# Episode 197 – Half A Hypocrite

**Source:** Slam Tilt Podcast  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2022-12-14  
**Duration:** 100m 32s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.slamtiltpodcast.com/2022/12/13/episode-197-half-a-hypocrite/

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## Analysis

Ron Hallett and Bruce Nightingale from Slam Tilt Podcast discuss pinball repairs at Rochester Pinball Collective with third host Zach, covering issues with games like Whitewater, Bizarre, and Safari. The episode pivots to analysis of the newly announced Spooky Pinball Scooby-Doo machine, examining its three pricing tiers ($7,769–$9,769), wide-body design with split playfield, and licensing details including original voice actors.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] Spooky's Scooby-Doo is their first game to not sell out instantly since Alice Cooper — _Ron and Bruce discussing sales trajectory; explicitly stated that Halloween sold out in a day, but Scooby-Doo has not sold out yet as of episode recording date_
- [MEDIUM] Scooby-Doo is a wide-body with a full split playfield (not just an upper playfield), similar to original Black Knight — _Zach describes it as 'full width' split playfield versus floating mini playfield like Game of Thrones; no definitive measurement provided by hosts_
- [MEDIUM] Spooky is producing the most units they've ever made for one game with Scooby-Doo — _Hosts note '1,969 of these' production run planned; reference to prior list showing 960 CEs out of 1,250 total units_
- [HIGH] Scooby-Doo features original/current voice actors including Frank Welker (Fred) and newly dubbed Shaggy — _Hosts confirm from trailer credits; note that current Shaggy voice actor is from movies/cartoons but doesn't match classic Casey Kasem sound as closely as Mark Silk would_
- [HIGH] Rochester Pinball Collective is located at 349 West Commercial Street, Suite 2965, East Rochester, with 49 machines — _Zach (co-owner) provides exact address and suite number; confirms ownership stake in five-person co-op_

### Notable Quotes

> "I'm not paying $12 for one fucking tap. That's as much as I paid for the entire game."
> — **Bruce**, ~0:06:00
> _Humorous illustration of frustration with specialty tools cost relative to hobby budgets; reflects common complaint in pinball restoration community about hidden expenses_

> "The most important marketing system for your current machine is your last machine."
> — **Ron**, ~1:26:00
> _Industry insight about how previous game reception directly impacts next release sales; explains Scooby-Doo's slower sellout relative to recent Spooky releases_

> "instead of you have the pretzel now you have the cock lock"
> — **Ron (referencing forum comment)**, ~0:48:00
> _Community-identified design feature on Scooby-Doo: dual apron locks that visually resemble genitalia when viewed from above, amusingly named 'cock locks' by Pinside forum poster_

> "The base model is a joke. The base model is basically just there to say, hey, we still make cheap pins."
> — **Ron**, ~1:10:00
> _Critical assessment of Spooky's three-tier pricing strategy; suggests lowest-price model exists only for optics, with majority demand/production allocated to higher tiers_

> "Upper play fields are bad for business."
> — **Zach**, ~1:23:00
> _Meta-commentary on market trends; explains why Spooky's recent upper-playfield games (Alice Cooper, Halloween) undersold relative to expectations despite packed feature sets_

> "When I watched the trailer, it's like, wow, who did they get to do Fred? He is spot on... oh, it's Frank Welker. He did Fred."
> — **Ron**, ~1:16:00
> _Confirms original Scooby-Doo voice talent participation in pinball; Frank Welker has voiced Fred since the 1969 cartoon_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Spooky Pinball | company | Boutique pinball manufacturer announcing Scooby-Doo three-tier release with production run of ~1,969 units at $7,769–$9,769 price points |
| Scooby-Doo | game | Newly announced Spooky Pinball licensed title featuring wide-body design, split playfield, original/current voice actors, multiple cosmetic tiers; first Spooky release to not sell out instantly since Alice Cooper |
| Rochester Pinball Collective (RPC) | organization | Five-owner co-op pinball arcade at 349 West Commercial Street, Suite 2965, East Rochester, NY with 49 machines; repairs and restoration workspace featured in episode discussion |
| Ron Hallett | person | Co-host of Slam Tilt Podcast; based in upstate New York; recovered from COVID/shingles booster during recording |
| Bruce Nightingale | person | Co-host of Slam Tilt Podcast; participated in repairs at Rochester Pinball Collective and Scooby-Doo analysis |
| Zach | person | Third host of this episode; co-owner of Rochester Pinball Collective; self-identified Scooby-Doo aficionado; expert on pinball repairs and homebrew flipper mechanics |
| Frank Welker | person | Voice actor credited for Fred in Scooby-Doo pinball trailer; original voice talent from 1969 cartoon series |
| Alice Cooper | game | Prior Spooky Pinball release that sold out immediately; followed by Halloween, which also sold out; both preceded Scooby-Doo in release timeline |
| Halloween | game | Spooky Pinball release mentioned as selling out instantly; discussed as marker of sales velocity before Scooby-Doo's slower adoption |
| Pinball Resource | company | Parts supplier; owner reportedly not accepting email orders, requires phone calls; noted for particular customer service style |
| Surface Safari | game | Gottlieb game undergoing restoration by hosts; discussed for mounting/structural issues with Vuk (left flipper guide trail and back Vuk) |
| Whitewater | game | Williams game; left flipper broke; Zach fixed flipper base linkage/bolt issue |
| Bizarre | game | Game with wood screw extraction issues; hosts used JB Weld epoxy to reinforce stripped playfield screw holes |
| Demoman | game | Tournament-grade machine at local league with intermittent flipper lock-up issue requiring diagnostic troubleshooting |
| Alien Star | game | Re-import game with same mainline fuse issue (5X20 conversion error from 220V to 120V) as Zach's Surface Safari |
| Lord of the Rings LE | game | Referenced for back glass art controversy (Gandalf's hair visually resembling genitalia); used as comparison point for Scooby-Doo's dual apron lock design |
| Game of Thrones | game | Example of upper playfield design with mini floating playfield in corner vs. full split playfield design |
| Black Knight | game | Original Black Knight cited as example of full-width split playfield design similar to Scooby-Doo's layout |
| Heavy Metal Meltdown | game | Game restoration project mentioned as complete and awaiting pickup by owner |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Pinball machine repairs and restoration, Spooky Pinball Scooby-Doo announcement and feature analysis, Three-tier pricing and edition strategy in boutique pinball
- **Secondary:** Wide-body playfield design and mechanical innovation, Voice acting and IP licensing in pinball games, Rochester Pinball Collective operations and community, Parts sourcing and specialty tool costs, Sales trends and market momentum in pinball releases

### Sentiment

**Mixed** (0.55) — Hosts express genuine excitement about Scooby-Doo's wide-body design, split playfield, and packed feature set, but temper enthusiasm with criticism of three-tier pricing strategy (base model perceived as 'a joke'), concerns about upper-playfield games' slower sales performance, and skepticism that Bloodsucker/Standard editions will meaningfully sell. Repair discussion is lighthearted and collaborative. Overall tone is appreciative of design creativity but cautious about market viability and pricing sustainability.

### Signals

- **[business_signal]** Pinball Resource parts supplier reportedly stopped accepting email orders, requiring phone calls; order fulfillment errors documented (incorrect rebuild kits shipped despite correct invoicing) (confidence: medium) — Hosts mention waiting two days to reach owner by phone; prior experience with wrong parts shipped despite correct invoicing; no clarity on email service restoration timeline
- **[community_signal]** Pinside forum community creates humorous naming ('cock locks') for Scooby-Doo apron lock design based on visual appearance; comparison made to prior Lord of the Rings back glass controversy (confidence: high) — Ron references specific Pinside forum discussion and TWIP front page featuring overhead shot comparison; hosts note 'cock lock blocks' as memorable community label
- **[competitive_signal]** Upper-playfield games underperform relative to recent single-level Spooky releases; market perception that upper playfields are 'bad for business' (confidence: medium) — Zach states 'Upper play fields are bad for business.' Hosts note Halloween sold out quickly but was followed by slower Scooby-Doo adoption; prior upper-playfield Alice Cooper also sold out fast but no longer mentioned as template
- **[design_philosophy]** Spooky's Scooby-Doo employs split playfield (full-width upper level) similar to original Black Knight rather than floating mini-playfield; innovative apron lock design with aesthetic/community humor implications (confidence: high) — Zach describes full-width split playfield versus floating upper playfield; hosts identify dual apron locks visually resembling genitalia, dubbed 'cock locks' by Pinside forum
- **[market_signal]** Spooky's three-tier Scooby-Doo strategy ($7,769 Standard / $8,769 Bloodsucker / $9,769 CE) with majority production allocated to CE; base model criticized as existing only for optics (confidence: high) — Ron states 'The base model is a joke...just there to say, hey, we still make cheap pins.' List shows 960 CEs out of 1,250 units (~76% allocation to premium tier)
- **[announcement]** Spooky Pinball announces Scooby-Doo with three cosmetic tiers at $7,769–$9,769; wide-body with split playfield design (confidence: high) — Official trailer released with gameplay footage; pricing and configuration details publicly disclosed; voice actor credits confirmed
- **[product_strategy]** Scooby-Doo Collector's Edition includes exclusive cosmetics: ghoulish green powder coat, RGB LED multi-layered villain topper, custom zombie-chasing speaker grills, power-coated door armor, colored habit trails vs. Standard/Bloodsucker tiers (confidence: high) — Hosts read complete feature list by edition; $1,000 price differential between Bloodsucker and CE drives allocation strategy
- **[product_concern]** Rochester Pinball Collective restoration cases reveal systematic re-importer errors: incorrect voltage fuse conversions (220V to 120V), stripped screw holes, missing/broken flipper linkages, under-fused electrical systems on vintage imports (confidence: high) — Zach documents matching mainline fuse errors on both Surface Safari and Alien Star re-imports; hosts discuss JB Weld repairs for playfield screw stripping; flipper base coil stop issues requiring custom fabrication
- **[sentiment_shift]** Spooky Pinball's Scooby-Doo is first game to not sell out immediately since Alice Cooper, suggesting market saturation or FOMO fatigue after recent releases (confidence: high) — Ron explicitly states 'It has not sold out yet' and 'This is their first game to not sell instantly since Alice Cooper.' Hosts attribute decline to poor reception of prior game (Halloween) and upper-playfield design trend
- **[licensing_signal]** Scooby-Doo pinball features original/current voice talent including Frank Welker (Fred) and newly dubbed Shaggy; includes clips from original cartoon show (confidence: high) — Voice actor credits visible in official trailer; hosts confirm Frank Welker's perfect Fred impression and note new Shaggy voice actor is current show voice talent but doesn't match classic Casey Kasem sound

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## Transcript

 When I almost scored with four chicks seven years ago, this one chick's father brought forth on me a prostitute. Because some dudes just weren't created equal. Yeah. Coming to you from beautiful upstate New York, this is the Slamtail Podcast, a show about all things pinball. I'm your host, Ron Hallett, here with my co-host, Bruce Nightingale. Boosters suck! Oh yeah, you had your COVID booster. You had fun. I had COVID booster and my shingles first shot, since I'm old. And you didn't react well. No, I'm still not 100%. I'm like probably 70% right now. I got it on Friday. We're recording Sunday morning. It's been 36 hours. Yesterday, I was just a vegetable on the chair. But we have a guest. No, we don't have a guest. This is episode 197. We have a third host. Zach's here. Zach's here. Hey, Zach. Hi, Zach. Hey. Didn't I just see you? Well, no, you didn't because you were sick and didn't come in. I saw you on the screen. Oh, I didn't see you, but I guess that's true that you did see me, you creeper. Yeah, what are you doing? You're going into the security cameras. Lying in bed with a fever, sleeping, and looking at your security feed and watching us work. I don't think he was sleeping. He might have been doing something else. I love when Zach fixes games. Oh, my God. It gets me so hot. Bend over that game. Yeah. Did you like watching me fix your whitewater? What was wrong with whitewater? A hot flipper bat. What was wrong with whitewater? The left flipper broke in half. Oh, cute. Wow, what's with flipper bats breaking? Not the bat. Where the link goes to the crank. Oh. It just fell out of the thing. Oh. I had some, didn't I? I just put it back in. Oh, okay. Oh, the bolt just slid out. That's all. Yeah, even though it has a nylon lock nut on it. All right. Repairs. Might as well just do repairs. Let's just throw it all off here. Repairs. You act like there's a plan. There is a plan. I'm looking at it. I'm not looking at it. We go right off it. Well, that's too bad. So, Bazaar, how did Bazaar work out for your repairs? sack how bizarre how bizarre oh is it a game it's a game it's a game no it's bizarre not bizarre oh baby you're making me crazy what even relationship does that song have to this how bizarre ding ding ding ding ding ding he is right it's the wrong word so yeah i'm shopping bizarre every single wood screw i tried to get out of playfield. It got halfway. They just came out. So I was like, ooh, this is fun. So I decided to fill every screw hole on top of the playfield with JB Weld and leave it overnight. And now the screws are nice and tight. Nice and tight. And Zach actually made his own flipper base. Yeah, all the screws on one flipper base were stripped and then someone had super glued the coil stop back on. Yes. So zipper flipper coil bases are now available through Zach. Well, they would be, except I can't find a number five tap to make the holes for the – You can find it. You just don't want to pay that much money for it. Yeah, I'm not paying $30 for one fucking tap. You go over to Amazon, $12. I'm not paying $12 for one fucking tap. Hey, there you go. That's as much as I paid for the entire base plate. That's as much as I paid for the entire game. But if you actually had them tap it, you would have been better off. I do have to tap it. No, I know, but if you had them tap it, you would have been better off. No, they don't do number fives either. because number 5 doesn't actually exist. It does exist, just not common. Not anywhere these days. I'm running into the same problem on my homebrew. I'm trying to install one of the flipper button switches, you know, on the cabinet, which of course takes a number 5 screw. A one and a half inch long number 5 screw. I'm just like, where the hell do I get this? I got to special order this screw off of boltdepot.com or something. One screw, $27.95. I have no idea about getting my own screw in a cabinet, which is so stupid. There's cheaper screws out there, you know. Wow. Way to disrupt our flow. Oh, yeah, the flow was so great there. How did that end, family? I see they took it apart more. Yeah, they were cleaning all the subways. Good. They were disgusting, weren't they? Where were you doing all this? At the Rochester Pinball Collective. Zach, tell me where it is. East Rochester. I did better. I did better. He doesn't even know. I did better. 349 West Commercial Street. What's suite number, Zach? 2965. Yay! He got it. Wow. And he's one of the five owners. Yes. I've been meaning to just take some of our business cards and keep them in my pocket so I can reference some of these questions, but I haven't done it yet. Oh, my God. That's fucking hilarious. That would be, you know, he's talking to somebody. I have this. We have this co-op thing. It's great. Oh, where is it? East Rochester. Oh, but where? I like to know. Go there maybe and try it out. East Rochester. Check out our website. It has the address. Yeah, that's what I usually do. Oh, yes. We have 49 games. 49, not 50. 49. Zach, we have to get to 50. 50 and you'll never hear me talk about it again. Oh, you'll talk about other things. I finished shopping out, surfed at Safari. I heard. Me too. Oh. Years ago. Years ago. And how is that godly quality doing? It's great. The best part is when I took the main ramp thing off and there was like a screwdriver underneath it. You got a free nut driver. That was left there from the previous. Yes, that was funny. You got a free nut driver. It's a bonus. It's like when you find quarters in a machine, you found a nut driver. I wonder if that's the thought I've been saying, just like weird things you found in games. That was a good one, though. The other thing is, let's see, on the right side, the return on the right side, the flasher that was there, I never noticed that it never worked. And when I took it off, I found out why. It wasn't hooked up. There was no wiring to the flasher at all. And then I was like, you know, there's this connector underneath the play field that wasn't connected to anything. I wonder if that's what that was for. So you're missing one whole side of the connector wiring? Yeah, the side that goes to the flasher. I made it. Luckily, you had that connector on hand. Well, Kali uses those, what, junior Molex connector things? Yeah, the minis. The mini fit junior. I didn't have any of those, so I had to cut the other side and put, like, a regular Molex connector on there. And it worked. My flasher works now. It's great. Let's see. What else did I do? Only a couple 89 flashers were on there instead of the 67s. Nice. That's not bad. Only a few fuses were wrong. Actually, two of the fuses that were wrong were the same two that were wrong on Alien Star. So what do you think they are? You should get this, you guys. Sonoid fuse. I'll give you a clue. Both of my games are re-imports. So what two fuses do you think I had to replace? Mainline. Yeah. That's the one. Oh, they used a metric size fuse, huh? No. No. They used 5X20. They hafted. They hafted. Not one and a half inches? They hafted. No. Because on the... It's fuses one and two. Because on the game it says... Hey, I don't know what you're doing tomorrow in the bathroom. It's 220. You use these value fuses. If it's, you know, 120, you use these value fuses. So, of course, they converted it to 120, but they never changed the fuse. I blame the re-importer. Did you swap the thingy that pops when there's too much voltage? The thingy that pops when there's too much voltage. I did not swap that. Oh, is that a different value, too? Yes, it is. I think so, yeah. I don't know on Gottlieb's, but on Williams it is. Bummer. No, I didn't do that. The thing is about that is the 220, it's like put a 5-amp fuse, and then for 120, it's 2.5. So actually it was, or no, I said that the other way around. It was basically under-fused. Yes. So yeah, 2.5. Which is better than over-fused. Yeah, yeah. One of the other ones I went through was over-fused, like a 10 instead of an 8. I'm surprised that survived at all. Yeah, I know. You would think, yeah, it would have went at some point, being under-fused to that degree. But the Alien Star was the same way. And plus you had to order parts for your game. I had to call. Yeah, he's in the not taking email orders at Pinball Resource. So I had to call. It took me two days to get through. I got the man himself, and I didn't get yelled at. I had all my part numbers. He was all friendly and everything. He didn't question your part choices? No, that's why I was waiting. Because when I did the flipper rebuild kit, but then I ordered some extra System 1 coil stops, I was expecting to hear, I'm like, you know, they don't go with that kit, you know. But he didn't. So he's off his game. Or maybe he's just getting used to it and just saying, screw it. He is off his game because I got the wrong parts anyway. Yeah, so did we last time. I got Williams pop bumper rebuild kits instead of the Gottliebs. Although on the, I can see where he took the order down on the, not receipt. What's the word? Invoice. Invoice. It's correct. So whoever actually got the parts from the, did it wrong. They took the wrong package. I think we were actually invoiced wrong on ours. Ah, yes. Yeah, we were too. Good. We got the parts as invoiced. It's just not, yeah. Yeah. So, but yeah, got everything together. It's fucking awesome. It's great. Everything works except one LED on the left ramp. And I just wasn't going to play with that. It's good enough. Good enough. Yeah, I love like. It's not just good. It's good enough. One or two days after you post it, you finally got through to him. I saw another post saying, hey, the email order's back up. Oh, are you kidding? That's bullshit because the auto reply email he had said it wasn't going to be taken for the foreseeable future. So they lied. Well, we got to the unforeseeable part of the future. Yeah, we obviously did. Crazy thing to me about Surface Safari, that left Vuck, the wire form, the habit trail. That's a family program. It only has one actual good mount where it screws into a machine screw into the metal post. It's actually solid. The other two are just on the side rail with wood screws that just rip out instantly because there's so much shock when that thing comes out. There's no way that's going to last. And someone had already increased the screw sizes a couple times. I think mine is like a number 12 wood screw, just like jammed in there. And it works. Yeah, but yeah. And then the other one, the other Vuk in the back, it's mounted with three machine screws, but one of them was sheared off into the actual post. So I couldn't get it out, so I end up having to use one of my other posts, posts, which the ones I have are for like Williams. They're not as, the diameter is not as big as what Gottlieb used. But I found one, I found one that was the right size or close enough. And I got it to work. Heavy metal meltdown. Is it done? It's done. Just waiting for him to take it. I got one last one here. And this is more of a question for you guys. I haven't looked at this. This is when I went to league last weekend. Demoman was down. Oh, no. It's like, what's wrong? That's so rare. What's wrong with Demoman? Well, I was told it's doing this thing where you're playing a game, and you flip the flipper. I don't remember if it's the right or the left, but it's the same side. You flip the flipper, and it just stays up. Not mechanically, like it's energized. So you turn the game off, and they turn it back on, and then it's fine again for another 10 games, and it does the same thing. Bad coil stop. Bad return spring. They turn the game on, it goes down. Yeah, it goes down. It's not getting hot. So what they did so far is first they thought maybe it was the opto or something. They swapped the opto boards. The problem did not move. And I guess it happens whether you use the flipper buttons or the triggers. So it's in the mech. They went as far as – how is it in the mech if it's energized? It's got to release. Guess what? A transistor doesn't work and it not work. Yes, exactly. And they replaced the fliptronics. The transistor input could be floating or something. Yeah, very rare on the fliptronics, too. They replaced the fliptronics board. It does the same thing. Okay, so we ruled that out. All right, now I have a question for you guys. The flipper itself has two diodes, right? Yes. Is there a deal? If a diode comes off a little bit, could it lock on? Could it energize? Not directly. Yeah, there goes my theory. Oh, well. replace your MPU. Could be a bad voltage comparator on the input for the direct switches. Could be. Very uncommon, though. So is this problem. Yeah, I don't want to say just replace the coil, see if anything happens. Swap the coils. I'm trying to go for simpler things than like, just start replacing boards. Replacing boards is very simple, Ron. Well, it's very simple, but you're going so far up the stream on what the issue could be. I think halfway up the stream. Yeah, halfway up the stream. You've got a problem with a MAC. I focus on the MAC. You said it's not the MAC. Well, I said, yeah, because it's energized. So it's not the MAC then. Well, see, I consider the coil part of the MAC. I consider the coil part of the MAC, and it's energized. Try replacing the coil. The coil is just energizing itself. It's the electricity straight from the sun. Yep, the sun. The solar power coil. So the hold transistor, once the hold transistor is engaged, it should just stay engaged. So Zach says replace the MPU. What about the EOF? It could also be that the hold transistor is already stuck on, but just you're not noticing because it can't raise the flipper. Yeah, but isn't that on the flip electronics board? Yeah. Which they already swapped out. I didn't say why it was stuck on. Oh. Yeah. you can when it's gone and stuck up you can disconnect the direct switches and see what happens good point yeah you can also just disconnect the end of stroke switch completely to rule that out yep mm-hmm okay so there's a couple things you could do you know while it's at engage just pull off the connector for the direct switches if it drops down then you know he said pull off sorry he sure did yeah I did thank you um all right Is that enough for repairs? So far, yeah. Your countdown's done. My countdown's done. Great. Yes. Your countdown is done. Just play test. Break it in for me. No, I'm going to take it home with me. Once it's in the vault downstairs, it usually doesn't come back out. And league members will be, this is so great. We want to play this every night at league. I'm going to sleep perfectly. You can bring it up. You can bring it to Zach and get Zach's working. Mine works. It's just not all the drop targets go up. There you go. That works great. It works great. Zach, I sent you something on the chat. Yeah, but you didn't tell me what it is, so I can't do anything about it. It's above it. If you look at the title of the email that I sent, it was – Yeah, I can't see the title. Oh, okay. Rotation 8. Oh, yeah. You have a bunch of emails for Rotation 8 in the mailbag. That's what I like with Zach now. We're going to repay Rotation 8? No. Oh. Somebody wants to sell us one possibly. Possibly. Possibly. I haven't gotten that far yet, but he wants – Okay. It's of value, and I'm now seeing if Zach's even interested or not. That seems like a reasonable value, depending on location. You know what people are interested in, Bruce? New games. Rotation 8. New games. Rotation 8. No one's seen those before. No one sees those before. It'll be like nothing before. Draw people from all over the region. All over the world. Did you know a new game came out? It was announced. It was announced. It was announced. And it was video gameplay. It was shown. Some of it. Some of it. Not all of it. We still have no video or sound assets to see. Yep. They weren't approved yet. That's what they said. Scooby-dooby-doo, where are you? That was awesome. Yes. Are we excited? It's a wide body. It has enough of a play field. It's a wide body in the way Demoman is a wide body. Are you sure? Yes. Have you measured it? Have I measured it? Look at it. No one even thought it was a wide body when they saw it. It could be 24, you know. I'd be curious. Here you go. What was the last wide body that wasn't the Williams super pin dimensions? That wasn't? It would be a Jersey Jack. No. No, they used the same. They used the same super pin dimensions. So did Highway. Did Highway? I believe it's the same. Measure your alien. Oh, you don't have it. I'm sorry. I mean, they use a custom lockdown bar on my aliens. I don't know if it's the same. That was just a dying mate. Hey, what the hell are you? Didn't Highway have the raising things? Yes, they had. Yeah, they had. But I bet you the play field is basically the same as a super power. So what's the last wide body? Oh, God. I mean, even Data East, like Guns N' Roses. Guns N' Roses, yeah. I think is the same dimension. It'd have to be Stern. I just know Zach loves wider wide bodies, so I'm just trying to think. What was the last wider wide body? Aren't the sterns narrow, too? The sterns are narrower, yes. But they're still wider than, like, next-gen and stuff. Oh, I thought they were the same. No, they're not. No. I know because I had to get glass. And the other thing is they're longer and wider. to... The Williams, they're longer and wider, but the Bally's are just wider, which is weird, at least for the glass. So I'd have to say Orbiter 1. Orbiter 1, yeah. Or Clone, if you count that. I don't. Orbiter 1. Because Orbiter 1 was after the last Bally, too, right? Oh, yeah. Last Bally was 81. So the timeline is Spooky released a trailer, which is basically just a teaser trailer no teaser trailer okay i just told you what the name this is going to be a fun episode i just told you the name of the game which everybody in the world knew at this point and then only a few days later they had the actual you know the full all-out trailer with actual you know you could actually see the game yep so what did you guys think when you saw it and i don't know if our listeners know this but zach here that's one of his dream themes scooby-doo and he already had And he had one of his dream themes ruined with pirates, so. Twice. Twice. Oh, so you didn't like the first Stern one either. No. Oh, Jolly Park. Yes. Oh, yeah, Jolly Park. I think it's pretty wide, too. Yeah, Jolly, yeah, Jolly. And what about Nemo? Nemo was after that, right? Or was that a wide body? No, not a wide body. Jolly Park was by the European company, right? Yes. Yeah. Spanish. It was a spin ball. Spinball. Not the Sonic. No. Okay, back to Scooby-Doo. So, when you saw the trailer, what did you think? First impressions? There's a lock on it that's interesting. Oh, we're going to get right into that, huh? Bruce's eyes gravitated immediately to that. No, I blame the clusterfuck for this because I didn't see this. But on Scooby-Doo, there is an apron lock. There's two apron locks. There's two apron locks, and if you look where the ball locks, when it comes out, there's this little narrow passageway it goes through to get back on the play field. And the way they did the art, they made it like this purple color. And if you remember the – what was it? The back glass on Lord of the Rings LE where – what's the guy's name, the old guy? Gandalf. Gandalf's – what was it? His hair or something? Oh, my. The way they did it, it looked like a penis. The perfect picture is actually on the front page of Twip. I'm going to save this and put it right to our work. Basically, just look at an overhead shot of Scooby-Doo Playfield. The two locks, when they come out, it looks like two penises. And, of course, they're pointing right at Daphne and Velma, of course. and someone on our cluster you called it the cock locks so instead of you have the pretzel now you have the cock lock and so the dual drop target bank on the left do they block the cock locks I don't know cock lock blocks is that what they are everybody loves the cock lock blocks what do we think I mean it's loaded It is loaded. I won't. Is it actually that loaded, though? Oh, God. Here we go. Yeah. Well, it's cheaper than Stern. Are you going to say it's not loaded because a lot of them are sculpts that don't do anything? No, I'll admit it doesn't have a lot. Well, the CE is a lot of sculpts. Yeah. Well, that's the thing. Yeah. The trailer. I don't really know how many. Exactly. I haven't at least pictured those either. There's three versions. No one's going to buy them. There's three versions of this game. they have the um the fuck you major the fuck you minor and the normal oh no i don't think those are the official names no it's appropriate and the le no it's the standard edition the bloodsucker edition and the collector's edition basically the only one that has the cabinet art that you want is the collector's edition yes along with a ton of other things so you get the standard edition which is $7,769. It's a cardboard box with a picture of a machine on it. It's got the mystery machine. Come on. The Bloodsucker Edition, you get clear plastic protectors, interior graphics. This is extra stuff from the regular. Knocker kit, shaker kit, interactive RGB, speaker lights, target decals. Let's see, RGB LED action button. So does that mean there's no action button on the standard? Yeah, I still haven't gotten an answer to that. I have to assume. I mean, it's metallic flake powder coat, laser cut speaker grills, flipper button protective armor, numbered plaque, and five metallic flake habit trails. But if you get the collector's edition, you will get custom zombie chasing Scooby speaker grills, ghoulish green powder coat, a RGB LED multi-layered villain topper, laser cut custom creeper armor power coated door custom scooby dog tag launch button so i wonder if that means on a regular one is it just very cool a regular button it's just a launch button you can get power windows yeah and door locks numbered plaque uh five character colored habit trails yeah which is neat yep and they're all i had all the colors right just without looking at it. I figured Fred... I figured it wouldn't be white, because that would look weird. I figured he'd be blue, Spooky would be brown, Shaggy would be green, Velma would be orange, and Daphne would be purple. And that's what they are. Let's see. RGB LED action button. Wait a minute. Does the other one just say action button? No, it says RGB. Okay. Yeah, the same thing. Miner and end of sculpts Miner 49er Scooby Mine Cart Sculpts the Black Knight Sculpt the Mine Entrance sculpt the Abandoned Airfield sign and the Charlie the Robot sculpt I love that just a sign counts as something that you need to charge extra for on the CD Yeah. But for $1,000 more than the Bloodsucker? Well, here's the thing. So for the collector's edition, it's $9,769. So do you want a packed game like Scooby-Doo for under $10,000? If it plays good? Or do you want the Bond-Ellen Super-LE that's going to be a single-level play field for like $20,000 or whatever the hell it's going to cost? Those are obviously the only two games you can buy right now. I'm just saying if you're comparing. I don't think you should compare those two. I don't think you should compare. You compare first what they have. You can compare Bond-Ellen. How can you get a game with a wide body with an upper play field with all this shit in it, And then you have another game that's basically a throwback single-level play field, and one is under $10,000, and the other one is probably going to be over $20,000. Both are very desirable licenses. I think the base model is a joke. The base model is basically just there to say, hey, we still make cheap pins. We still make cheap pins. And it's just barely above the pro price. Oh, yeah, and they're doing the thing that they did for the last game where they're having 1,969 of these. Oh, my. That's cute. but just not any particular, whatever versions people want. So I think you're going to have like 1,960 CEs and maybe nine bloodsuckers or maybe one standard somewhere, which will be the uber rare limited edition. Yeah, that will be the rarest game of all time. And they won't get their game until a year and a half from now. Yeah, the newest, the highest price is first, medium price is second, lowest price. We found a list on Halloween, right, and it said there were 960 CEs out of 2,500 or 1,250. 1,250. Yeah, so 900 out of 1,200 basically were CEs, which is impressive. Yeah. And the Halloween, it wasn't even that good of a thing compared to the amount of CEs. The butter cabinet went up in price too. Did it? I didn't even see it mentioned anywhere. Oh, I got the mention. 1,400. Wow. Instead of 1,000. so if you want the true LE there it is you can get the base model with the butter cabin and be the one off car that would be the best just like trolling everything but you'd get it fast probably just be so confused they just give you a CE by accident but the other thing about Scooby Doo is they have all the voice actors who actually do the voices now currently Apparently, I guess, from what I'm reading. These are the people who actually do the voices now. It's the original. When I watched the trailer, I'm like, that doesn't really sound like Shaggy. And I guess the guy who does Shaggy now is the guy who did him in the movies. Yes. But he does him in the cartoons, too. He took over for Casey Kasem, but he doesn't really sound. Like when we had Marc Silk on here, he sounded more like Shaggy. Oh, yeah. I don't know why they didn't hire Marc Silk. Well, because they got all the people who are actually doing it now. That's why. But Marc Silk sounds like him. We're questioning the choices of the actual Scooby-Doo production committee, not Spooky. I can't really fault Spooky for hiring. When I was watching the trailer, it's like, wow, who did they get to do Fred? He is spot on. Like, I cannot tell the difference. And then I saw the credits, like, oh, it's Frank Welker. He did Fred. Yeah. So that's why he sounds perfect, because it is Fred. Yeah, it is Fred. Let's see. The other – I couldn't tell which one was Velma and which one was Daphne. You haven't either? Yep, me either. I mean, to me, Velma is always the one I heard when I was a kid. That's always – to me, that's Velma. If it doesn't sound like that, it's not Velma, but that's just me. So, thoughts. Zach, we're going to go to you first since you're our third host. What do you think of it? And Scooby Expert. So far, right now, as of today – I'm going to say Scooby Expert. I'm just a Scooby aficionado. 12-11-2022 what are your thoughts? What you've seen so far? It has a lot of elements that I like You like the fan and the middle ramp Yes, we know that, that's the problem Well, it was Scooby, it was a wide body and has an upper playfield and it's got a set of drop target thingy Yeah, in the middle ball save drop target and it's got lots of habit trails Oh, that's right, it's got the Diamond Lady drop target between the flippers. It's got cool lock stuff. On the apron. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Cool apron stuff, sorry. I always like when they do something interesting, you know, with less space down there. Yeah, abuse it. Instead of abuse it, ignore it. Well, abuse it would be fine too, just don't ignore it. Yeah. And the upper playfield, it goes all the way to the back because it has no back panel. It's basically actually a split playfield, not just an upper playfield too, which, when was the last time we had one of those? A little while. What does that mean? Split play. Explain. You know, like the first Black Knight, it's actually full width. There's an entire half of the play field versus like Game of Thrones. It's just a little thing floating up there in the corner. Okay. It's a mini play field versus a full split level play field. What do you think of – I've read a lot of stuff that it has very strong Alice Cooper vibes. People disappoint me. You mean from overhead? I can go like, it's a spooky and it has an upper play field with some rocks around the front. It must be Alice Cooper. I thought it does look a lot like Alice Cooper. I think the coloring palette is a little bit. Even the center, I mean, the center, instead of having the targets there, the center is the ramp that gets up the upper play field. But it just looked very similar. No, I'm just pointing you around. I'm sorry. I've never ceased to disappoint you, I know. No, sometimes you impress me. Oh, wow. I should let you know at the time. This is the most they've ever made for one game. Well, they might. Well, exactly. That's the first thing. Yes, it has not sold out yet. It has not sold out. It's just like Alice Cooper. Halloween sold out in a day. This is their first game to not sell instantly since Alice Cooper. Yeah. Upper playfields are bad for business. No, no, no. The problem was, look at the game before it. Yeah, I think the Halloween was. And that's what killed it. What was before Alice Cooper, technically? It was the chicken. It was freaking Rob Zombie. Not TNA? No. After Alice Cooper? Mm-hmm. Feels wrong. Okay. My PDB. So make a good machine, and then you'll sell that one out right away. Yeah, the most important marketing system for your current machine is your last machine. Exactly. Well, that's the Gary Stern way until you get the new one on the line. That's the exact opposite of the Gary Stern way. Well. I am surprised that – well, it's the same time. Maybe I'm not surprised. It looks so packed, and it looks like they did it – I mean, it looks like you would hope it would look. All the cartoon art, it's the Scooby-Doo everyone wants. Yeah, supposedly they have, like, clips from the show. They got clips from the show. If they have new voice actors. They overdubbed it. They still have the old voice actor? No, they dubbed it. Wow. You haven't listened to any of the – see, I do my research. I've listened to – Zach? You are right. Yes! This never happens. Rob Zombie was 2016, February. Alice Cooper was 2018. And in between, there was actually two games in between. Oh, yeah. Total Nuclear Annihilation and the Jetsons. That doesn't count. That doesn't count. And IPDB is wrong. Let's continue. So, yes. Wow. I'm giving you props for once. And what do I get? No, it's wrong. Yes, they're overdubbing They're dubbing over their voices with the new actors So they probably couldn't get the rights to the old ones I wonder if they're overdubbed They almost have to overdub Fred too Otherwise the quality won't match So he's going to He's going to overdub himself Say the same lines he already said 50 years ago That's going to be interesting And someone will somehow hack it And put all the original clips back in So the problem I have The question I have for you two is, are you impressed or are you not? Oh, I was impressed. Okay. Zach? Yeah, I guess the wide body thing impressed me. Yeah, I like that. I wasn't really expecting Spooky to ever do that. Neither did I. Although there's no reason, when you think about it in retrospect, that they couldn't. Well, the problem – well, actually, I do like the wide body for that. One reason is, guess what? Maybe the shots will be a little wider now. That's not too bad because they were the perfect width before. No, they were not. Yeah, they were. The center shot is pretty tight anyway. Did you look at the center shot? It looks really wide to me. Oh, no, it doesn't. Look at it right now. The targets seem like they're biased. It's like a big hurt or something. Looking at the pictures that no one can see because they're listening. But who's who? Who made this game? Let's see. Game design. We have Spooky Luke and Corwin Emery. I think they're the permanent designers at this point for all the games. Because they've done two. I know. Exactly. They're great. and the one that they did was terrible. Software Spooky DJ, I don't know who that is. Rules, Luke Peters. The art is Matt Frank and Jeff Zornow. I think one of those guys did Alice Cooper, right? I believe one of them did Alice Cooper, which is an excellent art package. Animations, Bill Rude and a Bray Duke. Music by Matt “Count D” Montgomery. and in the voice actors it's got the voice actors. It's interesting how Spooky seems to be able to continually find good artists. Yes. Usually new ones each time too. But they haven't found a good programmer yet, right Zach? No, they had one for Rick and Marty. Okay, they did. But I mean maybe you should offer your services. Nah, I'm sure they wouldn't want someone who lives in New York. But wait a minute. they have programmers who don't live in Benton, Wisconsin. Are you saying that they did not want you, Zach? Yeah, they didn't want me. They turned Zach down, ladies and gentlemen. He offered to, what did you offer to do? Clean up Alice Cooper? Yeah, back when Alice Cooper was like still actively getting releases and stuff and they were winding down, but still a lot of bugs, which is still a lot of bugs. It's awesome. Yeah, I messaged them like, hey, like I already have an Alice Cooper. I've coded pinball machines before. I'm a professional programmer. It's not like it's my first time trying to touch code. I can fix up all these problems you got left. Here's some ideas of how you improve it. And then, no, we only want to use programmers that will be on location in Spooky Headquarters. The thing is, though, that was previous management. Is Charlie not in charge anymore? I don't think so. I really don't think so. He's like Jack now. What I think, you know, a lot of these people that were there initially who have left or let go or whatever, you know, like Bo was there and he was gone. Was it David David Van Es was there and he was gone? A lot of them. I think Halloween was kind of the transition game. I mean, if you were paying attention, when Halloween came out, number one, it's done by, you know, Luke and Bug. And they were the ones doing the interviews. And they might have Charlie on, but he hardly talked. Yeah. And then after that, all the shows, it was Luke and Bug. Luke and Bug. Charlie wasn't even there. And now this latest game, they already had an interview on, I think it was the pinball show, and it's just Luke and Bug. I think you could think of Charlie as the owner, but Luke and Bug are kind of the presidents of pinball operations, if you will. And I think they have their people they want to bring in. I think that's why you saw a lot of the older guard going bye-bye, and they're bringing their people in. Which, frankly, I mean, wouldn't you do that? I mean, that's what a head coach does when they take over a team. What if it's good people? You know, maybe they don't get along with those people, even if they're good. I don't know. No, what I'm saying, you know, Halloween did not impress, I don't think, anybody. I don't know if Fosmo will do any more games there. I mean, he had that for two years. It's still a buggy mess. Oh, it's a terrible buggy mess. He must have dirt on Charlie somehow. Like, how many games in a row did he, like, mess up? I know. But, yeah, it's like two years on that game. I mean, you figure because it's been a year and a half of making it, plus he had to be on at least six months beforehand, and it still crashes and has all the issues to the point where they pulled him off of it and replaced him with someone in either Australia or New Zealand. I can never remember where he is. You can't give him any more games, right? You will. He'll get hired by J-Pop. J-Pop? Oh, we got him. He's on my list. Hey, guess what, Ron? What? You'll be able to play it. I'm sure RPC probably, or Rochester in general, probably has at least five people who have ordered the CD. I think there's four. There's four. Of course. That we know of. And I'm sure someone will get the LN Bond, too. Oh, I don't know about that. Oh, really? I would give 50-50 odds on that. Oh. James, maybe. Okay. James, maybe, if anyone. All right. But, yeah, but I got to play Dr. No. Dr. Noah. Well, you were saying I'm going to get to play it at RPC? No. No? Oh, the other game, yes. You will be able to play Scooby-Doo, because Mark's got one coming. coming to RPC? Yep. Just Mark? Well, it'd be sort of pointless to have two. Who would bring two LEs? That's happening. So wait a minute, but didn't someone else on this call get this game? You got one, Ron? I didn't know you got one, Ron. Congratulations. Yeah, nice. All right, for those at home, Zach is getting one of these. Yes, he is. With Bruce. Yes. You know, Bruce, Mr. just bashes Spooky more than anyone else. I do bash him, and we've been bashing him all day here. Exactly, I've been bashing him still, and I still own half of it. This is going to be your second Spooky game. I've only had one. The theme is what makes it. If the gameplay is shit again, they're going to hear about it. Well, the other thing is, this game supposedly has all new board set, all proprietary board set. Designed by the coder, it seems. And new wiring. It's going to be like the daisy chain light board thing. No, they used those in the Halloween too. They did. Yeah, that's what I thought. But the interview I just heard, they made it sound like it was a new thing. So somehow it's different. Custom boards for the LEDs for like the common points. There you go. On Halloween, it was all singly mounted LEDs. Yeah, pretty bad. I mean, it's very nice for replacing them. But congratulations, Zach, you have a game. Well, not yet. No, eventually in a year. I mean, I do have a game. It's just not Scooby-Doo. Well, the funny thing is, didn't your distributor fail you? They didn't email you at all? Oh, yeah. Pinball Star, always very great. Totally didn't mess up getting me my Owl Scooper either. You know, they posted like, hey, if you want a no-stress way of ordering, you know, just email us and we'll put you on our reserve list. So I emailed them, and they did not put me on the reserve list. But they had Bruce on there. Yeah, Bruce emailed them. You know, then he got an email back later, like, here's the link for an order, your own personal link. You know, and Mark got the same thing, and then I just didn't get anything. You probably saw the Zach name. It's like that Zach guy. Fuck him. What version did you get? Wow, is it a secret? No. Take a random guess. What do you think Zach would get? Well, I heard Zach just – It was not my choice. It was not my choice. Oh, so – I think it was your choice. No, it wasn't. I said I would like this or this, and you said you didn't like the artwork, so that was exactly what the comment was, right or wrong. Well, but what was I going to buy until you offered to split with me? You were going to buy the lowest one, if I remember correctly, right? Yeah. Yeah. So you got the Bloodsucker edition. Nope. So you did get the CE. Yes. All right. There's no point to the Bloodsucker at all, in my opinion. No. Either go on the cheap end and get it late, or go on the expensive end and get it soon. Yeah. and what does soon mean in the next year and a half yeah 2024 here we come get ready for the rpc launch party in 2024 yep scooby what what uh model did mark well that's a stupid question i'm sure he does never mind i just did he get a butter cab yes did he get a butter cab did he ask for a second topper or something or or just even more sculpts well That's going to be the next thing, Ron. Toppers for your toppers. Toppers. Yes. People are not thinking properly. You have the top with the topper. We should get ciders. And bottomers. Yes. The ankle biter, Ellie. Every game should have a smoke machine, strobe lighting, disco ball. We haven't had a game with a cider since, what, Safecracker? That's more of a fronter. That's a cider. A cider and a fronter? Oh, God, Predator. but the sliders were cool bank doors opening up I'm surprised that more games don't come with under lighting from the factory besides Phelan that seems like a really cheap way to upcharge a lot of money for something the other thing I should mention you could also get the game through Spooky but their website crashed again they can try they had issues I think this is the between Rick and Morty Halloween and this is like the third game in a row they've had issues with the website. We got new code for Fathom and it fixed some bugs. Okay, nice segue off of that with a completely unrelated thing, but yes. Figure, we fixed some bugs. Yay! Well, I want to say, are you going to be mad when you don't get a manual for your spooky Bruce? Yes, I will complain about that right off the bat. So guess what they should be doing right now? Getting the manual ready? Yes. Yeah, so once we get the game, it doesn't have a manual. We can complain about that on that episode. Their new proprietary board set, so they can have documentation for all that stuff. Yeah, that'd be nice, wouldn't it? Well, I have to ask you this, Bruce. Would you consider Bond in full production right now? No, actually. They're making Bonds. They are making Bonds. I agree, but now they're back to the LEs. Whatever. Bond is a production game. Yes, it is. People have Bonds. Yes. Guess what Stern doesn't have for Bond on their website? A manual. The manual. So here you go, Bruce. Get on their case now. It's only been a couple weeks. We're talking a year and a half. A little different. A little different. I will say they usually do put out a manual. This is the slowest we've seen recently. Exactly. So two weeks or three weeks. Wow. I can give them a month, and it probably will be out by the end of this month. Stern, where's your manuals? Where's my bond manual? Do you have a bond manual? It must have like a person. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. It's out now. Oh, it is? It is. I'm looking at it right now. Oh, my God. Oh, my God. Cool. Unfortunately, they only have the pro one. Oh, they only have the pro? The pro. Oh, they only have the pro. That's all they've made yet so far, right? Yeah, exactly. So that's legit. Yeah. There you go. Okay, good job, Stern. See? You bugged on them, and look what happened. I think they uploaded it right at this second. They heard us. Yeah, because it's up there. I'm looking at it right now. All right. Good job, sir. I played it. It actually plays really good. I like the flow on it. So that was, what, two or three weeks into production. So two or three weeks into Scooby-Doo production, we expect to see a manual. There are 15 listed coil outputs on the Pro run, but that includes the jigger motor, so it's really 14. Scooby-Dooby-Doo, where are you? Do you remember that I watched all the original episodes as a kid, and I just remember there were episodes where Daphne sounded different. Then I found out later it was like a different person doing the voice. So even as a kid, I would notice stuff like that. Like, why does she sound different? And then they had the Scooby-Doo, was it Mystery Hour, where they had like celebrities? it was like Scooby-Doo and Sunny and Cher Scooby-Doo and the Three Stooges Scooby-Doo and Mama Cass, I remember like what? Who was that? I had no idea who that was So who was the first person going to make a mod for the missile on 007 with a vibrator? This is one of the times that I'm glad that you don't have any arts and crafts skills Bruce Did I mention Scooby-Doo and the Harlem Globetrotters? See, a double pinball. Actually, no, I didn't mention that. Not this episode, but yes. All right, is that enough of Scooby-Doo? I think I went through all my notes here. So after all Bruce is bitching, he's getting one anyway. So he's a hypocrite. I'll write that down. Half of one. Half of one. So he's half a hypocrite. Half a hypocrite. I'd like to say it is nice to see Spooky still just making a wide body, doing upper playfields. Yep. Even like Jersey Jack is not doing – Yeah, it was nice. After the Halloween thing, they could have just like, okay, let's make the most generic, safe play field we could make. And I was like, no, no, upper play field. We're putting locks on the apron. I feel like for better or worse, they're like embodying the 80s, 90s pinball feel for design much more than anyone else. Hey, did you know the Stern pinball, when you get a manual, it actually tells you on the back that it's FCC Class A subpar J compliance for CE and UL. Yeah, the Spookys don't have UL certification, do they? No, they do not. No. Who does? I mean, Stern does. I would assume Jersey Jack does. Jersey Jack does. Who else does? Does Chicago Gaming have it? Does American have it? I think they do. They are UL. I mean, is Spooky the only one who's not UL certified? And what exactly does that mean? Don't use it on location? I mean, it's probably a smart idea. The limits are designed to provide a reasonable protection against harmful interference when equipment is operated in a commercial environment. This equipment generates, uses, and can radiate radio frequency energy, and if not installed and used in accordance with the instruction manual, may cause harmful interference through radio communications. So now the question is, is Fathom UL certified? Probably not. So we just make the rule that we can't have non-UL certified games at the Rochester Penal Collective. There you go. Done. Well, that's probably all your EMs, right? I doubt they did that back then. Well, when was the first UL-certified game? Exactly. Oh, that's a good question. Oh, that's a great question. If anyone could answer that, send us an email to slamtillpodcasts at gmail.com. What was the first UL-certified pinball machine? It might have been Big Hurt or Gladiators. I remember Gladiators was bragging about getting UL-certified back in the 90s, around then. Oh, and if they were bragging about it, yeah, they would probably be first. We did it. presumably at least of the major manufacturers at the time although yeah but uh i assume that nothing in the 80s was y'all certified all right so let's get off of that there were multiple george gomez interviews while we were away that's super awesome pinball show had a two-parter and he was also on marco hi marco who's marco marco specialties polo you know that place you order parts from you know you said hi to marco doesn't okay who knows what marco is marco could be a guy in europe hi kyle hi omoto is that better that makes sense okay no it's finally no confusion i assumed you were talking about that other uh twippy nominee or something twippies yes vote for us just kidding too late too late uh oh that's right the pre is over the pre soon you can vote for us uh yes oh yeah i sure we made it um and if you can vote for us remember to vote for silver ball as your given Oh did I mention that There your thing Nope that it You done Silverball Chronicles which can be listened to on the Pinball Network He already did it. You're already done. I didn't say where it could be listened to. The Pinball Network. Guess what? He didn't remember that, so that's his fault. I don't know where it could be listened to. The Pinball Network. Thank you. Did you see David Dennis' Christmas photos with his family? Nope. Nope. Look that up. Just look it up real fast. Please, please. On Facebook. Okay. David Dennis Christmas. You can look that up. With his family. David Dennis, by the way, is my co-host on Silver Ball Chronicles. That's going to be listened to on the Pinball Network. Thank you. Wow. No results for that, Bruce. Sorry. You don't know how to internet then. Don't know how to internet. Well. To be fair, Facebook search is like the worst. These Gomez interviews, I took some notes down. Did you look at the pictures yet? No, I didn't look at the pictures. I'm going on to pretend care business here, Bruce. Every day. Okay. Every day, every way. Taking care of business. Every day. Bond Super LEs, he said mid-December. So next week. But what about the Bond LEs? Yeah, they're on the line right now. Yeah, I think they're making – yeah. They've been on the line for two and a half weeks. but there's no manual yet they're not out shipping they're shipping the european ones so they have a little more time so we don't care about europeans we don't want europeans don't don't read manuals bruce nope they just route it and then when it breaks they replace it with the next one you're finally getting it wow okay um it looks like stern is going to be staying at two cornerstones until they catch up. Something like that. Yep. Surprise, surprise. Yep. On Super Awesome, he was going back and forth, but on Marco's interview, he was more, we're probably going to stick it to until we can catch up. There you go. So my question, oh, God, did you just send something? In chat. I don't know how to use chat. Just click the chat button. Yes, I got it. Oh, my God. Yes. And this is what he posted on Facebook. His poor wife. Can you tell he's Canadian? Yeah, you can tell he's Canadian. Yeah, that's, yeah. The goofiness. That's a normal picture in Canada. Yeah, it's actually like, you know. He's considered normal. Actually, he's considered not weird in Canada. Not weird is weird in Canada. Yes, that's correct. What did I have in my notes? So if they're doing two cornerstones and the rumors that I've heard, I heard this at Expo, that the next game is going to be Foo Fighters and it's Jack Danger's game. If that's your first cornerstone, then what's the second cornerstone? Is he thinking Foo Fighters, quote unquote, will be March-ish? Or whenever the first cornerstone will come out. My question is if they're only doing two, what's the second one? Is there a Venom? Does that even exist? Obviously it's going to be Venom. We've gotten very good info from other podcasters. Yeah, I've been so wrong on the Venom thing. Yes, you have. I'm sure Bruce is happy on that. So, I mean, I'm starting to wonder, is there an actual Venom? I mean, does it even exist? I sort of doubt it at this point. I kind of doubt it too. So what's the second cornerstone? Obviously it's going to be Jaws. Yeah. It's going to be the Golden Girls. The thing is, and I was thinking of this, Elwynn's last cornerstone was Godzilla, and that was last year. We still got Eddie, too, though, right? Yeah, Eddie. So this year, the only Elwynn game is going to be the Super Ellie thing. Probably next year, too. Yeah. I mean, is he doing a cornerstone next year? I've heard he's on Back to the Future. Which would be awesome. And I'm thinking that wouldn't be a cornerstone. I was thinking that would be a Kapow thing. Kapow. Kapow. Kapow. So is there a number one designer, the number one designer in pinball? Is he where he's just going to be working on the high-end stuff now and no more cornerstones? Are we worried about things based on baseless suppositions for a year in the future? 100%. I am. I'm completely worried. Why are you worried? Bruce, this is what the Pinball Network influence gets for your podcast. It does. It really does. I want my yearly Elwin cornerstone. What if he doesn't do one? Then you've got to just – Well, he's not going to do one. He's not doing one this year. Okay, so now you're just going to write off Stern completely, right? I'm just trying to say, why would you have your number one designer not be on Cornerstones anymore? You don't know he's not going to be on Cornerstones. Yes, you don't know this. Listen, Chris, calm down. Chris. I'm just going by all the rumors I hear. As you sell by Venom, my rumors are always just spot on. Yeah, there's always spot on. I'm just concerned. Nailed that one. Will 2023 be the year of no Elwynn release? Ooh. Yeah, because Bonds really is his 2022 release at this point. If it comes out before the end of the year. Say he comes out with a game in 2024, that'll be three years between cornerstones from him. That's not acceptable. Who cares? What do you mean, I care? We'll say he comes out of the game in 2023. Then it'll be one year. I'm one of the many members. Yeah, try it again. I'm one of the many members of Team Elwin. I want my Elwin. You own less Elwins than I have. You can't say that. Snap. Huh? Huh? I've owned three out of four Elwins. No. Yeah. What do you own now? Two out of four. Exactly. I have two out of four. And I wouldn't mind the one that you hate. I mean. Yep. So I'm hearing that two is smaller than three. Is that what I'm getting here? You don't own them anymore. You had the thing for like a month. Did he own it? Yeah, that's more than most Stearns. Yeah, you had an Avengers for, I think it was, maybe it was a little over a month. You didn't have it long. It was like two months. It was during COVID. He had a lot of free time. No, I got Jurassic Park during COVID, I thought. I thought you had it during the Avengers because of the, what's it called, the head-to-head thing. You got it. I bought Avengers in March of 2021. Still somewhat COVID, yeah. And then I sold it at an unknown time. Great job, me, at the recording. Your tracking is very head-lifting. When did I buy Jurassic Park, then? You don't have a spreadsheet with all this information in it? He does. I do. That's what I'm looking at. That's why he's annoyed at himself because he didn't put the information in. Oh, he didn't remember. Oh. He didn't know he didn't put the information in. Oh, he didn't put the information in. Oh, you have to get into the mind of Zach. Other interesting things during the Gomez interview was where was this interview on? I already said that. So when he was talking about Bond and the less than optimal release that occurred, all on the licensor, baby. They had all intentions of showing the game in Robert Englunds when they had the whatever show that was, the UK, whatever. and they got the word from the licensor, yeah, don't show it. And he said not only did they say not show it, they told them when they could show it. I guess they didn't have good licensing approvals for that one. Well, the licensor is in control. But if you look at the – Or they didn't find the information in time. If you look at the displays, it says images may be changed. Yeah, pending licensing approval. Yeah. Yes. Yep, I've never seen that. Yeah, I've never seen that on a production game. No, I was like, wow. I'm surprised you're allowed to do that. Well, you're stating that the images may not be approved and they might change. But you're allowed to release a game without approved images? That feels weird. I agree. But it says pre-production also, so maybe pre-production because it says that. It confirmed the pop-upers were tied together. Oh, good. Which we already knew. So we were right. Well, yeah. I mean, of course. Yes. You made it sound like all the models, though. But, again, it's not on the Pro. And we have now the Pro's schematics to prove it. We do. What else do I have? Just watching Bond Pro, it is still weird to me that when you've locked the ball, it doesn't stop it. So you miss the whole lock animation, the multiball start, all that. So you're saying the premium is better then, huh? For that. Yeah, I kind of agree with you on that. But it's like, couldn't they have had a pop-up post something? Yeah, exactly. It's so bizarre. When you start multiball, you hit the shot. It's the center shot. It comes around, and it's doing the full, like, the missile open, or whatever the hell it does. It's just the multiball, light show, all that. You really can't pay attention to any of it because you're already – the ball is in play. It's just weird. You're doing the presentation without stopping the ball in any way. And that other thing under the flipper. that just kicks it out to the top where it just randomly hits shit. It goes into the pop bumpers most of the time. Once in a while, it kicks somewhere out. It's got to be weird. It's definitely way different than that Stranger Things game you like, Ron. I don't know if you listened to any of our episodes, but I mentioned how I played one where they had adjusted that so when it kicked out, it went around the little loop. Which the designer specifically said is not intended. Yes, the designer, and I even mentioned how the designer specifically said that's not how it's supposed to go, but I don't care. That was good. I like that. Fuck Brian Eddy. we do what we want here when it comes to that yes it was much better the other way it was much cooler like ah because as soon as you see it like oh it had to be designed to do that I think I even brought up the getaway how the kickback goes into the saucer like when you see that like oh that's pretty cool so there you go I think that's all I have for the Gomez interviews as far as the interesting little because I do my research Are you listening to any of these interviews, Bruce? No. I'm the only one doing the research. I have only listened to a half of one, the first one, because I've been busy at work. We have a new person in there, so I'm trying to teach, so it's kind of hard listening to stuff. Okay. To be honest. But if I'm by myself, I can listen to anything and do whatever I want. So the other interesting tidbit, this is from Pinball News. they had an article and I recommend people read this about the Zidware case resolved with John Papadiuk so go to pinballnews.com and check this thing out it is a very good read the crux of it is basically these are the original Zidware customers who spent like five figures to get what was it like Alice in Wonderland and Magic Girl and all that none of that shit happens they sued back when getting screwed by new manufacturers was a new thing yeah new thing they eventually all ended up this lawyer and he was the lawsuit was going on and interesting things like when he went to Deep Root and Deep Root was actually fitting the bill for John Papadiuk's lawyers it was actually Deep Root's lawyer that was defending him there Robert Mueller went hard on J-Pop yes he did it's just so weird maybe J-Pop's parents got taken for money And then that's why he had something on him so he can. So then, yeah, and it got to the point where after Deep Root went out, went under, and John Papadiuk's like, I got nothing to pay you. I got no money, got nothing. So they just went through all his financials and found that he was, they looked at his checking account, saw every month he was paying for like two storage bins. and then they went into the storage bins and it had all the shit in it. It had Raza stuff in it, all the Zidware stuff in it. Personal pinball stuff. It had the Houdini, the original Houdini American pinball design in it, all that stuff. Yeah, he gave that up to the – so it was resolved because now all that stuff belongs to the Zidware people who got screwed. They're going to sell it all and then – They think they're going to get $50,000 for that and I almost – They want to get $150,000 for it. I know, exactly. I don't even think they're going to get $50,000 for that stuff. Maybe if they sell it individually, they could get $50,000. I mean, some of the stuff was the stuff that people thought was part of the deep root. Yeah, I agree. No one ever got it, but he got it out of deep root and actually had it in his storage bin. I thought that was interesting. And then he said he didn't have anything when he obviously had that. If anyone hires this guy, they're an idiot. You know who had it right the whole time? Python. Yeah. In a Python's interview on TopCast, when he was going through, you know, all the people he hates and likes. You know, he hated Pat Lawler, loved Steve Ritchie and stuff. But when he got to John Papadiuk, you know what they said about John Papadiuk? He is a con man. That's what he called him. He called him a con man. Nailed it. He nailed it. I always gave him benefit of the doubt of just being really stupid. No, he was really smart. But now confirmed, literally just lying about this shit. Yeah. I like that when he first started, because he started with Bally originally. Yes, he did. And when he was... That was in the early 80s. And he was working there, but then when they got bought by Williams, Williams did an audit and found that he didn't have working papers, because he's Canadian. He didn't actually have working papers to be working in this country. That's why he was gone for a while and then came back, once he got his working papers. I was always confused why Bally never made any of his designs. Let's see. Wow, I did repairs already. So that's good. Well, I got a note here. Pinsonati. Pinsonati? We have someone on this very call that went to Pinsonati. So, Bruce, how was it? Oh, I'm sorry. Zach, how was it? I would have went to Pinsonati if they didn't have so little of the queues for the wait list. The wait list, Bruce. Yes. In other words, you weren't fast enough getting on the list. Nope. And it barely moved. It was 100 people max for every tournament, which sounds quaint in this day and age, you know? Quaint. So how was the show? Or did you even go into the showroom at all? I did go in the showroom once or twice. Once or twice. Wow. We played some games while we – when were we doing that? Oh, yeah. It was – me and Ray went and played some games while we were waiting for like Steph's finals to start because the women's tournament finals were first thing in the morning on the next day. Well, there was a delay incurred by something that I always get nervous about happening for tournaments at my house, and that is power went out. Yeah. We had the women's qualifying on Friday and then the strikes tournament on Friday evening, and then women's finals was supposed to be Saturday morning, and we woke up Saturday morning and the power was out to the entire hotel. and the area. Like a transformer blew up somewhere. Although weirdly, like, we went across the street for lunch, and it was fine. More than meets the eye. So it was, like, very specifically the tiny part of that region that the hotel was hitting was the part that got fucked. It went down at 9.30, I think, and the show was supposed to start at 10. So they had people showing up for the show itself, and it's like, yeah, we got no power. That's got to hurt. And it didn't come up until 4.30. Yikes. Originally we were told 12.45 and then 2.30 and then finally actually got it back at 4.30. Yeah. And impressively, Eric actually managed to get everyone roped in and got the tournament going at 5.15. So I was surprised that he could actually manage to contact everyone within that time. But he did. And then the finals went to like 3 or 4 a.m. So would you go back to one of his tournaments there, sir? I'm interested to see what changes he makes for next year because they've been talking about format changes and stuff so we'll see how that goes okay it was a nice variety of pinball machines until they fucked me over how did they fuck you over? because the machines always fuck him over they always malfunction, it's never his fault no, the game worked perfectly, it was just it was Big House Big House I was forced to play Big House, the same bank in every round of finals I played what's wrong with Big House? it's really bad for tournaments it is really bad for tournaments okay why is it really bad for tournaments the only way to score points in it is by getting the skill shot yes it's like more unbalanced in arena and also the skill shot isn't actually designed well on that arena so no one actually found the plunge to make the skill shot the entire time it was just people just plunging and hoping oh we got in you're like hey i got it yep i love the multiball intro on that, though. It's got the spotlight step move. No, that is cool. It's really cool until one second later when you realize there's nothing to do in the multiball whatsoever. Except go for score shots. You think with some rule changing, that could be a good game? Oh, yeah. It's got a cool layout. There you go. There's a cool thing where you hit the drop targets and it starts a timer. For the first few seconds, it's special. If you complete them, then it's a million points. Then it's 100,000 points. The timer is so fast, it's impossible to complete it even on 10,000. Just make that timer slower and then it would be way different. So one thing they did do is I think Saturday they just stayed open, like Saturday night. They were supposed to close at like midnight, I think because of the power outage. They just left everything open. Yeah, I think they also told people they could come back Sunday for the time they were open then too with the Saturday pass. Whatever you can do. Yep. But I was in a group with Ray and we both got eliminated in the semifinals. Womp. Well, you eliminated Ray. Well... You needed to pass someone, and you missed by like a couple hundred thousand. If you could have done it, then Ray could have been in a playoff. Yeah, though I think technically, if he had just done really bad, then I would have needed much less points to get through, too, so we eliminate each other. Teamwork. Teamwork makes the dream work, I guess. Although, to be fair, the last round, we were in like the same exact position, and we both made it. I take it you got a lot of whoppers and stuff Got some whoppers Not a ton Are you your top 100 now? Finally? I think I am exactly 100 right now But you were Okay you were 100 Then you were 99 So you're 100 again Yeah I think I'm back to 100 I bled in and I bled out Okay I don't know what I am at this point Let's see where everyone is I was at a tournament I was at a tournament yesterday I didn't I didn't do well Wow you played a tournament in December? Yeah. 100 is Zach. Mm-hmm. My 200-something? I'll just go look at the New York State standings. 222. 222. Ooh, nice and even. And third in New York. Do you think you'll be able to overtake Alberto with this tournament you're going to this time? 1324. Woo-hoo! I don't have any more tournaments this year. Oh, the one that hasn't been in yet? Uh, no. I didn't even make the playoffs. I probably didn't even have enough to make my card. Playoffs? No. You would have needed a 12- Oh, God, no. No. Nope. There's multiple tournaments going on this weekend. There's the District A2s doing another Whopper Farm Fun, and then there's, I think, a tournament in Germany. So it's like constant tournaments on Twitch right now. So it's 24 players in New York. Is Raymond coming out and kicking all your asses? I was looking at that. There's so many people who are obviously not going to be coming that it's going to – there's a bunch of people below. You might get in. It's going to go deep. I'm actually above Jerry. What does that tell you? Yeah, I think you're both getting in. Bruce is only 29th. There's no way he's not getting in. Yeah, there's no way he's not getting in. Unless I shoot. I bet it's going to like the 40s at least. Yep. Maybe the 50s. It's going to be a rock fantasy, Bruce. Would you go? No, I'll go. Okay. Don't create a scene. I will. I mean, if you can imagine getting banned from Vodka Fantasy, will that mean they can't host it there anymore? Yes. Good plan. Go for it. See? Wow. Always be thinking. No, I would never do that to be an asshole. No, I'd never do that. But you are an asshole. You said so. I am. I tell everyone I first start working with, I'm an asshole. That's a great intro line. It is. I'm sure that makes them feel super comfortable. Very comfortable. Okay. All right. Time for the ball bag. Oh, bye. Let's see. What do we got here? I don't know. What do we have here? I could skip some of these because they're your rotation eight thing. Yes, rotation eight. People have responded. I have my list still here, so we need bad girls, rotation eight, an Escalera, which I might be bidding on today, Backglass for the games, and a Radical, of course. What do you think, Zach? That's a pretty good list. I can skip the Radical. I like the Radical. I don't think the code's good enough. I think it's pretty good. Make it better. There you go. Okay, this email is from Robert Byers. Oh, my. Hello, boys. So I think if you do the ceremony, oh, he means Twippies. Yep. So if you do the Twippies ceremony, you should dress up in the Dumb and Dumber tuxedos. Yes. First being Dumber, of course. Yes, with the blue fluttering thing. Oh, definitely. Another idea is have me present each award as a different wrestler. However, have Ron do the voices. I literally can just do Hogan. That's it. Oh, and Justy Rose. And even you. And neither of those are particularly good. I can change between each segment, do a brief intro for the wrestler, and then go to the podium and have Ron offstage doing the voiceover. It will be a top rope slam tilt mashup. Woo! Woo! Maybe we could get Matt and Reby Hardy to present Game of the Year. That'd be awesome. Robert Byers, top rope pinball, IFBA player 164. We should vote on that. We should have them vote for us for that. Well, you know, brother, it's twippy time, dude. Woo! All right. Let's see. Just one other one, actually. Yes. Oh, God. This is a Pinball Princess length email here. Let's see. This is from Bob. Hi, Bob. Hi, Bob. Hi there, Pin Maniacs. Ron should try to read this as Hulk Hogan, though not sure he'd sound different than Deep Roots' Robert M. voice. If I tried to read this whole thing as Hulk Hogan, I would have no voice by the end of it. I feel like I'm falling behind, dude, with another burst of Slamtail podcast. Or maybe I've been too busy lately. But those last two podcasts seem to be quick. First, Bruce, what the fuck? You work on Thanksgiving and eat pizza? What kind of un-American, no-good, money-grabbing company's courting anyway? Be a real American, Bruce. Hold on, hold on. It wasn't the company's choice. It was my choice because Kathy was not around that weekend. So I'm sitting home with my thumb up my ass. I'm out to work and make some money. and since I didn't cook for myself, I got pizza. What sort of no-good money-grubbing company allows their workers to work on a holiday? They allow us to, so that's actually a good thing. It's our choice. It wasn't mandatory. It was our choice. Bastards. That's right, baby. They make you work on most American or maybe North American. Yeah, David Dennis, Jeff Teolith, and others also celebrate in October. Holiday of the year. You need to tell all those commies at Corning what's up. Commies at Corning. Oh, my God. Commies at Corning. Wow. Seriously. I thought Bruce's description of his uneventful Thanksgiving day would be the intro story for a charity commercial. Sally Struthers. Oh, God. Do you want to make more money? Sure, we all do. Zach probably has no idea what that is. No, he probably doesn't. No, but I can picture it. For $12 a month. Oh, yeah, but she did those, too. Yeah. Adoptor Vanden Bruce, somewhere in the U.S. Yes, exactly. What was it, for DeVry or whatever? I can't remember what it was for. But it would have all these different things you could study, and one of them was gun repair. Gun repair. I just remember that. It would scroll by the screen and be like, you know, relatively normal stuff. Carpentry, this, this, and then there would be gun repair. And here's Bruce. He's forced to work on Thanksgiving Day, and after that he only has a Pizza Hut personal pizza wording for him. It's for an independent, sorry, international correspondence school. Please get it right. Okay. It was not to fry. Meanwhile at Wendell Weeks Corning CEO house we see him watching football and World Cup soccer on two side 70 8K TV screens in his theater room while staff serve up an endless supply of game food before the main course of turducken Turducken. Awesome. You ever have turducken? I've never seen that word in my life. Turducken is turkey, duck, and something else. There's chicken. Chicken. Yes. All in one. Poor Daffy. Okay, so here we go. Players. Here's the classes. You ready? Oh, fuck it. Passed on me. All right, hold on. Let me get past this paragraph. Okay, go ahead, Chris. Go ahead. So sad. No one should have to live this way. For only $4.95 a week, less than a stern coil stop, you too can sponsor one of the overworked corporate slaves. Won't you call now and make a donation so people won't have to suffer like poor Bruce? This won't be Patreon now. This is just supporting me. Okay. What are the classes, Bruce? What can I learn? High school. You can learn high school? TV VCR repair. Oh, TV VCR repair. That's very handy. Computer programming. You guys are out of jobs now. Assembler, I'm sure. Auto mechanics. Bookkeeping. Learning the personal computer. Because it was new. Electrician. Legal assistant. Animal care specialist. Interior decorating. Child daycare. medical and dental office gun repair florist you can learn to become a florist teacher's aid catering gourmet cooking wow electronics air conditioning repair drafting that's very popular these days now is drafting hotel and restaurant management fitness and nutrition, PC repair, or get your specialized associate's degree in business management and accounting. Hey, without drafting, how would Steve Ritchie have drawn a pinball machine? Exactly. Really? I was thinking more drafting was like a sport involving farting. No. No? No. Let's see. When did it was? Hey, it was right around us. It was in Scranton. And the classes that we've been in in Pennsylvania was the ICS learning. I just want to see a video of the gun repair. Just to see what's involved with gun repair. Back to the email. Anyway, back to pinball. In your previous episode, 195, I really enjoyed the discussion of a Christmas story pinball machine. It's a theme I've considered for when I get around to trying to retheme an existing pinball machine. My goal would be to use an existing play field, maybe with some tweaks, but completely new modern hardware and custom rule sets. I've jotted down some rough ideas. Like, Bruce, I need to write things down not to forget. Here's the sampling. Let's see. A mode where it starts with the clip, how'd you like a snowball sandwich? Then, boom, Ralphie gets hit with a snowball to the face. The mode is then a timed mode in the pop bumpers where every pop cycles a loop of Ralphie pummeling Scott Farkas. Yes. If you drain during the mode, it ends with a clip of Randy under the sink saying, Daddy's going to kill Ralphie. Let's see. Creeping Marauders mode. I think I said that right. Where you have to hit random targets around the play field. It starts with a clip of Ralphie bursting through the kitchen door and his family huddled under the kitchen table. Save us, Ralphie. I just know those bad guys will be coming for us in the end. If you complete the mode successfully, you get the praise from the family. If you fail or drain, you get the comment from Ralphie's mom that BB guns are dangerous. This might need to be a multiball mode to simulate the chaos of a yard full of bad guys. I don't remember any of these scenes. Did you ever see the movie? How could you not have seen the movie? Yeah, even I've seen the movie, and I don't see anything. Let's see, a Christmas tree overload mode starts with every insert lit, then a pop as the fuse blows, and all the lights on the play field go out, with Ralphie's dad saying, don't anybody move, a fuse is out. When the mode starts, when some lights come back on, haven't worked out what the mode would be yet. It's just a fuse. Nothing to see here, people. I completely agree with Mike Winnie that maybe the Sopranos mech could be redone to make it flick his tongue stuck to the flagpole. Oh, the, um, what's the name of the place in Sopranos? The Bang. Party at the Bang. Bang, yeah. Party at the Bang. See, a major award mode starts with the scene where the dad talks about a delivery coming tonight and a knock at the door. You hit a fragile, fragile crate bash toy. Did anyone get that, fragile? Bash the crate. That when hit the right number of times, there's a leg lamp pop out and light up, which ends with a clip of him saying, why, it's indestructibly beautiful. It reminds me of the Fourth of July. Failed to complete the mode, and the breaking leg lamp clip is shown. See, the bumpus hounds invading the house should be a multiball mode. The what I want for Christmas theme mode. Success is the A-plus scene. A failure is the C-plus scene. Maybe a secret Dakota ring. Lighted inserts to spell Ovaltine. Shouldn't it spell, what is it, drink more Ovaltine? International Rescue. Oh, God. Some possible drain call ads. You shoot your eye out, kid. Son of a bitch. Oh, fudge. Schwartz singing, what did I do, ma? That might be my favorite. When she's on the phone, like, what did he say? and you just hear him in the background and you just start smacking the kid. No, Bob, what did I say? Dead silence. No one else liked that scene but me. Sons of bitches, bumpuses. Oh my God, I shot my eye out. Let's see. So question for you both. What would be a good play field to use for a re-theme? None. None? No, stop making re-themes. Yes. They go against God's vision. Possibly something that could be obtained on the cheap because it was a good layout, but other aspects, theme, artwork, flipper size, power, whatever, held it back. Big house. A pinball machine on the cheap? There is no such thing. It doesn't exist. So no suggestions? My suggestion is I have a blank piece of plywood here in my house. I'll make my own. I can have it. Here is a saw and a drill. Yes, we have the worst guest as far as if you're going to ask about rethemes. Zach just makes everything. He's just, retheming is like evil to him. I'll even retheme a circuit board. Watch me. Retheme a circuit board? Just like Spooky with their new warden control system. My son recently watched Office Space for the first time. It'll be 25 years old in 2024. Perfect for a 25th anniversary release. Come on, Stern. Get that license. Make it happen. Or date fix. It could be your second license theme that really bumps you ahead of JJP. It feels like a JJP theme. It does look like a JJP theme. That's right, baby. JJP's got to do that, baby. We're not doing this here on American. American. We only do original themes here. American Dream of American Pinball. When is that coming out? Are we going to get the new American Advancement ever? The Galactic Tank Force thing? The worst secret held. The worst secret held. How long has it been since their last release at this point? A long time. You guys would be interested in an office space pin. It would definitely have to be a printer bash toy, yes. You could collect items a flare. 15 would be the minimum. More than that would be bonus. One bird calling out skill shots. If you could hit the right orbit, that'd be great. TPS reports multiball. That's fucking funny. How much bling do you have? Well, player. You already said that. Player, yeah. What do you think should go into office-based pinball? All the stuff you said. Parking spot. Yeah, you get your ball. You lock your ball in the parking spot. Good luck with your firings. I want that one. The ever flipper should be the stapler, and then it will get disabled. Yes. What if you made it steeper? I might make it steeper. It's got to be a red flipper. Yes, yep, red flipper. Lastly, appreciate the heads up on the eBay item, the time machine cabinet for 99 cents. It's not too far from me. I'm going to see if I can get it for my eventual homebrew. Hopefully you got it. Let's see how much it went for because I still have it on my eBay. Appreciate all the entertainment, tech help, news, commentary, et cetera, during my daily commute. Thanks. Hope you both have a great holiday and happy new year. P.S. Oh, this one hurts. Still waiting for my Godzilla Premium. Over a year now as of late November. This is getting into waiting for a big Lebowski territory. Maybe I'll get it before the next Stern Cornerstone. Nobody bought it because the guy ended the auction early. Ah, maybe he went there in person and picked it up. Exactly, but I have to say it that way. Well, thanks, Bob. Thank you, Bob. That is it for the ball bag. I will say this will probably be our last episode of the year. Ever. Ever. Of the year. Because the next few weekends are Christmas and New Year's and I don't feel like recording. Hold on, people. Hold on, people. Me and Zach said we had plenty of free time. The other guy said he didn't have free time. I didn't say I had free time. I said you guys have free time. The host of the show says no. So there you go. So you see where to – Didn't you say that we are the hosts though? Yeah. Earlier this episode? Pretty sure. No, you're the third host. Bruce is a co-host. I am the host. So he's above me? Actually, when you think about it, yeah, kind of. What am I? Weird. No, you're the third host. I get co-host. Yeah, Ron is the host. I'm the third host. Bruce is the co-host. We're still missing a second host. Second host. I'm trying to think of my intro. What do I say again? Welcome to my co-host. Yeah, I call you co-host in the intro, don't I? Yeah. Yeah, I always enjoy that nice little slight to start every episode. Every episode I get slighted. Yep. Just slap in the face right there. It is always. I mean, you got to knock him down a peg because he is an asshole. I am an asshole, but guess what? If you can start low, we can't get anywhere. You can still go to classes on ICS. Is gun repair still low? No, it is not, unfortunately. Oh, damn it. It's VCR repair. It's in Europe. That's why. Yeah, it's VCR repair there. No VCR repair. They don't believe in VCRs either? No, they don't. Do you believe that? If it was in Japan, it would be Betamax Repair. Bookkeeping, human resources, learning and development, IT. I'm sorry. Did I say that out loud? Procurement and supply, marketing, leadership and management, project management, corporate governance, and accountancy and bookkeeping. Yeah, those are all the classes you can learn at ICS now. It's in Robert Englunds now. The company moved over to Robert Englunds. Absolutely wonderful. You can have English literature. Oh, that's great, Bruce. I can't wait to go over there. I'm so pissed there's no gun repair. I would complain about that. Oh, do they have a class to help me fix my time machine? No. Damn! Nope, they got rid of the technical stuff, looks like. All right, well, that's my list. You guys have anything else? Zach bought a game. Zach always buys games. Oh, yeah, I bought a game. Bought a game. And everyone loves this game. I went to Cincinnati, and I bought a game off my wish list for a long time. You're going to laugh. I can't wait for people's reaction for this. Go ahead, Zach. Tell them the game you bought. El Toro. What a bunch of bull. What the hell? Do you believe you actually bought an El Toro? Is that a game people hate? You've seen it at all these shows for the tournaments. It's terrible. Oh, it's not that one, is it? No, it's not. It's the other one. No, it's not the other one. Yeah. I'll have to say. I couldn't. No. I bought a Williams El Toro. So why was it on your wish list? What's so great about El Toro? It's got my favorite flipper layout. Oh, God. Whoa. Okay, I got to look at this thing here. What is his favorite flipper layout? Don't look up the Bally El Toro. Look up the Williams El Toro. Bally El Toro, the worst flipper layout ever. Let me look here. Bally El Toro. No, don't look at it. Yeah, that looks pretty bad. Let's see. So I want Williams El Toro. Wait a minute. The actual Toro, the bullhead, looks almost exactly the same as the one in the valley. Yeah, I think more than one person in the valley design department was slacking off that day. Yeah, I mean, it looks like they just kind of copied the way the head looked. It's even in the same spot. Art? No. Layout? No. Rules? No. No. El Toro. El Toro. Here we go. You got a reel in the middle and a couple drop targets. Oh yeah, the reel in the playfield's cool too Yeah, I like that I tried to do that on my first homebrew but I couldn't fit it in So will he keep it? Who knows Have you gone through it yet? Is it ready for play? It is still sitting on end in my entryway You know how much it was brand new, Zach? $397 Not the BOM The actual 2 distributor So I wonder how much it was to the actual end user probably what's the markup from the distributor probably 500 probably 100 bucks i love how you call it end user i'm sure that's the terminology they use then yeah yeah and more went overseas than than stayed in the u.s it's another rare game just like spirit you've got all these rare games somehow you get all the rare games that aren't expensive except spirit well that one wasn't expensive either so well yeah when you bought it was cheap it was it was cheap now too that's what happens when you buy it in the 80s yeah things are nice and cheap but you didn't buy it though you didn't have the foresight, your dad did I would have had the foresight if I wasn't alive that helps life does help imagine living in the 80s that would be awesome it was great no phones no internet no motor car, not a single luxury yeah Although if I didn't know something, I couldn't just look it up. That sucked. It's primitive as can be. I'd have to go to the library or something. Oh, God. Look up like an encyclopedia? I'd have to go to the index cards and find what I want with that. Ask old Dewey. Yeah, Dewey Decimal System. Figure all that stuff out. They still taught us that in high school. Did they teach you penmanship or they just like shit can that? What's penmanship? of just like writing so people can actually read it they tried they failed okay well yes i know but i mean other people so they probably succeeded for some people yeah okay they even taught us cursive yeah yeah okay i was curious if they probably just so you can sign your name because really that's the only use for it at this point at this point yeah but they totally made us actually write paragraphs of it and stuff they taught us typing yeah when i did cursive they had you write a sentence out, and then at the end of the school year, you wrote it out again to see your improvement, and mine had no improvement. So I fail. Mine probably got worse. I'd believe it. A lot worse. I can't read your numbers. I can read my numbers. As long as you can read them. I'm the most important segment of the population for reading my own writing, so. Okay. Unless you're writing a letter to someone else. Why would I write a letter? That's so 80s. Yeah, I was. So 80s. No, that's more like, that's so 20s or whatever. 20s? Oh, come on. When was the last time someone actually wrote me a letter that wasn't my grandma? Well, is she from the 20s? Probably around there, yeah. Yeah, but I'm trying to think of anyone actually getting out the stationery. Oh, she's 100 years old. You're saying your grandma's 100 years old. Well, not anymore. No. Okay. Okay, I think we've ran out of topics here as far as pinball is concerned. are we done? I think we're done, you gotta do the spiel do the spiel actually Zach, do you want to plug anything? or is it just going to be RPC the same shit we would already plug we've got a tournament coming up next month at the RPC oh that I can't make it to yes that's fail on your part but we've actually figured this out if you don't come and other people don't come I usually beat Zach Yeah. Oh, we did. Did we mention that? You beat Zach. Bruce does better in tournaments where Ron is not playing. We found this out. We didn't mention that. You retired, and then you beat Zach. I did mention that last time. Oh, we did? Okay. Yes. See, the problem is we're actually recording every two weeks now, so it's screwing up. I'm used to only doing it like every month, so it's actually more up-to-date than usual. Yes, we're very up-to-date here. But don't worry. We'll take care of that because we're not going to be here for another month. That's why we've got to advertise the tournament now. That's why we advertise it now. So January 14th, you pay one price to come in, you play all day, and you play in a tournament. It starts at, I think that's 1 o'clock, 12 o'clock, open door, 1 o'clock, we start playing. There'll be free pizza and birthday cake. And birthday cake. Ooh, who's birthday? Jason Plourd said his birthday's on the 11th, so he should be included also. I said there's already a J in there, so we're good. Yep, we already got him. It's actually two people, Ron. It's actually three now. not his account two people have their birthday the same day so they've requested a joint birthday tournament at their pc nice so we'll be doing a flip frenzy except we won't it'll be the brand new format that Josh Sharpe invented after killing the old format that's exactly the same yeah okay yeah what you know i space out when you guys go into that shit what's the deal so flip frenzies have to be exactly the same number games for every person every right yeah so but you they're called a different name now? I mean, there's no real name for them yet. I called mine a flip-un-frenzy. I've seen some people call them a non-flip-frenzy. There doesn't seem to actually be like a colloquial name yet, but I feel like they're just going to end up getting called flip-frenzies because they killed actual flip-frenzies. Now this is just going to be them. So, un-flip-frenzies. You've got to have the same number of games and do you still need like playoffs? You don't need playoffs. No. Unless you want to go, because the other new thing for 2023 is you can go over 100% TGP if you have playoffs. Uh, okay. Great. So this is going to be like a 140% TGP flip frenzy? Mm-hmm. That's going to blow away all the Whoppers we've ever given away at RPC in the past. Here we go, boys and girls! We're going to give these all away! So RPC is the new Whopper farm. When we go 24 hours, yes. That's when Zach... We have to go 24 hours soon. Now that we can go to a TGP, we only need 12 hours to do it. Oh, okay. So 12 hours. 12 hours of fun. 12 hours that could get us at least three flip frenzies, maybe four. Okay. I like that. What do you think? We start at 10, we go until 10. Yeah. I will not be at this January tournament because I will be at InDisc. What's InDisc? What's that? Who the hell goes there? Californian January. Or should I call it, what is it called? The Open? The Open. It's a major. Yes, it is. Yes. It's the Ifba likes his tournament, so it's worth more. Open. Yeah. Wow. That's pretty mean. It was a kick-ass tournament before Ifba came in. Just saying. Yeah, it was just fine. And then they did that with Seaman, and this is ours now. It's theirs now? Okay. We are worthy. You are not. Responsible in TGP. But now that it's actually a major, that means Josh Sharpe can't win it, right? Of course. He couldn't win it before either. Oh. He can get second. He's allowed to get second. That's true. He's allowed to get second. He can't win it, though. The day he wins one is going to be like, there goes the world. It's going to be all... What are the majors left now, anyway? The Open, the IFPA Worlds. Yep. I think the European Pinball Championships is one. Is there a fourth? Yeah, it seems to me there's a fourth, but I don't know what it is. yeah I can't think of it is it Papa? yeah Papa's not there but were they the fourth? we still haven't gotten another one since yes Papa was that was the original World Championships well originally it was that one and IPA were the two and European pinball EPC was the European one they added the open but now there is no Papa so I guess they just kind of replaced that one so what should be the fourth to replace Popper then? The RPC Open, of course. Of course. Yep. We're all seeing a good selection of, you know, what happens if they came up and said, you know, we really need 50 games, and I'm afraid you guys only have 49. For the Open, we'll rent out a spare room and do 52. Okay. Wow. Is there actually, like, any notable tournament that's, like, above the rest that would deserve the fourth spot, though? I'm not really thinking of one. it was a sanctum because it is a hard tournament 24 hours you know that kind of stuff yeah but it's only 100 people though I know I agree that's the part it can't really be you know a major nearly 100 people and not even going to be 200% TGP either probably yeah it's just going to be like a minor regional tournament next year okay so this has been episode 197 of the Slamtail Podcast check out our website at www.slamtailpodcast.com upper right hand corner all our links we can be emailed at slam till podcast at gmail.com thanks zach thank you welcome uh thanks to everyone bonus i'm here from a bonus uh yes hi steve hi everyone in the cluster buck i think i think we covered everything our first episode back we're gonna have some guests yes plural my gosh 198 will be a very important episode very important episode so I gotta get my tux on yep because if we can't win the twippies we need to bring them to us yes okay I'll leave it there so thanks everybody until next time say goodbye Bruce goodbye Birdo Moon oh my my oh my my Can you boogie? Can you slide? Oh my, my, oh my, my You can boogie if you try Oh my, my, oh my, my Guaranteed to keep you alive Oh my Oh, my. Oh, my. Oh, my. Oh, my. Oh, my. Oh, my. And this is probably, this is our last episode for the year, I would assume. Yeah, I'm assuming so, too. Because, I mean, unless we're recording next weekend, because then the two weekends after that are Christmas and New Year's, and so that's not going to happen. That's a perfect time to record. I think it's a perfect time to record. No, no, it's not. Not at all. Ding, balls are done. Ding, balls are done. I'll be free. I'll be free, too. And we typically... I don't want to talk about the good stuff until we actually get into the freaking podcast. So let's go. Well, you already got it, so... Yeah, we're done. I'm going. See you later. Bye. Shut up. Goodbye, Birdo Moon. Try it again. There's a little hesitation. Goodbye, Birdo Moon. That's better. If I was Zach, I'd have you do it like three times. luckily you're not he got it right on the first and second try so wouldn't need to wow see I'm good you didn't hear the space the hesitation that's what editing's for yeah if I don't talk to you I don't talk to you Ron Merry Christmas Merry Christmas Happy New Year to everyone and to all a good night to all a good morning see you later Happy Festa Vista for the rest of us. Yes. See you, boys. Bye. Bye.

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: d075d39c-56e1-4d87-8ea3-f7a9db1b046e*