - [HIGH] Jack Danger is a professional pinball player because he works for Stern on payroll — _Steve Bowden, cited as example of professional designation_ ### Notable Quotes > "Fun With Bonus is my favorite thing ever on games. So that's why I kept it." > — **Steve Bowden**, early in conversation > _Explains his branding choice despite SEO disadvantage_ > "no one wants to talk about competitive pinball... that's a sarcastic way of saying that everyone wants to talk about competitive pinball, except when people don't want to talk about it" > — **Steve Bowden**, mid-conversation > _Clarifies his recurring meme and its actual meaning - calling out dismissiveness toward competitive pinball_ > "I don't post on the main page of podcasts if I haven't listened to it" > — **Steve Bowden**, mid-conversation > _Reveals his content curation rule and standards_ > "if I can just do this and this and stay consistent, then I can hang with them" > — **Steve Bowden**, late conversation > _Describes the moment he realized he could compete with elite players_ > "it literally can't be that much of a difference. Now... missing like 1% to 2% less of your shots... one miss means you didn't have to nudge, which means you probably didn't have to take that danger, right" > — **Steve Bowden**, late conversation > _Core insight into why elite players win - marginal gains compound_ > "I'm just hoping I can break even... that means I got to go" > — **Steve Bowden**, late conversation > _Reveals what motivates tournament travel despite financial uncertainty_ ### Entities | Name | Type | Context | |------|------|---------| | Steve Bowden | person | Host of Fun With Bonus website/media, world-ranked competitive pinball player, former educator (16 years), now works for Deep Root Pinball | | Fun With Bonus | organization | Daily pinball and gaming news/media website and social media presence (funwithbonus.com) founded ~2012, posts multiple times daily, curated by Steve Bowden | | Deep Root Pinball | company | Pinball manufacturer/organization that Steve Bowden now works for professionally | | Special When Lit Pinball Podcast | organization | Podcast hosted by Ken Cromwell and Bill Webb from St. Charles, Illinois; Steve Bowden is guest on Episode 36 | | Ken Cromwell | person | Co-host of Special When Lit Pinball Podcast | | Bill Webb | person | Co-host of Special When Lit Pinball Podcast | | Pinball News | organization | Independent pinball media outlet providing prolific coverage, mentioned as peer to Fun With Bonus | | This Week in Pinball | organization | Weekly pinball news and updates source, mentioned alongside Pinball News as contemporary media | | Zach Manny | person | Guest on Special When Lit Pinball Podcast previous episode, listened to by Steve Bowden on 1.5x speed | | Jack Danger | person | Professional pinball player who works for Stern on payroll, cited as example of true professional player designation | | Alberto | person | Competitive pinball player who won New York championship, friend of Steve Bowden, chose not to go to Vegas | | Sunshine Laundromat | venue | Favorite pinball location for Steve Bowden in New York area | | PAPA | organization | Pinball tournament organization that Steve Bowden discovered and competed in | | IFPA | organization | International Flipper Pinball Association that registers competitive events | | Kotaku | organization | Gaming media site that Steve Bowden cites as model for Fun With Bonus content velocity | ### Topics - **Primary:** Fun With Bonus - content strategy and curation, Competitive pinball - tournaments, formats, strategy, Steve Bowden's transition from education to pinball professional - **Secondary:** Match play tournament mechanics and accessibility for new players, Pinball media landscape and coverage, Elite competitive player mindset and marginal gains - **Mentioned:** Community dynamics and inclusivity in competitive pinball ### Sentiment **Positive** (0.78) — Steve is personable, passionate about both pinball and content curation, respectful of multiple playstyles, and welcoming to newcomers. The conversation is warm and collaborative between hosts and guest. No antagonism detected. ### Signals - **[content_signal]** Fun With Bonus publishes multiple times daily across platforms (website, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) with strategic scheduling to appear more active than single-person operation allows (confidence: high) — Steve describes posting strategy, scheduling, and platform multiplexing to maximize content visibility - **[personnel_signal]** Steve Bowden now holds professional pinball player designation through employment with Deep Root Pinball, representing transition from educator to pinball industry professional (confidence: high) — Steve states 'to call myself a professional pinball player is a misnomer... I guess it's less of a misnomer now that I work for Deep Root' - **[competitive_signal]** Match play format gaining prominence as entry-level competitive format that prevents elimination and matches skill progression, suggested as growth driver for competitive participation (confidence: medium) — Steve recommends match play specifically for new competitors and explains skill-based bracketing throughout day - **[community_signal]** Pinball media ecosystem maturing with multiple outlets (Fun With Bonus, Pinball News, This Week in Pinball) providing daily/weekly coverage; community size sufficient to sustain multiple independent media projects (confidence: high) — Steve contrasts 2012 when Pinball News was less prolific to present day with multiple daily/weekly sources - **[sentiment_shift]** Steve uses recurring 'no one wants to talk about competitive pinball' meme to counter perceived dismissiveness of tournament play within broader pinball community (confidence: high) — Extended explanation of sarcastic framing as 'side eye' to those 'who may want to purposely denigrate it' - **[industry_signal]** Growing recognition of professional pinball player designation tied to manufacturer employment (Jack Danger at Stern, Steve Bowden at Deep Root) rather than tournament winnings alone (confidence: medium) — Steve discusses what constitutes 'professional' and cites Stern payroll as legitimizing factor - **[competitive_signal]** Top competitive players concentrated in Northeast (NY area) with Steve Bowden representing geographic shift by relocating to San Antonio, Texas (confidence: medium) — Steve mentions flying back to New York where 'a lot of the top players are back east where I used to live' and winning NY championship to represent in Vegas - **[gameplay_signal]** Elite competitive pinball performance driven by 1-2% reduction in missed shots, which compounds into significant scoring and tournament advantages through momentum and risk management (confidence: medium) — Steve's detailed explanation of marginal gains cascading into match outcomes --- ## Transcript coming at you out of st charles illinois the special when lit pinball podcast starts now hey what's going on pinball land and welcome to episode number 36 of the special when lit pinball podcast i'm ken cromwell and i am bill webb dude we're going through a blizzard here the snow doesn't stop in chicago and uh i've just about had it though and we're getting ready to We'll embark on negative 20 on Wednesday. Right, we get to relax with some negative 20. Negative 20. Something tells me the snow is not melting anytime soon. Salt won't work at negative 20. Now, I'm sure it's worse other places in the world, but for me right now, I have no idea why I live here. But for our guest, who lives in a warmer climate. Right, who makes me want to move to Texas. Absolutely. This gentleman is not only a world-ranked pinball player, and he's not only a pinball ambassador, but he holds a very prominent, interesting position in pinball right now. And we're going to introduce the one and only Steven Bowden. What's up, Steve? Hello, gentlemen. I'm just checking out my phone here. It says 64 degrees in San Antonio at the current time. Yeah, I heard you mention the Carl Weathers. And I saw something on the Internet today talking about the scariest Carl Weathers gif where basically they were showing the colors, you know, how cold things are. And then as it turns colder, they have to use different colors. they ended up going from blue to purple and looping back around to the warm colors because it was so cool because they ran out of color it's horrible man see i i figured it would have gone like just new colors so i've never colors we've never seen yeah they invented it like they had to go to orange and red because they ran out so they looped it back around to warm colors for negative 40 i was like okay the intelligent person realizes it's it's not warm that you're looking at on the stripes or polka dots even, you know. They went to plaid. Go into patterns. That's the only way to do it. So listen, Steve, first, we really appreciate you coming on the show. I know you are ridiculously busy, and we both, myself and Bill, have a lot of appreciation and respect for you. So for you to take time out to join the podcast is a humbling experience for us, man. So thanks. Thank you very much. Thank you so much for having me. I enjoy doing these, and I enjoy being invited. And, you know, wherever we go, we go. So let's do it. So let's start with this, Steve. I mean, you're very well known, but for those that might not know who you are, who is Steven Bowden? Well, Steven Bowden is a former educator of 16 years in the public school system, teacher, you know, tutor, a school administrator, did the whole gamut of all that. So if you're a teacher, I kind of know. If you're a math teacher, I know I've been in your shoes. If you're a math teacher in any city, I definitely know Ben in your shoes, who was a fan of pinball since I was young, played competitively since I think 2004 was my first foray into league play and competitive play. And then I just sort of kept at it over the years and just kept playing and discovered what Papa was and discovered what, you know, different tournaments in my area were and leagues and et cetera. And, you know, just kept playing until I got to this point. I mean, some time ago I decided to start up a website about pinball and video games, and then that turned into pinball, and so I guess we'll get into that. Absolutely. Yeah. And what website is that that you're talking about? That is funwithbonus.com. That is the URL I chose to go with years ago when I was deciding on a name that I could sort of maybe talk about pinball and video games by not having the word pinball in it, which I then discovered that not having the word pinball in a site about pinball is a mistake. That's a branding error. There's some market research there. That's a branding error. So that's sort of put my branding in automatic hard mode. So whatever. But Fun With Bonus is my favorite thing ever on games. So that's why I kept it. And, yes, also pinball.site does work and pinball.media does work now. They just bounced to funwithbonus.com. But anyway. But I didn't want to change that. So that's what I'm going with. And I guess luckily for me, it's sort of gotten a little bit of a following, so I'm just plodding along with it every day. And I've been – yeah, I guess we can talk about the streak, I guess. I mean, it was about July 1, 2012. About a couple of weeks before that date, I had lost the database because they had to do an upgrade or something happened, and I couldn't get the old stuff back. so I just decided you know what if I'm going to rebuild this thing I'm going to decide to post every day a pinball at least one thing about something right and just just just to see if I could do it now back then pinball news wasn't as prolific so I was a little worried about that sure but but uh as I kept along and you know started using things like the new pinball dictionary and the list of pinball excuses and other other projects that I was doing I just sort but kept it up and just kept it going. And then now it's been going for the past six and a half years. You're seeing this resurgence in pinball, especially as of late. And to your point, now you're looking at there's a lot more media coverage. You've got pinball news. You've got This Week in Pinball. And they're pumping out articles and updates and stories on a weekly basis. The thing that really intrigues me with Fun with Bonus is on top of your full schedule that you have going on, you are putting stuff up to your point, like you said, at least once a day. But I seem to see that website and that Facebook page updating several times a day. And it seems like if something happens, it posts immediately where I'm not waiting a week to get a total update in the news. I'm getting tidbits here and there throughout the day from Fun With Bonus. Well, part of it is strategic scheduling and releasing. I'm sure you understand. Yeah, for sure. So that I can sort of pretend to seem like I'm more than one person doing this, even though it is so far just me and every so often contributors will contribute articles to the site. Hint, hint, nudge, nudge. Not going to lie. If anyone wants to contribute an article, I definitely would post it. So part of it is that. And, yeah, it is, I guess I can call it a far-reaching goal is to be the Kotaku of pinball or the Polygon or the Destructoid. Those gaming sites that post multiple times a day and try to stay as current as they can. And so that's sort of a far-reaching goal. But in order to do that for real, I'd have to post between 8 and 24 times a day, which is nearly impossible. For pinball, pinball is a decent market, but gaming is huge. You can post 24 things on a day in video games. And of course, sites like Kotaku have multiple editors, whereas here it's just sort of me. So I have to make sure sometimes to budget my budget, my posts, and sometimes there'll be multiple posts in one day where I'll have to decide, OK, I'm going to go with this post as the post of the day or something like that. How do you decide what makes the cut and how are you getting all your content? Is it just randomly where you I imagine that you've got some type of a system set up where you've got major sites that maybe you want to check in at and then you're just kind of looking at your Facebook feeds. It's got to be huge because you've got a lot of people that that are following you and vice versa, I'm sure. So, I mean, how do you make sense of all that information and put it into something that makes sense? That's part of it. I mean, part of it is can be broken down to what I see divided by how much time I decide to devote per day to post online. And so sometimes I'll miss things. Sometimes I'll just straight miss things and then it won't come back until later to say, oh, I missed it. But then I'll be like, well, you know, I can still repost it. Yeah. I mean, it's no harm in not posting it if just to put it in the archive and just have it on the list. because why not? I mean, it's not a problem there. But sometimes I will miss things, and then I have been asked a few times on more than one occasion on people who thought I purposely weren't posting their things or something. I was going to ask you if there's ever been hard feelings with somebody that might have called you out for not posting something that they thought warranted a post on Fun With Bonus. It's not hard feelings. It's just understandable because I'll just miss it. Sometimes I won't see it. You know how the algorithms work. I'll be on a Facebook algorithm and I'll see certain people because I talk with those people. And so those people move up in the algorithm, which means I'll talk to those people, which means those people move up in the algorithm. So I'm like, well, I'll do some things. I'll just purposely click on other people's articles over and over. Maybe that'll help it get into what I see every day on purpose. even right now I know there are podcasts I haven't posted in a while because I haven't either listened to them yet or I just missed them in the feed so that's why I have my backup podcast page for that things like that that will help me stay up as far as I can so in other words you have a job and you actually have to perform at your job and you can't be watching the internet all day long right that's definitely part of it and you like sleep I'm assuming I do like sleep occasionally. It does help. I did sleep maybe a couple hours last week and maybe two hours yesterday. Maybe I might have slept allegedly yesterday. That could have happened. But, yeah, it's – I mean, really, it just sometimes breaks down to it's things that I see or things that I happen to listen to. I mean, I went on a podcast binge last week because I was just so far behind, And so I did the whole listen on one and a half speed thing just so I can listen to it and actually post it. I mean, because one of the little rules I have that I keep to. I'm sure you didn't miss our podcast. You weren't bingeing our podcast, Steve. That was part of the binge. Oh, no. That was part of the binge. So I did listen to when Zach was on last episode. Zach many. Yeah, that was on one and a half speed. But, you know I'm going to type out Tarzan Factor Free today Yeah, but One of the little rules I do follow Is that I don't post on the main page of podcasts If I haven't listened to it So I will post on Facebook That the podcast has gone up But if I don't have the time to listen to it In its entirety, then it won't show up on the main feed On the actual .com So it'll show up on It'll show up on Facebook Or on Twitter or on Instagram or something but it won't actually show up on the dot com unless I have heard I heard it myself. Have you ever accidentally endorsed something that may be down the road? And I don't when I say endorse, I mean, have you ever given any exposure or something where down the road you thought yourself, maybe that probably shouldn't have gone up on Fun With Bonus? Well, I'm sure I have. But sharing and like sharing, even liking and commenting is not equal to endorsement. But I mean, there's some things that are news. I mean, I did miss the post of the certain guilty plea. but that's gone out there so I'm like whatever I've got like 12 tabs open on my browser now so I got other stuff to post I got new pinball dictionary definition like just lately reading I post on DevFlip I'm working on part 2 of the podcast from Indus that I did with Antoinette Johnson and Emoto Harney Logan Arcade walkthrough an EM review by Austin Mackert But Danielle Peck and her exploits at Indus, I'm just literally reading across my tabs that I have, open along with this one, O'Farrill and the Potty Monster. Yeah, I mean, competitive pinball heavy, obviously. As somebody, you're a competitive pinball player. You're a world-ranked competitive pinball player. And you're favored, I would imagine, in most tournaments that you enter. Now, I know that you know that Special Windleague Pinball Podcast, we haven't really done much coverage of the tournament scene. And it's just because we are so out of touch with it. but we certainly realize that this is important and is a big part of who you are in pinball. And we, of course, want to give you the opportunity, if you want to talk a little bit about competitive pinball, where you think it stands right now in the general scheme of things with pinball, because I noticed that it is gaining more and more not only exposure but participation. And would you say that competitive pinball is bigger now than it's ever been since its existence? Well, of course, as we know, no one wants to talk about competitive pinball. Let me stop you right there. Hold on. It's not that we don't. I've heard you say that several times. And what does that mean exactly? And where did that come from? That is a sarcastic way of saying that everyone wants to talk about competitive pinball, except when people don't want to talk about it. So that's why I just make sure every time I see an article talking about competitive pinball, I just see – so everyone who knows what I'm doing, that I'm memeing that, they know what I mean when I say no one wants to talk about competitive pinball. Yeah, everyone does, but no one does. Because remember, no one wants to talk about it except all these people. No one wants to talk about it. I'm wrapping my head around it. Hold on a second. All right. I think I got it. I think I got it. So it's the opposite. It's playing the opposite. So, you know, no one wants to talk about it except Forbes and CNN and all these articles about from local scenes and all this. So so it's just sort of a reminder that a playful, sarcastic reminder to those who I mean, again, it's not like it's an obligation to talk about competitive pinball, but to those who may want to purposely denigrate it in some ways or, you know, have sarcastic feelings about tournaments in general. sure things and and so it's a it's a bit of it's a bit of side eye to that and uh so i'm just gonna keep going with it and every time i post it i just say hey remember no one wants to talk about competitive pinball and i remember in our in our holiday special i remember you brought that up that was part of your thing yeah nobody wants to talk about competitive pinball nobody oh i think i think steve might have taken a little shot especially when lit no it is not it's not against you in particular at all. Okay. As long as we're part of the guilty party, I guess. Absolutely not. But again, it's not an obligation. I am not a tournament pinball evangelist. It's sort of like convincing people who like soccer to watch football and who like football to watch football. I think that's a great comparison. Some people just don't. Some people like football and some people like football. So let the people who like football watch the football. So for me personally, and if you don't mind, like I know that for competitive pinball and competitive pinball players, I've got ridiculous respect for you guys. I've got ridiculous respect for the people that run the tournaments, for the people that participate, for the coverage that it's getting. And I know for a fact the reason that I don't talk about it is because I've never competed in a pinball tournament. And for me personally, it's not something that I aspire to do, and it doesn't make it right or wrong. It's just where I kind of come from. And I know that's exactly why we haven't talked competitive pinball because I just – I don't really know anything about it. I've not been exposed to it on a personal level other than kind of reading what I've read on Facebook or things coming across Fun With Bonus. I absolutely read about it. I've not had that personal experience. Well, with so many facets involved in that, it would be – for us, it would be very – or for me, and I think I speak for Ken as well, it would just be very difficult to start out now trying to get involved into that. But, you know, we haven't tried either. But there's also ways to talk about competitive football that are boring and that are better. I mean, no one wants to hear your bad beat stories. I mean, there are enough poker shows that do that. I mean, no one cares that the ace dropped on the river and you lost 40 grand. I mean, the same way that nobody cares. Nobody cares that you missed the scoop and you lost in the semifinals. but more interesting things would be the process, strategy who did this this person versus this person game history pointing out certain strategic picadillos that are in this specific game code updates, how does that affect you can do it in a better way than just talking about what ends up sometimes being called bad beat stories and you know and rundowns of what happens so if people have that perspective that that's what happens I can understand why they don't want to talk about it because it can be boring. But, of course, that's not how it happens all the time. But, again, it's not an obligation, and I'm not an evangelist. I just enjoy it, and so I talk about it. So if you guys don't talk about it, cool, I'll talk about it. Hey, you know what? I'm one that needs to be more physically involved with something in order to keep my attention span. So I think what it would come down to is like you and me playing a game like Terminator and Star Trek. And when you win, I will buy you a burrito. Oh, there's the burrito offer. There's a little competitive pinball that we can relate to here. Dollar game pinball. Dollar game pinball. Burrito game pinball. Burrito game pinball. Burrito game pinball. Totally game for that. Right. But competitive pinball is not just relegated to super high stress. your Pemberg match player, your pump and dump qualifications. You have things like stall ball which is really fun. You line up 40 people and they all pay a dollar and then they all line up literally in a line and your goal is to stall the ball so you go to the back of the line So like pinball hot potato That competitive pinball but it a different way It a different way it So yeah it not about forcing people to expand your minds or look at other perspectives It's like, it's fine. It's just something I like to do. And if you don't, that's fine. But if you do and you ask me, I'll help you if you want. Right, right. Well, and I want to ask you, and I'll ask you this in a second, about maybe what you could recommend to somebody that wants to get into competitive pinball. because I imagine that that first step's got to be intimidating. And without having proper guidance, you may just always put it back in the back burner and not actually do it. And I think for me, and again, this isn't about me getting a sounding board with competitive pinball. I'm so competitive in everything in life and with work and projects. It's like pinball for me is like an outlet where I kind of forget about the stress and I just kind of take the approach of enjoyment and just kind of escaping everything. And I think where my concern with myself personally getting into competitive pinball would be like I feel like I would take away some of that enjoyment for myself personally. And that would take something that I love and I would make that competitive also. So I think that's why I've always been kind of standoffish in regards to entering tournaments. On the flip side, though, I could like just as you explained it, I could see where that could be pretty fun and fulfilling, whether you win or lose, just to be able to kind of contribute and be part of, you know, partnership and friendship with other people that are doing it. where it's more friendly competition than dire straits competition? Well, I can certainly understand where you're coming from. I mean, that first experience can be daunting and make you nervous because it was for me back then. I remember going to my first sort of major-ish event where I drove out of state to and I didn't know many people. And so I'm just figuring out what to do and figuring out everything. I mean, I was able to get to it pretty quickly and kind of understand what was going on just based on the fact that I knew how to play the games. But, yeah, it's not all the time about being the best. It's about winning. Sure, just keep winning and keep advancing. But, I mean, there's a reason why they have multiple divisions, not because these are the great people and these are the poor people. It's like you play to your skill level. Hopefully, I mean, I recommend match play. I always find a match play tournament that you don't get eliminated in. Can you explain what a match play tournament is for somebody that doesn't know? Oh, sure. Match play is like you begin at the start of the day and you're put in like four player groups and they play a game. And first place would get, say, let's say this example. First place might get seven points. Second place gets five points. Third place, three points. And fourth place, one point, right? So that was your group. Now there are other groups, say, let's say, for example, eight to ten other groups who also play games and they have points. So then what happens in the next round is all the people who won their games get put together. so and then all the people who got second sort of get put together okay and so over the course then which means all people who got third get put together and all the people who got last get put together so as you're going throughout the day you begin to play with people who are of similar skill than you that makes sense and then unless you go on a rally if you rally and do start doing great then you start playing better people okay so and so that sort of happens over the course of the day and then depending on the format of the tournament at the end of the day it they might take okay whatever points you got that's it whoever's in first one or it could be the top eight people go on to the finals same match play or you know four player finals for semi-finals and then another four player finals it depends on the form formats can be different and that will be stated on especially on an ifpa registered event it will be stated on the event page before you start but um yeah i mean i would recommend finding you know a casual match play that would do that that way you're not eliminated throughout the day i mean there are others like you have your your pump and dump qualifications or your papa style which can get more intense and where strategy really comes in and because in like pump and dump and in papa style you're not beating you're not trying to beat three other people in your front player group you might be trying to beat a hundred because it's like your score against everybody's. So that's a little different and could be a little bit more intimidating for the first-time player. But I've seen – I've went up to people and said, oh, this is my first time too. And in my mind I'm thinking, wow, you picked this tournament for your first time. Let me say a little silent words of encouragement for you. And they're like, no, I'm having fun. This is good. I'm seeing how everything works out. And, yes, I'm getting my butt kicked by some of the scores, but I'm coming back and everything. So are there like are there some crazy competitors? And when I say crazy, I mean, like outlandish people that compete regularly where, you know, hey, this guy's going to trash talk or this guy is going to intimidate everybody. Like like what goes on with the pinball personalities? I mean, we have tournaments. We have our Phil Helmuth and we have our Daniel DeGranus. You know, we you know, I don't know who I would be. I mean, I'm not skinny enough to be Phil Ivey. So we have our poker personalities In pinball I'm sure you'd be able to find one of each type If you really did an investigation And did the pinball documentary Trying to find the characters You gotta find characters To get this comparative pinball thing off the ground People like looking at characters So I'm sure we can Find everybody's archetype If that's the word That sounds like the word in my head that would represent them in this scene that we call pinball. Sure. When did you know? When did you realize, Steve? It's like, hey, I'm pretty good at this, and I'm going to go at it a lot more seriously than a casual hobby. I think it was when I started learning how to do strategies, and then they started working. I would do a strategy. I would accomplish it. I would beat a player using that strategy. I would do a mathematical win. I know that I need $30 million. If I do this, this, this, and this, and this, that's $35 million. I do it. I get $36 million. I win. You know, it's like, oh. Understanding of the rule set is absolutely crucial. It's like, oh, I know how to do it, and then I did it. Now, of course, there's sometimes when I know how to do it and I miss a shot and I don't do it, but that's called pinball and competition. The people who did do it get paid. So but once I started being able to do that more consistently, then I realized, hey, yeah, I can hang with some of these people who before this point I only knew as names on the bottom of the game's apron, you know, and in the credits of games. You know, and then I'm like, oh, there they are over there. They helped make this game. I can't play with them. I mean, that's wild. And then I realized, oh, wait, if I can just do this and this and stay consistent, then I can hang with them. And so, yeah, that's when I really discovered that I could just – that I could do it too. And that's kind of what I tell other people. And I say, yeah, I'm beatable, absolutely beatable. I get beat every – I get beat a lot. So it's just I might get beat maybe 1% less than you, and then that matters a lot. You know, it really is that little bit of a difference between someone scoring like 100 million on a game and someone scoring 20 million is missing like 1% to 2% less of your shots. Okay. because that one miss means you didn't have to nudge, which means you probably didn't have to take that danger, right, which means you're probably not nervous, which means you got another good shot and so on, and so that momentum can carry you through, and it literally can't be that much of a difference. Now, so going back, so being a math teacher obviously helps when you're calculating how you want to line up your shots to get the score total where you want to be, right? At some points, yeah, especially if I know where certain points are going to be and if I remember the rules and things and can remember to carry it through like I'm supposed to, sure. Yeah. Okay, so this is going to be a sidebar kind of question, but so you were a teacher for, you said, 18 years? I was a teacher for 16 years. I taught in the classroom for seven, and then I moved into, like, IT department and then administration where, you know, administration where I'm, like, you know, trying to get money for the budget. I mean, so I've done like the whole thing from teaching up to budgeting and board meetings and all that. So I've done all that stuff, yeah. So my wife is a teacher, and she often tells me, you know, if there was another job that I could do, I would love to do it. And she's heard about some of the pinball careers that have happened through good opportunities. And she's like, people get paid just to play pinball? I'm like, yep. She's like, I need to do that. So now how does that translate for you going through education into getting paid for this as a profession? Yeah, well, I mean, part of it is getting used to the fact that that is happening, which is kind of amazing. But, I mean, to call myself a professional pinball player is a misnomer. I guess it's less of a misnomer now that I work for Deep Root. I mean, yes, I am professionally playing pinball now. But before then, I mean, there were very few really players you can call professional that were almost making money, like elwin or i guess jack danger is a professional pinball player because he works for stern so that's that's pretty professional so yeah he's on a pinball payroll so yeah his job yeah that's that's a professional pinball player there it is okay i need to ask robert if i could get a job watering the plants down a deep rig i'll enter a tournament and then i'm a professional pinball player that's right because i'm because when i'm going to turn it i'm just hoping i can break even I'm just hoping I can go there and make enough to break even and pay for flights or hotels or even get close, even if it's a little less. I'm satisfied because that means I got to go. What drives you, Steve? I mean, so to your point, like, so you're going to make this trip and you're going to travel across the country. You're going to enter a tournament. You've got hotel fees and flights and incidentals and meals. And so you feel that if you break even that you kind of came out ahead. so what's in it what's in it for you like what's what's the passion what drives you to make this demanding schedule for yourself to compete in all these tournaments well part of it is yeah part of it is the whole classic thrill of competition i mean that's true and also and also part of it is because a lot of the top players are players i know and or or players i haven't seen in months or i mean that now i'm in san antonio a lot of the top players are back east where I used to live. So, you know, last week I flew back to New York and tried to steal the New York championship, and I almost did, you know, and ended up breaking even with getting second. Right. And I got my trip to Vegas. So I was like, cool, because my friend Alberto, he won, but he wasn't going to Vegas. So that means I got the nomination. So I'm like, okay. But part of it was just visiting those people there at Sunshine Laundromat, one of my favorite places to play. You'll be representing New York in Las Vegas then, right? Yep, which is so weird. It's like I'm a former New Jersey resident who moved to San Antonio, who's representing New York in the state. That's three different states. Yeah. Who's in the national championship or the North American championship. Yeah. I mean, it's exciting. That's weird. Congratulations. Yes, congratulations. Thanks. So, yeah, I'm just down there. See, just survive in advance. try to survive in advance and even if I don't hey it's Vegas yeah you can't really go wrong I've never been to Vegas but I've heard the stories and I can't think of a better excuse to go to Vegas than to go play or watch some pinball it'd be fun right I mean you know it's like once that's done then there's always something to do you know I mean I didn't get in pin masters because you know I forgot to register in time I just wasn't thinking of it but you know I can be an interested observer and then also be free to be in Vegas so that's cool what's your current world ranking then I think I'm 13th I've been 12th or 13th for a good while I've been sort of locked in there And how many people are currently world ranked? Well technically it's like 60,000 That's incredible I have to go to Josh Sharpe For the official particulars on that But the last number was 60,000 people 13 out of 60,000 people And it gets rough to maintain that Once you're up that high as it should because it's all about beating your previous number to gain just those little bit of points that count for your card. Lots of times I have to finish first or second for it to even count. That's also part of the challenge, which is good as it should be. Let's say I'm 13th. The 10th rank or the 9th rank, 8th rank people, they have to win in order for it to count at all Yeah. On the card. So that's just how it works, how the asymptote line sort of works as you get up to the top rank. That's just how it works mathematically. Is there an arch nemesis game that shows up in a tournament that you have to play where you're just not looking forward to it because you've just struggled with it or you just don't appreciate it? A particular game? Not really. I mean, I've already had my pinball confession that I don't like any mini flipper. em okay ends game right and also volley i hate volley so how many how many uh shows do you wind up doing a year to maintain that status i don't know i mean it's going to be less now that i'm in san antonio because i would used to like when i'm in when i was in new york new jersey area i would drive a lot of places i would go to so there's not going to be a lot of places that i miss hopefully i'll be able to make some up that as i find them in san antonio with you know bat city open and Austin events and things like that and maybe I'll be able to make it up to Houston and Dallas because they're like five hours away drive but it's an easy flight but when I was in New York it would be no trouble for me to drive six, seven, eight hours because the drive was just part of the adventure I guess just to be able to do that stuff so as far as particular number I don't know I mean there was time periods where it would be like every other week I'd be going somewhere where are we going this week? Oh we're going to North Carolina Where are we going this week? We're going to Pinfest in Allentown. That's a pretty fun way just to see the United States. Yeah, really. Just got to remember to carve out time after hours or before or during it just to see the area and see what's going on, see what's different, see what's surprisingly the same about every region in America. And you've become such a huge – and I'm not the only one that thinks this, but just a huge ambassador for pinball in general. When people see you and they recognize you, they think of Steven Bowden and they immediately think of pinball. I mean, that's got to be something that you might not have expected, but has to be pretty awesome just to be a part of. I did not expect that. And then I see that happen and I appreciate it. And I also recognize the responsibility of it, too. What kind of responsibilities do you have as a pinball ambassador? Because I mean, because I'm sort of representing the scene inadvertently, I guess. I mean, you know, we just talked about competitive pinball for 20 minutes solid, I guess. Right. So, hey, nobody's more shocked than me right now, Steve. I sort of represented for a few minutes. Right. And in versionally, I just sort of did that. So so I guess that's part of it. So I can I can understand and appreciate this new sort of responsibility, which will be incorporated in my position and as well as we get going. But, yeah, so that's – I guess that's one of those things that comes with the territory with – I guess with running a site for – constantly for six and a half years, you just sort of organically – it just sort of organically happens to keep going. And you've got fun with bonus and then let's talk about your Meltdown podcast and tell people how they can listen to that. And you had turned me on to – was it episode – was it two or three? Yeah, the curveball is episode two. Oh, my goodness. So episode two was originally supposed to be episode one. Let's do this. Let's introduce the podcast and tell us a little bit about where you're going with that. I'd like to focus on episode number two, and then I'd like to focus on some of the fun guests that are your friends that have been on this podcast with you. And it's kind of fun because you're sitting down and you're getting kind of a sneak peek of the daily life with Steven Bowden. And it's true, it's genuine, and it's interesting. well the meltdown pinball podcast is basically just me an attempt to with to help me put myself out there more and just speak up about things at all you know so i mean a thing about podcasting is i had to be brave enough to start it and so for like a year or so i really what i procrastinated like okay i'm not gonna i don't know do i really want to do one it's uh and then once i started figuring out well you know it's not that much of a big deal just try and do it i mean there's editing and so you just if people people edit out loud it's an undertaking it can be and sometimes it sounds like a car commercial where there's no breathing at all between sentences and i noticed that so i'm like oh okay um i could just do that it won't sound as bad and so um yeah so i just decided we just decided one day i was you know with a few of my friends and we you know we partied enough to a point where we're like okay are we gonna do a podcast yeah let's do it and so that was episode one so that was a launch yeah once episode one came out how all good things start there steve yeah once episode one happened i was like well okay it started i have a feed i took the effort to figure out how to get the thing on itunes and spotify and all that let me do this episode that i wanted that i been wanting to do for a year episode two yep which is Which is a very special episode So I figured well if I throw this curveball out early then no one will be able to trust me. They won't be able to trust the format or anything, and that's what I want. I didn't trust anybody after that episode. In fact, I wasn't sure what happened. I thought I was in an episode of the X-Files, and I was looking for black helicopters. I can appreciate that. That was the goal. That was the goal. Hit it out of the park, Steve. Nicely done. And so when I was doing it, I was critiquing my own voice. I'm like, okay, does this sound right? I guess it sounds. I wanted it to sound emotionless, like almost a computer talking. You sounded like a sophisticated AI almost. Cool. Okay, that was my goal. Okay. So where this came from is I was reading these articles on the Internet. If you want to know what SCP means, we'll be able to search for and know what that is. But if you search for SCP-1825, it is a fictional article based on a very special pinball machine called the Wrecking Pinball. And so it's an article written by someone. I couldn't figure out who, but that's why I linked to the article so people could know where it came from. It adds to the mystique, though, like nobody knows. And so we were describing what this – I mean, I won't give too many spoilers. I don't know if you want to listen to it, but it's describing what this pinball machine is and what it does. I mean, because I was reading some of the other articles, and I just wondered. Meanwhile, this is a year before episode one. I'm wondering if someone's written something about pinball. And then I searched for it, and there it is. And so I held it for like a year. Yeah, right. And then I decided, okay, do it. Let's record this. I'll read this out. I'll try to do it sort of theatrically and see how it works. and it was pretty okay so i was like hey that's great this is interesting let's throw this curve ball and just as i thought some people said what the heck was this and some people said oh you oh they actually made an scp article about pinball it was crazy so some people absolutely knew and some people didn't know at all and i was like yes that's exactly what i wanted i didn't know at all but and i was listening to it and i mean it's it's just an eerie podcast and it brings pinball And I'm kind of I like that kind of stuff. I like X-Files and government conspiracy theories. I don't believe them all, but I mean, it's just fun to read. And when I was listening and you kind of because I think the last podcast I had listened that you had done was it episode six. Maybe you were in the you were at Expo and episode seven was Expo with Crystal with Crystal and from Riptide. And you had Ron Howlett from Slam Tilt and Jeff Teolis and a few people there. And we were sort of Mystery Science Theatering the Octoberfest reveal So that's what we were doing there So yeah that was the last one and then episode 8 Which I just put out Yesterday was the first part of InDisc where it was It was me, Antoinette Johnson from Marco Emoto Arcade and Michael Gottlieb So that's the first part So there will be other things coming up with that That I'm literally working on And I'll be finishing to bring those out without too much delay You've got interesting guests like Antoinette Johnson. For those that don't know her by name, I'm sure you've seen her with kind of the extreme hair that kind of sticks up and that she's able to kind of, I don't want to say decorate because it's not like her hair is a Christmas tree, but she's able to style it and add color elements that make it look crazy. And usually she's, what, in the Marco booth at pinball shows. And then Emoto is somebody that's been on the pinball scene and the arcade scene for a long time. She does a lot of documentary work and interviews, and she's very prominent in pinball. So, I mean, Steve, you're a celebrity. You're hanging out with celebrities. How is it being a pinball celebrity hanging amongst pinball celebrities? It doesn't feel any different at all, I hope. Keeping it real over there, huh? Is there really a such thing as a pinball celebrity? You know what? If you would have asked me five years ago, I would have said absolutely not. But I think there are pinball celebrities, and a lot of those celebrities are ambassadors. And I absolutely consider you a pinball celebrity. There's no doubt in my mind that you are. I mean, for what you've done for pinball, what you're continuing to do for pinball, and what you do on the media side of things, what you do for competitive pinball, and now being employed with Deep Root and furthering your career in pinball, it's polarizing it's fascinating and and to me those are all the elements that make a celebrity so has anyone has anyone ever uh recognized you while you were pumping gas or eating dinner and said oh steve how you doing big fan not yet okay nope then you're the best celebrity then because you can still eat in private without somebody taking your picture yeah that's great that's right that's how you know that's how i know i'm not a celebrity see you haven't haven't Haven't had the whole gas station thing. I've had the whole – usually at a tournament where it's like – at a tournament or a pinball show where it's like, I recognize your voice. Were you on that tutorial? Oh, yeah. Were you on that commentary? Or did you do something with like pinball with the pros or something? Or did you do that review? Or were you on that podcast? So that's usually what I get, and that's cool because that's like that's my in to meet someone new. Yeah, for sure. For sure. so I really like that so you're having fun oh yeah I'm still having fun I mean of course it was in the back of my mind before I took this job at Deep Root I'm thinking well am I really going to get burnt out and it ain't happened yet so I don't think it's going to happen I don't think it's going to happen you're fine man I mean this is in your blood and you know we overuse the term passion sometimes but I mean I think truly pinball runs in your blood And I think without it, you'd be a lesser – you wouldn't be as complete. And I think by taking on more pinball just makes you more of the person that you want to be. I mean that's just the way I kind of see it coming from you. I think you're right there because I'm having fun in the scene. Whether it's just checking out what's going on, seeing what other people are doing, creating things myself, contributing that way, and being on podcasts like this. It's great. I mean, I'm just keep riding this wave for as long as it goes and cause some more waves of my own when certain things happen in the near future. But, yeah. So you're competing, and you're in the New York, New Jersey area, and life is good. And then you make a big change, and you relocate south. Can you kind of walk us through a little bit of what transpired and how that happened, if you don't mind? Oh, sure. Yeah. I'll just go to the 30,000 foot view of what happened. I mean, I'm I am just in the New York, New Jersey area living my life as a school administrator, probably at the time this started figuring out purchasing for next year's supplies for our school kids at our district. and when I start getting communications from Deep Root about you know we were looking for some people we're looking for someone to talk about doing rules with us and so I'm like hey I wouldn't hurt I want to check you guys out and so you know it's like oh you want to bring me in okay I'll go in why wouldn't I it would be nice to visit San Antonio and then so I visit San Antonio and I mean I I don't know. I don't know anything. The only thing is I know is from what I've heard from other podcasts and things because I'm a fan. Are you talking about like Deep Root? Like at that point, you don't know what to expect. I don't know what to expect. So I have a fully open mind. I don't know what's going on. And so I go in there and then I just think, oh, I guess I'm moving to San Antonio. Wow, just like that. That's it. I was like, yeah, I guess that's it. You gave up your career in education, administration, and you just had no quorum. I mean that's pretty remarkable. But this is pinball. It's like this is that – because I'm thinking this is that thing. It's like haven't you ever thought of working in the pinball industry? Yes, you have, Steve. Yes, you've thought about that. Yeah, right. And here it is. So let's go. Let's do it. Okay, do it. So like, all right, we're going to do it. And so then it came that period, that limbo period where it's like, okay, I have to – I worked really hard at my other job. I built up what we were doing. We had plans going into next year to start a one-to-one Chromebook initiative with our district. So those teachers out there, shout-outs to those of you who have been able to do that with your students and know exactly what that means. We were just getting on the roll to start doing that when I had to have a meeting with my superintendent, who was a very good friend of mine. And it seems like as soon as I went into the office and I said, I have to talk to you, and she said, you're leaving me, aren't you? And I said, yes. And then she said, and I explained why. And she said, I'm proud of you. She said, just as long as it wasn't for another district. I said, no, it wasn't going to be for another school district. It would have to have been something like this. She said, just as long as you weren't going to Stern Pinball. That's fine. Right, yeah, exactly. Exactly. She's like, just as long as you're not going for another school district or anything. But she's like, yes, I fully understand why. And this is something that we've talked about being, you know, her and I, about just in pinball in general because she you know cares about me and what how i'm doing and and everything so yeah so that it just became okay i got the summer to clean everything up and leave everything better than the way i found it and once that was done it was off to uh san antonio well and honestly since you've been there when you're doing this as a uh job now does it really feel like work does it feel like you're just going to hang out and that's the thing i'm like i'm going in and I'm like I'm doing work but I like it and then I take my work home but I still like it and I'll go to work tomorrow and I'll still love it you know it's like I'm working but I'm not but I am you know it's like the wrong attitude to have when you're negotiating that salary increase yeah I know yeah but this have to be truthful it's like yeah this is great fun and we're doing a lot of good things and i'm happy to be a part of it you know it's it's it's it's that work that doesn't feel like work how they always say oh if you if you uh what is that what is that old saying like if like you'll never work a day in your life it ends that way like it's that one that ends like that right yeah if you work if you work doing what you love you'll know never work a day in your life you know so i thought it was cool because we we go back to expo in october of uh last year 2018 And one of the big things that I wanted to do while attending Expo was I definitely wanted to see the Deep Root seminar because at that point, you know, just as you were learning about Deep Root over podcasts and media, that's essentially what we've been doing up until that point. And to kind of sit in on that panel discussion, which was pretty awesome, and I'm just going by recollection. I remember Robert Mueller hosted the panel discussion. You had John Papadiuk there. You had Barry Osler there, Dennis Nordman. Jon Norris. Yep. Jon Norris was there. You had Quinn Johnson, Quinn Johnson storyboard there. Yeah. You were there, obviously. And I remember everybody had an opportunity to kind of talk. And what everybody had talked about was interesting to me. And but there was some words that you had mentioned during that panel discussion that resonated with us. And I think throughout pinball, Bill, do you remember what he said? Get ready. Get ready. And still, you know, when you said that, I can still feel it because the energy that you had. And honestly, the whole team that day discussing everything that was going on without, you know, getting into detail. You can't buy that kind of passion. You know, you can't be that enthusiastic and solid if you don't believe in what you're doing. And the way you said, get ready, it was, okay, looks like we're going to Texas. That's essentially what happened because, you know, because I felt that. I'm like, yeah, get ready. Get ready for us. We're coming. And I'm having fun. And I mean, I mean, I didn't move from New Jersey to San Antonio for an if. Yeah. See, I think that's such a huge that's a huge deal. I mean, this is not to, you know, second guess or to lessen the importance of all the designers that had come on board and these other professionals that are going to Deep Root. But for you, you were not working in pinball. You're coming from the education side of things where you had an established career. for you to kind of make that leap of faith going into this company for me, I think really lended itself to a huge amount of credibility for the company. And, you know, I'm not here to argue if what's going on, what's not going on, this and the other thing. But I feel a lot more safe and intrigued knowing that you're involved and that you're so passionate, enthusiastic and reassuring about it. So for that, I thank you. I appreciate the vote of confidence there I mean and part of it was also being able to work With these designers too I mean I'm looking I'm seeing Again these are the names Of people who I know from the credits From the games apron these are games Who I've some of my favorite games That have ever been made and It's like oh I get to work With this person on their next Game yeah did you ever think That you would be at work splitting a peanut butter And jelly sandwich with Dennis Nordman I mean that's Kind of like wait I get to work with, yeah, like he made Whitewater. Yeah, right. So I'm like, come on. I'm like, come on, Barry made Dracula. He made Doctor Who. I'm like, you know, and then I'm there. So I'm like, okay, calm down. This is real. Just show what you can do. Show that playing all these pinball games and all these tournament games and being a rules nut isn't gone to waste. Just, you know. And so, yeah. And I'm just sort of like pleased and amazed and glad and happy I've made the move. And, yeah, I can't wait to be able to talk more. That's the thing. It's like I can't wait to be able to talk more and to, like, debate, get positive, negatives, and, you know, this is good, this is not. I'll change this. No, I'm not going to change this. You know, things like that. I mean, you know, I just can't wait. but uh but uh well now those legends in your head you get to argue about lunch choices with and now they're not right such a great hero anymore because they you know aggravate you when they want to go to burger king it's like well exactly exactly well all these great food choices in san antonio i mean everything's here i bet you there's burritos down there for you bill absolutely are there ever oh there's there's every burrito there's every taco ever there's every burrito ever so gotta watch the diet oh boy did you watch the diet that's all right hey you know what though i mean you're out there i'm sure you're uh jogging every single day and uh take you know no no no no joke you got that's like saying half jokingly but you know come on we gotta you gotta be careful down here in texas with this there's tex-mex and there's like you know water burger and all sorts of fast food choice i gotta avoid and you know you gotta eat healthy because i'd like to work for deep root for a long time and be healthy so dude it sounds like you're having a blast man and uh i think that's to your point it doesn't get any better if you enjoy going to work every single day and you don't feel like you're bogged down i mean how can it get any better like your life right now has got to be freaking awesome i love it and i'm just wishing that uh you know once we get to the point where we when i can talk more and i'll be able to do more pinball ambassadoring and but specifically representing the company and which will be another thing i It's just all part of forcing me myself to put myself out there more. That was part of the reason why I took this job, too. I knew that would be part of it. So, yeah. I know Ken and myself look forward to actually being able to discuss a lot more of that stuff in the near future, hopefully. But on a personal question for you, what sort of games does Steve have in his collection? Okay, well, I will tell you what it is now. It is Demolition Man, Judge Dredd, Congo, The Shadow, World Cup Soccer 94, Gottlieb's Pinball Pool, and the still-in-box Gamer Thrones Premium that I won at Pinball Expo 2015. Oh, that's awesome, man. Nice. It's still in the box. Still in the box. I moved thinking, okay, when I move, I'm going to take it out of the box. And then I started putting the games in the space that I have, and I discovered that, oh, wait, I can't fit the game here. You're like folding laundry on it. I'm like, yeah, whatever. As long as I got one close to me, fine. I'll just keep it in the box as sort of like a $7,000 trophy. This is crazy. Unbelievable. Because it's the machine I won at Expo. And so I was like, yeah, I'm going to – I figured, okay, because at Expo you get like a pro version of the game. and so i was like well if i get the pro version can i just upgrade and get the premium and pay the difference yes you can okay why not i didn't know that yeah so essentially i got like a 1500 game of thrones premium so i'm like okay cool you can't beat that can't beat it so i think dwight recently was on another podcast talking about revisiting game of thrones potentially and maybe making some tweaks yeah so yeah i hope so that definitely perked my ears up when I heard that as well So I was like yeah okay let see what going on Okay we going to make the Lannisters worth something Okay we going to make Baratheons do something a little bit more Okay, let's see the Starks represent a little bit. Because right now everybody either picks Martell, Tyrell, or if they're going for the Royal Flush, Greyjoy. But, yeah, I'd be interested in definitely seeing an update. That would be awesome. Are you looking for anything game-wise that you don't own right now? uh not particularly i'm not i am i guess i am not a collector i am more of an owner maybe you know so uh yeah not not particularly i am surprisingly i'm an outlier in that you know i own games and i'm surprisingly satisfied with what i have for right now that may change sure as of right now nope i'm pretty good and with with a good pinball location near me what's brewing in san antonio is a great place with with uh 25 or so games and austin is uh only an hour and a half drive so i can play some games up there and uh so yeah are you do you consider yourself a pinball purist and in regards to like led pins and adding mods color dmd pin sound toppers that sort of thing is that something that's in the steve out in catalog that's all fine the only thing i don't appreciate is lights that are too bright so i can't see yeah everything It's fine. And LED flashers that blind you, that's really tough. I don't like that. Yeah, that's the only thing I don't appreciate. That's why I take sunglasses with me to every tournament now, just in case there's a random – Ah, yeah. Just like there's a Ghostbusters or there's a Game of Thrones with the winter's coming or something like that. Ghostbusters will jack you up pretty bad when you're not expecting it. Yeah, I was thinking maybe that's part of the gimmick that you're not supposed to look at the trap, and so the trap is the whole game. I mean, I don't know. Like, you know, because in Ghostbusters, don't look at the trap because you get blinded in the movie. I honestly think there is something behind that where on that pin with when those flashers are blinding you. I think it's intentionally supposed to make it hard for you to see. Right. So I'm like, I can't see anything. I'm just gripping the game. Like every time it's like, oh, OK, I know I'm going to get a jackpot. So get ready. Oh, so. So. But yeah, that's the only thing. toppers and all that other stuff, that's great. Do whatever you want to do. Some of the toppers coming out are really cool, like that AFM remake one. That was really That's one of my favorite toppers ever. I think a good topper has to be interactive to some extent, so it has to kind of tie the game into the topper instead of like a static topper where, I mean, there's a place for those too, but even Whirlwind, you know, a System 11 topper that fan kicks in when it's supposed to and I like that. Absolutely. So yeah, I'm fine with all that stuff. Let's just tone down a little bit on the LEDs and everything else is gravy. That's fine. So you're going to be down at TPF, I would imagine, right? Because now it's practically in your backyard. Yep, yep. I'll be down there. There's the tournaments there, so I'm definitely going to be there, and there's going to be other festivities there, like the Twippy Awards. That's going to be cool. We are looking forward to the Twippies. Now, we've been given the huge honor of presenting a Twippy. I don't know what it's going to be, but so myself and Bill will at least be on the stage for something that night, right? We'll be there. but we definitely want to connect with you at some point at TPF and it'll probably be easier for us to find you than for you to find us we'll just look for the mob of people just look for the tournament area craziness I'm probably in there unless I'm tired out of that and then going and playing all the games in the free play area chances are I'm kind of hanging around the tournament area So I'll definitely be in there for TPF. But, yeah, that's going to be great. I mean, TPF was crazy last year. I think it was huge. I can't wait to go. TPF won Expo last year. That was Expo last year. I'm not going to lie to you. I am disappointed that Deep Root is not conducting the days of Deep Root there. But totally understandable. But that was like a major reason that I wanted to head down to TPF. So I'm hoping when everything gets up and running, I can get back down there and see what's cooking because that's going to be exciting too. Yeah, it's going to be great when things start to happen. I just, you know, like I said, I can't wait to say more. I was like, would you like to know more? Yes. Can't tell you yet. All right. Thanks. No worries. We're not popping industry secrets on the Special In-Lid Pinball Podcast. We take a little bit different approach to that. We're still ready. That's it. Yeah, we're still ready. We're ready and waiting. Any tips for us down at TPF? What should we do? What should we avoid? Anything in the surrounding area, outside of the hotel? and it's not just us going down. There are a lot of listeners that we have on the show that are going down. Hopefully you've got rooms that are close to the area. I mean, you know. We're at the Indigo and I think it's like a block or two. I don't think it's far. Oh, that's fine, right? Yeah, that's walking. Okay. Yeah, that's good. Yeah, at least if it's Uberable so you can party. So there is Uber there, right? So you can party and revel properly. Yeah, you know, you need to Uber so you don't have to drive. But it could be 55 down there when we go down there And we're going to be in short sleeves and T-shirts. Oh, 55, yeah. I don't know. It's going to be fine. Yeah. Well, you were on the East Coast for a long time, so you know what crummy Carl Weathers is. Oh, yes. I also know, for example, down here in San Antonio, being 95 and 100, that's not a big deal. I'll take a San Antonio 100 over New Jersey 90 any day because that humidity is a killer. And it's nothing like that down here. All you just got to do down here is make sure you got a decent play of sunglasses to knock out the sun, and you're good. So you got nice, warm, not a lot of humidity. You've got good burritos for you, Bill. We've got Texas Pinball Festival. We've got pinball. We've got pinball competition. We've got celebrities. I hope that I run into you at a gas station so that I can run up to you and be like, are you Steven Bowden? Absolutely, dude. We got a nice show. We're going to sit at the gas station, stalking them. Waiting for Steve. Waiting for Steven Bowden. that's where I want to meet you like a BP or Jimmy Johns or something Jimmy Johns we'll wait for our opportunity I'll be like who knows me and that's another thing people who know me before I know them is a bit strange so there's that initial awkwardness at the beginning before I get to know somebody but I'm getting a little used to that too well now which is cool. Well, now when that happens, I'm going to be like, hey, I'm going to need some cash register receipt paper so he can sign this for me. We're going to do this big. We're going to be trying to find his cash checks so that we can just keep them in the... This is a cash check. It's all good. I just try to go with the flow and meet as many people as I can and then go back and recharge and come back for more. So that's kind of what I'm doing. When are Nationals in Las Vegas? Nationals are the 28th. Let me see. It's on a Thursday. Checking the calendar. And, yes, March 28th is Nationals. So that's the bracketed final. Now, that weekend is also Pin Masters. So that's what, like, the 29th and 30th and 31st are. So that's the one where, you know, I'm not going to be in and I'll just be chilling. But yeah so the 28th is Nationals Then you got TPS is the week before Yeah that's pretty brutal That's deep right And then yeah so that's Going to be good Yeah so It's that time when the Tournament season starts to pick up A little bit more And things get a little warmer Around the country Pitchers and catchers start to report right Yeah exactly I got you man I got you Well, you know, I was going to wish you good luck, but I wish you good luck on Nationals when we formally meet at the gas station outside of TPF. Absolutely. Right. Exactly. And then we're going to grab you for a drink too, man. So we have to do a shot of Fireball or a sip of bourbon or drink a beer or something. Hey, that's fine. I'm down. I'm down. Like I said, Uber exists. Yes. So the Fireball can flow, right? Precisely. Maybe we'll start a Meltdown podcast off of that. We'll have enough that I'll actually turn on the recorder and be like, welcome to the episode of Meltdown. This is episode one. It's the only way to go. I drink during every show. So it's the only way. I've built up like a podcast. What do you call it? Tolerance. Yeah, tolerance. I'll go out during podcasting because as boring as I am now, I'm a lot more boring when I'm not drinking. So that's all I can do. It does help you drop that filter just enough so you're not too worried about saying things. And so that, I mean, that's what helps me. So I'm like, I'll just say things and then just know that I can edit later if I'm taking too long to say stuff. Yeah, for sure. For sure. And it helps, you know, even though I work to not edit anything on the meltdown as much, I mean, usually editing for pauses, you know, and for, instead of like just for content, I'm usually editing for pauses, especially if we're trying to find something to say and we're both, we're both or three of us are just fumbling or whatever. Looking at each other. But we were pretty smooth in Indus, I'm telling you. So the other two parts will be out pretty soon. I mean, we even got an interview with the champion of the event, Colin Urban, who won. We noticed that he had won, and so we took the podcast gear, which was just Emoto Snowball and my cell phone, and ran over to the tournament area and got an interview with him right after he won. So that will be the third part of the Indus episode. and then the second part will be more talk with Michael Gottlieb and Modo and the internet about stuff and things about pinball so yeah never a rest never a dull moment for Steve Bobbin that's what I'm trying that's what I'm trying to that's what I'm trying to do and you know and again I'm not worried about burnout because I would have happened by now as long as you still enjoy doing it you know I still enjoy doing it the street continues it's it's still uh it's still continuing and and uh i'm i'm having fun doing it and if if i weren't having fun doing it i would stop doing it especially the website i mean if i if i wouldn't have wouldn't have fun posting on the website i just wouldn't post so if i'm still posting you know i'm still having fun well before we let you go and uh get back to work or relaxing or posting on fun with bonus is there anything that you wanted to touch on steve um i think we covered a lot of it i mean yeah we touched we touched on the new pinball dictionary a little bit we touched on some other thing i mean did you have any do you have any terms do you want to suggest for the dictionary you get some special editorial dispensation on the i would guarantee that i've got some terms that i say during pinball that might oh no but yeah there are a lot of terms in the hopper that i haven't done that uh that are literally just like, okay, come on, let's get on board. A lot of the terms are on Tilt Forums. If you're a member of Tilt Forums and you search for the New Pinball Dictionary, a lot of the good suggestions are from there. What are some examples of words and definitions that people can find that they might not have thought of? Oh, man, let me go to the page now. Just go to newpinballdictionary.com. We'll actually put you right to it. And, of course, where I attempt to explain Fun With Bonus on it, which was really cool because I got to show that Fumbler Phone is not just pinball. I'm going to start one that's F this game, the pinball dictionary. I was going to say, it's all the things that I say when I can't come close to grand champing again. TMF, this motherfucker. It's like too much information, too much profanity. TMP, too much profanity here. I got stuff up here from back in the day like the Eddie Murphy is when somebody plays a four-player game by themselves because Eddie Murphy does all those characters. That's awesome. I got a bunch of kids that Eddie Murphy my machines all the time. Right. So things like that. Everybody out of the pool is from when all the balls leave the play field at once. Just picking some up like house party. But then I go to some of the mainstays, like what's an in-lane pass, what's a drop catch, those basic things I also have in there. But then there's also like Lance Armstrong, where it only takes one ball to win. Oh, hey. I like that. Well, I pull the Britney Spears all the time with the oops, I did it again. It's right in my house ball. So I do that quite often. Right. So, yeah, just check out newpinballdictionary.com. That's sort of like the Hall of Fame, the ones that get promoted to that page. But really, go to Tilt Forums and search for New Pinball Dictionary. There's a relatively long forum post of people who make suggestions that they upvote and talk about. And it was basically my attempt to try and figure out pinball's jargon because poker has a jargon, and they use their jargon plus certain things like putting cameras in the felt to make poker very popular. And so when that was happening, I said, well, why is poker so popular? I guess people know some of the jargon. I mean, there's no reason why I should know what big slick is or what the computer hand is, but I know it from poker. So what are some of the phrases in pinball that we use? And so I started doing some of the ones that I had heard in areas that I visited, and then other things started coming in, and other things started getting supported, and other synonyms started happening. And then we see East Coasters use this, and West Coasters use this, and this league does this. And so that's why you'll see some synonyms and things like that. Well, we'll have a couple Midwest terms for you by the time we see you at TPS. Right. For sure. For sure. Right. In fact, all you listeners of the Special Winley Pinball Podcast, do us a favor and post your pinball dictionary terms on our page, and we will forward the best over to Steven Bowden and see if we can get it in the pinball dictionary. Absolutely. I encourage it because it's good to learn not only the official jargon, but also the unofficial – The slang, sorry. The slang jargon. What's wrong with that? Sometimes, again, it's just fun to look through, and then I see all this, and I'm like, wow, wow, this is a lot of stuff here. I was like, okay, this is pretty good. It's entertaining content, and it's educational. So, I mean, you're knocking out two birds with a stone on that one. So if people want to reach out to you, Steve, what's the easiest way to get a hold of you? The easiest way to find what I'm doing is just to, surprisingly, if you search Fun With Bonus Pinball on Google, it will come up pretty well. My SEO is pretty good on Fun With Bonus. I used to lag behind the slot machines because it would be like fun with bonus modes on this game, you know, but I think I've gotten it popular enough to where if you just search fun with bonus on Google, you'll find me. So it's funwithbonus.com, fun with bonus on Instagram, fun with bonus on Twitter, Facebook group, the Facebook page, YouTube channel occasionally. And yeah, that's me. Well, Steve, I can't thank you enough for coming on the show. it's been an honor talking to you and we're looking forward to meeting you at tpf man i mean good luck with everything that you're doing and we'll continue to follow you and root for you and uh we're excited to see what happens with you moving forward for sure well thank you so much for having me on it was it was very fun and i can't believe we've already been on an hour that was oh yeah oh we we could have put this in the three segments and done probably a three-hour show actually this was this is great thank you so much for having me on absolutely but next time we got to make sure to be talking about when we ran into you at the gas station or Jimmy John's or the subway, you know, and come running up to you, Steve. That's awesome. Exactly. See, now I know when someone runs up, I'll know, it's like, oh, yep, yep, it's Cannonville. Well, now if anybody runs up, he's just going to assume it's right about time. I'm going to assume it is until I look and see it's not. Okay. It'd be a great story, though. And you know what Steve's going to say when he sees you, right? You don't look anything like your voice. Right. You're going to pull that card on me. That's all right. That's okay. Nope. No, all fun and games. No worries there. Absolutely. But thank you for making the time and being on the show today and taking the time to walk us through everything about Steve. All right. Thank you so much for having me. It was great fun. And we've spoken competitive pinball for the first time ever on Special Woodley Pinball Podcast. So, Steve, you pioneered that today. We did it. Nicely done. I am done. Contrary to popular belief, you heard about competitive pinball and Special Win Lit. Dun, dun, dun. But we want to thank Steve for joining the show. This has been episode number 36 of Special Win Lit Pinball Podcast. For those of you that are trying to reach out to us, you can do so at SpecialWinLitPinballPodcast at gmail.com. We also have the Facebook page set up where you're going to go ahead and introduce your pinball dictionary terms that we'll send over to Steve. And that's at SpecialWinLitPinballPodcast on Facebook. Bill, it's been a fun time. We're going to try to shovel out of here so that you can leave the studio. Yeah, before we get snowed in. Yeah, well, you might already be snowed in. That's true. In which case, we'll just have to, I don't know, sit down and think about pinball. Nothing wrong with that. Nope. All right, so I guess everybody have a good morning, good afternoon, good evening. And don't forget to take some time out of your day and play some pinball. So long, everybody. _(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_ --- *Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: a04868b6-6a99-4f86-bb03-cc84d368656c*