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Episode 149 – Slow Time

Slam Tilt Podcast·podcast_episode·analyzed·Aug 5, 2020
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.033

TL;DR

Venue closures, game impressions (TMNT/Stranger Things/Hot Wheels), and Zach's innovative whitewood playfield design.

Summary

Slam Tilt Podcast 149 is a casual, meandering discussion centered on venue closures due to COVID-19, Ron's trip to upstate New York where he played Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles LE, Stranger Things (Premium/LE), and Hot Wheels, and his observations on game quality and mechanics. The hosts spend significant time on COVID-related frustrations and government policy before pivoting to pinball game impressions and community visits.

Key Claims

  • Modern Pinball closure was expected—the lease was expiring and they had not planned to renew it

    medium confidence · Bruce Nightingale discussing venue closures; secondhand account from multiple people

  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles LE has a diverter issue that bashes into things and doesn't work well, with a screw that can fall out; servo board controlling the glider also goes bad

    high confidence · Ron reporting on TMNT LE gameplay experience and known issues; mentions Stern bulletin on repair

  • Stranger Things (Pro) is useless—the whole experience is based around the projector, and without it the game is pointless

    high confidence · Ron's direct assessment after playing Stranger Things (Premium/LE) at Silver Ball Saloon

  • Stranger Things (Premium/LE) with UV kit is mandatory for optimal experience; totally different from non-UV version

    high confidence · Ron's playtest impressions; references George Gomez discussing on The Super Awesome Pinball Show

  • Hot Wheels has weak/floaty flipper feel that hurts gameplay on a speed-focused machine; flippers feel like WPC mechs but don't have snappy feel

    high confidence · Ron's detailed gameplay critique after playing Hot Wheels at Rock Fantasy

  • Hot Wheels has poor ambient lighting—too dark in many areas—and needs additional side lighting; RGB lighting alone without ambient is insufficient

    high confidence · Ron comparing Hot Wheels lighting to Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles LE side-by-side; references Wizard of Oz having same problem

  • Hot Wheels is the American Pinball Pinball game so far, with cool lock shot, shaker coordination, and animations

    high confidence · Ron's assessment after playing; contrasts with Houdini and Oktoberfest

  • Zach Sharpe is building a whitewood with innovative flipper placement and is using a projector to test light/insert placement before cutting

    high confidence · Ron visiting and examining Zach's whitewood at Silver Ball Saloon

Notable Quotes

  • “Stranger Things (Pro) is useless... if you went to a drive-in and they never showed a movie. All you got to look at was the screen.”

    Ron Halliburton @ ~41:00 — Clear market guidance on product tier value proposition for Stern's Stranger Things line

  • “American Pinball pinball game so far. Not even close.”

    Ron Halliburton @ ~50:00 — Strong endorsement of American Pinball's Hot Wheels over previous releases (Houdini, Oktoberfest)

  • “I have never played one [Hot Wheels] that I thought had snappy flippers, ever.”

    Ron Halliburton @ ~52:00 — Highlights consistent mechanical issue with American Pinball flipper performance across their games

  • “Modern Pinball, that was going to happen anyway... the lease was expiring, and they had not planned to renew it.”

    Bruce Nightingale @ ~5:00 — Contextualizes venue closure as structural/lease decision rather than COVID-driven, reducing panic about market collapse

  • “If you actually like the game and you want it to work optimally, I would always say wait. Wait. Wait.”

    Ron Halliburton @ ~37:00 — Clear product strategy advice: skip LE with known issues, wait for Premium when fixes are implemented

Entities

Ron HalliburtonpersonBruce NightingalepersonZach SharpepersonGeorge GomezpersonJohn TrudeaupersonSilver Ball SaloonvenueRock Fantasyvenue

Signals

  • ?

    product_concern: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles LE has reported diverter failures (bashing into components, screw fallout) and servo board failures on the glider mechanism, requiring post-purchase lockwire repairs

    high · Ron reports: 'They have a diverter that diverts balls into the turtle van, and I guess it just bashes into things and generally doesn't work well' and 'multiple issues with the servo board that controls the little glider going bad'

  • ?

    product_concern: Stranger Things LE demogorgon shot has extremely low hit rate; Ron watched 10-15 shots with zero makes and questions how it was ever approved

    high · Ron: 'i watched at least i don't know 10 or 15 shots adam didn't see any of them go in yep i just don't understand how that was ever approved'

  • ?

    product_concern: Hot Wheels has weak/floaty flipper feel described as problematic for a speed-focused machine; flipper feel inconsistent across the game

    high · Ron: 'Immediately, the shitty flippers... Just shitty flipper feel. They feel weak... on a game that's all about speed, it's kind of a problem... I have never played one that I thought had snappy flippers, ever'

  • ?

    product_concern: Hot Wheels playfield is too dark despite all-RGB lighting; needs additional ambient side lighting; same issue as Wizard of Oz

    high · Ron: 'it has all RGB lighting... There should be no problems... That's Hot Wheels. And it was sitting right next to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles LE, which is lit very well... it needs way more lighting... there's ports where it's just too dark'

  • $

    market_signal: Stern Stranger Things Pro tier abandoned by enthusiasts; LE/Premium tiers essential due to projector dependency; Pro positioning creates dead inventory risk

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.333

0:00
Hey Stuart, we need you to get us some of that free porn. No way guys, you heard Mr. Van Driessen, we'll get in big trouble. No we won't. Yeah, porn is good for you. Did you know that? Coming to you from beautiful upstate New York, this is the Slamtail Podcast, the show about all things pinball. I'm your host, Ron Hallett, here with my co-host, Bruce Nightingale. I beat us.
0:39
Oh, yeah. Right before we went on the air, we learned that the legendary Wilford Brimley had passed away. Diabetes. So in his house right now, there's probably $100,000 worth of diabetes stuff sitting there, and he couldn't open it up because he's 85 years old. I love how you say just diabetes stuff. What does that even mean?
1:00
Like your testing strips and meters and all the stuff you can get away with when you have diabetes and you need the stuff. I think we should all have some Quaker Oats oatmeal in his honor. And watch Absence of Malice. Or Cocoon. Cocoon? Yeah. The funny thing is, Cocoon, he's supposed to be like a 70, 80-year-old senior when at the time he was like 50, but he just always looked old. Yeah. He's one of those guys that always looked old. I don't think he was ever young. He was born that way. He was born with a mustache.
1:31
Like a walrus. He is a walrus. He came out of the cocoon like a walrus. This is episode 149. Wow. Now, lots of stuff has happened. I know. We were off an extra week this week. Yeah. This week. A week. But lots of stuff has happened. Unfortunately, most of it doesn't really relate to any pinball stuff. But still, a lot of stuff happened. Well, it does relate to pinball, but nothing. Well, let's get this out of the way. Let's get the negative stuff out of the way immediately. Okay, hold on. Let me, hold on. Getting myself all ready for negative news. Oh, that's already done. Good. Let's go. Yeah, you're always negative. So, the closings. Like every episode, we have our declosings, places going out of business. Yeah. So this time we have Mystic Pinball, one of the Flat Top Johnny locations, Lions Classic Pinball, and Modern Pinball. Yeah, I know. Although, from what I heard from multiple people, Modern Pinball, that was going to happen anyway. Yeah, the lease was expiring. The lease was expiring, and they had not planned to renew it. Yeah. It's hard. This COVID thing is killing everyone, including us. It is. Our numbers are down. And the governor does not help us at all. Our governor loves us. Oh, yeah. Do your governor rant. What's the latest? You got to have food now? No, no. You can't get COVID if you're eating food at a bar.
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
game
Stranger Things (Premium/LE)game
Hot Wheels (American Pinball)game
Stern Pinballcompany
American Pinballcompany
Spooky Pinballcompany
Jersey Jack Pinballcompany
Modern Pinballvenue
Mystic Pinballvenue
Flat Top Johnnyvenue
[name withheld pending review]venue
Super Awesome Pinball Showpodcast
The Wizard of Ozgame

high · Ron: 'Stranger Things Pro is useless... if you went to a drive-in and they never showed a movie. All you got to look at was the screen... Don't bother. If you want Stranger Things, get the Premium or the LE. Do not even bother with the Pro'

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles multiball has excessive ball count; players resort to draining/ball-saver exploitation rather than meaningful multiball play

    high · Ron: 'The multi-balls, there's too many balls... you start multiball, and it's like you play Apollo 13... I just started doing the let them all drain, hit a couple shots'

  • ?

    design_innovation: Zach Sharpe employs projector-based insert/lighting design testing on whitewood—projects placement before cutting playfield, enabling non-destructive iteration on expensive prototype

    high · Ron: 'He has a projector over the game. And he just projects the stuff on the game to see how it looks... he's in a situation where he can't afford to be cutting things wrong... he has one try for everything'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Zach Sharpe's whitewood design philosophy influenced by John Trudeau's willingness to place flippers in unconventional locations; features flipper in never-before-seen placement

    high · Ron: 'looking at this play field, I see why he is a fan of John Trudeau... He has a flipper in a place I have never seen a flipper before'

  • ?

    competitive_signal: CDL Pinball tournament held in Germany during COVID restrictions; tournament occurred without spectators on Twitch stream

    medium · Ron: 'I did watch a tournament... There was a tournament in Europe. Germany, I think... CDL Pinball on Twitch'

  • ?

    venue_signal: Multiple pinball venues closed: Mystic Pinball, Flat Top Johnny location, Lions Classic Pinball, Modern Pinball; some attributable to structural lease decisions rather than COVID

    high · Bruce: 'we have Mystic Pinball, one of the Flat Top Johnny locations, Lions Classic Pinball, and Modern Pinball... Modern Pinball, that was going to happen anyway... the lease was expiring'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: American Pinball's game quality perception improves significantly with Hot Wheels; described as 'best American pinball game so far' with clear design improvements over Houdini and Oktoberfest

    high · Ron: 'Best American pinball game so far. That's a good thing. Not even close... Tell me everything good about Houdini... Tell me everything good about Oktoberfest... That's it. Oh. You named the two good things.'

  • ?

    operational_signal: Best practice emerging: skip Limited Edition releases with known issues, wait for Premium versions when design flaws are fixed; enables cost-effective secondary market resale if desired

    high · Ron: 'if you actually like the game and you want it to work optimally, I would always say wait. Wait... by the time the premiums come out, this shit will all be fixed... if you care about resale you could always sell the LEs for more'

    • 2:57
    Really? Yeah. He's deemed this. He is deemed that if you eat food, and it can't be wings originally. Originally, it wasn't wings. Wings were created in Buffalo, New York, have more calories, protein, everything, but he said a bowl of soup was good. This guy is fucking delusional. Just to explain, New York changed the rules where the bars can only be open if they serve food. Yes, well, which most people aren't, but we have always had food. And when you walk into a bar and order a soda, you're no problem at all. As soon as you order an alcoholic beverage, you have to be served food, and food of substance, not chips, not a cheese platter, not this, not that. You have to have something. What does me getting a soda as opposed to alcoholic beverage have to do with COVID? Their theory is you lose your inhibitions when you get drunk. so you don't wear masks. Oh, you're more likely to take your mask off. Ah.
    4:01
    That is a little true, I'll be honest. That's true. But guess what? That's what we're there for. You know what's also true? What? We suck. Americans suck. We are the worst. Well, the problem is. No, the problem is we suck. It's embarrassing. You know, they used to say U.S. was like the adolescent teenager in European countries and we're like, you know, like the old parents. I say we're not even that. We're the five-year-old. I don't want to. I don't want to put a mask on. Man.
    4:33
    We've had the masks on since April, and we've done good with our numbers, but our government is just a bunch – our governor is a bunch of idiots. Just with him, he's just – he's an idiot. Because what pisses me off with him is – We're talking about Cuomo, by the way. Yes, yes, Governor Cuomo. I call him – President Cuomo? No, no, Cuomolini. Okay. Instead of Mussolini? Yes. Okay. Well, let's defend all our Italian listeners. I'm Italian, remember, Bruce. I know. I'm deeply offended. Good. Congratulations.
    5:09
    So what he did, like four or five days ago, he offered every Major League Baseball team to come to New York and play baseball. We have the best testing, the best services, the best everything. Okay. Three days ago, he closed every racing dirt track who was not having spectators, who was doing six-feet distancing, and everything else. You're talking about the racing where they would have the drive-in audience, where everyone had to stay in their car? Yes, any dirt track. Some places were actually just broadcasting televised dirt track racing. like up here in Canandaigua, they had a dirt track that they couldn't have people so they actually got the channel the public access TV they're recording cameras and everything like that, the racing. Nope. Not safe.
    6:03
    But we can have Major League Baseball coming in. The problem with our governor is he's trying to become vice president. So he wants to make a good image for every other person in this world. Wait a minute, just vice president? Wouldn't he want to just be president? No, no, no, because we already, most people would not, unless you're on a third-party ticket, they're going to be, you know, it's going to be Biden or Trump. Oh, you mean this year. I'm talking the future. Oh, I'm talking this year. He's pushing. Why do you think he went to Georgia? Why do you think he went to this crap? But other words. Have we ever had an Italian president?
    6:35
    We haven't. My fellow Italians have been put, probably because they think they'd have ties with the mob if they elected them or something. Which is totally wrong. No, not in this state. I want him a fellow Italian to be the president. Not in this state. I want an Italian to get a president. One of these days. This state? No, no. We've done a lot of weird things. We want to change everything in this state. But going back to this thing, he is gunning for something, and he does not care about policies that make him look like an idiot. Like, another thing he did. We in our state of New York, we have told 34 other states who have worse numbers than us that we will not allow them in without being for two weeks. Yeah, yep. And if you visit and come back, you have to quarantine. Yep. Yes. But if the state of New Jersey gets to those bad numbers, we won't quarantine New Jersey.
    7:28
    Well, they're right next door. They're tougher to quarantine. Well, guess what? So is Ohio. And Ohio's right next to us, and so is PA. And PA has bad numbers. Guess what? the problem is it's all about the cash with him. But it's not all about the cash with him. Because he doesn't care about our tax revenue. All he cares about is income tax. And that's sales tax, which actually brings in more money. It's because he's worried about the people going into New York City. It's always about New York City.
    8:00
    He's an asshole. And our other, our federal government is a bunch of idiots too. Well, that, yeah. And a lot of our states are really stupid. Just partying and everything else. Like I said, we are literally too dumb. We are too dumb to get over this. We need the scientists to come up with the vaccine in a hurry because we are literally too stupid. We just can't. We can't.
    8:26
    It's horrible. I read a thing and this is so true. It's like the scientists trying to come up with the coronavirus while everyone else is partying is like the equivalent of the college project where they have like a team and they got the two or three nerds on the team that are feverishly working on it where the rest of the group is just partying. And then they all take credit for it. Exactly.
    8:47
    That is literally what's happening. Exactly. I have never in my 40-whatever years said this, but it is embarrassing to be an American. It's absolutely embarrassing. If I was Canada, just keep it closed, man. Keep it closed. You don't want us. Trust me. Like our passport's only good in four countries right now. Wow. That's interesting. Well, that's like trivia. Okay.
    9:12
    What four countries are a U.S. passport good in currently? I have no idea. West Africa. Okay. Sorry, East Africa. Oh, sorry. You don't want to go West Africa. That's a rough area right there. It's East Africa. East Africa, which is actually rougher.
    9:31
    The old Yugoslavia, which is Herzegovina. It hurts to get a vini. What? Yes. Herzegovina. Okay. And one Caribbean island. That's only three. And one little country in Central America. I can't even tell which one it is. That's just the name of them. One little country in Central America. Yeah, I can't see it. It sounds like a movie. But, yeah, we used to be able to go to, like, 140 countries, with some with visas, some without. Nope. Don't let us in, folks. You don't want us. We're in America. We don't have to wear a mask. Fuck you. Where's my gun? There. Sure. What does this have to do with pinball, by the way? It doesn't. No, because we're going by the closings. Yeah. And I think everyone's problem is we haven't gotten help from the government like businesses were promised. Everyone's worried about their $600 for unemployment and that kind of stuff. If it was more competently handled at the beginning and everyone did what they were supposed to, we could be like New Zealand where they just close the entire country and they're like, they got, yep, we're fine, we're good. Yep. Like the state of New York, if you go to the COVID business website, the last time it was updated with any information was April 18th. Wow. Yeah. How's that for help?
    10:48
    And every hyperlink on that website doesn't work. So, pinball sucks when it comes to COVID. I did watch a tournament. What? Yes, sir. There was a tournament in Europe. Germany, I think. Germany will be victorious. CDL Pinball on Twitch. Check it out. They actually had a tournament this weekend. Okay, and? Oh, I don't know. I don't know who won. I know it wasn't for money because they can't win the high prices. Was it Hans Gruber? Hans Gruber won.
    11:24
    Oh. I missed him. See if anybody picks that one up. Why did he have to die? He wasn't that old. I know. God damn it. That was like his first role. Way to hit the ground running. His first role in a movie. Yeah.
    11:40
    Die Hard Pinball. Yeah, maybe. Someday. So, yeah, closings. Yeah, let's move on. Let's move on. Very depressing. What's not depressing is I visited the world-famous Silver Ball Saloon. Did. Yes. But where is it again? And you brought a friend with you. 135 West Commercial Street in East Rochester, New York. I didn't bring a friend. Yes, you did. He followed up behind you in the car because you guys had to be. Okay, you keep telling me this. You had one person to go. You had one place to go, and he came just to play. I visited, and I delivered your present. Yes, you did. I have now Ron's rig, which eventually we're going to set up. Yep, he's got. It's now Bruce's rig. It's rig 1.0. 2.0 Ron has. 2.0 I have. Well, actually, it's more like Carl 1.0 and Carl 2.0. But, yeah. I brought that over there. And then I left for a little while. And according to Bruce, Stu showed up. He did because I have physical photographic. I saw a picture of a guy with a bad blonde wig with a mascot. That did not look like Stu to me. Unfortunately, he played like Stu. And he got crushed at the Silver Bowl Saloon 4-1. Wow. Okay. Crushed to you, I'm assuming. I mean, you beat him. Of course. I didn't, you know. Well, you know, Stu had never been there. If it was Stu, I mean, he had no idea how any of the games played. I have my games set up like Pimberg. Hard. Yeah, but you play them all the time. I don't play them all the time. I work. Oh, come on. Come on. Do your games. I work.
    13:22
    Okay. So he demanded a rematch. Oh, he demanded a rematch. Well, first, I'm going over my Rochester trip. Okay. Well, the funny thing is you have all those games there. I end up playing, like, Countdown most of the time. I know. I love Countdown. I love Countdown, too. I think I was on my Gottlieb System 1.
    13:40
    That was after our Silver Ball Chronicles Gottlieb System 1 came out. So I was really into the System 1 stuff there. By the way, our latest episode, Steve Ritchie, The Mullet Years, was just released. So check that out, Silver Ball Chronicles. Hi, Dennis. Hello, Dennis. Could be listened to at the Pinball Network. The what? The funny thing is, I bet you it gets way more listens than this podcast. Probably does. I've never asked what the numbers are at any point. I should ask that at some point. Probably does. Although that might depress me. It might depress you.
    14:15
    But we'll get into the TPN a little later on again. Oh, yeah. You have some gimmick infringement going on there. Yep. While I was in Rochester, I also got to play a bunch of games that I hadn't played yet. I got to play Stranger Things LE. I got to play a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles LE. And I got to play a Hot Wheels. I played a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle Pro also. Okay. So I'm going to go over my impressions. I was going to come over, but I got hammered at work. And then he got hammered. me on it. All right. Well, first, I played because I was off for the week. So I went to the world-famous Rock Fantasy in Middletown, New York, and played their recently arrived Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which was hilarious because I literally walked right by it and I'm like, where the hell is it? And I'm like, I know it's here. And then I went back, like, how do you freaking miss it? It's like right there. That was embarrassing. Played that, and it's funny, while I'm playing that, Mike, who is from Albany, local guy, he's in my leagues, he happens to show up. He's just there like, oh, hi, Mike. So he ended up playing co-op. That was pretty funny. That's all he needs to show up. It's very colorful. Artwork is awesome.
    15:40
    It plays good except for one shot, and that's the side ramp. I could not hit side ramp. I hit it maybe once or twice the whole time, Which is kind of a problem because there is a lot of parts of the game where it says, well, actually, they call it the center ramp, which threw me. Was it this splinter dude?
    15:59
    Shoot the center ramp. He sounds like Bob Ross. Hello. I'm going to paint a happy tree. Shoot the center ramp. Like, what the fuck's the center ramp? Like, oh, the side ramp. Oh, okay. I gotcha. And there's multiple ways to feed it, too. They have, like, a diverter in the upper back, upper left. So you can shoot, like, the right orbit, and it'll come around to the upper left flipper and try to shoot the side ramp. Or you can shoot the right ramp, and it'll drop it right in front of the upper left flipper for the side ramp. Or you can shoot the left orbit, and it will reroute it back down to the upper left flipper. And I still couldn't hit the damn thing. Fail. The multi-balls, there's too many balls. Oh, my. You start multiball, and it's like you play Apollo 13. It's like so many balls come down, and you're just flailing, and you can't hit anything. I just started doing the let them all drain, hit a couple shots, you know, the ball saver back, let them all drain, hit a couple shots, and until the ball saver's over. That became my approach.
    17:03
    Modes were cool. The display was cool. Music is awesome. It definitely captures the 80s feel. I'll say that. Even though I never watched the show, it definitely felt like something that would have been done in the 80s. Definitely felt that way. So, when's yours on order?
    17:21
    Ah, the whole side ramp thing? Oh, and it does have a couple different modes that have the Dwight effect. Where winter is coming. Fucking asshole. Oh, man. You turn the lights down and you start getting some severe light in your face. But it wasn't as bad as winter's coming because I could still actually see. Mm, great. You think Dwight always wanted to do that? 30 years ago, he was like, how can I blind the player? But there just wasn't technology to do it. And then LEDs came around. He was like, oh, finally, I can do what I've always wanted to do, blind the player. Nice. So he's got the cool, like, the one, two, three foot combo, which is basically hitting the three ramp shots. The problem is you've got to hit that damn side ramp that I can't hit.
    18:08
    The training, it's got that behind the flipper shot, which is much harder than, say, the Star Trek one. Like a Star Trek, you lift the flipper up and you hit behind it, and you don't really have to drop the flipper. If you hit it right, it'll still go in there. This one, you have to drop the flipper at the right time to get it to go behind the flipper. Yikes. So it requires a little more skill.
    18:33
    And the Pro is packed. I was like, damn, this is a Pro. So it has in the skill shot, well, the skill shot I don't really understand, but I don't really get the rules too much other than how to start modes. But in the shooter lane, it actually has a whole, not mech, but a whole, like, piece of plastic and lighting to show the four different turtles.
    18:57
    And it just shows up, like a System 11 skill shot would have been years ago. That kind of thing. That's not good. It is good, but it's like, it's on the LCD, too, and it's like, damn, they spent a little more money here. I mean, that really wasn't necessary. It doesn't add anything functionally. It just looks cool. So I appreciated that. That's a good thing. Yeah. While I was there, I also played some Elvira. Mm-hmm. I mean, again, it's as close as I'll ever get to a Mystery Science Theater pinball machine.
    19:26
    So that was fun. You know, Manos, The Hands of Fate, and all that stuff. And I have multiple, multiple movies now that were in Mystery Science Theater at some point. see what else did I play when I was there I played other things but those were newer ones that I hadn't played well I played Elvira but hadn't played it in months so then in Rochester I got to play Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles L.E. I like the pro art better the glider thing that you can move honestly didn't really come into play that much and it blocks a bunch of the play feel I would definitely, this is one of the games I would say go for the pro. Go for the pro. Go for the wall. Yeah. And if you go for the pro, you don't have to worry about the diverter issue they've had with the LEs. Yes. They have a diverter that diverts balls into the turtle van, and I guess it just bashes into things and generally doesn't work well, which if you wait, it'll probably be fixed in time for the premiums. But if you have an LE, you're going to have to, I guess there's a screw that falls out or something that falls out, so you're going to have to lock tight stuff. Tweak it, baby. Yeah, tweak it, baby. Stern already did a bulletin that shows you how to take the thing apart. I've heard of multiple issues with the servo board that controls the little glider going bad. Great. So, again, this is why you don't get the LEs, because you just wait. Because by the time the premiums come out, this shit will all be fixed. Mm-hmm. So that's why it's... I guess you could always sell the LEs for more than you're ever going to get for a premium because they're LEs and stuff, so if you care about resale. But if you actually like the game and you want it to work optimally, I would always say wait. Wait.
    21:19
    Although if Beavis and Butthead LE came out, that would be very tempting. I'm just saying. One more time. Wait. Okay, who's that? I say wait. Yeah, what group is it? I'm going to let you think and struggle. No. Is it Kiss? No. Okay. As long as it's not Kiss. It's not Kiss. Okay.
    21:43
    I have no other guesses, sorry. Okay, great. Then I played Stranger Things, Ellie. And something became apparent to me.
    21:52
    Stranger Things Pro is useless. Yes, it is. Don't bother. If you want Stranger Things, get the Premium or the LE. Do not even bother with the Pro, because the whole experience is based around that projector. And when you don't have the projector, it's useless. The Pro is like if you went to a drive-in and they never showed a movie. All you got to look at was the screen.
    22:18
    And this one had the UV kit in it, or no? Yes. Okay. The other thing is, number one, don't bother with the Pro. If you have the Premier LE, the UV kit is mandatory.
    22:32
    Mandatory. But no, it's not. You have to pay so much money and do all your work yourself. Well, you can listen to George Gomez explain that on the latest episode of the Super Awesome Pinball Show. Ah, was it super? It was awesome. Yes, it was. It was. Listening to Mrs. Fandrop F-bombs while Gomez was on there was great. Love it. Excellent. Watching Gomez drop some swearing on there. I love it. This is why you get a censorship, man. You got to, yeah. Let it all fly. Let it all hang out. Oh, my.
    23:03
    What was I saying? So, Stranger Things. Yes, UV kit. Mandatory. Totally different experience. I even started to kind of dig that, what, synthy music thing they're playing. I never watched the show, so. I don't like the show. Oh, okay. Well, there you go. I tried three times. um shoots good except for the demogorgon of course i've watched at least i don't know 10 or 15 shots adam didn't see any of them go in yep i just don't understand how that was ever approved approved tested i mean i'm sorry at least at least come out with a new demogorgon with a bigger mouth maybe or something yeah just something it needs to be as big as freaking like the monster from what's it called? What was the movie?
    23:53
    Little Shop of Horrors. Oh, God. Yes. He opens his... Yeah. Audrey 2. Audrey 2. Yes. Who did the voice of Audrey 2?
    24:05
    Oh, I can't remember now. I used to know it. Now I don't know. Come on. The lead singer of the Four Tops? Oh, God. Couldn't tell you. Levi Stubbs. Oh, wow. You're remarkable I saw that in the theater and that was good I was like that I kind of dig Stranger Things It shoots good Yeah it shoots good except for the middle shot Except for the middle shot Which is the game The atmosphere was cool And it's definitely With the UV kit when you go in the upside down world The lighting yeah That's pretty badass So that was that and then we have Hot Wheels
    24:47
    Hot Wheels? Hot Wheels. I played Hot Wheels. And? Best American pinball game so far. That's a good thing. Not even close. Wasn't too hard. Oh.
    25:00
    Okay, so, okay. Tell me everything good about Houdini. The lock shot is cool as hell. Okay. The chains on the pop bumpers. Okay. Tell me everything good about Oktoberfest. The habit trails. The curly queue. Yeah. Okay. That's it.
    25:18
    Oh. You named the two good things. Okay. On Hot Wheels, we'll start like the first ball. Immediately, the shitty flippers. Yeah. Which I don't understand. I thought they were WPC mechs. I don't understand why the whole flipper thing is hard. But just shitty flipper feel. They feel weak. Which on a game that's all about speed, it's kind of a problem. It was a little floaty. probably because you can't really crank it up or the flippers wouldn't be able to make anything. They need to work on that. I don't know why this is hard. I don't understand. It's hard. I mean, Spooky doesn't have this issue with flipper strength. Jersey Tech doesn't have it unless you're at a show with any kind of low power situation. But if you have it at home and crank it up, it's fine. And actually, I don't know. It's possible that could have been default flipper power, maybe if you really crank it. But I have never played one that I thought had snappy flippers, ever. ever any other games but even with that it still was super fun the animations I love the robot chicken animations that's what I call them it's hilarious you've got the bad guy you've got dinosaurs this one had a shaker motor it had cool shaker coordination so when the dinosaurs are walking the whole game shakes that was cool all RGB lighting here's the thing about the lighting it has all RGB lighting which is cool You have RGB lighting. There should be no problems. Remember Wizard of Oz? Oh, yeah. You know how it has all RGB lighting and you know how dark it is? Because it has no ambient lighting at all? Yep. That's Hot Wheels.
    26:58
    And it was sitting right next to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles LE, which is lit very well, which made it really apparent that it needs way more lighting. You will need some kind of extra lighting. I'm not going to say Penn Stadium might be a cheaper equivalent but just any kind of lighting on the side something to get a little better ambient lighting on that play field because there's ports where it's just too dark I love red when you're shifting you keep hitting this red over and over and the whole fucking game goes red the flippers die and you get this little frenzy mode that's pretty cool I was digging Hot Wheels I playing it and it like damn if only the flippers were better and this thing was cranked up I feel like I playing Getaway or something It be awesome Well you are playing Getaway partially aren you Well yeah it got Redline Mania of course yes But, yeah, it's totally different shots, though. Yeah, I was thinking that.
    28:00
    So if they fix the flippers, Ron's in. If you get decent flippers and make it so you can crank it up, it's going to be a fun game.
    28:08
    Good. And for the price, it's definitely the best deal. It's priced closer to, like, a Stern Pro. Yeah, a little higher than a Stern Pro. A little higher, but still. Still, I think you get more for your money with it. They had the flippers, but I agree with that. The toy is lame. Well, yeah, the circling. Gottlieb already did that. Play Mario Andretti. Yep. It's pretty lame. It shoots good. It's got that. It's bizarre, the three stand-ups that you hit to keep going up in gear, they're like offset.
    28:42
    I don't know if I've ever seen that before. Yeah. I mean, I don't know if it adds anything, but it's just something like, wow, I've never seen that before. Anytime you can see that in a pinball machine, that's good. As long as it works, obviously. I've never seen that before. And then you play, oh, that's why I've never seen it before. Because it sucks.
    29:02
    Yeah, it was good. I liked it. But it wasn't anything I played that was like, yeah, this is shit. It was all quality, Bruce.
    29:10
    Quality. No real negativity. I mean, there's things that can be improved, but overall, yeah, it's pretty good. And then I got to look at Zach. Hi, Zach. Zach from Slam Tilt. He will be coming up later in the show, the subject of Zach. I got to look at his Whitewood. Have you seen his Whitewood? I have a long time ago. I haven't seen it lately. Yeah. He's got it in a whirlwind cabinet.
    29:39
    He's building a game. And let me just say, looking at this play field, I see why he is a fan of John Trudeau.
    29:49
    Because John Trudeau would just do anything on a play field. That's what this is, man. You know cookie-cutter arrangement here. He has a flipper in a place I have never seen a flipper before.
    30:00
    Hmm. And I'm not even talking about Blackwater 100 when it's sitting on the apron. I'm talking about a place I've never seen a flipper before. I'd love to get some spy shots. No, no, no. I don't want to give it away. It will be a retro theme.
    30:16
    And I do love his idea of he's trying to figure out where he wants to put inserts and lights and things like that. So he has a projector over the game. And he just projects the stuff on the game to see how it looks.
    30:30
    That's pretty cool. That's a good idea. I mean, he has an actual projector taped or attached to, like, a wood pole that comes out. It's awesome. Bizarro. Yeah, but it's a great way to come up with, like, let me experiment where the lights are, and I'm not going to cut anything until I get it. Okay, this works. Okay, now I can actually cut. Because he's kind of, he's in a situation where he can't afford to be cutting things wrong. He's like, he has one try for everything. Money shot. What? The money shot. Oh, okay. You know what the money shot is, right?
    31:06
    We're talking about porn reference or no? Yes, we are. Okay, yes. Okay, perfect. What does that have to do with anything? Why did he say that? Why does everything have to be vulgar? It's not vulgar. That is vulgar. No, it's not, because guess what? That's where they made their money, when they made the money shot.
    31:25
    Okay. Okay, moving on. No pay without the known money shot. Okay. So he'd run, you know, he couldn't pay. You know, think about it. He only has one chance to make it right, so he's got to make it right, and then he gets his money from the money shot.
    31:41
    God, kids these days. Yes, Bruce's Whitewood, the Pornhub game. That's the ultimate wizard mode, I guess, the money shot wizard mode. Yeah. First you get the ugly people on there, and then you work your way up to the supermodels.
    31:55
    Jesus Christ. Yes, this is Bruce Smith's new game, the Born Hub game. Yes. So, yeah, that's... The health department's coming.
    32:08
    Oh. All right. Let me check off that. Those are all the games I played. So then I had to go out to Albany. You had to. You make it sound like I had to go out to Albany. It's Albany. I had to get parts for a machine. I got ahead for Meteor and Wiring. So it is Pornhub. And on the way back, Stu knew I was coming in the area, challenged me. Yes, he did. Stu challenged you to a pinball slash karaoke battle. He challenged me then because he wanted the tables to be turned a little bit, and he challenged me at Ron's house. And we streamed this. Yes, we did. Directual real stream. And you can look at the stream. The VOD, which is still there. It wasn't even muted last I saw, which is amazing with all the awesome karaoke. Amy actually said our voices were so good. Or it was so bad they couldn't hit any of their algorithms to mute it.
    33:09
    Again, we are Slamtail Podcast. Actually, yeah, Slamtail Podcast on Twitch. Yep. Or you can just go to www.slamtailpodcast.com. All the links are on the upper right. You can go to our Twitch stream, or you can go to YouTube and get the full quality version, which that's not muted either. They're all there. And you can, I split out all of the karaoke numbers, so you can listen to the golden voice of Bruce.
    33:39
    Excellent. I love that. Oh, so we played. Well, we played later, but you played, Stu. I went upstairs. And what did you guys play? Do you remember? It was, we started with Prospector. Mm-hmm. Who won that? You won Prospector. Who's you? Stu won Prospector. Okay.
    34:00
    Stargazer, I won. Ooh, 1-1. Okay. Then we went to Demoman, which he crushed me on because I suck lately at that. Then we went to, I forget what it was. It was down the other end. I think we went to... Was it F-14 Tomcat? F-14. and then we went to something else. Oh, we went to Ironman. I lost to that. At 14, I lost. And then the final was S.A.R.S. Ah, the official game of Slamtoes Pockets. And, yeah, so you lost. Yeah. I lost. Was it 4-1? No, it was 4-2. Yeah, so actually, I beat Stu really still because I only lost one. One, you know, I won one more game than Stu won.
    34:50
    Won one more? Yes, from that Silver Ball Saloon. Oh, okay. So, yes, I am still the winner. I'm still the winner. Okay. Still the winner. Yes. And there were karaoke numbers done in between the games. It was awesome from what I heard. I came down later and we did a duet. We did, what did we do? Oh, we did Air Supply. All Out of Love. Yes, we did. It was great. It was tremendous. I even hit the last note. That was surprising. Yes, you did. Yeah.
    35:22
    So check that out. You will not be disappointed. Not at all. Or you'll be really disappointed, one or the other.
    35:31
    Pinball news. Checking out This Week in Pinball. Hi, Jeff. Hi. There really wasn't much pinball news other than it was Slash's birthday, and Jersey Jack Pinball said, Happy birthday, Slash. Gee, I wonder why. Yeah. Oh, yeah, and This Week in Pinball has a new feature, like a month in review type thing. They have, like, the video, and they have, oh, God, I don't have her name here. Oh, I saw the name, yes.
    36:03
    Now, okay, did you see what she looks like? No. Her hair, it looks like Link from Zelda. That's the first thing when I saw it, like, it looks like Link from Zelda. So, yeah, they did a June review and a July review is coming. And, man, it is difficult to get news, I mean, because it's basically they're making turtles.
    36:24
    We have code updates for Elvira and turtles that came out. I mean, lots of streaming going on. We got up to at least 15 people watching the Bruce stream. Wow, it was just equals ratings. Bruce equals ratings. Bruce equals liquid gold. Liquid gold. Is that your Pornhub thing again? No, no. I thought that was good. Sorry. So, not much with the news. No, unfortunately, it's a slow time. There was talk that there's actually going to be another Stern Film Machine release before the end of the year, which, of course, makes sense because it's before the end of fall they're talking. Yep. The final round podcast, they had Carl DeAngelo on. Hi, Carl. We're pretty much sad that he doesn't think Indus is happening. No. That's a bummer. And we had the hotel rooms for TPF go on sale yesterday. Ah, yes, we did. And they sold out within three hours. Good thing I got mine. Yeah, and so, but I don't even know if that's going to happen. No, that's only in March. Exactly. And we've already shown as a country we're incapable. We're losers. We are incapable. So if there's not a vaccine out by then, that's not happening. No. So there you go. There was new Rick and Morty code. Yes.
    37:55
    That just came out, I think, Friday. Yes, it is. Thursday or Friday. More swearing, more fun stuff, more everything. The aforementioned Carl D'Angelo. Hi, Carl. At IE Pinball. He streamed. It was hilarious. He came on the stream, and the title was, you know, streaming, new Rick and Morty code. And then he realized at the very beginning that he had forgot to actually update the code. That was hilarious. Like, yeah, I need to do that. So, yes, he updated the code, and within the first five minutes he found a bug, and he found at least two more bugs. I counted. I had it on in the background, but I just, every time he said, oh, I think I found another bug. So there's at least three of them. Yikes. Yeah, yikes. He's like, come on. Because at first I thought it was like a prototype, like something they gave him only. But then instead we know this is a general release code. Like, ooh. Yeah. Like finding three bugs in like a 30-minute period is not the greatest. It's not good. But I did notice something that kind of bummed me out. What's that? You know, our Jeff Parsons from the Pinball Players podcast. Mm-hmm. He did the voice for the Roy mode. Yes. And he wasn't in there anymore. Oh. They had replaced a different voice. Oh, my God. I noticed that right away. Like, what the hell? Now, going back at Spooky, when we were playing after our tournament,
    39:17
    I actually, Ron came downstairs. He finally got back from his adventures, and me and Ron played some games. And I picked, surprise, surprise to Ron, TNA. Yeah. And then we figured we would do a co-op and try to get to the damn, and try to get to Reactor 9. You know, what the hell? And the game didn't make it. No. Again.
    39:44
    What is up with that thing, man? I know other people that have it, and they have not had near the amount of issues that I've had. So I'm thinking, yeah, I got a lemon. I think you did. Let's see. Let's investigate. Here's the issues I've had with it so far. Mm-hmm. Well, now it has, because they tightened down all the star posts too tight, so there's chipping around pretty much all of them. Excellent. But, well, whatever. You can still play. Let's do actual play issues here. Audio and sound. The audio, the media, yeah, sound issues. The main thing about the game is the awesome sound, but I couldn't hear it at first because it was all garbled and fucked up, and I had to get a new audio cable. Fix that. Played it for a while. Then you realize like half of the stand-ups just don't register, especially the ones on the left. Like when you have a reactor ready and you need to hit those and you hit it and it doesn't register, you get really pissed. I had to adjust every stand-up to be more sensitive to fix that. What else? We had multiple issues with the Denisi lock, specifically the second drop target, which is constantly not reset right or have issues. That's the one where I had to take the whole thing out and found out it was the compression spring on the thing was too long.
    41:07
    Yeah, it was slightly different. I had to take out one of the ones that worked to compare, like, what the hell's the difference? And then I saw it, you know, just some random spring. One little, like two coils of a spring caused the whole thing not to work right. So fixed all that. And whenever you take anything out of the game, it's a pain because there's no connectors. They really went old school with it, literally. it's like an old school game plus every single thing is hot glued where there is a connector which when the thing vibrates there's a reason for that yeah finally I fixed that then I had issues with the RGB lighting where like just a quarter of the play field would just not it would be lit but it wouldn't change colors loose connector in the back box the only place where it's not hot glued so So, fix that. And then when me and Bruce streamed, we had issues with the front drop target constantly, like, resetting over and over, and then would think you were in multiball when you're not and do all kinds of weird shit. I fixed that. What that ended up being is exactly what I thought it was. I figured the front opto was flaking out somehow. Is there a leak? No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. What it was is, if you have a TNA and you look at this, where the Denise V-Lock is, there's two guide rails. and the opto sit behind them. Yeah, it was like on the... Dangerously close to them. So if the guide rail happens to start coming up a bit... Oh, no, it's blocking the beam. It will block the beam, or in this case, intermittently block and let it through. So when you put it in test mode, it does opto 48, like over and over and over and over and over, like, okay, there's the issue. Had to pound that back down.
    42:53
    Yeah, but the thing is, it's just going to come up again at some point and have the same issue as us, whatever. The thing that sucks, you've got to take that whole plastic off, that whole used plastic to get at all that. But fix that. So as of right now, it's totally working. So I do want to start streaming that because I want to – I turn the extra balls on, and I want to in earnest try to get to freaking Reactor 9. Am I talented enough to do so? Probably not. Will I eventually do like a four-player co-op mode and try it? Probably. What you should do is invite Stu over so both of you guys can play together. I could do that. We've been on stream at the same time before. I know. Hey, you know what you need to do? You need to sell, sell, sell.
    43:36
    Sell, sell. Well, I may be selling the T3 soon. Oh, my. Because there may or may not be something coming. Ooh. Mm-hmm. I have something coming soon. Ooh. Oh, wait. Oh, wait for the fun stuff to come out. When I get it, my little grubby lily ends. Okay. So, yeah. So, that will be coming. It may sit in a box for a while, though, until I can make room for it. God, you and your make room shit. Yeah, you guys are terrible. Don't surround yourself with too many pinhead folks, because they'll have you like, your couch will be gone, you don't need this chair, you don't need this. What do you mean you don't want to put games in your living room? What the hell? Come on. What the hell? I've already been through that stage. No. Yeah, remember when you did that in your old place, when you were totally maxed out, where you had the basement full of games, and then you had a bunch of games in the living room and shit. Remember that? I loved it. Yeah. I love that. No, I don't. I think one person there didn't love it. No, she actually got used to it a little bit. She got used to it a little bit, yeah. Let's put it this way. They were all gone the next time I came up. Yeah, because we got ring games downstairs. Mm-hmm. What was the maximum amount of games you ever had in that house? 44.
    44:50
    I don't know what's more disturbing, that number or the fact that you knew the number immediately. Damn. Very proud of that. I'm very proud of that. It's a badge of honor. So continuing on your repair thing, anything else this week? I shopped out.
    45:06
    Actually, yes. I did a massive parts order. Ooh. Orders. Ooh. Including, remember our conversation about, I think we had this last episode, about 455 blinker lights. Yes. And how only the GE ones, like the originals, have a faster blink rate. Now, you can get LED ones. Which suck. And they have either slow or fast blinking. But they're the exact same. They're not random. See, the thing that makes it, gives it effect, that it's not totally, you know, it's not like blink, blink, blink. It's, what's the term? Blink. It's not random. That's not the term I'm thinking of. It's a timing thing. Intermediate. No, not. Intermittent. There you go. So intermittent, yeah, to get the effect I want. So I started looking on eBay, and I eventually found a lot of like 100 NOS bulbs of different types, and there was like 40 455s in there, so I just bought that. So I need to buy some from you because my stars has 455s in it. It actually has the word stars. Yeah, that's what I have. I have them in the stars. and I have it also on pinball. Ooh. And it's working. Oh, your pinball is working. It is working. But we'll go back to you first. Let's go. Yeah, so I made, let's see, I did orders from, oh, boy, Great Plains Electronics, Pinball Resource, Pinball Life, Marco, Comet, Little Shop of Games, because they're the only ones who have the Metallica magnet board in stock. and I made all those orders on a Sunday, guess which order I got last?
    46:57
    PBR. Yes. The ones at Poughkeepsie an hour and a half from my house got last. I don't get it. It went from Poughkeepsie to New Jersey first and then back. Yep. That's so weird. Why? It doesn't make any sense. It makes no sense at all. Whatever. So I finished up the Alien Star, and holy shit, that thing plays nasty now. It is a different game than when you played it. Okay. I'll say that. I didn't realize their whole slingshots were just, they're like EM, they're just hardwired. Yes. There's no, there's this high voltage that goes through the switches. Yes. And then they have the switches, like, right next to one of the GI bulbs. Yeah, I know. That seems, like, absolutely stupid. But that thing shorts, whatever. I got paranoid. and I put some electrical tape around the socket. There you go. So I cleaned the switches with the Flexstone and gapped them really close, and holy shit, it plays different now. Yeah. Oh, awesome. So I finished that. Then I finally got around to, because I said Great Plains Electronics, so I got some SCRs, so I finally fixed that stupid X in Dragon Fist, the one that's locked on. Oh, there you go. Locked on. Yay. And I found some really weird issues with my Dragon Fist is possessed by the devil.
    48:20
    You know, we have conversations of me testing Scott. Hi, Scott. Scott's code. And my dip switch is not working. I did figure out kind of here. Sure. This is so weird. So it is your fault. It is. Yes. Two different MPU boards, but have the same issue. So the issue is in the game. The dip switches will occasionally not work right unless I disconnect one of the connectors from the board when I boot up. There's some kind of weird short somewhere in that game. It's the cabinet connector, too. So basically what would happen is, say, on one of these games, when you change the dip switch, you turn the game off, change the dip switch, you boot it back up, and it has the new setting. But it wouldn't work half the time. And I think that was the original extra ball issue. Like I couldn't turn extra balls off or whatever. Say it's simple. Say I want to turn off match.
    49:13
    So I turn the game off, hit the toggle to turn off the match, turn it on, match is still on. Like what the fuck?
    49:19
    But if I turn it off, I disconnect the J2. It's on the right side of the MPU board, lower right connector, the one that's for the cabinet. If I take that off, I think it's J2. One. Okay. If you take that off and then boot up, then it will work. You can toggle the switches and it'll do it. And then once it's where you want it, you can put the connector back on and you're fine. It doesn't switch back or anything. So anytime I want to change diff switches, I just have to unhook that before I do it. It's so weird. But I tested it with his code, and sure enough, I can toggle the things like I should be able to, finally. So I got, the game is possessed. It's just absolutely possessed. It's literally, I think the ghost of Bruce Lee haunts that game. He's pissed he didn't get residuals for this game, or his family didn't get residuals. So he's going to haunt that game forever. What else did I do? I worked on Big Game. because you remember my rollover switches on the right don't work most of the time. So, yep, we used the red stuff, my deoxit stuff on them, and added a capacitor to the one that didn't have a capacitor, also added a capacitor to a switch on the left, deoxit the hell out of it, and now they work every time. Nice. Yep. Love that shit. The red shit. Yeah, it works pretty good. Oh, that works great. What else did I work on? I have the one light on Harlan that doesn't work, the 6K bonus light. That's the Alltech board. I've confirmed it's the board itself because I put other boards in there, and it works fine. So the Alltechs have the surface mount, but they also have a section where you can put the original part in. So, well, I obviously have the SCR because Dragon Fist, you know, just replaces it. So I soldered one in there, and it still doesn't work.
    51:18
    So I give up. It's just not going to work. Send it back to them. Lifetime warranty. Really? Yes. Oh. Maybe I should have done that when I first had the issue. Yep. Lifetime warranty. So, I think that's it. I don't think I... Oh, well, the TNA I fixed, and... Yeah. I think that's it. I think I'm at pretty much full power at this point. Until something else breaks. Full power! Damn you! Cool.
    51:46
    I still have to shop out Black Rose and Lisa Weapon. Yeah. And that's it. So what I had to do was replace five, no, sorry, six connectors on Stern Pinball. .100s? Yes. Oh, lovely. All rotted. I had at least, so don't forget, I did three to four light ones, and then three of the four CPU ones so far.
    52:17
    And there's like 20, there's 16, there's 28, there's 24. I have to say at least 40 of them were rotted.
    52:28
    I actually pushed on the connector and I actually pulled. I was actually, here's the funny thing. You know how you do one wire at a time when you're doing a connector? Yeah, so you don't get confused on where the hell you are. Exactly. You don't want to get lost. You don't want to screw it up. I'm pulling out. I'm pushing down the pin thing to release the one, and three other wires are falling out of the connector. That's pretty bad. I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa.
    52:55
    Luckily, I took pictures beforehand, which I recommend everyone to do. Take a picture before you do any work so you can match up the colors in case you have that issue. Three fell right out when I pushed the first one. I was like, whoa.
    53:09
    Replaced all of them. I now have lights on the pinball. I have displays. I finally have a chime unit. I did not know this, but early Sterns put a quarter-amp fuse on their chime units,
    53:25
    which I did not know. It was very surprising. Wait, but you have a Starz. How did you not know that? I never saw it. I never looked. Oh. Never looked. It's always worked. So you get the great ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding-ding. I think that's what it is. It's great when you power up pinball or you actually play a game of pinball. It just has the best chimed sounds. I really got creative with that. The problem I do have is I have a short somewhere. Every time I hit the left slingshot, it adds the bonus.
    53:57
    So at five slingshots, I already have 50,000 points. Very good. Yeah. So I've got to figure that out, but I haven't been able to touch that lately. I am working on a Flash right now. Flash Williams. And I'm going through it the same guy I did the Paragon with. I'm going through this one, and he's got me these. There's Williams aftermarket drop target boards. They're made by a company, and they're supposed to make the drop targets better, more reliable. So this is to replace the horseshoe? Not the horseshoe itself. It's just the, you're replacing the boards that make them more reliable. You're still using the horseshoes, but it's the sensors that, the other side, the whole effect sensor that actually registers the movement. Now, oh my God, those boards are crappy, originally. There's like individual boards for individual drop targets. Like, Bally did it so nice, a switch.
    55:01
    You know, a regular contact switch. how hard is that to fix? Really simple. Nope, we're Williams. We're going to try this whole new boards thing, and they suck. Plus, aren't they daisy chain, and there's all kinds of other components? Yes, all the wiring is a mess, and it's all hardwired,
    55:20
    and diodes all over the place, and I'm just going through this. The funny thing is you going through color codes that these wires risk on but you know how 40 or 45 wires get They lose their color So it a pain in the ass I'm going to start working on that more tomorrow.
    55:39
    And then I sent you a link a few minutes ago. We're psychic. I literally just brought it up. And we're going to try this on the Gametron at the bar. It's a new solderless X10 power supply board for Ballystern pinball. In other words, the rectifier board. The rectifier board. It's a stylish version. Instead of what you do is you cut off each wire off your old board, and you put it on this new board with side connectors. I know everyone's probably going, what do you mean side connectors? What there actually is is you push down on the green tab, and it releases the tension off, and you slide the wire into the hole, and then you release the. It's like a speaker connect. Yes. and Zach was all worried about the power. He's like, oh, these aren't going to take the power. And I said, Zach, I've used these before in some of my machines that I used to work on and they take the power no problem. We were running 230 volts in a room.
    56:38
    He's like, oh, if you're confident, I'm confident. So I bought one. It should be in tomorrow. So sometime this week, me and Zach will probably be working on GammaTron at the bar and putting this in to get our GI lights bright. So this is in lieu of having to solder all the wires to the back of the rectifier board. And the good thing also about it is behind each fuse there's an LED.
    57:05
    So you can actually tell if you have a blown fuse, you can look at it. They're using ceramic bridge rectifiers for heat dissipation. Dissipation, thank you. And it's not for the GI. Actually, it's for control lights. Our control lights are really dim on that one. I think I measure like 5 volts. This is by X-Pin. Yes, X-Pin. They have, the only thing, you know, they do have four test tabs on the front for the voltages. So if you see up on the top, they have the 5.4, the 11.3, the 230, the 43. They're missing one voltage. That was the only thing I was a little discouraged about and upset maybe about, but we'll deal with it. Yeah, I think most of mine, actually, I think all of mine that have new rectifier boards, I think they're the Great Plains ones. Yeah, there's a lot of good ones. Honestly, they're all good. You know, I know Zach. Zach likes originality, and I do too. But this is the one board, if you're owning a Bally or a Stern, replace.
    58:07
    It's a pain in the ass. Don't get me wrong. If this actually works the way I hope it does, it would probably make me want to replace them even more. Like an iffy one. or a low-voltage one like, you know, as I said with the gamers. Because there's just so much heat, and they just get burnt as shit. And the wires get so hard and crispy and crunchy.
    58:29
    It's terrible. So we'll find out, and we'll talk about it next time we're on with our special guest we have. Special guest. Yes. Can't say who it is, but I will say every 50 episodes, we have either an Australian or Lyman Sheets on. And my machine is busy. So there you go. There you go.
    58:51
    So we're going to have some other people on. People. More than one. Interesting. Okay. Sorry. I had a cough there. Oh, God. I did have one quick news item. This is a follow-up to a previous story we had a few episodes ago. Remember how I said a pinball browser didn't work anymore? Yes. Because Stern did some crap and made it not work? Yes. All because of, you know, certain people were, like, selling shit, using this product. Again, don't do that.
    59:30
    They got it working again. And now, I guess they added some kind of thing to the agreement that you cannot use it to make anything you're selling.
    59:41
    Which I'm surprised that wasn't in there already. Yeah, I'm surprised too. To be honest. But, again, I have nothing against Pinball Browser. I mean, you know, we are Mr. Custom ROMs here. And this shit's fine when you are not selling it, when you're kind of trying to keep it on the down low. It's fine. But when you go to pinball shows and sell the damn thing, this is a problem. So hopefully they can kind of keep this under control so we can enjoy it. Because I played a Guardians of the Galaxy, which has the Cleveland ROM on it, which once you play that version, that's the only version you'll want to play because it has all the songs on it. You know, like Come and Get Your Love and all that. And the actual quotes from the movie instead of the impersonators. If I had Pinball Browser, what I would want to see if I could do, and I don't know if you could do this with any of the newer games, like if I had a Star Wars or something, I'd want to remove, like when the Death Star blows up, that stupid ring because they got it from the remastered or whatever, the new Lucas edition I'd want to change that to the original explosion, you know little things like that, like the what's the pit called?
    60:55
    Sarac pit or whatever it else is yeah, in the original it's just like little arms coming out of it but on the new one it's got like Audrey 2 from fucking, you know the thing coming out of it, and that's the version they used in the game, I'd want to change that to the original version if I could. That's what I would use it for. Oh, I just saw a picture from Mr. Jack on the old book in the face.
    61:20
    Oh, R-Zack. Hi, Zach. R-Zack. Hi, Zach. What does it say? It doesn't say anything. It's a picture of a game. Oh, what did he pick up a game? He did. A Jurassic Park. Wow. He showed Inklings about this. Mm-hmm. There's someone who has saved his money due to not being able to go to any pinball shows. Exactly. Basically, it's like I can't go anywhere or do anything. So let's get a dress apart. How long do you think he hates it and sells it?
    61:51
    He likes the color. He likes, yeah. This one he had to have some initial like to get it in the first place. Yes. But how long until he sells it?
    62:00
    I'm thinking five months. Five months? Okay. Well, maybe not because he is in COVID. So he's going to play it more. So it's a kind of a... I say we should do a poll, but he'll see the poll. Yeah. Yeah, that won't work. I'm saying three months now. The three months now. Three months because he's going to be COVID, so he's going to be... Okay, I'll say four months. Okay. You're going more. Yeah. Are we doing like, what happens if it's three months and 29 days? Do I get it or do you get it? It would be closer to you. Okay, so we're not doing prices right. No, no, no. Okay, so it's like three months and 16 days I win. Yes. Okay.
    62:44
    So anything three months and 15 days is me, up to. Three months and 16 days past is you. Okay. Well, it's funny you mentioned Zach. Why would I mention Zach? Because he's one of our most popular guests. No, because he's famous.
    63:00
    He's famous. He is known worldwide now as Zach from Slam Tilt. Yes, he is. and I've learned that Christopher Franchi doesn't know who he is. Really? Because on the Pinball Players Podcast, hi, Jeff, the other Jeff, another Jeff, Jeff Parsons, they had Franchi and Dr. Pin from the Super Awesome Pinball Show on. And this little clip I'm going to play for you now, this was Joe, the co-host, Joe Lemire, and he's talking about all the games he's been getting during COVID. I know, what the hell. It's like, oh, my God. But then he brings up Zach and just, yeah. Just, yeah. Zip back and relax. I'm sure he won't mind me playing his show on my show because he's played our show on his show. So it shouldn't be a problem. Here we go.
    63:52
    And, yes, I will edit this in so it sounds great later, Bruce. Thank you. Where do you put all these games? Yeah, so, like, 20 or 21 of them are set up right now. Actually, there's probably 23 set up right now, but the other ones are coming in. We're trying to strip some out. Some are folded up and looking to get rid of, so they're all in a lot of flux. Sounds like you're in a pinball warehouse. Yeah, kind of. I mean, since we last talked, so I've been trying to keep a list to try and keep track of stuff that happens between episodes, so I don't forget to mention anything. What's new? So, first off, thank you, Zach, from Slam Tilt, for helping with some tech stuff when it comes to figuring out some of our games. So, if you come across some weird issues. Who the fuck is Zach from Slam Tilt? Zach A.J. Yeah, he's really good at fixing stuff. No joke. He was at Pinberg last year sitting at a table with Ron and Bruce were there. He's sometimes on the Slam Tilt podcast. And he's sitting there working on something for a pinball machine at Pinberg in between rounds. he knows colors of wires without us showing us a picture he's amazing he knows everything it's nuts he's been helping us he's amazing who the fuck is this come on Branchy come on if you listen close you can hear him say oh like later on he's sometimes on slam tail oh don't you listen to us anymore Chris come on I guess we're not worthy Oh, we're not worthy to get our theme music in the intro of the super awesome pinball show. He still has head-to-head old music in there. Come on. Oh. Get with the times, man. Get with the times. All right. I just thought that was fun. I've listened to that. It's like, wow, he's famous. Yeah. I love Zach, though. Zach is, you know, Zach is very dry to people. But that's what I actually like about Zach, because you can talk to him, and he doesn't have, well, he'll have opinions. Oh, he has opinions, that's for sure. But you can sometimes sway him. That's the good thing about that. I don't think he can sway me, you know, and we have very good logical conversations, you know. I think I'm the reason he got Lethal Weapon. Really? I don't know. It was nice seeing you guys play against each other.
    66:13
    When did we do that? Oh, yeah, we did. We tried a quasi, instead of a head-to-head challenge, we tried some more experimenting with the multiple streams on one stream deal, and it worked pretty good. The only problem is it was way too much maintenance on my end because I had to strategically mute and unmute things between when I would play and when he would play, so it would look good, and that was way too much work. Got to figure out a better way of doing that. I kind of agree with you. Yeah, but we ended up, it's funny, we've, what did we start playing first? We did Lethal Weapon, but then we did Alien Star, and the viewers went up.
    66:51
    Alien Star was more popular than Lethal Weapon. I would not doubt that. But, yeah, I mean, he swayed me on things, and I wouldn't have EMs if it wasn't for him. Yeah. Because I'd be lost. And I wouldn't know what EMs are good. Yes, this is true. That's why Spanish Eyes, folks, that's your best starter EM. No, no. The best one I want to have. Hold on. I'm going to send you a link right now. Always going to send me that. But don't listen to Bruce. Spanishize. Williams, you can get all the parts for it. You can even get, like, I think you can get the back glass and plastics if you want. It's a great player. It's a single player, so you only have one set of reels to worry about. So it's just a great entry-level game, in my opinion. Nope. This is the one I want to get. Give me two seconds. I think I got to send you the link.
    67:41
    Big Dick? No, no, I'm just kidding. Granada. Okay, wait, wait. Look at it. Yeah, it's the one that kind of looks like Spanish Ice, but it's a different playfield. No, no, no, no, no. Look at this one. What do you mean, look at this one? You mean the Zachariah? Yes.
    67:56
    Look at the playfield. It's got, oh, God, how many drop targets does this thing have? It's fucking cool, isn't it? Wait a minute. It almost looks like 2001, except instead of saucers at the top, they're lanes. Yep. Yeah, that's what it looks like. There's three targets in the middle. Yeah. The death targets. Okay. And the drop targets all on the side. I think this is the best version of the Granada I've ever seen. So if you have a Zachariah Granada, Bruce would love it.
    68:29
    And I figured out my new list. Your new list. Okay, I'm going to let the cat out of the bag a little bit. Oh, okay, okay, okay. And Ollie is on its way. Oh, did you win that auction? I did win the auction. So an Ali is coming. I think Harlem Globetrotters will be gone soon out of the bar. And my next game I want from all my fun fellow listeners is a rare one of Stern's. Very rare.
    68:59
    Melody Lane. A what? Melody Lane. You mean Memory Lane? Memory Lane. Sorry. Yeah, Melody Lane you're not going to find. No. Memory Lane and a Granada. If you can find me a Granada, Zachariah, oh my God. This thing looks incredible. Memory Lane, or as we call it in Orange County Pinball Club, Mamery Lane. Mamery, yes. For obvious reasons. Yeah. Howard of the OCPC has one. That's the one time I always play it. Whenever I go to his house, I play that right away. He's never going to sell that, though. No, I know that. He's bowling, baby. Bowling. I know it is. But I love this. This Granada upper play field is just incredible. Just because it has so many targets? 20 drop targets. So it's 10 per side? Yep, 10 per side. Lanes up top, two pop bumpers, and then the three death targets in the middle, which can give you some good points. Why was it the rule set sucks, though? I don't know. I mean, you never played it, right? I never played it, but it just looks so freaking cool.
    70:00
    But you still have the artwork of Granada. But this looks incredible. If I could ever find one of these, I think this would be the one EM I might want to keep. Really? Yeah, I like the, you know me, I like weird stuff. Yeah. It's still got William's stuff in it, too. Because it's made by Zachariah. All right. What do you need on your want list?
    70:26
    Well, I need to sell some stuff to make room for want list. At this point, there's really only one other Grail game. I got the Alien Star, so.
    70:36
    I like an Alien Star, but, you know. Yeah. I don't know what I want. And also, a radical. You told me I could take it when I was at your house. Oh, really? This game. Gametron? No. You had it sitting right there.
    70:54
    Attack from Mars. Oh, yeah, sitting there, yeah. Come on. It's actually going to Eric tomorrow. Which Eric? Eric Russell. No, but which one? CMY. CMY, okay. Okay, got to get that straight. I haven't mentioned him in a while. No, we've not. It's COVID, you know. And this is why everyone does need to listen to our old episodes so you know who these people are. Otherwise you'll have no clue. I'm like a fucking asshole. Yeah, we just assume you know everybody now because we saw... I should by now. Yeah, you should. You should have been listening to us. We've been on forever. Come on. We've been on fucking forever. We're older than snot.
    71:27
    How did that become Sean Connery? I don't understand that. I don't know, but it's old. It's old like me. He's got to be really old. He hasn't been anything in forever. I have a feeling he probably doesn't look much like Sean Connery anymore. Diabetes is dead now. Oh, what does Wilford Brimley do?
    71:44
    They're both old. Yes, they are. And the bonus round, as I like to say. I have a note here that just says gimmick stealing. Yo, who would do that?
    71:59
    Wait a second. We are the initiators of this. Initiators? When we do it, we tell people. And we state it straight out. We initiate this. We're the innovators. We tell you when we're ripping people off.
    72:14
    So I was listening to the pinball show, and Zach Minney, he started doing this little bit, which was funny, where he's going through like pin side ads for games, ones that are like ridiculous, and just making fun of them. Does that sound familiar? Oh, my God. It sounds like what we've done many, many, many, many, many, many, many times on eBay and also on Pinside. Yeah. Would we or would we not buy that? Yeah, boy, that's... I think you need to talk to your boss there. He's not my boss. I thought you were on TVN. He's David Dennis' boss. Oh. I'm just an underling of David Dennis. David Dennis is my boss. Wow. Yeah, that's the chain of command. The chain of command. Well, we're trying to get him to not sing, but that's not working.
    73:08
    But, yeah. Yeah, when he did that, I'm there like, hmm, where have I heard this routine before? Yeah. It was good, though, especially there was a Simpsons that was, like, just powder-coated, like, in multiple different colors, like rainbow powder coat. Oh, my God. Yes.
    73:25
    But, yeah. Yeah. Okay. I see where it's going. Yeah. So not only will he not have you on, he now rips us off. Yeah, thanks. Thanks. Pretty mean. Yeah. By the way, be sure to listen to the Pinball Network. It's here. The latest episode is Silver Ball Chronicles featuring David Dennis and me. They're stealing our bits. Well, you can listen to Final Round. They haven't stole from us yet. No, they have not yet. I love the boys there. I love Marty. I love Marty and the boys and everyone else. Yes. Mr. Jeff Teal is the golden voice of podcasting. Those boys are my friends, and they're very good people. Good eggs. Eggs, eggs. So guess what? I've got to do it in another hour and 15 minutes. Porn? Pick up a Star Trek LE. Oh! Oh, oh, oh, you're a Star Trek LE. It's off-lease. But you sold the one you should have kept. What? You sold Spider-Man and kept the whole Star Trek. You did the opposite way that you should have. No, everyone tells me I did the right thing. You did the wrong thing. They're all wrong. No, they're not. No. Okay, this will be the new... Oh, the new poll? You don't have to poll that one. We know that's going to end up. Oh, we know exactly. Yeah. Because we know it's a premium game. Star Trek. For those who haven't heard the previous 148 episodes, me and Bruce both had Star Trek LE and Spider-Man LE Black. I kept my Spider-Man and sold the Star Trek. Bruce sold his Spider-Man and kept the Star Trek. And who do you think is the smarter one? Exactly. Everyone thinks it's Bruce. So, it's time for the ball bag, Bruce, and it's big. This might be one of the bigger ball bags we've had. Oh, my. That's it? That's the total thing I'm going to get for that? Because I was reading some of our reviews, and I'm too homophobic. You're too homophobic? Oh, you want iTunes? Yeah. I laughed at all these losers. Yes, I think people do not like our George Takei. Yeah, I guess what? I don't get that we love George Takei. I mean, I have a frigging George Takei life-size cutout in my game for a reason. We actually really appreciate his career. I love his post-career. You, sir, are a douchebag. A total douchebag.
    75:51
    Oh, man. Let's see. Do we have any new reviews, though? No, we have not. No. Come on. We need reviews. Oh, and also you can go to TWIP and update their database. But we're doing pretty good there. Yeah, we're doing – I think we're one of the better ones. We're on the front page. I don't understand that at all. I couldn't tell you how this is happening. I couldn't tell you, man. What's going on?
    76:15
    We just try to keep it light, folks. We have two rules. Keep it light and don't be boring. Censor Bruce. And don't be boring. Boredom is the worst. And Censor Bruce, which that's why I edit. Okay. Oh, my God. We are to the ball bag. Oh, that's better.
    76:36
    We got one from Andy. Hi, Andy. He says, hey, guys, love the show. Oh, I think he's Australian. Hey, guys, love the show. Family. Love the show. How to send it through. Soon for a special OC. Would you fucking buy that?
    76:51
    So he sent us a link to a for sale, a game for sale. And the game is called Fuck. And it's by Mambo. I guess it's an iconic slacker surf brand here in Australia.
    77:07
    Did you see the pictures of this thing? That's pretty scary. They rethemed something. Because if you look at the play field, you can see some of the original art.
    77:18
    And then you see the looks like a kid drew it art. Oh, my gosh. That's terrible. And the name of the game is just Fuck. fuck. So would we buy that? It's only $5,000 Australian, which is, that's how much it's worth. $23 US. $23.
    77:38
    The market's really gotten that one. I still wouldn't buy this. It looks terrible. I mean, the play field actually looks decent as far as shots. Yes. Like I might actually want to play the game, but the art actually kind of ruins it at this point. Yes, it does. I think, yeah. So, no, we would not buy that. No. Oh my goodness. Yeah, it's pretty scary how some people just think like I'm going to make this thing and it's going to be great. Oh no, it's not. Maybe they meant it as a joke. I don't know. The subject line Andy put in the email was just WTF and that pretty much says it all.
    78:16
    Then we have this is from Aaron. Hi Aaron. He sends, Bruce, you mentioned and you were looking for a stern alley. Here's one for auction. Yeah. And it's the one that he won. Yeah. And the funny thing is I had, like, five people personally message me. Yeah, Bruce actually sent me the link before I got this email. Yeah, saying, do not. Oh, do not. Do not bid on this. I have dibs. I will kill you. I know who you are. We've been hearing you back in the past, and listen. I'm trying to see. See sold price. Let's see. I can't see it. It's saying I have to sign up. No, I'm not signing up. There you go. Woo-hoo. Oh, well. What did it look? Do you see it? It's not bad. It's got some flipper gouges in the thing. It works. It's fully working. That's the good thing about it. Did you pick it up already, or you said you were picking up? I'm going to be picking up in a week or two. Yes. Where is it located? Maryland. Oh, God. Okay. Another thing is I'm not going to be there longer than 24 hours, so I don't have to, you know, two-week. Another short drive, huh? Yeah, another short drive from Bruce. To pick up a game. Good Lord. Yep. The things he does for these games is... The things I do for love. Yeah, I should say so. To talk about the rain and snow and there's nowhere to go and your feet, good part of you is dying. Now, if you listen to the karaoke we did, Bruce sounds a lot better. I'll say that. I'm just looking for the answer in your eyes. And he's saying a ton of yellow. I love yellow. That's very obvious that you love ELO. It's like, wow. I just picked up a couple more old albums. I've been listening to them, and I found some new songs I didn't even know about, and oh, my God, they're so freaking good. So if there was an ELO, Stern or Kapow did an ELO machine, you would just be? It would be first one. Like, it wouldn't matter what the pricing was Beatles-like. It was just a re-theme of something. I would sell you my AFM. Wow.
    80:19
    Wow. So now you have to make him. Please, please, Stern, make the eel. After you make the beavis the butt-eyed machine. All right. We have this email from Greg. He has some very strong opinions here. Good day, fellas. Thank you so much for getting back on the airwaves. I download every episode. You are the only pinball podcast I listen to. Wow. Thank you. Someone needs to come out and say it. I am awarding worst LCD art package ever to Stern's Jurassic Park. Wow. Well, I got to say, Stranger Things is worse. The play field is not much to look at. However, the LCD artwork is an abomination.
    80:59
    If a freshman designer submitted this as a project at an art school, he would receive an F. The art quality is poor. The screens are way too busy and inconsistent, and the styling changes often. The fact that this LCD greases a machine designed by The One is a pinball tragedy. I pray that people that worked on the LCD art never work on another of Keith or Lyman's games. Fingers crossed, Greg. I have to agree with him, but I think, honestly, I don't like Stranger Things LCD even worse.
    81:29
    That is a terrible LCD. Honestly, my biggest issue with Jurassic Park is actually not the LCD art, it's the speech.
    81:40
    Yeah. especially after his previous game, Iron Maiden. Wow. Iron Maiden? Yeah. There you go. Good point. Yeah. Good point. Iron Maiden. Yeah. Which I thought it just had the two voices. It had the guy and the woman. Yep. And that was it. And I liked that. It kind of went like an older school when you'd have, like, the narrator go through the game, and it didn't have a ton of different people doing the voices. I thought that I loved the voice work in that game. This one, it's got, like, an Australian guy, that its accent sounds like something I would do. Mm-hmm. It wasn't as good. Now, comparing it to the previous game, it wasn't as strong, I don't think. That's just my opinion. Just my opinion, too. But a strong take on Greg. He hates the LCD on Jurassic Park. The thing is, most of the time, the only time I'm at, how can I explain this? The only time I'm playing Jurassic Park, so I almost never see any of the LCD animation. I'm almost never watching anyone play Jurassic Park while I would notice them.
    82:43
    You know what I mean? Yeah. Every once in a while I'll be at someone's house and maybe we're playing and then for the first time I'm like, oh, man, I didn't even notice half the things this shows. Yeah, I know. You're not looking at it all the time. Yeah, I was like somewhere and we're playing Deadpool and I'm just watching and I'm like, oh, man, that's hilarious. I didn't even know it did that.
    83:00
    Okay. Thank you, Greg. We have an email from Daniel. Mr. Hoff Hines. I will say his last name because he sends it to us all the time. Oh, yeah. He got a stars I think he has a question Hi fellas Doing my part to keep the mail ball bag going Two things for you this time First thing can you talk a bit about Stern in my case Star's drop targets replacements? Ron briefly mentioned something about them in the last episode related to them not being great. Of course, that was right after I ordered a set from Marcos. Too late. Minor mix of Star and Bullseye targets. I know, right? I need something sorted out here. The basic thing is the new ones suck. They always have. It's something new. It doesn't matter. I don't think it even matters who you get them from. No, because they're all made from two different places, either from PBR's guy or another guy, and that's it. Both do not have the right plastic, I don't know, compound. That's what I think it is. Yeah, something like that. And I know from what they said, like even on PBR's site, and I think in other sites when you buy them, it says, like, This is not an exact – like, if you have a bank and you need to replace one, you'll need to replace the whole bank because these are wider on top, et cetera. Yeah, it's just – what can I say?
    84:23
    Your best bet is, like, eBay. Try to get – or try to find, like, someone who's maybe selling an old drop target bank that has targets in it. Or, I mean, I lucked out in some respects that I had that extra nine-ball play field because it has targets with the ball on it, but it also has the stars, star targets, which I needed on Stargazer because one busted off. The only thing I'll say, if you have to use the new targets, they're going to brick more than the originals. There's no way around that. On stars, it'll probably be less of an issue because they're way in the back of the play field. So I would think maybe it'd be less of an issue. You're going to have to replace all of them. You might want to shim them because if I remember, they're shorter, right? They are slightly shorter. When they're down, they won't be flush with the play field. And if that doesn't bother you, I mean, but you can shim up the whole back a little bit. Where the rest, where it rests. So it'll be flush with the play field. You could do that. But, I mean, it is what it is. They'll look great. The only other issue is I don't know. I think some people sell the tombstone targets now, meaning without the flat top. I think they're out there. So I don't know what kind Marco sells. I don't know either, but I just dread. That's why I try to find old stuff. Yeah. But on stars, maybe it won't be as big an issue just because they're so far back in the play field. The only thing you're worried about is them bricking. So if you don't have issues with them bricking, then you're fine. Yeah. But I'd say always be on the lookout for old targets. You can always – I've seen some people make the springs shorter so it has more of a pull, more sensitive. Yeah. Like, for example, my Quicksilver, the three bank on the right are repros, and they brick horribly. Yeah. Second thing, Bruce mentioned doing a rundown of all his work and process of getting the bar up and running. I was really looking forward to that, but figured that maybe it was pushed back when things got weird with Rona. Hopefully, it can make it into an episode at some point. We'll do that for 151. I don't even know what it got. like the prep work and everything. Okay, I'm writing that down. Remind us the next mailbag. What does he want to know about me getting the games ready or me getting the bar actually ready? That's what I want to ask the question of because there's two sides to everything. Mostly, I did the game side. My wife, at the time, I was not involved with the beginning opening stuff of getting all the suppliers and that kind of stuff. My wife was actually in between jobs, so that's what really pushed us. So she did the setup of that stuff. The games, I did all, and, you know, that kind of stuff. And I can talk about that until nauseam happens. Until nauseam happens? Yeah. All right. All right, we gots. Let's just find out what he wants to go. We'll wait for an update from him. So please email us back. Okay. Here's another one. Man, it is definitely a full ball bag.
    87:30
    You know an episode of Usain Bolt where they can't laugh? Yeah. Oh, my gosh. We should have one where I just say ball bag over and over and you have to.
    87:42
    This is from John. John from Seattle. Hi, John. He says, hello, gentlemen. One of you said you wanted a Rocky on a recent episode, or was it in jest? It was totally in jest. Yes. There's one available on an Italian container buy that is about to close for our group here in Seattle. They still do container stuff. Yeah, it's not as good pickings as it used to be. Oh, God. And they realized that the pricings were really cheap compared to now. And the euro didn't help either. Because back then, each country had different currency. So the lira was shit compared to what the euro is. Now the euro makes it a lot worse. Looks like it's 4K U.S. after shipping. Interested. This is at least the seventh container buy that we put together from this supplier in Italy, and it's legit. We usually bring it 40 to 50 games. That's a good thing. Wow. We could arrange to ship it to you. The prices have steadily increased over the last couple of years. Yes, they have, especially, as I said, with the currency change. Look, they picked up Revenge for Mars, Demoman, Judge Dredd, Lost World, Jurassic Park, World Cup Soccer, now Baywatch. Boopwatch. Oh, God. Did you see that there's also a new product we'll talk about in a few seconds after this?
    88:58
    We've been able to catch up on a webcam moving through Panama Canal, so you can watch it come in with a webcam. You can see it. Like, here's our games coming in. Here they are.
    89:10
    Keep up the great and entertaining work, and I look forward to visiting the Silver Ball Saloon someday. Stay healthy and safe. Thanks, John. Thank you, John. Well, to help John out, where is the Silver Ball Saloon again? 135 West Commercial Street in East Rochester, New York.
    89:26
    Containers. So, yes, the Rocky wasn't just. Yes, it was always. Because it's. Terrible layout. It's the John Trudeau. It's John Trudeau doing, like, I'm really going to go crazy here, and yeah. You ever see Cuber's Quest? That's another one. Yeah. Oh, boy. Okay, this one. Actually, I'm going to skip that one and go to this one first. Yeah, skip that one completely. The reason why is I don't think I'll be able to do it today. Oh, okay. That's why. So let's save that for 151, and we'll save that, too. The contest. Yes. Okay. Hey, guys. I'm finally getting time on my Stern Galaxy. Good. This is from Parnell. Hi, Parnell. Curious what you guys do for replacement screws post. This car is a visual, Bruce, so hopefully you can have this open. I saw it. Left screw I found at the hardware store. Middle screw cannot find. right post screw, can't find the exact one, but Gottlieb or Old Dad East version could be used. Thank you for any insight. I do not have a tumbler, but if I can't find replacements, I'll wash them up and reuse them. Wash them up and reuse them, big boy. One and five-eighths panheads are very hard to find. I was just looking, actually. Yeah, I pretty much just use the same screws. Yeah. I mean, unless the screw is broken, I'm not high-level restoration In a situation where I either replace screws or I put all the screws in a tumbler and stuff like that, I just reuse the same screws. Exactly. I am the same way. Remember, we're low budget here at the old Slam Tilt Podcast.
    90:58
    Low budget. If the original screw will make it play better, we're going to use that over a brand new shiny one. Yes, exactly. If there's any credo we have, that would be it. Now, I have a question for you. Oh, okay. When you did your plastics for Cheetah, And you did the melting. Melting? Oh, I did filing. Filing? Mm-hmm. You didn't melt them? No. What you're talking about is, so I got my cheetah plastic set, and then you have to get the standoffs off of the old set, which are paying the ass. I just file the top because I don't care about the plastic anymore. Yeah, exactly. What about how you're getting on the new one? You have to melt them. You just file it down. No, you file it down just enough where you can get it out, and then it'll fit right on the new one. And then the screw will keep it in place. It won't move around. I've done it on Cheetah. I did that on Firepower. I've done that on Black Knight. I've done it on a crap load of games. You don't want to misshape it or anything. You want to take enough off that you can get it off but not too much. And I've heard people complaining about now the Quicksilver plastics. Oh, no. Yeah, I know. What's wrong with them? Well, they put cardboard, like, behind them, and then the cardboard fused during the shipping. Oh. This is Merco we're talking about. Yes. Oh, God. And then they peel them off, and it seems like they look good, but they're not perfect. Oh. So people are complaining about it. Uh-oh. But I say to myself, if something is better than nothing.
    92:31
    I say to myself, my originals are still there, so. Yeah. I have most of my originals, so I'll be pretty happy, but some I do not, so I'll deal with it. Okay. And we'll finish it up. Hold on. I might need to get a drink of water here. Yes, you will. The subject line says, be careful what you wish for. Ooh, what do we wish for? For world peace and end of COVID.
    92:55
    We've been getting on the pinball princess's case about no letters. I mean, it used to be one of our trademarks. We'd always have the letter. Oh, well. And, you know, it's been how many? You think it would be easier now that we're not weekly, right? Yeah. Well, she has answered the call. And in typical Pinball Princess fashion, I am looking at a page and a half full here. So are you ready? I'm ready. Are you ready? Dear Ron and Bruce, I was cleaning up some old papers of mine. You know what we should do before? We should, before I start reading this, let's make a guess on how many times I will be confused by a word. Yeah. that she always uses at least a couple times, and I'm not sure I'm saying it right. What do you think the count's going to be?
    93:47
    32. Wait a minute. You think there's going to be 32 words, and I'm not going to have any idea what they are? Yes. Wow. Okay. So I'll write that down. 32. Man, Bruce. You're not that smart. I know. I've said that before, but I didn't think I was that bad. 32. All right. I'm going to say five.
    94:08
    Okay. So anytime I kind of stop and like, hmm, then that's going to be a hit. Ready? Yep. Dear Ron and Bruce, I was cleaning up some old papers of mine, and I found among them a few hastily scribbled notes on scraps of paper talking about something I've heard on one podcast or another. This fine jogged my memory. Hadn't the host of a certain pinball podcast recently, or not so recently, as I tend to be rather backlogged on podcasts, called me out for not writing them? Yes, we did. As I do not, as I believe Bruce implied, have an episode of Riptide monopolizing my pinball podcast time and energy at the moment, I figured there was nothing to be done but to find something I felt was a worthwhile or semi-worthwhile contribution. I began taking notes, beginning trying to catch up, and it was about that time that the podcast Rapid Fire released a series of episodes, so that it felt one step forward and two steps back. Nevertheless, I persisted in creating an awkward bullet-pointed list, streamed some notes into my phone, and finally I am here to try and slap my haphazard notes into some sort of cohesive content. I am rusty, but I shall do my best.
    95:15
    Hold on. I've got to get a breath. Before I get into anything else, kudos for, despite the reduced podcasting, you are almost at the landmark of 150 episodes. Dun, dun, dun. I recall your discussion of possible April Fool's gimmicks, including either slowing the podcast to half speed or raising it to double speed, as well as the two of you attempting to impersonate the other, effectively switching personalities. Oh, that would be awesome. Why not use one of these ideas for the 150th episode? I could see an opposite day sort of approach. Ron would shout into the microphone, taking on a, here's the first one, stentorian. Do you know what that means? Not at all. Taking on a Stentorian aspect while Bruce, in turn, meekly shies away at the merest implication of dirty language. Oh, here we go. Stentorian, by the way, is a word I learned recently. It comes from a character in the Iliad, Stentor, whose voice was said to be as powerful as 50 men. Oh, that's you. So, in other words, ancient Greek warrior Bruce. Ancient warrior Bruce. I like that. Yes, you are ancient. I don't know about warrior.
    96:27
    Opposite Day could be extended beyond the two main hosts as well. There could be guests brought into this, such as the stone-cold sober man of few words Greg, who has little to no interest in competitive pinball, and who would be hard-pressed to remember that Whopper doesn't refer to a burger. Or there could be the chipper Chatty Zach, who has an instant affinity for any pinball machine that comes his way, and who sings the praises of such landmark titles, such as Stern's Spider-Man, one of his favorites. I don't know the feasibility of any of this, but I wanted to make the suggestion or expand upon the musings made. I still think that would be good for an April Fool's episode. I'm Bruce. You're Ron. I think that might be the one. When is it? We've got to wait until next year, though. That's no big deal. We could record it now. We could. No matter how you celebrate this episode, if you celebrate it at all instead of treating it as a regular episode, I look forward to it. Any content that features the two of you seems to be a guaranteed winner. The stream a few weeks ago where Bruce came to level zero to have a karaoke off with Stu and to hang out with Ron was some of the most fun I've had in a long while. Thank you. Adjacent to the topic of the Slam Tilt's near landmark episode count, Bruce wondered at one point why people would want to listen to old episodes. The incontrovertible magic of the Clusterbux aside, I actually kind of know that word, The podcast does have the two of you discussing pinball in depth from all aspects, and it features a variety of voices from throughout the pinball community. Furthermore, how else but through listening to back episodes where listeners know such things as Bruce contradicting himself on liking certain Gottlieb? Yeah, he does that. There is data to be mined from those words to be used in comparing and contrasting the Ron and Bruce of old with the Ron and Bruce of today to generally sense the currents of pinball shifting over the years and to be employed in increasingly scientific uses, such as taking a sip of an alcoholic beverage every time Bruce yawns. But you haven't yawned yet, have you? No, I'm not, and I just woke up. Or every time Ron does an impersonation, or every time someone swears, etc. At the end game of seeing exactly how inebriated a single given episode can cause someone to become. The slam-tilt back episodes are a veritable treasure trove of information and to the very least are guaranteed to have some sort of hilarity. Breathe. I've got to breathe. Only a couple more paragraphs.
    98:51
    Moving to something that is quintessentially Slam Tilt, I do know that word, I must comment on S.T.A.R.S. being designated the official, well, no, the unofficial official game of the Slam Tilt podcast. While it is indeed a logical choice, given that it is S.T.A.R.S., and given that it has come up so frequently on and off air, there are other games that I could have seen as viable candidates for the honor. Okay. For example, the early days were filled with longing for Quicksilver. And while a Quicksilver was found relatively early in the podcast run, the saga of silver has continued as the Quicksilver has long jointly been owned by both hosts. Similarly, the quest for Dragon Fist was a storied one, with many tales told after the acquisition, such as Ron's ownership of one and a half of the machines. The same type of argument that could be made for Stargazer. And what of Cheetah? Cheetah, the game that had a podcast start, was a coveted gem tucked into the corner of such far places as the world-famous rock fantasy, and which, through plunk and luck and 24-hour drives to Arkansas, found its way into both of your collections. Remember that? Arkansas. You drove to Arkansas. Wasn't that just for the cabinet? Yes, the cabinet and the playfield. Good Lord. The stories of classic sterns are so thoroughly woven into the fabric of the podcast that it is jarring to select just one to stand above the rest, even if stars is the best. I'm not disputing the decision. I'm just lamenting that there is but one unofficial official stern and not five. Well, we could do the Mount Rushmore of slam tilt. How many is that? That's five, right? Four. There's four? I know. I thought there's five on there. Four. There's four on Mount Rushmore? Who's on Mount Rushmore? George Washington. Teddy Roosevelt, Abraham Lincoln, and Jefferson.
    100:38
    Damn. One of the classic sterns that would not be on the short list for unofficial. I'm not even sure of that.
    100:46
    But there is four. Hold on. He is making sure. He gets the Jefferson, Roosevelt, Lincoln, and Washington. Bingo. I thought it was General Zod, the woman Ursar, and then they just blew up the fourth one. Nope. Does anyone remember that at all? Superman 2. Yes. I am Zod. New before Zod. One of the classic sterns that would not be on the short list for unofficial official sterns of Slam Tilt, however, would be Sea Witch. Ron mentioned a broken Sea Witch spinner, which he found befuddling, as it was, in his words, the least hit spinner ever. I still say that. I am writing to argue this point. Oh, really? While Sea Witch's layout does not have a loop optimized for endless repeatability the way that Beatles does, and while the loop where the spinner's located is the secondary goal in the game after the drop targets, see which his spinner does get a lot of play. If you short plunge so that the ball goes out of the loop flap so that it comes down to the upper right flipper, it has to go through the spinner. Yes, but very weakly. Very weakly. Not enough to, like, break the spinner. No. And it's so tight, you're hardly going to ever hit it with any force. But she continues, this is granted a gentle contact compared to a rocket sent through the spinners on Stargazer, for instance, but it could hypothetically contribute to wear on the spinner. Nah. The spinner is also not strictly in a lane of its own. On the right side, yes, is the shooter lane, which is separated by plastic. On the other side, however, there is nothing more than a post. I very frequently have the ball roll around the post and through the spinner or come flying at it with an odd rebound off of one of the pop-upers. I've also ripped the spinner quite hard from the upper right flipper, somehow managing to use the force of the flipper to send the ball backwards, hitting the spinner at point-blank range. The geometric... Oh, I thought it was a weird word, but it's actually just geometrical. So that doesn't count. The geometrical oddities of Sea Witch causing the ball to impact the spinner at strange speeds and angles may be a factor in why the spinner, while not the most frequently sought shot, would break. I do think that this is more than a fluke, as well, because the spinner on my Sea Witch is not original. Not mine anymore, either. Mine is. Oh, you suck. I don't know the complete maintenance history of my copy, but unless the spinner was swapped out because the game was en route and the operator didn't want to jeopardize the spinner that was hard to come by, I would guess that the original spinner broke and was for want of a Sea Witch-specific replacement, instead replaced by the plain metal spinner I have today. Speaking of metal replacement spinners, we found out what the spinner on Dragonfist was. Yes. If you listen to our episodes, I frequently refer to it as the cock spinner. Yes, it is. It is a rooster or a cock, if you will. And I always wondered what game that came from. And Bruce found it. Of course it did. It took me five minutes. Did we do that on the podcast? Yes, we did. We know we did it actually on the stream. Oh, no, we did it on the stream, yes. And the thing is, my cock is backwards. Yes, it is. It's from a Toledo. What, a Williams Toledo? Like the 70s game? And there's a blue cock and a red cock. Now, on mine, the red cock is in front and the blue cock is in the back. On Toledo, it's actually on the left side. So the blue is in front and the red is in the back. Yep. Your cock is backwards. Yep. Oh, okay. So we're getting away from the rambling about sea witch. I turn to the title of episode 147, K-turn. Although I was apparently in the minority, I immediately understood that a K-turn was a three-point turn.
    104:16
    Yeah, she's from the northeast, though. The linguist in me took over after Ron's confusion, and I've done some digging. Okay, here we go. My results have been rather sparse, but short of a mention of someone maybe hearing the term in Kansas, the only thing I found that K-turn is used explicitly in is in the current New Jersey driver's manual, which proves I'm right, that no one knows about other than you. Yes, Mr. New Jersey. It would make sense that the term, if starting there, would bleed over into the New York metropolitan area but not go much beyond that. Exactly. So in sum, my crappy research agrees with the idea that it is a regional thing, like I said, just as standing online for standing in a queue of people is a regionalism of the area. Standing online, that's still weird. It is. I agree. That's semi-digression done. I see my word count has gotten quite robust, so I shall spare the remainder of Ron's voice. Hope to see you guys soon or eventually because this fucking pandemic. Player 31915. P.S. Submitting request for thoughts on Action Park book from Bruce. Bonus for stories. I still have trouble believing this place was real from what I've heard. I mean a perfectly circular loop-the-loop water slide. Yep. I'll have to get into that. I'm almost done with the book. Is it accurate? You were checking it. It's okay. It's not as far course it needs to be. They've really overblown a couple things. Oh, they've overblown a couple things. Yeah. It's like when guys say they have a big ying-yang and they don't, you know. Hey, you know. What the fuck?
    105:53
    Okay. So I think there was one word. There was one word ahead of me. Yeah. So I win. It was a blessing for you. I win. All right. Are we going to wrap up this? Picking a poke? We're going to wrap up this bitch. Do you have any cool eBay ads? You know, that segment that Zach's off? It's way overpriced, and I don't want to give any fodder to Zach, you know. Oh, come on. We could bust on stuff. No, nothing so far. Oh, well. Worm, worm. So, we are the Slam Tilt Podcast. This has been episode 149. Thank you to all our listeners. Thank you to Zach. Final bonus, hello. And all the other people.
    106:34
    Jeff, Deolace, and Marty, and Ryan, Julie. The entire pinball world. Pinball princess. The pins. Hi, Crystal. Hi, everybody. And we should really make a list and just go through it like at the end of every episode. I see Johnny and Billy.
    106:51
    We can be reached at slamtillpodcasts at gmail.com. Be sure to check out our website. I know I always say that, but it is the easiest way to get to all our links because they're all right there and they should all work. I check them occasionally. That's slamtillpodcasts.com because, you know, I got the domain name. I'm like certain people with certain pinball networks. Oh, God, I'm going to get booted off now. It's been nice. It's been a good career for you. Your six episodes are going to be a world champ. Our episodes are awesome. Again, Pinball Network, Silver Ball Chronicles. That's incorrect.
    107:30
    Shut up. Tune in to our latest episode, Steve Ritchie, The Mullet Ears, where we go over probably his best games, his best period. Lately, this game has sucked. Oh, I didn't say that. I did. Oh, wow. That's why you're not on Silver Ball Chronicles, and I am. Because I actually have an opinion. Oh. And mine's usually right. I enjoy doing that episode because, you know, Steve's my guy, so. Back then, he was a great guy. He was actually the king. He was the king. Okay, so if he's not the king, who's the king now then, Bruce? Who's the new king? Keith, the one. I'd have to say, yeah. I'd have to say, yeah, too. Yeah, he pretty much is the one. I can't wait for game number three because I know it's going to have a spinner.
    108:17
    Okay, Keith, if you're listening, which I don't know if you do, but Timmy, if you're listening, or if anyone is listening, will you please, please, with the spinner that you're definitely going to have in your game because you said you'd never make a game without a spinner, Keith, please use a regular spinner, meaning like the full size, not the little skinny ones. No, the little skinny ones. The little skinny ones just don't spin as good. I know you want to fit all these shots, but I'm just saying, I mean, Is Star Trek the last one that has a regular spinner? I think so. And by regular spinner, I mean regular size. Because imagine I want to see one of those spinners as an opto-spinner. Oh, yeah. Oh, my God. Oh, yeah. Because even the Beatles, they have the opto-spinners, but when they have the little skinny spinners, they're never going to spin as good. Make it so, Keith. That's my only request, just a regular spinner. Even though the play-file is probably already made, but whatever. Fit it in. Oh, my. Okay. Thanks, everyone. Say goodbye, Bruce. Goodbye, Missy.
    109:39
    Oh my I did have one quick news item because I figured I'd follow up on this because we brought this up before. Remember a few episodes ago where I said Sternstein... Let me try that again. Okay, try it again. No. Fuck.
    110:34
    Good. That'll be a good one for the fucking... Okay. Let's try it again. Say goodbye, Bruce. Goodbye, Missy.
    110:45
    Missy? Who's Missy? My dog. Oh. We didn't have no likes this week. Oh, so screw that. He's right next to me. Oh, my, my. All right.