# Ghostbusters (Stern 2016)

**Source:** Mystery Pinball Theater 3000  
**Type:** video  
**Published:** 2020-05-09  
**Duration:** 36m 9s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3AU2BAStWk

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## Analysis

Manu Smith from Mystery Pinball Theater 3000 streams Ghostbusters (Stern 2016) from his garage for the first time with a rented machine, playing casually and discussing gameplay mechanics, streaming setup challenges, and lighting techniques. His son joins him for several games, demonstrating strong reflexes and beating Manu's scores. The stream includes technical discussion about camera work, playfield lighting, LED systems (Hue, LIFX, Nanoleafs), and virtual pinball alternatives.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Stern Ghostbusters doesn't have magnetized slingshots that drive Manu nuts like other versions do — _Manu explicitly praises the Stern version for lacking the problematic magnetic slingshots of other machines_
- [HIGH] Manu had to tighten the tilt bob on the rented Ghostbusters machine — _Manu mentions he 'had to tighten the tilt when this came' and later confirms 'I had to tighten it, guys'_
- [HIGH] Good playfield lighting can be achieved with a $89 camera (CX-405) rather than expensive $4,500 playfield cameras — _Manu states: 'go ahead and spend $4,500 on a playfield cam. Not my man. $89 for a CX-405 and it looks great. It's all about lighting.'_
- [HIGH] Manu is using two Pinstadium Extreme lighting systems on the Ghostbusters machine — _Direct statement: 'I currently have on this machine, I have two Pinstadium Extremes'_
- [HIGH] Manu's son beat him in Ghostbusters on only his second game with a score of 47 million — _Manu states: 'This is the second game Micah played of this, and I... I have not beat him yet. He just cracks up 47 million, and Daddy hasn't beat him yet.'_

### Notable Quotes

> "this is the first time i ever had my hands on a pinball machine in my house on free play"
> — **Manu Smith**, early in stream
> _Establishes this as a significant personal milestone for the streamer's pinball journey_

> "It's all about lighting. So I currently have on this machine, I have two Pinstadium Extremes."
> — **Manu Smith**, mid-stream technical discussion
> _Core technical advice about streaming quality; emphasizes lighting infrastructure over expensive camera equipment_

> "I'm a grown ass man just a little bit [pissed] when my son beat me and left"
> — **Manu Smith**, after Micah leaves
> _Humorous self-aware commentary on competitive dynamics with his son during the stream_

> "the fact that I don't have a graphics card here is hurting my stream. Because the X264 encoder is good, but it's not great."
> — **Manu Smith**, technical setup discussion
> _Technical limitation acknowledgment; explains streaming quality constraints from garage location_

> "we have pinball and I was like yeah we have pinball you're welcome"
> — **Manu Smith**, neighbor interaction
> _Light-hearted comment about the novelty of having a pinball machine in the garage_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Manu Smith | person | Host of Mystery Pinball Theater 3000, streamer, pinball enthusiast. Streaming Ghostbusters from his garage for content creation. |
| Mystery Pinball Theater 3000 | organization | Pinball streaming show and content platform hosted by Manu, featuring both virtual and physical pinball gameplay |
| Ghostbusters (Stern 2016) | game | Stern Pinball licensed game based on Ghostbusters franchise. Rented by Manu for streaming; subject of gameplay and technical discussion throughout stream |
| Sean | person | Pinball operator who rented the Ghostbusters machine to Manu; operates multiple machines on free play |
| Micah Smith | person | Manu's son; joined stream briefly and played multiple games of Ghostbusters, demonstrating strong reflexes and beating Manu's score (47 million on second game) |
| George | person | Appears to be a tech expert/collaborator referenced multiple times regarding lighting systems (Hue lights), streaming setup, and pinball technical details. May be involved with Expression Lighting or similar systems. |
| Matt Scott | person | Mentioned during stream as greeting/presence in chat; known pinball community figure and code designer |
| Karl DeAngelo | person | Referenced in chat discussion about DMD capture techniques; known pinball streamer and designer |
| Stern Pinball | company | Manufacturer of Ghostbusters pinball machine being reviewed and streamed |
| Multimorphic P3 | product | Modular pinball platform discussed in context of playfield lighting and interactive DMD mechanics |
| Pinstadium Extreme | product | LED playfield lighting system used by Manu (two units) on the Ghostbusters machine for streaming video quality |
| Philips Hue | product | Smart lighting system discussed as option for ambiance lighting; Manu considering purchasing for garage setup |
| LIFX | product | Smart lighting alternative to Hue, mentioned in chat as cheaper and better-performing with improved saturation |
| Nanoleafs | product | Modular smart lighting system mentioned as preferred by chat participant 'Roboctopus' |
| Pinball 2000 | product | Vintage Williams pinball platform featuring LCD/CRT integration; Manu criticizes Harry Williams for burying the patent and preventing modern Pinball 2000 revivals |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Streaming setup and technical infrastructure, Playfield lighting for video quality, Ghostbusters (Stern 2016) gameplay mechanics and strategy
- **Secondary:** Smart home lighting integration (Hue, LIFX, Nanoleafs), Gameplay comparison: father vs. son competitive dynamics, Virtual pinball platforms and alternatives, Camera equipment and video production for pinball streaming
- **Mentioned:** Pinball machine maintenance (tilt bob adjustment)

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.82) — Manu expresses genuine excitement about having a pinball machine in his home/garage, enthusiasm for gameplay learning and improvement, and appreciation for streaming community engagement. Minor frustration expressed about streaming technical limitations and losing to his son, but delivered humorously. Overall tone is upbeat, educational, and community-focused.

### Signals

- **[community_signal]** Manu establishing new streaming schedule combining physical and virtual pinball (potentially Friday for physical, Monday/Wed/Thu/Tue for virtual). Building audience participation through chat interaction and technical discussions. (confidence: high) — Manu states: 'I'll probably stream this guy once a week and maybe virtual once a week um i'll figure out what nights those are'
- **[community_signal]** Chat participation from known pinball community figures (Matt Scott, Karl DeAngelo, Roboctopus) indicates established audience and community recognition of MPT3K platform. (confidence: medium) — References to Matt Scott, Karl DeAngelo, and various chatters offering technical advice and equipment recommendations
- **[content_signal]** MPT3K diversifying content to include physical pinball streaming alongside existing virtual pinball (VPX/VPW) content, potentially expanding audience reach and content portfolio. (confidence: high) — Multiple references to streaming schedule including Starship Troopers, Stargate, and other VPX tables alongside physical Ghostbusters
- **[design_philosophy]** Manu criticizes Harry Williams' decision to bury Pinball 2000 patent, preventing modern LCD/DMD hybrid table development and expressing preference for nostalgic mechanics over modern platforms. (confidence: medium) — Manu: 'I really think you know Harry Williams is stupid for for burying that patent not letting us do any more Pinball 2000 tables'
- **[technology_signal]** Emphasis on affordable camera/lighting solutions ($89 camera vs $4,500 alternatives) challenging expensive playfield streaming assumptions. Discovery and discussion of multiple smart lighting platforms (Hue, LIFX, Nanoleafs, Yeelights) suggests streaming accessibility innovation. (confidence: high) — Manu: 'go ahead and spend $4,500 on a playfield cam. Not my man. $89 for a CX-405 and it looks great. It's all about lighting.'

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## Transcript

 is this thing on we live are we live do we have it do we have pinball sign yes we do oh my goodness wide shot whoosh hello welcome mpt3k here uh and uh tonight is going to be the first game of a month of games of the first pinball machine i've ever had in my house well not really in my house as you can see i'm in my garage because i didn't want to bring it all the way up to the house we live on the second floor but i plan to have a whole lot of fun with this game and i plan to play it a lot and i plan to learn it and maybe maybe get my name up on here because the high scores on here are ridiculous but thank you sean for uh for renting me this beautiful one two three ghostbusters it's a pro it's actually the one i like i like the pro because it doesn't have the crazy you know magnetized slingshots that just oh drive me nuts they can just sling the ball right out and there's there's no ball safe for those things so um yeah so i got into my garage and uh i'm not gonna stop streaming virtual i'll probably stream this guy once a week and maybe virtual once a week um i'll figure out what nights those are i think i can put a schedule together i think maybe friday nights i can stream um this guy here and then maybe another uh maybe wednesday or thursday or tuesday maybe monday maybe monday i can stream virtual um there are a lot of really good virtual tables out now i've got to stream like Starship Troopers and Stargate. And they play really well and they're really fun. And it's a chance for me to try games that I don't usually try. This is... Hey, what's up? What's up, Kennedy? Mr. Kennedy, how are you? Yep, yep. I am not afraid of ghosts either. So this is exciting for me because this is the first time I've ever had my hands on a pinball machine in my house on free play. Free play. So let's get started. Look at these high scores, though. I mean, they're not huge, but to get on the board right now, I need $3 billion. My high right now is like $1.5 billion. But, yeah, thank you. Very cool. But you gotta work there. You kinda gotta work for it a little bit to get there. Welcome aboard, rookie. Alright. So what I'm going to do is This is the first time I've ever had The ability to just play a game on my own Grind it out I'm in the garage The car is right there But I got my speaker and I got my tunes So I'm going to play a couple of games But then I'm going to turn this down And just crank my tunes What's up? Snivy tries You just have to You just have to have the ghost of a chance exactly um so i'm gonna play a couple games here with the sound up and then i'm gonna turn the sound down and just jam to my own tunes i hope you guys don't mind um i'm not playing 80s let's do this let's get a couple a couple up on the volume um how about five billion or bust oh jeez i wish i i'm i'm terrible at that shot right there um yeah i'll give you an example so what's easy right back up spooked librarian and back off man i don't know is it easy we'll find out also this is the first time i've streamed from the garage so guys let me know if everything looks good and um it's definitely i always blow that shot it's definitely a a trick to getting um to getting uh internet down here in my garage now that it's not lit i can hit it a million times ah ball safe thank you everything looks good to me thank you unfortunately there's not going to be a chance of Skyler showing up and no pinball sheen right now because he's he's sleeping as opposed to when it's sitting in my office um now I gotta hit ghosts don't I that sucks oh god let's line those shots up let's line those freaking shots up come on so here's what I learned Damn it. So you hit 10 ghosts, you light lock for storage. You'll live. Alright, let me, let me, I'm just, right now I'm just trying to settle into this game because it just came yesterday. And I got to get some time with it before I can turn into a pro. Wow! Okay. that's an easy bounce right there but i want to pass it over and i want to hit there there we go all right spook librarian we get spooked librarian and we get back off man then we get a um not like that but i got a no ball save i'm going to turn that down a little bit because it's a little bit loud i'm still tuning this stuff in i'm still tuning it in trust me once i get once i get going let's let's catch 10 goats so we can light a lot probably not a good thing to do oh okay well blew that actually i could still i could still do it got it that's 10 ghosts that means it lights the lock let's do don't cross the streams because that's the way easy way to get some points all right here we go Gotcha, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha, gotcha 3, 2, 3, 2, 1 3, 2, 3, 2 Ah It's not that hard, it's actually kind of easy, but If you get too crazy, you cross the streams That is not a lock This is an easy catch here That's a backhand Oh boy That ramp feels so satisfying Oh crap That was close I also had to tighten the tilt when this came The tilt Guys it was almost as if Hang on I got somebody knocking behind me Oh my god, Micah. Come on, come on, come on. Oh my god. My son. I thought you weren't interested in Ghostbusters at all. No, I just came down here because I wanted to come down. Oh, okay. Bedtime is bedtime, man. oh look the better player the better player walked in alright so since you're here you gotta play no you're not gonna come down here and not play you gotta play now you made daddy dream the best game ever so you gotta play now and then you're gonna go to bed soon Mr. Kennedy says what's up little man Wow Did you guys see that live catch Go ahead I didn't even know I did that Oh No All day ramps Alright I know but then It's like I taught him everything he knows Alright here we go Welcome Welcome to the garage Micah Yeah I do it myself thank you I won let the game do it Alright let start something Let's have Daddy start something right now. Jedi McMuffin, what's up, ba-baby? Well, I'm here, it's late at night, and my son is with me, so that means we are at home. Because... Ah! Because I have a Ghostbusters now. Rookie. You're up. Rookie. Rookie. You're up. Rookie. Italy. Rookie. United States of America. Super Jackpot? Which one do you go for? What do I go for? I usually go for advanced multipliers and start scene. So you got to start the scene on the railroad track. So go for it. Like right there. Yeah. Are you sure you tightened the tilt bob and not removed it? I had to tighten it, guys. It was so... No. You can still get it. Oh, I didn't. Okay, now Slimer's here. You can still get the... You can still get the... Slimer? Don't worry about Slimer. Okay. Yeah, but he's in the way. Don't worry about him. Why am I... Uh-oh. No panic flip is in his house. No panic flip is in his house. That was close. No! The Larry Brothers. Oh, start a spook librarian. What's up? My son's beating me. That's what's up. Alright, shoot the yellows. Be careful of the Skull Iron Brothers. Oh, that. Wow. Okay. No! No bullshit. You got it. Kick his booty. Yeah, good tip. Now, don't forget to hit the yellows. He's back. Ooh. Ooh. Super jackpot! Nice. Alright hit the blues Yeah I know this mode Okay I rather than rip Jackpot is lit Oh super jackpot's there Or Up the Same Almost No that went straight down. It can do anything. Micah. Bonus held. So, guess what, guys? This is the second game Micah played of this, and I... What's up, Penn Stadium? This is the second game Micah played of this, and I have not beat him yet. He just cracks up 47 million, and Daddy hasn't beat him yet. How you doing, Scott? He's got reflexes. Yeah, he does. Uh, this game, this, uh, let's see. Wait, we got bits. We got bits. Can we get some bites, too? Uh, let's see. What is exclamation point random? I don't know if that does anything on mine. It might do something on George's. It doesn't do anything. Oh, right. Roboctopus is showing you what to do, but the lights are upstairs. I don't have my hue lights down here. Is your pinball machine in the dark? Light it up with Oh, that was me That was Scott Alright, here we go Micah, I have to beat you now At a game in front of my friends If I can If daddy can just make that giant shot right there Which I always screw up Are you trolling me? What? No Okay Alright Good man, love all your tweaks and toys in the stream. Oh, you should see George's stream. His is ridiculous. Mine is like half of his. It has a lot of effects. Yes. George has a lot of effects. Yes. Wait, if there's any ramp I know how to hit, it's that one. But holy smokes. Well, there goes daddy. Player one, you're up. Alright. Hello again In a battle of ghosts It's father and son The battle is hot We'll see who's won I think to me The father will lose The son is hit He's the hottest news So fight for your fans Mr. 3K Either youth or experience Will win this day That kind of Oh my god Can I wrap that? I'm gonna wrap that next this i will admit this is not my ghostbusters i was not going to go through an entire pandemic without playing pinball so i rented this from uh a uh an operator named sean who has pretty much a lot of machines in free go watch and uh he brought it by yesterday yesterday right yeah he brought it by yesterday we set it up i cleaned it up and threw some pin stadiums on it and we are set What do I have to hit, Micah? 30, 50 million? Yeah, that'll be good. Come on, man. I got you. I got you, bro. Boom! Boom! I got you, bro. Oh, come on. That was robbed. I got you, bro. You know I got you, right, bro? That was a crazy one. Okay. I still got a ball save? Jeez. Ro has no one Right now Who's saying that? That's sad Don't you have to go to bed though? Yeah I definitely have to go to bed You do? Yeah Okay But I just came down here for a reason Thank you See ya Okay Are you gonna be able to see Going upstairs? You wanna use that? I was wondering where this was Okay go use that You want me to bring it back or something? No I'll be okay I don't wanna go I'll use my phone Alright Bye Bye There is A little bit of me that's a little pissed right now Just a little bit Like I'm a grown ass man Just a little bit Um Alright let me check Let me catch up on chat Oh great good for you guys Yeah yo Yo the better half can throw me an idea And I'll write something for him Yeah he's gone sorry Kids winning yes oh boy whatever your little me is your little me has changed so much you think so yeah he has go back to an old stream you'll cry wow i don't want to i don't you don't want to watch him grow up man no no he's not growing up he's he's like over he's kind of over pinball though because i was i'm surprised he came down he's kind of like i'll play maybe i'm like we have a ghostbusters at home he's like i don't know um all right all right George you can help me a little here I should not start with back off Man though I wondering what to start with I can hit that. Alright, now I can put up some scores because my kid's gone. I don't have to worry about him feeling bad. Um... I just hope everything's looking and sounding good. My internet in my house is terrible. So it's very depressing over a pandemic to have a terrible internet. So I don't see me dropping any frames or anything, but... Right into the river of slime. You like the wood background? You know what's funny about the wood background? I was like, well, I got an ugly wood background behind me. And I said, wait, I have a fake backdrop upstairs. And I pulled the fake backdrop out of the closet. It's a fake brick wall. I have a fake backdrop of a fake brick wall. More of a rustic feel. get up there oh forget it that was the wrong nudge everything is i like the wood background i'm over feel i actually like that too kind of want the want wall paneling like it i actually i actually lit that wall too i'm a video guy so here's so here's here's what i'm i'm running up against the the streaming, the fact that I don't have a graphics card in here is hurting my stream. Because the X264 encoder is good, but it's not great. But I wanted to show off how when you well light, when you well light a playfield, that's all you have to do is really light your playfield well. George knows that I've been struggling with people who are not lighting their playfields right and they're blaming it on their cameras. I'm like, well, you can spend, go ahead and spend $4,500 on a playfield cam. Not my money. $89 for a CX-405 and it looks great. It's all about lighting. So I currently have on this machine, I have two Pinstadium Extremes. And in addition to that In addition to Oh I almost made it Get up there In addition to that I have some external lighting going too I have an external light right here Right here And I have ambient light above I've got so much light Hitting this table right now most people most people then then here's the next thing that happens a light the play field and they'll be a dark like they'll be totally in the dark i'm like well no you have to light yourself too i'm sorry if you guys need to understand but you're doing video shoots now cameras do not do anything without light the way cameras get information is light so that's my struggle right now it's just interesting you know it's because it's like you know this thing this whole thing started this current situation whole started and everybody jumped out of the woodwork because everyone's bored and they want to stream and i'm like that's cool everybody can stream go for it but but to dump a whole lot of money in places that don't make any sense doesn't make any sense to me. God, that ramp is so hard. George, how's the kick out of that scoop on yours? I mean, mine is... This is terrible. It's like, it's gonna drain no matter what. Alright, let's do something right for a moment. Oh! I just got texted Lighting, lighting, lighting Are you rhyming again, Snipe? Because I don't know how to read your things Let me try it You know what would be cool? Have a table that you have to have very little light on The table itself is very specific light sources And a ball that absorbs The light to glow And have a light shine To create a shadow on the wall behind you Wow, that's Well Yeah Um here's a guy who knows all about lighting Color red George you know you're changing the lights In my office upstairs You know you're freaking my family out Every time you send a light command It's actually doing it in my house Um I'm thinking of Now it's a rave Up in my house I'm thinking of getting a couple of um A couple of hue lights And just throwing them up Because I can imagine after this there may be some pinball machines in my garage from now on even my neighbor my neighbor came down and she looked and she was like we have pinball and I was like yeah we have pinball you're welcome that's actually not a shot let's do a shot There we go Let's bonus Let's get that bonus up Oh man You can't trap I can't trap I trap too much in this game It's kind of punishing If you're trying to trap all the time But I do have And I have my my fun friends there and my fun buddies down here, my Rift buddies. So they're still here. I will. Actually, that gives me a really awesome idea. Imagine a table that uses a DMD playfield that reacts to the ball. Are you talking about P3? Are you literally reinventing P3? The monsters and ghosts that appear and chase the ball on targets. I think Not P3, what is it called? You know, Lexi Lightspeed and Yeah, he is It's like Lexi Lightspeed and those tables There needs to be a good balance I wish they would Pull that old Pinball 2000 patent out of the garbage Jeez Because that was fun I feel like that could go somewhere the pin stadium not the pin stadium P-Rock yeah P-Rock oh shoot I really think I really think you know Williams is stupid for for burying that patent not letting us do any more pinball 2000 tables if I'm referencing something I had no idea I've never seen them. Multimorphic P-Rock P3s. Yeah. The LIFX are much better and have improved saturation compared to the Hue. You should check them out. George, do you have an API for the... What is it? LIFX? Do you have an API for the... I don't think you have an API for the LIFX built yet, right? Any specific things I can look up? They're on my list. Oh, okay. Oh, you just picked them up? Dude. Dude. Yo, I'll wait. Seriously, I will wait if... George, if they're cheaper and better than Hue. I not super interested in buying a new hue light system man I haven played real pinball in a while so I really like they expensive they're more it's all right well you got to show me that there three times is better before I could spend three times as much on them because if I I can get a couple of hue lights. My wife will not go for hue lights all throughout the house. Maybe she'll go for the white ones, but she's not going for the RGB ones. So it's up to me now. It's like I'm the only one who's going to use them. I'll buy a couple. Throw them down here. Just because a Roboctopus is awesome. That's it? For a swoop librarian? Okay. Oh god, stop flipping so much! Come on! Get over! Boom! Boom! I gotta thrust my hips forward when I do that. Nanoleafs. I love the Nanoleafs. You love the Nanoleafs? I love the nightlife. I got to boogie. Okay, okay, don't go up the ramp on the backhand. Forehand! Oh, that was, that Okay, okay, don't go up the ramp on the backhand. Forehand! Oh, that was, that sucked. Oh, no, no, no, here we go. Boom, got it. Boom! No, that was gonna fail. Sailable! Okay, they're different, they're different as all, and am I saying that right? Lifex? The same ballpark. So I didn't know that the idea was actually a thing Is there anything I can look up? You're still talking about the pinball machine? Yeah I have 2x yeelights Which is similar to Hughes but half the price Should I get yeelights? Yeah, I did get greedy Should I get yeelights? Multimorphic P-Rock Go look up that Go look up that Snivy alright so far so good always start seeing you know what let's go back up the stairs or the railroad or whatever the hell that thing is I'm going to play one more game like this but then I'm going to start I'm going to start some tunes don't waste your ball save This is me knowing too much about a game. The more I know about the game, the lower my score gets. Yo, how does Carl D'Python Anghelo direct capture his DMD? How does he do that? Does anybody know? I really want to know how to direct capture a DMD. Damn Scalaries. rid of them got rid of them Ernie Hudson don't tell me how to run my life I need to get somewhere first before I go for super jackpots that was a bit much yes Yes. Holy smokes. That flipper gap. You know what? You gotta learn... I mean, George, you probably know this really well. You just gotta learn how not to... To do things to get into that situation. How not to get yourself... How not to get yourself in situations where you're gonna get screwed. Oh my god. Oh my god. Okay, no switches. Ah, skillshot has been eluding me. He slimed me. Let's go up again. So do I. So I just learned, right? Now, somebody tell me another way to get locks on this. but you gotta get 10 ghosts. Then you gotta get... Damn it. 10, then 30, then 50? Is that how it works? Is there something else you can do to light lock? Give me ghosts. Captive ball. That guy. Oh I've been doing it the hard way every time ballroom is hard so I've been doing it the really hard way Um... Man, I can't make that backhand anymore. Ah, you can make it up the ramp, but you can't qualify the shot sometimes. Nope, nope, nope. Whoa! There is a tilt bob in here. Trust me. How did that happen? Oh, I got storage facility from a friggin' mystery award. That's cool. Whack. Whack. He must have a special board code on it. I know Deadflip. It's got his Stern connection as well. It's all in the decoding of the video signal. Since there's not an adapter. Thank you for the follow. Edderything? Edderything? Thank you so much. It's all decoded with signals. Yeah, there's no adapter for that kind of thing. I just think it's kind of cool. Lexi is okay. They actually have another one that is better. Oh, shit. I was right there. Alright, I need some tunes. Heist. Yes. So Heist is the latest one. By the way, tonight we're drinking... that. Because we got a ton of them at Costco. And for my first stream, I didn't want to be blasted out of my mind.

_(Acquisition: youtube_groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: a4330fee-10ab-4647-aa60-a0ecd729b317*