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Pinball Minority Report - Imoto on Arcades, 40,000 Pinball Parts, & Building an Inclusive Community

Erika's Pinball Journey·video·1h 11m·analyzed·Jul 24, 2026
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 (batch) · $0.021

TL;DR

Emoto Arcade on arcades, 40k pinball parts, community inclusion, and building Marco's ecosystem.

Summary

Erika's Pinball Journey hosts Emoto Arcade (a cinematographer, co-owner of Captain Crazy's Paradise arcade, Marco Pinball marketing director, and creator of the Emoto Pinball Challenge) in a wide-ranging discussion covering her origin story in arcades and pinball, Marco Pinball massive 40,000+ SKU parts catalog and website rebuild project, and efforts to make pinball a more inclusive community. The conversation traces Emoto's journey from arcade discovery at Galloping Ghost in 2011 to building arcade advocacy content, meeting key community figures, and her current mission to preserve and support pinball infrastructure.

Key Claims

  • Marco Pinball catalog contains just shy of 40,000 SKUs and does not have complete coverage of all games

    high confidence · Emoto Arcade, discussing Marco's inventory scope; stated directly in interview

  • Marco Pinball website was officially launched around 2011-2013 and is now being rebuilt with newer infrastructure

    high confidence · Emoto Arcade explaining technical challenges of their catalog rebuild

  • Galloping Ghost Pinball in Gary, Indiana had over 200-300 games (mix of video games and pinball) when Emoto visited in 2011

    high confidence · Emoto describing her formative arcade experience

  • There are only two pinball machines licensed from Best Picture Oscar-winning films: Lord of the Rings (Return of the King) and The Godfather

    high confidence · Erika's trivia question, confirmed by Emoto and Erika during interview

  • Historic pinball manuals from the Bally/Williams era contain incorrect part number specifications (e.g., flipper switch part numbers differing between documentation and actual machines)

    high confidence · Emoto discussing documentation inconsistencies in Marco's catalog efforts

  • Emoto's cinematography production company, Captain Crazy Productions, has been operating since 2008

    high confidence · Emoto's background statement in interview

  • Emoto first met Manu at the January 17, 2015 Guinness World Record pinball event at the Museum of Pinball in Banning, California

    medium confidence · Manu recounting their first encounter; timing/location details provided

  • Pinball arcade machines historically contained approximately 1.5 miles of wiring

    medium confidence · Mentioned by Emoto as trivia/historical detail; not heavily verified in conversation

Notable Quotes

  • “Every instance of everything that's going on in my life is pinball relevant projects and stuff like that.”

    Emoto Arcade @ early in interview — Establishes Emoto's complete commitment and immersion in the pinball ecosystem

  • “We want everything from 4 million BC down to Pokemon to keep working 50 years from now.”

    Emoto Arcade @ discussing Marco's mission — Articulates Marco's preservation philosophy spanning classic to modern machines; shows business vision

  • “Arcades are the greatest public space that could exist.”

    Erika @ mid-interview — Core value statement about arcade culture and community third spaces

  • “He held me there and watch. And it just happened to be I didn't know who any of these people were, but I remembered their names. It was Zach Sharpe going up against Keith Elwin in a match.”

    Emoto Arcade @ recounting Kenny Hardy's influence at Museum of Pinball — Pivotal moment when competitive pinball skill and design depth clicked for Emoto

  • “When you see any three of us, any one of us of the three at a pinball show, please come up and talk to us... Although you're like, 'Oh man, these are the cool, so extroverted,' all three of us are like insane introverts.”

    Manu @ mid-conversation — Humanizes the hosts; addresses community accessibility and invites grassroots connection

  • “There's a whole freaking history lineology... It was all right here in Pinball, too.”

    Emoto Arcade @ discussing designer deep-dive moment — Shows how recognizing designer auteurship (like in film) transformed her understanding of pinball as an art form

  • “So like I use it all the time too... it's not just buying the part from us, which is great because that's how we keep the doors open, but it's the reference material for everyone else.”

    Emoto Arcade @ explaining Marco's community-first philosophy — Reveals tension between business sustainability and collective knowledge-building mission

Entities

Emoto ArcadepersonErikapersonManupersonMarco PinballcompanyCaptain Crazy's ParadisevenueGalloping Ghost PinballvenueMuseum of Pinballvenue

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Explicit call to action by Pinball Minority Report hosts for grassroots community members to approach them at events; hosts self-identify as introverts who struggle to initiate conversations but deeply value in-person connection; signals effort to make pinball community more welcoming and less gatekeeping-oriented

    high · Manu: 'When you see any three of us... please come up and talk to us... all three of us are like insane introverts and we are not good at walking up to strangers... we want to meet you as much as you want to meet us.'

  • ?

    business_signal: Marco Pinball is undergoing significant website/backend system rebuild; current infrastructure dates to 2011-2013 and is strained by managing 40,000+ SKUs and complex cross-manufacturer associations; upgrade driven by community feedback on navigation and search functionality

    high · Emoto: 'We have a really really awesome internal IT team kind of helping us through this next evolution... how all the systems talk to each other is definitely a big feat.'

  • ?

    operational_signal: Marco Pinball faces systematic data accuracy challenges due to manufacturer documentation errors (incorrect part numbers, conflicting specifications across machines); community crowdsourcing of corrections is incentivized with free shipping/swag codes; signals broader pinball industry issue with technical documentation quality

    high · Emoto: 'The manuals are wrong... In the actual manuals for several of those games in that era, they actually listed the wrong part number... we try to document that in our product descriptions.'

  • ?

    preservation_signal: Many pinball parts becoming 'unoptanium' (unavailable); Marco Pinball actively pursuing remanufacturing of obsolete components to keep machines playable across all eras; signals supply chain vulnerability and business opportunity in parts reproduction

Transcript

supadata_caption · $0.001

0:00
You have an automatic autotune like in your throat.
0:02
Yeah, I built it inside my throat.
0:05
It's from lots of smoking.
0:06
It's from all the smoking I [laughter] do
0:09
of incense.
0:10
Of incense. Cuz you know, I just want to be the very best like no one ever was. To catch them is my real test. To train them is my cause. Got to catch them all.
0:29
Kenny Hardy
person
Zach Sharpeperson
Keith Elwinperson
Jeff Tiololisperson
Captain Crazy Productionscompany
Pinball Minority Reportorganization
Free Gold Watchvenue
Golden Stateevent
Pinball Expoevent
Southern Fid'svenue
Lord of the Ringsgame
The Godfathergame
Pokemongame
Trongame
Steve Ritchieperson
George Gomezperson
Emoto Pinball Challengeevent

high · Emoto discussing parts becoming unavailable and Marco's mission to remanufacture legacy components to keep games operational

  • ?

    community_signal: Jeff Tiololis's Pinball Profile podcast credited as high-quality interview format capturing diverse voices during period of manufacturing growth; represents emerging content creator role in legitimizing/documenting pinball community beyond manufacturer narratives

    high · Erika: 'Jeff... started his pinball profile format in a time where there was so much going on in pinball... he took the initiative and the time and effort to just interview all different types of people in the community.'

  • ?

    venue_signal: Arcade venues (Galloping Ghost, Museum of Pinball, Captain Crazy's Paradise, Free Gold Watch) serve as critical cultural and social spaces for pinball community building; third-place function (beyond home/work) emphasized; signals broader retro gaming/arcade renaissance as counter to digital isolation

    high · Emoto: 'Growing up in arcades, it was such a huge and important part of my mental and social development... that's where I met all my best friends... a third space where I can like exist in and feel comfortable in.'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Emoto's filmmaker background enabled her to recognize pinball designers (Steve Ritchie, George Gomez, Christian Marty) as creative auteurs with distinctive styles—similar to recognizing film directors/cinematographers; this framing elevates pinball design to art form status rather than pure engineering

    high · Emoto: 'It was all right here in Pinball, too... there's a whole freaking history lineology... you can tell the similarities... that's amazing.'

  • ?

    historical_signal: Arcade public spaces largely died out 2004-2005; Galloping Ghost discovery in 2011 marked perceived resurgence; community members (like Emoto) actively promoting local arcade support to prevent repeat of prior extinction; signals cyclical industry dynamics

    high · Emoto: 'When they kind of all those public spaces died out in around like 2004, 2005... I was like arcades are making a comeback... arcades are back, let's go, everyone support this local arcade so it doesn't die like they did back then.'

  • ?

    content_signal: Emoto Arcade transitioned from YouTube channel (Emoto Arcade) focused on arcade travel show format to podcast/interview appearances (Pinball Profile, Pinball Minority Report); content strategy evolution reflects community relationship building as primary value over production scale

    high · Emoto: 'I started meeting people in pinball... started creating content specifically for them and then that kind of pulled me away from just focusing on that kind of like travel show kind of idea.'

  • ?

    product_launch: Marco Pinball publicly communicating website rebuild as major initiative; inviting community feedback on accuracy/associations; signals multi-quarter project with significant internal resource allocation; infrastructure gaps have been known pain point for customer base

    high · Erika: 'You mentioned earlier that you guys are building a new interface... I go to your website pretty much every day of the week... you have greatly improved the search already.'

  • $

    market_signal: Marco Pinball's 40,000 SKU catalog and parts documentation effort signals market demand from both home collectors (preservation/restoration) and commercial operators (route maintenance); reflects maturation of secondary market and aftermarket ecosystem

    medium · Emoto: 'we want everything from 4 million BC down to Pokemon to keep working 50 years from now... every new manufacturer... comes out and they start building their own proprietary parts... we have to carry all of those things.'

    • [music]
    0:31
    This is the Pinball Minority Report. I'm Erica.
    0:34
    And I'm Manu.
    0:36
    And we are two pinball fanatics that just bring you a bunch of fun pinball stuff. We got stories. We talk about things in the pinball world. And we also now do interviews. So, uh, Manu, what are we talking about today?
    0:49
    I'm glad you asked. We have a special guest with us. She is the co-owner of Captain Crazy's Paradise in Foley, Alabama. Foley Foley, George Fo,
    1:01
    the director of marketing at Marco Pinball and the and the creator of the Emoto Pinball Challenge, which we'll be happy to explain later. Ladies and gentlemen, let's welcome the one and only Emoto Arcade.
    1:18
    I really thought you were going to say the creator of the Emoto Arcade channel and I was going to be like, "No, I am Emoto Arcade." And then you just threw out some deep pinball. [laughter]
    1:28
    Yep.
    1:29
    That was some co times.
    1:31
    If you don't know, now you know or you will know. Um, okay. So, also we have a couple other things. We're going to talk about how to make uh pinball more an inclusive space.
    1:40
    Yeah, it's going to be quite the fun one. So, Emoto's joining us here on this ride that we've got going on. Ride interview.
    1:47
    I'm so happy to be on this ride. I'm strapped in. Ready to go.
    1:50
    Strap in. Keep your Put your hands and feet inside the vehicle.
    1:54
    How are you? photo.
    1:56
    I'm doing great. It's a whirlwind of uh time space continuum or something. Uh lots of stuff going on uh in my life. Everything every instance of everything that going on in my life is pinball relevant projects and stuff like that. So, um super excited, super uh kind of anxious because we're already halfway through the year. Uh, as Erica and I were talking about a few minutes before we started, we're less than a hundred days away from Pinball Expo, one of the biggest pinball shows of the year where we do a a huge um uh homebrew experience out there. So, lots of things cooking. Southern Fid's right down the street. Doing a music festival next week. This week, oh god, in a few days.
    2:46
    Yeah, it's this week. And we're building a a an awesome uh more robust uh catalog website at Marco, too, that will help all of these navigational wos that everyone's been having for the past few years. Like, believe me, we know because we're our own customers, too. and we see those kind of journey pathways and it's like the top of my list and our team's list of fixing those and making it a lot easier to just navigate the very complex world of pinball and pinball parts.
    3:19
    There's a lot of them. How many pinball parts would you say there are that exist?
    3:24
    Um, in our catalog alone, we're just shy of 40,000 SKUs and we don't have everything. We wish we had everything. We wish we could support every single game to all the way down to the nuts and bolts and that's kind of a mission of ours. Uh we're not anywhere near that, you know, and as every new um manufacturer comes out and they start building their own proprietary parts.
    3:50
    Got to carry all of those things too, you know, because we want everything from 4 million BC down to Pokemon to keep working 50 years from now. So, it's all about supporting that.
    4:02
    Keeping pinball alive.
    4:04
    Never ending. Yeah, it's exciting. Keep pinball alive.
    4:07
    Can I ask because I've never even seen the like the factory or the warehouse. How big is the the warehouse or whatever that Marco
    4:15
    um I honestly am not sure on the square footage of it. Uh it's not as big as we'd like it to be, that's for sure. If you look on our website and go to our about us section, we actually have a video that I um recorded, it was kind of like my maybe that was my resume into working with Marco. I went out there and shot this about us video and then after that it was like, you know, I'm in for the ride forever, you know. Uh but I got lots of B-roll of the factory and you can see um or our shop basically. It's not a factory. uh all the big uh rows of pinball parts and little bins marked and stuff. So, um even just keeping all that stuff organized is it's whole whole process, but we have a really awesome team that, you know, is passionate about doing it and yeah, it's a lot of pinball parts. A
    5:13
    lot of parts. A lot of pinball parts. Did you know that [laughter] every pinball machine back in the day would have 1.5 miles of wiring in it?
    5:25
    How did she get like 40 years older already? [laughter]
    5:28
    Oh, it's my birthday. My 40th birthday, by the way. I got my street cred.
    5:34
    When When is it? The day we're taping this now.
    5:38
    Uh, well, technically in like a couple days, the 16th. [laughter]
    5:42
    It could be when this is released. I don't remember the release date. Happy birthday. It could be belated.
    5:48
    Thank you. I worked hard to get here. I'm happy. [laughter] The amount of people that were like, "Oh my gosh, I thought you were 24 and just like really had your stuff together." Like,
    5:59
    oh, it took a long time. [laughter] A long time to get here.
    6:05
    Well, you look great and happy birthday. [laughter]
    6:08
    Oh, it's Phil 24 forever. you know,
    6:11
    the joys of being in the arcade and pinball industry.
    6:14
    Definitely. Oh, there's a lot of fun that comes with that.
    6:18
    I know that we Erica and I did a little search online and we're like everybody uh asks Emodo about her origin story and stuff like that. But what I'm curious about is, you know, the origin story, the pinball origin story, not where you came from as a child.
    6:34
    No. It got to the point where I was like, should I just make like a tape recording of this and then just give it to everyone cuz yeah, it is usually the
    6:41
    your channel, your old YouTube channel popped up um in my feed
    6:47
    like uh a couple years ago and I saw it was a Moto Arcade on YouTube.
    6:53
    What was the the origin of that? You did videos and stuff and and interviews and stuff.
    6:59
    Yeah. Yeah. Um, and I would have continued it too if it wasn't for the pesky kids. Um, so by trade, I'm a cinematographer and a producer of Captain Crazy Productions, uh, production company based out of Atlanta since 2008. Growing up in arcades, it was such a huge and important part of my mental and social development. I feel like as a teenager going to arcades, that's where I I met all my best friends. That's where I learned, you know, how to navigate uh life and stuff. When they kind of all those public spaces died out in around like 2004, 2005, kind of any this type of arcade didn't really exist. So, fast forward to 2011, and this is actually kind of part of my origin story, I think, but Galloping Ghost Arcade. I was in a film production uh filming this horror movie in Gary, Indiana for months, and we found out that there was this crazy arcade just an hour north of us. So, we went to check it out and it was like all of the childhood things just like cuz it was this awesome free play arcade. They had at that time over 200, maybe 300 games from like every era, video games and pinball machines, mostly video games. And it was like the spark ignited and I was like, "Oh my god, arcades are making a comeback. I finally have a third space where I can like exist in and feel comfortable in." Um, so as uh with Captain Crazy Productions um with my brother, our primary clients are um all over the place. Like we don't do productions mainly in Atlanta. Most of our work is like going out and working in California or Texas or North Dakota or whatever. All over the place. They ship us out. We shoot. Every time since the Gallop and Ghost experience in 2011, every time we'd go to a new city, I would look up to see if there was an arcade. And if there was, I'd go in, you know, we'd go in with all of our video equipment. I give him a call and be like, "Yo, can we interview you and do a little video um of your spot to promote it to be like, "Hey people, arcades are back. Let's go. Everyone support this local arcade so it doesn't die like they did back then." you know, cuz it's all that's what it is. You need that your local community to support your local business in order to stay uh alive. Um and uh that's where I spawned off of Moto Arcade channel. And the goal was always to do like a um make a pitch deck to do an official travel show um where it would be like on um Discovery or something like that, you know, one of these bigger clients we were working with to be like an arcade travel show. So, every episode would be like a different arcade grouped into like B-roll of the city and you know like why you should go to uh Seaside California. You know, look at this beautiful Monterey Beach. You know, you have uh Lind's arcade with 40 plus pinball machines in there and kind of make those kind of episodical things. Um, so as I started shooting those and those little small segments was kind of like building up to that big more formal production, uh, I started meeting people in pinball and that's when I met the Marco team in 2016 at TPF and, uh, started meeting the same people over and over and then I started creating content specifically for them and then that kind of pulled me away from just focusing on that kind of like travel show kind of idea. Uh, but the whole point was to just let people know that arcades were making a comeback and then you should go support them right now because it's awesome. You guys could agree, right? Arcades like the greatest public space that could exist.
    10:57
    Well, I
    10:58
    better than a library.
    10:59
    This This is This is my second
    11:00
    better than the bar, which is TV screens playing sports ball.
    11:05
    Sports ball.
    11:07
    Just kidding.
    11:07
    Cuz we're in a spa. Did you guys know that that pinball's a spabby? I've been seeing that online. I don't know. It's a sport hobby.
    11:15
    Spabby.
    11:17
    Spabies.
    11:18
    Yeah, I know. You You can choose to take it or leave it. I just letting you know. Um that's what the the cool kids are saying these little
    11:26
    Well, that's wonderful. I So, I I got to make a I I got to make a confession. I met Emodo in 2015. Uh, but Emoto didn't meet me. I saw, and I'm I'm I'm I'm pretty sure it was you, Emoto. I I was at a little event in Banning, which was uh the most pinball pe people playing pinball simultaneously. Were you at that?
    11:56
    Oh my gosh. At the Guinness Book of World Records thing at
    12:00
    Guinness World Record. Wow. Museum of Pinball banning in on January 17th, 2015.
    12:08
    Yeah,
    12:08
    I
    12:09
    Yeah, that was before I even liked pinball.
    12:13
    I was just starting to get
    12:16
    really.
    12:18
    So, I made a pilgrimage down there
    12:20
    to be part of that world record.
    12:23
    Dave Valinsky.
    12:24
    No, I didn't know David. I didn't know I didn't know anybody. I didn't go to free gold watch and none of that has had happened. I was just a pinball person myself and I said, "I gotta be part of this." And I'm walking around, Erica, this is great. I'm walking around, I see a little film crew. And I'm like, "Film crew? Oh boy, I know this." Because I was doing my YouTube channel, which was Pull My Focus back in the day. We taught about film and stuff. So So of course I'm like, "Oh, all right. Let's go." And then I see this little Okay, she's a little she's [laughter] okay. H
    12:52
    And I'm [snorts] like here.
    12:54
    Yeah. All right, guys. [laughter] She Yeah, she's action and I'm like, "Oh okay. I'll leave that to what you guys want to think." But um No, I first I first saw you doing your thing at in Banning. Yeah,
    13:10
    that was really the what propelled me into pinball. In fact, the reason why I have screens above all of my playfields is because of seeing uh Indisk, which was originally hosted at the Museum of Pinball and Banning, California. That's what they did. So, you could watch the top players play. And um I attribute a lot of my falling in love with pinball to uh Kenny Hardy, who was one of the curators of the museum. and he kind of took me under his wing and was like, "Get out of the video game area." So, like, if you remember, Museum of Pinball was two distinct different areas. It was like 600 pinball machines in here and 600 arcade games in here, both of every era. So,
    13:56
    most of the time I was over there and I was filming all the classic arcade games, stuff that I remember as a kid, um, helped off with like the Kong Off and stuff that was going in that world. And Kenny Hardy's like, "No, come check out Pinball." And I'm like, "H, what is this?" Um, so two things that I got from that was, um, one, he made me stop and watch people play pinball.
    14:19
    Wow.
    14:20
    And so he held me there cuz I'm trying to shoot B-roll everywhere. You guys know what it is like to hold down into a spot for a few [laughter] minutes. So he was able to hold me there and watch. And it just happened to be I didn't know who any of these people were, but I remembered their names. It was Zack Sharp going up against Keith Ellwin in a match and I was watching the screen and being like, "How did he do that? How did he hit that exact shot that he needed? How did he control the flippers like that?" Like, you can do that in pinball. And then he's like, "Yeah, and there's like rules and storylines involved." So, he took me over to uh who done it. And he's like, "Look, this is Clue. You're trying to find the murderer and the murder weapon. And look, I hear here. Okay, now I have to select the murder, you know, and then that kind of like contextually like brought it all together for me. And then we went down the line and he's like, you know, this game was made by Steve Richie and this game was made by Steve Richie. These are Mark Richie's games. These are George Gomez games. And like you can tell the similarities and you know, here's Christian Marsh art with the Coiny People. And it's like there's a whole freaking history lineology, you know, coming from like where I would and constantly be like on IMDb anytime I watched a movie to be like who's the director, who's the DP, who are the actors, what other stuff did they do, who colored this? That's amazing. And kind of go into their deep lore. It was all right here in Pinball, too. So I just dude do dove into every freaking rabbit hole and then you know get to the repair part and that's like it's it's whole new doors opening you know too Manu starting to get under playfields a lot and you too Erica starting to get under playfields a lot it's um exciting just is it is challenging and never ending.
    16:10
    Yeah. No, that's so I would say very similar when I got into pinball when I started learning about designers and like when it clicked for me and I was like, "Oh, wait, no, now I need to know more." Like it was like finding out who the director was and who the cinematographer was and like who are the people involved because like as a filmmaker I do recognize that like oh you want to like know the crew, right? I used to Yeah, that's so fun. I didn't I've never thought of it that way.
    16:34
    Yeah,
    16:35
    it's crazy. I like tapped into kind of your origin story by accident.
    16:39
    I know. filming pinball
    16:41
    student. I can say since you said
    16:44
    when you first
    16:45
    don't let me leave
    16:46
    saw me. I know. Why didn't you come say hi to me? I don't know. I don't and I'm sorry Maru, but I don't know when it was the first time we like had
    16:56
    I do
    16:57
    correspondence. Okay, let's remember my first time talking to Erica.
    17:05
    So, I'll tell that story after. But I am curious. When did we first meet? We actually met. [laughter]
    17:13
    I swiped right. Throwback. Is that the way you're supposed to swipe right?
    17:18
    I don't know. Does that still exist?
    17:20
    I don't think Tinder still exists. No.
    17:22
    Erica, we're asking Erica because she probably knows. [laughter]
    17:27
    If I know Tinder still exists, I don't need it, but it's still it's still there. Uh, emodo, a wonderful gentleman by the name of
    17:37
    Oh, [ __ ]
    17:40
    Jeff Tiololis.
    17:42
    Oh,
    17:44
    now you remember where we were formally introduced
    17:47
    at Free Golewatch.
    17:48
    Jeff's a good guy.
    17:50
    At Freelwatch. We were formerly introduced at Free Watch
    17:52
    for his pinball profile tour.
    17:53
    For his pinball profile tour. Yeah. And uh
    17:56
    for those of you that don't know Jeff, he hosts an amazing pinball podcast. I personally believe he has one of the best voices ever. I could listen to him talk all day
    18:06
    and I like tune in all the time to Pinball Profile. So feel free to
    18:10
    check him out. Shout out
    18:12
    to Jeff too is he started his pinball profile format in a time where there was so much going on in pinball outside of just like the manufacturers dropping games. and he took the initiative and the time and effort to just interview all different types of people in pinball. And I was like, collect them all Pokemon style. And he would do these cool like 10 15 minute just profiles of all these people in the community. And it was just his format is awesome. Uh completely. And he actually taught me really good uh mic etiquette. When you're talking to a guest, uh, you don't do this, but you do a little wrist flip so it's less, um, obtrusive. The viewers's eyes aren't going to like be following this whole thing around. You just do a little
    19:05
    Why didn't you tell me that when I was doing all the homebrew stuff?
    19:07
    Oh, I'm sure I [laughter] did. I tell everyone.
    19:12
    That's what Jeff taught me. Um, yeah, I love Jeff. And I do remember that was a really fun event, but I feel like I was familiar with Mystery Pinball Theater 3000 before.
    19:23
    I mean, of course you were
    19:25
    cuz I've I've gone to Free Gold Watch several times. Yeah. So maybe I was probably like fan struck at that point and
    19:34
    No, I beat you to needed Jeff to be like this is Manu before I could be like I gonna want to talk to him.
    19:40
    Yeah, I I clearly beat you to it. I was fanstruck in 2015, but you know, whatever. Who's who's cares?
    19:46
    We're all fan struck of each other.
    19:50
    When I met Erica, I think that you were with your dad um came up to us at Golden State. We did Golden State. Uh 20 I don't know 17 or 18. [snorts]
    20:02
    Uh what is it was going to be 2022 when I went to Golden State.
    20:06
    My time. Yeah. Okay. So, it was after co
    20:09
    Yeah. We just go in Golden State and took a break. But um
    20:14
    just because we have this the same a lot of same uh passions and love. So she was like, "I got my first pinball machine. It's a Lord of the Rings." And I was like, "I've been looking for this game for forever. That's my holy grail game." And then she's like, "Yeah, and I'm in the film industry and I do camera work." And I'm like, "Who is this chick? She's so freaking cool." Um and then we've stayed in touch ever since. And I'm so glad to see that you're creating awesome content and uh you stuck with all of us crazy people to do it this year. A great addition to
    20:49
    fun little for people that are people that are watching. I'm wearing Oh god, [laughter] I'm wearing the shirt.
    20:55
    Hey,
    20:56
    that emoto that emoto gave me at Golden State.
    21:00
    I was like, dude, we have to get this shaker shirt. She's right.
    21:03
    That's so fun to hear your side of the story. So for people that that um listened in on a past episode, I talked about meeting Emoto for the first time. So that's fun for me actually to kind of hear your perspective of all emot.
    21:16
    Sweet. Me too. I was I mean I was nervous. [laughter] I was like telling my dad I was like so this is so cool. It's fun fun to like Yeah. It's been it's been a it's been a journey, you know. [laughter] And it's been it's been a journey and it's been fun fun to report
    21:37
    about with other minorities
    21:40
    with other minorities.
    21:41
    Dude, do it.
    21:43
    We never really we never really leaned heavy on the title.
    21:46
    A PSA to a pinball service announcement to anyone listening or watching any of these podcasts. When you see any three of us, any one of us of the three at a pinball show, please come up and talk to us. Because although you're like, "Oh man, these are the cool, so extroverted." All three of us are like insane introverts and we are not good at walking up to strangers and talking to them. And we've probably seen you before, too. And we're too nervous to talk to you and we want you to approach us. So, like, please do us a favor. We want to meet you as much as you want to meet us. Just come say hi. And um for me, I get all the time people saying like, "Oh, you look too busy, so I didn't want to bother you." Like, just stop me and say hi. It makes me feel so good and keeps me energized and stuff, too. So, don't be too scared to approach any of us. And most likely, none of us will approach you, even though we probably want to.
    22:48
    Probably.
    22:49
    Was that Was that accurate?
    22:50
    Yeah. Unfortunately, yes. [laughter]
    22:53
    Yeah. I would say I'm a little less introverted, but I do struggle to like go up to people as well, just cuz I'm
    23:00
    Yeah.
    23:00
    When you talk to me, I'm I'm
    23:03
    No, we we definitely like anytime we need someone to talk to someone, we send Erica to do it. [laughter]
    23:10
    And she doesn't squirm. She's like, "Okay, bet. Let me go."
    23:13
    Yeah.
    23:14
    Me and M are like, "Oh, god."
    23:16
    Yeah. Pretty much. Pretty much. You need any spray? Um, yeah.
    23:22
    Well, we could make this whole thing an interview, but we're not going to cuz Erica has some fun stuff planned for you, Miss Emoto Arcade.
    23:31
    Yeah.
    23:31
    Is that right, Emoto?
    23:33
    I mean,
    23:33
    I have like a little mini
    23:36
    a mini game. I love
    23:38
    some mini game stuff. Yeah. So, these are kind of little things that I figured it'd be kind of fun cuz in Moto you get interviewed all the time and I'm really glad we get to like do all this little stuff, but it'd be kind of fun to to know some more of your like pinball knowledge in these like little quirky ways. So, I have this small little um movie trivia about pinball and
    24:01
    you can guess on this one too and I'll be second
    24:05
    participate because I have not told Manu the answer to this question. But did you know, so this trivia is there are only two pinball machines that are licensed after a best picture Oscar-winning movies. Do you know what two pinball machines those are?
    24:23
    And it's just there are plenty of Oscar noms, right? But these two specific pinball machines that are Oscar best picture winners.
    24:32
    Yeah. So the
    24:34
    best picture winners You don't know someone making a Titanic homebrew machine right now? [laughter]
    24:42
    You can't do that. No, I call tournament director. Tournament director.
    24:49
    [ __ ] Okay. I mean, sorry. Poop.
    24:52
    Yeah. As I was doing some research around the Oscars.
    24:55
    So, you think Star Wars? Is that one? That's one of your guesses.
    25:01
    No, I was going to say Twister, but there's no way that made an Oscar win. It's picture for best
    25:07
    although in my heart it did um
    25:10
    alien
    25:11
    demolition.
    25:12
    So you think Alien is one of the for best picture would get
    25:17
    that they won it. Not that they were nominated but that they won best picture.
    25:21
    Lord of the Rings.
    25:22
    So Lord of the Rings one guess. Cool. It's a good one.
    25:25
    I'm at a loss.
    25:27
    Do I only get I guess a lot. What are you pointing?
    25:30
    You gave a few guesses. Oh, I just got a thumb up just to count. I can put one finger
    25:37
    guesses already. Um, okay. So,
    25:40
    do you have any
    25:41
    So, she says Lord of the Rings, you said Star Wars Dune. Okay, you gave a few.
    25:44
    I said Alien, but that didn't win best picture. There's no way that won best picture.
    25:49
    I'm I'm stumped.
    25:51
    All of the movies that I'm thinking of, I'm like, there's no way they won an Oscar that although
    25:57
    Yeah.
    25:57
    All right, I'll go ahead and reveal it. The two. So, you guys did get one or a moto, you got one. Lord of the Rings
    26:04
    was the best picture winner for um Return of the King. And uh and Lord of the Rings technically has all three movies in it, so that's kind of how that counts, right? And uh Godfather.
    26:16
    Oh.
    26:17
    Oh, duh,
    26:19
    man.
    26:20
    Yeah. So those are the two pinball those are the only two pinball machines that have ever
    26:25
    been created like that are a best picture winner Oscar like thing and made into a pinball machine. So my other like fun little question I don't know for this this year's Oscar um nominees for best picture which one of them would you like to see made into a pinball machine? So, best picture noms this year were Beonia F1 Frankenstein Hamnit Marty Supreme, One Battle After Another, The Secret Agent, Sentimental Value, Sinners, and Train Dreams. I know that's a lot, but uh of those best pictures, do you have any that you would like to see made into a pinball machine? No.
    27:11
    Heck yes. [laughter] And there I have a whole list of like 90s movies I want made into pinball machines. I don't need anyone making any of those ones. [laughter]
    27:22
    Sorry. What's your answer?
    27:24
    How about you, Mu? Then you s you seemed excited.
    27:26
    Um, sinners all day.
    27:29
    Yeah,
    27:29
    cuz I want some Michael B. Jordan call outs.
    27:33
    Yes.
    27:34
    I don't care. That's it.
    27:36
    Yeah. No, same. I think of that list of movies, I think uh Sinners would make a really great pinball machine.
    27:42
    Of course, I gotta represent too, don't I?
    27:45
    Yeah. Got to get you [laughter]
    27:49
    get my minority in.
    27:51
    Oh, reporting.
    27:53
    Yeah. And then uh I think Beonia would also personally I think would have made a really fun pinball machine as well because I enjoy Emma Stone's performance in that one. Um of the other ones though, I I'm good. It's okay. I'm just waiting for a Princess Manokei pinball machine.
    28:09
    That's the one. We got to make a Moto. We have to make that. That's the dream. That's the dream theme right there. The only way to make it happen is to to build it though. And if we build it, they will play it.
    28:21
    They will play it. [laughter]
    28:23
    Yeah, they will.
    28:24
    Sweet.
    28:25
    Stand alive.
    28:26
    Yeah. That was my little
    28:28
    That was my little pinball trivia for you. And [clears throat] little figure out what you kind of like for movies and pinball, you know? I just have more stuff to to to run by Emodo. If you don't mind, we could talk a little bit about um Marco. So, you mentioned earlier that you guys are building a new interface. Um it's got to be extremely difficult. I know this because I go to your website pretty much every day of the week. Um
    29:00
    to look for Yeah. to look for references to things and this and that and whatever. Um um you you have greatly improved the search already.
    29:10
    Are you guys are you guys trapped behind technology that's older now and you're coming up with some a new
    29:18
    our websites um you know I think uh they officially launched a website like 2011 or 2013 maybe latest
    29:27
    that's that's
    29:28
    so it's a old infrastructure that we are building up and it's hard to again 40,000 product SKUs into systems. That's all backend stuff, right? It doesn't really matter. But um how all the systems talk to each other is definitely uh a big feat. But we have a really um awesome uh internal IT team uh kind of helping us through this next evolution. It's got to be inc it's got to be incredibly difficult because of the inconsistencies already coming from the manufacturers. [laughter]
    30:07
    The manuals are wrong.
    30:08
    The manuals are wrong. Usually I'll see
    30:10
    the manuals are wrong. And you see and we try to document that too. That's just as important. So like I was just looking at um some flipper switches uh that are either normally open or normally closed in the Bali Williams area era. Uh, it just kind of like potato tople. You know what? I
    30:29
    That's easy for you to say.
    30:31
    It's not. Um, [laughter] this machine has a normally open flipper switch or a normally closed flipper switch. Easy to make that mistake. The part numbers at the very end, it's either a four or a three.
    30:44
    In the actual manuals for several of those games in that era, they actually listed the wrong part number.
    30:51
    So, it's super confusing. So you think you look at the manual and you're like, "Okay, they're supposed to be normally open." But then on the physical machines across the manufacturer board, it's a normally closed. So we try to document that like in our product descriptions and stuff, too. So when you come to this same issue that, you know, I ran in the other day with one of my games, it's clearly being there like, "Oh yeah, by the way, the uh eightball manual for this part number is incorrect, and this is actually what you need." So, we try to do a lot of that. And um uh really the biggest hump besides just like the how to make it work and how to display it nicely is just getting all of that information um to associations to like I was saying before. You can click on um I need a a washer for this motor on Tron. you know, you can go through our website and see like, oh, this is the washer. It's associated to Tron. It takes out the guessing work for you. Um, you know, the long hours of like hoping the manual's right, you know, all those sort of things. So my big thing is like if you ever find something on our website that is inaccurate or is not associated like you bought a part from us and it in the associations um compatible with thing doesn't have that game that you put it in and it works perfectly in your game. Please reach out to us and drop us a line. We'll send you a free shipping code for your next order. We'll send you swag or whatever. Like all of that is just helping everyone else in the future cuz like you said, it's not just buying the part from us, which is great because that's how we keep the doors open, but it's the reference material for everyone else. Like we want that to be like there needs to be a good source of truth of like where these parts go and everything like that. So like I use it all the time too. And that's why you see when we get stuff like out of stock or that's unoptamium, we put it as a for reference. So, it's still live. It's still able to be searched. It still hits all those SEOs and connectivity to everything else you see at the reference down at the bottom of our product description. That's like, you know, this is a Stern part number, but this is actually the same part in a Ballet Williams game, so that's their part number, but it's all this same whatever thing, you know, coil sleeve or whatever. Um, yeah. So, get out of it's it takes it takes a village, you know. So any support and help from the community to keep that updated is uh just super helpful for for all of us techs just
    33:35
    you look at these pinball machines and they just break man like
    33:39
    that's all they do
    33:40
    amazing
    33:40
    and they've been like they've been like evolving over the years too like right with every single company and oh my gosh yeah
    33:49
    right lots of little variations and parts you know different plastics
    33:53
    yeah there's different cross compatibilities though. Um and then yeah the supply chain's always an issue. You know there's so many parts becoming unoptanium now. Uh so trying to get those remanufactured so we can get things games working again. It's a lot, but we hope to have some nice updates for everyone soon. And um we'll continue to reiterate forever. You know, we want it to be an easy, navigable website that is very informative. Um it's got lots of
    34:33
    plans in the
    34:35
    I'm glad I asked. You guys definitely have thought about it a lot. So, let's go back from Well, which one is the jacuzzi and which one is the pool? Is the Were we just in the pool? We're going to the jacuzzi now to uh talk about
    34:48
    something fun that Erica has for us to try. Maybe.
    34:50
    No, that was
    34:52
    another another pinball mini game.
    34:55
    Yeah, a little pin. Okay, I'll we'll figure out what's the jacuzzi. What's the [laughter]
    35:01
    preferacia? [laughter] I used to do that as a kid. Even when I left it, I would always click it. It was pretty bad. Well, speaking of bubbles, pinball seems to have some, too, [laughter] with people,
    35:24
    right?
    35:25
    Okay. I'm trying to be better at seguing guys.
    35:27
    I know. You're really You're getting better.
    35:29
    Exclusive spaces in pinball.
    35:32
    Uh Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
    35:34
    Right. Cuz some different I feel like each different pinball place I go to has a different like pinball bubble, right? So, I got a very nice email from a listener of the pod. Her name is Amy, and she's opening up a new arcade in New England, Massachusetts called uh Tilted I want to say I want to make sure I get this right. Tilted Orbit Arcade. And um she sent me an email. I thought it was really lovely. Uh and she was asking a little bit about um how to make pinball spaces more welcoming for women in particular. But I think just wanted to get some of your guys' like feedback and talk a little bit about how you feel pinball spaces can be inclusive of all sorts of people. Um, if anybody wanted to go first, Manu, Emoto, Buler, [laughter]
    36:28
    uh, step one, it starts with the staff, I think. um making sure that your people that you putting out to represent um your public space is in the correct mindset of inclusivity for everyone. Um sometimes they don't realize they are or they aren't, but there's certain ways to um address situations um in the most respectful way that makes people feel comfortable. And I think there's coaching that needs to happen to people. So you can't just assume you know people know about that sort of stuff. Um and they are your reflection of who you are as a business. So that's always important. And uh I mean for us you know the the wonderful thing about pinball in general is it's just like it is so inclusive. So everyone of every walk of life could fall in love with pinball and feel the healing benefits of it from whether it's an extension to a community or just working out something internally through the game play of just being sucked into that uh world under glass. Um but the we as humans create the segregation of stuff which stinks but having sometimes having groups like a bells and chimes chapter or just like uh we have a ladies and non-binary chapter here at Captain Crazies and that allows uh folks that don't feel as comfortable coming to like our open tournaments um to have a more like a smaller kind of group of people to kind of warm them up to you know maybe coming out and playing with a bigger group of people. So, um
    38:10
    definitely
    38:11
    you know doing those kind of extra efforts to make people feel comfortable and you know come out of their show. We still have um some folks in that group that are are not ready to come play in our open leagues and that's okay. You know, we have events run specific um for them. Um, one thing a lot of or a handful of arcades I know are doing and I'd like to start too if um I can [snorts] make the time and I suggest free gold watch and anyone else to do too is to have um like a low sensory uh time frame where you could invite people that uh maybe have uh anxiety towards being in public spaces where it's really loud and filled with a lot of people. um you know uh lots of um children like on the spectrum or you know they have autism or something like that. Um invite them to your arcade and uh maybe less peak hours but a designated time for them to come in here and enjoy the games where they're not as loud, you know, there's not a whole lot of stimulation and stuff like that. uh those types of sort of dedicated spaces and time for different, you know, pockets of community is always awesome. And, you know, it may only be one person showing up, but I guarantee you just affected that one person's life for the good for forever. you know, um,
    39:40
    yeah,
    39:41
    you have one person come, that's a total win because that could just really ch that could just help their day and help them get through whatever next battle they're dealing with. So, uh, it's not always about the numbers, you know, the quantity, but, you know, just the quality you bring to kind of each individual,
    39:59
    building your community that comes and shows up to support your business.
    40:04
    Yeah.
    40:05
    Yeah. The people that will keep showing up again and again.
    40:07
    Amen. that money.
    40:09
    Uh well, I I echo the same thing. It really a lot of it comes down to the staff. Um uh fortunately, we we took on a new hire. If I could just recently in the last few months, his name is August. He's probably the nicest coolest person um at that has ever worked at Fre. [laughter]
    40:34
    Um really is. I got to give him a shout out. He's he cares about the staff. He knows how to fix games and yeah, so it really comes I mean everyone there right now I think there's a really nice stable of people including Isaiah who helps out there small change August myself everyone there is fortunately um um understanding and social enough to really put out a caring feeling. But Moto, like you said, it's it's not a presupposed thing where people automatically know how to deal with people. And in pinball, it's a lot of people just dealing with people and and making everyone feel welcome. So, if uh I just I'll just echo that statement that you made. It's it's not an automatic. It's nice to be open to everyone's different point of view. And I think that's that's all I got really. Yeah. Uh I think a a few other [clears throat] lowh hanging fruit suggestions as a business owner um to make people feel more included in your space. um is to kind of keep any sort of like um politics or uh religion stuff kind of outside of your business. Um because that can affect people as well too.
    42:08
    Don't own an arcade.
    42:09
    Like it seems like it's such a blanket statement, but you know,
    42:12
    if you're like at your arcade and you're running a certain some sort of news syndicate, then you're going to have people not feeling comfortable. on either side of whatever fence they want to stand on or whatever. So, just
    42:29
    be careful and considerate with that.
    42:32
    Yeah, I just put pinball streams on. Actually, I have two TVs behind my bar. One is exclusively for whoever's streaming pinball on Twitch and the other one is for sumo wrestling on Twitch.
    42:45
    Oh, sick.
    42:46
    It's freaking red. Who doesn't want to watch suma wrestling while they
    42:50
    Exactly. So fun. Oh, right on. No, that's cool.
    42:53
    Arcade, but put like mini trains
    42:56
    like just fun like neutral everyone can enjoy it sort of stuff.
    43:01
    Totally. Yeah. And
    43:03
    this is our escape.
    43:04
    We want to escape from everything out there when we come into an arcade to our third space. So, make it friendly with everyone by keeping those sort of texture layers
    43:14
    friendly. friendly and fun and yeah, I want to say like definitely um being here with Yamoto is very cool because I want to like just say too like you are one of the reasons why I'm in pinball. Um I saw you in a video and I was like there's a woman here in this space so I can be here too, you know, like it like women I it's it's hard cuz you know it's kind of be this new resurgence of pinball, right? And I do recognize that there are I just like in the film industry, right? Like I have been the only woman on set before, right? And so I know what it's like. And so I think that's when I came into pinball, I kind of was like, "Okay, well, let's just do it all over again." When in film, I literally made a a women in film group because I just felt like I wanted more women on set and a lot of women were like struggling to get their way on set. So, I created a group where female filmmakers could be like, "Hey, I do this." And sort of like get on set. Um, I've since retired that because I didn't have the time anymore to to run it. But, um, I've felt now the same in pinball where I'm like, "Okay, well, how do I make this feel like a space where other women and I've been I've been feeling very blessed cuz I've had other women in the past before tell me too like, "Oh, I made my Instagram because of you." Or like, "I actually feel safe to like go play pinball." And that felt cool cuz I was like, "Wow, Emoto." And I also want to give a shout out to Pinball Jen because Pinball Jen was also another woman that I saw
    44:42
    um who I was like, "Yeah, Spooky Jen." And um
    44:47
    she was another woman I saw. I was like, "Okay, I can do this. Like I can I can be here too and I can be a part of this space." So yeah, I'd also say like if you are looking to start a pinball channel or journey of some sort, uh feel free to like do it. Let's be here together. And um it's been really fun to see like the community grow and um have people Yeah. You know, I I just think having people that are like you in similar spaces helps. And like you said, like a bells and chimes. I think when you have a dedicated night for women or non-binary people to attend, I think that helps to just like make a space of comfort. Kind of like I I was trying to explain this to someone. It's like kind of like having a bros night, right? like women kind of like want to have like a girls night too or something, you know what I mean? Just kind of like same space, but like cuz some of a lot of women, you know, they just want another place to like be stimulated and to be away from like all the chaos of the world. And pinball is somewhere for me personally where my brain just kind of goes like, "Oh, ball shiny. Okay, ball ball." Like here we go. [laughter] Like let's do this thing. So, um, yeah, just, uh, being present and, uh, I'd say definitely Amy, love to see if with your posting of your arcade, some pictures of you showing that it's like a a womenowned arcade and wanting to support that. And yeah, when you open in the fall, I hope to get a chance to go to New England, Massachusetts, and check it out.
    46:10
    Can I add one more thing to this, though?
    46:12
    Yeah,
    46:13
    just just get out of here.
    46:15
    [laughter]
    46:16
    If if your establishment really wants to cross its tees and dot its eyes, I highly suggest you put together a code of conduct that can be posted in your location. Um, you know, having our staff be on point is easy, but sometimes you got to keep the customers in check, too. And uh if you have a clearly posted code of conduct, it's a place where you can point to if someone is not being really cool, you can say, "Well, this is what we abide by here. I hope you understand. If you cannot abide by this, you know, happy to have you take your business elsewhere." And that just levels the playing ground a little bit. It doesn't have to be, you know, super strict, but a clearly posted code of conduct will probably help you in the long run. Um, I'm going to put one together for free goal watch now that we're having this conversation. And, um, I highly suggest Amy, if you you want to do that, that'll maybe help a little.
    47:17
    Yeah.
    47:18
    Yeah. We had to post one as well, too. Um, really, we just all need a sign on the front of our arcade saying, "Don't be an a-hole. No a-holes. Period.
    47:28
    Um, but yeah,
    47:29
    make a video on learning how not to be an a-hole like in a pinball space.
    47:34
    Yeah.
    47:35
    Can we make a video you guys learning that?
    47:37
    Yeah, let's do it.
    47:38
    I think Steve I think Keith Elwin already did that though with his pinball 101.
    47:42
    Pinball 101. Oh, totally. We should just clip that and repost it.
    47:46
    Clip it.
    47:46
    No farting.
    47:48
    No farting. Oh my. [laughter]
    47:52
    All right. Well, I have a fun another little I wouldn't maybe call it a mini game, but it's a fun little pinball segment where I'm just going to call it pinball confessions.
    48:03
    Hard body number one.
    48:07
    That is your uh number one game. It's hardbody
    48:11
    is the number one game.
    48:13
    Is the number one game. [laughter] Cool. That is not the question I had, but very good answer. Uh, [laughter] so this pinball confessions and so these are just kind of some silly little questions. I think that'd be kind of fun just to hear what you have to say. I don't know. I think it's fun hearing what you have to say at Moto. So, um, what is the most money you've spent chasing one specific machine or part?
    48:43
    You don't say the exact number, but
    48:45
    the exact number? No, I don't need the exact number, but like have you spent a lot of money trying to find a part or a machine? Like,
    48:54
    oh, well, I was like, no, not at all. But I guess like in a big bulk of thing, like my side quest of collecting all the 683 machines has been very expensive for me [laughter] because there's 15 of them.
    49:08
    Okay.
    49:09
    And I'm four away from having
    49:11
    Is that really a quest you have?
    49:13
    Oh, yeah.
    49:14
    You are nuts. away.
    49:17
    Let the listeners know what four are you missing?
    49:20
    What four are you missing, Emoto?
    49:21
    What four are you missing, Emoto? What can we help you find?
    49:23
    I'm um I'm missing a Lady Luck, which I'm hoping to one day just buy Kyle Spitar's Lady Luck cuz his is absolutely gorgeous and good condition.
    49:32
    So good. That's one of my favorite games, by the way.
    49:35
    Wonderful. Uh April Champ missing. So, um I got to look at my list. I have some on like I kind of have them but I don't officially have them like BMX I have a very strong lead so that might make me into my five I I'd have to close my app. Hold on. How about we list out all the 683s together? Am I the only one going to be participating? [laughter]
    50:02
    Yeah, you would. I mean you it's close enough. That's good enough.
    50:05
    Yeah. Yeah. I love that though. That is
    50:08
    What are the other ones? Is that
    50:10
    That's a terrific answer to that.
    50:12
    Um Yeah. And uh for those that you don't know, the big exhaustive sigh that Manu had was these systems internally are like chaos. There's like they have this little thing, oh it's easy as ABC, but it's not. the gremlins that live in the 683 system and just trying to track them down and keep these games running has been um an additional epic adventure out of the uh 10 11 that I have right now. You know, maybe half of them are working really good. The other ones are kind of
    50:49
    struggling struggling.
    50:51
    But I feel like we should list them all. Oh yeah, wait. I have a computer here that I can look up the other two. Um, so anyways, with that list though, my goal is once I collect them all, um, this was this is like fiveyear plan sort of thing. Um, I want to take them on tour. Uh, I'd probably uh definitely stop at like Pinball Expo and um some of the other big shows, get them all into a trailer and drive them cross country for a year and do a whole 683 lineup at all the different shows like at TPF, Southern Fried Northwest uh, Pinball Expo, and um, have the whole lineup there. And then um all this was supposed to be a film documentary by the way, but I haven't filmed any of it. But the end uh finale of my internal series is um one show that's a central spot somewhere in the US that everyone's easy to get to, which may end up being Pinball Expo. Um I want to do a Guinness Book of World Records for as many hard bodies in one room at once. And so I want everyone that owns a hard body to bring their game to the show. So I'll have my whole 683 lineup of like the 15 games or 17 with a couple of the 683Bs. That's Atlantis and Truck Stop. Um and then like uh how many hard bodies are out there right now? 100. Do you have pin side up? How many people
    52:25
    hardies? 1,025.
    52:27
    Yeah. So all 1,025 hard bodies.
    52:31
    Good luck. I'll take a couple hundred.
    52:35
    Yeah, I think a couple hundred.
    52:37
    I'll be happy with 50 hard bodies all in one room under some Marco Truss with Rachel Mish like ma'am. Um
    52:45
    All right. Just so just just for a little inside baseball because we're going to get through this real quick. I'm going to do this for you because you're my buddy. Um the Ballet 6803 platform. The 683 platform was Bali's final alpha numeric pinball hardware before the transition to Williams technology. It was produced from 1986 to 1989. Use a Motorola 6803 microprocessor integrated on single MPU board. Emoto, you have to say got it or need it when I call them out. Ready?
    53:14
    Ready.
    53:14
    Here we go.
    53:15
    It's a good game.
    53:15
    Eightball Champ.
    53:17
    Need it.
    53:19
    Beat the clock.
    53:20
    Got it.
    53:21
    Lady Luck.
    53:23
    Need it.
    53:25
    Motord. [laughter] Got it. Okay. Special Force.
    53:33
    Got it.
    53:35
    Strange Science.
    53:37
    Need it.
    53:38
    Yeah. I I thought that would be a tough one. Um
    53:41
    there's a lot out there. I'm just waiting for the right one.
    53:43
    There's a lot out there. You made it for the right one.
    53:46
    Okay.
    53:47
    Trying to go less project games now that I'm near the end cuz Okay.
    53:51
    Okay. Blackwater 100.
    53:54
    Got it.
    53:55
    Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. City slicker played at Linds Arcade right now, I think.
    53:58
    Can you Oh, wait. Yeah, I know that one. That's yours.
    54:01
    That's mine.
    54:02
    Sweet. Okay. City Slicker.
    54:04
    Got it. Only like 300 produced.
    54:08
    Hard hard, buddy.
    54:10
    Got it. It's the game that started my overall pinball collection and now I'm up to a little over 40 games.
    54:19
    40 yourself?
    54:21
    I wish. [laughter]
    54:24
    Uh, party animal.
    54:26
    I need it. He heavy metal meltdown.
    54:31
    Got it. And the prototype playfield I bought at Expo last year.
    54:35
    Dungeons and Dragons.
    54:38
    Got it. It's right over there.
    54:40
    The best emoto. The best sound track ever. Fight me.
    54:46
    It is. Yeah.
    54:47
    Is Dungeons and Dragons. Although what's it called? Uh uh that cabinet table that premier got. It's called dance moves or something like that. Night moves. Night
    54:59
    night moves.
    55:00
    That one kicks kicks out.
    55:02
    Last couple. Ready. Escape from the lost world.
    55:04
    Got it.
    55:06
    Truck stop.
    55:08
    It's an It's a B. I don't have it. It's on the extended list. 683B
    55:15
    683B. Okay.
    55:17
    And Atlantis.
    55:18
    There's another B.
    55:20
    Yeah.
    55:22
    All right. We did it.
    55:24
    We did it.
    55:25
    Yeah. The four I need for sure. You missed some, by the way. You didn't say BMX. The list seemed a little
    55:31
    short.
    55:32
    BMX. Okay.
    55:33
    You didn't say black belt.
    55:37
    It didn't say belt. No, it's not here. Yeah,
    55:39
    that's the one with the ninja. That's like
    55:41
    Yeah, you hit him in the nuts and he's like,
    55:44
    yeah, with the flippers. A weird flipper arrangement.
    55:47
    Yeah, man. All those have weird flipper arrangements. All of them getting the playfield lifted up into service. uh mode is just
    55:58
    that
    55:58
    oh my god black belt I mean
    56:01
    Dungeons and Dragons is like you need two people to do it or not be five feet tall it's terrible. Um, so yeah, and then uh just to continue my uh documentary that I'm never gonna actually produce, but I'm producing my head. Each one of those games, the ones you listed that I got, like I have such a vibrant um story of how I got it and who I got it from, and I would love to interview them of like why they sold it to me and that experience because they're all unique uh different ways of navigating through this. Maybe I'll write a book. That's easier.
    56:41
    Yeah.
    56:42
    Yeah.
    56:42
    No one will read this journey. It's going to be called as easy as ABC. [laughter]
    56:48
    As easy as ABC. Getting the 1683.
    56:52
    683.
    56:53
    683.
    56:54
    So, Lady Luck, Aball, Champ, Party Animal and Strange Science are the last four that I'm waiting for. Really nice condition, fully operational. funny uh as operational as possible. Um and for a good price, you
    57:15
    So this pinball confession for sure you've spent quite a bit of money then I'm sure investing it on this journey of [laughter] finding this a I'm going to just say a number. Do you think you spent more than $50,000 searching for all these games?
    57:28
    No, I would say like if you did an average of how much each machine out of the whatever there's 15. So, out of the 11 I have, the median price would be $3,000 for each game. So, whatever that equals up to. Some have been less, some have been more.
    57:48
    So, we'll do a little
    57:49
    maybe like 30 grand. I don't like doing because like I went in and was like, let me go through my entire inventory and mark off like how much each is kind of like the the value or how much I spent on it. And I was like, I'm going to do it now. Oh my god, I did not spend this much on games, but it's been over a long period of time.
    58:11
    I mean, there's a lot of pinball people that have spent way more trying [laughter] to get certain collection. So, um I would say that
    58:19
    the games work.
    58:20
    Yeah, totally. No, the money that I have spent on pinball is um
    58:25
    yeah, pretty pretty wild, too. Not as crazy as some people, but um I think definitely there's there's been some dollars spent.
    58:34
    Clean your balls. Nobody likes dirty balls whacking all around your playfield.
    58:39
    No, you're supposed to leave the oil on them though, right? When St gives you the balls.
    58:43
    No,
    58:44
    she says it so matter of fact.
    58:46
    She said that to get me up to rile me up. Like that's I No,
    58:51
    but you can't just leave your ball.
    58:52
    Why? Because she [snorts] never cleaned off the bald snail trails of a playfield from someone who did do that. So, she's not as triggered. We should just go oil all of Erica's balls in her game and walk away and then see what happens.
    59:09
    You're mean.
    59:11
    Oh man.
    59:13
    It's okay. I can fix it. So, um, my next pinball confession question is, what's something about the pinball community you privately find exhausting?
    59:33
    Manu uh Manu. It's Manu. [crying]
    59:40
    That's why she couldn't say anything.
    59:42
    Me exhausting at times. Uh with with all my side project requests. Um, but really like I can't think of anything about the Pinball community that's exhausting other than my time management skills to be able to do all the things I want to do for and with this community. Like I have so many ideas. Everyone has so many ideas. They're all freaking great and exciting, but just the prioritizing and execution um is like the struggle. And uh it's exhausting being like I want to do these things, but I am not yet.
    60:21
    Yeah, I feel that hardcore.
    60:23
    Well, that's that's what we're Emodoto, you know, that's what we're here for. Erica and I, we've pitched in to do a lot of take a lot of the the grunt work off of you. And I'm I'm super happy that you have me doing um a lot of the home stuff. You've introduced me to such an amazing world of developers and creativity and it's it it I'm I'm coming from the heart right now. I'm really really happy that you kind of said, "Okay, Mano, let's see if you can run with these guys and talk talk to these guys." I think we did 23 interviews one time. Um and uh I'm sure Erica can speak to to you know helping out, but I I thank you for that.
    61:03
    Yeah. No, definitely. Emote, I have to thank you because you totally were like, "Yes, come on, do things. Let's do creative stuff." I'm like, "Oh, hey, you're going to this show?" And you're like, "You want to come? You want to go to the show?" And then Marco has been super supportive. Like you specifically too have been like just, "Hey, we're doing this. Do you want to come to do this? Oh, oh, we can do this for you or we can do this." And like including me in your projects and having pinball just become like a really fun space for me to be in and be a part of. And yeah, you've introduced me to so many people and I've done so many cool things and um I'm really grateful for all the opportunities. Uh you truly are like a pinball gem and uh I'm just super grateful I get to be in your circle of people that get to talk to you and hang out with you and I can just text you be like, "Hey Emoto, how's it [laughter] going?" So
    61:54
    yeah, that's true. Good. Thanks. Go. I mean, y'all are Yeah. And you know just to you can cut this part out. I was going to say just as we're circle jerking and but you don't want to actually see [laughter] that.
    62:06
    Nope. It's in. But thank you too because [laughter] we've been able to do some really cool stuff and like these things I can't pull off alone, you know, and we have all these awesome people doing these great things and all of us kind of have that like historian uh mindset of like capturing the moment and um making archives of it. And uh I couldn't do it without you guys. And I'm glad it is y'all because you guys are freaking awesome.
    62:35
    Um and let's keep doing it as long as y'all are willing. I know it's like meal copy credit, so I appreciate even more how hard work you guys put into it because it's a lot. You know, a lot of the stuff I do like is just like extracurricular. There's no real budget other than like our time and blood, sweat, and tears. Um, and it if that wasn't enough, then it would like not happen sort of thing. So, thank you guys for
    63:03
    Well, thank you so much for uh Oh, sorry. Erica, you want to say something? I know. I want to say like a few shout out things before we end the
    63:11
    I mean Oh, [laughter] that sound like Mickey Mouse for a minute.
    63:15
    What you mean? Oh,
    63:16
    yeah. That's what
    63:19
    you're like the Jackbox guy.
    63:22
    Jack the trivia murder guy.
    63:24
    The the murder one. Oh my god. Totally.
    63:27
    Well, thank you very much um Emoto for joining us. You got to you got to you got to come back again, right?
    63:33
    We didn't
    63:34
    listen. We didn't make the alternate version of this to be this for no reason. And if you if you got one of these, you're super special.
    63:46
    Yeah. If you like the art, it's done by yours truly, me.
    63:51
    This is the best ever.
    63:53
    I made a little emoto for it. Um Yeah.
    63:56
    Um is there any any any shout outs you want to give before we uh wrap it up today? Uh yes, some important pinball news uh coming up. So, Southern Fried Gaming Expo is our next big show with Marco and our Pin DevCon uh homebrew and custom games experience. So, that's in Atlanta, Georgia at the last weekend of July. So, it's July 30th, August 1st, and 2nd. In Atlanta, we're hosting uh 12 to 13 homebrew games this year, uh which is doubled the amount from last year. We'll have a cool maker space in collaboration with Fast and Trident and uh all sorts of fun stuff going on with that. And then we're taking that experience to Pinball Expo. That'll be like our wrap-up show of the year. Um that's where people come from literally all over the world uh to experience pinball in Chicago, Illinois. And we will set up another big uh homebrew village is kind of what we all started calling it after last year. It was a really special experience of all the different people combined into this one space. So, hoping to host another uh 40 plus pinball machines there and um have the maker space and uh just share awesome highlights on how to get involved to to build your own homebrew dream theme. I'm trying to convince Manu to bring the homebrew that his head has been blocking this whole time to pinball expo because it'd be good. And then also, if you are thinking of bringing a pinball machine to any of these shows, um, don't wait like your homebrew games, I was talking to Manu about this earlier, don't wait till your game is in the final state to then bring it to the show because the beauty of having it at a pinball show with this community is the feedback channel that you'll get. So, when you come and bring your pinball show in like uh somewhat working status but not fully, um you're going to get all this awesome constructive feedback from makers, from uh professional designers, from just game players, like even the tournament players coming and playing your game can start talking to you about shot flow and rule design, what really like sparks them. Having that ability to have that kind of like genuine feedback during your build process is like money because if you put all everything in and you're like button up and this is the game and then you bring it out and everyone's like well why don't you just do this ramp like 45 more degrees that way and then you're like h but I'm already complete. This is it. Um you don't get that same it's not the same experience. And really the way we designed this experience is for you to be along that journey. Like bring your whitewood, bring just like you literally have your whitewood ready to go and we can kind of test flip it or we can help wire it during the show. You know, at um last year uh coming to America, Ricardo James and his team, they had their play file playfield um populated but not wired. They had their cabinet or whatever. They don't have the code and stuff set up, but it didn't matter. Everyone came all hands on deck, uh, wired it up together, and then it was this awesome like triumphant parade over to when they dropped that playfield into the cabinet and then plugged it all in. And then like the coders and like the software engineers came in and they, you know, made sure that everything was running good. And then that first flip where we watch the ball like send it and everyone cheers, you know what I mean? It's like a whole experience. Um, so don't feel like you have to get your game to 100% to then showcase. Like the beauty of it is bring your work in progress and let's work on it together during the show. And that's what Pin Devcon's all about. That's what Marco and Fast and Trident are all supporting. Um, and the overall, like you guys said, the overall homerew community. They're just amazing people and everyone is helping each other with their individual projects and um with uh Erica, it's like uh the indie film community like all over again. You know, that was 20.
    68:12
    Yeah. Supporting the indie film festivals and stuff. Now it's like decades later, we're doing the same kind of thing with these um unique creators and um we're on the line to do our pinball machine too soon, Erica.
    68:24
    Yeah. Yeah. I got We got to make it happen. We're going to make a Princess Monoke, right? Is that what we're doing? That's right. Make that happen.
    68:30
    Yes.
    68:31
    Um, but yeah, so bring your game to the show. Uh, reach out to me, emotaropinball.com or uh, you know, join the Trident Discord or whatever. Hit up the Strictly Customs Facebook group uh, that Jake Danzig moderates. We're all in those channels. And, um, let us know how we can support you bringing your game out because the more the marrier, y'all. It's a super fun experience and we want you guys to be a part of it. Yeah. No, it's
    68:58
    CN end scroll credits. [laughter]
    69:03
    You got anything? Off
    69:04
    my Marco soap box.
    69:06
    Oh, no. I just want to say definitely the homebrew community is super great. We'll go ahead and put a bunch of links to stuff in the show notes below. And yeah, again, thank you so much, Moto, for being here. So, thank you guys for listening. No, this one's kind of running a little No,
    69:20
    I got to do it. You don't get to do it.
    69:22
    He's speaker two. Erica,
    69:24
    I'm speaker. Speaker two does the outro.
    69:26
    Oh my god.
    69:27
    That's the outro.
    69:29
    Intro. Speaker one does the outro. I'm supposed to say
    69:31
    I do the outro.
    69:32
    No, cuz you did the
    69:35
    Oh my god. Are we going to do this again?
    69:36
    Please do not cut.
    69:38
    All right. You want to do it? Do it.
    69:39
    Except the circle jerk thing I was talking about. [laughter]
    69:43
    But you you what? I thought my my brain is like I'm pretty sure
    69:51
    that when we've done the intro, whoever says the topics,
    69:54
    I've never changed this document.
    69:57
    This is what happens. Emotive, when you when you're starting to get old like Erica
    70:02
    numbers, do you want it? All we have is the end. So you want if you want to do it, go ahead and do it. But
    70:07
    no, you do it cuz I'm scared now.
    70:09
    Are you scared? [laughter] Did I scare you? I'm trying to I'm trying to support Eric and not scare her. I'm a very scary [laughter] person.
    70:17
    Me and you're a great director. It's bacon.
    70:20
    She's so good at [laughter] directing me.
    70:23
    You're eating bacon. You're hungry. All right, I'll do the outro. Ready?
    70:26
    Yeah.
    70:27
    Three, two, one. All right, that's it for the pinball man. Oh, no. It's not the pinball.
    70:33
    Okay.
    70:35
    See, I'm saying don't cut any of this. It's gold.
    70:37
    I love how we're going to cut and you're going to have bacon in your hand. This is going to be great. It's gonna be a pop a popping bacon.
    70:44
    It's on character.
    70:46
    All right. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. NO, ERICA, GO. GO. [laughter] NO, PLEASE. OKAY. READY? Here you go. That's it for Pinball Minority Report. Check out our socials. Search YouTube and Instagram for Erica's Pinball Journey. That's Erica with a K and Mystery Pinball Theater 3000. That's 3000 with a three. [laughter] I always think it's 2,000 and I'm like, nah, he's got a thousand more than that.
    71:12
    Oh yeah, I'm a 3,000. All right, thanks. See you guys next time. Check out the popping food, the Coke, the making. [laughter] And next,
    71:24
    wait, there's more. [laughter] Oh, this is fun.