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Episode 243 – TV Tournament Time

Slam Tilt Podcast·podcast_episode·1h 34m·analyzed·Jan 17, 2025
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.033

TL;DR

2025 IFPA rules, state finals preview, and Nationals logistics with Josh Sharp.

Summary

Slam Tilt Podcast Episode 243 features Josh Sharp from Pinball Mechanics discussing 2025 IFPA tournament rules changes, state finals logistics, and the upcoming Nationals at Rochester Pinball Collective in March. The hosts cover regulatory updates (new hybrid tournament category), state participation (57 total states/provinces), prize structures, and local tournament news including Metallica launch party results and Pinmasters event details.

Key Claims

  • Pinball Mechanics shipping was approximately 4 months late, starting in February 2024 instead of the originally announced Expo 2023 timeline

    high confidence · Josh Sharp directly stated 'we were, like, four months late' and 'started shipping, like, in February of 24' during discussion of their game production timeline

  • 49 states and 8 of 13 Canadian provinces are participating in 2025 IFPA Nationals qualifying (58 total including Washington D.C.)

    high confidence · Bruce and Josh explicitly confirmed '49 of the states' and '8 Providence' with D.C., totaling 58 qualifying slots

  • Washington State has the highest prize pool at $12,000 for their state finals

    high confidence · Josh stated 'Washington State, you are... 12 grand' when discussing state prize pools, with Ohio also hitting five figures at $7,900

  • The 2025 hybrid tournament category is the main new rule change for certified tournaments

    high confidence · Bruce stated 'Hybrid's really the new thing for 25' and explained it requires 'minimum of five game count, 20 hours of qualifying' for both limited and unlimited categories

  • Nationals will feature 80 games with World Cup Soccer replacing either Diner or Lethal Weapon 3

    high confidence · Josh confirmed 'we have 80 games ready for Nationals' and discussed the game selection swap, noting 'World Cup Soccer, yes, they had like nine of those at Papa, so it must be great'

  • Rochester Pinball Collective is hosting Nationals on March dates (implied mid-March based on state finals being January 18th)

    high confidence · Bruce stated 'At the Rochester Pinball Collective, 349 West Marshall Street in beautiful East Rochester, New York' and Josh confirmed they're renting additional space and preparing infrastructure

  • Pinburgh tickets go on sale Wednesday, February 5th at noon with super-supported tickets one hour earlier

    high confidence · Ron stated 'tickets go on sale for Pinnberg... It's Wednesday, February the 5th. At noontime, exactly. And the super-supported tickets go on one hour earlier'

Notable Quotes

  • “If you're designing your game for the tournament play, you've already failed... Make the game fun. That's a very important thing.”

    Josh Sharp @ early in episode — Core philosophy statement on game design priorities vs tournament mechanics

  • “I hate it. I hate it... you get another great game instead... World Cup Soccer, yeah, they had like nine of those at Papa, so it must be great.”

    Josh Sharp @ mid-episode — Criticism of World Cup Soccer selection despite defensive rationalization

  • “Well, he has a key to your house. No, I let him in. But, yes, I've got to stop doing that.”

    Josh Sharp (about Stu McVicker) @ later in episode — Personal dynamic with recurring tournament figure; challenge issued for Pinmasters

  • “I turn into a pumpkin at 10 p.m., so I cannot play pinball after it hits 10 p.m. My skills have gone to bed for the night.”

    Josh Sharp @ mid-episode — Personal playing habits and age-related athletic performance commentary

  • “Match Play sucks... It does four groups of four and then a three, three, three. And it's like, why? And you don't have the option to change that.”

    Bruce Nightingale @ later in episode — Criticism of Match Play software limitations for tournament grouping

  • “A year and ten months since the announcement... Expo of 23... We started shipping in February of 24.”

    Josh Sharp @ opening segment — Timeline accountability for Pinball Mechanics' production delays

  • “If you like golf and understand the trials and tribulations of playing golf this tournament is awesome but it's really not fun for people that get agitated.”

    Josh Sharp @ Pinmasters discussion — Characterization of Pinmasters tournament format and player personality requirements

Entities

Josh SharppersonRon HallettpersonBruce NightingalepersonRochester Pinball CollectiveorganizationPinball MechanicscompanyIFPAorganizationStu McVickerpersonZachperson

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Pinball Mechanics reported ~4-month production delay on their game, shipping February 2024 vs. Expo 2023 target; attributed to manufacturing/supply chain constraints

    high · Josh Sharp: 'we were, like, four months late... started shipping, like, in February of 24' with original timeline of 'Expo of 23'

  • ?

    community_signal: Stu McVicker claim of IFPA ban challenged and called out; personal animosity between McVicker and tournament organizers documented on podcast; 'gauntlet thrown down'

    high · Josh Sharp: 'If he wants to show up to Pinmasters, so I make the groupings manually into groups of four, I'll play with that motherfucker... Because I hate that guy.'

  • ?

    community_signal: IFPA Nationals infrastructure expanding with additional venue rental and dedicated seating areas for spectators; indicating growth/capacity planning

    high · Josh: 'we're probably gonna rent out another room from the complex right next door... seating area... TV... veg out'

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Vintage EM pinball (Surfside 1964) used as tiebreaker in modern tournament finals; indicates acceptance of pre-1980s games in competitive lineup alongside contemporary Stern machines

    high · Bruce won Metallica launch party on Surfside EM game used as finals tiebreaker; described defeating Zach who is strong on vintage games

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Josh Sharp explicitly critiques tournament-first game design as fundamentally flawed; prioritizes casual fun factor over competitive depth

    high · Josh: 'if you're designing your game for the tournament play, you've already failed... Make the game fun. That's a very important thing.'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.284

0:00
Um, Van Driessen, I think there's something wrong with Butthead. Oh, I don't think so at all. In fact, Butthead, I'm very proud of your behavior today. You don't understand. There's something wrong... Oh, thank you, Mr. Van Driessen. I enjoyed your class today. You mean the part about Uranus, right, Butthead?
0:19
I actually liked Saturn, Beavis, with its prominent rings. That was my favorite. What? Would you like to join Beavis and I for lunch, Mr. Van Driessen? Butthead, no, no. Coming to you from beautiful upstate New York, this is the Slam Tilt Podcast, a show about all things pinball. I'm your host, Ron Hallett, here with the other host, Bruce Nightingale. Insert the presidential music right now! yes for episode 243 we have the man who has more pinball related ndas than anyone who doesn't actually work for a pinball company josh sharp we're like a an eighth of a pinball company now over at at play mechanics so yeah that's true give us some credit i guess a set we do like a game every seven years so we're one seventh of a pinball and it only takes two years to build it Oh!
1:24
Okay, that's not fair. That's not fair. Two years. It has not been two years. A year and nine months or so. Yeah. A year and ten months since the announcement.
1:36
Hey, I was giving you nine. The announcement was not in any sort of like, it's going to ship tomorrow.
1:45
Come on, I gave you another month because technically you did get them to Europe the month before. So I'm giving you that. I think we, at the original timeline, I think was Expo, have games shipping by Expo of 23.

  • First place Nationals winner receives a John Wick Pro; second place receives two John Wick Pros

    high confidence · Josh stated 'first place gets a john wick pro second place gets two john wick pros' for the Nationals prize structure

    • 2025 IFPA Nationals
    event
    Metallica Launch Partyevent
    Pinburghevent
    Pinmastersevent
    Metallica (pinball machine)product
    World Cup Soccerproduct
    Demomanproduct
    Surfsideproduct
    Avengersproduct
    John Wickproduct
    Interium Arcade and Restaurantorganization
    Raw Thrillscompany
    Match Playproduct
    IFPA 21event
  • ?

    competitive_signal: Tournament organizers swapping World Cup Soccer into Nationals lineup replacing Diner or Lethal Weapon 3; multiple duplicates used at Papa tournament suggests availability/testing data

    medium · Josh: 'World Cup Soccer, yes, they had like nine of those at Papa, so it must be great... they had 13 No Fears at Papa one time too'

  • $

    market_signal: Wide variance in state finals prize pools suggests geographic market strength differences; Washington State leading at $12k vs. most states <$5k

    medium · Josh noted Washington State prize pool dramatically higher ('12 grand... Five figures, bro') compared to typical state offerings

  • ?

    product_concern: Match Play software criticized for inflexible grouping algorithm creating uneven groups; users report 'not needed' responses from developers when requesting fixes

    high · Bruce: 'It does four groups of four and then a three, three, three... And you don't have the option to change that... we get told, not needed. This is fine.'

  • ?

    regulatory_signal: New 2025 IFPA hybrid tournament category introduced as main rules change; minimal other regulatory updates for certified tournaments

    high · Bruce confirmed 'Hybrid's really the new thing for 25' and 'the only changes are the top three bullet points'

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Era-split tournament formats adopted post-Denver to avoid extreme event duration (previously ran to 5am); indicates scale management strategy for large tournaments

    medium · Bruce: 'uh the era splits was following a year where we did end at five in the morning... yeah out in denver and uh yeah the era splits has been wonderful since then'

    • 2:01
    Wow. We announced in March because we had to per our contract. Yeah. And I think we started shipping. We were, like, honestly, if you look at production reports and stuff, we were, like, four months late. We started shipping, like, we started, not that much. Not that much. Started shipping in February of 24. Okay. I like it. But it's wonderful. It's great.
    2:26
    I like the throwbackness of it. Oh, I do too. Thanks, guys. I just like listening to the tournament players. Oh, I hate it. I'm thinking like, you know, if you're designing your game for the tournament play, you've already failed. That's right. Yeah. I hate to say that, but it's like, I mean, yeah, you can't. No. Make the game fun. That's a very important thing. okay bruce why don't you start because you have all kinds of cool tournamenty things you want to talk about well first uh welcome josh uh 2025 ifpa rules you can go over it with us since we haven't had you on in a year oh god no no no rules as in no rule thanks bruce no the changes the changes from 2024 to 2025 yeah what do we got yeah what do you go to that website yeah i gotta read it Take me through it and let me know what you don't understand, and then I'll update the verbiage so you understand. Wow. We understand everything. I know all the local 518ers hate it. Really? That's all I read.
    3:31
    I never read any of it, so I really don't know the details. I'm blissfully ignorant. Well, that's typical for you. That is. I just show up. What game do you need me to go to? Thank you. It's not a very long list for this year. No, it's not, actually. What are you killing? You already killed my target match play that I love. I had to have finals because, you know, whoppers. You don't have to have finals. Ruined. Oh, see? See? You don't have to have finals. You just lose points.
    4:06
    Yeah. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, exactly. They wanted to whopperify it to the max. That sounds like a you problem. No. Wow. See? I've been saying this all along. Have some fun, man. Yes. Come on. It's more fun to compete.
    4:24
    No, what's fun is something like, and I'm talking about the Indisc target match play, or classics target match play. Someone like, say, me might actually have a chance. But as soon as you put the finals component in, then it's going to be one of the usual 10, 15 people. Was it last year that you were kicking ass, or was it two years ago that you were like? Both years. Both years, yeah. I finished second, and then the next year when they had the playoff component, I think I finished second or third in the qualifying round to prove it wasn't a fluke. And then I got to pick all three of my own games and lost on all of them. Yeah!
    4:58
    Are you ready to go again in a week? Yes, I am ready. Hopefully we can get there and there's no issues with wildfires or anything else. Well, I'm coming from the Northeast, so it could be weather here. It's supposed to be horrifically cold here, but that was about it the last I saw. Yeah, it's only supposed to be like four degrees, that's all. It's going to be great, yeah. Four degrees. So what are the changes that we're seeing that have changed the world of tournament pinball? Lay it on me, Bruce. What do we got? Well, what else do we have? Well, let's go. You said the match. Hold on. I'm going to go to it.
    5:38
    While Bruce goes to it, I'm going to say we're not going to be like Jeff Teolis. We're not going to be just bashing Josh about second-place finishes and all that. We're not mean like that here on the podcast. I did not have a second place in target match play last year, Ron. There you go. I mean, yeah. And why would – I mean, you've been killing – like, you killed it at Expo Classics. Like, where did you finish there?
    6:06
    A second. Oh, you got it. Oh, I got it, too. I walked right into that. God damn it. Oh, shit. I love it. You like that? I thought I was thinking of that beforehand. Like, how can I do this? Okay, so we have the certified rules update include hybrid best game category. Yeah. So now limited is a minimum of five game count, 20 hours of qualifying. Unlimited is minimum of five game count, 20 hours of qualifying. This is for certified, by the way. Yes, certified. Yes, we want. Which certified is, what, 64 or is it 48?
    6:44
    48. Yes. 48. I want to make sure we're on the same rules and everything like that. I got you. I am as lost as I am on any modern weather. I'll keep your train on the tracks. Keep going.
    6:56
    The basic rules, all sanctioned tournaments are – Don't read all – that's all the history of shit. Like the only changes are the top three bullet points. That's it. Yeah, that's pretty good actually. Yeah. Why the fuck do we even have you on? I don't know.
    7:12
    Hybrid's really the new thing for 25. New kind of tournament. Is your hand cramped this week? From what? From writing all those checks, baby. I did it last week. And there's definitely, when I have to sign my, you know, you do your signature. And I find that if you start thinking about needing to do your signature, you suddenly can't do it. Like your hand just knows what to do. and like 30 checks in i've just started like looking at it and then i lost the ability to sign my own name and i had to like that's fucking do something else and then just think about something else and just let my hand just start scribbling so uh how many states are now in for uh the nationals besides provinces of course are i know we don't have all 50 we don't i think it's 49. Wow. So what is the only state not included? Alaska, Hawaii. No, they're both in. I want to say it's a Dakota. South Dakota. Let's see. Hold on. Let's see. I'm actually interested in this now. I'd love to see 50. It is North Dakota. So we need people. No, North Dakota's in it. No, never mind. Okay. Fuck. What else? What?
    8:24
    Man. Bruce, did you like a title of our last episode? What was it again? Yeah, because you – I think you were supposed to – you were trying to say provincial, but you said provisional. Provisional.
    8:37
    They're criminal, but they're too. I don't know what state's missing, to be honest. That's good. Great. That's wonderful. Good job. But I think there is one.
    8:49
    No, we're not looking at all of them. I'm skimming through, and it's like good luck with this. It'll be a challenge for your listeners. Find the missing state. Yes, find the missing one, and then we'll have fun. Well, to go in order, the state finals are this weekend. Yes, which is one of the reasons why I wanted to have Josh on and his cramped hand.
    9:08
    January 18th, around the country and Canada, we will be having the state and provincial finals. Now, we have another question for you. Is there any interest from, like, Mexico in making it a true North American? Have we ever heard anything? Like, you know, has anyone ever have tournaments down there? I don't know. That's what I'm asking. They have not. Wow. We'd be open to it. Yeah. I think it would be cool to cool. I was so hoping you would say something like Brazil to make a true North American thing. No, I know my. You know your continents. Damn it. I know my continent. I am incontinent. Oh, good Lord.
    9:49
    OK, so 49 of the states. And then we have how many providences? Eight. Eight out of 13. Eight Providence, Rhode Island. Excellent, excellent. Oh, God. I love getting them going all the time.
    10:07
    You hear me, I'm like, and Providence's. So it will be a total of 57 for your nationals. Yeah, yeah, because Washington, D.C. also, yeah. Oh, that's right, 58 then. Wow. And there's a lot of money on the line depending on where you are. Yeah, money is... If you're in Washington State, you are... I was looking at some of the totals. It's so much higher. Like, oh, my God. District 82 moved to Washington? What happened? Oh, my God. It's ridiculous.
    10:38
    How much money is it? Let's see. 12 grand. Yeah, it was like... 12 grand. Holy shikies. Five figures, bro. Yeah. Ohio. That's the only state, I think, that made five figures. Yeah. Ohio is 7,900. so who who is in like who is playing in a state final on this call i'm in illinois how about you fellas nope now this is retired retired yeah i mean you could be you could be retired and win state it could but i didn't play enough i didn't play enough yeah i'm i'm in because i traveled hey across the state i mean that's pretty much what i have to do like i yes you know if there was the New York City pinball championships I probably would have been there there was the beast so I had to play beast yeah what happened to the upstate championship boys they used to be one of my favorite custom rankings to follow yeah that you hated me for going hey by the way no there's no super league anymore it's not I mean yeah it's actually a true state it's actually a true state level and as we found it's pretty much all New York City anyway I think there's four I think there's four. Yes, it is. There's like, there's, you know, how many, okay. How many upstaters do you think are playing in this top 24, Bruce? Well, it's got to be four or five. I think it's five. It's four. So Eric Russell. Uh-huh. Andy Cushman. Uh-huh. Yourself. Yeah, it's five. It's five. It is five. Hey. Oh. And don't forget Jerry.
    12:11
    Jerry's upstate. See? Everyone else is New York City. Everyone else is New York. Oh, actually, no. Sanjay is New Jersey. Yes, Sanjay is New Jersey. Everyone else is New York City. That's why I think it would be really weird to have any state finals too far west at this point because you're going to be asking basically 85% to 90% of the player base to travel that far. Well, maybe some people didn't want to play if they wanted to go down to New York. Didn't want to go to New York City either. You have to look at it that way too. Oh, I don't want to go to New York City. I'm only going because someone's driving me. Wow. So where are you going in Illinois, sir? Mr. Bagwell is hosting at the lovely Interium Arcade and Restaurant very nice and no later than 1am yeah I think that year I went to Wisconsin finished, drove back and they still have they were in like the quarter finals or something it was bad I felt so bad for these people like wow don't worry Ron's going to be sitting on the floor oh yeah probably not gonna be much room there but i'm used to it i'm used to it this is in kate's apartment for you guys apart did you see the pictures i did i was like oh my god i have practice i played at the the funatorium in new york city where basically you walk in a room you play and then you leave the room and stand out in the hallway there yep yep yep oh we know our zach will hate that yes he likes his comfort and he will not like it it'll probably bring a chair He'll be warm in there, too. You're saying we will have better room for nationals than you guys have for states? Yes, we will. So after all these states complete and the winners, which won't be me, are determined, in March they will all battle. And where are they going to battle, Bruce? At the Rochester Pinball Collective, 349 West Marshall Street in beautiful East Rochester, New York. Suite 2965. You won't need a chair because you'll be standing the whole time. Okay. wow that's pretty uh that's it you do have chairs there if that's true we're not coming there are chairs there are definitely chairs we have chairs tables we're gonna we're gonna be jumping off the you know machines just to crash some tables like they do for the buffalo bills yeah we're actually renting out uh we're probably gonna rent out another room from the complex right next door.
    14:44
    There'll be a seating area in there so people can blow up a TV in there and a seating area so people can just veg out in there also. Very nice. I've been sending Mark some logos for the stream, so I know he's already prepping.
    14:56
    Excellent. Yes, we're very excited. Hey, by the way, where's IFPA 21 going to be? We heard Bangkok. Unknown yet.
    15:07
    I may give a call to Mr. Thorin up north to do a world's trip up there. You heard it here first. If not, we're always willing.
    15:21
    Let's see if you can handle this Nationals thing. I like the Bangkok idea, though, although the players might not show up. Where are they? Or not make it back home.
    15:34
    Three people lost a kidney. Awesomeness. Yes. So, yes, we're very excited. We have 80 games ready for Nationals. Awesome. The game list you have picked. We're not releasing anything here. I mean, it's on. So I'm big into, especially for like for Pin Master, since I'm playing, I don't like knowing things that other people don't know as a fellow player. So that list, including what I sent you guys this morning, swapping out World Cup and Lethal Weapon 3, it is updated on our site for Pinmasters already. Nice. I heard Lethal Weapon 3. What about Lethal Weapon 3? Out. No. Out, out, out. Why? I know. Zach said the same thing. No. Lethal Weapon 3 is awesome. Well, no, because you get another great game instead.
    16:28
    Okay. World Cup Soccer, yes. We got offered World Cup Soccer and I tossed it to the team and was like, you guys want to use this instead of anything else? And got a vote for dumping Diner and then more votes for dumping Lethal Weapon. Oh, wow. I would have dumped Diner first. Yeah. World Cup Soccer, yeah, they had like nine of those at Papa, so it must be great.
    16:52
    It is great. They had 13 No Fears at Papa one time too. Whoopsie. I remember that. That was the duplicate era where they just had so many duplicates of everything. Well, the funny thing is, Josh, you get to pick your flight early and everything. That's the great thing about this, huh? That is true.
    17:13
    So what format is this state final, national final? Like, how does this work? Nationals is the same as state.
    17:23
    So best of seven, single elimination bracket. ready set go at nine in the morning and pray that we end before five in the morning i hope so too well i think the uh the era splits was following a year where we did end at five in the morning yeah out in denver and uh yeah the era splits has been wonderful since then yeah we we have a lot of ems and uh 70s and 80s so if you left it up to the kids it would just be new sterns all day i dare say that may have been how denver went and yes yes kept going yes this is a song that never ends and so what what does the winner get a new car bob a new in box stern pro nice any particular title uh it depends on how nice you are to my brother i think oh okay wait a minute so if you're nice what do you get and if you're not nice what do you get if you're not nice you probably get a wheel of fortune oh i love that if you're nice you you might get a choice of like what's an inventory by the time you win oh that's cool i don't think they still have wheel of fortunes oh you're probably right yeah not at this point wrestlemania is gone so we're you know first place gets a john wick pro second place gets two john wick pros i was trying not to be mean and say the job but oh that would be bad and i think there's like a 50 grand like ever so everyone if you win your state and go to nationals even if you lose in the first round you get paid so all 58 people will be paid and there's like 50 grand split among everybody nice very cool uh we have a lot of hotels a lot of rooms around the area for uh nationals so uh if you're thinking about it if you think you're gonna hopefully get in maybe book a room now you can always cancel beforehand you know that's the way i kind of tell people look at an airbnb like five minutes from uh the collective so i was excited to snag that. Very cool. And all kinds of horrible, life-shortening food that people like. There's a Taco Bell there. There's pizza places. Yeah, you guys will have to send me a next-tier-up hit list of local joints that are not worth missing. Oh, definitely. We can do that right off the bat, right? When you get your car, rental car, just go north right towards Nick Tahoe's and have your first garbage plate. Garbage plate is you get two or four bases. So you either get fries, cold beans mac salad and then you can uh what else is what's the fourth fuck always forget but i don't usually get it so that's why i ignore it then you get either hamburger hot dog and that kind of stuff you put on and then they put all this meat sauce on and onions mustard and ketchup if you like and it's like a pound of food for like 13 bucks too much food that is way that That sounds way more awesome in my 20s. And as my 20s have turned into my 40s, this year is my colonoscopy year. So I'm looking forward to it. Oh, it's fun. It's great. That's what I hear. Well, I was out, so it was fine for me. Oh, yeah, you're all out. But your wife's making fun of you like, how are you doing, honey? Well, I had a colonoscopy and endoscopy at the same time. So they went in two different holes. It was great. Oh, my. at the same time to try to make him a spigot. Yes. That was my reflux, and they went in there, and they're like, we think we see something. But then they went in a second time, and we don't see anything. Okay, we're going to have to wait a year, and then do it a third time and make sure we don't see anything. So I got to do three endoscopies. It was great. Dang.
    21:15
    Awesomeness. Yeah, you're going to love the colonoscopy. It's great. Good fun. Age is awesome. Yeah, it's been a fun ride. You getting arthritis when you hit the flipper buttons or anything?
    21:27
    My shoulder is definitely starting to – it cracks all the time. It makes some weird noise every time I move it, which is weird. But so far, staying mildly healthy. So I'll take it. That's good. I try my best. So just think, a couple weeks from now, tickets go on sale for Pinnberg. How about that? That's going to be awesome. It's Wednesday, February the 5th. At noontime, exactly. And the super-supported tickets go on one hour earlier. Yeah, I could try that again. Yep. Our very own Zach got in, and then his card was declined. His credit card got denied. Oh, that's right, because it was the new site with the auto-filling garbage. Oh, that's so hard now. The old one, it's like if you got it in your cart, you were good. Now it's like, no, it's when you actually finish. So you've got to be able to cut, paste. Yeah. Yeah, I just – I hate it, but it is what it is. Yes, so that will be cool to see. Hopefully you guys get in. I'll be watching from the side. Yeah, one of my kids expressed interest in attending, so I'm looking forward to maybe – Okay, which one? I thought the younger one was the one who was into pinball. Yeah, but – so he was like – he was between the ages of like one and three when COVID was going on. so he got i was home working in the basement so we played a hope my boss isn't listening played a lot of pinball during covid because our business almost went to shit and he was really into it but he's been off it a bit but now my my teenager's coming back oh that's cool he's yeah he goes to uh interium to andy's monthly every month and plays in that and recently asked if he could go to pittberg and at first i was like no it's a lot and that i have to like take care of you while i'm trying to also play but i might be willing to to bring him along so when he drops his first f-bomb in the middle of the game is the tear gonna come out down your eye like yes i love this kid man he's just like that's my boy so how has work been at raw thrills it been awesome yeah i feel like we were we were incredibly close to death door when covid was really bad and uh we were we bounced back we bounced back really strong so it's been it's been good that covid was not transferred via touching things which was what was thought in the original uh when it first happened it was like oh good well that's good. Our games require everyone to touch the same thing. Yeah. Over and over again. Yeah.
    24:09
    Well, that's good. Congratulations. That's what we like to hear. Yeah. We'll take it. One year at a time. One year. One week at a time. Sometimes Bruce. Yes. The nationals are not the only things occurring at Rochester pinball collective that weekend. There's pin masters. We need to hook that up too. So tell us about that quick. before it sells out we have like 11 people in my brother hasn't even signed up yet it's really light sell it to me sell it sell it sell it to me why should i donate money to the top 10 players in the world i think the top 24 get paid come on ron again why would i you know it's i've heard from people it's like if you like golf and understand the the trials and tribulations of playing golf this tournament is awesome but it's really not fun for people that get agitated you know when things start to go wrong because yeah things can go one game one hole and you're screwed like oh i just completely fucked myself like i'm done yes just like just like golf and it's yeah you took an eight on that hole you're screwed you know typically in match play it's like you can do as shitty as you want and you'll get like a fourth which will be one it'll be six points worse than first and yeah pin masters can just for those at home the way it works is there's a target score if you can get the target score and all the games are set to what five balls probably yes so if you get to the target score on your first ball it's a whole one wow it's easy you get it on the second ball it's a two three four five you get it now it's like what happens if you don't get it by ball five well depending on how badly you sucked yeah it'll show like score is like well if you score between it's in this you get a six or seven or an eight or a nine it's go up to ten it does it goes up to ten so if you get a ten you really suck yeah pretty much less than 20 of the target score gets you a ten which in five balls you know it we don't see tens often no but it'd be cool to see yeah well i have a note here i have stew mcvicker we talk about you the world famous in his own mind, the 1978 Playboy Launch Party champion, he says he might try to play in that Pinmasters thing.
    26:32
    I figured I'd ask Jeff, what do you think of Stu McVicker? Because he says he's banned from the IFPA. If he wants to show up to Pinmasters, so I make the groupings manually into groups of four, I'll play with that motherfucker. Both days. Oh, snap. Wow, the gauntlet has been laid down. There'll be no ban needed. I think he will just ban himself. Wow.
    27:00
    Awesome. Because I hate that guy. I would love to see him fail. Let's bring it on. I mean, last time he was out there, he won, and that's all he keeps telling me. I got to block him. He keeps messaging me all the time. Well, he has a key to your house.
    27:17
    No, I let him in. But, yes, I've got to stop doing that. All right. Wow, the gauntlet has been thrown down. I like this. I think we're going to see Stu McVicker because Stu cannot just run away from a challenge. Well, I'm going to tell him the Sharps have challenged him, and we know how he feels about them. Yes.
    27:35
    Interesting. It's going to be a bloodbath at the old pinball collective. Swear words will be heard. So that goes from Friday, Saturday, and then finals this Sunday for pinmasters? Yes. Okay. So it's two times. You get the tee times of either morning or afternoon you can pick, right? Correct. Yeah. There's a 10 a.m. and a 3 p.m.
    27:58
    What is the percentage breakdown between? Right now, it's 50-50. We got eight people at 10 a.m. and eight people at 3 p.m. Because most pinheads I know are just like not morning people and would never do morning. I'm the opposite. I am such a morning person. Yeah, me too. I'd be so into the morning side. I joke with Adam Lefkoff over the years. I turn into a pumpkin at 10 p.m., so I cannot play pinball after it hits 10 p.m. My skills have gone to bed for the night.
    28:31
    I've gotten like three calls during this. I think it's my – I'm on call, by the way. And I think I'm getting just absolutely decimated here. I've been checking my email on Teams to see if anyone is actually – Trying to contact you on Teams? me and I don't see anything. Just write back like, please don't bother me while I'm in the bathroom. I'll let you know as soon as I'm out.
    28:53
    Here we go. I got someone saying hello, Ron. Okay. At six o'clock. Hi. You come here often? Here we go. I'll do system support while on this call. Isn't this great? It's going to be awesome. It says hello, Ron, and I say hello.
    29:12
    They're calling me too. I'm trying to figure out what's actually down. I don't see anything down. This is why Ron gets paid the big bucks. Oh, the big bucks, yes. I love being on call because every fucking week that I'm on call, I get called multiple times. This will be the third one this week. And everyone else doesn't, like when they're on call? I never ask them, but I figure no. Oh, then you're not on that. Oh, here we go. Hi, Ron, he says. I love this. This is great podcast material, ladies and gentlemen. I'm probably not supposed to say this proprietary work stuff.
    29:50
    We're going to hear Ron go, Jesus Christ. Well, Bruce, while I'm dealing with this, why don't you tell about your awesome tournament experience you had just this last weekend? Oh, yeah. Tell us about the retirement. The retirement, they needed an extra person to make it even. So, of course, I'm the last person sitting there going, okay, I'll play. So I played in the Metallica launch party.
    30:16
    And we called it the Janab tournament because two of our members weren't on the same day. And it was the day after the tournament. So we dedicated a tournament to them. We played match play for five hours.
    30:34
    Why did there need to be an even number? Doesn't match play work with, like, any number of people? No, no, Match Play sucks. Oh, God. Okay, guys, while you go off on your tangent, I'm going to mute. Okay, go ahead. We have an IP from Russia that I need to block ASAP. Go bye, bye. So, yes.
    30:54
    Match Play, we had 21 people. So you would think. Seven groups of three. You would think that. Nope. Doesn't do that. What does it do? It does. Five groups of four and one group of one? Yes. No, no, it does. It does four groups of four, four groups of four, and then a three, and then a, don't, sorry. It's like three groups of four, and then a three, three, three. Okay. And it's like, why?
    31:20
    It's a lot worse. More, you know, 1.5s. And you don't have the option to change that. And Zach's complained. And then we get told, not needed. This is fine.
    31:32
    It's just very annoying. So I got thrown in. It made it a little even. And I played. I qualified second. Zach qualified first. We had our finals. And in the final match, Zach took the first two games. I took the second and second. And it was 3-2-1-0 scoring. So he was up 6-4 on me. Oh, dang. And the last game was Demoman. And he picked all the games. So he picked first Avengers. Second game he picked was, what the fuck did he pick? I can't remember. But the third game was Demoman. I'm like, oh, shit. Here we go. And he owns one, and he crushes it every time. He got third. I got first. Oh, tie. Tie. So what does he pick? Surfside. What the heck is Surfside? Surfside is a Gottlieb II player from 1964.
    32:26
    And, oh, my God, I beat him on that and took the win. Zach was king of the, during COVID, when we did the ICR remote games. Oh, yeah. and people were whatever comparing scores in different games I think he had a couple of matches on like really old fucking games and it was hilarious to try to like man so what's a good score on this you know small flipper EM compared to Game of Thrones what's a fair comparison you're like what the fuck who's not even doing this shit and I remember like you'd watch and it's like you would just judge play and the referee would be like Zach wins love it oh i miss my zach he's working today he's working at the coop today oh nice yes so we are open thursday friday and saturdays i get to work saturday this week he gets to work thursday because he's got to go to nat he's got to go to states i mean he's going to leave tomorrow for states cool cool cool so how far is your drive you got what 30 minutes 40 minutes six minutes oh jesus christ six minutes that's a nice sweet drive it's it's nice it's nice can't complain anything else besides austria this year you know since you are going to austria for uh ifpa 20 i do man that reminds me i need to put my my days in my calendar so my wife can see no no not for work for for my real boss at home yeah so she knows when the heck i'm not here what do we got we're gonna do we're gonna do in desk nice we're gonna come out to you guys for nationals and pin masters more importantly update update i am in my system right now i am almost into the firewall to block this ip more to follow wow what if you i think you should have come back speaking russian ron yeah uh austria pinberg lobster fest which is the code name for papa that i don't need to worry about anymore ah and pinball expo nice my list that's that's your list this year and i like that my list is i'm not even going to allentown this year i have a cruise during allentown yeah good for you good yeah i'm gonna go away going to italy yeah dang nice yeah we're doing the transatlantic from uh new jersey to italy what uh what else on the event list for you uh pinberg hopefully i don't know i don't know it's it's 244 is a fast you know you got to click fast i don't see that but we're hoping you'll be you'll be you'll be trying yes and uh i'm gonna try and then uh we have we're trying for the satellite for our pc also for stomp oh sweet so we're trying for that we're gonna find out i just put the paperwork in a couple days ago so we're gonna hopefully on that we'll see what happens are you a beast attending person i am a beast tech oh i check for i tech for jeff every year i've never missed a beast and I tech for him, and I'm very proud to say last year I didn't even play. I teched, and I did some TDing for him. God's work. I enjoy that more lately because I'm getting older. My play is a little down, but I enjoy actually being neutral, not having anything to do with it. Just guess what? I'll make the call. I don't have to worry about anything else, my gameplay or anything like that. I just have to worry about the game being working right, and, hey, if I have to make a call, I'll make a call. Good for you. That's it. Good for you. And that's what I try to do with the RPC. Most of the time, I'm trying to do tech calls. And I'd rather not play lately. I'm old! I'm fucking old! Yeah, I get it, man. Yeah, it's getting bad when your bones are achy and everything. Chucks! Chucks, we're sparse.
    36:10
    So, yeah, I think Ron's got a plan for Expo again this year. He's got a plan for Pinberg if he can get in. He's going to InDesk, so you'll see him out there. Papa? Papa 22? I don't know about that. When is that this year? It is right the weekend after Labor Day. Ooh. So it is September 4, 5, 6, 7. No? Yes. Yes, it is. That is impossible for me. That is the wife's birthday. Oh, yeah. Yeah, the 5th. I would be dead meat.
    36:47
    I missed enough birthdays for work when I was working, traveling. and yeah, I got to make up for that a lot. But I can see Ron maybe doing it. In disc, I was going to kill Carl when he announced the dates this year because that falls on my wife's birthday. Oh, yeah. In a desperate attempt at a hall pass, I am flying her out to go to Disneyland Sunday. As soon as I'm eliminated, I will be racing to meet her and then we're going to stay a couple of extra days. I love Disneyland.
    37:19
    Assuming it hasn't burned to the ground. Well, I don't think it will. It's too far down. But the good thing about it, I love Cars Land. Yeah, they don't have that in Orlando. So we're like, yeah, we're hyped. Go at night. I'm going to tell you that. That is the coolest time to see that because all the neon, it looks exactly like it does in the movie. It is just like, wow. It is freaking awesome. It is so cool. Pass that on to the wife. Oh, definitely. I highly, highly recommend that. And then, of course, you know, across the street is what the California, what do they call that? A California adventure or something like that? I think that's right. It's been a while since I've been there, but it's really cool. I'm glad for you guys. You got to get to go out and stay longer. That's great. Who's watching the kids? My mother-in-law. Nice. She's a saint. My wife turns 45. I just turned 45. And as soon as – I mean it's completely selfish because I'm like, how the fuck am I going to get to Indisc and pull this off? And I called my mother-in-law and was like, if I fly Amanda out, will you watch the kids for a couple days? And she's like, sure.
    38:26
    So now you owe her big time. I told my wife the Indisc dates and I'm like, you're not going to like it, but I think I have a plan that will allow me to go. And she's like, no, you're fucked. You're not going. No, you're not going. And I'm like, just hold on. Let me explain what I want to do. and I explain it and she's like, damn, that's pretty fucking good. Hey, nice. I'm like, yes.
    38:47
    All I got to do is just buy a cruise once a year and I make my wife very happy. That's the gimmick. That's it, man. That's it. Earn my hall passes. Spend them. Earn them. Spend them. Yep. That's the biggest thing. If you don't do that, you are screwed. Oh, yeah. I wonder how Comrade Ron's doing at his call. We haven't heard from him in a couple minutes. We're all going to be screwed.
    39:09
    Man, murdered. Russian conspiracy. Story at 11. So, what's the newest product that came out from Raw Frills? We just had a game called Angry Birds Boom that came out, which is like a redemption game or like you're firing birds, shooting pigs, and blowing shit up. That's cool. Before that, what else came out? I like blowing shit up. Hey, there he is. NBA Superstars came out. last year.
    39:42
    And Godzilla VR came out. We like to do games that Keith Elwin does in pinball, so there's a good overlap there.
    39:52
    So you tell them about your pinball experience, Bruce? Yep, how I crushed Zach. Well, that's always good. Yes, see? It was anybody but Zach. A, B, Z. Okay, now I can tell my experience. Okay, good. Which I totally forgot to do last episode when it was more timely. We had our league finals for our winter league at Excelsior, the OG league of the 518, the Albany area. Wow, it's like gangsta.
    40:22
    Now, the way we do the finals, it's strikes. There's a B finals, which are first, and then there's an A finals, and there are strikes. I think it's just three strikes because we have like four games. and I was in B because I missed three weeks. Oof. And they don't do any of the like drop or anything like that. So I, so I had no mathematical way to ever be in a, the prize. If you win B is you get to go to a, Oh yeah. The Keith, the Keith Elwood expo plan. So I, I think second game, maybe I took a strike and then that was it. That was the only stroke I took. Jeez. Walk the whole thing. Well, I have more appreciation for more practice and playing the games more often because we have four games there. We have Guardians, we have Twilight Zone, we have Monsters, and we have Iron Maiden.
    41:22
    And starting off, because I was in B, I was having kind of mediocre games, but it wasn't hurting me. But then my scores kept getting higher and higher, and then by the end I was having the highest scores I had. Nice. Probably most of the league. There you go. That was like Keith Elwin that year at Expo played WrestleMania eight million times. And by the time he got started playing against good people, he was like the WWE master. Yeah. The thing is, if we're talking about tournament stuff, I have my little things I notice. I like to think of myself as an observer. Stalker, I call it. some would say a Russian spy. Oh, yeah. So when you have like a lot of these top ten players or best players in the world, a lot of times they'll give you an opportunity, and most of the time the players will not take advantage of it. Yeah. Like I'll give you an example. Well, Josh remembers everything. Yorian, Expo, the year he played Star Trek a zillion times. He was unbeatable on Star Trek. No one could touch him on Star Trek. Just blown up game after blown up game after blown up game. And then he played, I think it was Trent. He played Trent Augustine. And he had his only shitty game of Star Trek he had the entire day. Wow. But Trent had a shittier game. Yeah. So you're in. And then boom, right back in the zone. But he had that. I'm of the opinion that there's that one opportunity. There's the Venn diagrams. Those two circles are always moving. And they do overlap. Yes. You'll see it. Like states. I remember a situation. I won't say any names, but it's just like you have 3-1, top world-class players down 3-1, right, against another player who's good, but not – you wouldn't say they're top 10 or anything. But they have them on the ropes. So the top 10 player, they use this opportunity to pick their guaranteed win game, and they do what they should. They kick ass on it. It's now 3-2. So now the other player gets to pick, and they pick their best game and completely shit the bed on it. Yeah. And the top ten player has a shitty game on it too, but not as shitty. Yeah, Zach and I call that the Schmeg games. You've got to win those Schmeg games. Yes, and not only does the player just totally shit the bed, it's to the point where the announcers watching it on stream can't figure out what he's trying to do. What exactly is he shooting? This is his pick. I don't know. I like that kind of stuff with the tournaments. You watch it. There's always, you know, there'll be four players, and there'll be three players you've heard of in that fourth person. Like, who the hell is that? And that fourth person almost never wins, ever. You know, I mean, that's why I wanted that match play thing so bad, because I could have been like, you know, what's Ron? What's he doing there? And I'd be like, you know, this one time, that guy actually won. Dun, dun, dun. That was Daniele at the first IFPA championship he came to in Minnesota. It was just like, who the heck is this guy? And he steamrolled.
    44:31
    When I think Daniele, I think Demoman. That's all I can think of, too. I just think of that Demoman. I think Ironman and Bogey Time, 1800 tie. He just ramps forever. Yeah. I love it. I love it even better when a player might, they're so good, they don't even know what they're doing and they still win. Just by sheer force of talent and will, it's great. I love watching players like that. I love, like we mentioned earlier, Jerry.
    45:00
    Classics master. Yeah, but if you go to like Rock Fantasy and you look at a lot of the new stirrers, he has high scores on them. Even though he has no clue what he's doing, he will just grind the thing and just refuse to let the ball drain on him. That's the great thing about pinball, guys, that you could be efficient in you're scoring but if you can keep the ball up you will keep scoring so you could overcome well it's all fine unless you're playing one of the kids then it doesn't matter that's where the difference is these days that wasn't years ago now there's just they're playing a completely different game it's just totally different it's not even a chess it's not no it's like checkers and fucking baseball i don't even yeah yeah it's just a completely different yeah for someone who's been watching it for a long time. It's like, yeah, it's because they know all the games. They don't miss because their accuracy is way better because they're way younger. And they're fearless with the flipper stuff. They'll just do anything at any time. They don't care. Yeah, move the machine and it seems like they never tilt it. Or they'll get a warning.
    46:03
    Well, here you go. What would you say your strengths and weaknesses are as a tournament player? For me? For all of us. How about all of us? My accuracy is for shit. I feel like I have above-average recovery skills. I agree. I'm the opposite. I feel like my accuracy is great, but I cannot save anything for shit.
    46:26
    And you quit a lot. I quit a lot. A whole hell of a lot. That's why I retired. You want to piss Bruce off, just be a mediocre player and destroy him on a game where you have no clue what you're doing. And say, well, I have no idea what I'm shooting. And Bruce will get immediately pissed and quit. Stern Dracula. He's like, no, hold on. First game of ball rumble. I'm in there because, you know, we need. Okay. First game. I play Francesca. Whatever.
    46:56
    Francesco, Bruce. Francesco. You know, our New York State representative. Show some respect. We play. What was that a game? He even has an upgraded camera, so it's not as blurry. We played doggies. Doggies. We played doggies. Doggies. Okay. Yeah. first ball I get okay I get like 500 Okay good first ball Yeah 4 on his first It like holy and he can drain He didn have the zipper flippers He just could not drain. He ends up with 7,000. I find it hilarious. I just, I just. I'm at 2,400 going, fuck me. Next game, I play Dracula, Stern Dracula. Okay, girl, never. I've never played this game ever. What's it like? Oh, that's a kiss of death right there. That's a kiss of death. Total kiss of death.
    47:51
    425,000 points later, and I'm at 225. Do you – like, I don't watch my opponents play. Do you watch that happen? No, I walk away. I walk away, and I come back, and I go, what the fuck? I walk away. I watch if I have no idea what to do in the game. Yes, that's what I'll watch. What is this person doing? Yeah, exactly. I'll watch stats when I'll watch. Other than that, no. No, I walk away. Some people take it to – like, they'll do like the – I'm left coffer he just puts his headphones on and walks around the entire room and refuses to watch in his 40,000 steps yeah but no I don't I can't watch I would I do what you do at Pimberg just sit down watch the video and just do it just that's right and then I got Agatha all along downloaded for indisc I'm looking nice I see I find it humorous when Bruce has these meltdowns It's like, why? It's like, it's pinball. Who cares? It's like, how the fuck does this happen? And, you know, 300, you know, 250,000 on Dracula. It's, it's actually kind of hard. 425. Really? Next game. World Cup soccer. I was like, after that, fuck that. Done. But if Bruce is playing good and good things are happening, he can actually win. I can actually win. I just have no patience anymore. Let's see. I guess I should play my own game, huh?
    49:16
    Well, my accuracy is pretty shit. Most people know that. Nudging could be better. I think I've said this on the podcast before. I will not give up, ever. I know where my limits are, but I will try anything, even if it might be beyond my skill, and I don't care if I drain. I feel like, Ron, you also strike me as someone that like you're pretty good at not allowing the moment to really get to you. Whereas a lot of people that fold under circumstances. Yeah, I agree. A lot of that's just playing in a lot of tournaments. Yeah. I remember playing. I was in Florida and I was in a group with a couple of people. Obviously, I'd never made finals before. My God, they were so nervous. I swear they were going to vomit. And I'm just like, come on, man. Have fun. In my teenage years. You're in the finals. isn't this great you know and it's like you know everybody at this point it's just like you see the same people at every tournament around the fucking globe it doesn't i'm in the uk like oh hi ron oh hi it's all the same people you know it's i think i think golfing helps i i totally agree you get you know i my golf game is the same get like a snowman get an eight on one hole part of the next one it's a lot you got to be able to shake off because you're going to get screwed a lot well Not in a good way, but, you know, in the pinball way. But, yeah, I mean, I think I said this story before. I played a game of, I think this was at the Sanctum. I'm playing Dirty Harry. And whenever I play Dirty Harry, I just like badges, multi-ball, jackpots. That's what I'm doing. I couldn't hit anything. I was missing so bad. But I was also saving everything. And it's Dirty Harry. It doesn't play that difficult. But I couldn't hit anything for a long period. And then I finally hit some shots, start a multi-ball, and completely shit the bed. Like completely get nothing. But it's like, whatever. I just start trying to get the badges again. And something clicks where all of a sudden I make shots. Like, yay. And I start a multi-ball, and I finally have a decent multi-ball. And I think I won.
    51:26
    But that one ball is like, that's me. That's my whole career. Yeah, I put myself in a lot of, man, I wish I did some work on my first two balls. Because now it's ball three, and it's do or die. and it's just like having to pull that shit out game after game. That's another problem. It's not fun. Like looking at this from a spectrum, like your Pinberg thing. Oh, not that you want to relive that. But when we were talking about accuracy, you had like your accuracy was on at one point, and you were kicking ass. And at some point that kind of – It's like a sine wave, Ron. It comes and it goes. It kind of went away. It kind of goes away again, and then it comes back again. It kind of went away. And it was like you could see it like, oh, shots are being missed now. And it goes back to the thing I was saying before about when you have a player on the ropes to get them. I remember I think it was New York State. No, New York City pinball championships. It might have been Bowen, like in classics. He was destroying everyone. He was on and there was no one that was going to beat him. But then he had a brief period where he kind of lost it. And he had the door open. Yeah. And no one could take it. Yeah. You got to. And then he got it back again, and then it was over. But, yeah, that stuff interests me. That's the kind of head game shit I think of. I've just noticed lately the older I get, the more one-ball games I get. One-ball games? You just quit after one ball? No, no, no, not that, you asshunt.
    52:56
    No, it's like, oh, first ball, did shit. Second ball, oh, I didn't think. You give it to away, and it's like, great, now I need whatever. Some mediocre score that if I did some work, it wouldn't be too bad. And now I have to like stress myself out. Exactly. And it's like, what the fuck? You know, and some of it is frustrating where you're in this thing where like ball one of every single match you're in is shit over and over. God damn. Can I just get something like I'm in the hole already? I'm ready to go down to confession and like, give me five, five. Like this past weekend, I played in a tournament and they used a amazing race finals. which I kind of like because you have a score you have to beat and there was at least twice where like ball three I don't have that score yet I'm yeah I'm quite a ways away like oh shit elimination time pin masters get you know pin golf gives you that feeling too of like yeah I'm not making anything I still need 40 million well yeah no running and hiding you gotta keep going you gotta be smart enough to say like if you're me like I might not be good enough to do this so maybe i should try this just to get points yeah so so i don't take a 10 maybe i take a seven instead or a six and then the good players are going nope i got this it's like when you're in pinberg if i had one word of advice it's just like don't worry about being first don't take less that's right don't take last get that like you know i could go for this and try to win or if i just get this and i'm guaranteed third or second do that don't do the other stupid thing and you will and in the end if you do the math all of a sudden like well i'm i made it to a because i took all those thirds instead of fourths well i'm probably going to be playing in pin master so you're going to see the frustration no don't do that do you got do you guys ron you're not you're not signed up are you ron he's been hemming and hawing i wouldn't sign up if i if i put what if i put you guys together in a group is that oh god god no I'd rather play with Stu McVicker than you I always wondered if Stu showed up maybe they wanted him to do commentary would that not go over well because people would be like this is a prestigious event you're making a mockery of this having him do commentary that's up to backhand pinball man commentary is not under my umbrella Mark would probably be like yeah sure come on he wouldn't care yeah exactly but yeah it would be pretty cool I can't wait I'm very excited. Yes, folks, this is a very tournament-heavy tournament. Yes, very tournament-heavy.
    55:29
    I will say one thing. I have to bring this up. When I was a newbie and I went like Papa the first time, I walk in and there's like, what, 400 games, whatever it is there, and I'm like, oh, my God, this is incredible. I have to play everything. And then I would watch those Sharp brothers, and they wouldn't play anything. They're just sitting around. They only play in the tournament. and when the tournament's over, they just leave. It's like, how? How could you do that? And then 15 years later, that's literally me.
    56:03
    And I don't know if it's for the same reason. I mean, for me, it's because I played everything at this point. If it's a solid state or newer game made in the U.S., I have played it probably a lot. I think for me, I mean, I'm there to win, right? So for you, it's just tournament. I'm there to do a job. I'll go around and flip around for fun, but it's a lot of energy to be grinding out tickets or doing whatever you need to do to get yourself in a position to do some damage. And yeah, for me, wasting energy blowing up a practice game doesn't work. Well, that's one thing I would do when I was playing at POP. I would never play – whatever games I was going to play in the tournament, I would not play those in the regular area because it would just throw me off because it's going to play completely different. Yes. Especially there, the way they would set it up. We have the World Cup Soccer A Division version, B Division version, C Division version. Yeah, kiss of death to play anything in the practice area that's the same title. So if you have any words of advice for prospective tournament players out there, what would you give them, Josh? I think it's just play.
    57:13
    Like, really, I mean, it sounds so stupid, but the more you put yourself into the position of dealing with the anxiety of needing to play in the moment, the less of an issue that becomes. So enjoy the journey of becoming a better pinball player, but just play, play, play, play. I've seen it with my teenage son who, you know, really has picked up playing the last year. And, you know, he went from not being great to maybe making a cut for finals to maybe winning a round in finals here locally. So it's good to see him just putting in the effort and then seeing that pay off with his skills getting better and the moment and the moments become less intense to deal with because it's like oh i did that last month he's gonna start talking to the all the other kids too and he'll know all the games better than you will ever know them and then he'll get a major by 19. he did go to expo and play classics and uh thankfully the the kids are all really nice to him i'm sure they don't want me to suppress them so they probably do it because they feel I will hurt them. They are very nice to my son, which is much appreciated. That's cool. At this point, I do it for the scene more than anything else. Yeah, I like the people. I like hanging out. And I never thought I'd say that. I'm not exactly a people person. No, we know that. But I miss the tables, just sitting around the tables before Pinberg, all 1,000 or 900 of us, and we'd all find each other, and we'd all just hang out and BS. And you farting and doing disgusting things and stuff. What's wrong with that? Yeah, exactly. Yeah, I remember the meal breaks and getting together with your crew and going to Gaucho and getting the sandwiches.
    58:50
    Yeah, that was all part of it. That's what you looked forward to. That was the party of it all. Playing some EM I've never seen and having to play. It's a one-player EM, so I have to play first. I have no idea what a good score is. I play it. Running around to tap Keith Elwood on a shoulder, texting anybody you may know. I play it. I kind of think I did good. And then the second player passes me. I'm ball two. and I'm like, oh, I guess that wasn't very good. And then I end up last. I hate that. That's the part I hate about Pinnberg the most. Oh, one-player EMs. Oh, yeah, you guys are going to do that, right? You're going to have player ones for every. Oh, gosh. Yes, we will. No. What happens if we have guaranteed non-tilt-through ROMs?
    59:32
    Does that help in any way? Yeah. But you play one-player games on the sterns, and they don't have tilt-through.
    59:39
    You know what? it becomes easier when we have, unless like all the games can do it, it's easier to get people in that. You want the same rule for everything so they don't get confused. And play at a turn. Well, I have a question. Is Hot Dog in or not? I can't remember. I have to look at that chart. It's in. Okay. That's the only valley we have, the old valley. So that's the good thing about that. What is the rule? So for those at home, we're talking about, you know, games. They don't want tilt through. So they have what? You play players one and three. Yes. What needs to happen for that? You not to do that. Like if it's a Williams game that has tilt warnings, does that make any difference or just no? Like what era do you stop that? So for us, it's like System 11 for sure is fine. I feel like even, what is it, System 9 before then? All three games. Yeah, Sorcerer. For those at home, Sorcerer. Yeah, Space Shuttle and Comet. Yes. I feel like we've gone both ways on that, although I think Comet has a tilt bug in it that I think we do single player only on that one. Okay. I think if you tilt, it resets everyone's 1984 lanes. So if you want to fuck over your opponent, you can just shimmy away a ball.
    60:57
    Whoopsie. We learned that in Denmark, I think. Wow, that's wild. I never heard that one. That's pretty cool. Could have been an old ROM. Who knows? You don't know. My favorite is when you were running the rig there and you had to record on when you thought it was stopped and then you stopped when you thought it was recorded. Oh, yes. Missed an entire final game. Game night of worlds. You get to watch Kevin McCarthy wrap up a medieval. Good job. Yeah.
    61:25
    Love it. Well, Bruce, do you have anything else for Josh? Nope. The president is going to get elected in a couple days, so you're going to have another four years. Congratulations. Really? Wait a minute. There's elections for IPA? I thought you were a dictator for life. No. Oh. It's just, you know, it's coming up for the real. So we just say he is our president. That's all we do. Okay. El Presidente for life.
    61:48
    I'll take it. Yes. Because me and Bruce are going to go into news items, and we figure you're NDA'd on, like, everything. And probably don't want to talk about it. I'm no good there. Yeah. I can go grab dinner and then listen to the second half of the podcast when you guys post it. Yeah, there you go. Well, actually, have you played Dungeons and Dragons? I have not. Okay. I have not. I have a pro on order that I'll be getting in the office in January. Oh, nice. It'll replace the X-Men that's there right now. Have you played Dungeons & Dragons in the past, like the board game? So in high school, a couple of times. Okay. As I fell into when some kid was on a baseball team one year and I started hanging out with him a little bit, and he was into that scene. So I did dabble, but nothing crazy. Crazy. Nothing Dwight Sullivan level. Well, Josh, thank you for coming on. Thank you for coming on. We'll excuse you, Presidente. Yes. Have a great weekend. Hopefully you'll win. Yeah. Ron, good luck, man. Kick some ass in state. Yes. I'll try my best to get through one round. That's my goal.
    62:54
    One at a time, man. One at a time. I like the game selection, so we'll see. Yeah, the game selection is going to be really good in New York. Cool, guys. All right. All the best. Thank you, sir. Bye-bye. Later. Bye-bye. That was Josh. God, we could talk to hours about tournament stuff. I thought it was like, we've got to get going. He's going to get in trouble with his wife. Yes, yes. He is not the true Presidente. She is the Presidente. No, she is the Presidente. But we are very grateful for him to come on. Okay, Bruce, are you ready for news? I'm ready for some news. Guess what? What? DPX is delayed. Oh, wait a minute. Dutch Pinball Exclusive, as we call them, Dual Penetration Extreme is delayed. It's delayed. They're delaying Alice. Remember what their promise was? They wanted to get them all out this year, and we said no way. Yeah, or if not, what happened? Oh, that's right. That's right. Yes. Yeah. Well, what's delayed? Do you have any more info? That's what Nap's saying. Oh, Nap Arcade? Hi, Nap. Yes. Okay. Did they say it's like Sculpt's not showing up on time? Who knows? We don't know, but I'm going to read right now. Hold on. Let's go to Naps since he is our friend of all. Well, while you're looking at that, did you see the Dungeons & Dragons gameplay reveal, all 15 minutes of it? I did. The 10, 15 minutes of it. It was weird how it just ended. I'm like, oh. Okay. What's going on here? Like, that's not all of it, right? I know. Hello. What's going on here? It looks cool. Well, yeah. From people who are into Dungeons & Dragons, I guess they say they killed it as far as the voice cast and the art. the guy that does the art i guess is some awesome video game artist dude and they they went all out with this one me i have other than the dungeons and dragons theme music we used on the show that's my that's about as much as i know about dungeons and dragons i was a dungeon and dragons person for like a year or two let's see the whole thing where it's like oh yeah we had a game that went on a year like what i just no no i i spend all day at work thinking and fixing things i want my mind blank when i'm trying to have fun that's why i like classics i don't want to have to think a lot and these games oh man i was watching some of the they were going through the rules for dungeons and dragons like oh man i am just like no no so uh it's the play they're trying to swap over from uh tbl to alice big lebowski to receiving all parts like the play fields will take us into february dust production the moment expected to start the second part of february So February 14th. Okay. Which is a slight delay. Oh. But they're hopeful that they'll get all 500 out by the end of the year. Oh, now they're hopeful. Hopeful. Yeah, we're changing terminology now. Well, it says we feel it remains within a manageable timeline. I've heard this before. It just sounds like another smoke and fucking mirrors. Well, the thing is they know how to build games because they have built lots of Big Lebowski's. Yeah, they have. But now, what if you have a problem on the line? The guarantee is $1,500. Yeah, they've been building big Lebowski's for a decade, so they're pretty used to that. Yeah, hey, it's like putting on your old pair of underwear. Hey, I can do this any time I want. Now I've just grown four sizes, and I'm trying to put this underwear on the same size. Holy shit, it doesn't fit. Oh, shit, I've got to go buy some new shit.
    66:21
    Oh, shit, I shit in my underwear. I shit in my new one. Now I've got to flip them inside out. But, yeah, I think some people are going to be getting their deposits back.
    66:30
    And they'll get the game, you know, for $1,500 less, I bet. All right. That's all from NAP. That wasn't the main news item. The main news item. No, it was not. But I had to make fun of DPX because it is the penetration extreme. Yes.
    66:46
    So, baby, it looks like I might not be able to do this voice much anymore. No. Because Day Fix is gone from American Pinball, baby, along with just about everybody else. I know. They bled the company dry. But he wasn't fired. He just chose not to renew his contract. Yeah, his contract. Well, I wonder which side decided not to renew the contract. Yeah, he's saying that. Who knows? Who knows? Yeah. Well, there's going to be an interview with him on, I think, Pinball News is going to do next month. So we'll see what he says there. But basically, he's gone. we already knew that steve bowden was gone and was it jack hager was gone yeah but i what i didn't know until i read the uh news article this is from pinball news check them out folks pinball news.com they have the story here i didn't realize ryan mcquade the designer was gone yep oh yeah gone gone long time everyone is gone except uh someone named casey who is a software developer and someone named jessica in the art department and marketing yeah so that's your new president and vice president of Amtron. Well, I honestly think, I bring this up all the time, when a company goes public, that's when the problems start. Oh, of course, because now you have the show. They went public last year. I really think American Pinball was a passion project for the father and son team there, whatever, at Amtron. And I think once it's public, now they have a board, all this stuff, and it's like, these guys aren't making any money. End it. get rid of it honestly that's my opinion of what's going on there it looks like they want to hire more people to build the games because they want to make they want to make cuphead yeah so yeah i mean how would you feel if you if you worked all like two years three years or ever designing this game you're the designer and then when it's released you're not even there depends how good it is really well i'm trying to think when when was the last time something like this happened Maybe in the Williams days, you know, like Dennis Norman's gone before Scared Stiff comes out. Actually, no. No.
    68:54
    CSI. But he quit. He quit, though. I know. I'm saying, but yeah. That doesn't count. He quit. It doesn't count if you quit. I'm talking about if you get fired. Okay. Steve Ritchie, when he was making his last game, he was going to make Avatar. Yes. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. 24. Oh, 24. Yeah, he was on. And it wasn't – he was just about – it was pretty much done. Yeah. But, yeah, he got fired right at the end of it. Yep. So that's the last time I can truly think of somebody that had to go through that situation. And you don't hear Steve talk about 24 a lot. No, he doesn't talk about 24. The thing is, though, who the fuck is going to buy this game? Nobody.
    69:33
    If you buy this game, your own fault. If you like the people involved who designed it, they're not going to get shit for this. No, they're not going to get anything. Okay, maybe I'm speaking out of turn and they have some kind of special agreement, but I'm figuring they're not getting shit for this. No. I mean, maybe it would be nice to see their stuff out in the wild, but you're helping this company out. You're not going to get any support. How are the rules going to get upgraded? Oh, that's right. There's no rule people here anymore. There's nothing. This is a dead company. On our Clusterfuck, we were talking about this. Somebody called in our Clusterfuck, called their main number. And what did they get? They got like just – No, they got the answer to the thing, and you press the count. And then hung up on them or something. Yeah, hanged up on you. No. Like if you say, hey, I want to talk to the purchasing department, it kicks you right back to the front desk again. And then you try, okay, let's try the shipping or like, you know, parts. Hit the parts department. If you don't get two people picking up in a row, it hangs up on you.
    70:33
    Yeah. Nobody, the lights are on, but they're not home. Two lights are on, but you're not home. Right? Doctor, doctor, give me the news. Give me the news. I got a bad case of Dave Fix blues. Oh, that's not funny, baby. That's not funny at all. He's one of my favorite voices to do, brother. And look what's going to happen. He's going to be gone. I got to we got to have a new Dave Fix baby Someone said we got to keep this up baby Come on Dave Fix better find another job Come on Well another pinball company so then we can do it again If you do it again. But it sucks. No, I want to do it again. It sucks for everyone involved. Yeah, the thing is I don't think they ever had the full support of Amtron. It was, as you said – The parent company. Yeah. I think they said, hey, we'll throw $2 or $3 million or $4 million towards this place. every you know blah blah blah you know every couple of you know like six months and then as you said they went public and then it was like oh wait a sec why does this division of amtron keep on losing money oh and it's never made money and oh they have 35 employees that are draining us dry and oh their sales are only this much we have a problem stop that's what any business would do if you're publicly traded pinball news i think they kind of intimated that maybe they'll want to build stuff for other people yeah i can see that but the problem is if you fire everybody every time like this isn't their first cleansing of the house so you're not true people yeah people forget that because their original yeah because they had the original place there and yeah yeah all this stuff they had good people this whole time working there and they kept on throwing away thinking i'm gonna get the next best thing and guess what you got nothing it's a terrible run company if i was given 50 ownership of it i would say no thank you because you're not gonna get anywhere with that company i still like hot wheels i love hot wheels actually except for the animation still can't oh i love them that's the best part oh no i think the shots are actually i think the shots are really good on the game that's the best shooting you liked um octoberfest so i do like i can't trust what you say i like octoberfest i didn't like the shots in it but i love the artwork and animation not the artwork but the animation on the the lcd i thought that was pretty good but yeah it's just that is just a shit show beyond shit shows the only thing they can do is literally hire like a george gomez yeah because they they grow on trees yeah exactly you know i mean with all that experience or or you here's what you do you hire somebody who has the experience like a george gomez and you say hey get this company back on solid footing that's the only way this company is going to survive you'd have to get someone good from an existing company and they're exactly you have to go there unless they throw tons of money at them which they'll never do Well, you don't know that because maybe they have so much money invested. You can say to your shareholders, hey, if we do this, this, this, and this, and we spend $20 million, maybe we can have $40 million by year four of profit. They might listen. They might go no fucking way. We've seen the back policies, and we've seen what's happened. But if you say, hey, I hired blah, blah, blah, and he has done so much of this and this. Like, think if 15 years ago Pat Lawler was around. That'd be a great person to try.
    74:15
    I don't even know who would want to do it. Josh Sharp. There you go. Oh, God. Josh Sharp is the new president of American Pinball. I've named it here first. I'm sure Josh Sharp has probably already played combat. Yeah, probably. And probably knows whatever their next three licenses were going to be. Yeah, exactly. But, I mean, you know, that's the kind of person you need who has years of industry experience. who can hopefully turn something around.
    74:42
    That's the kind of person you would need. And then if I was going in that situation, I'd say, I want my money up front, and then I'll work off the backside with profits, and my performance will get paid by what we can get out of here. All right. Do you think Cuphead will come out? No, not at all. You actually don't think they're going to? Nope. Okay. I don't think it's coming out at all because I think they saw how bad it was.
    75:13
    Oh, wait a minute. Now, everything I've heard has people saying that it was good. Have you heard something different? I have. Okay. That's all I'm saying. Okay. I have.
    75:24
    And I've heard it for about two weeks now. Oh, okay. It's been. Okay. All right. I think people who are saying it, we're trying to save face. Okay. Well, the problem is if it ever comes out, no one will ever know.
    75:39
    It could be like a Capcom. You might have six or seven prototype games. It could be the next Big Bang Bar. 20 years from now, they're going to be rebuilding. They're going to be remaking Cupheads.
    75:50
    Except that would require paying a license. Yeah, exactly. Unlike Kingpin and Big Bang Bar, which didn't require that. All right.
    75:58
    Beat that to death. Bruce. It's just the truth. Are you ready for the ball bag? I'm always ready for my ball bag to be emptied. I got to be careful here because we had a couple of them that were like, don't read these. These are for Bruce. Two of them were for Bruce directly. I know. Like two or three, which is kind of nice. He's very popular. I'm Banco popular. Yes. Okay. This one is from Kurt. Hi, Kurt. Happy New Year. It says, hey, guys, just sat through your Gone with the Wind edition podcast with Dave from the second best pinball podcast ever. Fuck yeah. Wow. Really enjoyable as always, and I thought it might not work, but Dave loosened his necktie a bit, and it was a great dynamic. Well, he is Canadian, so he can be loose. He didn't have to shuckle his business, you know, so he didn't have that pressure. Shuckle. What word does that mean? What does that mean? He's trying to, you know, do his shtick on his own business thing, you know, for his making money. Maybe you should get him on a bit more, and he might drop the whole Patreon stuff. Fuck yeah. And that other podcast, by the way, is Silver Ball Chronicles, which can be heard on the Pinball Network. There you go. That's your plug. Yeah. Let's see. One reference in there, maybe Twippies. I think they had the country names mistaken with region names. Australia, Asia encompasses Australia, New Zealand, New Guinea, and some close smaller islands. Yeah, I heard that the other day. I didn't know that was a thing. So I really enjoyed it. as always even though we're opposite on some topics games oh really oh my i was reading some online blurb that saw a photo of bruce and holy shit i had you guys back to front identity wise wait a minute so did you think bruce was me and i was yeah oh my god wow and now i can't unsee it how crazy is that i think i'm gonna just continue on with my first take on you guys anyway especially the singing so when he saw when he saw you he thought awesome what an awesome singer yes i'd be interested to hear your thoughts on a fictitious near perfect pinball manufacturer as of the moment i don't feel any of them tick all or close to all the boxes for me would be one with the production capacity of stern okay the bomb of jjp okay that'd be awesome the build quality of cgc i don't like those boards i don't like that quality i'd honestly i wouldn't mind the bomb of jjp but i don't mind the stern node board system let's see and the passion of say the guys at spooky nah with a two-range system classic games remake single level and then a modern lcd stuff but without all the insider connected or possible future dlc stuff anyway keen to hear your thoughts here i like yeah capacity of stern yes you have to have a capacity of stern you have to have the bomb fearlessness of spooky yes but coupled with the reality of stern to tell them like you shouldn't do that really yeah and uh yeah this 3d shit ain't gonna fly we're gonna use metal yeah billy bill of materials the jjp yeah totally and uh like i i don't want to say that the jjp builds because they're using those usb cables now they keep falling out i don't mind even on your even on uh elton john yeah yeah you got a hot glue i'm like everything oh but even like i don't mind the node board setup that's okay the cgc thing with the huge board under the playfield ah no i just can't uh ask me in a couple weeks when i got to take apart uh menial madness you've been saying you're going to take that apart for like a month sitting in the back well we put it on the floor we put it on the back floor to get it going again so hey shit happens but uh yeah that's what i would say the perfect pinball or or maybe the um the construction of 90s williams there you go no the clear coating of 90s williams this looks screening a clear coating of 90s williams playfield nope i want clear coating of 70s european companies oh jesus i want fucking iron looking forward to your next episode and have a great 2025. Well, thank you very much. Thank you very much. Thank you. Then we have one from, is it Eelco?
    80:22
    He's from the Netherlands. Yes. He visited Rochester Pinball Collective. He did register at Rochester Pinball Collective. He says, Ron and Bruce, thanks for the amazing podcast. Makes traveling by car a lot more fun. I have a question for the ball bag. I bought my first pinball machine six years ago and bought and sold several machines in the past years i now have five modern sterns okay jaws jurassic park foo fighters james bond and godzilla i have a lot of fun playing my machines and i don't miss any modern pinball machine i don't know if i'm saying this well maybe i would like to have a pulp fiction oh we should have read this when josh was here yeah if they finally arrive in europe maybe not I am not interested in CGC remakes, Jersey Jack, American Pinball. Well, you won't have to worry about that. And DPX, barrels of fun, or any other new machine to expand my collection. I am not interested. Bummer. I think he's cutting himself short on Elton John. Elton John, I really feel that's the closest feel to a Williams I've ever felt in the longest time. I have played my first competition machines, and I would like to have more variety in my collection. I have room for 10 machines. My money's limited, though. Okay, but he has five already. Does that mean he can get five? Sell, baby. Sell two and get oldies. Disco and burn. Maybe you could give me some tips to expand my collection. Let's see. I can sell a stern with some extra cash. I could spend $12,000 to expand my collection. I'm looking for hidden gems, not the big money machines, because I don't have the big money. mousing around you can get you get a couple of taxi yeah the space shuttle if you like your sterns you can get an iron man they're cheaper iron man a star old star wars i'm not sorry yeah yeah star wars yeah you're right spider-man spider-man i would like to add up to six machines yeah 90s williams games it could be a big bang for your buck there yeah yeah like a world cup soccer. There's so many good games there. No fear. Well, no fear. I've seen a lot of no fears in Europe, actually. Maybe it's popular there. I think they like Skull.
    82:38
    Let's see. I would like to organize some small tournaments for friends in the future. Let's see. And a mix from machines from different time periods would be very nice. Well, there you go.
    82:47
    You could also get some maybe Ugly Belly, like Paragon. You can get a Paragon. He doesn't want to spend too much, so I don't want to be saying, like, do it quick, silver no no i'm saying paragon you go for paragon you go for stars you go for you know something else you get the cheaper still yeah get the ones they made like 10 000 of and they're good yep uh harlem harlem great game trotters yep yep so if i had much more than 12 000 to spend which additional machines should be on my list there you go they gave you a bunch of them rattling off more and more as we speak you know we didn't even mention any well you mentioned stars yes uh meteor Meteor. That's a cheap one. You can go for like some early Day to East, like if you want to get the submarine game, Torpedo Run, you know. Torpedo Alley. I mean, and a couple of other. Secret Service, I kind of like. Yeah, I kind of like. You can get a couple of cheap early games and you feel like, hey, you feel like you're getting a good value for the game. Don't forget Gottlieb. You can get like a Bad Girls or something. Or, you know, or a Surf and Safari, maybe. There's lots. Don't totally shit on Gottlieb. No. Let's see. You can even go earlier and go for like Counterforce. Countdown. Definitely get a countdown. And you're still within a good era of game that plays well. Just what you can do, just go to Pinside and look up Gizmonic, my name on there, G-I-Z-M-O-N-I-C, and just look at my game list, and there you go. No, I got the perfect idea for you. Oh, okay. Go to Pinside and look at between 100 and 300 because those are the better games than the 100. Oh, not that again. uh trust me on that one you'll you'll thank me later on in the morning you'll go how this is from eel call or elko i'm not sure i'll say his name but yeah that's the way i would go yeah and that's it that was a ball bag that was a ball bag a light ball bag yes where the fuck are you oh come on they're busy getting ready for the uh the state championship they're getting ready they're all limbering up they're ready to take the field so bruce do you have any repairs yeah i finished up that harley davidson i drove it back down to the guy's house and this morning at eight o'clock he goes i got it finally downstairs and it plays great thank you very much for all you've done i thought you were gonna say it doesn't turn on i saw it was like oh fuck oh fuck no i actually when I got there, I took it out of the car. We didn't put it on legs. We just put it on the floor. I put the head up. I latched the head and we powered it up and he got to play it and see how everything worked and he's like, wow, this is going to be great. And then he finally got downstairs with his son because I saw his basement. I was like, holy crap, how did you get this up? And he's like, it takes a while.
    85:36
    Yeah, so that's not good at all. You're asking your customers how they get it up. I got it. Yeah, I do.
    85:42
    Next is now medieval i gotta fix the troll and i gotta fix that big board that's coming up this weekend start tearing that down nine balls out on the floor we pulled in we pulled out a blackjack so now uh the opto boards in nine ball what what do you mean opto boards we have the prototype opto board in that and if it's all good next it's been good for uh flight 2000 for over a year So they're actually making the boards now, and we're going to get them on soon, Brian and Jared. We're members of the Rochester Pinball Collective. Yes. And we're talking about Optos and Nineball instead of those pesky microswitches. Microswitches that always suck and blow by and that kind of stuff. Yes. So it should be pretty cool. Cool. So we'll be able to check that out, and maybe we can retrofit it to other things. How about you for repairs?
    86:33
    Not repairs, but I had interesting experience in that every Sunday me and Dad play our matches, It's our best of seven, and we do the special handicapping rule where I have to beat him twice on the game for it to count. He only has to beat me once. But what we've been doing lately, usually we would just – and he would get to pick every game. So we kind of stopped that where I actually get to pick some games now. So this past Sunday, I picked Deadpool, and I haven't played that in a long, long time. And I fire that up, and just as soon as I hear it, the call-outs, I'm thinking to myself, why do the other Marvel games suck with the call-outs? This thing is fucking awesome. Why couldn't they be like this? I don't understand. The music is great. The call-outs are great. It's fucking hilarious. Yes, the background stuff, you know, him playing the pinball machine. It's just like, holy fuck. The other ones just sound so generic with the copy. I know. I know they're, what, Marvel-supplied copy, but... I am Storm! Get the fuck out of here. I'm Iron Man. No, you're not. I'm like, what? I'm Hulk! Well, it's tough to get Hulk wrong. But you get Jarvis, though.
    87:47
    Well, that's an Iron Man. Yeah, because it's the movie. Yeah. That's like the only other one, and that doesn't even count. They just take the clips from the movie. But that's better than what they have afterwards. That's the worst thing. Yes, I don't understand. Like Avengers, oh my God. Why? Why is it... Ah, damn it. Did you, uh, anything else? Nope, that's all I got, Bruce. What did you think of my video I posted on the Slam Tilt Podcast Facebook page? I don't know what did you post, Bruce. You didn't see Linda Carter dancing to Kiss? Uh, I didn't see Linda Carter dancing to Kiss. And singing it. Oh, God. I was made for loving you with four dancers. Oh, God. And they're all dressed up like Kiss. We ought to pull that down. Well, I didn't get permission from that. I'm Gene Simmons of KISS. This is from 1980, so probably you got some money from this, Gene. You just got to look back in your Rolodex. Oh, wait a minute. Yes, that's Linda Carter. Yes, I definitely did get something for this. Never mind, never mind. We're good. Yes, it was great.
    88:48
    Oh, God. Wow, Linda Carter sounds weird. Does she sing? Great. Oh, God. Now, do you think she actually sung that? Yeah, I think so, because it's pretty bad. Actually, yeah. I was thinking, like, that doesn't sound great, so that probably actually is her voice. Yeah, and she's dancing around with all these dancers that are dressed like Kiss. And is she in her Wonder Woman outfit? No, she's in an even skimpier outfit. Oh. Oh, okay. You can actually see, like, mesh in front of her whole. Oh, okay, okay. Yeah. This is the 80s. This is early 80s. Early 80s, yes, yes. Yeah. Okay. All right. That's all I got, Bruce. I didn't know if you saw that. No, I did not see it. There it is again. It just keeps on coming back. I can't turn off the phone. No, now we'll get sued. Gene will get. You didn't get permission to play that Kiss song. I did not, Gene. Sorry.
    89:51
    Sorry, Gene. ah yes so this has been episode 243 of the slam tilt podcast wowzers we're getting up to the big old 250 you know what 250 means what does that mean bruce cluster fuck no no no so uh you can email me in a cluster fuck please email ron or bruce that's a slam i want to max out our system of how many people we can have if we did that i would just do a fucking zoom call and turn it on and not edit anything and just let it go. There's no point. What was I saying? Distracting me again. Yes, you can email us at slamtiltpodcast at gmail.com. That's slamtiltpodcast at gmail.com. Check out our website, www.slamtiltpodcast.com, just what you think it would be. All our links are in the upper right-hand corner. If you're playing in state finals, if I get this out in time, good luck. Although I would literally have to get this out by tomorrow morning, so probably not. You'll be doing it. you'll be up all night doing uh no no fuck that no i have to work tonight bruce i have to go back into well i have to log into work at 10 and do more stuff so you have plenty of time to do this yes you do admit it so uh thank you for our clusterfuck uh hello steve bowden hello zach hello jeff teolis the real president of ifpa yes uh football princess fun with bonus so it's nice Having Ryan C. back on, though, isn't it? Oh, Ryan C. Yes, yes. Ryan C. Final round is now Teolis. You got to say it. No, Teolis and Ryan C. I think it's funny that, okay, before I sign off here. So Comedy Central has a lot of the roasts on YouTube. Yes, they do. And a lot of them are uncensored. So they'll be just F-bomb after F-bomb. But then someone says the C-word and it's bleeped. Yeah, I know. I was like, what? I think that's hilarious to me. They're obviously not from Australia. No, of course not. Okay. All right. Do you have a name, Bruce? I do, as always. As always. You're always prepared. You never have to look it up last second. Okay. Nope. All right. By my phone, right next to me. Thanks to everybody. And thanks, Bruce, for staying close to the mic this episode. I am closer than ever. You'll make my editing easier. I just want to thank you. So that means we'll get it out this weekend. Good job. Okay. Sit, Ubu. Sit. Good dog. All right. Good Bruce. Until next time. Say goodbye, Bruce. Goodbye, Brian Gailey.
    92:43
    We'll see you next time. Oh my. yeah this is a little shady in some ways we love shady bruce is just trying to start issues again i'm just i'm just starting a wood you know right against the other wood i'm just rubbing rubbing rubbing this can't be on the podcast come on this is great stuff i told you God. Missed opportunity.
    94:14
    If I send you an image of this bear, will you show me where he touched you, Bruce? Yes. Yes, I will.
    94:25
    It's going to hurt, too. There was a lot of energy. Yes. Now I'm going to bed. Okay. Goodbye, Bruce. Later. Good night, man. All right. Good night. Hey, safe travels and good luck. And may the force be with me. I'd just like to say good luck. I'm all counting on you. Good luck. We're all counting on you.