Hey guys, welcome back to the flip side. This is actually a pre-recorded episode one that I did not have a chance to upload. So you're kind of going back in time a little bit here. This is all about how I got into pinball. So enjoy it. And I appreciate the support of the podcast. This right here is episode one. But the plan on here for the first episode is to talk about how the heck did I get into pinball? Because it seems to be everything I've been talking about lately, but there's a reason for that. So let's go back in time and talk about what event took place that got me into pinball. Well, I will tell you exactly what event it was. It was the first year back from COVID for Pinball Expo, where the featured game was Godzilla. so my buddy Jeff Arcade Hollywood if you don't know him go check him out on YouTube he's got a great channel focused on arcade gaming and pinball he's been running or help running pinball expo for a really long time so one year he came to me and said Ralph I think that you'd have an awesome time if you hung out at pinball expo with us and honestly I was not that excited because to me pinball was like this old thing that had never really evolved much and you just didn't have interest in it in general. Now, that was my take on it, but obviously I was very uneducated because had I known that pinball had been around for so long, maybe I would have got into it earlier. But anyway, so we get to the show and I'm more excited about the fact that we are in Chicago and Galloping Ghost is out here. And I knew that Jeff had that on his agenda of things he wanted to do. So I was like, well, I'm going to tag along for that. And that's what I was most excited about. Well, or at least that's what I thought at the time. So when we got there, you know, it was a very overwhelming scene because if you've never gone to a pinball expo, this year will be my fourth time going for the 40th anniversary. But I'll say the event is such a hardcore pinball fan event. When I first went, I was so overwhelmed because it was all things pinball. And these people that were there were just infectious with energy and everything. I'm telling you, like, it was a show dedicated for the love and passion of pinball. Everything was being celebrated. The artists, the designers, the people that did sound work, everything. Anything that goes into a pinball machine was all celebrated at this show. And that was really cool to me because, you know, arcade gaming, I remember, I'll tell you a little story real quick. I met Paul E. Niemeyer and I actually got a chance to host two of his panels one time. One time at Southern Fried Gaming Expo and I think the second time was at Game On Expo. So when I was hosting his panel, he was talking about how, you know, as an artist himself, when he worked for Bally Midway, how they got caught putting their signature in the artwork. And his boss came over and rallied them all together and was like, hey, guys, look, I got to tell you. He was like a serious conversation. He's like, guys, I hate to say this, but you know that that I want your signature in the artwork. Right. And like, yeah, he's like, well, we can't do it. And he goes, but what I want you to do is I want you to hide it and get creative because you guys still deserve the credit. You're creating this awesome artwork. Screw these guys. Hide it in there. Right. So so it was fun. But but but how sad that these guys were the guys that were creating the artwork that the thing that drew you to the cabinet. Right. The marquee, the side art, the control panel artwork. So anyway, so that's why I appreciated the presence, the sheer presence of all of these people and that their sole purpose was to be there to celebrate pinball. I had never been to a show with this much passion. I guess you could say maybe ZapCon in Arizona, which is a good celebration of arcade and pinball. But this was the only one I had ever been to where the manufacturers were being celebrated, the artists, everyone, everyone around it. And then there was pinball tournaments. It was just from coming from the world of arcade gaming into this, it was super overwhelming for me. And I honestly felt like a fish out of water at first. But everyone there was very welcoming. There was no, at least in my experience that first year there, there was no egos or anything. It was just, hey, welcome to the club. Welcome to the party. Let's have fun. And a lot of times when I was on a machine, if I was having a problem or not playing right or whatever, like someone would help me out. So it was cool. But what I guess I immediately realized when I stepped on the first game, which was Godzilla, was a Godzilla premium. I was like, holy crap, this is so cool. Like it was like modern and retro had had like collided because there was, you know, this LCD in the back, which which had a lot of like gameplay elements and some interactive stuff. And then just the play field itself had so many mechs and toys and really cool shots. And it just it was it was amazing to me. But I just want to say, it's not like I hadn't played pinball before. I'll tell you a quick story. We were visiting my sister in college when I was a kid I was probably like a young teenager I think probably Maybe I was like 12 or 13 I trying to think My sister was I not good at math Well anyways let just say I was 13 I don remember Wait I don know Okay whatever Carry the two I don know Carry the one. I don't know what I'm talking about. All right, all right. Let's get back on track. So we take this crappy van. My parents rent this crappy van. My grandparents pile in. We're all piling into this crappy van going up to New York to see my sister at Syracuse. And of course, I'm bored out of my mind. I'm like, what the heck am I going to do here? And my sister's like, hey, check out the break room. There's a pinball machine and some arcade games. I don't think there really was arcade games. I'm pretty sure it was just one pinball machine. And that pinball machine was Terminator 2. So that was kind of in my teenage years, my only real time I played pinball probably, at least if there were any other ones, I really don't remember them and they weren't memorable. But that one was because I spent a lot of time on that pinball machine. I remember looking at the handle that you launch the ball with. I was like, this is just an epic machine. So anyways, but then of course I go home and my local arcade, which was the Dream Machine in Lincoln, Rhode Island, at least to my knowledge, I do not remember. And I spent a lot of time in that arcade. I do not remember pinball machines ever being in there. Maybe they were in there at some point in the 80s, but I do not remember them. It had like Skee-Ball and Some Redemption and a ton of arcade games. Street Fighter 2 was hot, but I remember in the earlier days, like OutRun and After Burner and that kind of stuff. So lots of cool games. But getting back to Expo, when I was there, I was like blown away. Like, man, what the heck have I been missing out on? And then, you know, as I attended a couple of panels and I'm learning about, all right, there's, you know, I'm trying to learn the landscape. I'm like, all right, there's Stern, there's Jersey Jack, there's some company named Spooky. There's a Chicago gaming company. So I'm like learning all the players. But it was very apparent to me that the two biggest manufacturers in pinball was Stern and Jersey Jack. And those machines looked polished and really professional. And I played a bunch of those while I was there. And I couldn't help but realize, wow, there's so much hype and excitement about around pinball. And it's because there was always new machines coming out, right? And in the arcade space, I've been playing the same arcade games since the 80s. You know what I mean? Like, as soon as I was able to go to an arcade, my grandfather took me. So it would have been sometime in the 80s, right? So I remember, like, you know, the far back games that I remember playing were the older ones. Like, even though every arcade usually had a random Pac-Man or Ms. Pac-Man, I remember Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Galaga, Road Blasters. Like, I remember all these games. But the thing is, there's no new games, right? I mean, there are new games. There are obviously manufacturers still making them like Rothrill, Sega Amusements, LAI Games. There are games being made, Unus. These companies exist. But these games are very different from the games we remember. So, you know, after all this time, it's not like I'm abandoning arcade gaming. I love it. I love arcade games still. It's just that this changed my trajectory. I was like, what is this alternate universe that I don't know about that has all these awesome games that are continuing to come out with IPs that are crazy? Like they had Marvel and you look like, look, I'll give you like the landscape now, right? You got Chicago Gaming Company has Pulp Fiction. I mean, who doesn't love Pulp Fiction? You got Dutch Pinball with the Big Lebowski and then rumored, not rumored, pretty much confirmed that Back to the Future is Dutch Pinball's next game. You got Jersey Jack with Elton John, right? And it's like the list goes on and on. And then you got them with with Guns and Roses. Like there's tons of games out there. You have Stern doing games like Venom, Avengers. you know there's like all these IPs that we love Stranger Things that's one more story I'm gonna veer the timeline just for a second there was one instance before my experience at Pinball Expo where I got reintroduced into pinball and it was at CES 2019 I was there and they were featuring Stranger Things and I do remember wandering off the beaten path at CES and there was this weird area that was like it almost looked like a pole like a pole that they had surrounded with arcade games are not arcade games sorry pinball machines in a circle it was a bunch of stern machines and and stranger things was the highlight i remember the girl came up to me because she saw my saw my camera and it said content creator on my badge and she goes hey would you like to interview gary stern and then she gave me like a a link that was to a spec sheet on the pricing and i remember looking at the pricing and it was like 5500 for a pro or something like that and i was like oh gosh this is not gonna be a hobby i'm gonna get into right like because for me a lot of my arcade gaming was buying crappy machines and fixing them up or or like maim and stuff like that like stuff that didn't cost me a lot of money to enjoy these games so for someone to say 5500 I was like whoa hold the you know stop the clock like this ain't this isn't for me right but you know little did I know fast forward but at the time I just definitely thrown off and and also at that time I was kind of dabbling in virtual pinball so I did this terrible interview with Gary Stern I was like what do you think about virtual pinball, Gary. And he's just like, who is this guy? Who is this guy you brought over? Hey, hey security like get this guy out of here Why is he asking me about virtual pinball I was like oh what do you think about Farsight Studios Gary and he like what he like shut up shut up kit no he was very very nice to me uh but uh he quickly changed the topic to like why is this guy asking me about virtual pinball we launching this amazing stranger things game that that that that you know and i did play it there and i was blown away by this demogorgon and the the ramp that came down and i'm like oh my gosh i can shoot the ball in the thing's mouth it was it was absolutely insane and i think they had like a limited edition there because I was shocked at like the sound system and the shaker motor. It was all just awesome. But I kind of forgot about that too, because I was living in my fanny, my fanny, I was living in my arcade, you know, little bubble, right? So I was, so it wasn't till pinball expo and Jeff brought me that I really truly was introduced into the pinball machine hobby. And then, um, you know, I was, I remember another time while I was there, we were having dinner it was like me todd tucky uh it was jeff uh it was Matt Frank from tnt amusements princess jillian a whole bunch of other people i don't remember all everyone that was there but uh they all were like hey you know it's really cool what you're doing on your youtube channel with all your arcade stuff but you know where this leads right you know where it's headed and i was like what do you mean he's like you're gonna buy pinball machines your pinball your arcade collection is gonna dwindle and dwindle and dwindle and you're gonna sell those things to fund your arcade your your new hobby, which is going to be pinball. And I was like, nah, nah, nah, too expensive, whatever. So sure enough, fast forward, I get home, can't stop thinking about it. I'm like, man, that Zilla game, man, I played Jurassic Park. That game was so cool. Like I got to buy a pinball machine. I want one. So I ended up, um, for my first machine, I like, it was hard to get a Jurassic Park at this time too. I overpaid for it. I found a company out of Vegas. I can't remember the name of it that had one. And it was like, to me, it was all foreign, right? I didn't do any mods like I've done now I didn't know how to work on a pinball machine like I was green as can be and I bought it and it said like shaker motor pre-installed and to me at the time I was like oh man it comes with a shaker motor like I don't know that must be real hard to install sure enough it's like the easiest thing in the world to install super easy but but I get it I get it and I love it like oh man and you know in my mind I was just gonna have this pinball machine and my arcade games would just be around it and it would be like complimentary in my game room well fast forward to today and this is what the current lineup looks like I got a Godzilla premium I have a Venom premium I've got a James Bond pro and I have a John Wick LE on order which should be here really shortly now between that time I also owned the Jurassic Park I got rid of that and I had also owned a stranger actually I owned a stranger things pro and premium so I've had it I've had like a couple of games coming in and out of my collection and then now I'm also part of this Stern, I don't know, there is no official name for it, but this Stern loaner program through my local distributor, Game Room Goodies. And so I've been able to, but the funny thing is, is I will tell you, this program has really benefited Stern and Game Room Goodies way more than it has anyone else because, well, I mean, I bought, all right, they sent me Venom. I fell in love with it. I bought it. They sent me James Bond, fell in love with it, bought it. James Bond's great. And so So anyway, so I'm really like, I've really turned into over the years, this organic thing that has occurred is that I have become someone that really has a deep appreciation for pinball and I'm having so much fun with it. It's probably one of the things I play the most. And I would urge you, if you're not in this hobby, you don't need to buy one to enjoy it. That's what's great. You can go to pinball map, look up anywhere in your local area and probably find an arcade bar or something nearby where they have pinball machines. That's what's the beauty of this app is that, and there's a website too, the beauty of this app is you can pretty much be anywhere as long as you're in like some kind of or around some kind of metropolitan city area somewhere and find multiple places around you, you probably didn't even know that they have pinball machines. And then, you know, that first year I was there, I don't know if Insider Connected was quite launched. Maybe it was. Maybe that was the first year it was kind of like taking hold because I don't even think the version one Stranger Things had a Insider Connected, I don't think. I can't remember. I know my pro did that I ordered, but I think the first model didn't have it. So it was like on the cusp of that. So you have that, that adds a whole new gameplay element. But I just, I really can't help but feel like the thing that's really gonna take hold, sure, arcade games are gonna live on in the form that they're in. And there's tons of destination locations you can go to like Past Times or Galloping Ghost, places like that where you can go with and have these massive collections that you get to explore and experience all these old games but i feel like the thing that's really spearheading the arcade scene or the arcade bar scene is really pinball there's tournaments there's the stern army there's there's so much there's so much going on there was recently a huge pinball i can't remember the official pinball ifpa or i don't know i don't know what it's called but um i actually have i I did play in one tournament. I looked back in 2019 and it was terrible. I haven't played in one since. So I'm excited to maybe, even though I'm not the greatest pinball player, I have been getting better over time. And I think that what exciting about pinball As you play you get better You learn from friends or you learn from people that are better than you and um you know before it was more about me going up to a machine and kind of casually playing it and not really understanding that these games have deep rule sets and things like that and now i'm starting to explore that deeper i got my buddy ryan who i met at pinball expo who's who's really in tune with all the rules of these pinball games and i learn a lot from him like he'll jump on the phone with me and teach me how to play a game and you'd be surprised just with a little bit of a little bit of coaching. And now all of a sudden, you're like, Oh, I can nudge the ball or Oh, I can kind of like change the trajectory of this ball. Now. I can save the ball. Oh my gosh, it's about to drain on the in an out lane, I can kind of give it a little shake and kind of get it to bounce off the post and back in play. So it's really fun. It's just there's something about it. It's the it's this we live in this man, we live in this digital world. And I think any of you guys that are just like looking for something to do, that's fun that you can go out of your house and socialize with other people that are nerdy and geeky like all of us this there isn't a better hobby right now because there's there's all around the country and the world for that matter there's groups of people that congregate at tournaments or at these arcade bars to enjoy this hobby and this sport and the cool thing is is um i'm gonna make do a little shameless plug right here for for my buddy bob rose the producer of token taverns his movie uh which i have a small role in which which is pretty cool. So thank you, Bob, for that. It was a good time. And actually, I just left SoCal Gaming Expo with him, and we were promoting the movie there. We've been on a little bit of a roadshow. I didn't go to all the events, but we've been really promoting that movie. And in that movie, pinball plays a huge role because these pinball bars or these arcade bars that opened, a lot of it is centric. The central hub of the place is really centralized around pinball. so so there's just i just i can't urge you enough if you're listening to this and you're one of my fans that enjoys arcade games and you just you're like i'm not really interested give it a chance there's so many cool ips out there to enjoy it doesn't matter what doesn't matter what manufacturer you you go after like just just look at the games and look at the titles and look at the themes and see which ones speak to you and try it play those games because in the beginning it was more about the theme like the theme was what drew me in now I can appreciate a game that let's say like a lot of time when you first start in the hobby you you have this notion that like a pro is a piece of crap I'm just using Stern's nomenclature for a second but like a pro is crappy and a premium and an le are better and it's like I have the James Bond pro and I can't now that I really appreciate playing it I can tell when a game at least for me you know I'm I'm nowhere near like a lot of people that have been in this hobby for decades, but like I can appreciate the game because it's a good playing game. And you don't always need all the mechs and toys and all these things to say it's a good game. I think the people that enjoy pinball will enjoy pinball because it's a good layout. It's a fun game. It shoots well. It has good flow to it. Like you'll start to appreciate those things as you spend more time in the hobby. Well, anyways, guys, I don't want to keep this too long. This is going to be my episode one, and it's really about how I got into pinball. It's been a three-year journey so far. I am loving it, and I know whenever I bring up something else that I love, someone always thinks you're abandoning something else. I'm not abandoning arcade games. Have I slowed down? Absolutely. And am I focusing more on pinball? Yes. And I'm having a great time because I'm playing more. You know, my arcade collection, a lot of times I'm spending time fixing it and not a lot of time playing because right now if i went into my garage right now and fired up all those machines there's a pretty good chance something's gonna break and you know what you're going in there to you're going in there to play a game and when something breaks you know what happens it's the first thing you want to address i gotta address this broken game and sometimes the amount of time you have is just enough time to fix it and then you're back inside and you got you because we all are adults and we have obligations and things to do so sometimes that can get old right and um so i go in and out of it i sometimes spend time with my arcade games but for the most part these days i've been spending a lot of time playing and enjoying pinball and i'm super happy with that so hopefully you guys enjoyed this we will we will dive deeper into this topic i'll probably talk about some topical news stuff from time to time although i am not a news guy so you're not going to come here for late breaking news but if you want my i my thoughts about news items that happen around pinball or arcade gaming that will undoubtedly be here on this podcast. So thanks so much for taking the time to hang out with me for this about 20 minutes or so. I appreciate every single one of you. I hope you will come back for the next episode. Let me know in the comments section what you think, and we will see you on the next one. We'll see you next time.