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Lego Spotting

NYC PinPod·podcast_episode·1h 3m·analyzed·Mar 10, 2025
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.037

TL;DR

NYC pinball tournament results, Single Cut Beersmith's venue tour, and discussion of pinball in media.

Summary

NYC Pin Pod episode covering local pinball competition results from early March 2025, featuring tournament standings, venue spotlights (Single Cut Beersmith's in Queens), and a discussion about pinball machine appearances in media and pop culture. The hosts discuss recent league play, IFPA competition results, and the joy of 'pin spotting' in music videos, TV shows, and films.

Key Claims

  • As of March 7, 2025, there are 275 pinball machines in New York City at 83 public locations

    high confidence · Data sourced from Pinball Map creators and users; cited as factual venue/machine count

  • Courtney Wetzel won Cameron Silver Ball Sunday tournament with 5.41 WPPR points; Eric Sweetland came second with 2.62 WPPR

    high confidence · Tournament results reported with official IFPA WPPR scoring data

  • Jason Zoller from New Jersey won the IFPA North American Pinball Championship in Rochester with 96.26 WPPR, with Zach Sharpe McCarthy, Luke Nahorniak, and Donovan Stepp placing second through fourth

    high confidence · Official championship results from Rochester Pinball Collective

  • The Mystery Pinball Theater 3000 is a biopic about Roger Sharpe and the 1976 NYC city council hearing where he played pinball to prove it was a game of skill

    high confidence · Madeline Lin directly references watching the film at Pinball Expo and meeting Roger Sharpe; confirmed as accurate drama with some embellishment

  • Single Cut Beersmith's added a Godzilla 70th Anniversary Edition on February 28, 2025

    high confidence · Machine update from Pinball Map user on specified date

  • The Big Lebowski Pinball was removed and then added back to Sunshine Laundromat around March 6, 2025

    high confidence · User DanTastic machine update report with timestamp

  • Single Cut Beersmith's has 14 machines including Bram Stoker's Dracula, Deadpool, Godzilla 70th Anniversary, Avatar, Johnny Pinball, Bride of Pinball, NBA Fast Break, and others

    high confidence · Alphabetical listing from Pinball Map of machines at Single Cut as of episode air date

  • Stars pinball is unique as a solid state machine with electronic scoring but retains bells for sound, representing the transition period from EM to solid state

    high confidence · Technical analysis by host with expertise on machine eras and transition technology

Notable Quotes

  • “I thought I was playing some good pinball, and then I wasn't. And it was kind of like bookended.”

    Jose Garcia @ ~5:45 — Self-deprecating comment about his tournament performance at Cameron Silver Ball Sunday

  • “The stream setup was set up on the rickiest table. So every time you would sit down on it, it would creak. And everything that was on top of it would jiggle. I was scared the bench was going to collapse under us.”

    Madeline Lin @ ~6:30 — Humorous description of technical production challenges at the streamed tournament

  • “I'm just watching TV and then I turn into the meme with Leonardo DiCaprio pointing at the TV holding a can, being like, oh. And I'm like, oh wait, wait, which table is that? Hold on, rewind, rewind 10 seconds.”

    Jose Garcia @ ~46:30 — Vivid description of the pin-spotting obsession that drives the community to identify machines in media

  • “There's a Facebook group called Pin Spotting where people post a screenshot when they find one, and boy, it's fun when you find a new one and you get to put it in there.”

    Madeline Lin @ ~47:00 — Reference to organized community pin-spotting activity

  • “Stars is a really unique machine in that sense in that it is a solid state pinball machine with electronic scoring but it still has bells. It is right from that period when they were transitioning from em to solid state.”

    Eric Sweetland @ ~51:00 — Technical explanation of Stars' unique hybrid characteristics and historical significance

  • “Roger Sharpe played a game of pinball at a city council in New York, in New York City to try to prove that it was not a gambling game but it was a game of skill.”

    Madeline Lin @ ~53:30 — Reference to the historical Roger Sharpe 1976 hearing that saved pinball from NYC ban

  • “It's such a great machine even if it's brutal.”

    Jose Garcia @ ~51:30 — Comment on Stars' reputation for difficulty balanced against appeal

Entities

Benjamin FurigapersonEric SweetlandpersonMadeline LinpersonJose GarciapersonCourtney WetzelpersonTommy OrtegapersonJason ZollerpersonZach Sharpe McCarthypersonLuke Nahorniakperson

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: First-ever stream of Cameron Silver Ball Sunday tournament at Single Cut Beersmith's, indicating growing community infrastructure and media documentation of local events

    high · Jose Garcia noted 'this was the first time that the Cameron Silver Ball Sunday is streamed, so that was also a lot of fun'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Positive reception of venue ambiance improvements at Single Cut Beersmith's; projector lava lamp effect and industrial space redesign received enthusiastic response from hosts

    high · Jose Garcia: 'it adds some really nice color to that area, which normally looks a little bleak and industrial. It was a nice accent on the space'

  • ?

    community_signal: Active pin-spotting community (Facebook group 'Pin Spotting') documenting pinball appearances in mainstream media; indicates growing pinball visibility in entertainment and fan engagement with broader culture integration

    high · Madeline Lin: 'There's a Facebook group called Pin Spotting where people post a screenshot when they find one, and boy, it's fun when you find a new one and you get to put it in there'

  • ?

    event_signal: Multiple competitive pinball tournaments running simultaneously across NYC venues (league play, NOVA Thursday Night Strikes, South Slope Pinball League) with 15-20+ player attendance per event, demonstrating robust local competitive ecosystem

    high · South Slope Pinball League meeting 5 had 15 players; NOVA Thursday Night Strikes had 20 players; multiple league divisions with matches across 15+ NYC venues

  • $

    market_signal: Godzilla 70th Anniversary Edition machine deployment to Single Cut Beersmith's indicates Stern maintaining distribution and venue refresh strategy; artwork attribution to Shane Black and Dick White noted

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.191

0:30
Happy Sunday, pinfolk, or whatever day you're listening to. This is NYC Pin Pod, in which a panel talks location pinball in and around New York City. My name is Benjamin Furiga, my initials are BCF, and I am pleased as punch to be here. My name is Eric Sweetland, my initials are HIP, and I'm a pinball tournament director in New York City. Hey y'all, my name is Madeline Lin, my initials are she, her, hers, my pronouns are MXL, and this week, I'm going to talk about pinball. My name is Jose Garcia. My initials are JGN, and I'm going to a week-long music festival next week. Benjamin is actually on assignment. On this week's pod, we'll run down local competition results in Ball 1. In Ball 2, we'll talk about single-cut Beersmith's Queens as a pinball venue. And in Ball 3, we'll have a chat about pin spotting in media.
1:22
Don't you hate when your favorite podcasts start with a pre-roll ad? This episode of the New York City Pin Pod is brought to you by FanDuel. Make every moment more. Whether you're maximizing your mode and multi-ball combo or picking the perfect parlay, FanDuel Sportsbook is the app for you. Download on both the App Store or Google Play, use promo code EXTRABALL, and get $69 in bonus bets. Must be 21 or older to play. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER. FanDuel. Make every moment more. FanDuel Sportsbook, the official sponsor of the New York City Pin Pod. This show is not sponsored by FanDuel. Or anyone. But the good news is that we have some fun content coming that has some kind of contest. There's not any gambling at all. But if you're familiar at all, which how could you not be in the United States with the NCAA tournament? We have the NYC PPAA tournament. That's the NYC Pin Pod Awesomeness Archive. 16 pinball machines, each in four eras, DMD, flat screen, electromechanical, solid state, will be named on March 16th when we release NYC Pin Pod. You can fill out your predictions of what we will then whittle down. If you predict correctly the most games, you will win an awesome prize. and be inducted into the NYC PPAA, along with the pinball game that wins the tournament, which we will name the greatest pinball game of all time, at least for right now.
3:00
Donovan Stepp
person
Josh Sharpperson
Roger Sharpeperson
Scott Ian Leoneperson
Michael McNealperson
Robert Wongperson
Matthew Gradyperson
Matthew Carlsonperson
Kate Steven Martinperson
Single Cut Beersmith'scompany
NYC Pin Podorganization
IFPAorganization
Godzilla 70th Anniversary Editiongame
The Mystery Pinball Theater 3000game
Caravan Palaceperson

medium · Machine update log: 'Godzilla 70th Anniversary Edition was added to Single Cut Beersmith's in Queens' on Feb 28, 2025

  • ?

    community_signal: Reference to Roger Sharpe documentary film indicating continued cultural narrative around pinball history and the 1976 NYC legalization hearing; film meets with community approval at Pinball Expo

    high · Madeline Lin attended Pinball Expo film premiere of The Mystery Pinball Theater 3000 with Roger Sharpe Q&A; characterized as 'charming', 'great production value', mostly historically accurate

  • ?

    product_concern: Technical issues with machines at Single Cut Beersmith's during tournament: T2 had ball escape behind toy, NBA Fast Break completely offline, some machines removed from tournament play mid-event

    medium · Madeline Lin detailed T2 malfunction: 'One ball hit the shot, and then a second ball came right behind it...pushed that second ball behind the mask, behind the toy, outside of the metal railings' requiring floor decision to remove from tournament

  • ?

    venue_signal: Single Cut Beersmith's cleared out large industrial brewery vat storage space and expanded pinball machine area with picnic tables and ambient projection effects, suggesting investment in pinball as venue draw

    high · Jose Garcia described transformation: 'all of those giant vats went away. And now that whole area is set up with like picnic tables...There's another set of like seven machines' and added projector with lava lamp effect

    • Let's get started. Let's talk about last week's pinball results. On Sunday, March 2, at Silver Ball Sunday at Single Cut 23, Tommy Ortega organized Silver Ball Sunday. There were five rounds of group match play with the top four players advancing to finals. Eric Swidlin and Courtney Wetzel won the day, followed by Matthew Grady in third and Tommy Ortega in fourth. Eric, how was it? Courtney won, and I came in second after a tiebreak after the final three in the Papa standings. That wasn't reflected on the match play. But we do have the final results in with the IFPA to see that Courtney got 5.41 whoppers for that first place. 2.62 for me, 1.55 for Matt Grady, and 0.97 for Tommy Ortega. Jose, you were commentating on the stream for a good part of it, too. How was your day? I thought I was playing some good pinball, and then I wasn't. And it was kind of like bookended. I had a bad game one, I think, and then a bad last couple of games, which left me to be, I don't know, middle of the pack or so. But I had a lot of fun, and I think this was the first time that the Silver Ball Sunday is streamed, so that was also a lot of fun. Nice. What was really interesting is that the stream setup was set up on the rickiest table. So every time you would sit down on it, it would creak. And everything that was on top of it would jiggle. I was scared the bench was going to collapse under us.
    4:27
    It was tons of fun. And we'll talk more about single cut on ball two. Yeah. On Monday, March 3rd, in the left flipper division, the New York City Flipper Sport Association played against Balls of Steel at Midway, coming away with 10 points to the Balls of Steel 6. Eric, how were the Balls of Steel?
    4:48
    NYCFSA had a good time playing Balls of Steel at Midway. On Monday, we got a note in from Zen Zokniak of the Balls of Steel with a picture of Game of Thrones. It's a four-player game, only player. It's Ball 1, Player 2. player one has finished with 3.5 billion after one ball zen said during the final match of the day a bizarre machine malfunction disrupted play just as nyc fsa seemed destined for victory the game froze completely forcing a restart in the rematch adam robinson playing as player one channeled his frustration and took it out on the game or won that 3.5 billion jesus yeah we we had to get at least one of the two in the final round, Adam certainly made the case for it right there, and that's how we got the 10-6 win.
    5:42
    Nice. Excellent. Also on Monday, we had Parliament play Intermission Dolores at the Monroe with a blowout win of 14-2 points. The Aristocrats played against Special when lit at Rulos. Special had 9 points to the Aristocrats' 7. Pinball Union played the 2-for-1ers at McKenna's Pub with 11 points from pinball union to the two for oneers five jose was at that match what was up it was a very interesting match because neither team had a lot of team members pinball union only had four the two for oneers i believe only had five and then one of their five left so at some point it was just four against four oh wow mckenna's pub also only has two machines it's avengers infinity quest and demolition man it's a great place i've never been before it was a very even start to the night it was tied up all the way to round two two twos two twos round three we won one out and then round four we actually um swept nice what was interesting about the night is that for the most part i think because there's only two machines i think basically everyone stayed in the same machines that they were that they were playing good at i own an avengers infinity quest machine so every one of the games that i played was avengers infinity quest casey for example was playing on the Demoman all night. Shout out to Travis from the 241ers putting up a great, great score on Demoman. By the way, in between rounds, Travis got a 6 billion score on Demolition Man. Goodness. Following their 3 billion score that took the win during that round 3 match. It was very even. We got very lucky with those last couple of rounds and we got the night. Furthermore, on Monday, March 3rd in the left flipper, the Pin Pals played against the lesser players at Jack Bar with an even 8-8 split game. The Mutants played against the Colliders at Buttermilk Bar. And my goodness, Pinfolk, we did not do well. The Mutants beat us 15 points. She just won on the Colliders team. That's because best player Madeline wasn't there because she was asleep. Her 6 o'clock nap turned into a 6 o'clock bedtime. So, yeah, that happens. Oh, no. bcf here i was at the colliders match on monday and neglected to write a note for my compatriots as to what happened but shout out to ian leone who had massive games on godzilla and iron maiden in the final doubles round got cyborg multiball boom also michael McNeila beat the crap out of our Sparky on Metallica. We colliders, as is our way, were cute. The Lion Persons played against the Deluxe Horses at Barcade Brooklyn with 12 points to the Lion Persons and 4 points for the Deluxe Horses. On Tuesday, March 4, the Right Flipper, the Trolls, played against No Quarters for Laundry at Solid State, 2 points to the Trolls, and 14 for No quarters. The Scrapples squad had a bye week this week with a default score of nine. Danger Danger played against the Butterballers at Buttermilk with 14 points to the Butterballers too. Eric, how was that night? It was the Butter Bowl. It came early this season, only in the second week, but when Danger Danger and Butterballers both get to play each other at home, it's always a big celebration. It was a good party. I certainly wore a very cute outfit for it. Danger Danger obviously swept the floor with us, but it was a heck of a lot of fun.
    9:22
    What was your outfit? I had on my cut up Butterballers t-shirt over a mesh top, both underneath my newly thrifted black jeans jacket with the NASA logo on the pocket. and that was on top of my newly thrifted wool pencil skirt, my pink butts socks that I got for the whole team and my Doc Martens heck yeah that NASA jacket's gonna be vintage cause of all the funding cuts you know it's gonna be sports nowadays can become a collectible huh the pin babes played against the Harlem Glow Flippers at the Wallace 1 point going to the Pin Babes, and 15 points going to the Harlem Globe Flippers. Rest in Pinball, RIP, played against the Pinister Six at Skylark, with 7 points to Rest in Pinball and 9 to the Pinister Six. The Schlubs played against the Ball Drainers at Jack Bar, with 6 points to the Schlubs and 10 for the Ball Drainers. Finally, we have Neptune's Treasure versus the Replays at Rulos, with 11 points going to Neptune's Treasure and 5 for the replays. On Thursday, March 6th, NOVA presents Thursday Night Strikes, the March 6th edition. 20 players met, and Adam Robinson took the night with only two strikes to their name, followed by Gabe, Ian Leone, Nitsan, and Michel Kapowianko, who also appeared in the final picture holding up a $5 bill. Also on Thursday, South Slope Pinball League meeting number five of the first season of the 2025 was held at Buttermilk Bar under the direction of Kate Martin. Fifteen players came out. On top of the night, Robert Wong had 29 points, Matthew Carlson 27. Taylor Connolly and Matthew Grady both got 25 points. With only one meeting to go before finals in the league, your top eight. Rob Wong with 115 points Matt Brady with 103 Matthew Carlson with 96 Myself with 92 Zen Zokniak at 88 Taylor Connolly at 87 AJ Gould at 78 And Steven Christopher at 77 Right below the line at the top of the B finals But looking to get into A Kate Martins got 76 Rob Adler has 74 Monica Weidekamp has 70 wow yeah very tough like very close competition there right yeah it's looking good this last meeting could mean a lot of shuffling for those a finals and b finals cut off definitely i had to miss last night i so i you know i have a blank there but i'm definitely i'm feeling pretty good at 92 but still i want to have a good week next week so do we all also on thursday in the not so nearby surrounding areas, but with local interest. The IFPA North American Pinball Championship was held in Rochester, New York at the Rochester Pinball Collective under the direction of Josh Sharp. The 58 winners of the various state championships and provincial championships gathered. It was a head-to-head bracket the whole way. And in the end, Jason Zoller from New Jersey. Got first place and already in 96.26 Whoppers. He was followed by Zach McCarthy, Luke Nahorniak, and Donovan Stepp in second through fourth. Excellent. Congrats to all the players. We also, yeah, and if a little bit about the format, I believe that it's six games. Each player picks an old, a mid, and a new game in their bank, and then you get paired up against them. Whoever gets to four points first wins that matchup. If you both get to three points, then you play a tiebreaker. And then you keep moving up just like a regular bracket. So that must have been a very long day for all the players. So congrats to all of you and enjoy the well-earned Whoppers. Looking ahead. Silver Ball, show me the future.
    13:39
    What upcoming tournaments do we have in 2025? Next week, next week, next week, next week on Monday, March 10 And in the left, Flipper, the Aristocrats versus the New York City Flipper Sports Association and at the Wallets. The Mutants versus the Pinballs at Skylark. Balls of Steel versus Pinball Union at Barcade Brooklyn. Two for Oners and Lion Persons at Gebhard's Beer Culture. The Lesser Players versus Special One Lit at Rulo's. The Deluxe Horses versus Parliament at Owl Farm. And Intermission Glorious versus the Colliders at Buttermilk Bar. And then also on Tuesday, March 11, Danger Danger versus the Trolls at Bar Great Harry. Shlubs versus Rest and Pinball at Barcade Brooklyn. No Quarters for Laundry versus the Pinbades at Birdies. Harlem Globe Flippers versus Neptune's Treasure at Milo's Yard. to the Pinister Six versus the Butterballers at Buttermouth Bar. The replays versus Scrapple Squad at Sunshine Laundromat. And the Ball Drainers have not a pan week, but a bye week. On Thursday, March 13, NOBA presents Thursday Night Strikes. Jack Bar, 143 Habermeyer Street in Brooklyn, New York. Three-strike head-to-head affair with a $6 buy-in starting at 8 p.m. No pre-registration and no player caps. We also have meeting number five of the South Slope Pinball League 2025 S1 at 577 Fifth Avenue in Brooklyn. This is a league event match play qualifying following match play finals formats chill folks only on saturday march 15 dungeons and dragons launch tournament at rock fantasy 12 east main street in middletown match play qualifying 1 p.m to 6 p.m top eight make time match play final 7 p.m to 10 p.m $10 entry fee plus coin drop pay top eight players if we have over 28 entries top five if under sunday march 16 st pentrix day in brooklyn new york 10 rounds of match play top eight to a Pinberg-style final. Food competition is best Irish food. Jameson does not count, but is a worthy addition, directed by Kate Martin at a private residence. Ball 2.
    15:23
    As of March 7, 2025, there are 275 pinball machines in New York City at 83 public locations. Thanks to the creators and users of Pinball Map for this data, here are machine updates from the past week.
    15:38
    On Friday, February 28, a Godzilla 70th anniversary edition was added to Single Cut Beersmith's in Queens. On Saturday March 1st, user RealSpacePirate stopped by Barcade Brooklyn and commented on the dialed in I love this game It back and better than ever There are a few of these in the Philly area but this is the only one in NYC right now. Get Quantum with it. On Sunday, March 2nd, user SuperCoven37 said of the Iron Maiden at Buttermilk, right flipper is fixed, no longer sticky. On Monday, March 3rd, User MFB went by Jack Bar and noticed that the Cactus Canyon has a sign saying machine is out of order March 2nd. User MFB also went to Barcade Chelsea and noted that the Apollo 13 machine is turned off as of March 3rd, 2025, still physically present at the location. Also on Monday, user Mir went to Filthy Diamond in Brooklyn and noted that the Guns N' Roses from Jersey Jack was removed and Adam's Family was removed, but said of the Sopranos, Now the soul machine here and moved from the little back room to the front of the bar, which is nice. Plays great and you don't bump your hand against the ledge now. Sadly, the tilt sensor is pretty overtuned at the moment. e.g. tilting if the ball is in the pops too long. On Tuesday, March 4th, user JNS went to solid state and left a few comments. Of Malahari, they said, pristine. And of Ghostbusters said, played super, left ramp, easy to backhand. And on Indiana Jones, they said, just the best. This is how we say goodbye in Germany. On Thursday, March 6th, a Deadpool and a Stranger Things were removed for Sunshine Laundromat, but a Big Lebowski was added back. User DanTastic commented, abiding again, and then a smiley face emoji, the one with the little sunglasses. Let's talk about Single Cut Beersmith's Queens. located at 1933 37th street in astoria your best bet for getting there via public transportation is to take the end train all the way till the end of the line at astoria ditmars boulevard and then it's still about a mile walk from there there's some buses that can get you a little bit closer. But this is way out there at the end of Queens, the very north edge. It's the furthest place for me to get to out of anywhere that includes Solid State and at the Wallace. This is further, but it's a cool place up there. It's a brew pub. You walk in, there's a bar up front to your left a little, stainless steel behind which they've got about 16 taps of their own beer. They've got fridges full of cans you can buy to take home too. And a big seating area on the right. Mostly wood booths, concrete floors, stainless steel cladding along the walls. And towards the back, you can tell what was once a large functioning industrial area is now a large industrial area that is largely filled with some unused giant beer vats. sometime recently, a good chunk of that giant storage space had been cleared out and it's opened up a bit more. Jose, you've been there both before and after. What's it like now? Yeah, I think, I mean, they're using the space wonderfully. To paint a picture, once you get in to the brewery, you have this main seating area that has some high tables and booths with the tap area where you get your beer. There's also a little kitchen to the left side. And then on the right, once you pass these tables, you're open up into this like big industrial vat looking space. And what it used to be before is that it was literally taken up by other brewery equipment and they still had some machines back there. If I remember correctly, before the expansion, about seven or eight machines. Back then it was like Tulsa the Arabian Nite, Congo and stuff like that. It was all Peter's machines. I want to say this year or late last year, all of those giant vats went away. And now that whole area is set up with like picnic tables, like the ones that you have that are a little bit bigger, that have benches that are plastic. I want to say maybe like six of them. And then all the way in the back of that area, there's another set of like seven machines. Nice. Some of the ones that you won't see anywhere else in New York City. we'll talk about the machines later some really cool thing that happens in this back area that i noticed when we were there on sunday is that when it gets darker there is a projector that turns on and projects a giant circle like screensaver of like bubbles or like blobs moving around oh it's like a lava lamp yeah it's like a lava lamp projector onto like a huge blank space that they have back there and it i was not expecting it and all of a sudden i see this giant projection happening i'm like oh that's that's actually really cool it adds some really nice color to that area which normally look a little bleak and industrial it was a nice accent on the space yeah and i it really popped out to me later i was re-watching the stream of the tournament from sunday and realized like behind the players and some of the shots depending which machine you plan it does really brighten up the very concrete feel of that background right i did also want to talk a little bit about the menu both the food and the alcohol menu yeah on the food side they have some fairly standard bar food let's say you've got your sliders you've got your nacho quesadilla style appetizers they have it's a full setup for like what i would consider like a bar menu and it's actually very very delicious and economical too like i feel like i got two sliders for like six dollars nice that feels like a steal these days that food is really good and the beer i love that it has like very quirky names for all their beer one of the beers that i i was eyeing but i didn't have any that day was called heavy boots of lead and it's an imperial stout and it has like a little robot in the front and that's why it has the heavy boots of lead but they have some very nice other beers, kind of like Pop IPA, which is like a popcorn. The whole logo of it is just like a popcorn thing. Great graphic design on that can. Yeah, all of these are just spectacularly beautiful designs, honestly. On Sunday I was having Eric Moore Cowbell Stout. Nice. But they misspelled it, so. Oh, no. They used to see, huh? instead of the K.
    22:48
    I also want to shout out their non-alcoholic beverage. They don't have it on their website, but I know that it's called the Shine On. And it is a sparkling lemonade. And it is very, very, very good. And it is served straight from the top. It tastes excellent. So on top of the fact that they have a huge selection for pinball, they have a pretty good food selection and an amazing beer selection on top of all that. So the brewery really lives up to its name. I've been there, you know, a handful of times. always on a Sunday afternoon, always for one of Tommy's tournaments.
    23:20
    It's a nice place to hang out for a Sunday afternoon. I find it comfortable to be there for a while. I like it. Well, they've got this second row of machines now. I don't remember off the top of my head how they're divided up, so I'm going to read them alphabetically off the pinball map listing for the 14 machines currently at single cut. We've got a Bram Stoker's Dracula, a Deadpool Pro, a Dirty Harry, fishtails a foo fighters le a getaway uh godzilla 70th that's the black and white one a johnny mnemonic uh a machine bride of pinball i forgot to look close is that does it have the 2.0 kit installed in it or is it the original i couldn't tell you i'm sorry i was i i kept thinking i saw the corner of my eye that it had the extra screen but i can't remember if peter has that why not an nba fast break a no fear a rush le a t2 and a whodunit that was acting up there were a couple of technical issues at the tournament on sunday i seem to remember maybe t2 doing something crazy yeah t2 has a giant metal skull for one of the terminators which you is one of the shots that you shoot at to lock your balls. One ball hit the shot, and then a second ball came right behind it. And that shot has a drop target. And when the drop target was coming up, it pushed that second ball behind the mask, behind the toy, outside of the metal railings. Someone was playing their multi-ball, and then they drained, and it's like, wait, the game's still going.
    25:04
    What's going on? We couldn't really get it unstuck. So the decision was made on the floor to not have it in the tournament anymore. NBA Fast Break was completely turned off while we were there. Whodunit was turned on, but we did not play it. Dracula, if I'm not mistaken, was also not in the tournament. So for the machines that I played, they played very well. I'm usually a big fan of Peter's maintenance on these machines. And I'm sure all of these were just stuff that happened recently and not been able to actually fix yet. the game setups were extremely clean everything working with those few machine exceptions and very tight tilts oh yeah they're very peter machines yep let's talk about pinball in media or pin spotting in media i had this a very front of mind because i recently saw a music video of a band that i really like it's an electropop swing band called caravan palace and they always have some like really nice videos and i'm enjoying their video their dancers are doing their thing uh when all of a sudden i spot a pinball machine on the side on the side of the of the view like it wasn't even in the middle it wasn't it was just to the side and i am now obsessed with what this pinball machine is and why it's there and i wanted to talk about like why that is i think it's very interesting to see just pinball machines just randomly out in nature yes when it feels such a big hobby for us. And maybe in media it feels like it's just an extra set of a prop. But whenever I see it, I get very excited and all of a sudden I'm like, alright, let me try to find out what machine this is and what it's doing there. Do you all get the same experience?
    26:49
    I feel that. I'm just watching TV and then I turn into the meme with Leonardo DiCaprio pointing at the TV holding a can, being like oh and i'm like oh wait wait which table is that hold on rewind rewind 10 seconds let's run that back and see yeah so yes it's a little bit of our universe going out into like the rest of the universe which feels weird because it's not a like an us and them thing but it's more of like oh it's something that you know pinball was ubiquitous and and is gaining a lot of traction uh again so yeah it makes sense that it's in it's in media anywhere yeah i always like spotting one in uh in something in the wild there's a a facebook group called pin spotting where people post a screen cap and and when they when they find one and boy it's fun when you find a new one and you get to put it in there that's always great just since you mentioned it jose i started like noticing it in the last week or so. I think maybe it's happening all the time. Just sort of low level and I'm not taking notice of it but since you brought it to mind then a couple of them popped up. Bizarrely, a friend sent me a meme. It was just a reel with a cut from an old Simpsons episode where they visit Australia and they go to a dive bar at one point. There's a series of jokes in there but at the start of the sequence, there's a shot of Bart and Lisa sitting at a table, and in the background, unseen, there's bells and chimes. There's classic pinball sounds. You never get to see any pinball machines in the bar, but it's there, and it's just like the meme, I don't know, I don't think that's why I was sent the meme, or actually it was, because it was Alan who sent it to me. He sent it for the pinball reason, but he spotted that too, right? In a completely unrelated joke, it was just a background noise, and your brain goes, ping-ping when the bells go off. Hey, and if you could recognize exactly what machine that is, just from the bells and chimes, that would be very impressive. I think I've heard a lot of stars, and that machine chimes very particularly, I think, because when you rip the spinner, it just goes ding-ding-ding-ding, very, I don't know, very specifically. I think maybe if I could listen to that sound, I would tell, oh, that's stars. Someone's playing stars right now. stars is a really unique machine in that sense in that it is a solid state pinball machine with elect you know electronic scoring it's got digits on the back glass but it still has bells it is right from that period when they were transitioning from em to solid state so they they built it with the solid state tech for the displays and and and the game code and running the machine but they still have the bells for the sound so in that case too also stars has like a unique bell and most most of your ems like from one manufacturer are all going to have one kind of bell set up and a different manufacturer have slightly different ones so you can tell the sounds between them but stars has like a weird little unique one being like the one of the last machines ever made with with chimes right and and hey i mean it works for it i think if i were it's such a it's such a great machine even if it's brutal i also did want to bring up pinball and media in general like the fact that there are some like movies being made with pinball in mind movies or even television episodes of stuff i like to bring up the the man who saved pinball that one came out relatively recently and it's about roger sharp and the fact that uh i guess tiny tiny spoiler roger sharp played a game of pinball at a city council in new york in new york city to try to prove that it was not a gambling game but it was a game of skill rather the movie revolves around that and also gives a little bit of exposition into like what roger sharp's life was at the time i mean i yeah i don't think you have to worry about a spoiler when the title the full title of the movie is The Man Who Saved the King you know it came right after the colon in the title they took care of that for you it's a super charming movie it's a great movie it's really nicely done I had a chance to meet Roger Sharp at the expo last year where we watched the movie and then he had a little Q&A session right after. And he said that, well, he personally worked with the directors of the movie to get things to be as accurate as possible. But, you know, a movie being a drama, you know, some of the, like, dramatic stuff that happened is a little embellished, and they display that. But for the most part, he says that it's all pretty accurate. I enjoyed that about a biopic, right? I would implore anyone to watch the movie. It's a great movie. It's fun. It has a lot of great production value And if you don want to see it or don have the two hours to see it there is an episode of a show called Drunk History hosted by Comedy Central And they have an episode on just like games. And it's not just about pinball. It has like chess and it has some other thing that I don't remember. But they have a four minute segment in their episode about Drunk History of Roger Sharp and how he had that city council event. And it is hilarious because what they do is they have someone who has had a couple of drinks try to describe what happened, try to describe what it is that happened. And they use all of the voice that that person uses and then reenact it. That's just four minutes, and it'll give you a pretty good overview of LaGuardia Prohibition and how it ended there with Roger Sharp's help. Thanks, Roger. Friend of the show. some other pinball movies out there there's pinball summer the uh the 1980 teenage romp oh that it's pretty fun it was made for low budget in montreal but they pretend that it's california by the seashore the overarching plot is a pinball tournament that happens at the end it's and it's nice semi-entertaining it does have a great pop soundtrack they came you know pinball summer the lead track is is a banger and uh i've got the record of the soundtrack speaking of pinball and music i think the other like a huge pinball ish related uh movie is tommy's the who right oh sorry the who's tommy uh of course yeah tommy um that movie has you know all the songs from the album of course there's the pinball machine that is tommy uh and uh i actually haven't seen the movie but i kind of know what the plot is and i believe that the you know tommy the main character becomes kind of like a a big shot pinball person to try to like make money or something like that is that accurate the whole the whole the whole pinball thing is completely tacked on to just a nutso story about some prophet who leads a new religion. I see, so this is like a weird movie then.
    34:17
    If I recall, Pete Townsend was writing this rock opera and didn't know what to put in it, and their manager said, I don't know, make it about pinball. oh okay so he wrote Pinball Wizard and put it in this otherwise unrelated rock opera he was writing as sort of styling I can't recommend the movie okay fair I'm not a fan let's say that strike it off the record we've lost the recommendation also I can recommend just to avoid the movie tilt with Brooke Shield Yeah, 100%. I wasn't even going to bring it up because it's not a good movie. Like, in all forms of the way, it is not a good movie. So, Tilt is a bad movie.
    35:10
    That said, there is another pinball movie called Tilt that came out in the 2010s or the 2020s. Oh, the documentary. No, no, it's not a documentary. What's this one? It's a low-budget movie from, like, Tubi. and it is low budget so you know you painfully can tell that people aren't playing pinball and stuff like that the intro is like three minutes long and it's just the pinball ball going around like revenge for mars or attack for mars and they have like literally close up camera going along following it is an okay movie right I mean I don't want to be overly harsh. There's another movie called Tilt that's a documentary, which is what pops into mind when you said it. Which then makes me think, yeah, there's a few documentaries about pinball. So there's Tilt, The Battle to Save Pinball.
    36:09
    And then there was also another movie called Special When Lit. Both of those sort of talking about what the industry was like in the 90s. kind of covering that sort of thing. And then there's Wizard Mode, which was the really cool documentary that followed around Robert Gagno and his quest to win Pinberg, right? Yeah. Or was it... I haven't heard of that one. I might actually get that look. Oh, yeah. It's good. It's well done. I have a mild close reading connection between the wizard mode and also the famous song and I wonder if those maybe are just built off each other I don't know how esoteric we want to get here but we know we know the lyrics clearly of the song right you know the silver ball yada but then you have the deaf dumb blind kid and one could initially look at it with like a present lens and be like oh that's ableism but also a quick google search said this was not intended that way it's just like oh this person who has this other thing and you can kind of read it as some sort of like pseudo you know autism code or you know autistic savant kind of deal and what's always tricky with that sort of thing is that it always sort of connotates like the magical minority trope, you know, like the magical negro or the model minority movie trope where the POC helps the white person in their main character quest, or like the woman muse or the woman manic pixie dream girl to help the dude figure out his own shit. And while I'm always glad to see Neurodivergence represented, I do find it slightly unfortunate that the title does sort of lean into the original setup of the song in the present day, but I'm, you know, I'll take the representation. since without it you wouldn't have any.
    38:12
    I hadn't seen that connection before. Often what happens with people who are neurodiverse, it's like you can't relate to them, but they're really good at this one thing, and they can help society because of this one thing. And you see this happen a lot with the good doctor, where first of all, the dude playing it is not disabled in any way. right we know not to whitewash you know or blackface you know we know kind of not to you know queerbait and such but we still definitely do you know wearing the ableism mask right nobody nobody looks at like tom hanks in in um what's the box yeah nobody looks at that and it's like yeah that was kind of bad with as much cringe as i think we do like um other identities i do think um in my in my professional field like special ed and such the disability still has a lot of work to do and i do find it unfortunate that the movie would be willingly called wizard mode that you can only relate to this person through what they're doing instead of who they are as a person but again this is assuming you read really closely into the lyrics of a song that came out like 60 years ago.
    39:32
    Elton John has Pinball Wizard as a song, but also has multiple connections to pinball in music videos, right? I think Captain Fantastic is one of the ones that is very clear. But then also recently, as recently as, I want to say, years ago. Yeah, I just saw something. What was it? Remind me. Yeah, so it is Elton John and Brandi Carlile sang a song called Who Believes in Angels? And the whole set is a pinball machine. So they have like Elton John's piano is sitting on top of like a pop bumper. And like, which sounds disastrous, because as soon as that pinball hits that pop bumper, that piano is going to go everywhere. but they yeah they're just singing it's just a music video where they're just like standing inside a pinball machine yeah I thought the song was pretty disappointing yeah I don't think the song was great but the music video was great the video was cool better was last year Megan Thee Stallion had a music video that was really pinball related song was called Never Play. That was good, and that's a good song. So, good song and cool pinball-related music video. Recommend. I've noticed how pinball is used as a way to characterize characters, and Benjamin pointed out this last week where you can use a pinball machine just as a way to connotate a set being in a certain time period or a certain mood.
    41:14
    One example that I'm well aware of is in the character Needy with Megan Fox and Jennifer's body when they're at the bar. Needy, the nerdy girl, is alone in the corner playing pinball while Megan Fox is like flirting and getting free drinks and such. And that sort of arcade vibe with Needy playing Red Hot shows that she's a nerdy, needy person, whereas Megan Fox is off and getting free drinks. In contrast, in a very early example of pin spotting that I can think of, Fonzie plays pinball on Happy Days. It's actual gameplay, too, but it's a nip-it machine, which I'm pretty sure came out in 76, and Happy Days, though filmed in the late 70s, was supposed to be set in the 50s. So the machine was anachronistic.
    42:14
    Oh, no. What a weird continuity issue to have in a show like this. You'd think that they would know to not include something that came out so recently.
    42:31
    That's a good meme for Stranger Things. Someone got really upset that there were lime green Lego bricks in a Stranger Things shot. And they very angrily typed out a whole history of the lime green plastic. do lego fans do lego spotting and they have to i'm sure did you see it in casino royale there's a pinball machine in the first few minutes where the dictator is playing pinball and that shows his like third world childishness compared to the rich wealthiness of the dude buying him off interesting i don't even i don't remember that scene oh it's like right at the beginning i only know this because of the facebook group and i Oh, yeah, yeah. I recall. Yeah. And then right after the dictator stops playing, a kid runs up and starts playing the pinball machine instead. And then my final example I know is also from Regular Show, which is this cartoon that came out in 2010, which is about this 23-year-old bluebird and this 23-year-old raccoon that live in a three-story house in the middle of what appears to be some sort of California park. and they're in charge of keeping the park clean except at about seven minutes into the ten minute episodes of the show something very irregular happens like we'll be playing rock paper scissors over a crappy chair and then out of nowhere a green demon will appear in the sky because they get to a hundred ties of rock paper scissors and the demon eats the chair and the episode ends and that's the entire premise of the entire franchise now that you've sold it Do it so well. Where's the pinball?
    44:09
    There was one example where Santa had his, his invaded by a disgruntled elf who made a perfect present, but everybody turned evil. And so the perfect present got hidden in a Harry Potter one style vault where Santa set up all these traps. So they had to wrestle a polar bear. They had to run a clock, run across like invisible ice bricks and they play games. And so the two main characters, they only play stand-up arcade consoles. Their boss plays pinball, showing that the boss is old school and retro compared to the virtual video cabinets of his younger subordinates. It seems like the name regular in regular show is anything but. well y'all now that we've discussed various forms of representation either seriously with neurodiversity and pinball or less seriously with giant green monsters eating your couch that you're fighting over with rock paper scissors I hope that all of you find ways to represent yourselves and the game or the sport in as best a way possible with our best foot forward we can attract new players and new community members to our ever-growing tents, and we can continue to represent ourselves well.
    45:34
    That's it for today's episode. Thank you all for listening. Meet us next week, where we'll be discussing in Ball 1,
    45:41
    insert events here, Ball 2, insert location here, and Ball 3, insert theme here. And as always, whatever you're doing this week go get them, Pink Folk it's been an unfired Chekhov's gun
    46:21
    you Thank you Thank you.