Episode 75 Part 3_The Camp Silverballers Have Spoken

The Spinner Is Lit Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·42m 8s·analyzed·May 22, 2025

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.033

TL;DR

Golden State Pinball 2025 coverage highlights Camp Silverball's sold-out campground and community-driven festival atmosphere.

Summary

Episode 75 Part 3 of The Spinner Is Lit Pinball Podcast features coverage from Golden State Pinball Festival 2025 in Lodi, California, focusing on the Camp Silverball campground experience. Interviews with organizers, volunteers, streamers, first-time attendees, and camp hosts reveal a community-focused event with ~300 machines, a sold-out campground, satellite pinball competitions (including triple Metallica), and educational initiatives like MF Sunday School. The episode emphasizes the event's uniqueness as a family reunion combining competitive play, casual gaming, camping, and after-parties.

Key Claims

Golden State Pinball Festival 2025 campground sold out in under five minutes
high confidence · Kendra (volunteer/service desk staff) stated this explicitly during interview segment
The show has approximately 300 registered machines
high confidence · Multiple speakers (Alex, Mark, Matthew) cited 300 machines; Matthew specifically said '285 games inside from people that bring them from their personal collections'
Triple Metallica competition originated with Banger J in Chicago and Pinball Olympics
high confidence · Patrick and Mark discussed Banger J starting the head-to-head Metallica competition, later brought to Golden State
Rick Demel streams tournaments and campground events on Twitch as Elk Grove Pinball
high confidence · Rick Demel interview confirmed he has been streaming Golden State for last three or four years, extending to campground
MF Sunday School (Monterey Flipper Pinball education initiative) will happen Sunday at noon
high confidence · Matthew from Lin's Arcade described the structured teaching program with assigned instructors
Camp Silverball has three linked Metallica machines enabling 12-person teams with inter-machine tilt interactions
high confidence · George Gonzalez explained the triple Metallica setup and linked tilt mechanics during interview
The barbecue tradition was started by Mark (Sparky) and JJ Babbage from Colorado Game Exchange
high confidence · George Gonzalez cited Mark Sparky and JJ Babbage as originators of the annual volunteer/staff barbecue
Dune is still in limited supply and not released to the public yet
medium confidence · Alex mentioned Dune at show with only one machine brought because 'you know, they're still kind of making that and it's still not really released to the public yet'

Notable Quotes

“We are family. We are family, really.”
George Gonzalez @ early segment — Core philosophy of the event; emphasizes community bonding over competitive play
“It's not just for younger people. It can be for anybody that's getting new to the hobby or whatever. They can come in on Sunday at noon.”
Matthew (Lin's Arcade) @ MF Sunday School segment — Demonstrates inclusive education initiative designed to lower barriers to entry for new players
“When the show closes, that's when the party does start.”
George Gonzalez @ campground discussion — Distinguishes Golden State's unique after-hours camping culture from typical pinball shows
“I didn't even know... we just went out, walked over on a whim, saw a couple of pinball machines in the dark and got invited by anybody and everybody. Everybody was so nice and made a soul that was mean or that was rude.”
Jake (first-time attendee from San Luis Obispo) @ newcomer interview — Captures organic community welcome experience that is central to event identity
“It's my favorite show of all time.”
Matthew (Lin's Arcade/Monterey Flipper Pinball) @ Matthew interview — High endorsement from multi-state organizer/operator with extensive show experience
“There's nothing like this show. It's just, it really is a happening.”
Spencer K @ closing segment — Articulates Golden State's unique status compared to other major pinball shows
“So I'm an engineer by trade, so I like to put everything down on paper. So I actually sketched it out how you get three playfields on one screen, you know, 1080p screen.”
Rick Demel (Elk Grove Pinball streamer) @ streaming segment — Reveals technical innovation in multi-machine streaming presentation
“A pinball machine is a piece of art that's shared from one craftsman to a player and another player. You can enjoy the beauty of the whole thing.”

Entities

George GonzalezpersonGolden State Pinball FestivaleventCamp SilverballeventRick DemelpersonJJ BabbagepersonMark SparkypersonKendrapersonCapital Corridor Pinball Leagueorganization

Signals

?
event_signal: Camp Silverball campground sold out in under five minutes; half full by 4 p.m. Thursday; indicates extremely high demand and limited capacity constraints
high · Kendra: 'We have a camp that sold out spaces in under five minutes... went live and we sold out within the first five minutes'
?
community_signal: Repeated emphasis on family reunion atmosphere, welcoming non-judgmental culture, and organic community bonding; first-time attendees immediately integrated and committed to returning
high · Multiple speakers (George, Patrick, Kyla, Jake, Spencer K) emphasized family reunion feeling, lack of egos, and inclusive welcome
?
event_signal: Festival features approximately 300 registered machines (mix of modern and EM); described as largest/most comprehensive show in personal experience of several attendees
high · Matthew: '285 games inside from people that bring them from their personal collections'; Alex: 'Almost, maybe I would guess around 300'
?
content_signal: Rick Demel designed and implemented unique three-playfield streaming setup for 1080p broadcast; first-time capability shown at Golden State for triple Metallica stream
high · Rick: 'I actually sketched it out how you get three playfields on one screen, you know, 1080p screen. And the playfields fit'
?
operational_signal: Event relies heavily on volunteer labor; George coordinated Wednesday machine setup with 26-foot truck rental; Rick's streaming work spans 9 a.m. to midnight+ for multiple days
high · George: 'I rented a 26-foot truck... picked up games on Wednesday night, Thursday, brought them here, set them up'; Rick worked 9 a.m. to 3:30 a.m. overnight

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.126

0:00

All right, here we are at Golden State Pinball Festival 2025. We have George Gonzalez. He is here and he's going to tell you about himself and what's going on over here. It's a really exciting time we always have on Saturday. So George, welcome. Oh, thank you for having me. And yeah, so we are here at Golden State Pinball Festival on Saturday and we're here having a barbecue, which we put on every year for volunteers, staff and just friends and family of everybody that helps put the show on. And we have hot dogs, we have sausage, chicken sausage, hot links and all sorts of things. And just to help out the pinhead community and just have a good time, get together and food always brings everyone together. So now tell me about this barbecue. I know this has been a tradition. Where did this start? Because it's like I got to meet so many friends because of the barbecue. It was a pin side barbecue long ago. But tell us about that a little bit. Yeah, so our friend Mark, he's also known as Sparky, and he started this tradition of having the barbecue every year along with JJ Babbage from Colorado Game Exchange. And JJ comes to a lot of the shows, and one of them is our show here for the Golden State Pinball Festival. And he sells Jersey Jack, Stern pinball, Chicago, American. And so along with him and all the volunteers, it's not just myself and it's not just JJ, it's all the Capital Corridor Pinball League. Most of the folks are from here that put on the show and also put on this barbecue. So it's a group effort. I just kind of organize everybody and everybody brings a little bit of food. John Popadiuk, Bob Betor, Knapp Arcade, Bally Williams, Straight Down the Middle, Bally Williams, John Popadiuk, Bob Betor, Knapp Arcade, Bally Williams, Straight Down the Middle, Bally Williams,

2:55

I'm in the garage and I'm hosting League this Thursday because Adam has a bunch of pinball machines and it just gets too hectic at his house. So I volunteered to have League at my house in a few days from now. And so here we are with our pinheads. That is awesome. I love the barbecue. It's always a fun time to hang out with friends and it's really a family reunion. That's what I like about it so much is, you know, it's just I always look forward to this year. We're already counting down for 2026 and it always gets better and better and better. And it's just so unique. So what's the favorite thing that you like about this show? What really appeals to you the most? Well, being able to actually participate and put the show on. I mean, I started on Wednesday. I rented a 26-foot truck and along with Hector and my friend Mike and Dave Templeton, we I picked up games on Wednesday night, Thursday, brought them here, set them up, helped set up the whole show. You know, the whole thing about volunteering, and this whole show is all about the volunteers. I mean, it wouldn't have happened. And so, we're here at Camp Cervival, and we know everybody around us in this camp. I mean, it's like, you know, we camp here every year, we know everybody, and that's the thing that's so special, John Popadiuk, Bob Betor, Knapp Arcade, Do you have something? You want a beer? Can I have a beer or whatever? This is the way it works, man. We are family. We are family, really. I totally agree with you. It's what it's all about. We're all family. And it's really interesting because not only is there a place to eat, you know, around the campsite and stuff, but then you have pinball machines that you can play. And I know at first when I looked at it, it was the lights were on. I'm like, I was kind of hesitant to go over there. And as soon as I started being hesitant, there was somebody in the corner like, oh, go ahead, play. That's our game. John Popadiuk, Bob Betor, Knapp Arcade, Ballywin, I can tell you, when the show closes, that's when the party does start. So we have in our campsite here is we have two, three Metallicas. We call it triple Metallica. It used to be, it used to just be two. So basically what happens is that they're all three, they're linked together, and if you hit a certain shot, it tilts the other machines. And so there's like 12 people lined up in each machine and the last person standing John Popadiuk, Bob Betor, Knapp Arcade, Bally Williams, Straight Down the Middle, Bally Williams, Straight Down the Middle, We're going to continue it tonight, at midnight, when the show closes. Today is Saturday, so the show closes at midnight, so about 12, 31 o'clock we'll be in our camp finishing the round from yesterday. But you know, you also have the Monterey people, Lin's Arcade. They have a camp down here and they have literally a stage with machines and they have 10 trailers John Popadiuk, Bob Betor, Knapp Arcade, Everybody welcomes you and everybody in each camp around this place will welcome you, arms open, have whatever you want. And that's what makes this such a great show and we look forward to it every single year. I mean, like you said, Mark, we're counting down the days from the day we close. Okay, 364 days until the next show. Absolutely, we have that pin side thread starting right away as soon as the day is over when we go on to the next countdown. Yeah, that's really cool. George, thanks so much for sharing all your great knowledge and your passion for pinball and passion for people and just love you. Thank you for having me so much and come on to the show next year if you can't make it tomorrow. All right, I am here with Alex. Alex is a guy here that everybody knows and tell us about what you think about the show right now. Golden State Pinball Festival 2025 and it is just an awesome place to hang out and meet all family, which is pretty much what it is. It's a family reunion. So tell us all about the show. I'm enjoying it so far. I think it's pretty neat. You know, I'm playing a lot of cool games. I've been camping out kind of in the EM room, been seeing all my friends, seeing, meeting new people. It's just a fantastic community and fantastic. I love the Golden State Pinball Festival. It's like, you know, I mean, there's a barbecue. I mean, JJ's here. Shout out to JJ from Game Exchange. You know, Das Flipperhaus, you know, with them and they're, you know, been providing the keg for him. And you know, it's just so many of my friends are here. It's just a wonderful show to be around. I think I like I'm kind of like I end up kind of, you know, spending more time in the campground than I actually do in the show. I heard that from somebody else too. It seems like the campground is the place to be. How's the show itself? The show itself is cool. Obviously the lines are gonna be long for new games like there's an Evil Dead here I haven't played any of the new stuff yet, but I will eventually I think They brought 12 Kongs or something like that here. So that's pretty neat They have plenty of King Kongs to play Dune they only brought one of course because you know, they're still kind of making that and it's still not really released to the public Yet, but it's really cool. Shout out to Adam and Shane from Ace Kogi for bringing that that's pretty fantastic And then I don't know who brought the Evil Dead But that's out on the floor too, so a lot of cool games this year. That sounds really awesome. And how many games do we have this year? Almost, maybe I would guess around 300. Wow, 300 games? That seems like a major show compared to a lot of other ones around the country, that's for sure. That is cool, man. Yeah. 300 games, wow. And a whole bunch of variety, huh? What game was so unique that you've never seen before? Well, I've been playing a lot of Varkon. Varkon's pretty rare. I've been kind of playing that quite a bit. Um, played a little bit of, uh, I mean, I've been camping out basically on Varkon. I played a Starjet. I like Starjet a lot. Bally Starjet, you know? Right. Those sound really rare. Yeah. Those are super, I feel like those are pretty rare. Now, where's this Varkon? Is it in this hall? No, it's in the EM room. It's in the Chardonnay. It's in the, yeah, no, it's in the EM room. Okay, so there's two rooms. Yeah, there's two rooms at the show. Wow. It's so awesome. Okay, so you got a whole bunch of moderns, and then you said you have more older games over in the other one. StarJet's actually in the Modern Room, believe it or not, with Freedom. There's a Freedom here too, for Monterey Pinball. So shout out to the guys at Monterey Flipper Pinball League. I think I saw that. It had like a pop bumper in the middle. It's similar to Spanish Eyes. I like the layout. It just, you know, kind of feels like a pimped out Spanish Eyes, you know? Oh, that is cool. It's really awesome. Well, Alex, thanks a lot for coming to the show and sharing what you've done at the show. And it's awesome to get to know you personally. I skipped out on the tournament this year too because I wanted to enjoy the show and chill out with friends, you know, but I think I'll do the tournament next year. Yeah I did the tournament on Friday and I didn do so well but I still had fun seeing all the tournament folks It was great seeing you great grabbing A together All right Well thanks Alex I appreciate it Yeah no problem man All right here we are at the Golden State Pinball Festival 2025 and we have Kendra here So she's going to tell you a little about what she's doing at the show and tell you about the history a little bit. So, my name is Kendra, as Mark said. I volunteer at the show every year. I work the service desk, checking in games, checking out games. The Valley Company, Subsidiary of Walter Kidde & Co., Inc., Mirco Playfields, Tim Kitzrow, Scott Danesi. The campground or what's going on here? So the camp is part of the uniqueness of the show because at least in California I know of no other show that has a camp to this level. We have a camp that sold out spaces in under five minutes. Wow. Five minutes? Yes. We went live and we sold out within the first five minutes. That is incredible. And I remember coming here Thursday and there was already like half of the campground full by about four o'clock. It was crazy. But it's so awesome. It's such a neat, neat opportunity to just hang around with people and friends and meet new people. And I met you through the show and it's just like a huge family and it's what makes this place so awesome. And the show every year is something that we look forward to. Counting the days for 2026 now. Yeah, and part of the joy of camp too, especially for those of us that spend most of our time volunteering, that don't get as much time at the show with people because we're busy running around doing all the things, the volunteers, the board, what have you. The joy of camp is once we're done, we get to go hang out and see everybody and have those conversations that everybody else got to spend all day having. That is awesome. Kendra, thank you so much. It was so great talking with you and enjoy the rest of the show. All right, here we are over at Golden State Pinball Festival 2025, and we are so excited to introduce you Rick Demel, and he is really in charge of all the streaming. So he's going to introduce himself and talk about a little bit what's going on over at the show. Thanks, Mark. Yeah, so I stream on Twitch under the label Elk Grove Pinball. And so you can check me out online. But yeah, the last three or four years, I've been streaming the tournaments at Golden State Pinball Festival. And we've actually extended that out to the campground. Last night, we did the triple totalica stream. And that was well received. But yeah, it's just kind of like a hobby for me. I started off doing it because I wanted to improve as a player, get some video of me. And then I got into videos online and everybody's doing streaming. And it's kind of fun to show off your skills and then also talk to individuals out there that have the same passion for pinball that you do. That's awesome. And you're like the only stream that I know that has three machines streamed on one stream, which is pretty cool. So how did you set that up? Well, you know, I'm an engineer by trade, so I like to put everything down on paper. So I actually sketched it out how you get three playfields on one screen, you know, 1080p screen. And the playfields fit. The tough part was trying to figure out how to fit in, like, the player and the scores of the teams. Kianos Mims, and so that was the diff- diff- and I- what I did is I set it up at home to make sure that it worked, because you don't want to get out here and all of a sudden, oh, that's something I didn't think of. So I knew it would work physically, it was just getting it out here, getting it set up and ready to go, and a lot of people last night were commenting, they just were kind of blown away that you could, you could do that out here in a campground and send it out to internet land. So, it was, it was a great event. It's pretty awesome and you work hard because I mean how many hours do you work in one day? It's crazy. I mean you do the women's tournament, you do the main tournament, you do Tilltalika. I mean it's crazy like how many hours a day?

15:08

Yeah, so today my day started about 9 a.m. The tournament started at 10. I had to do set up. The qualifying for the main tournament goes to about 5 p.m. There's a very, very short break and then the women's tournament starts at 7 p.m. We're going to go through qualifying all the way through the finals and it's probably going to be another midnighter for me. And that's pretty indicative of what we had last night. Actually, last night we went to like 3.30 in the morning and then the finals is my shortest day on Sunday and we're actually out of here by five. But then you got to pack everything up, get home when you're all tired. It's a long weekend, but I really enjoy it. I like to show off the Golden State Pinball Festival and what better way to do it than streaming it. What's the favorite part of the show? What really stands out to you for this over other shows? I know you've gone to tournaments and you've gone all over to different kinds of pinball shows, Pinball Expo and stuff like that. What makes this show unique and what's your favorite part of it? Yeah, you're right. I've been to a lot of different shows and they all have their advantages, but at Golden State, it's just the atmosphere. I mean, last night the show closed at 11 p.m. and everybody moved out to the campground and there's pinball machines at different camps. We have the triple to italica. There's actually a pinball machine fire that if you hit a certain shot, it blows a flame 20, 25 Петли . 9, 9, 9, 3-2 ,0 5-1-0 8. 8, 6, 4, 3-b ,0 8. 7, 9, 9, 3-1-0 8. 9, 9, 9, 3-2, 1. 9, 9, 3-1-0 8. 9, 9, 8, 2-2, 1. . 9, 9, . 10, 9, . 10, 9, . I don't know what they're doing. Yeah, they kind of want to change the pace. Okay, yeah, there's a lot of here 피부. And of course, they likeủ you. You know. And general cannot wait to take that 920ect Later. So I'm going to go ahead and call it a day. The Silver Ball Campground. So I want to thank you so much, Rick, and enjoy the time at your show. Excellent, Mark. Love your podcast and keep it up. And we got some newcomers here. We got some first year. So what do you think of the show? What's your name, first of all? My name's Kyla. I think it's been great. The sense of community here is awesome. We come from an area of California where there's not a huge pinball community. So it's been really fun, like, getting to meet all of these new people and have them teach us so much. We've learned so much. We're getting to meet all of these new people and have them teach us so much. We've learned a lot this trip. That is awesome. And what do you think of the show? What's your name? I'm Jake. Man, this show, this festival is incredible. It's awesome. It's blown my mind. It's been so much more than I thought it was going to be. And man, finding the camping last night, holy cow, that is next level. So what did you experience? What was your thoughts? I'd love to hear it. Oh, I didn't even know. I didn't know what to expect. We just went out, walked over on a whim, saw a couple of pinball machines in the dark and got invited by anybody and everybody. Everybody was so nice and made a soul that was mean or that was rude. Everybody was so welcoming and it was awesome. The community was great. We stumbled upon you like I think second you know or just randomly you know walking around and we played the OLLI game for the for the pin golf and man you told us about the the stall ball and walked back there at I don't know 11 12 o'clock and it was like it was awesome that is awesome so what's your favorite part of the show um I think it was really cool last night to see All of these pinball machines just kind of like out under people's easy ups and you know you guys are creating like a true festival out here and hearing from you guys say that this is the only one of its kind like where you can you know camp and hang out and you get to create these like pinball after parties it's so cool and like just the kindness that people have had and everybody's like oh you you don't know this well let me teach you all about it like there's no like oh well you don't you know you don't play pinball because you don't know this like Everybody's just so kind here and it's amazing to see. And there's so many new games that we've never played before. Seeing all the classic games is really, really cool. And you say you're from California. What part of California are you from? We're from San Luis Obispo County. Okay, that's awesome. I know there's some pinheads down there, so that's really awesome. Yeah, so I have to agree with you. This is a wonderful show and it just, once you go the first time, what are your thoughts now? Oh, we'll totally be coming back. Oh, we're hooked. Yeah, we're hooked. We're in. We'll, yeah, we're in. Definitely. This will be a regular trip for us. Awesome. Well, thanks a lot for sharing all your thoughts and it's so awesome that you're having a great time and we'll see you around and enjoy the show. Thank you, Mark. Yeah, thank you, Mark. Thank you. All right, here we are at Golden State Pinball Festival 2025 and we have Mark Coward who is here to talk about this really cool machine that he brought to his campsite. So, here's Mark. Howdy. This is Chicago Coins Hockey Champ 1968. Everybody's thinking it's kind of like foosball or whatnot, but it's a lot more fun than that. You've got five hockey players with a stick, two of them on one side, two on the other, and a goalie. And you've got one button on either side, and one button trips the left guys to do their stick, the other button does the right guys to do their stick, and a steel ball comes out and you bat it back and forth. The biggest problem people have is, since it's like, I don't know if you guys pinball out there but impulse flippers only get one boom and then they don hold or anything That how these hockey sticks are So if you don flip if you don wait till the last second and flip when the ball right on the stick you miss And so the new people miss a lot In fact, Keith Elwin was here last night playing some Hockey Champ. I actually beat him. And nobody ever was like, you know who you just beat at Hockey Champ? I'm like, what? No, Keith Elwin. I'm like, what? It turned out he was the only one who figured out the timing on the things from the get go. I didn't have to explain it. So I'm like, oh, OK, that explains a lot right there. But I got this off of my buddy Art down in Glendale and he's like, I got a hockey champ in my thumper dome that I haven't pulled out and never got working but once. I'm like, what's a hockey champ? And so he sent me a photo and I was sold. That is so cool. Every year you always bring a unique EM type of machine to always engage the people that come to the camp. What are you thinking about bringing next year? I think I'm going to bring back what we had last year, which is the most popular one of all, was they call it advanced pool. There was a little era in the middle 50s when even Gottlieb and Chicago Coin and a few other companies made what they called scoring pool tables, which would be put in a bar. They were maybe four feet long and they had score reels and everything. So the holes actually made points. And this one has a feature like in the pinball singalong where you get in one of the holes and it bounces to the next hole and bounces to the next hole. The Valley Company is a nonprofit organization that provides financial aid to the U.S. and the United States in order to help people like us and our communities. The Valley Company is a nonprofit organization that provides financial aid to the U.S. and our communities. John Popadiuk, Bob Betor, Keith Elwin, Laser Los, Bowen Kerins, Lyman F. Sheats Jr., orbit ramps, Automated Amusements, Python Anghelo, Joe Kaminkow, Tim Kitzrow, Scott Danesi.

23:13

Thank you for watching this edition of Minds, Beats & Sings. wanted to thank Mark Murski for cramming in with us today. Yes, so as modern club hosts have offered his feedback after last week of our situation both with the chat and videos we get up to until the end,amba andotsanisi have added in to another edition of Stop Pinball FOX News. We are the one each of today's guests represent, who will be representing later this year and Alright, thanks for coming in and thank you for joining us. So, we're in this new year and the year after that because you always bring something exciting and new to the campground, silver ball campground as we all call it. Got it. And just wanted to have a great time at the show. I appreciate it a thousand percent. Everybody should come down and check out GSPF every year, greatest show on earth and our motto every year is better next year, better next year. So, I've got my partner in crime here. John Popadiuk, Bob Betor, Knapp Arcade, Ballywin, Straight Down the Middle, Ballywin, Straight Down the Middle, What do you got to say? Spencer K. Spence, What do you got to say? Spencer K. You know what? It's just so good to be back at this show and see family and friends. This show is like no other, man. It really is a gathering of family. Since we live so far away now, we only get to see a lot of these guys once a year, but there's just nothing like it. So if you can get out here, get out here. If you can't, make it next year. Book a flight, drive out, whatever you got to do because it really is more than pinball. It's always about the people. You know, that's what I'm hearing from everybody that I've talked to so far. It's all about the people. And there's plenty of pinball. I just heard, Kendra just told me there was 300 machines that were registered at the show. That is crazy. And all varieties that you've never seen before. And the other thing is just so many people out here and the campground and it's just, the vibe is just, it's just awesome. Yeah. Now that I've been to other shows and all the shows are great. So people put on shows anywhere. God bless you for it. But yeah, there's nothing like this show. It's just, it really is a happening. Yeah, it makes one of a kind show for sure with all the people around and the campground and the pinball outside and the after parties. It's just, it is just one huge party. It's almost like a spring break for us, for all ages, but just in a really fun loving way as a family. Yeah, it is. I mean, it really is. It's all about family. And you can bring family. You can bring mom, dad, the kids, the grandkids, everybody. That's awesome. Well, it's really awesome to be a part of your show and I'm excited that we finally have some people we can talk to around the campground and at the show to talk about all the exciting things that are happening here at Golden State Pinball Festival 2025 in sunny Lodi, California. Awesome, Mark. All right, here we have Patrick. He is a newcomer. He's never been here at the show until this year and he would love to share his experiences. Yeah, so I live in San Francisco where there's a big pinball community that I'm nowhere near being on elite with enough to touch, but I like coming in here and people showing me games and understanding how they work and what I'm doing rather than just trying to keep the ball out of the hole. And there's no quarters, no pressure, and no egos. Everybody here has been really, really welcoming and thoughtful in the lessons that they're teaching. I'm hearing that theme a lot of everybody welcoming each other. It's amazing. Like I mentioned in a previous person I talked to, how they were just welcome to play the games. And I know that's kind of weird. Like it's almost like to most people inconsiderate to just go up and play somebody else's property, but that's not the environment here. That's not the vibe here, right? No, not at all. And a pinball machine is a piece of art that's shared from one craftsman to a player and another player. You can enjoy the beauty of the whole thing. So it's a welcoming art in and of itself. Now I know you were part of the Tiltalica competition last night. What were your thoughts about that? I thought I knew Metallica pinball until I played Tiltalica. That was next level. And head to head competition added to pinball, it's amazing. I am so thankful to the minds that created such a beautiful thing as that. Yeah, we got to give a shout out to Banger Jay. That's his nickname. He lives in Chicago and he started that in pinball Olympics having a head-to-head Metallica. And then we were like, hey, can we share that with people out here in California and have it as an actual competition? He was like, yeah, go for it. So thanks Banger Jay for allowing that to happen. And it's awesome that you got to experience that because that's what everybody talks about every year. Mad love to Banger J and I will carry that forward knowing that that's the history of a... Shit, I can't even say it right. Metallic... Metallitilt. Right? I always mess it up too. I think it's triple tri... See, I messed it up too. Triple Tiltalica. I'll have to write that down. Okay. Well, Patrick, have a great time. We still got a whole night ahead of us and also we have tomorrow until 5 o'clock. So enjoy the show. Thank you very much. I'll be close by. All right, here we are. We got Matthew from Lynn's Arcade, and he's gonna tell us all about the awesome experience he's having over here at Golden State Pinball Festival 2025. Yeah, man, we're out here having a good time. We're camping. You know, we brought five RVs and set up a stage with three games on it, and we brought three rhythm games linking up with rewind pinball up in Sebastopol. And we've been camping out for a couple days already and we got another couple days left and we raged out last night and had a good time and we're all here playing pinball and hanging out with all our friends from all over California and Nevada and Arizona and I think there's even some Washington people that are coming down here and some Oregon people that came down so it's a great show it's my favorite show of all time. John Popadiuk, Bob Betor, Keith Elwin, Laser Los, Bowen Kerins, Larry K. Sheats Jr., We're here to play some pinball with us. Now I heard you're doing something unique on Sunday with the little folks here. What are you doing exactly? I heard you're doing something like some kind of like tutorial or lessons of how to play pinball. What are your plans? So Sunday we are, our league is Monterey Flipper Pinball or MF Pinball. And so Sunday we're doing MF Sunday School. And so all, we have a whole crew of league members and then also people outside of our league that are also going to be teaching. And it's not, it's for everybody. It's not just for younger people. It can be for anybody that's getting new to the hobby or whatever. They can come in on Sunday at noon. You can show up and there's gonna be a whole slew of teachers to teach you basic flipper skills or pinball 101 if you need to. And you can link up with a teacher, you can walk around with said teacher and they can show you rule sets on games, They can show you flipper techniques or flipper skill techniques. John Tracy's going to be doing, like one of our league members, John, is going to be doing tap passing. So if you want to learn how to tap pass, you're going to hang out with John and he's going to go find a couple of games with you and you'll be able to learn how to tap pass with him. I think Dustin might show up and might do like deeper rule set stuff and you know, I'll be out there as well. And a bunch of the ladies from MF Ladies Pinball are going to be out there like doing the same thing. So show up, learn how to, you know, ask questions. Like we can, we'll have enough teachers where we can actually direct to whatever the students that, you know, what they want to learn. So if we have five people that want to learn a specific thing, we can be like, all right, I'll take that one as a teacher and be like, let's go learn that. Let go walk the floor Let go find some games Let go learn some stuff You know if you want to learn basic things like when you walk up to a game and you never played it before what are you looking for What shots are lit when you hit start What's a skill shot all about on this game? What's, you know, how do you read the little card to figure out how to do multiball? So it's just getting people into the game and getting it going for more people that are just kind of maybe intimidated about playing pinball altogether. And you know what, I like what you're saying is it's more a hands-on experience. So you're going to have several games based on different skills, which I think is really a neat idea. Because a lot of times when you're just having a whole bunch of people gather around one machine, it's not as engaging or interactive. But having a variety of machines and trying out from novice all the way up to more, you know, from amateur to semi-professional or, like you said, more knowledge based on the rules, sounds like a really, really cool idea. And it's awesome that you're offering that. And I know for a fact every year you always have an awesome campsite. You have your spot out there. What games did you bring this year? So this year I actually lucked out. I had Adam from the Rewind and Christian from Outer Orbit offer to put games in the camp for me. So I didn't have to actually bring them this year. I got to focus on bringing all the extra stuff that we used to make the camp what it is. Adam so graciously brought us Dungeons & Dragons Pro, and then he brought a Wo Nelly, and then Christian put a Queen out there. So we have Queen, Dungeons & Dragons, and Wo Nelly. So that's our camp games this year. It's a really fun little lineup, and hopefully we can expand our camp games next year. We have more plans to make it bigger and badder and better than ever. And it seems like that's a theme. We always want to get it better, bigger, and more awesome every year. And Matthew, it's so awesome. I'm definitely going to be over there on your campsite tonight playing Queen because that's always a hard game to find. So that's awesome. Thanks for offering those games and thanks for contributing to the pinball community. Absolutely, man. This is the greatest show. Again, Golden State Pinball is the best. And I travel all over going to all kinds of shows. And this is the one. This one is the most homegrown feeling, the best group of people that come together to make this show happen. There's 285 games inside from people that bring them from their personal collections. So you can't wave a flag at that. It's just amazing. That's awesome. Well, thanks a lot and have a great time. Thank you, sir. Will do. Crazy Nate is here and he wants to tell you all about Golden State Pinball Festival 2025. So what are your thoughts? What do you like about the show? What's going on? Well, I was blessed with the knowledge of this festival by Mr. Michael Huntsman. I think it was like 2018 and I was skydiving at the facility that's like nine minutes from here at Skydive Lodi. And Mike, yeah, it was 2016? 17? 16, 17. It was 16, 17? And I was, I started the first pinball only arcade in Montana and I ran into Mike in Reno and we became best friends because I saw him working on a Centaur at the hideout. Yeah. And my first time here I was like, oh my God, it's like Burning Man for pinheads. There's a bunch of dudes on bicycles and skateboards and well, you can't have skateboards at Burning Man, but, and we had a midnight madness tournament. And then anytime I could ever show up here, I would come here because it's just so awesome. And it's the people that make it the best. It really is. Everybody has a passion for pinball here and it's awesome and it just keeps getting better. Yeah. Even the year where it rained the entire time. Yeah. We still played stall ball. We still played stall ball in the rain. Yeah. That is so cool. I think we had like 68 players on a couple of games. Yeah. That was amazing. So you say the most thing you like about the show is the people. It's the people. And I've heard that from everybody, even people that are first timers. I've been a professional skydiving instructor for 13 years and I have people ask me this question all the time thinking they're original. And it's like, oh, where's your favorite place to skydive? And it's where my friends are. And another thing that I learned from Mike was that pinball is better with friends. I mean, guy's got like 40 games in his house and he won't play for weeks. But when friends come over, he plays for 12 hours. You said I'd work with you. Yeah. That is awesome. Well, I'm having a great time as you are, and I appreciate you telling us all about yourself. And it's great. So I'm camped with the Monterey Flipper crew. And we're over there, and we have a disco now. And we have three machines in there this year. And we also have a group that camps with us that imports the Japanese machines, the rhythm machines, that are like offline in Japan. And so they hack them and make them playable. And so we have that in camp as well. And it's just a good time until, well, like two, four o'clock in the morning, depending.