# #003 This Is the Unexpected Social Hobby We Wish We Found Sooner

**Source:** Punk Rock Pinball Podcast  
**Type:** podcast_episode  
**Published:** 2025-07-14  
**Duration:** 27m 34s  
**Beat:** Pinball

**URL:** https://share.transistor.fm/s/5ab34cf9

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## Analysis

Stephanie and Mike from Punk Rock Pinball discuss how tournament play became the catalyst for their pinball obsession, focusing on the welcoming and inclusive nature of the pinball community. They share personal experiences entering tournaments as novices, describe the typical skill distribution at monthly events, and encourage newcomers not to be intimidated. The episode emphasizes pinball as a social hobby, particularly for couples and empty-nesters, and highlights women-focused tournament opportunities like Bells and Chimes leagues.

### Key Claims

- [HIGH] In typical monthly pinball tournaments (15-30 players), there are usually 3-5 exceptional players, a large middle group of decent players, and a handful of casual learners. — _Mike describing the skill distribution at local tournaments he has attended_
- [MEDIUM] Portland metro area has more pinball machines per capita than Chicago/Illinois, with Next Level Arcade in Hillsboro having approximately 350 machines. — _Mike discussing pinball density across regions; specific claim about 350 machines at Next Level_
- [HIGH] Pinball tournaments are overwhelmingly welcoming and inclusive communities where players actively help newcomers and want more people to participate. — _Both Stephanie and Mike, based on their repeated tournament attendance and observation of community behavior_
- [HIGH] Bells and Chimes is a ladies-only pinball league/tournament organization with groups in multiple cities including Peoria and Chicagoland. — _Stephanie discussing the Bells and Chimes organization structure and locations_
- [HIGH] Pinball provides a social activity advantage over other entertainment formats because it includes built-in downtime for conversation between games, unlike concerts or movies. — _Mike comparing pinball tournaments to rock shows and movies as social activities_

### Notable Quotes

> "He laughed and said, no, it's bad etiquette. I'm already winning. I'm just draining the ball."
> — **CJ (relayed by Stephanie)**, ~6:00
> _Illustrates the skill ceiling and sportsmanship culture in pinball; shows how good players demonstrate restraint and respect for tournament play_

> "Everybody that plays tournaments wants you to come back. And 99% of the people that we've encountered at the tournaments, especially the more casual monthly tournament at a venue, if it's not a big major tournament, they're all friendly."
> — **Mike**, ~13:30
> _Core statement about the inclusive culture; emphasizes that competitive scenes actively recruit newcomers_

> "I feel like the opposite of a nerd is like a bro and I don't want to be a bro... but like pinball people are the opposite of that [unfriendly]... they'll talk to you and they'll help you"
> — **Stephanie**, ~17:45
> _Contrasts pinball community positively against other hobby communities (e.g., bass fishing tournaments); highlights cultural values_

> "It's one of the first things where like you and I both love it like the same amount... I'd rather just play against you on Jaws and see who wins."
> — **Stephanie**, ~26:30
> _Positions pinball as unique shared interest for couples; suggests relationship/bonding value of the hobby_

> "I need luck. And this game doesn't have a ball save, so I'm going to need them to drain quickly. I need the game to be mean to them."
> — **Mike**, ~32:00
> _Demonstrates strategic thinking about machine selection in tournament play; shows how player skill levels influence game choice_

> "I would pre-order that [Twin Peaks pinball machine] without even seeing it a hundred percent."
> — **Stephanie**, ~38:45
> _Reveals community appetite for specific IP themes; expresses demand for dream pinball themes_

### Entities

| Name | Type | Context |
|------|------|---------|
| Stephanie | person | Co-host of Punk Rock Pinball Podcast; musician with Smoking Popes; tournament player; pinball collector |
| Mike | person | Co-host of Punk Rock Pinball Podcast; tournament player; pinball collector; central Illinois resident |
| CJ | person | Tournament organizer in central Illinois; pinball machine operator; described as 'pinball sensei' by hosts; skilled competitive player |
| Punk Rock Pinball | organization | Podcast hosted by Stephanie and Mike; also hosts private home tournaments and Facebook community group |
| Bells and Chimes | organization | Ladies-only pinball league/tournament organization with chapters in multiple cities including Peoria and Chicagoland |
| IFPA | organization | International Flipper Pinball Association; official tournament ranking body; maintains point system and player rankings |
| Landmark | venue | Pinball venue in Peoria, Illinois; hosts monthly tournaments and league play; has machines including Aerosmith, F-14 Tomcat, Attack from Mars |
| Next Level Arcade | venue | Arcade in Hillsboro, Oregon; approximately 350 pinball machines; hosts weekly tournaments on Fridays |
| Ruben | person | Bass player for Smoking Popes; touring musician with Stephanie; new pinball enthusiast who purchased an Elvira machine with wife Angie |
| Angie | person | Spouse of Ruben; new pinball enthusiast; purchased Elvira pinball machine |
| Lily | person | Skilled female pinball player known for beating male competitors; plays in local tournaments |
| Ann | person | Pinball player; competes in open tournaments; described as slightly better than hosts |
| Shelley | person | Female pinball player; competes in open tournaments |
| Joe | person | Strong pinball player; plays at Landmark venue; plays Aerosmith competitively |
| Dan Scott | person | Skilled F-14 Tomcat player; defeated Mike decisively in league finals |
| John Borg | person | Pinball machine designer; Stephanie identifies as having skill on Borg-designed machines |
| Spooky Pinball | company | Pinball manufacturer; podcast hosts' dream choice to produce Twin Peaks machine |
| Jaws | product | Pinball machine owned by hosts; used for home tournaments and practice; referenced multiple times in gameplay discussions |
| Elvira | product | Pinball machine purchased by Ruben and Angie after entering pinball community |
| Pirates of the Caribbean | product | Stern pinball machine owned by Mike; his preferred machine for competition against strong players |
| Aerosmith | product | Pinball machine at Landmark; Joe and CJ play competitively; hosts consider selecting for tournament finals |
| F-14 Tomcat | product | Pinball machine at Landmark; brutal game with no ball save; Mike's strategic choice for tournament finals despite recent loss to Dan Scott |
| Attack from Mars | product | Pinball machine at Landmark; one of three options for tournament finals selection |

### Topics

- **Primary:** Tournament play as community catalyst, Pinball community culture and inclusivity, Beginner-friendly tournament environment, Pinball as couples/social activity, Women in pinball (Bells and Chimes leagues)
- **Secondary:** Gender diversity in pinball, Regional pinball density and scene quality, Dream themes and licensing wishes (Twin Peaks)

### Sentiment

**Positive** (0.92) — Hosts are enthusiastic and affirming about the pinball community throughout. They frame tournament play positively, emphasize inclusivity and friendliness, and express genuine excitement about expanding participation. The tone is celebratory about discovering pinball as a hobby and community. Only mild criticisms are directed at external comparisons (bass fishing tournaments being unwelcoming, general bro culture) rather than pinball itself. Dream theme discussion adds aspirational, fun energy.

### Signals

- **[community_signal]** Both hosts repeatedly emphasize that pinball communities actively recruit and welcome newcomers regardless of skill level, with 99% positive interactions reported at casual tournaments. (confidence: high) — Mike: 'Everybody that plays tournaments wants you to come back... they're all friendly.' Stephanie: 'they all want you to come back because there's a limited number of us that play.'
- **[community_signal]** Regular tournament structure shows clear skill distribution: 3-5 elite players, large middle cohort, and handful of casual learners at typical 15-30 person events. (confidence: high) — Mike describing typical tournament composition and placement of himself/Stephanie as 'middle of the pack' despite early tournaments placing them near last
- **[venue_signal]** Portland metro area has higher pinball machine density than Chicago; Next Level Arcade alone has ~350 machines; Illinois notable for strong statewide scene. (confidence: medium) — Mike: 'Portland... has more pinball machines per capita... Next Level in Hillsboro, they have maybe... 350' compared to Chicago lacking venues with 150+ machines
- **[community_signal]** Pinball community is male-dominated but contains skilled female players; hosts advocate for women-focused Bells and Chimes leagues as low-barrier entry point. (confidence: high) — Stephanie: 'There are quite a few ladies out there too... Lily can beat any of the dudes that we know. Ann and Shelley compete just fine.' Also: 'for whatever reason, it's very male dominated.'
- **[community_signal]** Pinball resonates particularly with empty-nesters and 40s-50s demographic; provides social activity distinct from drinking-focused venues but compatible with them. (confidence: high) — Mike: 'there's a lot of people like 40s to 50s... It's kind of fun. It's also fun because you can go to these places... doesn't have to revolve around drinking, which is pretty cool.'
- **[sentiment_shift]** Hosts highlight pinball as rare mutual interest for couples; positioned as socially interactive alternative to individual hobbies or passive entertainment. (confidence: high) — Stephanie: 'It's one of the first things where like you and I both love it like the same amount.' Mike: 'great activity for couples... competing with each other.'
- **[rumor_hype]** Hosts express strong hypothetical demand for Twin Peaks pinball by Spooky Pinball; Stephanie states she would pre-order without seeing it; suggests untapped licensing opportunity. (confidence: medium) — Stephanie: 'I would pre-order that [Twin Peaks] without even seeing it a hundred percent.' Mike: 'Now I just feel like it has to happen.'
- **[competitive_signal]** Mike's tournament finals scenario demonstrates strategic game selection based on skill distribution and luck factors; F-14 Tomcat chosen for its brutality and lack of ball save. (confidence: high) — Mike: 'I need luck... I'm gonna need them to drain quickly. I need the game to be mean to them... F-14, I'm taking F-14' despite recent loss on that machine
- **[competitive_signal]** Stephanie identifies designer preference (John Borg designs) as factor in her competitive performance. (confidence: medium) — Stephanie: 'Sometimes I'm good on Aerosmith because it's a John Borg... I'm not bad on John Borg design machines. I like the John Borgs. You're a Borg boy.'
- **[community_signal]** Hosts describe secondary tournament ecosystem where home collectors open machines for private tournaments; access gained through regular participation in venue tournaments. (confidence: high) — Mike: 'there are these insane people like us and our friends in Peoria that have private collections that open up their homes and host parties... if you're cool and you go and play three or four of those monthlies, like you might get invited.'
- **[content_signal]** Punk Rock Pinball Podcast uses recurring 'you choose' game selection and 'dream theme' segments to generate audience participation and Facebook group engagement. (confidence: high) — Hosts announce plans to post poll in Facebook group about Twin Peaks interest; 'you choose' segment is introduced as regular show feature

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## Transcript

Hello there pinballers. Welcome back to another episode of Punk Rock Pinball. I'm Stephanie. And I'm Mike. And today, Mike, I want to talk a little bit about something that I think fueled this obsession that we have with pinball in like the biggest way. Do you know what I'm talking about? Yes. Okay. So very quickly after we got our Jaws machine – well, actually before we even got it, we went and played pinball at a local bar that also hosted tournaments, which sounds so – what's the word I'm looking for? Intimidating? Yes. Scary? Scary. Like, oh my god, they're pinball tournaments? Who are these people? What are they doing? I was so nervous the first time that we went, but we were going together, so I didn't, like, I don't, who cares? But I didn't know what to expect. And it turned out to be ridiculously fun and has kind of opened up a whole new world. Yeah, I agree. And I think we finished in that tournament, like, last place and second to last. And I don't know which of us was last. It might have been me. We sucked. And for the record, we're not really still all that great. No. Like when we play our local tournaments here, we're kind of like in the middle of the pack. And sometimes we make the finals, and once in a while we get to the top four. But we are not really kick-ass pinball players. No, it's just... Not even close. And it was intimidating. It was scary. and our first handful we were like either last or like third to last not at the top not anywhere near the top and i just remember one of the first tournaments we did our friend cj who organizes like mike has said in previous episodes our friend cj organizes most of the tournaments here in central illinois i like to call him my pinball sensei we were watching him do a game of jaws and he was the last player on a four-player game in this tournament. It was his third ball, and he just drained it because he was winning already. And he had like 400 million? I think almost 600 million. It was a ton. And Mike and I were trying to, at this point of our pinball playing time, we were like, can we break 100 on a regular basis, 100 million? And CJ just let the ball drain. And we couldn't even believe that he did that. Like, don't you want to see what's going to happen? And he laughed and said, no, it's bad etiquette. I'm already winning. I'm just draining the ball. But that was like this moment of like, oh, you can be that good and not really care about your score. Like, what's going on here? But I remember being so impressed by everybody else that we were playing with. And I didn't think we'd ever get there. Yeah. But the neat thing is, because we've gotten some friends to play some tournaments. We host tournaments at our house. And if you join the Punk Rock Pinball group on Facebook, you may or may not be able to come to our house and play in a tournament. We host them every couple months. And they fill up. But like if you're – if you know people that know us or like we can verify like you're not going to come here to like murder us, you probably can come play a tournament here. And we've gotten a lot of people playing those that are not tournament pinball players. Like our friends Ruben who plays bass on the Smoking Popes with me. Like Ruben's our touring bass player and his wife Angie have gotten into it and they've since bought an Elvira pinball machine. Congratulations. But you don't need to be good and you don't need to be scared because every pinball tournament, especially if you're not playing like the major one at the pinball expo. But even if you're not any good, you could go play that too. Like we just played a big one at Antarium. I can't remember what it was called, but I finished 78th out of 86 or something. That's fine. I think Stephanie did slightly better. But in most pinball tournaments, you're going to find, especially a monthly tournament, if there's a place near you that has a monthly tournament, odds are there will be between 15 and 30-ish players. and odds are three to five of them are going to be – Exceptional. Insanely good. Yeah. Yeah. And then you're going to have a big chunk of people in the middle that are going to be okay. People like me and Stephanie, our friend Ann, she's a little better than us on average. But a lot of people that are like, we can shoot a good game sometimes. That's going to be most of the people are people that shoot a good game sometimes. And then there's going to be a handful of people that are just there totally for fun, and they're still really learning how to play. And that's what you're going to see at almost every pinball tournament. So if you barely ever play pinball, you still can go, and you might not even finish last place. You might be third to last. and people there in our experience are like super helpful and they'll kind of tell you what you need to do and most of the time when they're telling you what you need to do you i had no idea what they were talking about so the best advice that pretty much anyone will will give is keep the ball alive and hit the flashing shots that's all you got to do sounds so easy and the other players will help you like because it's going to be most often like a four-player game and you don't want to play if you're player four you want to play the ball for player four not the ball for player three you'll get disqualified as i have done me too have you done it yeah yeah i did some i was playing with on a tron and the extra balls weren't turned off and i played someone's extra ball that's really i would blame that on the person that didn't drain the extra ball But that just me I was the tournament director there I would have DQ that other guy But the other players if they know you new to tournaments the other players will kind of help you to make sure you know when it your turn to play They want you to come back Everybody that plays tournaments wants you to come back. And 99% of the people that we've encountered at the tournaments, especially the more casual monthly tournament at a venue, if it's not a big major tournament, they're all friendly. they all want you to come back because there's a limited number of us that play and you know we will get at the landmark in peoria there's the the monthly tournaments usually 25 up to 50 players but all of us would like for there to be more players especially you know cj who owns and operates the games but when there's more people it's more fun so if you come out and Every pinball scene I've encountered is this way. They want you to come back because they want more people to play with than to play against. And the better players, like a medium player like me, if you're like a noob, I want you to come so I have somebody I can finish ahead of because I can't beat the best people. But it's really, yeah, it's, I have to say like pinball, kind of discovering this world of tournament play over the last year has been so cool. Because we've been living down here in central Illinois for a few years now. And it's, you know, it's been hard to find some, like our people. And because there isn't like a huge music scene down here. the way that there was when we lived in the Chicago area or in the Milwaukee area. So there are music people, but it's just not as big of a scene. So we didn't have as many of those people. But pinballs kind of allowed us to find a new group of people who just want to have fun and are kind of nerdy in the same ways that we're nerdy and are just really super nice people. And we've also discovered this world of there are the tournaments that happen at the local venues where the pinball machines are at. But then there are these insane people like us and our friends in Peoria that have private collections that open up their homes and host parties at their house, which is like fun in a totally different way. Yeah. So if you're if you're considering getting into pinball and you start playing in tournaments, odds are like if you go to the monthly one at, say, noon whistle up there in the western suburbs, I would bet you somebody that plays in those regularly probably has 10 or 15 pinball machines in their house. Like somebody there probably does. And they probably have tournaments at their house. And if you're cool and you go and play three or four of those monthlies, like you might get invited. It's not that hard to kind of get plugged in. It's a very welcoming. I know in our first episode, we talked about how the pinball buyer collectors can be snarky and grumpy and pissy about the machines and the value. But when you're out there in the community playing with people, like most of them are overwhelmingly like welcoming and friendly and just want more people to play pinball with. and they are all and i'm saying this because we are nerds they're all nerds well so don't be intimidated that like there's like i don't know i don't know what you'd equate it to because if you're gonna go play like maybe like a golf tournament there's probably like some bros and stuff but like pinball players like they're nerds in the best way in the best like i'm a nerd stephanie's a nerd yeah and we're into nerdy stuff and like there's like no cool person at the pinball tournament sorry but i am among you in not being cool so don't be afraid that's like it's gonna be all these cool people and they're gonna judge me no it's a bunch of nerds if you're listening to this you're probably a nerd too and that's great so just go play be a nerd and play pinball with other nerds there's nothing wrong with being a nerd no what else you're gonna do there's nothing else like yeah it's fun outside of nerdy stuff yeah i feel like the opposite of a nerd is like a bro and I don't want to be a bro or the lady equivalent of a bro. No, or whatever. Like, cause we, we, we don't really have a ton of friends on here. I tried doing some like bass fishing tournaments. Shockingly, that was not our people. Those are not our people. Not a surprise. We tried. Not a surprise. But I did that for like two seasons of that. And I feel like most of these guys, and if you're in that bass club and you're probably not listening to this but like most of them are very unwelcoming a bunch of grumpy dudes that feel like they hate life yeah and they don't want to talk to you they don't want to say anything about anything they just want you to get the hell away from them and like the pinball people are the opposite of that yeah they'll talk to you the biggest nerds will know all the rules to every machine and you can ask them like what do i need to do on uncanny excellent to score big and then they'll tell you 15 minutes of stuff and you can try to remember two things that they told you but they'll talk to you and they'll help you especially if you're i mean it's fun for young people but i think for people like our age where we're past middle age empty nesters empty nesters we're in the empty nest empty nester phase yeah and there's a lot of people like 40s to 50s and that are just kind of a lot like us. And it's like it's something to do. It's fun. You don't have to. It's kind of fun. It's also fun because you can go to these places. A lot of them are at bars or like bowling alleys or whatever. But like it's an activity that you can do that doesn't have to revolve around drinking, which is pretty cool. Most of them drink. Most of the folks drink, but you don't have to drink. But you don't have to. We don't drink. No. But it's kind of fun to – it's a fun thing you can do and it doesn't have to revolve around that. I feel like people – I feel like I know a lot of people that are always – feel like too much of life is revolving around just drinking opportunities and it can be if you want it to be and there's nothing wrong with that if that's what you want it to be. But it's just kind of cool. It's a fun way to go out, meet new people in an easy, friendly environment. Yeah. And it a great way if you have a life partner or spouse whatever it something that you can enjoy like mutually and you can compete with one another And there really you know regardless of your gender there no like inherent advantage and strength or speed or whatever like stephanie usually beats me at the tournaments and it's just a fun way for like a couple you know whether your partners are married or whatever to just go have fun together and it's a little more social than like just going to like a rock show even though i encourage people to go to rock shows i play a lot of them but you go to a rock show and it's just a loud band and you're not talking you know you're not really socializing you're watching a band go play a pinball tournament there's a lot of time in between when you're playing and you can chat with people and you can chat with your partner and just enjoy time together and enjoy like competing with each other i think it's a like a great activity for for couples that might not have other common interests. Like you can get into pinball together. Yeah, go give it a shot. See if you like it. You don't have to keep doing it, but it's kind of like a weird, fun thing to do. Yeah. Break out of your routine. It's one of the first things where like you and I both love it like the same amount. Whereas like I like to play golf. You don't give two shits about golf. No. I like to weave. You like to weave. I don't even know what you're talking about. when you finish your warp. I don't know what that is. And if I had a birdie, you don't care. I mean, I'm happy for you. And I'm happy when you make a good weaving project. But I'd rather just play against you on Jaws and see who wins. I think it's a great activity for couples and just something a little bit more social than like you go to a movie, like you're sitting there quiet watching a movie. You go watch a band. You're standing there watching a band. if you're playing pinball you're like actively engaged in a thing like together and then you talk about it the whole way home talk about the whole way home like off that ball three on jaws if i should should have shot for this instead of that like yeah well you know what else is fun is so there are the regular tournaments like that but then i think it's super cool that there is a like a whole nother league called bells and chimes that a lot of that are happening all over the country, probably the world, that's just ladies only. And I know it's funny, you know, there are all the weirdos on the internet, and it seems like most of the people that are into pinball, shocking, are guys. But there's quite a few ladies out there, too. And it's pretty cool that there's the Bells and Chimes Ladies Pinball Group. And I think it's kind of a way if there's a lady in your life or maybe it's you and you're pinball curious but a little intimidated to go play in a co-ed thing, which you shouldn't be. You really shouldn't be intimidated. The Bells and Chimes is pretty cool just for a ladies get-together. I wish more ladies were doing that instead of like these stupid things, these like book clubs that they do that are really just like, you know, not a book club or I mean, I guess going and doing those painting things are fun. But I wish like more ladies would kind of come out and do pinball. There's not there's not a lot of them. No, it's for whatever reason, it's it's very male dominated. and I don't know why because there's really nothing about pinball that says this is something that dudes should like. No. We know plenty of women that are just as good as a lot of the men. Our friend Lily can beat any of the dudes that we know. Ann and Shelley compete just fine in open tournaments. But yeah, there's usually – how would someone find Bells and Chimes? I think you could search on Facebook. I don't think that there's like a governing body for all the Bells and Chimes. Maybe on IFPA website, which is the International Flipper Pinball Association, they're the ones who list all of the official tournaments because there's like a whole point system to get ranked and, you know, see how you stand within the state and all of pinball players across the universe. But I think you can find Bells and Chimes probably by searching in there too. Just like search Facebook groups, because I know there's one, there's a Bells and Chimes Peoria that hosts the tournaments at Landmark here that you play. Yeah. And there's a Facebook group for that, right? Yeah, and then there's the bells and chimes in Chicagoland that happens at Interium. They've got a Facebook group. There's a bunch of them. I think most of the major cities, they should have a bells and chimes. I'm not saying that Peoria is a major city. We just have a pretty good scene down here. Yeah. Illinois is pretty special for pinball, like statewide. Pinball is bigger here than a lot of places. But do you know where it's bigger? I just learned this. Bigger than in Illinois? Uh-huh. I don't know where it's bigger. Portland. They have more pinball machines per capita than like the pin. Just Portland or the metro? The metro. The metro areas has more than Chicago. Well, I think next level arcade probably skews that because they have 350. But I think there's a lot of places that have a lot of machines. Because Chicagoland doesn't have anything that has anything close to 150 or 350. I don't know if Chicagoland has somewhere that has more than 100. Probably not. Whereas like Atomic down near St. Louis, they have, what, 160? I don't think Chicago has even anything like that. There's just a lot of locations. Yeah. I wonder who's got more locations. I bet you Illinois has more locations. Probably. But they have some doozies up by Portland. Yeah. And I think that next level, if you're near Portland, next level in Hillsboro, they have maybe a weekly tournament. I think they do on Fridays. Yeah, so you should go play that. We've tried to plan a little trip around that. Yeah. It hasn't happened. It's just far. Portland is very far from here. And like no direct flights. No direct flights. We'll get there one day. Yeah. But just search Facebook like bells and chimes and then type in the largest city near you and that might find you a group. Yeah. If you're a gal wanting to – And if you are just looking for a tournament in your area, go back to that pinball map app. Look at where there are places around you that have a handful of machines and then look on their Facebook page or give them a call or whatever and ask them if they do tournaments That's probably a really good way to find something close to you, don't you think? I think so. I think we should go into – I think we've covered tournaments. Everybody should go play regardless of your skill level. Go play a tournament. Do you want to choose something? We're going to do you choose. All right, you choose. Steph has to ask me what I'm going to choose. You're in a tournament. You're in a tournament, Mike. You are in the final round against three other really good players. Like Joe and CJ and Lily. And Lily, yeah. Lily's in there. And you get to choose the machine. Do you choose Aerosmith, F-14 Tomcat, or Attack from Mars? So I don't get to just choose. I want to play my Stern Pirates of the Caribbean. No, that's not in here. No. I could give it a go against all of them on that one. I have to choose between, man, Aerosmith. I'm just assuming like Joe and CJ are in this because these are machines that are at Landmark. These are at Landmark in Peoria, Aerosmith F-14 attack from Mars. I am formerly confident on F-14 until the league finals, and I played – well, in the last league session in the league finals, I played Dan Scott, and he just smoked me on F-14 so bad. So bad I was demoralized. moralize but joe and cj are both good at aerosmith and i'm just assuming these are who i'm playing you're in the finals you're playing good players i'm playing good players i still think i'm gonna take my chances on f14 tomcat i'm gonna take my chances because it's a brutal game and i'm gonna hope because i'm not a great player so i'm gonna need luck I'm going to need a lucky, one big lucky ball. I need luck. And this game doesn't have a ball save, so I'm going to need them to drain quickly. I need the game to be mean to them. Because I'm not going to outluck anybody on Aerosmith. I'm not going to outluck a great player on Aerosmith and probably not attack from ours. So F-14, I'm taking F-14. Okay. But I'd rather them come here and play me on Pirates of the Caribbean, the Stern model. It's not happening. Not on the list. All right. F-14. That's what I'm taking. All right. That's you choose. That's you choose. And I wasn't sure what you were going to choose on that. That's a good selection. Sometimes I've probably had the best games on Aerosmith of those three. Sometimes I'm good on Aerosmith because it's a John Borg. And I'm not bad on John Borg. I'm not bad on John Borg design machines. I like the John Borgs. You're a Borg boy. Borg boy. Let's move on to what we do every show, the dream theme. And this time, Stephanie gets to pick what is a dream theme. And then if you want, you can say who you would like to have design it or what manufacturer you think should make this theme. Okay. This will never happen, but it would be a dream theme. It's never going to happen, I know. But I think I would want Spooky Pinball to do this one. Okay. And the theme is David Lynch's Twin Peaks. Ooh. Yeah. Whoa. Spooky. Yeah. Whoa. Wow. Right? I've never thought of that. Uh-huh. Boy. Uh-huh. Like, it's kind of giving me the creeps a little bit thinking about it. Hmm. But it could be, like, imagine this. You go into, you can go into the lodge, the Black Lodge mode. Yeah. Oh, my God. Yeah. Oh, my God. Yeah. It could be good. And then the, what's the creepy guy? Yeah, Bob. Bob. Oh, my God. I know. Bob. Uh-huh. pretty good right okay spooky pinball get get on that i mean i don't think it would i don't think like anybody buying that me yeah i'm buying it we're buying it you're buying it yeah anybody else listening to if anyone listens to this show are you buying a twin peaks pinball machine i i would pre-order that without even seeing it a hundred percent wow i know it just blew your mind didn't it yeah and we've never talked about that no and that the music oh my gosh uh-huh yeah oh man yeah talk about creepy yeah this has to happen i know but now we need to become billionaires so we can just make it happen we just need somebody to make this it should be spooky Right? Yes. It would be amazing. Just do it. Spooky. Just do like a hundred of them. One-eyed jacks mode. Man. It could be so great. Mm-hmm. It could be so great. Yeah. And there'd be like a slice of cherry pie and a cup of coffee there in the game. Special Agent Dale Cooper. Yeah. Oh, man. Talking to Diane. Wow. We've got to put a poll question in the Punk Rock Pinball group. Okay. Maybe we don't want to spoil this episode. Well, we'll do it when we post the episode. Would you want a Twin Peaks pinball machine? I say yes. I mean, definitely. Wow. So with that, if you aren't already, join our Facebook group. Join the conversation. Let us know. If you do do tournaments, and what would be your advice to get someone else to start doing tournaments? and let us know about the dream theme. Yeah, what's your dream theme? And will you buy Twin Peaks? Man, I'm buying Twin Peaks. Now I just feel like it has to happen. I know. I can't believe we've never talked about it. Yeah, wild. Yeah, join the Facebook group, Punk Rock Pinball. We're going to go feed this dog, Marshall. He's staring at me. We call every meal breakfast. He wants breakfast, even though it's 5 p.m. So we can get the dog breakfast. Thanks for listening. Toodle-oo.

_(Acquisition: groq_whisper, Enrichment: v3)_

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*Exported from Journalist Tool on 2026-04-13 | Item ID: fe72be02-6915-4d9a-ba88-f68419e1d1d7*