Yeah. Is there somebody you would let do your editing or you like okay it doesn have my touch or it this and that Yeah I had somebody edit a video before and then I have two people that are currently working on some other videos It just like the coordination and like I know where in my footage like since I shot it, I know what clip I'm looking for or the thing and having to explain pinball to people too because if you're getting someone to edit pinball and you're like, yeah, just like show a picture of the slingshot and they're like, what's a slingshot? I kind of have to like take the time to like guide them through. this is the shot that I'm looking for or these are the pieces of the game. And yeah, I have a particular style and I think I just need to be okay with letting that go. But I do kind of have some people lined up. It's just coordinating with them and for me to get my footage in order. I have it all over the place. And I download a lot of pictures and I get video clips and I try to pull stuff from other places and get a lot of little things that are in there. I have big aspirations, just that I need to pull myself together a bit better. So it's happening this year for sure. My son is excited by doing the editing, but he's been handcuffed a little bit at college where he was in high school and he's making these videos. He can use whatever he wants. He can use copyrighted music. He can do all the free will. He gets to college like, yeah, you can't do any of that. You know, you have to have permission and things like that. He feels so put inside a little box. I'm like, well, it makes you work harder, right? Yeah, definitely. You have to be a little more creative. And you certainly know that too with what you can and can't do. Yeah, me and Motion Array, we're good friends. So I just use different software to give me permission to have songs and things. Because, yeah, you can't just put your favorite Green Day song in a video. It's going to get taken down. Screw it. I'm putting Green Day at the end of this podcast. And you know what's funny? I do. And I get a note from Spotify like, we're going to have to pull that song. I'm like, OK, whatever. I don't care. It's on other media. You can listen on Apple Pod or whatever other pods. I don't even know where my podcast is. But if it gets dumped on Spotify, I'm like, whoop-dee-doo. You know, other people have it and they subscribe to it. They get it. That's fine. So explain to us, for those who haven't seen the video, the beginner's guide to pinball, the five P's of pinball. So I like started my channel because I had a lot of friends are like, wait, pinball, you got into that? Like, how do you play or what do you do? So I kind of made this five P's of pinball video to like share with my friends. And that's kind of like how my channel kind of grew. I wasn't intending to like make as much of the different types of content that I do make now, but I'm actually really happy about it. It's a lot of fun. But the five P's of pinball, it just kind of tells you like how to turn on a game or how to make sure the game is on and then what you're going to do in order to either credit up or if it's on, you know, if you need to put coins in or if it's on free play, then you also have like the plunger and pressing the buttons and starting the game. So yeah, it's the five P's. I should probably make a graphic for that. I think that'd be fun, like something that people can put up somewhere. But yeah, it was just like, how do you get started to play? Because a lot of people will walk up to a pinball machine and they'll be like, what do I do now? Right? Like not everyone knows to put quarters into it or where the start button is. So I kind of go over like, hey, this is the start button. It might look like this in other games. And a lot of people don't know that you can put up to four players on most games. And I do have like a draft of another video that talks about how to like notice what type of game you've approached, if it's a Bally or a Stern or like, is it a four player or a two player. There's all sorts of different ways to go about it. But yeah, that's just kind of like a basic one where it's like, hey, you want to play pinball? This is almost seems silly. Like once you start playing pinball, it seems almost silly. Like those, wait, people don't know this. But yeah, like when I started pinball, I had no idea you could play up to four players. It was just a great discovery. It's not silly. When you walk into an arcade, you're probably looking at a pinball machine and maybe it's a theme or something you recognize like, hey, I love Jaws or hey, I love this band or whatever it is. And that draws you to it. But thankfully with the new machines and the LCD screens, you actually have a track mode videos that show you how to press the start button, how to plunge, how to flip. Yeah. It seems, yeah, we know it like the back of our hand and you want to bring in new people to pinball. That's the big thing about this hobby. We that are in it are so passionate about it. But I think others would be too if exposed to it. It's unfortunately an expensive hobby to own, but there are lots of places that have pinball machines. Hopefully they're working. That can get you in because I fell in love with pinball long before I ever owned a machine. So it is possible. But again, we just have to have that kind of exposure. And I think your videos do that. Certainly Twitch streams like Manu's and others, the competitions. What can we do to make more people find out about this? Is there any kind of, I mean, you see it every now and then. I know Ted Lasso was a big, wonderful television show that really was positive and stuff, and Jason Sudeikis is a massive pinhead. So he put a Wizard of Oz pinball machine in season two in the bar there, and so people could kind of see this. And maybe you see it a little more mainstream here and there. There's got to be something that will push pinball over the edge. Certainly the movie Pinball, Roger Sharp's story was wonderful for that, But I'm wondering what it'll be for people to go, oh, my gosh, this is the greatest thing ever. Why haven't I been playing? Yeah, I think it's hard, right? Because it's a lot of, I think the big thing is that I hear a lot when I tell people I play pinball or make pinball content. They're like, pinball? That still exists? So I think there needs to be something that gets people to understand that this is, like, D&D just came out. Like, Dungeons & Dragons is now going to be coming out for people to play. and some people had no idea that pinball is still being made and that it's current. Because when I remember I was talking to my coworkers and I was like, yeah, I bought pinball machines. Like, oh, like that old school stuff. That's cool. I was like, no, I have new games. They come out, like 12 games came out last year or something like that, right? Yeah, I think it's finding the way to get people to understand that this still gets made and still out there. I have some fun video ideas. I just need to edit them. I just need to edit more, Jeff. I'm very behind. I know. Well, the future of pinball and its growth is all in your hands, Erica. I'm just not trying to put all this weight on top of you here. But really, it is people like yourself that share these videos and get seen on Instagram and YouTube and all these wonderful things, too. You have a collection. Do you have a favorite game that you own and maybe a favorite game that you would like to own someday? Oh, yeah. I have a collection. I have about six games with my dad. We have a total of ten. So I got him to start collecting a little bit, too. Smart. My Lord of the Rings is my favorite game. That's the first game I bought, and that was the only game I thought I was ever going to own. I didn't really think that I was going to make a YouTube channel or that I would buy more than one machine or any of that. I bought Lord of the Rings thinking that would be it, and then the addiction became real. I was like, you know what would be fun? Well, I'd wait for someone else to play their ball if I had another pinball machine so I could play the other one. That's the dirty secret, right? I mean, I remember the first pinball machine I got about 10 years ago. It was a Lethal Weapon 3. I'm like, this is great. I've always wanted one. This is fun. That seems like a fun theme. Sure, it'll be good. I'm enjoying that. And then people were like, yeah, you're going to get more. I'm like, oh, no, no. I've got a bedroom here. I've got a couch here, a chair here, a TV there. And they're like, yeah, well, if you get rid of that couch, you can put three more. I'm like, no, no, just slow down. This is fine. This is all I need. And then, you know, you kind of see some here and there. And I started playing the pinball arcade. and I'm like, well, there's some games I certainly know about with Medieval Madness and Attack from Mars, but I was really into this Flight 2000 game, and I saw one for a really cheap price. I'm like, I've got to get that. Okay, now I've got two and maybe three. You just keep looking and... After two. That basement where I had a full sofa, lounge chairs, television, a bedroom, all gone now. All it is in the basement is just pinball machines. There's no bedroom. There's no couch. But you can't sit down. You have to go outside if you want to sit down. You're playing pinball machines if you're coming downstairs. And I'm looking at my TV in the corner. I'm like, you know, if I get rid of that, I can probably squeeze in one more game. I know the space is like a big thing for pinballers, right? They talk about how much space they have. They can only have this many games. My parents have a nice basement, and I keep telling my dad he doesn't need a pool table. Oh, you need two people to play pool. That's ridiculous. That's got three pinball machines written all over it. Oh, sell it. Come on. Yeah, but there's still actually space. There is plenty of space. I could probably have like 10, like probably 20 games in the basement, but like just get rid of some couches and stuff. My mom is all for it. It's just like money as well is a thing, right? So if I'm going to have 20 more pinball machines, I need money for 20 more pinball machines. Yeah, I have like a little room right now, like sectioned off in my parents' basement where most of my games are. I recently moved, so I don't have any pins with me now, but I can fit maybe about two pins at my new place. and yeah the addiction is real what's kind of fun though is like i didn't know like anything about pinball when i bought my lord of the rings like i never i didn't know they had pinball leagues i didn't know that there were expos or festivals and shows like i bought my lord of the rings totally blind i just had a friend he bought a jurassic park data east and he's like erica this is like the best thing ever and i was working a lot from home you know pandemic i i get to work remote a lot for my job unless if I have to go into the studio and we do some recording and some filming stuff right so so I was like well what am I going to do on my lunch breaks and then I was like I should buy a pinball machine I always wanted one that an expensive machine too it not like you just bought an EM or something Yeah Well I live in California right And I thought that I had like a nice amount of money to like put a down payment on something. Like I'd been saving for a while and I thought like I could, maybe I could get an apartment or something. And then I like talked to a real estate friend. They're like, no, no, you need like way more than this. I was like, way more than this? Like, this seems like a lot of money. So then I decided to spend some of that money on a pinball machine thinking like, you know what, I'm ready to buy a place. I'll just sell the machine and then put that money back to buy something. But now I could never sell my Lord of the Rings. That money is there now. But the nice thing about that, and even with prices kind of coming down a little bit, it's a good investment. Whatever you put into it, good chance you're probably going to get that back the day you sell it, maybe even a little more, certainly not a lot less. And that's the nice thing about buying these machines is it's just, well, at least this what I told my wife anyway. I'm like, it's just, why keep the money in the bank? We can just have it here when we need the money. That's it. That was the thought process. Yeah. When I first started too, I was, I have this thing called pinball math. I'll eventually release an episode about it. Oh, nice. But yeah, I would say that my Lord of the Rings for sure, I could probably make more than what I, since, you know, it's like kind of a, not rare, but like, you know, it's not often on the market. Yeah, it's a good one too. So that's your favorite game. The game you don't have that you'd love to have in your collection is? At the moment, I'm going to say Attack from Mars. Good choice. Because that was the game that got me into pinball as an adult. I remember going to this bar with my friends. I was working on this movie and I was crashing on a friend's couch. And we'd go to this bar and they had an Attack from Mars original. It was not yet. CGC. The CGCs, yeah. And I remember my friend and I getting drinks and playing Attack from Mars and just playing and playing and playing. And that was the first game that got me back into pinball. I played as a child. I played as a kid a little bit. But I remember playing Lord of the Rings and I remember playing Pirates of the Caribbean and maybe Terminator. I remember playing my first games of pinball at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. That's my first memory of pinball. I was a kid at the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk playing Pirates of the Caribbean. and then skip 10, 15 years later. I'm now in my 20s and I'm playing Attack from Mars at this bar, having a lot of fun and then trying to seek out more pinball machines. I wish I knew about pinball map when I was getting started. I didn't learn about pinball map until, I don't know, like four months into buying my Lord of the Rings. I really went in blind and just like, my dad's an engineer. My dad retired and I was like, the only reason I think I really trusted to buy a pinball machine for myself too was because my father, because he retired. I'm working from home. If it breaks, my dad is like MacGyver, so he can fix it. So I like trust it. And I was like, dad, you know, electronics. If it breaks, you can fix it, right? He's like, yeah, I could fix it. And so like very confidently bought my Lord of the Rings knowing that my dad could fix it. Later learning, you know, people that are capable and fix games like for a living, right? Like that's their job. We all don't have your dad, a former engineer at our disposal, but that's the great thing about owning a pinball machine. If you're listening to this podcast right now and you're thinking, I'd like to take the plunge, but I don't know how to fix anything. You're not alone, but the great thing is the community is there to help you. There are certainly the companies, if you're buying a new machine, will have the service techs give you a call, walk you through. There's all kinds of YouTube videos to help you. Just type in what the problem is. Go on pinside.com, not certain parts, but ask the question on the forum and there are people that will help you. And listen, I have the softest hands in the world, all right? I have not done any hard labor in my life at all. You ask me for a tool, I have to Google what that tool is. The point is, even I can fix the odd thing here and there, and I am the least inclined to do so. So if I can do it, and if I can at least find out how to fix these things, so can you listening, or maybe even better yet, you know Erica's dad. One of the two. Yeah. Well, my dad and I, we're still learning how to fix machines. But yeah, it's fun. You know, I think if you own a pinball machine, you have to be willing to get like a little bit under the glass, like at least to fix a stuck ball or something. Right. But otherwise from that, yeah, like there's usually people that can help you fix it. Like you don't have to be the know-it-all to fix your games. So totally, yeah, not being afraid to buy a machine just because you don't think you could fix it. So I would buy now knowing what I know and being exposed to what I have been like, I would if I not to say that if I did my dad, he's going to be sad hearing that. I was like, oh, I didn't need my dad to like buy a pinball for permission. Oh, we're giving out his email. We're getting everybody in touch with your dad. He's going to be busy for the next little while. But you told me you're kind of working on kind of a big project. Oh, yeah. That's what I want to start this year is I want to work on my own homebrew. Yeah. Really? Do you have a theme in mind? I do. I do have things in mind. I think for me at the start of it, like I'm actually going to I need to hit him up. Joel from Boys Night Out. Oh, yeah. He's local to me and he's like, Erica, when you want to make your pinball machine, let me know. And yeah, I have different ideas. I really would like to spend more of my free time this year trying to get a homebrew going. It would be really cool to bring at least something flipping to Expo maybe. I don't know. That sounds like big things going out. It's a big commitment. But you mentioned Joel. And I first met Joel years ago at Expo when he brought Boys Net out there. And it flipped. It worked and everything. But he since brought it back out last year. And I could see the improvement. Yeah, he's really changed it. It's a big project you're always tinkering with. And you have no deadlines. It's as you find the time to do it. But that's good that you've got people there. And talk about a great community, the homebrew community. Oh, my gosh. They want to help everyone. I love it. Yeah, no, they were super great. It's really inspiring this year at Expo. I felt more inspired than ever to make the games that I know that I won't see from the – I won't see Stern or Jersey Jack or Spooky and whatnot make these games, right? You say that, but TNA was a homebrew. Archer was a homebrew that became Iron Maiden. Legends of Alhalla was a homebrew that American produced. Don't say that these won't be mass produced someday because you never know. I guess with the IPs that I'm interested in making stuff, I'm just unsure about the... Sure, the theme. But yeah. Mark Seiden, who made Avatar. I played his old Metroid game years ago at Pintastic. That's such a cool thing. These games exist. Ry McQuaid, same thing with his old Sonic game. Uh-huh. So, all right, Erica. Super cool. Yeah, and I bought a P3 as well because they also have a third-party software. Not a lot of people know, but they have a third-party software where you can make games on it. And so that community has also been very nice to me. And I have a cousin. He works on video games, and he understands Unity. So I've been toying with Unity a little bit, trying to learn that. Potentially, I might make something on the P3 before I make something physical because it is really expensive. I would say that like building your own pinball machine costs thousands of dollars. It's not a cheap thing to try. So but that doesn't mean I can't grab some cardboard and put some sticks in it. And my dad has a 3D printer. He's been like loving his 3D printing. And so we talk a lot about how he could print out, you know, some of the ramps or things. And yeah, but I have ideas for this year. I would reveal like maybe the ideas I have. But then like then that like spoils the surprise. Yeah, don't worry about it. We're all going to see it this year at Expo anyway, fully flipping. And I expect nothing less from you, Erica. Oh, God. But it is exciting. And Erica, I'm sorry I won't see you at Indisc when I'm in California, but you're recovering from the surgery back in December and all the best with that. But I do look forward to seeing Erica's pinball journey on Instagram and, of course, YouTube. And it's always a pleasure to talk to you. Yeah, likewise, Jeff. Thanks so much for having me. I love listening to your podcast. It's a lot of fun. and you interviewed some really great people. So I feel really honored that you wanted to talk with me. So thank you. You're one of the greats as well. Thank you so much, Erica. We'll talk to you soon. Okay, thanks, Jeff. This has been your Pinball Profile. You can find everything on pinballprofile.com. We're on Twitter, X, Instagram, at pinballprofile. You can email pinballprofile at gmail.com, especially if you're an editor of a podcast. Hint, hint, nudge, nudge. That's, you know, oh my goodness. I could do one a day. That'd be fantastic. And if you'd like to show your support on Patreon, Don't worry, the show will always be free, but thank you very much. It helps with the expenses and everything. So thank you to GME Law, to Tony V, to Nick N, Albert A, David M, Derek K, and others. Again, patreon.com slash pinballprofile. Check out Erica's pinball journey. I'm Jeff Teelhoff.