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Episode 72 - Operator Spotlight: Astoria Pinball

Wedgehead Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·44m 33s·analyzed·Mar 3, 2025
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.034

TL;DR

Small-town Oregon operator builds thriving pinball scene through tourism strategy and community events.

Summary

Todd Robinette, operator of Maritime Bar and Labor Temple Diner in Astoria, Oregon (a 10,000-person coastal town), discusses building a pinball scene from scratch over 11 years. He shares how pinball machines function as customer draws beyond direct earnings, his strategy of featuring rare/low-production-run games to attract tourists, operational challenges in a small market, relationships with neighboring arcade operators (Gizmos and Galactics), and his monthly pinball hangouts for newcomers. The conversation touches on the value of boutique games like Spooky's Halloween, the importance of mentorship for new players, and cooperative rather than combative relationships with local competition.

Key Claims

  • Maritime Bar and Labor Temple Diner have been operating for 11 years; Maritime was already 40 years old when Todd took over.

    high confidence · Todd Robinette stating 'We're in our 11th year now' and 'The Maritime has been in business for about 40 years.'

  • When Todd arrived in Astoria, there were only two pinball machines in the entire town, both non-functional (Stern Playboy and Pinball 2000 Episode One).

    high confidence · Todd: 'When I got here there was no pinball here' and 'there was one pinball machine at a bar... the Desdemona... it was a Stern Playboy... turned off and covered in dust.'

  • Maritime's pinball loft currently has 17 machines, which is a notable collection for a town of 10,000.

    high confidence · Todd: 'having a lineup of like 17 games is currently what we have in there. It's kind of a luxury, you know, for such a Small Town Pinball of 10,000 people.'

  • Pinball machines serve primarily as customer acquisition tools rather than direct profit centers; they drive bar and restaurant sales.

    high confidence · Todd and Alan discuss how pinball brings people through the door who then spend hundreds on drinks and food; Alan: 'those $40 people also spent, you know, hundreds of dollars at the bar.'

  • Todd's strategy includes operating rare, low-production-run games to distinguish his location and attract traveling pinball enthusiasts.

    high confidence · Todd: 'By operating a couple of boutique games, I think that kind of puts me on people's radar... I drive hours out of my way to play, like, rare games like that, personally.'

  • Spooky pinball machines present unique operational challenges but are not as problematic as internet reputation suggests.

    medium confidence · Todd: 'a lot of the crap I hear on... Pinside... they say how terrible it is to operate Spooky. I, I had my problems, but it's not as bad as people try to make it out to be.'

  • Todd acquired games from neighboring operator Gizmos and is negotiating a trade of his Halloween machine to Galactics operator Marcus.

    high confidence · Todd: 'I sold them my Venom and a semi-restored Black Knight' and 'I'm in the process of maybe trading it over to my next door neighbor Galactics.'

Notable Quotes

  • “Life's about chapters and we should have another chapter.”

    Todd Robinette (referencing his wife's conviction) @ ~12:00 — Captures the philosophy behind Todd's decision to leave Portland and build a new business in a small coastal town.

  • “It's not the $40 that's in the cash box. It's that like those $40 people also spent, you know, hundreds of dollars at the bar and will come back every time they're in the area too.”

    Alan @ ~35:00 — Articulates the core economic model of pinball in small venues: indirect revenue generation and customer retention.

  • “By operating a couple of boutique games, I think that kind of puts me on people's radar a little bit... I drive hours out of my way to play, like, rare games like that, personally.”

    Todd Robinette @ ~58:00 — Explains Todd's competitive strategy of using rare/low-production games as destination anchors.

  • “a lot of the crap I hear on... Pinside... they say how terrible it is to operate Spooky. I, I had my problems, but it's not as bad as people try to make it out to be.”

    Todd Robinette @ ~73:00 — Provides operational perspective on Spooky machines against community reputation.

  • “You just can't step into it [pinball operation]. Even if you're a smart person, you've got to know stuff, and it takes a while to get there.”

    Todd Robinette @ ~92:00 — Highlights the learning curve and technical knowledge required to operate pinball machines.

  • “I want to be the king pin... for sure... and I'm not gonna, and I'm not gonna, I'm not and I'm not spending your time fighting.”

    Todd Robinette @ ~115:00 — Balances competitive drive with collaborative approach to building the local pinball community.

  • “It's kind of like the Raiders of the Lost Ark warehouse.”

    Alan (describing Chris Rhodes's game storage) @ ~61:00 — Humorous characterization of hoarder operator mentality and game accumulation.

Entities

Todd RobinettepersonAlanpersonWaterboypersonRodseypersonChris RhodespersonMarcuspersonRogerpersonMaritime BarcompanyLabor Temple DinercompanyGalacticscompany

Signals

  • ?

    venue_signal: Maritime Bar expanded pinball presence from initial 3 machines to 17-machine loft during COVID shutdown; notable infrastructure investment for 10,000-person town.

    high · Todd: 'COVID was kind of the game changer for us, because it enabled me to shut down the business for a bit and really work towards creating that pinball loft in the mezzanine... put our operation on steroids' and 'having a lineup of like 17 games is currently what we have in there.'

  • ?

    venue_signal: Three pinball-equipped arcades now operating in Astoria after Todd pioneered the market; competitive but cooperative dynamic.

    high · Todd: 'Gizmos first and foremost came along before Galactics... and then Galactics is a pretty rad space' plus mention of Maritime. Multiple venues within 10,000-person town.

  • ?

    operational_signal: Maritime's loft location for pinball machines creates heat and accessibility issues, affecting equipment selection and rotation; leads to Stern/Chicago Gaming preference over EM/SS.

    high · Todd: 'it's right over the kitchen, so it gets really warm up there... I don't really want to tote anything up those stairs unless I know it's really stable... That's why I don't have a huge representation of EM or solid-state games.'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Todd employs low-production-run game acquisitions (Halloween, Alien) as strategic differentiator to attract traveling enthusiasts despite operational complexity.

    high · Todd: 'By operating a couple of boutique games, I think that kind of puts me on people's radar... I'm trying to attract some people. I drive hours out of my way to play, like, rare games like that, personally.'

  • ?

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.134

0:00
Thank you very much. Hello, everybody, and welcome to another episode of the Wedgehead Pinball Podcast. My name is Alan, host of this podcast, joined in the basement studio. My trusty co-host once again, it's the Waterboy. Back from the dead. I'm doing great, Alan. And yeah, before we start today's episode, we still got to plug, you know, we got enough money to go to Boston, but we're trying to make it somewhere else. We're not sure where that is yet, but we know we're going somewhere. We made it to Boston, so we're trying to sell those tickets and then go somewhere else instead. so we're trying to betray all of their trust and go somewhere warm and sunny i guess maybe maybe we'll see but anyway if you guys want to support the show and our continued endeavors to see all of the pinball locations in the world go to our coffee fundraiser it's coffee.com slash wedgehead podcast throw us a few bucks if you like the show we always appreciate it we're very excited to um start doing some research on where we're going next yeah and we'll see everyone that donated from the New England area. We are excited to see you at Pintastic in April. With that being said, we are joined today on the show by our friend Todd Robinette. Operates two separate pinball locations in a small tourist town on the Oregon coast. The story is a town of about 10,000 residents, but also swells with tourists flocking to the beach during the summer. Yeah, and flocking to movie locations. Yeah, that's where The Goonies was filmed. Yeah, and Kindergarten Cop. And Kindergarten Cop. And the fucking short, is it Short Circuit? Is that what it is? Well, that's Todd. get into that in a second. But he's going to join us on the show to talk about building a pinball scene from scratch in a small town, and he can hopefully share with the listeners some of the lessons that he has learned along the way. So welcome to the show, Todd. How are you? I'm doing great. Thanks for having me. Yeah, we're happy to have you here. Todd, this is a fun fact that I don't think made it into the episode outlines. Your location, Maritime, was actually the first bar in Oregon that I ever played pinball at. I moved out here during COVID, and Portland was all shut down for an extended period, but we made a trip to the coast and Mary time was the first time I could actually drink a beer and play pinball in the state of Oregon. So thank you for that. Well, that's pretty cool. What did you play? Do you remember? I think you guys, it was when you had just the little lineup kind of up on that like second floor, but before you had the full loft, did you have a fishtails at the time? I had a fishtails. There might've been like a Stern Star Trek, something like that. Yep. Yep. That sounds familiar. I remember just being excited about fishtails and that's what me, I was there with my wife and a friend and we just played a bunch of fishtails. I was like, I think that was at your place. So, Todd, you moved to Astoria and you kind of opened up two businesses out there, the Maritime Bar, which Waterboy was talking about, the Labor Temple Diner. Can you tell us about those businesses and what made you move out to the coast and how when did that all start? We're in our 11th year now. We just had our 10 year anniversary. Congratulations. Moving out here and a small correction there. We didn't start these businesses. We bought them. They were established businesses. You know, over time, you know, we kind of transformed them and made them our own. The Labor Temple is an old diner that sits in a union hall. That build out of that business is about 90 years old. So it's pretty nostalgic kind of place. And the Maritime has been in business for about 40 years. Oh, wow. Before we moved out here, I was newly married with my wife. She was the general manager of the Rialto in downtown Portland. Oh, yeah. Back when that was a quality entertainment location. I don't know if you guys remember that. Mike Mahaffey's old business. Yeah, absolutely. Mike Mahaffey used to work. Legendary Portland operator. Yeah, totally. I guess legit. She kind of got job fatigue to the point of like she couldn't really handle being in downtown Portland much anymore. So we started nosing around for a business to get out of Portland. She had convinced me that life's about chapters and we should have another chapter. And I was like, well, okay. So we migrated out West, got out of Portland and bought the Maritime. And when did you first incorporate your pinball collection into these businesses? Like when did you start operating pins? When we moved out to the coast, I personally owned three pinball machines, a Galaxy, a Stern Galaxy, a Flash Gordon and a High Speed. Nice. And they were all pretty janky, you know, and I wasn't much of a tech. I'm still not a very great tech, but I'm a lot better than I used to be. That's how everyone starts. Yeah, yeah. You got to start somewhere. So they were operable in the sense of like operating them in a bar would just be like they would spend a lot of time collecting dust because I couldn't keep them up running. But I got a little help from your business partner, Alan, and he put some games out and located them in the merry time for a while to help me kind of get going. And I was able to kind of like put my machine next to his. So I think at first he brought out, I want to say Black Rose and a Scared Stiff. Oh, nice. And he put those in the merry time. And I think I have high speed next to those. Nice lineup. Yeah, that's how we kind of started it. Flash Gordon was always, I was never able to get it to a point where it would operate well. But now, I mean, now it's got a hard top on it and all new boards and it's pretty sick. I mean, it works really well. At the time, it was not any position to collect quarters. But that's how it kind of started. There wasn't, I think a lot of people out here were scratching their head about why I would be doing something as archaic as bringing pinball machines into a bar. It's like, they also didn't understand, like, why people buy vinyl records, you know, it's kind of the same sort of mentality, you know. There's a cool record store out in Astoria though too, right? Yeah, yeah, that place is great. What is it called? I want to say the Lonely Crab, I think. Yeah. But it's got a really great selection. What was the initial interest from the locals with the pinball machines? Like, they were surprised, they thought it was weird, like, how did you grow that interest in the community and get them to like pinball? As soon as I put a few of those games in, I made friends with a couple of people in town, When I say a couple, like three or four people who were into it and they would show up weekly and they would play them. Nice. And I would get to know them. And we tried to do a tournament, but it's hard to do a tournament when you don't have like at least eight people. Right. So a lot of times I would, through a Facebook group, I would like try and get people to come to this tournament. We'd get maybe five or six people. And then we just wind up just kind of like, I kind of just wound up by hanging out and adding credits on games just to kind of give people some free pinball for showing up. and we never really had a competition. Wasn't enough people to make it happen. Right. That kind of morphed into what's become a monthly event for me, which I call the pinball hangout. It's like the first Sunday of the month. I put three or four games on free play. I hang out for the evening and newcomers, I can kind of like give them the rundown on the games and get them started on the rules and some techniques on how to play better. That's kind of what it's morphed into because then I don't have to rely so much on enough people showing up for a tournament. Yeah, that's pretty sick. And that's the kind of thing that you really like need, when you're new to the hobby. Well, the free pinball you don't need, but it's very nice. But having someone actually there that's like, just understands you're new and will take the time to explain things to you can be huge. It can be an intimidating thing. You know, it's like, it's not intuitive to some people, you know, they don't take to it very readily. It's funny. Like even when you first get into the hobby, it's like, I was really enthused about it. I was going out playing a ton of pinball and there's just so much stuff that like, I didn't even understand the concept. You know, no one had ever shown me a dead bounce like that like no one had ever been like oh you can just let the ball like just bounce across the flippers showing how to play a two-player game well exactly like there's so much stuff when you first get in that putting your money in and then not realizing that you have to hit a start button real fundamental stuff new new it's just that's a pretty cool event yeah it works out pretty well so astoria is a pretty small town right i'm right in the sense that like it's a big tourist town especially for the rest of the Pacific Northwest. Like everyone flocks to the coast during the summer months. So I'm assuming that your businesses themselves are kind of seasonal and spike in business. Does that translate to the pinball machine earnings as well? Like do you see pinball people from the rest of the Northwest, like Eugene, Portland, Seattle, do you see them coming out more in the summer? I think so. First of all, Astoria is on the river. so it's technically not really like a beach town you know it's like we're kind of like in up the columbia river you know about 10 miles from the from the bar but people still come to astoria for you know because it's kind of a cool place to hang it's beautiful there's mountains around yeah the river's amazing you know my wife loves the sea lions yeah yeah we have a sea lion population that can be they're either awesome or they're assholes depending on your perspective i love them uh they smell bad you know all these things but i mean we do see tourism i mean obviously pinball maps a huge tool for people like us kind of like lure people like if someone's going to seaside for instance family beach getaway you know we're 20 minutes up the road we want to attract them up here up to a story at a place of pinball you know because seaside's not a very good pinball town but or they can head south down to north coast pinball in the halem which is a great pinball room you know but um we do see tourism we see very frequently even in the winter months i'll see somebody i don't recognize playing and they're like oh yeah we're from seattle we're here for the weekend we found you on the map we do get a lot of travelers uh just to answer your question it brings business to the bar or to the diner as well as just because you have pins there right and that's what i think some people don't necessarily understand about pinball machines is like it's one extra reason to stop somewhere for the people like us that are all into pinball the reason why they might be traveling through your town and stop at your other business to buy drinks or to buy food is because, well, you have pinball machines there. So we're definitely going to check out this spot. So even if the pins themselves, because I talk about this a lot with the operators and stuff about how in some regions and in some locations, it's just hard to make the cost of pinball, like to make it back on a strict like kind of profit and loss, like bought it here, operated it. You know, I'm pulling whatever, like $40 a week out of these games. Like it doesn't make any sense. it's not the $40 that's in the cash box. It's more like those $40 also spent, you know, hundreds of dollars at the bar and will come back every time they're in the area too. And pinball machines are valuable in that way. Yeah. Like what I was saying at the beginning of the episode where we came out and played there really early on my time in Oregon or whatever, back in 2020, we ended up at Maritime purely because of the pinball machines. I obviously didn't know you at the time and had no connection into Mary time other than I looked at pinball map and I was like, Oh, they got a bunch of good games here. And we went in and we had a bunch of bloody Mary's and food and stuff. Yeah. That's the nice part about the, like having pins in a place. I, I mean, that's how you make the money, I think. Yeah. For me, for sure. And it also like, for instance, my wife, who's my business partner is not a pinballer but she good at business And she sees that pinball does uh primes the pump of business activity you know like it does get people through the door uh if people tend to stick around longer you know they might have another beer after they have already had their burger because they're having a good streak on whatever game they're playing you know 100 i'm assuming when you started there was little or essentially no pinball in astoria like some of the other coast towns but like it seems like your success or or what you've built there has brought competition because we know there are other arcades there's like two other arcades in the story and it's a small town one is literally right next door to the merry time yeah yeah yeah do you want to talk about your competition at all how do you handle that yeah no no yeah let's talk about that um when i got here there was no pinball here which was aggravating to me because i i had spent the past few years before we moved out here, really plugging into the pinball scene in Portland, which was vibrant and social. You know, I love interacting with people, you know, I'm like, I'm kind of a social person. So I was really enjoying that. And when we came out here, it was just like, kind of like having that, being deprived of that, you know what I mean? But when I got here, there was no pinball machines, except there was one pinball machine at a bar at the other end of town called the Desdemona. We call it the Dirty D. everybody affectionately calls it the dirty d and it was it was a stern playboy nice it was turned off and covered in dust so i approached the bar owner and said hey man you want to get rid of that thing you know i'll buy that off you and he said well yeah i've got another one underneath i've got another one at our other bar in the basement if you want to take a look at that and it was um pinball 2000 uh episode one oh wow that wasn't booting it wouldn't boot up You know, I bought them both. I don't remember what I paid, but, you know, I got a fair price. I mean, I got it was a good price. It wasn't much. And I got both of those out of there. I got Playboy game working. I put it in the merry time for a little while. But it's not a good game. You know, it's like somebody should die on that hill, but it's not going to be me. Yeah, dude. It's not such a good game. But and it also like I don't really want that. I didn't really want that theme in our bar anywhere. is just kind of a little bit too on the nose. Yeah, it was more at home in the Dirty D. Yeah, I mean, I don't mind some of the racy artwork from, like, the 60s and 70s that, you know, Bally was doing and stuff. That's all fine and good. But the pinball, the Playboy theme was just a little bit too... Everyone knows he is an adult magazine. Yeah, exactly. For sure. So even though we're 21 and over, I still didn't like the theme so much. And then the episode one, I never got it going. Rhodes advised me. He's like, you know, just sell it as is, and somebody who's good with computers is going to want to buy this at a decent price. And I flipped that one immediately. The Playboy one I held on to Eclectic Quarters for a short period of time before I sold it. Nice. Maybe I got Fishtails. Maybe that's when I got Fishtails. Nice.

  • Astoria's tourism spikes in summer but pinball also draws visitors year-round, with regular encounters of out-of-state players.

    high confidence · Todd: 'we do see tourism we see very frequently even in the winter months i'll see somebody i don't recognize playing and they're like oh yeah we're from Seattle.'

    • Gizmos
    company
    Astoria, Oregonorganization
    Wedgehead Pinball Podcastorganization
    Straight Down the Middle: a pinball showorganization
    Pinball Magazineorganization
    Stern Playboygame
    Pinball 2000 Episode Onegame
    Halloweengame
    Aliengame
    Fishtailsgame
    World Beautiesgame
    Bram Stoker's Draculagame
    Laser Ballgame
    Black Knightgame
    Venomgame

    community_signal: Todd created monthly pinball hangout event (first Sunday) to grow community engagement when tournament format failed due to small population; shifted from competition to mentorship/education.

    high · Todd: 'I tried to do a tournament, but it's hard to do a tournament when you don't have like at least eight people... I would... wind up just kind of like playing together... That kind of morphed into what's become a monthly event... the pinball hangout.'

  • ?

    content_signal: Pinball Magazine listing drives significant tourist traffic to Maritime; travelers use magazine to locate venues during regional travel.

    high · Todd: 'pinball magazine is a huge tool for people like us kind of like lure people... if someone's going to Seaside for instance family beach getaway... we want to attract them up here to Astoria... we found you on the map.'

  • $

    market_signal: Pinball machines function primarily as customer acquisition and dwell-time extension tools; direct machine revenue minimal but indirect bar/food revenue substantial.

    high · Alan: 'those $40 people also spent, you know, hundreds of dollars at the bar and will come back every time they're in the area' and Todd corroborates: 'That's the nice part about the, like having pins in a place... That's how you make the money.'

  • ?

    product_concern: Spooky machines present unique operational challenges (servos, 3D-printed in-lane lift channels, building practice inconsistency) but less severe than internet reputation suggests per operator experience.

    medium · Todd: 'Spooky... a lot of the crap I hear... they say how terrible it is to operate Spooky. I had my problems, but it's not as bad as people try to make it out to be... boutique game... building practices aren't dialed in... you're gonna have to tweak them.'

  • ?

    operational_signal: Todd, Marcus (Galactics), and Roger (Gizmos) share games, knowledge, and technical support rather than compete destructively; cooperative ecosystem building.

    high · Todd: 'We're at the point where... I try and show him... through just trial and like looking at the diagnostics... they help me out I help them out when we can... it doesn't have to be combative or that competitive.'

  • ?

    business_signal: Small-town operator (10,000 residents) sustains multi-location pinball business through venue integration, tourism positioning, and community building rather than machine revenue alone.

    high · Todd operates Maritime and Labor Temple Diner after 11 years; pinball is customer draw not primary revenue; tourism strategy positions Astoria against larger nearby towns (Seaside, Portland).

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Todd's operator-level experience with Spooky machines contradicts negativity on Pinside forums; suggests internet reputation may overstate problems relative to actual operator experience.

    medium · Todd: 'a lot of the crap I hear on... Pinside... they say how terrible it is to operate Spooky. I, I had my problems, but it's not as bad as people try to make it out to be, at least my experience.'

  • ?

    operational_signal: Operating vintage arcade equipment increasingly complex due to CRT/capacitor failures and control panel rebuilds; maintenance expectations rising industry-wide.

    medium · Roger (Gizmos operator) faces maintenance challenges; Alan/Todd discuss: 'operating like vintage arcade games is taking a lot more work than it used to... CRTs are going out... caps are going out... boards need work now.'

    • 14:09
    But those are the only two pinball machines in the story when I got here, and they were both covered in dust. But then we started doing our thing, and then COVID was kind of the game changer for us, because it enabled me to shut down the business for a bit and really work towards creating that pinball loft in the mezzanine. Yeah. Which really kind of like put our operation on steroids, at least in my sense. Because, I mean, in a small town of 10,000 people, having a lineup of like 17 games is currently what we have in there. It's kind of a luxury, you know, for such a small town. Yeah, for sure. It's massive. It's a notable location, like regardless of where you put that. So having that in a tiny town is like very, very noteworthy. It's also worth explaining for anybody that's, I mean, most of the listeners, right? Unless you've been to a store, you've not been to Maritime. It's a really cool old building with a unique floor layout. It's like a split level. I mean, there's like one, one and a half. And then the loft is kind of like up overlooking things. I don't know why you chose to bring all of your pinball machines to the hardest area to get to. But I respect it. It's very cool. I really like the situation. Well, I appreciate that. And putting them up there has its challenges. I mean, for one thing, it's right over the kitchen, so it gets really warm up there. Yeah. But also one of the downsides to having your machines up there is I don't really want to tote anything up those stairs unless I know it's really stable and I don't need to pull it out the next day. You know what I mean? Yeah. And it's a pain in the ass getting them up there and getting them down. Luckily, there's a guy on our crew who's a stout kid who's really got a good back, and he helps me do it.
    15:51
    But that's why I don't have a huge representation of EM or solid-state games that require a lot of work. Like, A, I'm not the greatest tech, and B, I don't want games sitting dark up there. You know, I kind of – so, you know, I'm kind of Stern-heavy or Chicago Gaming-heavy because those games are really reliable. Yep. that makes sense especially with a community with a lot of newer players i think that's kind of the more accessible titles we're always trying to push new people to play more old games but you're you're downplaying it though because when i was there last you still had you still had games like you had a bram stoker's dracula there that i played a lot of oh yeah and and even though you're saying you're stern heavy i think this is something you always do when you come in todd you're always like you know like you're kind of like downplaying your lineup but it was like your lineup's sick and varied yeah and like you have cool old games like a laser ball there right there yeah dude like you're you're acting like i want the listeners to be aware that like todd has a cool lineup of games he has a very cool collection of games and you rotate them in yeah i mean it's games of all era i mean and speaking of you're like oh i'm afraid to operate something i was like dude you fucking i've seen you put out an alien in a halloween like that's some shit that i won't do that's some shit that roadsy won't do like that's balls right there you had a halloween on the floor for like three years or is it still there it's still there but i'm uh i'm in the process of maybe trading it over to the my next door neighbor galactics gotcha i was like i thought i had seen it come up for sale but yeah that's uh that takes a brave man it takes a brave man to operate halloween for that long yeah dude yeah we we could probably do a whole show on that uh of the problems that I've gone through with that game, but it's, you know, I think that that, a lot of the crap I hear on, you know, the pin side jabber jaws out there, and they say how terrible it is to operate spooky. I, I had my problems, but it's not as bad as people try to make it out to be, at least my experience. There's some things that, some things that have gone wrong. There's some, there's a learning curve. There's certain things about those games that are different than operating a traditional game you know they use servos they have these interesting like 3d printed like lift channels for the for the in lane there which are kind of interesting and innovative and they kind of catch you off guard but there's also some things about it's a boutique game and they don't have like their building practices aren't dialed in you know so there's yeah some things that are you're gonna have to kindly you're gonna have to tweak them you got to be patient with it the artwork on it is killer i mean this this the cabinet artwork is amazingly good i think Yeah, I agree with that. Spooky gets good art. And the Alien game, I mean, so out where I am, I'm trying to distinguish myself and attract travelers, Alan. Like, you know, we've talked about this a little bit before. By operating a couple of boutique games, I think that kind of puts me on people's radar a little bit. But they might not see those games somewhere else. I'm trying to attract some people. I drive hours out of my way to play, like, rare games like that, personally. That's why that's absolutely the kind of strategy that I'm like, I like that because that's the kind of operators I'm always excited to go see. Tell us about your rare game strategy, Todd, because this is something that I know you talk to Roadsy about a lot. It's your most recent kick. You're on a whole thing where you only want to buy low production run games and rare games. Can you describe why you do that? Do they earn well? What games are we talking about here? Have you seen tourism from it? Yes and no. I think originally it started off as like this thing that I would buy these kind of rare games to feature in our annual tournament, which we'll talk about later. But like also when I started operating in earnest, like COVID, we added more games. We invested some money in some more pinball machines. I don't have like a stable of like interesting games like someone like Chris Rhodes does. You know, he's got like a really he's got like this warehouse of amazing games. He's a hoarder. He's a bit of a hoarder. Most good pinball operators are. Yeah. I would think. I would hope. You know him well. You know he's mentally ill.
    19:58
    For real. He's got shit in his warehouse that's just been there for years and never seen the light of day. So I've known Rhodes long enough. Todd's known him even longer than I have. But I've helped Rhodes and other friends of ours have helped Rhodes move games every time he gets a new storage space. I've helped him move games from one storage space to another space so it's been three moves he's never operated like I'm like dude it's just like we moved these games years ago and you're still holding on to them he's got like he just has like a Humpty Dumpty or something right where it's just like oh he's had this forever and it just keeps moving and he's like we don't need to get this one out man yeah it's like yeah the Humpty Dumpty like the first flipper game right yep yeah yeah god damn I've never been to any of Rhodes's the storage spaces but I just have to imagine it's like the Raiders the Lost Ark warehouse it's a little bit like that yeah it's just like crates and shit it's kind of like that I will say one thing and and this is like in Rhodes's defense and I know you guys have my back on this that new wood rail that you guys put into Witch Head oh fucking bomb ass game dude it's so much fun the wood rails are he's talking about world beauty todd's we're talking about world beauties to the listener it's a 61 got leave it's like one of the last wood rails they made yep and it's so much fucking fun so much fun beauty it's in really good shape it plays like a dream yeah no it's a great game but yeah i mean like since we're on a chris road sidebar like i know he has all these old men old em games just kind of stuck up in the pallet and the pallet racks that he's just waiting to do something with i guess but i was trying to get him to do a re-theme of a pinball machine and call it sandwiches and i have a pinball machine that's like a sandwich themed pinball i think that's a great i mean he's gonna show up for that i'm gonna show up for that dude hell yeah no i agree i do want to talk about your competition you mentioned the one your next door neighbor uh galactics and there's another oh yeah there's another one. Gizmos? Gizmos is the other arcade? Yeah.
    22:05
    Can you talk about being in an area where nothing happened, you come in, you bring pinball and now you have neighbors and you have other people in the community How has that changed the pinball scene in Astoria And what are your relationships with those other operators Gizmos first and foremost came along before Galactics And it basically it for all ages Like they have an air hockey table in there and they sell hot dogs and candy. And they used to scoop ice cream. I don't know if they still do that. And they have video games, a safe space for you know, miners to hang out. And they have a lineup, I think, of five pinball machines, two of which I sold them. I sold them my Venom and a semi-restored Black Knight that I had that I put a hard top on and new plastics and all that stuff. And, you know, sometimes when I do an extensive pinball restore like that, I kind of, at the end of it, I'm kind of like, man, I am sick of this game. I don't want to play it or put it in my bar or anything. You know, I was like, I just put so much work into this thing. It just sold recently. The guy operating it, his name's Roger. He's a really nice guy. I think he's from L.A. originally. He wants to expand it, but he's also struggling with keeping the things maintained because there's a learning curve to operating pinball. You just can't step into it. Even if you're a smart person, you've got to know stuff, and it takes a while to get there. We're at the point where even operating like vintage arcade games is taking a lot more work than it used to. Yeah, because CRTs are going out and the caps are going out. Totally, absolutely. Like boards need work now. Like you need to start rebuilding fucking control panels on arcade games, which is funny because those used to be like freebies from a maintenance perspective. Yeah. But I can definitely see like stepping into an arcade, it would be a lot more than you might be expecting. But anyways, Roger's a good guy and he's well-intentioned and he faces his challenges head on.
    24:07
    He has to deal with a lot of homeless population that kind of hangs out around his place and he kind of has to navigate that, which can be challenging. All these things because he's got kids there. He can't have people out front smoking weed and showing drugs. He just can't have that. So he's got a different set of challenges than I do. And then Galactics is a pretty rad space. They spent a lot of money building it out. It's kind of like a spaceship when you walk in there with like glowing tables. Unreal like theming. Like they really went all in on making that place like a cohesive like sci-fi arcade. It's really neat. Yeah, really impressive. The guy that operates that is Marcus. And Marcus kind of comes from a gaming background, like a game consoles, like retro home game consoles. It's kind of like was his passion. You know, I think he would go to these shows and like sell the cartridges and things like that. He's like a computer guy. Like I was just talking to him the other day. I was in his shop space and we were talking about trading Halloween. And he's going to trade me a couple of old games maybe for that Halloween. We still haven't inked the deal yet, but it's getting close. And he's like, man, if it's computer stuff, I can really figure it out. But if it's the mechanical stuff, I can't figure out. and I was able to like show him like through just trial and like looking at the diagnostics of it on one of these old games that you know one of his switch switches was messed up and we found the switch and he said look at that that thing doesn't look right he's like oh yeah so we got the switch figured out now the game's operating better so like I'm trying to you know they help me out I help them out when we can you know we're can't it doesn't have to be combative or that competitive you know that's awesome that's kind of what we were curious about if there's like any bad blood there because it it was a small community like a very small community so it's like it seems like you have good relationships with and you sell and swap games with each other and uh you know like i know roadsy is kind of that way with other operators in town in portland but also portland's a much bigger scene yeah you know with more people more machines so it's a little bit easier to not not look at every single other place as direct competition you know what i mean like it just sort of like yeah they're gonna go there then they're gonna come here and then they're gonna go somewhere else like the city i lived in previous to portland uh there was one very small barcade mainly pinball location there and then a new one opened and there was immediately like bad blood between them despite being like 30 minutes away in a city of like 200 000 people that could definitely support two small barcades yeah but it was like immediately like the original barcade was like trying to discourage people from going to the new place and everything so it's just nice to hear that you guys are on like good terms and like working together to build the scene rather than like spending your time fighting i agree with that but i also have my competitive edge too you know and i i go out of my way to make sure that i'm kind of getting the new stuff and stuff like that i i like i want to be the king pin yeah yeah you want to be the best yeah for sure you know and i'm not and i'm not i'm not going to be ashamed to say that well and also because you're like you're the pinball guy and those guys are running video games with some pinball yeah you're running pins like you're a pinball guy yeah so there's a difference there's always a difference it's like wedgehead it's like yeah we run pinball like we don't fuck with video games like yep yeah exactly we don't we just don't mess around we only care about pinball so even in a town like portland i'm like i'm not ashamed to say it either it's like i think we run the best games in town like that's it that's why we do it like that's why we get up in the morning we also just like you it's like we like to run rare games like to run odd ducks because i think it drives people in and i also like to flex it's the same thing it's like you want to have cool games like and rodesy has the collection yeah he has such a cool collection that like we're doing it a disservice that's why i'm always trying to get him to like i always hassle him when he brings the new stern in and i'll be like why aren't you bringing in one of those games we talked about bringing off the shelf you know i'm always trying to get those those games off the shelf and knock the dust off of them because like that's what gets me juiced about running wedge like that's what gets me excited i was like let's do some cool shit that nobody else gets to see let's operate that world beauties that nobody else gets to play yeah you know what i mean like you can always like take a few of those ems and run them out to kurt and just kind of leave them there. Yeah, totally. And say, when you get time, Kurt, when you get time, can you get these running for us, you know? Yeah, dude. Because, you know, because, I mean, it's hard. Like, I've listened to some of your other podcasts from some other operators, and, you know, when you're operating 60 games or more, like where Rhodes has got his route, it's hard to have any gas in the tank to do restoration at your shop. Oh, yeah, sure. You're constantly putting out fires, you know? Totally. it's hard to like get those those games that have been shelved for so long out so you know guys like kurt exist for a reason yeah exactly and he's great for the listener he's talking about curtis gardner an old school pinball guy here in the portland area he does uh restorations and he does a lot of work on em machines as well he's got a big kind of compound out i won't say exactly where but uh you know out yeah and the outskirts of town in a small oregon town great tech great tech wealth of knowledge has been doing it for 40 plus years so guy knows everything there is to know about pinball and uh especially the old electromechanical games that nobody else knows how to fix he's got old text fixtures out there from the manufacturers and shit like he's like it's unbelievable like that's my favorite i've only been out there twice but man i love going out to curtis's spot like it is so fucking cool like he's got he's always got something up his sleeve yeah he's got very cool games we gotta ask you to circle back to what you were talking about the rare game thing yeah right now like uh in my i have a a sega godzilla in my lineup which was which is kind of a rare game yes dude that game rules before anyone else does i just got to put dibs on that whenever you're going to sell it. I just have been waiting for one to pop up the right time, but you know, yeah. Rhodes told me that you're, that you had a real stiffy for that. So I'm going to, I will talk to you before I, and it will eventually, you know, hit the, hit the sale, you know, you know, you keep them for a little while, but it's playing pretty well. I, I found it on pin side. I had to drive a long way to get it, but Canada was at that one. Yeah. That was the one I was looking at that one forever and I just couldn't make it happen. I was like, it's too long drive to go get a game and just the timing was not right but that's nice well it worked out for me because i found somebody who wanted to buy a game off of me as a sold couple they wanted to buy my led zeppelin premium oh nice yeah and they were in bellingham so i was able to like kind of yeah oh you have to deliver it that's perfect i delivered it this old hippie couple in bellingham it's pretty rad that's pretty sick that's awesome a couple of other rare ones that I've recently kind of like show up in the tournament and then probably what get cycled into the floor is a transporter a ballet transporter that's a sick game yeah oh man and a volcano a godly volcano yeah volcano is sick too man you are serious about going volcano is especially awesome because if you look at the back glass it has dinosaurs cavemen and the Loch Ness monster all existing in the same moment yeah exactly it's got such good cavemen too they got like the heaviest brows total neanderthal yeah well that's pretty sick that's a good that's a good sampling of like the kind of like rare games you're talking about yeah and operating what games do you operate what games do best for you like for someone else living in a small town maybe starting up their own pin moment like operating business like you did what do you recommend like what earns well for you know obviously the new games right when they come out earn you know like x-men uh uncanny x-men you know the first month was did really good lots of those coin box was heavy you know that sort of thing but consistently the king is godzilla premium of course sure that thing is just that thing just prints money it's just amazing and i have had very little trouble with it it just chugs along it chugs along rebuild the flippers new rubbers just chugs the other game that i've added in the about in the past year that has done really well for me and i got this one from roads with it as a trade tales of the arabian nights oh yeah the customers really responded to it they really love it that's a cool game it's a cool game and it's also it's hard to find those on location yeah man yeah well there's not a lot of them made you know so well maybe 3,000 of them. I don't know. Yeah, but there's a lot of like, the thing is, is like, it's a super valuable game now. So people aren't routing them. They're selling them to collectors, you know, because it's going to. They're all in garages at this point. They're not at bars. They're kind of expensive to route. I got it at 75 cents you know which seems like a fair price for it Oh for sure Yeah I stripped it all down and cleaned it up and put new plastic and bought a new ramp and you know really dolled it up but it's, it's, it's playing really well. What else is doing well? Alien does pretty well because, well, the way I've got my lineup now is I got 13 up on the mezzanine and we have a four machine lineup on the ground floor now, which I kind of, I like doing that because it's kind of like the gateway drug you know you kind of like yeah people can kind of like see more people see it and it entices them to go up upstairs but down there on the ground floor i've got the x-men game and alien i've got a bally mystic down there and so sick and then i just finished rehabbing a scared stiff dude hell yeah which is doing really well because elvira boobies you know and then it's a And most people like that sort of thing. And it's a good game. Yeah. It draws, like, knucklehead sports bar guys over to it, you know. It's like, maybe I'll drop some money in this, you know. Yeah, you sure you don't want to get that old Stern Playboy back?
    34:28
    Yeah, exactly. You know, at least the Mistress of the Darkness has got something to offer more than the Playboy buddies do. Oh, for sure. But, yeah, Scared Stiff is doing pretty well. it might have taken over where Tales of the Arabian Nights was doing before because it's new games to the lineup always help that's why I always talk about it on the show but it's like that's why we rotate so many games at Wedgehead it's like we got a small pinball room small meaning 24 machines but like it's always rotating three or four games every single month are changing in that spot and every time we put new games in all the regulars just go and play the new shit like every time new shit's out there they're gonna go play it so it's like if you leave the lineup too static it doesn't matter what the games are it's like at a certain point people like yeah i played that a million times like yep they'll play a quote-unquote lesser game or game they like less they'll play that game they like less more just because it's new yep or it's new to the location played it to death already yeah it's like yeah but we we need to talk about your big tournament your big yearly tournament that we call the salty mermaid tell us about when it happens what the deal is how people need to register for it and all that kind of stuff this is our fourth year doing it we just kind of started it coming out of covid it was actually uh Rhodes kind of put the idea in my ear he's kind of like man should do something like that and we kind of banged it around and then when it really started to gel was when uh we talked to Zoe about it she's like oh hell yeah I'll td that and um that made it legit you know because she's kind of you know she's kind of a big deal yeah you get the name association then yeah it's kind of nice and she runs a tight ship i mean she makes it look easy but it's really not easy to run a big tournament like that she really and you know she flies out from new england and i enticed her a little bit you know i get her a hotel room and everything so she well she's here you know she doesn't have to pay for anything which is nice you know so she's come so far and everything but anyways it's capped at 64 players we i don't think our space could handle much more than that i mean I'd like to do more than that, but we kind of keep it at 64 is a good number. You bring in extra games, right? Yeah, we bring in 10 extra games. And those are – Rhodes usually brings out three, and he usually brings, like, EMs or, like, Valley or Classic Sturds, that vintage. And then we move a bunch of furniture out of the way and then kind of add those 10 games in the center. And those games that get added are definitely more historic games, you know, not modern games, because we already kind of have a lot represented. The tournament this year, it's a two-day event, April 19th and 20th. So it's Easter weekend or 4-20, depending on where your loyalties lie.
    37:12
    It could be both. It could be both, sure. The entries go on sale March 1st, noon at March 1st. Oh, nice. Last couple of years, it sells out within a couple hours. So if you think you want to do it, you should probably get on it at the time they go on sale. But we get a good turnout. We got people from Eugene and we get people from Portland, a lot of people from Portland. We've got more people now in Astoria. After I talk to Salty Mermaid Cup, I'd like to do a shout out for our pinball league out here. Salty Mermaid on Eventbrite. If you search Salty Mermaid 2025 on Eventbrite, you can find the page for buying the entries. And then also there's a Facebook event page for it if you want to learn more about it. It's match play. First day is qualifying. You know, we play like as many rounds as we can get in between noon and 7 p.m. usually about 10 rounds and then the top 16 advance to the finals on Sunday. And then we usually have a, last year we did this and it worked out really well. There was a, you know, losers tournament or a losers tournament on Sunday over at Galactics. So like if you don't get into the finals and you're still in town and you want to play in a different tournament, Galactics hosts another tournament over there. And it works out really well for everybody. And I was like, if you don't want to sit, drink and watch people play and you want to play yourself, you know, in the losers tournament and you can go over there well that's awesome you can crush beers and roads and i you know yeah take your choice whatever but i wanted to shout out uh to um our little pinball league we talked about like events earlier finally we got enough people in town where we're starting to do this thing and i'm not having to run it which is great so shout out to uh logan and shay and judy for doing pinball league but they meet once a week and uh they have a little tournament last tournament they had they had like 16 people which is nice that's a solid turnout yeah so yeah it's starting to starting to build a little bit that really makes me happy and it makes me happy that i don't really have to do anything it's just these guys are loving the game and they're and they're doing doing this thing and i'm really happy that they're doing it it's nice when you can like fire starts like going and you don't have to constantly be stoking it really it's a it's a good time come on out yeah what day of the week uh is the league oh it's Tuesday nights. What time does it start? 6 p.m. 6 p.m.? Yeah, Mary time. Yeah. I will make sure for all the listeners, I will make sure in the show notes that I have links to the Salty Mermaid, registering for the Salty Mermaid, and I will also write in the description the information about Tuesday Night League that happens at the Mary time. And we just want to thank you, Todd, for coming on the show and joining us and talking about building a scene in a small town and hopefully some other people listening can do the same because there's no reason why, you know, like when Todd moved to Astoria, he was just like, oh, I went from having a lot of pinball and it being a big part of my life to having none of it and then realizing like, well, it's got to be me, which is what we talk about on the show a lot. Like it can go from nothing to something just because you want to do it. And just because you're in a small town doesn't mean you can't do it. Like you can absolutely do the same thing. There's no reason why pinball machines can't be everywhere again like they were in the 70s. So I like talking to people. Yeah, I came to it late too. I guess probably started playing in a weeklies in Portland in 2009 or 10, something like that. Even if you're kind of new to it, you can do stuff. Well, Todd, we want to thank you for joining us on the show. We appreciate you. I love seeing you whenever you come to Portland playing some pinball, talking shit. Wedgehead's my favorite. Wedgehead is my favorite. You're the best, dude. We love seeing you. You always come in and support, and I hope we'll see a lot of people out there on 420 weekend. I'll be out there this year. The salty mermaid. I'm going to make it happen. Alex, you coming out? You going to come out? I'm coming out. All right, man. Yeah, so if you guys, anybody listening wants to show up and beat me, I'll choke.
    41:10
    Well, here's the thing about Alex. It's like, he likes drinking beers. So if you're like, hey, you want to drink beers? if you if you're afraid to face alex don't face him sober face him drunk and then you and then he's beatable so alex has mad skills though i played dollar games with alex and he's always getting my money yeah no alex waterboy's a good player waterboy's a sneaky good player so we'll see you said there's 64 players so i can't do worse than 64th for the listeners uh make it a trip out i mean you can day trip from portland it's a really fun destination a story is cool We touched on some of the other tourist reasons you go there at the beginning of the episode, the Goonies house and shit like that. But that's a good excuse to go there. And then you actually will just hang out in Todd's awesome spots playing pinball. Well, you can also make it a loop. Go down to Nahalem and hit Will's place. Shout out to Will down at North Coast Pinball. Yeah, that's a rad spot. And then come up and hit Marietime on your way home. So thanks for having me on, guys. I appreciate it. For the listener, until next time, good luck. Don't suck.
    42:13
    you guys ready for my hot take oh yeah yeah give us the hot take all right i'm going to table this for discussion firepower is the high watermark of steve richie's career discuss what does that mean the high watermark is and it's all downhill after that or is it like a continuous slope i mean firepower genuinely might be one of my favorite steve richie games so it's one of the most important games in pinball history too so i mean first solid state game with locks and multi ball there's no bullshit in firepower it's just it's fucking brutal hit these fucking stand-ups I fucking dare you lock these balls. You can't do it. Oh, here you did it. Oh, they're gone. Fuck you. Like, it's a great game. Like, I love firepower. The only issue with firepower is that his cooler, younger brother made a cooler, younger version of the game called Firepower 2.
    43:25
    Oh, now, wait a minute. Now, that is a hot take. I mean, the reason I wanted to have this quick discussion about firepower is because I can't get enough of it right now. It's a good game, man. I was looking at the numbers, the production numbers for Steve Ritchie's games, and it was the second largest production. Yeah. And you will never guess what the number one is. Is it Flash? It's Flash. It is Flash. Yeah. It's a fucking game, dude. I had no idea that Flash sold more than Firepower. I have no idea. I mean, it was a game changer, but it hasn't aged as well as Firepower. It's weird how they come out like back to back like that and how much better firepower still plays today. Firepower. If they put firepower into production right now, I'd be like, this game kicks ass. To be fair, though, Skateball's a rad game, and that's basically Flash just a little bit better. Yeah, that's kind of the hard part. You just kind of stole Steve's design and then sort of made it just a little bit better. Yeah. Right? Well, yeah. And it has a sick art package. Skateball's the game I want right now. Skateball's a cool game.