Bug from Bug's Scream and Stream hosts a casual Fathom pinball tutorial with New Zealand player and collector Roto Dave. The video covers Fathom's basic rules (multiball locking, spinner strategy, bonus multipliers) through gameplay, interspersed with Dave's personal story of acquiring his restored Fathom at Texas Pinball Festival 2017 and discussion of the upcoming Southern Hemisphere Pinball Championships—a 5-day event he organizes annually in New Zealand with growing youth and international participation. Tournament operations, machine maintenance philosophy, and community building are explored conversationally.
Key Claims
Southern Hemisphere Pinball Championships is 5 days long (Thursday-Monday) with 8 competitions total across 5 days, expecting ~100 tournament players including ~15 women and ~10-15 children
high confidence · Roto Dave directly describing the event structure: '5 days... Thursday night Friday night Saturday full all day Saturday Sunday and Monday' and 'probably just under 100 people in the tournament but out of that 100 people there'll be probably I'd say 15 ladies and probably 15 kids'
20 Australians, 2 Canadians, and at least 1 American are attending Southern Hemisphere Pinball Championships this year
high confidence · Roto Dave: 'there's 20 Australians coming over this year uh there'll be two Canadians uh at least one American'
Roto Dave purchased his Fathom machine at Texas Pinball Festival 2017 for approximately $5,100-5,200 after initial offer of $5,000
high confidence · Direct account from Roto Dave of negotiating with Texas seller at TPF, paying in cash from ATMs
The Fathom was restored by Keith Holbrook, a leading pinball technician in Texas, with original cabinet and re-cleared playfield
high confidence · Roto Dave: 'Keith Holbrook who's a sort of the leading store around that area so it's all original um cabinets all redone Playfield is an original old Playfield but it's all rec clear coed'
Roto Dave spent months troubleshooting random tilt issues on his Fathom, eventually discovering the problem was faulty switch diodes in the back row roller/drop target area; replaced approximately 30-40 switch diodes
high confidence · Roto Dave: 'it took me months and months to find the problem... I ended up just went through and changed every diode in the game... when I got to the very very back row where the roll overs and those drop targets are and that's where the problem was'
Roto Dave's arcade collection includes 88 machines with only 1 non-functional (awaiting parts) and he maintains a service list for ongoing repairs
high confidence · Roto Dave: 'there's 88 machines in this room and every single one of them bar one at the moment which I'm waiting for a part for is working'
Notable Quotes
“just look at that back glass look at that Playfield and look at that lovely topper up there wo wo very nice”
Bug @ opening — Establishes Fathom as a visually distinctive and aesthetically appealing classic pinball machine
“spinner is really the way to go”
Bug @ rules segment — Key strategic advice for Fathom: prioritize spinner shot for maximized scoring, especially when stacked with multiball
“the most important is sort of player management... you can't have any of the sort of mucking around between the games”
Roto Dave @ tournament operations discussion — Core tournament management philosophy emphasizing respect for other players waiting and maintaining tournament pace
“if you don't get the young people involved... the Hobby's dead on the vine”
Roto Dave @ community development discussion — Core argument for youth participation as essential to hobby sustainability and future collector base
“when I go to the rest home I need someone to buy my pinball machines otherwise I just wasted 30 years collecting them all for nothing”
Bug @ youth involvement discussion — Humorous but serious articulation of economic motivation for building younger collector community
“I really like that shot on this game that if you can shoot that from the bottom flippers was really cool”
Roto Dave @ gameplay commentary — Highlights satisfying shot design element in Fathom playfield
“you've got to have that balance between um playable games and not playable games”
Roto Dave @ tournament setup philosophy — Core principle for tournament machine setup: challenging but fair playability window
“the players respond well and um and yet and sort of do as do as everyone does their does their bit to make it successful”
Roto Dave — Emphasizes collaborative community culture at Southern Hemisphere Championships
business_signal: Roto Dave's 88-machine arcade operation and tournament hosting represents substantial financial/operational commitment; machine acquisition strategy includes seeking 'beta' units and restoration projects from North American sources
medium · Roto Dave describing price tracking on Fathom market ($3,000-3,200 for beta units circa 2015-2016); sourcing machines from US sellers/festivals; shipping logistics to New Zealand
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community_signal: Deliberate youth recruitment and female participation initiatives at Southern Hemisphere Championships framed as essential to hobby sustainability and future collector base viability
high · Roto Dave emphasizing 15+ youth competitors and 15+ women per tournament: 'if you don't get the young people involved... the Hobby's dead on the vine'; Bug echoing economic motivation for building younger demographic
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event_signal: Southern Hemisphere Pinball Championships expanding with international participation (20 Australians, 2 Canadians, 1+ American confirmed) and dedicated youth/women's inclusion initiatives (~15% female, ~10-15% youth participation)
high · Roto Dave detailing 5-day event structure with 100+ ticketed entries and deliberately cultivating younger competitors; mentions growing New Zealand pinball community involvement
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community_signal: Content creator infrastructure (Bug's channel with 'Danny Teachers' series) demonstrates growing YouTube/streaming focus for pinball education and casual community engagement beyond traditional podcast/forum channels
medium · Structured tutorial format with gameplay overlay, guest appearances, and casual conversation approach; Bug explicitly positioning content as alternative to 'another pinball podcast'; Spooky merchandise visibility
Topics
Fathom Rules and StrategyprimarySouthern Hemisphere Pinball Championships EventprimaryTournament Operations and ManagementprimaryPinball Machine Restoration and MaintenanceprimaryYouth Engagement in Pinball CommunitysecondaryVintage Pinball CollectingsecondaryCompetitive Pinball Meta and Game BalancesecondaryPinball Content Creationmentioned
Sentiment
positive(0.82)— Content is lighthearted and enthusiastic throughout. Bug and Roto Dave display genuine affection for the hobby and machines. Self-deprecating humor about gameplay ability balances with pride in Fathom restoration. Tournament management discussion reflects confidence and community care. Minor frustrations with ball physics and missed shots are comedic rather than negative. Strong enthusiasm for upcoming Southern Hemisphere Championships.
Transcript
youtube_auto_sub · $0.000
hello and welcome to another Denny teachers today we're here with potentially the sexiest of all pinball machines fathom just look at that back glass look at that Playfield and look at that lovely topper up there wo wo very nice and with that sound you know I've got my special guest once again it is R to Dave welcome back to the channel R to Dave he's got the spooky merch I've got the spooky merch spooky merch behind me with a little bug scream and stream neon sign we're all in today uh with that being said this is mainly going to be a casual thing but of course it's a Danny teachers I'll put in a little bit of a voice over tutorial here on fathom you have green and blue bonuses that increase by hitting various things on the Playfield including these colored targets don't aim for them intentionally you'll get them as you sort of shoot for everything else in the game Focus instead on locking balls in either of these sources once the ball is captured in the saucer it's adjacent drop targets will go up hit all three targets to release the trapped ball and enter multiball this will start double scoring but you can get Triple scoring if you manage to treap and release both locked balls as long as you don't drain one of your balls on the process the drops also correspond to bonus multipliers and the targets go 3x 4X then 5X then hit this target to light the spinner which takes the value from 500 per spin unlit to 5,000 per spin when lit when you stack these points with a multiball and you're doubling it to 10K a spin or tripling it to 15K a spin it really juices up the points very nicely even if you can't get a multiball spinner is really the way to go and I'll spoiler alert we don't really show it off in this game in the games we're about to play but uh trust me spinner is the way to go and if you're wondering what a b and c do uh you can go for them by getting the spinner or the blue drop targets you sort of naturally get them throughout your game and all they do is light one of these save lanes for 50,000 points getting it twice so lighting ABC twice will get you both uh save lad and lit so feel free to go for them but they're not the most important thing in the game and these one two 3 targets uh they help with your bonus multipliers and all of that and Bon but uh just ignore them you do not need to hit one two or three anytime you play this game so just ignore it now with that being said let's jump into a game hey D yeah let's do that am I starting up why not okay let's do it all right I'm notoriously bad at this game whenever anyone gets uh me on fathom at a tournament they know they're off to winner but uh we'll try and you know get better at it cuz southern hemisphere pinball championships are coming up so I got to got to get better you know hey D that's right we'll talk about that in a second we'll do some uh mean chats with d today you know deo's always up for a good chat especially about pinball anyways I'm trying to get my locks here and it's going quite badly so far but we'll we'll get there eventually you know it's it's uh I'm playing the long game nice spin out you can see our spinner is nice and Juiced up there oh I'm not hitting a single thing it's going really badly but D is the fathom King yeah yeah and D's going to do it uh so do you want to step up and I'll stand over here and ask you some questions you haven't left me any balls to steal I'm very disappointed about that so something that I want to ask you about and this is really awkward on camera but it's okay was um I wanted to ask you about southern hemisphere pinball Championship yeah what are you most looking forward to about that um well it's going to be 5 days uh including pre-m starts on Thursday night Thursday night Friday night uh Saturday full all day Saturday Sunday and Monday and it's going to be full on cuz in the old days I used to run it all by myself which was s slightly insane but that's the way I've always done things but um this year I got a few more people helping out so I got a um little bit of a Master of Ceremonies daral help me out oh [ __ ] with the um with some of the calls uh sorry with some of the announcements and running music and that during the day uh my Primo assistant Danny is going to do the driveway disco again every year we set up the uh large driveway we get out in front of the uh in front of the house cuz all this pinball happens in my house and uh so d uh DJ Danny takes when the lights go down and turns into night DJ Danny comes on and plays the hits uh should be good weekend yeah six competitions over 3 days and two before that so eight competitions in total over um 5 days it's going to be a big one it's going to be something you don't want to miss eh the biggest one in New Zealand uh every year I think there's 20 Australians coming over this year uh there'll be two Canadians uh at least one American oh so close there to get that lock by the way not quite DAV I didn't give you another another ball to steal not quite yet next time next time now uh something else I want to ask you about is the story of this fathom machine it's got an interesting backstory do you want to talk a little bit about that to our lovely viewers at home yeah no right well the um I started looking for a fathom I started collecting older machines round about 2013 after I went to the first world Champs and figured out we didn't have very many old machines like this in New Zealand so I thought if we're going to get good at pinball we need to um start getting a few more old guys so I started looking for a faom could never I find there's only a couple of them in New Zealand and those people are own the a selling them so we started looking uh around about 2015 I guess the prices on fathoms around um America started really going up like it got to the point where even back then 2016 for a uh for a beta one quite often I'll buy a beta machine and then restore it but uh even for a beta machine they're all three 3 and2 Grand then you got to get them to New Zealand so we went to tpf Texas pinball Festival I think 2017 for memory and there's an old guy right down the back right next to where Andrew Highway had his um first alien machine oh just into multiball just to quickly to quickly shout out my awesome skills that are on display and oh listen to that amazing lovely fathom Noise two balls in play means double scoring on the play field so that makes spinner worth 2,000 spinner instead of 1,000 oh rude but I didn't get anything did you see oh what was that I was I was like I got skills and then they don't show had no skills anyways that's good though cuz it means that you get to step up do your thing and talk a little bit more about crap on so uh yeah right down the very very back of the Texas pinball Festival was this um lovely old Texas funan there and he had a couple of machines uh including this one for sale and he was just sitting there all lonely like so me being a tight ass New Zealander he had um I think he wanted 6,900 or something for the machine which at the time was pretty pretty pricey for a feom oh mate lit down I was lit down this is going B okay but it's all right don't tell crazy stories and then um and P and B at the same time it's a sign you know but it's okay uh keep on keep on telling as I try and get my second multiball and hopefully play it better this time the first day of uh tpf I go around and I see the old guy and I sort of jokingly say to him hey you know been looking for a fathom and uh that's a nice fathom and he goes yeah son that's a nice that's a might nice fathom and I said yeah it's very nice good good accent there that was very good and apologies to all the people from Texas I just offended and uh he went to tell me that he had the fathom for a long time and he' um had it done just done up by a guy in Texas called Keith Holbrook who's a sort of the leading store around that area so it's all original um cabinets all redone Playfield is an original old Playfield but it's all Rec clear coed and everything and it all been gone over and so I jokingly said to him well if it's still there at the end of the uh at the end of the festival I'll uh give you five grand for it my my extremely generous offer is 5,000 green backs there we go it's a nice lock and he went it's it won't be here soon and I said oh baly so anyway we uh every time I walk past this guy I kept on saying are you [ __ ] are you ready for my uh are you ready for my 5 grand yet and he kept on saying no son I don't want your five grand and uh so anyway this went on and on and on we're just having a friendly banter as you do and uh friendly banter as you do and he um I really like that shot on this game that if you can shoot that from the bottom flippers was really cool and so yeah anyway this went on and then pack-up time came on Sunday afternoon they were giving out the toppies or whatever and the old cat was packing up his hey I got ripped off was ripped off I got ripped off oh oh [ __ ] and then I got paid the ultimate price any I'll tell my story so he was packing up and I said well you're ready for my five grand yet and he goes um son I really want to sell it but you you seem like a good kid so I'll give it to you for uh I'll give it to you for 5100 or 5200 or something and I said what really cool so we had to drive around the whole of um Fort Worth Texas going to every single ATM machine grabbing piles of $100 um because I think the maximum you could get out of the machines was either 600 us or 800 us so we're driving all around and draining all these ATM cards my bank in New Zealand's phoning me up saying someone's ripping you off in Texas someone's taking all your money out of all your accounts on all these cards I had finally I ended up getting the thing and they going back and I said to the guy old guy said here's your 5200 bucks or whatever it was he goes oh thanks son and he counts it all out and I said oh you better watch out make sure no one hits you on the head for that don't worry son I got my gun it been carrying his gun for the whole show and for us Little People in New Zealand that's such a foreign story but um he had been sitting on his gun for the whole for the whole show just in case [ __ ] went down so there you go and here we go shipped it back actually shipped this back with my Rob Zombie actually I know it wasn't my Rob Zombie it was John M's Rob great game by the way I'd like to say Rob Zombie great game underrated actually um my friend Steven really wants one he keeps asking for yours D though they can't have it just yet not allowed Steve if you're watching this not allow Steven anyways um another game shall we after yeah let's do it let variety's a SP for Life enough enough stories let's um let's crank some gameplay that was a mediocre at best warm up let's uh get some hot feather action going even the um oh gee was even the uh un juicy Spinners wor some points so yeah even the even that Andrew spinner sorry andlet spinner still well worth hitting oops little bit of a double flip there from the flippers oh that was not much better than the first game it's okay D there's always another ball always another game exactly ah let's get into it shall we I like uh I like that we've been able to you know use this woo video for a little bit of chats with d cuz you know nobody needs another pinball podcast yet so uh always good to you know have an excuse to chat with d uh he's my favorite person to ever chat with nice lock there let's try and get those targets down I'm really [Laughter] upset so as you can see the game play is nice and snappy still got the linear flippers in it so they're they're not the granti thing but you can see all the pop bumpers and everything all Juiced up for tournament Play We want all the games around here to be good so even when the game came back and it it had been cosmetically all r a [ __ ] what a rubber shot um by Keith Holbrook I um still went over the game and rebuilt all the mechanism and and everything for a long time had this really weird problem where it would where it would SP ah where it would tilt all the time just just randomly be playing like I'm playing now and then she just randomly tilt and it took me months and months to find the problem in in the end I ended up just went through and changed every diode in the game in Banks and sections of the Playfield when I got to the I've done every single diode switch diode in the game I got to the very very back row where the roll overs and those drop targets are and that's where the problem was after I'd replaced 30 or 40 to switch diodes so every single switch ah rubber switch do and the game has been replaced then it doesn't f anymore how good cuz tilting mid game not fun you know especially unintentional um all right well in good news D didn't steal on my ball lock so let's keep going shall we all right oo oh o lordy lordy wa um the Flopper rubbers on this one always crack me up they're slightly not bouncing so I always get played every time I'm like it'll bounce and it doesn't bounce so you're coming to Southern Hemisphere don't bounce the ball just flip brother uh Hey Brother um listen I'm really looking forward to Southern Hemisphere I must say um cuz you know something I've wanted to talk about for ages and again don't want to do a pinball podcast I just want to Yap to the to the you know five people that watch the show um some of you might have seen Tim sion's oh I got it nice Cheers Cheers team cheers boys um Talk on competition pinball these days and you know what even I've been to some overseas tournaments obviously still doing tournaments in New Zealand and I really I really actually do agree a lot with what um Tim 6on had to say and I know there's been a lot of disc course around that but um you know I'm I'm finding it really hard these days you know now that I'm a working working woman and the insurance industry to um show up to Long tournaments and play all day especially for things we have to queue up for games for like an hour at a time hey I found it real exhausting going to some big tournaments but like Southern Hemisphere I'm looking forward to you know I think D you know tries to run a tight ship very tight ship yeah tight ship brother um and you know making things play fast I think um D here's something I want you to ask you how do you run tournaments efficiently What mechanisms do you employ to make games run make tournaments happen and good amount of time the most important is sort of player management so no um you can't have any of the sort of mucking around between the games like you've um seen recently on some of the big ifpa tournaments you just can't have it it's just like if you go [ __ ] or might if you um if you go disappearing during your game you get one telling off and then um second time you get a boot up the bum it's just got to be that way because you've got 50 people waiting for you or in this case there'll be nearly 100 people here for southern hemisphere well probably there's over 100 tickets sold now uh for Southern Hemisphere and you can't you can't be [ __ ] them around I mean it's just and if you're streaming it's just an embarrassment you know so that's number one uh number two don't have the games playing too long so as you can see with this one I mean most people with fathom you can crank a bloody good game of fathom and get millions and millions of points but um these games are set up all the pop up and everything are Snappy but not stupid cuz one thing I one thing I can't stand one of the reasons I don't go to [ __ ] I mean goodness one of the reasons I don't go a lot of big International tournaments is the people have the game set up so stupid I saw a video the other day of the European pinball Champs and just plunged the ball and it tilted I mean that's just ludicrous I people have traveled thousands of miles to be there and you can't even play the game I mean that's you got to have that balance between um playable games and not playable games but and and on the other side of the coin they can't play for an hour either so it's just finding that balance and I've been doing it now for 10 years so I think pretty much we getting the balance pretty good and the players are all good the players respond and they um The Players respond well and um and yet and sort of do as do as everyone does their does their bit to make it successful again yeah and I think something that I love about New Zealand tournaments um and I mean it's happening internationally but what I love about our little New Zealand crew is how many you know youngsters we have coming along and I I said that like such an old person youngsters 23 years old such an old 22 hey2 sorry sorry bug's 23 you're 22 I was bug 23 now sorry said the other day yeah hi bug um Love Bug good to can't wait to see you again bug did you see that chaos that I just did you did chaos the um yeah the reality is that you know you've got to get the young people involved cuz if you don't get the young people involved and then the Hobby's dead on the vine you know so when we play the main tournament here at Southern Hemisphere there'll be probably just under 100 people in the tournament but out of that 100 100 people there'll be probably I'd say 15 ladies and probably 15 kids something like that 10 to 15 kids in there and by kids I mean you know Under 12 under 13 14 so you you got to get them involved um or else the Hobby's dead like I said dead on the vine I think you're right for that um how like I've always like I always say to people you got to get the young people involved cuz when I go to the rest home I need someone to buy my pinball machines otherwise I just wasted 30 years collecting them all for nothing you know if they're worthless so you got to um get these young followers get them cashed up and then they can pay for my retirement patched up is it um something that I'm looking forward to learning just just talking on a personal level in the next you know however many years cuz I mean obviously it's taken you a long time D to learn as much as you have about restoring them is um is uh learning how to restore them take care of them fix things when they go wrong cuz even though I have a base understanding of the mechanism and what goes into a pinball machine you know um I don't know how to fix them yet and I think that's something I really obviously need to learn cuz I want to be able to you know take the hobby forward um for a long time so yeah that's something that you learn just learn over time um it's very hard for someone to sit down and say hey he this how you do a flipper rebuild because like when I have to fix all these games and here I've just got to um hey this one needs the flippers doing this one needs the pop bumper fixing this one the lights don't go so I just you know attack them as as needed we keep a list in here so if there's any anyone's playing in here they notice of fault they WR it on my list and as soon as I get 5 minutes I go and fix it so there's 88 machines in this room and every single one of them bar one at the moment which I'm waiting for a part for is working so uh that's pretty cool you keep and and you don't let them get on top of you cuz if you have 30 that are broken then it just gets so depressing you just can't fix them all the P the pile really suffocate oh yeah you can't yeah you've got to three or four not working that's cool but um I try as soon as they break I fix them um you just the only way you can keep on top of it all and I think that's something that you're very good at doing is saying what's actually important to fix versus what's not like if one light is out on a game in a room of a 100 I think that you know you don't want to have a heart attack cuz you're so stressed about fixing every little thing yeah that's right I can I can live with that I will fix it but it's it's the bottom of the priorities so if a game if game's got a broken flipper or broken flipper bat or something that comes to the top of the pile and uh uh one one bonus light out on a game hey that's no big deal but I I will fix it when I get around to it um but yeah we can live around that it's it's quite good some of the people that come here to the tournaments are very anal so I get some very very strange things written on my on my list um you know like Pinball's got a mark on the side of it or something it's like okay cool lower priority you know on the list don't wor about that oh by the way nice little nail yellow nails bringing the yellow very unfathomed to bring yellow to actually no yellow b a bit of yellow anyway let's have another game start yeah okay sweet I'll start time yeah we stop yapping let's try do some this is this a winner takes all or do you want some do you want win if you won both of them how why don't even bother showing up it's well I sort of forced you to talk okay let's go let's Okay I want to take all when it takes all [ __ ] you can't see it but we're doing the handshake all right uh two players in before I mess that one up let's jump in I really want to get that multiball and utilize the multiball unlike the last like two multi balls I've had so yeah sorry if you wanted a really good game of Fe them shouldn't have watched this video but yet yet there's still time we can still make it happen but this is a pretty punishing fathom aren't they all I suppose o never never have I ever done that in my life let's do it all right lots of Pop action oh bad action bad action okay here we go some good action L's talking more Bradlee Ching oh not off to a good start uhoh oh is it time for a restart is it time for a restart time for a restart I I make the executive decision as the tournament director for Danny teachers that we're doing a restart all right when it takes all this time D takes all when it when it takes all when it takes all am I allowed to keep that in I know we'll find out when I go to edit it all right we're in game uh let's get some good stuff Happening Here boom up we go a did you see that that was very good very satisfying shot I am so bad at getting that shot so anytime I get it it is a time for a celebration uh let's hope that we keep the ball in play and keep going get a multiball going still oh no cool a ball for me to steal this is good please leave balls in there for me to steal I need to re uh as oh hell as as usual with uh Danny teachers this is recorded in the uh depths of nighttime well past my bedtime been painting fences all day today been fixing pinballs all week and painting fences all day today then you go come on bu come on buddy right let's uh start working on scking that ball up the top there woo that was a save clip that all right in to go all spin is lit right let's just I think I'm just going to go spinner up you go or not oh that'll do that'll work all right here we go here we go let's get some more outside action very satisfying uh-oh up you go right on the finger bit of oh hell way too early right let's uh should we lock the sucker in here in you go thank you again right some ABC Action first ABC lights your uh oh well There She Goes Again Ender stroke adjustment needed ah not heading that at all well today oh [ __ ] up we go last one come on here we go double scoring thank you let's get some skin spinner action okay this is more like it oh for goodness sake at least we get some spinner action whoa look at that spin go have to be a little bit careful in this game I think a lot of these older games if you juice your SP spinner too much then the spinner can dominate the game too much so I usually try and set them up so that the not having much luck with that shot today that the spinner might not necessarily dominating the game too much of course I'm saying they dominating the game you got to hit it first and all I'm hitting is post right here we go juicy spinner shot coming up bam oh we'll take one o oh no not a bad ball but not very good either oh you got some bonus happening there all right let's try and get him a show I want to oh get that green lock out you know I don't I don't know why I feel the need to always use it for upper Flopper but I do you know I I need to oh very nice very nice team um I have had so many people be like it should be a drinking game for when you say team and you know what you're all correct thanks for noticing um right oh come on oh it's F off the in there it's intense now you know I got skin in the game um oh nice thanks oh thanks for giving that to me all right and multiball and multiball let's go oh ch ch ch to that that's what I have to say rude as multiball who we don't know her uh that's all right but at least we got some good bonus multiply there that was really lucky and did you see that did you see how lucky that was was um beautiful and let's SP let's spin it was beautiful and lit spinner yeah um before you said spinner I thought you were just going to say lit as yeah very lit play there just lit and spin is lit officially an out ofd uh slang term that's the question I have here we go into multiball no no come on come on come on come on H it's fine come on there we go nice all right let's go let's go let's do it come on that was really risky I actually can't believe I let myself do that but you know it's all in a day's work um oh my gosh I didn't need to reight the spinner the only need light once okay come on come on come on come on yeah Le go Le go whoa ye to that around there C on there's a lot of camon and not a lot of action come on disappointing come on come on down the middle both bonuses maxed out nice nice nice a juice juice juice juice oh lucky again to have it roll down there look at oh am I the worst multiball fathom player you've ever seen yeah and what um it is very punishing actually you know but we live life love we live laugh fathom our bonus oh shoot didn't want to tilt didn't want to tilt look at that juicy bonus that's more like it finally love the noises there just like uh suffocating noises so that's very good D yeah man there you go was very good now we're now we're starting to play L story more playing right where are we at nothing left for me to steal that's very unfortunate let's try and hit that post again cuz that's what the cool kids do that'll do again right in the cave trap right up the cave oh it's always a nice combo when it comes out of there didn't quite make it around this time oh and she goes come on come on buddy oh oh Jee was retain some semblance of control right so we have got no liit spinner yet we'll try I should want to go in there won't stop me from trying up the side we go nope I did my best to get it down the middle loose BL loose Dave loose all right here we go we can see I still got that bonus sitting there just need to get the multipliers back up yeah when I do take all here so let's see if I can uh keep that lead strong tantalizing tantalizing uh going into the third ball here we go Oh I thought I'd found my stride and hitting that shot no still a loser very nice thank you thank you um I can actually tap pass on this game if anyone knows what that is I can do it and I'm uh proud to say I can do it very nerd of me to be proud of that but I am we got to be proud of ourselves sometimes you know got to you got to talk yourself up yeah exctly um here we go let's keep going for multiball real close a so good so good ah yes ah yes is one of my favorite things in all of pinball great call out not good not good not good not good all right listen I've left it all for da though it's all on the table that's pretty good I just need to sort of double my score so if you get a good multiball going and get some spinner action that's actually not too hard to do so let's give it a uh good old school try as they say oops let's see how the let's get that up there get in the hole no not today stucks that top gate sticks a little in we go thank you one let's get some got a little bit of bonus there so let's try whoa that came down fast let's try and into there then around the top let's try that oh idea was good let's try that again Batman not quite got the spinner lit so I oh a completely that was my fault I ham that up that's okay when it takes all when it thank you thank you Ro Dave for uh there we go it's on frame now uh winner took all winner took all very well played well done uh thank you for coming on and having having Wicked chats worries with me and you know showing off this gorgeous game and uh you know if you think you can come and beat our scores come to Southern Hemisphere buy them tickets and show off your skills um but until next time thank you so much for watching any last words D see you next time see you in the next one bye for now
Southern Hemisphere Pinball Championships has sold over 100 tickets
high confidence · Roto Dave: 'there'll be nearly 100 people here for southern hemisphere well probably there's over 100 tickets sold now'
Roto Dave began collecting vintage pinball machines around 2013 after attending the first World Pinball Championships, realizing New Zealand lacked older machines
high confidence · Roto Dave: 'I started collecting older machines round about 2013 after I went to the first world Champs and figured out we didn't have very many old machines like this in New Zealand'
@ tournament culture discussion
“if you have 30 that are broken then it just gets so depressing you just can't fix them all the P the pile really suffocate”
Roto Dave @ machine maintenance philosophy — Articulates psychological and practical approach to preventing maintenance backlog overwhelm
“there's a lot of camon and not a lot of action”
Bug @ multiball gameplay — Self-deprecating commentary on poor multiball execution during gameplay
community_signal: New Zealand emerging as secondary pinball hub with dedicated competitive scene, international tournament attraction, and expert restoration/collecting community centered on Roto Dave's operations
high · Southern Hemisphere Champs described as largest tournament in New Zealand, drawing 100+ players and international competitors; Roto Dave as national expert in restoration and tournament management
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community_signal: Roto Dave's 88-machine tournament arcade represents substantial infrastructure investment in local/regional pinball ecosystem; proactive maintenance culture and player-centric tournament operations demonstrate commitment to hobby sustainability
high · 88-machine collection with 1 broken machine; active service list; tight operational control to minimize queue times and maximize player experience; 10+ years of tournament organization
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design_philosophy: Tournament operator priority on balanced machine setup: avoiding tilt-heavy configurations (seen at European Championships) while maintaining playable challenge windows
high · Roto Dave's explicit critique: 'people have the game set up so stupid... just plunged the ball and it tilted... you got to have that balance between um playable games and not playable games'
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community_signal: Roto Dave's pragmatic machine maintenance approach: reactive/as-needed repairs organized via player-reported service list rather than preventive overhauls; prioritizes game availability and tournament-level playability over cosmetic perfection
high · Roto Dave: 'if there's any anyone's playing in here they notice of fault they writ it on my list and as soon as I get 5 minutes I go and fix it'; accepts minor cosmetic issues (single light out) as acceptable in tournament settings
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sentiment_shift: Community concern about tournament duration and player fatigue gaining traction; international tournament growth creating exhaustion challenges for working players
medium · Bug referencing Tim Sexton's recent public commentary on competition pinball length issues; Bug personally noting difficulty attending long tournaments while working in insurance; appreciation for Southern Hemisphere's 'tight ship' efficiency model
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technology_signal: Vintage machine reliability challenges remain significant restoration hurdle; Roto Dave's months-long debugging of random tilt issue on Fathom represents typical restoration complexity
high · Roto Dave's detailed account of replacing 30-40 switch diodes across game sections to isolate back-row roller/drop target diode failure causing intermittent tilts