# Episode 14 - Erin Winick Anthony / Ian Goes to Hollywood! **Source:** Nudgecast **Type:** podcast_episode **Published:** 2025-09-09 **Duration:** 81m 2s **Beat:** Pinball **URL:** eb146a4e-8b38-11f0-b471-cfb0b13284cd --- ## Analysis Ian Jacobi and Shane Told of Nudge Magazine discuss upcoming pinball releases (Star Wars: Fall of the Empire, Predator), their recent travels, and the LA pinball scene's strength. They interview Erin Winnick-Anthony, a science communicator and world-ranked pinball player aboard a research vessel in the Pacific Ocean, about her work and the Houston pinball scene featured in Nudge Issue 5. ### Key Claims - [HIGH] Star Wars: Fall of the Empire is a new Stern game coming soon, running on Spike 3 hardware — _Ian Jacobi and Shane Told discuss the game being teased; they are visiting Stern the following week for a media day_ - [HIGH] Predator is an upcoming game from Pinball Brothers featuring world-class playability — _Ian mentions seeing a stream with 'Arvid Flygar' (likely Arvid Flygar), described as a 17-year-old top-5 pinball player, on Pinball Brothers' stream_ - [HIGH] Jaws 50th Anniversary edition will only be produced until the end of the year — _Ian Jacobi describes ordering Jaws 50th, mentioning FOMO marketing around limited production window_ - [MEDIUM] A Star Wars 50th Anniversary game is likely coming in 2027 — _Shane Told and Ian speculate that Stern will release a Star Wars game for the franchise's 50th anniversary in 2027_ - [HIGH] Stern has been streaming every existing Star Wars pinball game on their Twitch with Jack Danger as media ambassador — _Ian describes Jack Danger's new role and the streaming campaign including original, Hankin, and Sega Star Wars games_ - [MEDIUM] LA pinball scene is 'maybe the best in the country' — _Ian Jacobi's opinion based on recent visit to LA venues including Revenge Of, Ace Gogi, Walt's, and 82_ - [HIGH] Erin Winnick-Anthony is calling from the EV Nautilus research ship midway between New Zealand and Hawaii — _Erin describes her location, the ship's size (220 feet), speed (10 knots), and mission mapping the seafloor with sonar_ - [HIGH] Ian won two consecutive tournaments (2DCon and local Eau Claire tournament) — _Ian mentions being 2-0 in his last two tournaments, winning 2DCon and last night's local tournament_ ### Notable Quotes > "The LA scene first of all is maybe the best in the country... there's a lot of really cool pockets... whether you're talking about Revenja which is one of the best you know i'd say newer places... or ace goji... or downtown la with like 82 which um that place is always slammed every time I'm there." > — **Ian Jacobi**, ~22:00 > _Assessment of LA as a top-tier pinball market with diverse, well-stocked venues_ > "I'm really excited, I think. And also just, like, it feels in general, dude, like, pinball's still growing... I'm seeing more young people. I'm seeing just more people in general and just the talent level of pinball player... talent level is going up in general for people" > — **Ian Jacobi**, ~45:00 > _Observation of growth in pinball culture and rising competitive skill level_ > "I think we're living in a golden age of pinball right now. So I'm just trying to enjoy every bit of it." > — **Shane Told**, ~52:00 > _Industry sentiment on the current state of pinball as healthy and thriving_ > "as far as i'm seeing it's like they're about to release what probably will be their biggest game since godzilla... because of the theme" > — **Ian Jacobi**, ~50:00 > _Expectation that Star Wars will be a major commercial success for Stern_ > "So I'm currently at sea for my job aboard the EV Nautilus. I'm about halfway between New Zealand and Hawaii near some uninhabited islands known as Howland and Baker. So, yeah, not a lot of pinball out here from where I'm calling right now." > — **Erin Winnick-Anthony**, ~58:00 > _Guest context: professional science communicator on active research expedition while also being a pinball enthusiast_ > "I want to be able to make some stuff that's not about my work for once and make some other fun content in the middle there that's not all hard science stuff." > — **Erin Winnick-Anthony**, ~71:00 > _Motivation for creating pinball content alongside science communication work_ > "they had like twenty five games and it was all the newest, rarest stuff in perfect condition... Harry Potter... Dune... Evil Dead... Alice in Wonderland. I have not even seen that outside of, like, an expo or anything." > — **Ian Jacobi**, ~28:00 > _Ace Gogi described as having elite, curated game selection with rare titles_ > "i honestly think it might be hurting people to not have those games in there because it might be nice to have sure we all love having our like 19 million deadpool games where we just like it's just kicking our ass" > — **Ian Jacobi**, ~38:00 > _Tournament meta discussion about game selection strategy and player development_ ### Entities | Name | Type | Context | |------|------|---------| | Ian Jacobi | person | Editor-in-chief and publisher of Nudge Magazine; also known as 'Doc Monday'; co-host of Nudgecast; pinball player who won recent tournaments | | Shane Told | person | Co-host of Nudgecast; lead singer of band Silverstein; host of Lead Singer Syndrome Podcast; recently returned from European vacation | | Erin Winnick-Anthony | person | Science communicator, educator, writer; founder of STEAM Powered Media; ran Twitter account for International Space Station; world-ranked pinball player; featured writer in Nudge Issue 5 on Houston pinball scene | | Jack Danger | person | Stern Pinball media ambassador; streaming Star Wars games archive on Stern Twitch channel | | Arvid Flygar | person | 17-year-old pinball player described as top-5 world player; streamed Predator gameplay on Pinball Brothers channel | | Elizabeth Weinberg | person | Pinball player and venue contributor; guest on Nudgecast; familiar with Walt's venue in LA | | Carl D'Angelo | person | Skilled pinball player in LA area; present at Ace Gogi league night | | Raymond Ashby | person | World-class pinball player in LA area; played against Ian in Budge the Nudge; made Ian play TNA one-handed | | Alex Party | person | Artist who has done artwork for bands; pinball enthusiast; organized Lotzilla interactive art marketplace at Revenge Of | | Jeff | person | Owner/operator of Mad Pinball; distributor/retailer handling Star Wars pre-orders; described as sponsor and community figure | | Matt Blankenship | person | Tournament director in Eau Claire, Wisconsin; manages game bank selection for local tournaments | | Stern Pinball | company | Major pinball manufacturer; releasing Star Wars: Fall of the Empire on Spike 3; previously released Godzilla; has games in Costco | | Pinball Brothers | company | Pinball manufacturer with upcoming Predator game; has streaming channel | | Jersey Jack Pinball (JJP) | company | Manufacturer of Harry Potter pinball; described as 'killing it' in current market | | Spooky Pinball | company | Manufacturer with sold-out game; gearing up for next release in couple months; described as doing well commercially | | Nudge Magazine | company | Pinball lifestyle print magazine founded and published by Ian Jacobi; Issue 5 recently released featuring Houston pinball scene article by Erin Winnick-Anthony | | Mad Pinball | company | Pinball retailer/distributor offering NudgeCast promo code discounts and free shipping on Stern games | | Ace Gogi | company | Korean restaurant with pinball arcade in LA Valley with two locations; operates ~25 games curated by operator Shane on tilt pinball; hosts league nights | | Walt's Hamburgers | company | Pinball venue in LA featuring EM and solid state games; heavily trafficked with popular culture; operated by Jeff and Elizabeth Weinberg | | Revenge Of | company | Pinball arcade in Los Angeles; hosts Lotzilla events; venue for Nudge Issue 5 release party | | EV Nautilus | company | 220-foot research vessel conducting seafloor mapping via sonar; Erin Winnick-Anthony is aboard as science communication fellow | | Star Wars: Fall of the Empire | game | Upcoming Stern Pinball game running on Spike 3 hardware; major theme expected to drive significant sales; Stern streaming Star Wars archive in anticipation | | Predator | game | Upcoming Pinball Brothers game; viewed positively by Ian after seeing tournament-quality playthrough; has good flow mechanics | | Jaws 50th Anniversary | game | Limited production run ending Dec 31, 2024; ordered by Ian Jacobi; FOMO marketing around 50th anniversary timing | ### Topics - **Primary:** New Game Releases & Pipeline, Star Wars Pinball Franchise History & Anticipation, LA Pinball Venue Scene Quality & Curation, Tournament Structure & Game Selection Meta, Pinball Market Health & Growth Signals - **Secondary:** Science Communication & Career Outside Pinball, FOMO & Limited Edition Production Strategy, Nudge Magazine Operations & Community Engagement ### Sentiment **Positive** (0.82) — Hosts express enthusiasm about pinball growth, upcoming releases, and market health. Ian's tournament complaint about game selection is minor and self-aware. Overall tone is optimistic about 'golden age' of pinball. Erin's segment is purely informational with positive energy despite remote technical constraints. ### Signals - **[announcement]** Stern Star Wars: Fall of the Empire teased and set for imminent reveal; running on Spike 3 hardware (confidence: high) — Ian states 'the new star wars game fall of the empire has been teased' and mentions visiting Stern the following week for media day - **[product_strategy]** Jaws 50th Anniversary using limited production window (through end of year) as sales driver (confidence: high) — Ian: 'they kind of got me with the fomo a little bit they're like we're only making it till the end of the year' - **[sentiment_shift]** Ian's opinion of Predator improved after seeing tournament-quality gameplay stream (confidence: high) — Ian: 'when i when i told that name to someone... just recently had a stream of predator... it got me actually i hate to say this it got me psyched on predator i hate' - **[venue_signal]** Ace Gogi operating 25 expertly-curated games including rarest NA releases (Alice in Wonderland); operates as league venue (confidence: high) — Ian describes lineup: 'Harry Potter... Dune... Evil Dead... Alice in Wonderland. I have not even seen that outside of, like, an expo or anything' - **[market_signal]** Multiple signals of pinball market expansion: new players entering tournaments, younger demographic, skill level rising, games in Costco (confidence: high) — Ian: 'I'm seeing more young people... talent level is going up'; 'Stern has games in Costco right now... people are buying'; Shane: 'JJP's got to be killing it right now with Harry Potter. Dune seems to be doing really well' - **[content_signal]** Ian and Shane scheduled for first joint media day visit to Stern headquarters following week (confidence: high) — Ian: 'you and i are going to stern next week so that'll be fun... this is our first uh this is our first media day together that we're tag teaming' - **[competitive_signal]** Discussion of game bank management strategy and its competitive implications; long-playing games affecting round duration (confidence: medium) — Ian discusses tournament director pulling specific games and questions whether it's hurting competitive opportunities; debate over long-playing games like Jaws, Mando, Jurassic Park - **[business_signal]** Industry consensus that major manufacturers (Stern, JJP, Spooky) are performing well with no apparent financial stress (confidence: medium) — Shane: 'as far as we know, there's no reason to think that any of these pinball companies are hurting... I think we're living in a golden age of pinball right now' - **[licensing_signal]** Star Wars established as most-licensed pinball theme historically; 50th anniversary milestone (2027) likely triggers another Stern release (confidence: medium) — Shane/Ian discuss how Star Wars and Elvira are the two most-licensed themes; speculation that Star Wars 50th will get a game in 2027 - **[rumor_hype]** Spooky Pinball next release expected in 'maybe a couple months' but specifics not disclosed (confidence: medium) — Ian: 'Spooky is doing selling out their game and, you know, it seems like gearing up for their next release, too, in maybe a couple months' - **[personnel_signal]** Jack Danger promoted to media ambassador role at Stern; now leading Star Wars game streaming campaign (confidence: high) — Ian: 'jack danger in his new role as sort of like media ambassador... they've been streaming every star wars game that exists on the stern twitch' - **[design_philosophy]** Pinball Brothers' Predator praised for 'flow' in contrast to Alien's design; emphasis on shot ergonomics and playability (confidence: medium) — Ian: 'alien is a pretty underrated game... [Predator] actually kind of looks like it has some flow to it which was always my beef with alien' --- ## Transcript Need a pinball machine? Another pinball machine? Maybe some fat accessories like a topper or a shooter rod? Yes, you do. Hit up Jeff over at Mad Pinball for the best products and service, and use our promo code NudgeCast, and get a free exclusive t-shirt when you buy any game. And you also get free shipping on any new in-box stern. So many great games are out right now. Go pick one up. Hit up Jeff at MadPinball.com, and don't forget to tell them we sent you. Hey everybody, you're listening to NudgeCast, the official podcast of Nudge Magazine. That intro music you're listening to right now is the song Aphantasia by the Technicolors. I'm Ian Jacoby, a.k.a. Doc Monday, the editor-in-chief and publisher of Nudge Magazine. With me is my co-host, Shane Told of the band Silverstein and the Lead Singer Syndrome Podcast. Shane, I haven't talked to you in a while. How's it going? Yeah, man. I just got back from vacation. It's my first vacation in like six years. Nice. Went over to Europe. It's a pinball wasteland over there, but I had some fun doing things that weren't pinball. So that was very nice. What were you doing? You were looking at Roman ruins and stuff? Yeah, I did look at some Roman ruins. Went to Iceland. That was pretty crazy. I've only ever been to the airport. So we went to this crazy island where it's nicknamed Puffin Island because it's where all the puffins are. That was pretty sick, seeing all the puffins doing puffin stuff. It was really, really awesome. You had a very – your trip actually kind of sounds like our guest today. You had sort of like an old-school explorer adventure kind of. Yeah, I kind of did actually. It's so remote and just beautiful. But yeah, can we talk about our guest real quick so people know what to expect? This is kind of wild. So we are so lucky. We had our first guest, I guess, zoom in from a boat out in the middle of, I don't even remember what ocean. The Pacific Ocean. The Pacific Ocean, the cold one. Yeah, so out in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, Erin Winnick Anthony, who maybe some of our listeners are familiar with, but she wrote a really, really great article about the Houston pinball scene. She's from Houston and is like a science communicator. um she wrote a great article in issue five about the houston pinball scene and sort of like it's ties to nasa and all kinds of stuff so we had her on and it was great dude it was cool right it actually went yeah we told her we're like this is not the worst quality call we've we've had on one of these so pretty impressive no if if uh i haven't uh mixed it or edited it yet but if she sounds a little nasally or like she's on the phone it was just because she was in the middle of the ocean so yeah uh give give us and her a little bit of a break on that like literally they are like mapping out the entire not the entire ocean i think that would take a while but their section of the ocean and they're looking for like interesting stuff like critters and shipwrecks and all kinds of stuff it's really really really cool stuff so yep it's pretty pretty wild she's coming up but first let's talk about dude there are new games yes on the horizon like yeah um um the new star wars game fall of the empire has been teased at this point we are we are speaking on september 4th i don't know if tomorrow's friday if they're gonna be you know putting out some kind of trailer for it i really don't know but i do know that um you and i are going to stern next week so that'll be fun we are going to stern next week i can't wait yeah this is our first uh this is our first media day together that we're tag teaming but so if the people let's just say i'm a guy i'm hearing this right now i'm like oh damn i love star wars i love pinball i got some spare change in my pocket right now yeah it must be an amazing life how would i go about buying a pinball machine like how would i get that thing well first of all you have to have between seven and thirteen thousand dollars not a problem for me not a problem for me this perfect rich guy that i'm I'm the persona I'm assuming right now. No problem. And once you have that amount of cash or just credit even, because, you know, whatever, just worry about it. It'll be fine. Hit up our boy Jeff at madpinball.com or go to madpinball.com. And, yeah, get on the list for Star Wars, whether it's LE Premium or Pro. I know the prices are the same. And we're talking Spike 3, which we don't exactly know what that is yet, but exciting time. and I know Jeff's going to be getting a lot of allotment and they're the best in the business when it comes to service. But if you do buy that new Stern machine, you get a free t-shirt from us, exclusive. And yeah, I think it's just the way to go. Jeff's the best. Jeff is the best. And guys, this is just like the tip of the iceberg. There are so many games coming out over the next couple of months. There is this one. there is i i just saw a stream of predator with arvid flygar and uh when i when i when i told that name to someone i had to repeat it six times and even so they said you're making that name up that's not a person i said no that's like a 17 year old that's like the best pinball player in the world but uh just recently had a stream on pinball brothers stream of the new predator got me actually i hate to say this it got me psyched on predator i hate yeah i um i gotta say man i think alien is a pretty underrated game uh-huh um there's a lot to do in that game like it's you know it's a wide body there's a lot of shots like it shoots pretty well and um i think pinball brothers has potential to make some some good games this one actually kind of looks like it has some flow to it which was always my beef with alien i think alien's a beautiful game i think the theme integration is amazing i think it's a little bit clunky for me to shoot uh most of the ones that i have found but um like i said they were quite smart to get the number five pinball player in the world to stream their game for him because he makes anything look uh easy but um yeah super interesting so if you guys are interested go check out that youtube stream and then yeah hit up jeff at mad pinball um super nice guy super friendly he's he's like always available extremely online I would say if that wasn't maybe a derogatory term, but he's always out and about. He has his finger in many pies. Well, he's a huge – he's just a fan like all of us. He's a pinball head. He absolutely is, and he loves this stuff as much as anybody. So yeah, he's the best. Use our promo code NudgeCast if you're buying it straight offline, if you don't want to talk to anybody. but if you uh hit up jeff mention us and uh get that shirt and uh yeah free shipping on stern games and um the best service in the biz okay that's right that's right all right moving on i didn't tell you i actually ordered a jaws uh 50th you did jaws 50th yeah i got a jaws 50th coming from jeff so hell yeah well that's awesome dude i mean you're gonna have so much fun on that on that game and the 50th is really cool looking so yeah yeah i mean i've wanted to get a jaws for a while now and this was like they kind of got me with the fomo a little bit they're like we're only making it till the end of the year yeah i was like ah okay i'll get one while i can i mean they only have a 50th anniversary once so here's the thing dude you're gonna have to wait though because for the to buy a star wars game because you know what happens in 2027 right that's 50th anniversary of star wars baby so i'm assuming it would be shocking if they didn't do that i mean there is no way they're not we've gotten how many star wars games it's been really funny so uh and and uh like as we are recording this right we haven't seen a reveal of of the new game yet but what stern has been doing with jack danger in his new role as sort of like media ambassador is they've been streaming every star wars game that exists on the stern twitch so that's really fun like they started with some normal ones they started with like uh the star wars like the original one that borg made for um i think it's daddy yeah it's a daddy star wars but they played the hankin one uh which is like an old australian game and they even played there was a crazy uh i mean the oh they played the i think it's sega like star wars trilogy um yeah it's it's been like fun to watch that and it's funny to notice it's like yeah i guess star wars is sort of the pinball theme right like you don't know honestly i always think of it that way but uh it's seems like it's been themed more than anything else by by quite a bit yeah it's like star it's like star wars and elvira exactly dude that's so funny inside everyone there are two wolves luke skywalker and Elvira. I think Elvira won for me. I think I'm more of an Elvira guy. Dude, we have so much. I feel like I'm all over the place because we haven't talked in a while. You talked about you went on vacation. I sort of went on a vacation. I went on a working vacation, I would say. But we had the release. If you're listening to this right now, Nudge 5 is is out there it's starting to get out to people i'm i'm shipping the first ones out today but we had a special issue five release at revenge of and we did a and we did a uh budge the nudge out there in los angeles so i went out for three days and uh if you want to i can i can break down i can tell you dude the la scene first of all is maybe the best in the country and i don't say that lately yeah i mean there's a lot going on out there and um yeah i mean it's spread out right that's the the one thing about it it's very spread out but yeah there's a lot of really cool pockets um whether you're talking about revenja which is one of the best you know i'd say newer places um ace goji with their two locations like uh out in the valley with you know they always have like the top games and then you've got downtown la with like 82 which um that That place is always slammed every time I'm there. And then you've got some of the niche places like Walt's, which I know Elizabeth Weinberg, one of our first guests, talked a lot about Walt's. So, yeah, man. And that's just a few right there. I'm not even getting into like some of the places in Orange County and like all around too. There's so much out there. Well, and I think the driving stuff is really overblown, to be honest with you, because we all know pinball players drive, right? They really do. So like I'll drive an hour 15 for a tournament pretty regularly. Like we have a weekly tournament in Minneapolis. I'll make that drive. No problem. But yeah, so it was truly overwhelming. So I flew in last Thursday, which was Ace's first league night of the season. So they've been out for the whole summer, like three, three and a half months, something like that. And it was crazy. So anyone who doesn't know, Ace Goge is a Korean restaurant, like very typical, kind of like, you know, you grill your own meat at the table. But also it's run by this. They have they have an operator there named Shane on tilt pinball, I think is his is his pinball company. But holy crap, dude, they had like twenty five games and it was all the newest, rarest stuff in perfect condition. Let me just tell you. Hold on. Let me just tell you the one lineup. Okay, so going from left to right, let me think. Harry Potter. Okay, like, cool. That's crazy. Kind of new. C.E. Yep. Yep, Harry Potter C.E. Then we had a, I believe it was a Dune. So that's cool. And it played great. Amazing Dune. Evil Dead. And then at the end of that lineup was an Alice in Wonderland. I have not even seen that outside of, like, an expo or anything. No, I mean, I think they just hit North America. I, you know, that's one of the rarest games right now. I know before that, because I was there only a couple months ago, you know, it's not that far from where I live, they had a Ninja Eclipse, too. Yeah. So they're constantly cycling in some of the rarest games. And then the adjacent wall is, like, all Stern LEs. Yep. Yeah. So. Yep. And then they always have a nice selection of, like, I think they have a Congo there. They have a Dirty Harry there, last I checked. Like, they've got some really cool 90s games as well. Dude, they totally switched over the retro lineup. I know the wall you're talking about. And now they have a Spanish game called Dragon that I had never seen before. They had a – it was a Capcom. I think it's called – it's not Air Force, but it's a great game. And I had never really seen it before. It was rare as hell. Yeah, super rare. And it's in perfect condition. I mean, cabinet art was great. And, dude, just so – to talk about the people at Ace, it was just like – it was so cool because you have amazing players. like Carl D'Angelo's out there, Raymond Ashby, and then everyone down until more schlubby players like me were there. But, man, everyone was having a great time. It was just great food, super good energy. So that was Thursday night. Friday night I spent it all night at Walt's. I got to hang out with Elizabeth and Eliz and her partner Andy and this guy Jeff who runs Walt's. And, dude, Walt's is like it's all EMs and solid states. They have a couple like 90s games. I think they have a Fishtails there and maybe something else. Oh, I love Fishtails. Yeah, dude. But what's overwhelming about Waltz is just how popular it is, like not just with pinball people. Like that place is bumping. It was like kind of the who's who. Like everyone there was way hotter than me, way younger than me. It seemed like they had a lot going on. It was packed wall to wall. But, yeah, I got to play a ton of games with Jeff and Liz and hang out there and eat some giant hot dogs. And then Saturday all day was crazy. We were so lucky. I think you're probably familiar with there's an artist named Alex Party. Have you heard of him? Yes. Yeah. He's done a bunch of like artwork for bands in my scene. Yep. I believe. And yeah, and he's also a pinball guy. He is a bit of a pinball guy. And he took over Revenge Of has this thing called Lotzilla a couple times a year where it's basically like an outdoor marketplace. marketplace so they can have like really cool it's kind of like like we were there and people like us right like that are selling just interesting art and clothing and stuff like that but alex party took over a lot zilla and he had this crazy uh sort of interactive exhibit with like sculptures of like these like a lot of his characters that he draws and stuff like that so i did that all day and i got to meet tons of pinball people i think you know sold a lot of magazines and just the coolest part though truly was like getting to meet both new people and people that i only knew from the internet right um and and say hey to them and then after i baked in the california sun all day i was feeling like total shit we ran a bud we ran a budge the nudge at revenge of so that's just like everyone 1v1ing me like two player games and i was just sprinting from game to game as soon as i would get done with one i would go to the next one and uh you'll be able to read about that experience um in some upcoming nudge articles and stuff but man suffice to say like i was a charred husk of a human being by the time i got by the time raymond ashby got done with me i was i was a charred husk he made me play tna one-handed so with him so uh yeah it was uh it was an amazing experience i can't wait to practice all this practice uh budging the nudge out there in California seems to have paid off since we're looking at a recent tournament winner from last night at your local tournament in Eau Claire, right? I'm actually 2-0 in my last two tournaments because I did 2DCon and I won 2DCon. And then, yeah, I won the local last night. Just like 20 people, something like that. So a small, small. Nice job. Man, a win's a win. I'll take it. We got some good players. So yeah, it was real fun. And I always give our TD, so Matt Blankenship, Shout out to Matt. He takes a lot of shit from me during tournaments because if I ever get anything less than a one or two, I immediately say, why is Mando not in the bank? Why is Jurassic Park not in the bank? I'm just like a total baby. I'm like, where are my favorite games? Oh, was it a pin? Was it a pin golf tournament? No, he just he's a really he's a really see this is this is actually this will be some fun therapy to talk about. I think the people will be interested in this, too. So here's a conundrum. right guys matt's a new newish td he's been doing this for over a year but i mean he does his own thing and even though we have like a pretty big bank of games to pick from he usually keeps a couple out i don't know if it's because like he wants some backup or various issues but it has kind of come to my attention that typically the games he pulls are all games that i have gcs on isn't that funny i agree he's coming for you man he's like and he's a great player he wins a lot too he wins the tournaments a lot too and so that's what i mean is like i'm kind of like yo okay you took mando out i have gc on that you took jp out i have gc on that you took jaws out i don't have gc but i have several scores in the top four uh and i understand those some of those are long players exactly hold on though that's that's totally what it is maybe that's what it is but you know what you know what else is a long player when you play it right fucking anything like we have we have we have an avengers in the tournament that can be a long player i have made it a long player in the tournament you know like so so to me sometimes especially like we're a tournament with not a ton of super duper strong tournament players like uh there aren't a lot of people who travel for pinball or live the freak life like me so i honestly think it might be hurting people to not have those games in there because it might be nice to have sure we all love having our like 19 million deadpool games where we just like it's just kicking our ass but you know sometimes it would be nice to so what would you if you were me what's like the nice way because i can't really do it the nice way how do i broach like hey let's put some of these other games in the bank what would you do if you were me shane i mean i would just ask him why they're out and get a clear concise answer first uh-huh and it's probably because they're longer players but then to your point i mean i assume it's is it like a group match play format yep you said ones or twos i understand what that meant you mean first or second first or seconds yeah sorry so seven five three one yep that's why we said one or two i was like are you talking about a pin like pin I just think about places, sorry. No, all good, all good. But I mean the issue though it like okay so if Jaws or Mando are longer playing games but you still have Avengers Well if Avengers is in every round you still have to wait for that entire round to finish anyway So I get pulling the absolute longest playing game if that's going to be the one that... I think in our tournaments out here, a lot of times John Wick seems to be a very long player. That's weird. With the new code. Interesting. It's pretty long now. It's a lot easier to get those multi-balls, and the multi-balls are freaking long multi-balls now. But yeah, there's a few long players that always end up dragging down the tournament and making the rounds go longer. Yeah. Especially when you play on an EM and the entire game is over in like six minutes. Right. And then you have to wait 25 minutes for the round on the modern stern. So I get it. But I would say maybe suggest, hey, maybe don't take up the same games all the time. Like, you know, let's share the love a little bit. And you know what? Maybe I just need to keep my big, fat mouth shut because who won last night, right? And, like, no one likes to see a guy who's winning and also complaining the whole time. Like, you know, that's like – The only thing worse than a sore loser is a sore winner. Exactly. And that's like a LeBron vibe or something, right? You're, like, winning the game and you're complaining that it's not happening in the right way. I don't want to come off that way. So maybe the right answer truly is to just shut my fat trap, and we'll see. But, yeah, it's been a great – I mean, I feel really locked in on pinball. I'm really excited, I think. And also just, like, it feels in general, dude, like, pinball's still growing. I know that there are questions about the business side of pinball, but I think culturally I'm seeing more young people. I'm seeing just more people in general and just the talent level of pinball player I can tell you from Budge the Nudge from playing 35 people back to back to back to back to back talent level is going up in general for people people know how to start modes they know how to shoot for what they want to shoot for they're not just flipping at it anymore and that makes me so happy it truly reminds me of a 90's skateboarding boom Right. Yeah. The cultural like the cultural footprint of it is just bigger than it was even five years ago. So super cool. Yeah, I think so. And I mean, you know, you bring up a lot of people are asking the questions about the business side of, you know, people people saying is Stern selling enough games, you know, to to feed that huge factory that we're going to be seeing next week. you know and like it's really just people speculating nobody really knows like no one's like looking through the the the stern financials it's not a publicly traded company yes but like as far as i'm seeing it's like they're about to release what probably will be their biggest game since godzilla you gotta figure you're saying because of the theme the theme probably because of the theme yeah because of the theme they've got games in costco right now yeah which by all accounts people are buying. I'm reading on, you know, pinball enthusiasts, people, you know, coming out of the woodwork on a Facebook group to be like, what about this? You know, it seems like there are a lot of people that are getting into this right now. And yeah, you know, I think it really truly is growing, you know, and here in Vegas, there's new players coming to the tournaments, you know, talking about getting their first game and everything. So I think, I really do think we're going through a special time. And yeah, I don't know. I mean, people can speculate all they want about it, but as far as we know, there's no reason to think that any of these pinball companies are hurting. JJP's got to be killing it right now with Harry Potter. Dune seems to be doing really well, and we all know how well Spooky is doing, selling out their game and, you know, it seems like gearing up for their next release, too, in maybe a couple months. Yeah, I've said it before, and I'll say it again. I think we're living in a golden age of pinball right now. So I'm just trying to enjoy every bit of it. I know, like, you know, to be selfish, right? Like, it's been really easy to feature things in Nudge because there's so much going on. There's so many people. And, yeah, so we have Aaron Winnick-Anthony coming up. I do want to say, if you are interested at all in any of the stuff that we talk about or you want to support Nudge in any meaningful way, please, please, please go to NudgePinball.com. pick up an issue 5 you can buy the regular version for $19.99 under $20 it's like really nice set and cover it's full it's got it's the biggest one we've ever done it's full of stories and really cool art and it's all pinball focused I think you guys are really going to like it if you want a deluxe issue it comes with art it's basically like $40 and a bunch of other like really really rad stuff I we are going to run we were going to end presales this week uh we've we've run into some personal financial difficulties so i'm keeping it open for another couple weeks for y'all uh and um yeah i would just i would just encourage y'all to to please check it out nudgepibball.com issue five uh available now so absolutely back issues are still available too right back issues are available but i will say this if you want a special edition of any of the previous issues, wait. Wait until Expo because I'm going to have the nice covers there of issues one through five. All of them. I'm going to have some cool art. I just want to see some people's faces and hand them magazines. Yes, the back issues are there, but I would say bye-bye-bye, to quote Zach Many. Bye-bye-bye, issue five, right now, and come see us at Expo and come get the other ones. And to quote Jack Winari, wait on the back issues. Do not. Do not. Wait until you see it. You're going to want to save your money. Don't buy any Sports Illustrateds. You're going to want to save your money for nudge. All right, guys. On that note, on that very professional note, up next is Aaron Winnick-Anthony. Here she is. all right shane our next guest is a science communicator influencer educator and writer she's the founder of steam powered media uh has run the twitter account for the international Space Station. That's pretty cool. And was a regular writer for NASA. Maybe you've heard of it. She's also a world-ranked pinball player who owns a couple games and is super active in the Houston pinball scene, which she wrote about in Nudge 5. You can follow that journey, her pinball journey, on her social media series, Learning to Flip. Please welcome to the show, Erin Winnick-Anthony. Hey, Erin. Hello. Thanks for having me. Thanks for doing it, Erin. This is like pretty crazy. So you're calling in from an actual boat right now. Yes, I am calling in from a ship. So I'm currently at sea for my job aboard the EV Nautilus. I'm about halfway between New Zealand and Hawaii near some uninhabited islands known as Howland and Baker. So, yeah, not a lot of pinball out here from where I'm calling right now. But, yeah, my job takes me kind of some weird places sometimes. They don't let you bring a machine on the boat? You know, I wish. So I'm only allowed to bring carry-on luggage. So my goal is to get that American Girl doll working pinball machine and bring it on one of these things one day. So if someone has one of those they want to give me, that is legit on my bucket list to do. Well, there you go. Yeah, definitely. I guess probably with the waves. I always wonder that because every once in a while you'll see pinball machines on cruise ships. and I'm like how I mean they're not doing IFPA tournaments there I hope because that would be chaos I think like you know how they do like a cruise for everything these days like you know there's like music cruises and like whatever hobby they do a cruise I think you could still do a pinball cruise like maybe the randomness of the ocean just like makes it a little bit you know a little bit more fun why not it's an extra factor there's enough ocean themed pinball machines out there we can go fully on brand with some like sea witch and stuff you know that's right Caribbean cruise, the cocktail. I do like it. There you go. Yeah. Right now, so the ship I'm on is about 220 feet, so it's a lot smaller than a big cruise ship. I'll switch to show you all my view from out back right now. Wow. For the listener, we're literally looking at, like, a giant winch on the open sea, and someone's, like, walking on the deck right now. It's crazy. That's Deb. She's working on our, like, robots that work on board. And it does look kind of rocky, like it's moving around. Like, yeah, you couldn't play. You guys are cruising. Yeah, we're going at about 10 knots right now. So we're not like a crazy fast ship, but we're a seafloor mapping ship. So we have sonar going out of the bottom that's mapping underneath us, so we can't go super fast. That's so dope. Wow. So can you tell us what exactly you're doing out there? Yeah, fair question. So, yeah, my job in general is that I am a science communicator, which means I help scientists and engineers explain what they do to the world, basically. So on board here, I'm a science communication fellow, which means I'm doing calls with, like, elementary, high school kids all around the world to be able to showcase the stuff we're doing on board. I'm making a bunch of social media content and videos interviewing all the scientists, highlighting this work. I'm hosting live broadcasts, which my pinball commentary is coming in handy for that, to be able to showcase all of moderated talks and stuff to show what we're doing during this time. So, yeah, my whole job is really writing social media and video all about science. And that's kind of why I started making pinball content originally, because I was like, I want to be able to make some stuff that's not about my work for once and make some other fun content in the middle there that's not all hard science stuff. So you're kind of like a science influencer, if that's cringy to say. Yeah, Bill Nye in the modern age, if you might put it that way. So not everyone has a PBS show these days that's sharing about science. Well, you're kind of reaching a different section of people than you would be with a PBS. So that's really, really cool. And I think, I had this as a question, and maybe you can talk about it, but I'll phrase it as not a question, but I just think right now it feels like especially just like not even getting into politics or anything, but just like science is important right now. There's a lot of really cool stuff happening, a lot of really interesting stuff happening, and we have these channels through social media and YouTube and stuff, so I just think it's probably a job that didn't even exist maybe 15 or 20 years ago that is like instrumental right now and just getting like the lay person to understand this yeah 100 and i think that one of the things that i strive to do is try to reach people who aren't already engaging with like science and space content stuff because i think that's like the prime audience to try to reach is people that aren't already like actively watching science documentaries every weekend who are usually the ones who find this content in the first place but that's why i kind of love doing the calls that i do out here because like i sometimes I'm calling into a bar trivia event in Texas, and then I'm calling into a fourth grade group in Florida 30 minutes later. And it's like the dynamic shift is very funny, but also to reach these kids that are screaming at the camera and then people who are all drinking with their beers. It's very cool to be able to tap into all these different groups. Very well-rounded, yeah. I was going to say, actually, I don't think fourth graders and sort of drunk trivia people are honestly that different at all. Fair enough, fair enough, yeah. they're both they're both like i know a fact you know and then uh and then they both want to know all about sharks too that is for sure so yeah love that what are you having a moment sharks always having a moment hopefully you don't encounter too many out there in the open sea but you know not too much yes yeah i mean you know that jaws pinball machine is pretty uh pretty badass though let's be honest yeah see that's that's the one that'll go on that cruise you were talking about oh there you go that's right yeah you got it we brought up sea witch and caribbean cruiser we didn't even bring up jaws so you have to um there you go so what exactly is your education like your background what what um did you study and um does any of it help you with pinball like did you study any like physics like are you like locking in how to hit those ramps based on uh any sort of calculating highly educated calculating yes calculating the odds of hitting ramps due to the, yeah, you know, all the different stuff. Yeah. Yeah. Definitely my heads up display is going wild. No. Um, yeah, I have a, I have a mechanical engineering degree. Um, so, uh, so ish. Yeah. That's part of the reason, honestly, pinball was such like a thing that drew me to it is all the mechanical parts. I've never, I haven't gotten into like a huge amount of pinball machine repair, but I've enjoyed learning about all the different aspects of it. But, yeah, in my job, I use it mainly to be able to talk engineer and talk technical to people and then be able to translate that jargon for the general public now. An engineering degree is really like a problem-solving degree. And, yes, I learned how to use CAD and, like, fluid dynamics and stuff. But that was a decade ago, and I forgot a lot of the differential equations parts of it all. But more than anything, it's being able to, like, talk on the same level and understand kind of the verbiage that people are going to be talking about these. One of the big things that the ship does as well is uses remotely operated vehicles, So like robots that go down to the seafloor and like look at cool creatures down there. And so I can go talk to the ROV pilots about all the stuff they're doing and then be able to share that and translate it. And pinball similarly, you know, I can go talk about some some coils and some wireframes to some people and then hopefully go share it with the people who are not pinball fanatics on social media about what all that means. Yeah, for sure. It's funny. There are so many engineers in pinball, right? A lot of electrical engineers, really, that I've that I've met. And those are a lot of times the people, it's funny that you mentioned that, about having a little bit of technical knowledge to get you started on repairs and things like that. Because a lot of those people I see, repairing becomes more fun for them than playing. I don't think you're there yet. I think you are still a player above a fixer. But you do see that quite a bit in the community. Yeah, I've met those people, though, and they've tried to convert me, and I'm not there yet. So what games what games do you own at home? You do have at least one. I have one. So I have a cocktail machine. It's circa 1933, which is like an annoying name because everyone thinks it's from 1933, but it's from like 1979. But yeah, it's one of the ones you sit down and play and it's themed after Art Deco stuff. So, yeah, it's a kind of funky one, but I'm a fan. That's funny that you that you have a cocktail machine. because I was mentioning Caribbean Cruise. I don't know if you've played that. I think it's a Gottlieb. Yeah. But that's wild. Yeah, I know. I, for some reason, gravitated towards this one, and also, like, as my first machine, I wasn't looking to get, like, a Walking Dead that had, like, zombies in my living room, and this one kind of, like, fit into the aesthetic. It was, like, a good getting into it, but I definitely want to get an EM next. I have, like, literally a spot is already saved in the house for it. We have a pretty good EM repair crew that's in the Houston area where I live, so that's what I'm kind of eyeing next. Word. Cool. And you are married, so have you run by any potential titles with your husband? That's always the hard part, right, is getting your partner to sign off on it. Yeah, so I got my husband into pinball after I'd been playing for a bit, but weirdly he's more into the buying than I am, so that was not a hard thing to do. his dream would be to own a congo he loves congo uh so um so that's like top of his list but that's not an easy one to come across and also like for me if i was gonna spend that much money i'd rather get like a godzilla but you know that's the debate that happens in that area as far as ems we're both pretty like we we love that era and or like an early solid state so we're both pretty on board as long as the back glass isn't too weird that's kind of our other qualification you're gonna have to find something that matches aesthetics too when you got such a vibey first game. So I will just throw this out there because we know this is my favorite game and it does have an Art Deco theme. The Shadow could be a great pairing here. The Shadow has a great Art Deco kind of like lower third and then I love the upper play field. But you know, everyone who's listening to this already knows that I'm such a hater. Also not that easy to come across. Probably about just as common as Congo I'd say. Probably similar. Yeah, true. But no, great game. Also great. Yeah, I mean, with your background, though, I think an EM could be really fun. And you could pick up one for a couple hundred bucks, probably, and really work on it and figure out how all that stuff works. And I have a couple of EMS that are broken that I am working on. So yeah, it's a good time. But it can be very frustrating when you're like, why won't this work? Yeah, I'm definitely not in the want to get a fully broken one. And I'm like, I want to get an EM that's working decently well that I can maintain to start out with, I think. Because we did have at our house for a while a Super Score. If you're familiar with that one, it has the roulette wheel thing at the bottom. So it has a second ball in it that has a little wheel that spins and it randomly lands on an A, B, or C at the bottom. Speaking of our great EM community, Spence in our community has lent me that machine. We had that one for about a year while he was... you know, the people that have a million machines and are repairing them and they need space to put one. I'm like, yes, absolutely. You can put one in our house. So that was very fun to have like a random like mini flipper fun one there. And that definitely is where the space got carved out. It was like, okay, we need to fill that with our own machine now. It's funny to think about. There is actually some really fun like when people talk about mechs and sort of those sort of things, they're usually thinking, right, like post-80s. It's fun to think about some of the things that like, Shane, you have a doodle bug, which is the most hilarious. Dipsy Doodle. Dipsy Doodle, yeah, that's what I was thinking. It does have a lower play field, you know, mech, you know, for lack of a better word. Lack of a better term, but I mean, that was like the thing in those games, and so it's kind of awesome to see. I mean, Aaron, I'm sure you have an appreciation for it too, as the technology increased what they were able to artistically sort of implement with, you know they were just being really creative and and there weren't kind of like rules to follow so um it's just like a really interesting time i think for pinball yeah absolutely it's funny because i brought up of course i'm talking pinball to people on the ship they're all like okay who's this pinball girl who's coming on here now but i found out that everyone always wants to tell you about the pinball machine from their childhood you know yes and so i found um one of the guys on board he said he owned a sweet adeline from like a 1955 gotlieb like wood rail machine and And because of this he went and looked up to see like okay are these still around And he found this person on reddit that was trying to sell a machine that he thinks is his from like two decades ago and now he's thinking about trying to buy it back yes so we started a whole pinball journey for someone on the the ship again so you know we're gonna need you to follow him that's your next nudge story because that sounds you know what a quest amazing well i just looked up the game because i i've never heard of sweet add a line yeah july 1955 got leap only 800 produced so it's not impossible that it's the same game like out of 800 how many of those just you know ended up in the trash probably a good a good number yeah exactly when he told me that i went and looked up i found there's one on location at the paris pinball museum and this picture the person posted it's also missing like the lower apron and has like some mark on the plunger lane or whatever that matched his. So he's convinced. Whoa. So he's going on a little journey. I love that. That's amazing. So we've been talking already about EMs and older games. I guess, and we'll get into your article in a little bit here, but maybe can you talk about the Houston pinball community? Because I think it's rare to have an appreciation for that, especially like you're not necessarily new to pinball, but like new-ish and you already are like going way down that rabbit hole. So I guess I'm just curious, like how are you exposed to EMs or pinball or, yeah, just kind of give us that background. Yeah, so I moved to Houston about eight months before COVID. And so like that's kind of the amount of time where you like have just gotten settled and are starting to try to get into a community. And then I was like, okay, I know no one here now. And so it was kind of like shut down for a few years. And coming out of that, I've watched Twitch and stuff in general and came across Wormhole Pinball's streams on Twitch, which if you know Jamie Burchill, he was very excited about. This is how I found that. So I looked up and was like, what exactly is this? I'd been to Game Preserve. It's like an arcade that's near NASA, just a couple times for fun. And I learned that there were tournaments there, and this was kind of a thing. So I went and like Wormhole at the time was like really like underground. You couldn't really find where it was, but I did some digging and found like its address on like the IFPA page. And I showed up there by myself at this abandoned like building. It looked very creepy at the time, but I walked in and they were like, how did you find us? Yes, absolutely. You can come play. And Jamie was psyched that I found them through Twitch. I paid my first tournament. I got last place, as you would at a place like that. but everyone was like super fun and again i was like i really was trying to find a community locally and that was kind of the okay these people are all my type of people um this is pretty cool and then i started kind of branching out from there and like my second tournament there jamie got me on the mic on commentary because like this is something i'm relatively comfortable with doing and he was excited to like have me tell this story um and i just kind of kept going from there yeah i think and you do a great job um commenting on on pinball i think is there sort of what are you looking to it's a hard sport to to commentate on because it happens so fast but also each game is quite different in its rule set sort of how are you attacking like when you're on mic for those tournaments what are you kind of thinking about or what are you looking to express to people yeah you know it's like a lot of my like content stuff i make is really for the non-pinball crowd and so i really want to try to always be accessible in what i'm doing because i think a lot of pinball commentary is assuming that you know at least 90 of the rule set already um and so trying to give a little bit of like context keep it fun and like that's what very much the kind of tone of houston pinball i know you've been to the houston arcade expo it's people having a good time, right? And trying to have that be conveyed. It's like, that's what you want to come across on like a Houston stream. So very much that. And I've also took over kind of doing a lot of the bells and chimes commentary, which again, is very much trying to get women into pinball. So again, trying to be as accessible as possible and not, you know, assume that someone's read the entire rule set of Godzilla. So yeah, exactly. Well, what do you do when you're, when you're up and you got to talk about a game and you don't really know that much about it? Are you just honest? Or Are you like quickly scouring like, you know, whatever's posted on, you know, a pin sour or call it, you know, call his website or whatever. Yeah. Kineticist that has great, you know, great breakdowns. A mix of the two. So usually I'm not on Mike by myself, so I'm not afraid to say when I don't know something. My goal usually is a case like that is to have someone like that does know that stuff. because honestly that's a lot of my job. I'm usually sitting with a scientist who knows much more about a thing than me, but I'm like the conduit for the people that don't know. And I think like a lot of times when people go talk to a scientist or an expert or anything, you want to feel like you're an expert too and you don't want them to feel like you're dumb. And like it's important to be able to be willing to ask some of those basic questions and be willing to be that person. So if I'm sitting with a Colin, let him explain the mini wizard mode that I haven't gotten to on Foo Fighters in a long time, or if I have, I don't remember all the rules of. If it's me and Jamie, he's always like, oh, no, we need to get someone else here because we're both in the same boat on our rule set knowledge a lot of the time. He says that to me, too. So rude. God. I know, right? So, yeah, it's a mix. Yeah, word. And I think that's so good to hear. I think a lot of... Because, look, pinball is being streamed now more than ever before, and I think it's going to continue to grow in that way. That's really great advice, I think, to give people who are just starting out, whether you're streaming from your local arcade or you're streaming at home. You can feel like you need to be the expert because it's like, oh, it's my stream and I don't want someone to call me a noob. I don't want someone to be mean to me. But I think you're absolutely right. The best thing you can do is when you don't know, just say you don't know and that's okay. And, I mean, you're obviously a very, very smart person. And that's something I've had to learn, not necessarily saying that I'm smart, but I didn't want to front – when I'm interviewing someone for Nudge or for anything as a journalist, it took me a little while to kind of get past the ego of like, oh, I want them to like me or I want them to think that I'm smart. They'll actually think I'm smarter if I ask a clarifying question. I'm like, hey, could you just explain this the dumb way or something like that? because you'll communicate those ideas way more effectively. So that's great advice. Yeah, I had a scientist who we were talking with a middle school group, and they had talked about the mapping the other day. It's like, yeah, we have our multi-beam echo sounder on the BAP. They create the detailed bathymetric maps of the seafloor. And I was like, okay, so I don't think they know what this is. Well, let's break it down to that sound, kind of like bats using echolocation that bounces up the seafloor and how long it takes to come back. It's how deep it is. I was like, that was the college answer. And so also being that translator, when someone says something like that, I was like, cool, yes, and that means you do this. So, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. Makes a lot of sense. So I guess this is shifting gears a little bit, but so you told us, like, you basically started playing competitively as soon as you started playing pinball almost. Like, it was quite early on. When you play competitively, what era do you prefer? I think a lot of people prefer moderns. Are you in that camp? What are you looking to play when you are seeing a bank of games? I love an early solid state. That's my fave. I like kind of that 80s era of machine probably most. Honestly, I love classics in general. I think it's partially because the rule set is more simple, and it's a little bit more like I've, you know, started to learn to tap pass and be able to alley, but like learning like those sort of things. I don't know. I really love digging my teeth into that sort of era of machine. I think it also just goes along with the mechanical engineer part of it, of like being able to see all these, I don't know, the things that just make sense mechanically. Don't get me wrong. I love a modern too, but I also, with how much I travel, I don't get the chance to practice the moderns in the, like the speed that they release. I just, it's hard for me to keep up with all of the rule sets, to be able to compete competitively in tournaments for them. So it's hard for me to truly be able to be at the top of the tournament for one of those, where if it's classics, I can usually look up pin tips, get a few things, and then with the skill set I have, come to it and still do decently well. That's such a good point. Yeah, like some of those new games, I think the one that comes to mind right away for me is Dungeons & Dragons. Sure. That is such a complicated game where you get into like, oh, which character do you pick? And then like, what attributes do they have? and then if you pick a different character, then you can't start the multi-ball. I've played that game quite a bit, and I still don't really have a handle on what the fuck is going on. I know. Do I go to a different city, or do I just stay at whatever city I'm on? Because this is Ball 1, and I don't really know. Yeah. And I appreciate that game for being what it is, and I think if somebody was going to buy a game and pick that one, that's a super deep game, and I totally get that. But I totally know where you're coming from, especially with Stern releasing a game three games a year, and then all these other companies are putting out great games as well, and they're flooding the arcades, and it's awesome. Don't get me wrong, but I totally know where you're coming from. Yeah, I still absolutely love playing those. It's just hard for me to really come to those and be fully ready. I'll learn. I'm like, okay, hit the dragon a bunch, multi-ball. I know a couple shots. And then it's honestly a little fun to find my way through them. And sometimes in tournaments, occasionally I'll just come up and do really well. And I think sometimes not knowing like this exact path you have to go can be helpful on occasion to just kind of like play your game. And I've kind of had to appreciate and channel that. It helps you focus on just flipper skills and like controlling the ball and just, OK, I'm focusing on the ball like I don't know. You know, it's it's funny to hear us talk about this because this game for me, like I was making a joke about it like earlier this week on our Instagram. but it was true is like I finally came up with my I call them dumb guy strats I hate saying that but that is what I call them because for me it's like I want to keep my brain crystal clear because I need every single ounce of everything to really be yeah uh focused in the game but I just came up with my dumb guy strat for venom like venom's been out for forever uh and I just finally in tournaments now I'm like okay and like it's stupid like all I do is I pick Peter Parker and then I try to get carnage multi-ball as fast as possible. If I don't get it, ball one. I try it, ball two. And then Eddie, ball three, and I just do the other multi-ball. Try to stack them is the move in that game. It's such a I don't know. It's such a simple strat and it took me this long. And it just actually was I was avoiding it at tournaments or I was getting third or fourth consistently on it. And it was like, I've got to figure something out. That game, dude, has fucked me on more tournaments than I can... Venom is the thorn in my side. The amount of times that I've been... In Vegas, we do a lot of Amazing Race finals, which a lot of people don't really know what that is. But basically, everybody plays a game and the lowest score is out. That's basically how Amazing Race is. So you'll have a target score. right so on venom let's say it's like okay i only need 25 million right so then you lock two balls and you're like ah do i take the multi-ball now or not right and that and that game man the amount of times i'm like no no i'm gonna lock lock my third ball but then of course then you gotta like the locks and then you gotta hit the lock shots and like that game can be such a drainer uh when you know when you get the uh the freaking slingshot outlaying combo on that game is brutal And they changed the code to that game recently, Ian. So now when you lock two balls, you can't get nearly as many points as you used to. All right. Well, I'm still not going to modify my dumb guy strat. So what I'm hearing is that Venom is kind of like modern Stern Stars. Because Stars is typically the game that a lot of competitive people say. They're like, like I got screwed over on an amazing race, uh, stars in an amazing race, uh, like to take third last year at 2d con. And I felt so honored. I was like, I had arrived cause it was like, Oh, I had my moment where you're like, I got screwed by stars, you know? Like absolutely. Yeah, for sure. Um, okay. Let's, let's talk a little bit about the article. Um, I just loved it. You shot you. So first of all, you did everything amazing. Thank you so much. You took photos, amazing photos, and then we were really exploring. You used an event to sort of explore the greater pinball scene and how unique the Houston pinball scene is. Could you, like, for someone, I'm just interested in hearing you talk about that article. First, because you wrote it so long ago. I hope you remember it. Now you're seeing the long tail on a nudge, like how it manifests. But, yeah, just talk a little bit about that article, please. Yeah. So the event that I was focused on to try to tell the story was the Bells and Chimes Space Camp, which was, like, a really, really unique event that's held. I was going to say, Bells and Chimes hold the best themed events out there. They're pretty dang great, ranging from the San Antonio Bells and Chimes have, like, a Girl Scout themed events where you have to get, like, badges throughout the thing to the rodeo every year where people are doing dancing in the background. on to this one space camp for houston being themed that way um it's just i don't know it's a really different vibe for bells and chimes in general and then coming together for like a whole weekend together and holding i think it was four tournaments over the course of that weekend um some of them are like really intense people are like trying their best and others are just an absolute party and it's very interesting to shift even just over the course of the day from like competitive pinball level to everyone's doing you know jello shots on the side sort of like It's like a very big shift and collecting all of your badges for your space mission and things like that. But yes, it was more to explore that Houston pinball vibe in general, because that describes a lot of what Houston pinball is. Some tournaments you go to are an absolute party and other ones you go to are like people really caring about those whoppers and trying to make those state championships and stuff. And we have like a really so many locations around Houston. Houston's a huge city, everything in Houston's an hour from Houston. And so, like, I feel like this was like where it was held was kind of like a central location that brings everyone together, but also people from all around Texas. And that's very much a Texas thing. A lot of these tournaments, four hours, no problem. Everyone drives and goes from one city to the other. The number of San Antonio and Austin people that come over to Houston and vice versa is wild. And, yeah, my main hub of playing is down in the south side near NASA. Game Preserve is kind of my other main location. Speaking of, because they have a bunch of EM and classic machines there, they're all space themed. So that's my jam. But again, it was kind of that like central space theme that brought everyone together in Houston and that one location. Well, I guess, you know, in a state like Texas, like a huge state, you know, if you're trying to be, you know, a top 24 IFPA player in the state and trying to make like the state finals. And I know you were you made the women's one, I think, last year, right? Yeah, I did. A top 16 women. Congratulations on that. Thanks. But I guess that just means that if people really want to get as many points as possible, then they kind of have to travel to other cities, right, to just try to get in that top 24. Because it can be pretty tough, I imagine, in a place like Texas. Like, man, you've got to play a lot of tournaments. Yeah, the quantity of pinball that happens in all of these cities individually is crazy. I mean, Houston probably has a tournament almost every day. Just sometimes if you might be an hour and a half away from you because it's on the north side of town, but it's still in Houston. Especially we'd have like our week of Whoppers leading up to the Houston Arcade Expo, which honestly has turned into like the two weeks of Whoppers of just tournaments high level every day that people travel into town for. But yeah, very much. I mean, you can't just win TPF and make state finals anymore, too. It's like you've got to win like a big chunk of stuff to be able to make it through. there's yeah only winning tpf yeah only winning tpf yeah that's it yeah there are so many good players there and it's funny to hear you describe it that way because i even felt that when i was there for houston arcade expo and then later for the twippies um it's really fun it's a it's it's an interesting dynamic because it's sort of friendly rivalry between the different places like when i met when we were at houston it's like keith is in charge of houston and he has his cadre almost of of folks like very kingly and then uh someone was a bunch of folks were walking through to get to the tournament area and uh it wasn't jamie but someone like whispered to me they're like that's all the tpf people i'm like these are like your different houses of harry potter right like like you're all friends you're all wizards but uh but at the same time there's like okay we want to rep for our you know our town our our area uh which which that was like so fun um i thought I think that's such a great dynamic. Yeah, 100%. Interestingly, there's also another Keith up in the Dallas area. They're in Abilene, which has kind of been this other hub that's kind of come about now. If you want to look up another crazy tournament, look up the Abilene Showdown. It's now become a thing that people are even going like, I'd rather go to that than TPF. It's held in a Keith's barn. It's a bunch of EM and classics and some moderns, crazy lineup. and a bunch of people camp outside at this place or get Airbnb's nearby. But now people are really going hard on the camping, and it's like a whole weekend blowout of tournaments too with the equivalent of like $5 volley type stuff. I think it was $5 far out and stuff and like that sort of deal. So yeah, again, you get kind of these like landmark events that are now gravitating people towards even Abilene now, a much smaller city in Texas that probably people haven't even heard of. So well, and what's cool is there's just this also history to that area. Like I was just in L.A. and L.A. has an amazing pinball scene. But when I talk to people, they're like, it's exploded compared to what it was six years ago, which is awesome. But also you talk in the article, you feature Elizabeth. I'll let you pronounce her last name just to make sure that I get it. Drone. Yeah. Could you talk a little bit about her importance to the scene? I mean, I know. Yeah, she's been there for for a long time. both with Bells and Chimes and the other tournaments as well. Yeah, the Drone A's are kind of like one of the pinball families, as you said, of Houston. So Elizabeth and her husband run Upkick Pinball which is one of the largest repair places in Houston And people will say there a large line to get your game upkicked And partially repairs, but then they also will really make some cool custom stuff and do it up really nice. And they have their two twin daughters who are now in Nashville in Tennessee playing at No Quarter and that sort of area up there, recently left. But they are some of the founding people of this Houston pinball scene and Elizabeth specifically of the Houston Belt and Chimes. But they do an amazing job with running these tournaments. And also I always say she brings it like librarian energy in a good way of like organizing these with the themes and everything and really is able to make it what it is. And as one of those people that it would not be the same without her for sure. Well, in librarian energy, but also like she's a fiery competitor. I'll tell you that. Oh, yeah. She's good. She's good. She's locked in. I had to play Toy Story with her when I was in Houston, and she was so upset that it was Toy Story. And I was like, me and you are locked in because that is my least favorite game, Elizabeth. So I think I got cred with her, and I was so happy, too, because like you said, she's kind of a legend in the scene but also quite intense. And I just have that need. I was like, Mom, I need you to like me. so yeah it was totally fair yeah yeah but um yeah she great and it's super cool i i would encourage anyone um if if you're interested at all like uh aaron wrote this great article you can go check it out amazing pictures of the whole scene um one thing i did want to talk about before we kind of start to wrap things up was uh so unfortunately right wormhole had to close uh this this last year what do you kind of see is there that's going to be kind of a void for a little while um is do you see anything kind of replacing it or what what do you kind of see as the future of the pinball scene or or where we go from there in houston yeah it's a good question yeah it was a sad moment for the community when that happened for sure and honestly there's a lot of like i don't know uh but we definitely have a few other hubs that i mean we have so many places to play that was just kind of like the central one that really brought people in for the really competitive stuff and the commentary. However, Eureka Heights definitely is carrying that torch a bit. They're about a brewery about five minutes away and some streaming is picking up there. They're a lot more focused on moderns. They have a spooky wall of a ton of spooky machines there, as well as a bunch of sterns. So not just sterns, but a ton of spookies. And then I'm personally a huge fan of Little Dipper, which is another bar that's there. Don Hayes and Mike Flanagan, Again, speaking of pinball families, they play down at Game Preserve NASA with me all the time, but they own a bunch of machines that go in a lot of different places around town. This is just a cool another spot that, I don't know, has attracted people for those kind of like our bigger Saturday tournaments and stuff like that. It is interesting because Houston is so big, we kind of get divided as a pinball community a little bit between like northeast, south kind of directions of where people drive in from. So we still have like really big events, but it's usually kind of segmented because people don't want to drive that other hour and a half to the side of town. And so I think I'm curious to see if we kind of pick up, for example, Eureka Heights being that hub that keeps drawing people in. I think it'll just take time to kind of find that home for everyone aside from just sticking with their side of the town. Yeah. And all the people are still there who make it special. And that's that's really what it's about is like, I mean, you guys are there and Jamie and Elizabeth and that whole crew. And so I think it's like that's also just nice to hear a bit because or like nice to keep that in perspective because that happens everywhere. Right. Our kids. Yeah, we just we just had actually the exact same thing happened in Minneapolis last week or two weeks ago. Very unexpectedly, Bad Penny had to close and they're like a 50 machine location where we have tournaments every single Friday. So we're like, what now? You know, I mean, you can go to other places. But just to have the faith is like, look, pinball people are freaks and we're going to like figure out a way to get it done. And yeah, so it's just there's always peaks and valleys to that. And I think overall the community is growing. Yeah. You know, I think that that's the beautiful part of it. And like you kind of never know who's getting into it, who's, you know, taking it seriously and who's going to open up, you know, a whole brand new location somewhere. And it seems like that's happening all the time now everywhere. It's amazing. Yeah, and I think the fact that we have Barrels of Fun in town now, too, like a manufacturer in Houston, also really helps carry that torch along as well. We have a bunch of people that are working on assembling pinball machines all the time in the community because a bunch of people, when they found out that was there, all go work on the line now and have gotten jobs there. It's pretty cool. I met – yeah, that was like another thing. It was really fun meeting Barrels people at that tournament and playing them. And they're like, yeah, I can't wait for you to see – this is before Dune had come out. now it's like don't even i'm like don't even say you can't wait for me to see it if you can't show me anything i you know it's like you're just getting in my head you're getting in my head this tournament i'm like scrooge mcduck with like dollar signs in my in my eyes yeah that's all i could think about but um yeah that's a great point and i think texas in general is starting to become a pinball manufacturer which is great like p3 is there uh barrels is there um yeah so it's just kind of that's really cool i mean the only other place that exists in the world is chicago really i mean a little bit in in europe i guess and well in benton wisconsin bentonville yeah i like you put the bill on there yeah yeah because there's benton i always mix it up because there's bentonville arkansas right that's a place sure sure so that's why i i forget which one is which but yeah well and and i was aaron you just talking about that there's a spooky wall at that brewery is like, wow, that would not have happened even four years ago. Spooky games have gotten better and more popular. Let's say that. 100%. The Evil Dead was drawing people in and I think then they got a Scooby and they have a Jetsons. Oh, wow. Yeah, they have some rare spooky ones too, which has been very cool. I think they have a Halloween and they're filling, like I said, a whole section of it with it. You're right. Honestly, it's kind of a draw for them to be able to say that and people are like, okay, you want to come play these games? We've got to play Street to Do It. I mean, yeah. People are used to seeing sterns everywhere. That doesn't get people that excited. But if they have an Alice Cooper, that's a great game too. Yeah, for sure. You've got to love it. Well, Erin, I don't want to take up too much more of your time. We don't know where you're headed next. What's going on with you? What's the rest of this mission? And then when do you get shore leave? When are you going to be able to play pinball? What's going on? Yeah. Yeah, so right now we are currently dodging some weather on our way to Rorotonga Cook Islands. That's the ending point for our expedition. So we spent two weeks off of these uninhabited islands doing a bunch of mapping, and then we should be getting on land somewhere around September 10th. And then it's about 24 hours to get home of travel because we are very much like on the other side of the world from where I live. And then I think I'm going to be sleeping for a little bit. we work seven days a week on the ship um and like so there's no breaks so i get home need a little bit of that but then i'll be back at game preserve immediately that's my like typical tuesday spot we have we are weekly tournaments there with our solid group of 20 people you know nothing crazy but um i actually did one of these calls a ship to shore call with the whole arcade crew before our tuesday tournament um a couple weeks ago on like a tv in the corner and it was an absolute blast um so i got to see everyone from the crew and so that's where i'll be going back to first And then I'm definitely going to be at Houston Arcade Expo this year. My husband just signed me up for the Space City Open while I've been out here because I couldn't do it from here. So I will be there for sure. Cool. Before you go, can you show us some more cool boat videos? Cool boat stuff? Absolutely. I know the listeners can't see this, but I selfishly want to see what's going on. No, we could use our powers of description. Okay, there's a tarp blowing in the wind. Yeah, there you go. So here's the one you saw before. And then here I'll show you a video of what our robots on the back look like. Whoa, this is crazy, dude. What is happening there? So these are these ROVs, remotely operated vehicles, that get lowered into the water, and they can go down miles down to the seafloor and be able to take video of all the stuff down there. So here's an example video of my favorites. So this is a Dumbo octopus down here. It's like a little yellow guy. We're seeing footage under the ocean, guys. We are looking at... A little yellow octopus. Oh, he's kind of cute. He is cute. I said it kind of angrily. He is cute, damn it. How dare you? When you go into the deep sea, you never know. Sometimes stuff is really scary looking. Other times it's cute. This is a vampire squid that we had, too. which ironically only eats dead things rather than live things. That's cool. It does look pretty vampire-y. All the ship stuff it goes down there and be able to inspect stuff up close. We're mapping the seafloor during our expedition and then these maps that we get helps them decide where to send these ROVs down to be able to explore. You go, okay, what are the clues of where the interesting stuff is? These are some of the things. Sometimes it's shipwrecks. Sometimes it's going to see these cool creatures or environments, that sort of thing. So here's the ROV in the garage right now. Did you watch The Abyss to prepare for this trip, or is that not your vibe? No, I did not. It was funny. I wanted to go read up on some ocean exploration stuff before I came, but they're all scary. It's like everything goes wrong on all the books and movies of ocean exploration. They're like, that's not what's going to happen for me. Well, The Abyss, not to be like a spoiler, The Abyss doesn't really have – it's not your typical bad, scary thing. It's actually pretty cool. I just remember that scene because that movie was probably what, 1989? Watch it when you're back home. 1989. I remember that one scene where they're trying to swim out of the thing. Oh, yeah. Oh, I had nightmares about that. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's probably a couple things. Swimming and trying to get out. Oh, that's so scary, but yes. What I like about it is that I always hate movies, and I don't think this spoils anything, but I always hate movies where it's like aliens are the bad guys and we're fighting aliens. I really like movies or books like Contact or, shoot, what was the one that came out a couple of years ago with Amy Adams? Oh, Arrival. Arrival. I love those movies where it's like the aliens are kind of here to help us and we're the problem a little bit. The Abyss is one of those type of movies. Okay. All right. I will go watch it. What's your take on aliens? Yeah, do they exist? How long do we have? You're a space person. Are aliens existing? Have they reached us? What's going on? Tell us what you think. My always answer to this is scientists are the worst people in the world at keeping secrets. If aliens were here, we would million percent know. So, A, don't think they're here yet, but B, do think they exist. I think that they're out there somewhere, and we just haven't gotten far enough out or gotten the good enough technology to be able to perceive and know that they're around. And I would say open up your mind on what maybe aliens even look like. Realistically, it's probably going to be some, like, monocel bacteria that we get for the first time. I just read Andromeda strain on the way here, actually, if you read that from Michael Crichton. So those are, like, invisible, tiny little – It'll look like a virus. Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So who knows? I don't think it's going to look like, you know, some Martians people imagine. But, yeah, I think there's something out there. I have one last question. Go ahead. Go ahead, Ian. Oh, I was just going to say that reminds me too. Stanislaw Lem, for anyone listening, was a science fiction writer in the 70s and 80s. And he thought like aliens, we wouldn't be able to recognize them as a consciousness. That was like his big idea that it would be so foreign to us. So it'd be like a cloud of sentient gas or like something like that. So that, you know, that's kind of what you're what you're talking about. I have one last question. So you're on this boat for a long time. What do you guys eat? yeah we actually have um like two chefs that like cook breakfast lunch and dinner for us which is amazing i work kind of weird hours because i'm often like if they calling schools like in the u.s so i'm working often like midnight to noon so i have to like uh save some food and shovel it away so that i have it in the middle of the night when they're not cooking but uh yeah we have pretty great food honestly they cook for us so they have like a little buffet set up three times a week and then we all bring our own junk food that we want to have we did a little shopping trip in the marshall islands before we got on and i got some pop tarts and smarties and granola bars and that sort of thing so love it had to ask yeah good question great question uh well thanks so much aaron um and i want to say thank you as i know look hey this is this will be a good thing because i said this one gino's on i i owe you some money for doing what you did for our for for my magazine And the good news is we're selling magazines, so can't wait to get that to you. But please, thank you so much for writing for us and shooting that great stuff. I can't wait for people to see it. The issues are coming out this week. Awesome. So, yeah, just thank you so much for doing that. Of course. It was a blast. Like I said, it's super fun when I get to flex all of my writing and comm skills for something non-space and science. And it was fun to write in a more chill way. It was fun to write for the voice of Nudge a little bit more than the voice of, you know, engineering.com or something like that. I gave your article to my buddy, Eric, who is also an associate editor for Nudge. And I was like, what, should we change anything with this? And he was like, no, absolutely not. And I was like, cool, because Joe Chiravino always says that I'm the only editor who adds typos to people's stuff. So it was good that, it was so good that, you know, we didn't even really have to touch it at all. So, yeah. Amazing. I can't wait to see it in print. Well, thanks so much for doing this, Erin. Absolutely. Yeah. Great to talk to you all. Talk to you soon. So there it is with Erin Winnick Anthony from the middle of the sea calling in. it was great you know what's funny is is you know the way we record we have this kind of video program we use and then it all like uploads but since she was in the middle of the ocean it took like literally 20 extra minutes for her like audio to upload so we just like shot the shit for another 20 minutes which is almost too bad we didn't record that part but uh she's she's terrific um what's her uh instagram so people can check out all the like crazy science stuff she's uh she's talking about just at aaron winnick she's got dude she's got 50 000 followers yeah she's she's a big deal yep it's just e-r-i-n-w-i-n-i-c-k aaron winnick and dude she is killing it if you want to see it's the craziest like outside of nudge i would say it's the craziest instagram follow because it'll be like her in zero gravity her on a crazy ship with like robots and then her just playing like em pinball so uh it's it's a great follow absolutely totally rocks no and she was so dude you're right they're like bsing after like while we were just waiting for her stuff to upload was some of my favorite uh favorite combos and that was the only point in which really well not the only point but that was the main point when you're like oh this truly is like she's out in the middle of nowhere it was also cool because she just had remember when we're looking at it It's like behind her, it literally looks like the bridge of the Enterprise or something. Or like the rebel base at Yavin. There's like all these crazy computers and things. I know, I know. Well, I'll screenshot some of that. Maybe we'll throw that up on Instagram stories or something so people can see. Oh, yeah, in the post. See, like, yeah, it was really quite an experience. But we want to thank her so much for taking the time out of her busy scientific schedule to chat pinball. Yeah, absolutely. And that's just kind of the tip of the iceberg, guys. We're going to be featuring a couple more writers, photographers, and artists in issue five. Really appreciate Aaron's contribution. I think next up we're going to have Chris Ward, who has been a guest on the podcast before. He's fucking funny, too. He's my favorite. Oh, man. He's so funny. And his two articles in Nudge Five are, like, two of my favorites. So he did one, which, right, was the Tony Hawk homebrew. It's all about this couple who made a Tony Hawk game. But the other one he did, which I can't wait to ask about, so funny, he interviewed Kate Martin, who is a character in the New York City pinball scene. But she's around our age. She has a one-bedroom apartment in New York, and she hosted the New York State Pinball Championship. She shipped – she put all nine of her games, like, out in her house and had people playing them. So kind of a very unique experience. I can't wait to talk to her about that. Our Nevada State Championships were in someone's house, too. So, hey, you just got to do what you got to do. Was it a tiny little one-bedroom? It was a huge house, but yes. I do love, though, when people are taking everybody in just for the love of the game. It's a beautiful thing. It's kind of a dangerous proposition, I think, because, dude, what's the number one thing at a party? Chips and dip. I feel like chips and dip is like, that could be a pinball machine's enemy, right? If you got any dip on your fingers, you got like little chips, like, you know, I don't know. You got the guacamole between the glass and the rails. And no, it's not good. Guacamole fingers. Yikes. Yeah, no, not cool. That was my nickname in high school for disgusting reasons. Well, we do want to make sure that people that are listening to this are following the show. If you're listening on Spotify or Apple or whatever, hit that follow button. Spread the word. Tell a friend. Tell a loved one. Keep this thing growing. so far so good. I mean, we've had a lot of really great feedback and we appreciate the kind words. You can get in touch with us as well. I don't even have access to the email, but maybe we should make, maybe we need something else going on, but we're working on it. We probably do. We definitely have just been, I've been dragging my feet on helping you with the Discord stuff, so I think we're going to set up a Discord real soon. We want to get more interaction with y'all. That's kind of my favorite part of doing this whole thing. So, yeah guys, keep listening. Go pick up your issue fives. Go buy them. Nudgepinball.com. And if you're in the market for a game, hit up Jeff, Mad Pinball. Absolutely. And next week, I think, we don't really know what the show will be because we're going to go to Stern. We're going to be surrounded by a lot of Stern employees, a lot of other content creators, and we're going to bring our recorders and we're going to shoot the shit with some people. So I think the coming episodes could be something different and could be something pretty cool. So make sure you come back and see us right here on the NudgeCast. Oh, yeah. _(Acquisition: groq_whisper)_ --- *Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: f1e8a6d0-ad88-4a9c-a3f8-3282660c39a0*