Episode 1: The Classic Pinball Podcast - Pintastic pinball show preview

The Classic Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·58m 0s·analyzed·Jun 22, 2019

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.034

TL;DR

Podcast debut previews Pintastic show with game lineup, speakers, and community gossip.

Summary

George and Dave launch The Classic Pinball Podcast with a preview of the upcoming Pintastic pinball show (June 27-30). They discuss Dave's history collecting and maintaining pinball machines since the early 1990s, the Pintastic event's scale (~150 games), tournament structure including the Silver Ball Rumble and best-in-show categories, and featured games and speakers including Jersey Jack's Willy Wonka and Stern's new releases. The hosts also touch on community rumors about Stern considering retro game remakes.

Key Claims

Pintastic is expecting close to 150 games at the show
high confidence · Dave states: 'I read a hundred and fifty. Okay, there you go, a hundred and fifty.'
Dave has been collecting pinball machines since the early 1990s
high confidence · Dave explains meeting Stu in early 90s who said 'you could actually own this stuff,' and George confirms 'I started collecting right around 2000 and we're getting close now to almost 20 years and I met you right away and you said you'd been collecting for a long time.'
Pintastic has 9 different best-in-show categories
high confidence · Dave: 'I've actually started their best in show contest and do it, I think, nine different categories we have now.'
The Silver Ball Rumble tournament uses a five-game selection format
medium confidence · George reads rules stating 'you'll choose five' games out of the lineup to play in the tournament.
Three actors from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory will appear on a panel Saturday at Pintastic
high confidence · George: 'We were talking about Willy Wonka earlier and we forgot one of the biggest piece of the show they gonna have three of the actors with a panel on Saturday afternoon.'
There is chatter/industry gossip that Stern is planning to release at least one retro game per year
medium confidence · George: 'the chatter is on the street that Stern is going to start making at least a retro game a year and why wouldn't they...you can release it as a new title and then you can come back and recycle it as the original title.'
Stern is considering releasing Sea Witch on the Beatles pinball platform
low confidence · George: 'Chatter has it that that game is going to be released...I heard that Stern is giving deep thought to releasing Sea Witch on the Beatles platform.'
Steve Ritchie and Tim Sexton from Stern will be doing a seminar at Pintastic
high confidence · George: 'Steve Richie's gonna be doing a talk the programmer Tim...Tim Sexton first time out, I guess he's New Englander as well.'

Notable Quotes

“When you open the door up, you get hit right in the face by a wall of just music, noise, and just awesomeness.”
Dave @ early in episode — Nostalgic description of Fun and Games arcade in Framingham, MA in the 1970s; establishes Dave's formative connection to pinball culture.
“Games are meant to be played and on top of that, it's best that, you know, how a game plays, a game should play as well as it looks.”
Dave @ mid-episode — Encapsulates Dave's philosophy on pinball machine condition and setup; emphasizes playability over cosmetics.
“Well, it's not a Sternament, I mean... Exactly.”
Dave and George @ discussing Silver Ball Rumble lineup — Commentary on game diversity in the tournament—intentionally non-Stern focused lineup.
“I called that, Dragon Fist is a, I call it a poor man stargazer.”
Dave @ discussing Silver Ball Rumble games — Collector's vernacular comparison between two classic machines.
“We're anything but professional. Anything but.”
George @ mid-episode — Self-aware commentary about the podcast's informal, meandering style.
“Damn right I am. Well, no, no, I mean, look, no, no slight on anybody if you got a pretty game, but if you're not playing it and it doesn't play well, it's a piece of artwork and you might as well just hang it on the wall.”
Dave @ discussing best-in-show judging — Core philosophy about prioritizing functional playability over cosmetic appeal in game contests.
“I know you know... Like Fire... We had talked about Fire because of a local brewery, but that game doesn't really do much for me.”
George @ discussing Silver Ball Rumble games — Hints at local New England connection to arcade culture and brewery partnerships.
“Well, look where we are guys, look where we are today. Yeah. Be done. You know what goes around comes around here we go black night.”

Entities

Georgeperson Daveperson Pintasticevent Eric StonepersonSteve BowenpersonSteve Ritchieperson Tim Sextonperson

Signals

?
event_signal: Pintastic pinball show June 27-30 with approximately 150 games, multiple tournaments, best-in-show competition with 9 categories, Willy Wonka actor panel, and seminars from Stern designers.
high · Extensive discussion of Pintastic details including dates, game count, tournament structure, speaker lineup, and special features like the Extra Ball Lounge.
?
product_launch: Stern has new releases coming to market including Black Knight/Swords of Rage and other titles being showcased at Pintastic and PinFest.
high · George and Dave discuss playing Black Knight/Swords of Rage at Allentown; Steve Ritchie speaking at Pintastic to discuss new offerings.
?
rumor_hype: Industry chatter suggests Stern is considering releasing at least one retro game remake per year, with Sea Witch on Beatles platform specifically mentioned.
low · George states: 'the chatter is on the street that Stern is going to start making at least a retro game a year' and 'I heard that Stern is giving deep thought to releasing Sea Witch on the Beatles platform.'
~
sentiment_shift: Community sentiment shifting toward acceptance of retro/classic game remakes after years of resistance; Black Knight remake mentioned as current example.
medium · George: 'you know what goes around comes around here we go black night you're gonna see every version black night' and earlier notes that skeptics said remakes would never happen, 'look where we are today.'
?
content_signal: The Classic Pinball Podcast launching as new show with George and Dave as co-hosts; first episode is Pintastic preview, second episode planned after attending the show.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.174

0:00

Knapp Arcade, David Van Es. Hello everyone and welcome to the Classic Pinball Podcast. I'm George joined this week by my co-host Dave. Dave, why don't you tell the audience a little bit about yourself. Well, I started with this whole pinball adventure back in the early 70s growing up at an arcade called Fun and Games in Framingham. That arcade was a child's nightclub, pretty much. You'd come up to the main door, you'd hear this loud din of music and chimes and game sounds and kind of muffled. When you open the door up, you get hit right in the face by a wall of just music, noise, and just awesomeness. You go inside there and just all these awesome games from the 70s and 80s freshly put out there. All the stuff from Stern, Quicksilver, Stargazer, and so forth, and the ballet stuff, 8 Ball Deluxe, and Mata Hari, and that kind of stuff. I was riding my bike all the time with my friend Paul. We'd go down there, skip school a lot of times, go down there, roll the quarters, try to last all day on that. Did pretty well, even sell games off to keep going. I did a lot of that and then I would, in my off hours, I wasn't playing pinball, I'd try to fix things. I used to go to the local junkyard, get a phone, get a toaster, take them apart, try to put them back together and try to make them work. And then down the road, I kind of married the two and started working on this stuff by meeting PJ's friend, I'm sorry, PJ's brother, Stu. And later on, he said that you could actually own this stuff. And that was back in the early 90s. How much older was Stu than you and PJ? Stu is actually PJ's younger brother. Oh, younger? He's younger, yeah. Yeah, so I lost touch with PJ back in the 80s and 90s or late 80s and 90s and I met up with Stu just by happenstance, renting a couple movies at a, you know, VCR tapes let's say back then, so that's how old we're talking. I was talking a little bit and he said, oh, you can own this. I said I missed the pinball machines back in the day because I was trying to look around maybe buying one because I heard you can kind of buy them. But the person I talked to in Rhode Island said, oh, you want to get like a Quicksilver or something. He said, oh, no, that stuff's all gone. You can't get that anymore. You need to buy the latest game, like Swords of Fury or some other ramp game with a bunch of ramps and lights and stuff. Archives played a video and for anything I celebrate Sundt Click it in is and click on the top of the best twenty courses on iTunes to winビ 6 marksv и更! I think it's going to be 1995, 1996. I think maybe, no, early 90s. Oh, it's got to be earlier than that. Yeah, it's got to be 90, early 90s, maybe 1990. I was going to say, because I started collecting right around 2000 and we're getting close now to almost 20 years and I met you right away and you said you'd been collecting for a long time. Yeah. And that's a whole other story we'll come back to at some point. font Carsobliuckte shell library, blog called LOTOSnatorplacesk magazine, Ortega Plaza.net, ItsfanLoder do so, All set discussions, 스트�ock In those three one, I don't think we had that. No ninetyfive. That's how old we're talking. Right. So we're, so we're old. So. Yeah. So, you, so let's let's clarify something. The, the, uh, the name of our podcast. Um, no, it doesn't reflect us. Classic. Yeah, we're approaching classic, but we're not quite there yet. Yeah. Yeah. Not quite there yet. Not yet. Pintastic is going to be happening between June 27th and 30th, Thursday through Sunday. Dave, I've never been to the show before. I know you've been. Can you tell me a little bit about the show and the audience? What to expect at Pintastic? Yeah, Pintastic is a great player show. A lot of games there. I think there are I read, I read a hundred and fifty. Okay, there you go, a hundred and fifty. I mean they have a list, we'll talk about the list in a little bit, but they're claiming that they're going to have close to a hundred and fifty games. Okay, yeah, so they've been growing. Started about I think five years ago, I was there at the beginning of it and was helping them back then too. But yeah, it's a nice show, they get tournaments, several different tournaments, a classic tournament, I believe. னasking choreography raccuz lymphomaني, paypal siempre Auritive Insights, Best He's a friend of yours, isn't he? Yeah, oh yeah, Eric, yeah, he's a great pinball player. In fact, he cut his teeth early on, I think three or five years old, his parents bought him a Captain Fantastic way back when, so he cut his teeth on that. Right, oh I've watched him in tournaments, so he's incredible. I watched two weekends ago him clean up in the Open tournament down in Florida, so he's quite talented. I guess he's been to the show the last couple years both as a speaker and as somebody participating in the tournament? Yeah, both. Yeah, they have him as a speaker, he gets a good draw, and also he loves playing the tournaments, and he loves, you know, loves, loves winning as best he can, and you know, loves the cash prize there too, so he... Well, he's originally from somewhere in New England, right? Yeah, he's up in New Hampshire. That's where originally hails from up on near Laconia. So he had all that in his backyard. Oh, so fun spot. He was probably a regular there, I would guess. Oh, yeah, that's a whole other, we can get into that later episodes of the whole story. Yeah, no, I kind of alluded to that in our introductory episode that we'll do a whole thing on, here we are, we've already talked about two arcades, but we'll go into it in more depth. I'm guessing like most pinball shows, there's some kind of contest is probably not the right word, but I guess it is, like a best in show type of thing. Did they have that over the last couple of years? Yeah, last couple of years I headed up a best in show. I've actually started their best in show contest and do it, I think, nine different categories we have now. Filmed pra 19966, Finan Pinball Thousandsartment腳into scratched jeukidl, Finlandia Innented Kn relationships The antique would be something like from the, you know, 30s, 40s, 50s. Oh, okay, okay. So pre-flipper or just about early part of flipper? No, that would be pre-60s, let's call it. So we call it all antique because very, you only find a lot of people bringing the older stuff to it. Right. So you might get 150s, you might get 140s, you might get 130s. That's how we do it that way. Gotcha, gotcha. So, you mentioned Bowen. Obviously he's in our backyard and ranked, I don't know, somewhere in the top ten along with Eric. So my guess is, I saw he's doing, and we'll talk about it a little bit, he's doing a seminar this year, but I'm guessing they're going to be competing in the big tournament at Pintastic. It seems like it's going to draw some and some heavy hitters to gain some points to move up in the rankings. I would hope so. I've actually played with both of them back at California Extreme years ago. I think back in 2003 I was in a tournament out there with them. That was a lot of fun. I was playing against Neil Schatz and I was up against Keith Elwynn. That's a whole other story too. I can get into that. I'm wondering if we'll see somebody like that here. I would tend to think no, but you know, who knows? I mean, I watch a lot of tournaments. I'm shocked to see how much these people travel and it's all about the points. I mean, they're, I mean, I know I have a, an issue collecting. These guys have tournament issues big. I mean, they'll travel from high to low. I'm going to see some good competition, especially with someone like Eric and Bowen, you know, in any game together like that. It'd be fun to watch, certainly. Well, I would guess that we're going to see them close to the end, so it'll be interesting to watch how that unfolds. Let's talk a little bit about this year's show. Again, it appears to me that a lot of people are recurring from year to year, and I'm guessing I'm not going to say his name right now because I'm going to butcher the last name, but I see that he's been there the last couple of years. I see Steve Ritchie's going to be there again this year. So they got some heavyweights from the industry attending the show, which I think is pretty cool. I'm looking forward to a couple of those seminars. With that said, it's mostly surrounding their two current offerings. So let's talk about Jersey Jack first and Wonka. And I've been dying to ask you this question all day. Did you grow up watching Willy Wonka? I sure did. Love Gene Wilder and that film. See now, I asked you that question because I did not and I'm only a handful of years older than you are. Hmm, interesting. But I went back and looked and it's 1971 when that was released and I was on the cusp of 13 or 14. I'm guessing Willy Wonka wasn't really on the radar at 13 and 14. Yeah, more like 7 or 8 where I was. And I had younger sisters and I remember them being into Willy Wonka, so that makes sense. I know you went to Allentown to PinFest. Did they have a Willy Wonka? I know that's right in Jack's backyard. Did they have a Willy Wonka there? What's your favorite pinball game? I think I've played it twice. Oh yeah, I think I've played it twice. Did you get to play it? I didn't get to play it. There were big lines for both of them and I got there long playing games and so I kept circling back and I just kept playing. Oh really? They didn't do a one-ball-ball limit or something to move the line along? No, no. Not that I saw. Oh really? Okay. I have not played the game. I did not go to Allentown. I've heard probably every podcast in the world talk about it, so I'm not going to bore everybody with those details. I'll give you my first hand when we do our second episode, which will be right after we attend Pintastic. We'll tell you what we did and what we saw and what we thought of certain games. I know everybody's like, oh, it's the classic pinball podcast. Right. I'm going to try it. I'll see if I like it. More importantly, I want to try the Munsters because I grew up with that. Now, did that, was that game at Allentown? Yeah, different flavors of that game. They had, they had the, well, the LE and the Pro. Well, which is the one that's black and white? Yeah, that one. That's the LE. They had that one there That the LE yeah I believe I think it the LE Cool looking game Cool looking game Cool looking game Yeah that had a lot of people on it I don think they need to play that one I played the one below that the base model the pro So without the grandpa dungeon in it? Right. Yeah, I'm not sold on that. It's kind of a, I don't know, that looks strange to me. I get it. I get the whole grandpa dungeon thing. I just, the pinball thing doesn't excite me. Franchiשובations atai Ame Moldovan Laenske Teik'l Translator TWO That's a fun game. Yeah. It's a fun game. Yeah. But, you know, we're talking about monsters and again that's a Stern game and that's not even their current release. You know, there's a reason Steve Ritchie's going to be there. That's because they've got a new game, you know, the new, what is it, Black Dight? Oh. What is it? Swords of Rage. I was going to say Swords of Justice. That's probably something else. Well, they don't, they're giving some Sterns some new ideas here. They're going to go for that one. Right. Um... That game was not released in... in Allentown, right? No, that was there too. Oh, that was there too? Oh, yeah. They had all the games there. They had all kinds of... Okay, so you played that. I know you played that. I played that. And you said you liked that game. I liked that game. Yeah, that one and Deadpool, I liked that. All the new offerings, those are the two that really, um... Out of what I played, those are the ones that... I wish I had a buck for every time I watched a Twitch broadcast on that game. I've never played the game, but I bet you I can play the game pretty well just having watched everybody on all the different streams. The Black Knight game. You know, how to get that multiball. I mean, you can get that like in, what, four shots? Yeah, actually. Yeah, pretty much. I think it's four shots. So, that much I learned. Other than that, it looks like a pretty cool game. For I thought it was called something else, but we'll come we'll come back to that. Well, we're gonna We're gonna talk about it in a week. So doesn't matter. Hey So, okay, you got that. Um, So Steve Richie's gonna be doing a talk the programmer Tim, I'm gonna call him Tim Balls, but Tim Sexton first time out, I guess he's New Englander as well. I know he was, I think he's part of that whole Sanctum crew down in Connecticut. He's got something to do with that, but he works for Stern now, so he's going to be part of the talk. Maybe you can comment on this. I guess they're, they have like a special room with games that can be played 24 hours a day at this show, or am I confusing things? The Guy who puts the show on doesn't he bring his games and they're like in some special spot Yes, he does the extra ball lounge I Think they called it something else the terms change sometimes, but I think it's still called extra ball lounge I think that's what I saw is what it's called and yes, it's a special room. I believe for There's a whole stipulation on to qualify for that Time to精, I'm a fan of the show. I've been working on it since its inception about five years ago as doing the best in play. So you change the name, which I like. You're not just looking for trailer queens, you're looking for games that actually can play. Damn right I am. Well, no, no, I mean, look, no, no slight on anybody if you got a pretty game, but if you're not playing it and it doesn't play well, it's a piece of artwork and you might as well just hang it on the wall. The Wall. Exactly. Games are meant to be played and on top of that, it's best that, you know, how a game plays, a game should play as well as it looks. So the only way to really find it out is to play them, you know. Are they set up properly or everything's strong? Well, you would know. I mean, having been to your house numerous times, my inspiration is always after coming I'm like, man, his games play so nice and smooth and you certainly know how to set them up. So I know you know what to look for and I would say anybody bringing a game that's going to be in, you know, the contest or whatever you want to call it.

George @ discussing Stern retro game strategy — Commentary on industry sentiment shifting toward retro remakes after years of skepticism.

Stern Pinballcompany

Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factorygame

Black Knight / Swords of Ragegame

Julie Dawn Coleperson

Fun and Games Arcadevenue

Allentown PinFestevent

high · Opening of episode; George and Dave acknowledge this is their first podcast broadcast and explain format will include post-event reporting.

competitive_signal: Eric Stone and Steve Bowen identified as top-10 ranked competitive players who are active tournament travelers; both expected to compete at Pintastic.

high · George: 'he's in our backyard and ranked, I don't know, somewhere in the top ten along with Eric'; Dave mentions watching Bowen 'clean up in the Open tournament down in Florida.'

design_philosophy: Best-in-show judging philosophy emphasizes functional playability and proper setup over cosmetic appeal or 'trailer queen' status.

high · Dave: 'if you're not playing it and it doesn't play well, it's a piece of artwork and you might as well just hang it on the wall...Games are meant to be played...a game should play as well as it looks.'

community_signal: Multiple pinball podcasts are organizing a roundtable meeting/gathering during Pintastic (likely Friday or Saturday night) with podcast personalities; George and Dave not included as they are new.

medium · George: 'I'm a fan of the podcast, there's some roundtable one of the nights, I don't know if it's Friday or Saturday night where all the podcast people are getting together. Clearly not us because we're new.'

venue_signal: Pintastic Extra Ball Lounge operates 24 hours with dedicated players staying until 6-7 AM; players practice rare games and compete for high scores.

high · Dave: 'Yeah, people will be there till 6, 7 o'clock in the morning. Some strikers will just keep going all night long...if you've never seen the game before and you're like, hey, this might come up in a tournament.'

market_signal: AC/DC Premium is the only AC/DC version at Pintastic and is confined to the Extra Ball Lounge, requiring additional entry or special access.

high · George: 'ACDC premium it's the only ACDC in the show and it's only at the extra ball lounge. So if you come to the show...if I want to play that I'm gonna have to pony up the extra dough.'

personnel_signal: Industry veterans including Steve Ritchie (Stern designer), Tim Sexton (Stern programmer), and multiple Willy Wonka actors confirmed for Pintastic panels and seminars.

high · George discusses Ritchie and Sexton doing a talk together; mentions three Willy Wonka actors (Peter Ostrom, Paris Themmen, Julie Dawn Cole) appearing on Saturday panel.