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Episode 57 – Hot Tippin’ with Steel Panther

Slam Tilt Podcast·podcast_episode·analyzed·Aug 24, 2017
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.030

TL;DR

Buffalo Pinball Open recap with tournament results, machine maintenance issues, and Zach Sharpe hiring announcement.

Summary

Ron Hallett and Bruce Nightingale discuss their participation in the Buffalo Summer Pinball Open, covering tournament results in Classics divisions, technical issues with machines including Quicksilver and a problematic Alien machine running prototype software, and celebrate Zach Sharpe new role as Director of Marketing at Stern Pinball.

Key Claims

  • Zach Sharpe is the new Director of Marketing at Stern Pinball

    high confidence · Ron and Bruce announced this officially during the episode after being cleared to discuss it due to taping schedules

  • Alexander Krasinski, age 14, won the main tournament at Buffalo Summer Pinball Open

    high confidence · Ron Hallett stated this fact directly about the tournament winner

  • The Alien machine at the venue was running .98 software (prototype software) and had persistent lockup issues

    high confidence · Ron Hallett detailed multiple lockups where the entire game went dead, locks without rebooting, and the techs were aware of the issues

  • Buck Rogers had a malfunction during Classics finals where the flipper die and tilt mechanics were behaving erratically

    high confidence · Ron and Bruce described the unusual single-player setup and inconsistent tilt behavior that required intervention by tournament director

  • Quicksilver had the Papa token mech installed but needed adjustment because the tournament used coin drop instead of tokens

    high confidence · Bruce detailed swapping in a quarter mech and bending the switch back into proper position

Notable Quotes

  • “I managed to get the double bonus. I managed to get the spinner lit, hit the spinner a couple times, drain out, I got 134K. So I ended up knocking out Jason and jumping up all the way up to 19th”

    Ron Hallett @ ~mid-episode — Critical clutch moment where Ron qualified for Classics finals with last-entry Hot Tip game on Classics 2

  • “Lower left flipper. If it's on the left side of the machine, get stuck on. Lower left flipper. Right-hand side, right flipper.”

    Doug Polka (IFPA/Pinberg Senior Tournament Director) @ ~mid-episode — Clarification of IFPA rules for ball placement when machines malfunction mid-game during tournaments

  • “I just didn't hit the button hard enough. So it was more like an aborted tap pass it almost looked like when I screwed up.”

    Bruce Nightingale @ ~later in episode — Self-aware acknowledgment of play error on Hot Tip due to stiff flipper buttons on older Williams machines

  • “you can't put stuff on location like that. That doesn't work... you're going to have to keep giving them their money back. I would hope you're giving them their money back every time these things lock up.”

    Ron Hallett @ ~rant section — Criticism of venue operating prototype software machines taking player money despite known critical issues

  • “This is the single dumbest place to put that thing... if one of those AA batteries leaks, it's going to go all over everything.”

    Ron Hallett @ ~Quicksilver setup discussion — Observation about poor design on Quicksilver remote battery pack mounting directly above CPU board

Entities

Ron HallettpersonBruce NightingalepersonZach SharpepersonAlexander KrasinskipersonDoug PolkapersonKeith ElwinpersonBuffalo Summer Pinball OpeneventStern Pinballcompany

Signals

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Zach Sharp hired as Director of Marketing at Stern Pinball, representing notable competitive player moving into manufacturer executive role

    high · Ron and Bruce confirmed the announcement after being cleared to discuss due to taping schedules; this marks shift of community figure into corporate position

  • ?

    product_concern: Alien machine running .98 prototype software experienced critical and repeated lockups during public play at venue, with full game lockups requiring unplugging

    high · Ron detailed multiple instances: lockup on magnet/tongue attempt, lockup after two balls on second play, fourth lockup unspecified; techs were aware; game kept taking money

  • ?

    operational_signal: Multiple machines required pre-tournament setup and repairs: Quicksilver needed battery reset, settings change, and token-to-coin conversion; Buck Rogers had flipper/tilt issues; Hot Dog had finicky out-hole switch; Big Game had saucer kick malfunction

    high · Ron and Bruce detailed extensive troubleshooting before Classics 2 finals; Bruce missed first hour of play due to setup work

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Black Knight with updated 'proper' hard rule set (requiring lower playfield U-turn hits to light locks, full horseshoe rehit if locks lost) transformed game from boring to exciting in terms of duration and strategic depth

    high · Ron noted games ran 'way shorter' than previous year with same machine; transformation from 'boredom to awesome' with single rule plate change

  • ?

    community_signal: Classics tournament was well-run with no controversies and successful handling of complex machine malfunction ruling (Buck Rogers tilt situation), demonstrating tournament director competence

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.238

0:00
I'm beginning to wonder if you boys have ever taken a shower in your lives. What in the hell do you think you're doing with your underwear still on? We don't want anybody looking at our nap. Yeah.
0:17
Are you one of those gym teachers that likes to hang out and watch dudes in the shower? Coming to you from beautiful upstate New York, this is the Slam Tilt Podcast, a show about all things pinball. I'm your host, Ron Hallett, here with my co-host, Bruce Nightingale. I'm in the money. I'm in the money. Do you want money?
0:52
Out of the cash box, yes. Oh, okay. We'll talk about that. And this is episode 57, Dracula, Dead and Loving It.
1:03
This one's a stinker. It's a stinker? How can it be a stinker? It's got Leslie Nielsen in it. Yeah, this one's pretty bad. It's his last one, isn't it? Yeah, this is the last Mel Brooks.
1:15
And then we'll be going on to our next adventure. Which will be? Pink Panther movies so what do we know about Dracula Dead and Loving It it's about Dracula and he's actually moving from Transylvania to somewhere else to be with this girl to take you know to get her and Mel Brooks becomes the he's the vampire killer really bad stinker on the old rotten tomatoes. I saw it once back in the day and I went, really? Really? Nah, didn't do it for me. Sonata fan. No way! I first yawned two minutes in. That's not good. No, it's not. Wake up. Oh, God. I just drove. You just drove where? To Buffalo and back. To do what? Pick up my two games. Your two games? What were those two games at? They were at the Buffalo Summer pinball open. Okay, it's the Buffalo pinball summer open. Yeah, I said that. Yeah, you said that.
Quicksilver
game
Aliengame
Star Wars (LE)game
Buck Rogersgame
Hot Tipgame
Black Knightgame
Fireball Classicgame
Big Gamegame
Dominogame
Attack from Marsgame
Pocketeer Billiardsvenue
IFPAorganization

high · Bruce explicitly stated 'no controversies' and detailed proper handling of Zendejas tilt incident with informed decision to replay

  • ?

    machine_intel: Alien machine confirmed running .98 version (prototype software) at public venue in May/June timeframe, suggesting early release to location before full stability achieved

    high · Ron explicitly stated 'running prototype software... .98 software, I think it's had on it' and noted 'obvious issues'

  • $

    market_signal: Bruce earned $108 bringing two machines to tournament (Big Game, Hot Dog) compared to $130 with three machines previous year; highlights modest venue revenue from game ownership

    high · Bruce discussed bringing 3 games last year for $130 revenue vs 2 games this year for $108; still had to pay own entries and registration

  • ?

    event_signal: Main tournament had queue wait times of 40+ minutes due to high volume, while Classics had much shorter waits (9-20 minutes), indicating capacity imbalance

    high · Ron and Bruce noted main tournament madness with 40-minute queues vs Classics with 11-20 minute max waits

  • ?

    design_innovation: Discussion of Fireball Classic vs original Fireball highlighted how presence/absence of zipper flippers and spinning disc significantly alters difficulty and strategy without hardware changes

    medium · Bruce noted Fireball Classic is harder because no zipper flippers means trap is 'almost impossible' requiring all fly shots; proposed removing spinning disc for PAPA finals to test

  • ?

    venue_signal: Persistent concerns raised about venues operating prototype/unreliable software machines that lock up while taking player money, with expectation that refunds be issued but awareness that they may not be

    high · Ron's extended rant: 'you can't put stuff on location like that... you're going to have to keep giving them their money back... I would hope you're giving them their money back'

  • ?

    content_signal: Buffalo Pinball Open had streaming coverage on Papa TV (YouTube) for finals and Twitch for other matches, making tournament accessible to remote audience

    high · Ron and Bruce referenced 'Papa TV pinball' YouTube for finals coverage and 'Buffalo Pinball on Twitch' for their failures

    • 2:27
    So you like that segue? Yes, the segue of perfect sounding segue. Okay. Oh my god, number two in three minutes. What a fun yawny night. So what do we want to talk about first? Do we do the tournament? We can do the tournament, then we'll go to news. So the tournament. It was a tournament. I played in Classics. Neither of us played in the main tournament. Because I don't think either of us wanted to be there Sunday. No, I slept half the day on Sunday. Yeah, I drove back Sunday. So how did we do in Classics? We both qualified both days. Yes, we did.
    3:13
    Isn't that awesome? It was. I was actually very proud. It was my goal. the qualified vote this year. So we both did. I qualified 13th the first day, 16th the second day. And where did you qualify, Ron? Oh, I qualified both days. Good.
    3:34
    I don't know. I know I qualified higher the second day than the first day, which was kind of interesting.
    3:42
    Interesting circumstance. Why is that? Tell us about that circumstance. Well, let's first, what were the games on the first day? Because they weren't revealed, unlike the main games. I don't believe the classics ones were revealed until you actually got there and saw what they were. So let's see how good my memory is, being I don't even remember my place half the time. Let's see, the first day they had Space Shuttle.
    4:09
    Yes. Black Knight. Yes. Buck Rogers and the 24th and a Half Century. Oh, God, yes. Let's see. What were the other games? Help me out here. Hot Tip. 8-Ball Deluxe. Ball Deluxe. And the Williams old classic, Blackout. Blackout, Blackout, Blackout. How many survived to the end?
    4:35
    Four. Blackout, the flipper died. The flipper died. And Buck Rogers kept on tilting. Yep, just kept tilting. Ball in the shooter lane, tilt. Yeah, it was pretty bad. Pretty bad. The game, too. The game's terrible. Horrible game. Beady, beady, beady. What did Jerry have on it, though?
    4:54
    901,000. Which is obscene. It was. That's ridiculous. It was pretty cool. Ridiculous score. So, yeah, I qualified. You were 22nd. 22nd out of 24. I got past the second round via a playoff.
    5:13
    Playoffs? Playoffs. Just squeaked by Mr. Jeff Teolis at the end there. Yes, you ended up on the first day. Hey, what did I end up? I got through the second round. The second round, so you finished, looking right now, 11th. And guess how much money I won? Nothing.
    5:35
    Because I made it up the top ten. Oh, we got my usual just out of the money. Never be cashing, baby. Never be cashing. And unfortunately, Bruce stunk up the place. Well, after you farted, then you played bad, too. The only point I got in finals for the first day was on Buck Rogers. What does that tell you, how my day went?
    5:58
    That's pretty funny. On 8-Ball Deluxe, I had 40,000 points at the end. Two house balls and one flip. 40,000. Bummer. That's pretty bad, Bruce. Yes, it was.
    6:10
    So I finished 24th out of 24th. So... consistency was my middle name. We had Eric Russell. He was in with us. He finished 20th, front of the show. Andy Cushman, first time in Buffalo finals, and he finished 11th also, shared it with you, just out of the money. Well, as you got eliminated, you got to take over. Yes, I took over the responsibilities. Of running the classics finals. Running the classics tournament again. Yeah. Well, great job, Bruce. Yeah. Bruce did a great job. There were no controversies. No controversies. We even threw out a game, which was... We had a unique situation where a guy that was eliminated and was on his way out the door was not eliminated and ended up winning the whole thing. Yes, got called back because on the last game... Buck Rogers in the 24th and a half century.
    7:11
    Zendejas tilted. He tilted. And the other two people in the same group tilted, but by the machines tilting. So when the other two people actually tilted, one was actually in the shooter lane, and it tilted. One was just plunged, and it tilted.
    7:29
    It was considered a major malfunction. Zen was already walking out the door of the place. Done. I had to call him back. And the other guy who tilted, the second guy, I had to call him back. They all came back. They played another game and then won it and continued on and took the whole thing and won it. So when you get eliminated, you may not be eliminated. That's the moral of the story. Moral of the story. Well, the thing we have to mention, otherwise people will be like, this doesn't make any sense. Buck Rogers had this bizarre rule where you had to play it one at a time, even though it's a four-player game. For some reason, they were playing as single players. Do you know why they were doing that? Yes, because tilt ended game. But it didn't. That's not true. I know. It said that on the – I tilted in qualifying. I tilted on my second ball, and it said tilt. And I'm like, oh, the game is over. And then it just went to the third ball. Like, oh. That's the way it should have worked. I guess. But sometimes it went into bookkeeping, and it was true. Yes, sometimes you would tilt it, and it would go into audit mode. Yes. And it wasn't even running the default system one boards. It had the, what, the Pascal boards or whatever they're called with the enhanced software. a crap in them. Yes. So very weird. Very weird. So Nixon Dehas took first. Eric Stone took second. Robert Gagnon took third. And Ian Hauer took fourth. And it was the first American winning the Classics tournament in the Buffalo Pinball Summer Open. Last year, two Canadians won. All right.
    9:01
    Classics 2. Electric Boogaloo. We had Hot Tip returning. Yes, we did. Black Knight. Yes, we did. Which was on the first day. So I guess that returned. Yep. We had Fireball Classic. Yeah. Woo-hoo! We had Quicksilver, Papa's Quicksilver, which we had to work on before. Yes, we'll get to that. Then we had two other shitty games that someone brought. Yeah, some turds. Bruce's Awesome Big Game. Yes. And his just brutal hot dog. It was brutal. It was very brutal. I don't remember being that brutal at your house. That's because I really raked it up this time. It was really upset. You didn't like being moved. Yeah, I didn't like being moved. That's what I think it was. So we get there. We had to get there early on the second day because we've got to set the games up. So we get there. And what had problems first? Because I remember I didn't get to play my first entry until like an hour in because I was working on games. First, we had to work on Quicksilver. Well, first, they had the Quicksilver set up. We had to level our games at 9. And by the time we got done and everything like that, it was like just at 10. Ron starts changing the settings on the Quicksilver because it kept on giving free games at 5,000, 10,000, and then 20,000.
    10:28
    So we finally got that all settled out, and then the displays died on Quicksilver. Yeah, what actually happened is we pulled the battery to reset the settings, put the battery back in, and it actually just – it appeared that the displays were dead, but they weren't. If you went into audit mode or if you went into the menu, they came back on. So it was just they were blank because there was nothing to display yet. And they had a bizarre CPU in there. I don't know if it was an Altec because it had a remote battery pack. It might have been the original Altec boards. Yeah, it was weird. It had like a remote battery pack and with two wires, you know, soldered to the board. Guess where the remote battery pack was mounted?
    11:11
    On the back box, wasn't it? Yes, but guess where in the back box it was mounted? Don't know. Okay, if you're using a remote battery pack, what is that to prevent?
    11:22
    Acid damage. So it was above the CPU. It was above the CPU board. I didn't even think about that until later, and I'm like, you know, that is the single dumbest place to put that thing. So basically, if one of those AA batteries leaks, it's going to go all over everything. Yes. But got that up and working.
    11:42
    Then we had, what was, oh, hot dog in. The out-hole. The out-hole switch was just being finicky. Finicky was not the word. So Ron fucked with it for like 10 minutes. I grabbed another switch ready to go swap it in. And I was stubborn, like, nope, nope, going to get this working. and let's just say I bent it the correct way finally. And it worked. And it worked for the entire rest of the tournament. Yes. Then we had to go back to Quicksilver. Oh, we did? What was wrong with Quicksilver? Remember, it was set up for tokens. Oh, yes, yes, yes. Even though in this tournament, you still pay for entries, but you also, it's on coin drop. Everything's on coin drop. So this had the Papa token mech in it. so Bruce had to get one of his quarter mechs out and put that in. Yep. So that took some time. Then the switch was not in the proper spot to receive the token. It was actually bent above, so I had to bend that back and put it where it would actually move.
    12:46
    It was actually acting like a gate. It was actually blocking the coin slot, so finally everything worked out there, and then everything ran really smooth until the last game.
    12:58
    Which was? Big game. The last big game, remember the saucer? Stopped kicking. The saucer. Yeah, it went in the saucer, and you probably could have jiggled a little to get it to work, but, you know, you just go, oh, it's not popping out. So I got to adjust the switch again and got that working. But we were talking about this, you know, the rule. Papa's rule is if it's on the left-hand side, it goes to the left flipper. If it's on the right-hand side, it's on the right flipper. Oh, okay. I have a question for Doug Polka. What if it's in, like, a saucer for Holland Globetrotters? Well, hold on. Let's give it some background. People have no idea what you're talking about. The ball's in the saucer, so we get it out of the saucer.
    13:40
    Well, actually, we got it to fire, so it comes out of the saucer, but it's in Bruce's hand, and it's like, where do we put this ball? Now, I was thinking possibly the shooter lane, because that's where the ball would have ended up. Anyway, if you know with the big game geometry. and we were getting agreement like, yeah, that seems like the most logical thing. You put it in the shooter lane because they're going to plunge it and it's going to be up top where it would be anyway. Yes. We had Doug Polka, the Pinberg Senior Tournament Director, right there, and what do we do? And without hesitation, lower left flipper. Yep. If it's on the left side of the machine, get stuck on. Lower left flipper. Right-hand side, right flipper. Now I have a question. What if it's like a Harlem Globetrotters or a center? Yeah, or any of those valleys where the, yeah, DJ told us on the center. Hmm. Then would it go into shooter lane? Hmm. I bet you it would still go on a flip or maybe a player would get choice. I don't know. I'm pushing this out to Doug. Hopefully he listens. If not, I'm going to email him actually and ask him. Yeah, and if anyone else knows, knows their thorough knowledge of IFPA, pop a unified rule set, what do you do in that situation where it's the saucer right in the middle?
    14:56
    We had a lot of good players, including Jeff Teolis was in. I thought you said good players. Oh, I had to do that. Sorry, Jeff. Brett Wallace, myself, Steve Bowden, Ron Hallett, Robert Gagnon, J.T. Harrison qualified even. And unfortunately, Jason Plourd got knocked out. Oh, yeah, that whole situation. Yeah. Well. Let's just say I only had like three good games, and I couldn't get the fourth one for the longest time. And then you played the six games, it's your top four. I finally had a decent score on, what was it, Fireball Classic. But my Hot Tip score kept bleeding out. Because lots of people were playing Hot Tip, and the scores were very close together. So it kept bleeding, bleeding, bleeding, until I got to the end. And I mean the end, like qualifying stopped at 6 p.m. It's like 5.57. 58, 58, yeah. Yeah, 5.57, 58. And I'm stepping up the hot tip with my last entry, and I am below the cut line. You was 28th. As Jason told me right before I was up, like, hey, I'm right above the cut line. You're right below the cut line, which I honestly didn't know because I don't look at anything. But I had a feeling I needed to have a good game. I had 107,000 previously on that game. So I know I need more than 107,000. And I also know the scores are so close that if I get something significantly higher than that, I'm going to jump way up. So let's say after the first two balls, I think I had 50, 60K. Yes, you did. The third ball was quite the adrenaline rush of saves and fury and whatever you want to call it. And I managed to get the double bonus. I managed to get the spinner lit, hit the spinner a couple times, drain out, I got 134K. So I ended up knocking out Jason and jumping up all the way up to 19th, I believe. Yes, you did. Now, Tim Sexton got boned the same way and Classics won. Our own Tim Balls got taken out by another upstate New York guy, Andy Cushman. Who took him out playing... Blackout. That was down for an hour from a display issue. So they took the game out. Timmy was on that thing. He was in the queue. And they had to dump the queue because they thought that the game was going to be completely out. But they found the board, fixed the game, and brought it back in. And then on the last game, Andy Cushman crushed Blackout and got the second highest qualifier and knocked Tim down one point below the cut line. Yep. That's the way it goes. And on the second day, I knew I was in trouble. I had the highest score on Black Knight. Mm-hmm. And I was waiting for someone to beat it so I could drop like five or ten points. And Robert Gagnon beat it. But at least this time it was with a couple hours left. So I lost a ton of points there, and that hurt. And that's the exact same thing that happened the previous year on Black Knight. I had the top score on Black Knight, and Trent beat me right as time expired, and I got knocked out. Yep. So I need to stop playing Black Knight, obviously. No, because it kept you in it. Yeah. Or I'm really good at black net because I seem to get first in it. Yeah. And this year they had it set up what I would call the proper rule set. Hard. Hard, where you actually have to go – I said actually – where you have to go in the lower play field to hit the little turnaround, roundabout, whatever you want to call it, the U-turn, to light the locks and then come back up. Now, if you didn't get all the locks on that ball, you had to redo the horseshoe. Yep. It's great. Or if you get two balls locked and you lose your ball, you have to hit the horseshoe and re-lock all three balls. Isn't that great? Oh, my God, it killed me. I love that setting. That's the only way to win. And I'll tell you, yeah. How long were the games on Black Nut compared to the previous year? Very short. Way shorter. See what a simple and a plate? Pretty much the same. It's one simple little rule setting, change, and boom, it becomes a totally different game. Yeah. It goes from boredom to awesome. So where did you end up the second day, sir? I sucked. I didn't get past the first round. I had Zach Sharp in my group. Yeah. Awesome. I had Robert Gagnon in my group and Jack Tadman. Yeah, Zach won all three games, Papa style. So he had a 12, which was awesome because that meant that took a lot of the chance. Yeah, we had a chance. The rest of us, we had a lot less points, less of a gap.
    19:41
    And I think they filmed the second day. Yes they did And I think they probably got to see my completely botched alley pass attempt on Hot Tip Yeah I think they did I think that was my only botched alley pass attempt The funny thing is some people might know what I talking about On those older Williams games, even the EMs, the buttons are very stiff, and you have to press them in hard for the flippers to activate. Very stiff flipper buttons. And for whatever reason, even though I played the game a bunch of times, that somehow got missed in my head. So when I went to do the alley pass, I just didn't hit the button hard enough. So it was more like an aborted tap pass it almost looked like when I screwed up. Yeah. And then they got to see me on Hot Tip where I was coming back and singing Waterloo.
    20:31
    Yes, the ABBA fan in you. Yeah. The first game I played was Quicksilver, and just Quicksilver wasn't having none of me. It just was very rude. I really couldn't think of anything I did. Usually wrong. I didn't get much of a chance there. And then I played the hot dog in the third game. I think I hit like four shots total and somehow took second. Yeah. I don't know how that happened. Black Knight had nothing to do with me. It was the worst game of Black Knight I had all day. And then I was trying to come back on hot tip, and I was starting to, but not enough. I needed to win to get in, and I lost. So we both finished 21st. So since I finished higher the first day, that means I win again. Yes, you win again. Great. Thank you. No applause? No applause. Should I edit in applause? Yeah, you can put the fanfare all you want into it. Hold on.
    21:24
    Thank you. Wow. Yes. So who won the second day? Robert Gagnon won. Adam Becker was second. And Jerry Bernard took third with Austin Smith taking fourth. So you're telling me all Canadians, except for that one day. Okay. We really have to represent better. I know we do. We do. And then there's the main tournament.
    21:52
    Who won? I can't say his name. Alexander Krasinski. 14 years old, folks. Yes, 14 years old. Took out our own Levy.
    22:04
    Levy, who just needed to start multi-ball. On ACDC, had a full trap twice. missed the right ramp both times, drained out. Yep. I know that feeling. And Zach Sharp could have taken it all on X-Files. If he got $1.2 million, he would have been in the finals tied, and it would have been a different finals.
    22:27
    But nope, he failed, unfortunately, and Robert Gagnon took third, and Zach took fourth. And this is all on, if you go to YouTube, just go to the Papa TV pinball, you can see the finals, see what happened. I'm sure they have it archived. And if you want to see my failure, you can go to Twitch, Buffalo Pinball on Twitch and see both of our failures.
    22:54
    Yeah, that was bad. Eh, I'm over it. I moved on. Upstate points, baby. I had a fun time. Upstate points. We both didn't play in the mains. No. Not at all. We enjoyed ourselves. Although I liked a lot of games there, but it was going to be too long. It was a madhouse. There were people in queue for 40 minutes.
    23:16
    In Classics, I think the longest queues I've seen were like nine. Eleven. Okay, eleven. Still, it wasn't any more than usually 20 minutes to get on something, which sounds like a lot, but compared to the main, it wasn't. Here's the funny thing, that when I was driving back to Buffalo and back, I actually listened to episode six last year of the podcast. Wait a minute. You were listening to our podcast again. Yep. The reason why? To listen to what we did last year at the Buffalo Pinball Open. All right. What did we do last year? Last year, you took both classics and I took the main from. So you were up 2-1.
    23:54
    But I forgot. I brought three games last year. This year I only brought two. I forgot all about it. I brought Blackjack. Yep. Future Spa. Yeah, I know. And Paragon. So I forgot about, I brought three last year. Now out of the three games I brought last year, I took home $130 out of three games.
    24:17
    This year with big game and hotdogging, how much do you think I took home? $130. $108. Okay. So I was ahead of the curve on that one. So good showing. If you're wondering, people, that's like a percentage of the cut for bringing the games, if you will. Yes. You still had to pay for entries. Yep. And probably registration fee, I would assume. Yep. Way to begin. Yep. I had to pay for my own games. I had to put money in my own games.
    24:48
    That's true. That's the other weird part. It's like, I just played this in Bruce's house. I didn't have to put money in it. Now you've got to pay for it here. But not anymore. It's back home. But speaking about putting money in things, that leads to a little rant.
    25:05
    This rant is brought to you by Ron Hallett. This rant is brought to you by Tim Rantz. Yes. A subsidiary of Tim Rantz Incorporated. Yes. He's the inspiration. I'm actually going to mute this one to let him have the whole stage. Okay. At this event, this was at Pocketeer Billiards. they had a Alien and a Star Wars LE and also a Domino's the pizza game the Domino's pizza game was in the tournament and pretty much everyone there figured it wouldn't last the tournament, it didn't I think after a couple hours it was out two and a half hours it was down Francisco was doing the dance behind it so they replaced it with Attack from Mars remake But I didn't care. They had Alien there. It's like, I want to play Alien. I want to see the damn tongue come out. That sounds weird. But I want to see tongue because they – Oh, my. Buffalo Pinball streamed it when it arrived, and the tongue was working, and I'm there. Cool. I know the tongue works. I want to see this thing in person work. This is my goal. This is one of the things I came there to do. So I get on the game. Well, actually, before I even get on the game, the previous person playing the game, it just locks up on them. Like, there's a ball in the shooter lane, and the flippers are dead, and they can't do anything. Like, okay, that's not good. So they reboot it. I get on it. Well, first, yeah, Levy told me not to play it because it keeps locking up.
    26:38
    But it's like, damn it, I want to see the tongue. So I put my dollar in there, and I just went for the two targets below the alien head. If you hit them enough times, they turn green. and if you hit him after that, the magnet's supposed to stop the ball and then the tongue's supposed to come out. So I did all this. The targets turn green. I hit it and the entire, like all the lights in the game just go dead. Flippers go dead and the game just locks.
    27:08
    It doesn't reboot, just locks. It's just done. Like, okay. So rebooted. I think I played it three times. Two of the three times I played it, I didn't finish the game because it locked up. And I told the techs there, and they were aware it was having issues. And I don't know if they were turning the game off and people kept turning it back on, but it was constantly on.
    27:35
    And it leads to the deal where you have games like this, and it has .98 software, I think it's had on it. So it's running prototype software. It obviously has issues. yet it's on and taking money.
    27:49
    Money! Money! You can answer the money back and all that, but I'm just like, you can't put stuff on location like that. That doesn't work.
    28:01
    Domino's, that was off, and then it was on later at night, and I think, oh, they must have fixed whatever it was. I think someone just turned it on. I didn't get through that game. I got through two balls, and it just locked up and died. but that's the side of the whole prototype software thing that i i think is not brought up either is that you know these games are on location and they're running prototype software and they have issues and they just keep locking up and you know if you're at a show and this happens like whatever but i put a dollar in this thing it's like a dollar it costs to play this thing it just adds a whole new level of frustration and i really think at some point they should just unplug the alien if it just kept locking up on people surprisingly star wars seemed to be more reliable as a matter of fact steve bowden played it and replicated the exact same thing he did at rock fantasy where it locked up he even turns to me as he's doing it's like here we go here we go let's see if they fixed it let's see if they fixed it and it didn't lock up this time it's like oh they must have fixed it they must have fixed it and we got a good game on it together yeah yes We had like $4 billion between the two of us. I think $3 billion of it was you. $1 billion of it was me.
    29:16
    So that's just the, I guess maybe not a rant, but just like don't have these games that have all these issues and have them on location taking money from people.
    29:26
    I mean, you're going to have to keep giving them their money back. I would hope you're giving them their money back every time these things lock up. I did see a lot of people giving me the bird after playing my games this past weekend. Yeah, because they were ridiculous. They were telling me I was number one. Yeah, you were number one, dude. That frigging big game was ridiculously brutal. Thank you. But one person didn't get a million on it. Good for them. What did you get? Hold on. Let's see. You own a big game, don't you? Yes, I own a big game. What did you get for qualifying on this?
    30:00
    I think I only played it once. I don't think you even played it. Your score's not even up this. Hold on. I'm pretty sure I played it once because I remember playing it once and saying, like, yeah, no, I don't want to do that again.
    30:13
    No, you did not play it. I did. I don't care what it says. I played it once. You might have voided it. Yes, I probably avoided it. That should still be on there, though. Usually it tells you, or does it just say you have so-and-so voided entries? I'm looking right now.
    30:28
    Big game. You played it twice and you voided them both. There you go. I knew I played that. Yeah, you voided both.
    30:36
    And my hot dog kicked your ass a couple times, didn't it? Yep. So I moved on to the far superior Fireball Classic. Until I finally had a decent game.
    30:48
    I'm the only fan of Fireball Classic, I think. It actually played okay. Yeah. You know, and the more I thought about it, it's harder than Fireball. Oh, yeah. For the reason that on Fireball, the Fireball, you got zipper flippers. So you can get them closed, and then you can actually take control shots. On that game, it's almost impossible to trap the ball. So you have to hit everything on the fly, and then you've got the stupid spinning disc there. So maybe I'd like to see that maybe in a PAPA final and just turn the spinning disc off like they do at NBA, just to see what all the lock-stealing fun going on. That would be a good idea. I think it would be interesting.
    31:27
    Great time. I got to talk to Zach Sharp about his new position. Me too. Congratulations, Zach. We are now allowed to say, congratulations, Zach, you are now part of Stern. You are now part of Stern. This happened because of our taping schedules. We kind of missed this news. We're last to tell you. We're not topical here, but Zach Sharp is the new director of marketing at Stern.
    31:52
    And I said, isn't it funny? Like you've been playing against Keith Elwin all these years, and now you're in the same company, and you're going to have to market a game he's going to make. and he said if Keith keeps beating him, he's going to make sure he doesn't do a good job marketing his game. There you go. Good luck. We're all counting on you. Yes, good luck. We're all counting on you, definitely. I think we'll be seeing his influence at Expo, I'm hoping. Yeah. Because there's a whole thing on the schedule I noticed about CERN. Yeah.
    32:24
    So we have the perfect re-theme for Star Wars LE. Oh, yes. Yes. I'm totally on board. Steve, you must be. Hopefully Steve Ritchie is listening. I know someone else from Stern is listening.
    32:38
    Hi, Keith. Tell this to Steve. Roller Games 2000. You strip the whole play field down. You put Roller Games. The characters, instead of the characters, they'll be the teams. Yes. And you can either increase it to all the original teams, or if you want to keep the four, you can just make two heel teams and two face teams. And then your accelerator there is the track. That's actually the ring. Yep. That's the track. And then the little display can show, like, clips of roller games. Yep. It would be awesome. What do we do with the Death Star? Oh, man. Go for the, instead of go for the wall, go for the whatever. Just make it whatever. Go for the ball. Go for the, just make it a wall. Yeah. Just make it a big wall, and you can still say, go for the wall. That's it. Perfect, because the ball will go up, and it will break through the wall. Yes. And go around. We got it. There we go. This is gold. Come on, Stern. Make it happen. Roller Games, 2,000. You'll sell a million of them. Can you imagine the Roller Games music in just full stereo and like... Rock, rock, rock. Roller Games. Use real instruments, too. Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. Oh, yes. Yes. Make it happen. Someone make it happen. Roller Games. It'd be great. But that is our re-theme. That's our re-theme. For Star Wars LE. I mean, and you can even use the multi-ball beginning could be the same as it is on Star Wars, which is non-existent, where it just starts. Oh, I'm sorry. Did I say that? Yes, you did. Because roller games is a lame intro. Roller games, roller games. And then the balls just come out. Well, on Star Wars, half the time you get a multi-ball, the balls just start coming out. Oh, I guess I'm in multi-ball. But when I saw that, we talked about it at the show after playing Star Wars LE. Me and Ron just looked at each other like, that is great. Make it happen.
    34:39
    It's perfect. It's designed by Steve Ritchie already. And the pop-upers hardly ever get any use, just like the real roller games. Got it. Exactly. I mean, really, the only time they go in there is when the little diverter thing makes the ball stop. It goes into the lanes. They're just as useless as they are in roller games. It's perfect. It practically is Roller Games. It is. Totally agree. All right.
    35:01
    I want to mention this. This funny occurrence of this trip. We didn't go past the, we didn't smell the shit this time. We didn't have liquid shit. No liquid shit. No yacht rock either. No yacht rock. Because we use my car and I don't have satellite radio. So I played music from a band I could have sworn that Bruce would have heard of, just knowing his tastes. But I never did. But Bruce had never heard of them, and we were there with J.T. Harrison and even Jeff Teolos. We're like, oh, yeah, yeah, they're awesome. And it's like, Bruce, you never heard of these guys?
    35:38
    Heard of who? Of course I'm talking about the immortal Steel Panther. I was laughing my ass off. Yes, he was, because he, Bruce literally sings songs like that and changes the lyrics to really vulgar, disgusting lyrics. Who would have thought? Who would have thought there's a band that already does that for you? Yes, like Critter.
    36:01
    Yes, we won't go in, just don't, no, no, I don't want to have to make too many edits here. But, I mean, they have song titles like, yes, Critter, It Won't Suck Itself. That's another one. You get the idea. Yes. It's a whole – And they just go worse. Yes. And it's a gimmick band. It's four actual musicians who have been around since the 80s, and they do this – think of Spinal Tap, but instead of that, they're like a parody of an 80s metal band. So when you look at the title of the show, now you know why. Yes.
    36:39
    And – Well, the other part of the title, you were hot tipping. I was. Because they have a jukebox there at Pocketeer, and they kept playing Hot Stuff. Yes, I was going, looking for some hot tip, baby, this evening. And I actually had a lot of the players in Classics singing that. Yeah. You are a sick individual. Jack Padman. Yes. A couple other people. Mm-hmm. Found a summer would-be prod. Yep. We were all singing, walking up the hot tip. Looking for some hot tip, baby, this evening. So it's all about Hot Tip and Steel Panther, baby. Yes. Okay. Now we can go on to the news. Now, actually, the first bit of news is our cease and desist letter finally worked. I listened to Head to Head Pinball, Episode 5 today. They didn't steal anything from us. Excellent. All right. That's good to hear. They just said mailbag. Mm-hmm. So I'm going to steal something from them. Oh. Well, no. Why would you do that? I didn't get to steal anything from them before. Oh, okay. And I'm going to now steal from them. Instead of a piece of news, they called it a bit of news.
    37:53
    So this is the bit of news part of our show. Hi, boys. Love those two. So let's begin with the piece of news.
    38:04
    Oh, come on. It's a bit of news. No, it's a piece of news. We don't rip people off, ever. I know. Never. Except when we do. Yes, except when we do. But no, the guys at Head to Head, great guys. Martin and Ryan C. They don't mess with George Takei. They've learned, you know, once you get a cease and desist letter from George, you stop. Yes, you do.
    38:29
    So this weekend, just before the Buffalo Open, there was the Jetsons and TNA dead flip. Double shot stream. I only watched the second part, so I didn't see the first part. I don't know if you did. I watched the Jetsons a little bit. Okay. What did you think? Because I know you were into the Jetsons theme. I love the Jetsons. Trust me. It's better than a lot of other themes.
    38:52
    It's okay. Doesn't do anything for me. Comparing two each $6,000 games, what do you think I'm picking?
    39:03
    Total Nuclear Annihilation? Got it, Bubby. Wait a minute, they're both $6,000? Yes, they are. Okay. Who would you pick? Well, I played both. Yes, you did. So just on gameplay, I would have to pick Total Nuclear and Irish.
    39:20
    I watched that stream and it looked every bit as fun as it looked before. Mm-hmm. I love those ridiculous kickouts. They're so ridiculous. And that pop-up. Yeah. When I talk about changing up the pop-up thing, how it just they put the three pop up in the top or they never do anything or you know and they just have they try to come up with stuff for them to mean something You know like the reels that change that match when they all match you get an award or super pops or whatever. It's like, I want pop poppers to do something. Well, that one does something. It drains you badly. And have it way down at the bottom. Yes.
    40:02
    So, yeah. It looked good. It looked really good. They've already sold over 150. Really? So they already did three batches of the fifth game. Three batches and they're going on to their fourth one. Damn. So very impressive, guys. If it was 5K, I probably would have been in on it. What's an extra thousand for you, big dollar boy? I'm just thinking more along the lines, you can get a Star Wars Pro for five grand. Yeah. I agree. It's going to have more on it. Whether it'll be as fun, that's the other thing. It could be at a show, you play it, and you're like, oh, my God, I need to have this thing. I just – I have to have this. I don't care. I don't care if it's $1,000 more than I think it should be. I need to have it.
    40:49
    And, you know, that's the best kind of game. Have a game that's so good that people just don't care. Like, I don't care. I need it. I want it. I need it. This game is – once the music starts, I am just like, I need to have this game. The music and the light show and the sounds are just incredible in that game. I like the way there's no bass until you plunge. Yes. And then the bass comes in.
    41:13
    It's even better in person. I know. I can't wait. Yeah. So hopefully it'll be at some show I'm going to. I hope so, too. Maybe at the Ryan C. show at Texas. You would hope it would be at Expo. I hope it would be at Expo, too. He said it might not be there. Why? I think he said in one of the interviews it might not be there. Why? That's the show it should be at. I don't know. That doesn't make any sense. I know. Please bring it to Expo. Thank you. Yes, please.
    41:43
    So, we got called out this week. We got called out. So, is this part of the news? This is part of the news because we got called out. So, we have no other news, though, but this is the last news item? I don't know. What do you have for news besides that?
    41:57
    That's all I had. Okay. Me too. Okay. We got called out this week. By who? By Chuck Webster. Again? Again. That blasted it. So, oh, the trash talker thing. He didn't like our comments, I guess. Guess not. Oh, okay. Yes, he sent us a... He sent everyone. He posted this on Facebook. Oh, and this is what it says. It says, and it's got a cool little header. where it's got the trash can looking at you. The Trash Talker 3 Invitational Pinball Tournament. And it's dated August 21st. Wow. It's almost like you knew we were recording today. I know. It's amazing. Dear Ron and Bruce, it's been brought to our attention that your podcast was disparaging the Trash Talker Invitational because of the lack of New York players. Yes, we were. Because you guys are wussies. You just don't want to take on New Yorkers. Here at the Trash Talker Invitational, we take these allegations seriously. Yeah, so seriously you still don't want us in there. Okay, let me continue. We would love to have additional representation for the New York area. However, after an exhaustive search, it has been concluded that no one in the New York, New Jersey area has the combined flipper skills and quick wit to contend for the coveted Trash Talker Invitational 3 title. I think they were looking with blinders on, I swear to God. Yeah, I mean, you guys really think there's no good players in New York and New Jersey?
    43:29
    Really? Really. Good players like Tim Sexton? Yeah. Tim Balls? Good players like, great players like Steve Bowden, follow bonus?
    43:38
    Alberto? Alberto. Jerry? Let me just end up a second. Jerry, Bernard, Sab? I mean. I know. Geez, Louise. Come on. I mean, Hammer and Howard and Zach are in the A playoffs at Denver? Really? I know. Nope, there's none. There's none. Let me continue.
    43:57
    Only the pinball princess was talented enough to earn her way into the tournament, even if she had to use a step stool to see over the glass. Oh, man.
    44:09
    They're trash-talking our only New York representative. Let's see. However, in a gesture of fairness, the Trash Talker Invitational Selection Committee, I would assume that's Chuck.
    44:24
    Well, you never know. I think all those guys just like, you know, plot against us New Yorkers. Yeah, I think so. The committee will allow the Slam Tilt podcast to choose one listener to contend for the championship, although more likely he or she will be leaving a trail of tears when crawling back to New York. Hmm. Ooh. So, hmm. Okay, okay. Let's continue. Continuing. Continuing, regarding Stomp West, there wasn't any reason to change the date. The chances of either of you making it into the tournament are slim to none. Meaning their tournament, I'm assuming. Ron may have... We could just walk into ours and crush it like you did last time. Yeah. Ron may have the flipper skills and Bruce may have the big mouth. Yeah, that's true. But to be the Trash Talker Invitational Champion, you need both. Yeah, I guess I'm too quiet. No, you're definitely too quiet. Of course, a hefty bribe to Project Pinball and a few bottles of an adult beverage may improve your odds. Sincerely, the Trash Talker Invitational Selection Committee. Okay, so it sounds like we could get one of our listeners from New York, New Jersey, I'm going to include Pennsylvania because there's a couple of good players in Pennsylvania. If they, sounds like, donate money to Project Pinball or, you know, with the guarantee to donate to Project Pinball and bring some alcoholic beverages, you might be able to get into... Well, I don't think... It says, like, we can choose somebody to get in. Yes. But if we want to get in ourselves... We can pay ourselves. But I'm going to make it a donation to Project Pinball. That's a good idea. The highest bid to Project Pinball makes it in. We can start the bidding right now, and you can email us. And we're doing this as a show of faith, and we want to donate as much money as we can to Project Pinball. Despite these horrible trash talker invitational people. Yeah, I know. We want to do good for Pinball. We want to do good. Because I have a lot of sins I have to atone for. Yes.
    46:38
    Well, we want to set our differences aside and do it for the good of Project Pinball. Do it for the kids. So I'm starting the bidding.
    46:50
    Live on the air right now, when you guys hear it, I'm bidding $50. Who can beat it? And I'm bringing a six-pack of Genesee Cream Ale beer. because it's from New York State and it's from upstate from Rochester.
    47:09
    It's not good beer, but that's what New Englanders get. I'm keeping the good stuff for myself. Okay. I'm keeping the Labatt's for me because the funny thing is Labatt beer, even though it's Canadian beer, for the United States, it's brewed in Rochester.
    47:27
    So keeping with this. Okay. I bid 50. I will also bid 50. Okay. So you have to beat both of us. That doesn't mean you have to combine, but you have to beat 50. And I will bring something from my father's collection. My father works for a liquor distributor. Yes, he does. His entire basement is nothing but liquor. And he doesn't drink liquor. That's the funniest part. He just collects it. So if you do want to beat the bid, please email us at Ron. At Ron? No, at Slam Till Podcast. at gmail.com.
    48:07
    And just send us an email. It's easier if it's just in one spot. Don't send us like, you know. Send it to us on Facebook. Yeah, don't send it to like 30 zillion locations. Just send it. Send it to us on email. Yep.
    48:18
    SlamTiltPodcast at gmail.com. If you would like to participate in the Trash Talker invitation on behalf of New York, New Jersey, or Pennsylvania, you said? In Pennsylvania. He's putting Pennsylvania in. Okay. I'd like to see Ed Zellman get on this trash talking and try to get into it too. But I want to see money going to a good cause, and it will go to a good cause. It will be going to Project Pinball. And for those of you who don't know what Project Pinball is, they put pinball machines in children's hospitals. Yes, for them to enjoy while they're unfortunately suffering through diseases and mishaps for family members. Like, even though, you know, sometimes even kids who are not in the hospital sick get to go to the kids area and actually play the games also. So actually, when one hospital I was in for my cancer, they actually had a Donkey Kong and a Donkey Kong Jr. in the kids area. And, of course, I'm 27 and I'm down there playing Donkey Kong and Donkey Kong Jr. And knowing you, you're probably slaughtering them and trash talking them. I really suck. You suck! I have to do my sins. I could totally see that too that's what I don't get I mean I look at this you look like you were born for this trash talker invitational I mean you should just be you should even you should just be invited instantly I don't understand I think they fear us you know because we are the superior players I'm better than you but I can't trash talk like you can so I think hey we can go there as a split flipper team Oh, you love that. Oh, yeah.
    50:01
    I can actually do the split flipper. I just can't do the single, you know, the one-handed. You're not a one-handed guy, huh? Nope. I got to gain a stroke every time I play.
    50:13
    Again, you can listen to Steel Panther and hear some of this type of material. So, but we will take you up on your challenge, Mr. Webster. and that's scratched off the list right now so uh a year ago ron i've issued you a challenge you did i did and you did not do it at all i did not do it at all what was the challenge so you were listening to some old podcast and said oh i forgot about that Rock, rock, rock, roller games targets. Oh, God, yeah, no.
    50:52
    That's way in the future. Maybe not this winter, but next winter. Okay, I keep on hearing this. Yep, you're going to keep hearing it. This week we'll have a lot of repairs, though, because I have to get ready for the Western New York Pinball League coming to my house this week. So other than the two flaky switches, Were there any other issues with your games there at Buffalo Pinball?
    51:16
    Actually, once in a while the ball wouldn't kick out, but, of course, on a stern, you can tilt that puppy, shake that ball around, plunge it. So you mean at the beginning of a ball? Yes. Yeah. Stern had this habit of, and I have a bunch of sterns, Bruce has a bunch of sterns, and this happens on a lot of their games, a lot of their different games too, like not the same game. The out-hole kicker, it literally just fires the ball too hard. And it hits. It comes out. It hits so hard it just goes right back in. And sometimes it doesn't go back in far enough, and it just kind of sits there. And it's not on a switch, and it's not in the shooter lane. So the only way to free it is to, like, tilt the entire game. You have a theory behind it. Yeah, it's too strong. It's just too strong. The coil's too strong. It fires too strong. The funny thing is, like on my stars, the kicker arm is partially broken, so it can't kick out with the same force it normally does. And guess what? That one is flawless. That never has an issue.
    52:21
    So we got some mail ball bag. Yes, the mail ball bag. We have a lot, actually. Messages, and we have a lot. Yes, because of our taping schedule. I love how we say taping. That shows our age. I mean, I'm not taping anything. Do they still call it taping, though? Yeah, because I think radio station. Yeah, they're still taping, I think. It's kind of funny, like on any modern digital device, like the Play, the Fast Forward, the Rewind, it's still all the same symbols that used to be like on a tape deck. Mm-hmm. So what do we want to tackle first? We got emails. Let's go to the emails first. So I'm going to start pulling up the other stuff. All right, so I'll start on the emails here. We got, this is from David Peck, some more, um, Rotor Dave. He has some movie ideas for us after we get through the Pink Panther movies.
    53:17
    Let's see. Cheech and Chong movies, which I don't think I've seen any of those. Bruce Lee movies. I think that would be like five. Yeah, we had another person come up to us at this show and said Godzilla movies.
    53:33
    Ooh. Hmm. I would do that if they were only like the classic era. Well, you said like all 30. I would go like from the beginning into like the 70s, and then they had a long break before they started doing it in the 80s again. I would do like up to the 70s. Those are what I consider the classic Godzilla movies. Okay. We could do that because I have seen a ton of those.
    53:58
    And let's see, Bruce Lee movies? I'm trying to think if I can think of them all. I think there's seven. There's the one before Fists of Fury, which I can't remember. There's Fists of Fury, Chinese Connection, Enter the Dragon,
    54:12
    there's Return of the Dragon. I believe that's it. There's Game of Death, but that was finished after he was dead.
    54:20
    Let's see. I'm doing these out of order a little bit, but episode 56. Let's see. This is from Eric Russell. and he's saying how he loves Hercules in New York. He may still have a copy of it on VHS somewhere in a junk box. Nice. I love the voice dub guy. Sounds like some little skinny nerd and doesn't fit Arnold's appearance at all. My favorite part is when Herc has a fist fight with a bear in Central Park.
    54:50
    Yikes. Great bad movie. And like I said, there's a version of it now where it has his actual voice. It's like before he was dubbed. So you can hear the awesomeness.
    55:02
    Okay, got anything from the messages? Oh, yeah. Well, first I want to talk about, before we go truly into mail ball bag for the other stuff, we did post a couple pictures from the Buffalo Pinball Open, and they are on our Facebook page, including Jeff Teolis. He has the perfect shirt on where he was showing him punching out Zach Sharp. So he has a shirt that says Jeff 1, Zach 0, and Ron was there next to him. And then we showed the two games we had at the show. The only person I missed at the show this year was our own little Zach.
    55:34
    Well, he's not little. He's bigger than me and you. I know. Hi, Zach. He wasn't there. Yep. But Steve Bowden was there. Final bonus. Great to see. We had a lot of good people. A lot of people came to us and liked the show and said hi, and we appreciate that very much. We really do. So I got an email from – I'm going right now back through all of them. Mish Henning, and he's talking about episode – he wrote down 54, but it was really 55 where he said, hi, guys. Just listened to episode 55. Good and entertaining as usual. Thanks for your efforts. I noticed you were making a lot of fun of Gary Stern posting his mobile number.
    56:16
    Yes, we were. Yes, you were. We were. Okay. I admit I had a few laughs, but towards the end, the joke started to wear a bit thin. If you notice, we beat the shit out of jokes. We run them into the ground. Do you agree, Ron? Yeah, but if I recall that episode, I think we only did the number thing twice. Yes, so that's not beating it. Yeah, we did it once when we actually did the segment. And at the very end of the show, we did it one more time. Yep. I could be wrong. Because, again, I don't listen to the episodes after that. I did. And thinking more about it, about a little more, how many CEOs do you know who are actually courageous enough to publish their cell phone numbers so customers can actually address their concerns directly, assuming that the number is correct? I at least have to take my hat off to Gary for his honesty and integrity. Now, I'm going to stop you right there.
    57:12
    Gary, the only reason why Gary did this is because they made a bad decision in the beginning with the ghosting. and the play field should be acceptable.
    57:23
    To me, that's a bad marketing move. And hopefully Zach will say in the future, hey, this is a bad marketing move. You're going to piss off more people, and then you have to backtrack.
    57:35
    And he's done this many times before with rules don't have to be completed on Wheel of Fortune, how the home buyer didn't mean anything back in the 2000s, which was false. Gary's just gone on and on the only reason that saved his company back in 08-09 was the home market and the people buying the home games it wasn't Mick on a stick that does sound like indeed sounds like a man who stands behind his product and reassuring his customers in person that Stern will not go back on their warranty obligations but the problem is again they made bad play fields they shouldn't have to wishy-washy around this. Here's the problem. Gary first said, we're going to take care of every play field.
    58:24
    And then six months later, puts a part of the problem saying, oh, now it should be accepted having ghosting and play field issues. And then had to go back. Well, yes, he did. He did state that in the manual. That's yes. But I think that's more, they're trying to cover themselves for people who said like, you know, they have one or two inserts that are ghosting. you're not getting a new play field.
    58:50
    So you would take a car with a bad paint job and accept it? Or would you want that car to be fixed? I think he's saying it depends how bad that paint job is. Well, would you take it for a brand new car, any paint job that's bad on your car? Think about it. That's exactly what it is. It's an imperfection in the paint job. Would you accept that?
    59:14
    I wouldn't. It's a car, though. but it's still a paint shop. And it's still an expensive paint job either way.
    59:24
    And when you look at some of the Bruja, I surely stern additive verbiage manual just be stopped in a retentive compulsives who had first signed even his most minuscule playfield wear scream it the end of the world and I in a new playfield
    59:37
    I still have no doubt, that Stern will honor their warranty obligations, as they've done in the past, see Ghostbusters. Well, Ghostbusters took a long time, to make happen. They didn't admit to it for how long, Ron? Three months? I believe the first time they said anything, was Gary Stern actually said it at Expo. Yeah. So it would depend when Ghostbusters came out. I don't recall. And we all knew it, what, back in July or June? Yeah, like, what was it? Oh, Steve mentioned something at Pintastic, and that was in July. And before that, people were talking about it on Pintastic. Yeah, because the LEs, they came out and had all the issues.
    60:15
    And he addressed it during his usual expo speech. He actually did it after his speech was over. It was just like, and one more thing. Yeah. we have problems with play fields and they're going to be rectified. Pretty much yes. And it's not as widespread as is made out to believe and we'll take care of it.
    60:37
    Here's another funny thing. Nick Lane, who is one of the guys from Buffalo Pinball, posted two pictures of his tie fighter being broken.
    60:50
    Now, everyone's making fun of the tie fighter breaking and falling apart, But I was looking at his inserts. Every white insert on that thing is ghosting.
    61:00
    It's Star Wars, you mean? Yes. It's brand new Star Wars. Bummer. Yeah. So that's double the quality issues. Guess what? $5 toys don't make it. Playfield should be better. They didn't do it in the past. It's got to be rectified.
    61:16
    Guarantee nobody at Stern who buys a car would be happy with a bad paint job. They'd be complaining to their, if they got a car, they, oh, wow, look, you know, look, I'm getting orange peel. The whole thing's rusting out. You'd be going, fix this. That's what people are doing to them. And it shouldn't be drag defeat and figure out what's going on. I've heard people are waiting for five to six months for play fields.
    61:41
    Not acceptable either. So, Aaron Nichols, just listened to Harrison Ford, and it was a great podcast. Thanks for the entertainment and riding home. I was thinking about the show movies. I understand you're going with Pink Panther. After Pink Panther, it would be nice if you guys did a movie that has a pin so you can talk about the pin, maybe even like a small review or a piece of trivia. That would be my input for a few more good shows. Also, definitely, that is Harrison Ford, so if somebody agreed with you, Ron again. Excellent. So what does he want? Movies with pinball machines in them? Yeah, movies with pinball machines in them and then maybe do like a trivia piece. That's a hard one. All right. Okay, I got one for you then. Okay.
    62:25
    Superman 2. There's a pinball machine. Name it. There you go. Good one. If you remember, Superman beats the shit out of a guy up... Beats up a guy at a bar and throws him into a pinball machine. And it was an actual pinball machine. It wasn't like when they make a fake one or change the artwork because they don't want to show it. It was an actual machine.
    62:47
    So what was it? I'm trying. Was there another machine next to that machine, or was that the only one? I think it was the only one. Okay. Okay, next one is from John Cawson. Nice episode. Great to catch up with us last week, which was at Pinberg. Pink Panther's a great idea. Well done, princess. Don't forget the very first movie with David Nevin, the original inspector. David Niven. Niven? Niven. Not so much a comedy, but a cool guy. One of the best autobiographies is Moon is a Balloon, His Life in His Own Word. from impoverished background to successful military career to movie star. What a life. Thanks for mentioning the Nicolas Cage. He's the one that mentioned to us at Pembroke about the Nicolas Cage movies. Instead, what about Batman movies after Pink Panther? Huge variation, quality, co-stars, and approach. I kind of like that one, too.
    63:38
    Pounding away on my banana flippers and loving it. Yeah, I know. Banana flippers. Oh, God, I know. The moon over the balloon. I think that's because he was in Around the World in 80 Days or whatever, the one where he's going in the balloon. Yep. Another one we got was from Joel Reeves. He actually sent us a link to a cheetah. Yes, he did. Yes, and we'd like to thank Joel. I reached out to the person and got a little dicked around and then nothing. So I think it was a scam.
    64:10
    So no cheetah for us. Also thank our listener who was going to check it out for us. and I found out who was going to go look for the game for us was Tony Murphy. Thank you, Tony.
    64:22
    But unfortunately, that sounded like a scam, so we got fucked both ways. No cheetah. Especially since it's been out there for a month. Yeah, I know. I thought, especially since the repo spawned into me in the beginning and then yanked me around. So, yeah. So he gave us a couple ideas for the 13 best old Star Trek episodes. That's another idea.
    64:46
    Since we are Trekkies. Spock. What do you mean 13 best? They're all the best. Yes. Spock. Yes, they are. Spock.
    64:57
    And then another listener, Lauren Green. Lorian Green. Was it Lorian or Lauren? I would say Lorian. Because Lorian Green, I'm thinking of the guy on Bonanza.
    65:08
    John Carpenter movies. Yes. So Lorian Green, John Carpenter movies. I'd go with that there's not a ton of them it's not like there's 300 of them and that means I could do Big Trouble Little China They Live is in there and then she loves the Beavis and Butthead thank you very much you know Butthead was at the tournament he was we were doing like a whole routine it was pretty cool it was actually really cool is that it for the messages? Yeah, I think so. All right, so finishing up the mailbag. Oh, wait a sec. One more thing we've got to bring up.
    65:50
    You hold the Hulk head. Well, we'll get to that. Let me finish the mail. We have Ryan from Wisconsin.
    65:57
    Subject line, next game to buy. All of them. Some advice. No, don't. Come on. Hello, boys. I've recently been put in contact with a buyer for a large portion of my retro video game collection. Assuming the sale goes through, I'll have enough money for another pin. I currently have three machines. Simpsons Pinball Party, Whirlwind, and Dialed In. He's looking to get a 90s DMD game. So, most probably a Williams game. I guess it could be a Daddy's game. Or maybe a System 3. Right, Bruce?
    66:30
    Okay. I would like to get a game that will help me round out my collection. It will help get non-pinheads into pinball. I'm currently thinking about Medieval Madness. It seems to be a game that non-pinheads really enjoy when they see what they have to do to destroy the castle. I also enjoyed the game. Although I am not firm on this particular game, are there any other machines you would recommend I consider to complement what I already have? Well, first you need a Steve Ritchie game.
    66:58
    He says one game, Bruce. No, but you need a Steve Ritchie game. His three games that he has right now are not Steve Ritchie games. So what's your game, Bruce? What does he need? I would actually, if you're thinking medieval madness I go the opposite way Attack from Mars Opposite, well You would go the similar way Similar opposite way Similar opposite? I don't consider them twins I think we have a new term The similar opposite Yes, I just make Bruce-isms anytime as I want That is a Bruce-ism Similar opposite Yes, but that will break your bank. I will give you another thing to consider. But he's talking about medieval. Yes. So if he's talking medieval, then, or you can go to Steve Ritchie's. It would be better. Like a Star Trek? What, Star Trek? No, he says 90s DMD.
    67:55
    Ah. Come on, answer his question. Next gen? No, that won't get non-pinheads. They'll play for two seconds, get destroyed, and never want to play again. jesus okay i'll give you a true answer here this is what you want to go for get a world cup soccer or you mean world challenge soccer world cup soccer people love the soccer ball you score goals it's fun everyone likes it just ask larry tomorrow he'll tell you everyone should have a world cup soccer world challenge soccer what the hell is world challenge soccer oh i guess you in here. Pimble Arcade brought out World Cup Soccer. But they couldn't call it World Cup Soccer. Why not?
    68:41
    Copyright. Really? Just the term World Cup Soccer is copyrighted? So guess what Pimble Arcade had to call it? World Challenge Soccer? You got it. And they had to change the color of the mascot.
    68:54
    Wait a minute. So it's still Striker, but he's just a different color? Yep. What color is he now? I don't know. I'm going to it right now.
    69:02
    But yeah, they had to change. They better not change him to blue. It'll look too much like a Hanna-Barbera character. It'll look like a Smurf. A Smurf. La la la la la. But yes, I would recommend World Cup Soccer.
    69:16
    That's the game I always said I would if I wanted to get non-pinheads into it. When non-pinheads are over, they'd like to play that game. Just because of the goal, scoring the goal, everyone gets that.
    69:28
    I mean, come on. Ultra Spinner. Yep. Ultra Jets. Ultra Raps. Okay, the world is wondering what color is Striker. I'm still trying to find them. Oh, God. More editing.
    69:43
    Oh, World Champion Soccer. Sorry, World Champion Soccer. World Champions Soccer? So it's not World Challenge Soccer. It's World Champions Soccer. Yep. And if you look at it, it's kind of funny. But they changed it. Yeah, same game, different title for licensing reasons.
    70:02
    And what color is Striker? The world wants to know. Looking for it. It was on the one thing, but I can't find it now. What preparation? Yeah, anal preparation.
    70:13
    Again, Steel Panther, if you want to hear songs about such things. Yes, Steel Panther. All you need to know. All right, we'll just say he's white now. Yeah, that's got to be it. Or blue or plaid. So if you really want to know, check it out. Pinball Arcade has it. It's World Champion Soccer.
    70:33
    Yeah. Now, wait a minute. Do they have to change any of the cards? Because you just say, welcome to World Cup 94.
    70:43
    I don't know. I wonder if they have to cut that out. Interesting. Okay. So that's that email. I'm looking at it right now. I'm waiting for the video. There's a video. Oh, there's a video. While you're looking at that. We have the Pinball Princess. Super short email this week, which was actually last week. Greetings. I wish you luck on your trash talker invites, which I have a feeling you'll get after the incredible amount of trash talking you did last episode. I will reiterate that I can totally take our New England neighbors on by myself if it need be. Yeah. That said, having more New Yorkers at the trash talker invitational would be awesome. Also, I'm here for stories of Kathy kicking butt and taking names in pinball. Mm-hmm. I look forward to more stories of her amazing skill and prowess. I had that in my podcast notes twice now, and skipping it once was enough of an oversight. These are getting really short. I feel like I'm slacking off. According to my Scrivener documents, I've done four really long letters. The last one that I have is labeled Slam Tilt 4. Everything else has been done off the cuff in my browser. Now creating Slam Tilt 5. Player 31915.
    71:55
    Nice. I'm player 369, or it's 365. Yes, that's what I'm saying. I'm a year. You're 671, so you were later. Yep. Which is weird. Do you know who number one is?
    72:09
    That's when you take a... Oh, you mean... Oh, no. Who's number one? Keith Elwin. Really? Is that Josh Sharp? Is that player number one? Nope. What is Josh Sharp? Player two, three? Nine. Eight or nine, I think. Interesting. Uh, he is, he's got like a different haircut. He's yellow with a green suit on. Wait, wait, wait. He has a haircut? Yeah, like, he's like, got like, it's different. It looks different.
    72:37
    It's really bad. Okay. It's really, really bad. Oh, really bad. Okay. Next subject. Any more emails? That was it. The ball bag has been emptied.
    72:58
    You had something you wanted to say? Oh, yeah. You getting to hold the Hulk head. Oh, yes, I did. I played, this was at the Rock Fantasy Summer Open. Mm-hmm. And I played, I ended up, I played like shit. I played like shit, and I ended up in the B Division, which I didn't realize there was a B Division. I thought if he didn't make the playoffs, he didn't make the playoffs. But I ended up in the B division, and I ended up going undefeated and won the Hulk head. It was like all head-to-head elimination style. Two strikes, you're out. The game that clinched it, I had $5.6 million on Cheetah.
    73:41
    Nice. Of course. And got to hold the Hulk head, which I didn't really think I should be able to hold the Hulk head because it was B. Yeah, I'm disappointed because I won B one time there. I never got to hold the Hulk head, so I should have that privilege too. Well, Howard stole it from me after his. You're a bee. You shouldn't have the whole case. But, yeah, congratulations, sir.
    74:02
    Thank you. I won $50. That was the more important part. That's the more important thing. That yawn might mean we're nearing the end here. Yes, we are. All right.
    74:16
    www.pimballlifter.com. Check out my site for all your lifter, tilter, moving your pinball with ease.
    74:27
    Use your brain, not your back. Move your pinball in style and smoothness. Ooh. Yeah, it sounds more marketing. Maybe you should have something that rhymes with that.
    74:39
    Use your brain, not your back. Something, something, something, something. Yeah. You got to think of something for next time. Okay, whatever. I got too much crap on my list right now. Okay. But come check out the site. What are we talking about? We're going to talk about Pinball Star. Joe Newhart, he sold us both our dialed-ins. Somebody should be getting theirs really soon, and I'll soon be talking about barbed wire and the benefits and the perfectness of barbed wire. Barbed wire? That sucks. What are you talking about? The bet. If you got your machine first, I have to talk about how barbed wire is good. Oh, okay. If I won, I was going to be the host, and you were going to be the co-host. Oh, yeah, that's right. God, that was so long ago. Yes, luckily I remember everything. You remember everything. Well, guess what I remembered. What? New Penn Trucking tracking number. Ooh. Look at that. Oh, boy, I guess we're going to be opening a box soon. Should I look this up now? I think I should. New Penn Trucking. Okay, it comes right up. Track a shipment. Let's see. I'll be calling them tomorrow to make sure they actually have my phone number because last time I had a game sent to me, I called them just to make sure, and they had the wrong phone number, which would have been interesting.
    75:58
    Let me see. Delivery appointment. There it is. It's at the New Penn Service Center in Trenton, New Jersey, as we speak. Ointment? I don't need an ointment.
    76:11
    Time of inquiry. Yep. so it looks like it's just days away well it has no dates well you should probably have it by it says delivery appointment not secured so I have no idea what that even means yeah they'll probably call you the day before and say oh it's here in the area where we want to drop it off to so congratulations and thank you Joe and then Flipper Fidelity Mike Pupo seller of Stern Pinwall Machines seller of the best speaker systems for your pinball machine check him out at flipperfidelity.com he also sells stern uh mods and toppers first stern authorized toppers tell him we sent you because we get no money for this no money so did you look at the sun today uh i did not look at the sun because there was clouds so i did not get to see any of the eclipse sorry i saw a little bit of it and now I'm blind.
    77:17
    Are you sure that was the Eclipse or you were playing a Ghostbusters? Yes. Or a freaking Game of Thrones. Or a Game of Thrones and winter was coming and then you went blind. Yes. Okay. So thanks everyone. This has been episode 57, Dracula Dead and Loving It. Shoutouts to our members of the Slam Crew. You have Tim, Tim Sexton, Tim Balls. Check him out on Twitch. Also have Steve Bound Funnel Bonus. Also have Jeff Teolis, Pinball Profile. And don't forget to check out the new podcast that sometimes rips us off, but we think we got him in line, Head to Head. Better God. Head to Head Pinball with Ryan C. and Martin. Ryan C. We can be found on Facebook. Just search for Slam Tilt Podcast. YouTube, search for Slam Tilt Podcast. Twitch, search for Slam Tilt Podcast. Our email address for correspondence, criticisms,
    78:15
    and to put your bet in. Put your money where your mouth is. Yep, your bid. SlamTiltPodcast at gmail.com. Thanks, everybody. Say goodbye, Bruce. Good night, J-Dang. Oh my mind, oh my mind Can you boogie, can you slide Oh my mind, oh my mind You can donate if you try. Oh my, my. Guaranteed to keep you alive.
    78:59
    Oh my.