Kyle Spiteri is a Stern Pinball Technical Support Engineer and content creator known professionally as @BlackCatPinball. He has extensive expertise in pinball repair and maintenance, having worked previously at Marco Specialty and Pacific Pinball Museum. Beyond his technical support role at Stern, he creates educational content including Stern Tech School videos and regularly serves as a factory tour guide and media event director, sharing his background in mechanical repair with the pinball community.
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The C-3PO topper manufacturing defect involved an employee failing to connect a wire harness to the lighting control node board during assembly
Maintenance and repair of pinball machines is cathartic and within reach of typical home owners with basic tools
Basic pinball repair requires only basic hand tools (nut drivers, screwdrivers, soldering capability), not expensive magnetized tools
Learning pinball repair is accessible through multiple pathways: mentorship, YouTube videos, community forums like Pinside and RGP
Hung out with Ian Jacoby at Chicago bar gathering after Stern media day
Stern employee; works prize table at Let's Make a Deal; responsible for handing out tickets
Stern employee present at Enterrium event; author hung out at bar instead of playing tournament
Stern Pinball employee presenting technical deep-dive on Spike 2 hardware; mentee of Chris Koontz
Stern Pinball staff member; led factory tours during media day
Marco Pinball co-host hired by Stern Pinball Technical Services; relocating to Chicago
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King Kong production issue with drive arm blocking gong shot was solved with a retrofittable fix within days
Stern's primary goal for customer support is ensuring games are up and running with parts, instructions, and guidance
Stern manufactures games consistently through assembly line process with multiple dedicated stations and finishing rotisseries
Kyle worked at Pacific Pinball Museum in Alameda and mentored under Chris Kuntz in Benicia before Marco Pinball and Stern
Manufacturing defects in pinball are comparable to issues in automotive and medical device manufacturing, but lower stakes
Kyle's first pinball machine was extremely broken and led to learning through online communities and local mentorship
Prototype-to-production changes happen in all pinball manufacturers, not unique to Stern
Pacific Pinball Museum has a collection of over 1,000 pinball games
Gary Stern purchased the Gottlieb Hannifin playfield press for Data East operations in the 1980s
Stern no longer offers public factory tours, only scheduled tours for influencers and media
Stern Spike system uses switching power supplies instead of transformers
Chris Coun (Pinball Pirate) was Kyle's primary mentor and taught him extensive pinball knowledge
Kyle is 6'8" tall, creating challenges when working on mechanics in back playfield positions
Stern's community engagement strategy aims to reward influencers and content creators with factory access
Pokémon pinball has 18 zipper flippers
Kyle Spiteri joined Stern Pinball as Technical Support Engineer in July 2023
There is no formal school for pinball repair; expertise is developed through self-directed learning and mentorship
The pinball community is almost egalitarian; enjoying a game costs only a dollar while ownership is expensive
Stern's Insider Connected system will expand to drive more players to commercial pinball locations
Kyle Spiteri joined Stern Pinball as a Technical Support Engineer in 2023
The Pacific Pinball Museum's warehouse contained approximately 1,000 pinball games
One of the Pacific Pinball Museum's partners has one of the most complete pre-1960 Gottlieb collections in the world
Stern has seven people handling customer support responsibilities outside parts/logistics
A new generation of kids is growing up with pinball at home, creating potential for resurgence in competitive participation
Flipper buttons connect directly to Node 8 rather than the cabinet distribution board for redundancy
All Spike 2 games run on 48 volts DC output from the power supply
Every Spike 2 game has exactly two core nodes as minimum configuration
Spike 2 node boards have built-in overcurrent detection instead of replaceable fuses
Spike 2 eliminates lamp matrices and switch matrices, replacing them with individual inputs and parallel addressing
Spike 2 games draw approximately half the current of WPC games (4 amps vs 8 amps)
Spike 2 debuted in 2016 with either Batman or Aerosmith as the first game
Kyle Spiteri has been officially hired by Stern Pinball in Technical Services
Kyle Spiteri is relocating to Chicago
Stern pinball employees genuinely care about quality and do not deliberately deliver defective products despite manufacturing setbacks
Kyle's first pinball machine was Creature from the Black Lagoon purchased for $800 in 2008
Kyle has been at Marco Specialties for almost three years (since 2019) in product development and management roles
Stern Pinball staff member; met Kale at Stern facility during X-Men visit
Technical Support Engineer at Stern Pinball (since 2023); experienced pinball technician, content creator (Stern Tech School, Pintech Live), community advocate
Created tutorial video for Dungeons & Dragons fix kit procedure for Stern
Amazing technician; collaborated with Emoto on PinTech Live streaming during COVID period; helped train Emoto on technical troubleshooting
Marco Specialties employee who switched to Stern Pinball (mentioned as previous month's hire)
Stern Pinball staff member creating instructional tech videos for machine maintenance and troubleshooting
Marco Specialties product development/management; produces ~100 episodes of tech-focused pinball shows; streams Thursdays 3 PM ET on Twitch/YouTube/Facebook; former Pacific Pinball Museum technician
Technical expert previously associated with Marco Specialties Pintech videos; moved to Stern Pinball to work in technical service department; will continue Pintech livestreams
Marco Specialties staff, former employee of Chris Koontz (Pinball Pirate), co-host of Twitch tech show Thursdays 3 PM ET
Stern tour director at media day; took hosts through testing/diagnostic room with Williams board archives
Stern Pinball staff member who conducted factory tour during King Kong media event
Stern Pinball technical support; provided troubleshooting guidance for C-3PO topper node board connection issue
Technical specialist at Stern Pinball; formerly worked at Marco Specialty and Pacific Pinball Museum; interviewed by Pinball Profile
Creator of Stern Tech School videos; recommends against waxing modern Stern playfields
Stern Pinball Technical Support Engineer, community content creator (@BlackCatPinball), podcast guest. Background in motorcycle mechanics, pinball repair expertise, factory tour guide.
Stern employee handling tech school educational content; potential creator of future cleaning tutorial