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The Spinner Is Lit - Episode 71_Premier Pinball and Amusement (1)

The Spinner Is Lit Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·1h 19m·analyzed·Jan 23, 2025
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.026

TL;DR

Premier Pinball owner launches insurance appraisal service for pinball machines across the US.

Summary

Andrew Lanners, owner of Premier Pinball and Amusement (a 50-year-old Minneapolis-area business), discusses his evolution from arcade game dealer to pinball distributor and a new service: pinball machine appraisals for insurance purposes. He serves primarily homeowners (60-70% of sales) seeking affordable used machines ($2-4k range) rather than expensive new games, and has expanded into formal appraisals following a customer's water-damaged collection claim. The conversation touches on the local Minnesota pinball scene, business models for operators vs. collectors, and personal nostalgia for classic arcade games.

Key Claims

  • Andrew's business survival has depended on homeowners due to lack of local options for used machines at affordable prices

    high confidence · Andrew Lanners describing his business model and market positioning

  • Sales breakdown is approximately 60-70% homeowners and 30-40% operators, with variation by month and season

    high confidence · Andrew Lanners answering direct question about customer split

  • Premier Pinball sold 120 games in the previous year

    high confidence · Andrew Lanners discussing his sales volume and opportunity to play games before sale

  • Appraisal service started after a customer's basement arcade room suffered water damage from burst pipes, leading to insurance claim valuation needs

    high confidence · Andrew Lanners explaining origin of appraisal service

  • Appraisal pricing starts at $300-500 for local collections under 100 miles, with higher rates for larger collections and site visits

    high confidence · Andrew Lanners detailing pricing structure

  • Large venues like Can Wonderland in St. Paul use profit-share models rather than owning machines outright

    medium confidence · Andrew Lanners describing operator business model in Twin Cities

  • Many insurance agents and collectors have historically struggled to find industry experts for machine valuations, evidenced by old forum threads dating back 10-15 years

    medium confidence · Andrew Lanners discussing research into market need for appraisal services

Notable Quotes

  • “My business has really survived because there was really no option for homeowners... they're looking to maybe start with something from the 90s the early 2000s that's going to be you know a lot of my machines are anywhere from that two to four thousand dollar range”

    Andrew Lanners @ N/A — Explains core business positioning and market opportunity

  • “If you can't assess the value of pinball machines in arcade games, well, you probably won't be in business too long.”

    Andrew Lanners @ N/A — Core expertise claim for appraisal service

  • “The fun thing for me is that, you know, last year selling 120 games throughout the year, you get to play all these things, right?”

    Andrew Lanners @ N/A — Reveals sales volume and personal play opportunity across diverse titles

  • “I'm hoping it's of value for, first off, just people near me in the Twin Cities area, but I'm hoping that we can kind of get the word out across the country and really be a service... with everything going on with the wildfires right now”

    Andrew Lanners @ N/A — Articulates motivation for appraisal service launch and market context

  • “It's called the wishful thinking price... You'll get that all the time in this industry”

    Andrew Lanners @ N/A — Industry insight on inflated asking prices vs. actual market value

Entities

Andrew LannerspersonPremier Pinball and AmusementcompanyCan WonderlandvenueMarkpersonDanpersonThe Spinner Is Lit Pinball PodcastcontentGottlieb Big HurtgameKauffman UnionvenuePops ArcadevenueSebastian BachpersonParadise Fireevent

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Premier Pinball expanding from buy/sell and transportation into formal appraisal services for insurance and collections

    high · Andrew launched appraisal service in 2024 (unofficial) with official 2025 launch planned; service offered nationwide

  • $

    market_signal: Distinct market segments: homeowners seeking affordable used machines ($2-4k) vs. high-end collector/operator purchases ($7-15k+)

    high · Andrew states 60-70% of sales to homeowners at lower price points; notes new machines cost $7-8k minimum

  • ?

    operational_signal: Venue operators increasingly use profit-share placement model rather than owning machines, relying on distributors to supply and support inventory

    medium · Can Wonderland in St. Paul and other major venues use profit-share agreements; operators buy from distributors like Andrew at below-market rates

  • ?

    venue_signal: Minneapolis-St. Paul area experiencing expansion of pinball arcades, barcades, and brewery pinball installations over last 5-10 years

    medium · Andrew notes 'tons of breweries with pinball machines across the Twin Cities here popping up everywhere' and many places 'popped up over the last five to ten years'

  • ?

    community_signal: Historical lack of formal pinball machine appraisal expertise; many forum threads from 10-15 years ago showing collectors and insurance agents seeking valuation services

    medium · Andrew researched old Pinside forum threads; found long-standing unmet demand for 'industry expert' valuation services

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.239

0:00
Welcome to the Spinner's Lip Pinball Podcast, Episode 71. Andrew Lanner, he's our special guest tonight. and with me as always is my co-host Dan. Hey what's going on guys? Mark. Hey everyone. And our special guest Andrew Lanners. Welcome to the show. Hey thank you for having me. I appreciate it. Yeah it's good to have you on. So you talk some pinball here. We are talking some pinball yeah and other stuff too because I'll drive the bus off the road and so you are the owner-operator of Premier Pinball and Amusement. That is right. Up here in the suburbs of Minneapolis,
1:06
50-year business here up in Minnesota and kind of have expanded through the Midwest and also a little bit through the country and have even done a little bit of business in Canada as well. So kind of pinball machines of all kinds, EMs all the way to brand new games and also arcade games used and brand-new games as well. So you do pinball and arcade games. Absolutely, yep. Again, pinball machines, EMs, all the way to brand-new out-of-the-box games as well. Nice. So how did you get into this industry?
1:49
Yeah, first started out of college. I actually started in the arcade game industry. And I was living at home after college, was bored, ended up buying a buck hunter that I knew absolutely nothing about.
2:08
Got bored of that within a few months, had that sold, made a quick 300 bucks, which was pretty good for a 22-year-old right out of college kid. and I started kind of meeting some people in the industry, in the arcade game industry. And finally, people were telling me, like, you need to get into pinball machines. Those are kind of what's hot and up and coming thing. And all of a sudden, within a week or two, I had a Gottlieb Big Hurt machine that I absolutely knew nothing about purchased. And I had that sold pretty quickly after, too. Uh, again, didn't know a whole lot about it and had that sold pretty quickly. Um, and then I was kind of off and running, started meeting people that could help, um, repair and fix, give me advice on this stuff and then kind of went from there. So, and what part of Minneapolis are you from? You said you were in the suburbs. Yeah. Suburbs. So Northwest suburbs, uh, just Maple Grove, about 20 minutes Northwest, um, of Minneapolis. But we'll I mean, there's quite a big range of the Twin Cities here. So Minneapolis, St. Paul suburbs. But our business kind of expands through the Midwest, all parts of Minnesota. And again, we've shipped machines across the United States as well. So that's awesome. Maple Grove. I know what that is. I can totally relate to that. It's funny that you say that with it being from Minnesota. but that's when my addiction started all over again in the nineties playing at Kauffman union at the university of Minnesota down in the basement, go gophers down to the basement. They had at least if I'm not mistaken, maybe I'm exaggerating, but I think they had like 20 pinball machines all in a row, all the classic WP or the system.
Williams Pitching Batsgame
Gottlieb Strikes and Sparesgame
Slugfestgame
Aladdin's Castlevenue
  • ?

    regulatory_signal: Standard homeowner's insurance does not adequately cover pinball machines; formal appraisals enable proper valuation for claims

    medium · Andrew's service addresses insurance underwriting needs; case study of burst-pipe customer requiring damage assessment

  • ?

    industry_signal: Secondary market pricing lacks standardization; sellers frequently ask inflated 'wishful thinking' prices based on eBay outliers rather than realistic comps

    high · Andrew describes common practice of sellers citing one high-price sale as justification; appraisal service addresses need for objective valuation methodology

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Andrew Lanners transitioning from buy/sell distributor to service provider (transportation, appraisals), diversifying business model

    high · Andrew describes evolution: arcade dealer → pinball seller → transportation specialist → appraiser; each phase building on previous expertise

  • ?

    product_strategy: Premier Pinball targets first-time homebuyers and budget-conscious collectors with refurbished used machines rather than competing on new sales

    high · Andrew explicitly states: 'not every first time home owner is looking to buy that pinball machine for seven to eight thousand dollars... they're looking to maybe start with something from the 90s'

  • ?

    business_signal: Pinball community facing increased natural disaster losses (wildfires, hurricanes, floods, tornadoes); insurance and appraisal services becoming relevant to risk management

    medium · Andrew cites 2024 wildfires, hurricanes in Tampa, recent distributor house fire, Paradise Fire (2018) as examples driving service need

    • 4:06
    What were they? The system. I always forget. Yeah. Thank you. System 11s. And then some WPCs as well as they got newer machines. but I remember that very vividly.
    4:19
    Minnesota was a happening place for me to play pinball in a lot of different locations. Cold and dark equals a lot of pinball time for a lot of people. So exactly. So like pops arcade. I don't know if you remember that was around a long time ago in downtown Minneapolis. I know there's a lot of places that I kind of even popped up in the last five to 10 years throughout. well, even the entire country, but specifically here in Minneapolis, St. Paul area, there's barcades, as they call them, and pinball arcades, and even just tons of breweries with pinball machines across the Twin Cities here popping up everywhere, so it's pretty fun. That is awesome. You're just selling? You're not operating? Not operating. Definitely a lot of operators that I work with, but, yes, just buying and selling is kind of my forte. but also just, yeah, tons of operators throughout the Minneapolis-St. Paul area just with how many places there are that have popped up over the last five to ten years too. So that's actually super interesting. So most of these places, they're not buying their own games. They're selling or you're selling to an op when you're not selling to a home operator or do any of these business operators, are they investing in their own equipment? that's actually a great question um a few of like the really really big places well-known places have their own um you know staff working on games um i'm even thinking of one of the bigger places in st paul can can wonderland um interesting place or setup i should say where they don't even own their own games, but they do have like a profit share. So even some of the biggest places don't own the games. A lot of them bring them in with operators and profit share. So I work with a lot of those operators on getting them deals at affordable prices under market value, and then they make their money by operating. So then those breweries and big arcades, you know, just don't have to worry about staffing and maintenance and all that stuff. So you guys do all the maintenance and repairs? I don't personally. I just focus on the buying and selling and transporting of games. And there are a lot of guys throughout the Minneapolis-St. Paul area that do kind of make their money operating these machines. But that is not me. So, yeah. Yeah, the circle of life. One person buys them. One person fixes them. One person operates them. Yep. And one person plays them. A little meat on the bone for everybody. Kind of, like you said, circle of life right there, business. Everyone gets what they want. So if this isn't getting a little too in the personal side or maybe giving away like industry insider secrets, Seth Davis was on another podcast not too far back and he talked about the increasing amount of your home buyer versus your location, your operator. Absolutely. What would you say the percentage breakdown for your sales is? Are more of these machines going into the basement or more of them going into the location? That's a great question. I think, you know, me getting in the industry just kind of out of coincidence out of college. I really didn't know that answer at the time, but my business has survived off of homeowners. And I think, you know, growing in this industry and just seeing how the industry works here in the Minneapolis-St. Paul area and even across the Midwest, I've gotten to know it a little bit, too. is my business has really survived because there was really no option for homeowners. There's just tons of operators. And the only time those operators were ever selling was when they would buy new stuff for their bars and restaurants, which, you know, isn't often, you know, it's going to be a few games, maybe a year, and that's all they have to get rid of or whatever. um so that's the only options that homeowners really had was you know buying off what i like to call like a 1-800 website number random website or number offline that somewhere is not local you know when you have maintenance you have no idea who to call or what to do um or you're gonna you know there might be an option or two within the twin cities here that you can buy a game brand new out of box and that's going to be an arm and a leg and not everybody can afford that or wants to spend that on an arcade game or pinball machine so that's really where i've came in and um offered those used games that are 100 refurbished ready to go that obviously are a lot different price wise than some of these brand new stern's brand new out of the box so um yeah it's an intimidating thing. So having, having somebody in your area who, you know, they're going to basically help you, they're going to, you know, make sure that the machine that you buy is, is in good repair. You know, obviously you're going to charge a little bit for, for the, for the privilege, but I think that we've all probably had a situation where, you know, we've bought a, a machine off of, off of Craigslist or off of some friend recommendation that was, you know, a little bit more than we expected. And we just wanted to get to playing, you know, if, if, if, if you want to play and your machine doesn't work, that's, that's a hobby killer. So having, having somebody who knows what they're doing on your side, you know, that's, that's a huge, a huge benefit to, to the modern collector. Yeah, I can agree with that. I think at first it was really tough for me, as you can imagine, trying to sell some pinball machines for, you know, three, $4,000 when you're brand new to the industry, you don't have a website, you know, you don't have crazy amount of knowledge compared to, you know, rest of the people in the industry. But over the years it's gotten easier. You get a bunch of reviews going, testimonials, websites and marketing, Facebook reviews, and the list goes on, you know, you can send people those things and they feel very comfortable buying from you. So yeah, just building that reputation on, again, online and even word of mouth has been huge for me of, hey, you're going to get a good product, great customer service. The whole experience is going to be great. So to answer your question, I think it's probably like 70-30, I would say, homeowner to operator, maybe 60-40. It's kind of a roller coaster. depends on the the month the time of year but um say overall my niche has really been homeowners because not every first time home or home owner is looking to um buy that uh pinball machine for seven to eight thousand dollars you know brand new out of the box they're looking to maybe start with something from the 90s the early 2000s that's going to be you know a lot of my machines are anywhere from that two to four thousand dollar range and which is still a lot of money for you know the average person so um yeah now in in addition to um selling games do you also take trades i do i do take trades yep so if someone wants to um trade a game in you know get a newer game or a more expensive game different theme i'll do that or oftentimes i'll get calls or messages like, hey, you know, I got this older game. It's not really working. We're looking to, you know, upgrade to something newer.
    12:11
    So oftentimes like an older EM or something like that will be broken and they're looking to upgrade. So, yeah, we do take trades in as well.
    12:20
    That's great. So that leads me, you know, when you initially reached out to us and we were talking, you were talking about you presented an idea about doing a grading for pinball machines, not like a collector's grade, but like an assessment.
    12:43
    So, yeah, you want to take us through that. Absolutely. So as a business owner, entrepreneur, we're always looking to evolve business, different ways to make money, but also service people in the industry. So over time, you know, after kind of learning the buy and selling market of pinball machines and arcade games, that kind of led me to transportation. So now I kind of know all the ins and outs of transportation, you know, locally and across the country, which has now led us to pinball and arcade game appraisals for insurance adjusters and even owners and collectors. So I got approached by a gentleman last year in the Twin Cities here that unfortunately had his pipes burst in his arcade room in his basement. Well, if you know anything about pinball machines and arcade games, water and pinball machines don't really mix too well. So all of this stuff was totaled out and his insurance agent had been looking for an industry expert to kind of assess what the value was, you know, before the damage of these games and also after the damage of these games just for the insurance claim, which kind of led me to where I am now of offering appraisals for people across the country. and also throughout Minnesota.
    14:15
    If you want to insure your pinball machine, perfect. That's kind of what we do every day is assessing the values of games in order to buy and sell properly. If you can't assess the value of pinball machines in arcade games, well, you probably won't be in business too long. So whether you're an owner or collector looking to insure your collection, make sure if something were to happen, it's insured, or unfortunately if something were to happen like the gentleman that contacted me this past year where this whole idea came from of um you know your pipes burst or these california wildfires are going on or a tornado the hurricanes down in florida last year like we have pinball machines and arcade games all throughout the country you know any of these situations can happen well that's where we come in. We can work with insurance adjusters and agents on, you know, going through the process from start to finish of evaluating what the value of that claim should be and what those games are, were and are currently worth. So yeah, it's super exciting to be able to offer another service. It's something that we can do, you know, on the phone, on the computer throughout the entire country, which is pretty cool as well. So excited to kind of officially launch that here for 2025. And we kind of did it unofficially for the first time last year in 2024. And that's kind of how the idea came about. So I was super interested in kind of what you said, too. Like when we started talking about you as a guest, I mean, I really fixated on the pinball machine appraisal. And I also feel like I kind of like I kind of misrepresented it in my own head as to thinking you were talking about grading.
    16:06
    And I actually was it wasn't until I went to your website and I was looking over, which, by the way, the website's magnificent. Like whoever I did a heck of a job.
    16:17
    But, yeah, when I went in and it mentioned that, yeah, you know, you could use it for like insurance purposes and whatnot. I'm like, oh, that's that's actually, you know, at first I viewed it. I'll be honest. I'm just like, oh, all we need in pinball is another dick measuring contest.
    16:32
    But like, honestly, it's like once I once I actually looked at it and I thought about it critically, I was like, actually, that that might be a pretty a pretty useful service. Is it something that you go and actually like sample the machine like personally or or do you do it with with photographs?
    16:51
    And right now it's like someone asked you what your pinball machine is worth. it's somewhere between like you look at comp values, right? You go to Pennside and you look at, you know, the average game selling value. And then you kind of go, well, my machine's a player. So it's, you know, maybe a little bit more or a little bit less. But there's really no authority, right? It's just it's a matter of what you believe and, you know, what the market will bear. And, you know, to an insurance company, I mean, I don't know, I've had some pretty janky, you know, situations with insurance companies where they're just like, oh, yeah, we got the value of your car off a Craigslist. And I'm all like, the hell you did.
    17:38
    But, yeah, it would be, you know, it would behoove somebody with a high-end collection or even just a standard-end collection with the price of games these days. Yeah. Have an expert who can who can analyze and assign, you know, a value. What what do you use as as the basis for valuation? I mean, again, if we're not getting too much into your your industry. Yeah. It's a great sequence.
    18:03
    I know there's a couple of questions. I'll try to answer them both. The first one I know you talked about was like, do you do this in person or can you do it over the phone and computer? Well, that's kind of the nice thing about this. Right. Like, hey, say someone has $100,000, $150,000 collection out in California and, you know, that insurance adjuster says photos aren't going to cut it for this. Yeah, perfect. Fly me out. I'll take a look at them. I'll go through each game and we'll go over them and do that. But also, you know, that's kind of insurance's preference, right? Like if if they're fine with me taking a look at photos and stuff, then that's something that I can absolutely do over the phone and computer just with some time and effort. So it's kind of we're kind of flexible on our end, which is nice. It's kind of more user friendly on their end. Like, hey, what do you need? And we can kind of adjust to that, which is super nice. um and i know secondly um you were kind of just talking uh market wise what do i go off of um well the pinball market as you guys know is kind of tricky i mean there's a lot of variables um i think the the best the best thing to go off of without going into too much of the weeds is just kind of looking at current listings out there and past listings of like hey what are games selling for and why, not just saying, oh yeah, I see a whatever, Twilight Zone that sold for 15 grand or whatever. It's like, my game's worth that. You'll get that all the time in this industry as you guys are gonna probably know. People trying to sell me games Hey I saw whatever game it might be worth five grand Going for on eBay That what I asking for It like well that not exactly what it valued at That's called the wishful thinking price. Absolutely. So I think there's a lot of factors, as you guys know, that go into this, right? The condition of the play field, back glass cabinet, electronics, sound, plastics, you know, what have other names? Non-smoking home. Absolutely. non-smoking home you know um i got a fish tells numbers never played with and only dropped once yeah what's a cabinet condition is there any fading and things like that so there's so many factors which again is what where we kind of come into play and um evaluate this for the insurance agent so they're not just looking on ebay and either undervaluing or overvaluing something but I think there's a lot that goes on, but I think, you know, doing your, doing your looking around of, you know, current ads and past ads is a good start too. So if that makes sense.
    20:56
    Totally. Yeah. Yeah, no, absolutely. I'm sure it's situational too, but what does a service like this typically go for? That's a great question as well. I think, um, it is very situational as is a lot of different things with pinball machines and arcade games um what we've done kind of so far for smaller collections um like again that pipe bursting situation that had i don't know three to five i believe games it was was like starting rate of 500 bucks but if you're gonna need me to fly out to california take a look at 150 000 of pinball machines all right obviously 500 bucks isn't going to get us very far so it's kind of situational it's kind of you know um still developing prices and uh kind of just going by situation by situation but yeah that's kind of been the starting price for other um smaller collections so far but i think that's going to kind of be a um situation by situation uh so if you're within 100 miles of where you're at, you're looking at probably three to 500. Exactly. I think that's, that's going to be, um, again, if that's a 10 game collection though, and we're going to either send photos over 10 games and I'm going to have to do research and evaluate 10 different games and we're going to have to start going up. But then, yeah, again, if, if there's a site visit to that will probably make it go up a little bit. But, um, again, I'm really doing this to try to help out people as well in the industry, cover their games. I know I've done quite a bit of research on this on the internet, pin side, etc.
    22:46
    And dating even 10, 15 years back, there's threads out there on the internet, people asking like, hey, does anybody have anyone that can appraise games? My insurance agent is looking for an expert or whatever. So that's kind of also where the idea came from is there just hasn't really been a known person to do this across the country. I'm hoping to kind of take that over.
    23:13
    No, when you bring up wildfires, you know, we talked offline. I'm from Northern California. You heard about Paradise back in 2018, the Paradise Fire. That's where I'm from. My daughter and son. I was in Sacramento, but I lived there for 10 years before I moved here to Wyoming. But my daughter and son-in-law lost their home. A lot of my coworkers in the home office, my boss, his dad, his mother-in-law. In fact, the first pinball I owned, I sold him. He lost that and a Terminator, too, when he lost his house. And I knew a lot of other people who lost. I mean, they lost everything. So this is a really valuable service. It reminds me of a quick – So I'm going to take this bus off the road for a second. Some years ago, if you know the band Skid Row, the singer, the huge Kiss fan, I forget where he was living, Carolina or someplace, they had a flood. So he's trying to get to his house, and he sees his old Valley Kiss pinball machine floating down the street past his house. And so he lost his Valley Kiss pinball machine in a flood. So, you know, we have insurance, but general homeowner's insurance, I'm pretty sure, is probably not usually going to cover pinball machines. Or they're going to give you some rate that's way beneath what they're going to actually be worth.
    24:36
    And in honor of your friend, if I ever get a yacht, I'm going to name it Bally Kiss Pinball Machine.
    24:43
    So you're referring to Sebastian Bach? Thank you. Sebastian Bach. I mean, they're going to skate me, and now I hear the dogs going, Oh, Skid Row? Sebastian Bach 18 and Life man 18 and Life yeah that's still a popular song but yeah so he was relating that story going I saw my Valley Kiss pinball floating down the street past my house so yeah so you know but no so this is especially you know like I said we got floods and fires and there was another distributor I forget where it wasn't maybe more than two months ago who lost his house in the house fire and a lot of several of his games. So, you know, so, I mean, that hits close to home. So having, yeah, it's like me and Dan had a completely different idea. We thought you were just like going to people's house and going, Hey, your game's worth this much and I'll give you this much for it. So this is, and we talked about the insurance angles. Like, well, if you're doing for like the insurance appraisals, that's a good idea. especially these days with everything going on.
    25:52
    I appreciate that. I'm hoping it's of value for, first off, just people near me in the Twin Cities area, but I'm hoping that we can kind of get the word out across the country and really be a service. Again, I've even been reading some stories of people losing tons of machines in the wildfires right now, and then I can't imagine the two hurricanes that hit Tampa. You know, we got tornadoes all the time up here in the Midwest. So there's always stuff going on. And I'm just hoping that this service is going to help people protect themselves and their machines as well. So financially.
    26:34
    Yeah, absolutely. So do you play pinball yourself? Are you much of a player or just more? It's a good question.
    26:45
    I've gotten into it a little bit. I would call myself more casual compared to you guys or anybody else.
    26:53
    You know, I spend a lot of time operating the business. The fun thing for me is that, you know, last year selling 120 games throughout the year, you get to play all these things, right? So I kind of sometimes I'll get to play a game for 24 hours before it gets sold or sometimes I'll have something around for a few weeks or whatever it may be. But it is fun kind of. getting to play all these different games.
    27:20
    But I never get into all the crazy details and strategies. I love hearing those stories and messages back from people that I sell them to, but I never usually get them long enough to get all the strategies and all the lingo of the game down. So you're just all about the sale, right? There's not one of those games that you're like, oh this this is coming home this is coming home with daddy no um there there are a few that i've loved and when i get a bigger property someday i'll definitely have uh downstairs or in garage or whatever it may be but i'm a huge sports fanatic um i've loved the pitching bats over the years the nice the different pitching bats which is crazy because you know i've sold games over you know 10 12 whatever grand um those pitching bats aren't worth a whole lot but it's fun having a couple buddies over and you're just playing against each other throwing each other change-ups fastball curveball and i love it so those old school pitching bats have kind of been um my favorite over the years so i know it's not one of the old ones but like if i had a buddy to play with consistently i would have a slug fest yeah i was just thinking about slug fest yeah i I think it's the neatest game, but you can't stand there and play a whole game of it yourself. It just sucks.
    28:49
    Yeah, God. I probably played a nine-inning game of Slugfest by myself when I was just really bored. Playing against yourself? Yeah, I'm just pitching and hitting the ball. This is not fun, but if you're standing side-by-side with somebody, it's the best. It is so fun. Talking smack to your buddy. Here it comes, loser Well, Foley Fest is great too Because you can make it dispense out Baseball cards, you know Yeah, but you don't care about that at home I mean, it's neat I do, but you know Are you going to collect your own baseball cards? No, I'm still Putting gum in the pack So, you know That shatter gum That shatter gum, yeah When I was Younger, I in my elementary years, I preferred to play the pitch and bat much more than the pinball machines. They seemed like they were better value for a quarter instead of the pinball machines that pretty much just drained instantly when I didn't know how to play it at a younger age.
    29:57
    So I remember those. A little bit of fever action. Williams in 1984. Yeah, exactly. Love that game. Yeah.
    30:05
    Totally. I totally remember that one. I remember Aladdin's Castle is where it was at in Brookfield, Wisconsin. Love it. If I had to have a game like that, it would be the Gottlieb Strikes and Spares. That is amazing. We talk about that all the time. If you had to have it. Yeah, if I had to have a pitch and bat style game, have you ever played Strikes and Spares, Andrew? I've not played it. I've seen it, though. Okay, so it's bowling. Yeah. And the balls are bigger. They're slightly oversized pinballs, and you actually – I think you actually hit the pins. I think it's like a – I don't think it has like a sensor or anything, but, man, it's fun. And I could play a single-player game of that, but, you know. So, yeah. So you have to understand, Andrew, in order for Dan, when he says, you know, if I had to have one, it's, well, I'd only – oh, I would pay the money for one in a heartbeat, but I don't have any room left. Gotcha, gotcha. I thought it was more of a chore to have a pitching bat. I didn't know it was that bad of a game to have. No, I would say if I had someone here to play with all the time, like most guys who are in the pinball buyer's age, right, they either have kids that they're going to play with or they have people over once in a while. Yep. So a lot of the cool things that you can do with arcade games is predilected on competition. You know, you're going to play with somebody where, you know, pinball, at least you can go out and turn the machine on, you know, just shoot for a high score and then and then turn it off and put it away. But like a pitch in bad, you pretty much have to, you know, it's like having an air hockey table and no friends.
    31:51
    I have a foosball table out in my garage right now, almost totally worthless until somebody comes over and is like, dude, let's play foosball. When did you get a foosball table? Oh, we got it from David Hozier. It's actually not mine. Oh, okay. It's a really nice foosball table, though. Right now it has a moving blanket and a bunch of junk on top of it, though.
    32:10
    You got the Mustang out of the garage. I forgot about that. Yeah, like three years ago. Has it been that long? Jesus.
    32:22
    Maybe two. You know, it's been nearly four years since I've been to your house, man. Yeah, it's changed a lot. Yeah. No, I haven't been since you remodeled. So I got to, whenever I come out, we're at the show or I'm at my, my daughter's house. So, you know, it's a pretty fun place to be. I got to get back to the garage soon. I got to do that this year. If you're, if you're not at Golden State. Well, I'll be there. It's a, no, I'm saying if you're not at Golden State, it's a good place to come play some games. It is. It's a great place. And foosball. There you go. But you do the pitching bat. No, Andrew, I'm a huge fan of pitching bats. too. I love them and I want one. I just like, I got to find one at a decent price. I know where you can get one.
    33:10
    We'll ship you one out there. We got a guy right here on the show, man. He can hook it up. Went through a couple pitching bats last year.
    33:22
    Wyoming would be no problem. Let's get you one out there. There you go. Well, next time you when you get to California, make sure to stop and grab myself an In-N-Out burger.
    33:34
    Absolutely. When I was in Minnesota, because I had been one time before, they had a White Castle in Vegas, and my boys had never, they only had the frozen ones. I said, well, we'll go to White Castle, and we did. And they're like, all right, these are great. They were so jacked, because we don't have White Castles out on the West Coast or in Wyoming. It was a special treat to get that.
    34:00
    It's like, We have a standing kind of thing we do whenever we travel. We don't eat anything that we can get back home, whether it's a local place or a chain. It doesn't matter. It's like, let's eat the local fare because we can't get that at home and try new things. Of course. The go-to place that I went, since we're talking a little bit about food, was Devani's. I love Devani's Pizza. It was a chain in Minneapolis. Oh, wow. Was it good? deep dish pizza and the other place that I always went to when everything else was closed was Perkins which is like Denny's. Yeah. We have Perkins here. Was it Perkins? No, I think it was Perk-O's. No, it was Perkins.
    34:44
    No, no, we had Perk-O's. Oh, you had Perk-O's. Yeah, we have Perkins here in Wyoming. Oh, okay. Yeah, that was a famous spot to go to when everything else was closed. Yeah, open 24 hours. Open 24 hours, yep. That's probably why you're going there after good night out at University of Minnesota. Exactly.
    35:06
    Andrew, did you have anything else that you wanted to let us know about with, what was it? Premier Pinball and Amusements. Yeah. I mean, just appreciate you guys having me on to kind of discuss all the new insurance appraisal stuff. If anyone is interested in taking a look at the website or the actual appraisal piece of things on the website, you can check out PPAMN.com slash services or just the entire website at PPAMN.com. And kind of goes over the story, all of our different services, who we kind of work with and all of those fun things. So, yeah, I would encourage people to, if they are interested in getting their games, machines appraised, take a look at the website and you can contact me off of there as well. Yeah, there's a lot of pictures. You know, it looks, it's a really well-designed site. You won't have any trouble navigating it. So, yeah, check it out. I appreciate that. Thank you. Yeah, no, it's easy to navigate and that's really important for me because one of the things that really frustrates me is when you go to a website or something. And it's like, you know, it's like trying to, like, read Sanskrit, you know. It's like, what the hell are they doing? I can't figure out anything.
    36:31
    Of course, I have the patience of a, you know, a sand police. So, you know, I'm the guy that yells at the baked potato in the microwave spending more than eight seconds. You know, come on, I haven't got all day.
    36:43
    And I love, Mark, that your Minnesotan accent is really coming out on the show tonight. It usually does when I'm around other Midwesterners. Which is great That's like my and my wife One of our favorite things to do is just hear people From Minnesota and even better From North Dakota It's like Watching Fargo It's funny Another place I went to go play Pinball often was the Rotunda In the Mall of America We called it the Mega Mall I played there remember when I went Yeah the Rotunda and they had a sports bar and I still remember the games. They had Fishtails, they had Judge Dredd, they had Medieval Madness, they had Adam's Family. That's a collection. I think those were the four games that they had. When I was there three years ago, they had Medieval and then they had all the newer stars. They had a Godzilla and I've got... Where, in the Rotunda? Oh, really? So it's like it was in the 90s. yeah yeah cool so it might have been a remake i don't remember i have pictures i'll have to go dig those up and then there was a pizza place that had a theater of magic a donkey kong and something i forget it was two bally williams and then uh they had like so they had two pinballs they had like a donkey kong and it was like on the it was like on the next floor down but yeah up in the rotunda they had then they had the bar there and like the small part they had The big sports bar that has the boxing ring in it. If it's still there, that's a long time ago. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They have axe throwing and stuff like that, too. Oh, okay. So now they have axe throwing. And then the room that was adjacent to it was a karaoke bar. Oh, okay. And I don't know if that's true anymore, but that was a hot spot to go to on the weekends when there was nothing else to do on the university when everybody went home because it was kind of a lot of people commuted back and forth that were local. And then the only parties that were happening were people from Wisconsin because they were all living on campus. And then, of course, we went all to all the other exciting things that happened around Minneapolis. So it was a fun place to be. And we always search for pinball. But I will say one thing that I regret, and I never went to Blainebrook, which really makes me mad because I worked right outside of Edina. Oh, Hopkins actually was between, uh, Edina and Hopkins, uh, at a after school program. And I wish I had a chance to go there. And then the other one was, uh, SS billiards. I didn't get to go there. And if I had the internet, I would have known about it, but we have to make a road trip. The three have to make a road trip and then get together with Andrew and go Look at that one awesome pizza you're talking about. Now they have Tilts, right? That's a really popular one. Tilts, they got all sorts of, Bad Penny Pinballs are very popular in St Paul Blainebrook is like you stated still a really popular one on the north side of the Twin Cities There spots all over Is there any pinball places at Seven Corners?
    39:59
    That's a good question. Minneapolis Seven Corners, there is not to my knowledge. Wow, I can't believe there's nothing there. Because I do remember there was a place called Bullwinkle's, and inside a bullwinkle because they had a Rocky and Bullwinkle pinball machine.
    40:15
    Thematically appropriate. Of course. Absolutely. Because they're from Prospect Falls, Minnesota. That's why they went to Watson-Modell U. Yeah, exactly. It fits perfectly.
    40:28
    Yeah. A lot of places I want. I just wish I knew more. This would be extra fun for you, Mark, because that's like your old home stomping ground. But you're from Wisconsin though, right? Right, correct. Yeah, you matriculated in Minnesota. Yeah, I did. You're just like Spencer knows the word matriculated.
    40:53
    Dan's like, holy shit. So I got one more question. Then we're going to move on to a couple other topics. And we want you to just stick around and throw in your two cents if you're feeling good, Andrew.
    41:07
    Yeah, if you want to. if you want absolutely um dungeons and dragons is the newest stern game um you have a chance to play that yet we have not i've not um had a chance like you guys to play that yet just kind of reading all the threads you know hearing all the hype on facebook and you know on pin side and everything like that about the game so uh obviously hope to play that in the near future so i know what the heck I'm talking about when I am selling that game, but I have not had that chance quite yet. Okay. I think it's funny. I don't know if we were on the air or if we were talking off the air, but I remember I was talking to Mark about Dungeons and Dragons. He was saying, do you think Dungeons and Dragons is coming out? And I said, that seems to be where we're going. And he started talking about like this dragon mech that would shoot balls at you. And I was like, dude, slow your roll, bro. this is stern there's no way that's gonna happen and then like that's exactly what happened so i'm thinking that mark has a man on the inside that he's holding out on us about you were a little too close for that to have been a coincidence who are you talking to mark oh i have my sources i have my sources so yeah what a what a cool theme right like dungeons and dragons is is it's it's great because it's it's something that like we can instantly quantify as oh man you know dungeons and dragons of swords and sorcery and adventure and and and fun and i think for a lot of us uh especially as dorks it has a lot of memories but at the same time it's like wide open because you can do anything within, you know, the space and the universe of Dungeons and Dragons. And I don't know about you guys, but man, I just love swords and sorcery games, so. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I hope they put a lion man in there. Yeah, there you go. That would be good if they had that as a funny call-out or something. That would be great. I think Spooky's got the corner on that. Yeah, they do.
    43:20
    Well, I think what's really neat is with Dungeons and Dragons is that Ryan Eddy had a machine which was Stranger Things, which was based off of Dungeons and Dragons with the Demogorgon. And now he has a full-fledged D&D pinball machine, kind of almost like a stepping stone from Stranger Things, which is pretty ironic. It makes me wonder if they, it's like, oh, this part here, obviously they probably have things planned way in advance, but it is pretty ironic to see that now it's a full-fledged game where that was kind of the starting point of Stranger Things. Yeah, it is a recurring plot point on Stranger Things. It is. Because they played in the first season and what was it, is it the third season? Whatever the most recent season was, they were members of the Dungeons and Dragons Club. Yep, yep. You probably looked just like Mike when you were a kid. I had that bulkhead and everything didn't you that's the guy you guys rocked up in Minnesota oh yeah or in Wisconsin you're in Wisconsin you're in college in Minnesota right exactly oh yeah you bet you don't know everything I know about that accent I learned from Bobby's World so sorry just like everything I know about Canadians I learned from Strange Brew so I don't talk about Canadians much Oh, man. So this is where we just start taking the – but we're almost into an hour. We start taking the bus all over the place. So I'm going to grab it. We're going to spin it back a little bit. So why don't you stay on because we're going to cover a couple other topics, and then we'll close out the show. Again, it's Premier Pinball and Amusement.
    45:08
    Andrew Lanners is the proprietor. He's in the suburbs of Minneapolis, St. Paul, Minnesota. What's your website again, sir? Our website can be found at ppamn.com. Perfect. All right. And you have a Facebook page as well or just go to Facebook, Instagram, all the things. So ppamn, both on Instagram and Facebook. So, yeah, give us a follow like and, yeah, I would love to have you guys check out the website as well. So appreciate that. We've all checked it out because we're awesome dudes. So cool. All right. So, Dan, I'm going to take it over to you because you did some stuff in the last, what, week or two?
    45:53
    Just last weekend. Yeah. Okay. What did you do? So I played in the CCPL Interleague Championship, which you get to go play in if you finish top four of any of the previous seasons in the last year. I got in with one point by taking a fourth. So that wasn't exactly an auspicious start. A couple of the other guys did too. So I rolled on in there. I won my tiebreaker and then immediately got smoked like a pack of cools.
    46:34
    Yeah, we played by Iron Maiden for the tiebreaker, and I actually had a pretty good game. In fact, the guy I was playing with had actually such a rough game, and I didn't really, I don't know why I was kind of spacing out. I didn't really understand. So I kind of ran it up on him on ball three when I didn't need to, but I thought we were only on ball two. And I did that the other night too. I thought the game was over on ball two, and I was kicking ass. And they're like, dude, you have a whole other ball. Why are you writing down your score? I was just like, yeah, I don't need it. It turned out I didn't.
    47:07
    So then, you know, we start the play, and the draw comes up, and it's Iron Maiden again. And I very rarely have good games on our hosts, Iron Maiden, and I wasn't going to have two in a row. And, you know, but I set out, you know, I was like, all right, I just did it once. Me and Iron Maiden are in a good place. We're vibing, you know, picked Wasted Years. That's usually a song that I rock on. No, that was a wasted pick.
    47:35
    I just and I mean, it wasn't even like there's anything I could have done. And I just outlaned, you know, one, two, three. I had it up and over outlane. I had, you know, just the way that that game plays. You know, every once in a while the ball is going to find its way out. And, well, that was once in a while, three times in a row. Especially when you hit that mummy cap, capped the ball. So hung out for a bit, you know. And the nice thing about interleague is it's really just for fun. There's no IFPA. So, you know, you're playing for the trophy. and the people who I was there with, they had qualified a little bit higher. And, of course, our top qualifier was a Mr. Alex Lambert, who's no stranger to fans of the show.
    48:19
    And I think it ended up coming down to Mike Garcia and Adam Pressler and Alex, and Alex just couldn't be stopped. so he rolled to his second interleague championship in a row so humongous congratulations to alex for just being a g at pinball this year uh we actually in addition to the the trophy um we made a championship belt they're actually one of our uh one of our league coordinators wanded and so alex won the championship belt and uh the nice thing about alex winning it was you know it actually fit him.
    49:01
    I want to interject real quick for Andrew. The rest of us are a little more middle-aged. Alex is still young.
    49:10
    So, Andrew, whenever they have league night, you pay whatever per season and the host, who's hosting, because they host Denver Homes, will provide you with tacos or pizza or something. When I was there... It's not true. Well, oh, it's not true anymore? No, we don't do food. We can do food, but... Okay, well, Adam still does tacos, right? Well, Adam will buy you tacos. Well, I know you pay for it, but, you know... I want to be friends with Adam. Yeah, he doesn't buy them for you. Like, he takes your money and purchases tacos.
    49:48
    He lives across the street from, like, a really good taco truck. Best taco truck in Northern California. Man, his tacos are just bombing. the death of the best in Lodi right so yeah exactly so during league finals every league season it's always on a Saturday or once in a while Sunday and it's always a potluck so if you're doing well you're doing well and you got a chance of winning a trophy maybe 20 bucks or something if you're not doing well you sit around at the buffet table and me and Dan used to play a game called around the world and fast food so he'd be like where you at Spitz I'm like I've been through Pizza Hut KFC And I'm on the Popeyes now And I'm curving around I'm heading back to the Chili Dogs at Wienersitzel How about you? And he's like, I stopped at Wienersitzel Couldn't get any further But I told him what to do There would be like three or four of us That got knocked out in the first round And we want to hang out and cheer on the winner And so what are you doing? Just shoving shit in my face, man So, you know But yeah, so that's what we would do It was kind of like the consolation prize It's like it's all you can eat of all the crappy, great fast food you can get at Ambrose. And for the record, somebody brought some really good lumpia. Oh, did they really? I got some lumpia out of the deal. But, yeah, man, it was a short day for our hero, Dan, but it was a good day for our hero, Alex. And Alex has got the championship belt, which he gets to hold on to for an entire year.
    51:17
    Wow. So the idea is it's a traveling trophy. So, yeah, you know, next year somebody else can win it. But Alex is on his second year in a row as the interleague champion. So who knows, man? He might be unstoppable. We might need Mark to come to town to take him down a peg. So is interleague fulsome against Elk Grove, or is it just one? Is it just fulsome against? It's not really fulsome against Lodi, but it's like if you are. Okay, sorry, Lodi. Sorry. If you're in one of the CCPL leagues and you take a top spot, you qualify for interleague. It used to be the top three. I think we expanded to the top four just because our top three were too consistent. So we needed to get some more players in there. So, yeah, if you have a podium finish or a near miss, you get a point for each position that you finish. So, of course, the higher you finish, the more points you get, the better spot that you get. And it's the format. I don't really know what the format's officially called. It might be called like a knockout or something, but it's sort of a gauntlet. So the idea is like if you start off, you know, as one of the bottom qualifiers and you don't finish last, all you have to do is not finish last and you'll continue on to the next round. And the person who finishes last actually gets to choose the game that the people are going to go and play on their way. You know, on my way out the door, I get to throw one last middle finger at him and make him play like Harlem Globetrotters or something. Uh-huh. That's cool. Yeah. And then, you know, the idea is that you just keep going until there's just two people left and then they play a best two out of three. So is it Lodi versus Folsom? or versus anybody because it's just getting it's a man for himself right it's just getting in so like i could say well alex won you know so you know lodi won but alex plays in fulsome and lodi i play in full mode i might okay in fulsome and lodi adam adam plays in fulsome and lodi so yeah you know it's just if you play in the league and you finish you get to go and and it's you know it's, it's a funsy event, but it's nice. It's nice just to get to go. I think most of the years I've had a good enough finish to attend interleague. I think one year I might've lasted three or four rounds, but that's great that you, it's really hard to, it's really hard to run the whole way because eventually you just run into the killers, you know, any, any given Saturday, I guess. Yeah. so speaking of the killers somebody went to state somebody that's right yeah we had uh the state championships for nevada in las vegas actually it was in henderson nevada which is a suburb of las vegas and it was uh quite a tournament i have to say uh we had the top 24 that went to state because we had enough players. We were the, what is that called? The super state. So we were able to go beyond 400. We actually ended up with over 700 unique players for Nevada. Now, just to give you a little history, three years ago, it was probably in the 200s and we didn't even get to the super state status. So we've increased all the way up to 700, 500 more unique players in just three years. So just think about how much it's growing. We might hit 1,000 this year. Who knows? I know Reno had a lot to do with that, always recruiting new players, always encouraging to build the pinball community and get a lot of people interested in playing competitive pinball and show them the ropes. For people who are total beginners, some have become top eight players every time we have a tournament. So it's all based on determination and people willing to listen to learn and to play the game as best as they can. So going back to Henderson, it was this weekend, just like every other state, they all take place on the same day.
    55:38
    And I had the buy, so I was very fortunate. There were two people that dropped out, so I was able to get in the seventh position. and I was able to basically relax, but at the same time get nervous once it was my time up for the second round. We had some heavy hitters in our top 24. One of them is Jack Slovacek, who is an amazing player. He is beyond just state level. He is national level, almost to the point I would say international level. He is getting to be a really solid player. And he's your guys' defending. He was the defending Nevada. He was the defending champion of last year, yes. And he pulled it off again. And he plays out of Reno. Right. He plays out of Reno, but he's originally from Mammoth Lakes. He goes to Davis. Alex out there, grudge match. Yeah, for sure. I know originally he was planning on playing for California, and then he changed his mind and came down to Nevada. But he played a stellar, stellar performance in all the games that he played. There was a great match between Jeffrey and Jack, and that was really fun to watch. And he beat Jeffrey 4-1 on classics and EMs and you name it. He had just a killer, killer performance. That's an achievement because Jeffrey, like that dude, he's good, man. Like, I don't think I've ever seen him lose. Right, right. Exactly. It was very humbling, I think, for Jeffrey to see the level of play that Jack showed. But here's the exciting thing. And I haven't talked about myself because, unfortunately, I didn't make it to the next round. I had a close game. I'll go into that, but I'm going to talk a little bit about who got into the final. And I am happy to say one of my great friends, Dan Armstrong, made it to the finals against Jack. So that was a huge accomplishment for Dan to get that far into the tournament. And he is playing really well as well. He's another scary good player. He is a really good focused player. And he knows the rules inside and out. and he executed it perfectly as much as he could. Now, when you got Jack, who scores two billion on Jaws, yeah, or on Iron Maiden, he had like 1.3 billion on his second ball. It's really hard to beat him on those modern games, but he had a good chance, and it was pretty close to possibly take the whole title, but it was Jack that got first. I played against Tom neighbors, who is a really nice guy from Vegas. And we had some really close games. The first game we played was black pyramid. And I did not have a good first ball was a first drain. The second ball I did. Okay. Didn't put up a lot of points. And then my third ball, I was able to hit the inline targets and get five times bonus. And I thought I had them. and then he caught up on the third ball and he got me. So that was my first game pick. Then we played Supersonic, and I won on Supersonic by 100 points.
    59:15
    100 points. It was such a close game. I thought he had me on the bonus, but he didn't. So that was exciting that I was able to win that one. And that's the Valley Supersonic, right? That's the Valley Supersonic. Pretty much the rules in that game are get the center lane, to open the gate and also to light the spinner and just rip the spinner nonstop And I had way less of a score than I did in practice because we had a practice time between 930 and about 1045 And I scored like 3 million on supersonic on my first ball on my first ball. But that didn't happen in competition. And it never does because I'm always nervous and I get the jitters and I get stressed and I just need to play for fun. And I did. I wasn't getting angry when I lost in certain games. I was keeping my cool and keeping my composure. But I have to say that Tom played better than me and he deserved to move on. And he actually, I think he, if I'm not mistaken, I think he made it through two more rounds until he had to play Jeffrey, and then Jeffrey beat him. But he played really well.
    60:34
    Actually, he played Daniela, and then he played me. Otherwise, I would have played Daniela as the winner.
    60:41
    And I know we played Bankshot was another one, or sorry, SureShot, which is the Ataball version of Bankshot. And he took me by about 2,000 points on that one. I thought I had him there. So they were just all close games. And the moderns, I blew it on Spider-Man. I had the mode ready, and I was trying to get Doc Ock, and I missed a shot, and I drained the ball. But I had a mode running, which makes me mad because I could have got Doc running, and then I had to try to. I figured, well, instead of risking it, trying to go for all the white shots, I decided to go for Doc Ock. and then I got it started, but I didn't get the mode started. So I just tried to keep the balls in play. But yeah, it wasn't as good as I wanted it to be. And then on Pirates, which was the last game, I did not. I shot it up, the Tortuga on my second ball, and I got a four times multiplier. But for some reason, those balls drained right away and the ball saver wasn't that long. And I went back down to like single scoring or double scoring. in it and I didn't hit the jackpots and blew it. And he had me about 80, over 80 million on, uh, pirates on the stern pirates and that sealed the deal. So I lost in four and two. So, but it was fun. I had a great time. Uh, there was food to be had, which was nice. So I did snack a lot once I got eliminated and then they did have a pinball machines upstairs that we could play. They were all classic EMs. And that was nice to be able to kind of not really redeem myself, but at least blow off some steam and just have fun playing some more games upstairs without interfering with the tournament machines. But I have to say that I got to give props to the Vegas guys. They really ran a well-organized tournament. At first, when I heard that it was going to be at a private residence, we were kind of frowning upon it. In fact, almost everybody from Rio was saying it was unfair. And it was interesting because I got the inside story. So on the record, I want to say what happened. One, the number one reason why the tournament was held at a private residence instead of at a bar or a barcade was because Jack is underage and he would not be able to participate in those public places because they were all 21 and over places. Right. So I thought that was interesting. The other thing that was interesting is that none of the Vegas guys had access to those machines two weeks before the tournament, including the person who hosted it, Tom Stewart. He hosted the tournament at his house. He didn't even play the games. He went on location to keep that integrity. So I thought it was going to be a total opposite where they get to practice and we had no practice on the machines, but it was very fair. Joe Anthes did a great job on having everything organized. There was no controversy that I observed. People were very, very good sportsmanship. No issues with calls or machine malfunctions. It was a really smooth tournament. Everybody knew what they were doing. His beginning speech was nice because he said, hey, we're all here to have fun. You know, this is just pinball. Let's have a great time. So it was a really well-organized tournament. I got to give props to the Vegas guys for putting it on. And the next one we're going to have in 2026, if everything goes as planned, we'll be back in Reno. So we've come to an agreement now that Vegas will host their tournaments every other year and we'll host tournaments every other year. So we'll always switch back and forth. Nice. So it was really nice. They were very accommodating. They welcomed us. In fact, Steve Strom opened his house on Friday night. And after we had a disappointing experience at the Pinball Hall of Fame, I'm going to tell you, I've never seen so many games down as that. And not only that, but playing games, five of them, five out of five did not work on some kind of thing that didn't let you get further in the game. Weak flippers, big hurt, didn't have the ramp raised up, so you couldn't get it to count for a home run.
    65:17
    Iron Maiden, the weak flipper to get up the ramps. It was just, he really needs to fix up that place. But, you know, this is just a broken record, just saying that over and over, that the Pinball Hall of Fame is not what it's cracked up to be, and it's sad because there's so many awesome machines ready to be played, but they're all turned off. It's unbelievable how many games are off and how many were not working or which were not really good to shoot. So to take care of that disappointing experience, Steve Strom invited us over to his house. And he had a couple of people from Vegas, but it was mostly Reno folks that came, opened his house, and he had seven machines. And one of the machines that I have to say is awesome, and I wish they were more on location, is Keltz. Oh, wow. He had a Keltz, and it was a customized machine that had Strom on it and Strom call-outs that he got when he ordered it from Haggis. And it's really sad to see that Haggis went out of business because they really do make great machines. And I'll tell you, that was a fun game. It shot great. It had great rules. It had nice play field, great art. what a great game for a first time game from that company. And it's just too bad that they didn't produce anymore. Cause I really enjoyed playing that a lot. And that was fun. I'd love just to see one. Like I know a couple, yeah, I know a couple of guys who have a fathom or who have had fathom. And I thought the fathom machines, I didn't love the lighting, but I think that the machine itself is gorgeous. Yeah. And so it's just like I could imagine that that Kelts is probably also a really good-looking machine with a really neat, weird theme, you know.
    67:13
    But, yeah, I mean, they didn't sell very many of those. It has to be in the double digits. Yeah, it was – yeah, they did not have many machines. He is one of, like, under 20, if I'm not mistaken. And he had it custom-made. Like, it was really cool. you couldn't really hear it because there were other pinball machines going in the background but if you listen closely there are call outs strictly or customized to his family so you actually hear strom in the call outs which is pretty cool and like a you know like a scottish accent or whatever yeah i wonder if he just sent them like voice files or something and they just programmed them in yeah i don't know i don't know but it was really a real treat to get to play that game and I kept going back to it. He had some other great games. Of course, he had Iron Man. He had Godzilla. He had World Cup Soccer, Big Game, Whirlwind, and Blackout. So a good variety of machines. And his Jaws was not there because it was put into the tournament. It was really cool. Their bathroom, they're huge Jaws fans. And when you went into the bathroom, it was all decorated with Jaws memorabilia. you know it had the poster it had little plaques it had uh little sharks it was really cool it was like you were taken back in the 70s you know it with this jaws theme in their bathroom it was pretty neat just when you thought it was safe to go back to the toilet yeah exactly yeah but that was really neat um so we had a really fun time that was till 10 o'clock and then we all got near a b&b and hung out a really nice house and then of course we had the tournament saturday and then everybody left on Sunday. But it was a really great time bonding with all the pinball folks. But like I said, I think Vegas did a great job hosting it. And props to the organizers, Joe and Brian. They did a really good job in running the tournament, and everybody was pretty happy. Now, the women's tournament, I got to get more details on that, but there's a little controversy with that. but guess who won the women's tournament on Sunday?
    69:27
    Ooh, I know the answer to this. I know. Who was it? Hold on. I'm looking. If you know, just say it, but I have to look it up. Cause I don't know. All right. But I saw it. I saw the post. It was Jack's mom. Really? Teresa Martin. Cool. Teresa Martin. Oh, I didn't know she was Jack's mom. Yes. So Jack's mom won the tournament for the women's. So Jack and mom took over the state of Nevada for the championships. Yeah. Yeah. So it was really cool. And I have seen Teresa improve exponentially, obviously with Jack's influence, telling her what to do for the rules and everything. But she was really, when I had her in my group, I was a little worried. She is a good competitor and plays a really good game of pinball.
    70:28
    So it was a fun time. I really enjoyed it. And I'm looking forward to the next championship, and hopefully I'll get in. But this year, my goal is to not worry about points and have more fun. I think I took too much time and energy worrying about my position in the state standings, and I really lost the fun aspect of pinball. So this year, whatever tournaments I can make, I'm going to play, but I'm not going to try to make every single one just so I can get higher up in the ranks. And there's only 20 that count anyway. So it's not like I have to play 100 tournaments, which I probably did last year. But yeah, so it was really a great time. So but that's my goal. That's my New Year's resolution is just have fun with pinball and not worry about points. And that's what my wife said to me, too. And she's she's right. She's right.
    71:28
    It's not fun. You know, you're just you're wasting, you know, you're wasting too much energy on on it. And I know you're a super competitive guy. So I know for you it's kind of hard to say I'm going to back off. And I'm competitive with myself, and that's the problem.
    71:44
    No matter what, man, you're going to run into Hurricane Jack. Before you came on. Well, that's the thing.
    71:50
    Jack is going to be around for a while unless he moves far away to another state. He's getting better and better, and you're getting slower and slower.
    72:00
    And my prediction is he's going to take InDesk. I think he's going to win InDesk. Well, Daniele Asiari, I think I'm saying that right. He's a banger. He won California.
    72:13
    Okay. The Flipper Room. And it was Louise. I always get her last name wrong. Wagonzoner. Wagonstetter. Wagonzoner. Wagonzoner, yeah. She's the one who knocked me out at Golden State. So at least I know I got beat by a champion. Plus I sucked that day. It was not pretty. But yeah, so I could have played a little longer, though. Yeah, I can't say that I sucked. It wasn't for her.
    72:43
    I didn't play as well as I wanted to, but it is what it is. Yeah, definitely looking forward to the next, you know, because now they're going to do like a national championship, right? Yes, now they're going to do a national championship. I don't know exactly when it is, but I know it's in Rochester, New York. yeah so that's gonna be that's that's where all the all the heavy hitters show up yep and jack is representing nevada and he did really well last year so this year he's gonna do even better he took a run at it last year too yeah he did he made it in the think of the top eight didn't he at the end i think he was he was right there at the end so yeah yeah it's it's interesting Last year was in California, right? It was at, I think it was at, what's his name's pinball compound? Actually, last year it was in Wisconsin. It was at District 82. Okay, am I thinking of Indisc? I'm thinking of Indisc. Indisc was Riverside, California. Yes, yes. But I think he's going to take it. And I think that's going on this weekend, if I'm not mistaken. I think you're right. Yeah. So we'll have to see who the heavy hitters will be there. but that's out of my league. That's why I don't go anymore. I do like the match play. That's fun because you get to see all the really good players and play with them. But the card thing is just too difficult for that level of competition. Right. And it's just not worth it for me. You know, Mark, before you came on, actually before Dan came on, Andrew and I were talking. He was like, do you guys monetize or anything? No, man, we do this for fun, you know? Yeah. This is just for fun. So I'm glad you're saying, okay, I got to get back and just focus on the fun. Yeah, exactly. But if anyone wants to give us money.
    74:29
    Or pizza. Or pizza, yeah. Or pinball machine parts or, you know. There we go. Yeah. All right. So I think we're about ready to wrap it up. We want to thank our guest, Andrew Lammers, from Premier Pinball and Amusement for coming on the show and for hanging out with us while we just babble on for an extra 20 minutes. Yeah, thanks, Andrew, for being on the show. No, I appreciate you guys having me on. It was a lot of fun.
    75:00
    Yeah, hope to continue to stay in touch and go from there. Hopefully when you guys come up to Minnesota, you guys can come on over, hang out, and go play a little pinball. Sounds great.
    75:14
    Okay, so we always – I don't know how much – I know you listen to the show a bit, Andrew. We always do shout-outs and thank yous at the end of every show. Since you're the guest tonight, we're going to let you do any shout-out. You can shout-out for your own company or whatever you want to do. So shout-outs and thank yous. You're up, sir.
    75:32
    Man, just put me on the spot. PPAMN.com. What was that? I said PPAMN.com. Absolutely, yeah. Check out PPAMN.com. And, again, just a thank you to you guys for having me on. you guys are doing some great things in the the pinball world spreading the the love and the hobby across the the country but also uh spencer was saying before the show just even you know listeners across the world which is pretty dang cool that you guys are doing this so keep up the great work and um yeah we'll go from there i appreciate it nice uh damn go ahead sir hey big thanks to you guys, as always, big thanks to everybody at the Capital Corridor Pinball League.
    76:18
    All the people who are taking the time to promote competitive pinball and honestly just pinball in general. I don't know what I would do with all my free time if I didn't have pinball. Nice. Oh, and of course to my wife, Jamie, for being super tolerant of all this bullshit.
    76:38
    You're a lucky man. We married up. Yeah, Mark? So my shout-out is to the Vegas guys, how they put on a really good organized tournament. That would be Joe Anthes and Brian, Brian Mundo, along with all the other people involved, bringing in the games, making sure they're working. And, of course, Tom Stewart for hosting it at his house. He is such a great guy, really welcomed us, and we really had a lot of fun. so thank you to them thanks Andrew for being on the show and thanks to my family as well for supporting me in this crazy hobby addiction obsession whatever you want to call it it's pinball and it's part of my life a big part of all our lives is it my app? okay thank you guys thank you to our wonderful listeners who continue to support us and give us positive feedback Thank you to Andrew for coming on the show tonight and hanging with us. Thank you to my two co-hosts, especially in the last three weeks. And all the, you know, you guys have been there for me. Andrew may not know about this. I lost my dad three weeks ago. And so Dan and Mark have really been there. We've been on the phone a lot. And the listeners and all the love and support I've had from the fans out there, thank you for that. It's been a rough adjustment, and it still is.
    78:14
    So didn't mean to end the show on a down note, so the listeners know about this. But, yeah, man, thank you, guys, for continuing to support us and listen to our show. You can find us. We're finderpodcastersold, our home flagship at soundcloud.com. We're on iTunes We're on Spotify too I don't really push that but we're on there Anyway you can email us At thespinnerislit At gmail.com And you can please visit Mike And follow our Facebook page This has been Does anybody else have anything before we sign it out Let's go Take us home So episode 71 With premier pinball amusement Andrew Landers Play pinball. Keep America strong.
    79:34
    you