# Super Nerdy Audio Tech Sh_t

**Source:** NYC PinPod  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2026-03-02  
**Duration:** 79m 13s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://www.spreaker.com/episode/super-nerdy-audio-tech-sh-t--70377509

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## Analysis

NYC Pin Pod discusses local pinball competition results from late February 2026, including tournament results from South Slope Strikes, It Never Drains at the Black Knight, and Stern Army RWI events. The episode covers Pinball NYC league matches disrupted by severe winter weather and travel bans, detailed coverage of South Slope Pinball League finals qualification drama, upcoming competitive events in March, and machine maintenance updates across NYC venues via Pinball Map user reports.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] As of February 27th, 2026, there are 356 pinball machines in New York City at 75 public locations — _Benjamin Furiga, citing Pinball Map data_
- [HIGH] Taylor Connolly won South Slope Strikes February with three strikes after 11 rounds — _Benjamin Furiga reporting tournament results_
- [HIGH] Alex Jim Kelly won It Never Drains at the Black Knight with 24 players across 15 rounds — _Benjamin Furiga reporting tournament results_
- [HIGH] Rob Wong won Stern Army's February RWI at Rulo's with five rounds of match play — _Benjamin Furiga reporting tournament results_
- [HIGH] Greg Fertel won Thursday Night Strikes with only a single strike after 11 rounds — _Benjamin Furiga reporting tournament results_
- [HIGH] Matthew Carlson won South Slope Pinball League Week 6 finals with 31 points — _Benjamin Furiga reporting SSPL results_
- [HIGH] The Cactus Canyon remake at Barcade Chelsea has broken mine entrance and drain motors requiring a replacement driver board — _Banzai user comment on Pinball Map_
- [HIGH] Pulp Fiction at Barcade Chelsea experiences gate wire cracks every couple months — _Bonsai user comment on Pinball Map_

### Notable Quotes

> "It Never Drains at the Black Knight always happens while It Never Drains Southern California is happening and streams It Never Drains Southern California on a TV or some TVs around the space."
> — **Benjamin Furiga**, early section
> _Explains the concurrent format of the Brooklyn/Southern California tournament events_

> "There was something strange in the neighborhood. You were the person they called just to be clear."
> — **Eric Sweetland**, Ghostbusters machine discussion
> _Ghostbusters reference during SSPL finals when Eric was called to troubleshoot auto-plunge issue_

> "Remember these names at the end of the season, Schlubs, Harlem Globe Flippers. Let's talk about whether that made a difference at the end of the season because I have a feeling those might be very big wins."
> — **Benjamin Furiga**, mid-league coverage
> _Analyst calling out significant away 12-4 wins that could impact playoff seeding_

> "If any of them fails to meet the obligation, such as it were, then A.J. Gould would find himself entered in the tournament. That said, if he didn't, he'd be driving a bus right down there in B."
> — **Benjamin Furiga**, SSPL finals qualification discussion
> _Explains the intricate playoff replacement mechanics for SSPL_

> "Paul likely will not be attending the finals, which means not driving that second bus. Instead, Courtney Wetzel and Sam Hall are both tied at 81 points. There will be a tie break between them for determining who drives that second bus."
> — **Benjamin Furiga**, SSPL finals section
> _Indicates last-minute roster disruption and tie-breaker mechanics_

> "I think when later we talk about what the first game with auto-launch was, that Getaway might actually be a really good, or Fishtales, one of those two might actually be a really good possibility for the first one."
> — **Benjamin Furiga**, machine updates section
> _Speculates on historical pinball design timeline around auto-launch mechanics_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Benjamin Furiga | person | Host of NYC Pin Pod, tournament director, Pinball NYC Left Flipper Division co-captain |
| Eric Sweetland | person | Co-host, pinball tournament director in NYC, We Colliders team member, SSPL finals participant (B division) |
| Rob Adler | person | Co-host, Pinball NYC participant, SSPL B division finalist |
| Taylor Connolly | person | Winner of South Slope Strikes February tournament with three strikes |
| Alex Jim Kelly | person | Winner of It Never Drains at the Black Knight tournament with 16.79 WPPR |
| Rob Wong | person | Winner of Stern Army February RWI, second place SSPL Week 6 with 29 points |
| Greg Fertel | person | Winner of Thursday Night Strikes with single strike, played 11 rounds without a bye |
| Matthew Carlson | person | Winner of SSPL Week 6 finals with 31 points, SSPL A division finalist |
| Zen Zokniak | person | SSPL A division finalist, tied for fourth in SSPL Week 6 with 25 points |
| Jess Warren | person | Tournament director for South Slope Strikes February and Stern Army RWI, Pinball NYC team member |
| Joan Samander | person | SSPL B division finalist, momentum player with 20+ points in Week 6 |
| Steven Christopher | person | SSPL competitive player, 70 points before final round, narrowly missed A division qualification |
| A.J. Gould | person | SSPL B division leader with 88 points, potential replacement for A division if needed |
| NYC Pin Pod | organization | Pinball-focused podcast discussing New York City location pinball competition and community |
| Pinball NYC | organization | League with Left Flipper and Right Flipper divisions, multiple teams competing at various NYC venues |
| South Slope Pinball League | organization | Completed first season with A, B, C divisions, finals held March 5, 2026 |
| Stern Army | organization | Running weekly RWI (Random Weird Inanity) events at Rulo's on Sundays |
| Rulo's | venue | South Slope pinball location hosting multiple tournaments and league matches |
| Barcade Brooklyn | venue | NYC pinball venue with multiple machines including Addams Family Values, tournament location |
| Buttermilk Bar | venue | South Slope venue hosting SSPL matches and finals |
| Jack Bar | venue | Williamsburg venue hosting Thursday Night Strikes and competitive pinball matches |
| Pulp Fiction | game | Chicago Gaming pinball machine being discussed in NYC venues, subject of Rob Adler's sub-100k point game |
| Black Knight | game | Classic Williams machine, featured in 'It Never Drains at the Black Knight' tournament name |
| Ghostbusters | game | SSPL venue machine with auto-plunge issues, downtime during Week 6 finals |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Local tournament results and competition, Pinball NYC league matches and team results, South Slope Pinball League season and finals qualification, Weather impacts on NYC pinball competition
- **Secondary:** Machine maintenance and repairs at NYC venues, Upcoming pinball events and tournament schedules, Venue updates and machine inventory across NYC, Tournament administration and rule mechanics

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.72) — Generally upbeat and enthusiastic about local community, tournaments, and gameplay experiences. Positive toward venue operators and tournament directors. Some frustration about weather disruptions and machine maintenance issues, but overall tone is celebratory of competitive play and community engagement.

### Signals

- **[event_signal]** Multiple local tournament results reported: South Slope Strikes (Taylor Connolly winner), It Never Drains at the Black Knight (Alex Jim Kelly winner), Stern Army RWI (Rob Wong winner), Thursday Night Strikes (Greg Fertel winner) (confidence: high) — Detailed tournament recaps with round counts, player names, and final standings
- **[operational_signal]** Severe winter weather (blizzard/snow) with NYC travel ban disrupted league play on Monday, February 24, 2026, causing match cancellations and rescheduling (confidence: high) — Multiple references to travel ban starting 9pm Sunday through Monday noon, venue closures (Scrapple Land), and match postponements
- **[venue_signal]** Multiple machine issues reported across NYC venues: Cactus Canyon at Barcade Chelsea (driver board issues), Pulp Fiction gate wire cracks at Barcade Chelsea, Shadow flipper dead at Sunshine Laundromat, Ghostbusters auto-plunge issues at SSPL venue, Getaway out of order at Scrapple Land (confidence: high) — Pinball Map user reports from multiple dates in late February 2026
- **[community_signal]** South Slope Pinball League Week 6 finals created tight qualifying drama with multiple players competing for limited A/B division spots, particularly Steven Christopher and Eric Sweetland separated by single points (confidence: high) — Detailed play-by-play of final NBA Fast Break round with point progressions and playoff implications
- **[operational_signal]** SSPL finals administration involved last-minute roster changes (Paul McHugh unable to attend), tie-breaker determination (Courtney Wetzel vs Sam Hall), and contingency planning (A.J. Gould as backup) (confidence: high) — Benjamin Furiga's detailed breakdown of qualification scenarios and replacement mechanics
- **[venue_signal]** Jack Bar rotated machines: Elton John removed, Jurassic Park returned, then Tee'd Off removed for Pulp Fiction (confidence: high) — Machine lineup update from Tuesday, February 24
- **[historical_signal]** Discussion of pinball history regarding first auto-launch machines, specifically Getaway and Fishtales around Twilight Zone era (confidence: medium) — Benjamin Furiga speculation: 'that Getaway might actually be a really good, or Fishtales, one of those two might actually be a really good possibility for the first one'
- **[operational_signal]** Max (venue operator) was out of town early in week, affecting maintenance turnaround; reported back in time for Thursday venue repairs (confidence: medium) — Benjamin Furiga noting that Tuesday Ghostbusters issue at Franklin Park and Godzilla issue at High Dive occurred while Max was away; Thursday repairs happened after Max returned
- **[venue_signal]** Red Hook Pinball Museum moving to new location (previously in back of Seaborne), hosting March Madness tournament on Friday, March 7 (confidence: medium) — Tournament listing mentions $20 museum admission and Friday March Madness event at 7:30pm
- **[event_signal]** Multiple upcoming March 2026 events scheduled: SSPL A/B/C finals (March 5), Fantasy Winter Open in Middletown (March 8), continued league matches March 2-5 (confidence: high) — Detailed schedule provided in final segments of podcast
- **[community_signal]** Visitor participation in NYC tournaments: 'Tim and Lauren from Upstate' (Lawrence clan) visiting Brooklyn for weekend pinball events (confidence: medium) — Mentioned in Eric's bullet journal section about Saturday Buttermilk Bar gathering

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## Transcript

 Happy Sunday, pinfolk, or whatever day you're listening. This is NYC Pin Pod, in which a panel talks location pinball in New York City and sometimes nearby surrounding areas. My name is Benjamin Furiga. My initials are BCF. And Rulos seems like my home bar this week. My name is Eric Sweetland. My initials are HIP. And I'm a pinball tournament director in New York City. My name is Rob Adler. My initials are RCA, and I just had a sub 100,000 point game of Pulp Fiction. On this week's pod, in Balls 1 and 2, we'll do those things we usually do. We'll run down local competition results and give you updates to venues, courtesy of Pinball Map and its users with Eric. And then also, we will give you our bullet journals. We'll tell you what kind of pinball we played this past week. And in Ball 3, we'll talk with Rob about accessibility devices in pinball history. Let's get started. Let's talk about last week's competitive pinball results. On Saturday, February 21st, TD Jess Warren put on South Slope Strikes February, and 12 people came out to this non-IFPA-sanctioned event of head-to-head strikes held at Rullo's in South Slope. After 11 rounds, Taylor Connolly outlasted the group with three strikes, besting AJ Gould, Rob Wong, and Ed Horrigan in second, third, and fourth place. at a private location that is known as pinahan gardens right here in well brooklyn was the annual event of in the bk if you look at that and you're like well that's silly why did they name that that it is a tournament in which it always happens concurrently within disc in california that is an acronym that stands for It Never Drains in Southern California, INDISC. And INDABK always happens while INDISC is happening and streams INDISC on a TV or some TVs around the space. Except that this year it happened the weekend before. Oh, too bad. Too bad. But it was still INDABK and it was still at Pinahan Gardens and 24 players came out uh it seems like maybe 28 could have but it was sunday and i don't know if y'all remember or not but like there there was a travel ban that started like you couldn't be out driving a car you could be out driving an ambulance at 9 p.m on sunday night but you couldn't be out driving a car at 9 p.m on sunday night in theory legally and you know this was this was a day so to say 24 people showed up when they were capped at 28 actually seems like they had really good attendance they played 15 rounds and then cut to finals for eight and did papa style well i guess it's uh three to one scoring but three rounds of group match play eight going down to four and at the end of it, Alex Kelly came out on top, besting Christopher Caffaro, Lindsay Rhodes, and Matthew Torres tied for fourth. And there's a no arena tiebreaker set up. And I presume that they probably split the money because, and they knew they were splitting the Whoppers anyway, and shook hands and called it a day. Alex earned 16.79 Whoppers for the effort. Also Sunday afternoon, braving the oncoming blizzard. Ten players went to Rolos for Stern Army's February RWI, directed by Jess Warren. Five rounds of match play with IFPA scoring cut to a top four for a Papa-style three-game bank. Rob Wong won the day, beating Aaron Dick Hamill in second, Zen Zokniak in third, and TD Jess Warren in fourth place. as she remarked to me, her first finals appearance at RWI. Oh, cool. She was very excited about it when we spoke about it the next night at Pinball NYC. Speaking of Monday, even after all of that snow, some teams made it out for their Pinball NYC matches, and some teams did not, and I'm not judging anyone. It seems like the lesser players in the pinbots couldn't get to Scrapple Land, and I think we have intel that Scrapple Land was closed, that Scrapple Land punted on the possibility of opening. There was, again, a travel ban. It started at 9 o'clock on Sunday night. It was going until at least noon on Monday when it was announced. I can understand why an establishment that opens late in the afternoon and has people who need to start moving there potentially around the time that a travel ban is announced to be lifted would say, you know, let's just call it a day tomorrow. Let's just not do it, particularly on a Monday night. A lot of bars and restaurants are closed, and this was a hard one to get out. But the pinbots and lesser players, I'm sure they'll make that up sometime in the future. I believe that the deluxe horses and two-for-oners made their match up at some point this week. I think they didn't go out on Monday night, but made it up maybe on Wednesday night. and the two for one-ers came away with a 12 to 4 win at their new home venue at geberts balls of steel hosted the pin pals at midway and balls of steel came up with a massive 14 to 2 win we had a pined that maybe because of the travel it was also a four to three situation or you know that only three pin pals showed up that said you know balls of steel has won lots of 14 to 2 matches at home against good teams. It's not an impossibility that that was four more players coming from the South Slope. My co-captain on the New York City Flipper Sport Association, Adam Robinson, handled all of this. I want to say great thanks to Adam. But he started talking with our scheduled opponents, Worms, who were set to come to Athawallis on Monday night, even ahead of the storm, as we started seeing the forecasts and had heard from them that it might be tough for them to field a team up to Harlem with the Blizzard. And so we had started talking about it, and then we made the call, I think, Monday morning and discussed with them to reschedule. We will be playing this match on this coming Sunday night. Oh, cool. At the Wallace. Cool. Intermission Dolores and the Mutants did not meet at Solid State, and I presume that they will have come upon and agreed upon time to make that match up. We Colliders started receiving messages on Sunday night about whether or not we would be able to come on Monday. And I was cagey and guarded, as I usually am, and sort of said, like, yeah, I mean, of course, But also, like, I don't think we should forfeit if there's a street travel ban on and I say no at eight o'clock that like if if there's still a problem, I don't think and I don't think anyone would have held anyone to it if that continued, if the situation continued. But also, none of us were coming from that far away. The subways were running. You know, it was possible to get places. And as long as you're not going far, the subways were reliable enough for me to get from Brooklyn to Brooklyn. Most of my teammates walked. But we arrived and we were there in full force despite the 14 to 2 loss that we suffered at the hands of the aristocrats. The lion persons were spared the decision as to whether or not they needed to come out. Parliament hosted their first match this year. They had a bye in the first week. and they bested Special When Lit 10-6. Special When Lit is still looking for their first win after two weeks. On Tuesday, February 24th, conditions were much improved. And every match was pulled off. Harry's Hand Grenades went to Barcade Fight Eye to see Trolls. Trolls with a home 8-8 tiebreak win. Penister Six hosted the third ball at Skylark, and the home team got an 11-5 win. Everybody Loves the Sunshine went to Jack Bar to see Ball Drainers. Ball Drainers had an 11-5 home win. The Schlubs picked up an away win at Birdies by a score of 12-4 over the Pin Babes. Oh, my. Scrapple Squad welcomed the replays to Scrapple Land, and the home team got a 10-6 win. No quarters for Laundrie and Danger Danger played at Buttermilk. Danger Danger 10-6 home win. We Butterballers went to Milo's yard to see Neptune's Treasure and Neptune's Treasure beat us 12-4. And the Harlem Globe Flippers went to Barcade Brooklyn to see Rest in Pinball, parenthetically, RIP. Harlem Globe Flippers with a big 12-4 road win. I just want to point out, there were two road wins that week. They were both 12-4. Remember these names at the end of the season, Schlubbs, Harlem Globe Flippers. Let's talk about whether that made a difference at the end of the season because I have a feeling those might be pretty big wins. Hard to know in week one, but the 12-4 away wins for two teams that have been pretty good the last couple of seasons looks like the kind of thing that makes a difference at the end of the season, makes a difference in your seating. Nothing at sunshine on Wednesday. On Thursday, February 26th, 32 players made it out to Jack Bar for No Bro Presents Thursday Night Strikes. Strikes by the GC. Letting us know Gabe C. was the director of record and the director in the room. Best initials in pinball, GC. After 11 rounds of head-to-head strikes, Greg Fertel had managed to pick up only a single strike and won the night. David Patlak came in second, and so did Travis Rosenberg. They tied, and Jacob Gregg and Gideon Coe tied for fourth. also looks like greg fortel never got a buy because if you look at the games played on those standings he played 11 no one else played more than nine really nice work and also you know that's greg he seems to be doing that every week right now also what what is last night while we were recording this thursday the 26th the final meeting of the first season of south slope pinball league in 2026 was convened at buttermilk bar at pinball eight o'clock 20 players showed up for this meeting and i did this odd thing last night i was i have not played in this season of sspl and i you know as i sort of indicated earlier in the season i'm probably not going out a lot for a lot of competitive pinball events in the near future but 10 30 or so last night wondering like hey i I should put those last couple of things in my script and realize, of course, they're not quite done yet. And I go and look and SSPL is right when I first looked, round four was wrapping up. But as round five was about to start, I noticed a couple of things that I thought were remarkable based on my time playing in SSPL. first i want to shout out to joan samander who was in the top group at the end of this joan i think looked like an outside chance like like she has an outside chance at b coming into the week and was in the top group at the end of this uh just like matthew carlson in the top group at the end of the night yeah i expect that robert wong in the top group at the end of the night yeah I expect that. Zen Zokniak in the top group at the end of the night. Yeah, I expect that. Joan is not always there, but deserved to be there. Did some good play, and it looked like last night. She had three 17-point meetings so far and already had 20 points going into that fifth match. So, like, was moving up the standings. Kick-ass. Four people at that exact moment were fighting for berths in the B division. while MMC was trying to get above the line. He was already, by then he was past it. He couldn't have done it. He actually, I don't think 35 even would have done it because of the way some other people performed. He had a great night. But Steven Christopher, Morgan Levinson, Paul McHugh, Billy Vazine, and also Eric Swedeland were tied at 16 points at the end of round four. So one round left. Billy was already above the line in A. His fate wasn't going to change much based on the last round. Paul was safely in B. He had no path to A from where he was, but he was safely in B. But Stephen and Eric were on the cusp. Stephen had 70 points so far in the series. Every point was net positive. Eric only had three meetings and was at 69. Nice. Morgan Levinson was at 67 and they all had 16 on the night and so I really hoped that they'd all be in the same group those three it turned out that it was Eric and Stephen in one group and Morgan in another what happened? In that final round we played NBA fast break it says parenthetically left. Yes it happens to be the rightmost machine in its bank. I'm sure that is left over from the NBA Fastbreak, of which there are two at Barcade Fidei in Kate's match play settings or whatever. Yeah. The night was directed using Kate's match play login. Right. I was there as guest TD. Oh, that's right. I forgot you were directing. Yeah, so I was directing it, logged in as Kate. It says NBA left because of fight eye. I think going into ball three of that NBA fast break, I was player three, and I was way far behind. Everybody had something like 58 to 68 points, and I had 25. What had you done? There's a lot of things in that game that you do it, and it gets you 20 points or something. Yeah, I did the backbox game, the first snack bar scoop. Right, 10-ish points probably. I think I might have already done Hot Dog Mania too. Right, so one of the high scoring modes by hitting some ramps. Yeah. When I came up on ball three, Paul was out in the lead, 96 points. Uh-huh, that's good. And Stephen was at 70. And Billy was at 76. But also had a ball to play after you, is that right? And had a ball to play after me. So I started banging on the game, playing the different modes, making it do the stuff, played my shoot around. It was being real finicky up at the top. passing funny or it it would rattle when you passed which gave the defender time to catch you so i i got blocked a lot agreed that that was my experience that when i played it recently so i wasn't able to start around the world i was just catching up to steven and i played the trivia which I got correct. Also earlier, I think maybe just before I played, Stephen had also gotten the trivia and he got it wrong. I was like, oh, this is good because I'm about to get it and I know I'm going to get it right. You've memorized all the answers. Yes. And after that and then Egyptian Soda I didn't really have much else in front of me. I started making a couple combos. I was trying to maybe start around the world and I fell short of catching Paul. He was at 96 and I finished at 86. Billy came up to chase me from 76 and didn't get to me. So I got a second place in that final group. And that I presume put you above the line in B but kept Steven below it unfortunately. Yes. I mean, fortunately for you, unfortunately for him. So then, when it was all said and done, Matthew Carlson won the night with 31 points. Rob Wong picked up 29, and both Scott Strong and Zen Zokniak got 25. Everything went pretty smoothly from a TD perspective. Only had to have one ruling. All the machines were in. That's because Max has come through. Both Metallica and Attack from Mars had been down. But then I got reports in the first round while I was playing Twilight Zone that Ghostbusters was acting weird. And I was called over after the first three players had their ball auto-plunged and the Scolari brothers start immediately. Oh. And then I watched for a couple of players' balls and nothing happened. Of course. Until finally on one player stepped up and the terror dog hurry up immediately started. It didn't auto plunge, but the skill shots were gone. That was weird. Yeah. They were close to done. I let him play that through but I took it out then for the rest of the night Just something going on in there There was something strange in the neighborhood You were the person they called just to be clear Yeah There was something strange in the neighborhood. They called Eric. After all that, after all those six weeks of play, it now, it'll come down to one more week of play. There will be two groups of eight players who will enter the gauntlet that is to what do we call it? Papa Finals? It's Papa Finals, right? I mean, Kate will probably ask people if they want to do 4-2-1-0 or 3-2-1-0, but it's Papa Finals. It's three rounds of group match play. The top two people will advance from semifinals to finals, and then they'll do that again. So six pinball games, all kind of pretty high stakes. Matt Grady will drive the first bus, Robert Wong will drive the second, Kate Martin, George Underwood, Scott Strong, Caitlin James Rees, Zen Zokniak, and Billy Vazine have all qualified to be in that top group. If any of them fails to meet the obligation, such as it were, then A.J. Gould would find himself entered in the tournament. That said, if he didn't, he'd be driving a bus right down there in B. He also, it looks like a dominant force in B. He has 88. Paul under him had 82. You remember, we just, remember I just said Paul was safely in B, but couldn't possibly get to A before. And then Eric said he won the last match. He got to second in B. That was the best he could have done. and he's six points behind AJ. So AJ was right there with everyone else, and then there was a pretty big divide before the rest of B. That said, did you say Paul can't show up next week? Yeah, that's what we've heard. Pretty likely Paul will not be attending the finals, which means not driving that second bus. Instead, Courtney Wetzel and Sam Hall are both tied at 81 points. There will be a tie break between them for determining who drives that second bus. Also in B, with Paul's absence, Rob Adler, Matt Carlson, myself, Jones Amanda, and Morgan Levinson. And Steve and Christopher, after that last match, is actually just one point behind y'all. And so if someone from that group couldn't show up, ben stephen would be in but that last match boy oh boy that drama that i thought i saw right then it turns out that was some drama man yeah next week on monday march 2nd presuming there aren't any you know road travel bans the two for oners will go to solid state where the mutants will be waiting for them. The pinbots will have a bye week. The aristocrats will go uptown and face the lesser players at Deb Hard's Beer Culture. We Colliders will happily host our friends from just down Fifth Avenue, the pin pals at Buttermilk. Our New York City Flipper Sport Association is going to Owl Farm to see Parliament. I was happy to see the machines repaired at Buttermilk yesterday because we had also heard that there were some issues at Owl Farm. Balls of Steel will come down to the slope and see Special When Lit at Rulo's. That's a third straight difficult match for Special When Lit. And also, I bet you I'm going to see those Jokers since we're playing Caddy Corner. I'll probably see all of you, whichever one of those teams you're on, sometime Monday night. Worms will host Intermission Dolores at Milo's Yard And Barcade Fidei will see the Deluxe Horses Visiting Lion Persons after their bye week On Tuesday, March 3rd In Pinball NYC's Right Flipper Division The Pin Babes go to Sunshine Laundromat To meet Everybody Loves the Sunshine Harlem Globe Flippers and No Quarters for Laundry will battle at Solid State. Far Flung goes to Far Flung. The Replays will welcome Neptune's Treasure to Rullo's. Buttermilk Bar will see Penister Six come visit Wee Butterballers. Rest in Pinball, parenthetically R.I.P. will face the Trolls at Barcade Fidei. Schlubbs will host Scrapple's Squad at Jack Bar. Danger Danger is on the road visiting the third ball at Midway and ball drainers go to Bar Great Harry to see Harry's hand grenades. It's the first week of Scrapple League, right? Yeah, that's right. Yeah. On Thursday, March 5th at Jack Bar in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. No Bro Presents Thursday Night Strikes will be convened at 8 o'clock sharp. Gabriel Chazanov is the director of record the match play and submits the stuff to IFPA and whatnot. But there's a rotating group of directors. Everyone's there to help. Also on Thursday, South Slope Pinball League will hold an A, B, and C finals for its first season at 8 o'clock at Buttermilk Bar. on friday red hook's own march madness will happen on at 7 30 sharp with an e get it it's a pinball pun that's what it says on i think it's the ifpa page ten dollar buy-in it's twenty dollar museum admission to go in to the red hook pinball museum and let me say i it must be worth it i i donated that much just to play a couple of games the one time I walked in when it was still in the back of Seabourn. I'm, you know, excited. I still haven't been, but I'm excited to get there sometime. It's probably not going to be on Friday. I'm sorry to say, but I got to get there. You should go if you're into playing some Friday night pinball. On Saturday in Middletown, New York, the Rock Fantasy Winter Open will be held at Rock Fantasy. 1 p.m., a max match play qualifying, cutting to a top 12 finals, possibly. Right, if you got over 25, it looks like. Top 8 get paid if over 25 also, and I'm just going to point out, if you're going to go up from New York, give yourself an extra half an hour, not just for traffic, but so you can go get a hot dog at that joint down the way. What's it called? Holy Dogs or something? Yeah. Holy Rollers, something like that. Holy Dog. Yeah. On Sunday. And yes, it did just happen last Sunday. But again, this Sunday at Rulos, Stern Army's RWI is going to be met. I presume that Bart will make something tasty. It says that if you beat one of Rob's scores, and it's C-A-T-M-O-W or P-U-R, you get an I Beat the Cat t-shirt. There's one that hangs on the wall. You can see it. There's a spotlight on it. It's just like the spotlight that's on the rug right above the Big Lebowski, but it's next to it. If you were like, hey, you know what I need is a bar t-shirt, then you have to get out there. Also, Bart's going to make something tasty. It's probably going to be in a crock pot at the back. I'm a bit of a snob about food. It's going to be something tasty. And once again, IFPA sanctioned. Yes, back to the IFPA sanctioning. Quite so. As of February 27th, 2026, there are 356 pinball machines in New York City at 75 public locations. Thanks to the creators and users of Pinball Map for this data, here are machine updates from the past week on Saturday, February 21st user JNS let us know that the shadow at Sunshine Laundromat has a dead upper right flipper and Pinball John commented on the Addams Family at Barcade Fidei set on tournament mode so no extra balls true user boba theft was at barcade chelsea and said of their cactus canyon remake machine has turned back on and playing very well i was with the username i was really hoping there was going to be a sassy clever comment there but i'm excited about the username anyway on sunday user bonsai had some replies. Regarding the Addams Family at Barcade Fidei, Banzai said, the Addams Family and the other games that were still set that way were set back to normal that same evening. Got it. And of the Cactus Canyon at Barcade Chelsea, Banzai said, it was only off for a day while we looked at it. The mine entrance and train motors aren't working and we're waiting for a replacement driver board. those motors don't affect gameplay at all and are disabled for now both flippers were also just rebuilt very good and while at barcade chelsea bonsai also commented on their pulp fiction saying the gate wires crack every couple months on this game it was fixed again a few days ago very good user mini flipper went by scrapple lands and updated a couple of previous comments of Evil Dead, they say the right barrel is working now. And on Winchester Mystery House, all flippers working. Oh, we talked about both of those things last week. I mean, someone else told us about both of those things last week. Some user told us that. We talked about it because someone put the information on Pinball Mac, thanks to both of you. User Flipper Eric was also at Scrapple Land on Sunday. they said of scared stiff right coin door eats quarters left coin door works without issues and of the getaway flipper eric said still out of order hope it can be up and running soon it's among the best games at this location i would agree with that assessment i also uh we will say this later, but we traveled through time today. I think when later we talk about what the first game with auto-launch was, that Getaway might actually be a really good, or Fishtails, one of those two might actually be a really good possibility for the first one. Those are both right around the time of that Twilight Zone Addams Family time when we know Twilight Zone had it. And on Tuesday, February 24th, user CKFlips played the Godzilla at High Dive and said, there's a screw under the left in-lane wire that traps the ball. Boo. User Tim Dons commented on the Ghostbusters at Franklin Park, saying, Slimer seems to be busted, can't hit him. I just want to point out, also, we've said Max was out of town, Max came through on Thursday. Both of those are Max venues that we're talking about on Tuesday. Just pointing, if you did not catch the synthesis of all of that information right there, this is potentially important context about why the disrepair is quite to the level that it is at this exact moment. And finally, on Tuesday, the lineup at Jack Bar was adjusted again. Elton John out Jurassic Park back in after last week Jurassic had gone out to make space for what? Pulp Fiction. Right. I guess it's a bullet journal then. Yeah? That's all everybody had to say? Alright. I mean, look. It was a short week for a lot of pinball players I imagine because truly, Sunday night into Monday after a difficult first snowstorm for a brand new mayor who is under a microscope. We had another very big snowstorm coming and it may have been somewhat reactionary to say, I am going to shut down the roads for any purpose other than emergency travel and sanitation for a period of 15 hours. That may have been a bit of an overreaction to having been criticized for failing an initial test. A much bigger storm, to be true. Yes. It was a much bigger storm. Yes. The second was a much bigger storm, you're saying. Uh-huh. It also was a much faster storm. It went through and it was gone. and the other one was here for a minute and then was cold forever after. And it was difficult. I think the first one was more difficult in particular because it was so cold right after it. But either way, it might have been a bit reactionary. That said, I took a change of shoes when I went to Rulo's on Monday night because I needed big insulated boots and I wasn't playing pinball in big insulated boots. So I took a change of shoes. So, you know, it was something. But that said, you know, bullet journals don't start on Monday night. That just explains why maybe there weren't quite as many updates this week, that there was at least one night that probably not that many people were out playing pinball and hopefully, you know, The people who worked at bars that didn't actually need to go out or try to get home after a travel ban of that sort, you know, were given the night off, hopefully. But I don't I don't know how it all worked out in all of the places. But Monday for us, it was relatively easy. Everyone at Rulo's, I believe, was coming from the neighborhood. You know, we I think I might have come from the farthest away in Crown Heights. so no one was coming from very far I got there on the subway all of my teammates walked except for Ben H who came with me from Crown Heights also but again forget that what happened on Sunday? What happened on Saturday? Let's talk about the weekend. Did you play Friday night? You didn't play Friday night No, but on Saturday I did go out to the South Slope Strikes good fun tournament there and then it was a good turnout. And some people showed up, haven't seen in a little while. Uche came through. That was really cool. Well, part of that was also after the tournament across the street at Buttermilk, people were popping in to visit with Tim and Lauren from Upstate who were back in the city for the weekend and wanted to say hi all their pinball friends. Yes, yes. The Lawrence, Berner Lawrence clan, yes. Yes. So that was just awesome. A lot of fun. Had a good Saturday night between the tournament and then hanging out at Buttermilk for a while. And then I had been registered for Inda BK. But waking up Sunday morning, it's just I had no energy whatsoever. I was completely wiped. You were one of the 28 of 24 who didn't show up. That's right. Of the four of the 28. Yeah. And also, with the blizzard warnings coming in and all that stuff, I was just like, I could maybe get enough energy to get me out. In fact, I was dressed. I had my boots on. And ready to go out the door. But then you realized what it would take to get home. Yeah, I had enough energy. I could get myself to the tournament and play the tournament. But then I was like, oh, but do I have to fight a blizzard on the way back? And the answer was just, I can't. Yeah. And also probably, you know, subways coming every 20 minutes instead of, you know, as frequently as they usually would. and no possibility of deciding to get a car because Uber's not going to pick you up. Or the roads are shut down. Yeah, exactly. Well, that's why Uber's not going to pick you up. Right, that's why Uber's not going to pick you up. And what if the elevated portion of the MTA subway system is shut down first? I do want to actually shout out to Governor Hochul because this decision is made at the governor level. and unlike all of her predecessors uh pre in in my time in new york and i've been here for just over 20 years now uh the like all of the time that i have been here after i moved here from chicago when like i'm sorry the elevated trains run it does not there's no like oh there were two feet of snow today the trains aren't running uh-uh the trains run i lived on the same level as the red line train which runs every 10 minutes 24 hours a day uh i lived on that level 60 feet away from it it was like the scene in the blues brothers when the entire apartment changed i lived there for six years uh but like i i can tell you there was no situation it if it was 20 below zero the trains were running if it was you know three feet of snow the trains were running and i want to shout out to the people who made this decision this time because they did run the elevated trains they ran them on you know a spaced out schedule because just like i hope that bartenders could stay home if you know if it wasn't essential for them to get there i hope that you know half of the MTA conductors and station personnel could stay home. If they couldn't get to work safely, I hope they could stay home. And if the other people wanted overtime they could get there and do the thing But I like it when the transit runs I think it should run The snow should not stop trains from running It just shouldn't. The system is more robust than that. That was quite a diversion. I'm sorry, but it was a necessary one. Subways are a part of pinball and this particular subway is a part of the way that I play pinball, for God's sake. I wound up watching the stream instead. Very good. You didn't even go down to Rulos? At that point, I was just like, I need to just rest and recuperate for a day. Sure. Yeah. And it was a good day to rest and recuperate. It was the kind of day to stay in. Yeah. That is why I went to SSPL on Saturday. I went there. South Slope Strikes. Oh, yeah. Sorry. South Slope Strikes. South SS. The SS part was right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. but it's South Slope Strikes not South Slope Pinball League I went to South Slope Strikes on Saturday largely because I wanted to play at Rulos before Monday night and there were two tournaments at Rulos over the weekend and so I kind of felt like if I wanted to go to Rulos and play the games that my only option was to choose to play in one of those two tournaments because I'm not going late at night. It's not that I'm too old. It's that my sleep schedule is not compatible with walking in at 10 o'clock and being like, hey, I'll play a couple hours of pinball right now. So I wanted to play in one of them, and I was thankful for the grace that Jess offered me in that I told her up front, I told you up front, Eric, as also a TD, that I intend to be home for dinner tonight. If I am winning at 7.30, I may say this is my last round. Just want to make sure everyone knows I'm probably walking out the door. I kind of don't necessarily expect that I will be upsetting the standings drastically, but like I'm going to be home for dinner tonight. And I appreciated the grace on that front. And if you went to like the match play event and looked at it, it would indicate that 11 players played in that event because I told Jess right before I got my fourth strike, like as we were about to start the round, when I got my fourth strike, I said, doesn't matter if I get it or not. I'm leaving. This is it. I got to get home. If I'm going to get home for dinner, this is going to be the one. I'm going to compete. I'm not rolling over. I'm going to give him a strike if he deserves a strike. But I'm walking out after this. Ed did not deserve a strike. He beat me. So I would have naturally been locked out or knocked out rather. and uh jess but jess had said like okay well i'll just deactivate you and there isn't really in this instance there's no implication of that whatsoever this was not being submitted for whoppers so there's no like adjustment after the fact to make sure that you know i was submitted in the right place or whatever i also got eliminated i think after five rounds in a four strike tournament so where I was in the standing wasn't helping or hurting anyone if it were submitted for Whoppers very much. But I did have fun. I did enjoy playing there. I wrote down who I played against because I feel like it's an interesting collection of folks. I'm going to shout out AJ Gould in two ways here. Firstly, he said to me before we got started he was like, you know man, this is like coming to my country club. Coming out here on on Saturday night to South Slope Strikes. This is, you know, I pay my dues. It was 10 bucks this time. You know, I get to hang out with my friends, have some drinks, and do the activity that I like to do. This is my country club, man. And I just, that's a great idea. That's a very clever way to look at this thing that we do. But, oh, and also, I believe it was this night, although it may have been Monday night, that Dr. John and I were plotting our socialist revolution in particular, I think, to reform the medical system. I tend to think bigger than I need to on things. To me, there's an entire revolution there. It's funny that you mistyped Southrop Stokes into the script as SSPL. we were talking about South Slope Pinball League in the NYC FSA chat. Wyndham didn't recognize the acronym. So Adam jokingly told him that it stood for the Super Socialist Pinball League. And I said, yes, we're seizing the means of whoppers. That is delicious. All right, here's who I played. AJ, whom I love, on Uncanny X-Men, which I hate. Rob Wong, whom a tournament the next day is named after in this space. And also in the match play, I was told to ignore the scores that were listed there because they're his high scores that I could get a t-shirt the next day if I beat. But it's not really related to this tournament. It's related to some other tournament. But I played that guy on King Kong in round two. And then I played Nico, who tends bar there, in round three on Banzai Run. this is the only game I won I played Bart who owns the bar on Star Trek The Next Generation see also AJ love slash hate relationship for human slash game and Ed who operates the venue on Pulp Fiction those are the people that I played in South Slope Strikes in my five matches I you know like I said I wanted to go home at almost exactly the time that I was knocked out of the tournament. So it almost was perfect that I had like, you know, the, the 12 tasks of Hercules to get through, uh, in the tournament, but I, or the, the five tasks of Hercules of which I, you know, survived only one ergo, I was eliminated. Yeah, it was a good time and I was glad I got out and practiced. so then Sunday stay at home Monday following the blizzard NYC FSA was one of the teams that rescheduled their match rather than travel through that but colliders were out we went to Rulo's there were six of us four people walked from Park Slope Bay Ridge or Windsor Terrace. So very close. And two of us came on the subway from Crown Heights. So again, very close. We had, you know, had a couple of texts to the team chat of like, hey, the other team is asking if we will be there tomorrow night. Will we be there? and I was cagey but also protective of the fact that if there's still a travel ban tomorrow night I'm not forfeiting a pinball match because I don't want to come out when there's a travel ban yes I'll be there and they would have been reasonable but everybody would have been reasonable I'm certain but I was happy to be able to get out. I did the thing that everybody else did on Monday and worked from home. And I was kind of happy that it felt like it was all over pretty quickly. Unlike that last snowstorm, which it felt like days later, we were still trying to figure out what the hell snow even was. Also, just want to point out, Neil wasn't there on Monday when we played the Aristocrats. So I did. I really thought about it because Neil sometimes wears a top hat and tails. I think actually always at home matches when he shows up, wears a top hat and tails. And I was thinking about throwing a tux on to, you know, I don't know if it's solidarity or dick swinging, which one of those it would qualify as. but I was thinking about throwing on a tux and then when I thought about the salt and my dry cleaner I decided not to Neil was not there so I didn't get to answer the question would he come out in top hat and tails in a good foot of snow on sidewalks everywhere I forgot to say this in our session but it bears a punch in on Sunday morning the bartender Mary at Rulo's on Monday night had made just a tiny little snowman out on the back porch and had given it a smile with maraschino cherry juice. So it had like red lips and had hollowed out eyes and put two olives from the garnish tray in there. And it looked creepy when you put a light on it to look at its eyes. There was a little bit of cinnamon sprinkled over the top for its hair. It was a tremendous little art project that I'm sure she walked in the door and didn't have any customers for a while. And it was probably a fun way to kill a little bit of time. But shout out to Mary, the bartender at Rulo's, who always does a good job, is always really pleasant to be around, but also just that was a very cool thing from my Monday night. I really enjoyed when I played Banzai Run that night. I did not really enjoy the other two games that I played, which were both X-Men in competition. I just, I don't... And I mean, I don't know. If that was my home venue, I imagine I would want to play that game a lot. As a strategic choice. But I don't like it. I don't want to learn how to play it. I'm a cranky baby about it. How was your Tuesday? Tuesday night, then, back out at it, Butterballers went to Milo's yard on Tuesday. I had a particularly bad match. I recall a game of jackpot. I think I had five flips. I couldn't hit anything. Every shot I took bricked and quickly killed me. The getaway is so floaty and slow. It's really something to adjust to. but when you do it feels really manageable and people were playing it well um i i had an okay score on that but we lost in doubles in the first round i'd call it i had a so-so whirlwind in the final round oh i forgot they had whirlwind there is there do they have a single thing that has an lcd screen on it they have burritos i guess they do have burritos is that the only one with a with a flat screen in it yeah you got three dmds in the front right t2 getaway and junkyard and then it's jackpot whirlwind barrios in the back cool uh neptune's treasure had mentioned some sort of issues that barry owes was having uh i think we all deemed it was like playable but nobody called it. I don't think anyone was interested. Right. Are you telling me that should be my advantage when I go see the worms there later this season? Maybe. Try to figure out how to play that game. I probably still have Steven Bowden's phone number somewhere. I do like hanging out at Milo's yard an awful lot. I do really like Neptune's Treasure. Yeah. A lot of great people on that team. I don't actually know. I said dudes. I did not mean to gender everyone on that team. Butterballers took a car back to Buttermilk afterwards The Buttermobile? The Buttmobile? What do you call it? Yeah, the Buttcar That was it for your week After Monday that was it for me I'm not on strike I'm just, you know, weeknights are harder right now. Monday I can do but it's been on my calendar for a long time that Monday night thing Yeah, so then Thursday was the Super Socialist Pinball League at Buttermilk. Right. And Kate is in California for InDisc. Mm-hmm. So I was standing in as guest TD. Went really smoothly, except for that Ghostbusters issue. Mm-hmm. Yeah, had a lot of fun. Some good laughs. Cool. Yeah. I was surprised to see MMC rolling up the standings. I did not expect him to come out, as I think I said last week, just because I didn't think he would want to qualify for B. Where does he finish? Somewhere just under the bus driver level in B, I believe. Oh, just above me. There you go. One spot. Right, 79 points. Yeah, right there with Rob Adler. I was trying to think what was, I mean, you were directing, so I'm, I'm sure that a lot of it was, you know, was looking at, looking at screens and solving problems and not, you know, it's, it is sometimes hard to be social if you're also trying to direct the tournament or to have something to talk about other than, oh, that, that one thing that went wrong on the machine or that, you know, that one dispute I had to solve. Matthew was on fire last night. He was very funny. That's MMC. Yeah. How he beat? There was a Toppers meeting on Sunday in the face of the Blizzard. I saw that they held it. I had been planning to be in the BK, but just stayed home. I think I heard there from the neighborhood, the folks who run it and so yeah you know if the place was going to be open i can see how they would say you know what we're not we're going to go anyway it's it sunday afternoon was the time to alleviate your fear of the upcoming cabin fever it you know if you were going to get out it was time to get out on sunday afternoon i i went out and did errands i did not need to do just so i could get out of the apartment on Sunday early afternoon, it was the right time to do that. I would have done that if I had something. If there was a Franklin Park pinball meetup on Sunday afternoon, I would have been there. Let's talk about accessibility in pinball. We like to talk a lot about a big tent here at NYC Pin Pod and trying to fit a lot of people into our big tent. And I think it was, speaking of big tents, I think it was at the last Woportunity last year, wherein there were roughly 40 of us running around a private location late in December, when Rob Adler approached me and said, hey, I think I have a good segment for the podcast. I want to talk about accessibility devices for pinball. Rob, welcome. Thank you for joining us. talk. What do you got? From being a fan of the podcast, I knew you guys have talked about accessibility and peripherals for enabling easier access to pinball for a wider audience. Some time ago, I came across a button on eBay that said, pinball for all. A pin that you would wear. It had a little company listed on the bottom. And I was like, what on earth is this? This seems like a rabbit hole to go down. And quickly found it was for a company that made accessible machines. They would retrofit existing machines to be accessible. And not just a peripheral, just a whole system to really make the machine accessible for a wide audience. Right, so like completely different controls actually physically on the box, on the pinball box. not something you're plugging in and adding, but totally different things. We've got some pictures we're looking at here, so I'll try to describe it. And we'll also put these on the blog at nycpinpod.wordpress.com. I should say, a lot of the information I got was from a Pinside thread. It's like a 10-year-old thread where people are trying to figure out what some of these machines were, and another machine we'll talk about a little bit later. but this is one of the machines from this company called the Silverthorne Group the system is called Arcade Access and what they did is basically made a system where you can drop in the playfield into an accessible body which kind of looks like Oklahoma they removed the coin mech from the front of the machine and made it so it was wheelchair accessible so you could get up pretty close we're talking about the cabinet, the cabinet shapes different right instead of a rectangular box the the base of a regular pinball cabinet they've they've shaved away the front bottom part of it and and they've got some long metal legs sticking out from the side to hold up the front corners but it makes an extra wide space under the front where a wheelchair could wheel up to it almost like coming up to a dinner table yep right yep exactly and then you're able to put the regular head of the machine on there and i believe that actually a A lot of this actually worked off of infrared because they have a lot of different ways to play it. There's, if you look at the front, there's four large buttons, which those will start the game, launch the ball, and I think flippers. But also they had, you could play it with breath. Oh, cool. They had a system for using blinks to be able to play. Wow So very cool a very cool system There even a remote so people that had some use of their hands they could hold it a little bit closer And there's a picture down here further where the breath system is pretty intricate where a shorter breath out, a puff will flip the right flipper, and a larger puff will shoot the ball. All very well thought out systems. for, you know, we got to be able to do multiple things with blinks or with breath. So very cool. Yeah. Well, and also, I mean, to be fair, as much as there's end of stroke switch stuff with pinball on the physical button, outside of that, really, you mostly interact with a pinball machine via two flipper buttons. It's very digital. Also, that was a pun. Yes, right you are. Digital. See what he did there? I do. It took me a second. I got there. But in fact, the breath thing is non-digital in every way. It's analog and also does not require the digits. Some people on Pinside did a lot of digging and there's I think two of these machines still known to be in existence. One, again, this is like 10 years ago, one ended up at a spinal injury recovery facility in Iowa. It's a good place for it. Yeah. And then the other is owned by the guy that created this company. I think it's a Goldwing, Goldenwing machine. And yeah, like this company presented at Pinball Expo in 1991. It just doesn't seem like it had much traction. Again, they were busy for a couple years. I think about 15 were made. The idea was to try and sell it to individuals and to rehab facilities. It's cool to see, but it's unfortunate it wasn't able to really get more machinery. Yeah, and get any traction. It seems like something that would have been great to be able to get some traction. I think we'd be somewhere a lot farther along in terms of accessibility if this had caught on. Part of it is definitely the cost, I think. These in 1990 were going for $7,500. Largely in part because the guy that ran the company reached out to the manufacturers at the time and they were not going to sell him machines at a discount. So he's buying machines at full price and then doing all these modifications. $7,500 in 1990 is not cheap. It's not cheap today. No, and it's about the price of a new pinball machine today. Stern Crows or MSRP $69.99. They got an article in Sports Illustrated about this machine are these machines, which is pretty cool. But yeah, it's a very cool thing to see. I'm trying to see if there's any other features with these. It's like built-in wrist supports and it's a very well-thought-out system. Uh-huh. Yeah, I mean, if you look at the box, it's clear that the real work of retrofitting the machines in order to fit into this different shaped cabinet was about displacing the electronics. About the electronics that needed to be under the front of the play field have to now be moved somewhere else and remote cables have to be put through the thinner bit. Just the project of doing that and then having to put it on a line or being able to put it on a line, like scale that up, that's a crazy amount of work. Yeah, I think uniquely the founder, his name is Daniel Goodman. He was an electrical engineer, and previously he sold pinball machines. So he had this kind of crossover in interests in the previous work that had worked out for him. That was one of the systems I found. But there's this even cooler, I think cooler one because it's older, I think even more challenging to pull off. that not it we know it exists beyond that there's not much information about where it came from or who created it but a lot of craft oh went into this one as well it's an old em that uh was modified totally with em technology to be played with breath and it's a bally twin win which is an em i'm not familiar with it was modified one they created uh legs that were much shorter and could be adjusted. Like all pinball legs are adjustable at the bottom of the foot, but these are adjustable mid-legs, so you can get much greater difference. Again, to be accessible with a wheelchair. Different heights. But what they did is they put in their own switches that basically responded to breath, and then those relays would fire the flippers, right? which how they figured out to make that work in the EM is pretty remarkable. But they also created their own auto launch, which I don't know when auto launch was invented, but an auto launch on an EM, that might be one of the first uses of it. Again, it's because if you have someone who's playing with breath, you've got to have a way for the ball to launch without pulling the plunger, right? As a guy who was playing pinball in 1991, it was right around that time. Yeah, I was going to say that... It's right about that time. The first thing I can think of that springs to mind is Twilight Zone. It's got a whole separate shooter lane for the auto-watch. Right, although it's also a wide-body. Adam's Family was at a very... I don't remember if Twilight Zone or Adam's Family was at an auto-watch. Uh-oh. No. You've got to lock all the balls physically onto the playfield before you can play the multiball. I guess you're right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay, okay, you're right. Later in this episode, I opined that maybe The Getaway was the first game with auto-launch, but I've gone down a rabbit hole this morning. Checkpoint was apparently the first game with a functional auto-launch in it, and it seems that both Centaur and Spirit of 76, which were made in 81 and 76, respectively, each had an auto launch that only operated in attract mode but checkpoint by data east it's a racing game that was apparently the first functional auto launch also of note t2 beat everything that we guessed here to market a lot of ingenuity went into to making this machine right and this one right some of the mechanisms weren't working they have these glass jars that They're kind of the intermediary between the tubes that would be outside of the machine and then going to these relays. So you have the air pressure. Right. The pressurization is being alleviated and or actually necessarily tempered by what goes into the jar and what can come out of the jar. Really expertly done. You can see this bank of relays that it's connected. All these kind of these air modulators are connected to. Like those look. they look different from what else you would see in this kind of machine. So it's, yeah, they're sourcing. It's a fan maybe. Yeah. There, I think they're like, and the air pressure is spinning the fan one direction or the other. And then it like somehow will have an electrical charge that will fire. I could imagine. I mean, if, if it's got a magnet and it's spinning through a coil of wire or the other way around, it's a generator and you can detect that current. Yep. Yeah. I mean, it's, To be fair, it is also effectively a relay, which is a binary switch. So it may just be, you know, if it's generating just enough voltage, any voltage at all, it is pushing anything. Yeah, it pushes it through. I thought it was pretty cool that there have been previous attempts at this. Yeah. With varying degrees of success, and it seems like the current movement is continuing on where these previous attempts unfortunately dropped off at a certain point. One kind of cool bit of synergy is, I think the, I forget the name of the group that's making the current controller, their slogan is Pinball for All, and that's what this group from the 90s, that was on the button, Pinball for All. That was the pin that you found. Yeah. Yeah. I see this for sale at the Game Preserve. I don't know if they are actually the manufacturers or you're talking about the adaptive flipper control kit, the current thing when you say that. Is that right? Yeah. I wanted to mention that there's several different adaptive control kits that are around these days. And I ran across an article back in December. I mentioned it to Benjamin. I think we mentioned it on the podcast possibly. Yeah, I think last season we talked just briefly about it at least. And I'll just give the details again if anyone wants to find it. The article's called Flipping Accessible, The People and Devices Tilting Pinball Toward Access. It's by John Dave Mueller, and it is in New Mobility magazine at newmobility.com. It came out December 4th, 2025. Yeah. Yep. And that talks about something that doesn't seem to be exactly what the Adaptive Flipper Control Kit that I seem to see in places is. The Adaptive Flipper Control Kit, to be fair, does, I don't see any module for it other than a button module, but it does seem like it's a button module that you could have very limited mobility and still be able to manipulate. You know, it is a separate module from needing to put your hands on the machine. you can hold it in a single hand or most people I would imagine could hold it in a single hand I'm sure that's what it was designed to do it seems like it is small enough to sort of be manipulated if you have two fingers that can quickly actuate or two anythings that could quickly actuate a button it also appears to be analog entirely which is to say that if you have a fucking pinball machine on a location and can put a hole saw in the front panel or, for that matter, put a hole saw in the coin door and put this thing in, there's a quarter-inch TRS connector that would plug right into your machine and it would be able to have this. $35 for the kit is what these people are selling it for. This is a way to be accessible if you want. Just saying. There are options today. I'm not sure that that... I don't think that's nearly as sophisticated as any of the things that Rob is talking about. But it wouldn't take that much to make another box that was breath-controlled and still plugged into that quarter-inch. It's only a matter at that point of what the actual is. You'll find a hole on the front of, certainly, an extra hole on the front of stern cabinets where the headphone kit is meant to go in, or on older models, their tournament start buttons. There's generally usually another hole there and it's covered up with a plastic plug that could be taken off if you go on about hacking your pinball machine. Interestingly, there's a quote from the Arcade Access founder saying, I like what we tried to do, but to be feasible and more replicable, it needs to be a smaller adaptation. like creating whole new bodies for machines. Like it's probably not going to be a valid path forward with, you know, he wasn't getting much. Right. If I may, in a global capitalist regime, it's not going to work because it's going to be too expensive to retrofit the whole big expensive machine. And so it's interesting. If you'll let me, you know, wax socialist for a moment. uh and probably even too expensive at the level of hoping for uh manufacturers just to have a quick let's say and you know some sort of eighth inch plug plug jack on the inside of the cabinet that's ready ready to take a left flipper right flipper start button plunger button right jack danger uh pinball designer he had a an arm injury and he quickly modified a foot pedal so he could flip one with his foot pedal. Doing that on stream, that was pretty cool. He may very well have used this exact adaptive flipper kit in order to I mean, it already has a quarter inch plug on it. It was probably a tip sleeve, not a tip ring sleeve. And that's how he closed only the left flipper with the stomp button. He just plugged it in halfway. That's right. That was some super nerdy audio tech shit, and that was brought to you by Rob and me. So we invite a lot of people on the podcast, and often I say something to them about, you know, what will make the best sound. And I knew I didn't have to do that with Rob because I knew that he had the sound skills. But in particular, you seem to be sitting in what I'm going to imagine is your home podcast studio while you're speaking to us. What are you up to with that home podcast studio? So I have a little podcast. It's called Understanding Upstate. It's a little bit of a niche podcast. We go into a different upstate topic each week. We look at wonderfully weird things across all of upstate New York or history, people, places, things. There is a pinball-centric episode. IFPA Nationals were in Rochester last year. I did a little episode on that. I actually talk about the Twilight Zone pinball machine a lot because Rod Serling is from upstate New York. So I'll throw in the machine when I can. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah, go check it out, Understanding Upstate. It's very niche, but it's fun. We have fun with it. My co-host is a legit comedian, a stand-up comedian, so it's good. Informative and fun. Very good. Well, I'm sure that no listener to NYC Pin Pod knows anything about listening to a niche podcast. What sent you down this rabbit hole? I love pinball history. I don't know if you can see behind me, but I have a very old EM. Yeah, I can see that. And I, yeah, I just, you know, I love going down an information rabbit hole. I am by no means a specialist in, you know, disability when it comes to pinball, but I just found it very interesting and was, again, very excited to find that people had tried this previously. Yeah, this is completely new information to me. I love that you went down this rabbit hole. Also, don't tease us. What's that wood rail behind you? Oh, that's a 1957 Williams Jigsaw. Ooh. Yeah. A pretty fun wood rail. It's pretty high replayability. I love a wood rail. Not all of them you want to be playing for an hour. But this one's pretty good. Does it have reels or does it have lights? It has lights. It's pretty late for a wood rail, which to its benefit, but it's the main i'll quickly describe it uh jigsaw it's a puzzle theme there is a two-way mirror on the back glass and as you hit rollovers it lights a different piece of the puzzle uh so it's pretty pretty cool that's very cool it's a pain to maintain but i i love it we like a political coalition around here we were talking about the pinball party we were talking about our pinball party platform i brought a half-assed joke to the table and eric came in with well pinballs for everyone benjamin uh which is actually a real you know a real adult conversation to have unlike the jackassery i thought i was getting into when i proposed like oh it's election day let's do a fucking pinball party platform uh and so you know here we were having a real adult conversation uh and this this really fits in right i mean this is core to the central platform of the pinball party pinball is for everyone what what that uh that button that you were saying you found that's not you you don't have that personally right that was just like an image it's an act it's an active listing on ebay it can be yours for 15 i think you could make it for a quarter yes that's true that's true although it wouldn't have the silver thorn oh yeah uh unless unless you also printed that you could still make it for a quarter but yes uh pinball for all it is that's that's that's what i know that's what i want i i want to be able to walk into a pinball joint and see anyone who wants to be in a pinball joint You have my vote. Well, thank you for joining us. Awesome material, and thank you also for doing the research and being passionate about just wanting to do it. My pleasure, guys. That's all for this week's pod. I'd like to thank Rob for doing all the legwork there, and I would like to recognize Pinside.com and its users for Ball3Material and PinballMap.com and its users for Ball 2 material. I would like to thank all of you for listening. If you've got an idea for a segment or something you want to talk with us about, you can reach out to us at nycpinpod at gmail.com or you can leave us a voice message at speakpipe.com slash nycpinpod. We'd love to hear from you whether it's about a segment idea or how your Monday or Tuesday night match went or just you got to get something off your chest. We'd love to hear from you here at NYC Pin Pod. Join us next week when we'll do the usual things in Balls 1 and 2, and I'm not too sure what we'll do in Ball 3, but I think we might talk about whether Pokemon gives us any kind of inspiration to think that new types of pinball licenses are coming. Between now and then, whatever you're up to, go get them, pin poke. you

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: eac5db6d-6baa-4687-8632-5de3823818bd*