# EP21 Cale Hernandez **Source:** The Pinball Studio Podcast **Type:** podcast_episode **Published:** 2026-04-25 **Duration:** 89m 41s **Beat:** Pinball **URL:** https://thepinballstudio.podbean.com/e/ep21-cale-hernandez/ --- ## Analysis Cale Hernandez shares his journey from arcade gaming in the late 1970s/80s through a decade-long career as a touring southern rock musician, to discovering Marco Specialties near his home in South Carolina and launching a career in the pinball industry. He recounts his experiences at Marco working in customer service and graphic design, traveling the show circuit with pinball machines, and eventually meeting and marrying Rachel Bess, who became his co-operator at Electric Bat Arcade in Arizona. ### Key Claims - [HIGH] Cale grew up in Metairie, Louisiana (outside New Orleans) in the late 1970s/early 1980s and frequented Showbiz Pizza as a kid, primarily playing video games rather than pinball. — _Cale Hernandez, personal background narrative_ - [HIGH] Mark Mandeltort of Marco Specialties was operating Judge Dredd, Adam's Family, Twilight Zone, and Attack from Mars machines at a substation in Lexington, South Carolina when Cale was in high school. — _Cale Hernandez, describes meeting Mark years before joining Marco_ - [HIGH] Cale played in a touring southern rock/jam band for approximately 10 years after high school (graduated 1993), touring extensively across the US and opening for acts like Widespread Panic, Foo Fighters, Creed, and various Allman Brothers members. — _Cale Hernandez, biographical narrative_ - [HIGH] Cale's brother is a touring musician based in Atlanta who was in Stuck Mojo and now plays in Fozzy with Chris Jericho. — _Cale Hernandez, family background_ - [HIGH] Marco Specialties had a unique hiring process where candidates would sit down with every employee in the company, regardless of position, and one negative vibe could disqualify a candidate. — _Cale Hernandez, describing Marco Specialties' interview methodology_ - [MEDIUM] At the time Cale joined Marco (approximately 9-10 years ago from episode date), the company had roughly a dozen employees: about 6 in the office and 6 in the warehouse. — _Cale Hernandez, estimate of Marco Specialties headcount_ - [HIGH] For the Iron Maiden launch at MGC (Midwestern Gaming Classic), Paul Mandeltort (Mark and Nancy's son) arranged delivery of 50-60 Iron Maiden machines in an 18-wheeler semi, which Mark had to pay for upfront. Rachel Bess sold all of them, with the last one sold to a Chicago-area operator during breakdown. — _Cale Hernandez, describing the Iron Maiden MGC show event_ - [HIGH] Rachel Bess purchased an Iron Maiden pinball machine from Marco at a discounted price of $4,000 (staff pricing/cost), which is still at Electric Bat Arcade. — _Cale Hernandez, Iron Maiden purchase details_ - [HIGH] Ghostbusters pinball (with art by Zombie Yeti) was Stern's major release when Cale started at Marco Specialties and generated unprecedented lines at shows like TPF. — _Cale Hernandez, discussing Ghostbusters launch impact_ - [HIGH] Cale met Rachel Bess on a Zoom call when she was working remotely from Phoenix, and they first met in person at a Nashville show, began dating shortly after, and he proposed within weeks. — _Cale Hernandez, personal relationship narrative_ ### Notable Quotes > "I really think pinball is more about the people and hanging out with people because, you know, it's the one game that has never changed...every machine, you can play at least four players and it's for a reason, you know, because it's all about hanging out." > — **Cale Hernandez**, ~13:30 > _Core philosophy on what makes pinball unique and valuable as a social game_ > "Pinball, all sides of pinball, the fans, the collectors, all of the people that make these machines, everybody in the industry, they are the coolest, most interesting people. The best group of people in any industry I've ever hung out with." > — **Cale Hernandez**, ~45:00 > _Reflects on the pinball community across his experience in music, law, and pinball industries_ > "I spent 10 years as a touring musician playing in a southern rock jam band...and I told him this was way more fun than that was. We're like, we're packing up pallets of equipment, shipping that at an 18-wheeler and then flying to shows. I mean, we were legit rock stars." > — **Cale Hernandez**, ~35:00 > _Compares the intensity and excitement of pinball show circuit work to his previous touring musician career_ > "When Ghostbusters came out, first of all, I freaked out because I was a huge Ghostbusters fan...That was my movie because when my mother bought a VHS player...we only had two movies, Indiana Jones and Ghostbusters." > — **Cale Hernandez**, ~22:00 > _Personal connection to Ghostbusters theme and its impact on his excitement for the pinball machine_ > "I felt like some North Koreans you know making bills...I would use a magnifying glass and down to the dot and the dot pitch like make these things perfect...recreating old pinball plastic stuff that was just not available anymore." > — **Cale Hernandez**, ~19:00 > _Describes his meticulous approach to graphic design and reproduction of vintage pinball artwork at Marco_ > "He said, part of the stipulation is that we're not bringing one back...Rachel was in charge of sales and her and Marco had to hustle...it was down to the wire. Like I remember there was one game left over." > — **Cale Hernandez**, ~42:00 > _Illustrates the high-pressure sales requirements at Marco's Iron Maiden MGC event_ > "I started looking at all of our work and I was like, whoa, this is really next level. This is serious professional stuff...there's something very spiritual about it." > — **Cale Hernandez**, ~53:00 > _First impression of Rachel Bess's artistic capabilities and creative depth_ > "Shows back then were nothing like this. Like we would bring maybe two Ghostbusters to a show...Nowadays you go to the Marco booth. They have like 70 machines." > — **Cale Hernandez**, ~26:00 > _Illustrates the dramatic growth in Marco Specialties' show presence and the pinball industry's scale over time_ ### Entities | Name | Type | Context | |------|------|---------| | Cale Hernandez | person | Co-owner of Electric Bat Arcade in Arizona; former Marco Specialties employee; pinball content creator; touring musician; graphic designer | | Rachel Bess | person | Co-owner of Electric Bat Arcade; former Marco Specialties showrunner; oil painter; spouse of Cale Hernandez | | Mark Mandeltort | person | Founder/owner of Marco Specialties; pinball parts supplier; operated machines in South Carolina arcades in the 1990s | | Nancy Mandeltort | person | Co-owner of Marco Specialties; Cale's first contact at the company | | Paul Mandeltort | person | Son of Mark and Nancy Mandeltort; organized the Iron Maiden MGC show display | | Marco Ramirez | person | Marco Specialties employee; part of the core team that worked shows with Cale | | Steve Majette | person | Marco Specialties customer service manager; Cale's colleague and friend; helped recruit Cale back to Marco | | Shannon | person | Marco Specialties employee during Cale's tenure | | Dirty Donnie | person | Pinball artist who created artwork for Metallica pinball machine; toured with Cale's rock band | | Zombie Yeti | person | Pinball artist; created artwork for Ghostbusters and Alice pinball machines; Stern's artist | | Keith Elwin | person | Professional pinball player; designer of Iron Maiden pinball machine | | Marco Specialties | company | Pinball parts supplier and distributor; shows pinball machines at conventions; founded by Mark Mandeltort; employs Cale Hernandez | | Electric Bat Arcade | company | Pinball arcade in Tempe, Arizona; co-owned by Cale Hernandez and Rachel Bess; houses their Iron Maiden machine | | Stern Pinball | company | Major pinball manufacturer; produced Ghostbusters, Metallica, WWE, and Iron Maiden | | Ghostbusters | game | Stern pinball machine with art by Zombie Yeti; major launch during Cale's early tenure at Marco; generated unprecedented show lines | | Iron Maiden | game | Stern pinball machine designed by Keith Elwin; launched at MGC; 50-60 units shipped to Marco in semi-truck; Rachel Bess led sales | | Metallica | game | Stern pinball machine with art by Dirty Donnie; exhibited at Marco shows | | Judge Dredd | game | Classic pinball machine from 1990s; operated by Mark Mandeltort at substation in South Carolina; favorite of Cale's in high school | | Twilight Zone | game | Classic pinball machine from 1990s; operated by Mark Mandeltort; played by Cale in high school arcades | | Attack from Mars | game | Classic pinball machine; operated by Mark Mandeltort in South Carolina arcades | | Addams Family | game | Classic pinball machine; operated by Mark Mandeltort in South Carolina arcades | | Midwestern Gaming Classic | event | Pinball convention (MGC); location of Iron Maiden launch; Keith Elwin's first game debut | | Lexington | organization | Small town in South Carolina where Cale lived; had minimal pinball presence | | Metairie | organization | Town near New Orleans, Louisiana where Cale grew up | | Creed | person | Rock band from Florida; opened for Cale's band at Chameleon Club in Atlanta before becoming famous | ### Signals - **[content_signal]** Cale Hernandez featured as guest on Pinball Studio Podcast EP21, discussing his entry into pinball through Marco Specialties and subsequent founding of Electric Bat Arcade. (confidence: high) — Episode title and full biographical interview format - **[historical_signal]** Marco Specialties' show presence dramatically scaled from 2-3 machines in early Ghostbusters era (~2021-2022) to ~70 machines in current shows, reflecting market growth and increased competition for mindshare. (confidence: high) — Cale's direct comparison: 'we would bring maybe two Ghostbusters to a show...Nowadays you go to the Marco booth. They have like 70 machines' - **[personnel_signal]** Rachel Bess joined Marco Specialties as a showrunner/logistics manager before meeting and marrying Cale Hernandez; she was recruited remotely from Phoenix initially. (confidence: high) — Cale describes Rachel's role at Marco and their Zoom meeting before in-person encounter at Nashville show - **[venue_signal]** Electric Bat Arcade established in Tempe, Arizona by Cale Hernandez and Rachel Bess; currently houses a Stern Iron Maiden machine purchased at staff pricing. (confidence: high) — Cale references Electric Bat Arcade and mentions Iron Maiden is 'at Electric Bat Arcade right now' - **[market_signal]** Iron Maiden pinball machines were priced at approximately $4,000 at Marco staff rates during its launch period, significantly lower than current new machine pricing ($7,000-$15,000+). (confidence: high) — Cale states 'Rachel bought one and it was like $4,000...that was like our price for working there' - **[product_launch]** Ghostbusters pinball with Zombie Yeti artwork created significant market excitement and set records for show lines at TPF and other venues; marked a shift toward professional art direction at Stern. (confidence: high) — Cale describes unprecedented lines at TPF, notes Zombie Yeti's fresh artistic approach before industry entrenchment - **[community_signal]** Pinball community noted as exceptionally welcoming, diverse, and interesting compared to other industries Cale participated in (law, music, touring); Marco Specialties' culture emphasized employee cohesion through collaborative hiring. (confidence: high) — Cale's repeated emphasis on pinball people being 'the coolest, most interesting people' and Marco's unique interview process - **[event_signal]** Marco Specialties executed a high-stakes inventory and sales operation at MGC Iron Maiden launch, requiring upfront payment for 50-60 units with a contractual obligation to sell all units (none returnable). (confidence: high) — Cale details Paul Mandeltort's semi-truck logistics, Mark's upfront payment, and Rachel's down-to-wire sales push - **[design_philosophy]** Cale articulates pinball's fundamental value proposition as a four-player social game that has remained mechanically unchanged, emphasizing social interaction over competitive achievement or high scores. (confidence: high) — 'pinball is more about the people and hanging out with people...it's the one game that has never changed. You know, video games, you have one player games...but pinball still to this day, every machine, you can play at least four players' - **[technology_signal]** Marco Specialties maintains a comprehensive digital archive of pinball machine manuals accessible to customer service staff, enabling parts identification and troubleshooting without physical machine access. (confidence: high) — Cale describes Marco's server with 'every single pinball manual known to man' that allowed him to help customers find parts - **[manufacturing_signal]** Marco Specialties has scaled significantly over ~9-10 years from ~12 employees to a much larger operation with offsite staff, reflecting growth in parts demand and show operations. (confidence: medium) — Cale notes 'they have people working off site' and company is 'much bigger now than it was back then' - **[licensing_signal]** Major Stern releases in the period covered (Ghostbusters, Metallica, WWE, Iron Maiden) reflect strong IP licensing strategy around entertainment and music properties with broad cultural appeal. (confidence: medium) — Cale's narrative progression through major Stern themed releases as Marco's showcase machines --- ## Transcript Hello and welcome to episode 21 of the Pinball Studio Podcast. Today I've got Cale Hernandez of The Electric Bat Arcade over there in Arizona that is and we're going to learn his story and how he found this crazy hobby we call pinball. But first off, let's mention the sponsors. Old Town Pinball, do you need a new or used pinball machine? Just head over to his website oldtownpinball.com. Also, The Electric Playground. Time to level up your game room with a new topper. Just check out their website, teppinball.com. And there's that one creepy ass company and I just keep forgetting their name. What is going on with this shit? Oh yeah, Spooky Pinball. Order your Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Scooby-Doo, or Looney Tunes today. And make sure you're on the list for the next one because it's gonna be a banger. Anyway, welcome to the show, Cale. How are you doing, sir? I am splendid and very happy to be here. Thank you for inviting me on the show. You know, I've been wanting to come on your show and I had to get Jamie to help me out. Yeah, Jamie was telling me, he's like, Kale wants to come on your show. I'm like, well, I want Kale to come on my show, so that works out. Yeah, I thought that was funny. Yeah, he was playing the role of my manager. Yeah, I was hoping to get to meet you and Rachel at TPF, but it sounds like y'all didn't make that show this year. But I at least got to meet Jamie. I've went to TPF multiple times, never met Jamie somehow, and I've been in the wormhole booth hanging out there back when he was hanging with that crowd. But yeah, it was nice to meet them and hopefully get to meet y'all guys soon at a show here. Yeah. Are you coming to Expo? No. And that's the one that everyone seems to go to. That's the one I skip. Yeah. And there are every pinball show is so incredibly unique. And after and Rachel and I have been to every single one of them. And after so many years of years of working all of these shows, we've settled on we're going to have one show a year that we always go to. And it just turns out to be Expo just because that's where that's where most of the people are. Right. Yeah. Industry people. Yeah. I mean, I really need to start going to that show every year. I say I go to like one big show every year and I always tend to go to Texas just for whatever reason. And I like Texas. Yeah. Texas is great. I've done the Houston Arcade Expo. I've done TPF and they're both amazing. Yeah, I need to I need to check out the Houston show. Everyone keeps telling me that's that's really the one to go to. But I'm sure you've seen them all, though, working at Marco. Yeah. The the the Houston show is the party show. It is it is absolutely insane. I mean, you do not sleep. Yeah, I probably got like an hour, hours worth of sleep. Well, I already don't sleep at the other shows, so that sounds like a horrible idea. Well, anyway, we're going to do your journey of how you got into this crazy-ass hobby of pinball. And, yeah, where did this whole journey start for you? Did you play pinball as a kid and, like, arcade games as a kid? Or was this something that you discovered way later on in life? Pinball was, but just arcade gaming, video gaming, man, that has always been my jam. I'm a kid of the late 70s, early 80s, so that was the perfect time. That's when everybody was meeting at the arcade, playing games. I grew up in Metairie, Louisiana, right outside of New Orleans. And there was a showbiz pizza place opened up within walking distance of my grandparents' house, just like five blocks away. And as soon as that opened up, I was there at least every weekend, if not every day, but mostly into video games. I don't even remember pinball machines being at that showbiz, but I would imagine they were. Yeah, I don't remember if that, see we had one of those locally as well and I don't remember if it ever had pinball or not either. If it did, I did not pay attention to it at all. Right. Yeah, and I remember like the first pinball machines I ever saw, there were family, friends or neighbors and I was, I would have been like, like five, six years old or something like that. And I remember playing in someone's house and it was it was an EM. And that was my first experience with it, but I didn't know what was going on. I can barely see the ball. But I really. I didn't get into like super into pinball until around like high school when me and my friends would hang out at this. That's when I moved to Lexington, South Carolina. Okay. And we would hang out at a substation two and there was somebody there that would operate. They would always put two pinball machines and they would have a few arcade video games. The video games would usually be like Killer Instinct or Mortal Kombat. And they were always fighting games. And then whoever was operating these machines, they were putting in bangers. So, you know, you had like Judge Dredd, Adam's Family, Twilight Zone. Oh, yeah. You know, all those great games. Attack from Mars. The funny part is later on, I found out that Mark Mandeltort, who started Marco Specialties, he was operating those games. Oh, no way. Yeah, I found that out years later when I started working with him. Right. And I remember, you know, an older gentleman coming in with a briefcase full of tools. You've seen the old guys with those cases, right? Dude, I used to work for an audio tech-type company, and there was an older guy, and he had one of those briefcase-like toolboxes or whatever. And I was using, like, a Pelican case. Yeah, sure. Yeah, we're cooler now, right? Right. But I thought it was so cool. You know, all this stuff was organized in this like it looked like a leather briefcase. So me and my friends would play there. And I didn't like I don't know if my friends understood the rules or what was going on, like starting modes. But all I was doing was trying to keep the ball in play and doing cool things with the ball. I wasn't even paying attention to a score. We were just partying. And then the best part was when Highway 6 and I-20, there was a place called Saturn Video. And it was really back then in South Carolina, video poker was legal. It's not legal anymore. Okay. We play Samurai Showdown all the time, Metal Slug. And of course, this arcade had Twilight Zone, Judge Dredd, Indiana Jones, all the hot 90s games. And they all worked incredibly well. And the best part about this is, you know, I was in high school, but I always looked older. So they would sell me Dollar Budweiser's while I was playing. I thought it was the greatest thing, you know. Oh, yeah. But I don't drink anymore, but it was fun back then. So that's when we've truly, truly, me and my friends fell in love with pinball and we had no idea what we were doing. We were just having fun, like keeping the ball alive, playing four player games, joking around. And like I still say that today, like I really think pinball is more about the people and hanging out with people because, you know, it's the one game that has never changed. You know, video games, you have one player games, you know, now there's co-op games where you're playing online where you're not even really having a true face to face interaction with somebody. But pinball still to this day, every machine, you can play at least four players and it's for a reason, you know, because it's all about hanging out. And it was it was really more about that than high scores or or, you know, conquering modes. Yeah, that's why I got into tournaments, actually, and why I started hosting them and everything, because pinball is a lot more fun when you're playing with other people, or at least for me. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, yeah. So that's, you know, so that's like around like high school times. I graduated high school in 93. And when all of my friends went off to college, me and four of my other friends from high school, we started a band and we went on tour. So like right after high school, we went on tour. I mean, of course, we started playing like local shows and then we got really popular very quickly. And we toured around with all kind of great guys. We used to hang out with Derek Trucks. He would go on stage with us. Warren Haynes. We played with Widespread Panic at the Carolina Coliseum. That place is not even around anymore. If you go to Columbia, South Carolina, the shows, it was called the Colonial Center. I don't know who bought it now. But, yeah, we were playing like the Carolina Coliseum, like old school rock shows, playing, touring around with like widespread, lots of members of the Allman Brothers. We did that for like 10 years. Foo Fighters, we did shows with them. America, Edgar Winter. Creed actually, you know, Creed is from Florida and our manager was friends with their manager. Okay. And I remember we were playing in Atlanta at the Chameleon Club. I don't even know if that's still around. Yeah, I'm not sure. But our manager said like, hey, this band from Florida is going to show up and open for you guys. We're like, yeah, cool. And it's Creed. They showed up. Nobody knew who they were. Okay, so they weren't famous yet. No, no. This was their first show outside of Florida. Oh, no way. Yeah, and so they were, and man, I'm telling you, those are the nicest dudes. You know, they were so well-grounded. You know, of course, I'm like rolling up a doobie. I'm like, yo, let's get high. And they're like, we don't do that. Yeah, that's what the other bands. Yeah, right, right. I'm like, hey, okay. But we'd hang out with them all night and they were beautiful, beautiful people. And it was like, I mean, it was maybe like two months after that we saw them on VH1 and we're like, what? Yeah, they blew up for a minute, man. Yeah, they're huge. Yeah, so I did that for like 10 years, just touring around as far west as Louisiana, as far north as New York. And that's how we made our living for a decade. And we broke up after about a decade of doing that. Man, that's a hard life. And I'm so happy I started doing it at like 18 and 19. Right. Because, man, that is – and I have – my brother is a touring musician. He's still doing it, and he's like – I think he's like seven years older than me. He's still out there doing it. That's nuts. Yeah, he's based out of Atlanta. He was in a band called Stuck Mojo, and now he's playing. He started a band called Fozzy with Chris Jericho. Okay. Very cool. Yeah, he's still doing it. And I just, man, I live, you know, it's like you're married to five guys. Absolutely. Yeah, I played in some bands myself, and I would definitely agree with you on that one. Yeah, so once I quit that, and we're all still friends. We still talk to each other. And most of all of those guys are still playing. Like one of them went to start a band with Trey Anastasio from Phish. Oh, nice. And others have run sound for Saliva and other metal bands. They're still having a blast, living the dream, you know, partying every night. I don't know how they're doing it. But so I, you know, got off the road and I was like, man, you know, it's time for me to get a real job. That's what you always hear. The rock star has to get a real job. And I loved it. I loved because this was like this is my first like foray into like, man, you know, I need to figure out what I want to do. So I worked for a very high powered attorney for a while, attorney and politician. And that was a lot of fun getting to see behind the scenes of like murder trials. And, you know, that was back in the day when, you know, he was campaigning for a lot of politicians. Some are still around today. And so I got to see the behind the scenes, you know, how the sausage is made with politics. I mean, it's all like a dog and pony show. I mean, they get on CNN and like fight with each other and then they get off and they're like, oh, did that sound good? It's really it's all Hollywood stuff. It's all a joke. So anyway, to get how I got back into pinball, a friend of mine was working for waste management and she was selling dumpsters. So she would go to a business and see that maybe they didn't have a trash service and be like, would you like to lease a dumpster from me and trash service and all that stuff. And so she was right around the corner from my house and she went to this little white, this was in Red Bank, South Carolina. She went to this little white building with no sign, knocked on the door, and this lady answered the door and let my friend in. And my friend went in and she was like, it was like Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory. I mean, there's just like explosions of color and lights everywhere. And she said they had pinball machines in the lobby and posters hung up. And she sat down and talked to this lady for like a long, long time. And this lady was like, hey, we're looking for someone to help. We need a graphic designer and somebody to do customer service. And at the time I wasn't working. And I forgot to tell you, one of the jobs I had after the band, I was a graphic designer and art director at a packaging company. Okay. So I actually had some experience in that. So my friend who's selling the dumpsters, she comes over. She's like, you have to go to this. There was this pinball shop. It's literally three blocks away from my house. I was like, what are you talking about? Pinball? Is that still a thing? I thought it was gone because in the very small town I lived in, Lexington, South Carolina, pinball was dead. It was gone. There was no place to play. Zero. You would never see like you'd see like an old maybe a Sopranos here and there at a bar. But like there were there were no arcades that had like pinballs lined up across the wall. Yeah. And so she my friend was like, here, this this lady's name is Nancy. Give her a call. They're looking for some help. And so I immediately called because she stressed. She was like, this place is so cool. You have to give them a call. So I called, I talked to Nancy Mandeltort for a while and we immediately hit it off and she told me to come in to meet the rest of the crew. And I seriously doubt they still do this because the company is much bigger now than it was back then. And so I remember I sat down with Nancy and Mark Mandletort and Marco Ramirez and Steve Majette. And there was this girl named Shannon that worked there, too. We all sat down and got to know each other. And we all hit it off. Things seemed to be going very well. So I was still just amazed that they had a business selling pinball parts. That just blew my mind because I was like, who's buying pinball parts? You know, I never saw pinball on the street anymore. Yeah. And that's when I found out, well, most of them are in people's homes, which still blows my mind. Yeah. Yeah, I don't. Up until me getting into pinball, I can't think of many people I knew that had a pinball machine at home. Right. Now I do, though. Oh, isn't it weird? I like I know so many people that have like no big deal. Quarter million dollars worth of pinball machines in their living room. Right. It's just insane. So the very cool interviewing process that they used to do at Marco Specialties, you would sit down with a group. They would get to know you and then you would go to every employee in the company and have a conversation with them. Wow. Every single, no matter how small, like a guy that's like, you know, ripping open boxes in the warehouse, you would sit down with them and have a conversation. And if one person got a bad vibe, you didn't get hired. Wow. How many people were working there at this time, you think? Roughly. Man, probably a dozen. Okay. Yeah, not, I mean, actually, yeah, I mean, probably like, you know, six or so in the office and another six in the warehouse. Right. There are many more people there now. Oh, I'm sure. Yeah. I mean, they have people working off site. Yeah, they've grown a lot since then. You know, that was like, God, that was like almost 10 years ago, nine years ago. So long story short, I get hired. I'm doing customer service. I'm doing graphic design. I love doing both of those things. It was so much fun because I didn't know anything about pinball machines. And I'm sitting there answering the phone, helping people find parts. And my friend Steve, who was working there at the time, he was managing the customer service department. I mean, he taught he's like, you just go through, you act like you know what you're doing and you have you have access like on. They have a server that has every single pinball manual known to man. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, it's so great. So you just pull it up and you walk through and you can find parts for people. And I did that for a few years and got really good with it. And that's how I first learned about because when we I don't know what they do that. They don't they've never been into pinball repairs there. They just sell parts. That's it. And so, you know, I never actually opened a machine and worked on it. Well, until when we started doing shows, of course, we had to. But I learned all about pinball parts just from reading manuals. That's awesome. And that works. That's a good way to learn. Yeah, if you're at home, that works. If you want to keep some by the bed stand, the night stand. And so not only doing customer service, but the graphic design part, I fell in love with doing graphic design for pinball stuff because it was almost like counterfeiting. Like we would find old like pinball plastic stuff that was just not available anymore, and I would recreate it. And we would – lots of stuff we would make in-house. And some of the stuff we'd have to send out, like if we're actually like printing, like reverse printing on plastics. But I would like I mean I would use a magnifying glass and down to the dot and the dot pitch like make these things perfect So you know it was like you know I felt like some North Koreans you know making bills you know but that was an absolute blast And just working there, it was, man, we were, you know, me, Marco, Steve, we were the crew, man. And we would get in trouble. People knew about us. We were the party guys. We were loud. And we thought we were the coolest people in pinball. And we acted like it. But it was so much fun doing those shows. I remember when some of the first shows I actually got to go to, Ghostbusters had just come out. Oh, nice. That's right when I got in the hobby was right when that game launched. Right, right. I remember I think, you know, and right before that, like in the lobby, we had a WWE and Metallica so that those had come out. And Metallica was a big deal because our friend Dirty Donnie did the art and we got to hang out with him on the road. But when Ghostbusters came out, first of all, I freaked out because I was a huge Ghostbusters fan. And that was my movie because when my mother bought a VHS player and they were so expensive at the time, I think it was like 800 bucks or something. It was just crazy. And we were not wealthy by any means. I think a boss may have purchased it for her. But so we had that and we only had two movies, Indiana Jones and Ghostbusters. And I just, yeah, Raiders of the Lost Ark. And I tell you what, anybody listening, if you haven't seen Raiders of the Lost Ark in a long time, it still holds up. It is beautiful. I watched it recently. Because that was shot before computer color grading and all that stuff, shot on film. Man, it just feels different. Anyway, so we started doing shows with Ghostbusters. And if people if there are people like that are in in to pinball now and go to the shows now, the shows back then were nothing like this. Like we would bring maybe two Ghostbusters to a show. Oh, wow. You know, nowadays you go to the Marco booth. They have like 70 machines, right? Yeah. And the trussing and all the lights. And yes. Oh, man, it was crazy. I can't believe we were doing it. I don't know if all that was profitable, but it was fun. Yeah, so, and that's the amazing thing because I remember I didn't do the TPF show, but I remember they took, that was still a huge show even back then, and they took two Ghostbusters. And they said like the lines were just, they had never seen lines like this. It was just like you couldn't get on a damn machine. This was Stern's latest machine. It was a big deal that Zombie Yeti did the art, you know, because before that, it was mostly like Photoshop type stuff, you know. Yeah, that's still my favorite, I think, from him as well. I love that art package. It's beautiful. It really is beautiful. And I've heard that from so many people, and I think it too. And I think it's because it's before he got too deep into the pinball industry. You know how like when you're fresh in a new industry and you're not thinking like everybody else? And this is no diss to him, but like once you get in to any industry and you get locked in and you start meeting other artists and other people and they sort of they take you in a certain direction. But like when he did Ghostbusters, I mean, the only thing he did before that relating to Pinball was Magic Girl, which we all know wasn't a great experience. And I guess he kind of did Alice, right? They came out. He kind of. Yeah. And I talked to pencils. Yeah. But, you know, but they kind of like sexed it up like his art. Oh, did they have? Yeah. All the cleavage and all that. Yeah. Oh, shit. He didn't do all that. And he was kind of pissed. They did that. But I mean, he sold the art. What can you do? Yeah, you don't know. Yeah. So, yeah. So like we start out like going around, showing people the latest Stern machines and taking our parts with us, flying all over the place. And I remember the first time, the first big show we wanted to do where we were like, we're going to blow people's minds and bring a lot of machines. And this was at MGC, which is actually going on right now, the Midwestern Gaming Classic. Yeah, yeah. This was Keith Elwin's first game. Iron Maiden had come out. And this was a big deal. I mean, if people don't remember this, Keith Elwin was already a huge name. And the fact that the best pinball player in the world was going to design a machine, that was huge news. And everybody wanted this machine. So Paul Mandeltort, you know, Mark and Nancy's son, he was like, we're going to do this big. I'm going to build a pyramid out of that scaffolding, you know, stuff. And I'm going to get as many Iron Maidens as I can get from Stern. And I was like, really, what's that? You know, like, wait, you mean like 10? He's like, I'm going to get an 18-wheeler slapped full of these things. And so he calls his connection at Stern, and I think they could fit somewhere between 50 or 60 machines in a semi. Yeah, that's a lot. Yeah. And he's like, okay. And they wouldn't let him have them unless he paid for all of them. Oh, damn. And so it was a huge check. The machines weren't as expensive. Yeah, the machines weren't. Still. Right. The machines weren't as expensive as they are now because I remember like we personally like Rachel bought one and it was like $4, 000. Nice. Like a show game for that? Well, that was like our price for working there. So that was basically maybe like our cost, you know, and we still have that machine is at Electric Bat Arcade right now. So that I mean, just the shows were the most unbelievable fun you could ever have. And I used to tell Marco this all the time. You know, I spent 10 years as a touring musician playing in a southern rock jam band, you know, and I told him this was way more fun than that was. You know, well, first of all, we had a lot more money in the pinball business. You know, because, I mean, we were legit like riding in a van, eating bologna sandwiches. Oh, I believe it. But it was a blast. But this, I mean, we're like, we're packing up, you know, pallets of equipment, shipping that at an 18-wheeler and then flying to shows. I mean, we were legit rock stars. And that's, we did that. I mean, that was just like all year. That's what we did. We did the show circuit. We made it happen. We made a lot of people happy and just meeting all of these people. You know, I spent so many years in the legal field and politics. I spent a lot of years in the music industry. Pinball, all sides of pinball, the fans, the collectors, all of the people that make these machines, everybody in the industry, they are the coolest, most interesting people. The best group of people in any industry I've ever hung out with. It's just so much fun. I mean, you're hanging out with people from all walks of life. You know, when we were in the music industry, it was like, what do you do? I play music. You know, when you play pinball with somebody, what do you do? You know, somebody owns like a multimillion dollar company. Somebody, you know, another guy makes his money, you know, operating, get it on the street. You know, we used to sell the Playboy Mansion. I mean, the lady that managed that used to call me all the time to get parts for their machines. Bill Gates, personal tech, used to order parts from us. You know, Todd McCullough, basketball players, sports players, you know, just people from every walk of life is really into this. Ed from Bare Naked Ladies, he used to come visit the shop. I mean, it's the most interesting group of people I have ever hung out with. Yeah, I agree. I enjoy this hobby just mainly because of the people that are in the hobby. For the most part, everyone's a nice individual. There's a few out there that – There are a few outliers, man. But still, that's what makes it great. You have to have those crazy personalities mixed in there, you know? Yeah, you got to spice it up a little bit. As long as nobody's beating anybody up or killing people, let's do it. And you met Rachel at Marco too, right? Yeah, that was the best part. Was she working there the whole time or was it later on when she started? No, I left Marco to do something else. And then Rachel came in and she was I can't remember what her title was, but she was basically like a like a showrunner. She would manage all the logistics for, you know, shipping machines, selling machines. Like, for example, on that, when we got all of those Iron Maidens, got MGC when that game was released. And that was the first show where people got to play that game. Right. Rachel was in charge of sales and her and Marco had to hustle because when Mark Mandeltoort wrote the check for all of those games, he said, part of the stipulation is that we're not bringing one back. You guys, yeah, it was, you know, she really had her, Marco and, you know, me, you know, we had to hustle to make sure we sold all of those games. And I mean, it was down to the wire. Like I remember there was one game left over and we ended up selling it to a local operator who operates out of Chicago. And that was like at the when we were like breaking down. So we finally were like, yes, we got rid of all of them. And that's when we celebrate. But Rachel came in to do that. And she was already there. I wasn't working there at the time. And Marco called me out of the blue and said, hey, are you doing anything right now? I was like, no, no, I'm just like hanging out of the house. He's like, can you, are you available? Can you come back and work with us? And I was like, yeah, I don't see why not. And Steve Majette, a good buddy who was working there too, he called me. He's like, man, I'm really trying to get you, you know, talking, you know, trying to get you back in the fold and let's do this. Let's get back on the road. And he's like, we have this wonderful person working with us and managing us on the road, Rachel Bess. He's like, he sent me her website, showed me her art. I don't know if you're familiar. She's a, she's an oil painter. Yeah, I've checked some of that. I've checked some of it out. It looks great. Yeah. And so I like I started looking at all of our work and I was like, whoa, this is really next level. This is serious professional stuff. It's not like when somebody goes, hey, I'm an artist. Look at my stuff. You know, I was like, oh, no, this is a this is a whole different level. Right. And so I couldn't wait to meet her because I knew like people who can create like that, they think on a different level. They don't think like most of the people just walking around town. They see things other people don't. You know, they have a deeper understanding of just the way things are, because when you're able to just create things and just, you know, think about something and use your hand and, you know, wiggle a paintbrush on a substrate and just out of thin air just make this amazing scene, And you're doing – there's something very spiritual about it. And so finally we were – so, you know, I was – I went out to lunch with Mark Mandletort and Marco, and we all talked and hung out, and it was just like old days again. And so I'm back in the fold. I'm working. We're right back where we left off. I'm helping people, you know, find pinball parts, keeping these machines running and doing a little artwork. They hired another graphic guy after I left, so I wasn't doing as much artwork, but I was, you know, kind of helping him out with some techniques and stuff. And the first time Rachel and I met was on a Zoom call because she was still living in Phoenix. She was working remotely. And so she would just fly to the shows whenever there was a show going on that we had a booth at. Right. And so I met her on Zoom. We said hello and all that good stuff. And it wasn't until I think it was a Nashville show. Like, I think that's when we actually met and got to hang out. And so we started doing shows together, started hanging out, got along incredibly well. And it actually wasn't too long after that. I mean, I'm talking about like a handful of weeks where we started dating and then I asked her to marry me, but she thought I was kidding. And I was like, no, no, no, I feel this. Like, this is going to be the perfect thing. Right. I need you and you need me. You know, she thought I was fucking with her. You know, she was like, well, apparently it all worked out. It did. So she she started opening or working on the electric bat while I was still living in South Carolina. Okay. And it's kind of a cool story about how that started. She and her friends about kind of now it's maybe like 11, 12 years ago, they started an arcade expo in the valley here. It was in Mesa at the Mesa Convention Center called ZapCon. Oh, very cool. Yeah, very cool pinball. They have pinball tournaments, all the cool stuff you see at any other show. And she was there and two guys approached her. One of the dudes looked like this greaser just covered in tattoos. And the other dude was this Asian guy. And they were like, are you Rachel Best? And she was working on a machine. She had the play field up on some machine, a headlamp on, and she's deep into a machine. And she looks up. She's like, yeah. And they were like, we own a legacy dive bar called Yucca Taproom in Tempe, Arizona, and we would like you to start an arcade in our bar. And she was like, man, I don't I really have no aspirations for running an arcade. But they were they were they were real pushy. And she was like, I'll tell you what I'll do. Was she already running a route at this point? No. OK, no, she was she was making her money on paint oil paint. OK, I got you. Yeah. But she was running this convention with her friends every year. So she they said, you know, well, let's let's set up a meeting at our office. So she goes to their office at the bar and she's hyper prepared. That's just the way she is. She's prepared for anything. She's prepared for the end of the world. So she shows up with her binder and all of this data and she starts going over what you need to do to develop a successful arcade. And I wasn't there, but I've heard the story from many people. And their eyes just glaze over and they're like, yeah, we're not going to do all of that. But what can we give you so you can do this? Right. And so I think after a long conversation, she was finally like, you know what? OK, let's do it because it was a tiny arcade. The office where they had that meeting in, that was going to be the arcade. And it was just a tiny, like almost like a hallway. So they cleared out all of the office equipment. And Rachel started bringing in machines. Now, she had a handful of machines at this point, like a like Adams Family, a Creature from the Black Lagoon, you know, a lot of a lot of classic 90 type stuff. Yeah. And then the guys who owned Yucca Taproom were like, we'll we will purchase a couple of like new Stern machines just to get you started. Right. And so I think they bought an Iron Maiden, maybe like a Munsters Premium Black and White Edition. And then Rachel borrowed a couple of video games from another local arcade. So there was at this time in Arizona, in the Valley, in the Phoenix area, there was only one real bar. You know, you can't say Barcade, right? I've heard that. Yeah, someone like trademarked it or something, I guess. Well, Barcade, they trademarked it. Oh, okay. And anybody that runs an arcade will tell you if on Instagram, if you call your place a Barcade, you'll get a cease and desist. Like, you should try it. Even if you use the hashtag Barcade. Wow. Yeah, their attorneys will get in touch with you immediately. I'll have to do it for this episode, hashtag. Yeah, it'll be funny. Yeah, so back then the only true bar slash arcade that was around was called Cobra. And Rachel's good friend Audie ran that. And he let her borrow like a, I think like a Mortal Kombat, a Street Fighter, I don't know, a couple of fighting games just to get her arcade started. And so Rachel got tokens made. So she put mechs and all of the machines that take both tokens and quarters. And we still do that to this day. And then she decorated the place, made it in her style. And that's the best thing. These are the best business partners because the guys at Yucca Taproom were like, just tell us what you need and we'll help you out. But this is your baby. Like you make this thing your own. You know, it wasn't like we want it to look like the existing bar or anything like that. Like you make this your own thing. Yeah. You got to make your own atmosphere. Yeah, 100 percent. And she did. And she still does that to this day. So now she has this little arcade. And it was great because it was kind of like low maintenance. She didn't have to be there all the time. She didn't have to be there to open it. Because the bar staff opens at 6 a.m., they shut down at 2 a.m. just like they do nowadays. And it was kind of like a great way to kind of like supplement income while she's doing painting, right? Well, she started doing pinball tournaments there. And because she had such a great, you know, recognizable name in the arcade industry around here in Arizona, like so many people would come to her. She made so many friends in the arcade field and so many people started coming to the pinball tournaments. And I think back then there were maybe only like a dozen pinball machines there. So those pinball tournaments started getting bigger and bigger. I've heard. Now, by this time, we were married, but I was not living. She was living in Arizona, and I was still living in Lexington, South Carolina. Yeah. And we didn't know how this was going to work, or we didn't have any kind of plan, but we knew we wanted to be together. You know, we wanted to be a unit. We wanted to be one, and it was going to happen somehow. Wow. So there was there was just this this one day where I was like, you know what? I want to get out. I want to get out of South Carolina. You know, I'm ready. I've been here my whole almost my whole damn life. I want I want to change the scenery. So I left and I owned a home I was just like I said screw it I put all of my stuff in a YouTube in a U And all of my stuff I didn't have a whole lot of stuff. Everything fit into a U-Haul and we drove it across country. And I never came back. I legit never. I left my house there. I hope you sold it. This is fun. I was probably living here for like a year or two when I got a call from an investor that was like, hey, would you like to sell your house? And I was like, yeah, I guess make me an offer. And he made me an offer that was worth well more than what I owed on the house. So I was like, yeah, dude, let's do it. And so I didn't even have to go back and stage it or do anything. It was just like, yeah, just give me some cash. Yeah. So then I moved here. I'm still living in Phoenix, Arizona. And then I started to play a role in the arcade doing marketing, mostly at first mostly marketing because I didn't, you have to remember, I didn't know how to work on a machine. I knew what the parts were called and I knew what you might need, but I never actually lifted a play field and worked on a machine. I mean, I did a little bit at the shows, you know, because like even sometimes a game right out of the box, you have to do stuff to it. You know that, right? So, you know, but that's a little easy stuff, you know, tightening some screws. Right. But like actually, like actual troubleshooting on an old machine, that's a whole different story. Um, so the Rachel's the one I learned everything from Rachel. Like she, yes, yes, she paints, she's an entrepreneur. And she also fixes pinball machines. I mean, she does it all, man. Was she self-taught? Um, she used to go to a lot of, uh, arcade repair parties. Do you guys have those around you? No, I wish we did. It's mind-blowing. She took me to one, and it was at this guy's house, Brian, and we still know him and talk to him today, but his parties are known throughout Arizona. Even people from California and New Mexico would come. They hang out, they drink beer, they order pizzas, and you bring your machines, and everybody tries to troubleshoot it and fix it and get it working. Like by the end of the night, everybody's machines were working. The monitors were bright and tight. It was it was insane. But like these guys that the guy that lived at the house was kind of like those dudes on X-Files that were like working in the Faraday cage with all these equipment all around them. I mean, it was like I know what you're talking about. Yeah. This is what these dudes were like, you know, and they had like all these oscilloscopes and all kind of crazy equipment to get anything working. And any video game, any pinball machine. That's awesome. Yeah. So that's the scene Rachel grew up in out here. And it's just like there are so many video game and pinball repair people or enthusiasts in this area. It's really – it's a little-known thing. You know, because when you think about like pinball scenes, of course, you think of Chicago, Seattle, even like, you know, like the New York, New Jersey area. But like nobody ever thinks of Arizona. And it is just there's a huge hotbed of. Oh, and of course, you definitely think about the Southern California scene. But like it I don't know, it's weird. Like the Arizona scene seemed to be like like insulated, like nobody talked about it. You know, it's just like and still to this day, I mean, after I moved here, she would take me to people's homes. I'm talking about these massive, expensive homes that were just like slab full of pinball machines, like pinball machines in the kitchens, in the bathroom. Like, I mean, they're all over the place. I'm like, what is going on here? Yeah. So she she was around people who knew how to do this and she picked up stuff from them and did tons of her own research. And, yeah, I mean, she's good at problem solving. And, you know, I think that's the key thing for anybody who wants to get into owning a pinball machine because you're going to have to work on it. You're going to run into problems as long as you're playing it. Man, Kyle's old videos on Marco, the Pentech Lives, that's where I learned a ton of what I know. I was, like, glued to every one of his streams, and then I'd go back and rewatch them again. And I learned a ton of shit from that. Yeah. And, you know, he doesn't have time to do those anymore. Of course, he's at Stern now. Yeah. And he was doing customer service. But now they I don't know if this is. Something I can't talk about, but screw it. I mean, they moved him into the engineering department. And so which I think is great because, I mean, they they could use it. Yeah, he's a smart guy. Yeah. I mean, he used to be a motorcycle mechanic and then worked for a pinball salesperson and operator in California. Learned so much about pinball machines there. And then we hired him at Marco. But you're right. Those those videos, they're all still archived, right? Are they all on YouTube? Everyone that's like getting into the hobby, I'm like, dude, go back and just start on Kyle's first video and watch every single one of them. And you will, especially those old Bally's and old Williams games, you will learn so much. He knows exactly what he's talking about. And he's the coolest guy. He's so much fun. I message him at least three times a week. And we still keep in touch. He really likes keeping in touch with me because, you know, of course, at The Electric Bat, you know, we have we get a lot of play and we see a lot of issues that most other arcades don't see. And so he really, you know, he always wants to know what part failed and how many plays did it have, you know, to try to see, you know, maybe maybe it's just trying to engineer like better parts, give more longevity. I don't know, but yeah, he's an absolute blast. No, that's cool. That's glad Stern picked up a good guy. I'm sure Marco misses him, though. Oh, big time. Yeah, I still talk to Marco every day. He wishes Kyle was still there. Yeah, they lost a good one, but of course they hope he's having a great time. And not only did I work with Kyle, but like Emoto, she I'm actually the one that got her the job at Marco. Oh, no way. Yeah, because, you know, this is this is so funny. Do you remember Emoto's when she was Emoto Arcade and would do like the little videos of like going to arcades across the nation? I've watched some of them, not all of them. Right. And she quit doing that. But those were so great. I was like, I saw those videos. I was like, man, this person's so cool. This is like, this is what I would want to do. You know, and I remember I met her at the Museum of Pinball in Banning. And we were we were setting up so that it was closed. Only people that were working there were in there. And she was sitting on a bench by herself, just like playing on her phone. And I was like, man, I want to go talk to her, but I don't want her to think I'm like some kind of creep. So finally, I was like, fuck it, I'm just going to do it. And she was like, you know, she was totally cool. She was like, you know, hey, you want to go outside and burn it? I was like, all right, we're going to be best friends. But, yeah, working with all of those characters at Marco was, man, it was really a dream. I mean, you could have scripted just the stuff we got into and the stories and the traveling. You couldn't have scripted this. If there would have been a documentary filmmaker with us, the guy would have made a mint. We got a moto. Isn't she into the whole film thing? Yeah, she totally is. But, you know, we were we were trying to try to get into that line of work at the time. But but back to the arcade, Electric Bat. So it started out as the office to this 50 year old dive bar, Yucca Tap Room. Is the office still part of the arcade? Yes. Yeah. Okay. So that's the first room. So like when you enter the arcade from Yucca Tap Room, that first room you enter into, that is the original arcade. And then there was just a wall there. And if you ever go there, you can tell where the wall was because there's still a partial wall there. So the tournaments got so big, they had to expand. And so in Yucca Taproom and the Electric Bat Arcade is in a strip mall that was built in the 60s. And it's like a time warp. Nothing has changed. Nothing has been updated. It's really kind of a landmark because it has the properties under this very interesting deed with very interesting stipulations. There can be no construction, modification, anything to this property unless every parcel owner 100% agrees to it. Oh, shit. Nothing's ever going to happen. It never happened. You know how human beings are. When you have so many people like that own something and think their percentage of something is so special, you get people that can't agree to anything. You know, it's so bad. Years and years ago, Walmart, with all of their money, they wanted to buy the plaza and build a shopping center there. And even with Walmart money, it couldn't change people's minds. Wow. That's what I was going to say. It's going to take someone to buy everyone out. Yeah, it would have to, but it's still to this day, it's like stuck, like nothing's going on. There's plans and they finally got the city on board to redo the whole plaza and of course have like Yucca Taproom and Electric Bat Arcade as part of it as the entertainment hub. But it's still just like, excuse me, getting the funding and I mean, there is a developer involved, but getting the funding for a project of that size is, of course, not easy. But also getting all the parcel owners to all agree to one vision along with the city and the board members. It is a really tough thing to do still to this day. Yeah, sure. So Electric Bat's going to stay the same forever, it sounds like. I think so, and I'm happy with that. I mean, it's like an old rundown building. It's got that patina. It's got that feel. It's got the vibe. But the best part about it with the developers' plans, the strip, the building with – there are several units in there where the Yucca Taproom and the Electric Bat Arcade is. That's the one building they don't want to demolish because they want to keep some history and some feel and some story and some vibe on this piece of property because it's been there for so long and all the locals remember it and they want to build around it. So it improves that area, but you'll have this old school dive bar in the center of it. As long as they leave plenty of parking for your massive tournaments. Yeah, well, yeah, they'll need to, right? So these tournaments, you know, after we had to expand one time, we went into the unit that was next to Yucca Taproom. And that was really nice. We had much more breathing room. We could actually like walk around. We had places to sit down on stools. But it wasn't, I don't think it was like two years, maybe a year, year and a half when I was like, we really have to, we need more room. And there was only one unit left on the very end cap. At the time, our business partners were using it for storage. So it was slap full of equipment from many different businesses. They had all kinds of businesses. And so there was kitchen equipment in there. There was old stuff from like a record store, automotive parts. I mean, it was just slapped full from floor to ceiling of all this junk. And so we got together and moved it all out, moved it all into a warehouse. So now we have this big empty room to deal with. And that is the big room in the arcade. That's the room where most people hang out. And Rachel ended up building a tiki bar in the center room. That was the second expansion. And then the big room is where most people hang out in these big tournaments we have. And right now we have the biggest single location pinball league in the entire world. Yeah, it's really weird. And then this little ass dive bar. I don't know. I don't know how. Nobody knows how it happened. But I mean, we just. I think it's just like a different vibe. You know, it's not like sweaty competitive, but we have like baller players. We have real shooters that we have. We have top 100 players that, you know, play with us. But it's just like we created this different vibe. So we do a six-week series, and on that sixth week, we have a finals. And like at the end of that six weeks, you probably have 200 unique players. And so every week, we average about like 110. I think our record, we had like 130 one Tuesday. We do it every Tuesday night, but people keep showing up. It's never under 100 people. It's just like every, and we never stop. We do it every single week. It doesn't matter whether it's New Year's, Christmas, Halloween, whatever. We do it, and we're very consistent. And I think that's another thing that keeps the people coming out because it's so important that you create a wonderful place and environment and community that people can – they know they can count on it. They can count on every Tuesday all of their friends are right here at this place. Yeah. And it's more about that than pinball. You know, we were designed, we were engineered to have that face-to-face, you know, conversation with people. Look in each other's eyes, the emotion. You know, we're losing that so much now with, you know, everybody's, and it's not anybody's fault. We have the technology now. Like, look, you and I are doing something we could never do before. You know, we're looking at each other, having a conversation. But the real thing people need is like actually not looking at people in a screen like that real human interaction where you can fist bump and laugh and tell stories. Enjoy a beer if that's your thing. And then like really look into each other's eyes. That's the true connection that keeps people coming back. It's it's really not about pinball. Yeah, I started tournaments, honestly, just because I wanted to hang out with people. And honestly, I had friends, but I didn't have like a massive group of friends where now it's like I've got like a hundred roughly a hundred close friends now. Yeah. It's crazy. Just from pinball. Yeah. And that's the great thing. And you always have something to talk about. You know, we always think about this, you know, like how people, they become divided over certain opinions, you know, especially something like politics. But it's like when you come to the pinball tournament, you're talking about like, what's the best strategy? Yeah. How do I beat the best player in the room? You know, it's like when you go to prison, you got to find the biggest dude in there to beat him up. You know, to show everybody else you're not playing around. You know, it's just like we have so many people from all kind of different walks of life and we leave everything else at the door. You know, you don't have those type of conversations, I feel like, at pinball tournaments. Everyone's like just laid back and having a good time. I think people give like, not to hate on Kaneda or anything, but like they'll make fun of tournament players and, you know, people that go to tournaments. So I'm like, but have you ever done it before? Because it can be a lot of fun, man. I mean, there are tournaments out there where there is some jackasses, but for the most part, a lot of them are good groups of people. Yeah. So, you know, after Canada posted those, you know, those photos, you know, people were translating all that stuff. And he was like, I didn't see all that. He's he's blocked me from like 90 percent of his stuff. Are you kidding me? Yeah. It was from years ago when he like went off on Don and then I stood up for Don and he got mad and just went on a blocking rampage on me. But yeah, on another note. Was that when he was telling somebody's wife? Yeah, he was telling his wife to put a leash on her or something. I don't know. It was something crazy. Yeah. I got a lot of flack for being his friend. And, you know, I didn't meet him until Rachel and I won the Twippy for Best Podcast. I did watch that stream. When he freaked out? Yeah, he's like, who's this kale guy? I hope that's still out there somewhere. That was amazing. So after after he freaked out about all that, Rachel and I wanted to twipping. He couldn't believe it. I made a I made a video. I went outside. The Carl Weathers was nice. I went into the backyard and the video is still out there. And I told people I was real sincere. You know, I was like, you know, let's not make fun of Canada. He's human just like us. And he makes mistakes just like we do. You know, and last night wasn't his night, you know, and like, and I really laid it on thick and it was great. But, you know, like those people that got in a fight with him, they were like going like, I can't believe you could say anything nice about this piece of shit. And I knew all about Kaneda, but I just was like, I mean, he doesn't bother me. I don't know. He just doesn't care less about him. He doesn't bother me either. Yeah, the only problem I ever had was that one time, and I didn't, I wasn't really that crazy about it. I was just like, hey, fuck you, you know, whatever. Yeah, why not? It's the internet, man, you know? Whatever. Him and I have become incredibly close. We talk on the phone at least once a week. He's an extremely interesting guy. You know, he has his quirks, but we all do. And he's loud. And but man, it's a it's a fun. But he's like one on one. He's actually a very caring and generous. That's what I've heard. Yeah. And and, you know, he he knows what he's doing. He's a he's a he's a professional marketer that works with multi million dollars, sometimes billion dollar clients. He knows how to get attention, and that's what he's doing when he's on the mic. And he's the best at it. Oh, yeah, he does a good job at it, yeah. Yeah. Well, what was the next step with the Electric Bat Arcade? So you're growing these tournaments and building them up to 100 plus. And you all had a second location for a while, right? Oh, yeah, I forgot about that. But we this was before COVID. Our business partners were like, hey, we want to purchase another bar two hours away in Flagstaff, Arizona. And they were like, do you want to go in on on it with us? And Rachel was like, yeah, why not? Let's do it. So now we were owning a big ass bar in Rock Venue. So this was called, you know, Yucca Taproom is home base in Tempe. We called this Yucca North. It was a massive venue. You could probably fit a good 1 people in there Oh wow So it bigger than the current location Oh way bigger Yeah Yeah Huge stage gigantic PA And then we just had a little arcade in the very front by the bar that had probably a dozen games. Now, Flagstaff is two hours away, 8, 000 feet in the air. And so it's a very different vibe, very different people there, right? Very much like a locals only kind of vibe. And they didn't really, I mean, they still don't, they don't really like outsiders. So it was hard getting into, you know, the business there, but we were able to do it. And it was profitable for a while, but it was just, it's so hard, and this goes for any business, it is so hard to really grow a business and get that exponential growth if you are not on site. Well, maintaining the games, I can't imagine with, you know, the games being that far away from home. That actually wasn't the problem. Really? Yeah, because they didn't get that much play. Just put some Sterns over there and you're good. Yeah, well, we had Stern Stars. We put some legit classics there. Yeah, but they didn't get the amount of play. We have to be at the Electric Bat Arcade almost every day to keep those games running because of the amount of plays they get. But up there, it was pretty easy because maybe a rubber would break and we'll be like, give us a couple of days, we'll go up there. You have some other games to play. There wasn't a crowd of people just waiting to play every game like there is at the Electric Bat Arcade. So it wasn't that bad. And it was only a two-hour drive. And Rachel and I kind of liked it. You know, we just put on, especially in the summertime, because you can have a 20-degree difference in temperature from the valley up to the mountains there. Oh, that's nice. Yeah, so it was really beautiful in the summertime. And we loved the ride. You know, we put on a podcast and do the ride, you know, sort tokens, fill the token machines back up. And then there was an apartment above the bar, like a really big apartment that so us and our partners could all, everybody could stay there. Oh, that was nice. Yeah, we had our own bedroom there. So we could stay there. Or if you want to drive home, it's only two hours. So that was cool. We are in the process of selling that bar right now. It was fine. It was profitable. It was just like I said, you cannot really grow a business if you are not on site, if the owners are not on site. You know, we could have built some kind of pinball scene around there if we lived there, but, you know, without being there all the time. And that goes for like any arcade. And it's hard to find someone else with the same vision as you to like hire to run that. Right. Even if you find a great manager, they're not going to have the drive that you have or the vision that you have. Even if you could teach them all day long, but, you know, they usually don't have any skin in the game, you know, you know, you can you can make them a partner and that helps. That definitely helps. Right. But like nobody's going to have your vision. Like if you want to blow something up and make it like really huge, you have to be on site. I was talking to some operators that were at the arcade, and they have an arcade in Arizona. It's not close. I'm not sure what town it is, but it's not close to the Electric Bat. And they were talking a lot about California, and I was like, wait, you guys live in California? And they were like, yeah. And then you operate an arcade in Arizona. Yeah. They said, yeah, they're all brand new Sterns. You don't have to do anything. And I didn't say anything. I was like, man, I don't know if this is going to work out. And of course, you know, players all talk. You hear it in your area. You know it. You know, when somebody goes to some arcade, they're like, man, they you know, they don't really maintain the games. Dirty shit and all this, yeah. Exactly. So, and it's not these guys' fault. They think they're doing the right thing. But, like, for example, like, they sent a new Pokemon Pro to the location, and somebody there just set it up, plugged it in, and, like, okay, everything's all good. And it's one of the ones where the right, I mean, the left orbit ball guy. Yeah. So like people are playing it and it's like just Drano, Drano, Drano. I'm sure it's not level either. They probably just put it on the legs. Exactly. And it just it just shows that like I don't care what business you want to run. You the owner has to be on site. The person that had the vision for this business had to be on site. And I know there are some exceptions like Chick-fil-A where I don't know how they pull it off, but they do. I mean, every Chick-fil-A, you have the exact same experience, a wonderful experience. Right. Pinball is very complicated, though. Yeah, yeah. Well, I guess Chick-fil-A is, too, probably. Right. You know, I guess, like, back to the arcade, we, you know, once we opened that big room, it really, it set us up for success. We had enough room to do, I think we can max out at about, like, 130 players. And I don't know what comes after that because I know if I guarantee you if we had a bigger space, we would have more people. I could easily. Yeah, I guarantee you I could get 150 people every week to show up just if we had bigger space. But like, I think we've reached that sweet spot where me, Rachel, and we have a fantastic tech, John Schappel, who's an amazing pinball player. We have an amazing staff that, you know, bar staff, management. I don't think we want to be any bigger. I think we've reached that sweet spot. We don't we don't want we don't really want to have bigger tournaments. I think the tournaments we have now are massive, but still intimate. Yeah. And we don't we don't want to have any other locations like so many people have asked us. We've people in Texas have asked us to open one out there. We turned them down. I mean, these are people who are like, you just like will bankroll everything. You guys just it's one. We want it to be in your vision and you do your thing. And the same thing happened in Hawaii. We had a team that was like they want us to start an arcade there. And we're just like and we're yeah, we're just like, no, we like we found our happy spot, you know, right here on the Venn diagram. You don't want to overdo it and then it become not fun anymore because it seems like y'all are still having fun with the whole business and everything. That's the best part. And you always hear, ever since I was a kid, you always hear that line where if you do something you love, you'll never work a day in your life. And most people never, most people, let's be real, most people think that's bullshit. But man, it's a journey and it's hard to get there. But when you do, you love waking up in the mornings. You know, you don't want to go sleep at night. It's just it's so much fun. We've found this perfect, perfect point where it's the perfect amount of human interaction. And we don't make we're not rich by any means, but but we don't have children and all our cars are paid for, our house is paid for. So we don't need a lot of money, but we have enough to survive and we have great friends and we have the best staff and the best business partners in the world. And we found this really happy point where it's the perfect combination of work and free time. And it just works and we love it. And we're doing something we enjoy. Even when we run into some real head scratcher, like what the hell is going on with this machine? Rachel and I have a blast with it. Right. You know, it's just so much fun troubleshooting and laughing and getting angry and going like, fuck Steve Ritchie. Like, why did he do this? You know, it's just like everything about this entire business and the industry of pinball is the coolest damn shit I have ever been involved in. And I've done some cool stuff in my life. Yeah, I've done I've had all these like insane hobbies. I was into like rebuilding outboard engines and all kinds of like weird shit. And then, yeah, once I got into the whole pinball hobby, just I don't I can't ever see myself getting out of this hobby yet. I've left so many other hobbies over the years. Yeah. Yeah, it's nuts. Isn't Spooky still a sponsor of this show, right? Mm hmm. Yeah. I can't leave the show without saying something amazing about Spooky. They I was having you know, we have a Beetlejuice at the arcade and people are freaking out. It's the only Beetlejuice on the in public in Arizona right now. So it's it's a big deal. It's getting a lot, a lot of plays. I sent you the audits. It's it's insane. But I had a part like fail on me. Right. And that happens with any pinball machine. That's not saying that the spooky games are no good. But I was telling you about it when I was on my way here. And when I was having an issue with it, I messaged Bug about it. Oh, they're on top of it, man. It could be like Saturday night and they'll be texting you. Even better than that. He's at Midwestern Gaming Classic setting up. Busy as shit. Check this out. He's doing a show. He's got a booth set up. He's doing a job. He has shit to do. He took time while I was on the phone with him to go to a machine. This is not a convention. He goes to a machine, shuts it down, takes the glass off, takes apart the mech to compare his mech to my mech, and we troubleshooted this thing on the phone while he's doing a show. I mean, who what other manufacturer is going to do that for you? There isn't one. I mean, George Gomez will kind of jump on and help you on Facebook, but he ain't going to go at a show and pull a part off of a game. Yeah, bro. I just had to say that. I love Bug. I love the whole crew over there at Spooky. They're great. Yeah, they've always been really responsive as far as me ever having any issues. And like when people are like there's so many people like they'll have an issue and they're too scared to reach out. I'm like, dude, you could be on the phone with them probably in five minutes and like they could be walking you through this. Just call them on the phone and quit bitching. Oh, for sure. For sure. And they want to help you out. Yeah. Oh, they're super nice. And that goes for all of the manufacturers. They really want to help you out. They're doing this because they love it. There's not many people actually getting rich in the pinball. And I'm talking about like even on the manufacturer space. I mean, all of these companies are actually around because they are into this. They really love doing this. Except Home Pin. I don't even consider them real. Are they real? I don't know. He said he hates like pinball enthusiasts or something. God, that dude, man. Have you ever played any of those games? Yeah, there's a, what the fuck's that one called? The Blues Brothers? No, the first one. Oh, the Team America or something like that? It's what Team America or whatever it's making fun of. Yeah, they got that one. And surprisingly, it never breaks. Like the arcade owner, he's like, that game never breaks. And it's probably because no one ever plays it. But yeah, it sucks. It's very boring. Yeah, that's crazy. I tell you what, we live in the best timeline. Because right now, I don't know if at any point there has ever been this many manufacturers pumping out machines. You know, you have, like I said, you have Spooky, this small team out of rural Wisconsin pumping out like amazing games. You know, David Van Es and the crew at Barrels, you know, in Texas doing this. And of course, JJP. And then you have the Behemoth Stern still doing this. I've said this so many times. People like to complain about everything, actually. But when it comes to pinball, people like to complain about the smallest non-issues. What a lot of people don't realize is this industry should not even be here. It makes zero sense. You know, if you think about it, let's say Pinball didn't exist and you went to Shark Tank and he's like, I have an idea. You're actually, you know, I've heard, listened to some episodes, you're actually working on a machine. So let's say you went to Shark Tank and say, I have this idea. I'm going to make these gigantic toys the size of a couch made out of glass, metal, wood, and solenoids. Yeah, and a shit ton of parts. A shit ton of parts and they're going to break constantly because you're going to be throwing a steel ball bearing at all of these parts at high velocities. Who's in with me? They would laugh you off the stage. This industry makes zero sense. It doesn't make any sense. You know, go play a video game. But because, you know, people like Gary Stern never gave up and he stuck with it. You know, I don't think JJP would be around if Stern wasn't around, you know. None of these. Nobody probably would be. No, because it would be dumb. You would waste your money trying to start up like something like this if Stern wouldn't have stuck with it this whole time. Yeah. And the people that were buying the Stern games, you know, when these new companies were starting up, they were the buyers of these new games more than likely. You know, people that were routing the Sterns or collecting them or whatever. Yeah, isn't that weird that the shift, you know, because you hear, it was in some interview a few years ago where Gary actually said 70% of Stern's inventory goes to the home. I believe. You know, I've talked to guys there recently and they say it's actually, nowadays it's more like 80%. Wow. Of these giant freaking games going to people's homes. That is unheard of. You know, when I first got into playing pinball, they were all on the streets. You know, I mean, they made 24, 000 Adams families in one year. You know, that was like a weird thing to see at someone's house. It would be like a Coke machine at someone's house. It's like, but why? Yeah, right. Yeah, exactly. Is that like a vending machine? Yeah. I guess pool tables are kind of the same kind of deal, right? At least those have been around without coin doors. Like, we still get a coin door. Everyone gets one of those, even though most of them are going to homes. Isn't that interesting? I mean, that's just tradition at this point. Oh, I'd be mad if you take my coin door away. Right. Like, it looks like that Turner game. Well, that's like with Barrels of Fun, their games come with a single slot coin door. It seems like that would be even harder to source. Or maybe I'm wrong. You would know from working at Marco's. Well, I don't know, but they're finding them. And maybe that, well, you know, they bought a lot of stuff from when Deep Root went under. Yeah. So maybe Deep Root was going to use the single coin slide, coin doors. But so a lot of their parts they're using did come from Deep Root. Like, so the displays that are in the back of their machines. Oh, yeah. Not the ones in the backbox, but the ones on the play field. Those are actually the touchscreens that were going to go on the deep root lock bar. That's wild. Yeah. So maybe that's where they got all the single slot coin doors. But so when we ordered a Dune from Barrels, we asked them to put – I was like, could you please put a two-slot coin door? Because when you're operating, you have to have two slots because one Canadian quarter, a loony, whatever they call it, those will get jammed in a mech. Yeah. The magnets will catch them. And then that game's down. You can't play it anymore. Right. Y'all don't do any like bill acceptors or anything. We have a few, you know, Retro Ralph, he operates a, I say operate, but he doesn't have to do anything because there's no maintenance on it. The Big Buck Hunter. Yeah. So there's a bill acceptor on that. And we have just one or two pinball machines with bill acceptors, but no, it's mostly all quarters and tokens. You know, you talking about this big buck hunter has got my distributor to become a distributor, and now he's selling these big buck hunters because of you talking about them? Oh, they're amazing. They make so much money. And the best part, we have never had to do any kind of maintenance on it. There's no CRT. It's a giant LCD screen. And we've operated other of the Raw Thrills shooters. Like we had this big Aliens game. I mean, this thing was like 750 pounds. We had a lot of problems with that. Oh, OK. And they're expensive as shit, some of them. Yeah, yeah. It was what we bought. It was used. And so we got to kind of deal on it. But they it uses some kind of weird Dell computer that's like proprietary proprietary. Like you can't just go get that Dell model and put it in the machine. I mean, it was a headache. But this thing, I don't know if there's a computer or anything because I've never had to open it up. I mean, it's obviously some kind of computer in there, but I don't know what kind. But, yeah, that game is a dream. So did you buy one from your distributor? No. I've been thinking about it. I don't want to pay the $40 a month or whatever it is to get all the games. Oh, we don't even do that. Oh, really? Yeah, so this one has all of the games loaded on there. Oh, you got the expensive one. Well, Ralph did it. I didn't do any of it. It's thousands of dollars more. Oh, is it really? It's like $4, 000 more or something. Yeah, because it has like The Walking Dead, Terminator. Or it's $40 a month, either or. Interesting. Okay, so, yeah, I thought you had to pay the $40 a month just to have the leaderboards. No, I mean, that's another perk. I guess you don't get that with the preloaded games. Yeah, it's like $11, 000 or something with the preloaded games. Holy crap. So it's like an LE. Yeah, and it's like seven something without the games. All right, Cale, I enjoyed having you on the show. And tell everyone how to get a hold of you if they need to or the electric vat, how to get a hold of the electric vat. Yeah, my phone number is 803-6… I'm just kidding. No, I would really love anybody to call me. But I'm going to have to do a little late work. I'll put it down in the notes, yeah. Yeah, right. Check us out. Keep up with all the fun at Electric Bat Arcade, Electric Bat Arcade on Instagram. Search Electric Bat Arcade on Facebook. We have a Discord, and it's not private. You don't have to pay to get on there. But if you go to our website, electricbatarcade.com, hit the podcast link at the top, and then there's a link to get on our Discord. We have over 500 people in there talking about all kinds of stuff, tournament director stuff, pinball, troubleshooting, just all kinds of fun stuff. We even talk about video games. I got to get on the Discord. Yeah, yeah. It's a blast, man. Come on. Well, cool. Well, until next time, man. _(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v5)_ --- *Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-06-06 | Item ID: ee2b6d70-b94f-46d5-bd31-a72fe134c532*