# Episode 172 – The BZR Show

**Source:** Slam Tilt Podcast  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2021-08-21  
**Duration:** 107m 7s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.slamtiltpodcast.com/2021/08/20/episode-172-the-bzr-show/

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## Analysis

Ron Hallett and Bruce Nightingale of the Slam Tilt Podcast discuss two major industry stories: Steve Ritchie's surprise departure from Stern Pinball to Jersey Jack Pinball (announced August 2nd after resigning July 26th), and the revelation that programmer Lyman Sheets also left Stern at the end of the previous year. The hosts express skepticism about why Ritchie would leave Stern for Jersey Jack given the latter's production struggles and game design philosophy differences. They also cover Allentown Pinball Expo experiences, impressions of Ultraman and Halloween prototypes, and upcoming launch events.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Steve Ritchie quit Stern on July 26th with only one week notice and joined Jersey Jack Pinball, with the announcement made official on August 2nd — _Ron and Bruce confirmed this was announced by Jersey Jack with official video/photos of Ritchie entering the factory; Reddit post appeared at 3:45 PM on July 26th_
- [HIGH] Ritchie began negotiations with Jersey Jack in March after deciding he wasn't having fun at Stern anymore — _Information sourced from Jersey Jack podcast where Steve told his own story; confirmed by Slam Tilt hosts who had heard about March timeline from people 'in the know'_
- [MEDIUM] Steve Ritchie completed two Whitewoods for upcoming Stern games during his negotiation period with Jersey Jack — _Ron and Bruce discuss this 'supposedly' based on information they heard; uncertain whether Stern will use them_
- [HIGH] Lyman Sheets left Stern Pinball at the end of the previous year and this was not widely known until mentioned in passing in a Pinball News article — _Discovered in Pinball News article about AC/DC Spider-Man as a passing sentence mentioning Lyman co-created the game with software/rules work_
- [MEDIUM] Jersey Jack games have problematic flipper mechanics that may be fixable through software, and Steve Ritchie thumbs-upped a Facebook comment suggesting he would fix Jersey Jack's 'crappy flippers' — _Hosts discuss flipper issues as potential software problem; Ritchie's thumbs-up reaction mentioned by hosts but not directly verified_
- [HIGH] Ultraman sold out at Allentown despite mixed reception, with attendees reportedly already selling their spots days after playing the prototype — _Hosts observed multiple 'selling my spot' ads for Ultraman appearing within days of the stream, suggesting regret after seeing gameplay_
- [MEDIUM] Spooky is working on ball staging improvements for Ultraman as a post-release feature fix — _Hosts mention this was mentioned on the stream; Zach notes it's 'cut by Fox' and will take 'like six months'_
- [HIGH] Rochester Co-op is hosting a launch party for Mandalorian on September 11th featuring two LE versions and a pro Star Wars original pinball machine — _Zach directly confirms event details including nine-hole golf qualifying tournament with 4-2-1-0 scoring finals format, $20 admission with IFPA dollar covered_

### Notable Quotes

> "He wasn't having fun. Yes. I guess the timeline is in March he decides he's not really having fun anymore there at Stern."
> — **Bruce Nightingale**, ~10:00
> _Establishes the core reason Ritchie left Stern Pinball according to hosts' understanding_

> "Of all the manufacturers who don't need another designer, Jersey Jack is probably the top one. Yeah, I just... They can't even keep up with their two designers."
> — **Ron Hallett**, ~15:00
> _Expresses skepticism about Ritchie's career move given Jersey Jack's known production issues_

> "Steve Ritchie thumbs up the post. Which I thought was hilarious. We can all pray. Yes, we all can pray. For the love of God, please do some flippers."
> — **Bruce Nightingale (about Facebook reaction)**, ~20:00
> _Suggests Ritchie's humorous acknowledgment of Jersey Jack flipper problems and hints at potential fix plans_

> "You figure, number one, they're all working from home. Yes. Right? And he was working on a viral, which I guess, pretty much done. He works alone from stuff I've heard. He's an island, if you will."
> — **Ron Hallett (about Lyman Sheets)**, ~35:00
> _Explains why Lyman's departure went unnoticed internally at Stern—isolated work arrangement during remote work era_

> "I kind of start finding where all the shots are. And like 15 minutes later, my ball two ends. I turn around, and they're gone."
> — **Bruce Nightingale (about Mandalorian gameplay at Allentown)**, ~75:00
> _Anecdote illustrating Mandalorian's easy/accessible playfield design_

> "People actually saw the game, and now they're regretting their purchase. Watching the game, playing the game, I don't get how they say it has tons of flow."
> — **Zach (about Ultraman)**, ~65:00
> _Indicates post-stream regret among Ultraman buyers based on observed gameplay quality concerns_

> "It's flowier than other games. What? No. Maybe they mean when you're on an upper play field, and you can hit a repeatable loop or something, that that's flow?"
> — **Ron Hallett (skeptical about Ultraman flow claims)**, ~68:00
> _Hosts question marketing claims about Ultraman's playfield flow based on gameplay observations_

> "I have no interest in Halloween. If I was going to buy one of the two, it would have been Ultraman."
> — **Zach**, ~60:00
> _Direct preference statement between two Spooky prototypes shown at Allentown_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Steve Ritchie | person | Legendary pinball designer who departed Stern Pinball on July 26th to join Jersey Jack Pinball, effective approximately August 2nd announcement. Known for designing High Speed, Black Knight, Star Wars titles, and Led Zeppelin. Left Stern citing lack of creative fulfillment. |
| Stern Pinball | company | Major pinball manufacturer where Steve Ritchie worked before departing; largest active manufacturer with multiple designer team; experiencing departure of key personnel (Ritchie and Lyman Sheets) |
| Jersey Jack Pinball | company | Mid-sized pinball manufacturer receiving Steve Ritchie as new designer; known for production delays and flipper issues; currently has Pat Waller as head designer; games in pipeline include Guns N' Roses, Toy Story, and future Eric Meunier title |
| Lyman Sheets | person | Stern Pinball programmer who left the company at the end of the previous year (exit date unclear from discussion). Known for working alone/isolated manner, designing code/rules for major titles including Batman, Elvira, Avatar, and AC/DC Spider-Man. Departure was not widely known until mentioned in passing in Pinball News article. |
| Ron Hallett | person | Co-host of Slam Tilt Podcast; previously owned and operated Rochester Game Room; works in pinball community as operator/enthusiast; attended Allentown Expo as staff helper |
| Bruce Nightingale | person | Co-host of Slam Tilt Podcast from upstate New York; pinball enthusiast with collection interests; attended Allentown Expo; has new basement space for pinball games; owns/acquiring multiple Fathom machines |
| Zach | person | Guest co-host on Slam Tilt Episode 172 (BZR Show); involved in Rochester Co-op pinball venue operations; attended Allentown Expo; organizing launch party for Mandalorian pinball with specialty tournament format |
| Pat Waller | person | Jersey Jack Pinball designer described as 'mortal enemy' of Steve Ritchie; announcement featured both appearing together in official photos; positioned as head designer alongside other Jersey Jack designers |
| Allentown Pinball Expo | event | Major pinball show in upstate New York region; recent event featured Ultraman and Halloween prototypes from Spooky; power outage occurred Saturday evening around 7 PM affecting entire area; vendor management issues with abandoned equipment requiring cleanup until 12:30 AM |
| Ultraman | game | Spooky Pinball prototype shown at Allentown Expo; sold out entirely; features cheesy 1960s aesthetic, subway ball return mechanisms causing visibility/flow issues, small/cramped upper playfields with fast/strong flippers. Post-purchase regret evident with buyers selling spots days after stream. Staging improvement in development. |
| Halloween | game | Spooky Pinball prototype shown at Allentown Expo alongside Ultraman; features mostly animated graphics similar to TMNT/Avengers style (minimal movement), occasional movie clips, looping music, described negatively vs Ultraman in comparison stream |
| Mandalorian | game | Recent Stern Pinball release (or near-release); played in multiple locations (Syracuse Dr. Pin, Allentown); appears to have easy/accessible playfield; launch party scheduled September 11th at Rochester Co-op featuring both LE and Pro versions |
| Star Wars (Pinball) | game | Stern Pinball title designed by John Borg; Rochester Co-op launch event will feature pro original Star Wars alongside Mandalorian LEs on September 11th |
| Led Zeppelin | game | Stern Pinball game cited as reference point for playfield density; hosts debate whether it has more ramps/mechs than Jurassic Park; described as 'super fast, flowy' by Bruce |
| Jurassic Park | game | Stern Pinball game with T-Rex mech (Premium-only feature), spinner, multiple ramps; used as comparison point for Bill of Materials/feature density debate vs Led Zeppelin |
| Rochester Co-op | organization | Pinball arcade/venue in Rochester (location) operated/managed by Zach; hosting Mandalorian launch party September 11th with golf pin tournament format; has event space for temporary game rotation/display |
| Pinball News | organization | Pinball news/media outlet that published article about AC/DC Spider-Man containing passing mention of Lyman Sheets' departure; hosts found the casual disclosure notable |
| Spooky Pinball | company | Boutique pinball manufacturer creating Ultraman and Halloween prototypes; mentioned as having vibrant design aesthetic contrasting with Barrels of Fun's muted color palette; developing ball staging software improvements for Ultraman (process delayed by Fox licensing) |
| Hobbit | game | Jersey Jack Pinball game with acknowledged flipper problems; hosts note it would improve significantly if flipper software issues were fixed via backport update |
| AC/DC Spider-Man | game | Stern Pinball game designed as collaboration between designer and Lyman Sheets (software/rules); mentioned in Pinball News article where Lyman's departure was casually revealed |
| Ivan | person | Operator/manager of Allentown Pinball Expo; known for demeanor handling vendor management, cleanup duties (until 12:30 AM Saturday), and dealing with abandoned equipment issues |
| Guns N' Roses | game | Upcoming Jersey Jack Pinball title in production pipeline; expected within next year; part of concern about Steve Ritchie's timeline (would release 2024-2025 when Ritchie would be 74-75 years old) |
| Toy Story | game | Upcoming Jersey Jack Pinball title scheduled after Guns N' Roses in production pipeline; extends timeline concern for Steve Ritchie's age at release |
| Deadpool | game | Stern Pinball game used as example of design work potentially carried over by designer who departed; mentioned as having special circumstances regarding playfield usage |
| Avatar | game | Pinball title mentioned in context of Lyman Sheets' previous programming work; Bruce notes he didn't particularly like it, though disagreement from others on quality assessment |
| Jersey Jack Podcast | product | Official Jersey Jack Pinball podcast where Steve Ritchie told his departure story in his own words; source for details about March negotiations and timeline |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Steve Ritchie's departure from Stern to Jersey Jack Pinball, Lyman Sheets' unannounced departure from Stern Pinball, Jersey Jack Pinball flipper design/software issues
- **Secondary:** Allentown Pinball Expo 2024 experiences and findings, Spooky Ultraman and Halloween prototype evaluation, Mandalorian pinball launch party planning
- **Mentioned:** Playfield design philosophy comparison (Spooky vs other manufacturers), IFPA tournament rules and mechanics

### Sentiment

**Mixed** (0.35) — Hosts express shock and skepticism about Ritchie's move to Jersey Jack (negative), curiosity mixed with concern about Lyman Sheets' disappearance and unknown status (anxious/concerned), enjoyment of Allentown Expo and deals found (positive), but disappointment in Ultraman/Halloween prototypes despite sales success (negative on design/execution). Overall tone is mildly frustrated with industry developments while maintaining community support.

### Signals

- **[event_signal]** Rochester Co-op hosting Mandalorian launch party September 11th featuring nine-hole golf pin tournament qualifying format with 4-2-1-0 final scoring; two LE Mandalorians and one pro Star Wars original on display (confidence: high) — Zach confirms event details directly; $20 admission includes IFPA dollar credit; free-to-play qualifying tournament with finals format specified
- **[community_signal]** Hosts express measured, respectful community support for both Ritchie and Sheets despite industry uncertainty; emphasize that personnel changes are normal and wish them well regardless of circumstances (confidence: high) — Ron/Bruce explicitly state 'I'm glad nobody's hassling him' and 'we hope and pray everything's okay'; acknowledge people change careers; 'good luck Steve, you're still my guy'
- **[product_concern]** Steve Ritchie's move to Jersey Jack raises sustainability questions: Ritchie would be 74-75 years old at next game release (post-Guns N' Roses/Toy Story pipeline); Jersey Jack historically struggles with production capacity (confidence: medium) — Hosts calculate timeline: March start, next game 2024-25, extends to 3-4 years minimum; concern about whether Jersey Jack remains solvent long enough to complete game
- **[design_philosophy]** Jersey Jack Pinball games have problematic flipper mechanics potentially due to software/duty cycle issues; Steve Ritchie thumbs-upped Facebook comment suggesting he would fix flippers upon joining (confidence: medium) — Hosts extensively discuss flipper issues with Hobbit and other JJP games; Ritchie's thumbs-up reaction to flipper complaint mentioned; Zach notes potential software fix possibility
- **[design_philosophy]** Debate over Jersey Jack vs Stern playfield design philosophy: hosts argue Jersey Jack cannot support same Bill of Materials as Stern designs; comparison of Jurassic Park vs Led Zeppelin features inconclusive but indicates perceived design constraints (confidence: medium) — Extended discussion comparing ramps, mechs, and feature density; hosts argue BOM is same but design outputs differ; Ritchie's implied frustration with limitations at Stern suggested as motivation
- **[event_signal]** Allentown Pinball Expo experienced power outage Saturday evening ~7 PM affecting entire region; venue required cleanup until 12:30 AM with junk equipment left by vendors, creating significant operational burden (confidence: high) — Multiple hosts confirm power outage timing/scope; Ron and Zach describe post-11 PM cleanup loading dumpster/trucks; vendor issues with abandoned flea market items
- **[community_signal]** Unclear professional status/intentions of Lyman Sheets post-departure: hosts speculate retirement, sabbatical, FMLA, or personal issues; explicitly decline to speculate negatively and express support for privacy (confidence: low) — Hosts note complete absence of public statements; social media activity patterns (Facebook off/on cycling); explicit policy not to hassle him about status; open invitation to tell his story on podcast
- **[personnel_signal]** Lyman Sheets (Stern programmer) departed company at end of previous year; departure not widely publicized until discovered in passing mention in Pinball News article about AC/DC Spider-Man (confidence: high) — Pinball News article mentioning Lyman created software/rules for AC/DC Spider-Man and 'left Stern at the end of last year'; social media profile changes (Facebook off/on cycles)
- **[personnel_signal]** Steve Ritchie departs Stern Pinball to join Jersey Jack Pinball after 5-month negotiation period beginning in March; announced August 2nd after July 26th resignation (confidence: high) — Official Jersey Jack announcement with video/photos; Reddit post on July 26th; confirmed by multiple industry sources per hosts; sourced from Jersey Jack podcast
- **[product_strategy]** Spooky Pinball working on ball staging improvements for Ultraman as post-release feature; implementation delayed due to Fox licensing approval requirements (estimated 6 months) (confidence: medium) — Mentioned on Ultraman/Halloween stream per Zach; acknowledged as potential game-changer but constrained by Fox licensing approval timeline
- **[product_concern]** Ultraman prototype exhibited significant playfield flow/visibility issues: slow ball return from subway mechanics, invisibility of ball exiting elevators leading to unexpected drains, cramped upper playfields causing difficulty in play (confidence: high) — Direct observation by hosts at Allentown; detailed description of elevator visibility problem; comparison to Halloween showing night-and-day difference in presentation
- **[sentiment_shift]** Ultraman experienced post-purchase regret among buyers; multiple 'selling my spot' advertisements appeared within days of prototype stream demonstration (confidence: medium) — Zach observed influx of resale listing ads appearing after stream aired; hosts note pattern suggests regret after watching gameplay demonstration

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## Transcript

 Now guys, it does take hard work and practice to be a musician. I see you're eager to get started. Why don't you jam out on a few chords? I'll check back with you in a little bit. Okay, have fun. Come on, dumbass, play it. Check this out. Hey-ya! You're gonna die! That was cool, Beaver. We're like on our way. Coming to you from beautiful upstate New York, this is the Slam Chill Podcast, the show about all things pinball. I'm your host, Ron Hallett, here with my co-host, Bruce Nightingale. It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. Okay. Is that Rath of Khan or what it's referring to from Rath of Khan? Well, it was the best of times. It was the worst of times. Okay. And the best of times means we got rid of Cuomo. We got rid of Cuomo. Oh. Also, one thing, I think I sent it to you. It's a playoff of the They Live with Roddy Piper. Yes. what is it? I have come here to kill old people and grope women, and I'm all out of old people. Yep. Yep. That's our guy. And he said he did it because he's old and Italian. Yes. Which really pisses me off. Yes. After all your Italian bullshit last week. Literally, it's like, Hey, what the hell? What's going on with this now? It's the culture. Yeah, it's the culture. It's the Italian way. We're touchy-feely. Like, really, dude? I grab anything I want. I see a person to grab them. I see an ass to grab it. Hey, Machu Picchu. And a welcome to episode 172 of the Slant Cell Podcast. Yes. And we're not alone this week. Yes. It's the BRZ show. The BRZ? The BRZ. Yeah, BRZ. The Bruce, Ron, and Zach show. So our Zach is here. Hi, Zach. Hi. Okay. There we go. Enthusiasm. Enthusiasm. the gimmick is working well. Perfect. I want at least second billing in the list. Can it be the Bruce Dack and Ron show? Yeah, I can agree with that. BZR? Okay, BZR. Okay, I can agree with that. I'll write that down. Maybe I'll make that the title. BZR. All right. We got a packed list here, Bruce, because it's been a while. Three and a half weeks. Yeah, it's been a while, and lots of stuff has happened. Yeah, Friday. We were going to record Sunday, but I had a monster headache. I went to bed like at 6 o'clock that night. Sorry, Bruce. I have a headache. Oh, my. So I have this humongous list here of stuff. Why? So we better get started. Yeah. Let's just go to the news items first. To the two big stories, I guess you could say, while we were away. the big one, Steve Ritchie leaves Stern to go to Jersey Jack Pinball. Yep, we were wrong. We were wrong. So this came up while we were on our little hiatus, and neither of us believed it. But the thing is, at Allentown, we talked to some people who know some people in the know, and they were all saying, nope, it's true. We're like, no. And we still didn't believe it. And then I was hearing, you know, it's going to be announced Monday on, I think, August 2nd. It's going to be announced. And it was like, no. And it was announced August 2nd. So what do we all think about this? It was very surprising. Very surprising. I was really taken back. I don't know why he would decide to leave Stern, where you have a job that's been pretty good. But I guess he felt like he wasn't getting his... He wasn't having fun. Yes. I guess the timeline is in March he decides he's not really having fun anymore there at Stern. So he starts talks with Jersey Jack, which obviously took a while, March to July. Yeah. They talk back and forth and agree to whatever. And then on July, well, actually a couple days before he does this, he tells one person at Stern what he's going to do. And this is all from the Jersey Jack podcast, by the way, if you want to hear it in Steve's own words. Then on Monday, July 26th, he comes into Stern and hands in his resignation and leaves. Bye-bye. See you. No two weeks notice even? He gave one week. Not really. He didn't give one week notice. He just quit. It was a week before he started Jersey Jack, but he just quit on the 26th. Then, I assume that was in the morning. Then, and I checked the times on this. Then at 3.45 p.m. on the Pinball subreddit, a post appears saying, Steve Ritchie to Jersey Jack Pinball. That was like its first appearance. And it ended up on Pinside, and everyone's like, is this true? There's no way this could be true. And it was. Yep. And then on August 2nd, Jersey Jack announced it. They had like a video, pictures of him entering the factory. Some of it was kind of awkward. To be honest. At least. Yeah. I agree. And then he's, like, standing next to his mortal enemy, Pat Waller, and they're, you know, it's like, okay. It's almost like they went out of the way to show that. Like, see? They're okay. Look, they're buddies. They're buddies now. My buddy. My buddy. Whatever he goes. Oh, whatever. Sorry. My buddy and me like to climb up a tree. Okay. So, yeah, that was the timeline. And I guess the week in between him quitting and him going to Jersey Jack, he drank a lot. That's what he said. Wow. What did I do? Here's the issue that I have with this. When's this game going to come out? You've got Guns N' Roses right now. They're going to be doing that in the next year. Then Toy Story after that. Then it's going to be Eric Meunier's next game. So we're talking like 2024, 25. I mean, he's going to be 74, 75 years old. What the hell? Of all the manufacturers who don't need another designer, Jersey Jack is probably the top one. Yeah, I just... They can't even keep up with their two designers. Yeah. I would rather see him go to American Pinball. Yeah, me too, actually. That would have been nice. That silence is just a befuddlement of us trying to figure out why. Does he think... I mean, it's almost like he alluded to the bill of materials, you know, not being able to make the game he wants to make, et cetera. Now, we talked about this before he went on the air. I contend he has the same bill of materials as the other designers do. Okay. Why don't you think that, Bruce? Do you know something we don't? I'm just saying Jurassic Park looks pretty stacked compared to. Yeah, it does. It looks stacked, but it isn't stacked. Well, the mech is pretty cool, which is the T-Rex. On the premium only. On the premium only. So you have, what, the spinner magic? I never remember what it's called. The thing on electric magic, the spinner thingy on Led Zeppelin. A lot more ramps on Jurassic Park. No, they both got three ramps, don't they? No, I think it's only two on four. Yeah, and Led Zeppelin has three. No, Led Zeppelin kind of has four. On the premium. On the premium. On the premium, yeah. Yeah, but standard pro on a Jurassic Park is you have the stand-up also, the toy there with the stand-up for the cage. I think it's got a lot more. And the center hit toy. There's a lot more stuff in that machine than... Yeah, but there's no scoops, no drop targets, you know, none of that stuff on there either. And they've always, in these interviews, they've always contended that all these designers, they get the same, the bomb is the same throughout the organization. The designers get the same bomb. So if he's saying that he can't make the game he wants to make, I'm going to fuck them all. He will be able to make it now at Jersey Gap. Like, okay. Yeah. I bet if you just count all the mechs and ramps, I think Led Zeppelin actually comes out ahead by one over Jurassic Park. But Jurassic Park, more than almost any other Stern recently, just does a really good job at filling up the playfield. I have to say, though, I don't see how – I played Led Zeppelin, and the thing is super fast, flowy as hell, et cetera. And I'm playing this, and I'm thinking, how is he going to make a game of Jersey Jack that plays like this? Their flippers are not – their game – Jersey Jack games do not play like this. No, they don't. They play like ass. The funny thing is somebody in the Facebook post made a comment, is you're going to fix Jersey Jack's crappy flippers and Steve Ritchie thumbs up the post. Which I thought was hilarious. We can all pray. Yes, we all can pray. For the love of God, please do some flippers. Maybe even, if it is a software fix, which I still think it is, and they backport it, then maybe Hobbit will actually not be completely awful to play. It'll have like one out of five stars instead of zero to five stars. Hobbit's still terrible. Well, put some tech on it, Zach. Why do their flippers suck again? I still think it's just they're not pulsing them long enough, and then they're running them with, like, a weird duty cycle at the same time. Yes. He said duty. Sorry. So, although I don't have any Jersey Jacks, so I can't play with one to test out, but I think that they could fix it purely in software and even backport it to previous games if anyone wants to donate a New Jersey Jack game I'll fix your flippers for you or fry them in testing maybe both it was the best of times it was the worst of times I don't know how much more we can go good luck Steve you're still my guy hopefully you can make a kickass game of Jersey Jack that Jersey Jack stays in business long enough for you to make the game. Long enough for you to make the game in the next three, four years from now when it comes out. Seven, eight years. Yeah, I think so. Yeah, because we know Jersey Jack, they're having issues getting these games built. Wouldn't it be a dick move like, oh, hey, here we go. Steve's first game coming out. Oh, by the way, his third. We're releasing Steve Ritchie's two Whitewoods at the same time as a dick move. Bill David would just be right into the game, just swap between the two. There you go. Well, maybe we should explain what you mean by that. Supposedly, Steve, in the period where he was negotiating with Jersey Jack, he completed two Whitewoods for upcoming games for Stern. Now, do you think Stern will use either of them? They might use a variation of it, but it could be modified, just like what happened with Deadpool. I mean, I feel like if they already had art and stuff going, like it was that far along maybe but if it was literally just like Whitewoods and he left I doubt they're going to care yeah I don't think just by the Deadpool was way further well Deadpool had a special circumstance but I think if your dog just like died on the toilet or something they might have still used his his was farther along but wouldn't it be a dick move like hey hey I see Dirty Jack just announced the new Steve Ritchie pinball machine get one cheaper from us. Here you go. Yeah, I think they like their teams to be fully invested into what they make, so I don't think they're going to use either of his playfields. I just don't see it. It'd be cool if they just posted him or something. Yeah, I mean, he when he was in his little period between Stern, when he got fired from Stern, and before he got rehired by Stern, he was selling a lot of his CAD drawings of his games, but one of them was actually Avatar. because that was going to be his next game after 24. My dad has that picture, so. Yeah, I have it somewhere. Yep. But to me, the interesting thing is, so this is announced, and Pinball News does an article or a headline on this, and if you read through it, literally as just a passing sentence in the article, it basically says this line. They were talking about ACDC's Spider-Man, and he said these two titles were collaborations with Lyman Sheets, who crafted the game's software and rules. Lyman also left Stern Pinball, in his case, at the end of last year. What? What? It was just like, guys, I don't think this is... Jim Raff-Jim Raff-Jim Raff, Roy. Was Pinball News saying, like, yeah, we already knew this. We figured you guys already knew this already. Nobody knew this. No. He took himself off Facebook and everything like that also. Well, he's been off of Facebook for years. Well, he came back on, like, I think, like, a year ago for, like, a month, and it came right back off. So what do we think about that? Because now I go through Pinside and there's so many. He's going to Jersey Jack. He's going to TTC. He's going here. He's going there. He's going to do this. He's going to do that. No one's just saying, like, maybe he's retired. Maybe he just took a time off. Maybe he's taking a sabbatical. Maybe he's burned out. Yeah. You know, doing these hot, you know, think about it. He did Spike and Spike 2. He did two of the biggest, longest titles by himself, it seemed like, almost, with Batman and with Elvira. Well, that's, see, you said an important thing with himself. And rumors and things that I've heard are people, even people within CERN didn't know he was gone. And you're figuring, like, oh, is this possible? How do they not know? But you figure, number one, they're all working from home. Yes. Right? And he was working on a viral, which was, I guess, pretty much done. He works alone from stuff I've heard. He's an island, if you will. You're getting the full Lyman experience when you get a Lyman game. So I'm sure upper management knew. I mean, obviously, he's gone. Yeah, but if you weren't waiting on him for anything, how would you know? I kind of agree with you. Maybe that's part of why he left, too, is just with the new games, with the color screens and stuff, there's way more programming involved. And we've seen Stern upping the team sizes and all the animators and stuff. But, like, if he's still working by himself, that's a lot more work that he's doing on stuff that's also not the gameplay related, you know. Yeah. And there's way more pressure on him because, I mean, he's one of the only programmers that he's advertised as, like, this is a Lyman game. You know. This is heavily plugged with Batman and heavily plugged with Elvira. Like you're getting the Lyman experience. I can't think of any other programmers there that is at that level. Not that level, but if you notice they did. But that's a lot of pressure. I mean, someone like Bruce here, he expects every Lyman game to be awesome. Isn't it? Exactly. The last one he touched was Avatar that I didn't like. Oh, okay. Being honest. I like Avatar. And it wasn't really the programming. It was the game itself. Oh, I like Avatar. Turd is Avatar. So do we think he's coming back? Do we think he's retired? What do we think? I think he took a sabbatical. He just took time off. He's probably got things going on in his life. Guess what? He could be on FMLA. You don't know what's going on. And guess what? I'm glad nobody's hassling him. Hopefully they're not hassling him. I mean, yeah, he's a private dude, and it's pretty much his business, whatever he wants to do. If he's retired, congratulations. Enjoy your retirement. If you're taking a sabbatical, hopefully you find the resolution you need. If it's something else, we hope and pray that everything's okay with you and your whole family or anything else. That's what I'm going to say. But guess what? People change their MOs all the time. They, you know, look, I owned a bar for three years, you know, then I'm doing this now and I'm now doing this. things change. Just deal with it. Am I upset about it? Of course I'm upset. I love his programming. His programming hits all the buttons for me. The interesting thing is they both kind of together, Steve Ritchie and Lyman in the same article here, if you remember, they both came back to Stern at the same time. Yes, they did. For a couple months. Yeah. And I was announced at the 2011 Texas Pinball Festival, Fire Ember receivers. He said, you know, Lyman's coming back. We're going to be working on a game. And then the next year, the next year they had ACDC. Yep. All right. And if everyone's come back on the show and tell his side of the story, we have open arms. He did tell us he would come back for number two. Oh, yeah, that's right. He did. We got him in 28 episodes. So we got to do, like, 27 short episodes. Yeah, we can just bang those out one day in a row, you know. Exactly. We'll edit them all overnight and we'll lease them. Yeah, perfect. All right. Well, those are the two main news items I had here. The other thing I had here. What have you done in the past month, boys and girls? Well, Allentown. Allentown. Allentown. First big show that I've been to in two years or whatever. Yep. So what did we think of Allentown? So this year they had it. The Carl Weathers was beautiful. That was nice. Except for Thursday. I wasn't there Thursday, but, yeah. I was there Thursday, and it sucked Thursday. I'm sorry. I worked all Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at the show. I helped Ivan out, and it was an experience. I had a great time. It had to be a hard ass sometimes. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. But I enjoyed it very much. I see the other side of, like, I've done shows before, and we've actually ran a Rochester Game Room show. But some of the stuff he puts up with, boy, I wouldn't. And it's just the caliber of his demeanor that he puts up with it. We didn't leave the show Saturday until almost 1230 a.m. because people left games there, junk games. and if he doesn't throw them out himself, the police are going to charge him $150 a game. So people just left games there that they brought in. Yeah, they were trying to sell them. They're pieces of junk. And it was like flea market or like actually in the free play area? Flea market. Yeah. And these were junk. And the guy thought he was going to make a million dollars off this crap and he didn't sell a shit. And he left it there. And so at 12 o'clock, there we are, loading this stuff up and bringing it out to the dumpster and to his trucks just to get rid of it. Hopefully they don't let that vendor in next year. I hope not either. I said the same thing. And the guy who was working the show, keeping it open, he was supposed to leave at 11 o'clock to go home. And he stuck there with us until 1230. So there, you know, he took care of him also, you know. So there's a lot of things people don't see. the power outage was interesting so when was the power outage? it was at 6.45 or 7 o'clock right around 7 o'clock the whole area lost it it wasn't just the building it was the whole area on Saturday yes on Saturday night and while everyone was packing up except for the tournament people of course of course and so that was interesting a lot of people were there some were masked not many I was surprised about that. It seemed like maybe a quarter at best. Yes. I was one of them. Yes, you were. It was great seeing a lot of people. We all got deals. We brought back, me and Zach brought a ton of shit back. Ron, what did you bring back? What deals did you get? Yeah. I got some spinners. Were they a good deal? I don't know. They were spinners. I got the Gottlieb spinner that you can't get anymore, and I got some, I got a spare cock spinner for my dragon fist. Same exact one. So I'm all set. That never breaks off. And I got another stern spinner. So, yeah, I'm good. Zach, what did you get? A lot of crap. A lot of crap, too. I got a game. I got a game. I got an on-beam. I got a Star Trek valley from my favorite Italian also. I got the lower half of a jungle lord Yes you did I got three playfields I got one playfield I got a stern chime unit I got a lot of glass, you and me together Eleven pieces Oh I got glass, I forgot about that Yep, we all got glass I got some stars drop target mechs, that was cool Yes you did, I got the rest of the stars parts that were there we missed out on the play field. That would have been a good one. What was the play field that we should have grabbed and we didn't see until escape? Oh, yeah. That was it. The two deals of the show, the $800 Medusa, and then the $750 Fathom that was sold right in front of me. The guy's walking it out of the truck. I'm at the door. I'm working the door. Some guy walks up to him, and I'm right next to him. Like, literally, I can reach out and touch the game. And the guy goes, how much for the fathom? You know, it was a beat-up fathom, but you know. He goes, I'm thinking $750. I'm like, oh, I'll buy it. And the guy goes, I'll take it. Fuck. So he got a fathom for $750. But, Bruce, you're getting a fathom from Haggis. Yeah, I only got another one. I only got another one. Okay. You could have them both next to each other for comparison purposes. Exactly. One is good. Two is better. He's got this room in his new basement. I do. And the lockdown, who knows what's going to happen in Australia, mate. Yeah, mate. Did you think there were more or less people there than the previous? Friday was busy. Friday was busy. But Saturday, there were definitely less people. Yeah. I could actually make it down the aisle if I walked through. That's how I judged it. Yep. And we all got to play Ultraman. Yeah, I got that on here. Ultraman. What do we think of Ultraman? I enjoyed it. Too bad I can't buy one. Yeah, it was sort of weird, again, that they brought a game. You wondered why they didn't bring it back in the morning. Like, oh, yeah, they don't need to. They sold them all. And, like, why would they buy an Ultraman, even though they sold them all? Yeah. They seem to get a lot of real-world testing information, which is good. I didn't think it shot bad, actually. It wasn't as clunky as all the other spookies I've ever played. The main thing to me was just it took forever to get through the subways. Yeah. I think more time waiting for balls to come out of subways than I was actually spending flipping. Well, the ball coming out of the subway thing, here's the issue. They're little elevators they have. You don't see the ball coming out. No, it comes out. I was watching the people in front of me in line, and I saw these two people. They shoot a scoop, and it starts giving the rules on the LCD that they're looking at, and then the elevator's coming up, and even though it does a little flash of the slingshot and does the sound, there's artwork there. You can't even see the ball, and it just went right down the in lane and drained. And they had it set to one ball. So you basically just drained, and you didn't even, like, oh, shit. And I've seen other clips of actually Halloween, and same thing. People just letting the ball drain, like not even seeing it, not even paying attention. That's not a problem. I thought the animations were pretty cool for Ultraman. I love the cheesy 60s, you know. Well, since neither of you guys saw the stream that was done where they had Halloween and Ultraman. Why would I waste my time on a stream that I cannot buy the game for? Because we have a podcast and maybe you can have some views and stuff. I have my view. You didn't play Halloween. I have no interest in Halloween. If I was going to buy one of the two, it would have been Ultraman. Well, judging by the video I saw, I also have no interest in Halloween. See? Did they at least have the video clips or was it all animated? It was, they had occasional movie clips, but most of it was that Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Avengers barely moving graphics that would just stay there throughout an entire mode. And then we'd play the music and just loop it over and over and over. And it got really, really annoying. basically do the same thing except with like five seconds of video footage. Yes. Which is slightly better. But the thing is, I don't know if you can do a scary horror-themed pinball machine and make it good. No, you can't. I don't think you can do it. I do. It's Alien. It's in my house. You got a good quality Alien. Yes, sirree, Bob. Or Bram Stoker's Dracula. Yeah. But. I mean, a lot of people seem to like Freddy, too. That's more. Nightmare on Elm Street, by that point, they made that movie. It's more comedy. It more comedic horror at that point And then you have games like Tales from the Crypt and that all comedic horror Yeah But the thing is you didn see the stream They did Halloween first, and then they do Ultraman, and it's like night and day. Oh, I like that. It's just one just looked, it just didn't look good. And the second one was just like, okay, this thing looks fun. It's literally the same place, you know. I know. But that does seem, that's the theme. It is the theme. And honestly, I think they're probably kicking themselves in the ass right now and going, why didn't we do $1,500, $1,500 instead of $1,250 and $500 or whatever. They sold out everything. They sold them. But guess what? Everyone seems like they want Ultraman. Well, not really. They sold out of both of them. Yeah, I know. But we did see, I didn't even know that the stream happened. And then a few days ago, I started seeing tons of selling my spot ads for the game. Oh, yeah, I know. I was like, weird, why is this happening? And then I found the stream, like, oh, I see. People actually saw the game, and now they're regretting their purchase. Watching the game, playing the game, I don't get how they say it has tons of flow. It's flowier than other games. What? No. Maybe they mean when you're on an upper play field, and you can hit a repeatable loop or something, that that's flow? Those upper playfields were so fast. I got it really hard to even play them. They're so small, so cramped, and the flippers are still really strong. It's just like, you know, you flip once, and then you just sort of wince and hope that you get a catch again and don't drain. I agree. The Rams felt good, though. Yeah, or the Rams were really slow was my problem. I didn't think so. How many lockups did they have while you were in line? I had one. None. Well, I was standing line when they first set it up, so I got to watch them fix like eight problems into five balls before I got to play and then nine balls like the first ball didn't have any problems. So you're the opposite of me. The games just work as soon as you play them. Well, Ron, they know. The biggest guy had to play like six balls by himself because they kept glitching and having to restart the game. So there was one moment you could just loop the center ramp over and over and every time you shot the ramp, the ball went in the back, we couldn't see it and then like three seconds later, the ball dropped out of the habit trail and very slowly rolled down the habit trail to your flipper. And I'm like, this isn't fun looping. The habit trail is almost slower than the actual subway getting the ball back to you. Would you buy one if you had the chance? Currently, no. Yeah, I'd say currently, no. If they could stage balls, they could do something to make it play a little better. That would be almost on the realm of JJP fixing their flippers via software updates in terms of me having to, like, reevaluate a game. Yeah. It ain't happening. You don't think so? I don't think so. No, they mentioned it on the stream that that is in the works, the staging. Yeah, but it's cut by Fox, so it'll take like six months. Yeah. Wow. And those views, by Zach, are not opinion of the Slamtail podcast. I also have on here Mandalorian. So what do we think of Mandalorian? Although I did play it in Syracuse, but I got to play it again here. I still haven't played it. What? I've only played the pro still. I've seen some of the sound of premium. All right. I'm waiting for our launch party. Our launch party? Yeah. Well, I played the pro. I played once with my dad and the pins. This was in Dr. Pin. Then I came back later, and I was just walking around. This was Saturday, and it was obviously less crowded. I'm walking, and I see only, like, one person playing it, like no line. Oh, so I run over there, and he finishes his game, and then two dudes come up from behind me. It's like, you want to play a three-player game? Sure. So we each play ball one. Then I start playing my ball two, and I kind of start finding where all the shots are. And like 15 minutes later, my ball two ends. I turn around, and they're gone, and some other dude's behind me who's probably thinking, why did this guy start a three-player game? And I'm like, oh, there was two other guys back here. And I just killed the game. I just hit restart and like, here you go, sir. So. It plays really easy. Did they have it like floaty and closed up outlanes? It wasn't floaty. Was it just that Mr. Accuracy was making all the shots? I'm not Mr. Accuracy, but I was making the shots. I had not played it, but at the co-op, we were having our launch party on the 11th of September. and we're not going to have just Mandalorian. We're going to have an L.E. Mandalorian. Of course, it's Rochester, the land of L.E.s. Wait a sec. Zach, do you want to tell them the really wild news? Yeah, next to that L.E. Mandalorian, we're going to have a pro-Star Wars original. It'll be great. Come on. I thought the guys had finally decided. No, no, no. We're going to actually go even wilder, Ron. What's going to blow your mind away? two LEs next to each other. Why? Where are you fitting all these games? We're really going to take outside of EMs. That's all. Oh, no, you can't do that. Zach will hang up on us. I'm joking. No, we have room for a one-day event. Yeah, I figure temporarily we'll take one end of one row and rotate it around and put it next to the end of the other row and then put two games Yeah, and just extend both throws one spot. What day is this? September 11th. And the good thing about this, it's free to play. It's going to be a nine-hole golf tournament, you know, pin golf we're going to have for your qualifying. And then we're going to have a three-game finals per round with the scoring of 4-2-1-0. And it's included with your admission of $20. We're even spotting your IFPA dollar. Wow. So just by entering into the co-op, I'm in this tournament. You're in this tournament. Wow. That almost sounds like a Super League shit that was done by Modern Pinball back in the day. No, because you paid. You actually paid. Yeah, I guess you're right. That is different. I don't think we'd be allowed to count people that didn't actually play their holes. Exactly. Due to the weird IFPA rule that you want your entire – You want people actually playing? Yeah. No, we're not like that. Yeah, like I said, you're not going to make up people that don't even exist either. Yeah. Okay. No, no Hey Would You Blow Me. No Seymour Butts. Or I.P. Freely. Yes, I.P. Freely. Jacques Strap. How many citizens ones can I name? I know. Amanda, want a kiss and hug? Yeah, want a kiss and hug. Okay. What else do I have on here? Well, is there anything else about – what was I on? Mandalorian. Mandalorian. It was great seeing the fans. It was great seeing – oh, we got to be on – what's it called? Marco TV. We got interviewed. It was really cool. By Crystal. Yep, by Crystal. Hi, Crystal. It was really cool to see Emoto and all the guys there. They were really, really nice to us. one actually, they were selling actually used parts for the first time I've actually noticed at Marco. Maybe it was just for me, I noticed it, but there was a lot of used pinball parts they were selling there. Actually? Actually. I got me a Stern Lockdown Bar. Old Stern electronics, the good stuff. How old? Stars old? No. Okay. But still good. I was talking to Crystal and she said a lot of the things that they bring to the shows are just like all, like, the damaged or, like, they only have one left parts, you know, they couldn't easily sell online. Or, like, customer rejects that, like, had, like, a tiny crack on a ramp or something, you know, they'll just put them at a discount and bring them to the show. So that's why you got a lot of the used parts and stuff like that. Nice. So you can't see them in person and stuff. Very cool. But it was nice seeing everyone, the pins. It was nice seeing a lot of people came up to me. Some people are actually, they're like, they heard me laugh. I'm like, you must be the Bruce guy from the Slamtail podcast. Yeah. I can tell by your laugh. Okay. Cool. That was really nice. Good seeing a lot of people. Maybe we'll go to another show. Who knows what the hell's going on with now Delta, Gamma. Beta. Beta. I mean, we did go to another show, you know. You did, and we're going to talk about that right now. Well, how about me first, though? Because I went to Allentown. Yep. Then I went to a little golf excursion. And then you went to another thing. I went to another thing. I went to the tournament at District 82 in Wisconsin. Did you get cheese? I did not get cheese, but we, in driving, well, actually, I flew into Chicago, and on the drive to Wisconsin, it looked pretty much the way I thought it would look. Lots of fields. But there's a field. There's another field. There's another field. There's a cow. There's a field. Oh, there's cows. Yep, yep. Pretty much exactly what you would think. But District 82 is kind of in a more business, but it's not, you pass the fields and then you get to a developed area, and that's where they're at. We got running water here. Wow. Okay. So, yeah, I was there with Steph and Raymond Davidson. And you know who also was there? Timmy. Timmy. And we were the only ones wearing masks, which was surprising. Because the last tournament they had there, everyone was wearing masks. But I guess you didn't have to do it this time. But we were all wearing masks. So I played pretty good. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Way better than Stu. Stu was an embarrassment. I don't think we're going to see that Stu guy for a while. No. There was like, I don't know, over 50 people in the tournament. Something like that. I finished 14th. I finished tied with Timmy. Ta-da! Ta-da! I was actually even higher than I had a couple bad rounds in a row. And I had two more good rounds at the end, but those two bad rounds, they hurt. Who won it? Raymond Davidson won it. Wow! He had to, he came from behind in the very last round. It was called the Lucky 13 Tournament because there was 13 rounds. It's all match play. Mmm. No finals? No finals. So he was behind going into the last round, and they were doing – you would have liked it, Zach. They were doing that – what do you call it? Modified Swiss. The thing where you're not with the same people every round. It needs to go how they do that because I could not find it. Yeah. But, yeah, you would have liked that. Until the last round. The last round is the one round you would actually be – Paired up with the people right around you. Yeah, with the people right around you, which makes sense. Yes. And, yeah, they ended up – they were playing Whitewater, which broke. So then they went to Johnny Mnemonic, and I ended up announcing. Ooh. Yeah, which was fun. I actually missed that. And the cool thing was I know Johnny Mnemonic. And it really hit me watching this game how important it is to know the rules because it was a situation where Raymond had like $5 billion. He got the spinner millions, but he drained out on his second ball before he could get the hold. Which he was pissed. But then the other player, I'm sorry, I don't know your names there, but the one who was in the lead, he played his first multiball, and then he kept trying to get to the second one, which is extremely difficult. Yeah, I don't actually know how to do that. I don't know. I never understand how to do it either because you hit the drop target, and it goes down, it comes back up, and then maybe it relights the locks. I'm still confused on how that even works. But by just playing, he was starting to get the spike awards. and he gets the Spinner Millions, never goes for it, just continues to try to get the multiball. The next Spike Award after Spinner Millions is the multiball. So literally he just had to hit left in lane and either right ramp or the right orbit, and he would have been in multiball. And since Raymond didn't have a hold bonus, if he hit enough spinner shots, he could have caught up. He could have passed him. But he didn't know. So that was a fail. And, well, I mean, if I didn't own Johnny DeMonaco, I wouldn't have known that. It just really hit me, the whole rules knowledge. That made a huge difference. So now you've got to start learning every rule of every game. Yeah, sure. So they ended up tied, and then they had a playoff game. Playoff? Fish tales. And first they both went monster fish, and then the second ball, Raymond got the multiball and got the jackpots and eventually got to the super land and started hitting the, you know, 100 million supers, and that was all she wrote. Very balanced game. You know, another classic, Mark Ritchie. It is. I love that game. I love that you go for – Just like Indiana Jones. You go for monster fish. You could do that all day, but the real strategy is go for that multiball and get the supers. The one strategy, you mean. The only strategy. That's what – Zach was being a wiseass. I know. I know he's being a wiseass. I'm saying, fuck him, I like the way it looks. I like that because if you have a lesser player, like, say, me, try Monster Fish, or another player is like, okay, screw the Monster Fish, I'm going for the multiball. You can still fail. You can still not get supers. You can completely fail at the multiball. It forces the other player to do that, to catch up. But you can catch up. And it's not like it's grindy or takes forever to get to either. I mean, it is grindy. No, it's not. The whole game is nothing but grinding. No, no. Wrong. Fishtails rules. It would be so bad if it wasn't unlimited supers. That's the downfall. The same with, we were playing T2 at Saratoga. Just like, oh, I got a super, and I never got to the point of getting supers. Look, I win. You can't compete. Well, yeah, I couldn't get a super on that game at all. So, Ron, your fishtails, it's in your basement. How does it play? I don't have a fishtails. Oh, why not? If it's such a great game. I wouldn't mind one. I wouldn't mind one. So we need to find a fish scale. Fish scales. I was actually going into that subject now. See, I know you too well. I know. So, let's see. I'm trying to think what else happened there. That was interesting. I went to some mall in Chicago. I guess Schaumburg or whatever. One of the... Schaumburg Mall, where the Sega used to be. Sega. All I know is it was weird seeing an arcade and an arcade with lots of pinball in it. And they all worked. It was very weird. I think it's Gavin does all the games, the guy that's on Jack Danger's stream occasionally. Yeah, there's even a Paragon there. Like, we played Paragon. That was nice. So, good trip? It was a good trip. The trip back from Wisconsin to Chicago, we drove through the worst thunderstorm I have ever experienced. Torrential downpours and the sky lighting up in ways I've never seen before. I'm very disappointed in you, though. What did I do now? On the border of Wisconsin and Illinois, there's a little place you should have stopped for stuff. Okay. The Jelly Belly Factory is there. Okay. I'm sorry. You should be like, ooh. I did not know there was a Jelly Belly. There's Jelly Belly's there. And I got to talk to Timmy again. That was nice. That was good. That was good. So how were the games at District 82? too. One thing he did I liked is almost every game that like older games he put LED lighting on the inlanes pointed above the flippers. It didn't look like a mod. So I talked to some of the players there actually thought that was factory. Like no, it didn't come like that. It just made it easier to see. So it's like putting spotlights in but without having to put a spotlight in. Yeah, it's like what Stern is doing now with the light coming up. You can see above the flippers. But a lot of the games were modded in that way. But a lot of them had the LEDs galore. And, you know, Ronnie's old eyes had issues. Like they had the Star Wars, Data East Star Wars that was all LED'd out. And I was like, oh, strobe, strobe. All the Data East games had the modified rule sets. That's good, though. Did they say that they had them or did you have to just guess? I had to guess. They didn't actually say. That's a bad thing. They should rule first. Not everyone knows rules as well as you do, Ron. Oh. We can all be rules experts. Yeah, God. They did. Okay, a lot of the games had notes on them, but things like, I don't think the Star Wars one had one. I mean, it was, it's one of those deals where I saw it on stream, it looked huge, but using my brain, I'm figuring like, you know what, I bet you it's smaller than it looks there, and I got a kind of idea how big I think it is, and it was exactly that big. Wow. It's still big. I mean, it's much bigger than a co-op. Oh, I know. It would be. It's probably about the size of the co-op. Yeah, it's like eight rows of goodness. You could both fit a lot more pinball machines in a space than you think, but also spaces can't fit nearly as many pinball machines as you think. Yes. Wow. This should be a saying. You should write that down. That should be on the back of a T-shirt. Yeah, a T-shirt opportunity right there. So that was my District 82 experience. The other thing is, between that experience and Allentown, I was in Lake George. That's like our resort area, kind of, in this upstate New York land. And they have pinball there again. I don't think they had removed the pinballs during the shutdown of COVID, but they're back. Good. Did you go up to Ticonderoga? No. Is that the ship? That's the Star Trek. Star Trek. Oh, the Star Trek Experience. No, I've never been there. Oh, my God, you should. But the pinballs they had, they had Star Trek, you know, Stern, Kiss, and then the other place had, what do they have, Ghostbusters, Woz, and Deadpool. Okay. So you had a good vacation. Yes. That's what we like to hear. Yep. I like how there's barely any pinball in Eastern New York, but when there is, there's a JJP. Yes, of course. Yeah, yeah. Yep. Like in my area, where there's a dialed in for some reason. So, we must now talk about what games we want to buy. We know Ron wants the Fishtails. So, if you can hook Ron up with the Fishtails, I think you might have his interest. Zach, what are you looking for? I want a majorettes. Majorettes. And I am looking for a Godzilla because Joe from the Pinball Players Podcast. Is that the podcast that they're on? The Pinball Players Podcast, if you're referring to Joe Lemire, yes. Yes. Good. I got it right. Joe's looking for one. And since I boned him on hoops and I had to hear about it all day Friday when he found out that I got the hoops. Oh, did you listen to their latest podcast? Yes, I did. Which I hate to tell Joe, they had a thing where name your top five DMD games from 1991 to 2001. The issue is he named Hoops as his number five. It's not a DMD game. Also, why would you do 91 for DMD games? Like, why don't you say, what's your favorite DMD game? Because T2 started. They were going from T2's beginning. That's the first one. But Joe was quite upset with us, wasn't he, Zach? Oh, he loves us. I guess you didn't hear it if it turned into the thing. He was MFing me almost as much as he could. But Joe, hey, I'm going after Godzilla. So if anybody's got me a Godzilla, or if anyone's got another hoops for Joe, if anyone can get me another hoops, we can make Joe all happy. No, no, if you get a second hoops, then that becomes my hoops and you keep the other hoops. Oh, there we go. Even better. I like hoops, too. Okay, good. Third hoops is Ron. And then the fourth hoops is Joe's. Yeah, and Joe couldn't remember that he was on our show. That's the funny thing. We've had both of them on our show. I think he mentioned that. No, Joe said he was not on our show. I don't remember. I remember on that show. He was, episode 74. Okay. Because I emailed him and messaged him like, you were on our show, 74. He goes, I can't remember shit anymore. So, yes, I actually copied and pasted from our great website. What's the website address, Ron? That would be www.slamtiltpodcast.com. All our episodes are there. You can search for Joe Lemire's name and find out what episodes he's in. That might have been what Bruce did. I did. Isn't that great? You just put Joe. So we don't have many Joes on the show. No Joe. No cup of Joe, just Joe. So would we get Joe Kamikow on? Yeah, we should get Joe Kamikow. You mean Joe Kamikow who said that Steve Ritchie wasn't leaving Stern? Yeah, maybe. Yeah, he has a total line. Yeah, I think he has no clue, honestly. What's next on the docket? Let's just go to the next show. Let's get the shows out of the way. So we had a show this past weekend here in upstate New York. Where? Saratoga Now this was not the Saratoga show We usually have This was a different Saratoga show And it took place at the Wilton Mall Dead silence Come on Come on Jack You brought like two games there Help me Help you with what? Help me with what? Just say something It's like Yeah it was a show Or something Well, you had Cointaker there, which I still can't believe. You must have paid him to come up. Cointaker was there. They brought a, what did they have? A Guns N' Roses Standard. Is that what it's called? Yeah, first time I've seen one of those. Yeah, Standard. They had an Alien, Led Zeppelin Premium, and a Mandalorian. I don't know. Was it Pro or Premium? How did their Alien look? I think it was a premium. Damn it, I should have played Mandalorian. I didn't get to play Premium. I didn't play any of their games. I didn't play Alien. I played Led Zeppelin. So they brought a quarter of the games there, right? Oh! Well, we were supposed to have, what, 30-something? I think we ended up with, like, 20, a little over 20. Wow. I didn't realize at the time that, like, it's 30 games total between the two days. Oh, that's what it meant? Oh, yeah, I thought it was. This is all the games that will be there, but then at least five games left Friday night, you know, and then some more games came in. It's like you never actually hit the 30 number. It was at Wilton Mall, which I kind of found out by walking around. It is a dead mall. Dead mall. I didn't know. The pinball show is probably one of the bigger attractions in the whole mall. I would say that, yes. It's probably the most people. It was the most dead mall I've ever seen. Whoa, whoa, whoa. Morton Syracuse? Yes. Wow. The shame about this mall is it looked like a nice place. It just had no stores. The food court. When you go to the food court and they have one place that's open, you know it's bad. It's not even like a name brand place. It's Yum Yum Kitchen. What about the pretzels? That's on the food court. No, that didn't count as the food court. It was on the way to the food court. I mean, every mall has Auntie Annie's. It's just like one of the scourges of malls along with the cell phone case sellers. Wow. I wish this could have been like a cross case. That's like our main mall here. Yeah. Crossgate actually has all its stores filled, though. Yeah, that's the problem. If Crossgate's doing slightly worse and they actually had a few dead storefronts, you know, that would have been cool. But we didn't get to foot traffic because there's no one there. I'm parking lots. Loading was a breeze. I can get my game in. Oh, it was one of the rare instances. I'd never been to Wilton Ball, and I drove in. I drove to the exact correct spot the first time. I see a truck there with a license plate that says J-Pop sucks. You're like, I know I'm home. I know I'm home. That was the coin taker guy, by the way. So his license plate literally says J-Pop sucks. Is coin taker distributing for Deep Root? I don't think so. Actually, I know they're not. I know they're not. Don't worry. They're coming up. Yes, they're coming up. Robert Mueller, he will speak. But, I mean, I enjoyed it. And the thing is, a lot of it was just all of us people who brought the games and people we know there playing the games. I would have liked to have seen new people. So do you know everyone there? Because I didn't know a lot of people there. Ron is your area. I knew most of them because they were from our leagues. Yeah. Ron is world famous. You forget this, Zach. Yeah, world famous. I brought Alien Star. Zach, what did you bring? On beam and deadly weapon. Nice. And what was that game we played at EM that was actually pretty good? Dancing Lady. Dancing Lady. It's a really nice shape. Yeah, I was sad to see that the Dancing Lady left after Friday. I couldn't play on Saturday. Yeah. I don't know if I want to own one, but it was a good, like, you know, get a few people gathered around, like, just watch everyone try and fail to ever do anything. Or occasionally succeed, and, like, everyone goes, like, ah! You know, like, that sort of game. Well, it had a Carousel Roto Target. The first carousel motor. First yeah And then in front of it it would have two inserts both said 10 and then the lights would move 10X Yeah 10X The lights would move in these two rows so you trying to get the 10Xs lined up and then hit whatever that was. So if you had, like, three, if you hit three, you get three points. If you hit three with 10X in front of it, you got 30. It was basically just double Star Wars, two sets of multiplier lights. Yeah, multiplier. So it's early multipliers. Yep. But the way you moved them was by hitting the slingshots, which is genius. Because I just sat there trying to purposely shoot the slingshots, but only hit the right one twice, I was shooting the left one, or all kinds of weird stuff. Very refreshing gameplay. It was fun. So you guys are going next year for more fun excitement in Saratoga, it sounds like. Well, he sounds like he's going to have it next year, but I also heard that the other one might be coming back, so that's going to be interesting. Ooh, maybe it's your joint forces instead of being against each other. Yeah, I don't know if the area can support two shows, unless they're going to separate them out by six months. I think they kind of need to combine and not be in a mall. I mean, I don't think the mall's bad. I don't think the mall's bad, but there's no foot traffic. But we've made a zero foot traffic at YMCA. It's not like you're gaining anything by going to the YMCA. Zach, you were at both shows. how many more I saw way more people I've never seen before at the YMCA show yeah but also more games and stuff I assume that Adam did more advertising and so you think with more games and a ton of advertising it would just be just as good the main question man both of them you know both were fun to go to go play some games go hang out play in a tournament it was one of the same person at both places uh hi Steve you know the main thing is just like Adam stopped doing it partly because it sounded like he was just tired of doing it. He was tired, and the guy that was the president or whatever, the YMCA there, didn't want it there anymore. But he has since retired, and now a new guy is in charge, and the guy that's in charge actually used to attend the shows when they were there. So he would probably be much more receptive. Yeah, so I'm like, for a smaller show, it's easy enough for us to bring a game. You know, it's not a big deal. We come in, we bring a game, we play some games, we have fun. The one person that's actually either doing a lot of work or actually putting a lot of money up front is the organizer. So whatever situation we could run a small local show that is cheap and easy to do, so we could just do it without having to put way too much work on Adam or whoever. What was the other thing? They were charging $20. A day? A day. Oh, my God. Which my father, who is very frugal and remembers all pricing, was telling me the other Saratoga show was $10. Yeah. $20. I mean, Allentown is $20, to give you an idea. So you're paying Allentown prices. Allentown is really cheap. And you got the Allentown games there, too. Oh, no. I mean, the average quality of games was higher than Allentown. Yes, that is true. I will say that 100%. And, yes, as Zach said, there was a tournament. They did golf again. I think that's what we've done every year, have it? Has anything? Yeah, it's been golf. I think every time at Saratoga it was golf, too, which is a good format for a show that just, like, has games on the floor. Yeah, and Zach won again. Undefeated in 2021. Yeah. I got into the finals. Actually, I felt like I was at the co-op, kind of, three of the four players. It was me, Zach, and Andy from Syracuse. And we also had Jody. She was good. She had, I think she was from the, she came with the crew, the New Robert Englunds crew, I think. Yeah, I think she's like a Vermont and New Hampshire player. Yeah. We have the final, and in the finals for the three games, Zach gets hole-in-ones on all three games. So no one, the best you could do is tie him. Yeah. You know, he had no mercy whatsoever. So I ended up tied for second, and as the higher seed, I got to pick the game. Guess what game you chose, Bruce? Guess what game I chose, Bruce. Terminator 2. No, no. What game did I bring to the show? Oh, God. You chose Alien. I chose my own game, Alien Star, which Zach and me, he was our cheater. Like, oh, bite me. And did you? Yeah, I won. So I got second place trophy. And I cashed, so I was cashing. You'd be cashing for once. He caches his own basement. He caches his own games. I'd like to see the Saratoga show in the future. I think we should try to combine more. I don't think multiples is going to work in this area. I don't think there's any for two yet. No. I think they should just combine it into one Super Saratoga show. 40 games. That would be nice. The other Saratoga show had 40 games. I know. It's a thing. So back to 40. Good night. I wonder, was there anyone who brought a game to this show that didn't bring it to the other show? I don't think so. I don't think so. The guy that brought the Houdini, I think he also brought the Guns N' Roses. He's the same guy that always brings stuff. Herb is a local guy in our area. He brought stuff. He always brings stuff. Me and Zach brought stuff. Lonnie, the guy who ran the show, he brought stuff. Adam, the guy that used to run the other show, he brought the Terminator. Adam Adams? Yeah. That thing was brutal. And because of that, I kept playing it over and over. I wanted a damn super. Couldn't get a super. So what's next on the docket since we've Saratoga'd that out? Saratoga'd that out. Well, staying on the shows here, the TPF hotels, all that stuff opened up. And it sold out within three hours. I closed. The main hotel that the show is going to be in is, yeah, that sold out within a few hours. Yep. Thank you, Zach. He told me, and I'm like, I'm at work. I can't even do anything. You've got a phone. Yeah, and I'm in a room with one X. I was looking up the exact text. Okay. So are you thinking about going first? I was thinking about it now. I don't know. Unless somebody wants to room with me and not give me earplugs. Oh yeah that's true I forgot about that It's been so long since I've roomed with Bruce He is a loud snorer We have new beds now at the house And they're the reclining ones The reclining bed? Yeah like you know Your head goes up or the feet go up Yeah like a pragmatic adjustment The recliner actually goes up instead of back Yeah The good thing is my wife can snooze button And it jars me and I don't snore anymore It jars you I just picture like a sick cop like the wife just goes hitting a button and it sandwiches me I'm freaking worried you know it sandwiches me like a freaking thing it pulls my legs up and body up alright that'd be great you ready for you ready for Deep Root there was a Deep Root update no come on so all the games are made they're released all the TPS they're all yeah they're gonna get a personal tour everybody who bought the game gets a personal tour Hold on. I got to get Robert Mueller here. Robert Mueller slash Hulk Hogan to read this announcement. Hey, I can't wait for this. Robert's been such a good friend of the show. Yes, this was from July 30th. This was announced. So here we go. Ready? The latest. Dear Raza customer, we are sorry for the length of time without an update, brother. We have been contacted by a few of you within the last few weeks. The main topics were about how many people took the refund. Three. Three took them. Is the refund offer still available? No way, dude. And what is the status of the Raza bills are? Well, you know, brother, a legal matter affecting Raza Rose about a month ago that we did not expect. Hold on, hold on, hold on. What do you want, dude? How could you have a legal issue with a non-licensed thing? I don't know. Unless it goes back to J-Pop. Well, you know, we were advised by counsel not to send out any substantive communication. Yeah, I said substantive, brother. While they worked to resolve it amicably. We have taken that advice while patiently waiting for it to be resolved. The back and forth has taken much, much longer than we expected, dude. So we are providing this brief update so you understand what the delay is about, brother. It's got to be a J-Pop thing. We cannot discuss the parties or what the complaint is about, dude. We cannot provide a timeline. What we can say is that we're working hard to resolve and settle it and hope it will be resolved very soon. We will be able to give a meaningful update at that time. Until then, dude, you're all fucked, brother. So how do we contact you, Robert? You could try their Facebook. Oh, wait a minute. Oh, their Facebook page is gone. Oh, and Robert Mueller's off Facebook. Yeah, so, yeah. And if you call up, you can't get anybody. A short while after that, if you call their number, you get no one. The Deep Root Pinball Facebook page is gone. I think the Deep Root Funds page is gone. Robert Buehler's personal Facebook page is gone. I've tried to maintain an even keel here, but you're not getting your gains. It's not going to happen. You got fucking Ponzi, guys. You got double J-popped. And I know somebody who actually has money onto one of these games, and I feel so sorry for the guy because he's such a nice guy. He was hoping and praying and eating his vitamins like the Hulkster sells them to all the time, and I think he's going to get stuck in his ass. there's no Hulkamaniacs at Deep Root, dude. How could you do this? How could you do this to the people? You're like, you changed now. You're now like Evil Hulk. Yeah, he turned heel. He's Hollywood Hogan. He went from Hulk Hogan, now he's Hollywood Hogan. There you go. It's the NWO, the New World Order of Pinball. Yeah, I mean, I don't want to beat this anymore, but it's just... I feel bad for Steve. the one person I feel bad for besides people who are losing money is Steven Bowden. To be associated with a literal snake oil salesman. How can they get sued? It's got to be for J-Pop. It's got to be for J-Pop, doesn't it? Because it was his original idea. I mean, there's other things you could sue on. Maybe they didn't pay their artist. Possibly. Or their sound guy. Yeah, I know, but this guy is just sleazy and instead of opening up the door and saying hey look we are manufacturing we are doing this they're doing nothing this silent treatment is the whoever does this pr which we know is him alone because we saw his great video which was terrible and we made fun of it when he came out he is just he thinks he's the best thing since sliced bread he is the worst person in pinball since Andrew Highway. So, congratulations! Wow. You've gotten the 2021 Andrew Highway Award. The 2021 Andrew Highway Award. Holy shit! Alright. Well, since I'm on pin side... Yeah, really? Wow. You should close your browser. Let's talk about Mirko. Oh, God. Do we want to get sued? Well, again, I'm reading just the shit off the internet I didn't post it I'm just reading stuff I saw on the internet long story short basically one of the many threads about Jersey Jack playfield issues there was a dude from Amsterdam who I think he has a he has a which he has playfield issues with and he's been posting stuff and Mirko did not like some of the stuff he's posted, and I'm guessing this particular post is the one that got him into trouble, where basically he's explaining how Mirko actually does the clear-coating. What he says is, and again, don't know if this is substantiated, we have no proof, but this is what was stated. Mirko does the back and inserts for tests, then prints his games first on wood, then clear-coats it. After he cuts and drills the holes and kickers lanes and clear coats again. He says this is where the issue is. The first clear coat is still soft, and when cutting, there is no protection on the cutted sections. You can see that in the pictures. I'm wishing he has pictures there. So he's saying, you know, like he's clear coating it. He's clear coating it twice. Or he's clear coating it between. He's considering like two layers of clear coating. I don't think the other thing that got him in trouble is this statement. He said JJP also has a contract with Mirko when he and his buddies invested money into JJP when they had lots of trouble in 2013-2014. Even if JJP wants out, they can't. Maybe. I do not know. I do not know either. But I think that was the issue there. So he threatened to. So Mirko sent him. A cease and desist. Yeah, I'll read this. I guess I'll read this as Stewie. All right. This is from Mirko to this guy. And again, this is all on the Internet. Don't know how much of this, you know, just don't blame the best you can hear. Is the Internet true or not? Yeah. Hi there. I've been told you wrote false and company damaging stuff in several threads about my company and me. Please note that this behavior is not allowed and should be sued in the EU. Sued in the EU. Did he mean sued? Sued, yes. Okay. That actually says sued. I have contacted the owner of FinSide and he told me I have to contact you direct first before other action can take place. I do kindly ask you to delete all posts mentioning my name in any negative way, especially in combination with false facts related to JJP. I will give you 24 hours from now to do so. If that is not going to happen, I will ask the owner of FinSide to take action, which could mean a ban of FinSide for you. Same time I will... Okay, I think he means at the same... At the same time, I will forward all info to my lawyers and ask them to file a lawsuit against you. I'm not sure if you are aware how expensive this could come, but I can tell you that this will turn out into a serious thing for you. I've already done that with someone else, and it was no fun for him. I can only speak for myself, but I will not start any legal action as long as you delete these posts, and do not post new ones. I will monitor that. Regards, Mirko. So, in essence, he's threatening a European person, which he probably does have legal sense. He probably can, yes. Yes. In the United States, he would have liked to stand up. Now, remember, didn't he threaten CPR? Yes, he did. Saying that he had exclusive rights to do old Stern playfields. So, CPR just asked Gary Stern, is that true? And Gary's like, it's open. We don't have it. He's like, no. So, yeah, I don't understand it. I don't know why you go this route. It's not good PR, but maybe no PR is better than the PR he's getting off of his JJP playfields. So who knows? But I think he kicked a hornet's nest. I still think there has to be some kind of really good deal price-wise for JJP to just continue to use him. They're cheap playfields he's getting. He's getting a smoking deal. He definitely is getting a smoking deal. When JJP is ready to sell the problem playfields for so cheap, not because he's trying to cut his losses, he's probably paid that much money for each one of those other playfields. So, yeah. Again, we have no evidence of this. It's just conjecture. Please don't sue us. We have seen his quality issues, and we have seen his lack of detail. so, you know, it does go both ways. Oh, my. Mm-hmm. Go for repairs. Go for it, dudes. I'll just sit back and listen. Listen to the goodness. So a couple days ago, about a week ago, Star Trek, my LE, the CERN, starts popping up and down the drop target, the middle drop target. So I'm like, okay, great. You know, I've got to go figure this thing out. So, luckily, I have optos, and we figured out that it's a flaky opto. Great. I got the optos. I have to take apart the ship, Ron. Again? Again. Thanks, Steve. But I take it apart completely and move it out of the way so I can get to the optos. Thanks, Steve. So, I take it all apart, put it all back together, and since it's all apart, the first time I did it, I didn't realize I didn't touch a ramp. So I had all the ramps pulled away from the ship, so I had more. So I didn't want to turn on the machine and then have everything, like, lift up and look at the lights underneath the LED board or, you know, see. So I was like, ah, I'll just put them all in. It's going to work. It's a brand-new bag from Marco. I got three opto strips from them. I used two. Turn it on. I have no opto. So I try a different board. I swap out a board. I try a working board. Nothing. It's a short. So I'm pissed off. Now, I pull the machine into the back of the building, take the ship off again. Luckily, I had that third opto. Pulled out, figured out which one was bad, put that new one in, took the ship back off apart, put it all back together, and guess what we have now? A working ship, and also I fixed also the ship rocking back and forth when you destroy it. So all of it is now back up to 100%. Yay. I got a lot of light sockets, and we've been doing a playfield swap, at the co-op. A eight ball. Yes, the Fonz is live, and he's now getting swapped over. A play field swap at the co-op. You got it. And we're doing the pop bumpers next. And then we're going to put the top plastic down, but the hole underneath is about 95% done. Would you say, Zach? Yeah. Pretty much. Pretty much. And then we're going to get the whole top side done, and then we're going to put the back in the machine and see if it shorts and blows any fuses up. It will. Of course it will. If it doesn't, boy, we're good. If it doesn't, then we all take a drink. Yeah. A shot of something. Not a drink, a shot. Even Zach will take a shot. I mean, it'll be a shot of root beer, but yeah, sure. No, no, no, no, no. It'd be black cherry rum. You like black cherry. I don't like cherry or rum. But you didn't say black cherry, so we're good. Okay. Next. What else do we have for repairs? A lot of light jackets I got to do this week. had to fix the flipper. Steph likes breaking our machines at the co-op. Oh, man. She breaks mine, too. On blow trotters, the flipper, lower flipper this time. She's like, it's not moving right. It won't go all the way back down. So I pulled the sleeve out. Sleeve was all shot. Tightened it all back up. Now it's working. Something else she breaks. She likes breaking stuff. She broke my straight shooter, right? Yep. You know what's going on with straight shooter? it will not turn on when you hit the start button, so it's probably a relay. Yeah, or solder join or something. Are we going in tomorrow? Are we going in – I was thinking we go in Thursday and just one of us go back and just work on stuff. Yeah, I figured I'd just take a look at it quick when we open on Thursday. Yeah, and we are open this Thursday, and we also have – on September 11th, we have the free Mandalorian IFPA launch party with two LE Mandalorians And on September 25th, we have Stomp. And you only have 13 more days, or by the time you put this out, Ron, probably like eight or nine more days to get it at a cheaper price, $40. That includes entry fee, and you pay for your spot in the tournament. We're almost halfway filled. We're at 24 out of 50 spots. After September 1st, it goes up to $50. So if you want to take advantage of the $10 break, come on down. See you to Brucie. Check us out on our Facebook page at Rochester Pinball Collective, or you can check out our website at rochesterpinball.com. And that's Stomp, the premier upstate event. Yes, where Ron is not playing, it looks like. I said I wasn't. I know, but we can always con you into it, like we always do. You could probably con me into it, especially if there's not a lot of people there. I could probably be persuaded to play. Yep. And then I think we're going to start on our next play field after this, right? Right, Zach? Nope. Yes, we do. Nope. Quicksilver. We're going to try to get running. Ooh. Quicksilver. Yep. The shitsilver from Australia, mate. With a nice Merkle play field. Yeah, after all the stuff we said. Well, what I first want to do is get it running with the old play field. So I can make sure everything's running so I'm not just going into a new play field going, hey, does this work? And then find that there's all issues and then I feel bad. So I'd rather get it running with the old play field. Now we can sprint everything at once. And we powered up Ali for the first time this week. Was it the greatest? Well, Zach and Jared hated the bell. I like the bell. Jared hated the bell. I love the bell. Because it sounds like it's rebooting. Yeah, every ball, every boot. Yeah. Yeah, it's good. Ding, ding, ding. Oh, yeah. Yep. So it's all weird, and it sounds like Meteor, which is great. Yeah, that was the thing that was weird to me. I didn't remember it literally just stealing every sound effect from Meteor. Yep. Which really fits the theme of boxing. It does. No, it doesn't. Space boxing. Yeah, space boxing. Cosmic boxing. I am the greatest. In space. In space. And then I have not even touched this new Star Trek I bought, the Bally, so it's still wrapped up in the co-op. And Zach doesn't even know I cleaned up a whole shitload of area in the back of the co-op. You clean a shitload of area. Okay, I'll have to remember that. We have a shitload of area. Yes, we do. But we cleaned it. Now everything's on shelves, Zach. Look, I got a little shelf for us. I know. Good thing. We have more floor now. And I cleaned up also the rotisserie room. We have a rotisserie room now, Ron. And we moved some of the stuff out so we can actually get on the couch now. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And then eventually we're going to be working on a Xenon. All right. Yay. With soundboard issues and major issues and half the lights don't work. It's pretty bad. All right. What about your repairs? I don't think I play pinball enough to actually break anything anymore. That's not how that works. You know it. Well, yeah, usually when I go downstairs to just play a few games, that's when everything breaks. But not lately. Been pretty good. Yeah, Stu had to come over and break anything, right? Stu is an asshole. Stu has gone to Tibet for, like, a secret training montage. Yeah, yeah. I think he needs a Rocky IV training montage after his performance. Ugh. Add it up. Back on the streets. Now, what was it? Rocky IV was, um, I'm trying to remember the music. I think it was Still Survivor, though. Yeah, it was. Still Survivor. Last one was Survivor. But it was a different song. Yeah. Ready for the ball bag? Oh. We're going to do the ball bag first, and then we actually, and maybe we should do this more often, because we don't get much action in the ball bag, but Bruce puts out on Facebook, like, anyone have any questions? And boom, it's just people put questions all over the place. Burning heart. Burning heart. Just about true love. Sorry, that's the Rocky IV song. We have an email from Sean. Hi, Sean. Hi, Sean. It says, greetings from north of the border. Hey, good day. Yay. Still loving the podcast and wondering, when listening to your latest discussion on JP pros and cons, why don't you install the custom movie clip code? That would be a wrong question since he has the machine, and also is that question since he has the machine. No, I don't think it's a me question. Last I heard, that code was only for the premium, not the pro. Oh. Oh. And I believe when I looked into it, it requires a PayPal donation in order to get the link. Do you have to actually buy things from people? What the fuck? Well, yes, the custom movie clip code using licenses that you don't own or have any rights to, you're going to charge. Yeah, I guess the idea is for the effort of putting it together. see this would solve that mostly all the stuff I was saying about the bad call outs and all that he said this would solve that mostly are you against custom code hell no almost every stern I have is my old stern have custom code on it thank you Sean I'd rather you read this one first do you have our email open I do not but I can do it in two seconds hold on please do it and look at Ryan C sent us oh boy I love it A birthday present for you, Bruce. And John Coston, we did get your email. I have not been able to get around to it. Oh, hi, John. Hi, John. We got another email. Dear Ron and Bruce, as you may know, the world-famous Museum of Pinball has announced its plans to close. We want to let you know before it closes its doors forever, there's one more chance for pinheads to score the ultimate jackpot, the museum's entire historic collection. Yeah, we should just buy the whole thing. There is 767 lots right now. Yeah, they sent it to, it says Deer, Ron, and Bruce. Wow. I'm honored. I've already got 23 games on my watch list. Wow. I've only got 19. Wow So Bruce have you got the email up I do right now Just read it out loud Okay Happy birthday Brucey baby This comment is your birthday present. I'm clicking in the screenshot. Wayne Nyans has been retired almost as long as he was making pins. Ronnie Lopp has managed to program him like he's already retired. Ronnie Lopp has managed to program him like he's already retired. Ronnie Lopp? Ronnie Lopp? Ronnie Lopp. Yeah. I tell you, that's my way of calling them. Lonnie D. Ropp has managed to program them like he's already retired. Perfect. And 11 likes. 11 people cannot be wrong. Actually, 12. It's me, too. I play Stranger Things this year, so I'll get Scrape. God. Okay. Oh, boy. Okay. So we have one from the Pinball Princess. All right. Bada-bing, bada-bing, bada-bagel. Okay. Yes, thanks. Dear Ron and Bruce, I finished listening to your latest podcast, the one rife with Bruce's distinctive parody of Italian accented English. I was actually on Facebook. People liked it. I got five likes. New York, Italian, American translation. Are you fucking kidding me? What a fuck kind of Mario and Luigi crap was that? Hey, what the fuck is going on with you, man? Hey, princess. Were I not reluctant to make listeners cringe at Ron having to render my own words, which I just did, I would be tempted to write you purely in the above style, parodying a thickly accented Italian-American from New Jersey. You know the stereotype. Someone who would complain that they nearly spat out their... Gabagool. Gabagool when they heard that. Okay. To let them go without saying anything. Forget about it. Forget about it. Something, something, the Sopranos. but nobody wants to slot through Ron having to do that, and I have just about exposed my own tolerance for it. I'm half expecting Bruce to take up the reins of this tired joke and run with it into the wall, or he already has. Through the wall and beyond. What the fuck are you? What the fuck is going on? But anyway, I'm going to make a serial eye roll. I'm going to make it mean some fucking aliens this weekend. Ron, I feel your pain with regards to your rant about Jurassic Park. The game does require a significant amount of skill, particularly with shot accuracy, in order for you to do even remotely well. Not only that, but there are a few rewarding things that you can do with flailing should your shot accuracy fail you. At the very least, Ironmane has a chance for you to luck into aces high for two-ball multiball, and mummy isn't too difficult to get, provided the captive ball doesn't ricochet your ball oddly, or you don't have to make a ramp on the premium or LE. Forget about it. Just bash the thingy. You can get a multiball that way. With JP, the only thing that really has a low barrier to entry, if you find your shot accuracy is low, which mine frequently is, is T-Rex multiball, and having that feel like the only decently achievable thing can be daunting. Anything with a middling barrier to entry, such as Chaos multiball, requires that you make shots across the playfield. If you're having an off day with shooting, or if you just generally find you have bad accuracy, it's a crapshoot as to whether you can get anything going at all. Yep. It seems quite rewarding to be able to get deep into any game, and I love the depth of games and concept, but not having the skills to pull that off is demoralizing. Ron, it sounds like your game might be set up particularly brutally. I've got to get someone else to play it. While rules may not be your forte, you have skill. I hope you can get some independent playtesting for other players at some point in the near future. Yeah. When are you guys coming over? I think that apparently rules are your forte in 80s. Yeah, exactly. Leave the Jurassic Park at my house for independent playtesting, Seth says. Take the cannoli. Player 31915. That's a good idea. You should bring it out and just leave it there. I don't want no fucking cannoli. I don't want a fucking Italian cookie. What the fuck? Oh, okay. Enough. Enough. That was the ball bag. It's interesting to think about, like, if you think about, like, Steve Ritchie games, I always got, like, those two or three banks of stand-ups at the bottom part. Or lots of other games also just, like, have random dead shots area at various parts where they just, like, couldn't actually fit anything. But Jurassic Park basically does not have any of that stuff you can accidentally hit. It's just all shots. Mm-hmm. I agree. Good job, Keith. Keep it up. Keep it up. I can't wait for the next game, which is definitely not Godzilla. I hope it's Godzilla. Yo, I'll find Bruce the wrong Godzilla. No. I want it to be the right Godzilla. Godzilla. No, it needs to be Toho Godzilla. It needs to be the right era. And Godzookie. Okay, when Bruce was late for recording, he made a post on Facebook asking people, what do you want us to talk about? Yes. And man, it got a lot of hits. I think it was the most people who ever had to respond to one of our posts in a long time. Let's see, Tim wants, I'll just re-ask some of the requests. David Fix, mostly because I want to hear Dusty Rhodes' impressions. That's right, baby The next game's coming out soon, I hope, baby Yep That's right, that's right We got the manual done, baby We just, we're a little We gotta get the parts in, baby We gotta make this game come out It's hard times It's hard times in pinball manufacturing When you can't get the parts, baby Dave, we need to have this pinball machine now You know, our fans are chomping at the bit How do we get the fix in? That's so bad, baby That's the most terrible joke I've ever heard, baby Okay Okay, another person asked, I'd love to hear about the first things you do with a new stern to get it dialed in properly, preventing problems down the road, like remembering at one point somebody mentioned replacing the coil soft's first thing, that kind of stuff. First thing, there's a bag with either three, four, five, even six balls. Throw that right in the garbage. Order some real balls, put them in your machine, you'll be a lot happier. Second thing, definitely replace the coil stops if you have an extra spare set. On a stern. We're talking about stern. Yes, I know. I'm saying that. Yes. The coil stops suck on sterns. And so do the balls when you come out of the factory. It's like, here's your rusted, rotting balls already. Put them on our brand-new clear coat play field. Rusted, rotting balls. Oh, my. Oh, my. If you have a regular cabinet, maybe you want to put some clear coat, you know, those clear protectors over the flipper buttons so you have no wear. Get the non-sticky ones from Titan. Yep, so you can peel them off and peel them on if you need to do anything with it. You can peel stuff on. Make the sling and pop switches tighter. Very sensitive, yes. Which, if you have my Jurassic Park, that wasn't necessary. That's a good thing. Make sure everything's working properly. Like, go into switch test and make sure the proper switch is actually activating the proper thing. What else could you do? Protectors for your feet if you have it on a carpet or if you have it on a wood floor. You want to, of course, protect your flooring. Rubber feet would be very nice. Tap those leg ball holes. Yep, tap those leg ball holes. And also, get the proper tools to fix the game when you're ready to fix it. Magnetized screwdrivers, magnetized nut drivers. I actually saw a great thing. I'd never thought of it until I'd seen it at work. And then I saw somebody post a video stating, here's what you need for your toolbox. Magnifiers, the ones that flip over your glasses. Slashes. Well, we haven't been at work, so you flip it over. It's a behemoth magnifier. It looks like a visor, and it flips over your eyes, but you can flip them over your glasses too. And you actually magnify everything really, really close. That's a great thing. I saw somebody post a video on that, and I was like, oh, that's perfect. That's kind of coming to some of the things you want to do when you get a new machine. Here's another one. What's the deal with the new Stern boards and new Stern boards that people are worried about with custom code? I don't know what that means. I don't know either. Does that mean that they're worried that Stern is going to do something with the node boards so you can't put custom code on your game, maybe? Maybe. Have you heard anything, Zach? No. Until we got to the part about custom code, I feel like every six months, someone worries about Stern node boards dying because they keep hearing about it, even though it's probably less of an issue than any other board on any pinball machine. But I don't know about the code thing. No more talk about Italians. But Derek said, Mike, the best part is picturing Bruce gesturing wildly with his hands in the air. Blah, ha ha. Yeah, okay. Sorry, Mike. It would be rad to hear more about the RPC journey coming up in September. So I'm hoping to attend if the border lets me across. 45 games, brother. And George Takei will be there. You will get to sign George Takei, the same George Takei that has been signed by such legends as Tim Sexton and others. That's the full list. That's the full list. Basically, pretty much any pinball player of note in the Northeast probably has signed it at one time or another. How does Ron get his spinners dialed in? Patience and lube. Oh, my. Did he dial in the spinners undialed in? Are there spinners undialed in? I don't think so. No, there's no spinners undialed in. This one surprises me. But I guess Pat's not really a spinner guy. I would say, well, again, it depends on the spinners. You will never get a spinner on a newer game to spin like an older game. I don't care if it's an opto spinner. I know everyone's into the Beatles, like, oh, the optic spinners, oh, optical. It spins so many times. Meanwhile, my dragon fist is like 71 spins, one hit, hold my beer. I don't think so, Beatles. What if it's like one of the actual like regular size spins? It's also an opto spinner. I think that has potential. That would have potential. See, that's the problem. These come in like half width. Yeah, they're using the half. I call them vertical spinners. They're, like, taller than they are wide, and they just don't spin as well. And that's what they pretty much use in all the games now because they take up less space. I mean, what was the last Stern game they used once? I think it's you guys. Actually, did Game of Thrones have that style? Yes. Yeah. Yes. I think that might be the last one. And there'll be no more because Steve left. Yeah, because Steve left because he was the only one who would use them. Yes. But the older games, you have the leaf switches instead of the micro switches. Yep. especially the ones they use then, they have really flimsy part that the spinner is hooked to, so it makes almost no resistance at all. Fun fact, I was talking to Ryan McQuaid, who does the Sonic homebrew, and he has micro switches on his spinners, but he put micro switches with, like, 3-inch leafs on them. Not leafs, but blades. So they're positioned really far away, and he says they spin really good. Yeah, they're fast. Because with the extra physics going on, it actually works, again, fine. It's not the fact that it's a Reckless switch stuffed a quarter inch away in this tiny hanging spinner because they try to just make a single-piece mech. That's the problem. But what I'd say, take your spinner out, sand it down, get it smooth. Don't sand off the face. Don't sand off the face. No, the metal part. Yeah. Sand, yes. The part that goes through the hole. Drill up the hole a bit wider if it's a really old spinner. It's crumbed up. Yeah. You want to get rid of that crap in there. And then don't neglect the underneath the play field. My Alien Star spinner, once I spent a freaking hour trying to get to my satisfaction, it was all just moving stuff underneath the play field. I can't get no. You've got to get the bracket for it straight and mount that straight. And there's play with the holes. I will play in the holes. There's play so you can move stuff around. So you've got to keep. A lot of it's trial and error. Boom, boom. Tighten it up. Try it. Nope, still not good enough. and then of course there's the Teflon lube. Yes. I got a tube when I first got into the hobby 16, 17 years ago and I'm still on the same tube. I will be to the day I die. It will never run out. It's a whole lot of lube. Yeah, and you put a very thin coat. Do not put a lot on. You don't need a lot. And that's how you do the spinners. All tech episode. We talked some tech. Talked some tech. John said second on that. Co-op mode for all games. No. Yeah. Yeah. Why not? How many pinballs is too many in a collection? That is a hypothetical. It never happened. It's when you have two in the kitchen. Yes. Or if you have more than you can actually repair. Or if you're sleeping on pinball machines. On. That's also cool. I want to see that. We need to take the future spa and the hot dog and the space invaders, put them all next to each other, just put a mattress on top of them. That would be kind of cool. please unleash Bruce on Deep Root. I did a little bit, not much. It's just, I've warned people for many years, this has just been a shit show, and he just keeps on shitting more. He's a tool. And you remember how he was going to change with his octo... Octo manufacturing. He was going to change everything and... Wait a minute, octo manufacturing means open eight doors to try to find his manufacturing place. Okay, that was good. Holy shit. That was good. Was it like Get Smart? Like the door's just open? It's like, let's make a deal. What's behind door number one or door number two? And you're always going to find a jackass behind it. Yeehaw. That's a fucking deep screw customer. Meanwhile, Haggis posted a video tour of their factory. Yep. Which was still making kelts for some reason. Yep. But they're making games. Yeah. They got a lot of stuff in there. A stern price increases. What's this about? Was something announced? Did I miss something? It's always time. They always increase pricing, and it probably will do it again. Yeah, and it generally matches inflation. Since, like, the one big jump back in, like, 2009 or whatever. Let's see. Stewie's opinion would be of interest. As long as my game is still affordable. Family Guy, the best stern game ever made. It'll be really affordable because no one wants it. Oh, screw you, Zach. You know, while you're on this show, you're so naked. Wait a minute. The very next comment says, Bull Zach. Hi, Pete. Which Zach do you mean, Pete? Do you mean this Zach or Zach Mini or another Zach? We can have Zach Sharp also. We should have the comments of Zachs. We should have the three Zachs. The three amigos. The three Zachs. I listened to the Zach Mini episode, and I was like, wow, I agreed with him more than I expected. Wow. How to dial in a game. Lots of practice and lots of work. Know how the game's supposed to be played. You can go to Pinside and possibly ask the designer. They may reply. They might. Stu, did he go to Wisconsin? No, he's a loser. He doesn't win shit. Ron went to Wisconsin and kicked ass. Yeah. Ron, why did you sell Star Trek over Spider-Man? Bite me, Ryan C. He's right, though. Why did you? Oh, stop. Because Star Trek has no soul. It's got a great soul. It has no soul. Stuff and stuff, okay? HR, stuff and stuff. Can't get a little, but you can't get enough. HR, stuff and stuff. Crystal says, me. Yes, Crystal. Crystal Demnick, who was on a recent episode of Pinball Profile. Yes. Listen, download it now. there I think we went through all the mail ball bag yeah that was good I have somebody somebody at the show came up to me and said you gotta say my name and guess what I can't remember their name at all oh man you have failed I have failed so he'll have to message me email me he'll know what to say and I'll remember it and then boom I did say his name once he said but he wanted me to say it again he's like can you say my name again just ask him what show he said your name and then you can look it up. Let's go backwards. I have one last note because this just happened. Wonka 2.0 came out. Yes, it did. And it makes everything so easy so you can now reach all the goals. But why would you want to? Oh, that's right. You guys hate Wonka. I like Wonka. It's terrible. I like Wonka. I've heard that there's a setting to turn off the one stupid multiplier rule. That would be kind of awesome. Sadly, it's not the default, but, you know. I think it shoots like a dream. Nightmare? Yeah, I think it's a dream because it's a JJP. No, it shoots like a dream because it's a Pat Waller. The two best shooting JJPs are both Pat Waller. Once he puts it in, it makes the flippers actually work. Yeah, because he's going to do that. Because he's going to fix their flipper problem. He's going to get right in there and change that code and get it working. Yeah, just like he did on Black Knight. Did we talk about the one hour and ten minute JJP game, Zach? Was that the Guns N' Roses? Yeah. Yeah, you talked about that. We did, yeah. That's all I can think about. But you can't bring that up because that extra ball's on. It doesn't count. I know, but still, an hour and ten minutes for four pretty good players. That's what happens when you put four pretty good players on a game with extra balls. That plays easy. It could have been worse. It could have been more to the rings. Yeah, maybe 30 minutes would have taken even longer. I doubt that. Just you and Alberto on your batch resolver rings lasted like 40 minutes. I know. It was good, though, and I did catch him and beat him. Yes, to the enjoyment of no one. Oh, everyone enjoyed it. Yeah, okay. Everyone's waiting for the next round. I enjoyed watching it. I'd be like, yeah, I told you, you still can't make it hard enough. I could make it even harder. Oh, my. It's hard enough. I can make it harder. Oh, my. All right. Man, that was a big list. One more thing. One more thing. We were talking about Ticonderoga. In September... We were talking about Ticonderoga. The boat? No. The fort? No. Oh, the Star Trek thing. Yes. Guess who's going to be coming there? Oh, my goodness. Could it be me? It could be you. Oh, my. George Takei. Unfortunately, we have to kidnap him. Oh. No, no. Do you know why? George Takei. To George Takei. Give him a sign of the thing. You know what we need to do? He is going to be in Ticonderoga September 24th, September 25th. Oh, no. In September 25th. Oh, bye. So now we have a goal to kidnap George Takei and bring him to Stump. We need to change Stump from Pinball Comes Home to George Takei Comes Home. There you go. Or we go to Ticonderoga and set up Pinball there. Yeah, we'll just bust the entire tournament over. Exactly. And we'll put Pim Lushy in the bus, too, so we can plan the way. Just bringing George Takei over there. Can you sign this? And then immediately leaving from there, going to the stop. And, like, here it is, signed. Okay, so, guys, here we go. I'm going to shock you a little bit. How much do you think the George Takei, oh, my, all-inclusive package is? That's exactly what the package is called. Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? The George Takei Oh My All-Exclusive Package. Wait, how many digits? Okay, it is a lot of digits. So here's what it includes. Okay, so you get general admission, a photograph of George Takei, an autograph from George Takei. So he doesn't say you can get an autograph, anything you have. A tour of the Enterprise of Mr. Takei, and a chat with Mr. Takei on the bridge. There's 11 still available. How much would you pay? How much would I pay or how much would I think it is? First, how much would you pay? Three bucks. Okay. How much do you think it is? $1,500. $1,000. You are very close there. I'm over. You're over. You lose. Now, how much do you think the Bridge Event Tour is? The Bridge Event. The Bridge Event is $400. Wow. Are you going to play cards with George Takai? for a photograph you can get your picture with him how about the autograph let's see autographs occur not yet scheduled to let you be present to obtain the autograph so sometime during those days he's there he will autograph but it doesn't say when we gotta kidnap him that weekend guys whoever kidnaps him and brings him along automatically gets into finals Yes. You actually win the side tournament. The side tournament. Oh, I can't wait to attend. Stop. It's so exciting. Oh my. Two events in New York State, both dedicated to George Takai. Pretty cool. One day you'll say his name right, and maybe he'll come. No. No? No. Okay. I don't think I've come in many years. just bring it on back on that note this has been episode 172 of the Slam Tilt Podcast we can be reached at slamtiltpodcast at gmail.com you can go to our Facebook page and when Bruce posts and asks for questions that seem to go over well maybe we'll do that in upcoming episodes if you want to be on the show I'm offering the all exclusive package Oh, yeah, can we have one of those? The all-exclusive, like you get on the show. That would be the main one. Other ones, you just get our autographs. You can get a picture with us. Yep. I like that. I should put that on the website. You should. That would be fucking hilarious. Get your picture with Bruce. It's a certain price. Then with Ron, it's another price. And then with Bruce and Ron, it's more. Get your picture with Zach. $1 million. Oh, that's the most coveted, of course. No, no, no, no. Picture with Zach with him smiling. No, that's too million. No, a picture of Zach with him in front of a Star Trek Next Generation. Yes. Smiling. There you go. You can make me smile in front of a Star Trek Next Generation, but you can't take a picture. You can just claim you saw it for only $500. Wow. I like where this is going. All right. We don't need no advertisers anymore like the other podcasts do. We just sell ourselves. We just sell ourselves, yes. I can bar slut my out all the way I can. The Slapdill Podcast. We sell ourselves. Yes. All right. You don't know what the fuck it's saying. Where was I? Silverball Chronicles. What's it saying? Oh, yeah. I'm on another podcast called Silverball Chronicles. You can catch us on the Pinball Network. We have an episode that will be upcoming soon. Well, it depends how long my compadre, David Dennis, my co-host, well, actually he's the host, takes to edit the podcast. But we should be recording soon. You can probably guess, based on some recent news that has occurred, who it may be about. I'll just say that. A little clue. Did I say our podcast website? Yeah. Slamtailpodcast.com. Check it out. All our links are in the upper right-hand corner. Email us. RSS feed. Email us. I gave that already, but I'll do it again. Slamthrillpodcast.gmail.com. Thanks to everyone in the world. Zach, you want to plug anything? Want to plug anything, Zach? Deathball? Oh, deathball. Deathball. Wow, what excitement. When does deathball occur? August 28th. If you somehow live in the area but have not yet heard about it, you should come. Yes. What area? Where are you? We are southwest of Rochester. What kind of format is this tournament? It sounds different. Ground Robin with a ladder finals. And who is the defending champion of this tournament? Is it Scott? It's me, butthole. I know. I knew he was going to forget that. Oh, it's Ron Hallett. Yeah. Oh, Jesus. You know, and I put that, I just play proudly my death ball, and this is what I get. Wow. Did you order the death ball finally? Yeah, I've ordered all the death balls to be ready for death ball. And I'm upgrading the size this year. Whoa, bigger balls. Oh, my goodness. So if anybody else wins, you'll have bigger balls than Ron. Yes. And on that note. On that note, thanks, everybody. I'm thinking I'm forgetting something, but I've gone through my list very closely here. Hi, Steve. Hi, Steve. Follow bonus. Hi, Zach. Oh, you're already here. He's next here. Hi, everyone on our Clusterbuck thread. Thank you, everybody in the world. Thank you, Pinball, for being so great. Thank you, IFPA, for coming on back. Sure. $1 fees all around. All around. All around. Say goodbye, Bruce. Goodbye, the person I forgot at Allentown. You can go away if you try. Oh my, my, oh my, my. There is need to keep you alive. Oh my. Oh my. Oh my. Oh my.

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: cbbc3129-c604-4575-a0be-3afae94695c2*