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046: Pinball Regrets & Dollar Bets

Punk Rock Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·34m 15s·analyzed·May 4, 2026
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.033

TL;DR

Hosts discuss pinball regrets, speculate on Fallout/Transformers/AC/DC rumors, and expand tournament network.

Summary

Hosts Stephanie and Mike discuss pinball regrets and dollar bets, covering their wish they'd bought a machine earlier, Mike's regret about trading away an excellent Bond Pro for a problematic Bond Premium (later for Uncanny X-Men, then finally for Fall of the Empire Pro), and speculation about upcoming Stern releases including a Fallout pinball rumored to be based on video games rather than the Amazon show. They also highlight their growing punk rock pinball tournament network across the US and reflect on play counts being irrelevant to machine quality.

Key Claims

  • Stern is developing a Fallout pinball machine

    medium confidence · Mike and Stephanie discuss rumors about Fallout pinball; no official confirmation, speculation based on typical Stern release timing

  • Fallout pinball will be based on the video games, not the Amazon show

    medium confidence · Stephanie made a dollar bet on this; reasoning cited is licensing complexity and creative limitations if based on the show

  • Transformers will be the next newly announced Stern game after current releases

    low confidence · Mike speculates: 'I think the next one you'll see is Transformers...totally reimagined'; presented as personal hunch

  • AC/DC remaster is rumored, possibly designed by John Borg

    low confidence · Mike mentions hearing about AC/DC redesign with Borg; unclear sourcing ('I've heard, I don't know where I saw that')

  • The IFPA commissioner was present at Stephanie's Ladies Bells and Chimes tournament in Champaign

    high confidence · Stephanie states: 'The commissioner of the IFPA was there. Just happened to be there.'

  • Play counts on used pinball machines are not a meaningful indicator of condition or remaining lifespan

    high confidence · Both hosts agree repeatedly; Jeff's example: TMNT with 20-25k plays shoots beautifully; Godzilla example with 30-40k plays still works great

  • Tivoli Bowl in Downers Grove is hosting a pinball tournament on June 8, 2026

    high confidence · Stephanie confirms: 'Tivoli Bowl in Downers Grove, who's having a pinball tournament on June 8th of 2026'

  • Pokemon pinball was released later than typical (not February/January as usual)

    medium confidence · Mike observes: 'Pokemon didn't come out in February or January' and speculates timing has shifted for 2025

  • The hosts acquired Bond Pro, Venom, and Cactus Canyon from Tilt Amusements during a banking outage incident (July 2024, Cloudflare issue)

Notable Quotes

  • “I've got a dollar riding on that [Fallout being based on video games, not the show].”

    Stephanie @ ~23:00 — Illustrates community-level speculation and betting on future Stern announcements; shows confidence in video game over show licensing

  • “So I traded my Bond Pro that worked excellently and played great...for a Bond Premium that really never worked 100% right...It had mystery problems that kept getting worse.”

    Mike @ ~58:00 — Core narrative of Mike's pinball regret; demonstrates how trading decisions can compound and lead to collecting frustration

  • “Once we got the Fall of the Empire, I was free of the weight of that regret.”

    Mike @ ~68:00 — Resolution arc showing how subsequent good acquisitions can remedy earlier trading mistakes

  • “Jeff has one of the nicest Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles I've ever seen and it plays better than any Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that I've ever played. And that has like 20 or 25,000 plays.”

    Stephanie @ ~77:00 — Key evidence debunking the myth that high play counts indicate machine wear; strongly influences used market perception

  • “It truly doesn't matter how many plays are on it...You can clean it. If it's dirty, just clean it.”

    Stephanie @ ~79:00 — Direct advice to potential used pinball buyers; challenges common misconceptions in collector community

  • “I think Fallout will be like end of this year, early next year. If I was going to bet a dollar on that.”

    Mike @ ~26:00 — Timeline prediction for Fallout announcement; suggests holiday/CES 2026 reveal window

  • “We've got some folks from West Virginia at Lumberjacks. New Robert Englunds Pinball League...all up and down the East Coast.”

    Stephanie @ ~12:00 — Demonstrates geographic expansion of punk rock pinball tournament network; indicates growing grassroots community engagement

  • “The lady bells and chimes just have like a different vibe...It's cool that there's a thing just for the ladies to play.”

Entities

StephaniepersonMikepersonMarshallpersonMike VinikourpersonJoe SharppersonKat DavispersonPampersonTrentpersonTroypersonJeffperson

Signals

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Community speculation about Stern Fallout pinball being based on video games rather than Amazon show; dollar bet placed on this outcome

    medium · Stephanie: 'I do too. I think that like there's the Fallout...I think they can create a whole world, just like a Fallout world, and not be limited by the games and all the licensing'

  • ?

    machine_intel: Hosts discuss licensing complexity as key factor in Fallout pinball design direction; avoiding Amazon show means fewer stakeholders and more creative freedom

    medium · Mike: 'if you did the Fallout Pinball based on the show...you would have to do deals with all of those actors...it just seems like a lot messier licensing thing'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Speculation that Stern may have shifted release windows in 2025; Pokemon did not release in typical January/February slot; Fallout expected late 2025 or early 2026

    medium · Mike: 'Pokemon didn't come out in February or January...everything's just kind of on a different timing this year...Fallout will be like end of this year, early next year'

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Unconfirmed rumor that John Borg may design AC/DC remaster; original was Steve Ritchie design

    low · Mike: 'I've heard...like a ACDC where they just redesign the whole thing with Borg...you might have a John Borg ACDC. That could be interesting'

  • ?

    community_signal: Punk Rock Pinball tournament network rapidly expanding across US with new hosts in West Virginia, Tennessee, Rhode Island, Massachusetts, California, Nevada, New York, and Illinois

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.103

0:00
Hello. Hello there. Welcome to the Punk Rock Pinball Podcast. Episode 46. Number 46. I think. Yep. The dog's got to lick his wiener and knock my mic stand over. Yeah. I'm Stephanie. I'm Mike. And that's Marshall, our wiener licking dog. Or punk rock posers, according to some. Yeah. Welcome to the punk rock posers. There's nobody more posery than me in life. That's true. Yeah. That's true. I've been doing poser stuff for 35 years. Well, that's what happens, you know? You are a poser. Yeah, sure. Totally. You've been called a poser for 35 years? Only in recent years. It's weird. Yeah. Hmm. Poser. Speaking of posers, you had a rock show this weekend? Yeah. Oh, but we were going to say what we're going to talk about. Oh yeah, this episode we're going to talk about pinball regrets and bets. Pinball regrets and dollar bets. I have at least one dollar bet with a commenter, I forget their name. So whoever you were that we made the one dollar bet, you're going to have to remind me. Who you are. Because I will pay up if I'm wrong. I'll pay that dollar. You're good. You're good. I'm good for it. You have high integrity. I may be a poser, but I'll pay my dollar bets. So on Friday night, we went up to the Tivoli in Downers Grove, which is a movie theater and bowling alley in the basement that has an arcade set up now. Really nice. And a stage for rock shows. So we had a Smoking Popes rock show on Friday night and it was real fun. And my two nephews and niece came to their very first rock show. They were super psyched. They got Smoking Pope's hoodies. And my niece Eleanor the next day said, I have to listen to the band more because this is my new favorite sweatshirt and I feel like a poser. So I guess it just runs in our family. Runs in the family. Bunch of posers. Posers everywhere. Just doing fake punk stuff. I was just surprised that she knew the word poser. Uh huh. I mean, I guess the kids still say it. I guess they do. And she knew she was one. So the Tivoli, they're going to have, Tivoli is going to have some punk rock pinball tournaments too in Downers Grove, Illinois. When is that going to be? They have one, I think in June. I think it's June. I might be able to see it here. I kind of want to go. I kind of want to go as well. They have, they got a Pokemon. They got a Bond, a Wick. A James Bond, a John Wick. And a? Black Knight Sword of Rage. Mm-hmm. Trying to look through June here on our website.
3:20

high confidence · Detailed personal account of the purchase during a major infrastructure outage; confirmed historical event

  • A Bond Pro machine burned in a fire at a pizza restaurant in Peoria

    high confidence · Mike states: 'The Bond Pro is forever gone from this world because it burned in a fire...At a pizza restaurant in Peoria.'

    • Stephanie @ ~17:00 — Reflects on community segmentation and value of dedicated female-focused tournament spaces

  • “I regret choosing Funhaus as one of my games in the Champagne League finals...Instantly regretted it after ball one.”

    Mike @ ~72:00 — Secondary regret about competitive game selection; shows tension between game preference and skill level in league play

  • “I've played probably at least 150 to 200 games on the one we had [Uncanny X-Men]. And I really wanted to like it.”

    Mike @ ~61:00 — Demonstrates investment and effort to make a problematic machine work; illustrates frustration with notoriously difficult Uncanny X-Men design

    • Brian
    person
    Angieperson
    Rubenperson
    Larryperson
    Eleanorperson
    Smoking Popesorganization
    Tivoli Bowlvenue
    Tilt Amusementscompany
    Stern Pinballcompany
    IFPAorganization
    Punk Rock Pinball Podcastorganization
    Champagne Leagueevent
    Poor Brosvenue
    Foo Fightersgame
    John Borgperson

    high · Stephanie lists: 'West Virginia at Lumberjacks...Robert Englunds Pinball League...East Coast...Austin...Tennessee...Rhode Island...Massachusetts...Reno...New York'

  • ?

    event_signal: Tivoli Bowl in Downers Grove confirmed to host pinball tournament on June 8, 2026; venue has Pokemon, Bond Wick, James Bond, and Black Knight Sword of Rage machines available

    high · Stephanie: 'Tivoli Bowl in Downers Grove, who's having a pinball tournament on June 8th of 2026...They got a Pokemon. They got a Bond, a Wick. A James Bond, a John Wick. And a Black Knight Sword of Rage'

  • ?

    community_signal: Ladies-focused tournament (Ladies Bells and Chimes) attracting significant participation; creates distinct vibe from mixed tournaments; hosts recognize value of dedicated female player space

    high · Stephanie: 'the lady bells and chimes just have like a different vibe...a lot of the ladies were like, no, no, don't want to do that...It's cool that there's a thing just for the ladies to play'

  • ?

    collector_signal: Used Bond and Venom machines purchased years ago significantly cheaper than current market value; secondary market prices for modern used games have increased notably

    high · Stephanie: 'the used bond and the used venom...were cheap by today's standards...what we paid for those would be way under market like today. Yeah. By a couple thousand dollars'

  • ?

    product_concern: Uncanny X-Men widely reported as difficult to dial in and maintain; multiple official Stern fix kits exist; Mike's unit had persistent issues despite extensive gameplay and attempted repairs

    high · Mike: 'if you look, there's like four or five like official like Stern fix kits for the game...it's a nightmare. It's a nightmare of a game...I played probably at least 150 to 200 games...really wanted to like it'

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Hosts note that success in Champagne League comes primarily from modern Stern games rather than 80s/90s classics; suggests player skill set mismatch with older machines

    medium · Mike: 'most of my wins in that league came on like the moderns...lost all of the [older ones]...I need to play the 80s and 90s ones more'

  • $

    market_signal: Play counts irrelevant to machine condition or value; many high-play-count machines (20k-40k plays) in excellent condition; buyers should focus on playfield condition and functionality instead

    high · Stephanie: 'plays don't really matter. Plays don't really matter...Jeff's...20 or 25,000 plays...the nicest turtles...Game shoots amazing...Godzilla...30 or 40,000'

  • ?

    product_launch: Hosts considering transporting Pokemon Limited Edition to club location for expansion in June; potential Pokemon launch party event planned

    medium · Stephanie: 'We're gonna expand the club in June. I might put it over there...Pokemon launch party...People would like it. They'd love it'

    • Da-da-da, dead air as I try to scroll through to get to June. There's a lot of stuff in May. Well, Larry's the guy who's organizing all that stuff. Mm-hmm. And he put on a really good rock event. And I think we should do that again. Yeah. Yeah, here's what I want to do at the Tivoli Bowl in Downers Grove, who's having a pinball tournament on June 8th of 2026. What day of the week is that? I don't know. What day of the week is June 8th, 2026? Look at my calendar. Yeah, look at your calendar. But what I would love to do up there at the Tivoli is book like as many as we could sell out. I can't get my calendar to come up. You can't say that right now. I can't say this right now? No. Keep it a secret for now. I've got a fun idea for rock shows at the Tivoli in a future month. But June 8th, I don't know why I don't know how to find the calendar on my phone, is what kind of day? May, June? It's a day. June 8th is a Monday. Oh. I don't know if we can make that. Maybe we'll have to make his next one up there. Yeah. But Angie and Ruben can probably make it. Yes, Ruben and Angie should make that. Maybe you, dear listener, are in the Chicago area and can make it. And if you're not in the Chicago area, we have a lot of new people on board doing punk rock pinball tournaments. We've got some folks from West Virginia at Lumberjacks. Whoa. New England Pinball League, they're just firing up here soon. That's all up and down the East Coast. They're doing punk rock pinball stuff. We've got the Austin Pinball Collective in Austin.
    5:05
    We've got Neon Moon. They're in Tennessee. We've got some folks in Rhode Island, Electromagnetic Pinball Museum, and Oh My God Pinball.
    5:17
    We've got Press Start Reno, and a few other people in Reno have signed up. That's cool. Lots of stuff. Reno's already had their first tournament, Reno, Nevada. We've got Oh My God Pinball, that's in Massachusetts. Bay Area, California, got Slingshot Pinball that's in San Jose. They're going to be doing stuff. We've got some folks in New York, 518 Pinball, and we've got in Chicagoland, the Pinball Capital, they're going to be doing some stuff. Andy's going to do some stuff. Yep. So a lot of places you can play punk rock pinball, poser pinball tournaments. Does that make these people posers too? It may. Like just by association? Just by association. So if you're okay being a poser, come and play our tournaments. They're fun. They are fun. They are fun. I did a tournament today. In fact, a ladies bells and chimes in Champaign, Illinois. The news crew came out. Well, really, it was one lady and a camera. But still, I think it's like the NBC affiliate for Champagne. Yeah, we don't get that channel here. We watch it. No, but it'll be online, she told me. Yeah. And yeah, we got interviewed. We had the commissioner of the IFPA was there.
    6:37
    Just happened to be there. And it was fun. And you won. Oh, yeah. And I won. But Kat Davis, you know, she fought hard and Kat brought her mom. And her mom played? Yeah, Pam. Cool. Pam did great. Nice. Yeah, it was like, she's so cute. And she had a great time. We had lots of new ladies. And it was very interesting because, you know, we were saying, Brian was saying like, you should come to the, you know, we do a monthly on Wednesdays at Triptych. And a lot of the ladies were like, no, no, don't want to do that. Yeah. Because the lady bells and chimes just have like a different vibe. I'm not saying it's better. It's just different. Mm hmm. Yeah. I mean, it's cool that there's a thing just for the ladies to play. Mm hmm. Yeah, it was real cool. I like it. Yeah. So Pinball Regrets. I don't know what yours is. I think you probably know what mine is. I only have. Can I guess what yours is? And this is I guess let's know in the comments below if you have any Pinball Regrets. I mean, maybe it's about a game you chose in a match or something, or maybe if you're a pinball collector, maybe it's about a trade that you did.
    7:49
    Let's do the dollar bets first, because I only can think of the one dollar bet. I have one dollar bet with a commenter. I couldn't find the comment. Okay. So somebody commented on a recent video about the potential. The rumor is Stern is doing a Fallout Pinball machine, rumors. And I think it will be about based on the video games. I do too. I think that like there's the Fallout, even there's the video games on the console. Console. I can never say that right. Say council. I know. Console There that and then there also like the little game that you can download on the app store Fallout Shelter Yeah In fact I was talking to some like random guy on the phone the other day for work And he was like hang on a second I playing this game on my phone I like what are you playing And he like Fallout Shelter I like I didn know people are still playing that I love that game Anyways, I think they can create a whole world, just like a Fallout world, and not be limited by the games and all the licensing, I mean the show, and all the licensing that goes along with that show. Yeah, I think, because I think a big part of doing the show, I'm pretty sure, I don't know how the licensing works, but we know like on Jaws, you don't have, what's his name?
    9:22
    Chief Brody. Chief Brody is not on the play field. No. He's in the video assets, but they could not get the rights to his likeness to put him on the play field. Which sucks, but... And then if you did the Fallout Pinball based on the show, I think you would have to do deals with all of those actors. I think. I think it depends on how the deal is. How their deal is with Amazon. It could be. But it just seems like a lot messier licensing thing. And limiting. Very limiting. And the licensing would have to cost way more because... I feel like there would just be a lot more approvals if you did the show because you would have to deal with Bethesda on stuff and then you would have to deal with Amazon for the show. Or whoever the studio is that makes that. Yeah, that's true. I don't know if it's Sony or whoever.
    10:18
    There's a potential you'd have to deal with Bethesda because it's their IP and whoever owns those show rights and possibly then the actors. It just seems from a creative perspective limiting, limited. It would be limiting to your creativity. Yeah. So I had bet a dollar that says Fallout will be based on the video games and I think it will not be based on any specific Fallout video game either. A whole new world. It's not going to be like a Fallout 4 or Fallout 3. I think you're going to see a Fallout Pinball and it's going to be all kind of new levels in the world. I think you'll have some of the same kind of factions like there will be Raiders in there and you probably have Brotherhood of Steel in there. You might have the Institute in there and that kind of deal. But I think it will be more like D&D where it's like a whole new adventure. What if it's like, you know, how they did Fallout New Vegas? What if it's like Fallout New Chicago and it has like Williams, like or what that wouldn't happen. That would be licensing, but they could have other ones if it was like, I don't know, just kind of nerdy that way. I mean, and you do in Fallout, like you go through like old buildings and warehouses that have names. So like it could be post-apocalyptic and you could be going through like an old Stern factory. Yeah, that'd be cool. In one of the missions. Yeah. Like clearing out ghouls from like the old Stern factory. Yeah, that's what I mean. Yeah. That's what I'm talking about. Yeah, you wouldn't need to put Williams in there. No, but I just meant pinball themed. Uh-huh. Yeah, you could do that. That'd be cool. So that's, I had a dollar, I've got a dollar riding on that. Okay. Hopefully we find that out this year sometime. Well, I was thinking about that. I mean, usually right around this time, May, June, there's something. Mm-hmm. Something happens, but Pokemon didn't come out in February or January. Right. So maybe everything's just kind of on a different timing this year. I don't know. No idea. I hope we see something soon. And I suspect Fallout will be, if I had to guess, it's going to be the one that towards the end of the year. Like around Expo? Expo or even after.
    12:54
    Because don't they do sometimes like a January game? Yeah. Like a CES game? Yeah. Even though this year there wasn't, that would have been Pokemon. Yeah. So I think Fallout will be like end of this year, early next year. If I was going to bet a dollar on that.
    13:12
    Okay. I think the next one you'll see is Transformers. Okay. My hunch. Like a totally reimagined? Yes. Okay. Yeah, it won't be a remaster. And then they're talking about ACDC? I think that's one of the rumors. It's a fun game. Of the music remasters. I think that's a fun game. Or I've heard, I don't know where I saw that, but like a ACDC where they just redesign the whole thing with Borg.
    13:43
    Yeah, what's Borg doing? Because the original ACDC was Steve Ritchie. So you might have a John Borg ACDC. That could be interesting. We like Borgs. We like a Borg. Yeah, we do. You're a Borg boy. Yeah. That's cool. Uh-huh. That's cool. So yeah, that was my dollar bet. All right. What's your pinball regret?
    14:06
    Well, my pinball regret is that when we lived in Westmont, we didn't buy a pinball machine. Yeah. That's my regret. We should have done it. Think about how crazy good we would be right now.
    14:23
    Okay. I can see that perspective. But what if we would have bought a pinball machine in Westmont and we didn't love it as much and then we wouldn't have played, you know, the people that kind of helped foster our obsession with pinball are here, people that we've met here. So it's possible we might have got it and then gotten out of it. I mean, yeah. And then we wouldn't be here. That would be possible. Mm-hmm. That would be possible. But yeah, I wish that we had started playing like hardcore earlier in life. Yeah, me too. Yeah. That's my regret. Yeah. That's my pinball regret. That you didn't start sooner. Mm-hmm. We should have just gotten that pinball machine. I don't know what it would have been.
    15:18
    Because we kind of wanted one off and on. Yeah. And we'd go play pinball and be like, this is fun. We should get one. And we didn't really realize that like people do have them at the house. In like big ways. Uh huh.
    15:31
    Yeah. My, maybe, yeah, we should have, we should have bumped into Mike Vinacore at Angelo's Pizza. Yeah, that would have been cool.
    15:42
    Because Mike was into Pinball at that time because anyone has said like, come to my house. And I'm sure in, what, that was about 10, eight years ago, 10 years ago. Mm hmm. Mike, you probably had your games in the house that time. Yeah, for sure he did. You could have come to your basement, played your machines, and been like, holy shit, we should put a couple of these in our basement. Yeah. Or somewhere. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Not in the basement. No, that basement got water. Yeah, that would have been a bad idea. Or we would have just gone to Mike's all the time. Mm-hmm.
    16:11
    Yeah. Yeah, I wish we would have known Mike Vinacore when we lived in Westmont, like two miles from his house. Yeah, that would have been great.
    16:19
    He would have loved it, too. He'd come over and rock out. Yeah. Then maybe we'd beat Joe Sharp once in a while. So that's my- We started back then and coached up by Mike Vinacore. Yeah, we'd be- I'd beat Joe once in a while. Like, Logan Henderson who? Yeah. People would be talking about Mike Bellumlee. Yeah. Uh-huh. Yeah. I'd be putting up the billions. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So yeah, can I guess your pinball regret? Sure, you can guess my pinball regret. Getting rid of Bond. Yeah. That's my one pinball regret. So we got this So after we got our Jaws machine there was a post Tilt Amusement had a post saying we got this very long list of games that are for sale at a crazy crazy prices Yeah But the catch is you have to drive to suburban Columbus, Ohio to pick them up. Yeah, it was at the tilt in Ohio, not the tilt in Illinois. So we got in the car, drove out there, and it was the day that all the banks went down. Yeah. I don't even remember what caused it, but it was in July. Yeah, it was like a cloud flare, a big cloud flare server issue where every website in the world was down. I think planes were stopped. Yes. It was a mess. Well, we were driving six hours to go pick up some pinball machines and we didn't get money out of the bank before we left. We were like, we're going to stop around Indianapolis, go to Chase and do that. So we stop, get through Indy, stop in some random Chase Bank to find out that the banks are all down. I mean, people couldn't even get gas. Yeah. Remember? They had to pay cash. You had to pay cash. So we had a little bit of cash on us anyways. Couldn't get cash out. Couldn't even get them to print us a check because we didn't even bring a check. No, we didn't have the checkbook and they couldn't do a cashier's check or any of that because they couldn't access your account. No, but we kept on pushing because we like figured out a deal with with Trent. So he we kept on pushing. We went there and we thought we were going to maybe get a game two games. Maybe we're going to get I think one or two. Yeah, we ended up getting three got three games. We got Cactus Canyon, which we still have oldest game that we've had. Yeah, in our collection. We got Venom and we got James Bond, the pro. Yep. They were a little banged up, a little dirty. They really were just dirty. They were dirty. They worked fine. No, they weren't banged up. They were just dirty. And Cactus Canyon wasn't dirty at all. That was not part of the... I just saw Cactus Canyon sitting there and asked Trent, like, is that one for sale? He's like, yeah. I asked him how much and he gave me the price. I'm like, I'll take that one too. And then he said, you should probably take another one. He wanted us to take four, but we're like, this is fucking insane what we're doing. Yeah. So we ended up getting this Bond, which Mike played a lot. Mm-hmm. And then you felt like you needed a premium.
    19:35
    Yeah. So we had the Bond Pro and it worked great. Shot great. Shot beautifully. But I was like, this is one of my favorite games. So I should get the premium. So I traded my Bond Pro that worked excellently and played great. I loved it. Traded that plus some cash for a Bond Premium that really never worked 100% right and had like mystery problems that kept getting worse. Like the guy, it's got the jetpack guy moves on the thing and he would never move right and it would screw up the jetpack multi-ball starting. It was doing really quirky weird things and I couldn't figure it out and had a couple people try to fix it.
    20:30
    So I had a great Bond Pro, traded that plus money for a premium that was a piece of shit. And that Bond Pro couldn't get it back if you wanted it? The Bond Pro is forever gone from this world because it burned in a fire.
    20:47
    The great pizza fire. Yeah. At a pizza restaurant in Peoria. It got burned up. Gone. So that's gone. The premium's still around somewhere. But I don't like that one. No. I don't even want to play that one. No.
    21:04
    So I ended up trading that. So the regret continued because I had this sort of non-working bond premium and our friend that we traded it with knew it wasn't working. Mm-hmm. So it was, you know, kind of devalued a little bit because I had a big problem. So I traded that for an Uncanny X-Men Pro, which also was a piece of shit. Mm-hmm. Hated that game. I've played certain ones that shoot fine, but man that game is ridiculous to try to dial in. The Uncanny X-Men. Yeah, like I want to love it so much. There's so much potential in that thing. Yeah. It just doesn't, it's not for me. I tried very hard. I played probably at least 150 to 200 games on the one we had. And I really wanted to like it. There's so many just stupid random things that the game was like kind of technically it worked. But there are so many. I mean, if you look, there's like four or five like official like Stern fix kits for the game. I mean, there's that's not uncommon, though, to have that many. I think Venom had a few. Venom had Venom had the one where the ball shoots up out of the thing.
    22:31
    So that would catch the ball every time. I think because there's the ball hop thing on both flippers and there's the plunge thing which the fix kit doesn't even really fix. So that game on Kenny X-Men, it's a nightmare. It's a nightmare of a game. So I hated it. So it furthered the wound of getting rid of my Bond Pro that was amazing.
    23:01
    And now I have this piece of shit, Uncanny X-Men. We don't anymore. I know. This is where the sun starts to shine on your face. Because I traded the Uncanny X-Men in. I gave that plus some money to Troy at Tilt Amusements for a demo Fall of the Empire Pro. Please take my money. Which if you listened to our last episode, it's in my top 10 games ever. I think it was, right? Yeah, I'm pretty sure it was. So once we got the Fall of the Empire, I was free of the weight of that regret. Okay.
    23:44
    It all works out in the end. And like initially with Uncanny Excellency, I liked it for like a couple weeks until like just this random crap. Just shots just don't work like they should. And it's like every time I played that game after a while, it made me mad. It probably didn't help that we had it in the basement on the carpet. Well, but then I took it to the HQ and it was just as bad. Well.
    24:06
    I've only played, I've probably played eight or nine different uncanny X-Men's and only one of them ever really shot right out of the nine.
    24:18
    Because you can make them shoot right if you're highly skilled. Or just want to take the time to do it. And you want to take a lot of time. It probably depends on which one. It takes a lot of time to dial it in just right. It can be done, but to me it just wasn't even worth it. Because it takes a lot of time to get those to really shoot right. And I thought, even if this shoots right, I don't like it very much. Let's get rid of it. We did. Yeah, that was the fun thing. So now that regret is over because we have a Fall of the Empire Pro and I love it. You haven't looked back since. Everyone at the HQ loves it. So it's all happy times now. Yeah. Mm-hmm. No other regrets?
    25:05
    I regret choosing Funhaus as one of my games in the Champagne League finals. Oh. I mean... Not that I dislike Funhaus. I like Funhaus. It's just I'm not very talented at Funhaus regularly. Why you choose it Don know Just did it Yeah Because I had to pick an old one And there aren many of the old ones over there that I really reliably real good at So I like yeah Funhaus Instantly regretted it after ball one That Champagne League finals though I mean like any of those I feel like that group of players are hardcore about like 80s 90s Yeah, most of my wins in that league came on like the moderns. And I think even on the finals, there's double elimination and I got eliminated, but I think I won most of my games on the modern Sterns. Played three or four games on the moderns. I think I won like three out of four of those and lost all of the... I might have won on Gorgar. Yeah. It's hard. It's hard. It was hard to choose those games for League Finals just because, yeah, they're better on the games that I'm not better on. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I need to play the 80s and 90s ones more. We should probably get some. Well, we have a bunch over there. Yeah. I played some today. Do you think we'll take this Pokemon over to the club? Maybe. Really? Maybe. Maybe we could have a Pokemon launch party. We could have a Pokemon launch party. I'd maybe put it over... We're gonna expand the club in June. I might put it over there. I think that'd be fun. People would like it. They'd love it. I just want to wrap it real good to transport it. Yeah. We don't have any other LEs. We don't have any really any other real in terms of pinball like real like expensive like high end pins other than like this Jaws 50th and the Pokemon like those are the two most expensive ones that we have. Because just about everything else we have, we've bought, like used, and gotten really good deals on them. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Because even like the used bond and the used venom that we picked up a few years ago, they were cheap by today's standards, and the used games were worth more a couple years ago. Like the prices were higher. And what we paid for those would be way under market like today. Yeah. By a couple thousand dollars. It was a crazy deal. Yeah. I mean, they were routed games. They were routed. They were real dirty. I mean, they had lots of plays on them. Mm-hmm. Well, like 7,000. Oh. I don't know why I thought one was like 18. That seemed like a lot of plays to us. But it isn't. No, Bonham had 6,500 when we got it and Bonham had like 6,000 or 7,000. Oh. Which is nothing. Mm-mm. No, they were great.
    28:39
    That's another thing with the, I guess we've covered our regrets, huh? Yeah. But you brought up the play counts. I think people get obsessed when they're buying like used modern games about how many plays.
    28:53
    Some people do, some people don't. Some do. I feel like a lot of people do. I feel like people who, my feeling is that people who are players and like actually play the game, they know, especially on the modern sterns, that like you can get a lot, like they last a really long time. Case in point, when we got rid of our Jaws Pro and traded that for that Black Knight, a straight up trade. Yeah. And our Pro was really nice. We like cleaned it all the time. We were kind of obsessed with cleaning that thing. Mm-hmm. We cleaned it a lot. We had some like a couple cool mods. There were a couple like cool things on it. Yeah. And it had, do you have like 3,000 plays on it? Close to 5,000. Okay. The guy who brought over his Black Knight Pro that we made an even trade, he had like a hundred? Thirty. Thirty plays on his. And he didn't ask, and I just didn't even think to ask him or to tell him the number of plays, but he looked at it and he was like, oh, that's no big deal. I think it's the thing where people that are newer, like, because I used to think it was like a kind of big deal, like 6,000 plays, whoa. And I think it's common if people are newer, if it's the first time buyer of a used thing, because most of the dealers like list how many plays. You know, if you look at any like tilt or flipping out posts, it'll say how many plays because people kind of want to know. Yeah. But it like truly doesn't matter. It truly doesn't matter how many plays are on it. Like Jeff is our friend Jeff has one of the nicest Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles I've ever seen and it plays better than any Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that I've ever played. And that has like 20 or 25,000 plays. How about that? And it's like the nicest turtles. The play field looks gorgeous. Game shoot's amazing. He loves it. Yeah, it's great.
    31:07
    And how many plays at the dumb records is Godzilla? I think he said it, Jeff, like 20,000 or something or 30,000. Yeah, I think it was like 30 or 40,000. I don't know. It was a very high number. And that was the first pinball machine he ever bought new. And other than like one of his wire forms where it connects to the... It's just missing a screw. No, it's broke. Oh. But it drops the ball to the right place. Yeah. So that's fine. But it's still going. And it shoots fine. Played good. Yeah, played great. Uh huh. So yeah, plays don't really matter. Plays don't really matter. So if you see a used game you like that's near you and you're like, ah, it's 10,000 plays, who cares? Who cares? Yeah, I feel like the playfield matters. The playfield matters, but even most of these new ones, if it's dirty, just clean it. Yeah. You know? It's where you get to the older games, the 80s and some of the earlier 90s ones where does the playfield have all the paint? Is it in color? Like, is this one in color? Or is some of it wood colored? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Yeah, because that's a pretty big to-do.
    32:24
    Yeah, I mean, you have to reapply paint. You need a professional artist. Oh, for sure. Or you need to replace the playfield, which is a huge deal.
    32:36
    So, but on the moderns, like anything from like, you know, early 2000s and later, the playfield might be dirty. You can clean that. I haven't seen like a 2000s, like a mid-2000s to ultra-modern game that's missing paint off the playfield. I'm sure they're out there, but it's not very common. No. I feel like sometimes you'll see pictures on different groups on Facebook where like something might chip.
    33:06
    Oh, yeah. Like there's like a scoop and things chip around the scoop. Yeah. It just means you're playing it. What's that? It just means you're playing it. Yeah. If it's breaking or getting dirty. Mm-hmm. Hmm. Flipper kits are cheap. That's the thing you're going to have to just do for maintenance if you play a ton is eventually like put like coil stops and sleeves on the flippers, which we did on Foo Fighters today and you look like you're going to fall asleep. I just like got hit with the sleepies. Okay, we can wrap this up. Like I just got hit really hard. We covered our regrets. Oh. Do I look tired? Yeah. It was a big day. It was a big weekend. Yeah. Friday night was a long night. Didn't get home till like one in the morning. Yesterday we just kind of played pinball at Poor Bros. But then today you went out and hosted a tournament in Champagne. Well, I'm just losing steam. Let's wrap it up. Okay. Doodle-oo. Okay. Bye.