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Episode 75-Part 1_GSPF Preview with Practical Steve

The Spinner Is Lit Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·47m 8s·analyzed·May 6, 2025
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.031

TL;DR

GSPF 2024 preview: May 16-18 Lodi event with hundreds of machines, tournaments, charity focus, and vibrant community culture.

Summary

Practical Steve Frissel from the Northern California Pinball Association discusses the upcoming Golden State Pinball Festival (May 16-18, 2024) in Lodi, CA. The event features hundreds of playable machines, tournaments (women's, main, kids), Pinball University classes, raffles (James Bond 007 (Pro) and Swords of Fury), silent auction, vendor sales, and benefits three charities. Steve emphasizes the volunteer-driven, non-profit nature of the show and describes its evolution from a casual gathering into a layered community event with hidden experiences like midnight tournaments and campsite arcades.

Key Claims

  • Golden State Pinball Festival takes place May 16-18, 2024, always the weekend after Mother's Day, in Lodi, California

    high confidence · Practical Steve Frissel (GSPF organizer) stating dates and location

  • The show has upwards of hundreds of pinball machines that are collector-curated, with distributors and the Pinball Museum providing machines

    high confidence · Steve describing show machine sourcing and scale

  • Admission pricing: $60 for full weekend, $45 for Sat-Sun, $30 for Saturday, $20 for Friday; half price for kids under 13

    high confidence · Steve providing official pricing structure

  • Volunteers get free/discounted admission: 1 shift = 1 day free, 2 shifts = weekend free, bring 1 machine = half price, bring 2 = free weekend

    high confidence · Steve detailing volunteer incentives

  • The show benefits three charities: World of Wonders (primary), Pacific Pinball Museum, and Galt Aces (Special Olympics chapter)

    high confidence · Steve explaining charitable giving structure

  • The Steve Charlin Spirit Award is given annually to honor a community member; Dave Volansky is receiving it this year for EM repair work

    high confidence · Steve introducing the award tradition and 2024 recipient

  • King Kong and other new games will be available at the show; Harry Potter unlikely to be present yet

    medium confidence · Steve discussing available machines, expressing uncertainty about Harry Potter

  • Raffle prizes are James Bond 007 (Pro) and Swords of Fury machines

    high confidence · Steve announcing raffle games

  • The show organizes machines into two rooms: old school (EMs and numeric-era games) and modern (alphanumeric and newer)

    high confidence · Steve explaining room separation structure

Notable Quotes

  • “It's a big family reunion.”

    Practical Steve Frissel @ ~13:30 — Captures the core community identity of GSPF beyond the machines themselves

  • “There's a machine out there last year that shot fireballs 30 feet in the air... I can't tell you that. For liability reasons.”

    Practical Steve Frissel @ ~18:45 — Illustrates the hidden layers and unspoken attractions of the show for deeply invested participants

  • “The more you invest in the show, that's when all these layers and secrets reveal themselves to you.”

    Practical Steve Frissel @ ~20:00 — Describes the tiered experience structure where commitment unlocks deeper community participation

  • “We don't need to grow. Like, that's another thing we've always talked about... do we need to grow or are we good? And a lot of the general consensus is it works. This is fine. We're not going to try and fix something that ain't broke.”

    Practical Steve Frissel @ ~28:45 — Reveals deliberate non-growth philosophy, prioritizing quality and community culture over expansion

  • “No one's making money off this show. It is just to pay for the next one and to donate to charity.”

    Practical Steve Frissel @ ~27:50 — Establishes the non-profit, volunteer-driven mission and financial model

  • “If you put in a lot, you'll get back a lot. But even if you can't do that, just come and have fun.”

    Practical Steve Frissel @ ~52:30 — Summarizes the inclusive philosophy accommodating both deep participants and casual attendees

  • “Sparky started having barbecues. And if you didn't just know, you knew and you went and that was the thing.”

    Practical Steve Frissel @ ~21:15 — Details the organic emergence of Sparky's SPG Barbecue tradition as example of grassroots culture

  • “There's just something primal and amusing about whipping a ball around with flippers and hitting targets and watching it do things.”

Entities

Golden State Pinball FestivaleventPractical Steve FrisselpersonNorthern California Pinball AssociationorganizationPacific Pinball MuseumorganizationWorld of WondersorganizationGalt AcesorganizationPinball MuseumorganizationSteve CharlinpersonDave Volanskyperson

Signals

  • ?

    event_signal: Golden State Pinball Festival 2024 (May 16-18) preview with event organizer detailing logistics, charitable mission, machine lineup, and community culture

    high · Detailed discussion of dates, pricing, machine curation, volunteer structure, and multiple charitable partnerships

  • ?

    community_signal: Organic emergence of hidden/exclusive community experiences at GSPF (midnight tournaments, campsite arcades, Sparky's barbecue) emerging from volunteer investment and commitment

    high · Steve's description of how deeper participation unlocks access to unannounced events and campground installations that develop organically year-over-year

  • ?

    product_strategy: Event organizers deliberately maintaining event size/scale rather than pursuing growth; prioritizing quality and community culture over expansion

    high · Steve stating: 'do we need to grow or are we good? And a lot of the general consensus is it works... We're not going to try and fix something that ain't broke'

  • ?

    business_signal: GSPF operating on non-profit, volunteer-driven model with financial goal of self-sustenance and charity giving rather than profit extraction

    high · Steve: 'No one's making money off this show. It is just to pay for the next one and to donate to charity'

  • $

    market_signal: GSPF maintains aggressive volunteer incentive structure and family-friendly pricing ($20-60 admission) while keeping prices stable year-over-year

    high · Detailed pricing tiers, aggressive volunteer compensation (free/discounted admission for shifts or machine donations), no price increase announced for 2024

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.141

0:00
Welcome to the Spinner's Look Pinball Podcast, episode 40...45? Episode 75. Oops. We're going to talk about the Golden State Pinball Festival. It's coming up real, real soon. And with us tonight is Practical Steve Frissel from the Golden State Pinball Festival and the wonderful folks that put that on the Northern California Pinball Association. Steve, welcome back to the show. It's been a while. It has. I can't even imagine what episode number I was on before if we're on episode 75 now. That's right. We've been trucking along. Congratulations on your diamond I'm very proud to be here for this. I'm not even sure that's the right number. A lot of those episodes are really bad too. Well, I googled it and 75 episodes is the diamond anniversary. Gentlemen, you are all gems. Diamond anniversary, all right. Well, there you go. Dang, does that mean you owe us jewelry, Spencer? This is awesome. Apparently I do. Apparently I do now. I guess I got to go shopping. So we're just- We're days away. Steve, you are kind of the public relations guy for the Northern California Pinball Association, is that correct? Sure, I basically took over their Facebook and Instagram a number of years back, maybe like 10 years ago at this point, because when I went on them, I saw that they had only like one post on Facebook and zero posts on Instagram. And I was like, guys, I could probably do better than that. So I've been running it for about maybe 10 years now since before it was even the Golden State Pinball Festival. And you're super good at it, too. Thanks. Stan Ton Alzker to Tru recording the video on the towel Tom
2:30
Diffic selviesweregrato Try some pinball C So what are we looking at this year? What's going on with the show? Get us started. Well, if anyone's unfamiliar, the Golden State Pinball Festival takes place May 16th through the 18th this year. It's always the weekend after Mother's Day every year. It's in Lodi, California. And it's three days of all the pinball you can play with paid admission. So we usually have upwards of hundreds of pinball machines there that are collector curated. We have some distributors there that sell machines too so machines get there that way and like the Pinball Museum provides a lot of machines to showcase the history of pinball and once people pay money to get in they can play all the pinball they want and we have raffles raffling off to pinball machines this year we have a silent auction where we're actually going to be auctioning off a pinball machine this year we just were told today that someone C Bar),, gas pump Rob graciously donated an EM machine for us to put in an auction, so we have that. And Pinball University is back. We have two full days of pinball learning you could partake in. There's tournaments all weekend. There's a women's tournament, a main tournament, a kids tournament and vendors and it's going to be a lot of fun. You gentlemen have all John Papadiuk, Black Water, person's name or role at Stern Pinball), or So a very popular kind of a pinball. And that's where all the money is. And that's why we're doing it today. It's called the World of Wonders. World of Wonders, yes. The Science Museum, is that correct? Is that where it's going? It's been three charities now. It's historically been two, but we have typically, the World of Wonders is our main beneficiary who we, you know, usually advertise and talk about the most. But we also give a portion of the proceeds to the show to the Pacific Pinball Museum in Alameda because they do a lot for our show and because they are a non-profit as well the history of pinball and then last year for the first time we gave to the galt aces which is a local chapter of the Special Olympics we we had a really successful show last year so we were able to give back even more and yeah it's really amazing because it's volunteer run and it's a non-profit like we don't have to worry about making a ton of money we have to make enough money to put on the show next year and donate some and that's it we don't have to Jacey in ceramicath, Eliyor in gogg ivory counsel, gli di Pesleiro, Gari TJ hem, C Bar�이크업, RP fingersada sped rebuilttechnoata4scus 014 și leenk Bij Enemy crochets, Basically single run as Mutter part of the We Sophie people that the same And the All of it or especially D R activist before t he to ur x a big A good a very k We mon S a o d be o s c w d ad out a e n b o k t y ur E e n Well, all you guys are, because you all volunteer too, and it is super vibey. It's amazing. The people that put in the effort to make the show amazing, yeah, there's such a vibe with them. You have people like Monterey Flipper Pinball that comes up and not only brings a ton of games, but this year they're doing workshops with kids for learning how to play pinball, and they help tear down and break up, and break down and break Of all time seniors and J.F. It's not just about playing games of pinball the whole weekend, but otherwise I'm working in and you know, talking and you know, hugging and you know, seeing people I haven't seen for a year, it's like, it's, you know, more, it's more about seeing all my friends and they just happen to be at a pinball show that I'm helping to put on with all of them. So. J.F. It's a big family reunion. Karl DeFELIPEa Nunez, Yes. J.F. That's what it is, it's a big family reunion. It's wonderful. And I got introduced with a lot of my friends because of these shows. Obviously before GSPF came out, I would, of course, Golden State Pinball is a great thing. Adam Levine größureskov *** Karl Defangelo, Pinball fırt time of our lives. Yeah. And it could be a, I couldn't agree more. And it's, it could be a lot of different things for a lot of people because there's definitely like, you know, families that come for the day and you know, they heard about us on the news or saw an advertisement on Facebook and they, for them, there's no pinball community, but they come and they come in and they're like, wow, this is really fun. And they hang out with their kids for a few hours. And for them, that's the show. And there's people that come just to play in the tournaments and like they're in the Kevin Knopf, Pinballивет prominent out of JB 과ходer University Lincoln ya know chat-up

  • Volunteer shifts are approximately four hours long

    medium confidence · Steve answering question about shift duration with some uncertainty ('I'm pretty sure')

    • Host/Spencer @ ~44:00 — Articulates universal appeal of pinball mechanics to new/young players

    Adam Preslerperson
    Monterey Flipper Pinballorganization
    Sparky's SPG Barbecueevent
    Pinball Pirateorganization
    Donna Hileyperson
    [name withheld pending review]person
    [name withheld pending review]event
    Lodi Grape Festival Fairgroundsvenue
    King Konggame
    James Bond 007 (Pro)game
    Swords of Furygame
    Ninja Eclipsegame
    Spanish Eyesgame
  • ?

    venue_signal: Major regional pinball festival maintaining consistent attendance and machine curation; established annual tradition with multi-day volunteer/community participation structure

    high · GSPF running annually at established venue with 'hundreds of pinball machines,' multiple tournament formats, and established traditions like Sparky's barbecue and Steve Charlin award

  • ?

    community_signal: GSPF positioning itself as family-friendly entry point to pinball for younger generations; intentional programming (kids' tournaments, workshops) to introduce youth to hobby

    high · Discussion of kids' workshops by Monterey Flipper Pinball, children tournaments, speaker describing kids' intuitive understanding of flipper mechanics, family admission discounts

  • ?

    event_signal: GSPF 2024 will feature recent releases (King Kong) and curated mix of EM and solid-state machines; machine separation by era (old school vs. modern rooms)

    high · Steve confirming King Kong availability, expressing uncertainty on Harry Potter, detailing room organization by machine type/era

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Annual Steve Charlin Spirit Award honoring community technical contributions; 2024 recipient is Dave Volansky for EM repair expertise and volunteer labor

    high · Steve introducing award tradition initiated after Steve Charlin's death, naming Dave Volansky as 2024 recipient for EM work

  • ?

    operational_signal: GSPF managing volunteer shifts (~4 hours each) across setup/breakdown and weekend operations; challenging to fill Saturday night slots due to competing social activities

    high · Steve detailing shift structure, noting Saturday night is 'hardest spots to fill because nobody's like, I'm going to be having fun partying at that point'

  • $

    market_signal: GSPF functions as secondary market venue where collectors sell machines (sometimes with negotiation on final day); vendors offer new game discounts

    high · Discussion of Sunday afternoon price negotiations, anecdote about truck stop game selling for reduced price, mention of Pinball Pirate and Donna Hiley selling new games at discount

  • ?

    community_signal: Northern California shows advantage in accessing esoteric/rare machines from local arcade collector community; unique/limited machines regularly featured

    high · Steve: 'One of the advantages of being like a California show is that we actually have like a lot of arcade collectors who have some just really esoteric stuff... Johnny Pneumonic, Special Force, Bounty Hunter, Mystic, Genesis, Punchy the Clown'

    • 8:52
    into town You know technique with body there Logic atверdey at keep gonna dive into me and my Connecticut the more it's you get yuz 카� track mala 2006 væ idiot psalto John Papadiuk, Black Water, person's name or role at Stern Pinball),as in backbox that is backlit during playelectronic Raza),a reference, Johnny Pneumonic or playfield artist Johnny Pneumonic or playfieldist You know, we don't have pinball machines out there. It's like, no, there's a whole party out there. That is its own thing. But until you become more and more entrenched in the show and buy more into it, that all these layers and secrets reveal themselves to you, like secret midnight tournaments, things that are going on, things that the show can't and doesn't advertise. We definitely say, hey, signups for Camp Silverball are coming. Sign up if you want. I don't tell you that there's a machine out there last year that shot fireballs 30 feet in the air. Like, I can't tell you that. You know, I can't, I'm not going to advertise that. For liability reasons. You don't know what you're talking about. You know, like, I... What had happened? You know, there was a, you know, there was a campsite with two Metallica machines hooked up to each other where you would tilt the other person's game. Like, this was a unique thing you don't see everywhere. What kind of maniacs would do that? Maniacs. Beautiful. Beautiful maniacs. And like, but you know, there's, that's, those are the kinds of things you don't find out, like you can't just, if you just go to the show as like a, a family or just like, you know, a person for a few hours, like you're not going to find out about that stuff. But the people that are like, I am there from Thursday night till Sunday when you close and I'm going to volunteer and I'm going to bring games and I'm going to do this. Like, and I feel like the last few years, like, you know, there's always been aspects of that, like, you know, You know, Spencer will remember and Dan will remember, like, you know, Sparky's Barbecue.
    11:08
    Yeah, you know, a few years back. That's back when camping was just people camping. You could always bust out, have a beer with somebody, you know, at a campsite. But like Sparky, this takes it to an entirely different level. Sparky started having barbecues. And if you didn't just, you know, it wasn't for everybody. But if you knew, you knew and you went and you and that was the thing. J And that was kind of like the beginning of it And then one year someone notices there a plug and this is back in the Dixit days Oh there a plug at the bottom of that lamp post So at the end of the show I going to sneak my game out the door and plug it into that lamp post And then suddenly everyone like oh there someone playing pinball at midnight in the courtyard And then the next year is like well I could do that at my campsite And now you have like full on arcades out of camp And you know that organically happened over the years But again like that like you only get to be a part of that world the more you invest in the show is what I kind of like saying So on a lot of The pinball show is a great show. The show is amazing. As you know, the families that come with their kids, they don't need that part of the show, what do they want that part of the show for? They're not going to take their kids out to the campgrounds. So it's so many different things for so many different people that I think it's really been an amazing thing to see it grow and I'm really glad we've got pinball university back this year. It was back last year, but we've started having that back again, so the people that really Sorry Razaontec
    13:08
    Karl Defangelo, Pinballinstitute, The first thing that we initiated a few years back was after our dear friend Steve Charlin passed away, to honor his memory, is going forward every year there would be a Steve Charlin Spirit Award. And if you didn't know Steve Charlin, he was a big online presence that would help people fix their games. He helped fix my games. He was legendary in the Gottlieb System 80 group because those games are tough as shit to work on, but he knew how to work on them. The So every year we you know With Spencer pick someone to receive the you know Spirit Award for the year last year. It was Adam
    13:48
    Presler said I press his last name as far as I know close enough Who does all of them press learn who does press learn? Thank you. He does all of us I think there's a Z like a press is a Z in there. I don't know I'm gonna hug him at least 17 times when I see him on Thursday, so I will I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to get that right. I'm going to have to ask him then how to pronounce his last name. But he does all of our electrical work, so he earned it last year. This year it's going to be, we're giving it to Dave Volansky, who does a lot of work with our EMs. He always comes up every year and he's in that EM room fixing EMs all weekend. I've seen him fixing EM in literally minutes. He's a very smart man and does a lot of fixing at lots of locations. zier Evet Mihin, Karl Demath硔″ insufficiently called tilt también Musik sambh"? Az jedoch ve J.R.: Get in a limited edition poster. If you volunteer for three shifts, you get a fun prize pack. But regardless, you asked me what it costs to get in. If you work one shift, you get in one day free. If you work two shifts, you can get in for the weekend for free. If you bring one pinball machine, you get in for half price for the weekend pass. If you bring two, it's a free weekend pass. Plus, there's lots more perks if you look on our website. The pinball show is $60. A two-day pass for Saturday and Sunday is $45. One day Saturday is $30 and one day Friday is $20. And all of those are half price for children 13 and under. That's awesome. That is a really, really good deal compared to a lot of other pinball shows. You're not breaking the bank, which is great. We have really tried to keep it family friendly and I believe Active Military might also get half off. Don't quote me on that. I think they do. We really do, like we've said, like you know, I think we raised the price a little bit last year. I don't think we raised it this year. And you know, honestly, like, again, no one's making money off this show. Like, it is just to pay for the next one and to donate to charity. So, you know, we don't need to grow. Like, that's another thing we've always, we've talked about the last few years, like, you know, do we need to grow or are we good? And a lot of the general consensus is it works. This is fine. We're not going to try and fix something that ain't broke. We've been getting a great amount of machines. We've been getting good vendors, and it's been working well. We don't need to raise prices. We don't need to try and add more things to get more people in the door. We have enough people coming through the door. It's good. It's also great is you have ... A lot of people don't realize it, but they always Steven www.min 철과 업소을 찍는 김 정면의ppeden depart seriousness may Ultimately the game there of 151923 Yeah, it looks really sweet. When you put, when you show me that picture with all together, oh man, it is a beautiful, beautiful. That's not even all together. That was just the module dropped in. Wait till you see the whole thing. Really? It's gonna be, yeah, that's not even the extended. Oh, cool. So he, oh, that wasn't even the extended? No, that was just the basic install. All the weird Al and final resistance stuff is still on there, but they, uh, yeah, I got to trick that whole machine out. So it's, uh, there's a lot of parts We're going to have all the new stuff. We're going to have King Kong. Yes. King Kong. We're going to have all the hot new games. You know, I don't think we'll have Harry Potter yet. I don't think there's much to know about that. Yeah. I would, yeah. Again, there's flea markets, there's con or there's drawings and contests. I mean, it's totally worth your money. And if you do want to volunteer or bring games, we have tremendous, tremendous incentives for you. So if anyone, you know, I'm sure everybody who's listening to this, right? They know what they're getting into. I would be shocked if anyone that's listening to this doesn't know about or hasn't come to our show. We're up to 15 consistent listeners. But no, if you do know somebody birma radalom опасana, So I like that tall. You can't miss him. I like that tall. If they're looking up, then I can see. He's as tall as Jack Danger. Then I can see me. And the show art this year is really amazing too. Johnny Crapt did our show art. It's like a punk, kind of like a punk Universal Monsters theme. It's really great. Ooh, cool. It's really good. Yeah, we're raffling off two pinball machines this year. It's a James Bond Pro and a Swords of Fury. And I mean, I'm not allowed to enter the pin raffle, I would be entering it like crazy and I would pick the Swords of Fury because I love Swords of Fury. Cool. And I think that's a pretty sick game to win in a raffle. I do love Swords of Fury but I don't know if I'd take it over a James Bond problem. I don't know, man. But I mean, that game's got some bumpin' System Eleven tunes. Oh, it's amazing. It's so good. So good. And I love the fact that the music changes as you lock the balls and that like, found power three groove. Ah. So good. I like S.O.R.S. of Fury so bad now. S.O.R.S. of Fury remake. They should do that. That would be great. That would be a great one to add new code to it. S.O.R.S. of Fury 2. Yeah. That would be awesome. Electric Boogaloo. S.O.R.S. of Fury 2, Lion Man. You know they'd have to go hard on Lion Man stuff. Oh yeah, Lion Man, yeah. S.O.R.S. of Fury 2, Lion Man's revenge. It's funny you mention that because Rusty loves S.O.R.S. of Fury. So do I. We both do. sebagai abdominal specialization
    21:24
    By Marie Kay Razz Jeffrey Clark Dan Cato alias Rруг semana K Carlin Tyne M Yeah, we got a Bond owner here. He's like, Swords of Fury over Bond, you guys are high. Maybe. I can't, I could have if I wanted a Swords of Fury. Not right now. Maybe. No, but you know, the other thing that's really, really cool too is there will be games there, like if you're looking to start a collection or if you're looking to get into pinball, there will be games there for sale. Sometimes. Oh, yeah, good point. Yeah, you show up at the right time and you can get some really good deals. So, yeah, I mean, there's definitely pinball pirate if you're looking for like a case, you know, I'll keep hiding the show like your 10 listeners haven't don't know all this show already, but you know, pinball pirate will have gate like floor models for sale. So you can like, you know, it's not a huge discount, but it's a discount. It's like you don't pay the tax basically. So, you know, if you want a new Stern pro or premium these got there, you know, you can get a good deal on it. Donna Hiley will be selling games like, you know, they'll be Jersey Jack games, you know, for So, yeah, like you're saying, people will also have price tags up on their pins. And some of those will get snatched up right away. You have to... There's going to be those people that are selling their games on Thursday when they get there. But if on Sunday a game's got a price still on it and no one's bought it, they don't want to take that home. You'd be like, let's talk about that price, buddy. Yeah. That's right. Negotiate. There you go. Negotiate. Sunday afternoon is time to negotiate. Last year, there was a lowball. By negotiate, you mean lowball. Exactly. There was a truck stop that ended up being available. Somebody finally bought it Sunday afternoon or Sunday just before the show closed and got it for like bucks and it was in really nice shape Nice Yeah I cut a couple games off I always kind of had a thing for that game It like just cause it just kind of weird and quirky you know Makes you long for those days when you used to hang out at the truck stop. I think that was the first game. Yeah. Like the first game of the Bally Williams merger.
    23:49
    I think you're right. I think it was. Like it was gonna be a Bally and then like the merger happened. And so they kind of reworked it almost like they did with Sharky Shootout when The Charlie Shortout and Tag Team.
    24:28
    Well that's the Hums, right? Like that's the cool thing. I mean, we do get that stuff. We do get that stuff. Don't, yeah. Don't get me wrong.
    24:37
    One of the advantages of being like a California show is that we actually have like a lot of arcade collectors who have some just really esoteric stuff. Yeah. You know, there will be the years where it's just like, yeah, you know, for whatever reason, 20 people bring Johnny Pneumonic Here are some random ones. Special Force, Bounty Hunter, Mystic, Genesis, Punchy the Clown, PUNCHY THE CLOWN I have such fond memories of you and me like at Saturday night, like at 11 o'clock, playing Radical. Yes. Oh, Hans Milberger is bringing in Ninja Eclipse. I think there's only like a hundred of those made. It's a more modern game, but there's only, I've never seen one before. Great game. I got to play at Expo and it's- Dan, I turn her pinball, baby. Are you ready, Dan? I'm excited. Are you ready for this? Spanish eyes will be there. The game should be remade. It killed me to get rid of that game. But it went to the right person because I couldn't keep it working. It would sit in my garage dead all year until I took it to the show and you know cheddar and you know all the super smart EM guys would get it working. I love that game, man. We can have dollar games on Spanish Eyes for like 14 hours and I'll never get tired of that. We had some really rare game called like Nineball like two years ago that was really fun. That was a really weird game. Q. Q, thank you. We had so much fun playing that, you and I. That was so rad. So yeah, and I guess for the 10 people that listen to this show that maybe don't go, that have never been to our show. We also have two rooms. We have our old school room and then we have our modern room. So we've now started mixing the EMs with just the numeric era of digital pinball machines. Oh, okay. So they're going to be separated? So you'll be able to find the solid state is what you're talking about or you're talking strictly EMs? So in the old room, we've done this the last couple of years, we have EMs and the numeric games. So, if it's alphanumeric or newer, we try and keep them in the modern room, but, you know, the other room will have, like, you know, Flash would go in there. Black Knight and Firepower. What was that, Spencer? BlackKnight and Firepower. BlackKnight and Firepower would go in there. BlackPyramid would go in there. Anything that just does numbers and doesn't have any kind of, you know, one-house- Anything like 386, really, right? One-house would not go in there. Right. I mean Lizard would not go in there, except System Eleven and it's got, you know, it will tell you things on the screen. Evil Knievel, Mata Hari, Joker Booker. Yes. Good stuff. Early Solid States, man. Yeah. It's fun. Golden Age stuff. You know, that's something that's always been fun for me at the show when you see, we talk about, you know, people that just, they'll see a Facebook post or they'll see a poster of a local eatery. Karl Defangelo, Pinball It's been a few years ago. It was actually before Golden State when we were all still at Pinnagogo. There was a guy came in on Sunday with his young son. They had heard about the show from somewhere. They came in, they got their stuff, and they're playing, having a good time, and they bought a ticket for the pinball raffle. It was an old EM game that left on Sunday, and they won the game. So they came in, had a good time. The little I was a little kid, never seen or played a pinball before. Dad's like, this is what we used to do for fun, you know, in the old days. And they played some pinball machines, they had a good time, and they won a pinball machine, and they took home a pinball. So, I don't remember if they ever came to the show again, I'm sure they probably did, but I just love telling that story because it's just really cool, you know. I was so happy for them. So, I have to tell you a funny story. I am a part of a messaging pro and con class dojo where you message parents, and I actually I put a notice out to all the parents about Golden State Pinball Festival to let them know, hey, come out to Lodi for one day on the weekend of 16th through the 18th and check it out. And like I started off prefacing and saying, I know you all know that I'm into pinball and then I just kind of went from there and told everybody about it. So we'll see. Maybe there'll be somebody from Reno coming from from one of my students. That would be cool. Yeah, it's a great family show. Karl De� That's what I like about it. It's very family friendly. Karl DeBRUN Yeah, I don't think that, you know, you see kids running around and I mean, kids love pinball. I think one of the most amazing things too is like a lot of younger folks like, you know, even teenagers just have no idea that these things exist and you get them in front of them and you know, you innately understand how to play, like maybe not all the rules, but you innately understand how to play and why it's fun. Yep, that's right. There's just something primal and amusing about whipping a ball around with flippers and hitting targets and watching it do things. And it's interesting when you watch the kids, and I'm just kind of piggybacking on what you said, at first they monkey flip, which we all know what that is, that's where you just hit the- Chimp flip. Chimp flip, right? So they're constantly pushing the buttons and then they finally figure out, oh you know what, that ball is draining a lot faster than I expected. Let's try and get it right. The only thing is, I'm gonna do the first one. So I'm gonna, you know what I'm gonna do I'm gonna just hit it one time, you know, one at a time, where the ball is going in that direction and you'd be surprised how fast the kids pick up on it. When I had science night, I had Cody bring in a few machines and it was amazing how the kids picked up on it, playing it properly. But at first, yeah, at first they just go crazy just hitting the buttons cuz who doesn't like pushing buttons. I loved that when I was a kid and you know, seeing the flippers and everything and just Just imagine what the kids are going to think when they see King Kong pounding on the glass. That's going to be pretty cool for them to see. It'll be that wow moment like we had when we were kids. Yup. There's no shortage of wonders and merriment in the world of pinball. Well, Steve, you got anything else that you want to clue us into about this wonderful show that you and your friends and all of the Northern California Pinball Community helped put on? You know, just go to the website and check it out. Follow us on Facebook, Instagram. That's where you can get a lot of information. I post there, you know, right now I'm posting daily, you know, even a few times a day as it gets closer. But, you know, you know, get involved if you can, if you have the time, volunteer because it's really rewarding. Like, you know, I've been volunteering for years now and, you know, put like an enormous amount of work into the show and I wouldn't do it if I didn't like love the people I do it with and have so much fun doing it. So, you know, put in, if you put in a lot, you'll get back a lot. But even if you can't do that, just come and have fun, and you're going to have a great time. Like, if there's something for everybody, you know, whether you're entrenched in the pinball community or you're just looking for something fun to do with your family, you know, come to the show. You'll have a great time, I guarantee it. Now, Steve, when you said about shifts, how long are the shifts? Like you said, two shifts will get you in for the weekend. Is that four-hour shifts? Is that three-hour shifts? I think that's, ah, oh man. Why do you have to... I'm pretty sure the shifts are four hours. Four hours. I think they're about four hours. So you'd work, yeah. So like that, yeah, you'd get in for the weekend and you know, you'd hopefully be there the whole weekend so you could spread out. Just do a four hour shift here on one day, do a four hour shift on another day and then you're in for the weekend, the whole weekend. Yeah, if you volunteer for like set up or break down. Yeah, that day. Those are also considered bigger jobs. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, like if you're there like on Thursday setting up then you're probably square for the whole weekend. Yeah, so, you know, it might take a little bit longer, but, you know, and wear comfortable shoes. Yeah, oh, God. Wear comfortable shoes. Oh, my step count at the end of the weekend is insane. It's bonkers every time. Yeah. Oh, yeah, no kidding. You know, but for some people, they could take an extra day off and come up on Thursday or stay till late on Sunday. Like, you know, that's a great opportunity. Like, you don't want to miss the show. Like, I get it. People don't like the hardest spots to fill are Saturday night slots because nobody's like, I'm going to be having fun partying at that point. And those are the hardest spots to fill. But if you don't want to miss out on the fun, do break down on Sunday. Like, you know, the show will be over and you'll be tired. But like, just help us load shit up. Yeah, you set up on Thursday. You'll be tired, but then you're like done and you have to do anything the rest of the weekend. Just don't be an idiot like me and work the entire damn show where you have to sneak off to have any kind of fun. J.F.P.: Yeah, I always, that's what I always like to do is take a day off from school, one, because I'm happy to get out of my classroom and play hooky a little bit. But yeah, I always like coming on Thursday and helping set up and it's a good workout and it's great helping people, you know, unload the trucks. That's always really helpful when you got three or four volunteers that can just play those games. J.F.P.: Yeah, it's fun. J.F.P.: It's fun. J.F.P.: And then you end up meeting- J.F.P.: I get a little nervous every time I move somebody else's game, but you know, everybody's cool with that. Steve M.: But people will help you and you know, as long as you don't drop one off the side of a truck, you know, you're fine. Steve M.: Yeah, that always crosses my mind but that's probably why I'm extra careful when I get to that point. Karl Deufactured.: Yeah, no one would ever do that. Steve M.: You guys are not doing a good job of talking people into helping, but no one would ever do that. Steve M.: Steve, I know you work a lot, but it's the price that you pay for your phenomenal pinball power. Karl Deufactured.: Yeah, it's true. It's true. Steve M You know you just so much authority and so much presence You gotta be there all the time otherwise we just gonna wander off and I know you are I need to keep you all right in Plugging things into light sockets you know all sorts of bad stuff So Key Bitcoin Banking Security takes more than 4 hencehold r direkt Brand LGBna Johannes Spangler, The Ant sencillo puesto And tells You Different, whoever told you who I should handle with. Hey, the pinball show at 3000? When you're that Battletigos posted yo f person atast bib and boob to the So I mean here's the deal, there are some phenomenal restaurants in Lodi. People do also like to complain like, you know, like, I can't eat there all day. I'm like, you can leave, like you are allowed to leave. It is an all-day pass, like go and get dinner and come back. Like, do not rely on us to feed you the whole time. We are a snack break. Yeah, they have every chain and they have a couple phenomenal, like they have a couple really good pizza places. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's the first A&W if you like, you know, history with your fast food. Yeah. They got Five Star Burger over there on Cherokee right down the street. They got a wiener set. So like you can get yourself some food. But the good news is we're going to have new food options. New food options. This new food options at the show, supporting the show. Love that. Love that you're having food trucks. Eating authentic show food. There you go. And those Polish sausages are gangster. Like I'm not capping down on them. Just you can't eat three of them in a weekend. No. Not when you're not when you're pushing 50. I think we have a candy gun for this here. I got to take my purple pill. I got to take my, you know I love those Polish sausages. But I know going in, those and a couple of beers and I'm like, old guy got to take his purple pill. So, yeah. Otherwise I'll be like over in the corner in a fetal position going, please God make it stop, I'll never do it again. And this time I mean it. You deserve it. Those are good though, man. They really are. And the kids over at the World of Wonder booth that makes the bowl of sausages and the tri-tip sandwiches and all that good stuff, go and support them. We're not saying don't, just day three. To be clear, that won't be, that's, it's food trucks now instead of that. Oh, so we're not having that. What is that? Wow is not doing food. So you guys just got an exclusive for your podcast. Thanks. That's why we bring Steve on here. Okay, cool. What other top secret show knowledge do you have for us? I haven't, I haven't, I haven't announced the pinball university lineup, so I could, I could read it to you. And as long as you post this between now and like 10 AM tomorrow, you'd have exclusive exclusive hour to it. I'm just kidding. Hey, real quick before we get into that. Is anybody selling beer this year? They will be selling beer. Yes. Okay. So Wow! we'll be selling beer and soda, maybe like bags of chips or something if I remember correctly. Ok, ok. So like snack foods. they will not be selling their stuff.
    39:05
    Don't make it easier on them too. They worked their tails off last year. It's true they don't... Yeah they have less to do now. I'm a little sad, because I did want at least one of those polar sausages. Weiner schnitzel now. Weiner noah, what's that, it's like Lockwood or something. Oh, Lockwood Meat Company, yeah. I was just about to go buy some Polish Sausages, I was just cooking with the campsite. See? Boom. Boom! I'm camping this year too, so you guys are either gonna see like way, way more of me than you want to see, or I'm just gonna die after the first day. I told him I don't even know how long I'll be camping, like if I sleep in that trailer one night and it sucks, I'll just be like, alright, well I'm driving home, Will will take care of the trailer for me. So here's a question for you real quick. Yeah, sure. How do you, so I know the campsite is loud all night long. Do you let everybody know that hey the show is coming, if you want to go on a vacation or something? Because there are houses around that area but we never get any complaints. Is that, how do you go through that? I mean, no, we just, I mean, like, I think it's just, uh, they have, there must be other camping events over the year that are rowdy there. I can only imagine, you know, I, I don't know. I'm not, I don't live in Lodi, so I have no idea what else goes on there during the year, but they must have something else that gets rowdy too. I think if you live there, it's like you live next to a campground and it could get loud. You just have to just live with it because I know where we are located close to the stage, there's houses behind that wall. And I always wonder, like, are we disturbing them? 2i J.P. No! J.P. Well, I'm just saying, you know, it's a very working class town, man. Nobody's being shy. J.P. No, no, no way. J.P. So, you were going to tell us about, what are you going to read off a sheet? So yeah, I want to get the scoop. What's going on with Pinball University? J.P. I'll tell you some of the highlights real quick. J.P. Okay. J.P. Like, the Pinball Museum's going to give a talk about the Jerry Kelly And Christian Marsh, the artist who did all the pointy people artwork on the EM machines. You know what I'm talking about? The pointy people? Yeah, yeah, from the, like, 60s, uh, Williams games. Yeah, exactly. There's a Little Flippers Tournament Strategy for Kids session, Exploring Spike 2 with Chris Kuntz and Kyle Spatieri. I'm excited that Kyle's gonna be at the show. Looking Inside a Multimorphic P3 with Manu Smith. Do you know who that is, Dan, since you have a Multimorphic? Do you know who that is? No. Yeah, someone's giving a seminar about it. So maybe that should probably go to that You should probably go to that and meet them get connected with Stern or Stern army Oh, Michael Grant and Mike Vinacore will be at the show again this year from Stern. Awesome. So
    42:23
    Inside spike 2 has anyone else watched that new video where they show off the new Stern menus? No, you said it's good. I heard about that
    42:32
    Yeah, I wonder if they're gonna have those there because the new Stern menus look really cool Much easier to navigate. I like how they put all the most common settings right in the front end instead of having to go and search for it. Cool. Thomas Fullenweider and Cobra Pin will be talking about serial LEDs and custom LED boards. Emoto is going to be doing pinball movies again whereas last year they showed like that one whole pinball movie. This year it sounds like there's like littler movies like Pinball 101, some video called Cari Carmichael Collection Pinball degenerates Sideshow Dave Nalansky Pinball Toolbox and Why
    43:20
    Monterey Flipper I think they're going to be doing a whole Sunday school with classes and graduation ceremony. It's really cool. They're doing that. I guess they're taking a bunch of kids. And the crew is going to break up and take little groups of kids to learn about pinball. So that's really exciting. Awesome. So yeah, I'll be posting that on the Facebook and the Instagram tomorrow. Do we tape any of that stuff? So you see you are going to tape it and post it or? It's taped and there should even be stuff from last year up there because Marco Specialties, I think it's all on their channel to be honest because they're like sponsors of it and Emoto comes out and works on it so. And some of that stuff I'd really like to see but I'm always you know in the tournament world. Yeah, it's hard if you're yeah if you have other stuff you're doing I don't ever get to see that stuff because I'm always working so I never get to see it. Right. Yeah, some of that sounds really, really cool. The David Malansky thing, that's going to be great. Yeah, I kind of need to watch that one and get some stuff for my toolbox. Yeah, I need to know that because half of the tools, I don't even know what to do with them. But I did get a really nice one from the silent auction, which I can't tell you how many times I use it just for regular things around the house. Oh, you got the tool bag? I did. Yeah, that was a nice thing. That was phenomenal. I mean, I love all the stuff that I have in there. There's times where my daughter needs like a really thin needle nose pliers. I was like, oh, I got that in my pinball toolkit. Yeah, it's really nice. And I love the tray that has the magnet that keeps the screws from getting lost. That's the best thing ever. Those are very, those are very handy. Everyone should have that. I haven't used a solder gun yet because I haven't had to solder anything, but I know that time will come when I get more machines when I retire. Come someday. Yeah, one of these days. You need to buy some old crappy games like us. I know. Actually, new games, new games though, you can have to fix a broken wire. It's true. Place a coil. I had to, I had to do some work on a buddy of mine's, uh, Pulp Fiction.
    45:27
    Broken wire on the coil. Yeah. There you go. So new newness is no excuse for not knowing how to tech your games. Totally true. You got to know how to fix them. Unless you have a lot of money to pay somebody to fix it for you.
    45:42
    All right, gentlemen. Well, it was a pleasure talking to you all about the show. Thank you, Steve. We really appreciate you making the time. We know you're a busy, busy guy. I'll see y'all in a week. Awesome. Can't wait. All right. All right, guys, we got anything else we want to hit before we, uh, cut this one out from the night? Nope. I'm feeling really, really good. There's a great show coming up. We're all bringing some good stuff. Yup. I'm tired already.
    46:11
    Yeah. No, but Karl Deufacte, Yep, and for people who are listening right now that are going to be hanging around in the campground, Reno's going to have five machines available to play on the campground, just to let you know. Karl Deufacte, uffyviper