Journalist Tool

Kineticist

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

v0.1.0

← Back to items

#1 - Introduction

A Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·16m 58s·analyzed·Aug 27, 2020
View original
Export .md

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.024

TL;DR

Travis Muir launches A Pinball Podcast, discussing competitive pinball journey and recent hardware issues.

Summary

Travis Muir launches A Pinball Podcast, introducing himself as an Oklahoma-based tournament player and collector who transitioned from competitive baseball after injuries. The pilot episode covers his entry into competitive pinball (sparked by watching Colin McAlpine play RoboCop at Pinnberg Finals 2017), recent experiences with two new machines (Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles from Stern and Hot Wheels from American Pinball), mechanical issues encountered with both games, and his concerns about the lack of sanctioned tournaments during the pandemic.

Key Claims

  • Travis unknowingly played in a high-score tournament at Star Wars launch party, finishing 13th out of 16 before realizing it was an official tournament

    high confidence · Travis recounting his introduction to competitive pinball

  • Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles suffered multiple mechanical failures including pizza wheel, nodeboard issues, and servo board diverter failure

    high confidence · Travis describing specific hardware problems with his TMNT LE machine

  • Hot Wheels experienced magnet failure on top loop and right slingshot malfunction within 48 hours of receiving the machine

    high confidence · Travis recounting technical issues with American Pinball's Hot Wheels

  • American Pinball technical support (David Brennan) provided extensive phone support to resolve Hot Wheels issues

    high confidence · Travis praising American Pinball's technical support responsiveness

  • Hot Wheels received a new code update in early August that improved and modified battle/mode rules

    medium confidence · Travis mentioning hearsay about code update timing and content

  • Travis is skeptical about near-term sanctioned tournament prospects and not counting on NDISC happening

    high confidence · Travis discussing lack of tournament activity during pandemic period (circa 2020)

  • Texas Pinball Festival (TPF) in March 2021 is cautiously anticipated, with hotel block recently released

    high confidence · Travis discussing future tournament prospects and TPF logistics

Notable Quotes

  • “My very first tournament I ever played in, I legit didn't even know I was in a tournament.”

    Travis Muir @ early in episode — Illustrates his accidental entry into competitive pinball through Star Wars launch party high-score tournament

  • “I remember watching this player named Colin McAlpine and he just had total control of the machine... I was hooked.”

    Travis Muir @ mid-episode — Identifies Colin McAlpine's RoboCop play at Pinnberg Finals 2017 as the catalyst for his competitive pinball interest

  • “And the light show, by far, it's probably the best light show that I've seen on a pinball machine.”

    Travis Muir @ discussing Hot Wheels — High praise for Hot Wheels' LED/light implementation despite mechanical issues

  • “I've legitimately maybe played three games on it since then just because I'm so frustrated with it by now”

    Travis Muir @ discussing TMNT issues — Reveals impact of persistent mechanical problems on his willingness to play the machine

  • “I just don't see any tournaments really being sanctioned anytime soon.”

    Travis Muir @ discussing tournament landscape — Indicates pessimism about organized pinball tournament activity returning quickly (context: pandemic era)

Entities

Travis MuirpersonColin McAlpinepersonSteve BowdenpersonDavid BrennanpersonTom GraffpersonLuke NahorniakpersonA Pinball PodcastorganizationStern PinballcompanyAmerican PinballcompanyTeenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

Signals

  • ?

    event_signal: Pen Skins tournament-style event in Wisconsin (District 82/Fox Cities) attracting high-level competitive players, gaining interest as alternative to sanctioned tournaments

    high · Travis discussing Pen Skins format: '18 holes' with 'high level players there, especially with Tom Graff and Luke Nahorniak from Minnesota' and noting similar events 'starting to pop up'

  • ?

    community_signal: American Pinball providing dedicated technical support with multiple Saturday phone sessions to help customer troubleshoot Hot Wheels issues

    high · Travis praising David Brennan: 'he spent a lot of time a couple of Saturdays ago with me on the phone helping me' and 'I can't say enough about their technical support'

  • $

    market_signal: Absence of sanctioned tournament activity during pandemic period (circa late 2020) with Travis expressing skepticism about NDISC and near-term tournament prospects

    high · Travis stating: 'I just don't see any tournaments really being sanctioned anytime soon' and 'I'm not even counting on Ndisc' and 'I'm not even counting on Ndisc'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Hot Wheels received code update in early August addressing gameplay balance on battles/modes

    medium · Travis noting: 'if you're listening to this right now, sometime in early August, there is a new code out already to where they improved and modified some of the rules... to the battles or to the modes'

  • ?

    product_concern: Hot Wheels experiencing magnet failure on upper playfield loop and right slingshot malfunction within 48 hours of delivery

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.051

0:00
All right, welcome everybody to episode one of A Pinball Podcast. And yes, I'm literally that creative that this podcast is legitimately called A Pinball Podcast. So unfortunately, all the good names are taken. Take what I can get. So let's just call it literally what it is. Anyhow, so who am I and why should you as the listener or viewer give a shit?
0:26
Well, my name's Travis. Full name's Travis Muir. I'm from Oklahoma. I've been playing pinball for probably about four years now.
0:36
Obviously, I'm a big fan of pinball, or I wouldn't be doing this. But just to put it here briefly, I play in tournaments. I've been a tournament player for a couple of years. And the beginnings of that, it's actually kind of funny. My very first tournament I ever played in, I legit didn't even know I was in a tournament. I had no idea until I played in what I thought was actually my first tournament about eight months later. So apparently I played in some high score tournament for the Star Wars launch party. And I think I had like the number one or number two score. And next thing I know, all of a sudden I have what's called a IFBA number, IFPA number. And somehow I took like 13th out of 16 people. I had no idea I was even in this tournament until I saw it after I played my first tournament. that I legitimately played in. So that was kind of an interesting thing. And once I figured out that there was tournaments, because I'd been playing pinball for about a year up until that point, somewhere right around there, maybe even a year and a half. And when I found out there was tournaments, suddenly I just started looking up pinball information on YouTube. And two of the videos that I ran into immediately was the Papa Circuit Finals of 2012-2013.
2:02
And one of the first players I ever saw play was Steve Bowden on Monster Bash. So this was probably, yeah, this was the second video I actually ever saw. So I remember this, and I remember seeing him just totally annihilated. It was a game with, I believe, Kaylee George, Daniele from Europe, and Carl D'Angelo. and I just remember both Bowden and Daniele just absolutely destroying this pin it was like legitimately Daniele scored I think 450 million and he still lost by 100 million on Monster Bash which is insane especially probably the way that that pin was set up so that was one game that I first noticed and I was like okay this looks interesting this looks like this could be it but the one that put me over the top and I kept coming back to over and over it again And this was actually the very first pinball video I pretty much ever saw that I realized that this can be a competitive thing. And it was watching Pinnberg Finals 2017. I fast forwarded it to the very end because I, of course, wanted to see what happened at the end. And I ended up stopping on RoboCop. And I didn't even know RoboCop existed as a pinball machine. watched it all the time as a kid because my parents just apparently had no filter for me so as a young child watching a rated r robocop i was all in like my inner child came out and i remember watching this player named call mccalpine and he just had total control of the machine and this was actually the very first player I ever watched play a competitive game. And that, it instantly, I was hooked. Just seeing the control, seeing what he's doing. And I was thinking to myself, okay, this is something similar to what I'm already doing now, but he is so much better at what he's doing compared to where I was at at that time. So that's really what got me into it. that was just kind of the very first thing that caught my eye that hey, this is a thing. This looks fun it looks enjoyable and it something competitive So because I played sports practically all my life up until that point I was heavily into baseball for over 20 years did coaching played on travel teams in high school got recruited to numerous schools and even got scouted a little bit and offered independent baseball contracts talked to several teams for Affiliated Ball with the Brewers and Padres and Rangers, but that was years and years ago. So I thoroughly enjoyed that, but I needed an outlet all these years later because I had, I believe it was four. Yeah, I lose count. I had four knee surgeries total, needed another one, and needed a shoulder surgery on my right arm or right shoulder, and I skipped those two because I was just quite frankly just done with constantly being in physical therapy so you know getting older I just decided I needed something that was competitive something that kind of helped that drive and so pinball is just a natural thing especially with the hand-eye coordination you know and just being able to control things and then it just it's everything that's involved with it. So, but that's briefly how I got into everything. And of course, as you can see, if you're watching on YouTube, you can see behind me started collecting pinball machines. My wife started collecting pinball machines and we just, we enjoy it. It's a lot of fun. It's, you know, she, she has a little bit more fun working on them than I do. I enjoy playing them more than working on them, but you know, it helps out. There's obviously all kinds of things that you can do with pinball. So anyhow, that's enough about me. You're still sticking around. Appreciate it. What's this podcast going to be about? Well, this podcast will basically be me talking, you know, every few episodes. It could be one, two, three episodes a week. Just depends on when I feel like getting in front of the mic and talking about specific topics. It could even be topics that I'm making a video of later that week, or it could just be just generally what's on my mind, breaking news, whatever it could be. Tournaments, opinions, you name it, reviews, it could be all that. And then I also plan on having guests on as well. If you're watching on YouTube, my goal is to actually have us on camera. So obviously if I'm solo, I may not look into the camera as much just because I'm off in my thoughts. Whereas if I have somebody that's a guest, I might look into the camera a little bit more. I don't know. It's production values. What can you do? But so that's my plan. And I want to have guests of all kinds of different types dealing with the pinball industry, whether it's tournament players, whether it's just collectors, whether it's fans, just generally people that I can have a conversation with. So the way I typically like to interact with people isn't necessarily through interview style. It's more or less through conversational flow. So that's typically going to be how my podcast or how I'm hopeful that my podcast will turn out as. So that's the plan.
game
Hot Wheelsgame
RoboCopgame
Monster Bashgame
Texas Pinball Festivalevent
Pinnberg Finals 2017event
Papa Circuit Finals 2012-2013event
District 82organization
Pen Skinsevent
Fox Cities Pinballorganization
Cactus Jacksorganization

high · Travis stating 'within... less than 48 hours... next thing i know, there's a magnet up top... it just it wasn't catching at all' and 'right slings down and things are just going haywire'

  • ?

    product_concern: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles experiencing multiple hardware failures in short timeframe: pizza wheel grinding/failure, nodeboard issues at version 9.85, servo board diverter complete failure

    high · Travis describing specific component failures: 'pizza wheel or the pizza spinner... went down really quick. Grindy sounds, and it just came to a halt' and 'glider that acts as a diverter from the ramps... completely down'

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Shift from adult cynicism/over-criticism to family-positive perspective when children engage with Hot Wheels despite thematic concerns

    medium · Travis noting: 'as adults, we often find ourselves sometimes... over critical' but 'my children love it... yeah I love it. That's well worth the tiny investment' despite admitting 'I'm not a fan of the theme'

    • 7:24
    And let's just go ahead and just get right into it. And I was talking about earlier, yeah, and I say, let's get right into it after seven minutes. Makes sense, doesn't it? Anyhow, so I have two new pins here right now, and it's been an interesting past month with these pins. I have Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Hot Wheels. Obviously, Ninja Turtles is from Stern Pinball. Hot Wheels is from American Pinball.
    7:52
    And it's funny because I try to find similarities in these pins. And it's actually awfully hard to pinpoint any similarities with these two pins right now. I think I might legitimately have the most time on both of these pens compared to anybody else, just because I'm obsessive about figuring out rule sets, geometry, and all that. But at the same time I had major issues with Ninja Turtles which of course I sure everybody heard about that I had some issues with Hot Wheels And let go ahead and get into that just a little bit Because I'm sure everybody's heard the praises sung about these games. Especially for Ninja Turtles, which is rightfully so. And Hot Wheels at the same time, it is a fun game. I don't want to take anything away from it. But getting into some of the issues I've had with Ninja Turtles first.
    8:54
    I had my Nodeboard 9. It did go down. And also, I believe it's like 9.85. It leads to the pizza wheel or the pizza spinner. And that sucker went down really quick. Grindy sounds, and it just came to a halt. It's just all kinds of issues. Got those replaced. Still issues happening afterwards and some new additional issues. and I was able to pinpoint the newest issues down to the glider that acts as a diverter from the ramps to leading back to your flipper. So I believe that's called a servo board, and that's completely down, still waiting on that part. And honestly, since I've had to wait, I probably, even though I have an LE behind me, I've legitimately maybe played three games on it since then just because I'm so frustrated with it by now, especially with the turtle van and all that. But as soon as I get that part in, I'll put more time into it. I'll play it a little bit more. I've been going to my local arcade at Cactus Jacks, and I've been playing Turtles a little bit there. They have a pro, and that thing, it plays mean. It plays fast, but it is enjoyable. The pen works. It's enjoyable. Now, I hate the layer shot, but after that, you know, it is enjoyable. Now, getting on the Hot Wheels, Hot Wheels is an interesting pen. And as a matter of fact, if you're listening to this right now, sometime in early August, there is a new code out already to where they improved and modified some of the rules, I believe, to the battles or to the modes. And I haven't read it yet, but that's what I've heard. Now, in terms of the way Hot Wheels is now, the light show, by far, it's probably the best light show that I've seen on a pinball machine. If you see it in person, it's actually, it's really, really cool. And some of the features that they have in there really makes for an excellent experience. Now, that being said, unfortunately, I kind of had the same luck with this pen as I did with Ninja Turtles in that within, I believe, less than 48 hours, it might even have been the next day, that I received the pen, got it set up. And next thing I know, there's a magnet up top to where if you hit one of the loops, it'll go up that magnet. and it's supposed to catch obviously but it just it wasn't catching at all so it probably caught maybe the first 15 20 games then after that it just it would register but it would not magnetize the ball at all then the next thing i know all of a sudden the the right slings down and things are just going haywire on the game hughes goes out the back box and actually i as if you're watching on YouTube, you'll notice that the back box is dim right now, but that's by choice at this point. But yeah, it's, so I just had all kinds of issues, but you know, that being said, American pinball has been great, especially from the technical side. Uh, I believe his name's David Brennan. I hope I'm pronouncing that right, but he spent a lot of time a couple of Saturdays ago with me on the phone helping me. And I, you know, I can't say enough about their technical support on that side. So I'm very pleased about that. Now, the gameplay I have had on it, it's actually, it's pretty fun. I enjoy it. The rule set, it's fun. Overall, it's easy to understand. My children love it, which is a big plus. I was wondering how they would do watching or playing this pen. And it's funny, as adults, we often find ourselves sometimes, not necessarily cynical, but sometimes over critical of certain aspects of a pin. And I'm certainly guilty of that. And it just you know I the fact is is that the kids they love the pin I not a fan of the theme but if I got happy kids and they playing pinball and they into pinball then yeah I love it That's well worth the tiny investment that you have to make when buying a pinball machine. I say investment because, no, it's definitely not investment. I can't. I've lost track of probably how much money I've lost. on pins. And I'm not, I'm not talking from bad purchases. I'm just talking from just breaking them all the time and having to fix them and the hours spent doing so. And, you know, but that's pinball overall. So some other talk coming up, I, you know, right now, obviously from the tournament standpoint, there's nothing going on. There's lots of cash tournaments, apparently popping up. That kind of interests me a little bit. I wish if somebody would put together something regionally that was a cash tournament, I would definitely be interested in something like that. I thought about putting together an event here that's kind of related to the way that they did it up at District 82 in Wisconsin called Pen Skins. And if you haven't heard of that, they have a video out on YouTube right now. I believe it's with Fox Cities Pinball to where they show all 18 holes. And it's actually, it's pretty interesting to watch if you enjoy watching high level gameplay because they definitely had some high level players there, especially with Tom Graff and Luke Nahorniak from Minnesota. And that's, I mean, that was a fun event to see. So I can see a lot of those events starting to pop up, you know, within the next few months because I just don't see any tournaments really being sanctioned anytime soon. And the way that I'm operating right now personally, because I planned on hitting a lot of circuit events this year. And if you don't know what circuit events are just stern pro circuit to where it's just worth a whole lot of points if you're playing tournaments it's usually held at conventions whatever just lots of tournaments to be had so i planned on traveling a little bit and going to those places just because it gives me a good excuse to vacation and see different parts of the country that i wouldn't see and get to meet different people and get to see people that i made friends with you know by going to these different events but unfortunately it doesn't look like any of those events are going to happen anytime soon. And to be honest with you, I'm at this point, I'm not even counting on Ndisc. And that's unfortunate to say, because I really enjoyed that event this year when I played there. I'm hopeful, or I'll say cautiously optimistic that TPF in March of 2021 will happen.
    15:25
    But like I said, cautiously optimistic. I know, I believe that the tickets carried over for TPF I forget if that's wrong. I apologize, but I think that's the way it was. I know that they released the hotel block just recently. So if you're looking at possibly going, be sure and check out or check into that. Although I will say it's most likely gone already by the time you listen to this.
    15:50
    I mean, it's a really popular event. It goes really fast. I have a great time. It's something I've been going to that event for a few years, even before I realized that there was pinball tournaments I'd already been going. So it's definitely a lot of fun. But anyhow, that's pretty much all we got early on. There's not much else to talk about at this point, although we will be having a few guests on here pretty soon, so that way we can discuss what's going on in pinball and where we're going to go moving forward.
    16:22
    But other than that, I appreciate you guys listening. You guys can contact me at apinballpodcast at gmail.com if you have any questions or comments or thoughts. I know you guys are like, this is nuts. That's the best name ever. I can't believe I didn't think of that.
    16:41
    I know. It's the creativity in me. It just goes nuts. It just goes crazy. But anyhow, I appreciate you guys staying here, listening. and other than that you guys enjoy your day and i'll see you guys soon later guys