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Tribe Multiball with Rachel and Tim, Episode 28: The Payne-ful Game Show Host

Poor Man's Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·analyzed·May 29, 2022
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.029

TL;DR

Tribe Multiball interviews Andrew Payne on his pinball journey while Rachel and Tim recap recent tournament wins.

Summary

Episode 28 of Tee'd Off Tribe Multiball (Poor Man's Pinball Podcast Network) features hosts Tim Dan Lee and Rachel Risto interviewing Andrew Payne (Tribe Member #29), a 40-year-old pinball enthusiast from North Carolina. The episode covers Rachel's successful Ladies Flip Wisconsin tournament at District 82 (won by Becky Meyer), Tim's strong tournament performance including beating Scared Stiff, and Andrew's origin story—from childhood arcade experiences through virtual pinball to physical machine ownership, including his memorable induction into the Poor Man's Pinball Tribe in May 2020 with an infamous gag gift.

Key Claims

  • Ladies Flip Wisconsin at District 82 had 33 women competing, including #1 woman overall Cassidy and #1 women's division Jane

    high confidence · Rachel describing the tournament she organized

  • Becky Meyer won Ladies Flip Wisconsin tournament, earning her first first-place finish; she is ranked 14th woman in the world

    high confidence · Rachel providing tournament results and rankings

  • Tim finished second in a recent 8-round match play tournament with 10 competitors, where 10 of the top 11 players participated

    high confidence · Tim describing his recent tournament performance

  • Tim beat Scared Stiff and achieved the Golden Cue on one ball by hitting every shot in 10 consecutive combos without missing

    high confidence · Tim recounting his Scared Stiff accomplishment

  • Andrew Payne purchased his first physical pinball machine after moving to a house compatible with ownership, having previously only played virtual/digital pinball

    medium confidence · Andrew's origin story; specific game and timing not stated in excerpt

  • Andrew was inducted into Poor Man's Pinball Tribe as member #29 in May 2020 after emailing a formal application referencing Larry (Indie Pin) as his pinball mentor

    high confidence · Andrew describing his tribe induction process and timing

  • Andrew has been home brewing beer for 10 years and has won ribbons at state fairs for IPA and sour styles

    high confidence · Andrew discussing his beer brewing hobby

  • Andrew's anticipated pinball titles in May 2020 were Guns N' Roses (Elite) and Rick and Morty, neither of which he has played

    high confidence · Andrew reciting his tribe application content as a time capsule

Notable Quotes

  • “She gives too much information about me. I can't wait.”

    Tim Dan Lee @ early segment — Humorous deflection regarding his wife being on the podcast; establishes comedic tone

  • “Women's pinball just has a whole different vibe to it. It's nothing but laughter, the bells and chimes of the music, and women cheering each other on.”

    Rachel Risto @ tournament recap — Captures Rachel's philosophy on women's pinball community and why she values organizing these events

  • “I'm gonna go play my game. I'm not gonna worry about theirs. Take that out of your competitive play.”

    Rachel Risto @ Tim's mindset discussion — Mentorship moment—Rachel coaching Tim on competitive mental approach

  • “This guy's crazy. He's invested this much... But then you start to understand. I already knew that I liked pinball, but I thought I could never own a game in my home.”

    Andrew Payne @ Larry origin story — Pivotal realization in Andrew's journey from thinking pinball ownership impossible to pursuing it

  • “It's not as rich in pinball knowledge, but it's really damn fun. I find myself laughing more than I do at anyone else.”

    Andrew Payne @ podcast discovery — Why Andrew chose Poor Man's Pinball Podcast; values entertainment over pure technical knowledge

  • “I basically brew it fairly clean. And then at the end, you dump a bunch of hops in there. That's how you really get a great outcome. Very fresh and hoppy.”

    Andrew Payne @ beer brewing discussion — Andrew's beer philosophy; parallels to pinball as both community hobbies with similar social structures

  • “That is the most infamous gift in Poor Man's history. It literally came up for the next 20 episodes.”

    Rachel Risto @ tribe induction story — The 'dick weight' gag gift became legendary within Poor Man's community lore

  • “Papa Duke good.”

Entities

Rachel RistopersonTim Dan LeepersonAndrew PaynepersonBecky MeyerpersonCassidypersonJanepersonLarry (Indie Pin)personRebecca HinsdalepersonTish EdwardspersonBeth Trofka

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Ladies Flip Wisconsin tournament demonstrates strong women's pinball community building with 33 competitors, inclusive family participation, and emphasis on supportive atmosphere rather than just competitive results

    high · Rachel's detailed tournament recap emphasizing 'nothing but laughter' and 'women cheering each other on' as distinct from general competitive pinball

  • ?

    event_signal: Regional pinball location infrastructure (Louisville Rec Bar, District 82, Super Avari Pinball Arcade in Charlotte) supporting player development and tournament activity

    medium · Andrew's location play history at Rec Bar; Rachel's tournament at District 82; Andrew noting new location opening in Charlotte area

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Poor Man's Pinball Podcast maintains strong tribal loyalty with Tribe Member induction process and sustained community engagement even years after Andrew's May 2020 induction

    high · Andrew's detailed recollection of tribe application process; lasting impact of his gag gift becoming legendary within community history

  • ?

    community_signal: District 82 in Stevens Point, Wisconsin is positioned as a healthy pinball hub with regular league play (Tilting Tuesday), major women's tournaments, and out-of-state player participation

    high · Multiple references to District 82 events, tournaments, and well-maintained machines; Rachel's comment about learning from visiting players

  • ?

    community_signal: Fox Cities Pinball providing streaming infrastructure for women's tournament (Ladies Flip Wisconsin on Twitch), enabling broader community engagement and remote viewership

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.254

0:00
Hey, Poor Man Tribe and listeners, this is Glennie Rogers, and you're listening to the Tribe Multiple Podcast with Rachel and Tim. Poor Man Tribe's the thing, that is who we are. It is true. They're not in this thing, so how could it go wrong? Flip away with us, to an old blockade, and then we'll learn about each other. From two pennants to another Rachel and Tim, who do we have on the show today?
0:40
Hello everyone and welcome to Tribe Multiball. Tribe Multiball is a podcast on the Poor Man's Pinball Podcast Network where we get to know a little bit more about the members of the tribe. I'm Tim Lee and I'm here with my co-host Rachel Risto. And we're here to bring you episode 28, Rachel. Number 28. Wow. What are we doing, Tim? Yeah, you've made it this far with me. Yeah, I guess. Amy Lee, she would be proud. I know she's proud of me. Yeah, she'd have made it two episodes.
1:15
Speaking of which, when are we going to have her on Tribe Multiball? Never. Never? She gives too much information about me. I can't wait. I asked her recently when we were going to have her on, and the response was never, and I can't wait to do that. So maybe she'll be one of our next guests. Yeah, she'll come on. So what do you got going on this week? This week, well, I will be playing Tilting Tuesday at District 82, which is really everybody there that plays it, we just call it League because that's what it was for a long period of time. So that will be fun, and that's a seven-round match play, and then it'll be a single game side tournament. And then I kind of slow down. I'm slowing down with my pinball stuff over the summer. I know that I'm going to go out to Wizards World. I might go see another tribe member this summer and show up at his house for a tournament in August. We'll see if that all turns out right. I'm very excited about that. I'm not sure if I can, like, announce that or not, but we'll give you a little teaser about that. and I just finished Ladies Flip Wisconsin at District 82 which was my biggest women's pinball tournament of the year. Nice how did that go? It was crazy it was a great day I had 33 women that came to play the two number one women in the world that were there to play Cassidy who was the number one woman overall and Jane who was the number one women's division overall as well and there's actually shared a really cool photo in the i think it's a pinball enthusiast uh facebook group a picture of the two number one lemmings i just thought that was really rad to have both of them there playing yeah sure is it was a really fun day it was proudly sponsored by pinballprices.com friends everybody stop what you're doing put the pause cast on pause i want you to go to pinballprices.com look up what the recent pinball machines you purchased look to see what it's floating there out for the market and maybe you'll put it out there and you can keep chasing your grail game i don't know but i want to say so many thanks to my pal ted i really appreciate it i did share a video a thank you video from all the ladies in the poor man's pinball podcast fan page of all the ladies saying thank you ted uh we had to take two takes on that because the first one i just took a picture instead of any record the day was amazing there were i believe seven women seven or eight women that came from Ohio to play a couple several ladies from Illinois my new favorite silver ball sister Jen came out from Minnesota of course the women in Wisconsin represented it was a very fun day it was 13 rounds was the main event I think we've talked a little bit I'll tell you who the winners were first and then I'll tell you about how I played in that in that tournament it came down to uh number four was Beth Trofka I want to talk just a moment about Beth because her and her husband are the main scorekeepers at District 82. She feels like she's playing incredible and she thinks it's just the bubble's going to burst. But I don't think that. I don't think that at all. It was great because that day she didn't scorekeep. She just played. Her daughter was there that day. Courtney, I haven't seen her in forever. It was great to have her to come out and play. And then Cassidy took third. And then Holly Koskinen from Columbus, Ohio and District 82's own Becky Meyer tied in first. and they played off on Jungle Lord and Becky took it all. And that was Becky's first time taking a first place for any type of tournament. She's ranked just a little bit ahead of me right now at 14th woman in the world. She's an incredible player. So that was a really big win for her. Well, congratulations, Becky. Yeah. Awesome. And thanks to all the ladies that came out to play. There was also a side tournament on Dolly, which that was the entry game to play the top eight high scores then played off in a secondary tournament and that was played by rebecca hinsdale jane eileen bino ronda wamsley lisa arthur tish edwards our own very own tribe member and stevenson i want to say just a couple things about that it's cool to see the hot nudge girls up there and they're playing dolly and then eileen bino i want to say a little thing about her her family i've met she lives in minnesota she also came to play which is amazing to have a woman come play her family is a pinball family both her mom and dad play at district 82 and her brother plays down in milwaukee so it's so cool to to meet yet another family member and the other sister and the nephew they all play at district 82 anyways that's just so cool to like yeah meeting like more pinball families as well that play nice one of the things i love about pinball is it is a family thing um thinking about the wonka game we'll get to that a little bit later and how much I love that game and I think that's such a great family theme even though it's a difficult game so nice how it's something that pinball can bring families together I do want to mention just as a side note it was a fantastic day but as a side note I do want to talk about how I actually played and I think we've talked a little bit before about on tournament days that I play I the only games that I play are the games that I play in the tournament right we've talked about that so this was 13 rounds plus the game of dolly i played 14 games of pinball plus one really crappy really really crappy warm-up before anybody got there on magic it was like a two house balls it was like 30 000 points it was really sad anyways i played so hot all day tim i let the pack all day it finally came down to about five women that if they would have taken first place in their last game they would have taken first place in the entire tournament so for me it came down to playing jackpot and i and it was on stream and everybody should go check out fox city's pinball on twitch go like tom graff uh go check out triple drain and all his stuff he's the greatest dude ever i do yeah he's fantastic he's changed the whole thing you can go see me totally part of my french but i shit the bed on jackpot and if i would have actually won that, I would have taken the whole tournament. But at the same time, I was so, so excited for my friend Becky to win because I knew it was so big to her. And what was funny is that as excited as she was about winning, she would really wish that I would have won. And we played against each other in that final round. I think the final thing I want to say about Ladies Flip, and I'm going to take a little break from running tournaments until fall. Like I said, it's almost summer here in Wisconsin. It's the best time of year. Lots of things I want to go do outside. One of the reasons why I like running my tournament series is because women, when I was there, that whole day, there was nothing but laughter, the bells and chimes of the music, and women cheering each other on. It was, that was a great ball, or literally people cheering and clapping and getting excited about how they are playing or their friends are playing and so forth. and I'm not saying that that doesn't happen in all competitive pinball but it's just women's pinball just has a whole different vibe to it and I really need to take next time I host one there because it's a great setting with all the background bells and chimes noises I need to take some audio of that but it's just something about that Tish I was able to spend a little bit of time with her part of an evening with her uh that Saturday night after everything was done of course we went to a place that pinball and axe throwing Tim Lumberjack Lumberjack Johnny's in Green Bay, Wisconsin. New place, a place with really nice pins owned by some friends. They have that place. It's so nice. But I got to hang out with her, and it was so nice just having one-on-one with her, talking about tournament stuff, life stuff, nothing and everything.

Multiple speakers @ throughout episode — Recurring catchphrase used multiple times; suggests inside joke or community expression

person
Holly Koskinenperson
Eileen Binoperson
Ladies Flip Wisconsinevent
District 82organization
Tee'd Offorganization
Poor Man's Pinball Podcastorganization
Fox Cities Pinballorganization
Rec Barorganization
Super Avari Pinball Arcadeorganization
Lumberjack Johnny Pinballorganization
Scared Stiffgame
The Jungle Lordgame
Jackpotgame
Medieval Madnessgame

high · Rachel explicitly directing listeners to Fox Cities Pinball Twitch; Tom Graff running streaming service; mentioned throughout as valued community resource

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Tim's tournament performance shows high-level field competition where 10 of top 11 players attended; competitive depth has increased significantly in recent years

    high · Tim noting that in recent tournament, all remaining competitors were equally skilled or better; no 'beginner level' players present anymore

  • $

    market_signal: Virtual/digital pinball (VPX, Pinball Arcade, MAME) serving as effective gateway for converting casual gamers to pinball enthusiasts who eventually invest in physical machines

    medium · Andrew's progression from discovering VPX on MAME to digital Pinball Arcade games to eventual physical machine ownership after meeting Larry

  • ?

    technology_signal: MAME and VPX/Pinball Arcade platforms enabling low-cost entry point for potential pinball collectors before physical machine investment

    medium · Andrew building MAME machine for $200 (pre-lumber price spike) and adding VPX software; described as first stage before discovering physical machines

    • 9:05
    Again, seals the deal that she's like my favorite pinball lady of all time. Any questions, Tim? That was a lot coming at you. But it was just a really, really great weekend. I played in a three strike the night before and I played real hot in that too so I feel like I'm on fire but who cares we love Tish by the way I've met her a few times now so Tim Lee oh there's one more thing Tim I'm all over the board today friends one more thing I did sell my Lost World my friend Daryl's been pin sitting it for me for a little bit and guess what he ended up buying it so that's a little chunk of change in my pocket but i'm hoping you use that and not invest another pinball machine but keep investing that towards my reach against the machine coming to you soon on twitch i don't know we'll see but i'd really want to put that towards uh you know working on my streaming stuff sure i can't wait that's it tim that's all i got i love you man how have you been tell me what's going on with you well not a whole lot is going on here i had this like three or four episode streak where i was doing a lot but honestly i didn't play a whole lot of pinball i did play in one tournament we usually get about 20 to 25 people and only 10 showed up but the interesting thing about that is 10 out of the top 11 showed up so every game somebody was as good as me or better you know there was no like easy game that i i thought I could get through and there's two guys who are better than me the rest are we're about equal so anybody can win on any day but I felt like I played well I know I played one of each of those guys in every round but one so every round I had somebody better than me in the in the game and honestly two other people that were just as good as me it was an eight round match play so that was interesting i finished second i played really well that's great that's great what's this they're better than me mindset what's that yeah i don't know well they're better than me for sure you take that out of your competitive play i never think about that when i go up to play a game i might know if person's been playing pinball longer than i have and they may be skilled but you know what it's my game i'm gonna go play my game i'm not gonna worry about theirs yeah Wally and Joe, I beat him from time to time. Sorry. Sorry, I'm just giving you some pinball tips there, Tim Lee. Wally's the guy you talk about who doesn't play in tournaments. Oh, that's right. But he's really, really, really good. He knows every single role, and he's got the skills to go with it, and he plays three times longer than everyone, and he's the guy to beat in our tournaments. But he's a fantastic guy.
    12:00
    So I finished second. the only really neat thing that happened was i was playing scared stiff i had a total of a hundred thousand points after my first two balls and on my last ball i got all the way to scared stiff i got all the way through scared stiff i hit every shot you have to like alternate ramp cough and ramp coffin i didn't miss once i hit every shot for like 10 combos in a row and I beat it and I won the game and I got the GC and I was like from what my first two balls were to that ball I wow I did pretty good you beat the game yeah on one ball but I didn't know I was at scared stiff I heard the guy behind me tell me he's like he's at scared stiff and I'm like oh really and it said it so you're like were you like oh the thing is lit I'm just gonna shoot it yeah well i knew here's some here's something funny i knew how to lock balls and start a good but i didn't know what to select on the wheel so i watched the other players and they all selected the same two things so i selected the same two things like i knew what i was doing still don't know what i selected but it helped out but he yeah that's the way that you learn And I love when people from out of state come play at District 82 and they play these big tournaments and I get to see the whole different way that they play the game. And it's so helpful to you in order to like, I'm always learning. And you can talk to anybody that plays. They're always learning because they're figuring out how the ball feeds to the flipper or whatever the case may be just by standing there and observing. Good for you, Tim. That's awesome. Congrats for beating the game and GC on one really amazing ball. Yeah, it was a small tournament. First time I ever played where everybody was really good. You know, there's usually some beginner or something that's just learning, and they don't do so well. So it was fun, but that's it. That's okay. You didn't buy any new games? No. You sure? The streak is over. I'm positive. I think. Let me look around. Nope, no new games. I sometimes think about buying a Godzilla. I do think about it a little bit, but I'm like, no, I've got four games now. because I got my game now, I got Sky Jump out of my podcasting room. It's now in my arcade, and so I got the four games crammed in there. I'm like, oh, I don't know, man. If I get a fifth one, I could put it in the kitchen.
    14:33
    Hey, put it in the kitchen. Yeah, let's get to our guest. It's great because we have Tribe Member number 29 on Tribe Multiball number 28. Okay. Tribe member 29 on episode 28. Welcome to the show, Andrew Payne. Hello. Hey, how are you? Hello. Hi, Rachel. I am fantastic. So excited to be here. Just as a pinball-obsessed hobbyist, the opportunity to talk pinball with some great friends and some very good podcasters. Glad to have you here. Can't wait. Yeah, Rachel, we're all over the place today, so I don't know how this is going to go. My brain is just like, ooh, ooh, today. It's okay. It's a Monday. Yep, it's a Monday.
    15:24
    All right, Andrew, so I'm going to switch things up a little bit. I'm not going to jump right into where you're at in pinball, but I'd like to start with the origin story, and there's a reason for that. But I just want to know, what area of the country are you from before we get started? Yeah, so I'm just north of Charlotte. Okay. North Carolina on beautiful Lake Norman. So very good-sized body of water. I know Rachel knows all about lakes in her Wisconsin area, but it's definitely a warmer climate, great opportunity to get out and pontoon boat around and just kind of enjoy the summer. So this time of year, we're on the lake just about all the time. But there are a lot of good pinball locations here. One just opened. and I'll give a shout out to Super Avari Pinball Arcade. They just reopened. They kind of shut down due to COVID, and we're kind of out of the game for a while, but they just reopened. It's a beautiful location, tons of great games. I've not actually made it myself personally, but as a father of a three- and a five-year-old, I don't get out near as much as a lot of folks that are pinball obsessed. So really, you know, loving this part of the country, loving how healthy the pinball hobby is and, you know, the location play available. I really laugh in looking back at where where I came from in the hobby and kind of how I discovered pinball and really, really came into it. So I'm a 40 year old. I'm very close to an age to you guys. and uh you know some people may have been playing hobby since 95 i was very much an arcade guy like you know grew up going to the mall um pumping quarters into killer instinct mortal combat 3 all the all the coin op fighters and and and arcade games the the two games i can remember and i really had to think hard there was an adams family on location in my my mall arcade and you know I remember just flailing obviously I'm 12 in 1994 and so I didn't really have the mental capacity to really know what I was doing I remember nailing the scoop over and over and thinking I'm doing amazing I gotta have the high score and of course it's you know and tickets may have even came out hell if I know it's not plugged in yet right whatever it is that it says right yeah just going crazy on that scoop yeah and uh and then at the movie theater they had a jurassic park data east and i you know i actually made the t-rex eat the ball and i remember as a kid thinking this is the most incredible thing i've ever seen yeah it is yeah news thumps amazing moment and so just kind of you know so so with those that's about all i can really even pull from, from the vault. Okay. So it wasn't like I had a lot of exposure to pinball. It was more like my parents gave me five bucks. I lasted 30 seconds on this game at one point and maybe 20 seconds on the other game and, and got the T-Rex to eat the ball. But that said, it was like, you know, it was there and I remember it being magical, but I also remember being a lot better at, uh, you know, remembering the fighting moves from, from killer instinct and so forth. Okay. Well, then how did you get from there to, to pinball because I'm looking at your past collection and you've had some good games we can talk about later but how did you make that transition so so I bought my first let's say it was my first house in 2012 got married settled down got a house had a game kind of loft and at that time I I've always been into computers so I'm good at you know building computers from scratch kind of designing different things with software and what forth and I you know stumbled into MAME I'm like, you can build an arcade machine and have 7000 games that you can play, you know, for 200 bucks. So I was like, this is really cool. Before the price of lumber was was through the roof, you could actually build a main machine.
    19:32
    And so that was where I started. I built a main machine. I had it in this bar area. And and then I discovered, oh, you can also add pinball games. I'm like, that's kind of neat. So I so I'm trying to think the first software may have been VPX. It may have been that kind of kind of the freeware software that's out there and it's highly developed and supported. So I started adding some of those games. I know that pinball arcade kind of popped up my radar at some point. So it was all digital in that early stage. I'm playing, you know, medieval madness. And so much of my goal was just to erase all the high scores off the board that were on there by default. and I thought if I can do that I must be actually doing something decent because I entered my initials and and you know now we know that the wizard modes is really what you're shooting for but at that point it was just exciting to do anything where you're entering initials so with that yeah I just that was the beginning of it all like I started to research rules and understand that there were objectives and there were like you know different things to accomplish in these games that all of a sudden are so deep and have a lot going on.
    20:42
    So where it kind of grows from there is when you actually meet your first pinhead and you're like, wait a second, this is a hobby. You can have these games in your house and you can like collect them and hold onto them. This is amazing. So I'm going to give a shout out to Larry, Indie pin on pin side All right Hey Larry I met Larry through he was a co of my wife in Kentucky when I lived there And they invited us to their home In his game room basement, he had 20 pence. And he had every heavy hitter classic game that you could ever want. And initially, before you're really entrenched in this hobby and understand that – like before you even knew to be jealous, you're just like, this guy's crazy. He's invested this much. Yeah. What they cost and what are they, you know, and you think you think you see it through that lens initially. But then you you kind of see his enthusiasm. You play them. You start to understand. I already knew that I liked pinball, but I thought I could never own own a game in my home. And, you know, justify at that point, it's like, you know, five thousand dollars. Yeah. But but the bug was there just kind of continued to grow. And I thought, well, maybe just one game. And so I started saving and kind of, you know, building a pinball fund and thinking at some point maybe I'll own a game. And so it took a while. Started listening to all the podcasts. So we're at this point, we're probably 2019, 2018, 2019. Listening to everybody, you know, slap save, listening to I'm trying to think of the heavy hitters, special winlet. All the guys that were around, you know, three or four years ago.
    22:30
    It seemed like a lot of them went away at once, but really enjoying all the pinball content. And the Poor Man's Pinball podcast kind of came up on my radar, and I started listening to them, and I thought, well, it's not as rich in pinball knowledge, but it's really damn fun. I find myself laughing more than I do at anyone else, and it's just such an enjoyable experience to listen to these guys talk. All right. Well, we can dive in. We'll dive in a little later on how you actually got into the tribe, but let's just pause you there for a second. So your story, I've heard quite a few times, the starting of the virtual pin where people just, you know, play the virtual pins in their tablets and then they get into it and they get hooked. And once they get in contact with a machine that has the actual physics behind it, it's like game over, right? Yes. So that's – it's a story we've heard before. And thank you, Larry. We're glad to – I'm going to toast one to Larry. Yeah. Here's one to Larry. What are you drinking, Rachel? We forgot to ask. It's the same thing that we had when we had Ian on the show. It's the Loon Juice Grow-A-Pair hard cider. Delicious.
    23:42
    Yeah, I'm just having A&W and Fireball. I put a little Fireball in here. Oh, root beer and Fireball. I didn't have any Coke. It tastes okay. What about you, Andrew? Yeah, it's pretty good.
    23:53
    I am having a beer of my own creation. It's a little low at this point. That is a home-brewed pale ale.
    24:01
    I've been brewing beer for about 10 years. It's a hobby, much like pinball, but it's much more equated to cooking. But the reason I compare it to pinball is because it has with it a very rich following. People are very obsessed and into beer brewing. Very passionate. But there's also local clubs, there's expos, and there's competitions. so so I've won ribbons you know in the state fair in beer brewing for you know IPA for sour for different styles and it's something you can do and compete in and you know I've taken that hobby pretty far but at this point with young kids I don't find myself having as much time to brew you know a brew session six or seven hours and you know game of pinballs you know if you're good maybe five 15 five to 15 minutes um so much if you're true 30 seconds get what center post one minute he has a center post he lasts a whole minute so yeah i didn't know you were into brewing beer so what's your what's your favorite beer to brew do you like the sours do you like the ipas i am a hop head through and through okay So I tend to have pounds of hops in the freezer at any time. And I basically brew it fairly clean. And then at the end, any brewer quickly learns that bottles are annoying and just you don't want to deal with it. So you deal with five-gallon kegs, which are decommissioned Pepsi or Coke kegs. And you basically fill those up and then dump a bunch of hops in. Okay. And that's how you really get a great outcome. Very fresh and hoppy. So anybody who comes over, you know, that's kind of one of my things. I'm like, let's drink some homebrew and play. Okay, I'll be right over. Yeah, I'm going to have to. I'm taking a note to come visit you. I come to the Carolinas a lot. So please do. I would love it. Yes, sir. All right. So I could ask. So we talked about you as a child in the arcade. And don't get mad at me for asking, but you might get mad at me for asking. But you had to have had some nicknames in high school and middle school with the last name Payne, right? I've definitely heard a number of them. Major Pain comes up quickly.
    26:24
    Pain Train? Do they ever call you the Pain Train? Maybe. I just talked about beer brewing in recent life. I've been nicknamed Home Brew by a number of folks. So that's just kind of what I go by. But that's not – it depends on the circle of friends as you might guess. I was called Bruce Lee my entire elementary school career. Everybody called me Bruce Lee. After like five years, I'm like, okay, it's not funny anymore. So I figured with the last name Payne, you had a pretty good elementary and middle school. Is Tim the Tuna Mountain upgrade?
    27:03
    No, downgrade. Maybe if I like tuna. All right, so. Silly mood, you know. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Circling back around. So you got into pinball from Larry. You purchased your first game. When?
    27:24
    Okay, so there was still a lot of location play involved in this timeline. Okay, so let's hop back there.
    27:31
    I've moved around a lot, but at this point I was in Kentucky. There was a great location, a rec bar, so I need to give them a shout out, in Louisville, Kentucky. Also a great pinball collection. and 20-plus games all very well maintained and just played so good, and their hours are excellent. That's the one thing about Charlotte is nothing opens until 4 p.m. on most days. Well, I could take my lunch hour and go play at Rec Bar at any given weekday. Okay. So I could, you know, squeeze in Monday through Friday pinball on location and just, you know, really get some time on some games. Sure. So I knew that, you know, I was loving life playing all these games, slowly you know scrimping saving money to eventually own one the house I lived in at that time was no basement the only the place where my main machine was a 360 stairwell where you would have to basically turn three times and a 300 pound pinball machine was not going up there yeah so basically that was my life was not compatible with pinball ownership at that point but I also knew that it was coming like the minute i had are you talking about rec bar in louisville that's what you're talking about yeah i was just recently there it's a really cool place it's a nice space and the games are pretty good a really wide variety of games just wanted to give them a little shout out that's it wonderful deep in podcasting discovered the poor man and so being tribe member 29 means i'm you You know, there was already a long history at that point of inductees, of people that, you know, all the low hanging fruit, all the people that they really were excited about were in the tribe. But but at that point, reach out to us. Let us know if you're interested. They basically basically said at this point, we're looking for recommendations or emails from people who are interested. So I was quick. You know, I emailed him that that day and basically said I formally applied to be in the poor man's tribe. OK. And so this was May of 2020. I said I formally applied to be in the tribe. My favorite game at that point. This is kind of a time capsule because we're talking about May of 2020. Lord of the Rings or Jurassic Park Premium. I told them my favorite drink, which is of course an important piece of information for the poor man. Was it, was IPA beer or I said bourbon and Coke, which I might be having during this podcast. And then at that point, my most anticipated title was guns and roses, Ellie or Rick and Morty, which I still have never played. And then I sent them a dad joke, which I'll tell you guys now, what happened to the guy who tripped on a bra? He fell into a booby trap.
    30:31
    and so and i you know signed it very nicely your tribal pledge andrew pain and the next episode i was so shocked when they said we're inducting a new tribe member his name's andrew pan the butt from kentucky pain in the butt he's number 29 and i was just through the moon so i was so excited i wanted to really show my gratitude so i said i sent them a thank you package and in that I included cigars hot sauce which I I grow my own peppers and make my own hot sauce so that was was something funny and they even ate it on their live stream and kind of like broke down crying which was really funny I remember um I sent them a book of dad jokes and then the one thing I included in there which is now very infamous was a a gag gift which was which they referred to as the dick weight yeah yeah a barbell with a rounded center that as you can imagine it was a joke about weight lifting with your your your man part so you could stop right there we know that's how you got into the tribe because that is the most infamous gift yeah that's the most infamous gift in uh poor man history so it literally came up For the next 20 episodes, they talked about it. Well, you know. I still laugh that for Ian Andrew, I sent one dickway.
    32:00
    I'm sure. That's fantastic. Okay, so pinball ownership. Let's go ahead and get there. So I had to look back. My first game was September of 2020, which is we moved to North Carolina. and we finally got a house with a basement, which is where I am now. My family's way upstairs, so I'm far away from any disturbing them with any of my sound. The good news is I can even play pinball down here while people are asleep, and they can't quite hear, which is a miracle of modern engineering. So that first game was Last Action Hero, September of 2020. I sent Rachel and Tim my pin side profile, and I'm pretty diligent, So I'm rapid flipper on pin side, if anyone wants to look me up. And I'm diligent about documenting my collection, more so anything, just so I can kind of remember what I bought when. And it's interesting to see kind of that evolution of the collection. Tim talks about being clean of pinball trades or sales or buys. Not anymore.
    33:06
    Oh, my gosh. So as I said, September 2020. So right now it's May of 2022. Yep. That's 20 months, and I have bought and sold 13 games in that time. So you got the bug.
    33:25
    Yes, but my lineup, it's not like I have a lineup of a dozen. You have a lineup of two. Yeah. So I agreed with my wife. It was two, and then I kind of got – I pressured her into having three. So I've got room for three games, which I feel like is – it's okay. you can really get a decent home experience kind of rotating with three games. Sure. But that said, it's like, you know, I'm basically a three-month, get all the plays you can, get to the wizard mode, and then move it on. That's kind of the way I experience the hobby, which is very different from some. Some people buy a game and hold on to it forever.
    34:07
    They just love it. How are you guys in terms of collecting? Are you more of a buy-in, like, blab, play the heck out of it and move it on, or do you like to hold on to it longer? Well, I don't keep games longer than just a few months. But Amy, my wife, keeps games a very long time. So we were just talking about this, Amy and I. The games that we have that are over a year old are hers. The games that we constantly cycle through are mine. So I say every few three to four months I get bored and I move a machine. and but Godzilla is really fun it's it's gonna be here a long time but yeah I'm kind of like you I I have a few games that I like to cycle through my wife likes to keep them as for me like I said I just sold Lost World that was my first game and I bought that two years ago this month and so it was it was good to sell that and I know I'm gonna sit on my maiden for a while and probably my demo man for a little bit I want to give my demo man some love give him his new lights and everything So for me, I don't know. I think about it, like I said before, I'm thinking about buying a Godzilla or a Deadpool or something else, or a TNA. There's other games that are out there that I'd like to have that I think would be fun to have for a little bit. But I think my Maiden's going to be bolted, because I really, every time I flip on that game, I have such a fun time. So I think maybe I'm a combination of both, but I'm also new into collecting. And I would say Andrew, too. I don't think you probably pressured your wife. you probably negotiated your way there. At least I hope.
    35:44
    A little bit of a, what I'll say is we were on the beach. We were about three beers in on vacation. And I said, you really don't mind if I get a third game in the lineup, right? And that was just the perfect moment. That was the right moment to ask. And she said, of course not. Not even to ask. I don't want to phrase it. It was the right moment to have the discussion.
    36:03
    It's hard because, you know, that comes up quite often between spouses that are hobbyists of any nature. that I'm looking to buy a new boat or whatever, or I'm looking to buy a new motorcycle, whatever the case may be. And because there's a significant amount of money, it should be a joint decision. But it is hard there because it can be negotiating or finding compromise. I think there's a big part of it. So I love that. But you only have two games. Did you figure out what your third is going to be?
    36:34
    Well said. So my third game is Godzilla Premium. and I very recently got an email from the distributor that I that I went through and and he let me know my game would be ready in the next two weeks so I went ahead and sold my third game at that time which was Judge Dredd I'd only owned it 30 days but of my I have Wonka and Attack from Mars original and and of those three you know Judge Dredd was kind of easy an easy choice to let go.
    37:07
    I'd spent limited time, but at the same time, it was, I'd already reached the wizard mode a number of times and there wasn't, wasn't really a lot more to do on that game. And as you know, I already kind of move on from games quickly. So to let that go wasn't, wasn't a difficult choice for Godzilla. But then I got a call a number, a few days later and there was a confusion with the paperwork. And he said, did you order Rush Premium by chance? And I said, no, was a Godzilla and he said, oh, I'm so sorry. Don't worry about paying the remaining balance. You'll still be very soon, but you're three back from the distribution list. So it wasn't so quick. It basically will be the end of month run of the Godzilla lineup. So I now only have two games and I feel like I have a very anemic collection with a hole in the lineup, as I'm sure you guys have experienced. games and two and a half of them are working. So I totally understand that. It feels a little sparse, yeah, for sure.
    38:10
    I'm looking at your collection here. Why don't you run through it with us? And why don't you tell us which ones you've gotten to Wizard Mode on? And actually, I'd really like to know if there are games that you would buy again, because I have met other pinheads that they'll buy. I know one friend, I think he's on his third Jurassic Park. So I'm just curious if there's a game that you want back in your collection.
    38:31
    Okay. I'm going to have to pull it up so I can remember everything. Well, I could run through them. So you have Jurassic Park Pro listed after Last Action Hero.
    38:40
    Yes, and it's in the correct order. So that was my first game, and so that game I was very excited to be my first new in box. Okay. So it was delivered to my driveway. We wheeled it down to the basement. My home is not the easiest because it requires dolling a game through the grass, like around the house and into the walkout basement. but all the same, I'll do whatever it takes to get pinball playing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
    39:08
    JP pro I played Jurassic park when I'm on location at this point. I haven't owned it for this, you know, over a year it's been gone, but when I play it on location, I think this game is still magical and I still love the heck out of it. I traded that one for a Deadpool straight up my, my Jurassic park. So I'm a modder. I did a ton of work to it. all the kind of shaker motor, blades extra toys all kinds of stuff but the Deadpool was also beautiful oh my goodness I ended up calling it the poor man's Ellie by the time I was done with it even fancier than J-Hall go on oh it was wild Ghostbusters Pro I don't know that I would buy Ghostbusters again but I did love the heck out of it while I had it Yeah. My ghost. I don't know if you guys have ever had a game with a play field that wasn't perfectly flat.
    40:05
    Ghostbusters had a bit of a turtle shell effect going on where the outlanes were just so hungry. And and that just kind of dampened it a little bit. I'm like, I don't know.
    40:16
    You guys ever experienced that? No, no. To be honest, my Ghostbusters was just brutal down the middle. Mine had more of a swell, I think, right down the middle. So my kids are still mad at me for getting rid of Ghostbusters, but I couldn't take it. That's a game I like. I like to have a premium or an LE.
    40:32
    Now, I got – so did you get to wizard mode on Ghostbusters? I did not. I did two or three times. Yeah, it was like – it was hard to do, but I made it there. I never beat it. It was usually a quick exit, so. for some reason i couldn't bring myself on the jurassic park or the ghostbusters to take off the glass and and well that's five balls no glass i suck at pinball way more than timley or drew um so it takes a lot of effort uh or just the right conditions or right amount of beers to to achieve a wizard right yeah so so that's kind of where I was with those. The next in the lineup is the Avengers Infinity Quest. That one popped up on Craigslist as a local sale. I bought that for $7,200, which I think was kind of normal price. Things have really grown since then. But the funny thing is I get it home, and then a trade request pops up on Pinside looking to unload a Guns N' Roses, Jersey Jack SE. Okay. And I've got the Avengers Premium. I think I'm dying to get my hands on a Guns N' Roses. It was really the hottest commodity at that point in early 2021. Okay. And so I only – I didn't even get the Avengers in the house. I played it in the garage for two – like less than two weeks and then had someone drive over and swap it out for Guns N' Roses. That's so nice. Wow. That beats my record I think I had a game in a month I don that the long or short longest Yeah I was shocked at the fact that like you know Fortune kind of moved that way I only got enough time on Avengers to know that it shot better than a lot of games that I've ever played. But the code and the art and the animations were, it just wasn't, it didn't click with me 100%. I knew there was something that didn't grab me right away. Me too, right there with you. yeah i have one it's it's operator friend mike's i haven't played it much because i got a rush at the same time that's uh don't ever get two new games like because you only end up playing one it's kind of bizarre like you know i don't know if everybody does that but i got two like within weeks of each other and i only i only pray rush for some reason so but you and i back to guns and roses that's when you and i first started to talk because i think i issued a couple of challenges to you on scorebit and then we did and you hit me with a whopper you you sent me a challenge i think at first we were friendly and we just kind of gave each other some softballs and then you just hit hit me with a whammy like 60 million or something yeah i'm like tim lee i'm gonna sell this thing before i can that game was bolted that game was bolted at the lee household yeah there's there's no no option of ever selling it i actually asked amy just yesterday i said would you ever sell this game and she said no not unless we had to so it's it's definitely bolted and it's still in the family room but yeah i kind of gave you a few softballs there because i'm pretty good at that game and uh i just i just waited and then just dropped the doozy so uh it was good though that's it actually it was good to start to talk to another tribe member because we really hadn't talked before then. And then we've messaged back and forth since then. So I appreciate that you got the Guns N' Roses.
    44:06
    Yeah, I've loved it. So Guns N' Roses, JGP, is the only game I've owned two trim packages in. So I had the standard. An LE popped up locally. And at that time, I had the money and the spot in the lineup. And so I sold the SE for market price and paid up to upgrade to the LE. the LE is every bit more the game I felt like the extra shots the extra light rails and add-ons were worthy of the price but at the same time I put so many plays on the standard that I felt like it you know knowing my kind of tendency to really play the heck out of a game and move on it wasn't enough new and enough different to warrant that level of investment sure that's logical so I liked it but I did let it move on okay I mentioned the Deadpool so I that's the only game I've ever powder-coated I went with that kind of le red and all the the armor HD glass speaker lights everything under the sun and as I said I when I listed it on pin side I labeled as a poor man's Ellie.
    45:18
    It was a pro and it did sell for $8,500, which is kind of a ridiculous pro sale. But at the same time, we've done every mod and every upgrade that you could do to that game and really dialed it in. So the guy that bought it, you know, he reached out to me after getting it, setting up, playing it. And he's like, this thing's epic.
    45:39
    And I still have to say I'm, you know, you get kind of pinball envy or you get sad that you sell things from time to time. And that, when I'm still, still a bit, a bit sad.
    45:51
    Yeah, me too. It was, I've seen other people do this tactic, which was really the first time I tried it. I thought, you know, I only have three games. I put a price on all three because I needed to make room for attack from Mars, which I have now. And, you know, I thought I'll let fate decide. and the price I put on Deadpool was that I don't want to sell at price. The $8,500 is like, you know, above market. I didn't want to let it go. But at the same time, it's like that's the one people jumped on, and I got numerous full-price offers. I'm not surprised. Deadpool actually I think is a pretty highly desired game, isn't it?
    46:28
    Yeah. At least a lot of people talk about that while wanting one in their collection. I would like one. Would I pay $8,500? If it was poor man Ellie, maybe.
    46:38
    But it's a lot of money. And actually, I would go look at pinballprices.com for a reference point to actually a Deadpool Pro. Even if it's spanked out, you know, and tricked out, cool stuff.
    46:51
    Yeah, I think I paid $4,800 for mine. I hate you. Oh, you're amazing. Yeah, it is not that cheap anymore. Two years ago, it was. Right. I kept it for 15 months, and I got rid of it. And honestly, I was playing my Deadpool. I sold it to a friend last week when I stopped over at his house, and I thought, I miss this game. Yeah. It's a fun game, too. That's another one. I never achieved the wizard mode, and I never brought myself to cheat my way there. I got to the Mechalachronis Rex mode, I guess, which is the mini wizard, but I never got to Mr. Sinister. But, hey, it's still there. It'll be there for me when I come back to it. So that's the game that you want to have come back in your collection would be Deadpool. that might be it I gotta tell you a story about Deadpool tell me a story Tim I actually started messaging I think it was Sean Freyden from the tribe thinking I was maybe I was messaging you Andrew thinking I was messaging Sean but I got you two confused and started to carry on a conversation and it might have been you that said it was just kind of got really confused and said what are you talking about and uh i i got you both confused but i i think i messaged you about and i thought i was messaging sean and i had too many beers one night so it was uh and whoever it was was like yeah what are you talking about buddy i don't have a deadpool so i don't know if you remember that it could have been the opposite way because i think you had a deadpool and i was messaging sean but sorry sean tim lee was having a hard time keeping up with his pinball relationships apparently keeping it all Street. Yeah, too many going. That's alright, it's a good problem to have. It's one of the best problems to have. One of the best things about pinball is the people that you get to meet, I think.
    48:45
    Alright, so what was after Deadpool? I see a Metallica and a Black Knight. Indeed. Metallica, you know, it being a fan favorite, I thought I need to own this. I need to put some time on it. I maybe had played it a handful of times on location. I remember really getting excited about achieving a multi-ball but never really knowing what I was doing or going deep on rules, which that's typically my M.O. on location. I'm just kind of hitting the shots and seeing what the game is pushing me towards, but still not understanding. I don't do a lot of research while it's, you know, not in my collection, I guess I would say. Sure. So once I got it home and understood you can do all these, you know, stack all these things, you can get to crank it up, you can get to these various modes. I was much more impressed with the game. That Metallica had everything done to it under the sun as well. It was such a shiny, beautiful game. I kind of discovered the, who makes it, Pennovators? The LED backlight kit behind the Translight? Like that makes the Metallica logo just like pulse in different colors? Oh my gosh. It was so beautiful. And that game had a playfield protector on it, which you know some games i feel like it it maybe inhibits play or makes them play differently but on that one it played great and it was pristine nice yeah i i had a metallic it was my second game again i think i've said this on the show before i was waking up in the middle of the night hearing creeping death this is not a lie and amy was like what are you doing i'm trying to sleep but I'm like, I keep hearing Creeping Death. It's just like I can't get it out of my head. So I got rid of it, but that's another one I'd like to get back. That's a game I'd like to own too. I like Metallica a lot. My buddy Gerald has a really nice pretty one, the Mirror Blades. I think it's just such a pretty game. I'd like to have one. Yeah.
    50:45
    And who doesn't like Sparky? My side story there is that I did buy the license to Pinball Browser, which is the go-to software if you ever want to mod the sound package to a game. So with Metallica, it's fairly straightforward on Pinball Browser to download songs. They have to be the exact same length of the second, but you can swap out all the music in the game, which for Metallica fans, that will be sacrilege. So I'm sorry to you guys out there, but I put in just basically anything I'd want to hear during the game. I'm not a huge Metallica fan. I do appreciate some of their songs. I left the wizard mode and some of the deeper songs in the game, but I put in some things that I liked and some things I thought were funny.
    51:31
    A lot of ACDC. I put in some Queen, like Bohemian Rhapsody. I put in, gosh, I put in a few rap songs. When you would hit the multiballs and it would just cue up one of these songs right in the middle, oh, my gosh. That's awesome. It was hilarious. and the guy I sold it to I'm like this is what I did to the game you can get the ROM off Stern's website if you want to go back to Metallica but I like the way it plays and I'm kind of leaving it to you to do with what you will I just saw he relisted it on Facebook last week so he must have owned it since October of 21 that would make he had it for about 8 months he did not mention the alternate sound package so I'm guessing he went back to Metallica. Straight Metallica. Yeah, I like Metallica, so I had Metallica on there. Black Knight was a great game. That one, I feel like I just kind of put enough time on it.
    52:30
    Okay, that is the game that I cheated hardcore. Oh, no. In the settings, you can go up to a 10-ball game, and I totally did it. So I decided to sell the game. I thought, it's leaving. I need to beat the Black Knight. Is it cheating to set it on 10 balls if the game gives you the option for 10 balls? It's just one of the sets of rules on the game. Is it cheating? Yeah.
    52:54
    It's not cheating. Is putting rubber bands in your out lanes or taking off the glass and making the game do all the actions by taking the glass off? No, that would be cheating. But is it really cheating if the game, one of the options, is 10 balls in the game? No.
    53:10
    No. This is definitely pinball confessional moment because I'm telling you about all my pinball sins. And so, yes, I did get to the Black Knight. I did defeat him, but it took every ounce of those pinballs to even do it. It's like when you know you have that much to fall back on, you just are flailing and you don't really care about cradling up or being careful. Yeah, I'll give you a Tim Lee public service announcement. Do not mock people for putting five to ten balls on the machine because honestly, you paid all this money for these games. You have the right to get in there and see the end of the game. Some people are just better than other people. And the other thing that I'm going to say a public service announcement for is don't pin shame people. I've heard this like three or four times in the last month where somebody gets a new game and they're excited about it and somebody else craps on it. Like, I don't like that game. that's not you know like let the person have their fun i mean who cares if you don't like it they bought it so don't pin shame good time with it thank you for the two psas today tim i really like the second one though don't pin shame other people yeah mind your own business people just enjoy life yeah other people enjoying life don't crap on it you don't want that to happen to you do you no there we go no yeah high five tim all right high five i just know my life I'm talking to competitive pinballers in the two of you. So I know that my audience are people that are, you know, to some degree purists that understand roles and know objectives and kind of how to, to kind of, sure. Kind of go deep in a game. And so you guys to be accepting of folks of, of all skill levels and what have you. I think that's really nice. Like, like I appreciate that, but here's the thing about competitive play when i'm playing at home i'm not competing i just want to play the game and have fun or practice or try to beat the game sometimes you know and so however you get there it's good there's i think it's awesome just that you play and that you want to beat the game especially if like you're getting rid of it why not set it on 10 ball and get through the whole game if you can sure i think that's a brilliant idea because you want to beat the black night he's mocking you the whole time you can do it you can do it right so good for you yeah tim you got called a competitive pinball player how do you feel about that yeah did you i i caught that as well i was yeah i don't i'm getting to be a competitive pinball player baby steps not quite there yet i've played in zero competitions or attorneys so i you're already leaps ahead of me Have you guys ever played in a tournament together? No, no. Usually what happens is Tim and I are at a show together, and we're both exhausted because it's the end of the day after doing all of our socializing or I'm doing my tournamenting, and we try to cram an hour of playing pinball in together so we can have that time. But I think we're both burnt ends by the time we get to that time in our day. But we still make it happen because we love each other. But I think it would be fantastic if we did a Poor Man's Pinball Podcast tournament. I could throw one.
    56:28
    Yeah, we just need to retreat, a Poor Man's Tribe retreat, without a show. That way we can just focus on drinking and playing. That sounds like a fun time. Right? The end. Can there be a campfire involved?
    56:45
    Oh, there can be. All right. Okay, so I felt like you guys need an opportunity to challenge each other. And so I prepared for this episode a game show. And so I was willing to serve as host for a game called Tribe Multiball Name That Game Challenge.
    57:07
    So if you guys are willing, I've pulled three-second music clips from ten different games. Oh, boy. And the ideas will alternate between Tim and Rachel for each round. And the person with the most correct answers wins. I'm going to feel really – I'm afraid I'm going to feel super, super stupid, but we'll give it a whirl.
    57:28
    When you win, you'll hear this. All right. If someone's incorrect, the challenger can steal their point with the correct answer. Okay.
    57:40
    I feel like I'm talking to Glenn. I feel like I called into a radio show. Yeah. Okay, Andrew, we'll play your game, whatever you want to do. Let's give it a whirl.
    57:52
    Wonderful. Okay, so just in the spirit of kind of, we'll say ladies first. Rachel, I'll let you pick heads or tails, and that will decide who gets the first clip. I will take tails. Tails never fails. That's what I got here. I pre-decided, so you won. I heard the tribe claim fifth.
    58:14
    Three second clips. It comes quick at you, but I feel like it starts easy and it goes harder, but we'll just see how it goes. Here we are. And if you need to hear it twice, that's okay, too.
    58:30
    Once more, please. Once more feeling. Man, I want to say it's an Olvera game. You're close, but do you have a guess? I'm going to say it's Scared Stiff.
    58:50
    I apologize. The answer is Monster – oh, wait. Oops, Tim. Let's all have a drink. I wasn't going to guess Monster Bash. I was going to guess Alice Cooper.
    59:03
    Damn. Okay, I'm terrible at this. All right, Tim. Round two. Your turn, my man. All right. Let's go.
    59:15
    Again? Yeah. I'm going to say Circus Voltaire. The correct answer is Toten. I didn't get a chance to guess either.
    59:35
    Oh, my gosh. I'm terrible at this. You're never going to make a career as a game show host. I've had too much to drink. Okay. Next up, Rachel. Number three. At least you both failed.
    59:50
    Okay. Let's try again. And I will not fail again. Here we go. Rachel's turn. Dracula? Or it's Phantom of the Opera, which I've never played. I'm going to say it's Dracula.
    60:10
    Okay, Tim. Hit it. Can I hear it one more time, please? Well, is it Frankenstein? Theater of Magic. Oh, man. This is so hard. Okay, number four. You said they started easy. I think they're hard. I think they're all hard. Okay, number four. Tim's turn first. Radical?
    60:56
    Baywatch or Radical? I'm going with Radical. Sorry. Rachel, your turn. Any guesses? I don't know. I'm going to say Dr. Doom. You guys. Junkyard. It is a 90s game. Junkyard. Oh, Junkyard. I just played that for the first time at Pimbrew. We're going to cut this whole segment. No, we're leaving it. Keep going. Okay, Rachel, number five. We're halfway through them. Ready?
    61:32
    Man. I'm going to say, is that Last Action Hero? Tim? I have no idea. Street Fighter 2. 3. Whichever the game is. League of Legends 2. 3. You only get one guess, Rachel. You got like seven things there.
    61:58
    And they're all wrong. It's one of those two games. I don't know. What is it? I don't know what it is. I'm going to say...
    62:07
    High Speed 2. You already guessed. Fun House. You know, I never listen because maybe because when I'm playing there, it's always so loud. I don't normally listen to what it sounds like. I had that thought as well. On location, you can't hear for shit.
    62:25
    So all these. You can't hear as much. All right, Tim's turn. Here we go. Timothy. It's my turn? Yes, I think so. That's World Cup soccer.
    62:41
    We got a point. here's the thing look I'm so excited cheater alright Rachel we're on a roll now get ready you're going to get this one alright we'll try this then oh man one more time gosh I should know that it's either like Earthshaker I played the game Or it's a vehicle really good game. So I going to say or it like it not the getaway I wanted to say it like Earthshaker Or what the other another car game I don know Go on I give up Sorry the answer is Red and Ted Roadshow
    63:30
    Oh, I played that. I thought it was taxi. I didn't get a chance to guess, so good. Damn, Tim. You guys got to remind me that I've got to let the other person guess. It's my game, and I'm doing it to you. All right, Tim Lee, prepare yourself for number eight.
    63:47
    oh this is hard diner that would be oh I'm going to let Rachel guess I'm not going to mess up this round up you almost did you're a terrible host I am terrible sloppiest game show on the internet taxi fish tails Fishtails I love that game Okay we only got two left and Tim Lee has one point So we need something to happen here Alright here we go Whose turn is it I can't remember It's mine It's like a NASCAR All right, Tim.
    64:45
    Weird again? No, I don't know. It sounds like weird-ow. I play that game, though. Listeners, that is No Good Gophers.
    64:56
    No Good Gophers. I love that game, too. Yeah, you're totally right. I don't think I hear the game as much. I can hear the call-outs, but sometimes the music gets pushed in the back. Most of it around just recently got moved back to the air conditioning room, There's only three games in those rooms, three or four. And for the first time ever, I realized that Mouse and Round has this really rad music soundtrack going on in the background. No idea. You know, but this goes to show, even though I play a lot, can't guess them. I want to know if there's any listeners out there that guessed more than, like, three of those. Will you reach out and send us a message? Tell us we suck.
    65:38
    And tell us we both suck at pinball sounds. Okay, this is number 10. This is the last one. And I think it's Tim's turn.
    65:48
    Yes. You don't sound the same. Whitewater. Rachel, it's your turn. I get to guess, but I want to hear it again.
    66:07
    Man. A 90s game? the music's so cheesy I don't know I have no idea I give up this is way harder with the cheesy with cheesy statement I thought you might get mousing around ah yeah is it really mousing around shut up so yes this has been the hardest game show this is like a dodge the balls pinball trivia uh yeah thank you for making me feel like a complete dumbass Thank you, Andrew Payne. One out of ten for me.
    66:45
    I misjudged the difficulty level. My buddy IndiePin, who I mentioned earlier, I did test this on him earlier, and he was 0 for 2. I didn't give him all ten, but I thought maybe this is harder than I thought, and it turns out it is.
    67:04
    I think it should be call-outs. If you did call-outs, like different call-outs from different games, that might be easier. like those darn mice. You know, that I know that's from Austin. Okay, y'all bring me back. I'll redesign it. I did main themes this round, but I would love to get another shot at this.
    67:23
    Yes. Right now, Jeremy Schmitz got like nine out of ten while he's listening to the show, and he's like, I don't know what you're talking about. He's like, I don't know what you're talking about. This is easy. Make it harder.
    67:35
    He's probably like Rachel. That was fun, though. I appreciate it. That was pretty entertaining. I wish everybody could see Andrew's big laugh. I actually wish you could see his look of disgust as Rachel and I missed each one.
    67:56
    Thanks for playing. Okay, Tim, just so you know, you're the winner of a prize package involving 19 cheese slices and a crisp hot pot. Oh, I love it.
    68:10
    Ooh, 19 cheese slices. What does best place or last place get? Definitely a hug and also a crisp high five and maybe a free game as well.
    68:24
    Yeah, that's even better. All right. Well, that was actually fun. We have never had a guest give us any kind of challenge, so thank you. No, no kidding. That was awesome. Who are we, Tim Lee? I don't even know. So let's wrap up the whole collection. And, you know, right now you had said you have a Willy Wonka and Attack from Mars.
    68:48
    I have to say I love them both. I despised Willy Wonka. And then I got it. Justin let me borrow it for about two months. And I just kind of fell in love with it. I really enjoy that game. And I kind of want one back now. And Attack from Mars is Attack from Mars. you can't beat it. Rachel, a little Tim Lee tournament playing trivia, since I'm now a competitive player. I've never lost on Willy Wonka. I've played it five times in tournaments, and each time I blew it up.
    69:21
    Yeah, so it's my best tournament game. That's amazing. Yeah, Wonka, like I said earlier, it's such a great family game. I mean, just the art and the call-outs and everything on it, And the movie itself, I think it still stands up to the test of time. So I think, again, that's a great one to have. Also, Attack from Mars is, again, what a great family fun game. I finally blew up Mars recently on that game for the first time. That was pretty cool. But, yeah, that's a nice small collection. I'm excited to see what your Godzilla premium arrives to.
    69:57
    So what I'll say about those, there were a few we didn't talk about in kind of the lineup. so at one point I owned Twilight Zone. Oh yeah. And I owned the Willy Wonka at the same time. So both being Lawler games, having them side by side, it was very, like the stamp was there. You could see that gumball shot and the Wonka Vader are identical. Oh, okay. Shoot that orbit and it's kicking it up into the thing and that's Pat. And I thought this is amazing. And so Twilight Zone, I got to the, you know, Lost in the Zone a number of times. Wonka just kicks my butt every time. It's so deep and it's so difficult. but it's also so pretty.
    70:36
    It is so pretty. And so many different modes that you can get into and play different, different pathways that you can take in that game. It is just every single time. It's just pure joy. Love that. I watched that movie with my five-year-old son and, and he was into it. He's like, well, the uncle said it's so cool.
    70:54
    At the same time, he is more into killing the, the mothership on AFM. Nice. That's good. It's such an achievable goal. It's something that he can do in three balls. He can kill that mothership and get really excited about the light show and just get after it. So they're both really great games in a home collection. I didn't think I'd ever rule the universe in Attack from Mars. It seemed like to line up the five-shot combo and the super jackpot would take me uncountable attempts. But after playing it enough, I finally kind of got it dialed in. And now I've ruled the universe like three or four times since owning it. So I will say that one, once Godzilla comes, that one's probably the next to go, only from the point of having done most of what the code has to offer. And also, like Ian and Drew have mentioned in the past, like having a project game is fun. It's nice to have things that are new and very reliable, but then having some older games that you can kind of fix up. Attack from Mars has an interesting story. It popped up on my Facebook feed and it was, you know, a local seller. He was an hour and a half away. He was a an army vet and he bought it at an auction in Hawaii. So it like took the long boat to the to the US. It played in this home. But when I opened the back box, he said, I didn't even know you could open that.
    72:24
    And the batteries were leaking. They played fine. There was acid just dripping down. And I'm like, uh, that's, that's a time ball. And you know, it was, it was a highly neglected game. So rebuilding the flippers, uh, replacing all the rubbers, just getting it shooting. Well, it was such a rewarding thing. Like get taking a game from trash to like reliable. It's so, it's so fun. And I've, I've already, I've poured about two grand into that game just in, mods and improvements and color DMDs and all the things you can do to make it play well and be reliable and now it's like I've done everything I can. It's like the seed has blossomed and it's as good as it's going to get. So it's almost like I'm ready to move it on just from that perspective. I could see that. I liked fixing up the few games that I fixed up with my boys. It was very rewarding. But if you want a new game to fix up, I will let you have Halloween. It's new, and you get to work on it all the time.
    73:35
    I think that's just yours, Tim Lee. I have several friends that have a Halloween that they've had no issues with theirs. Maybe because of Liv Hill. I think it's because I got an earlier run game. My JJP, Guns N' Roses, had a lot of problems as well. They're not major problems, but Drew has his GNR, not a single problem. My other buddy has a GNR.
    73:57
    That's honestly with these smaller companies, that's kind of the risk you take when you take a first run-off-the-line game. You're just going to have to work on them. And honestly, I actually posted this on Pinside. Halloween is playing great now. I actually like the game. It took a while to get there, but now that I got it playing well, thoroughly enjoying it. So that was just a joke though because I have had to work on it. But no, back to the original point, I like fixing up the old games. It kind of just gives you that just pretty cool kind of rewarding feeling.
    74:32
    Indeed. I would say with newer games, when they require fixes and things to kind of keep them running well, it's a different feeling. It's like, oh, crap, I've got to work on this and make it – I've got to fix something that broke as opposed to this thing's been played for 25 years. I just need to get it back to the level playing well. Sure.
    74:55
    Right. Even if it's a player's condition, just repairing the game so you can enjoy it in other people in the future. I love that. So before we wrap this up, we're getting towards the end of the show. You did say that you're a mod guy. Give me your top five mods. You kind of mentioned this in our chat, our pre-chat as a warm-up for the show, that you're a mod guy and wanted to talk about your must-have mods. So give us your top five.
    75:21
    I'm definitely, I'm a tinkerer. Like when it comes to games, I like to kind of try different things. I'll move posts around. I'll move, you know, just the way the game comes. If you're coming at it from a poor man mentality, like that's the way to start is just kind of get the game dialed in the way you like to play it. Other things you can do is just around lighting. Like with the Deadpool, it comes with a lot of GI that's red and kind of weird. and you can just swap in white bulbs and do different things to kind of just make it your own taste. From there, I feel like a shaker motor is a great add-on. Must have.
    75:57
    It just adds so much to that experience to really get that feedback when you do something well. Another thing would be LED strips. So I don't know if a lot of people have exposure to like the Comet 6-bowl. They're about five bucks for an LED strip and you can use them in so many places. You can use them in the trough to light up the like the flippers. You can use them in scoops. So you get that kind of lit scoop. Deadpool comes with a lit scoop by default. So many games don't, especially like Attack from Mars and Adam's Family and games from the 90s. They're all just dark as can be. And it's kind of neat to have them light with different modes. So I feel like that adds a lot. from there you're kind of getting a little more expensive into the you know art blades or mirror blades um a lot of games that i work on i feel like are different levels of tightness like lifting the play field i lift the play field a lot as i said i like to tinker so i feel like um you can't really do everything you can't do like pin stadium lights and mirror blades and you know in different things because then you're kind of running into things getting pretty difficult to work on and operate over time sure but i feel like like with deadpool it had beautiful art plates from the factory so with that i i upped the gi and i added different like lighting in different places but then with wonka it's got mirror blades so adding penn stadiums really like made it pop okay yeah So it's kind of game by game. Jurassic Park, adding Penn Stadium lights during that T-Rex multiball, that's a magical moment. I felt like it was just so cool. While the shaker's going and the T-Rex is roaring and the lights are just flashing in your face, it's such a neat add-on. Yeah, I could see that. I had a shaker on Jurassic Park, and it was pretty badass when the dinosaur would roar and the whole machine would just shake. Yeah, I want to get a shaker motor, too, for my Maiden. That's, I think, the number one mod that I really need to just pull the sugar and do. Maybe I'll do my 2022 Christmas gift to myself.
    78:05
    As a shake of water for my meetings. That is so much fun, playing a game. Like you said, Andrew, it's like when you do the thing, the game's rewarding you with this really fun little show. It feels so good. And then going back to the cheap side, I'd say like theme significant toys, which, you know, you can definitely go overboard. You don't want to be putting G.I. Joes in your game and, like, you know, chintzy things. But, for instance, with Jurassic Park, you can get some really cool dino toys that really add to the experience. Like on the pro model, you get those flat plastics. You can put in a raptor. You can put in, you know, different kind of like a – what is it, the flying dinosaur?
    78:46
    A pterodactyl. And then they make these little palm trees. I know Tim Lee's into like a model railroad or model. And they make like palm trees and different things that are kind of in that world that you can add to the game that really like make it look like a jungle setting. I did some of those on mine and I thought they were so, so neat and they were very inexpensive. And then I'll say like Godzilla. I see people doing real, I don't own that game yet, but I see people doing such cool things with that with, you know, Godzilla's been out for 50 years. I mean longer, but there are so many toys out there that you can get your hands on that they just add to the experience and look so cool in the game. I feel like so long as you kind of stick to the theme and the art and it doesn't really stick out, you can do some neat things along those lines. I go up and down in mods. Some of my games I have mods. Some of them I don't. My buddy Justin really decked out his JP Premium with all the toys, like you said, all the dinosaur toys, and it looked really nice. and with the nice side blades he put on it. So I'm a fan of mods. I don't go quite as crazy as Jay Hall. That guy's off his rocker, but I do like mods. I would say the Tim Lee must-have mods are Voodoo Glass and the Shaker. Those are two I get for every game. Once I had Voodoo Glass, I can't live without it, and I love the Shaker. Got to have the Shaker. You need those special pinball moments, and the shaker is always a part of that.
    80:19
    Yeah. The one mod I really do not care for in games is I do not like a different shooter knob. On some games, it's okay. Like, maybe on Tommy, it's like a silver ball on the end. Or me. We do have them. Oh, man. Or, like, even the Halloween, the knife, I wasn't really impressed with that. Like, I'd rather just have, like, you know, a regular plunge. And it's a cool thing because it's totally theme appropriate, don't get me wrong. But, like, or playing Kiss and you've got this Kiss face that you're plunging with. I don't necessarily want that in my hand.
    80:52
    Timmy's pointing behind him to his Godzilla when he's got a Godzilla special shooter knob. And they look really badass and they're cool and everything. But, man, sometimes you're playing a game and the way that you plunge, sometimes I do a short plunge. I just slam my fist. I'm slamming my fist against the, you know, plunger rod. And that can be part of the method that some people plunge in, having a custom all of that. It's really cool, but it's not necessarily best for gameplay. I didn't put the knife on Halloween because it's too difficult to plunge. But Godzilla is just a little egg. That's all it is. So it's just like having a knob. But I'm with you 100%. Like the amber egg on Jurassic Park. I've seen that on the shooter knob on Jurassic Park. It's like an amber egg. I don't know if you've ever seen that. And that feels real normal and natural to plunge because it fits in your hand naturally. So I'm up and down about that. But, yeah, thanks for all of that, Andrew. I don't always think about – I really have to, like, get working on my maiden. I haven't had it quite for – I have not had my maiden for a year yet, but I do think about those things. It would be cool to have, like, even they have, like, the stickers that can go on the ramps that make it look like steps. I'm like, that's cool. You can go through the whole Egypt theme there or the zombie theme or the maiden theme. It just goes on and on. Very cool. Andrew, we're getting towards the end of the show. Is there anything we didn't talk about that you wanted to mention? I think we hit the high points. I've had a great time talking to you guys. I just really enjoy being invited today. No, no. We had a great time. We did everything backwards. We did kind of the tribe thing up front. I tried something different. I confused you and myself. but no I knew that Andrew wanted to talk a lot about his modern collection and mods and so forth so we rearranged it and I loved your game I can't wait until it comes out and everybody makes fun of us I know it will be the end of me I'm so glad that you're able to hang out with us and I'm glad that I got to get to know you a little bit more Tim Lee you know as we all know he is the real pinball personality here, getting to know everybody in his pinball relationships. But it's just nice to get to meet you and to, you know, see your face and put that together. So I had a really fun time. Thanks, Tim. Yeah, and once again, I just want to say, the only other thing about Lady Swip I wanted to say is I also wanted to say thank you to the tribe, because the tribe is always so supportive of all my tournament stuff, especially the ones that come out on stream. And I suddenly pop up on stream and here they are screaming at me in chat. And they're so supportive and sharing my ladies stuff. So thanks, guys and gals. I love you all. All right, everyone. Well, that's another episode. Thank you, Andrew. Thank you, Rachel. Happy flipping. And Drew sucks at pinball.
    83:59
    Thank you.