Journalist Tool

Kineticist

  • HDashboard
  • IItems
  • ↓Ingest
  • SSources
  • KBeats
  • BBriefs
  • RIntel
  • QSearch
  • NName Review
  • +Health

v0.1.0

← Back to items

Episode 214 – Easy Struggle

Slam Tilt Podcast·podcast_episode·1h 23m·analyzed·Sep 5, 2023
View original
Export .md

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

Personnel shifts at Stern/JJP, factory move progress, and market inventory concerns dominate episode.

Summary

Ron and Bruce discuss recent pinball industry personnel moves (Kevin Payne to Stern as mechanical engineering director, Tom Capera to JJP as COO), the Stern factory move completion, Final Resistance shipping, and market saturation issues with inventory buildup at distributors. They also dive into deep technical discussion about Stern Cheetah cabinet variants, ROM differences between blue and black versions, and tournament results from local events.

Key Claims

  • Kevin Payne hired as Stern's new director of mechanical engineering

    high confidence · Ron states this as recent news announcement from Stern Pinball

  • Tom Capera moved from Stern mechanical engineering director to Jersey Jack Pinball COO

    high confidence · Ron reports JJP announced this the week after Payne hire

  • Stern completed factory move and started production on Jurassic Park 30th Anniversary using both old and new facilities

    high confidence · Ron cites having heard that games started at old factory and finished at new one

  • Final Resistance is shipping from Multimorphic

    high confidence · Ron mentions it was announced at Texas Pinball Festival and they're making them now

  • Blue Stern Cheetah cabinets have better sound ROMs compared to black/green variants

    medium confidence · Ron and Bruce compare their experiences with different cabinet colors and ROM versions; Bruce states sound is 'like night and day'

  • Secondary market for new pinball machines shows oversaturation; distributors holding excess inventory

    medium confidence · Bruce cites distributor contacts with excessive inventory causing interest payment concerns; average Pinside listing price increased from ~$2,100-2,200 to $2,350

  • Deadpool Premium is the rarest new game currently available

    medium confidence · Bruce states this while reviewing vendor inventory listings

  • Venom LE still has significant distributor inventory remaining

    medium confidence · Bruce notes 'most vendors, most distributors still have LEs' and characterizes this as a negative market signal

Notable Quotes

  • “Stern hired Kevin Payne as its new director of mechanical engineering... The next week, JJP announced that Tom Capera is then its new COO, chief operating officer.”

    Ron Hallett @ early segment — Major personnel movement between competing manufacturers indicating organizational restructuring

  • “Usually, as I said, COOs usually come from people who were many years in finance... That's pretty weird.”

    Ron Hallett @ mid-segment — Ron expresses skepticism about unconventional COO appointment process at JJP

  • “Without an easy struggle. Without an easy struggle. Yes. I mean, without a hard struggle, I think.”

    Bruce Nightingale / Ron Hallett @ mid-segment — Becomes episode title; discussion of solving Stern in-disc ROM issue with machine nudging

  • “I think it's way oversaturated right now. There's a lot of distributors, I know a couple of them, who have a little more inventory than they're comfortable with.”

    Bruce Nightingale @ late segment — Direct indication of market saturation and distributor financial stress

  • “This machine is the second ever made known in existence. Let me repeat that. This machine is the second ever made known in existence.”

    Ron Hallett @ mid-segment — Discussion of Stern Cheetah rarity claims based on IPSND database; demonstrates marketing hyperbole in collector market

  • “You can't get those, right? No, I told him not to go with the button one anymore.”

    Bruce Nightingale @ segment — Technical guidance on hard-to-find pinball parts for early Stern restoration

  • “So there's a lot of vendors with a lot of games now... the rarest game right now is definitely the deadpool premium.”

    Bruce Nightingale @ late segment — Market signal about which titles are undersold vs. oversold

Entities

Kevin PaynepersonTom CaperapersonGeorge GomezpersonStern PinballcompanyJersey Jack PinballcompanyMultimorphiccompanyFinal ResistancegameJurassic Park 30th Anniversarygame

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Stern factory move completed; production restarted with transition games produced across both facilities

    high · Jurassic Park 30th Anniversary started production at old factory and finished at new facility

  • ?

    event_signal: Pre-Death Ball tournament held at World Famous Rochester Pinball Collective; Death Ball tournament at Zach's house with four-pound balls

    high · Raymond Davidson won pre-Death Ball; Zach finished second; multiple games broke down during Death Ball including Jurassic Park, Alice Cooper

  • ?

    community_signal: Local pinball competitive scene active in upstate New York with organized tournaments and player community

    medium · Pre-Death Ball and Death Ball tournaments at Rochester; ABZ player streak (Zach) broken; Raymond Davidson emerging player

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Scooby-Doo game modified with no-hold flippers to reduce gameplay length and balance difficulty for tournament play

    medium · Zach performed modification on Friday; change made game 'interesting' and 'still playable' but shorter than designed

  • $

    market_signal: Secondary market oversaturation with distributor inventory buildup causing financial stress

    high · Bruce cites distributor contacts with excess inventory; average Pinside listing price increased from $2,100-2,200 to $2,350; Venom LE still widely available; multiple new games on sale at reduced prices

  • ?

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.251

0:00
Come on guys, we've been shooting this scene for four days. We're a month behind schedule. Let's try to get it this time, okay? Please, quiet on the set.
0:11
And action. Cut. Damn it. I have said that word over 400 times. How can it still be funny? And what word would that be? Action.
0:30
Coming to you from beautiful upstate New York, this is the Slam Tilt Podcast, the show about all things pinball. I'm your host, Ron Hallett, here with the other host, Bruce Nightingale. Are you ready for some football? No. Oh, God, football. That's right. Are you ready for some football? It's a Monday night party!
1:03
Well, it is Monday night. Well, Monday. Yeah, kind of evening. It is Monday night. And this is episode 214. Yes.
1:11
A quick one, as I will call it. Chicks are cool. I want my season three. Damn it. I need my season three.
1:26
Who knows? They haven't even negotiated anything. No, I used to be working on King of the Hill, which cast members keep dying. So this is a problem.
Stern Cheetah
game
Ron Hallettperson
Bruce Nightingaleperson
Zachperson
Scottperson
World Famous Rochester Pinball Collectivevenue/organization
Raymond Davidsonperson
Venom LEgame
Deadpool Premiumgame
Scooby-Doogame
Alice Coopergame
IPSND.netorganization/website

personnel_signal: Kevin Payne hired as Stern's director of mechanical engineering; Tom Capera moves from Stern to Jersey Jack Pinball as COO

high · Ron reports both hires occurred within one week; Capera move from engineering to COO role is noted as unusual in finance-to-COO career trajectory

  • $

    market_signal: Growing secondary market inventory and price softness on recent releases indicating market saturation

    medium · Bruce notes distributors uncomfortable with inventory levels; average price increase reflects supply-demand imbalance; Venom LE availability suggests weak initial demand

  • ?

    announcement: Final Resistance from Multimorphic now shipping

    high · Ron states 'they're making them now' following Texas Pinball Festival announcement

  • ?

    product_concern: Jurassic Park Pro version experiencing issues after firmware update requiring rollback to fixed version

    medium · Updated latest version still caused resetting issues; specifically targeted Raptor Pen fix but problem persisted; game removed from Death Ball tournament

  • ?

    technology_signal: ROM modifications being performed on early Stern machines to address rule issues and improve audio quality

    medium · Ron describes swapping ROMs to fix Stern in-disc spotting exploit; discussion of blue vs. black ROM audio differences; Scott and community programmers creating modified ROM versions

    • 1:37
    So how's it going, Bruce? It's going. What are we going to talk about today, Mr. Ron Allitt? So what should we talk about? I don't know.
    1:49
    Well, let's see. What do I got here? Final resistance to shipping. I didn't know there was resistance. Is this like La Viva La Ressence? I forgot. They were calling it like a relaunch. Did I miss something? I don't know. It was announced at Texas, and I played it there. I know nothing's really happened since then, but I guess they're making them now. Oh, well, yay. If you remember, that was one of the games I really liked at Texas. That's good. It's the one where they made it more like a regular pinball machine and less like a P3 machine. Yeah.
    2:33
    And the ball shoots out really fast. Nice. And that's cool music. You haven't played one, have you? No, I've not. Yeah, Bruce doesn't go to any shows or play anything cool. I go to shows. What's the last show you went to? Allentown. Yeah. Which was when? May. Yeah.
    2:52
    And it's only September. Up to four months ago. And I have a summer where I like to enjoy. We don't have much summer up here in upstate New York. That's true. So I want to enjoy my summer and work so I can go away into winter.
    3:11
    Had to work today laboring on Labor Day. I think it's like that with pinball news, too, because it's pretty dead. It's pretty dead, Jim. Dead? what do you mean it's dead his brain is gone let's see uh well there was some other news which is pretty interesting some hirings uh and movings at stern and jjp yeah who's shaking and who's moving so first actually this happened first but i think a lot of people didn't notice this one um that stern pinball announced that it had hired kevin pain the king of pain as it's new i'll always be king of pain there's a little black spot on the sun today bruce and yes there is the same old thing as yesterday bruce yes yes and it's kevin pain are you walking on the sun uh might as well be walking on the sun yeah he just died yes he did we're dating ourselves now. Well, no, the lead singer for Smash Mouth. It was like 20 years ago. I mean, the other one was like 40 years ago, Bruce. Yes. Actually, yeah. Synchronicity was 40 years ago, Bruce. Yep, and it's a better album.
    4:33
    Yeah, Synchronicity is probably a better album than any Smash Mouth album, I would imagine. Of course, I totally agree. You're finally agreeing with me. Finally, Ron's agreeing with me, folks. Mark this as a red-letter day in history. I mean, that album has, well, Synchronicity, Synchronicity 2, King of Pain, Wrapped Around Your Finger, Every Breath You Take. It's just the stalker one. Murder by Numbers. It's got, yeah. It's an awesome album. Yep, it is. What does this have to do with pinball? Police! There's going to be the new Police game coming from Stern.
    5:08
    No. What was I saying? Yes, Stern hired Kevin Payne as its new director of mechanical engineering, which was interesting because Tom Capera was their director of mechanical engineering. Well, the next week, JJP announced that Tom Capera is then its new COO, chief operating officer.
    5:32
    What do you think about that? Different. Going from an engineer to the COO. Yeah, that's interesting. It usually means you have accounting history and degrees.
    5:48
    You might have a degree in mechanical engineering or that kind of stuff, but usually you come from a background in finance. And he was pretty tight with Gomez. Yes. I mean, he was this mechanical guy in a lot of his games. He did the glove on Johnny Mnemonic. He gives you all the glove every time he talks to you.
    6:07
    I don't even know what that means, but it sounds dirty. It is. Okay. But, yeah, I can see why because I'm thinking a COO makes way more money than a director of mechanical engineering. Oh, I guarantee it. Yeah.
    6:22
    But, yeah, I was very surprised about that one. Usually, as I said, COOs usually come from people who were many years in finance. Yeah. Our COO was the controller originally. Exactly. Usually CFOs go to COOs, usually.
    6:44
    So, hey, it's their company. They can do what they want. It's privately owned and privately funded. So guess what? Privately privates.
    6:53
    Don't forget to protect your privates. Well, who was the COO? I couldn't tell you to save my life. See, I was thinking, like, who the hell was the COO of a Jersey Jack? Don't know. Was it Jack? I don't think so. No, it can't be because they would never give him the cash cow. I mean, Jack is basically what? He's their spokesperson now. Yeah, spokesperson and license-getting guy. And I think that's his main thing.
    7:20
    Yeah. Because he still lives in Jersey, right? He doesn't live in Illinois. Yeah. Well, there you go.
    7:29
    I don't really know what else to say about that. Yeah, besides, it was just, as I said, a little weird about that part. That was weird. I guess we'll see. I don't even know. You're not going to see anything. How would you see anything? No, you're not going to see anything except for maybe more hirings if they're looking for people. There you go. That kind of thing. Usually when there's one shuffle, there's usually like three or four all around. They all did a conga line.
    7:55
    Here we go to another movie. Another company. There go to this company. So we'll see about that. Also have Pintastic. Oh, no. That's not what we're doing next. Sorry. Wow. That's a total fuck up. Yeah, total fuck up there.
    8:13
    We also have the Stern factory move. Yes. The move is going very well, it looks like. They're done. They moved. I know. But it looked like it was going really well. You never know. Are they completely moved into the new building? Or is it still using both lines for temporary like they did last time?
    8:31
    I would assume for one more month they're probably going to have. They're going to work out the kinks. From what I heard, I guess they started making the Jurassic Park 30th anniversary that we talked about last episode. They started making them at the old factory and finished them up in the new factory. That's pretty neat. Which one did you get, the old factory or the new factory? Yeah, I could see that. Mine came from the old factory. Mine was the last one down the line, just like my Cheetah's the second oldest one ever. Oh, yeah. What was that quote? Mine is number 39, and it's the second registered oldest one, so it's got to be the oldest one. Okay. Segway, folks. We have to get off on this. I saw this Pinside ad that had a quote. I have never heard this particular line. I've got to look this thing up. Yes, it is pretty bad. The person was selling, I think, were they in Canada? Yes, it is in Canada. It's in Quebec. Yeah. All right, wait a minute. No, no, I mean, oui, oui. Oui, oui. So they were selling a blue cheetah. Yes, it is a blue cheetah. The rarer of the cheetahs. Yes.
    9:43
    And they just had this line. I'm looking it up here. I've never heard this particular line before. I think what they were trying to say is that. It was a little lost in translation. Well, they had. Okay, here we go.
    10:00
    Oh, no, that's the wrong one. It's serial number 1039. Here we go. The ad is, oh, he's selling it for $6,000, by the way. Yeah. Ultra rare, very early Stern cheetah. And, you know, in the course of things that could be ultra rare, I've seen at least five of these things. Yeah. The blue ones, but, you know. Cloutier surely has one. Yeah. But we're not a good test case because most people don't see as many games as we see. But this machine is the second ever made known in existence.
    10:35
    Let me repeat that. This machine is the second ever made known in existence. And I think what he's trying to say is in the IPDB serial number database, there's only one G to end there that has a serial number. Actually, sorry, it's IPSND.net. Oh, okay. Internet pinball serial number database. Okay. In that database, his cheetah is the second oldest. It's the second, what, lowest? The lowest number is 39, and his is the next number up. No, he's 1039. Yeah. And the next one is 1002. No, but the only number lower than him is 39.
    11:21
    So he's saying that his is the second. There's 38 less, yes. There's 38 other cheetahs. No, not according to him because they're not known because they're not in the serial number database. So it's the second ever made known in existence, Bruce. But the problem with this theory, it does get blown out of the water a little bit. A little bit? A little bit. Well, he could have the second oldest one. We don't know that because nobody's registered him, of course, and that kind of stuff. Besides that, the blue cabinets jumped around with serial numbers so bad it's not even funny. So he has serial number 1039.
    11:59
    Now, serial number 1234 is also a blue cabinet. But serial number 1225 is a green and black cabinet.
    12:11
    My cabinet, which is 1504, is a blue cabinet. Oh, yeah, when I said 39, I guess, yeah, it's 1039. They all start with one. The problem is the blue cabinets did not really go. they probably had them in a in a line and when they needed a cabinet after they did the first couple they probably pulled one of these out punched the numbers into the paint and on the side of the head and set and then put it on the line and whatever came down the line came down the line yes it did come later than his but you know do you need the second oldest blue one ever No. Would you not buy that? Which is rare. $6,000. Now, I have a question with this. Okay. Did they switch the boards out when they put these blue cabinets down the line?
    13:00
    What do you mean? No, you see where I'm going with this. Think where I'm going with this. Oh, what, the boards have numbers on them? No, the sounds. Remember, the blue ROMs are different than the black ROMs. Is that really true? It is. The sound is different. I have a black downstairs, totally different sound than the blues. Yeah, but is it really true that every blue has the blue sounds? We don't know. Every black has the black sounds. It sounds like that might not be the case if what you're saying is true. I think that's totally the case.
    13:27
    Because 1,002 is a blue. 1,039 is a blue. 1,078, there's no image on. So hold on. What's the next one that has an image? 1,158, that's a blue.
    13:42
    And here we go. 1,225 is a green. Does it have the sounds? We don't know. So we don't know, and we're stern guys.
    13:54
    I don't have my blue sounds anymore, Bruce. Why not? Because I had to do a ROM swap. Oh, why did you have to do a ROM swap? Because of in-disc. I blame in-disc. Yes. Because at in-disc, when they were doing the whole spot, They shoot the left lane, the ball would roll back down into the end lane, and it spots a target. Yes. After five targets, you get – And they did that over and over and over and over and over. It all depends on where you're at, but you actually pick up – Yeah, but you just keep doing it forever, and you never can drain, and you just play forever. You just – you've got to fix it the way I fix it. I'd leave that ROM in there. Put a big-ass fucking rubber on the end of the post. Guess what? it ain't going down there without an easy struggle. Without an easy struggle. Yes. I mean, without a hard struggle, I think. Easy. You know, if you struggle. But if it's an easy struggle, then how can it be a struggle if it's easy? It can be an easy struggle. God, you confused me. You can shake the machine a little bit, it'll go down. Or you can really shake the machine and it's a hard struggle.
    15:03
    I don't. My common sense says work. You have to admit it. Let me just write down easy struggle. I think we have a title already. I don't understand that. It makes perfect sense to me. It always makes perfect sense to you. I lost my sounds because I got a new ROM from Scott. And Scott didn't do blue?
    15:26
    There's something with the... He has to do something if he's doing the blue version and the sounds and blah blah blah blah. Whatever.
    15:35
    He hopefully will do a blue version eventually but all this it adds some dip uh add some dip yeah it repurposes some of the dip switches so you can turn off and on the spotting good so they're off so it's not according to the play field that's the problem oh yeah the play field is completely wrong now it doesn't spot your targets like it says it does yep so you have to put a sign on the machine saying does not spark targets the lanes do not the in lanes do not spot targets which is fine but uh yeah i god when i hear the old body compared to the newer body, black and green, compared to the blue cabinet. Oh, the blue cabinet is so much better. So that's a helpful hint for everyone, boys and girls. Go with the blue ROM so you get a better sound. Oh, the sounds are much better. Oh, my God. It's like night and day. I turn on the green one downstairs. I'm like, ugh.
    16:29
    Yeah, that was kind of my reaction when I heard the sounds. I've been a long time since I've actually heard them. Yeah. I turned on mine when we were downstairs, and I turned it on again a couple days later. I'm like, oh, I've got to get me different ROMs. And I have the original board of mine, so I have to re-burn four of them.
    16:48
    Yeah, I've got an original board. I just – I jumpered it for two. Yeah. Two 27 – what are they called again? 27 32s? Yep, 27 32s. Did I get that right? Yeah, I got something right. Yeah. I have the four eights. You have the four sixteenths. Or four sixteenths. Yeah, you have 24, 27 sixteenths. Yes. But you can get the re-burnables or whatever with those. Yeah, yeah. That's what Zach does all the time. Yes, he does. This is probably going to be a short episode. We should do introductions.
    17:19
    Like, hi, I'm Ron. If you've never listened before. I'm sorry that you picked this podcast. I'm sorry you picked this podcast. And we can explain who these people we keep mentioning are. Well, Scott is our programmer who programs a lot of the... Programmer extraordinaire. Who reprograms Stern and Valley games. And he's talking about doing some Gottliebs now, which would be nice. He's done Williams. If you ever played at Papa back in the day, you probably played on some of his modified games. Because he froze the jackpots on old... Yeah, a lot of the System 11, yeah, progressive jackpot games that were not progressive there. That's why. No, they were just stuck. Like, Zach is this other guy we know. He's one of your partners at the World Famous. Where is that located, Ron?
    18:08
    What? Oh, 349 West Commercial Street, East Rochester, New York, suite number something. Can I get some more energy with that? Because you really didn't sell it. I didn't sell it. No, you didn't sell it. I didn't sell the World Famous Rochester Pinball Collective, located at 349 West Commercial Street in East Rochester, New York. Suite number what, Bruce? 2965. All right. Come there and play the 50. Is it 50? 50. 50 games, including the amazing Rotation 8. Sit down and eat while you play pinball as the whole play field rotates to your position. Yes. Thank you. Was that good enough, Bruce? That was pretty good. Okay. Thank you. With more games coming. And taking some games out. Ooh. What games could they be? I don't know. You have probably a couple guesses. What would I take out of the Garrett? What would I take out? Well, you would take out Star Wars. No, my own games. Oh, your own games. Wait, what games are yours, Bruce? I don't know. Well, I know it's your Monopoly, Lord of the Rings, AFM, Whitewater. Yep.
    19:18
    Those are the ones I know off the top of my head. Video Madness. Oh, that's yours? Yep. wait a minute that's a remake yes it is wait you want a remake yeah what did this happen i had the first first run i bought i bought it back in 2014 damn i'm gonna have to go back to a prior episode to find out when that happened 2014 i bought that oh okay that probably would not be in a prior episode nope would not uh hot doggin uh yes hot doggin batman 66 oh that's right Batman 66. Stars. Star Trek.
    19:50
    Half of Poops. Half of Gamatron. What else we got there? I think that's about it. So what are you taking out, Bruce? You're going to be surprised. Out of those games, which one... Stars. Yep. You're taking out Stars. Yep, because Mark has another one. Oh, okay. That's okay.
    20:13
    Yep. That's very important that that remains there. That's the official game. Oh, by the way, yes. So that's the official game of the Slamtail Podcast. If you've never listened to us before, it's stars. Yes. And somebody messaged me with his ugly-ass stars looking for a lockdown bar and a lockdown bracket.
    20:33
    I think you know who I'm talking about. Why is it ugly? Oh, did you see the play field? I did not see the play field. Oh, my God. I'm going to send you a picture of that play field right now. Did you have a lockdown bar available I told them where to get one Oh wait a minute There a place you can get one No What do you mean no Well I told them where to get the lockdown bar receiver The lockdown bar receiver. Oh, okay. And then on eBay, there was an auction for one. Ah, okay. Point of that. All right. But the lockdown bar is the rare type. It's kind of – you can't get those, right? No, I told him not to go with the button one anymore. Oh, you told him to get a different receiver. Yes. So you can get, oh, what a nice guy you are. Yep. And he's ready to go buy an EM Chicago coin one. I'm like, no, no, no, no, don't do that. No, no, no, no, no. Well, can't you, if you get a new receiver, can't you get like an old data East lockdown bar or something that works? There you go. I remembered something.
    21:42
    See, Ron did remember something. There you go. So listen to Bruce. Yes, Bruce does know what he's talking about. Once in a blue moon. Okay, hold on a second. Now, wait a minute, Bruce. You're on that 15-year-old computer. Are you sure it can handle this? Yes, it's on my phone and I'm doing this. Oh, okay. Well, wait a minute. You're on a Windows phone. Are you sure that can handle it? I'm not on a Windows phone.
    22:07
    Jesus Christ. Let's see. What else do I got here? Stern factory move. Well, that's about it for industry news. The industry is dead. Long live the industry. How much is going on? Book of the face? Book in the face. All right. I don't want to see his live reaction. My live reaction as opposed to my recorded reaction. Yes. All right. Here we go. And.
    22:39
    Wow. It's weird to see us stars with a warm play field. I almost did. It is really worn. I mean, you might see an area of wear, but this thing, like the whole thing is worn. Yes. Which is weird. Top to bottom. Now, wait a minute. Where is that spinner from? No, they're both proper spinners. No, they're not. Yes, they are. They're star spinners. No, look at the one in the back. It's got the mountain thing on it. That's the proper star spinner. That's a star spinner. Listen to me on this one also. God, it's a Stern part number. It is 10-whatever the part number is. Oh, whatever it is. Okay. They started with the run of stars in the beginning with that spinner. Then they switched to the newer style stern spinner. Never seen that one. Yes. Because that is used in pinball also. If you look up a flyer for pinball, you'll see that spinner.
    23:35
    Wow. This thing is rough. This thing is hurting. Wait a minute. It was in water because you can see by the ball trapper up top, you know, it's rusted completely. The ball trapper.
    23:50
    At least he has both spinners. That's the only good thing about it. And it stars. And it stars, but that's a rough, rough, rough. I hope he got it, like, really cheap.
    24:01
    God, I hope so, too, unless you're going for a play field. If you're going for a play field, then. And I think at that point, you do this one, you're going for a play field. Oh, you on? You on coming up? Yep, you on time. Yeah. 6.30, I already got near you on, half an hour. Well, he'd be asleep. No, I got another hour. Oh, another hour before you're asleep. Okay. Yep.
    24:22
    So Scott Charles has this picture of his cheetah. And his is the green. The green? I sent you my picture. Wait, wait, the green or the black? Green and black. Well, all you can see is the green in the picture. Okay. I send you my picture, and I have the blue where the paint is chipping away from it. Yes. And if you look at it really closely, you can see my serial number is 1254, something like that. Is your serial number in that aforementioned serial number database? No, it is not. Fail. But see, there could be all kinds of ones in there that are not in the database. I have never put any game in that database. That's why it is.
    25:02
    It's neither of us, but whatever. Ah, what else do I have here? A lot of machines up for sale lately. Could you be more vague? What kind of machines? Just all machines? Brand new machines? Old, new, everything. Everything is for sale. In this past week, I've seen a Quicksilver come up, a Cheetah, a couple of Stars, and a big game. All just on the early Stern stuff. And then a lot of new games up for sale. like newer stuff like deadpools and i think everybody is ordering all these games and they're going fuck i gotta pay for these games what i'm gonna do i'll sell these instantaneous high sellers and they're not getting the money they thought they would somebody some of these games from these instantaneous high sellers yeah yep because they're instantly on crack they think they got gold.
    26:02
    Do you agree? Do you think the market's too high? I think it's way oversaturated right now. There's a lot of distributors, I know a couple of them, who have a little more inventory than they're comfortable with. I'm sure they have Godfathers, Toy Stories.
    26:23
    Even some of the Cactus Canyons. Bond and Cactus Canyon. and these people they ordered oh i want this game i want this game in it and the problem is these companies take so long besides stir besides stir to get these games out they might have four games come out between the time they ordered a pin and then by the time they get there yeah so then they're thinking i'll just sell this one oh wait a sec i got three more on order unless you ordered the certain 30th anniversary then you had it in a week yeah exactly that was Insane. I know. I saw a picture and I'm like, wait a sec. People have been waiting for games from Stern for a long time and we're delaying all these games. Don't go there. And wait a sec. I can get a brand new one like that? Somewhere there's an Elvira order person going, what the fuck? Fuck you, Bruce. Yeah.
    27:21
    But yeah, it's just weird. Why? Come on, Bruce. You can say it. Cash graph. Come on. Subscribe! There you go. There's your line.
    27:33
    But if you look on Pinside, there's a lot more games up for sale. Usually the average, I think, is like $2,100. I think it's like $2,350 now.
    27:44
    Let's see. I'm going to look right now on the market. And while you're looking, this past weekend, actually, was it last weekend? Touch. $2,342. The average usually is like $2,100 to $2,200. So there's more games out there trying to get sold.
    28:01
    Loving, touching, squeezing, hugging. And Venoms, you can still get an LE like this. You know, you can – most vendors, most distributors still have LEs.
    28:15
    That's not a good sign, is it? No. Who's the guy that wrote the code for that? Oh, stop. Stop. Just let it go. Bring it up. I like how you bring up, you do journey.
    28:30
    If there's one thing I can't sing, it would be journey. That is way too high. And you know what, though? Steve Perry can't sing it anymore either. No, he can't. He can't sing at all. Only the young can say The freedom fly away away. Someday love will find you.
    28:57
    Break those chains that bind you. I like, when they did that song, I saw something with Steve Smith, the drummer, where he just came out and said, like, yeah, we made that to be like an arena. So, like, when we were in an arena, we wanted something big that we could play in a large arena. So that's literally how they came up with that song. Oh, I agree. like the in-home arcade from midwest gaming here here's what he has in stock ready to ship 007 le 007 premium guardians pro avengers pro premium 007 premium tnt uh premium food fighters premium and pro wait what's zilla pro tnt premium what's that tmmt oh tmmt okay iron maiden premium pro jurassic park premium pro mandalorian pro they haven't done a mandalorian pro in a long time a rush premium pro haven't done those in a while premium holy crap yeah uh bond 60th star wars premium and pro and deadpool pros wow so he's like if he's got all that inventory so the rarest game right now is definitely the deadpool premium yes but yeah it's like holy shit you know there's a lot of vendors with a lot of games now i know some are going oh i'm looking for stuff yes you're one of the few and far between i think a lot of vendors are going fuck i'm going to start paying interest on this shit yeah you're not going to see like no circus voltaire days sorry jt it ain't gonna happen what's a circus voltaire day where they were going on clearance for eighteen hundred dollars from williams or even like the uh wheel of fortune oh yeah what oh how much was that again that was 2200 2300 if i remember 23 or 2400 yeah there's 24 yeah it was and not just it was wheel of fortune and and a world poker tour yeah world poker tour yes that was from a canadian distributor so you'd Yeah, there's probably more. You have to pay some kind of, what, export thingy?
    31:12
    I don't think so. Yeah, I had to pay one for it. I got the stupid firepower from Canada. I had to pay shit.
    31:19
    Yeah. Wow. Deathball. Deathball? Deathball. I didn't make it. I was exhausted. Bruce was tired. Well, he made the pre-deathball. I did make the pre-deathball. And had another incredible post-retirement performance. This retirement is really going my way. When are you retiring? Yeah. Hey, Timmy. Timmy retired. Oh, yes, Tim. That's Tim Sexton, folks. Tim Balls. Timmy, who works at Stern, who was on the podcast a lot at the beginning. Yes. See, everyone's going to start following me. He made a retirement that he is retiring from competitive, except in certain circumstances. So see, in my certain circumstances, everyone's going to follow my lead. Yeah, they all followed your lead, Bruce. Yep. They're all retiring. Yep. Soon Keith's going to retire in certain tournaments. You watch. Do it, Keith. That would be Keith Elwin for those of you. See, I'm explaining everything. You do some explainings. Explainings. So, yeah, there was the pre-Death Ball tournament at the wonderful, world-famous Rochester Pinball Collective. Yes. Which was won by... Raymond Davidson. Comes out there and kicks Zach's ass. So the ABZ is now, we're now into three tournaments he has not won in a row. Whoa. Well, he finished second, though, right? Yes, he did. Zach finished second. Who finished third? Some guy named Hallett.
    32:47
    Was I third? No, I wasn't third. I wasn't even in the finals. Oh. I was fourth. Who was third with us? I can't remember. I have to look at the pictures. I don't remember this shit. I don't remember my own name. Was it Eric? It might have been Eric. Yes, it was Eric. We had a tiebreaker. Me and Eric did. Eric Russell, CNY, specifically. You thought Zach would have been in key. He picked the final game, tiebreaker against Raymond Davidson, Star Wars. And he got cock-blocked with a freaking lightsaber.
    33:22
    Way to go, Star Wars. Which you probably thought, right? Yeah. Then we had the world-famous death ball tournament. Everything's world-famous. At Zach's house. With the four-pound ball. With the four-pound balls.
    33:39
    And at least some of the games made it through the tournament. Oh, boy. Let's see what broke down. Let's see. I wasn't there, so I can tell you. Jurassic Park. Oh, that was acting all weird. Yeah, since the upgrade. Upgrade to the new version.
    33:53
    And it kept resetting. so that they updated it to the latest, latest version, the fixed version, even though he has a pro. Yep. And the fixed was specifically for, like, the Raptor Pen thing and all that, but it still kept doing the same thing. So that got removed.
    34:09
    Let's see, Alice Cooper failed, of course, when I was playing it, so that got removed. Scooby-Doo lasted.
    34:18
    It actually made it now. Boinks! There was ball traps up the ass. Oh, I know. We were changing the flipper. The glass was off a lot. Yeah, I know. There was a lot of. But other than that, it made it through.
    34:33
    I worked with Zach on it on Friday. He did a little modification to make the upper flippers no-hold. Yes. No-hold flippers.
    34:44
    Made it interesting. Still playable. No, that's good. Everyone talks at the shows, they all talked about how long the game played and all that. Not this one. yeah and the problem is i think most of the modes are assuming that it's going to play long when you see things like uh you start this mystery hit zero you hit 10 different shots like oh there's like no way i'm going to get through this on his scooby i like the dough i have to say my biggest issue with it honestly is the voices yeah they're not accurate fred is fine because it's actually fred yes but everyone else is just like if they only had a guy they could actually ask oh you mean mark silk who does scooby and shaggy and sounds just like it yes well they got the people who are doing them now that also probably was part of the licensing thing i i would think but yeah that was that was the only oh and this the music was really low it was weird, some of the mixing of the sound.
    35:50
    But I really liked a lot of the mysteries. I'll call mysteries instead of modes. The rules are interesting. As opposed to just the usual shit you see in every game. And it survived the tournament, so what the hell? It's like way ahead of all the others. Like, um, what's the guy's name in the diving suit? Captain something? I forget, yeah. Oh, Captain Chaos. No, that's not his name. Captain Cutler. There we go. Captain Cutler. I am Captain Chaos. This is my friend Kato. Say hello, Kato.
    36:25
    I'm even a cop long. Captain Cutler. You start that mystery, and you have to go to the upper play field and hit him to keep your oxygen up while you hit other shots.
    36:39
    Just little things. There's another one. There's four shots, but it's a safe combination, and you have to hit them in a certain pattern. And if you hit the wrong one, you've got to start over again. I thought that was pretty neat.
    36:52
    And let's see. Some of the changes they made from the last time I played it. I remember the last time I played it, if you got the van, Mystery Machine multiball, it played the Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? And it looped it over and over and over. Now it will do it once with the lyrics. Yep. And then the subsequent time, it's just the music. Yes. So that made it less annoying.
    37:17
    Yeah. I mean, and it looks fantastic. Oh, it's a beautiful game. I will give it. Every time you look at one of their games, it is a beautiful game. Will it last? Only time will tell. Probably not. No. Usually don't. No. But, and I mean, it was probably picked almost every round. Yeah. but not a ton of play. And he was playing so brutal. It's not like the ball times were that long, but just a lot of balls getting stuck.
    37:51
    Let's see. Hang-ups. Yeah. And who won that tournament? Poker went down. Oh, jeez. Sacks a home run. But then he got it fixed. That was going to be the final game, but he couldn't get it working. So they ended up – what did they end up on? I think they picked Scooby. and then he got it fixed after the game was over nice uh that was won by raymond davidson wow so a twofer and eric russell cny in second and i was in third i was the top actually was actually his fourth actually his fourth congratulations guys and yeah i was the top seed and he did a ladder final three person three players at a time the next person comes in you know so just don't be last so i picked uh what i picked demo man and i was last yeah nice that was fast and easy he's like fuck you bruce it was annoying but in doing that i have now won all the trophies for death ball oh wow i won the first one i was second in the second one the third one i think i was fourth and didn't get anything.
    39:02
    This one, I was third. So I first, second, and third place trophies. Isn't that great? Alright. Dead. Silence? It's not great? Okay. Let's go to the ball bag, Bruce. Oh my, I love when the ball bag. I love short episodes like this one. We still got more. Oh, we got more. We got to talk about a certain show coming up. That's why we got to get this thing out. so dipping into the ball bag with my pinky toe this is from cole hi cole it says hey guys love the show and always look forward to new episodes i played in the california extreme tournaments for the first time this week and in the five game bank of the classics was a stars and dragon fist yes i saw the stream nice i saw that always like seeing stars and dragon fist everyone loves the fist everyone loves the fist yes they love the fist bruce they do he says while i have taken the fist once before and i like it oh my it was the first time i've ever played a stars i have to say i can see why it is the official game of the slam till podcast both games are amazing the other three games were sharpshooter cherry bell and evil kenevil wow we've gone down we've gone down else the first two the funny part is that stars and the fist were the games i put my best scores on and i played the best out of that group thanks for driving the price of these old sterns and making it more difficult for me to add one to my collection. We're sorry. Don't, no, no. Dragon fist is always going to be a hard find. Yeah. But stars, there's 5,000 of them. You should be able to, yeah, there's a lot of stars very easily. Get, get a stars. You'll be glad to get a stars. You'll be very happy. Yeah. Get a stars. You'll be glad you did. Oh, what's that from? Damn it.
    41:07
    Probably some other eighties shit. That proves I'm old. You are old. Oh, thanks for all that you do and keep up the awesome job. you do. We do. Thank you, Cole. Player 98780. Nice. Thank you. We do suck. Don't forget.
    41:26
    Chris. Chris Davis, our Northwest correspondent. Who gets us into trouble with show organizers. He sends a picture.
    41:36
    He says, Northwest correspondent with a buddy. Did he see the picture? No, he did not. He standing with someone who likes big butts and he cannot lie Oh what his name Sir Mix Sir Mix yeah Which means he must still live in the Seattle area I guess so He is the true Northwest pioneer.
    41:55
    He's wearing the same hat, too. He probably bought 100 of them back in the 80s. I like big butts and I cannot lie.
    42:05
    Very nice, very nice. Likes Sir Mix-a-Lot. Mm-hmm. Just standing on a big butt. Let's see. This next one's from Daniel. Hi, Daniel. Fellas, after listening to the latest episode, it seemed like you might not know the origin of the energy vampire. Oh, no.
    42:28
    Or maybe someone has since filled you in. Yes, we had an email last episode of someone that wanted me to read the email like Pinbot. Yes. And then they called Zach, our Zach, the energy vampire, which is hilarious. It is. Daniel says, there's a character on What We Do in the Shadows, Colin Robinson, who is – Instead of feeding on human blood, he feeds on sapping their happiness by being boring. Wow. Wow, Zach. I didn't know you were that way. Wow. Zach is not boring. Come on. He is full of energy, and he's the life of the party. Well, no, he's not that either. This show absolutely needs to be on your must-see streaming list. The show is a perfect match to your brand of humor. You will love it. So the name of the show is What We Do in the Shadows. Okay. Almost sounds like a dark-themed porno. Oh, my. You know? I'm sure there's got to be, like, a Dracula porn. There has to be. Energy Vampire is also a great nickname for Zack, who really seems to thrive on being as negative as possible on every episode he's on. That's just his natural way. That is Zack, actually. He's just natural. And he loves to get in arguments and try to win them all. And he thinks he wins them all. But everyone else around him goes, no. No, he totally wins everything. I throw in a vote for him being a twinge of Simpsons comic book guy. Oh, yeah. He is definitely a comic book guy. Worst pinball ever.
    44:10
    Great show as usual, Dan. P.S. Please make sure Bruce gets a handy before the next show so he gets back to only marginally angry Bruce. Yeah. Fuck yeah. Okay. Handy me. I'll take a handy. Hold on. Handy me.
    44:29
    Or Handyman. Remember Handyman from In Living Color? Yes. Oh, God. Would you even be able to do that sketch now? I'm watching older shows right now. I've been watching Titus a lot.
    44:41
    Did you ever watch Titus? No. Oh, my fucking God. It's all on YouTube now. That's the good thing about it. He put them all on YouTube, so you can watch them on YouTube. Titus himself put them all on YouTube? Yes. Oh, okay. And, oh, my God. I'm up to like episode 15 and I'm sitting there three quarters going, they would never allow that on TV. Nope, nope, nope. This is fucking hilarious. Holy shit. This is great. Yes. And the father, Stacy Keech, he's just awesome in it. Yes. Handyman was the handicapped superhero. Yes. Handyman. Yes. It was, which Wayans brother? It was Damon, wasn't it? Yes. Damon Wayans. But yeah. Oh my God. The handicapped icon on his chest. And the colors were like orange and red. Remember when they had Detective Head? He was just a head and feet. Yes. Just like, this is a job for head.
    45:36
    Okay. We got an email from Twip. Oh, no, sorry. It was a blue. Blue. Blue? The outfit was blue with silver cape. Okay. He's looking it up. And he's got the handy. He walks with it, too. Oh, my God. Just looking at the stuff. It is not. No. And then when he flies, when he flies, oh, my God, that was the funniest fucking thing. I would put up there the first two seasons before they got into trouble and had to do stuff. And had to, like, and half the cast left. The first two seasons have been living in color with some of the funniest shit I've ever seen on TV. Oh, my God, yes, totally. And you wouldn't be able to do half of it now. No, not even a third. Men on film. Remember Men on Film? Yes. That's where they got in trouble because they did – they had the Super Bowl halftime one. Yep. And they had the men on film segment where they insinuated that – what was it? Carl Lewis was gay. Yeah. And they got in trouble and then they had to start presenting all their scripts to Fox before they – Fox was great back then because you had Titus. You had In Living Color. You had Married with Children. Married with Children, which god damn, nothing on that you'd be able to do anymore. No. And you also had Herman's Head. Herman's Head was a great TV show. Wasn't one of the Simpsons people on that? Yes. The one that was Lisa or something? Yes, the one that Lisa was the voice of his conscience, one of his four conscience. We're going totally off topic here, folks. Oh, my God. It's fucking hilarious, though. But it's the 90s, folks. It was a fun time. When TV was fun. It was the last era where you could do anything you wanted on TV, pretty much. Oh, God. Yes, this email from Twip says, pinball promoters, the Twip team has built a new mods and topper database. So this is probably like the reviews for podcast database.
    47:24
    Basically, you can leave reviews for mods and toppers at TWIP. So there you go. So leave your reviews there.
    47:32
    And vote for the cool ones like the Jurassic Park, the Art of Pinball, the T-Rex Head, and other the like. I don't buy mods. Yes, right. Yeah. You went to a podcast with the most anti-mod guy possible in Bruce.
    47:53
    I still have 5,000 freaking incandescent bulbs downstairs. Yes, yes, yes. I have lots of incandescents too, Bruce. There's nothing wrong with incandescents. I bought you some.
    48:02
    Let's see. Oh, boy. Every time we get one from Glenn. Oh, I love Glenn. Hi, Glenn. Glenn, for those at home. He's the guy that did the slam tilt. Yeah. Fuck yeah song. That you will hear at the end of this episode. If you've never listened to a show, of course. And you've lasted this long. If you've lasted this long. And you haven't been offended. Well, you've definitely been offended. Let's see. New segment idea. Oh, boy. Turd or Treasure. I already like the title. I already love the title. TNT? Yes. TNT. Because I'm TNT. Oh, I. Turd or a treasure. Oh, I. TNT. I guess it's T-O-T then. Yeah. Turd and a treasure. It's turd and a treasure. He says, from time to time, I see a game with not enough votes on Pinside to make it go to the top 100 page. Oh, it is even better. A friend of mine saw a 1979 Williams Time Warp for sale listed at $1,500. I think he's going to offer $900. Yeah, that's more like it. If he buys it, should this game keep the banana flippers, or is it better to swap it out with the standard William flipper bats? Swap it out. No, keep it original. No, swap it out. Put regular flipper bats. No. But put regular flipper bets. Ridge on no. No. Ridge on no. No. Yes. Remember, we mentioned Timmy Sexton. He was retiring. Timmy had a time warp that he was trying to sell for years. Like every Allentown he'd have out there. And he had regular flippers in it. Yep. Because nobody wants it. They want the banana flippers. Okay. See? Well, he was selling it with, he had the banana flippers in the coin shop. No, no, no. You've got to get the full experience. That's why. Do the shots still work with standard flippers? Yes. Yes, they do. Let's see. Any other games on Pinside that don't have the required 50 ratings to make the list? That could be a kernel in the crap. Kernel in the crap? How about corn in the crap? Corn in the crap? It never gets digested. Oh, ew. I'm being honest. You're being disgusting. No, I'm not. Yes, you are. No, I'm not. I'm being totally truthful. Pinside. Where do we find the bad ones? Yeah, I don't know. Okay, wait a minute. Top 100. So you have to have a certain number of ratings. Oh, here. A game needs to have at least 50 valid ratings. Yeah, so where do you find that list? So where do you find the list of ones that don't have 100 ratings? Yeah.
    50:23
    I don't know how Pinside works. Neither do I. Wait a minute. If you keep scrolling down. Can we bust the balls of Pinside, how they're trying to take away from people trying to sell? And if you actually sell it from another place, they're going to knock you down. So you can only sell it on Pinside. Did you hear about this? No. Go ahead and explain while I'm trying to look up this site. So say if I list my game on Pinside and I list my game on my local Facebook marketplace and, say, in Craigslist, and I don't sell it on Pinside, say a guy local comes to me and says, Hey, I saw your Craigslist ad. I'll pay exactly what you want for it here. And I tell them after a couple times, say if Pinside didn't sell it for me, they're going to charge me or I have to pay a fee beforehand to list that game.
    51:15
    Really? You're punishing me? Go fuck yourself, Pinside. Wow. I can't find where this is. At least not quickly. Where the fuck's Glenn? So Glenn, let us know where we can see machines that haven't gotten 50.
    51:31
    It's probably just going to a games page and sorting by something. I don't know. But I'm too stupid to go through it right now. EM100. Yeah, those are like all the – the ones that are in the top 100 are the ones that already have 50 or more reviews. We need like a full list so we can find – so I'm figuring it's under machines. Yeah, it's got to be under machines. And then there's somewhere number of ratings or something. Can I do a – All ratings. Oh, there's all ratings? Where? I'm looking. Hold on. The excitement of listening to a surf. Yes.
    52:08
    I mean, what's something that wouldn't have a lot of ratings? What's a game that would not have a lot of ratings?
    52:15
    Liberty Bell, maybe. How about a game I played? Aerobatics. Oh, aerobatics, yeah. Maybe, but I don't know. I liked aerobatics.
    52:25
    How do you look up in this thing? I just looked up aerobatics. Okay, how many is it? Uh... I'm trying to see where it has, like, ratings. This machine is not... Okay, it's been rated by nine users. Okay. So, basically, is it, like, if you're not in the top 100, you don't have enough ratings? No, because there's 66. If you go to 290, it's 66 rated. Yeah. So, how do you get the fucking list? Yeah, I don't... Oh, ratings. Wait a minute. Oh, it's just for that one. Is there one... Okay. I don't know how to do this Glenn tell us how to do this Descending And that's all we got for For the ball bag Wow they got a lot of Fucking old ball games here too I'm looking Hold on But yes Aerobatics Try it out folks If you ever happen to see one Yeah there's a great game Hold on It's an EM And it has sounds I think I figured it out Just trying to get down To the fucking bottom Bruce figured something out Yay! Wow, this is amazing. Super Zeus. Zeus.
    53:37
    Look at all these bad games I'm trying to figure out. But what were we supposed to do with the games again?
    53:43
    If they're a treasure or a turd. TNT, remember? So just look through anything that doesn't have enough ratings and say whether it's a treasure or a turd? Yes, like Splash Ball. Ah.
    53:56
    Fuck Splash Ball. Holy shit, that's bad. I think maybe he wants to know anything that doesn't have the required 50 ratings It's actually good. That should be in the top 100. Vacation America. No, that should not be in the top 100. It's not in the top 100. You just said that.
    54:08
    It is not even in the – well, it's not rated. It can't make the rating. Good. It should never be rated.
    54:15
    It's been rated. Hold on. Unless you're going to rate it down. Six approval ratings. 44 more needed. Yeah. No. Do not rate this game. One location has this machine. What? Yes. Oh, my God. Who the hell has vacation in America? We should fucking make fun of that place. And it is, hold on, right? Pinball Life World Headquarters.
    54:39
    That doesn't count. It doesn't count. It's not a location. Yeah, it's probably in their break room. Yeah. That's like a rib. Yeah. Wow.
    54:50
    Let's see what else is on this list. NFL. What doesn't have enough? Okay. NFL. NFL's not bad. It only has 13 approvals. It's Sharky Shootout. No, it's not Sharky Shootout. It's Striker Extreme.
    55:08
    Five locations have it on location. Can you name the five? No. Actually, two are very famous. Oh, RPC has one? Nope, not that famous. Oh. Oh, oh. Next Level Pinball Shop in Oregon has 266 games. Yes, in Oregon. It gets lost. In Oregon, yes.
    55:32
    Flowing Tide Pub 3. That's in Nevada, and they have that one game only. Okay. Fort Wayne Pinball Wizard, 179 games.
    55:49
    Parkview Lanes. Parkville Lanes. Oh, bowling alley. Yep. And one, Ron, next to you, Peter Paul Recreation Park.
    56:02
    I've never heard of that. It's in Rome, New York. That's not really next to me. That's close. Close to you and me. By close, within a couple hours. Okay.
    56:11
    But, yeah, they have one on location there. Okay. That is a turd. We already know this. Hey, I didn't mind it. Turd. Of course, I don't mind Striker Extreme either. Exactly. So what does that tell you? Hey, you can play Australia. Hey, look, High Roller Casino. Let's see if that's even on there. Oh, God.
    56:34
    Yes, High Roller Casino, one of Bruce's favorites. Yes. And? How many? Is that 50? Does it have 50? I don't know. I'm asking you. You're asking me. I thought you were looking it up. No, I said you. Look up High Roller Casino. You listen back, you'll actually hear me say that. You're assuming I'm listening back.
    56:57
    You do when you're editing. No, I don't. Let's see. High Roller Casino. Ratings. It is 257 and has 76 approved ratings. Wow. So they agree it sucks. No, there's still 40 that are worse. Let's see what Lost in Space is.
    57:19
    Lost in Space. Lost in Space has not made the 50. Okay, so should that make it? No. Oh, come on. That thing is a fucking turd. But it has a cool multi-ball intro thing, doesn't it? It has a great intro, and that's the only thing it's good for. Yeah, but it has at least one good thing. Yeah, it's still not worth what they think it's worth. Oh.
    57:41
    Looking for our diamond in the rough game, if we can find one. We're trying to find one. X-Files? That's not a good one. No, that's not good.
    57:50
    Zingy bingy. No, God. A game that neither me or Bruce have played. Nope. I know who owns it. Yes. But, oh. Okay. I'm going to ask you. Uh-oh. Kingpin. Does it have 50 ratings or not? I would say no. How could it? It does not. But it has 31 out of 50. Wow.
    58:14
    Sure. Folks, we need more ratings on Kingpin. And we know you haven't seen them in the usual group that brought them to shows, hasn't brought it to the show in forever. But take our word for it. It's really good. It's a fucking excellent game. It's a great mob-themed game. It does, I mean, it does do the, you know, Big Bang Bar, you hit the ramp to start everything. Yeah, you have to, yes. And this game, you hit the Lex to start everything, which is the hotel thing. But still, it has spinners. It has the fishtails crisscrossing ramp thing, but with spinners in the front of them. Okay. Now I have a question for you. What? Question for you. What? Big Bang Bar. You just brought it up.
    58:53
    Where do you think that's rated? If it is rated. That probably will be rated. Okay. It is. Yep. 194 people rated it. Where do you think it ranks out of 290 games? I don't know. Where? No, you got to give me a fucking guess. Come on. Give me a fucking guess. 200.
    59:11
    72. No. Exactly. No. Five locations have it on location. Five locations have it on location as opposed to off location. Yep. Flippers.
    59:25
    Vintage Flipper World. Waiting for the map to clear out. Main Street Amusements. Uh-huh. I'm looking for the other one. I see two, unless it's overseas. It might be overseas. that's only given to the United States, and that's all that matters to us. America!
    59:49
    America. I don't see the other two, because they come in purple. America. So, that's really all I had, except for the fact that there is a show coming up this weekend. There is? It's a big deal in the Northeast area. It is. it's called Pentastic and it's the first year they're going to be in this new location which has a super New England name the Chowderheads that I have to look up it's kind of like on Family Guy, you know, Quahog it's like yeah, that definitely sounds like something that would be in New England this definitely sounds like something that would be Chowderheads, you're going to come to the Chowderheads no, it's not called Chowderheads I wonder if there's a place in New England called Chatterheads.
    60:44
    No, it's from Marlboro, Massachusetts. Smoke your luckies here, kiddo. It's September 7th through the 10th at the Best Western Royal Plaza Hotel, which hopefully will be less shitty than the other hotel that smelled like urine and shit, literally. It did. So it won't be hard for it to be better, but hopefully it is better. Well, the good thing is the tournament will be pretty good. It'll be damn good because the two people running it are good guys. Because the Sanctum runs it, and we already know what all the games are. Yes.
    61:22
    I love that about them. Good luck, guys. I'm all counting on you because I'm not going. I got to work. That's not an excuse. Actually, I don't have to work this weekend. But I don't want to drive out there eight hours each way. No, thank you. It is an eight-hour drive each way.
    61:40
    Unless I was able to sneak into somebody's room and sleep in it. I'll just flip right in the bed with you.
    61:49
    You thought about this last week. Yes, yes, Bruce. The games will be... You know what the games will be, Bruce? Nope. It's going to be... Let's see. Oh, it's got the abbreviations. Let's see if we can guess these abbreviations, Bruce. How good are we? CAPT that'll be Captain Fantastic CEN, that'll be Centaur Harry, oh Dirty Harry they're bringing that back that's the one where I got a billion and still got destroyed by Eric Stone yay Foo, be Foo Fighters Fun H, Fun House G and R which one it's probably the newer one because he has a newer one there oh no Oh globe globetrotters Globetrotters Hot That could be hot tip hot dogging Or hot hand Oh wait a minute I think it Hot Hand It Hot Hand I think Oh God Hulk They're bringing that turd. Oh, God. God, I hate Hulk.
    62:49
    And I've played all these games. These specific ones. Paragon. They're bringing the Paragon. That's good. That's a nice Paragon. Primus. Ugh, turd. Oh, God. Turd, turd.
    63:00
    Robocop or Robo War. Probably Robocop. RoboCop. I think they have RoboCop. They do. You get shot in the dick. Oh, God. Split. Split? Split second.
    63:14
    Hurry. And Weird Al. You have my Weird Al. Okay. And those are the games. Nice. That's going to be interesting.
    63:25
    Hurry. But, yes, fantastic pinball. They're going to have lots of games, seminars, seminars like playing tips.
    63:41
    There's one actually called Protect Your Supple Wrists and Hands. Oh, my. My supple wrists. I hate when I get limped. Wait a minute. Here's one. Retro Pin Upgrade, How to Create and Run New Rules on Solid State Machines with Dick Hamill. There you go. Any former guest. Yep. Hi, Dick. Homebrew Developers Panel.
    64:05
    Would Zach be on that? Probably not. Nope. Okay. Bowen explains and demonstrates Final Resistance. So I guess that means that will definitely be there. That will definitely be there. Let's see.
    64:21
    I found one game that needs one more. There's one game from Capcom that needs one more rating to get into the top five. Ratings. Well, I could guess a few and I'll be right eventually. Yep. Pinball Magic. No.
    64:39
    Break Shot. No. Airborne. There you go. 49 ratings. Yeah, you want to see what steep ramps look like that only Capcom flippers can make? Airborne is your game. Yes.
    64:56
    Oh, Steve Ritchie is supposed to be there? Oh, wow. Play better. let's see uh chris franchi's supposed to be there yes mr french says and basically all the new england all the designers that now work for pinball companies that were originally from new england yep so ryan mcquade from american pinball and mark seiden from jersey jack will both be there and john borg he's supposed to be singing there's there's some karaoke going on thursday i'm told Ty Glenn. Yeah. Ty Glenn. They asked me to go to that every year. I know. They asked me, and I'm like, I can't. It's Thursday. I can't get out of here. I've got a cruise to go on next year. You'll be blown away by Bruce's voice, folks. He sings way better than he does on this show. I try to.
    65:49
    Guess what we have? We have in three weeks, Ron, what's coming up in less than three weeks? What's coming up in less than three weeks? Stop! You got it. and the wait list is moving down. We only have five people on the wait list. Mm-hmm. So today we added Tyler. Tyler joined us, and Sanjay had to pass on it. Ah. So we moved down two people on the list. The next person on the list, Ashley. Mm-hmm.
    66:21
    So we have five people on the list right now. So if you still want to try to get on, the list has moved through six people. the original six has moved through so there's a chance but I got the trophy Bruce has the wearable trophy yes listen brother you're going to be wearing a belt baby that's right baby you're going to love the belt it's all about the championship the championship's a stomp baby and it's going to look really bad if you're wearing it Bruce so you better not win this one baby it's to say it's pretty interesting but It is a championship belt.
    67:00
    You get to put it around your waist and enjoy it and hold it up to everyone and that kind of stuff. And it's yours to keep. Yes. But the winner is the only one to get the trophy. Well, the only one who gets the belt, yeah. Yes. There's no other trophies. But we're paying out to eight places.
    67:19
    So that will be all in an envelope ready to go when we do it. Repairs. Yes. I just spent this entire labor day, I have spent working on games downstairs getting ready for stop. So they have not been up to snuff? No, they're up to snuff. I'm just cleaning them all. Oh, okay. Have you had any wacky repairs?
    67:41
    No, everything's worked. I mean, some posts came loose and things like that. When you go through the stuff, like, oh, better tighten that up, better fix that, et cetera. just going through every game. It's a very slow process.
    67:59
    Let's see. I've gotten through maybe half. Ooh, wow. Then I have to get through. I have some upgrades to the streaming stuff.
    68:12
    But I'm looking forward to it. You got ready for your hugs? Because everyone's going to give you hugs there. Stop, stop. Nope, everyone's giving them hugs. Do not give me hugs. So this is the big event at my house. Yes, it is. And you all have to sign. If you haven't already, you have to sign George. George Takei will be there. You must sign him. You must sign him, of course.
    68:33
    I've been working on a couple games. We got a whirlwind in from a customer. And, oh, my God, what a piece of shit. Beautiful play field. The customer's game. She's like, yeah, the ramp doesn't work. I'm like, okay, what do you mean the ramp doesn't work? The gate, you know, the up and down gate, the up and down ramp does not work. Okay. And it's got one of the small coils, the latching coils.
    68:59
    The spring broke off the back of it. Never seen that before. Then I'm like, I'm playing the game. I'm like, oh, the drop targets don't work. Oh, it's probably just re-soldering the connector, you know, because usually those get pretty whacked out, you know, to get pulled on. Re-float it. Nope, didn't help. Okay. Let's try the connector, see if we have continuity all the way up. Oh, yeah, we've got continuity all the way both ways.
    69:22
    Three bad optos, or actually two bad optos on the board. I've never seen two fail. And the third one was loose, so we just replaced all three, of course.
    69:34
    Luckily, I had them in stock. Lightboard. This whirlwind was so bad, the left entry ramp where you hit the jackpot shot, there's a like a flap there's like a you know what a flap is for the entry to the ramp and behind that there's like a a wire wire uh not loom but like a it activates a switch so the lightning goes off in the background missing that ramp that the switch is there but the wire form gone completely and they're available which is amazing and marco had it so i got that Just got to mount that up.
    70:12
    It needs a rubber kit, good cleaning. Flippers are a little weak. I'm working with that also right now. A lot of work on that. Bad Girls, all I need is a rubber kit now, and then we're ready to put Bad Girls into the ready-to-go checklist. Then I have to have all five members try to play it and see. And then maybe we'll see that at the RPC by October. Wow, all this stuff they got to go through just to get in there. Yes. And the vaunted floor, it's like they have to go through this whole procedure. They do. Wow. Just to make sure that it's a good game. You don't want to get any fathoms go through there or anything like that. And Mark got rid of his fathom.
    70:53
    Hallelujah. Thank God. I don't touch that turd again. Did I say that? Ron. Yes, you did, Bruce. Dead silence. Yes. But we did get something better.
    71:12
    Centaur. No. Okay. Stargazer. Ah. Oh, that's back? They traded it. Oh, so it's not your Stargazer. No, that's not my Stargazer in the back. Ah.
    71:25
    So Stargazer will be out there eventually. Eventually, yes. Ah. A lot of games moving and shaking. Yep. So repairs have been going okay. We've got a weird issue on, what's it called?
    71:44
    Oh. I'll beat the weapon. Yeah, it kept resetting on me. Yeah, so when you go from the power supply, we have 5.04 volts. By the time we get to the test points, it's 4.91. Hmm, dropping. Yep. Redid the connectors. and we're on now at 4.95 still dropping yes everybody drop now so we're going to try to find out more reason why it's dropping off but now we have it so at the beginning of the CPU it has 5.00 and then by the time you hit the test point it's down to 4.95 which is kind of weird and the test point comes right off the connector so we might have to replace the female side male side of the connector but it looked really clean and everything like that and we did the other side of the connector and it barely helped which is really weird I don't know if something is drawing it down or not and it's possible so we reseed the ROMs we reseed everything we could we'll keep you updated on that one folks what else we have back there that's oh Cyber Knot we just gotta replace a flipper coil and rubbers and we'll have a Cyber Knot soon too I'm still looking for a Fireball Classic yes Fireball Classic we need a Fireball Classic at RPC yep we got the bad girls I want that in a tournament just so players can just steal locks galore Or get totally boned over and over. It's great. And it was great. Yep.
    73:39
    What else we have back there? I think that's it. Oh, Doodle Bug's getting close to being put on the floor. Wait a minute. You have a Dipsy Doodle. Yes. Doodle Bug's superior. So you're going to take the Dipsy Doodle. Wow. Yes. Okay. And I love the superior game. That magnet moves so fast in that doodle bug. It doodles really fast is what you're saying? It doodles, doodles, doodles, doodles. I like someone's listening to this like, wow, it's so boring. Even the hosts are yawning. Yes, because I'm tired. This is my bedtime right now, folks. Bruce is always tired. I work a lot. I worked eight hours today. What did you do today? I worked six hours on games. So I worked two hours longer than you. Okay. Yep. And I stayed in the pool after that. So, God. Ah, yeah, I didn't get any pool time, Bruce. Sorry. Oh, my. You need to get pool time. No pool time, Bruce. Oh, my. Yes, you do.
    74:38
    All right. I think that's it. You sure? I'm pretty sure. Okay. This has been episode 214. Oh, not will. I'll see you at Pintastic. Yes, and give Ron a hug there. Do not give me a hug. Tell him it's from Bruce. No, do not do that. Hug him. Bruce. Tell him it's from Bruce. We are the Slamtail Podcast. You can email us at slamtailpodcast at gmail.com. Check out our website, www.slamtailpodcast.com. All our links are in the upper right. We will see you after Pentastic, the post-Pentastic review show.
    75:14
    Maybe Ron will bring home a game. The post-Pentastic pre-stomp show. Yes. And maybe Ron will bring home a game. No, I don't have any room. You got play. Wait a second. If you don't have room, I can't bring out Countdown. I got room in the living room. Oh, you see how this works, folks? You see how this works? But then I wouldn't have room for the Countdown if I already had a game there. See, Countdown is superior.
    75:40
    I played a Countdown this past weekend. Yeah. Oh, I didn't mention that. Yeah, the Catskill Classic was this weekend. Yes, it was. 40 people. That's good. That's really good. Howard's house is great. Oh, such a good food spread of stuff I can't eat. Oh, it hurts so bad.
    75:57
    But I probably played better than usual, but then I had like three lasts in a row, and that kind of eliminated me.
    76:08
    Oh, well. Guess who won, Bruce? Take a guess. I had my father guess, and he guessed it in one try. Jerry. Correct. Because it's always Jerry. It'd be Jerry or Tally. Yeah, Tally didn't even make the finals. Wow. That's rare. But Jerry was dominant. I don't think there was anyone close. Wow. Job-adding performance. Jerry. I put him as one of my top fives in the Pintastic finals.
    76:40
    And Stomp finals. Yep, and Stomp finals. But who will bring home the gold, baby? I don't know who will bring home the gold. I don't know. We'll find out in a couple more episodes. Yes. Well, you could actually watch on Twitch for that. Yes. Because Ron will be streaming that. I will be streaming. Golden streaming. Yes, Bruce.
    77:02
    So vulgar. Yes, I am. And this is normal, folks. If you've never listened before, he is this vulgar. In public, too. Yes. Public. Well, you don't actually take golden streams in public and shit on things and stuff.
    77:18
    Do you? I hope not. Okay. Just check. I'll have to send you my next video that I made. I didn't make it. What? No, there's another video. And it's got, I got the clap. I'm going to give you the clap. I got the clap. I'm going to give you the clap. With that, goodbye, everyone. Bye, everyone at Clusterfuck. Bye, Zach. Bye, FOMO Bonus.
    77:46
    Pinball Princess, all the usual people. if you've never listened to the episode you don't know who any of them are but you should you should yeah go back and listen to every single one no don't do that don't do that you don't you don't like pain that much no no i don't like pain that much pain pain where did they find us what website did they find i said that already www.slamtiltpodcast.com Okay. Damn. Don't you pay attention. What? Do you have your line ready? I do. Whenever we end the show, we do this bit where Bruce says someone's name. Like Wondorama.
    78:23
    Remember Wondorama where they go through and they go, I see Billy and Joey and Tony. Well, I list a listener from our Facebook page every time. And it goes a little something like this. Until next time, say goodbye, Bruce. Goodbye, Josh Toll. Oh My Mind
    79:11
    Meteor Level Zero Clusterfuck George Takei Timballs Bruce Isms Tournament Talk Car Holder Cheetah Xanadu Cash Grab ELO Ball Bank What You Buy It Game You Love Game You Hate Tournament Talk Pinball Princess Sir Oh my.
    79:45
    Oh my. And there you go. And guess what? What? Gotcha. What does that mean? You didn't talk about Silverwall Chronicles. Fuck yeah! Oh, wait a minute.
    80:28
    Well, you know what? I have this thing called the Stinger, Bruce. And it's going to be the Stinger because I also could be seen or heard on... rah, rah, rah, rah, rah, rah. Ah, the Silver Bowl Chronicles. Rah, rah, rah, rah, rah. Well, you'll love it. It's a stinger. Half the people probably turned it off and won't even hear this. Exactly. I love it. Oh, now you're going to get it. Oh, I love it. How did I miss that? I have that right on my notes, too, to mention. You know what? It just says plugs. I need to be more specific. See, you've got to be more specific. As soon as I make the end, you're like, oh. Yes. Again, folks, that's Silver Bowl Chronicles, which you can listen to on the Pinball Network. Check out our latest episode on John Bork. Did we screw up anything, Bruce? No, I didn't listen yet. You didn't listen yet. Okay, well, Bruce listens. Dave, sorry, but I had to do that, Mr. Dennis. Yes, sorry, David Dennis. I have failed you. Are you going to see him this weekend?
    81:19
    Yes, I'm going to see him. You can bond. You can actually get pictures of the Silver Bowl Chronicle cronies.
    81:27
    Because they are cronies. They are cronies. What a creepy fucking name that is. He needs to change that. I thought it was cronies, but he says cronies. He says cronies. And I'm like, oh, that sounds so douchey. It does. Admit it. It might mean something different in Canada. Let's see. I have to see now. Now you got me fucking, now you got me wondering about this one. What? Cronies, a sign of endearment in Canada. Oh, God. I doubt it.
    81:56
    Let's see. What does cronies mean? Slang. A friend or person who works for someone in authority, especially one who is willing to give and receive dishonest help. That doesn't seem like a thing you want to have for your podcast.
    82:11
    Bruce, you realize how many things that we have that you wouldn't want to have for your podcast? Like Check Your Outhold? I love Check Your Outhold. Wow, there's a blast from the past right there. Yeah, the cronies are subordinates. So you're calling all your listeners subordinates.
    82:29
    Okay. Okay, what's your point? okay but in another dictionary meaning crony is a close friend especially of long standing there you go there are friends that's crony not cronies that's crony so he needs to change that it'll be more douchey so there are crony no but then cronies it's still plural i don't know because of close friends that's a pals oh i don't know where this is going you know where it's going and that's right how about a cronyism cronyism occurs when you're opponent cronies to positions of authority regardless of their qualifications that's right i like where this is going all right all right that's right peter this is the longest outtake ever oh we're still doing an outtake oh fuck yeah i'll move it to be an intake instead of an outtake oh my oh my good night guys goodbye bye