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#52 Gremlins - The Classic Pinball Podcast

The Classic Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·1h 13m·analyzed·Apr 27, 2021
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.033

TL;DR

Classic Pinball Podcast discusses Bally home versions, market pinflation, and Dave's restoration projects.

Summary

George and Dave of The Classic Pinball Podcast discuss recent episodes, Bally home pinball versions sold through Sears, auction results showing significant price inflation ('pinflation'), Dave's restoration work on various machines including Star Trek Next Gen and Circus Voltaire, and reflect on personal collection gameplay experiences including Xenon and Kingpin.

Key Claims

  • Bally released home pinball versions through Sears catalog in the late 1970s for $300-$400, including Captain Fantastic, Fireball, and Evil Knievel

    high confidence · Dave speaking, knowledgeable about pinball history and restoration

  • Evil Knievel sold at Captain's Auctions for $3,400 hammer price plus $460 buyer's premium (~$3,860 total)

    high confidence · George citing specific auction results from Friday/Saturday auctions

  • Circus Voltaire sold at auction for $7,900 hammer price plus $1,200 buyer's premium (~$9,100 total)

    high confidence · George citing Captain's Auctions results

  • Star Trek Next Gen commands lower prices than Twilight Zone and Addams Family in the used market

    high confidence · Dave speaking from personal experience selling Star Trek Next Gen

  • Grant King in Australia purchased a trashed game for $4,000 AUD and spent another $3,000 AUD (~$3,100 and $2,300 USD respectively) to restore it

    high confidence · George citing information from another podcast guest

  • 15-20 years ago, container imports of 1990s ramp games from Europe sold for ~$800-$1,000 per game after cleaning

    medium confidence · Dave recalling historical market data from personal experience

  • Sonic, a Spanish manufacturer from Madrid, experimented with fiberglass/polyurethane playfields in their pinball machines

    medium confidence · George noting Butterfly sold for $900 at auction; Dave confirming the material innovation

  • If Stern stopped producing games, demand would push prices even higher in used market due to fewer games chasing demand

    medium confidence · George speculating on market dynamics based on supply/demand discussion

  • Susan Ciani provided the voice for Xenon in the original game and is featured in the documentary 'Sisters with Transistors' about electronic music pioneers

Notable Quotes

  • “For a hundred bucks, that's a pretty good thing. God, I got jumped on... That wasn't a regular Evel Knievel cabinet and playfield. That was the home version.”

    George @ ~10:00 — Highlights community gatekeeping over home vs arcade versions; sets up discussion of Bally Sears home editions

  • “The Bali police are going to get you. Yeah, they're in full force out there.”

    Dave @ ~12:00 — Humorous reference to community sensitivity over correct spelling of 'Bally' (not 'Bali')

  • “I wasn't getting tired of it. I was getting the hang of it. I was getting wizard mode and whatever else was on the game, you know, Final Frontier and that kind of thing.”

    Dave @ ~45:00 — Dave describing his deep engagement with Star Trek Next Gen despite selling it; shows seller's remorse and appreciation for game depth

  • “Right now, it's a seller's market. If you have a non-EM, unless it's something highly collectible, but a decent solid state game, you're going to make money on it.”

    George @ ~38:00 — Core thesis on market conditions and 'pinflation' phenomenon

  • “Many people chasing fewer games. Price point goes up. It's supply and demand. It's nothing more than that.”

    George @ ~43:00 — Summarizes the core economic driver of pinflation discussed throughout episode

  • “Even the Star Trek Next Gen, I just played the piss out of that one for like several weeks. And I was trying to get myself sick of the game, so I wouldn't mind selling it.”

    Dave @ ~44:00 — Personal anecdote about attempting to overcome emotional attachment to a game before selling

  • “I want to see these kids... make new memories with the grandparents. Like, all right, you got me.”

    Dave @ ~85:00 — Dave explaining why he broke his usual policy of not doing on-site EM restoration work; emotional motivation

  • “If you have a non-EM, unless it's something highly collectible, but a decent solid state game, you're going to make money on it, especially people like you and I who collected 20 years ago.”

Entities

GeorgepersonDavepersonEricpersonPapapersonDavid DenholtzpersonJeff TeolispersonBruce NightingalepersonFrankperson

Signals

  • $

    market_signal: Significant price escalation observed across used pinball market; Dr. Dude cited as rising from ~$1,300 to $4,000; Twilight Zone, Addams Family, and Star Trek Next Gen showing substantial premiums

    high · George: 'Dr. Dude for four grand. That used to be like a $1,300 game... pinflation is here'; multiple specific auction prices cited

  • $

    market_signal: Fundamental driver of pinflation identified as too many collectors chasing too few available machines; worsened by Stern producing only ~4 games/year relative to demand

    high · George: 'many people chasing fewer games. Price point goes up. It's supply and demand. It's nothing more than that'

  • $

    market_signal: Current market is distinctly seller-favorable; collectors from 20+ years ago particularly advantaged; solid state games (non-EM) generating profit even without restoration

    high · George: 'Right now, it's a seller's market. If you have a non-EM... decent solid state game, you're going to make money on it, especially people like you and I who collected 20 years ago'

  • ?

    product_concern: Williams wide body machines have ergonomic design flaw: sharp, painful lockdown bars compared to superior rounded designs on Bally and Stern machines

    high · Dave: 'Williams games... palm rest bar... is like the bumper to a 57 Buick... sharp corner edges that dig into your hands... They didn't have the nice rounded edges like the Bally's or the Stearns'

  • ?

    historical_signal: European container imports 15-20 years ago sold for ~$800-$1,000/game after cleaning; now games being re-exported to Europe due to high demand; complete reversal of pricing and sourcing dynamics

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.221

0:00
Thank you for watching. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Classic Pinball Podcast. My name is George, and today I'm joined by my co-host Dave. Hello, Dave. Hello, George. Yes, it's been a long time, Dave. I have quite a few items on the sheet today. But the first item, Dave, is to thank you for doing a great job with our last podcast, The Pinball Asylum. But I have a question.
1:06
Okay. Eric mentioned that he acquired, if I heard correctly, 10 games from Papa. Did you hear what I heard? I did not hear that. I know he has a bunch of games, but I didn't know he'd gotten anything from Papa.
1:24
Okay. then I'm got to go back and listen to it. But there's another question with Papa. How did Eric, if he did buy a game, how did he get, or why did he get contacted?
1:42
If that happened, because I think he's like on the inner circle there of, of high end players, maybe. I've heard other podcasters talk about getting games from Papa. Jeff Teolis said he bought a game. I think he bought an Ali.
2:00
Bruce Nightingale, I think he said he bought a game. I'm sure there's others. I can't remember. It was real quick. He talked about it real quick. But how many games does Eric have? I think he has I want to say at least eight okay next time you talk to him or next time we have mom we can ask him about that I want to thank him and David Denholtz for taking the time out of their busy schedules to talk to us I thought it was a great episode and actually our fans like it as well. One of the better episodes we did out of our marathon seven in a row. The other one being hot-dogging. People seemed to like that. You and I have talked about it in the past on a couple of phone calls about the others not doing as well. A couple we can identify.

high confidence · George and Dave correcting themselves on the name after receiving clarification email

  • Williams wide body machines have sharp, painful lockdown bars similar to 1957 Buick bumpers, unlike Bally or Stern versions

    high confidence · Dave speaking from hands-on restoration and gameplay experience

    • George @ ~38:00 — Identifies advantage held by long-time collectors in current seller's market

  • “Their sound is really good compared to even Twilight Zone, because Twilight Zone doesn't have the DCS as far as I know. So the sound is good, but not as good as the Star Trek Next Gen.”

    Dave @ ~32:00 — Technical comparison of sound systems between two premium classic games

  • “They didn't have the nice rounded edges like the Bally's or the Stearns. So no, no, no. We're going to put this like a Buick chromed, hardened corner bumper on this thing.”

    Dave @ ~67:00 — Humorous but critical comparison of ergonomic design quality across manufacturers

    • Mike Pacek
    person
    Grant Kingperson
    Susan Cianiperson
    Pat Lawlorperson
    Rick Wakemanperson
    Wendy Carlosperson
    Jennifer Murphyperson
    Richperson
    Maureenperson
    Janiceperson
    Kettlehead Brewing Companycompany
    Captain's Auctionscompany
    Soniccompany
    Williamscompany
    Ballycompany
    Stern Pinballcompany

    medium · Dave discussing container imports and noting current reversal: 'people will have containers or games going to europe... many people chasing fewer games'

  • ?

    technology_signal: Star Trek Next Gen features DCS (Digital Computer Sound) system providing superior audio quality, dynamic range, and less compression compared to Twilight Zone

    high · Dave: 'Its sound is really good compared to even Twilight Zone... The sound is good, but not as good as the Star Trek Next Gen. DCS is... cleaner, more responsive... less compression'

  • ?

    restoration_signal: Dave made exception to policy of not doing on-site EM restoration work; undertook 4-5 hour visit to western Massachusetts for Flying Carpet repair to enable grandchildren to play during visit

    high · Dave: 'usually I wouldn't... with an EM... but... he actually got his grandchildren were going to come over... I'll take the two hour and 45 minute ride one way... for an EM'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Dave transitioning identity from collector to active restorer/player; prioritizes gameplay and customer machines over personal collection; uses customer restorations as 'pinball fix'

    high · Dave: 'I've been so busy with it... I've been getting my pinball fix playing my restored customers games... I just visited him last night... decided to play some pinball on my collection'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Star Trek Next Gen demonstrates strong design depth through easter eggs (button combination codes revealing designer's other works), DCS sound, immersive theme integration, and wizard modes

    high · Dave: 'left button right button... this whole code... will actually bring up all of steve richie's games... immersive... Easter egg stuff... wizard mode and whatever else on the game'

  • ?

    international_market_signal: Australian pinball market shows extreme pricing: $4,000 AUD (~$3,100 USD) for trashed game + $3,000 AUD (~$2,300 USD) restoration; attributed to few games chasing many collectors plus high import costs

    medium · George citing Grant King: 'in U.S. dollars, that's $3,100 for a game, and then he put another $2,300 into the game on top of that... in Australia, there are more people chasing fewer games'

  • ?

    industry_signal: Stern's ~4 games/year production sustains current seller's market and prevents used market collapse; hypothetical removal of Stern would intensify pinflation further

    medium · George: 'one of the podcasts talked about stern... imagine if stern wasn't in the market or you know wasn't a business producing four games a year what kind of demand would that put on all the other manufacturers'

    • 3:05
    I don't understand the Bobby Orr one. That's one I definitely don't understand. I would have thought more people would be into that. But it shows you what I know.
    3:16
    Yeah, I think I did a YouTube vid on that, too. But I explored more in depth about him getting away from the Bruins and going to the Blackhawks and that kind of thing. More so than our podcast. I went into a deeper dive into it. I wish I kind of did the deeper dive actually on our podcast, but it's out there on our YouTube channel.
    3:39
    It is what it is. So, second item on the sheet. Everybody's talked about the Pinside outage. I'm not going to ask you about that, but it reminded me of an interface I think I had on Pinside, or maybe it was something on YouTube, where I was thinking about the Bobby Orr podcast we did, and talking about Mike Pacek and buying, you know, the boxed play field. So I went back out and watched American Pickers, that specific episode. And if you have or haven't watched it, basically Mike's brother, not Frank, the heavyset guy, the other guy's brother, crawled up into the rafters and pushed down to Frank a cabinet, an Evel Knievel cabinet with a playfield in it. And he was thinking about making it into a cocktail table. And I made the comment of, wow, for a hundred bucks, that's a pretty good thing. God, I got jumped on wherever I was. That wasn't a regular Evel Knievel cabinet and playfield. That was the home version. And I said to myself, oh, that's right, there was a home version. But I didn't realize that was actually made by Bali or Bally. Oh, yeah. Let's say that again.
    5:09
    Bali. The Bali police are going to get you. Yeah, they're in full force out there. So do you know anything about the home versions of Bali games? I do, yeah. Pinball was super popular, of course, in the 70s, and so much so that people wanted their own in their house, but they didn't want to pony up the big money for the real arcade version. So Bally put out these ones, I think it's through the Sears catalog. I believe you're right. I do remember this when the late 70s, there were a couple of $400, $500. Yeah, $300 or $400. when a real game was like about $1,500.
    5:57
    You know? No, no, you're correct. Correct. Yep. And they did like I think about three, I want to say three games. They had Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy. I think they called that. Maybe they just called it Captain Fantastic. I forget. But they had that one. They had Fireball. And they had Evil Knievel. and then I think they also had someone else made a Galaxy Ranger which I think is also them as well and don't quote me on that one I think that was it for that for Bally for making those actually they still kind of run to this day I've actually had a couple customers come to me with them that you know I kind of shy away from because you really can't find most of the parts for them although some parts are actually from the real arcade version so some stuff does go over but the board set itself no um but sometimes i have been able to resurrect those and make them playable make them nice again but there's a lot not a lot of money there you know because it's really not a you know so it's a this one's really in love with it and they have good memories of it and they really want it for a uh a keepsake kind of thing you know then they'll you know throw some money otherwise not really worth it right like i said they were buying it to make a cocktail table out of it for a hundred bucks it might have been a little overpriced but again it's reality tv who really cares the other piece of the show was frank buying two kiss back glasses the german version and the american version i think he paid four hundred dollars for two of them they were in okay shape so you know that was basically the show nothing great. They bought some amusement park.
    7:44
    They bought a bumper car and one of those rides that went up and down on hydraulics that looked like a rocket ship.
    7:53
    Some stuff like that. But he's got PASAC's got quite the warehouse of stuff. And I'm being polite. I mean, it was just stacked everywhere. So it'd be fun to go through that place. it would yeah he's got a lot of you know what's he king of the um advertising for pinball machines the flyers and that kind of stuff he has he had filing cabinets as far as you could see of paperwork he must own every piece of paper in the world yeah i think so lots of back glasses as well yep a lot of back glasses and i think i don't know i guess he's selling some stuff off these days but he actually was uh you know collecting a lot of stuff i don't even know how many games he has uh they only highlighted a couple and i quite frankly i don't remember but i want to get to the uh the next item about evil kenevil which was yesterday you know we've talked about this before the captain's auctions oh yeah that went off uh Friday and Saturday. And there were a couple of games that stood out in the pinball, which were few and far between in comparison to past auctions. And we'll get to the pinflation and, you know, how much games are costing now. But one game, Evil Knievel, I'm not going to go through the pricing game with you. I only have a couple of them. $3,400 plus a 15% buyer premium. So $3,400 hammer plus added, what, another $460 on top of that? That's a $4,000 game. And it was, as he described it, a player's game. Really? Never heard the word collector's game. Every game I heard was, you know, the famous line, bright and tight or player's game. here's the one and we'll talk about yours in a couple of minutes uh circus voltaire definitely dirty rubbers definitely needs a dr dave's day spa hammer price seventy nine hundred dollars wow add another twelve hundred dollars in buyer's premium i let mine go cheap then again west coast isn't that crazy that's crazy here was one i thought was okay priced a medusa for 3200 new back glass brand new painted cabinet brand new uh playfield brand new plastics I didn't think that was too bad out of all of them. Not too bad, but again, you know, who painted the cabinet? Who did the play field swap? There's all kinds of factors in that, too, that can really affect it. How about it's not a live auction? You're buying something with a picture on a tube or on a screen. Yeah. A lot more difficult to do. Tie me up. Two other games, and I don't know if you're familiar with either one of these. I did have the opportunity to play one of them. A couple of games by Sonic out of Madrid, Spain. Are you familiar with these games?
    11:28
    I've heard of Sonic, but I don't. I might have played a couple, but nothing really comes to mind, though. Butterfly was the one that I played, and that went yesterday for $900,
    11:43
    which was good money for an EM, I would say. Not great, but the reason I bring it up is not because of the game.
    11:52
    Their play fields were made out of polyurethane. Okay. Kind of ahead of their time, kind of competing with poly, I guess, back in that time frame with their more plastic, I don't know what the formal term is, but their plastic play fields. I'll tell you exactly what that was. That was a fiberglass play field. Okay. So interesting that they were experimenting with that back then. So there's the evil to the evil story.
    12:28
    I guess that leads me to you parting with several games recently. Yes. The Circus Voltaire, which we did an episode on the game number 42,
    12:41
    and a Bolly Williams Star Trek. Both have left the building, huh? They have. Yeah, it kind of was cash in hand. You know, could I have gotten more for them, both of them? Sure. I didn't really advertise either one of them. And I don't know. The guy called me up right place, right time, him and his friend, and said, all right, why not? I need the space anyway. And I didn't put them on my website or anything, but, you know, I made money. I didn't make a killing, but I made money, so that's good. I have more space. And I just, this happens every time. Whenever games leave here, don't wait too long because there'll be another game or two coming in. So I just picked up those left, and I just picked up a second Twilight Zone to add to my stock. They are going for crazy, crazy money from what I understand. And I understand the Star Trek Next Gen, it doesn't get as much love up there pricing-wise. And I'm really surprised because after I restored that one up, it came out really nice. And I wasn't really a fan of the game until I redid mine and I was playing. It's like, you know, this is a really good game, especially if you're a Star Trek fan of that Next Generation series. A lot of good quotes, a lot of good, very immersive in the game and feel like you're on the show, kind of. and uh i don't know i really and plus the little nuances the easter egg stuff um with the uh left button right button left button right button both together this whole code you can put in for several things but one of them you do will actually bring up all of steve richie's games he did for uh for williams and for atari so all of a sudden boom on the screen will come up you know Superman, Flash, all this stuff. And I have a color DMD in that game. Plus I put in mirror blades.
    14:37
    I put in Invisiglass on the game and some warm LEDs throughout it and some other select color LEDs here and there. And I put a subwoofer on it too. Sounds like somebody got a very, very nice game. Unfortunately, our paths couldn't or didn't cross during the time you had it. Just didn't work out for a variety of reasons. But it sounds like a really nice game.
    15:05
    It's one of the few games that have the DCS sound system, so its sound is really good compared to even Twilight Zone, because Twilight Zone doesn't have the DCS as far as I know. So the sound is good, but not as good as the Star Trek Next Gen. DCS is? Digital Computer Sound, I think. some brand name for their sound system. Their sound system, yeah. It's kind of cleaner, more responsive, more, what's it called? Dynamic range, I guess. Yeah, fuller field. Yeah. Less compression. Right, less compression. There you go. I think that's part of it.
    15:49
    People are going to wonder a little bit about you first because you're starting to move into liking games that aren't stern or Bali classics, but more, I get in the sense that you might have a little buyer's remorse or seller's remorse. Pardon me. Yeah. A little seller, not so much for the circus volunteer. I was done with that one, but for the Star Trek next gen, it was a real love for circus Jerry. Come on. No circus Jerry. No, It was a good game, but I don't get the hype with that game.
    16:30
    Star Trek should get so much more love, I think. But yeah, it's not crazy prices like a TZ or Addams Family. Those get crazy prices.
    16:42
    Well, you're kind of leading into one of the other items on the sheet, which I alluded to earlier, pinflation. we've been talking about this for quite some time and you know that i listen to other podcasters they're all talking about supply and demand the amount of games being made how fast they're being made and that the expansion of the pinball hobby for a variety of reasons i definitely am in agreement with most of those things it definitely is looking like the market is just expanding and there's so few games out there and i did look for the first time in a couple of days out on facebook even you know following pinside marketplace uh their games are going for a lot more money than I ever imagined. I saw, what's that one? Dr. Dude for four grand. That used to be like a $1,300 game. Yeah, not that good of a game. No, but you're making my point. We talk about prices all the time, and we're not the only one, But penflation is here and I think it because people are chasing too few games and it dovetails to what we heard from Grant King in Australia I wrote it down so I would recall it Do you remember what he said about pricing in Australia
    18:32
    Refresh my memory. I think he said it was crazy prices, but besides that, I don't recall. I did the conversion. He said that he bought a quote-unquote trashed game for $4,000 Australian and then ended up putting another $3,000 Australian to bring it up to speed. Now, he didn't identify the game, but in U.S. dollars, that's $3,100 for a game, and then he put another $2,300 into the game on top of that. So it kind of goes with my argument of, I'm guessing in Australia, there are more people chasing fewer games. That's why the price point is so high. And if you were to buy a new game, and I forget what they said on one of the podcasts, what it costs for an imported Stern game. But it's some crazy astronomical amount of money in comparison to what we pay here because of the freight getting it from the U.S. to Australia. Well, here's a good data point as well. Years ago, maybe, oh, 15, 20 years ago, people were buying container games, like a whole container from Europe of all the 90s ramp games, you know, all the DMV stuff. And you'd be getting them for maybe almost, when you're all said and done, 800 bucks a piece, I mean, a thousand bucks a piece tops. You probably get about 20 or 50 games in this big container. And, you know, that'd be dirty and whatever, smoke filled, you know, cigarette smoke. But once you clean them up, they were nice stuff and they were reimport. So people, you know, would kind of poo poo them when they were trying to sell them. It's like, oh, it's not a real sold in America one and it's been converted. So so things have changed now. People don't really care that much about the import because it's all converted over anyway. You can easily change to an American one, put a new coinder on it and, you know, and it's fine. but now even more so now the games are now being exported back out to europe again europe has a big calling for games now they want they want the games they want so now people will have containers or games going to europe i i think it again reinforces what i just said which is many people chasing fewer games price point goes up it's supply and demand it's nothing more than that and you know one of the the podcasts talked about stern and saying imagine if stern wasn't in the market or you know wasn't a business producing four games a year what kind of demand would that put on all the other manufacturers, but more importantly, the used market.
    21:26
    Yeah, because right now they're having, well, they're not going to, they're having probably with supply chains, I would think Stern is, so they're not going to really source stuff to make new things. And on top of that, their stuff that's on the line already is selling really well because people will look scrambling for games. The whole market still wants games. So they don't really have to put out three or four titles a year right now as they were the past couple of years. They can kind of sit in their laurels and just keep making what they got, and people are still buying. They could go back into their back inventory, correct, but they keep moving forward. My point is, if Stern did not exist, they weren't making thousands of games a year.
    22:12
    People's demand would still be there. They'd have to go to other manufacturers, which aren't producing as many, or to the used market, which would be more people chasing fewer games.
    22:24
    I could make the point five ways to Sunday, but I think you understand what I'm getting at. Right now, it's a seller's market. If you have a non-EM, unless it's something highly collectible, but a decent solid state game, you're going to make money on it, especially people like you and I who collected 20 years ago. I just look at it, but Janice is ready. She's ready to shove them out the door. She's like, we need the space. Get them out of here. No, no, no, no, no. That's not why I bought them. I bought them because I play them. They're not museum pieces. I use them every day and I play. And I wanted to ask you, have you, other than the games you've been repairing, and this is a good segue into Dr. Dave's adventures, have you been playing any of your own games or has it strictly been customer games and bring them back up to speed?
    23:19
    Pretty much strictly been customer games. I've been so busy with it, like seven days a week these days and long hours at it, that I've been getting my pinball fix playing my restored customers games or after doing a day spa, playtesting and the ones in my shop, restoring and playtesting those and having a blast with them. Even the Star Trek Next Gen, I just played the piss out of that one for like several weeks. And I was trying to get myself sick of the game, so I wouldn't mind selling it. I was trying to really get, you know, get tired of it. And I wasn't getting tired of it. I was getting the hang of it. I was, you know, getting wizard mode and whatever else was on the game, you know, Final Frontier and that kind of thing.
    23:57
    So. And so for my own collection, I just visited him last night for a quick little jaunt. I decided to I asked Maureen, hey, let's play some pinball on my collection. What do you. And so she said, let's let's play the old. So we played Kingpin, 1973 Gottlieb Kingpin. I said, yeah, you want to play the old one? All right. So we played that. That was fun, one-player game at peace, and we kind of went after, chased each other on score. And then after that, I decided to play some, I had the whole lineup up there. I had Kingpin, Xenon, Flash Gordon, Fathom, 8-Ball Deluxe. I decided to go for Xenon. And I liked the game. Some people say, you know, simple game, not really much going on compared to the other games I have. But there's something about Xenon that I like because I have a lot of childhood memories with that one being at the Funny Games Arcade I used to frequent. And that was there. And actually the mascot for Funny Games is the Xenon character on the back glass. So I felt like I. But otherwise, typically what I do to wind down after a day of pinball, I've been going to my video game. I've been going to play Battlezone almost every night. Well, that's a great game. I want to stop you for a sec, so I don't forget. Sure. We did do, obviously, a Xenon podcast, and I didn't have time to go back and listen.
    25:27
    But tell me the woman's name who did The Voice. Susan, I want to say Cianci. Oh, see? It's you. What? uh-oh what did I say yeah we made a mistake again because I did the same I said the same thing that's not her name Susan Vega no no it's Susan Ciani there was no Ciani in it and the only reason I know this is I got an email the other day for this new documentary great name and she's part of it called Sisters with Transistors.
    26:15
    It's the early pioneers of electronic music. Oh, that was her. That was Susan. That was. Well, she's one of the women that's talked about in this documentary. I have not seen it, but I loved electronic music as a kid. the first one whether you call well he was no they were known as Walter Carlos now Wendy Carlos back in I think 67 68 but obviously Rick Wakeman um who else uh Emerson Keith Emerson I used to like a band called Tonto's Expanding Headband. What's another electronica? Ever listened to Triumvirate? That was another prog band kind of electronic based. But anyway, it talked about, you know, these pioneers of electronic music, and I guess up to date. So interesting, but I think we both gaffed on the name. And I don't know why, but I called her Cianci as well. Would Alan Parsons' project be considered that? Parts. I'm a big Alan Parsons fan, but no, there are deeper. I should have gone through my record collection. I've got some really rare, crazy, early 70s, late 60s electronica. I know one. Here's one, and I'll include it in the show. Do you remember the song Popcorn?
    27:56
    yes i do oh yeah right so that would be considered early electronica or electric moog synthesizer whatever you want to call it there's all the points dave where did you read my notes before we got on today i mean i did not there is actually good segues here so let's get to you I want to go back one more woman in electronica music and so forth there's one woman here her name is Jennifer Murphy and she's got a pretty cool little vibe here maybe I could be ninja I want to be ninja you're hitting on all cylinders are we going to And if you are ready, I'm going to yell at you.
    29:14
    Are you already having a beer? No, I have not had a beer. Okay. I would like to have one. So if you forgive me, I'd like to go grab one, and you'll understand why I'm grabbing this beer. Well, you know what we should do? We should both grab a beer, and it could be like the old nuclear sub movies where, you know, turn your key, sir. You've got to turn it at the exact same time.
    29:40
    Okay, we can pop the key, as they say. Yeah, so I'll get one too. I'll be right back with you. Two seconds. All right. I'm back.
    29:50
    I'm back. Okay, tell me when you want to do the pop-top symphony. Here we go. Six, five, four, three, two, one. Launch. Good. Turn your key. I already turned mine on. All right. There. I turned my key.
    30:18
    I think we're turning it. Now I've got to tell you why I wanted to have a beer. Okay. Janice bought this today. It's from Kettlehead Brewing Company in Tilton, New Hampshire. Yeah. The name of the beer is Nunchuck Ping Pong, double IPA. No way. It goes along with my Ninja Girl. I know. That's what I said. Wow. You're hitting them all today. That's wild. So this is pretty good. I have a question while I'm pouring. I'd like to ask you a question about one of the games that you recently did a day spa. Yes. Wide body poker Reno. What's that game like? pokerino um not really well loved but there are some fans out there this particular customer he's had it for a long time he's nursed it to health here and there but it's you know he finally said you know what i want to keep this game for a long time passed down to my kids and i want you just to you know go through it and you know so basically i'm giving it a multi i don't want to bring it in the house because it's so big and I don't I have no room here so I've been going to his house once so far to start out and I'm gonna go back again but um yeah it looks like it's a great game you know it's nice hour work and so forth but there's not a heck of a lot going on with it like it has it even has um five balls in it but the problem is is the top four balls up there they're just like the click-clack balls. So what's it called? Newtonian ball. You hit the ball with your ball, and one of the balls goes around and waits and goes another. So four balls go and wait. Once you get them all the way around, the thing releases, and they go back again. But there were four captive balls in the same area. So what, are you moving, like, the balls from one area to another? Yeah, yeah. It's almost like one of those games, a Williams game.
    32:14
    I want to call it Aladdin. you've seen the Williams games in the center thing in the center that has a bunch of balls then you hit them hit them one area to go to the other other side you've seen those old Williams no that's kind of why I asked you about this game no I'm not familiar I didn't even know Williams made wide bodies I've heard the name of this game before but I well yeah well yes stellar wars that's a great Williams wide body um the problem with Williams wide bodies is their palm rest bar, the lockdown bar, is like the bumper to a 57 Buick.
    32:50
    And it hurts your hands. It's like corner, sharp corner edges that dig into your hands when you're playing for a while. They didn't have the nice rounded edges like the Bally's or the Stearns. So no, no, no. We're going to put this like a Buick chromed, hardened corner bumper on this thing. And you kids have fun.
    33:11
    Sounds painful. Yeah, it is a little painful. What other games have you worked on in our extended hiatus?
    33:21
    Well, let's see here. We have done a – well, since March 22nd, did a Card Whiz shop job. These are all on-site stuff. I did a getaway. It's a ramper. did a Adams family in Rhode Island, Bedford, New Hampshire, did a Last Action Hero.
    33:45
    And after that, all the way out to Williamstown, Massachusetts. That's like North Adams. That's the corner of New York, Vermont, Mass up there. Long drive. For an EM, mind you, that's up in the third floor attic of this old house. why did I go do this are you asking yes well because usually I wouldn't usually I wouldn't usually with an EM I don't like to like to typically go do a day spa on them because typically they need a lot more loving care first they're very old probably haven't got much love over the years need a lot of stuff done to them and you know five six seven eight hours on site is not going to cut it typically typically I need to bring them in-house and do 40 to 100 hours worth work and go through every single switch and stepper and everything. But in this case, this guy called me up. He's a professor at a college out there, older gentleman, his wife. And for the first time in a year, because all the stuff going on the past year or so, he actually got his grandchildren were going to come over for once. You know, they got the all clear to come over. He hadn't seen him for a long time. So he wanted this game running. And I said, well, first of all, I can come out there but does the game work can you play a game on it it's number one and you said yes i said number two okay so what's the issue a broken rubber it's okay if it actually works yeah it's not a day that's not uncommon oh i know it's a broken flipper rubber is blocking the ball it couldn't go all the way down after they played several games of it you know and the Children were there, and, you know, they're only there for a week. They're there for the first day playing it, and now it's down, and it's like, you know. You're Mr. Softy. I was Mr. Softy. It's like, you know, I want to see these kids, these, you know, young girls, or I don't know, maybe I want to say five and nine, you know, grandchildren. It's like, I want to see them have a good time with the game and, you know, make new memories with the grandparents. Like, all right, you got me. I'll take the two hour and 45 minute ride one way with Maureen out there and then spend like, oh, I don't know, was it four? I think it was four or five hours on site. You know, that's a long day.
    36:07
    But we got it all done and it had a couple of hiccups. And I told him it's like this is going to probably have some hiccups because I couldn't. I did basically I shopped it out, new rubber, clean the play field, lights, all kind of lighting little problems. You know, hit all the high points, but I could not hit everything in that time. But the game played. But it did have a couple hiccups. Sometimes we'd stay on ball five a couple times too long. It wouldn't go to game over sometimes. Reset it. It would be fine. It's like, this is going to probably still have problems down the road, but you're playing at least for now. So the good thing is, though, it lasted the whole week they played since the grandkids left there. So they had a great time with it. But then shortly after that, it's having more problems. So I wound up actually hooking them up with an EM guy that out maybe 40 minutes south uh is the name of the place is arcade i think the guy name is rich i talked to him for a while and i hooked those two up together because he could probably hit it you know uh a lot more inexpensively than me going out there it's closer closer what game was it it's it is called uh flying carpet it is a williams is it Williams? No. I think I remember that game. Godly one player.
    37:23
    It's got the guy on the flying carpet on the back glass. Is it a guy? Yes, there is. Right. I don't know who he is, but yes. It's a popular game. People like that game. So that was that little foray into the western part of the state.
    37:43
    Let's see. Then I did a fun house day spa with, um, and put a playful protector on that and Framingham. And then did, uh, Indian and Jones. Oh boy. This one was another one of these. I thought you swore that game off. Nope. No, I, uh, I don't like to give up. I might have to take a pause and go think about it and lick my wounds and go home and, you know, come back later with a better armed, you know, for battle. I felt encouraged because for the longest time, there was a bonsai run out in Western Mass that this couple, they live in Florida, but they come up to this lake house they live at maybe two months ago. You had talked about this in a previous episode. Right. And I fixed that weird problem that was going on for a long time. I finally got all the gremlins out of it. That was a long multi-year. Right. That's another long ride. Long ride. So this one here, this one, Indiana Jones, was a lot like that. It was a lot like this ghost in the machine. And this thing had a history of ghosts in the machine. And it's gone to different places. And, you know, so I said, you know what? I'm ready. I have all the boards I need. I have all the parts I need. I'm going to figure this out. You know, so I went up there. I installed a brand-new driver board or a driver board I rebuilt. Yeah, I didn't drive. And then I also did a brand new, that Basement Arcade new CPU board. I threw one of them in there, too, for good measure, just to kind of, you know. But I think what really fixed it was the driver board. The driver board had some issues on it, and then the game's been bulletproof since. He actually, he played the crap out of his wife for like about a week straight to give it a good test. And he said, you know what, Doc? You did it. The thing is bulletproof. So another win. Another one in the win column there. So, right now, presently, I am hitting my head against an eight-ball champ I have here to restore for customers waiting since December for this one. And, yeah, it's doing some weird stuff. So, you know, I was talking to John Day about this a while ago. It's like I can repair, you know, circuit boards and that kind of thing. But at some point when you're repairing and you go back to the well, back to the well over and over again, it's still not right. And it's like, you know, troubleshooting, it's like, you know, at some point, it's not worth it to keep going there, just buy a new board, you know, and I think when I'm going to, I decided to do it today, made the executive decision to buy a new power driver board for this eight ball champ, because it had a big burn mark in the back of it anyway, from a short it had.
    40:28
    Wouldn't that be a clue right from the start? Well, yeah, and I try to, you know, fix the short, and I try to, and it's like, no, and it kept, like, you know, blowing the main fuse. Hey, my guy.
    40:41
    Yeah, blowing the main fuse and sparking, and I thought I blew other crap up, but I didn't, thank God.
    40:50
    And it has a squawk and talk board like the 8-Ball Deluxes and Fathoms of the World, and so it's a talker, you know. has the same that same board as the other valleys but the other boards that it has are different than your old school valley um so i rebuilt this walk and talk and actually put in i put that in my fathom and it tested out great all the sounds are fine for eight ball champ i put in the eight ball champ it boots up in there but i can never get it to talk in the eight ball champ for some freaking reason then i even put another speaker on it i still can't so it's like you know what I said, that's it. I'm putting a new power driver in here. There's something wrong with this. It's not going to write voltage. There's something going on with it. I'm doing that. Throw a towel in on that one and I can move on.
    41:35
    That's the one that's giving me fits of the exact game. The Super Bowl Mania, I'm doing. For another customer that's been waiting for a little bit for it, I want to get that done by May as well.
    41:47
    That's up and running even with a new Weebly board in it. It has some ghosts. It's doing some weird stuff once in a while. so I have to figure out that too so the two kind of problem childs but these days I'll tell you working on the WPC 90 stuff those are cakewalk compared to working on the old school probably why people are gravitating towards those machines at least partial reason mine have been great I've knocked on wood turn them on and they play if you do all the connectors we're just reiterating what we've talked about a million times but connectors, connectors, connectors yeah it's true and also sockets the sockets on these older valleys if you're going to redo them I know you drill them out I just snip them or you know unsolder them and put all if you want to have a problem free game you take every light socket out and you put a new one in and then you have no problems well that's one socket i'm not i'm talking actually ic socket chips okay well those two so chip socket they have this thing called uh their brand name is it was all i got who got something like that who got or uh yeah a u g u t or a t yeah that was a bad one yeah aug it and there's another one that's bad that's uh name the name uh escapes me at the moment but it's another notoriously el stinkeroo that uh williams used a lot of in their stuff and actually old school ballet did too the dash 17 boards use this one um i'll think of it later but uh yeah on the um i tested the eight ball champ out with you know i put new roms in it i learned a lot about jumper uh jumpering the squawk and talked toward too to accommodate uh different size roms that i put in there um but i try to test it out it would say i want speech stuff and all of a sudden it would do a garbled thing and then then keep going it's like what the frick is this so when i took out the speech chip i noticed it came out pretty easily the other ones are kind of a little bit more you know held holding on the legs really good it'd really give it some effort with a screwdriver to take them out the speech one is a little a little too easy to come out it's like okay that's suspect and it's an ugat or whatever ogot and how about oh god oh god yeah and uh i put a new one in there and now fine no more garble so that was that that's that's fixed that you know that socket there so that's that's that one there and so those are two big ones and the other one there's three problem children i have that i'm trying to get out by may or within may and i can bring the cat bring the cat you're running out of runway, my friend. The end of the week is May. Well, within May. Because I'll tell you, I'm going to be taking a... But that only gives you another four weeks. I'll get it done, because I pretty much... Silvermania is pretty much done. I just got to hunt down the gremlins. Hey, gremlin, gremlin, gremlin!
    44:58
    Nice gremlin! Woo! Ha ha ha ha ha ha! Black Knight is done, except it has a soundboard gremlin that when I use the Black Knight soundboards I have, it doesn't do anything. You can't hear anything out of it. But when I put in a Firepower speech board in there, it plays a Firepower sound, so it works fine. So what I did, I had some friends over, and I basically, you know, it says Black Knight in the back glass. over the word night I put power so we played black power all correspondence gets directed to Dr. Dave at Dr. Dave's whatever listen to the end of the program do not throw vats of hot oil at George flaming arrows or any other large rock or device bring it on so but I have a new soundboard that just came in so I'm going to be putting that in the Black Knight since the fire power board is out I took the power label off now it's back to Black Knight again that's going to be going in this week and hopefully delivering that game within a week or two and that game's out of here Civil War Mania hopefully that will be out of here in about a week or two that's going to go down to Southern Connecticut it we need we need to play that before it goes because oh yeah a couple of tie-ins on that game it's not one of my favorite games but i'm i'm very curious and excited to play it only because i saw it being played at the great lakes classic um that took place last weekend And we'll talk more about it when we do the show on it. I don't want to do it here. It doesn't make sense. It does make sense for later on. But interesting game. Not one of my favorites, but an interesting game nonetheless.
    47:14
    Yeah, it's some nice stuff in the game we can talk about once we go there. But, yeah, I hope to have that one done. We'll definitely get to play it before it goes. I'm thinking like probably two weeks I'm thinking that'll be gone, hopefully out of here. and then eight ball champ i want that out of here middle of may or into may latest because the end of may we're actually going to take our first vacation actually a real vacation in a long time now that new hampshire is a little more opened up and where are you going gonna go up north to um north of campden new hampshire up that way north of laconia yeah well it's right near it's not right near waterville valley yeah actually they uh they hold a big blues festival there uh at a big farm in august i don't know if it's going off this year but it has in the past okay i found it uh airbnb uh a couple places up there one place is really nice has a nice uh big deck out back overlooking the mountains and you're up high and say, okay, it looks like you can chill there, you know? And, but the reason to go up there is that I get a bunch of, bunch of people going to meet him at a campground and hang out, barbecue, that kind of thing. That same Memorial day week or weekend. So I'd be, well, what's this? So they go up there for the day. Let's go up for the week. And also, um, hidden a fun spot as well. They do, they do like a freedom rallies. It's at Fun Spot. So I want to hit that too.
    48:50
    Do you bring a pinball machine with you to set up at the house or the campground? Yeah, you know, it's not a bad idea. It's crossed my mind.
    49:00
    I'm going to see. I don't know. It's like part of me says I should take a break from it because Fun Spot has their stuff anyway. You know, I play their stuff. But we'll see. I might do that. I don't know. It depends how motivated I get, you know. And, you know, I want to try to relax and not be hoofing a pinball machine in and out of a car and setting it up and take it back down again. But I had done it before with a Joker poker. I've done it before up in a similar situation a couple of years ago. Went away for a week and did that a couple of times. And that was fun. So, yeah, I'm going to get away and do that. So I want these three games gone before then so I can chill out and relax. I just started into a, while waiting for parts for these other three games, I started, I just broke ground on a Superman. I have three Superman play fields that are all touched up and automotive clear coated. So I'm going to be restoring one for customers waiting for like a year for this. So I found some time yesterday, a beautiful day, 70 degrees out. So I wanted to basically take advantage of the nice weather.
    50:05
    John Day made me this beautiful play field rotisserie. You put the Superman playfield on there and just like I took all the whole playfield harness from all these games in different boxes. So I just pulled it out of the box, laid it down on top of the playfield and the wire and loom and all his memory is to have to spread it out a little bit. And they all find where they want to go. It's great. And you just can kind of sock them all down. And then I get it all on there and then I can and I can rebuild while I go. You know, so so I got that done and a couple more things. So that's that. Then, let's see, went to East Longmeadow to work on something. Oh, whatever. Oh, another – no, another Addams Family, East Longmeadow.
    50:46
    Sudbury worked on a Twilight Zone and a Popeye, two super pins. Popeye doesn't get much love, and I can see why, but it's kind of a cute game. No, I gave it the benefit of the doubt. I played it when I was out in Houston.
    51:03
    Too much play field covered up. there is and i i uh i gave it some nice blue leds and the pop bumpers up there that kind of gets more light up there and i kind of i i made the best popeye could be put it that way but uh and i love i love popeye i think you know the older 40s cartoons are great oh yeah but i don't that that game does nothing for me i gave it the benefit of the doubt but no yeah not it's you know what i wonder if you can buy a popeye for these a nice popeye what does that go for that must be cheap two grand maybe dave there is no such thing anymore i'll i'll uh i'll get back to you i'll uh i'll take a look i haven't seen one recently and i don't know how many were made but i'll do some homework on that i have a question uh regarding parts are you finding parts shortages anywhere or are you pretty much able to get what you need i know you have you know inventory but are you finding any issues with trying to acquire parts no i i'd say that there are some longer wait times on um on boards sometimes like these new boards that some of these uh cottage industries these little little manufacturers i know that do my boards that do brand new boards for me um sometimes though the wait times are uh a month i have to wait for sometimes a little longer to them to uh because they're waiting for components for their boards um so yeah that's about all for that for for regular components like other stuff i'm ordering from your typical pinball life pinball resource and i'm getting that stuff i don't have to wait from them at all it's just basically the the new board people they're the ones that have some supply chain issues more than anybody else but i'm still i'm not waiting six months i'm waiting like you know two weeks longer longer than normal but not crazy long not too crazy i i have a question about a part as well you mentioned you know when you do day spas that you've been using clear rubbers yes do you ever use clear rubbers on any of the old stern or ball the valley games not yet i haven't yet um i think what they what they really tend to look best on is when you put start putting warm leds in the gi like the warm whites or even some reds or whatever that's when they kind of really shine that light through nice to um for that so that's what i've been doing it for those for you know um for the 90s stuff and even late 80s stuff. So I have not experimented yet with the old school with doing that. I have, though, experimented with going with clear pop bumper skirts on old school that you can see right to the play field instead of having that skirt, you know, opaque you can't see. I did that on my kingpin, my Gottlieb kingpin. And there's also, they also make different colored skirts like see-through red, like transparent red transparent green blah blah blah and you can even match that with a transparent red or green or whatever color you want uh body for um for the newer games or the williams type games so i would experiment with that i'm seeing more people do that with pop bumper skirts but my question was more you know clear clear rubber and i think i'm going to buy a couple of pieces in my next order i'm trying to trying to figure out what i need a couple of games i've been playing a lot of and stuff wears out so i'll re re-rubber the games up thinking mate you know i do use some colored rubber sometimes but not many it's mostly white yeah like if i'm gonna use i use white rubber it's either white or clear or white or translucent they call it um for rubber rings and blah, blah, blah. But for, you know, the 90s games with their post sleeves, I definitely buy an assortment of colors for that because that when you really get can really get creative in different colors for the post and that kind of thing But actually so for ring color itself I don go for the yellows or oranges or that kind of thing I will experiment with different flipper rubber color. There's a whole bunch you can do with that. But, you know, the majority of the time, though, I'll tell you, the really bright red they give that Pinball Life sells, the perfect play ones, or the bright yellow they sell, those do really well. I like how those look on a game typically, unless it's something really that stands out. I might change it to like a blue or a green, you know, like maybe Lord of the Rings or something. But all my games have different colored rubbers. I experiment with them and I take them out regularly because I think that makes the biggest difference in a game. Fresh flipper rubbers, even if you don't do everything else, it just gives a better feel to the game. so I've been replacing those more often than not just to get better grip on the ball are you using the perfect plate silicone stuff or regular I have those I have titans I have stuff from mark I I have old hops which I loved that was my favorite rubber until they went defunct I don't know who bought the molds for that but you can't buy half rubbers anymore those used to be great yeah a lot of the a lot of the regular rubber you buy these days depending where you get it from uh it goes down like a year or two it starts yeah it breaks down i i like the soul cone better but a lot of my games have rubber and i still have a rubber inventory so you know i'm not going to throw the stuff away i'll just use it up and put it in lesser games i got a box full i'm sure you've got a box full if you have any number of games you always have box of rubbers well what i do is i keep the old school rubber i have a bunch of that and for you know for the budget budget conscious customers i have out there that you know don't want to go full boat and whatever you know i'll give them the cheaper option of and they don't really care about rubber that much i'll go with my el cheapo rubber for those um but i don't usually go too much so you know i use i definitely use the silicone it's a better product lasts longer play field stays cleaner so i don't like using the regular unless the guy is you know really you know tight with the buck then we'll we'll go with the right if you got leftovers that's where they go yeah even even all the rubbers aren't cheap anymore even that stuff's creeping up now yeah i've i've been buying i don't know at least at least a couple grand a month on parts and stuff i've been buying buying buying my that's a lot oh yeah i buy bulk i buy bulk rubber i buy bulk everything oh good you're busy is there uh is there anything else on your list you want to talk about we've been going about an hour uh just so there's two more things in the list to bring up to date so we got um the pocarino thing i still have to go back on that one I had to go back on the Twilight Zone again and do a Twilight Zone clock update with one of those Ingo boards. And then just did a Road Kings in Framingham. A real quick job on that one. He just wanted a couple things fixed.
    58:39
    He's going to move soon, move the game. He doesn't really care. So I wasn't going to do a whole bunch.
    58:45
    But Road Kings is a kind of cool game. It's plastic back glass or not even a glass, but you know what I'm saying. and uh it's kind of a it's a um road warrior theme it's the road warrior but it's road kings they even it looks like a road warrior ripoff from that time frame and uh i think they made that game is like a uh a cheap fill-in game between other games it's i think mark ritchie did the game i think it's a mark ritchie but uh it's a you know i remember playing this game back in the day and in the arcade is like and since i i like mad max and rural warrior i like it because of that theme and it sounds like it a little bit so so i did that one and then uh the last one i just did i just picked up that twilight zone from uh the one that he got one to sell it because i got that and then going out this week to work on a terminator 2 and then working on a firepower been getting lots of firepower calls and requests for restorations on firepowers a lot did you see uh jay this weekend and is there an update with uh yes going on and what's this yes well here's the update so i guess rhode island is going to be is going all back to real normal they say not this new normal stuff a real normal that's what jay is saying they said you mean they're going to actually take down all the plastic dividers and you're and so yep you can go you can be able to eat drink at the bar eat at the bar at the arcade in Rhode Island in about two weeks you can take you're gonna take all the plastic stuff down all the requirements like oh wow that's great because I know New Hampshire is doing that too um they have or they're in the process of it yeah we're kind of in the process of it right now but on May 7th, no more mask mandate by the state, but towns can adopt their own policy. And I think if I heard correctly, eight or 10 towns have a policy already in place, all the bigger cities, obviously. So yeah, the cities are the ones that are going to be hardcore with it. And the towns aren't going to be as bad, you know, that kind of thing. That's kind of the impression I get. People are going to go where they're comfortable with. If you're a little more on the fearful side, and that kind of thing, you're going to go more towards where there's more rules in place and that kind of thing. If you're more towards like, you know, I'm just fearful, you're more towards the freedom side of things, you're going to go to places that, you know, and to each their own. And people that cater to each one of those groups, they're going to make out by catering to each one of those groups. So free play in Rhode Island is going to be going back, at least what Jay's thinking, what the governor is saying is back to no restrictions, no whatever. and you can go eat or drink at a bar and no plastic dividers, no masks, nothing, just all, you know, party hardy dudes, you know, that kind of thing. So that's gonna be a great thing.
    61:46
    He's looking forward to that. And he's saying that he's hoping that he gets guidance from Governor Baker for this state that he can maybe open up in June and do the Worcester one in June. if Governor Baker, you know, plays ball like New Hampshire and Rhode Island are. I feel so bad for Jay. This has been ongoing, and the reason I bring it up is we promised him that when, you know, things opened for him, we'd come back and do, you know, another podcast with him. I'm excited to do that, but it's been – we did that back in the fall, Dave.
    62:25
    Yeah, yeah. I mean, he's just sitting there with a big space with games in it with no people. You know what I keep doing? I keep feeding him because I get a bunch of people calling me for game repair, and I get a lot of people wanting video game repair, and I don't usually do that unless it's something simple or something I want to deal with, but usually just pinball stuff for me.
    62:49
    So I'll actually hand them off to Jay because Jay will do in-home video game calls if it's within his reach that he can get to and make sense for him. So I've been giving him all my video game calls that come in. So I've been keeping him busy with that and making some money. And also hooking him up with different buys. Like I'll get a customer that wants to sell me a video game, a pinball machine or whatever. It's like, well, I'll take the pinball machine. I'll bring a buddy of mine who will buy your video game. So I'll hook up with Jay. We'll figure out what we want to pay. And we'll both hit it together. And he gets what he wants. I get what I want. and the beauty of it is is Jay has this awesome um this huge van that can accommodate anything and the thing is it's a monster and uh with ramps and everything and so I can't really fit the the rampers typically in my my car these days the other other old school games I can but not the big ramp games don't fit the DMD stuff so I gotta I gotta fix that situation down the road but for right now Jay's there with me so we just load it in his van and bring it back here and it's It all works well.
    63:54
    I talked to Ivan the other day about the Allentown show, and I guess there's still a thing to put it on. I was going to try to maybe pick up some glass from him because I'm running low on my playfield glass. July, right? I think July. And I don't know. That's another state that's pretty tightly. you gotta wait until we get closer and you get more information if things are screwed down I don't want to go to that people don't want to go to that for several different reasons but it all comes down to it people don't want to go to it as I say and somebody again I don't want to go down the pin side route but people were beating up on somebody because the guy was crashing on, you know, the Pin Brew Fest. Yeah. We interviewed Keith. Sure. And then the guy ends up going. Wow. Right. He crashed him the whole time. He took two barrels from a lot of people. People were just blasting him. And I said, you know, why would you, you know, if you have nothing good to say, don't say anything else at all. You know, don't say anything about it. I don't know. did you happen to see any of the pictures from pin brew fest? It looked like a really nice facility. Everything was awesome for it out. It didn't look like a lot of people there, but it looks, it looks sparse though. It looks sparsely popular. Like with, I don't think they, they probably didn't make any money in front of what I saw, you know?
    65:32
    Again, I don't disagree, but I'm looking forward to it. I mean, it's, it looked like a great venue. He had a lot of, you know, a fair amount of machines, beer and food trucks. I mean, if he does the same thing next year and all this is gone, I think he's going to do very well. Yeah. And you know what, if all this was gone and it's all back to, you know, party like it's 2019 or 18 or whatever, I'd be there because I'd want to go to, while I'm out there, I'd want to hit that Cedar Point Park. Yeah, I know you want to go ride the roller coaster. I want to ride that Millennium Force roller coaster. I want to hit that for a week or two. And I just got to, I've got to clear up my boss so I can get away for a couple weeks. Let me ask him. Hey, can I go away for a couple weeks? Yeah, whatever you want. He's the best boss ever. Oh, yeah, it's me. That's right. Sandusky, Ohio. I drove through there. That's a big amusement park.
    66:31
    It's a roller coaster park, really, is what it is. That one in Kings Island to the south is also a nice roller coaster park. a little more light in the coasters, but they have, what's it called?
    66:47
    I want to call it the Beast, but maybe it is the Beast. You know what? It's called the Beast. Yeah. It's an old wooden roller coaster called the Beast, and it's in Kings Island. Is it called King's Dominion? Is it a King's Dominion or Kings Island? I don't know. Anyway, it's near the same area. I think it's in Indiana.
    67:04
    And it's pretty, it's like an old mine ride, and it goes on forever. I think that's where this thing is like a three minute ride. And it goes, the first hill goes up high and it goes down and you, you go down into like a hole in the earth, into the dark, like full speed. Then you come like a, like a mine shaft, like a mine shaft. You come out and you go, then you go over hill and Dale through like forest area with all these trees around. It's like, and you go for a long time that way. So it's a real nice, it's real different ride. And the good thing about that, Even though it's a wooden coaster, you don't get your brain shaken up like some of these ones. Like there's one called the Mean Streak in Sandusky, and it's mean all right. It's a wooden roller coaster, but you get your brain shaken up the whole time. You get a headache by the time you're done with that coaster. Fun ride, exciting ride, very thrilling, but not worth the headache. So these days, especially now, especially as age creeps on you more and more, I go more for the smooth steel coasters. They have nice, smooth power, no shaky, but lots of nice acceleration. And I think the Millennium Force goes about 92 miles an hour. So that's fine with me.
    68:20
    It's been a while. But, yes, I like roller coasters too. You know what? If this all happens, we should go out to there and get that all done. Well, I'm, hey, once things start returning back in time, I want to hit, I'm going to the West Coast. I know, I don't know if you heard this as well.
    68:45
    The museum, the Pinball Museum in Banning, California, where InDisc was held, where I went, people are sick of hearing me talk about this. they are moving to Palm Springs, which is awesome. So out of the middle of nowhere to civilization.
    69:03
    Palm Springs is where? In the desert. It's where all the movie stars used to go, you know, quote unquote, back in the day. You know, the Bob Hopes, the Bing Crosbys of the world. Banning is not even a one horse town. So leave it at that.
    69:23
    Oh, Banning. Yeah, okay, because that was where it was last time, right? Yes, that's where it's been, and they're moving. So stay tuned, I guess. I'm excited. So sign me up.
    69:38
    Nice. Very nice. Yeah, I don't know. I like to go. Still, I do enjoy the Allentown thing, you know, under normal circumstances, you know, and if things are normal again, sure, I'll hit that. as for uh other stuff i mean i don't mind taking a uh you know long road trips here and there for different stuff so we'll see where things go i'll cross that bridge like you said we'll see uh i'd like to go to allentown as well uh you know i usually go with my buddy jack and stay at his place in jersey and then drive over uh not sure whether he'd be into it or not but i'm not making that decision until a week or two before. Yeah, same here.
    70:26
    And, you know, I know we could end it on this. I know you've seen what's going on with Pentastic. Well, yeah, that's way out. So let's see how that goes out in November.
    70:43
    Well, by then, well, yeah, by then... Don't say it. Don't even say it. Okay. You don't know. That's true. Well, you hope that other, like the Rhode Islands, New Hampshire's, the Florida's of the world, they all prove the rest of these states like, look, we're back to normal. Everything's good. We're making money. Why aren't you guys? You know, and we're fine. No one's dropping dead. We're all cool. You know, so if they prove that out, it's kind of, they have to, the other states have to follow suit and do the right thing by the people. One would think. We'll see. Time will tell. I'm definitely considering strongly going to Florida in November for the Worlds. You've heard me talk about that for over a year. I can certainly go do that. I think the big question is, will I be able to get in and watch? And, again, I think that's the, you know, we talked to David about that. I think that's the million-dollar question. What's that going to look like? But that's November, so time will tell. Dave. Who? Dave. D-A-V-E. Yeah, Dave. Right. So anyone out there that wants to explore getting their games worked on, getting their games restored, or buying a restored game from me, you can check out my website at pinballdoctor.com. That's pinballdoctor, all spelled out. Or you can reach me at dave at pinballdoctor.com. Or you can reach me at drdavespinball at gmail. And that's d-r-d-a-v-e-s pinball at gmail.
    72:32
    Thank you.