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#80 RUSH delivery - The Classic Pinball Podcast

The Classic Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·38m 34s·analyzed·Mar 22, 2022
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.029

TL;DR

The Classic Pinball Podcast Podcast unboxes Rush (Premium/LE), discovers scoop design flaw during gameplay.

Summary

George and Dave from The Classic Pinball Podcast Podcast pick up Dave's new Rush (Premium/LE) machine from Pixels and Pinball, discovering design flaws with the scoop mechanic that causes ball damage. The episode features gameplay impressions, discussion of Rush code updates affecting flipper strength, a guest appearance from John discussing his Target Alpha conversion project, and reflections on Stern's production decisions.

Key Claims

  • Rush code version 90 had super powerful flippers; newer code has weaker flippers despite maxing out the strength slider at 255.

    high confidence · George discussing code changes, noting Stern is trying to prevent scoop damage by reducing flipper power.

  • Eric Stone scored $81 billion on Rush (Premium/LE) (Premium/LE) at Batcave Pinball tournament and the code was changed two days later.

    medium confidence · Dave reporting a text conversation with Eric Stone, though the code change reason is speculative.

  • Rush (Premium/LE) scoop design flaw causes the metal to deform and pinch the ball after repeated impacts, requiring technician intervention.

    high confidence · Direct observation during gameplay at Pixels and Pinball venue; ball became stuck in scoop after approximately 10-12 hits.

  • Stern reduced packaging contents (no t-shirts, keychains, or promotional items) as a cost-cutting measure.

    medium confidence · George observing empty box contents during unboxing; attributed to Gary Stern's business decisions.

  • Rush (Premium/LE) (Premium/LE) features a moving drum clock mechanism that was missing its minute hand by design.

    medium confidence · Dave examining the machine and discussing the clock with John during unboxing.

  • Newer Spike 2 games addressed fan noise issues by switching to a quieter power supply fan.

    medium confidence · John noting original Spike 2s had loud fans; Rush appears to have the improved quieter version.

  • John has been working on a Target Alpha conversion for over four years using dual ARM microcontrollers and RGB LEDs.

    high confidence · John providing detailed technical explanation of the conversion project during his visit.

  • The software credits list 'LFS' which is likely a tribute to Lyman Sheats, who died approximately one month prior.

    medium confidence · George and Dave speculating about LFS credit; mentioned Sheats died 4-6 weeks before episode recording.

Notable Quotes

  • “It's a super-duper Rush. Oh, boy. We're doing the flex already?”

    [name withheld pending review] @ Early episode — Establishes the excitement about acquiring a Rush LE (Limited Edition) machine.

  • “I just squozed the ball together and stuck there and did a ball search, and you could not get it out of there until you called a technician over and opened the game up.”

    Dave @ Mid-episode gameplay — Describes the serious scoop design flaw that damaged the machine during play.

  • “I defeated the boss. Is that part of the game? You get the ball stuck? That's the ball save. It's the ball save. Oh, it saved my balls.”

    [name withheld pending review] @ Pixels and Pinball venue segment — Humorous but revealing moment showing the scoop failure masquerading as ball save.

  • “So I think I'm going to be waiting for that Cliffy or Mantis to come out to really play a lot of games in this.”

    Dave @ Post-gameplay — Indicates Dave will delay active play until aftermarket scoop protectors become available.

  • “Where's the bag of goodies and t-shirts and keychains and tchotchkes? We had to cut back on things... Gary Stern. The only thing they give you is the bill.”

    [name withheld pending review] @ Unboxing segment — Commentary on Stern's cost-cutting in packaging and accessories.

  • “It's been a long-term project, and it all started because on Target Alpha, the target banks don't reset when you knock them down... So then it actually sends out the pulses for each of the thousands for the bonuses that you deserve.”

    John @ John's conversion explanation — Describes the motivation and technical implementation of the Target Alpha microcontroller upgrade.

  • “He said, the difference is like an eighth of an inch difference between the two, and it's what makes the difference of why one works and why one doesn't.”

    George @ Post-gameplay discussion — References Tim's explanation of scoop geometry tolerance issues between Kiss and Rush.

Entities

GeorgepersonDavepersonEric StonepersonJohnpersonGary SternpersonLyman SheatspersonStern PinballcompanyPixels & Pinballvenue

Signals

  • ?

    product_concern: Rush LE scoop mechanism deforms and pinches ball after repeated impacts, causing playability issues and requiring technician intervention. Metal tines fold together under stress.

    high · Direct observation during gameplay: 'I just squozed the ball together and stuck there... couldn't get it out until technician opened the game up.' Also validated by previous episode warnings and comparison to Kiss machine tolerance issues.

  • ?

    code_update: Rush code changed from version 89/90 with powerful flippers to current version with significantly weaker flippers. Flipper strength slider maxes at 255 but nowhere near previous maximum despite community efforts to address scoop metal damage.

    high · George: 'flippers aren't as strong as they used to be... maxing it out, 255 is max, nowhere near where the max was before... trying to alleviate banging up the scoop metal.'

  • $

    market_signal: Stern reduced packaging contents for new machines; Rush LE arrived with minimal items (no t-shirts, keychains, promotional materials), attributed to cost-cutting.

    medium · Dave unboxing: 'Where's the bag of goodies and t-shirts and keychains?' George: 'We had to cut back on things... Gary Stern. The only thing they give you is the bill.'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Dave's first new-in-box purchase demonstrates collector segment engagement with premium Rush LE offering. Referenced as significant personal milestone.

    medium · Dave: 'Pretty excited about this whole thing and first new in box. Didn't think I'd ever really be buying a new in box during game, but here we are.'

  • ?

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.116

0:00
Hello and welcome to another episode of the Classic Pinball Podcast. My name is George, and I'm joined by my co-host Dave. Hello, Dave. Hello, George. We're on our way to Pixels and Pinballs to pick up Dave's Rush game. Now. Wait, hold on. It's not just a Rush game. It's a Rush LE, George. It's a super-duper Rush.
0:50
Oh, boy. We're doing the flex already? Yeah, we are. No. No, we're not. We're not? We're not. We're not doing any flexing yet. Okay, no flex. All right. So you're going to hear the unboxing of Dave's LE that we're going to pick up right now. What do you got to say?
1:07
Pretty excited about this whole thing and first new in box. Didn't think I'd ever really be buying a new in box during game, but here we are.
1:18
Now they heard everything from our last podcast. we can visit some of those talking points when we're unboxing the game. But before we get to Pixels and Pinball, is there anything else you want to say?
1:38
How about Eric Stone? You told me Eric Stone was on Batcave Pinball playing a machine. Did you mention it was Rush he was playing? No. Okay, well, I just told him today. I texted him, hey, he wanted to talk to me about different tournaments and that kind of thing. I said, hey, guess what I'm picking up today? I'm picking up a new in-box game. He says, which one? I said, Rush. He goes, no way, I just played that game. I lit it up on the Batcave tournament Twitch channel. I put up 81 billion. I said, was that the LE? He said, yep, that was the LE.

  • “I like Rush. They're good. Yeah. I mean, no, it's definitely a great band.”

    John @ Mid-episode banter — Casual acknowledgment of Rush's musical legacy in context of the machine theme.

    • Batcave Pinball
    venue/organization
    Rushgame
    Rush (Premium/LE)organization
    Target Alphagame
    Flash Gordongame
    Fathomgame
    Captain Fantasticgame
    Evel Knievelgame
    Kissgame
    The Classic Pinball Podcastorganization
    Spike 2product
    Scottperson

    gameplay_signal: Rush Pro version plays too easy with multiball too easy to achieve; players able to play extended ball 1 sessions with high scores. Interest in code modifications to increase difficulty.

    medium · Dave: 'It was a tad too easy, way too easy to get multiball... playing all day on ball one... definitely want to make the game tougher.'

  • ?

    design_innovation: John's Target Alpha conversion uses dual 32-bit ARM microcontrollers to replace bonus unit and scoring switches, implements RGB LEDs matching Jersey Jack standards, enables unlimited drop target reset with color-coded animations.

    high · John detailed explanation: 'designed a 32-bit ARM microcontroller... replaces the bonus unit... RGB LEDs similar to Jersey Jack... keeps track of all drop targets for bonus.'

  • ?

    technology_signal: Newer Spike 2 games addressed previous fan noise complaints by implementing quieter power supply fan than original versions.

    medium · John: 'They chose a much more solid fan... I had heard that they chose a much more solid fan... Don't hear it.'

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Eric Stone set high score of $81 billion on Rush LE at Batcave Pinball tournament; code was changed two days later (change motivation unclear but potentially related to high score).

    medium · Dave: 'He goes, no way, I just played that game... He put up 81 billion... they changed the code two days later.'

  • ?

    restoration_signal: George acquired non-working Captain Fantastic machine from wealthy Nantucket estate; will perform full restoration in his workshop instead of traveling to location.

    high · George: 'I'm going to truck it up to me... make a nice restoration of this thing... you will... get to play Captain Fantastic at some point.'

  • ?

    product_launch: Dave's Rush LE machine unit #451 delivered and unboxed. Game includes articulated lighting feature and moving drum clock mechanism (without minute hand by design).

    high · Unboxing segment showing unit 451, discussion of articulated lighting and drum clock features, game successfully powered on without issues.

  • ?

    community_signal: Mixed response to Rush: appreciation for art package, LED lighting, and theme execution offset by significant concerns about scoop durability and requirement for aftermarket protectors before extended play.

    high · Dave: 'I like the color on it... really sharp.' vs 'I don't want to keep beating the dead horse, but that scoop thing is just really bad.'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Rush game credits 'LFS' (Lyman Sheats), software developer who died approximately one month prior to episode. Appears to be tribute inclusion in credits.

    medium · George and Dave discussing software LFS credit: 'He died like a month ago... He co-championed LFS... This could be a tribute to him.'

    • 2:10
    And, of course, they changed the code two days later, just like Fun Spot would. basically he's lamenting that when he puts up a high score he thinks people don't like it and they just like they erase it change the code whatever it takes to get him off the board actually i believe what he said was that he does not have access although i'm going to ask you if you did talk to him who this bat cave pinball is but he always laments that i don't always see the changes in code when I'm playing in tournaments, and sometimes it can change substantially. So I think that's why Eric reacted the way he did. Here's a big change in code I just read about for this game. So this game had super powerful flippers in, I think, 89 code. It was released in 90, people put it in, and now the flippers aren't as strong as they used to be. And you can actually tweak the strength of everything in the game, including flipper strength. So people are maxing it out, and I guess 255 is the max, and it's nowhere near where the max was before. I guess they're so powerful, I guess they're trying to alleviate banging up the scoop metal and all of those stuff, so they're fixes to slow that ball down a little bit, but so far people are kind of not that thrilled, let's say, with the new code so far, but that's where they're going to probably make even more new releases coming out, I would think, in this code. Get with it, Raydad.
    3:58
    Okay, we're here at Pixels and Pinball playing the Rush Pro that they have on the floor. Okay, Dave is playing the pro here at Pixels and Pinball.
    4:11
    And we've already... Oh, look at that, a leap over the flipper. We've already discovered with several plays that we're now calling that scoop the Bang Scoop. It's kind of like defeating the boss in one of those old 80s video games. You know, defeating the boss and keep bashing it. That scoop is already starting to be misformed. Paging, clicking, paging, clicking. You're wanted in pinball surgery. Praying mantis. Come to the rush pinball.
    4:48
    Stop. So Dave's got Mopi Ball going. Don't know how he did it. He's got... You're on only ball one? Ball one. You got $65 million in ball one? That's not bad. How much? Well, I got a little more to get Eric Stone $81 million. That's what I was going to ask you. Oh, you're on ball three. It's only my first ball. I've only played ball three. Yeah, sure. So how much did Eric get on this game? $81 billion.
    5:16
    $81 billion. Billion with a B. With a B, yeah. So he's probably been at this. How long did he play it for? Oh, probably an hour. I don't know.
    5:25
    He's a maniac, though. Did you learn anything about Batcave Pinball? No, I do not know. Okay. But I think I might have seen a Twitch channel before. It sounds familiar. Okay.
    5:36
    I think it's like the Bata Clan. I don't know. It's something else. Or maybe that's, what's their name?
    5:42
    So what are your impressions so far of this game? I like it. Good. I wasn't sure, but it's rushed, so I had to buy it. Did you put it in a time machine thing yet? I did. Pretty cool, but on my LE, it goes up and down. What goes up and down? It lifts things up, puts things down. I lift things up, I put them down. The little ramp there is static on this one, but on mine it goes up and down.
    6:05
    So there. Where does it go up? What's underneath it? A shot? I don't know. No, it just must be a shot. Yeah, when it's down flat, it must get some kind of super-duper thing. There we go.
    6:20
    Is that a technical term? It is, yes. The super-duper thing? The super-duper ramping thing. With all those special lights and whatever. Are you going to become a rapper now? I don't think so, George. I don't think so. I know the stamina I used to have. Well, you already have DR, doctor. I do.
    6:38
    Dram, dram. We can do that. Nice. Oh, I hit it again. Bang. I'm getting denied this shot now because it's getting so bash. Look at that bash. No, bang. Oh, you broke it. You broke it.
    7:00
    Come on. He got the ball stuck. Come on. Come out. Uh-oh. Oh, boy. He broke it. Oh, I broke the president. Uh-oh.
    7:13
    I dashed it so bad. I defeated the boss. Is that part of the game? You get the ball stuck? That's the ball save. It's the ball save. Oh, it saved my balls. Good.
    7:25
    Oh, boy. We're riding home from Pixels and Pinball with Dave's game. Pinch me, George. I got a new Stern LE. I'm not getting anywhere near you.
    7:42
    Back off, dude. I don't go that way. Okay. Well, that's good. Me neither, George. Okay, so let's get the elephant out of the room right away. Yeah. we do have a new name for that target or the scoop pardon me the boom scoop you were wailing on that thing and you actually got the ball stuck because the metal came together and pinched the pinball in the scoop yes the stern cheapo version of a cliffy protector kind of folded in upon itself after the, I don't know, 10th or 12th bashing of that freaking thing I did. I just squozed the ball together and stuck there and did a ball search, and you could not get it out of there until you called a technician over and opened the game up. So, yeah, not too thrilled about that part. So I think I'm going to be waiting for that Cliffy or Mantis to come out to really play a lot of games in this. Now, if you heard our last podcast, the name of the podcast was Rush to Judgment.
    8:52
    Make no mistake that we were not premature in what we said about that scoop. It was validated very quickly.
    9:04
    We had the inside scoop on that scoop, George, I would say. Wait for it. You're going to be waiting a long, long time. Want me to describe what that joke was? No, I don't need, we don't need an interpreter for jokes. So you were going to tell us there once was a man from Nantucket. Yes. He had a pinball machine. And then he said, oh, that's a different story. Okay. So tell us the story So the man from Nantucket I got this call and it was someone people You know they have people Now wait now for the audience who follows us you know you two or three this is a different island delivery. You already did that one game, right? Right. So this is somebody completely different. That was Kiss. That was Kiss, the guy wanted to kiss. That's right, that's right. This one here, this guy called me up and said, Oh, I have a guy who I do work for on his Boy Friday, whatever I do. I have a bunch of different mansions and whatever. And he has a Captain Fantastic that doesn't work. And basically, don't worry about the bill. He has money. It's like, okay, well, I like this so far. I like where you're going. It sounds good. He'll, you know, whatever it takes to get Shantana and Tuck to work on his game. He just wants it. I said, well, I got something even better. How about this? because I really don't feel like going down to Nantucket, especially with the past couple years of nonsense. There'd be a lot more nonsense there. I don't want to deal with that. So I said, how about you truck it up to me, and I will make a nice restoration of this thing, make it look and play like new reliably.
    10:46
    I texted it to him. I got a phone call so quickly back, done. We're looking for a trucking company right now. Okay.
    10:54
    Really? Yeah. also I'm going to get to play Captain Fantastic at some point in time yes you will you might not have to wait a year to do this might happen I don't know I've got to shuffle things around and so forth but I'm making good progress on the two Evil Knievels I'm doing I think I'll get them done hopefully by the end of this month I just tested out the CPR version playfield I did a playfield swap on it, put it in the game, and it was working great until I put a connector on that whoever had this game before didn't do the right thing. And I shouldn't assume, George, you should never assume, but I assumed this guy knew what he was doing. And I plugged it in, all of a sudden the LEDs in the playfield lit up, then they kind of browned out, then I smelled something funny. And by funny, I mean like an old Band-Aid smell that ain't a good smell. It smelled like something burning. That would be the set of LEDs I had for the GI burning up because I probably put about, I don't know, 50 volts into it. Oh.
    12:04
    Yeah. Yeah, so bye-bye. Did the plastic... Oh, look at that house. Oh, that's a nice room. That's a nice house, right? Check that out. Oh, yeah. You can deal with that. Big glass. You know what they need? They need a game. They need a pinball machine. Yeah, you should go... Oh, look, and they have like a garage with an apartment or a game room or something up there. And horses, of course. They get some horses. Yeah, they got a couple ponies, too. Look at that.
    12:26
    Yeah, as you can tell, folks, we're, again, in the car. So that's it. So you're going to get that game. What about, let's get back to Rush.
    12:35
    Your first impressions. You played the pro. I know your game is going to be different. Yes, I played the pro, and actually, I really liked the game. I'd say it was a tad too easy, way too easy to get multi-ball, and I was basically playing all day on ball one, racking things up. But it was fun to play, but I definitely want to make the game tougher.
    12:55
    So once I do get it all good to go. Do I have to... Hey, watch. Yeah. I got it. There we go. I didn't know there was another layer. Oh, yeah.
    13:05
    Do I have to do another... Oh, there's a left. Oh, look at you, Sparkles. Right there. Right through that left. Do I have to make another request to Ray Day to make this code a little bit more difficult? Or do you think he's already been told that? No, I think he just made the code so the flippers, like I said before, are weaker. So I don't know if this one has that in it or not. But, yeah.
    13:31
    But I know I need to put a playfront protector on this thing. I need to do a cliffy, whatever that comes out. I've got to do a bunch. I've got to put... I thought you were going to do the Mylar thing. Yeah, playfront protector. No, no, the Mylar and the mold thing. I'm doing that, too. Okay. I'm doing that, too.
    13:46
    And clear rubber all around. Are we home? Yeah, we're home. Did we just pass your storage unit? We did.
    13:54
    I thought that looked familiar. Yes, we did. Okay. Okay, we're going to end here. We'll talk when we get inside. Well, actually, we're going to talk outside. Outside. Because we're going to take it out of Stu's van. Yes. And then you're going to unwrap it. Yep. And then you're going to get in the house. Set it up. And set it up. Hopefully turn it on. It doesn't go boom. Hopefully it comes up and everything's happening. Oh, that would... Okay. Stay tuned. Stay tuned for more.
    14:30
    Tomorrow's St. Patrick's Day, and in honor of that famous holiday, Dave is doing what we call the cutting of the box. Is that like wearing of the green? No, it's like Erin Go Bra. The circumcision of the... Yeah, it's a circumcision.
    14:48
    Dave, you just cut the head. Oh, well. This is what we call a pinball brist. I get a little... See, now that's funny. I know my term. Now that's funny.
    15:03
    So you got game number 451, it looks like. Oh, that's a good one. So you can take this stuff out here.
    15:11
    Okay, so... There. Oh, look how pretty that is. Oh, look at the gold acorn bolts. And there's not a lot of other stuff in here, is there? Where's the bag of goodies and t-shirts and keychains and tchotchkes? We had to cut back on things.
    15:38
    Who's with? Stern. Gary. I don't give a damn why I do that. Gary Stern. The only thing they give you is the bill. He's in the poorhouse.
    15:47
    That's a pretty nice-looking game, Dave. Yeah, it's pretty... I like the color on it. There we go. What is the... What's that?
    16:00
    What's the deal with all the gears and clocks? It's called Clockwork Angels Tour from 2011. Okay. I don't know anything about it. Just watch where you're cutting.
    16:13
    all free and clear. There's a side here. In this segment, with the game almost set up, John, who's a friend of the show, stops by to see the unveiling. John is an owner of Target Alpha and tells us about his conversion. Then finally, Dave plays a game. Does this drum clock, what's the gig with the drum clock? Is that just for orientation or is that actually? Does it go around like a clock? Yeah, like TZ or whatever. I'm assuming not. So go back. What were you saying about? You were talking about something. Oh, which one? The Cliffy here? So the issue is that you want to line the hole basically with metal. you know so that way the ball when it chatters back and forth or when it falls down it doesn't you know split the um you know the plywood layers that's kind of the first thing and then you could route the playfield a little bit lower and set the cliffy so it's perfectly co-planar with the playfield itself and then that would eliminate you know the ball from getting caught on the edges of the uh of the metal protector on the edges by the way that's john so all you do is this from our last episode.
    17:38
    I want to ask you about your Target Alpha. That's what he was talking about. That it's half and half. You should really come over and play it. Can you give me a couple of words as to how it works? Yeah. Because your friend over there, he was a little puzzled. Yeah, yeah. It's a project that I started over four years ago, So it's been a long-term project, and it all started because on Target Alpha, the target banks don't reset when you knock them down. And so if you're a good player and you finally complete the 10 bank or the 5 bank, then you're basically tortured by having nothing to shoot for within that ball. But you did it with solid state. So what I did, so it started, that was the problem. Okay, it started with that problem. So what I decided to do is I'm really into designing electronics and microprocessors and microcontroller systems. So I designed a – used a 32-bit ARM microcontroller, two of them actually, one that resides in the play field and replaces the bonus unit, which is often very problematic, very noisy. It's really a pain to deal with. It replaces that, so it wires in place of that bonus unit. and then it takes over the vast majority of the scoring switches too. And then whenever the ball drains, then this microprocessor has stored however many drops you've had. So then it actually sends out the pulses for each of the thousands for the bonuses that you deserve I also implemented RGB LEDs similar to like a Jersey Jack So I use the same LEDs as Jersey Jack So all of the inserts are color So I can make them any color I want, flash them, do all kinds of, you know, sway patterns and everything else. That's pretty neat. Yeah, so it's really, it's a lot of fun. It really changes the game a lot because now you have unlimited bonus. As soon as you knock down the drop targets, they immediately reset. It keeps track of all of the, every time you've had a drop target, you know, every time you've hit a drop target, it keeps track of that and then retains it for bonus. So you could get 60,000 in bonus if you want to, if you knock down 60 drop targets, for example, which would technically be impossible in an EM, but it's no problem at all for this. And then it also does some animated countdown. So, like, when it does bonus, it lights up the inserts green, and then it counts them down. That's what David was saying, something about colors associated with certain. There are, with different modes. So, like, when you drop the target, it flashes red. So it does three flashes at high speed red to kind of, you know, congratulate you. And then it turns purple. It matches the color scheme of the game once it's down. and then when the ball drains, then it lights green based on the number of drop targets, the number of bonus thousands that you're going to get. So if you had, say, 15 targets knocked down, it would light all 15 lamps, and then it will count them down. So it will extinguish them as it gives you the bonus. So you go ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, and the lamps just sort of extinguish. So it's just not sound. It's not just sound. You get light animation, which is really fun. Okay, thanks for that. That's pretty good. It's really fun. And so it's changed the game completely. It's way more fun than it was before. And I'm going to do a lot more. This is really just a start. So I'm planning on doing whole new rule sets, target hunting, where you can reset the bank and one target is the one that you're supposed to get. And then if you hit the wrong target, I could penalize you and take bonus away. No, no, no. No, that doesn't work for me.
    21:22
    So, yeah, so it's really – it's been a really fun project. Really enjoyed it. It's working great. And it's complementary to the EM, so the fundamentals of the EM are still there. So meaning that, you know, the relay board, score motor, all the relays, all that stuff are all intact. And, you know, the EM part of the game, resets and everything else, just it's all the same. So this is really kind of an enhancement to the experience. And really the majority of the surgery, it's really not surgery, it's just, you know, disconnect a wire or two here, connect this solid state microprocessor board in its place. but you could restore it back to its original state if you wanted to too it's not it's a totally reversible mod what do you think of uh the game now that it's lit up this is this is gorgeous yeah this thing's really sharp i like those stadium light the stadium lights are great is that what they call them yeah yeah i call them stadium lighting uh i'm not sure if that's the term for stern but i think they call them something else yeah there's a third party dude that sells them in right angle strips that you can apply to existing games. I heard you made your own. I did, yeah. I did my own for my WPC games. Sorry, of course you did. Yeah, so yeah, it was fun. It was kind of a fun project to do during all the COVID shutdowns and so forth. I haven't seen you in two years. It's been two years. It's been terrible. I miss you. Me as well. Yeah, I was psyched to hear you were going to be here. I wasn't going to come. I'm a Stu and Ben, of course. I wanted to say hello, Ben. Well, I never met Stu and I never met Ben. Oh, really? Oh, gosh. No, I heard a lot about him. We met in Sturbridge. I met you. Did I meet you? I met you. My uncle, Uncle Paul.
    23:03
    I did meet Ben. I stand corrected. But I never met Stu. I know a lot about Stu, but I never met Stu. Yeah. This is a... I love it. Light show is phenomenal.
    23:16
    It should be, but I... I don't want to keep beating the dead horse, but that scoop thing is just really bad. Yeah, yeah. It's a shame. Yeah. Yeah, I was talking to Dave about it over the weekend, and, you know, he's kind of like, we've got to figure out a solution to this before he really evolves. Well, he heard it from me the night before. Yeah, yeah, I can see the issue. And it's interesting, because if you think of other games that have scoops like that, they always have these posts forward of the scoop. Right, but those two tines or fork, you know, I call it if you had a fork with five tongs or prongs on it, you take the middle three out. That's what you have on each side. But there's a point that, I mean, it's not, you're going to hit it. It's, it's, I don't know. Yeah. I think it's poor. for everything else that you can do in this machine, and that's got to be the fault, it doesn't make any sense to me. Well, you know, it's like anything. I mean, there's a massive amount of engineering and development going on. Right, but they've done this before. Dave asked at the Pixels and Pins, he asked Tim about a kiss that was on the floor there, and he said, it's the same thing. And Tim said, I'm sure you read this. No, it's not. He said the difference is like an eighth of an inch difference between the two, and it's what makes the difference of why one works and why one doesn't. Yeah, yeah, it's true. That's why you can have... I think there's something underneath here that they couldn't do that for some reason. Yeah, well, you know... So Dave, when he comes back, he's going to open this thing up, and he's going to show us and say, ah.
    25:04
    Yeah, it might be obvious when you see underneath it. That's true. I don't know. I like to say it's actually the first time I've ever seen this title. And it looks fabulous. Did you notice all the laser cutting in the side rails, too? I did. That's gorgeous. The guitar is really nice. It's classy. It's beautiful. It's sharp. It's really. They did a great job with the art package on this game. Again, I'm especially enamored of, you know, the mirrored back glass. I mean, that is just so awesome. So are you a Rush fan? I like Rush. They're good. Yeah. I mean, no, it's definitely a great band. So. I started listening to some of their music and I said, I remember that music. Yeah. I remember that song. Exactly. Because in one of the episodes we did, I said, I used to hear Rush all the time because we only live 60 miles from Montreal. And in Canada, you have to play Canadian artists every hour. so we always heard i mean other than ann murray and you could probably what's the one dave named some heavy metal band or hair band oh geez there aren't many there aren't many bands from canada i know well at that time we're talking we're talking the late 70s yeah canada is going to be a challenge for me you know i can certainly name plenty of heavy metal bands from the you know 70s and 80s i listened to a lot of that growing up but um but uh i couldn't tell you what country i would assume they're from america but if they're from canada i would not have known Dave, are you handing out beer?
    26:35
    Yeah, what are we drinking? What am I drinking? The other thing I'm glad to see is they've addressed the fan. Some people were complaining about the fan noise on the power supply on these games. Not on Rush specifically, but on these Spike 2 games. Okay, I'll play Mickey the Dunce. Where's the fan? Oh, underneath in the head, just below the right speaker, there's a switch, and that switch is actually in a power supply. If you're familiar with PCs, like desktop PCs and the big brick switch mode power supplies that you have in there, that's what they used for this game. And so there's a fan, of course, to cool the power supply. I have a new co-host. You didn't know.
    27:18
    He's just taking over. John's my new co-host. I just shoved Dave up on the side and said, go play your game. Get out of here. And so on the original Spike 2s, they chose a fan that was probably effective but was quite loud. A lot of people really complained about it, and we'd come on and off and stuff like that. I heard about that. Yeah, but on yours, it's not. Don't hear it. I had heard that they chose a much more solid fan. Oh, good. I bought it at the right time. So hopefully you're all set. So let me tell you, George, what you were drinking. Remember the guy we delivered? His name is Scott. We delivered to, well, you didn't, but the firepower I did. We did a nice firepower for the guy in Rutland. Well, he gave me a bunch of lovely parting gifts, the little Kiss pinball machine. He gave me this.
    28:02
    Oh, so we're still drinking. Oh, that's awesome. So we're still drinking his beer? Yeah, this is beer because I was saving this beer. That is awesome. Because this is a rock concert IPA. And so we got a Rush pinball machine. Definitive Brewing Company. It's a rock concert. So I was saving the beer. Oh, look at that. Thank you, Scott. We're going to try the beer to play some Rush. There you go. It's very special. So I get to have some? Oh, here we go. You got to listen to it. Hit it. There we go. Ah. There we go. There's a sound.
    28:31
    The sound of fun. Yes. You're going to pull the glass off this at some point, aren't you? So we can see that mech underneath, or we're going to play for a while. Which mech? The scoop. The boom scoop. The famous scoop. The boom scoop. Sure. We could do a deep dive or half a dive or whatever. Well you going to play the inaugural game are you not Yes Oh yeah I got to play it I got to at least well Stern only is what i think a two warranty or something two days oh yeah make sure it okay so i saw something software lfs is that any tribute to lime and sheets at all or not okay oh it said software lfs okay so i'm wondering i didn't realize he was involved in rush i didn't know that i didn't know it either He was? I don't know. It said software LFS. Maybe what? He died like a month ago. Yeah. Yeah, probably a month ago, maybe six weeks. I don't know. Really sad, actually. Yeah. It is.
    29:27
    There it is. He co-championed LFS. Okay, there you go. So is that him or not? It must be him. It's got to be. It must be him. I'm only guessing. This could be a tribute to him. They may have added that after he died. Cool. I don't know. I'm glad you brought that up. I didn't tell Dave this. I was listening to a broadcast, and one of our other fellow podcasters brought up the fact that Lyman played in Framingham, but they butchered the name. They weren't sure whether the arcade was still there. And I said to myself, I know those characters. They're there now. I thought they were kind of clipping from us, but they weren't. They don't listen to us. That's your buddy. Don't say his name. Which? Your buddy west of here. North west of here? In another state. Ah, yes. Got it. Okay. Got it. Right. Him. Got it. Okay, now I'm confused. We'll tell you after we're done. Okay, all right. Fair enough. We speak in tongues. We speak in homocode. You need the George Decoder to get through. I like it.
    30:34
    Okay? First impressions. We're just looking at this game right now. I'd say it's pretty. I might need some shades. It's pretty bright. It's very bright. I'm loving it. I like it, too. Well, you're Mr. LED. I am Mr. LED. So to me, this totally resonates with me. So it looks just like any game I would have. So I love it. For those who don't know much about this band, what's the thing in the middle there? Is that a washing machine? Yeah, it's like a washing machine. A time machine, actually. Oh, it's a time machine. It's called the Gefilte. The Gefilte time machine from the 2011 tour. And what's the significance of the drum clock? Is that what that is? Yeah, it's a drum clock, but they're missing the minute hand. What happened? Yeah. I think it's supposed to be that way.
    31:22
    Okay. It's moving, though, if you notice. Oh, yeah, it keeps time. Yeah. It just clicked. Yeah. That's awesome.
    31:28
    It also has a lamp. Does that play into the game? It plays into the game somehow. I don't know how. I haven't done any real homework on how the game plays. I'm just hitting this blind because I don't have time to read, I don't know, Encyclopedia Britannica. Did you say you wanted to put art plates in this? No, I can't put art plates in this. I was going to say, why? They put this, is it called articulated lighting? Articulated? Something like that. No, we were trying, John and I were just saying. I think it's called articulated lighting, but only this game has it. No other game premium you can buy it for, but they don't have it. Oh, so the balls go into the back of the cabinet, too? They disappear? Yeah. Oh, I didn't know that. That's awesome. Yeah, a lot of the Star Games do that these days. Remember who you're talking to again. That's true. We are a classic pinball show after all. I don't know anything about it. How did this game get in here anyway? What am I doing with this thing? This is wrong. If you want, Dave, I'll take it off your hands. I'll give it two bucks. It's yours. There you go. Dave playing Fonzie and jumping the shark. I can see your Flash Gordon and your Fathom are offended by the presence of a ramper here. They're sleeping. Don't tell them.
    32:35
    And Brittany, too, by the way. Just don't make this room full of these things. One's good for now. alright till Journey when Journey comes out then I might be getting a Journey pin you're not a Journey fan are you I used to listen to Journey a lot how do you not like Journey didn't you listen to our podcast I must have missed that did you listen to the Rolling Stones podcast yes yes okay and I went to the concert in Philadelphia and George Thorogood started the concert and the second band was Journey and people after the first song started yelling boom you suck get off it was the first time I ever saw a big band like that get booed off stage and they all gave the one gun salute to the crowd and then the Stones came out and ripped it yeah still that was I really like Journey than the Stones sorry I like Journey Journey's better yeah stop it I think so stop it rough crowd that's all I My takeaway is that was a rough journey.
    33:43
    You're not missing anything. Okay, play a game. A normal game. I'll play a one-player game first. Yeah, yeah. Show us how it's done. I'll show you.
    33:57
    There it is. Oh, that was a goner. So Dave, now you have your opportunity. I just dashed it. There. There it is. That was a hole in one. Okay, there's one life off the scoop. I think it's already bent in. How many? I think it's already bent. I think we're going to play like... Ooh, nice shaker. Yeah. I like that. Oh, this thing has a shaker? Oh yeah, did you feel it? Look how high that habitrail is. That thing comes right up to it looks like it's outside the glass. That's how clean that glass is. It's a pretty machine. I like that kicker that kicks straight up and that super tall habitrail. There's a kicker, you know, a buck. Yeah, a buck. We like the word buck. Yeah, there's a buck and then it's cool the way it brings it to such a tall Oh, check that out. What's that? What do you see, George? That ramp went up and down. Yeah.
    35:07
    Yep. There he goes. Four quarters? So that's like Lord of the Rings, right? Yeah. What did he say? Four quarters? Four quarters. Like you get four quarters to play pinball.
    35:23
    Flash. There are not going to be any unhappy people. And I'm not much of a stern guy, but this is a pretty... I'm totally surprised. I had no idea what to expect, so I like it. Well, once the shock wore off that you bought one. Nice save. There we go.
    35:41
    Oh, a diverter. Oh, there's a diverter up there. Nifty. What? Oh, let's... I can't diverter. I don't think so. Oh, maybe.
    35:57
    Richard Peaches have the shaker? I don't think so. You can add all the stuff to it. Look at that. That thing's rattling in the back left. Well, he might have. The printer might have that. He doesn't have this white thing. Where's the diverter? I'm missing something. It's a little... This little guy goes up and down. The little black thing. Oh, that black... Ah.
    36:21
    The diverter goes up and down. Oh, now I see that shot. That's dead end on the pro. Oh, that's cool, too. Okay.
    36:35
    So what happens if you hit that underneath the wash machine there, or the time machine? Is there a target there, Dave?
    36:45
    Yeah, get a little volume for that. Okay, that's the end. It's a great tune. There we go. That's the music, man. Exactly. Volume.
    37:00
    Thank you. High score achieved.