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Episode 66 – No One Likes Viper

Slam Tilt Podcast·podcast_episode·analyzed·Oct 26, 2017
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.030

TL;DR

Slam Tilt interviews Pinball Players Podcast host Jeff Parsons; announces Dragon Fist arrival and SB300 soundboard release.

Summary

Ron Hallett and Bruce Nightingale of Slam Tilt Podcast interview Jeff Parsons (Pinball Players Podcast) about his entry into competitive pinball, his non-collector player perspective, and the New England Pinball League. The episode covers tournament announcements (Pintoberfest, Sanctoberfest), Bruce's bar opening project, a streaming session featuring Dragon Fist, and technical updates including NVRAM's new SB300 soundboard reproduction.

Key Claims

  • The New England Pinball League is the largest league by far, with ~200 players per season across six states

    high confidence · Jeff Parsons citing Joe Showber's confirmation at Pinberg

  • Dragon Fist was shipped assembled from Arizona to New York, causing significant cabinet damage including a failing bottom and compromised wiring

    high confidence · Ron Hallett recounting personal experience receiving his Dragon Fist

  • NVRAM has released a reproduction SB300 soundboard compatible with ~18 Stern games from the 1970s-80s

    high confidence · Ron reading from nvram.weebly.com product listing

  • BG Restoration has already restored at least one Dragon Fist back glass

    high confidence · Ron discovering this during live conversation

  • Jeff Parsons does not own any pinball machines and prefers a player-focused podcast perspective

    high confidence · Jeff's direct statement about his collecting status and podcast editorial approach

  • The New England Pinball League previously held finals at Pinball Wizard in Pelham, New Hampshire, but moved to Sanctum after closure

    high confidence · Jeff Parsons explaining league history

  • Dragon Fist spinner high spin count was 49 during streaming session

    high confidence · Ron and Bruce observing stat during broadcast

  • Stern Star Wars has code issues and is new but generating interest among some players

    medium confidence · Jeff Parsons' preference statement

Notable Quotes

  • “Nobody likes pinball. It's just me. Every time I go into a bar, there's nobody playing it. And to find out there's a whole community just changed my whole outlook on this.”

    Jeff Parsons@ 4:07 — Core motivation for starting Pinball Players Podcast and competitive play; represents common experience of isolated pinball enthusiasts

  • “I'm not a collector, I'm pretty much talking about players' perspective, people that play games... I kind of leave out things about Stern's latest release and how they're going up against Jersey Jack and repairs.”

    Jeff Parsons@ 5:18 — Defines editorial philosophy of Pinball Players Podcast; highlights niche positioning focused on player experience over industry coverage

  • “It's so hard to be mean to people when you're playing pinball.”

    Jeff Parsons@ 6:49 — Reflects community culture of camaraderie despite competitive format

  • “Flash Gordon... it's like, you tell me you're awaiting all you want, and I'm still coming after you. I'm going to get a good score on this eventually.”

    Jeff Parsons@ 9:15 — Reveals player preference for punishing, challenging games; identifies as non-typical collector

  • “Don't ship them assembled... The cabinet is, let's just say the bottom is falling out of it, or was. It was... The back box needs some help.”

    Ron Hallett@ 27:14 — Critical PSA about shipping damage; identifies specific quality control issues with received Dragon Fist

  • “Who are these clowns in the background?”

    unknown stream viewer (referenced)@ 29:18 — Humorous reference to viewer reaction to Slam Tilt crew presence during broadcast

  • “Whoever did it should be kept away from pinball machines.”

    Ron Hallett — Strong criticism of seller's preparation/shipping practices

Entities

Jeff ParsonspersonRon HallettpersonBruce NightingalepersonTim SextonpersonZachpersonJohn ReuterpersonJim SwainpersonJoe Showberperson

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: New England Pinball League confirmed as largest competitive league with ~200 players across six states; multi-day finals format at Sanctum venue

    high · Joe Showber confirmation at Pinberg that NEPL is 'largest by far'; Jeff Parsons detailed league structure and player count

  • ?

    product_concern: Dragon Fist arrived assembled from Arizona with cabinet damage (bottom failing, back box loose), wiring interference preventing disassembly, and compromised back glass

    high · Ron Hallett's detailed account of damage and repair needed; explicit warning against assembled shipping for long distances

  • ?

    technology_signal: NVRAM released SB300 replacement soundboard supporting ~18 Stern games from 1970s-80s era, expanding third-party parts ecosystem for vintage machines

    high · Product listing on nvram.weebly.com; Ron reading comprehensive compatibility list

  • ?

    venue_signal: Sanctum emerged as primary competitive venue for New England region after Pinball Wizard closure; hosts finals, Sanctoberfest, and regular league play

    high · Jeff Parsons explaining NEPL migration and tournament hosting

  • ?

    product_launch: Dragon Fist delivered to Ron via Pinside listing; represents consumer acquisition channel and highlights shipping logistics challenges for premium machines

    high · Ron's acquisition story and damage report

  • ?

Topics

New England Pinball League structure and scaleprimaryJeff Parsons' player perspective and Pinball Players Podcast philosophyprimaryDragon Fist shipping damage and restorationprimaryBruce Nightingale's bar opening projectprimaryStreaming session and Dragon Fist gameplay featuresprimaryNVRAM SB300 reproduction soundboard releaseprimarySanctoberfest 24-hour tournamentsecondaryCompetitive player preferences for challenging gamessecondary

Sentiment

positive(0.75)— Generally upbeat and community-focused episode celebrating Jeff Parsons' contributions and upcoming events. Positive about Sanctum, NEPL, and community growth. Negative sentiment only regarding Dragon Fist shipping damage, Viper's unpopularity, and Dragon Fist's background sound design. Humor throughout mitigates critical moments.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.258

0:00
Well, I'd like to thank y'all for kindly coming over, and y'all are welcome back anytime. I got me a two-pair, but this here's the cowboys and their sweeties. Two pairs? Is that all? We got four pairs of boobs and one butt. Yes! Boobs are cool. Oh, boy. Tom, the boy's got a flood. What in the hell? Damn it! You win, boys. Yes!
0:30
Coming to you from beautiful upstate New York, this is the Slam Tilt Podcast, the show about all things pinball. I'm your host, Ron Hallett, here with my co-host, Bruce Nightingale. Stream, stream, and more stream. Didn't I just see you a couple hours ago?
1:01
Yes, we were in the same room. We were together. Yes, we were streaming tonight, but we'll talk about that in a few minutes. We have a guest. Yes, we do. I've been listening to his podcast since his first episode. It's a great podcast. Everyone should listen to it. We actually plug it almost every week. This is the Pinball Players Podcast, and this is Jeff Parsons. Welcome, Jeff, to the show. Hey, thanks. Glad to be here, guys. Been listening to you guys since the start, too. So the Mutual Admiration Society has begun. Excellent.
1:31
So, Jeff, what got you into this crazy hobby? Oh, let's see. Ever since I can remember and was old enough to stand on a chair to see over the lockdown bar of a pinball machine I've been playing, You know, back then, not knowing what I was doing at the age of four years old, but but loved just something about the flashing lights and the sounds just attracted me ever since I was a kid.
2:02
@ 28:03

  • “It's like a cannon that rotates, and you've got to hit multipliers or something like that.”

    Jeff Parsons@ 32:24 — Indicates Viper's notoriously unclear rule design is confusing even to competitive players

    • Matt Gay
    person
    Steve Danielsperson
    Steve Bowdenperson
    Keith Elwinperson
    Pinball Players Podcastproduct
    Slam Tilt Podcastproduct
    New England Pinball Leagueorganization
    Dragon Fistgame
    Vipergame
    Flash Gordongame
    Stern Pinballcompany
    NVRAMcompany
    Sanctumvenue
    BG Restorationcompany
    Pinball Wizardvenue

    content_signal: Slam Tilt producing Twitch streams of gameplay content (Dragon Fist, Dialed In, Demoman) with multi-person participation and real-time commentary

    high · Ron and Bruce describing streaming session details, game selection, and tutorial content creation

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Viper continues to confuse competitive players despite rule explanations; rotating turret mechanic inadequately communicated in manual or game UI

    medium · Jeff Parsons unable to understand game despite Jim Swain explanation; description of turret mechanics seems unclear

  • ?

    product_concern: Dragon Fist background sound design criticized by multiple players; includes tone that escalates beyond human hearing range and repetitive 'doot' sound

    high · Ron, Bruce, and Jeff all commenting on poor audio quality during and after streaming; identified dipswitch 8 for disabling background sound

  • ?

    operational_signal: Bruce's bar opening on track with two-week timeline; infrastructure work (sinks, TVs) near completion; game integration phase beginning with Galaga donation from Ron

    high · Bruce describing sink repairs, TV mounting, and imminent game movement phase; Galaga pickup and transport details

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Pinball Players Podcast established as respected community resource; Jeff Parsons building audience and participating in industry events; mutual respect with established Slam Tilt crew

    medium · Mutual praise between hosts; Jeff's participation in tournaments, league, and guest spots on other media

  • ?

    event_signal: Sanctoberfest (24-hour tournament) upcoming with limited capacity; Bruce at wait list position 8; Pintoberfest recently concluded with elaborate custom trophies featuring Jason mask and machete

    high · Bruce and Jeff discussing Sanctoberfest logistics; Ron describing Pintoberfest trophy details

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Jeff Parsons identified as atypical player preferring punishing, challenging games (Flash Gordon, 8-Ball Deluxe, Stars) over mainstream titles; explicit design preference for high difficulty and accomplishment rewards

    high · Jeff's detailed explanation of game preferences and motivation for playing difficult machines

    • And I have I have loved it ever since I played pretty much right through through high school, played a lot in college. I think I've pretty much wasted my entire freshman year when they had, let's see, a whirlwind. They had a fun house. They had a Monday night football. They had all kinds of these pinballs at the student union at the University of Maine that I went to. And, yeah, I don't think I went to half my classes because of that. I just spent so much time there. Just have always loved the game. And then it wasn't until about, I want to say, 2007, well, it's late 2000s, that I saw something in the local newspaper about a tournament that they had at a local bar.
    2:46
    and I'm like, wow, there's people that are actually into this around here in Portland where I was at the time. And so I went over, played in the tournament, and the guy that ran it, John Reuter, said, hey, you should come to my place sometime and check out what I've got. And when I walked into his place, then that just changed everything. I think you've been up there before, Ron. I think you've played in Pin Mania. Oh, yes. We both have. Oh, you have? You have two, Bruce. Cool. Yeah, so you guys are familiar. He's got quite a collection, and I just walked in there like, people have this many pinball machines in their house?
    3:23
    This is amazing. I've never seen that many pinball machines in one place. And he talked me through the whole thing, showed me all the games, and many of them I had seen before and played before, but seeing them all under one roof in some guy's house just blew my mind. And ever since then, I've been playing competitively. I went to Papa for the first time that year. I've been to Pinburg five times now. We've got the New England Pinball League that we've started up here, and I've been playing that on a regular basis.
    3:58
    And it's just become so much more fun since I've been competing with people and meeting people in the hobby. And it's something that I thought I was the only – for the longest time, nobody likes pinball. It's just me. Every time I go into a bar, there's nobody playing it. And to find out there's a whole community just changed my whole outlook on this and just love, love, love this game. That's great. I love to hear that. I love to hear that about anyone playing and learning and actually finding out about pinball. Do you own any pinball machines? Well, see, that's the one thing.
    4:29
    I don't own a single one. So how do we get you to buy one? That's what everybody says, too. It's like, hey, I'll sell you one. Well, I'm at the point where I've just got better things to spend my money on. I know that sounds terrible, but it's just the way it is. Someday I'll probably get there, but I've got some – JR's place and we've got Arcadia National Bar here in Portland. There's a comic book shop that's got several pins. There's lots of friends that I have. A buddy of mine up in Auburn has got a big Lebowski.
    5:01
    I've got so many friends now that have pinballs that I just can leech off them for now and not have to worry about spending any money on them and fixing them and repairing them. And that's kind of why I put my podcast together from the perspective it is. Since I'm not a collector, I'm pretty much talking about players' perspective, people that play games. It's, you know, everybody's a player, but, you know, I kind of leave out things about, you know, well, you know, Stern's latest release and how they're going up against Jersey Jack and repairs and that sort of thing.
    5:35
    Because I just it's not not not my my field of expertise. I'm more about about playing, whether it's competitively or just just for fun. And so I also like to talk to people, anybody, anyone from from pros that I've had on. I've had Bo and Karen's to just people you may not even know because, like I've said in the podcast, everybody, and I think you guys will agree, everybody's got a pinball story. Everybody's got something that they can tell. And I kind of liken it to how when I would meet people and we'd play competitively, everybody would talk afterwards like, hey, what do you own?
    6:13
    What do you play? What do you like to play? And it's just fun having those conversations and sharing them with other people. I just had a blast doing this podcast. No, it's a great podcast. I love it. You mentioned that Bowen guy. Wasn't he supposed to be at some Trash Talker Invitational? But he chickened out, I believe. Yeah, he was all set to go, and then something came up, and he couldn't make it. Well, you know, there wasn't a whole lot of trash talking at that. I think all the trash talking was really just leading up to the whole thing.
    6:46
    We get us all on one roof when we're playing together. It's just so hard to be mean to people when you're playing pinball. Oh, come on. If I was there, oh, my God. Yeah. Good thing you didn't go, Bruce. You would have started an incident of some kind. Because you saw me today when we were playing. We were talking of some stuff. Well, Tim drank out, and you were cheering. I mean, that's pretty mean. That's pretty mean. Of course, I was cheering also. so if you had one game that you'd want to buy jeff and money was no limit
    7:23
    and you had one spot in your house what would that pin be wow um boy that's a toss-up um i i know it's not getting a lot of uh love right now because it's you know code issues and it's new, but I really do like the Stern Star Wars. I'm a huge Star Wars fan, so I'm a little biased to that. But I don't think... There's two I really like.
    7:53
    Two games that I absolutely love, and it's hard to pick between them, and they're different eras. One is Jackbot. I know it's kind of a mixed reviews on that one, but I like so many things about that game. The other is Flash Gordon, and that's kind of a nostalgia thing. It's one of the games that really, really got me hooked on pinball. And as a kid, when this was out, I was like 9, 10 years old. I didn't know what I was doing at that point. But as I learned once I started playing competitively,
    8:26
    what you actually have to do in the game, I love how ridiculously punishing that game can be. And because it is, when you do well, you really feel like you've accomplished something in that game. so that probably I would say out of the two of them probably Jackbot has probably got more playability than Flash Gordon but boy it would be a tough choice for me between those two okay we got I was very surprised on both your choices, most people don't
    8:57
    go that route I found that I'm not the typical pinball player as far as what they like for games I like the challenge, I like the really ridiculous It's like I'm eight ball deluxe. It'll punish me every single time, but I'm like, I'm doing it again. I'm going to get you this time. Same thing with Flash Gordon. It's like, you know, you tell me you're awaiting all you want, and I'm still coming after you. I'm going to get a good score on this eventually. I like that kind of challenge. So you'd probably be a fan of stars, I would imagine.
    9:28
    Yes, very big fan of stars. I still can't get anything going on that either. But I'm still trying. I guess I just like being beat down, I guess is what it goes. comes down to who knows oh yes so on your last episode you did the top five wide bodies yes go ahead what didn't you agree with i know you were missing my favorite one of all oh what what's that space invaders no slap him around like a freaking stepchild paragon paragon okay
    9:59
    i thought about putting paragon in there but honestly i haven't played it enough to really get to enjoy it. JR has one, but he's put it aside because it's a little tiny little bit of playfield wear, so he's like, nope, not touching that anymore until he can do something about it. It's been sitting in the corner for a while now, and I'm just like, come on, bring that back out, please. Sitting in the corner, all right. Does he still have most of the ballys down there? Yeah, he does. He does. He's got a really good lineup of sterns, too.
    10:30
    He has a cheetah. I know. He'll not sell it, so don't try. Nobody. Nobody will. Nobody sells that game. Nope. It's a fun game. It's a really fun game. I will find one. That's your first one. Freaking kill it. Guys, come up to Mania this summer in June, and you can play it during the tournament. Well, there's at least three people I know with a cheetah, and none of them will sell. Yeah. All stars will be at the bar, so I know that.
    11:01
    That's a fact. That's a given. That's a pretty ambitious project you're taking on there, Bruce. That's – Oh, if you only knew. Well, we went – today we went to – last night we drove to Ron's house, which is three and a half hours from my house. So Kathy wanted to come along because she's like, I haven't had a day off really in a month. I'm like, come on, jump in the car, come with me. And then today when we were – we went to Ron's, stayed over last night. This morning we woke up at 8 o'clock. She looked at me. She's like, I wish I didn't go. I'm like, why didn't you wish you could go?
    11:33
    She's like, I would have rather worked at the bar. I'm like, you need a day off. She actually is taking the lion's, the big brunt of it. That's her full time job now is getting the bar ready to open. And me, I just get to come in like after work and go, hey, I'm here to work. And, you know, she'll point a project at me. And this week's project was sinks. I was doing sink repair on two out of four sinks. the next project will come up and then mounting TVs and yeah it's just every day is different and then another two weeks I get to start bringing games into the building
    12:05
    that'll be the scary part now because then I know it's like getting close and getting real you sound excited Bruce you sound very excited I'm excited but I'm scared shitless I really am when you're done and it opens up and you have your opening night that'll all go away I can't imagine that it's not going to be a success. I hope. That's the big thing. The problem with me is, and even Todd, who's the local operator here, who's bringing a couple games, who's bringing the pool table, who's bringing the dart machine, who's bringing the change machine,
    12:37
    he goes, you know, people are going to be playing the games a lot. I'm like, oh, that doesn't bother me. The game playing doesn't bother me. It's making sure they're playing right for myself is going to be. And it's going to be my games I'm more worried about than anybody else's. So when that drunk guy's taking a leak on your Stargazer, you won't be upset? Luckily, I have cameras for that. In the Stargazer? No, above. Well, it could be done. I know. I piss on your Stargazer. So, Jeff, you have something called a league?
    13:10
    Yeah, the New England Pinball League. Do you play more than two games? Yes. Really? Yeah. Wow. You sound like you wish you were in a league or something. I am in a league. Oh, you are? We play two games. We play Demoman and we play Roadshow at the same pub every week. One out of two of those is a great game. So, you know. Oh, okay. So which one isn't the great game? Roadshow. Yes, perfect.
    13:40
    Oh, okay. Yeah. I mean, I don't hate the game. I don't think there's a game I really, really, really hate. But it's not really my. If I were to pick the two, I'd go to Devilman every time. Every time. Yes. Ah! Yeah. There you go. Just to hear a sly. Yeah. So how big is the league? Because didn't they change some things? Didn't it used to be like every state or something? Well, it slowly grew. It only started out with Maine, New Hampshire, Maine, New Hampshire and Massachusetts and Vermont came in afterwards.
    14:21
    Then Rhode Island. We've got them all now in Connecticut. Obviously, the Sanctum is involved with that. And it's yeah, it started out just because I think when when we started this, that the scene in Maine was pretty lackluster, not a whole lot of players. So we decided to expand it, and people that put this together like Matt Gay and Steve Daniels and the other people who were involved with this can tell you better than I can. But, yeah, it grew to involve every state. And we used to play and have our finals at Pinball Wizard in Pelham, New Hampshire, which was kind of central to everything.
    14:58
    And then, unfortunately, they shut down, and we've been playing our finals at Sanctum. Sanctum, and the only drawback to that is Sanctum's a great place to play, but it's obviously not as big as Pinball Wizard where you could have everybody there to play match play for finals as opposed to you've got to take the top 24 in each division. We split it A, B, C, and D divisions for all the players. And we've got each session we probably have, each season we do 200 or so players in the league.
    15:29
    oh yeah it's it's all it's almost like it's its own mini little little uh pinberg on a on a smaller obviously a smaller scale but a lot you know a lot of players in fact joe showber who does the software for all the uh for all the uh leagues that uh they use it uh my my guest uh this week uh on the pinball players podcast um did uh did a 27 strike tournament and he used uh match play events and he uh he when he was out at pinberg um he was talking to joe showbird he said
    16:05
    is there anybody else that's got a league the size of new england and he said no you guys are the largest by far it's just ridiculous so uh but it's fun it's you know it's it's weird because you're competing technically you're competing with people that you never even have competed with that are in like four states away but uh at the end you all meet up and and uh get together and do it at the sanctum, and it's just a blast. And also, I think this weekend was Pintoberfest.
    16:35
    Yeah, I didn't get to go to that. Did you see those trophies, by the way? Yeah, they were. Did you see those, Bruce? No, I did not. They were, I believe, they took the side panels of a F-14 back box and then put a Jason hockey mask from Friday the 13th on there with a real machete, like knife. That Matt Gates said will cut you. Yep. Oh, my. For each division, they painted the A division mask gold.
    17:09
    They painted the B silver. So it's really pretty impressive. So you're talking about the sanctum, and just think, in two weeks, boys, you're going to be playing. Ron is. Ron is in. Okay. Are you on the wait list? I am on the wait list. They may get to you. They may because I'm at number eight now. Oh, yeah, because you were fairly high, yeah. I was number 30. Yep, you got a good shot of making it then. So we shall see. The next thing will be convincing Kathy for me to go for a whole weekend,
    17:43
    three weeks before the bar opens. What do you think that's going to go over like? To come back with no sleep. yeah, that'll go great. Yeah. Let's just say I'll be there. I'm going to have to do research on what I should be eating and drinking and everything beforehand, if there's anything, any research I can do. Last year I did, I made sure I had tons of water, some Gatorade too, and I was good until probably about 3 in the morning,
    18:15
    and that's when it really starts to hit you. And it's like your eyes blur and you think you're in multiball, but there's really only one ball out there. It gets crazy. I've heard that story multiple times, so I'm kind of looking forward to that. I'll be playing stars and I'll think I'm in multiball, which would be quite impossible. No, it's fun to see everyone just kind of get to that. You'll find people sleeping on a couch, and as soon as they announce the next one, they prop right up and they get right out. Some do better than others. I managed to make it.
    18:46
    I didn't think I'd make the whole 24 hours. I thought there would be some point where I'm just going to say I've got to stop. But if you do do every round, no matter how you finish, they give you kind of like completing a marathon. They give you a participation medal where, hey, you did it. You made it the whole 24 hours. So those guys do such a good job putting that thing together. Yes, they do a great job up there. Yeah, I got the email a couple weeks ago. And he's like, are you still going to be able to go? I'm like, yeah, put me in. He goes, you're number eight. I'm like, oh, wow, it's getting close. So I'm hoping.
    19:16
    Remember, if you can't make it, I believe a friend of the show, Mr. Bowden, Steve Bowden, if I'm with bonus, I think he's below you. He is behind me. So you would be helping him out if you knew you were going to make it. Just saying. I'm going to try. I'm really going to try. That's the goal for me. I want to go. So when are you going to actually go there? See, I was going to go after work Friday and try to time it so I fall asleep, and wake up an hour before I have to go there.
    19:47
    No, that's what you try to do. So maximize sleep. Don't forget the quick check is right around the corner. Coffee and drinks are always there. And sandwiches. If you show up on Friday, they've got a tournament that night too. Just a quick little workout. Well, give you a chance to play the games, get familiar with what they've got. Well, you guys have both probably been Keep up in there, yeah. My banner for the company is up in the – Oh, that's right, yeah. Yep, and if I do go, I'll be donating something for the prizes.
    20:20
    Nice. So I always try to support them guys. They do a great job out there. So, Ron, what did you do today? I did a podcast with you and Jeff Parsons. And what else did you do? Oh, before that, we did a Super Stream. Super duper stream. With Tim Balls, Tim Sexton. And our own Zach. And as everyone predicted, Tim was late. Of course. Of course he was. God, you killed me. These young whippersnappers, they cannot get up on time.
    20:54
    No. I mean, sure, he had an excuse that he was in a tournament until, what did he say, he got home? Two or three in the morning? Three o'clock in the morning he got back from Brooklyn. Oh, that's plenty of time. Come on. Plenty of time to get sleep. Five hours of sleep, that's all you need. That's all you need. at his age. Come on. So, I don't know. Did you see any of the streams, Jeff? I only watched about the first 10 minutes of Dragon Fist. Here's my takeaway from that. I've never seen it. First of all, I love Stern games. I don't think there's one that I don't like. I mean, some are better than others.
    21:26
    And I love the sounds of Stern games but Dragon Fist That little thing where it just keeps going up like one octave again and again and again eventually it gets to the point where the human ear can hear it anymore Yeah. Probably every dog in your neighborhood is going nuts at that point. It's weird. It has two background sounds, like the one that just goes doot, doot, doot, doot, doot, and then the other one that just keeps getting higher and higher until you can't hear it. Yeah. That's what it seemed like to me anyway.
    21:56
    Wow. So am I getting a consensus that I should turn the background sound off? Or try different sounds. Because you do have choices for different sounds on those usually. Well, don't sit there and let it cycle like you did with no playing. It just kept right on going. Well, we had to fix the camera. Yeah, I got you. It looks like a fun game, though. It is quite fast. but the first part of the stream was an attempted tutorial of Tiled In
    22:27
    where we learned Tim does not work good under pressure with the tutorials and talking because he was not playing well and was getting quite upset and we were busting his balls about it also because that's what we do he's staring like I can't do this with people talking it's like what are we supposed to do not do anything well I know what I'm watching tomorrow Oh yeah Yeah he was like And so then we ended up just going at it And dialed in battles Yep
    22:58
    But he did do a tutorial After everything was done after we went off the air Which he'll be putting out on his YouTube channel He said he was able to get some good games in I didn't look to see I'm certain there's a new high score on the dialed in Let's put it that way I haven't looked at it yet Because I wasn't here I left him alone in the game room Oh, my. That's the kind of trust we have here with the Slam Tilt crew. Yes. So we did that first, and then we went over to our Twitch feed,
    23:29
    and we streamed Dragon Fist, which what did Keith Elwin call it? Seafist. Because of the similarities with the rule set with Sea Witch, with the moving Xs. If you've played Sea Witch before, you'll pretty much be able to figure out Dragon Fist. A question, Ron. You brought up on the if you get over 20, 40, 60, 80 on the spins. If you get the exact amount. Yes, thank you. If you get 20, 40, 60, or 80, you get a free game. Free game.
    23:59
    Yes, so. It has a spin counter. It counts how many spins on the spinner. What? Yeah. I like that it said 80. So they're assuming that you could hit a spin that would do 80 spins. Or you keep on hitting and keeping it alive. I guess so. Okay. It's a cute feature. You can see how juiced your spinner is. Yes. Does it keep a high spin count? It actually did. It did, didn't it? Yeah, it did. And I'm thinking about it. At the end of the game, it actually shows you the highest spin, which was 49.
    24:34
    So I've got to get that spinner more juiced so we can get above 49. See if you can roll it. Roll it. Roll the spinner. A unique goal. New heads-up tournament. You must roll the spinner on Dragon Fist. Nice. Except we'd probably have trouble finding two of them. Yeah, there's only 301. Don't forget, Dipswitch 8 is your friend, Ron. Oh, is that the background sound? Yes. Okay. Off is off on number 8. Okay, okay.
    25:06
    Wow. Consensus that the background sound on Dragon Fist is bad. Yes. Totally bad. Oh, my God. I will send a link for you for those targets tonight, too. But we have put that in the past on the – I'm looking right now for those. Yeah, that I probably should have paid attention to. Yeah, you should have, but there we go. It's L-A-N-G-E-L-I-U-S.com. I'm going to post it right now on our Slam Tilt page. So you'll be able to find it every time from now on for your stern old targets.
    25:40
    You know, it's so weird having Jeff on because I'm listening to the voice and I'm hearing the podcast in my head. I know. I love that. I get that same thing. I spent two hours in a grocery store today doing a live broadcast for the radio station I work at, and I had two people come up to me. It's like, you don't look anything like you sound on the radio. Thanks? I guess. Is that a compliment or a negative? I didn't know quite how to take that. I'd say Bruce looks exactly like I would think he would look. Gee, thanks. Yeah.
    26:10
    But that's a compliment. So now that we have Dragon Fist Now everyone knows your special new game Can you tell everyone the story How you got your Dragon Fist It was posted on Pinside Oh my fucking god For a ridiculous price that I unfortunately paid And then it was shipped to me assembled Which was the first problem Please people don't do that It's okay for Papa to do that Because they're putting it in a truck
    26:41
    in driving like 15 minutes to a convention center. But if you're shipping something from Arizona, which is where it came from, to New York, please don't ship it assembled. Wait a minute. You mean like legs and everything? Oh, yeah. Oh, yes. What? Yeah, people do that. There's companies that kind of specialize in that. Like this particular shipping company, the guy used, they were like, what's the title of the game? Like, oh, okay, so you people ship lots of games, obviously. They want to know the title so they don't ship the wrong one, I guess.
    27:12
    I don't know. So the cabinet is, let's just say the bottom is falling out of it, or was. It was. It's been glued back together. The back box needs some help. Yes, it does. It's a little on the loose side. I don't think it was in great shape before the trip. No, but that didn't help it either. Yeah, I think the trip pounded any last stability out of it. unfortunately. So, yeah, don't ship them assembled.
    27:43
    And one of the reasons I think it was assembled or shipped assembled because they screwed with the wiring to the point where, and this was on a previous podcast, they screwed with the wiring to a point where you couldn't take the head off or the play field out. They just wire managed it in this bizarre way. I have no idea what they were thinking. Whoever did it should be kept away from pinball machines. We got it here, glued it back together, and it's sitting downstairs where it'll probably remain because it's not going to go to any shows in this condition
    28:15
    unless I get it fixed. And you get the back glass done. The back glass is in horrible shape, which is not unusual for a stern back glass. Most of them suck. They just don't wear well. The couple other Dragon Fists I've seen have had bad back glasses. Oh, well. Hey, somebody, redo it. I'm just looking right now. Ooh. Who? BG Restoration did a Dragon Fist already ready.
    28:48
    Oh. So I should contact them. Yes, you should. Okay. They restored one last year. So that means they got all the stuff ready. All right. Sounds like a plan. We'll get your Dragon Fist all ready and rocking. With that off the list, hopefully we gain some more streamers on Twitch. And hopefully Timmy didn't lose any streamers for having us on. He probably did.
    29:18
    Who are these clowns in the background? Well, Zach was on there. Yes, he was. He's a younger guy like us. We'll watch that. Yes, he's cool and hip. And while I was out at Ron's, I picked up something from Ron today. Mm-hmm. I picked up a Galaga. Ron actually donated his Galaga for the bar, an original Galaga. You've got to have a Galaga. And it was the most uncomfortable ride back because I have a Subaru Forester, and my seat was pushed all the way up.
    29:51
    I was actually driving with my knees into the dashboard for four hours. And basically, if you got in any kind of accident, you're dead. Oh, I was dead. Well, the airbag would have just cushioned me while the other thing would have crushed me. You're from behind. Wait, is that what was behind you in the car when you got the picture you posted today? Yes. Okay. All right. We wrapped it, and we cling-wrapped it, and it made it fine. It's in the garage right now. I was like, really, Bruce? You're going to be able to fit this? I'm like, yep, no problem. Very insistent. Yeah, no problem.
    30:22
    Go to close the back door. Like, no, no, a little more. I've got to push my seat up a little more. So, see, we got it done. And then I'm going to have to ask people for help for game moving for the bar. I got to move a lot of games. And Zach's got to come over and help me work on the demo, man. Got to get that working. Mm-hmm. Yes. Do we have any news? No. I have a couple things. Okay. First, Weebly.com. That's W-E-E-B-L-Y.com.
    30:53
    They've made in the past Stern CPU boards and Bally CPU boards. And they've also made Bally soundboards Dash 50 and Dash 51, which are the most popular soundboards. He's now outdone himself, and now he has created and making Reproduction SB300 soundboards, which is basically every soundboard from, I'm going to look right now at the list. And while you're looking that up, I'll give them the correct web address, which is nvram.weebly.com.
    31:27
    That's N-V-R-A-M dot W-E-E-B-L-Y dot com. If you go to the other one, you'll just get a generic page. Fail? I always fail. All right, it's a new Stern Pinball SB300 replacement soundboard. It works for pretty much all the games with sound that Stern did. Alley, Big Game, Catacomb, Cheetah, Dragon Fist, Flight 2000, Free Fall, Galaxy, Iron Maiden, not the Stern one, Lightning, actually, it is the Stern one, technically,
    32:00
    Lightning, Meteor, Nineball, Orbiter One, Quicksilver, Sea Witch, Split Second, Stargazer, and the awesome Viper. Ugh. I had to say that. So I knew Jeff had to play that if he's going to the Sanctum. Oh, yeah. I did have Jim Swain from the Sanctum on. I asked him, like, what the hell's with that game? And he says, I know everybody hates it, but I love it. and he explained to me that you've got to – it's like a cannon that rotates,
    32:30
    and you've got to hit multipliers or something like that. The turret, baby, the turret. Now I know what I'm doing, but every time I'm like, I don't get this at all. The turret from hell. I had to defend that game in our little contest. And you didn't win well with that one, did you? I thought I did a good job defending it. I said how awesome the rotating turret was, state-of-the-art technology. the fact that you can turn it both ways. It's got extra buttons. You can go forward or reverse.
    33:00
    You thought that rotisserie on Batman 66 was huge? This has got nothing on it. Nothing on this. Come on. And it has a spinner. And it's stern. It does. So he's making the sound boards for the sterns and he's also making the harnesses for the sterns. You can get them both at the same time. $130 gets you both the harness and the sound board. The sound board by itself is $120. Definitely support this. This is a great deal for everyone. Make your old stern sound new. I like that. Did he patent that? Make your old stern sound new?
    33:31
    No? Yep. No. All right. Also, I saw an interesting thing on Pinside. I know we barely talk about that site. But this is a good thing. Somebody's actually building a kingpin for Scratch, from Scratch, I mean. Which kingpin, Bruce? The only kingpin in my book. One of eight. Okay. For those out there, he's talking about Capcom Kingpin. Yes. One of the two prototypes they were making when they shut down the pinball division.
    34:05
    They pulled the plug. So have you ever seen a Kingpin, Jeff? I've seen pictures, not one in person. Oh, really? I thought there was one in the New England area at some point. Yeah, yeah. Okay. Gene, Gene the Dancing Machine originally wanted to do them. Gene Cunningham, the guy who did the Big Bang Bars. And lost money. And pissed off everyone associated with making them so no one wanted to work with him. Yes. He could not find the code. There was a code for it.
    34:38
    And he didn't have the access to try to break down the chip and nobody would work with him. So that kind of failed. Then I know Pinball Inc. was talking about it for a little while and backed out. And then when, what's his name, out in California bought the rights, Bay Area Amusement, PPS, he now has the rights to do it. And if he does, it'd be great because it's a great game. Me and Ron have both played it at California Extreme. They bring one every year there. They release it to the public. But now somebody in Australia is trying to make one from scratch.
    35:12
    In Australia? In Australia. Man, Australia's like the new hotbed of pinball. It is. I think so. I think it's a great idea. Good luck. Yeah. He's got the lights working now on it. He's actually got a play field with no artwork, all CNC'd out and everything, and he's going to get inserts hopefully eventually into it. I love to see just like the projects like that. So if you look up on Pinside and look up Kingpin, you can check out what his work is going on for right now.
    35:45
    Okay. So, Jeff, what's the rarest game you've ever played? Boy, what was... Big Lebowski, maybe? Well, actually, honestly, yeah, probably Big Lebowski. I mean, not that it intended to be that way, but my friend Steve, he ordered one. He was one of the first, I want to say maybe 10 to 15, that ordered. And he got his, but it wasn't without trouble. The shipping, when they shipped it to him, it was before they had all the trouble that they're into now.
    36:21
    They shipped it to him, but the shipper ratcheted the pin too tightly and separated part of the cabinet. And when he wanted to get it repaired, that's when all the trouble started, and they couldn't get the parts to fix whatever they needed to do. He said, screw it. Just ship it to me. I'll take it as is. And he's got it now, and he likes it. So I don't know what he's done yet as far as fixing it, but he's got it at least.
    36:55
    And it's a fun game. That rug, have you guys played it anywhere that's been shown? Oh, yeah. I kind of like that rug. I think it's a neat little toy. and the call-outs just have to be on adult mode with no kids around, or you just don't get this effect. Yeah. Again, we had the same issue in that we played it at Expo in more low-power condition issues. Plus, the one I played was one of the original prototypes, and it broke, like, every two minutes.
    37:26
    I didn't get through a single game on it, unfortunately, for me. Then the other shows it was at, the line was always too long, and I just didn't want to bother. It's just so disappointing. It's like you get your hopes up for some great games, and they're done by these little boutiques. And honestly, they just don't know what it takes to make a pinball machine. It's not an easy thing to do. And then they fall into this hole, and then, you know, like you guys, same thing. You guys say it all the time, and I agree. Like, I would never put money down on a machine unseen.
    38:01
    There's no way. I just would not dare take that risk. even if it was like a manufacturer that I trust like Stern or Jersey Jack that are producing. If they announced a game before you saw it, it's like, no way. No way I would put that. Yeah, I totally agree. Agreed. And we – because what, four years ago? Was it three or four years ago now? They were like the darlings of Expo. They had this like – remember the huge display they had? They had the rug there. They thought they were rock stars. Yeah, they were literally like rock stars.
    38:32
    They stole the Expo. It was like, oh, this is the coolest thing. They had the exclusive party. Remember that? It was like in the hotel. Oh, yes. Like where they brought the games up into one of the rooms and all this. And I know Bowen got to play it there. It was like invitation only. So you got like, you know, your pinball royalty got to play it, I should say. You know, so Josh Sharp was up there. Bowen was up there. I think Todd McCulloch was up there playing it. And it was like they could do no wrong. And it was like right after Expo, the one guy, their marketing guy, like went bonkers.
    39:05
    Yep. And it just all went downhill from there. He gave away all the money back to some of the people. He was the guy who had the money control for Dutch Pinball USA. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that was just all – it's a total cluster. Total cluster. But I digress. Have you seen Pirates, Jeff? I have. And I honestly was I was skeptical when, you know, because, I mean, there's no secret in what the next game for any of these manufacturers are anymore.
    39:38
    It all gets out. And when when I heard pirates, I'm like, we're doing this again. But then I thought, well, they've done it before. Manufacturers have done this. So I'm like, OK. But when I saw it on the stream, the Buffalo Pinball guys did a great job with that and got to see Steve Bowden be the first person to play it, too, which was pretty cool. That – I'm not usually a fan of upper plate fields too much, but that ship up in the upper right corner really looks like a well-designed piece of machinery there.
    40:12
    And I like that it's a new designer. Get some new blood in doing this. Not that I don't like what the long-term designers like Steve Ritchie are doing, but somebody with some new ideas that he's brought in. I love that spinning, the three discs in the middle that are kind of sitting each other that can go three different, you know, each go whichever direction it wants to go that gives randomization of the ball but doesn't really throw it out of control as he described it. I'm not a fan of the theme, but I'm not – themes are not a big deal usually with me that much.
    40:46
    If I play the game and – like I played the regular Pirates, the first one by Stern, and I've seen the first movie and just didn't like it. So I don't know much about what's going on in that game. but the shots are fun. I like sinking the ship and I think I'm going to like this one too. It's definitely pretty, that's for sure. I like the confidence of the designer and busting on Stern. It's like, whoa, really? Okay. The only thing is, all these people are just coming and bashing Stern.
    41:17
    It's like, oh, now you've got to step it up or you guys are in trouble now. I'm not so sure about that. Yeah, you mean like the Pinside Post, Dark Days for Stern? Yeah. No. Let's remember, Stern is the one that actually kept making machines when everybody else stopped. Yep. They're the ones that kept it alive, and Jersey Jack and everybody else that's come along since then probably would not be doing it if Stern hadn't been going all along. I think people that got into the hobby later than we did kind of don't realize that history as much as we do, that they were the only ones.
    41:51
    And granted, the games they were putting out after Williams shut down weren't all that great. I mean, they're a lot better now, obviously, but it was something. And there were still games getting out there. So if it wasn't for Stern, I don't think any of us would still be seeing new games. I think actually they had a great resurgence in 2003 and 2004. Yeah, yep. And then they had the dip, of course, and now they've come back a little bit. Now I think they're in another dip. You think they're in a dip? Why are they in a dip, Bruce? the gameplay-wise.
    42:21
    Just because you don't like the games? I want to see the sales numbers, man. Oh, probably the sales numbers are doing good for them. I agree with that. But the gameplay, it actually reminds me a little of the first Pirates. How does it remind you of the first Pirates? What reminds you of the first Pirates? I'm confused. Like, you know, you sell a lot of Pirates, but is it a fun game to play, the first Pirates? It can be for me. In some ways it is, but in some ways it isn't. It's like, okay, let's hit the ship. I know every game is like that too, but not even having a jackpot call out on the first Pirates annoyed me right off the bat.
    42:57
    And I understand why because Disney said jackpots weren supposed to be in that time and realm and now they finally gotten smart and said here you can actually have jackpot calls out in Pirates of the Caribbean 2 you know I think Bruce just doesn like the first game No, I had it for seven years. That was their highest seller forever. It might still be. Who knows? It might still be. It could be. They sold a shit ton of them. They really did. But not a knock-em-out dead game compared to, like, Lord of the Rings or – I actually like T3 more than I do – or Simpsons more than I do Pirates.
    43:34
    Well, yeah, you would like – yeah, Simpsons Pinball Party. I think most people would probably say they like Simpsons Pinball Party more than Pirates. Or even T3. Jeff wouldn't say that? I don't know. The problem I have with the Simpsons is it's such a deep game. It's just you've got to do so much just to start getting the points. It's almost like it takes forever to get, okay, now I'm at a point where I'm actually scoring points as opposed to here. Here's 1,000 points and hit the couch and do this. And it frustrates me.
    44:05
    People go to that all the time in our league. We've got one at Arcadia National Bar, and they'll pick that. I'm like, okay, well, let's set aside an hour because it's going to be a while before we get this one done. Agreed. Bruce likes it, though. I love it. I miss mine already. And Jeff Teola's bought mine, so what does that tell you? I think it's a great game if you're a collector for your home, but for competition, it's tough. You make it hard. Make it really hard. Yeah. You've got to make that really hard, then.
    44:36
    So, Jeff, when you're looking at the games, it's more how good is it for competition? Yeah, because that's essentially – since I don't have any in my house, I don't have pinballs. I can see where – I think there's a difference between people that don't own machines and that do in what they're looking from designers like Stern and Jersey Jack. The people that are going to buy a pinball machine, they want all these features and deep rules so that they can keep it for a long time and keep it in their collection and enjoy it.
    45:08
    Whereas a game comes out, if it's got rules that are easy for me to understand and don't go incredibly deep, I'm more – attracted to that kind of game because I'm not playing it 500 times in its lifetime. I think that's the difference between me and other people when they want more and more out of these companies. I'm just looking for fun. If I'm making shots that feel good, if I'm doing things that I feel like I'm accomplishing something
    45:42
    and it's just a fun game, then I love it. And almost every game's got some sort of aspect that is fun, except Viper. But most of them have got something in there, like, okay, this is a kind of cool shot. I like that, and I'm going to keep doing that. So that's the way I approach them. That's a good idea. That's a good way to look at it. I guess I would be a weird hybrid then, because I'll buy something like Dialed In, and then I'll set it up in a way that's hard with no extra balls,
    46:12
    and no, I'll never see any of the wizard modes, and I'm okay with that. which is kind of weird. But I don't need to see. I have Spider-Man Black, the original Spider-Man, since 2007. I've never seen Super Hero. I've seen it once, but it wasn't me. It was my buddy Steve. And when it came, I'm like, okay, I'm going to shoot this, and I grabbed my phone and got the whole thing. Wow, that was awesome. The first time I ever saw it was at the second Pin Mania,
    46:44
    one of the two in the garage. Oh, yep. Okay. That's just before I had met JR. Yep. And that was Trent. I've actually gotten to it twice, but I actually took video of Eric Russell beating it. So does that mean you never beat it, Bruce? Nope. Never beat it. For a minute. Nope. Bastard. Sorry, I just had to bring that up. Rub my face in it. Rub your face in it. Hey, at least you got to it. I did. I think I was
    47:15
    within one mode of it, and then that was it. So now we have a judge. We have a judge. Jury and executioner. Oh, pressure, pressure. Battle of the Games. Yes, so unfortunately it is 1978. It's 19, yep, we're just starting, we're just starting the solid state era. It's at its infancy. And we have Gottlieb and Williams battling it out. I get William, no I get Gottlieb
    47:45
    No don't, you heard him We already said on a previous episode I have Gottlieb, Bruce has Williams And the way this works Is we have our impartial judge And Viper's not one of the games So I know we're good on that We're going to pick three games Each of us will pick three games Pick three where we think the best games are And then we're going to go at it And we're going to try to explain How our game is better than our opponent's game? Yeah. The answer is it's a Gottlieb.
    48:16
    Oh, yeah. A sales pitch, if you will. You fail already. So, and what we'll do is whoever goes first has the advantage, but we flip-flop. Like, I go first one, then you go first, and it's like I have my bench of games, and I'm picking them to go into battle. Okay. So, how many did we do? Three. Okay. Okay, so, oh, God. So, well, Joker Poker. No, you don't tell me all of them.
    48:47
    You can start one at a time. So you've got to pick your first one. So, all right, I'll start then. Joker Poker. Oh, God. See, he already knows he's in trouble because Joker Poker is one of the best Gottlieb early solid state games. Do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do-do. Period. Yes. The sounds are state of the art for the time. Yeah. State of the art for the time. It's a card-based theme. You have tens, jacks, queens, kings, and aces all spread about the play field.
    49:22
    If you complete the banks, it increases your little bonus thing in the center of the play field. It's actually one of the few solid state games. They made an EM version, too, but mostly solid state games that I would advise putting on five ball just to get the full. because otherwise it's going to skip. It's just going to do tens, I think tens, queens, and aces. It doesn't have a spinner, but it has nice lanes. It's got a very unique play field layout. It's got a small little mini flipper in the upper play field.
    49:54
    It's got lanes in the upper right. It's got a nice little extra ball lane on the right side. And it's just a joy to shoot, an all-time Gottlieb classic. Definitely one of their best early solid state games. Bar none, no one will disagree. And it's frequently used in tournaments because that's how good it is. I yield the floor. Okay. So the first one I'm going to pick is probably, I'd say, probably better than that game.
    50:28
    And it's called Lucky 7. Okay. Yes, see? Lucky 7. You get a reel. You actually get a slot machine in this game. You can actually change your slot machine selections. You get better sounds than a Gottlieb. Anything's better than a Gottlieb sound. Anything. But I think this is actually, I think it's actually chimes on this one. I think this had the chimes, the Lucky 7, in the beginning. I think it's one of the three that they had for chimes.
    50:59
    So even better, you get the cool chimes. It has four chimes. And a buzzer. Yep, and you get better reliability also, which is also a good thing. Plus, you get a spinner, and everything's good with a spinner. Everything's even better with a spinner. You can change your real values with your slot machine shots and make your score. Overall, good artwork on the back glass. You get the dancing girl from Vegas. Who doesn't love Vegas?
    51:30
    Come on, Vegas rocks. I yield the floor to our judge. Okay, I'll say this. If you're going to go up against Joker Poker, you picked a good one to go up against it with. The reels are – that's pretty impressive. Of course, we saw it again later in Whodunit. But this, I kind of like – I like how you can change the reels to get your points. But Joker Poker, it's Joker Poker. It's a classic.
    52:01
    The shots are good. The drop targets are in great places. That upper flipper comes in handy to get all the aces. And I've played Joker poker, and I've never played Lucky 7. So with that said, I've got to go Joker poker on this one. In your defense, Bruce, it does have a cool little feature where it actually had tilt warnings. Yes, it did. And that's what it used the buzzer for. That must have been pretty jarring to the player. What the hell?
    52:32
    Whoa, did I tilt? And it was cheap. It was only $1,150. You're reading the same thing I'm reading. Yes, of course I am. I have to. They made 4,000 of them. They did. Sturm would love to make 4,000 of anything. I know. They would be doing backflips. Okay, so I get to pick number two, huh? Yeah. I'm getting to it. Hold on. I've got to pull out the next powerhouse. Phoenix. Barry Ousler. So right then and there.
    53:03
    Great, great designer for this game. His first game. What was it? His first game? Yep. Wow. You get the spinner on the right-hand side with two sets of drop targets. Actually, there's four sets of drop targets. You have two. You have a single, a single, and two four banks on each side. Cool artwork in the back with the big phoenix overseeing, you know, taking over everything. Three pop bumpers in the middle.
    53:33
    Multipliers 5X. It's used in tournaments a lot, too, so it is a challenging, hard game, and you have the upper left-hand side shot that will give you the extra ball. Long, thin rail shot. Who doesn't love spinners? Thousand spinner when it's lit. Cabin and art. Pink. Who doesn't love pink? God, I'm dying here. Yeah. Yep, you are. I am. That's all. That is some of the worst, the backlash with the Birdman thing.
    54:06
    Birdman rocks! Birdman. It's almost as bad as Algar. No, Algar rocks. And I did agree with you, Jeff. One of your top five, Algar fucking rocks. What? Algar? Seriously? Algar, you picked one of his top five in the wide bodies. Rocks. Oh, really? Oh, no. No. Did you at least pick Scorpion? Nope. No. Oh, damn. You've lost all credibility. I shouldn't be saying this to the judge. I'm ruining my ass.
    54:36
    What a great choice. Everyone knows Algar is awesome. Those great captive ball things on the right, everyone loves that. Keith Owen is lying when he says he doesn't like it. He secretly loves that game. It's his closet game. He has one at home. He doesn't want to admit it. All right, my turn. So to go against Phoenix, I will pick. And whether you'll like this over Phoenix depends on how much you like pain. But I think our judge likes pain.
    55:09
    I'm picking Sinbad, which they made $12,000 of. Wow. In the solid-state version. You definitely want the solid-state version. It has the better rule set. It has the rule set that they copied with Countdown and some of their other games, where in order to increase your bonus multiplier, you must hit targets in a certain order, which I thought was a very cool little feature. It's used in Countdown also. It has double flippers, two flippers on each side with nothing in between them,
    55:45
    so you can flipper bit yourself. There's literally no way to really trap the ball that much. you've got to hit everything on the fly so if you're like the super control player you're going to get eaten up by this game if you try to control the ball you've just got to be able to hit on the fly shots accurately which is completely against my playing style and that's why I like playing it because I feel it's it helps there it has the crappy Gottlieb plastic spinner
    56:17
    but you could probably replace that with a better one no you can't Don't listen to Bruce. You probably can. I've been told you can. Possibly by Bruce. So it's the rule set. I love the 2X, 3X, 4X, 5X advanced by hitting the targets in a specific order. I just love that feature. And you need to do that or your score is nothing. So you get cock-blocked. Very nice, Bruce. And they made a ton of them, so it must have been good.
    56:49
    Numbers don't matter. I remember hearing that from somebody last time. Numbers don't matter necessarily if a game's production is cut short for some reason. But if a game sells, what did I say, 12,000 units, they must have did pretty good with this game. I yield the floor. Well, I got to say, I do like the artwork on Phoenix. I don't know why. I honestly can't tell you that. But something about the fire and coming out.
    57:20
    I like it. It looks good to me. Busy. But that's really about it. So, you know, it's, again, it's Sinbad. It's classic. It's how can you... It's Gottlieb. Gottlieb was the winner in this era. I'm sorry. Gotta give it to Sinbad. Boo! I win! Even if there is a plastic spinner you can't replace. Yes, you cannot replace it. I win! Well, let's go for the third one.
    57:50
    We'll do the third one for pride. Well, come on. You knew this was going to happen. Oh, I knew it. Yeah, when we randomly picked the – yeah, we knew it. So third one for me. I'll even take it. I'll go right out in the back and jump right out. This is the game – Wait a minute. Shouldn't I pick one if we're switching back and forth? No, I'll just go right for it and go for the hanging right now. This is the epitome of not even have to flip to play this game. World Cup. Easiest game to play ever.
    58:22
    It's the 30-minute game at Pinberg or Papa. Very easy. Just put the game, play the game, get it into one of those kickers, and it'll go right in the hole and go back out and bounce around a little bit and go in the other kicker and go back up. You don't do anything. You can't screw this game up, and you get tons of points. I yield the floor. It's the worst game ever. all right all right i see where you're going i'm i'm i'm right there with you man my game i'm gonna select is close encounters of the third kind
    58:57
    oh boy you are scraping the barrel there this game is utter complete trash it's horrible i had to play this at a tournament at the fun spot when they used to have pinball tournaments and I must have played this thing I can't tell you how many times hitting the stupid rotary target thing in the back it's just the drain monster the artwork it's just it's bad
    59:27
    you figure it's supposed to be close encounters of the third kind it's going to be based off the movie right I guess I'm looking at the artwork it kind of looks like the dude who comes out of the ship but still terrible plastic spinner unlike the good plastic spinner on in bed. Terrible plastic spinner on this, which you can't replace. Just lazy, no art on the plastics up on the top of the play field. Plays like a dog. Just completely on fun. I yield the floor. So wait a minute. Am I judging on which is better or worse? Better. Well, that's a tough one.
    60:04
    Well, let's see. Let's start with Close Encounters. Yeah, the artwork is what puzzles me the most, because when you look on their flyer, they've got the poster there because, oh, who made Close Encounters? Columbia Pictures. Who owned Gottlieb? Columbia Pictures. Oh, what a coincidence. But it's like they didn't even pay any attention to their own movie in the whole – I mean, granted, back then you can't really get a theme in all that well, but it wasn't too much later that Bally got it right with Flash Gordon. So, you know.
    60:36
    And then – well, first of all, you know what? With World Cup, hey, they've got Kyle Rote Jr. endorsing this game on the flyer. Look at the smile on that guy. He's holding a soccer ball. He's loving this game. Hey, look, this is fun. Fucker. He's never played the game, I guarantee it. Of course he's never played the game. He's probably never played pinball at all. I've played both these games
    61:06
    and I've got to say if I'm going to pick one of them that I enjoy more, it's going to be World Cup but barely pulled one out, yes really? everyone hates World Cup people hate that game I like World Cup better than World Cup's better than Close Encounters look what you're comparing it to put it up against any other game Yeah, you'd knock it out of the park.
    61:37
    Look, you already won anyway. Exactly. You just didn't get the shutout. Sorry. And remember, we are not alone, as the game says. No, we are not alone. Okay, so are you ready for the next year? Oh, okay. So are we using like a randomizer or something like that? Yep. Do you want an impartial randomizer? I can get you a year. There you go. We'll have that. The host picks it for the next time. Yep. and then I'll look how many games are available. 74 through 2017.
    62:08
    74 through 2017. One moment, please. You got 1989. Oh, there you go. 1989 is Black Knight 2000. But you don't have Bally anymore. You have Data East, Williams, and Premiere. Yeah, and Premiere. Okay, so we got three. So now put the three choices in, if you can, please, Mr. Jeff. Data East, Williams, and Premier. I get to pick the first one.
    62:39
    All right. Premier. I will give that to Ron. Okay, so I get Gottlieb. Cool. Yep. And what do I get? What's the next one? It's either Williams or – Next one is Williams. It's going to be a good day. Oh, no. I'm going to get roasted like nuts here. All right, we've got to do a preview. What did he even make then? Okay, for Premiere, you have Big House. I just played that.
    63:10
    It wasn't that bad. Shots, lights, camera, action, and bone busters. No hoops? No hoops. Damn. He had a shot with hoops. He would have had a shot with hoops. Williams. Okay, so I got a plethora. Yeah, you got like Black Knight 2000, Earthshaker, Elvira. Atlantis, Bad Cats, Black Knight 2000, Earthshaker, Elvira, Mousing Around, Police Force, and Transporter, the rest of you.
    63:48
    Good luck, Ron. Yeah, good luck. You're going to have fun with this one. What are you talking about? I have full confidence. My games are innovative, great artwork, great rule sets I've got, Lieb. No crazy random mystery words or anything like that. It's going to be tremendous. Excellent. And the greatest flippers ever made because you can trap everything, and that's what we want. Look, he's already trying. I'm already psyching myself up. Yeah, how's that going for you?
    64:18
    It's going good. okay so uh let's go to would you or would you not buy that oh you have some you know me i do my magic i like to have these when we have a guest so we can laugh at ebay together we see if jeff would buy any of these Never This might be the thing that gets him to change his mind Hey you never know You never know. That's not a good deal. Okay. Ticket number 322-841-006-140.
    64:58
    Stargate. I think Sanctum has one of these, don't they? Yes, shoot the pyramid. Shoot the pyramid. We actually, Project Pinball, I was invited to donate one of these, go with them to donate one of these to Camp Sunshine here in Cascomaine. It's a retreat for kids with life-threatening illnesses. And as much as I don't like this game, the look on these kids' faces when they played it was just fantastic.
    65:29
    they they had never a lot of men never played pinball again at that point and they just absolutely loved it gave them some pointers on how to play and and they're gonna have the kids that go they're gonna have a great time with it so it's got a little bit of a special place in my heart because of that but for 710 bucks 710 bucks and you know that the kids probably loved it when the thingamabobby came out and moved around and i forgot kurt russell's on the game yes kurt how did i forget that i might have to change my opinion on him just because kurt Russell's on it.
    65:59
    Okay, now let's look at the game now, this one. He's got, like, arrows and stuff pointing. It says, da-da-da-da-da. Oh, he picked up a centaur, so he's selling his Stargate. Is this you, Bruce? No, it's not. I've had the game for about two years. It plays fast and it's a lot of fun. Uh-oh, I installed non-ghosting LEDs from Coin Taker, so the game looks sharp. Ooh. The play field has some where spots. W-A-R-E. This is an issue at Pinheads where they have issues spelling the word where.
    66:33
    They always spell it wrong. I don't know why. One by the ball drain and one in the far right corner. Oh, that's where his arrows were. Yes, he's showing you literally. That's nice. He's showing you right where the worst spots are. You've got to love that. New driver board. Replaced shorted coils and hacked out hole switch. It's like he knows what he's doing, but he still spelled where wrong. It's just funny. New rope light, new locks. LEDs, new glider, ship. Wow. Replaced all coil sleeves. And remember, folks, this is a Gottlieb, so you can get most of the parts for it from Pinball Resource.
    67:06
    New rubbers, stripped down play fill and put on three coats of wax. Too bad there's a lot more wear spots than his arrows show. Okay, like what? Each where it feeds the in lane, the ball drops down. Both of those have nice wear spots under each one of those. Okay, but this is $710. So far. Yeah, it's got 12 bids. That's true. Yeah, so far, and it's got five days left. Yeah, so it'll go for a lot more than that.
    67:37
    But still, folks, I wouldn't mind taking a look at it. It is in Virginia, and the seller has 100% positive feedback with 224 auctions. it is one of my girlfriend Michelle's favorite pinball so that might be a little incentive for me to want to buy one because then I could keep more later at some point someday so that's that one ready for the next one same seller ticket number 322
    68:09
    841 046 976 it starts out all right then i see project game and that scares me meteor pinball machine by stern project game no reserve has four bids it's up to 305 dollars let's see what it says up for sale is the stern meteor pinball machine
    68:41
    he's had it for a while and has done a lot to work on it it needs a little more to finish it but i I've run out of gas. Currently, the game will not boot. I put in all tech board for testing, and it would boot, but there are still other issues with the game. Let's see. The good has spent a lot of time in the game, installed many new parts. There is a wear spot because of flipper dragging on the play field. Now he spelled wear right this time. Yeah. The issues are the MPU won't boot. The MPU will just play strobe, and it starts adding points as soon as the game starts.
    69:13
    stuck switch, the game will reset when the slam switch is closed. As I said, you'll need to do some work to get it 100%. Okay. Unfortunately, you just replaced the meteor drop targets. Oh. That's a bad thing. Well, uh, let's see. Cabinets got typical. Well, the one side's worse than the other. Yes, it is. Playfield. Inserts are worn. That's typical. So... $305.
    69:44
    The 1-2-3 targets look like the originals. Yep, they do. So... All right. See, if it stays at $300, sure. Yeah, or even under $450, I would go with. Okay. I would definitely buy it. Not me, because I have no idea how to fix a pinball machine. We need to teach you. No, we secretly don't know either. We poke forks at ours, and hopefully for shorts. On the stream, that's not actually my game room. It's someone else I know. It's a whole facade I put on.
    70:14
    Yep. All right, so we would buy that up to a point. Yes. Ready for the next one. Mm-hmm. 302-480-042710. Birdman? I've never even heard of this. It's a Sonic. JT used to own one of these. Yes, he did. I think he sold it. This is at Papa. Yes, it's actually JT's.
    70:45
    It's JT's. He sold it to Papa. So if you ever play the Birdman there, say thanks, JT. It's a very rare pinball machine, all capitals, too. I love that. Another one like this one is in a museum. It's named the Birdman. Works great there. Oh, there. I think he means in the museum. I don't know what that has to do with this one he's selling. Am I reading this wrong? It's in a museum. It's named the Birdman. Works great there. Well, does it work great at your house?
    71:16
    Where in this pinball machine you don't want to miss out on? Yeah. Turn your caps lock off. Yes. Let's see. Birdman. EM. Yep. EM Sonic. and it uses all Williams parts. Yes, so you have reliability there. Yeah, you don't have to worry about, oh, it's from Spain. It's going to use some weird stuff. I'm never going to be able to fix it. See, the Sonic games, they use early clear coating on their play fields so they don't wear.
    71:49
    Yep. So whenever you see one of these Sonics, the play fields look immaculate. So why hasn't anybody ever taken a cue from that? You would think that they would. Well, number one, it was expensive. And number two, I believe the clear coating stuff they use in there was extremely toxic. Yes, it was very toxic. It probably was not safe. Your pinball machine will kill you. Well, no, it probably killed the factory workers who applied the clear coating. They probably got cancer years later. Yeah. Not for $2,000. The guy's on crack. Yes, he is. And this is his lowest price, he says.
    72:21
    His lowest price, yeah, and he has 92.9% positive feedback with only 12 items. Yeah, that's not good either. It's not good at all. We would not buy that, folks. No. So looking back at some of our last week's winners, we've found the Lethal Weapon 3. That sold for $1,351. Hmm. The Jokers, $980. There you go. Jokers.
    72:51
    F-14 Tomcat, the one in Buffalo, sold for $1,525 but didn't sell because they relisted it. And they relisted it again. Wait a minute. How did it sell but they relisted it? I guess they canceled it and then they relisted it and relisted it. And now I can't find it anymore. It kind of like went off the beaten path. I can't. It was purchased. It went to New England where they cut the back box up and used it for trophies for Pintoberfest.
    73:24
    Stupid New Englanders. See, we've taken it full circle. Yep. And the F-14. Crash Talker's over. Knock it off, huh? And the F-14 was relisted and then canceled. So I don't know what happened to the one that was out by an hour from your house in Doglesville. You've got to love upstate New York. You've got to love some of the names. Yes. We've got some funny names here. So, that's all for my Would I or Wouldn't I Buy That.
    73:55
    We have too many winners except for $2,000 Birdman. Uh-oh, it's the yawn. It is the yawn. That means the home stretch. It is the home stretch. So, let's do the mail. It's quick. We don't have much mail here. And we'll probably get a flood of mail on Monday because they'll think that's when we're recording. I said it last. Did you? If they watch the stream today. If they watch the stream. You watched the stream. Okay, so that's going to – if you didn't watch the stream, you wouldn't have known that. You're fucked. Yeah. Scott Charles, guess what?
    74:26
    He says, Ron, you all lost when you played Star Wars. He does not like Star Wars at all. Our own Zach, though, he does like Star Wars. He loves Star Wars. I'm a big Star Wars nut, too. So don't get me wrong. I'm right with Jeff here. I love Star Wars. I think it's a great theme. but oh god that game is just killing me okay okay calm down it's okay no no no i want i want jeff to convince me why it's a great game zach can't even do it uh zach cannot do it today
    74:59
    the the thing that i like most about it is i like the horseshoe around the death star there i like that shot i like the shots around the ramps i really probably the thing i like the most it It seems crazy, but I like the whole TIE Fighter thing. Normally I don't like taking my hand off the flippers, but I like that challenge of destroying the TIE Fighters. And I think it looks great. I think the screen on the play field is really helpful, and they did a good job, I think, with what they're showing on the display as well.
    75:32
    Do you have a pro that you play, or do you play a premium LE? Pro. That's why. Yeah. Play an LE or a premium, and you'll change your tone. I actually like the Pro better. Okay. Why do you like the Pro better? Because it doesn't have that stupid upramp for the freaking Death Star that you can't even make. Like, the upramp for Pirates of the Caribbean, people were making. The one for Star Wars being so tight and, oh, it's terrible. Probably my biggest disappointment is they didn't do much with the Death Star.
    76:04
    Yes. That should have been a toy that should have done something, I think. But other than that. You don't like an egg? Come on, the egg's great. This should have had magnets somewhere. Yes. It's the force. Like somebody stops the ball and does something with it, like Dracula or something. Yes, that would have been great. You have the force. Moving the ball across, yes. Whatever. Scott Charles with another email. You don't need the resistor just to adjust the end of stroke to open a lot earlier to cut the power down.
    76:35
    I think he's talking about Sea Witch. Yes, on my Sea Witch, yes. We have an email from Sean O'Shea. Hi, Sean. So I like the new year battle segment, but I agree with Ron that you should only do it when you have a guest to judge the winner. We agree. Yes, and we've done that. So, see, we listen to you, Sean. We also suggest calling it the Battle of the Brands. It's face-off. Oh, that's right. It was face-off. I am, I am, what was I again? I'm Nicholas Cage. Yes. That's right.
    77:05
    I'm John DeVolta. And the question, Ron, has there been any progress in the Firepower alternate code that was giving you guys some buggy trouble at the Stomp Tournament? Inquiring minds want to know. Well, I got new code from Scott, like, months ago, and every time I play Firepower, I play a four-player game to try to get it to lock up, and it has yet to lock up. So hopefully that problem was corrected. And that's the end of the mail.
    77:37
    That was easy. Yep. Mail ball bag was spent fast. Yes, it was. Got to pay some bills? And thank Jeff. Oh, well, first we're going to pay some bills. Then we'll give the big thanks to Jeff. Okay. Yep. Thank you, host. To see you finally listening to me. Yep. Never does, does he, Jeff? Never does. www.pinballlifter.com. Come check us out. We sell lifters, tilters, helpers, wheel kits for moving your machine with ease. Use your brain, not your back.
    78:10
    Second one is I got yelled at by my wife this weekend because I'm telling people to go to the website of the Silver Ball Saloon and just go to our Facebook page. It's a lot easier. We update a lot more stuff on that, so you can go to our Facebook page, the Silver Ball Saloon. Like us. Check us out. Follow the status. I'm going to be posting a picture in a few minutes of the new Galaga. If you do want to go to the website, it's thesilverballsaloon.com. Don't forget, thank Carl D'Angelo.
    78:41
    If you want your match play cards, grab them, buy them before they get sold out. We had a link on our page a couple weeks ago. I'll post again today or tomorrow to purchase those. Definitely want to play. Have you played a match play, Jeff? Not the critical hit I have. I've got a deck. I haven't used it yet, though. trying to get some people together that want to try it, but it looks fun. It's really fun. It seems like it caters more to novice players than it does to the actual players.
    79:12
    It's just pure, simple fun. It's great. So definitely want to buy it for Carl. Help out a fellow pinball player. Hopefully we'll get him on the next month. We were talking about November, free for him, so we will have him on. Hopefully in a couple of weeks we'll have Oren Day on also. So two great interviews coming up soon. Two people we would like to plug is Pinball Star. He sells – God, that sounded so raw. It does, but it's so right. Oh, my.
    79:42
    Oh, my. He sells Spooky. He sells Chicago Gaming. He sells Jersey Jack. And American Pinball. Which Houdini, I think, next month they're talking. We'll see. what were your thoughts on Houdini Jeff haven't seen much of it the artwork looks really nice but don't really know much about the play of it looks like a nice machine and then also
    80:13
    Flipper Fidelity Mike Pupo good friend of the show sold us both games sells Stern games sells Stern factory authorized mods and he also sells Flipper Fidelity sound system kits the best sound system kit for your pinball machine Check those guys out. Tell them we sent you. We make no money off them. We just like giving them the plug. Moving on. Thanks to all our fellow podcast brethren. There's getting to be too many of them to mention every single podcast, honestly.
    80:46
    Just check them all out between the Pinball Profile, This Flippin' Podcast, the Pinball Players Podcast. Head to Head. Head to Head Podcast. See, so then I go and mention them all anyway. But there's a lot of them out there. Coast to coast. The granddaddy of them all. Check them all out. They're all great. Bro, do you even talk pinball? See, I missed another one. See? That's why I don't even want to mention it, because I'm going to miss someone and piss someone off.
    81:17
    Yeah, you will. See, it's the least cutest time that they get pissed off. And our Slam crew. Yes. Tim Sexton, Tim Balls. Check out his Twitch feed. Steve Bowden and the Fun With Bonus site. Check them all out. We are the Slam Tilt Podcast. We can be found on Facebook. Just search for Slam Tilt Podcast and Twitch. We have the Dragon Fist stream is up there. You can also go to Tim Balls, and you will see the first part of the stream on Dialed In.
    81:50
    We're also on YouTube. I already have the Dragon Fist stream archived. It's on YouTube right now. I also posted a video explaining the issues with the dialed-in trap door that I keep mentioning every week. Questions, comments, hate mail for Bruce can all be sent to slamtillpodcasts at gmail.com. That's slamtillpodcasts at gmail.com. I'd like to thank Jeff Parsons for joining us this evening. Thank you again, Jeff. Thanks for having me. I am a big fan of your podcast.
    82:22
    Love it. Listen to it every week. Cannot wait for your next one coming out. Thank you. It's a lot of fun. And as we say, is there anything you would like to plug, Jeff? Just my podcast, Pinball Players Podcast. You can look for it on Facebook. And the typical places you download podcasts, iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher, and all that stuff, you can't miss it. And don't forget, in two weeks, good luck. Yeah, hopefully you're going to make it, Bruce. I hope so. We shall see. I'm crossing fingers.
    82:54
    Dot and I's, there'll be a lot of good players there, though. But now we're down to the nitty-gritty. I got eight more people to leapfrog. You know the one will be playing, right? I know. I cannot wait. Now, I had a funny thing. Next week, I'm going to actually do a fun little – I have to get permission from one person to make sure they don't get mad. But I'm going to make a pinball matrix list. Who represents who in the matrix? Oh, nice. Oh, God.
    83:25
    Who's the Oracle? I don't know yet, but I know who the Architect is. I only saw the first movie. I don't remember the Architect. You needed to see the other two then. No, the other two sucked. Why would I want to see them? No, two's pretty good. Three sucks, but two's pretty good. Okay, Jeff, did you see any of the Matrix movies? I saw all three of them. Yeah, but I'd have to go with what Bruce said. The second one was like, eh. The third one was just, what am I doing now? Yeah. but the first one was good can we all agree on the first one was excellent okay yes yes so we
    83:56
    are the slam till podcast thanks this has been episode 66 son of the pig panther please do now we have a we have a question now before this we have a question before this before what the thing i just did yes because now do we actually go with the next two with steve martin or do we go to another group of movies. Ah. A dilemma here. Wait, there were two Steve Martin ones? Yes. No, I'm not.
    84:28
    Wait a minute. There was two? Two. Two of them. Yes. Oh, okay. Or do we just go right to a new subject? We're going to go right to a new subject. We'll have to go back to the old one episodes before we started this and find out which one we said would be the next one. Or do we do Rocky? I like Rocky. I was just going to say that. See? That was one of the ones that came up. Yep, we do Rocky. Okay, we're going to do Rocky because I have actually seen most of those. Yay! And Rocky's got a pinball, so there you go.
    84:58
    That's true. Ties all in. So thanks, Jeff. Thank you, Jeff, again. Please, if you want to come on any time, you're more than welcome. Appreciate it. You guys are a lot of fun. We try to be. This has been the Slam Tilt Podcast. Say goodbye, Bruce. Goodbye, Evan Bingham. Oh my, my, can you boogie? Can you slide? Oh my, my, oh my, my You can boogie if you try
    85:30
    Oh my, my, oh my, my Guaranteed to keep you alive Oh my
    86:07
    Thank you.