Hola, bienvenidos al episodio 11 del Bash Pinball Podcast. Hello, welcome to the 11th episode of the Bash Pinball Podcast. Hoy estamos celebrando el 25 de Mayo. Today we're celebrating 25 de Mayo. Buenos dias. Just a quick intro for context. We thought it would be funny to do a 5 de Mayo episode. Unfortunately, it was May 20th, so we had missed it by a little bit. The good news is that the 25th was still available, so we went to Bull City Solera and Tap Room in Durham, North Carolina, had a margarita, or three, played some pinball, I ate a baby log, Spoiler, it's a burrito, and a new holiday was born. I hope you're ready to learn some Español. Gracias por escuchar. Thanks for listening. Come on in. Welcome to the theater of magic. Welcome to the party zone. Welcome to my home. Welcome to the bash. Hola, Mateo. Hola, Don. Should I speak with a little bit of a Spanish accent like this? I don't think that's called for. Quite frankly, it's offensive. Is it? I don't know. I don't know. I mean, you tell me. I guess not. I don't know. Okay. But no, you don't. Okay. All right. So, Mateo, what is 25 de Mayo? ¿Qué es 25 de Mayo? So, 25 de Mayo is, well, it's the 25th of May. Not to be confused with Cinco de Mayo, which is when we would have preferred to have recorded this originally. but instead we decided to kind of make our own thing because... Well, you weren't here. Right, right. You were festively celebrating... Pinfest. Pinfest. And yeah, I was still in Pennsylvania on the 5th because that was the Sunday after Pinfest, yeah. So obviously, the only other way to celebrate Cinco de Mayo... Yeah, you can't do Quince de Mayo. That's just... That's ludicrous. so 25 de mayo happy 25 de mayo mateo you too gracias how much spanish do you know i started learning spanish in like first grade in school like they like once a week we would have like 30 minute spanish lessons and then in middle school i I think two or three years I had it as an elective. And then in high school, I had it all four years. And then in college, I think I took one more year. So you've been around Spanish your whole life? Yeah. And then like, actually, it's still during college, like 20 years ago, I worked in retail on Capitol Boulevard. And so I was speaking Spanish basically every day to make the sale. If you're not familiar with Capitol Boulevard in Raleigh, I know how I would describe it. And actually, you know what? On Reddit one time, I posted a picture. I was on Capital, full traffic, and I went to the Raleigh subreddit, and I said, Florida energy, period. Tell me I'm freaking wrong. That thing kind of, dude, I got hundreds of comments. That's funny. I got, people were fighting each other. Yeah. Basically saying, well, you haven't lived here long enough. You don't know. You're not really from Florida. Yeah, well, I haven't lived in Florida, but I've been there a bunch of times, and I'm quite familiar with Florida man, et cetera. Yeah. But yeah, it was at least 50% or more of the clientele was Hispanic. So we had one guy who worked there who was from Honduras, and he would just have a line of people behind him. So everyone else who worked there was like, I guess I'm learning Spanish. And I already had a pretty good base. Was it commission based? Yes. So he was banking. He was killing it. He was banking. He was our number one sale for sure. Mario. I mean, you're basically working in Florida. Yeah. You know, you got to know Spanish. But, you know, I haven't kept up with it over the last whatever years. So maybe a little bit later we can maybe help some of the listeners at home learn some Spanish. Yeah. Maybe if they... Are you down for that? Yeah. That'd be fun. So we decided to make this Bash's first official holiday. Yeah, this is our official holiday. So every year, are we going to do the same event? Are we going to celebrate 25 de Mayo by... Playing some pinball. So this year, the first year, what did we do? We played World Cup Soccer 94 at... At Bull City Solera. In Durham. In Durham. Had margaritas. and you got the little log or I got the little log. Well, you got the full log. It should be known. Don has a little log. I've got a full log. I was scared of the full log. You know, I've never been there. I found him on the pin side pin map way back when. I tried to go there once before and I don't know what happened. The pinball machines were off. I think they were closing. I think that's what it was. And I just kind of stopped in randomly. I wasn't meeting anyone. and I just kind of wanted to check it out because I've been wanting to play World Cup soccer for a long time. Yeah. And that's the only place that has it within our immediate radius. I'd probably have to drive like over a couple hours to find one. So that's why I went to play and then I couldn't play it. So then it was always on the back of my mind. And then we were talking about our first holiday, right? Vente Cinco de Mayo. Yeah. And I was so excited because this is the perfect game to feature as... Well, as perfect as you can get in that there's literally nothing else we could think of that had anything to do with it. What other games? Yeah. What other game would you want to play on Cinco de Mayo? I mean, you got to get those goals. Goal! Goal! Yeah, I mean, Hispanic culture, not super heavily represented in pinball, which probably makes a lot of sense. But, you know, right. Yeah, World Cup soccer. Yeah. Which we played. Which we played. And now for a word from our sponsor. I have the power. He-Man and Skeletor of the collection of the universe with quality and guarantee. Matt and Don. And now, back to the show. Welcome to Aprende Español with Matt and Don. Welcome to Learning Spanish with Matt and Don. How do you say pinball? Repeat after me. Pinball. Pinball. How do you say flipper? Repeat after me. Flipper. Flipper. How do you say ramp? Repeat after me. Rampa. Rampa. Rampa. Rampa. Great save! How do you say banana flippers? Repeat after me. Flippers de banana. Flippers de banana. How do you say bash? Repeat after me. Golpetazo. Golpetazo. Golpetazo Golpetazo Gracias amigos Thanks, friends. Esto concluye Aprende Español con Matt y Don. This concludes Learning Spanish with Matt and Don. We went to Bowl City Solera in Taproom, Durham, Carolina. My second time, this is your... That was my second time going there. I think I went there on my birthday last September. And I did play some World Cup soccer at that time. So you've gone there on two holidays. Yeah. I don't know if it's a holiday, but I'll count it. It's a day of celebration. Yeah. and Vente Cinco de Mayo. Exactly. Yep. So yeah, I did get to play at some then. And actually that's when I met one of the local pinball guys that I've subsequently played some tournaments with. Oh, is that how you first met some of the triangle pinball people? Yeah, he actually invited us to come play in some of the tournaments that time. So you met them at Bull City Solera? Yep. That's awesome. Yeah, just one of the random guys. It's kind of like a random happening. That place is cool. I feel like maybe because it's tucked slightly behind like the main strip yeah it doesn't get the love that it deserves yeah it's not like super you know you're not going to drive by it and just be like oh what's that place which is unfortunate because it's actually a really cool place I mean they have a super cool outside patio with like little games and like cornhole and like little like connect four and stuff and like yeah I could totally see like on a nice day like kids and stuff and people out there, you know, they make their own beer, right? So enjoying. Yeah, they got all those kegs piled up. Yeah. Enjoying some like beer, food. And it's Mexican inspired food that mostly it's a very burrito heavy menu. And then they also had like burgers and stuff, I think. Perfecto. Yeah, they had maybe 10 different types of burritos and then some burgers and stuff. It's like a pretty good food selection for, you know, a brewery. Totally. The last time I had a margarita that good was not even in a Mexican restaurant. It was in Panama. Yeah, that's what I was thinking. You know, I think the tropical setting had a lot to do with it, but I think that was my surprise. I was in North Carolina at a brewery, right? That margarita hit, dude. It hit so good. It was like not too salty. Oh, it's because she did half the rim. Yeah, and you were on your like ninth one by the time I got there. I was like a few minutes late and you insisted that I get one. Yeah, and you were like, I don't drink or whatever. Yeah, well, yeah. So I still, I got the Madonna margarita, which is the alcohol free version. Still great. Still delicious. And the perfect amount of salt. It was literally one third the price. Yeah. It was like six bucks. Dude, totally worth it. That's hilarious. It was good though. Yeah, it was very good. Thank you. Man, I wish I remember the bartender's name. Yeah, I don't remember any names ever. Thank you. And did we mention they have pinball machines? Yeah. And they're not managed by the same company that ruins all of the local pinball machines, basically. No, which is awesome. In a way, I want to put all my quarters there because it could have been one of us. Like if we had a dream to make an establishment and we also love pinball. Yeah. We have a couple of machines. Let's put them in there. A couple machines. Let's put them in there. Sorry, guys. I'm a mumbler, but I'm trying to mumble less. Thanks. That sounds awesome. I don't know the guy. I wish, I guess, maybe we should try to reach out to the owner, but thank you. Thank you for... Yeah, they're 50 cents a play. 50 cents. And free play on Tuesdays, I think it was. Yeah, that's right. That's right. I forgot about that. That was the first thing I saw when I was looking at the drink menu. Tuesdays, free play. Yeah. Pretty awesome. Yeah, this is awesome. I mean, there's like literally zero places around here that have machines on free play or that you can do anything like that. Congratulations. You've made the World Cup final. Should we talk about World Cup? World Cup. World Cup. World Cup. World Cup. Cup, cup, cup, cup, cup. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So, as I mentioned, they had three games right now, which was Demolition Man, Johnny Mnemonic, and World Cup Soccer. Heck yeah. And we pretty much just play World Cup Soccer because that's kind of what we're there for. That's what you do. You know, you don't play Demolition Man on Bente Cinco de Mayo. You don't play Demolition Man on Bente Cinco de Mayo. But yeah, World Cup Soccer, that was the first time you played it, right? Dude, I have been waiting since I saw one come up for sale. I think it was pre-COVID. Oh, yeah. I was broke as a joke. Yeah. I wanted that game so bad. I didn't have the money. I was so desperate that I asked my mom because so but not for me, for her. Because her husband, right, is a huge soccer fan. Okay. Right. And I tried to like, hey, you guys ever heard of pinball? Hey, you know what I mean? That's hilarious. You got a new house. You know, you want to have cool stuff for people when they come over and, you know, you want your son to keep visiting. Right. And I sent her the link. I sent her the Pinside Marketplace link. And she was like, oh, that's cool. You know, but she was in that thing where like she was being nice. But she was like, yeah, no. It's like, hell no. But I tried. Yeah. And ever since then, because I looked it up. Right. Because I hadn't even heard of that game. Yeah. And saw a listing. Is this a good game? I don't know. Let me see. People loved it. Saw the videos. saw the spinning ball. I saw the goalkeeper, the artwork I saw. I don't know, the little dog was nostalgic for me because I remember that guy when I was in Panama. Striker. When I was little. Yeah. And I was on a mission to play it. This is the first time since then that I've been able to play it, which is pretty awesome. Yeah. They had one at Pinfest too, actually. So and then I played it one other time. I think it's Super Abari had it when I was there once. So I played it a few times, but never, you know, really got to play a bunch of games on it. How do you feel about that game? just in general. I think it's super fun. Like the goal shot, just that alone, like there's a goalie at the very back of the play field moving back and forth across a little goal and you have to shoot it past him and get it in the goal. Like it's amazing. Like I used to play soccer. It makes sense. I love it. It's just, it's obvious and it's just perfect. It's perfectly executed. So there's a little penalty kick thing where it stops the ball like right in front of the goal. and then you hit the flipper to launch it into the goal and I think it's pretty easy because it's very close to the goal and the goalie doesn't move that fast back and forth but it's just cool it's a lot of fun it's really well done that game is so cool the two things that I guess I didn't notice right away in the pictures when you launch and you have that little slot machine selecting thing like Arabian Nights and Pinbot and a couple other ones. The harder you plunge, the further it loops around. It has little slots where it has to fall into. That's so cool. It's not even that crazy or extreme, but it's just so different. It's just something new. Yeah, I'm always bummed when the skill shot just has no thought put into it. Like Mando. Like Mando, what? It's just like you hit it and then it's like, oh, you hit it when the light is moving. It's the same thing that they did for like 50 years with skill shots. Do something cool. Think of something neat. Even Hook has something cooler. Hook's skill shot is super fun. Hook was the first game I played and it had that cool skill shot. So every other game after that, I'm like, where's the cool skill shot? Yeah. Oh, that's interesting. So the skill shot is kind of what was one of the initial appealing things to you when you were learning. That's cool. You know what I like about Hook? When you go over and a little diverter opens and it gives you another chance to launch again. If you actually go over the slots, it'll loop around the diverter and it has a little sound that goes... Yeah, it's fun. It's fun. It's just something else to do and something interesting. The MagnaGrab was cool. I didn't know they had that either. Oh, yeah. Which is made to replicate the goalie catching a ball in the air. Yeah it an extra button Yeah Yeah that a common theme in John Papadiuk games magnets Magnets Like Arabian Nights has the magnet in front of the genie at the back. And I'm sure, I mean, there's magnets in Theater of Magic. Yeah, 100%. I'm trying to think of which. The trunk. The trunk. Oh, the trunk itself has a magnet. When it spins around. Yeah, it catches it. Get that ball up in there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's hilarious. So World Cup Soccer, John Papadiuk's first Williams game. And the cheapest one that you can get still, because like Arabian Nights and Theater of Magic are probably the two most expensive John Papadiuk games. You can still get World Cup Soccer for like half of what those other ones cost. And more and more people are like, I don't know, maybe it's his best game. I would easily buy that game over. I mean, even though Theater of Magic is one of my top fives, just on the value. I would buy World Cup Soccer yesterday. Yeah, definitely a better value. And it's still got the fun ramps. It's got the cool ball lock at the top that also has a magnet, I believe, in it. I got to play it more. Yeah, it's got the fun kind of loopy, swirly plastic ramps that he's got in all his games. And then it's got the call-outs. The call-outs, man. You know, and it's the same guy who did the call-outs in Theater of Magic and NBA Jam. Oh, no way. Yeah, he just nails the sports stuff. Goal! Add the actual Tim Tim Kitzrow call-outs. Amazing. Goal! And now for a word from our sponsor. Estas Navidades, Mario Kart 64. Yahoo! Las más trepidantes carreras hasta para cuatro jugadores. Diversión a todo gas con Mario Kart 64. Solo para Nintendo 64. And now, back to the show. Bienvenidos a Aprende Español con Matt y Don. Welcome to Learning Spanish with Matt and Don. How do you say, hello, where is the bathroom? Repeat after me. Hola, ¿a dónde está el baño? Hola, ¿a dónde está el baño? How do you say, hello, where are the pinball machines? Repeat after me. Hola, ¿a dónde están las máquinas de pinball? Hola, ¿a dónde están las máquinas de pinball? How do you say, hello, what's your high score on Dirty Harry? Repeat after me. Hola, ¿cuál es tu puntuación más alta en Geraldo Sucio? Hola, ¿cuál es tu p*** alz... Hola, ¿cuál es tu puntuación más alta en Geraldo Sucio? Hola, ¿cuál es su puntuación más alta en Geraldo Sucio? How do you say, the dog runs fast on the train tracks? Repeat after me. El perro corre rápido por el ferrocarril. El perro... El perro corre rápido por el ferrocarril. El perro corre rápido por el ferrocarril. Buen trabajo, Mateo. What a remarkable finish! Gracias, amigos. Thanks, friends. Esto concluye Aprende Español con Matt and Don. This concludes Learning Spanish with Matt and Don. Feliz 25 de Mayo. Happy 25 de Mayo So, because this is the first official Bash holiday Bash Pinball, the podcast The holiday The holiday We need a mascot Yeah, but like, let's be, let's think a little outside the box here, you know Maybe, I mean, Christmas, right? Christmas has got, obviously Santa Krampus We got a bunch of mascots World Cup's got Striker The football dog The football dog Easter's got the Easter Bunny President's Day's got Joe Biden Yeah, it does Is that the one you think of? I just think of George Washington Oh, it's every single It's just always George Washington every four years it changes for me that's hilarious no it stays the same yeah um maybe maybe lincoln creeps in there yeah so who would be the bain t cinco de mayo holiday oh you know mascot you know because you just gotta say it now i mean so yeah i mean there's there's one name that comes to mind that is a dude who designed a bunch of pinball machines named george gomez hell yeah yeah that's that's it dude george gomez will be bash pinball's 25 de mayo mascot and i want the mythical george gomez yeah not the not the actual we don't want to involve like personally involve him but the mythical yeah the idea of george gomez i had no idea what he looked like or anything until that um john wick video oh right yeah he was in that one and i really liked the guy like i saw the video man and there's something genuine about him in that yeah like i could tell he really loves pinball and he designed your favorite game of all time lord of the rings oh i mean what was funny was when you were when you started teaching me about pinball when that transition happened you were the one that pointed out that he designed like all of my favorite games like all the games that i had told you were awesome games that you should play yeah i was like did you when you learned that you told me that i was blown away i had no idea yeah that basically for the last, I don't know, five, six years, all my favorite games were designed by George Gomez. It's pretty freaking awesome. Perfect mascot. Well, all of your favorite games up until that point. Yeah. Right, right, right, right, right. What I've been playing more recently, I should say. But also your first game. Yeah. Johnny Mnemonic. Yeah. I mean, that was George Gomez. Not his first game. I think he had designed Corvette before that, maybe. He also did like arcade games before pinball for Williams, the Tron game, which was pretty well known i didn't know that wait yeah wasn't um who was the who was the dude in mortal combat uh that's ed boone but tangentially george gomez wanted i think it was johnny mnemonic to be a mortal combat theme the game he instead of johnny mnemonic he wanted to make mortal combat yeah and there's even like mortal combat like set there's a setting in johnny mnemonic that you can change um that has like a mortal combat thing and crap what is it do you know what i'm talking about i have no idea what you're talking about man now we gotta look that up because this is blowing my mind right now this is blowing my mind right now mind blow three one oh yeah you can turn that on or off but it's like hidden mortal combat three codes in johnny mnemonic what the heck man so you could find Mortal Kombat codes. Yeah, somehow in Johnny Demonic. Playing Johnny Demonic. Yeah, I'm not sure how it works, but that's a thing. This is incredible. I had no idea. That's so cool. It's pretty random. I think the story is that he wanted to do a Mortal Kombat game because, you know, Williams made Mortal Kombat, and like, Ed Boon was one of the Mortal Kombat creators. He was the voice of Rudy on Funhaus. I hate that guy. And he coded some pinball machines. And then Steve Ritchie was the voice of Shea O'Conn in Mortal Kombat. So there was all these people who were kind of working on both. But for whatever reason, they just were like, no, no one's ever going to buy a Mortal Kombat pinball machine. That's a bummer. That would have been so cool Yeah and I can only imagine that it would have sold better than Johnny Mnemonic because that would have tanked Yeah unfortunately Yeah I love Johnny Man and the movie but I think in general Mortal Kombat is like a more universal theme with global appeal Mortal Kombat! It was kind of violent. It was super violent. That was one of my first games. I was in Panama. I don't think my family realized. Did you have it on a video game console? Yeah, I had it on like Super Nintendo. But there was no blood on the Super Nintendo version. I don't remember. Or at least not on the first one. I don't know, man, because I remember seeing some fatalities and they looked pretty bad. Yeah, on Mortal Kombat 1 for Super Nintendo, there was no blood. I had the two. Okay, Mortal Kombat 2. I had Mortal Kombat 2. It was like when they started coming out with the rating system for video games. Got it, got it. And then two had blood. There were more characters on 2. Yeah, yeah. But 2 is a way better game. Yeah, that's the one. 1 was a pretty clunky game. Yeah, yeah. That's the first one I played was Mortal Kombat 2. Yeah. And I remember playing it one day with my grandpa. I was scared, dude. And I have this memory of him and I, and he loved it, right? He loved the fighting aspect. Oh, really? And that little code you could do to get the guy would pop out and go, Whoopee! Toasty! Yeah. And he would do that. It became like an inside joke for us. Yeah, I think that's also Rudy's voice. freaking Rudy it became like an inside joke where we would just say that to each other you know but but I don't know what happened man like I think I figured out fatalities and and the first time I did it and he saw it it kind of it totally changed like he it was so graphic and violent that he was like I don't know about this turn you know because I was like I was so young I think I don't know I was like six maybe I don't oh my gosh yeah seven maybe I don't know man but you know like he liked the fighting part but yeah I mean, I was like, I don't know, 13 and my parents were on the fence about it because it was so gory and bloody. Like, I think I had to kind of play that game in secret almost. The first one, they took the blood out. Although the Genesis version, you could put it in the blood code. The blood code. And you could get blood on the Genesis version, but not the Nintendo version. I didn't know that. But then the second one and the third one and from then on, I think they were all just, you know, uncensored essentially. Yeah, they got in pretty extreme. I think I saw on Xbox a couple years back, it was the craziest stuff I've ever seen, man. Yeah, I mean, it was still kind of goofy and funny with the second game. They had babe-alities and friendship, fake out, and just all this goofy stuff. But yeah, as the game got more realistic, it got increasingly disturbing. just like you flip somebody you know upside down then you like grab their intestines from like their spine and then you like wrap the spine spinal cord around the intestines and then yeah squirt the juice out and then i mean it's like yeah yeah i mean it's still like all kind of like tongue-in-cheek but it's yeah it got like real real graphic that's fine i don't know almost a little too much for me at that point i'll stick with street fighter will they ever make a Mortal Kombat pinball machine? Yeah, I don't know. I just mean in general. Will another company Mortal Kombat buy a Jersey Jack? I mean, it's possible. Those guys branched off and made their own company. There's a whole Mortal Kombat specific company now. Oh, I gotcha. I'm sure they'd probably be up for it because they have that pinball history background. There you go. Yeah. Another idea. Somebody make that happen. Yeah. It's kind of surprising that that hasn't happened at this point. Some management. Talk to some other management. Make it happen. Let's do some fatalities on pinballs. Toasty. Toasty. And now back to George Gomez. I learned to love pinball through George Gomez games. Yeah. And that's why he's our mythical mascot of 25 de Mayo. George Gomez. Feliz 25 de Mayo. Thank you. Muchas gracias, George. Jorge. We should get for the second annual 25 de Mayo. Yeah, we should get a giant life size George Gomez cutout and just bring him with us to Bull City Solerian Taproom. We should make a holiday where every year on the 25th day of the month of May, we go to this place and we invite people. we make it the official party place. We can have a party every year, yeah. What if one day the real George Gomez came to celebrate 25 de Mayo with us? Oh my gosh. At Bull City Solera in Taproom. Yeah, I think he's got bigger fish to fry. Like running the production line at Stern right now. Dare to dream. Yeah. We all need goals. Maybe after he retires. George Gomez. Maybe we can have a yearly bash pinball tournament at Bull City. Let's do it. Bente Cinco de Mayo. There's a guy that I know who was trying to give me this Gottlieb machine way back when. Yeah. And I turned it down. Yeah, yeah. But I wonder if he still has it. Maybe we could give that away. Yeah. I don't know. It's probably like a 1970s or 80s. I mean, I'll call him. I'll call him later maybe and see if he still has it. We can give it away. Next year is 25 de Mayo. Okay. Gracias por celebrar 25 de Mayo con Bash Pinball. Thanks for celebrating 25 de Mayo with Bash Pinball. Te veo el próximo año en Bull City Solera and Taproom. See you next year at Bull City Solera and Taproom. Donde vamos a regalar una máquina de pinball de Gottlieb. Where we'll be giving away a Gottlieb pinball machine. Sorry. I did. Don't hold us to that. I thought it was hilarious. Not a guarantee. Yeah. Congratulations. You officially celebrated your first 25 de Mayo. We want to give a special shout out to Kineticist and our friend Ian over at Nudge Magazine for, as the kids say these days, putting us on. Thanks, Matt, for keeping my slang vocabulary strong. Bet. We also want to thank you. I don't know you, but I want to. Email us, pod at bashpinball.com. What do you hate? What do you love? What do you want us to talk about? And if you haven't already, follow us on Instagram at bashpinball. Or don't. Do whatever you want. Just have fun, play pinball, and don't ever forget that You rule the universe! Leave this territory now. Return to your home. evacuate all personnel this is secret bonus content gracias por celebrar el 25 de mayo con bash pinball thanks for celebrating 25 de mayo with bash pinball you got it good job thanks You should just say some more stuff and I'll keep translating. Este es mi favorito podcast. This is my favorite podcast. Pinball es mi deporte favorito. Pinball is my favorite sport. Geraldo Sucio es mi juego favorito. Dirty Harry is my favorite game. All right, I'm getting tired of talking. You want to go play some Godzilla? Oh, yeah. Baxter? Yeah. They just got that Godzilla in there. I haven't played it yet. I mean, I've played Godzilla, but I haven't played that Godzilla. Yeah, yeah. Let's go. All right. I'll drive. All right. Why are we still recording this? I don't know. Garbage. I don't know. All right. Give me my Coke Spice.