# Episode24 - Summertime - 2019its - Flippin - Hot **Source:** The Spinner Is Lit Pinball Podcast **Type:** podcast_episode **Published:** 2019-07-20 **Duration:** 120m 45s **Beat:** Pinball **URL:** https://soundcloud.com/thespinnerislit/episode24-summertime-2019its-flippin-hot-recording-1-2019-07-20-t02-52-54am-thespinnerislit --- ## Analysis The Spinner Is Lit Podcast discusses Stern's new Star Wars home edition pinball machine announced in July 2019, debating its $4,500 MSRP, market positioning, and gameplay merits. The panel also covers Jersey Jack Pinball's Wonka shipments meeting deadlines, Game of Thrones code updates, and Pirates of the Caribbean secondary market dynamics. Speakers express mixed feelings about the home edition strategy while acknowledging Stern's business acumen. ### Key Claims - [HIGH] Star Wars home edition has two ramps, optical spinner, switchless double lock with one-sided optos, three pop bumpers, three lock targets, three drop targets, TIE fighter jump target, metal ramp with chase lights, color display, and full-size playfield — _Dan provided detailed technical breakdown of the machine after watching the full launch stream_ - [HIGH] Star Wars home edition MSRP is $4,500, with distributors typically offering $300-500 discount from MSRP — _Rusty cited standard distributor pricing model; pre-orders advertised at $3,999_ - [HIGH] Stern has released six home edition games (Batman, Iron Man, Transformers, Avengers, Spider-Man, Star Wars) — _Spencer tracked the history of home editions; Dan confirmed timeline_ - [HIGH] Jersey Jack Wonka Standards shipped by end of June meeting the July 4th deadline, with LEs shipping next — _Dan reported JJP met their ship date commitment_ - [HIGH] Game of Thrones received a recent code update after being considered 'dead' with secondary market depreciation of ~$1,000 below original purchase price — _Spencer and panel discussed code update revival for the game_ - [HIGH] Jersey Jack is currently only manufacturing Wonka across both production lines after finishing Pirates of the Caribbean run — _Dan clarified JJP production status; Pirates production halted_ - [HIGH] Spider-Man home edition was the first home game the panelists had personal experience playing — _Spencer noted Mike owned one; praised its quality at $4,000 price point_ - [HIGH] Star Wars Pro/Premium/LE models expected to launch in two to three weeks from July 2019 — _Spencer predicted timing based on Stern's release schedule and Comic-Con_ - [MEDIUM] Zizzle home editions from the 1970s were a widespread success and appear frequently on the used market — _Spencer cited Zizzle as the only historically successful home edition format_ - [MEDIUM] Pirates of the Caribbean players are achieving ~$1,000 profit flipping machines to secondary market after 6 months of play — _Spencer mentioned secondary market dynamics and flipping trends_ ### Notable Quotes > "You gotta watch the stream because that game actually looks like it plays pretty good. It's got two ramps, several lanes...I mean, it's got a pretty full-featured unit." > — **Dan**, ~10:00 > _Dan's detailed technical assessment after viewing the full launch stream, contrasting with second-hand impressions of the game_ > "These guys know what they're doing. This is their sixth [home edition]. They have to be successful, right?" > — **Spencer**, ~25:00 > _Central argument defending Stern's home edition strategy against criticism, based on repeat product launches_ > "If the choice is some pinball or no pinball at home, doesn't one of these seem like a great thing? If we're looking at essentially half price." > — **Spencer**, ~28:00 > _Frames home edition as consumer accessibility play rather than pure profit driver_ > "It's like, do you remember when the Medieval Madness remake was first coming out and they weren't putting coin mechs in the coin door and everybody lost their minds? It's like, okay, who here, raise your hand, are putting it in an arcade or on location? Like two out of 400 people." > — **Spencer**, ~30:00 > _Critiques collector community's obsession with coin door feature as impractical for home use_ > "I got a hot take. Okay. All the people talking shit about Dwight Sullivan can shut the fuck up. Dwight the man. Dwight is the man." > — **Spencer**, ~58:00 > _Public endorsement of Dwight Sullivan (Stern Pinball) after Game of Thrones code update_ > "You know, this is for like a new customer who has the game room who wants something... They're walking into Game Exchange's warehouse in Colorado...they're thinking get a six to one or a multi-K, and we'll get a pinball machine." > — **Dan**, ~27:00 > _Articulates target demographic for home editions: casual game room buyers, not pinball enthusiasts_ > "I think $4,500 worth of pinball machine, easy. Full-size playfield, you got a coin door, slightly smaller cabinet, slightly lower at the back box." > — **Dan**, ~09:00 > _Positive assessment of Star Wars home edition value proposition despite price criticism_ > "The only one that I've ever seen be a widespread, quote unquote success, is the Zizzle. And while I have to agree, the Zizzle is pinball, it's not pinball." > — **Spencer**, ~45:00 > _Historical context for home pinball editions; acknowledges Zizzle's market success but questions authenticity_ > "All the boutique and the smaller, newer companies, each release, they're getting a little better. They're doing it a little better." > — **Spencer**, ~20:00 > _Positive assessment of manufacturing maturity across indie manufacturers like Jersey Jack_ > "Game of Thrones...was in the can and people were selling them and picking them up on the secondary market for a thousand less than what people paid for their games." > — **Spencer**, ~55:00 > _Documents severe secondary market depreciation before code update revival_ ### Entities | Name | Type | Context | |------|------|---------| | Spencer Clingan | person | Podcast host of The Spinner Is Lit; active pinball enthusiast and industry observer | | Dan | person | Panelist; knowledgeable about mechanical playfield design and technical specifications; watched full Star Wars launch stream | | Brian Cass | person | Panelist; participated in roundtable discussion | | Kendra | person | Panelist; commented on licensing complexity and Disney's IP dominance in pinball | | Marianne Rusty | person | Spencer's wife; panelist; discussed price point strategy and distributor pricing models | | Alex | person | Panelist; expressed disappointment with Star Wars home edition announcement, hoped for Jurassic Park or Jaws | | Dwight Sullivan | person | Stern Pinball designer/developer; credited for Game of Thrones code update that revived game interest | | Stern Pinball | company | Major pinball manufacturer releasing Star Wars home edition at $4,500 MSRP and planning full-featured Pro/Premium/LE models | | Jersey Jack Pinball | company | Boutique manufacturer shipping Wonka Standard editions on schedule, with Limited Editions pending; transitioned from Pirates production | | Star Wars (game) | game | Stern home edition announced July 2019; $4,500 MSRP; follows Spider-Man home model; full-featured Pro/Premium/LE versions expected in 2-3 weeks | | Spider-Man (home edition) | game | Stern home edition; praised by panelists as successful reference model for Star Wars home edition | | Wonka | game | Jersey Jack Pinball's current sole production title; Standard editions shipped by end of June; LEs shipping next; mentioned home edition planned | | Pirates of the Caribbean | game | Jersey Jack Pinball title; production halted; secondary market active with players flipping units for ~$1,000 profit after 6 months | | Game of Thrones | game | Stern title; received code update reviving secondary market interest after severe depreciation; panelists credited Dwight Sullivan | | Medieval Madness (remake) | game | Referenced as example of collector community backlash over coin door implementation on home editions | | The Spinner Is Lit Pinball Podcast | organization | Long-form casual podcast covering pinball news, games, and community topics; hosted by Spencer Clingan | | Mike | person | Owned Spider-Man home edition; Commissioner of Capital Quarter Pinball League; married today (timing reference) | | Jeff Claybaugh | person | Purchased one of last remaining Pirates of the Caribbean Standard Editions in America via Lowe | | Courtney Claybaugh | person | Purchased Pirates of the Caribbean with Jeff; congratulated for acquisition | | Pinball Hall of Fame | venue | Spencer visited in March 2019; saw Transformers pen home edition with Kitty Ride coin mechanism; reported mechanical issues | | Game Exchange | venue | Colorado-based warehouse retailer selling new and used pinball machines; referenced as typical sales environment for home editions | | Disney | company | Licensor of Star Wars; noted by Kendra as expensive licensing partner dominating pinball IP availability | | Comic-Con | event | Referenced as timing benchmark for Stern's Star Wars home edition announcement | | Zizzle | company | Historical home pinball manufacturer from 1970s; cited as most commercially successful home edition product line | ### Topics - **Primary:** Star Wars home edition pricing and market positioning, Stern home edition strategy and historical precedent, Jersey Jack Wonka production and shipment timelines - **Secondary:** Pirates of the Caribbean secondary market dynamics and flipping, Game of Thrones code update revival, Collector community attitudes toward coin doors and home editions, Casual vs enthusiast consumer market segments - **Mentioned:** Historical home pinball editions (Zizzle, 1970s Fireball, etc.) ### Sentiment **Mixed** (0.45) — Panel appreciates Star Wars home edition's mechanical design and value proposition but expresses frustration with pricing strategy and market positioning. Positive sentiment around Jersey Jack's manufacturing improvements and Game of Thrones revival. Skepticism about home edition market viability despite acknowledging Stern's business rationale. ### Signals - **[product_strategy]** Stern's sixth home edition targets casual game room buyers (Amazon/Costco/game room warehouse), not pinball enthusiasts; priced at accessible $4,500 point below full Pro models at comparable price (confidence: high) — Dan and Spencer explicitly discussed target market as casual buyers furnishing game rooms, not collectors; compared to Game Exchange customers buying alongside pool tables and foosball - **[product_launch]** Star Wars home edition features full-size playfield, two ramps, optical spinner, switchless double lock, three pop bumpers, three drop targets, TIE fighter target, metal ramp with chase lights, color display, and coin door blank (confidence: high) — Dan provided comprehensive technical breakdown after watching full launch stream; Spencer confirmed details match or exceed Spider-Man home edition - **[product_strategy]** Price point tension: $4,500 Star Wars home edition sits too close to used/discounted Pro models (~$4,200-4,500), reducing incentive for casual buyers to choose home edition over full-featured versions (confidence: high) — Multiple panelists noted $300-500 difference insufficient to justify home edition over Pro; Spencer argued at that price, buyers research and choose full-featured models - **[manufacturing_signal]** Jersey Jack Pinball met Wonka Standard shipment deadline (end of June for July 4th target); LEs shipping imminently; European shipments now starting; manufacturing discipline improving with each release cycle (confidence: high) — Dan confirmed 'they made the date' for Wonka Standards; noted improvement in boutique manufacturers' execution across consecutive releases - **[market_signal]** Pirates of the Caribbean units being flipped to secondary market after 6 months of play for ~$1,000 profit; high secondary market activity despite production halt (confidence: medium) — Spencer noted players making $1,000 profit flipping; Jeff and Courtney acquired 'one of the last ones left in America' via secondary market dealer - **[code_update]** Game of Thrones code update reverses negative sentiment after long development hiatus; game had depreciated ~$1,000 below MSRP on secondary market before update (confidence: high) — Spencer noted game was 'in the can' with severe depreciation; code update attributed to Dwight Sullivan receiving community praise - **[sentiment_shift]** Significant community sentiment reversal on Game of Thrones from negative/abandoned to hopeful after code update; Dwight Sullivan credited with revival (confidence: medium) — Spencer gave 'hot take' defending Sullivan against prior criticism; stated 'Dwight is the man' and encouraged listeners who were 'talking shit' to reconsider - **[design_philosophy]** Stern home editions remove commercial features (coin mechanisms, some magnets/spinners) but retain full-size playfields and most game mechanics; design philosophy balances cost with feature completeness (confidence: high) — Dan detailed Spider-Man and Star Wars home editions lacking some Pro features; noted Iron Man removal of magnets/spinners; emphasized full-size playfield retention as key differentiator - **[community_signal]** Pinball enthusiast community expresses gatekeeping attitudes toward home editions (fixation on coin doors, dismissal of machines as 'not real pinball'), conflicting with casual buyer perspective (confidence: high) — Spencer criticized collector obsession with coin doors as impractical for home use; noted two-out-of-400 ratio of collectors actually placing machines on location; dismissed gatekeeping as 'stupid' - **[product_concern]** Star Wars home edition criticized for undersized LCD/color display; panelists noted 'cell phone size' or 'DMV size but smaller' screen as design compromise compared to Spider-Man home edition (confidence: medium) — Spencer noted small screen as 'the only bad thing about the game'; Dan pointed out asymmetrical speaker grates (one square, one round) as manufacturing quality issue - **[product_strategy]** Stern planning to release full-featured Star Wars Pro/Premium/Limited Edition models within 2-3 weeks of home edition (late July 2019 timeframe); home edition does not cannibalize full product line (confidence: high) — Spencer stated 'they're still going to make Pros...Premiums...LEs...some Super LEs'; predicted timing based on Stern's release cadence and Comic-Con - **[licensing_signal]** Star Wars identified as expensive Disney license; Kendra noted high licensing costs but acknowledged franchise maintains relevance through new content (Disney+ series, new Disneyland land) (confidence: medium) — Kendra stated 'Expensive license, man' and noted 'brand new Disneyland land just came' as factor in IP relevance; implied licensing cost pressures on game pricing --- ## Transcript Hi guys. Welcome to the Spinner's Lit Pinball Podcast. I'm your host, Spencer Clingan. With me tonight is the round table. We'll go over that in a second. tonight's episode, episode 24. Summertime 2019. It's flippin' hot. So with us tonight, I'll go from my left, is Kendra. Hey. And Brian Cass. Hello. And Dan. Yep. And my lovely wife, Marianne Rusty. Hey. And Alex. What's up, everybody? It's been a while since you've been with us. Hi. All right. So we're just going to jump right into it, and I hear dinging somebody's phone. So it's been a while since we've had an episode But we're going to get right into it And we're just going to go over the news So Stern's latest release If you paid attention Yesterday morning Stern did a press release Via YouTube A lot of people expected a new full featured game A lot of rumors about Jurassic Park Or Jurassic World And other things And it ended up being a new home version a new Star Wars home pin. So, I'll start with Alex. Thoughts? I was very disappointed when I saw that. It looked like they could have remade Harley Davidson, in my opinion, after seeing that Star Wars home edition thing. I was looking forward to a Jurassic World or a Jaws, like Spencer was saying, and then it ended up being this thing. I was kind of like yay and hey, but I wasn't really too thrilled about it. Okay. Rusty, you got anything? No, not especially. I think they try to do this to get to the people who would like a new game but can't really afford one of the higher-end ones. You know, what, the price point's $45? Yeah, that's MSRP, which, you know, if you talk to distributors and stuff, You never really, rarely pay MSRP. You usually get, you know, somewhere between $300,000 and $500,000 less, and then you can negotiate shipping and things like that. So, you know, for someone, let's say, throws in $4,000, $500,000 for shipping, you're still at $45,000, you know, unless they throw it on, you know, unless it goes prime and you get it from Amazon. Then, you know, for someone who only has a small lump of cash to kind of give away on a new pinball machine. Maybe it's for them, or maybe they're just cheaping out so they can make something better later down the road. All right. Cool. Dan? Did anybody else watch the stream? The 30-second or whatever little... No, like the nine-hour... Oh, no. I was working, so I saw the little YouTube video. That was it. Okay. you gotta watch the stream because that game actually looks like it plays pretty good. It's got two ramps, several lanes. Basically it looks like they took Spider-Man. They added kind of a ramp coming up from that kind of weird little lock section. The weird little lock is still there but now you can lock two balls in it. It's got the three pops. It's got an optical It's got a double lock. The double lock is switchless. It uses one-sided optos, which is really cool. So nothing to break there. It's got an optical spinner, which rips like crazy. It's got a metal ramp with chase lights, kind of like Black Knight when you're ready to destroy the Death Star. Three lock targets. Three drop targets covering that. On the other side, you've got a TIE fighter, which you can jump up and hit. both those ramps divert down into wire forms and then you have a variety of lanes and i think there might even be an electric gate turning one from a u-turn into a shot up to the rollovers three rollovers i mean it's got the force targets like the pro premium limited um it doesn't have escape or anything like that little trap door thing and it looks like it's shot really good i mean it's got a color display. I think $4,500 worth of pinball machine, easy. Full-size playfield, you got a coin door, slightly smaller cabinet, slightly lower at the backbox. So it actually has a coin net? No. No. Coin door, but no, it's got a blank. Coin blank. But it's got a coin door area, which makes you believe that it probably has lockdown bar latches. Right. I mean, it's a pretty full-featured unit. I, you know, am I going to run out and buy one? No. We're not the target market for that. Right. We're not, you know, we own real arcade pinball machines. We're going to spend real arcade pinball machine money if needs be. But here's the thing. I think if somebody did decide to buy this, let's say that like some people in the room, they just don't understand Stern Star Wars. Right? Oh, okay. Me. Because that game sucks. That game does not suck. And I agree with Dan on this. That game is actually awesome. This is a simpler Star Wars with all the assets and everything. It's got a fairly straightforward rule set with four multiballs, wizard mode. This thing is pretty luxe. I'm going to give it the seal of approval until we get to the... Tumster fire. The tumster fire. The prize. It's just too expensive. And I know maybe they can't make something this good for less, but it's just like, if you look at somebody who's going to go and buy, if someone is serious enough to go and spend $4,500, why wouldn't they spend an extra few hundred dollars and buy a used Pro or an extra thousand? Because it looks like it's a better game than the Pro. Or an extra thousand to buy. Well, not just, not even a Star Wars Pro, but like a Star Trek Pro. Or a Guardians, or a Deadpool, or anything. It just doesn't. I think, though, like, that game looks like it's pretty frickin' neat. I agree. It looks like a good home game. It's not for any pinball. It's not being marketed towards a pinball enthusiast at all. But I agree with Dan on the price point where it's up there so high where if someone decides, hey, I want a pinball machine, I'm going to drop X amount of dollars, I'm going to guess they're going to do a little bit of research and say, hey, I can get this one for $500 more. And really, at that kind of price point, $500 is not that much. For some people, yeah, I want the Star Wars. That's what I want. Great. but for other people maybe they just want a pinball machine like I want a newer one and it's like well I can get like a used Star Wars pro for the same amount of money I like the Star Wars games but I'm going to agree and say that they suck so the prices go down so maybe someday I can afford one but they're fun games they are difficult games but you have to you know that game is not like if I had a Star Wars pro or a premium LE in my house for three months I'd probably grow to love it I just haven't had enough. And I've not put a lot of time on an LE down at Coin-Off, but just, you know, I need to put more. Yeah, it's... It's frustrating to me because it just, it's... Yeah, it's a ball bust. We need the environment where, like, you can punch a bunch of games on it. And I can hear it. Like, if we ever go out to, like, Reno or something, like, the machine at the Peppermill costs, like, 50 cents a play. Hands-out replays, like, if they're candy. I'll be up in Reno tomorrow. Good job. Hands-out replays, like, they're candy. and that's where I basically said, well, it's the newest game here, but I haven't played the shit out of it, and Kiss was messed up, and Metallica was messed up, and Mustang was messed up. So I was like, fine, I'm going to play the hell out of this Star Wars. By the end of the night, I was like, you know what? I got to admit, man, Star Wars is pretty fucking good. I've had a couple of games. It ran through a bunch of people in the casino. Yeah, I've had a couple of games on the LE. It went, okay, it's a little better. I'm liking it a little more. you know, it's a frustrating game for me and I need more time. Was that the one we played in Idaho? We played a pro. That little funky bar with the baby and the evening girl in the trash can. Okay, because they're terrible. But it could have been Space Bar. It just could have been that it wasn't it wasn't kept well. Well, and Pinball has that funky thing where you can take my fun house instead next to somebody else's, and they're going to play completely different. Right, yeah. That's pinball. You know, it has to be, you need to have it set up right, you know, and all that good stuff, and sometimes that doesn't happen. And when you get mass play, everything gets out of alignment. Everything gets out of whack. Things wear down. You know, that's the nature of the game. But, again, everyone in this room is on that market for Stern. They're looking for someone who's going to be on Amazon or Costco. Or the collector, the Star Wars collector. Star Wars collector who wants one but doesn't want to spend the money. Because it's a beautiful game. Yeah. The game itself is gorgeous. The only other thing for the record is that I do think Star Wars is unfortunate. Like, the art on the sides is cool. The play field is not good. The only other bad thing about the game is the small screen. It ain't Dirty Donnie. Like, LED and LCD screens obviously become so dirt cheap, right, that there's no reason to have a little tiny screen like that there. Like, you could have put in something sizably bigger. Yeah, because the Spider-Man game is smaller than a regular one, but it's still a decent size. I absolutely love the Spider-Man home game. It's a fun game. I liked it, too. The Spider-Man one also got a pass because it was something new. It was actually a color display in a Stern game, which was really neat. Yeah. Yeah, this is like, it's like DMV size, but, like, smaller. Right. Like, I'm holding my hands together like anybody could tell what that was. Cell phone size. Jeff pointed out the funniest thing to me, which I don't think I'd be able to unsee if one thing was sitting in front of me either. One of the speaker grates, they're just kind of like holes put in the panel, is square, and the other one is round. Oh, really? Like one. I'm just like, man, I would just be like, ah, get me a drill. Right, exactly. Get me a drill and a template. Kendra, you're up. Star Wars, again. expensive license, man. Yeah, get your license work. Brand new Disneyland land just came. Star Wars is always relevant. Yes, but with the hopes of a brand new theme, you know. And that's coming in two or three weeks. You know it is. I hope so. It is. Star Wars looks like then we can be disappointed about something else. Right, next episode we'll have something new to argue about. Disney's taking over everything. First Star Wars, now Marvel. Sydney's the new Umbrella Corps. I think they took over Marvel first. Yeah, they did Star Wars. I feel like, yes, it's an expensive license and they're getting their money's worth out of it, but it's done. Let's move forward. It's not done. Okay, because we haven't had the green milk yet. Blue milk, actually. No, it's green in the new movie. I haven't seen the new movie. The original one was green. The original one was blue. This one's green. Was it over when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor? Hell no. It was over when Moses put two of each animal on the ark. There you go. Okay. My thoughts on it. I really enjoyed the Spider-Man home game. I thought they did a bang-up job for the prize point. It's got regular mechs. just all the mechs are just like you find on a pro model all commercial parts all commercial parts looking at the new game it's got really like sort of kind of three ramps because you have a left ramp which is kind of three of them it goes it goes up just onto the habitron makes a 90 degree and comes back down the left flipper you got the right ramp the tie fight ramp and then you get to the drop targets and you got this center death star ramp and like i said three pop bumpers that cool spinner drop target it's got everything it's got chasing lights right got chasing light pro doesn't even have Chasing Lights on the ramp. You have to get the premium or the LE. Right. Like, it's got a shit ton of features. It's got a, yeah. And you know, that's MSRP, so you're going to be able to get one. I've seen them already advertised at $39.99. Four grand. Okay. I think it, look, they're still going to make pros. They're still going to make premiums. They're still going to make LEs. They're still going to probably make some super LEs on more of the Kapow titles. The rumor is that Elvira is going to be a Kapow title. So it's going to be a premium and up. No, Elvira is a That's a rumor. It's not Capal, though. It's whatever Nordman and Ferrer's company is. Oh, Wisbank. But it's going to be kind of an offshoot premium I mean, as long as nothing changed, it's supposed to be the Norman design with the Ferrer's art and the Martin. I'm sure it will, because that was the stipulation with Elvira years ago on Spooky Pinball Podcast. Shout out to Charlie and company. Boop, boop. So, bug you to man, so is Charlie. But, I'd love to do another one, but it's got to be Dennis and Greg, or it's nobody, because they did the first two, and they have a really good relationship. So, anyway, so my thoughts on it, I don't know what all the hubbub is about. They're going to put out another full-featured pro-premium LE model game here in probably two, three weeks, because it's the time. They've got this out. It was right in tune with Comic-Con. They're going to sell some. People are going to get them in their home, and they're going to enjoy them, you know, and that's what pinball's all about. and some of those people will go, this is really cool, and then they'll find the pro and the premium, maybe upgrade, maybe sell that one, or, you know what, maybe go, no, I like this one a lot, but maybe they'll get another game, maybe they'll get a Star Trek game, maybe they'll get a Data East Star Wars, maybe they'll end up going, oh, wow, I like Secret Agent Spy stuff, ooh, and they'll get a whodunit, or they'll get a Doctor Who, you know what I mean? You might make another new pinhead friend out of this. I want to blow this up a little bit, though, because I want to talk about the history of these home games. Yeah, let us. of time. Yeah. So this is like Stern's sixth home edition. Right. Like a lot of people don't really realize they did a home edition of Batman. Right. Which was essentially just an arcade game missing some stuff. Iron Man. Now Iron Man had everything the Pro had, slightly different cabinet, no coin door. Right. Iron Man basically the same thing. No magnets and I think no spinners or one spinner or something. But I mean it was slightly stripped down but still, Dan Fenton had one for a while. Yeah, those were kind of the original pros, right? Like, they were stripped down versions of the arcade machines, sold at Costco. They were like a thousand bucks less than MSRP they were meant for home use. So at the time, there were, what, three and change? That's going to sound great, by the way. Our host is outside destroying his lungs. Because we are super pro here. It's free entertainment, people. Free. The 8th pan. And then we got Transformers, right? Was it Transformers was the first, the pen? I think so, yeah. And then Avengers. Avengers. And they were terrible. Oh. They were ugly. They had terrible looking cabinets. They had a really, really unacquired play field. I went to the Pinball Hall of Fame back in March, and they apparently had the Transformers, the pen there. Right. And what they decided to do, because you can't coin them up, they decided to put a Kitty Ride coin thing. on the Transformers, the pen. And by the way, this game wasn't working when I was there. Go figure. It's Pinball Hall of Fame. Well, I watched the TNT they did on it. Apparently to work on it, the glass doesn't come off. Right. You have to go from underneath. Right. Or you have to, like, disassemble the... It's like working on Hercules. Exactly. Yeah, have the Bombay doors. Yeah. That was cool. But at least on Hercules, you know, it made sense because who wanted to lift that playfield? Right. You know, so then you have those two. Right. Avengers and... Transformers. Transformers, thank you. And then, yeah, Spider-Man, right? And Spider-Man was the first one that I actually got to play because Mike had one. Yeah. Shout-out to Mike. Shout-out to Mike. Congratulations! Congratulations! Our fearless leader, the commish of the Capital Quarter of Pinball League, tied the knot today with his lovely bride, and we wish them both very well. I completely have a loophole. I have no idea. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. It was a fly-by-night. They ran down to the courthouse. Oh, so Rush was involved, too. That's awesome. San Francisco Rush. No, Rush. Fly-by-night. Fly-by-night. And then finally, you know, you got Spider. I'm sorry. Her name is Edie, and so congratulations to Edie and Michael. Good to see you, sir. I thought you were just being sensitive to names. I don't know if anybody wants to hear that. Have you ever seen him try to pronounce somebody's name? Dan DeFriend? DeFriend. He just says Dan. DeFriend. I went to public school in Oroville, people. Give me a break. That's actually negative education. I know. It moved you backwards. Don't worry, man. I went to Orangevale. It wasn't much better. We're going to unlearn you. But there, yeah. But Spider-Man was the first one I got to play, right? Right. And I thought it was cool. Yeah. I thought it was really cool. I thought it was, you know, it wasn't as good as the real thing. It wasn't. But Spider-Man. No, because Mike has a Spider-Man. sitting right by his home at the time. And it's not as good as the other thing. But it was really, really cool. And then I'm like, how much do these cost? And he's like, $4,000. And I'm like, why? Like, if this thing was $3,000, I could totally see someone going for it. Like, it would almost make sense because it's a significant savings. But it's, you know. But when it's minimal. Right. And to me, it's just like. So they made six of them. they have to be successful, right? Like, Stern must make money on these. Oh, you know they do. They must. I mean, there is some motivation. Rusty's, like, just shaking her head, like, not even possible. But there's got to be some motivation. So everybody is just, like, slamming Stern for this move, and it's just like, guys, these guys know what they're doing. Thank you. That's the point I wanted to make. I don't disagree with that. I was just saying, personally. None of us would do it because we, you know. But like okay, actually let's let's say you don't own any pins at home right? Now all the news don't let's just do that's not they can let's not talk about stairs or basements or whatever It's just like you you don't own any pins at home. So it's like an opportunity to own a commercial-grade arcade machine For essentially half price volunteer lab and you were like I've got the money and I actually have the space Would you go for it or would you just say well fuck it? I want one with a coin door Because comedians ask what everyone's saying is they're just like, look, no coin door, no brought in, or no deal. We want commercial equipment. Hey, man, I'm into it. Always slays me. But if the choice is some pinball or no pinball at home, doesn't one of these seem like a great thing? If we're looking at essentially half price. If we're looking at a couple hundred dollars difference, I'm going to spend the money for the real thing. But that's what I'm saying. If it was half price, would you go for it? Yes. Yeah. Even I would, and I own pins, right? Exactly. But the Coindor argument is so stupid. Now you're talking about a thing that's like four-fifths the price of the full model. It's just like, why? It's like, do you remember when the Medieval Madness remake was first coming out and they weren't putting coin mechs in the Coindor and everybody lost their minds? It's like, okay, who here, raise your hand, are putting it in an arcade or on location? Like two out of 400 people. I'll be honest, Spencer. It's like, dude, it's never going to leave your house. What the hell do you care? My MMR does not have CoinMix, and it makes me feel like less of a man. Does it really? No. I don't fucking care. You don't fucking care because you're not going to put it on location. By the way, everyone, tonight's show will not be safe for work or your children. It's never safe for work or children. Just a PSA for all the kids out there because it is summer. Hey, you remember when Mom and Dad keep telling you that you've got to wait 30 minutes to go swimming after you eat? It's BS. Don't listen. Get back in the pool. It's hot outside. Okay, for the record, he didn't say that. You should definitely wait. You should always be safe. And if you drown, it's on you, not Spencer. No way. Disclaimer. Disclaimer. Thank you, Dan. From Dan, my legal department. The following statement has no basis in reality. Please disregard it. Have a cigarette. And I haven't even sworn tonight, so I don't know why you're not swore. Dan shot off during the intro Dan shot off the F-bomb I'm not editing this it's more fun not editing I'm not Brian I don't pop off that easily bro do you even pinball? no but honestly I would see these things something like pinheads would give them a chance but the problem is that they're too expensive and I would love love love love for somebody at Stern to actually show me how these things make them money again I have to believe they are because this is number 6 well I think what you're going to get is you're going to get probably people like you said Amazon or Costco or like people that go to the game room guys hey I'm remodeling the house I'm going to make a man cave we're going to get a pool table an air hockey table or a foosball table. You know what? We're talking about getting a 61 and a pinball. Or like JJ. You know, people go to JJ. Well, I got this for $5,500. I got this for $7,500. Wow, Willy Wonka. Yeah, $7,500. Ooh, that's a bit steep. But, you know, I got this home Star Wars, and it's $4,200, you know, out the door, or $4,400 out the door. Well, what are you going to pay for a Star Wars pro? What are you going to pay for a Star Wars pro? $4,500. Okay, for a pro? Brand new. For a pro? We're going to do it out of the box. Oh, okay. Well, used, yeah, maybe a little less than that. But we're talking new customers, right? We can't talk about the used market. Right, right. We're talking about something. So somebody's walking into Game Exchange's warehouse in Colorado. They're going to talk to JJ. Like I said, they're putting together a game room. They got a pool table already. They got a foosball table. They're thinking get a 60-in-1 or a multi-K, and we'll get a pinball machine. And they're looking at pricing. He's got new and used games. oh wow I get a new Star Wars for forty seven hundred okay oh well I got this one it's got these features and it's only forty two hundred okay well you know what that one looks fun it's got all these cool things got everything why and right that's why I don't want to get the used games into it because these games just you know they're their own thing but this is for like a new customer who has the game room who wants something and again I have to believe that they're selling them because this is their six they're six hey they sold a bunch of the Jetsons at what 6k I have no idea how many that's in place but they sell these things like a fun game too by the way and and you know this is an unheard of like do you guys know what ultimate arcades are yeah okay the ultimate arcade you can't coin that thing it's got a coin door it's a mess it's a blank well doesn't even have max oh you open the coin door and it's just it's got a coin slot that leads to nowhere on it you know they're not coin machines. They're not licensed for coin-off. For not coin-off use, right? So it's probably selling to those guys, and those things sell for what, $2,500? Something like that, yeah. They ain't cheap, you know. Right. So, I mean, there's a market out there, you know. I just want to see them be cheaper. Yeah. For three reasons. Number one... So our defense says everything looks fun, but... I want to see them blow up. I want to see them be popular. I want to play these things. I've always had a weird fascination with home use, or not home use only, but Home made. Home, not home made. What was the word I'm looking for? Home edition pinball machines. Like going back to the 70s when they had the Fireball Home Edition and the Elk John Home Edition. I played one of those Fireball Home Editions. It was on a show a couple years ago. And I think the last year of Pin and Go-Go, there was one. The last year that our guys put it on. And I played it. And it was not terrible. Early solid state. you know? It probably goes back to when I was a kid and I saw those things and I was all like, oh my god! Right. Wouldn't this be the greatest thing to own? Have it right there by my Atari? Like, this would be the best thing ever. So, I have a fascination with these. And number two, the only one that I've ever seen be a widespread, quote unquote success, is the Zizzle. And while I have to agree, the Zizzle is pinball, it's not pinball. I don't know, they must have sold a lot of those little home editions because those things show up all the time. Oh, those things are a piece. In the 70s, those things were a huge hit. And if you look at how the price breaks down, like $800 then, it's like $2,500 to $3,000 now. Right. Well, okay, if you look at $800 then for that, at that time, so we're talking about, what, 76, 77? What was a new in-box game going for in 76, 77? About $1,500, I think. I have no idea to answer that question. I can tell you what the Elvis Alive or whatever it was cost because I saw a Sears ad for it. It was like $6.99. Alex is going to want to buy one. It's not really Elvis. It actually looks more like Tom Jones. It does look like Tom Jones. I guess it was supposed to be Elvis and then the Elvis estate was like, I'm not unusual to be loved by anyone. Actually, Elvis might not even have been dead at that point. It might have been right before he died. August 16th, 1977. Elvis has been dead since the 18th century. There you go. Yeah, he was replaced by his brother, Aaron. They're going to find him in Area 51. We're going to find Elvis. Any more thoughts on this? Oh, I could go on on this for two more hours. We're going to be a half hour in just on the Star Wars. I want someone to buy a Star Wars Home Edition so I can play it. I'll buy one if I get some money, all right? But taking what you said, Dan, the price points then to now. That's what I was saying. They were like $3,000, right? And that's expensive. And $70, that's so much money. Okay, but if you're talking translated into $3,000 now compared to $55 for a brand new, okay, that's a little bit more understandable. Aren't we going to get into this later in the show? Probably, yep. What are we talking about? There's a show? You did not do your damn homework again, did you? I did, too. You told me to watch the launch. Hey, look. Oh, look. Hey. I'm the only one who watched the launch. Okay, look. Wonka is shipping the standards. Yay. And they made their ship date just at the end of June. They said they'd have standard shipping before the 4th of July. They made the date. So congratulations to everybody at Jersey Jack Pinball. The LEs are on the line, and they should start shipping any day. That's fantastic. That's fantastic news. Apparently, they're actually starting to ship to Europe now. You know, they did it. You know, instead of having a six-month, ten-month wait. They actually pulled their act together and got it done. You know, they're getting better. It's just like, you know, all the boutique and the smaller, newer companies, each release, they're getting a little better. They're doing it a little better. So, you know, not a lot more news on that. Well, that's got to be hard. Is there any news on the Wonka Home Edition? Especially when they have, you know, they have multiple games. It only comes with one golden ticket. Yeah, it's on the bottom. They're trying to roll out the Wizard of Oz Gold Edition. Well, they're all done. Are they all done with that? Did they finish that run? That was just to keep the line going, like 200 of them. Just long enough. Now, how about Pirates? Are they still running? No, they're not. I hope they're done with Pirates. So their line only contains Wonka now. Right now, yeah. They have two lines is what I hear. Right, but right now they're both running Wonka. Yeah, and all they're running is Wonka. Yeah, that's where the big, you missed all the drama on this, Lucky You. No, really, you're lucky. everybody kept this in their mind about the storyline with pirates because they didn't have a lot of assets from the film and there was too much coding and too many people to choose from and da da da da then they announced oh we're going to quit writing them we're moving on to the next game and now everybody wants one and nobody's got them nobody's selling them and nobody's selling them Jeff and Courtney got one of the last ones left in America by low selling So much congratulations again to Jeff and Courtney Claybaugh on their purchase of a Pirates of the Caribbean Standard Edition. Which is cool, and I can't see why you would need more. Yep. Well, there's actually plenty of Pirates for Sale out there. People are flipping the shit out of them. Yeah, yeah. You got to play your Pirates for six months and make, you know, $1,000. And there's some sick, sick mods for that game. Yeah, there are. And more coming. I mean, people are making a whole bunch more. yeah um all right got code update got code got code got code or game of thrones we all thought this game was dead basically it was in the can and people were selling them and picking them up on the secondary market for a thousand less than uh than people paid and joined their games all right i got a hot take okay all the people talking shit about dwight sullivan can shut the fuck up Dwight the man Dwight is the man So shout out to Dwight Sullivan of Stern Pinball If you're listening, dude, you rock. Come to our show. Yeah, come hang out in the living room studios. In lovely Sacramento. Lovely. Rancho Cordova. Rancho Cambodia, California. We shouldn't have said that. The Knights of Cambodia. That was not a good one. Rancho Cordova, California, people. so sunny sunny sunny south florida oh yeah kind of um wow like this is a a tremendous update yeah like every single house now has a button power um and it just they were playing it i did anyone else watch the stream for that not yet oh god it's so i didn't do my homework it is so good like i i couldn't go into the details i can i can look them up real quick i posted them to group that you read, so you should know. Oh, you mean the secret cardboard port? The secret cardboard port. That's actually a good name. That's what we should change the studio name to. The secret cardboard port instead of the kitchen table studios. Yeah, the coffee table studios now. We're supposed to be filling space while I look up information. Dead air time. So, there will be an event coming up here, so we're going to aim for somewhere around Expo. Yes, talk about your special event. It's going to be called Storming Stern Pinball. Show us them code updates. We want to see that code. We figure if we run like Naruto, we'll be able to dodge their warranty denials and be able to check out them codes. Come one, come all. You better look up. They got slingshots and rusty pinballs. They got slingshots, rusty pinballs, and maybe we'll find ourselves a Star Wars hopper. So I don't have the list anymore. Oh, good one. I'm not going to keep looking for it. But it is a vast, vast update. And it doesn't have any new clips or it doesn't have any new modes. I thought it added an incest mode. It added a lot of stuff to the action button now. Yeah, the big thing is every house has an action button, and it changes the gameplay. Like, start, like, the action button is like a dire wolf, and it, like... Like a troll bomb, almost. Yeah, basically, it'll give you, like, a free shot. There's an iron bank one for Tyrell. There's a thing for... There's, like, a... One you can freeze your timer on. There's, like, a freeze your money one for... Yeah, that one's coming. There's a freeze your timer one for... No, you got me off the record. Lannister has, like, an automatic spend-your-money mode where you can buy other power-ups. Or actually, you can buy playfield multipliers. I don't know what the other ones are. But, like Alex was saying, Targaryen is now a playable house, and they have a freeze-timers power that you can use. Now I'm going to call him Targaryen for the rest of my life. Thanks, man. You can thank Bone Terrans for that. and if you use Tagaragon, it spots you that house, which is great, because those dudes were bastards to beat. It really, really makes me want to play more Game of Thrones, which is a game that I have very, unfortunately, limited time with. I've never got to test, oh, and they did a bunch of enhancements to the premium, the limited, but the upper play field now has, like, just tons of cool shit going on. Nice. So, yeah, it just... I've still never played a premium I've never played a pro in L.A. Well, Fat Train said a couple times, hey, man, just hit me up and come on over and play. But he's still out of the country right now. Who has it? Fat Train has an L.A. Justin. Yeah, Justin. Justin. Well, you know, we could probably just knock on Justin's door and somebody will let us in. The cat. He could probably. Well, I mean, he's got roommates, right? His house is not sitting empty. Right, right. And if it is, here's his address. If it is, who the hell's feeding the cat? Yeah. Ace is going to the grocery store himself. He's driving the Corvette. With John in the back. But no, that game is one that I need to spend more time with. But these enhancements and just that stream made that game look fun as hell. And, of course, any game looks fun as hell when Jack Danger and Keith Elman are playing it. Yeah. People rank on that game something awful about the artwork, which, I mean, it's an HBO property. So if you look at all the HBO properties, it becomes a game. Sopranos. Right. It is not a beautiful game. Wait, I don't think the play field art is bad at all. And it's a fun shoot. You know, the pro, I mean, it's fast and furious. It's Steve Ritchie, but, I mean, he got drop targets in a cool, weird area. He got his spinner. The ram shots are nice. I mean, overall, man, it's a good game. I mean, is it a great game? Maybe now it is because of the code update. Kind of like Spider-Man. When Spider-Man came out, it was a good game. But then it took, what, a year or two in lining up the code? And now it's used by almost everyone as a great game. And it is a great game. but he started off talking about Ghostbusters. And he says, okay, I'm working on Ghostbusters. It's happening. Y'all can calm down. And if the Ghostbusters code update is in any way, shape, or form as cool as this, I think all the Ghostbusters fans will finally be able to be happy. Although I had Ghostbusters, and I didn't think the code was that bad. so I like it more if they would make it not so linear I mean it's still a good game for what it is if your problem is that you know you're so consistent that you have to play every mode in the same order good job it wasn't very linear to me because I play like one ladder then I play a piece of another ladder it was nice to have a quick route to the wizard mode and then a long around. And then there's still a thing, if you know, in true Dwight fashion, if you can beat everything, there's a big wizard mode, which is supposed to be a little disappointing. I could never beat the longest ladder, the one with Stay Puft, so I never got to see it before it went to go live with Henry. I didn't even do it with the glass on. Maybe someday I'll find out, but you know, with the scope of the Game of Thrones update, it's like, dude, he's definitely going to make the are you a god wizard mode it'll be awesome everyone can calm down he's trolling you when he says oh no it was never supposed to be there you came you saw and you kicked his ass he's going to came he's going to see he's going to kick his ass and then it's Miller time Miller time hold on let's go to this prehistoric are we done talking about I don't know man you're the host I'm like driving the bus I'm not even navigating this thing because you know what what happens if I turn the wheel there really wasn't a lot of news I was supposed to get Joe Abate on and I still haven't reached out to him yet which I'm going to do this weekend because I know he's opening up another coin-off Temecula California so if anybody listening Temecula needs a coin-off they're getting one by golly Cosmic Carnival from Suncoast Pinball is now shipping games. From Suncoast Motion Picture Video Company. Are they really a video? No. You know Suncoast, right? Oh, God, yes. The overpriced DVDs. Overpriced DVDs. Right, right, right. That's right. My girl Misty worked there. I got so many DVDs from her. I forgot about that place. You know, I watched a little bit of gameplay video. It looks neat, but simple. But, you know, simple's not always bad. I want to play one. It is super cool looking. It is super cool looking. It's a good looking game. Maybe I want to play one. Like, you pretty much hit the points. Yeah. I mean, yeah. Well, you know what? Before the whole Star Wars thing, I'm thinking, man, we've got to get an episode out. But there's really not a lot to talk about. So I think we'll just hit the fine points. And we're going to have a couple of fun little, you know, point. Yeah, I'm tripping over my cord. Point counterpoints coming up here. We already have. But, okay, so up next, the Dutch update drama. Oh, my God. So you want me to give a preface? Okay, if you don't know the Dutch drama, Dutch Pinball. A few years ago, about five or six, they came out with a really neat add-on to the Bride of Pinball. Bride of Pinball 2.0, which gave it, went from an alphanumeric display to a full video, updated code and music, really fleshed the game out and made it really something neat. And this little add-on feature really made it a whole new game. And it was pretty successful, and they did well with it. And they said, we're going to make our own game. And they made the big Lebowski. They showed the prototype. They started production. They couldn't get production going. They had problem after problem. They outsourced the production to a third-party ARA, which makes things, not sure what, but apparently they started making pinball. They are a contract manufacturer. Right, contract manufacturer. They make whatever you pay them to make. So they got about, what, 40 or 50 actually shipped to customers, and then the Dutch Pinball Group could not afford to pay them. So they held hostage, basically, another roughly 40 games. This has sat in litigation for over two years. The court decision sided with ARA. They took a game that a lot of people paid in advance before ever seeing a game, $8,500. Now, those games are going to new buyers, a lot of them, most of them, maybe all of them, that plumped down $12,500 for the game. Now, a lot of the early adopters that still haven't got their game but had paid in full directly to Dutch Pinball are basically out of luck. some people who would put money down or paid in full to Cointaker, which is a distributor, Cointaker didn't spend the money. They put it in an escrow account. So if you put your $8,500 or $4,500 or whatever, you've still got a slot in line for Big Lebowski, which has no tech support and parts will be of very limited availability. Okay, go. Dan, anybody? Thoughts? Finko Bowsy is an awesome game. It is an awesome game. The drama doesn't affect me. I can't afford one. I'm not even going to buy one. But I played it, and it's a great game. It's too bad that I didn't know all this crap happened. But people have learned their lessons now, hopefully. Hopefully. What more can you say? You know, it's a big, giant fiasco. I feel bad for people who lost money. But you know what? Don't throw your money out until you've got something. Cash on the glass, kids. if you're buying your first pinball or if you've bought 100 of them, cash on the glass. There's a reason why I would never do a preorder for anything. Nope. Ever. Nope. Well, okay, so here's what happens, right? You want Lebowski. You need to put money down to make it happen. You decide you're not going to do it. You miss out. Okay. For those of us who live, right, in the real, real world, that happens. In the pinball world, though, it's different. These guys generally have a lot of money, and they can afford to take a chance. So you have guys who put, you know, several thousand dollars, in some cases, full price, down with one of a few different companies and said, okay, deliver this game when you can deliver it, right? In this case, what happens? Well, the company goes out of business. A lot of people get left holding the bag. Actually, they're not out of business, but they're unable to meet the demand. A lot of people get left holding the bag. If you didn't put your money down with the distributor who just ended up handling the business, or I guess Nitro. I guess that they're also – Yeah, Nitro and Coin Taker. Four or five of the games to satisfy theirs. You lost your deposit. now, you know, Dutch Pinball, which is at this point a company of one, they still insist, look, we're going to pay these guys off, we're going to find a way, you're going to get your game. You know what? We've heard this before in pinball, and it's worked out sometimes, and people have made out richly, like with Big Bang Bar, and we've heard it with games like Predator, and people lost their ass, and nobody got nothing. there's like, what, one or two predators out there. In fact, It depends. If you're in the Vatican, there's a whole bunch. Ha! Ha! The alien stream the other day, they had a predator sitting right next to the alien that they were playing. And it's interesting that like, I think he's in the can. It's interesting that like, everybody is unhappy except for the people who get to be happy right like that's life that's pinball whatever what i think is funny and i was i think talking to you about this uh brian brian yeah i gestured um you guys can all see this right we're on camera is that you have this subset of people now who are getting to sneak in they missed out the first time and now it's like look come up with your 12-5 and you could potentially get in and they're sneaking past the people who put their deposits down with Dutch, and in some cases they're sort of being dicks about it. Like it's just naked joy. Like I'm going to get a Lebowski, and it's all like, dude, what an asshole. Yeah, because there's 15 to 75 other people who aren't getting theirs and paying in full. Apparently there's like 110 people who have meaningful deposits down. Right. that are, you know, in the air. And, you know, let's assume that 10 of those are CoinPaker and five of those are Nitro. Right. So, yeah, there's essentially, you know, 90 guys out there who have 1,000 or more just sort of floating in the wind wishing that they could get their games. Watching these other 25 people who had no stake at all slide on in, put down their money, and walk off with their games. Games that were built for them with their money. Numbered games. Numbered games that they're popping the plaques off now. Well, I don't know if they're popping the plaques off now. There's been all sorts of rumors about are they going to open them and look at them? Are they just going to be straight in the box? I think that's just like, look, don't open the box. The rumor is that Barry went through, opened up, and looked at each game. the rumor okay do you trust this guy dude no no and while we're at it barry's partner because there were three originally one dropped out early on it was battling cancer dinner heard what happened uh y'all barry's partner dutch pinball had been battling cancer he was in remission it's come back the prognosis is not good um so beyond pinball this guy's a human uh person and I'm sure has a family. So everybody here, man, wishes you well. Yop, hang tough and keep fighting. I've never heard anything bad about Barry and Yop personally, but they don't have thousands of dollars in my money, you know, that they blew and delivered no product. You know, the games are ARA's games. They don't belong to Dutch Pinball. Dutch Pinball's involved in the solution, but they're not directly benefiting from it except for the fact that this is paying off what they owe ARA. And, you know, hey man, maybe they can figure it out. Maybe they can figure out some way to make games. Maybe if they loosen up the Yeah, we're already at the forefront of professionalism here. Maybe if they figure this out, the rights will revert to them because apparently ARA has some sort of role in like, look, you can't manufacture the game. We own certain rights. and maybe they can sub-license it out to an American pinball, a proven contract manufacturer in the United States who actually has built games. Right. And they're experiencing this kind of thing, right? They satisfied the original, like the 20-some Magic Girl owners. I mean, yeah, the games are shit, but they got their games. Well, yeah, and that was the kind of thing where they were like, just J-Pop, get these damn games, don't get out of here. Well, that was it. They were just like, look, we don't care. We told J-Pop if he designed for us, we'd build these games. We built them the best we could. This is the game we were given to build. They've proven they can build a working game. They've proven they can build a really awesome working game. It's been proven that Lebowski is a working game. You know, I mean, it's not. You know, a really tight game. A really tight game. It's not the pinnacle of reliability. Well, you know how some of the early doctors can recoup their losses is sell their rugs that really tie the room together to the people that are getting the Lebowski's for, I don't know, $8,500. Remember, if you do that, you've got to pee on the rug first. Oh, yeah, make their victory complete. There you go. But, no, man, I mean, it's really sad for the people who put their money down. You know, and all I have to say is, look, man, that's life in the big city. You know, none of us, none of us, I wouldn't say none of us, none of the people I'm hoping are involved in that, like, put their life savings on the line to get this machine or just seriously getting dicked. Hopefully it was joy money. but like to the people who did manage to slip in and get the games if any of them happens to be listening to us just don't be dicks about it congratulations you got something people want it's unique you can feel good about yourself you'll probably make some money on it but dudes just you know don't walk around like you know you won the super bowl or something because a lot of other people lost their fucking money for you to get that game. Right. Just be cool. All in all, life lesson number one. Have them over. Give them a beer. Let them play their game. There you go. Set it for quarter drop. Buy them over and make wide rush. And if they carve your name into the game, you don't get a deal done. It wasn't on the list. I would pitch them a coin slot. But Alien. Rumor. Big rumor mill that... Um, we're going to Chicago Gaming. Don't say it, Kaneda. Yeah, no. Don't say it. Uh, what? That's been a rumor for like three or four months. Yeah, it's been a rumor for three or four months that they're going to be making Alien. I hope it comes true. Are you cool? Because, look, Alien's a fantastic game. Where's the rumor coming from? That's old, right? It's an old rumor, but it ain't happening. It ain't happening. Well, they said themselves they were going to make an unlicensed theme. Oh, an unlicensed. Alien is ridiculously licensed. Licensed. Okay, Not a remake, rather. I don't remember who I was listening to. I've really cut down on my pinball podcast, by the way, so I probably don't have the most up-to-date information. I just finally decided that a lot of the personalities in pinball podcasting, present company excluded. Good call. Good call. You didn't get kicked out of the house. Yeah, he brought food. He brought food, yeah. Exactly. I bought my way into Nike. We have Alex's rooting your plumbing right now. Is that what that's from? I know. It's KFC skin syndrome, man. You can't help it. Oh, my God. That was delicious. Some market, I want to say somewhere really weird, like Turkey or something. If you didn't know that, it was just a boy. That's right. Somewhere like Turkey or Pakistan or something, they're selling KFC chicken skin. And I'm like, dude, that's like the all-American wet dream. Okay? With Cheetos on top. With Cheetos on top. I totally lost my train of thought. I know. We're talking about alien and plastic. I'm trying to go long here, because I need Alex to come and help us with the next topic. That'll be fine, dude. We got time. You know, there's this thing called editing. Hey, I don't know how to edit. Alex, get out of the shitter already. Will you let him do this? Yeah, Brian's waiting patiently. Will you just let him do this thing? No, but I'm just saying, with aliens specifically, it's like... This space show is done. I'm going to go into the house. This show is actually totally on the rails, except for you cutting up. So just knock it off. Actually, it's nice. tonight the person knocking off the rails is this guy on my left. It's not me being drunk. You're pissing me off. No, I like Alien, and I want somebody to make it, but I just I finally got, I finally quit pinball podcasting. No, I mean, seriously, I'm not going to listen to those guys anymore because it just got to the point where I'm just like and this is going to sound real bad. They are all taking, number one, except for Kaneda, right, which I'll give him credit. He knows he's an asshole and he plays his role with a plumb. They're so concerned about, like, oh. What are you, a flash drive? Sorry, everybody. I'm directing my kid to headphones. Do you have flash drives in the driver's door? No, in the driver's door in the little pocket underneath the handle. Oh, he needs a flash drive so he can find his headphones? Right. Yeah, I wish I had headphones, too. All right. But, no, I just can't. They take it too seriously. They're getting offended over things now. And, oh, this company did this, and now I don't want to buy their product, and I'm worried about my credibility. You are a hobbyist podcaster. You have no credibility. You're not a journalist. You're not the press. For God's sakes, stop taking yourself so seriously. Have some fucking fun. Right. Not worry about it. No, what people are saying. Pull the stick out of your mouth. Even the camera goes down. Co-workers. Pull the shooter rod out of your ass. With a co-worker? Unless you enjoy it being there. Then keep it. They're actually making, doing that, they're making custom stirred meteor shooter rod. They're making them meteor? So it tastes a little bit. Ew. There's also, with enough pressure, you can make a pink panther diamond shooter rod. There you go. Wow. I'll have clients or co-workers or something, and they'll suddenly say, oh, you know, Spence does a pinball podcast. And I'm like, really? That's cool. Is it any good? And I say, no, it's awful. but it's free. The whole point is we don't take ourselves or our hobby seriously. It's just like I'm listening to these guys, and they feel like they have so goddamn much at stake. And it's like, look, 400 people listen to your podcast. Congratulations. God, I'd kill for 400 listeners. I know. My credibility's been shot for years. You're a big fish in your small pond. But here's the thing. The podcasts that are fun to listen to are the podcasts where the people are real. They're not worried about their credibility. They're not worried about, oh, their pinball podcasting friends being slighted and drama and stuff like that. So what if Sharon won't endorse us? Why don't we move on to Dan's recent. I'm not waiting for him. I'm talking right now about how much I hate podcasters. You haven't stopped talking for 18 minutes. Well, you said I had to fill time. Motherfucker. All right. We were just talking about that. Brian. Brian. Anybody played Junkyard before? Yes. Oh, gosh. I love that game, actually. We've got to put one right next to there because we can hear the call out. Okay, we were talking about the Dutch drama. You didn't miss anything, really. What do you think of the Dutch drama? I think if he ain't Dutch, he ain't much. There you go. True. I want to talk about the new arcade in Reno. Alex is like yeah a new arcade arena with Michael Huntsman it's not a new arcade well it is and it isn't Michael Huntsman it's a private game room but he's going to open it to all ages so he's renting a little it's by Unified Only it's the biggest little arcade what can I say hey you know what man he's doing something cool for pinball and he's a righteous dude so if you're listening Michael And, oh, hey, congratulations on your son getting his license and driving on his own. Yeah, baby. We're all afraid. By the way, not tilting a car is like getting on a bike and refusing to pedal. Remember that, Mike. Oh, wait, not tilting a pinball machine is like getting on a bike and refusing to pedal. There you go. Tilting is trying. If you're carrying up the weight, you're carrying up the tilt. Okay, so. Stand a friend, everybody. There you go. I'm a pinball philosopher. This weekend I've got to reach out to Joe because we agreed that he said he's going to be on the show so we've got to get him on the show. And then I'm going to reach out to Michael once the dust settles and get him on the show and let him talk about his new private club arcade and how it's all going to work. But you know what, man? More pinball is good pinball. Reno is really becoming a real good pinball fan. So, yeah. Seth, there's headphones in my bedroom. White ones. Go. Apple. Oh, they won't work on yours. No. A lot of random words. Okay. Anyway, sorry. We have... Seth, say hello to everybody. Hello, Seth. Hi. The time's up, Seth. Keep it slow. Taco Bell. Bong. Bong. Okay. Where are we at now? Good Lord. You want to talk about Michael Huntsman? Yeah, we're talking about Michael Huntsman. We don't have a lot of information yet, But he's rented like a little building. He's renting a facility. He has a private arcade. And he's stocking it full of awesome things. It's full of amazing pinball machines. All in amazing working conditions. Because that's his game. It's going to be for, I suppose, the Reno League. Private events. Invite only. And tournaments. Tournaments. He's going to have tournaments. He's hoping to host. He's having a tournament Sunday. Are you going to be there? Yes, I am. Okay, well, trip report when you get back. I'm hoping to make it. Okay, I'm not going to make it. I got too much. But he's hoping, I think, to host the Nevada finals in the next year or so. I hope to. Cool. That's awesome. Trip report. So you guys can tell us all about it. I got a trip report for you. All right, well, you know what? You got your latest shop job on the cheap. So Dan's shop out on the cheap, cheap, cheap, cheap, cheap, cheap. So I got a black rose from somebody. Where did you get that from, man? Hey, I don't know. I didn't even want to disclose whose machine this was. But they're leaving the room. Oh. No, they're not leaving the room. You can come home if you wanted to. Now that you've got a stud being shot. Oh, I'm out of space now. So, yeah, I picked up Spencer's black rose from him. I traded him my Devil's Dare, which I should probably look at for him tonight. and a small amount of money comparatively for, you know, a pretty nice machine. It had been shopped in the previous few years. It was LED'd. It all played. It all worked. You know, I kind of had every intention of it just being like, just going to give it a quick cleanup, quick wax job, and I'll play it a whole bunch. And when I dug into it, it definitely needed a shop job. you know, the usual kind of, and I think Brian can kind of get in with me on this, the usual rules to a cheap shop job apply. Number one, clean. Just clean everything, right? If you want to not spend a lot of money and you want your play feel or you want your pinball to look better, clean the rails, polish the screws, really go through. I didn't go as crazy as I've gone with some games. Like I've gone really over the top on some, usually with somebody's encouragement. but I you polish the side rail screws you never even see them but they look amazing I could and the game came out nice well I mean get away too I can't play that one with the mic but you know the first thing is just make sure you clean everything really hard number two and this is something I did with this game that was really nice maximize what you have in this case I had rubbers I had bulbs I actually had enough parts to rebuild two flippers completely, which it needed and one partially after three shows three years in a row, yeah the quilts off of that thing were pounded concave, it was amazing like they were saucers and they still flip pretty good you know, it played like I said, I'm not digging it, it played I kept a lot of the work Spencer did I kept most of his LED job you know, I kept I kept a lot of the little adjustments and stuff. I haven't touched the cannon, which works fine. Knock on wood. I did the whole time we owned it. Never touched it. I was afraid to. Yeah. But the biggest trick with this one was cleaning and using the parts that I had. And then I went through and I just ordered, you know, he included a fairly complete set of plastics with it. You know, went through, ordered just some of the basic stuff that you kind of need. Number one, man, how do you make a playfield look better when it looks a little dingy, throw some new star posts on it, man. Star posts are cheap. They're like 60 cents a piece. Getting rid of those old battered star posts and putting some nice fresh ones on there were great. White rubber really brightened it up. Fixing playfield holes. Do we all know how to fix a hole in the playfield? Use some glue. Use some skewers. Use some wood putty if you have to. Redrill the hole. Put the Postdoc install it solid. The ball will bounce the way it's supposed to. Soldered a couple connections. The thing turned out beautiful. Plays great. Wait till you see it. It is fantastic. My wife's really stoked that it's there. You know she enjoyed the game The ladies love the Black Rose I thinking of how to re it I can do that for you Baby sharks Baby sharks. No, no. She really likes it. Have you found any of the little Easter egg combos and stuff? I know how to kill Polly. There's a great three-way combo. Wow. Three-way combo. A three-way combo. No, it's really cool. You shoot off the left flipper, and you hit the middle target, or the target bank up on the right. And I've done this a few times, never intentionally. And then it bounces to the left one. And then, what is it? No, maybe you shoot off the right flipper. But you've got to hit all three target banks, at least one target. Well, you can put it up. You can put it up. Here's what really threw me about that game. I'm kind of amazed that, like, when you hit the ball up the ramp and it goes into the backbox and it rolls out, it rolls across the plastic. Yeah. There's not a lane or a wire for him. It's just a plastic, and then it hits a stand-up plastic, which has, like, a little metal shield, and it drops back onto the play field. That's pretty dope. I stared at that for, like, four hours, and I was like, he didn't give me the whole machine. I'm missing a part. And I'm like, I watched videos. I talked to Mike. This is how this is supposed to work. It works fine, but it's the weirdest thing. Well, it's just like that little weird ramp up in the far left, up on the back side of the, where the ramp. It's kind of like the Stern Trek ramp a little bit. Yeah, no, it's, you know, it reminds me a lot of that. Like, where you have a repeated. Yeah, correct. The other thing about that is, yeah, you got like that one little ramp that kind of goes up and around. You don't really ever see it. Yeah. Because when you hit it the other way, it whips into the cove. Right, which is the ball lock. Which is the ball lock. Right. And it's also like, I guess it's a mystery award, but all I've ever seen it give me is spot lock letters, so it's like, great. Yeah, and that game. That game super needs someone to make a new ROM for it. It would be so much better. Yeah. And it's a clunky little game. We were talking about it, and it's just, it's a cool game, but it has a lot of clunk. It does, but it's also got a lot of neat ways the ball moves around. Yeah. That's like nothing else. It is a really strange, strange little game. It feels very much like a game that maybe didn't get the full development time that it needed to work out some of the content. Probably not. Because I agree with Dan. My buddy Bert got one years ago. And we got that thing fixed up, got it all playing right. But it just feels like it didn't get the proper development time. It didn't get the full development time. I have no clue if that's right. But you know what, it's also an early .maker scheme, but it's got three different video modes. Which is, you know, you've got your little button, the button masher, which is your swim, outrun the shark. But then the knife throw is kind of cool and actually does require some skill. And then... Swing from the rigging. Swing, yeah, swing from the rigging. Swing from the rigging! Almost an automatic. Yeah, that one's pretty easy. You've got to really, like, I've only missed that a couple times. Swim away from the shark. Yeah, I really want to see it. You know the trick to that one? Don't use the fire button. No, never. Use the footer. I didn't even know that until I saw the option on the menu. It's like Junkyard. Yeah. Except Ben doesn't even have a lunch. Yeah, it's like the Sapphire button. But, yeah, it is a – like, I probably did the whole shop on that game for $100, and that was just because at the very last minute I decided to buy new pop-up caps for it, which were still mismatched. So it's cool. Super, super nice game. One trip to the hardware store, a couple parts orders, mostly just cleaning and putting the hardware in the right spots and filling broken playfield holes. But once I found out that Kim had 11629 flippers, I was just like, man, I can see why this whole fucking thing is battered to pieces. It has some hard, hard shots. Cool game, though. And that was my latest cheap-ass shot. I never did do Demolition Man, and I feel a little guilty about that. Oh, yeah, that went to a good cost. But the good news is that went to a good cost. Yeah, Rox's boyfriend, Jim, rebuilt the Octoboard. That's what I hear. All on his own. Went and ordered the parts and the diodes and rebuilt them himself. He's worked on other electronics and computer stuff. So he just applied what he knew, did a little bit of homework online and figured it out. He's got that Claw Octoboard and that Claw's singing like a new game. that's awesome yeah it is awesome so he's full hardcore in Roxy's been talking to me about how stoked she is about her game so I'm very happy for her you're just very very in depth our next topic if we're moving on our next topic Brian by the way before we talk about our next topic just finished a beautiful shop job on a Doctor Who it took a long time but the owner understood He was very happy. It's the smoothest mini playfield ever. Tell us about the mini playfield, Ryan. Mini playfield, baby. No, Henry's was unique. Someone had modified it so it didn't use the correct raise and lower method. It used some of the right parts, but like the opto-wheel had been cut and welded. It basically kind of ran on an arm, so it went like this. So it had an arm going from the opto-wheel up. up. So it rose, but it would mess up the playfield. And when I first saw this, Henry had it mount-drawn and said, hey, I'll take care of it for you. We had to order a whole bunch of new parts. I spent many nights out there with a file removing like hundredths of an inch of metal to get it to go smoothly. And right when I got all finished, Henry says, oh, by the way, I have this. And he has a complete ready-to-go drop-in mini playfield. And complete. But we got the new mini playfield on there. I had to elongate the holes. just like I've always had to do. But when all is said and done, I got it. So that thing goes up and down fluidly. It doesn't have, like, the normal tilt like they all do. Mine doesn't. I know Dan's does it. I got it so it's very smooth up and down with the original stuff, which I wasn't expecting it to be that smooth when I finally finished it. But it came out great. It is immaculate. It just took a lot more work than I was expecting. I'm not doing Doctor Who's anymore. I've shopped a lot of games even the difficult ones like Whitewater, Creature Star Trek, that many Clayfield is the worst he's only saying that because he wants me to sweet talk him until he does mine I'm not doing your thing I will with the rusted ball stuck in the mine was a nightmare but the thing is it was all there for the most part I didn't have to like hey Henry we gotta find the parts we have to order you can't find one of the parts we ended up having to order came warped brand new. And that was the biggest thing to actually figure out how to fix. And I got it, but it was difficult. But Henry's happy. I'm very happy that he's happy. He plays super fine. I put some games on it the other day. You know, everything's super makeable. I mean, just really, really nice. You guys are in his league on Thursday. It's not a league game. Put some time on it. He did a really, really fine job on it. Yep. Awesome. Yeah. I saw one that was still in progress, what, three weeks ago? Two, three weeks ago. So that's cool. You did a lot in two, three weeks. Prices are hitting the roof. The roof. The roof. The roof is on fire. And it seems like some prices are coming down. I know. Right after I wrote this podcast episode, now all of a sudden I'm seeing, wow, there's some good deals out there. There's a lot of good deals for some good titles. I saw today on the Facebook marketplace, it's Indiana Jones. I think the guy wants $55. That's a good price for an Indiana Jones. Is that some weird cabinet he found on there? Yeah, I saw your comment on that. The cabinet he found. Is there some airbrushed in it, or is there some knockoff cabinet? I'm like, they don't look bad, but it's still $5,500 for an Indiana Jones. And, of course, on the FEP site, I saw a guy trying to sell an Addams Family for $8,000 with only a couple of pictures, and it didn't look like an $8,000 Addams Family. it really just depends. Some prices look great. Other ones, I think it's people fishing. Yeah, right now it is a seller's market. It's all up to the sellers. You've got to sweet talk them. When we went to pick up the Black Rose originally, Spencer called the guy, and he was asking $800 for it. and before you, and Spencer got his call in first, he talked to him, he let him know that, you know, he, that Spencer was actually a pinball guy, he knew about pinball, he knew about how the mechanics of it worked, he knew the history of the game, and no sooner did they get out, then they get off the phone, and somebody else calls to answer the ad, hey, yeah, I want to buy it, oh, well, I'll give you $1,200, and the price kept going up and up and up, because, you know, this game was, you know, at a buyer's rate, but the guy honored him and Spencer's deal, and of course, we drove three hours to get there, oh, good, great, good, Maria, that was a long drive, and, but, because Spencer knew what he knew, and he knew about how games worked, he managed to get that great deal on it. And we had to, we ended up dumping about another $600 in it before, you know, before selling it to Dan. But, so, but my whole point of this is, is that just because it's a seller's market, don't think you're going to get completely priced out if you know what you want, you know how it functions, and you just, you be the first one up. and gentleman's agreement, that's still a thing. It is, and you also have to have patience. Yep. Lots of it. That's all there is to it. It's always been like that. Dan knows good and well. You know, I think it took me, what, three or four years to find my whitewater before one finally popped at a decent price. Right. You know, if you need it now and you have to have it now, you're paying that premium. That's how life works. You know, it's just like, oh, I need an HDMI cable. best buy is it for $30 and I need it now or I can wait for two days and get it from Amazon for $1.30 or whatever. You have to have that patience. And you're right. Prices are going up for the most part. It is definitely a seller's market. Depending on the game you're trying to play. I saw a demo there today for $1,500 on Facebook Marketplace. It's like, wow, okay. Also, location makes a huge difference. It does. It's just how it is. I have no doubt that prices are going up, because they always are, it seems like. But at the same time, you know, it depends what you're looking for. You know, it doesn't mean that everything is getting sky high and out of control touchable. No. Some games are, and a lot of older games are rising in price, especially, you know, early solid states. A lot of those, especially the Sterns, are going up crazy. And some of the Valley titles. That was a given. That was going to happen. That was going to happen. But a lot of the newer games, newer being four, five, six years old, are starting to drop considerably and getting really into the affordable market. Speaking of which, a shout-out and a belated birthday wish to Mark Sparky Malmberg. Sparky. Sparkberg. Yeah, we were at – well, look at you. He's one of those older games that you were just talking about. There you go. Well, if you don't know who Mark Sparky Malmberg is, he's a righteous dude. He hosts the Sparky's Barbecue every year at the Golden State Pinball Festival and formerly Pinagogo. He also does mods, and he sells those mods through Mezel Mods. And he has a Simpsons pinball party with all the mods he's designed. The monorail. Monorail. Monorail. Monorail. Monorail. Monorail. Monorail. And the treehouse and, oh, God. Basically every mod you can possibly think of. Yeah, the Lambshade. I mean, just a ton of mods for that thing, and they're really cool. And obviously Tim from Maisel Mods. Yeah, Tim from Me Tim. Tim and Mrs. Tim, whose name I forget, from Maisel Mods. Maisel. Maisel Mods. So, yeah, we had a nice time at Sparky's. I learned to play bocce ball. That was really fun. But I was going somewhere with this. Where was I going? Oh, older games. Sparky has a Stern Star Trek Pro for, I believe, $4,300. Unless you want it with the custom trans light, which is cooler. I think it's another $150. I think it's $40. $40, $44. I think it was like $42 if you want it standard. $43. $43 and then $44.50 if you want it with the custom. Something like that. Hey, you know what? Reach out to Sparky via Pinside or Facebook or, you know, smoke signals. Anyway, or email us at thespinnerislit at gmail.com. Gameplay is nice. Gameplay is nice. We just played it last weekend. Dan was there, passed out on the little sofa by the pool. I was taking a nap. Passed out. I was implying that I was drunk off my ass or something. No, no, that was Will. I was definitely Will. He was slaughtered. Yeah, and he spent a lot of time in the sun with Mickey playing bocce balls. And Lily. And Lily and me. That was a good time. Games like that, there's some... Star Trek's what, about a five-year-old game? And you can pick them up, you know, low twos. And sometimes... Oh, I saw a Dale Jr. on Craigslist the other day. As did I. It's $2,800. $2,800. And that's a pretty rare version of a game that you own. One and only. We need to find one, Dan, so we can move forward with Ricky Bobby. There you go. There's one in Rescue or something for like $2,800, but it's a Dale Jr. I don't want to ruin it. Yeah. That's really good. I was looking at something else. Dan's checked out. and well I was busy shopping for pinballs because I heard the prices were so good there are some good deals out there but I mean as a rule a lot of games I'm seeing stuff like and I don't know if maybe people are just you know like you said fishing or whatever but I'm seeing like what's the one Stern I really want one bad that narrows it down yeah I know right it's a classic Stern weird alien on there no Alien Star is a godly Alien Star is a good one The Star is awesome. Yeah, it is an awesome game. Dude, it seems like a lot of people are looking for that one. A lot of people are looking for that game. Yeah. Quicksilver. Stern Quicksilver. I saw somebody asking like $2,800 for one the other day. It's like, are you high? You know? I saw someone asking $5,750 for a T2. Yeah, right. Yeah, we were talking about that the other night. So, yeah. And just ridiculous prices like that. But, I mean, I think you're right. Those people are just fishing, or they're like, oh, I saw it on Starz. well there's a very interesting dichotomy to what we do right you have the collectors market for players like us and we're the guys who go like oh yeah man you want a Terminator 2 that thing's like 1500 bucks what a great game for the money then you have the speculators market and those are the guys who think if they buy that 1500 T2 and they throw 500 dollars at it that somehow they have a 5000 dollar machine and you know it seemed like for a few years those guys were getting what they were looking for. And that's why speculator markets work. Because they're like, look, I can make money. I can own pinball and make money. I can buy a game brand new in the box, and I can turn around and sell it for six months for what I paid. And that's starting to decline. Who was the guy who had like 15 of the same games? A few people. Yeah, what's his name? Camillo Mendes. Tiki. Right, any guy? Yeah, hoarders, right? you know they're going to hoard a bunch of that game they're going to try to corner the market and they're going to take this game and then what that causes that causes price to automatically rise right because there's less games and he can trot one out whenever he wants to make it quick 12,000 bucks well yeah these days that's not viable because we live in a world now where anything can be remade all over the world where no title is safe i mean except for things with like weird licenses or or stuff that would just be super prohibitively expensive to remake like yeah you know medieval madness guess what they're back you know eight thousand bucks will get you a new one monster bash guess what it's back six thousand bucks will get you a new one you know is big bang safe is Cactus Canyon safe, you know, Cactus Canyon is the hot ticket, right, to be the next remade. So, you know, and we've even seen this in, like, our group. Like, guys in our group are just sort of like, look, man, we're not, you know, we're not going to continue to buy LEs because the investment isn't safe and they're not special and unique, you know. They want to own something that's weird and different. so yeah man it's kind of a scary thing if you're in it for the money you know it's a scary time but good games are going to continue to sell for a good price you're never going to see somebody say oh man you know what Adam's family sucks I'll take $2,500 for it you know that game is going to continue to be expensive just don't buy it for $8,000 and think you got the best deal ever Maybe $10,000 by Christmas because that's not going to happen. No, and Adam's family still earns on location, so it's still going to command a high price. Adam's family always earns. Yeah, games that earn on location are always going to be a little bit more expensive. There are a couple of exceptions here and there. South Park. South Park earns on location. T2 earns on location. Yeah, well, South Park is now a $3,000 game. That's now in today's world not a bad price for any DMV, but South Park will earn. You know, the reason why operators have them out there and it's not because they like South Park. No. Because they're good earners. Yeah. Is it the greatest team ever? No. No. Does it make money? You know what? I played one at Coin Apple a lot back in, and I played a couple games on it. And I could hear it. It had the adult ROMs, and I was having a good time. You know, I was enjoying playing the game. We got a couple free games off of that one. We did. So, you know. Yeah, it was cool. Like I said, be patient. Keep your eyes open. you can still get good deals. And be willing to travel. Be willing to travel. Have cash. Have cash. Yeah. And know how to transport if it's on the chain. Right. Don't put the legs up. Don't leave it on its legs and stick it in the back of your truck. Oh, I'm biting my tongue. Yeah. Probably because of that. You know, there's one. Let's do a quick recap that. Yeah. Take the legs off. Get a couple of friends to help you. Buy a beer and pizza or whatever. Take the legs off, fold the head down, have ratchet straps. You can get a Harbor Freight cheap. Have blankets, moving blankets you can get at Harbor Freight cheap. Or towels. Or towels. Or even cut-up cardboard boxes. If you've got an obese kid, just tie him into the game, man. There you go. Oh, yeah. Where's Mickey with the truffle shuffle? Moving a fin's not rocket science. No, it's not. It kind of sucks sometimes. Give me a dumpster fire. It does weigh 300 pounds. counts. Do not move it by yourself, Sparky. Unless it's an old E.M. because then it's not too bad. Well, take the head off. Did Henry do the same, similar thing? Never, ever. Henry jacked his back trying to That's right, moving by himself. Sparky tore both his rotator cuffs. No, it's the muscle on his forearms. While trying to rescue Twilight Zone off the back of his truck. Bad idea. That I just want to let go. You just want to hit the ground, man. You can fix it. That's a big one. If it was Elvis, I want to let it go. George can help you out. There you go. So, you know, it's not worth you getting a permanent injury. We know cabinet makers. We know artistes who can paint. How do you think Adam Silverball got saved? He made glass all over the place. That was Chris Bannister. Be safe when you're doing it. To the cabinet. It was actually Cassidy's. I apologize. Don't be stupid. Well, no. It was Cassidy's, but yeah. He dropped it. Well, it fell off the list. You know, as far as cheap games go, too, there's a whole other world out there of fun game, arcade games that may or may not be pinball games that are cheap. You want one of those EM gun games with the black light and all that stuff? Oh, yeah. Yeah, $300, $400 will find you a working one. You want a good EM. Yeah, pitching bats are still relatively cheap. I had a line from a client for about three years now. He had an old Charlie's Angels solid state pinball and an old EM two-player card whiz, Gottlieb. In pretty decent shape. Started out asking price was $400 per game. A little high end because the Charlie's Angels back glass and flaking, playfield looks real good, and rust on the legs. The EM, the card whiz, playfield looked real good. Mostly working one broken drop target, but he had the replacements there already. and perfect. And I mean, perfect 10-bath class. He'd been sitting on it for about three years. I just never pulled the trigger. Told Cheddar about it, and Cheddar went and picked him up. And he got him for the pair, I think. I think he got the pair for $500. I have no idea. I think it was, yeah, $250 a pop, $500 for the pair. I don't think Scott's other people spend money else. But, yeah, but anyway, so, you know, the deal is around, especially if you're not looking for, well, I've got to have a DMD. Okay. Well, you know what? Yeah. So the prices have gone up, but they're not – there's still good deals to be had. Be patient and network. Network. Network. Look, I met a nice couple about two months ago at Coin-Off. And I always wear a flag when I go out to play pinball. By that, I mean I wear, like, a show shirt or something like that. And I want people. I'm looking for attention because I am an attention whore. I'm an only child, folks. You've got sexy-ass eyebrows. Thank you. I do. I got told that by a lovely, lovely woman today. Older lady. Old enough to be my mother. But anyway. It was an interesting day at work. No. So, you know, we got to talking. They've been to the show. They've been to Golden State for the first time. They've been playing pinball on the pinball arcade format and on the Zen pinball. so they came they've been coming to coin off because you know they've got the games there they really like houdini they really like attack mars they want to get their first game so i said you know get involved come to the tournaments um you know uh uh you know uh get on sack pinball group start talking to people make friends they'll invite you over to play their collections um if you're looking for a good deal that's the place you're going to get it through another collector because we all know a lot of collectors have been doing it a lot longer than us they're getting older and they're starting to dump a lot of stuff. Well, that's true. And also, people don't understand this, but there's a ton of people out there who have games who have nothing to do with anything online. Yes. Yes, that's true. People, you know, you always hear, oh, all the good deals are gone. No, they're not. They're not. There's people out there who have pinballs that have been in the family or in their garage forever. They don't care about it. They don't care about pinball. And they're there. You have to network, like you said. Yep. A guy came to my house a couple weekends ago. I did some board work for him. And he knows a guy who's got a, from what I understand, a pretty decent-sized collection of EM gun games. Nice. Including a Game Busters, which is the one I really want. So I may have a line on one sooner or later. I'm hoping at that point I can afford it. But it's just a matter of meeting. The one I'm looking for is the old Midway Haunted House. I used to play it at Shanky's. Yeah. Used to play at Shakey's when I was a kid, and you never see them come up for sale around here. You never see that kind of stuff. Another one I'd really like to get, they had one at the Boardwalk when I was a kid, Sega Torpedo. Look it up. It's a really cool game. They had the single-player game, not the three-player game. It's awesome. It's also massive. But they're out there. They're out there. It's like aliens just have to talk and talk with people. Yeah. I posted on the local Facebook group, said, hey, I'm looking for pinball machines. And some guy was like, this guy on the street I live on has a bunch. I was like, yeah, that's me. Okay, so kind of funny. Well, funny but not. Similar context that never is. At work. Everybody knows if you've got questions about pinball, talk to Kendra. I get emails from people I don't even know. Hey, I heard you're the one to talk about. I thought you were talking about the inmates. under that. That's a little strange. No, thankfully not. I know I get a pinball in the pinball. Can you fit a pinball in a prison wallet? The ball, yes. The game, no. See, that's the perfect example. People know you like it and they're going to be the person who's like, oh, I've got a friend of a friend of a friend or whatever who has a game that they can't fix or they want it gone. My sister-in-law's Aunt Gracie's had one in her garage for 15 years. She wants it gone. Just take it. On that same note, though, you're going to have to go through a lot of the looks. The, oh, aren't you, isn't that sweet? You play pinball. Because most people don't understand. Or you get pinball. You mean like pinball? Yeah, yeah. You're making flipper hands. Flipper hands. As opposed to jazz hands. Are you a pinball wizard? Yeah. That's my favorite. Oh, my gosh. That's the way to do it. You've got to meet those people. You know, that's how I got my bowler, was through Justin, who knew somebody who knew somebody who knew somebody who was going to die and had a massive collection. You know, that's how those things work out. What? I said that's how I got the bowler because somebody knew that. Somebody knew somebody who had a massive collection. The collector who I got the pinball machine out of, or the bowler. You were there, I think. I know what you said. But it's networking and just making sure people know that's what you're into. That works for any hobby. Right. You know, you just, you never know. Right. Yeah, so I think moral of the story is, yeah, prices have gone up a bit. But if you're willing to wait, if you're patient, and put yourself out there. Like, for those of you who don't know what I do as, you know, a day job for a living, I manage a branch of a pest control company, family-owned pest control company. We have two branches, one in Chico, California, and one in Sacramento, where I live and work. and I literally find a way. Like I'm in a client's house, a new client, and they've got a man cave, and they've got a jukebox and a Coke machine and a pool table. Hey, awesome man cave. Hey, by the way, you know, I collect pinball machines. Hey, you know, I find a way to bring in a conversation. That's how I got this one client. He works at a building that we service, a business building. And we got to talking one day, and, yeah, I've got a couple old ones in my garage I'm looking to get rid of. Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. You know, and it's on my Donkey Kong. Network, man. Share that. And you know what? I've also got people to come to the show. I've actually got a couple of clients to come to lead. That was him. That was that homeless guy. He's taking credit for the homeless guy. Pinball Hobo. Oh, no, I'm not taking credit for Pinball Hobo. No, I wish. Pinball Hobo is the real deal. I wish. Wherever you are, Pinball Hobo. Hobo. He's a homeboy? Pitbull Hobo. We salute you. Salute! Brought to you by Heineken. I had it wrong this whole time. I thought you worked for a Festone family control company. You would not believe the number of times I get asked if we deal with ex-spouses and in-laws. I'm like, yep, but feeding is extra. yeah so anyway so uh you know what man reach out and especially if you're new to the hobby and you somehow stumbled onto our show um we're sorry we're sorry yeah we apologize in advance what a great episode to jump on it right exactly no but uh you know it uh um don't be afraid to to jump out of your comfort zone because we all met through pinball mostly online because like I knew Brian for probably six, seven years online before we ever met. It turns out we live like, what, two and a half miles from each other? You know, I knew Dan for a while online. Alex, do we meet here at the show? I don't remember. We met at the show And the show Spencer I hope I lived up to your disappointment Oh yeah absolutely Mark were off He skips the quicksand you walk on I did Boy we hate that the truth You going to see Mark tomorrow Yeah, so I'm going to say hi. We talked last week. Mark Scott out of Reno. He just celebrated, like, 35-year anniversary with his lovely wife. Congratulations to you both. They just got back from Cabo. Did he call you while he was in Cabo? He did, but his wife was, like, in the shower. It was early in the morning. We were getting ready to have breakfast, so we didn't talk long. But yeah, I was like, dude, you're on your anniversary thing. Why are you calling me? Why isn't the shower open? It's like, Matt, because I'm not. Why isn't the shower? We've got a few minutes. So we're good. Where was I going with Mark? Oh, Mark, you know, we met at Pinacogo, playing a game of Hobbit together, and now we're good friends. You know, if you're just getting a hobby, you don't own games, you own games, whatever, reach out, man. Reach out to local leagues. You know, reach out. Find on Facebook. Find. there's local clubs all over and you can get a hold of them online just you know google or whatever and always check pinball map always check pinball map it will tell you about pinball machines you know it's like pinball machines okay I doubt anybody who's not already in pinball is listening but it can happen if you're you know side seat driving or what have you it's almost like spinners late this must be a podcast about Ops! Yeah, exactly. Check the pinball map. You can find every game that we'll talk about somewhere. And most likely, surprisingly, when Deadpool came out, the bar across the street from our house, well, down the street and across, anyway, they have a Deadpool. I thought I was going to be up there. Well, I'm sure it does, but they have a Deadpool. more Deadpool than I have. Yeah, exactly. Show up with a USB drive. I know, right? He's completely off topic. I saw a picture online that posted because I thought of you where it said Deadpool and it had Paul Walker Deadpool funny. I saw that. Sorry, I didn't get all the ideas. I love Brian. This is why we have Brian here, ladies and gentlemen. Ladies and gentlemen, Brian. Rusty's right. The maps are out there. there are more places than they have been in a very long time. Is it a resurgence? I would say no, but it's nice to have them back in bars and places like that. You know, when I started seeing them again at laundromats in 7-Eleven, like I wasn't a kid, they were literally everywhere. We'll see what happens. And I don't think we will anymore, mainly because real estate's too expensive. Real estate's too expensive. Most places, businesses now. But you're seeing them at airports again. When they used to toss them into like 7-Elevens, it would bring kids in all that stuff, but now it's a lot different where they're looking at square footage. How much is this square footage, you know, five square feet close to the urn? And it has to hit that. Yeah, and pinball machines, unfortunately, are a huge amount of dead space. Well, and you don't want kids to hang out anymore anyway. Yeah, I remember hanging out all night. You wouldn't want, you know, kids to be in your space. So, you know, you just, you have to look around. And always check because you absolutely never know. And sometimes the pinball map isn't right. Maybe it's not listed because it's new or something or it's been missed or whatever. But like a wiki, whatever, wiki thing that's called. Not WikiLeaks, the other one. Wikipedia. You can add to the pinball map. If you see, if you're jumping along, you're like, oh, my God, it's a Game of Thrones. And, you know, Bob's Liquor Barn, whatever. Yeah. Or an automated at Bob's. go on there and it's like, no, they don't have the Game of Thrones listed here. Okay, well, Game of Thrones. Jeffrey Epstein's house in the Bahamas. A lot of that. I'm like WikiLeaks. It won't get you thrown out of the country. It might get you thrown out of your local pinball club. He probably bought that conversion kit for the EM big dip. Jeffrey Epstein's game of the magic girl is under 18. Like our county. We're going NSFW tonight. And it's nice to see games out again, you know. Yeah. I think it was. It was the Thursday before Golden State. You know, my buddy and I went to the Holy Diver because our band Ignite was playing, a band we hadn't seen since 2000. Wow. Shout out to Tim Gordon from Hip Games, by the way. Inside of it, they had an Iron Maiden premium, a Metallica premium, and an ACDC premium. Decent shape. Like, they worked pretty well for route games. It's just my buddy who knows I collect pinball, but he doesn't really play. It was just cool. He didn't know. He knew I had an Iron Maiden. He didn't know anything about the other ones. But it was cool to see that it's coming back. Yeah. In a big way. Yeah, it is. It's not going to be like how it used to be in the 90s. That time's kind of gone. But it's really cool to see games out there again. Well, with all the press that pinball is getting lately, and like regular press, not just, you know, pinball sites, but mainstream media. You know, not just new game releases either, just constantly press, press, press. You know, or having... It's a resurgence of an old hobby. Yeah. Having pinball machines in commercials, in TV shows. Until you start seeing the numbers being sold like Williams Valley had, and you're not going to see that again. It's just the market's not there. Right. Well, and our world has incredibly shrunk down. Our world is so tiny now. Yes, it is. There's the internet where you don't have to be on a pinball forum to say, hey, you know, if somebody's seen, you know, this tier pinball, like you said, you know, with the, hey, I just put it out there, I'm looking for X game, and somebody, you know, it's that six degrees of separation. But it's really nice to see. You know, I like seeing it. You know, it's cool to see places getting new games out there. You know, old games are great to see, but, you know, they're 30-year-old games, 40-year-old games at some point. Right. And they break more, plain and simple. You know, I was, great example, I was working on my buddy Scott's high speed a couple nights ago. It's been an ongoing project with him and he understands it, you know. Went up there, did some minor work, said, okay, I didn't bring the stuff for this, we'll get it next time. And the next day he's like, all three of the pop-bombers quit working. And it's like, okay, we'll fix it. You know, it's a high speed, it's all wet. That's closing in on 40 years old real quick. 86, yeah. Yeah. So, you know, it is what it is. I understand why games like that aren't, aren't out on location, you know, newer ones. Yeah. They're new. Right. Do they hold up better? Time's going to tell, but it's be like comparing a 1969 Corvette to a 2019 Corvette, you know, which one's going to be a little bit more reliable. It's a no brainer, but it's great to see it. Have you guys seen the new Corvette? Yes. The two seater with the engine in the back. All Corvettes are two seaters. Yeah. I know. but with the I don't know let's take a free ride the only thing I don't like about it is it looks a lot too much like a Ferrari for me but when the base level price is $60,000 compared to the outgoing compared to the outgoing base price of $59,000 right ooh right you know they're they're nice anyways back on topic man the fact that it looks like a Ferrari is like the best thing about it I didn't like how the current how this current generation looks it looked a little bit too hot and gilly for me but I'm not a Corvette guy The current generation looks weird. I mean, it looks like a hobby. I'm not a Corvette person. I like the look of it, and I'm not a Corvette person at all. But it looks much, much more like, you know, it looks like the bastard child of a Corvette and a 458. Yeah. Very cool, actually. We've kind of, it's been, so far, we're not done yet, but it's been a good episode. We're kind of like, it's because of summer. There's just not really a lot going on, but we've managed to, so far, put an hour and 38 minutes What's our next topic? Our next topic is Alex has a trip report. All right. We're going to check how long we've been here. Oh, hey. What's up? Where did Alex not go? Right. He already went to the bathroom. He could have, what is it, pinball map. Alex was our man for that. So you guys have a couple of trip reports, man. Give it up. I do. There is actually one 10 minutes away from your guys' place. It's called, they just put an arcade in this place. I don't know if you guys have been back to the, I've never heard of this place. Oh, back to the 80s. Back to the 80s Cafe. I have not heard of it, but I did. Chris, Vincent, and Dallas Drake from Napa Valley Pinball. I don't know if you've heard of those guys. No, I know who they are. Yeah. They route games, but are collectors. And they have stuff. I don't know if you've been to Uncle Vito's, by the way. Best pizza ever, if you've ever gone to Uncle Vito's before. I've been to his New York pizza. Yep, best pizza. The one on our street has four pinballs there. got a Guardians, a Deadpool, a Maiden, and a Munsters. All pros. So, back in the 80s it was on Sunrise. Correct. It used to be right over here off of Mather. They moved. I did not hear about this place until Dallas texted and mentioned to me. They had a cherry at the old location. The chair from Pee Wee's Playhouse. And Mickey was begging us to buy it for him. See? Ha ha! It was about a year ago, I think, when the art came in because they did do a thing where they were looking for a full-time tech, basically. By the time I saw it, the job was in full. But I haven't been to the new location yet, but I think it's great that they've added that stuff in. The old location, it was cool. The pinballs there are Metallica, Ghostbusters, and Stern Wars. Nice. Really. Really good lineup. Stern Wars Pro? Yes, all Pros. Okay, so I'll go over there and put some money in the Star Wars Pro and be angry at it. It's got a nice little light kind of fixture on the side. It's got kind of like an LED lighting on the side of the game. All right. Not PinStadiums, I don't think, because those are on the bottom, but it has a nice Penn Arena on the Star Wars Pro. I went to Ikea and bought this for $6 because they have those. They're 10, actually. Oh, yeah, you can build those. So you've got Uncle Vito's New York Pizza. They have two locations. The other does not have pinball. They have a Rothwell's Batman driving game similar to Spy Hunter, obviously. I thought they had pinball. Nope, not anymore. Oh, well, it's not. All right. One dozen. Okay, so go to the R Street location in Sacramento, California, and Uncle Vito's New York-style pizza. R what? Because R Street's pretty big. R Street is pretty big. Do you know the address? R and 15th. It's on pinball map. I've seen it. It's on pinball map. R and 15th. And then back to the 80s is an 80s cafe, a retro cafe, and they do trivia nights. Sunrise Boulevard. Burfee's Ice Cream. They have Movie Nice, and they play 80s movies all day. We haven't been yet. We're going to have to get down there, but now they've got pinball. You like the 80s, and you'll love this place. So put on your eyes odds. Oh, man, I've got to try that. Okay, put on your eyes odds and your Wayfarers and your Vans. And your Oakley Razorblades. Oakley Razorblades, there you go. You will not be disappointed. Feather your hair. Feather your hair. Do you go plastic hair? I just don't want those and the energy dump. Get on down there, man. Check it out. So that's on Sunrise Boulevard in beautiful, sunny, citrus-sized California. What else you got? I also got a couple of locations in Reno that I'll be going to tomorrow. Okay. So road trip. Road trip? Future road trip. Future road trip. Future. And Dan might be going, too. Well, you already know about one, and you've already been. So hit me to that, dude. It is called Press Start. It is a barcade in Reno. Adult only. 21 and over, just like coin-off, obviously. they do a family night though every last, so instead of doing a free play every last Sunday of the month they do a family night every last Sunday of the month and it goes from 11am to 6pm and shoutouts to Roger Brown and John Simpson who own the place, really good dudes really kind and compassionate about what they're doing with the pinball arcade business for the tournaments and for their league, they set the games, and I think Mark Scoff may have mentioned this in one of the last pinball podcasts that you did. I kid you not. They set the games on free play for tournaments and for league. Yeah, makes sense. Which is pretty awesome. Well, no, because when we play, it's on quarter drop, right? So what he's doing... No buy-in though. Yeah, they're letting them play. He's actually putting the games on free play. There is a $10 buy-in though. Yeah. Pretty fucking sweet. Yeah, it is. No, that's awesome. I feel like that's very fair, you know? There's a $10 buy-in, but you don't have to quarter it off. So what are some of the games they have there? Because I know they have a really sweet collection. Well, let me go on the pinball map right now, and I will read them out to you. This is the current lineup for Press Start, which is an awesome name for a barcade, by the way. It is. Maybe you'll teach people how to press start, too. You know? Yeah. You'd like to think that, wouldn't you? How many times do you walk up to a game, an older game, and you're like, where is the start button? I'll tell them, look at the board. And then you find it, and it's out of credits. And you're just like. You hit, like, the coin or something. And you keep pushing it. Like, somehow, magically, credits are going to get on there. Oh, that's 50 cents. See, Rusty, it's just like with your own control of the battery going dead. What do you do? You push the button harder. Push the button harder. Like Salt-N-Pepa said, push it real good. Push it. Push it real good. So what's the line? So, we got an Airborne. Oh, wow. You never see those. You never see those on location. They got some pretty rare shit for a barcade there, too. That was a cool game. So, it's a one-of-a-kind, unique barcade. An AFN Remake LE. Okay, that's Mars. A Baby Pac-Man. Nate? I'm reading this off of the pinball map. Yes, it does work. You are? A Banzai Run. Nice. A Bat 66 Premium. A Bronco. I love Bronco. Early Gottlieb. Yep. 70s Gottlieb songs. Late 70s Gottlieb. Gottlieb, yep. Centaur. Or should I say Spencar. Spencar. Spencar. Spencar. Spencar. Spencar. Spencar. Spencar. Spencar. Circus Voltaire. Nice. A Deadpool Premium. Nice. There we go. An 8-Ball Deluxe. Gore Gar. The Gar. Guardians Premium. Wow. The Guardian. Haunted House. Nice. Medieval Remake. Not the LE though. Monster Bash LE remake I think they have Monster Bash remake number one they have one of the first remakes of that game yes Monsters Premium Pharaoh Radical Revenge from Mars Stern Wars Premium and Twilight Zone that's a hell of a lineup I believe they just got an Addams Family too so they're all over the pinball that's a hell of a lineup If you've never had a chance to play Pharaoh, in the group of games from that era that have the Magna save, a la the original Black Knight, there's Pharaoh, Solar Fire, Grand Lizard, which I think was the last one like that because that's a System 11. And am I missing one? Yeah, Jungle Lord. Does that have a Magna save? I think it does. That's been a while since I've played it. So, Feral is really unique because there's a little – it goes up underneath the – Feral is a fun game. It is. It's hard. Yeah. Well, Adam just got one, and there's – on the left side of the play field, up underneath the upper play field, there's a few shots to make. But one of them to the far left, it has a little vertical up kicker that kicks it up to the upper play field. Did Adam buy Steve? No. No. I don't know who he got this from, but he got it from Steve. So, anyway, so check out Press Start in Reno, Nevada. and link up with Michael Huntsman somehow. Facebook's good. You'll find him on there. And by the way, if you're buying or selling a home, or more selling a home in the Reno, Nevada area, Michael Huntsman is a professional photographer and does fantastic home picks for real estate agents to sell their homes. So if you're looking for that, man, reach out to Michael Huntsman via Facebook or to contact us at thespiritslid at gmail.com. and we'll hook you up. So, is that it for the Shirt Report for now? Pretty much. Until tomorrow. Until tomorrow, yeah. So, where are you heading tomorrow? Well, tomorrow I'm obviously going to go to Press Start. They have a tournament there. Jim Martin, my good friend, shout out to Jim Martin if you guys don't know who Jim Martin is. You may have met him at the shows. He volunteered for the scorekeeping in the tournament. Right. There's a lot of streaming on Twitch. There's a lot of streaming on Reno Pinball Twitch. Go follow that. I'm sure you've seen Jim Martin from Facebook more. Sir Jim Martin who's now a pumpkin farmer It absolutely is He wants you to know that you might want it all But you can't have it Well it's in your face But you can't grab it That's what I hear I got a story to tell you When the show's over This one's a little salty It was at work today Alright so My Reno trip I'm obviously going to press start for the tournament I may go to Peppermill I'm looking forward to that Whenever I see Mustang I think that game is just a doggone dumpster fire There's one locally here One of the pizza places, I forget where it's from Really? Mark and Monica? Not anymore No, they moved that out It's in another pizza place or bar I forget It was at Tumbleweed for a while It was a Mark and Monica's pizza. And then they 86'd it for Tumbleweed because it did Jack there, apparently. Because it's Mustang. I've not played it yet, so. It's hard. It's always around my dead bodies. I know. It's just big. Man, they've got that crowd control thing going on. You'd think Corvette players would play it. Not necessarily. Nope. All right. Well, we are down to upcoming shows, which I don't really have a lot of. Tell us what you're doing. Well, that's, yeah, that's what I have. Thor. Because I really didn't do my homework. I'll be honest this time. Yeah, California Extreme, Saturday and Sunday, July 27th and 28th, so that's a week from now. It's at the Hyatt Regency in Santa Clara, California. That's both pinball machines, video arcade games, and pre-video mechanical arcade games. And that's a fantastic show, I'm told. I've actually never been, and I live right by it. It's a tremendous show. I think for a lot of us it was like the first real show. Back when Pinnagoga was still real, real small. Real small. Yeah. It started in Roseville in 1988. Yep. Pinnathon. Pinnathon, baby. California Extreme was a little more world class. It's a big deal, man, and a big doing. And we have our tournament there with the unfortunate name Bayburg. Yep, Bayburg Tournament, which is going to be a biggie. will be a biggie. Prototype games, you know, you've got to remember Atari was right in the backyard, so there's a lot of weird stuff that shows up there. The Bud Head prototype usually shows up. A real Big Bang Bar. An original. A real Kingpin. TJ has a lot of treasures. Marble Man. Just stuff that you never ever see anywhere else. And it's not the cheapest show, but they've recently expanded it to two humongous rooms. Plus, they have just world-class speakers and a huge console section. Not really a swap meet, but they have like a dealer room. Yeah, it is a heck of a show. Bring your own beer because the bar is very expensive. There you go. Thank you. And then October. That's my trip report. There you go. Friday, Saturday, Sunday, October 11th, 12th, and 13th in Dixon, California. Oh, I've heard of this one. The original pin-a-go-go. Yes. The original pin-a-go-go. So we have that going on. And that's at the Dixon Mayfair Fairgrounds in lovely, sunny Dixon, California. Should be a really good show. Should be a really good show. Low heat, friendly atmosphere, a lot of pins. Oh, and August 1st and 4th, 1st through 4th, we have Replay FX, formerly known as Pinbird. No, no, Replay FX is the show. Yeah, Pinbird Entertainment. Right. And that's at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center in Scott Township, Pennsylvania. August 9th and 10th, the Saratoga Pinball and Arcade Show at the Saratoga Regional YMCA in Saratoga Springs, New York. I think it's fun to play. at the YMCA. There we go. We should do advertising for them. September 5th through 8th is the Cleveland Pinball and Arcade Show at the Holiday Inn. 6001 Rockside Road, Independence, Ohio. And then one more October show, October 11th and 12th, the White Rose Game Room Show, a.k.a. the York Show, York Paragraphs and Expo Center in York, Pennsylvania. One of the famous old school ones And I'll do one Well I'll do two more October 16th through 20th The original Pinball Expo West in Chicago North Shore Chicago Illinois Or actually I think isn't it Isn't it actually Wheeling Illinois I have no idea It's almost Expo time again It's almost October so a couple free months And then November 15th and 16th This is an important date folks The Houston Arcade Expo at the Houston Marriott Westchase in Houston, Texas, which is supposed to be where Deep Root Pinball will debut their first offering of Retro Atomic Zombie Adventure Land. Land, land, land, land. Retro Atomic? Who the fuck cares? There you go. So, you know what? It remains to be seen, and they haven't taken any money from anybody. So, there that is. Hashtag magic, girl. Hashtag magic. Hashtag John Papadiuk Hashtag John Papadiuk Getting a little saucy here tonight Does anybody have anything else they want to add beyond we're up to shout outs and thank yous Hashtag John Papadiuk Hashtag John Papadiuk Let's not We already went there We'll go around the room in an orderly fashion because we're almost at the two hour mark and this show's been a mild of survival Here it is. Only mildly. Only mildly. Burn, baby, burn. Burn, baby, burn. I put forth. I have been so busy with work, literally working like a couple of 20-hour shifts, that I just had no time for anything other than work and family. But I wanted to get an episode out because I keep getting pings on Facebook, on our page, and people are starved for entertainment. like really starved if you're waiting for another episode from us folks like seriously you guys I understand that all the other podcasts suck trust me I agree with them except for Raymond Davidson's podcast if you haven't listened to Do or Die yet it's on my list this week awesome have you listened to it? I'm going to start a shout out with thank you to all the wonderful listeners that keep listening to the show month after month we're going to have a few special guests coming up. God willing, we're going to get Michael Huntsman on. We're going to get Joe Abate on real, real soon. And we're still working on getting Cliffy, the patron saint of football, playfield preservation, on because he said he'd do the show. But he's a busy, busy man. He's getting all those protectors out for you guys and those wonderful post links. Insurance. Insurance, yes. He does insurance too. Insurance? He's retired. So, you know, the title is summer 2019, so my little shout out is going to be do something magnificent this summer with your day, with your life, with yourself, with your spouse, with your significant other, with your kids, with your friends, with co-workers, with somebody you met, talk to them at the laundromat, don't care. Something simple that reminds you of the simpler days of childhood. For me, it's taking my family to A&W and getting root beer out of a frosty cold mug. It's the only way to have it. Sitting down, having some cheeseburgers with some co-workers in a parking lot or a park and popping open an ice cold Coca-Cola in a glass bottle or even better, squirt in a glass bottle, it's a thing to behold. Yeah, I know, it's simple. Go get a dip cone. Go to the, run, chase the ice cream truck with a $5 bill and buy an ice cream. And that's all you'll get. And that's all you'll get. Go get, you know, go get, go somewhere that still sells thrifty ice cream. Get that triple scoop. go get your jamo calm and fudge on. It's summer. Enjoy. Go to the river. Go to the creek. Go to the community pool. You know what? Go to the ocean. If you don't live near the ocean, go to the mountains. Go mountain biking. Go hiking. Just so you know, if you go to Thrifty Ice Cream, you're honor bound as a pinball aficionado to get yourself a scoop of medieval madness. Yep. Tastes like a plague. tastes like the duke of bourbon oh that's hilarious good one brian um you know you know you do those fun things that gave you some joy they gave you simple joy as a child or a younger person and share those with somebody who may have never experienced them before i was doing a job I was doing a job last summer it was a very hot day so I've got the guys the crew cleaning it up and we're packing up gear and I said look there's a store right on the corner I'm going to run and go get some cold drinks I was going to get you some sodas and bottle water and I did but it was a little Mexican type market and they sell the wonderful glass soda bottles so I picked up a bunch of squirts and two of my guys have never had a squirt in a glass bottle so must have scored it and they're like yeah it's okay I'm like no and they were ice cold I hit this and they're like this is great it's like yeah it's way different out of the glass bottle so that's my shout out and a shout out to my wonderful employers at Hunter's Service Incorporated in Chico and Sacramento California serving the whole north state northern California of course and that would be my wonderful employers Corey and Nikki Stahl love you guys thank you for all you do for us and so you're the official sponsor of tonight's episode of the Spinners Let Pinball Podcast, a Quinn Martin production. That's my shout-out, man. And, of course, to Sparky. And, you know, so, there it is. So, who's got some thank yous and shout-outs? I do, I do. This is kind of piggybacking on your shout-out to Sparky. Hey, Sparky, happy birthday, dude. I know it's a little late. Also, am I still grand champion on your walking dead. She killed it. Awesome. Yeah, she killed it on walking dead. I just want to say thanks again, as always, to all the hosts for Catholic World Earth and Molly. Thank you for opening your homes to us. Thank you for letting us play your game. You're welcome. Excluding Dan. You're not invited to my next one. As done properly. Dead air. Dead air. I'd like to thank Brian for coming tonight yeah I'd like to thank Alan for coming tonight I'd like to thank Spencer and Rusty for having us I'm done that's it I don't want to thank Kendra for anything and I want to say hey everybody let's give Star Wars Home Edition a chance come on take a free ride Get out of here, hippies. We just love everything. Can we get along? No, but we can get a ball. Mickey just wants a Minion pinball. Somebody want one for Mickey. No, come in big one. It's a homebrew. He wants a Minion pinball. After the episode, I'll watch the video. So, Minion. Alrighty. I think that's it, though, to me. Alex, do you have any shout-outs? Nope. All right. Alex, do you have any shout-outs? Nope. Yeah, we're going long, and people are like, you can have the episode now. Nobody cares about that. So this has been episode 24 of the Spinner's Lick Pinball Podcast. What do we do? What do we say? Mickey, take us out on this one, will you? What do we say? Play pinball. Keep it moving. Keep it moving. Paco! _(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_ --- *Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: e6c7358e-fc4c-44d2-af2b-223a6e4d024f*