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Episode 20 – Turkey, Biscuits & Bucci

Slam Tilt Podcast·podcast_episode·analyzed·Nov 24, 2016
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.033

TL;DR

Chris Bucci discusses early pinball content creation, recent game acquisitions, and gameplay analysis of Ghostbusters and Star Trek.

Summary

Chris Bucci, a pioneering pinball content creator and collector, joins the Slam Tilt Podcast to discuss his YouTube channel (Spider1A), early pinball unboxing videos, theater background, and detailed gameplay impressions of recently acquired games—particularly Ghostbusters Premium and Star Trek. The conversation covers code updates, quality control issues, modifications, and the impact of his videos on the broader pinball community.

Key Claims

  • Chris Bucci started making pinball videos around 2007 with unboxing content for Family Guy and Big Bang Bar, when there was very little pinball content on YouTube

    high confidence · Chris Bucci directly stated this in the podcast episode

  • Jersey Jack (then a major Stern distributor) credited Chris's Family Guy video with driving sales and sent him a signed Terminator 3 translite from Steve Richie as thanks

    high confidence · Chris Bucci recounted this interaction from the early 2000s

  • Ghostbusters Premium had only minor QC issues (bent switch on ramp, Slimer dragging) compared to previous Stern games

    high confidence · Chris Bucci describing his Ghostbusters experience

  • Transformers was a significant QC nightmare out of the box, requiring Stern to fix multiple issues

    high confidence · Chris Bucci discussing his Transformers experience

  • Game of Thrones Premium still has looping issues after months, and Stern addressed it with a code update that removed the loop requirement rather than fixing the underlying problem

    medium confidence · Chris Bucci complained about this issue; hosts acknowledged a recent code update

  • Star Trek and Ghostbusters are 'the all-time Stern airball games'

    medium confidence · Chris Bucci's assessment based on personal experience

  • Ghostbusters code 1.1.1 has reports of weak flipper issues affecting some users but not others

    high confidence · Chris and hosts discussing Ghostbusters code update community feedback

  • Jeremy Packer (Zombie Yeti) is working on the next Stern game with John Trudeau, but the title was not revealed

    high confidence · Chris Bucci mentioned this after filming a 40-minute interview with John Trudeau at Stern Pinball

Notable Quotes

  • “When I started doing them, really with the unboxing of my Family Guy and my Big Bang Bar that came the same year in 2007, at that point in 07, man, there was very little pinball content on YouTube at all.”

    Chris Bucci @ early in episode — Establishes Chris as an early pioneer of pinball video content, predating the modern creator era

  • “He told me at the time that he sold, I don't know how many of the games, because people saw my video, and he actually sent me a Terminator 3 translite signed by Steve Ritchie as a thank you, which is still on my game, actually.”

    Chris Bucci @ mid-episode — Documents the direct commercial impact of early pinball content on game sales and manufacturer recognition

  • “I had a young kid come up to me and say that he watched my videos and it helped him find games that he didn't know about... he thought it was the coolest thing. So he sought it out.”

    Chris Bucci @ mid-episode — Shows lasting cultural impact of early pinball YouTube content on new players discovering classic games

  • “Transformers was a QC nightmare for me... before that I never had one problem nothing from Family Guy all the way back to Monopoly... shooter rod being bent out of the box or Game of Thrones Premium that won't loop at all, but they say it's going to be fixed, and it's still now not fixed after how many months?”

    Chris Bucci @ mid-episode — Detailed quality control complaints about recent Stern Premium releases

  • “I was just at Stern Pinball and I sat down with John Trudeau and I filmed... like a 40 minute interview with him on the making of the game... He's a really cool guy. He's a theater person, too, so we have a little bit of stuff in common.”

    Chris Bucci @ mid-episode — Evidence of close relationship between content creator and Stern designer; indicates upcoming interview content

  • “I don't have with 1.0.5, I don't have any issues that I can really see that are major... so I'll just look at it as, well, I'll play this for a while and I still haven't even put, like I got the topper and I got the side armor.”

    Chris Bucci @ mid-episode — Conservative approach to code updates; illustrates hesitation in community regarding latest Ghostbusters patches

Entities

Chris BuccipersonSpider1AproductStern PinballcompanyJohn TrudeaupersonJeremy PackerpersonSteve RichiepersonJack GuarnieripersonJersey Jack Pinballcompany

Signals

  • ?

    content_signal: Chris Bucci recognized as pioneer of pinball YouTube content in early 2000s; his early unboxing videos drove measurable sales (Jersey Jack attributed game sales to his videos) and introduced classic games to new audiences

    high · Multiple testimonials from community members over 20+ years about discovering games via his videos; Jersey Jack's thank-you gesture with signed translite

  • ?

    product_concern: Stern experiencing notable QC issues on Premium tier machines (Transformers bent shooter rod, Game of Thrones looping problem, Star Trek airball generation)

    high · Chris Bucci's detailed account of multiple QC failures; contrast with zero issues on older games (Family Guy through Monopoly)

  • ?

    code_update: Game of Thrones Premium code update addressed looping issue by removing loop requirement rather than fixing underlying mechanical problem

    medium · Chris Bucci: 'they just made a code update, I believe, so it doesn't expect it to loop anymore or something like that. Exactly. That's ridiculous.'

  • ?

    code_update: Ghostbusters 1.1.1 code update has polarized community; some report weak flipper issues, others report no problems; Chris and Ron cautiously staying on earlier versions

    high · Chris hesitant to update 1.0.5; Ron on 1.1.0; hosts discussing split community feedback on flipper reliability

  • ?

    design_innovation: Stern returning to fully original artwork for premium games (Ghostbusters, Batman 66, upcoming Aerosmith) rather than licensed imagery

    high · Chris praising original artwork aesthetic; discussion of Metallica as turning point; artist Jeremy Packer credited for Ghostbusters original creation

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.358

0:00
Stop that man! Team America? God damn it! Sorry to interrupt the show everyone, but Kim Jong-il is an international criminal. We're here to arrest him. Team, there's no time. You have to convince that audience to let you do your job.
0:17
Gary, you've got to take the stage. No, I can't upstage Alec Baldwin. He's the best actor in the world. You have to try. I'm not that good. Actually, you're the finest actor I've... ever met. Star Trek Into Darkness.
1:03
Con! Yes, con. Yes, the British con. Yes, the British Sherlock con. We have a guest this week. Yes, we do. This is the one we've been plugging for a while. This is the moment fans, this is the moment pinheads around the world have been waiting for.
1:23
Gary Stern. Yeah, Gary Stern. that's what I kept saying too but this week we have Nuded Pinhead and Master Thespian Chris Bucci hello hey I have a question kill me kill me now are we allowed to? I didn't realize that was an option that'd be a long distance kill can I shock you through your headset? the shocker oh god Hey, guys, thanks for having me on. This is awesome. I'm really looking forward to talking and hanging out here tonight. We are happy to have you on. This is probably one of the first pinheads I can think of to make pinball videos, if you will, that a lot of people do now, but probably one of the first I can remember to ever do that. So let's just get our audience acquainted with you. you want to do maybe a little mini bio of your uh pin addiction i'm sure well i started playing pinball when i was tall enough to reach the flipper buttons probably standing on a milk crate or something like that but it was really in the mid 80s you know with games like high speed um where i really started to pay attention to pinball and from that moment on i was playing pinball about as much as i was playing arcade games which is huge because you know the arcade was my second home for a long, long time. And if you have watched my videos, you know I mentioned like Putt-Putt Golf and Games and some of those places that I frequented all the time because I used to live there. You know, that's all I did, like in the 80s and early 90s.

  • “I think there are times, though, during some dead spots in the game where some random quotes would actually be quite nice... Ghostbusters 1 and 2, to me, are some of the most quotable movies.”

    Chris Bucci @ late episode — Specific gameplay critique about Ghostbusters rule set and theme integration

  • “The whole concept of it being original art created specifically for this game, there's just something exclusive about it... I just mean, there's something beautiful about that.”

    Chris Bucci @ late episode — Appreciation for Stern's return to original artwork in premium games like Ghostbusters

    • Ghostbusters (Stern)
    game
    Star Trek (Stern)game
    Transformers (Stern)game
    Game of Thrones (Stern Premium)game
    Family Guy (Stern)game
    Big Bang Bar (Stern)game
    Terminator 3 (Stern)game
    York Pinball Showevent
    Pinball Expoevent
    Batman 66 (Stern)game
    Metallica (Stern)game
    Funhouse (Bally/Williams)game
    High Speed (Williams)game
    Dwight Sullivanperson
    Trentperson
    Ronperson
  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Star Trek and Ghostbusters identified as 'all-time Stern airball games' with systemic design issues causing frequent ball ejection from playfield

    medium · Chris describing extensive airball mitigation efforts on both machines; detailed account of airball trajectories and modified rubber posts

  • ?

    community_signal: Stern Pinball providing access to designers (John Trudeau, Dwight Sullivan) for content creators; Chris Bucci filmed 40-minute designer interview at facility

    high · Chris's visit to Stern Pinball and filming with John Trudeau; description of warm reception from staff

  • ?

    machine_intel: Unannounced Stern game in development with designer John Trudeau and artist Jeremy Packer (Zombie Yeti); title not disclosed

    medium · Chris Bucci: 'he's working on the next game with John Trudeau, whatever that may be. They said that. They won't say what the game is, but he's working on it with it. I couldn't get that out of John, but, you know, I tried.'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: John Trudeau (Ghostbusters designer) collaborating with Jeremy Packer (Zombie Yeti artist) on next unannounced title; both share theater background connection with Chris Bucci

    high · Chris mentioned theater connection with Trudeau; artist partnership confirmed in interview context

  • ?

    product_strategy: Stern continuing premium game releases with toppers and accessories (Ghostbusters Ecto-1 light bar topper, side armor, EctoGoggles protector); expanding accessory market

    high · Chris describing topper acquisition and upcoming accessories; discussion of EctoGoggles protector as add-on

    • 3:06
    And then in 1993, I picked up my first game. And I don't know, do you consider a collector somebody who has more than one of something or somebody who has one of something because, you know, I didn't get my second game for three years. So I don't know if you consider me a collector in 96 or in 93.
    3:25
    A avid pinhead. We'll go 94 and a half. Okay. That works. And then I was playing on location and collecting, and I kind of slowly built up a collection over the years, and it just started to, well, I don't need that couch anymore. I don't need that TV there anymore. I don't need that. And it just kind of grew, and that's generally what happens, it seems. And I've kind of, with the prices and stuff lately and the way the hobby has gone, I really don't take part in it as much in terms of the collecting. Generally, if I get anything, it's a swap or a trade. But I'm still active in it here and there. It kind of ebbs and flows, you know, depending on where I'm at in my life for that particular year. so pinball gets you through anything oh it does? that's what they say I keep on telling myself that I don't know if it works all the time but I'm keeping on telling myself but the other thing our audience may or may not know about you are also a actor well so called oh come on for those who don't know and correct me if I'm wrong here because I remember seeing this You were in a national spot. I think it was Doritos commercial? Yes. Yeah. I lived in Manhattan for about three and a half years, and I moved there after ex-fiance number two and I didn't work out. And I thought, well, now's the time to go. So I went there mostly for theater because my background and training and stuff is in theater. But, you know, while I was there, I tried to do as much as I could, and I did end up in a couple of commercials, and the Doritos one, yeah, that was one that ended up – it was a national commercial that they only showed locally in New York City for some reason for a long time, and then it started to spread out a little bit as it went on. But that was one of the things. Yeah, that was cool. That was fun. Funny thing, actually, is yesterday on my looking back in Facebook was the video. Oh, no kidding. It actually – I'll have to post it again. And I have to, well, I don't know if I can find it again, but it was on my thing. I'll have to look right now. But, yeah, it was definitely, I saw it. I was like, ah, that's Chris. That's Chris. I would love to know if they still have that video up because I never was able to get a copy of it. Let's see. I'm going to go look right now while we're doing this. Yeah. I mean, it's not on YouTube somewhere? It's probably on YouTube somewhere.
    5:53
    Everything's on YouTube. Commercials from the 80s are on YouTube. Everything's on YouTube. And so are my pinball videos, spider1ayoutube.com. Yeah, let's plug that right now since it's our channel. I have a YouTube channel.
    6:10
    It's Spider1A, S-P-I-D-A, the number 1-A. And, you know, it's funny you should mention about people doing pinball videos now, and there weren't at the time. When I started doing them, really with the unboxing of my Family Guy and my Big Bang Bar that came the same year in 2007, You know, at that point in 07, man, there was very little pinball content on YouTube at all. And there definitely wasn't any unboxing stuff. You know, so I used to get a lot of people that could not believe that the games actually came in a cardboard box. You know, but I just, I always liked to do, you know, my career is in video production, television production. and that's what I did until I moved to New York City. And now that I'm not in New York anymore, that's what I'm doing again. And I think I always just like to create stuff, like to do things. And so when this YouTube thing came around and it was like, hey, there's a place to share stuff, I just thought, you know, I'd love to do some stuff on hobbies that I'm into. And pinball, considering it did not have a very big footprint on YouTube at that point, I thought it was a natural thing. And so I just kind of went through and, you know, did some of those videos there. So that's kind of what got my channel started a long, long time ago. And just to let our viewers know, these aren't like just your typical, when you think unboxing videos, most of the ones you see out there, it's just like one dude with a camera and another dude opening up the game, usually. You know, and then they'll just edit it down to like, okay, here it is unboxed. Okay, here they are putting it together. Okay, here they are playing it. And these videos were not like that at all. These were fully produced, almost scripted, some of them. I would say at least some of it was there were lines being read and editing, and they're much fancier videos than what you would see. Yeah, and that's, again, that's just my I can't. That's one of those I can't help it things. You know, like I can't. I have a hard time just putting out a video with just me talking to the camera because I like to get a little bit more creative with it. But at the same time, and you guys know how it is when you're doing stuff, you could work on stuff for the rest of your life and always find something to change. You have to get to a point where it's like, okay, it's done, let's move on. So you set a little timetable for them all and then you move on. The My Pinball Collection series, which most people are familiar with that are into pinball that I did early on, that was me standing there Bob Barker style just talking into a microphone and then I would shoot some B-roll and then I was putting these videos together because honestly, I was packing those games up when I was moving to New York and I didn't know, you never know what could happen, you know? So I thought, I want to document these games and that's kind of what I did. I didn't expect people to really like the story element of it all because I can't stand listening to my voice for five seconds. But people really seemed to like the stories behind all the games and when I started playing them and when I got them. And I guess that's the relatable part of it. But that's kind of how I am as a person. I'm very, very, I romanticize everything. You know, I've got to talk about stuff all the time. And so that's the part of it that I really enjoyed. And I think adding some production value was very important to me just to make it less boring and, you know, distract from my Mel Brooks versus Penn Jillette voice or whatever you want to call it. Mel Brooks versus Penn Jillette. I've gotten that many, many times. Well, these were very influential videos in more ways than one. I believe you actually got a thank you from Jersey Jack, well, now of Jersey Jack Pinball. But at the time, Jersey Jack was, I believe, the largest or one of the largest Stern distributors. Yeah, that's where I got Jack. I think I picked up at least, I've had about, not as many as some, obviously, but I think of the seven or so new in-box games that I got, I got over half of them from Jack. And Family Guy, I picked up from him, and that was the first produced video that I created, kind of showing off the features and stuff like that. And he told me at the time that he sold, I don't know how many of the games, because people saw my video, and he actually sent me a Terminator 3 Translite signed by Steve Ritchie as a thank you, which is still on my game, actually. Nice. Which was cool to me at the time because I didn't have any autographs. You know what I mean? Now I have some here and there, but at the time that was like, well, you know. And it was nice to know that somebody was actually watching and then getting something from it. And this is the cool part, too. I go to the York Pinball Show every year. It's kind of like the one that I've been going to since 2002.
    11:14
    And there's always somebody that comes up to me, even today, and says that they watch the videos. And those videos, you know, they're standard definition. That's back when YouTube barely had the 360p setting, you know. So they're not even like, you know, the quality is not quite what it could be now. I'd love to redo them, you know, maybe do my pinball collection HD or something. But it's just nice to have people. I had a young kid come up to me and say that he watched my videos and it helped him find games that he didn't know about. And that blows my mind because, you know, we've been in this for so long. We've been playing games forever. We know all these doggone games. And yet this kid had no idea what Funhaus was, and he thought it was the coolest thing. So he sought it out. And I don't know. It's neat to hear that. I'm very humbled by that because I just get them for fun and, you know, for friends, and it's nice to know. What's Funhaus? Do you still have the family guy?
    12:12
    I do Yeah, I'm looking at it right now Alright That was one I hung on to Alright No, no, I'm not good at that That was good No, he did really good Dude, hi there Hi there, Mr. Bitchy It's time to score What I would do I remember one of the videos I felt like honored because I'm not sure if it was the T3 video or it might have been one where you could see T3 in the background and my initials come up while you're talking. Oh, look, there's my initials. Oh, yes. I think that was the three. Well, Ron doesn't know. I don't know if he's seen your new video that you've actually just posted a couple weeks ago, but he does prop us both out in this video, Mr. Ron. Yes, I do. That was the Star Trek mod, right? No, no, the one before that. That was your introduction to Star Trek. Oh, the unboxing one. Yes, yes. So tell everyone about your new videos, please. And then we'll go back to some of the old ones. Well, sadly, I don't – you know, that's the thing. Again, I would love – I have another part of my channel. It's called Turbo Views. And it's a – again, when I was trying to find a niche of things to do on YouTube, and at that point retro gaming was starting to grow with the angry video game nerd and stuff like that. But, again, nobody was doing reviews on the TurboGrafx-16, which was a system I had as a kid and I had a pretty substantial collection of. And I thought, you know what? I want to do some of these. So I didn't sneak it out necessarily to find niches. I just happened to have niche things in my collections. And I set out to review every single American game, and I'm about over two-thirds of the way. There's 138 of them, and I'm almost at number 100, almost. but it's man just finding the time um because of the theater i i moved from new york city but i still do a lot of theater here where i live and it's nice to be able to keep doing it but it's a big time commitment you know i also work full time um you know and other personal things it's man i i would love to do a lot more videos um but i have one that is done um i just have to get it uploaded and it's my Ghostbusters premium pickup slash setup slash ramble on video um I gotta get that uploaded that one I just got so what do you what do you like in Ghostbusters absolutely yeah I'm really happy with that in fact I was just at Stern for the first time at Stern Pinball and I sat down with John Trudeau and I filmed uh I took my camera and he was nice enough to sit and talk with me and we filmed like a 40 minute interview with him on the making of the game, and that's the next video I'm going to put together. It was really interesting. Yeah, I'm really happy with it. The game before that that I picked up, New in Box, Transformers, was, well, Star Trek was not New in Box. It was close to New in Box. The Transformers one was a QC nightmare for me.
    15:24
    No, no, stop. Well, you saw, if you watched the video, remember I did that like one hour long four part thing on Transformers because I was so excited about it because I also collect Transformers, one of my hobbies. But and I actually didn't mention a lot of the problems I had with that game. Now, Stern was awesome and getting them all fixed and, you know, and ended up working out. But I was very disheartened after having so many problems with that game. and again I'm not bad mouthing I like to start a lot it's just me talking because before that I never had one problem nothing from family guy all the way back to Monopoly little adjustments here and there you always have to make not like a shooter rod being bent out of the box or Game of Thrones premium that won't loop at all, but they say it's going to be fixed, and it's still now not fixed after how many months? I digress. Well, they just made a code update, I believe, so it doesn't expect it to loop anymore or something like that. Exactly. That's ridiculous. Well, I guess I was happy. Let's just say that my Ghostbusters premium, I mean, I had to bend the one switch a little bit on the ramp, and Slimer was dragging his butt, so I had to raise him up a tad. That's it. Like, minor little things, and I've played hundreds of games on its ends. So I'm very, very happy with it so far. Very good. And now we have, now let's go to the other side. Ron, how is your premium doing? Well, functional-wise, it's fine. No, no, no, no, no. I only had to make one slight adjustment, which the Newton balls on the left, they were getting stuck on the, like, the rail, the wire form there. I just had to bend it over a bit, which, of course, I had to take the plastic off, which has the building on it and all that other stuff. And I did do, there is, I'll mention, there is a stern bulletin. Yes, 188. Yeah, for the, on the left side, the flasher that sits above the, what would you call that? It's where you get the extra ball, that eject. there is it sits very close to the metal part where it could possibly short the flasher and I guess the newer Ghostbusters are actually coming with Mylar over the flasher underneath so it can't do that but they're advising you do that if yours doesn't have it so I did do that. Oh that's good I will look that up for sure because I still I guess there's a, did you get the EctoGoggles protector thing I just heard about? No, I didn't get, I heard it was a protector, and then I heard it was just like, not necessarily a protector, but more like just changes the angle so it looks better. Oh. Yeah, it's just another thing about pin side. I mean, you hear one thing and it looks like, oh, it's a protector. Then there was another thing like, no, it's just, it changes the angle or something. Oh, because it looked like it was a wall that you connected inside of it. Yeah. So, yeah, so maybe it is a potential. I know Trent was going to, because I got my game from Trent out in Tilt Amusements, and I know he told me he was going to send it to me. So I guess we'll see. Now, I still haven't, I still haven't, I still have 105 code, I think it is. Stay with it for right now. I was going to go to the next one, and then I heard all the stuff, And then I was going to go to the next one, and then I was listening to you guys' last podcast, I believe. By the way, Bruce, I'm sorry to hear about the little puppy. Yes, yes. See it anymore? My cookie is blind. Poor little thing.
    19:26
    And same to Kathy. That's sorry to hear. But I was hearing you guys talk about the new code update. 111. And I still haven't convinced myself yet to do it yet. Don't do it. It's another one of those things where some people are having issues, other people are having absolutely no issues.
    19:49
    It's a what? It's illogical. Do you have it, Ron? I have 1.1.0. Okay. And I've had no issues with that. It did. I like what it did with the modes, just making that a little easier.
    20:07
    I mean, I am experiencing the one issue that 1.1.1 fixes, but it's really not a big deal. Basically, when the Slimer is moving, the E and the PKE, the insert will flicker along while the motor is moving.
    20:22
    So, I mean, I noticed that, and I thought it was just a bad light board. But actually, when I saw that, it's like, oh, cool, that can actually be fixed. Awesome. But I haven't put it on yet. I'll probably put it on. Honestly, the only thing that turned me off to it was the weak flipper thing. some people are saying, you know, they get like a week left if they put it on, but other people are like I put it on, played like 30 games and I haven't had a single issue Yeah, I was reading that too that was another reason I didn't switch it because I don't have with 105, I don't have any issues that I can really see that are major, you know so I'll just look at it as, well, I'll play this for a while I still haven't even put, like I got the topper and I got the side armor and a couple things. I still haven't put those on yet. I'm going to do things in pieces.
    21:11
    And then film a video. Okay, so you did get the topper, the police light thing. I had to. It was too expensive. To me, it was a little too much money, but when they first announced Ghostbusters, I was talking to Trudeau about it.
    21:26
    He's a really cool guy. He's a theater person, too, so we have a little bit of stuff in common. And when we were talking about it, I go, you know what would be really cool as a topper is the top of the light bar, the Ecto-1. And he just smiled and goes, I think you're going to be happy. And I mean, I haven't, I mean, I've seen it in person, but not actually lit up yet. But to me, to me, that's a no brainer. I mean, especially with the premium or the pro where the Ecto-1 is on the side of the cabinet. I think that's, it just makes sense to me. I don't know. Oh, it looks really good. I actually, I actually put one on and for one of our local guys who has a premium also. and it looks really good. It's actually a really nice topper. I've always been a fan of any kind of sirens or lights or, like, you know, like even back when High Speed came out, you know, I just loved the fact that it was a police siren or, you know, just something fascinating with that. Pretty lights. Yay. That would be an interesting collection, like the all police-like collection. Yeah. You'd have, like, what, High Speed, Getaway, European Millionaire, F-14 Tomcat, Lethal Weapon 3, a safecracker.
    22:44
    You know, I think you were at my – I think, Bruce, you were at – and, Ron, you might have been, too, at one of my last parties where I had a project F-14 Tomcat, and it was up and running enough that we could play it. And when those beacon lights go off in a little basement, I mean, I remember I went outside and looked through the window into the basement. It was like this giant halo of light coming through. People next door probably thought it was crazy. Yeah, I know what you mean. Like in my basement, I put F-14 Tomcat and Getaway on opposite sides of the basement so they wouldn't, like, you know, overpower each other. so how are you doing on your air ball count with Ghostbusters you know I got that protector from Florida the guy that made it I can't remember who made it is that the little shop guys maybe it could be Curly I think I got a lot of mine from there yeah I put that on I get one every once in a while it seems to bounce off of something and hit the wire ramp that goes across the right ramp. But it's not. I've only had maybe one ball jump the rail, the outling.
    24:05
    And that's no more than, like, you know, the demolition man I played at York that was completely chopped out and waxed. So I know. I'm not getting any more air balls on this than I did on Star Trek. they might be the all time stern airball games definitely and I have both of them and I would say Ghostbusters I have had so many airballs I've had ones that almost hit the ecto like mirror I've had them go into the building go on top of things it scares me and I have the plastic thing in front of the ramp which has actually prevented a lot of them because it's got to hit a lot of that stuff scares me Star Trek basically end of that warp ramp when it hits. Yep. When it hits the, and I changed the rubber on the post because it's got like the small rubber on the top that gets chewed up anyway and totally disintegrates. I replaced it with like a sleeve rubber, like a cliff-hand sleeve rubber that I cut because it's a little too long. And that actually decreased a lot of the air balls. But I still get them, and they're mostly from hitting that. And I've had it literally hit that, fly over and hit the Enterprise, you know, the one by the right slingshot, that far. So that scares me. I remember Transformers, you know, you would hit that Megatron target and it would fly. I think I did it in the video. If you took the glass off the game and you actually hit the Megatron target straight on, it would fly out of the game if you took the glass off. Yeah.
    25:43
    Now, did you do anything with the scolari targets? Because I put those pinball life springs on them because I had them ready to go, and I can hit those targets square on, and the ball doesn't jump or anything. They work perfectly. I put those paint springs on, and the targets were flawless.
    26:03
    After a while, they annoyed me to the point where I disabled them. I got you. Because they're not really worth anything, and they block every key shot, at the wrong time, and it's like, come on. Come on, the game is hard enough, at least for me. Yeah, it is. It is. And let's just tell our listeners, Mr. Vucci is an excellent player. His initials are on many, many games. Especially if you go to the York show, I have seen his initials on many games there.
    26:31
    Well, you're no slouch either, my friend. But you know what? I have to tell you, I'm really happy with the game, though. it kicks my butt and yet I still want to play another one so I can't speak for you but that is a good thing for me because there are some games that I get my butt whooped and I go you know what I don't even enjoy playing this with Ghostbusters I don't know there's something about the overall integration of the theme and the music and the dots and then the way it plays aside from once in a while the cheap drains coming out of the pops uh yeah i yeah i'm pretty i i there's been a number of times even if the ball is coming down that right rail i get nervous because it doesn't it sometimes just wants to go down the middle i get really that makes me a little angry but other than that i really i'm gonna have something with every game so whatever i'm really happy i don't know if you are i i feel like it was worth the money well i'm i'm happy because it was worth the money for me that's the one you won right yeah i So it was worth it for me.
    27:35
    I'll say the Ghostbusters keeps sliding. It keeps moving it back to the right a little bit because it keeps sliding to the left a little bit as I have to save a lot of those down the center drains. I have started to vary the strategy because it was just frustrating the hell out of me because I kept going to the modes on the right, like the four modes, like, you know, who brought the dog? Yeah. Yeah, and you just keep it in every game. Like, I would just play the same modes, and it would just end over and over. So I started to just go for the librarian and the ramp modes instead, which I've had better luck with. Yeah, what's the one on the ramp? We got one, and is it Spook Central? Yeah, Spook Central, and then the ballroom. The ballroom I can't finish. I have been there now granted I have 105 so the mode does not continue when you drain but I just I don't know what it is I can't seem to get through that doggone ballroom and the flowers are still standing Eddie won't get that at all the only thing I can say and I don't know if you felt this or not as you get deeper in the game you start to hear a lot more quotes and you realize there are actually a lot of quotes you start hitting the flipper buttons and you hear all these quotes I think there are times, though, during some dead spots in the game where some random quotes would actually be quite nice. It feels like there's a little lack of personality during a few of the empty moments in the game. And the quotes don't have to make sense. Ghostbusters 1 and 2, to me, are some of the most quotable movies. I think just something random is fine. You know? I don't know if you feel that, but that's the only one thing that I think about every once in a while. Yeah, I love the music in that game. Oh, God, me too. That might be one of the best music packages they've had in a while, as far as, like, every mode has its own theme. And every once in a while, if I start, like, I was playing it today. I started some kind of mode or something not one of the main modes some kind of thing that I never been in before And the music different I go what music is this I must be in something I don know what I in but I in something And it all is amazingly Ghostbusters-ish. Like, even the Shooter Lane music, I don't know what it is. That is so Ghostbusters 1. Like, you know, you're just sitting there. I could listen to that all day. I love it. And we got one. We got one as the boys are back in town. Boys are back in town, yeah. That's when I hear that. That's the first thing I think of.
    30:18
    One thing I think is interesting, and I should have done this, is in Ghostbusters there is a pinball game, and that's Stargazer. It's in the firehouse, and it's on the Ghostbusters game. Like if you look at the firehouse plastic or the molded piece, you can see it in the window. If you look close, you can see it's a Stargazer. I have a Stargazer. So I thought it would be funny to put it next to it. It's like, look, it's Ghostbusters, and there's Stargazer right next to it. Dude, that's perfect. I'll tell you what, that's the other thing, too. I love the art package on it.
    30:59
    It's just, it's so, I don't know. The whole concept of it being original art created specifically for this game, there's just something exclusive about it. You know it's not pulled from, you know, it's not graphic design that was made for a movie or something and pulled and put into something. I mean, I'm fine with that, too. But I just mean, I don't know, there's something beautiful about that. And Jeremy Packer, Zombie Yeti, he was really cool to me. He signed my Translight for me. And he's a really, really nice guy. You can tell he really loves what he does. And he's working on the next game with John Trudeau, whatever that may be. They said that. They won't say what the game is, but he's working on it with it. I couldn't get that out of John, but, you know, I tried.
    31:43
    Yes. You won't hear that in the interview, sadly. What game did they really start with doing the good art again? Was it like Metallica? I'm trying to think. Metallica? At some point they just kind of like, okay, let's do actual art. And then, you know, you had Metallica and you had Ghostbusters, you know, and then you're going to have Aerosmith's going to have that kind of art. Yeah. The Batman, well, the Batman is placed and stuff, but still, it's mostly original art. Batman 66, so. Have you seen any of that, Chris? The Batman 66? Any opinions on that? There's Bruce. I thought we lost him.
    32:21
    I was just letting you two go, because you're two Ghostbuster fiends, and I'm the one that's going, eh. Yeah, I feel like, eh.
    32:31
    A Batman. You know what? I mean, I've been following the initial release at Expo and that kind of stuff, but I'm not really – I'm done with getting games for a while, so I'm not really – I don't have any money into this one. I was hoping they would have one set up possibly at Stern when I was there the week after Expo, but they didn't. I was nudging – I think it was – it wasn't John. It was Dwight Sullivan when he was talking to me. He was really nice. Everybody at Stern was really, really nice, by the way. I was by myself. And they treated me like they were just really, really, really kind people. And Dwight was like, we're lucky any of us have even seen it. Was Dwight very hyper like he usually is? I think I was more hyper than he was. Okay. Oh, wow. Because I was so excited to be there. And all of a sudden it was like all these people came in while John and I were just hanging out. Like all of a sudden all these people that I had never met before. Like, you know, you guys have met most of them. I've never been to an expo. I've never met. So all of a sudden, here comes, you know, Steve Ritchie. He comes out. I'm talking with him, and he's signing my couple of translates I brought. And in comes Lonnie Robb, and in comes Dwight Sullivan. And I'm going, hey, guys.
    33:48
    So I think I was freaking them out, but that's all right. Steve Ritchie told you you have way too many Lawler games. You need more of my games. Well, I actually brought in my, well, ironically, Dwight and Steve, I brought in my getaway Translight because I'd forgotten that Dwight, I mean, that he did that back in 92, you know, or whatever. And Steve, I said, well, I wasn't sure, Steve, if I was allowed to bring a Williams Translight into Stern, so I was kind of hiding it. He just laughed at me.
    34:20
    Yeah, I wouldn't bring any Jersey Jack stuff in there, though. They might get upset about that. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I don't, yeah. Yeah. Well, let's, so you have your videos, you're making your videos, and again, we will plug the YouTube channel for those listening. It's weird spelling, so you've got to get this right. S-P-I-D-A, the number one, A.
    34:46
    Yep. Because when I signed up for YouTube, SpiderOne was taken, and SpiderOne was basically my email address, so I was stuck. And I noticed if you spell it wrong, like SP1DA, it comes right up. So if you mess it up that way and you're searching in YouTube, it'll still come up. And it's very obvious. You can see the turbo views and the pinball videos. And I was like, you mentioned this before, like the angry video game nerd. I thought they should be like the angry pinball nerd who just plays games and just says how much they suck. Like, you know, I don't know, have like X-Files with the filing cabinet. Like, look at this. What were they thinking? That would be funny. The game is ass. I find myself using that term now as a verb. The game is ass. Game is ass.
    35:38
    One of the videos, I can't remember, I was getting angry in one of them, and it felt weird to me because I'm generally not, at least when it comes to my hobbies, I'm not usually a downer or negative person. I don't subscribe to the whole I'm just going to be angry and nitpick and be mean. Because if I don't like something, I'm just not going to take part in it. So most of my videos are actually kind of upbeat. They're usually pretty easygoing. So I don't really get too angry. I wouldn't be a good candidate for that. Don't watch my Star Trek video then. My Star Trek video. You missed your Star Trek video. Yes, I did. In Stern's defense, that's the only game I ever had issues with, but it just happened to be a lot of issues, unfortunately. See, that's what happened with me with Transformers. So when I talk about it, you know, I'm not really – I like Stern, and they've been great to me. You know, just sadly I happened to get a lemon.
    36:38
    Now, Mr. Brucci's done lots of videos, including the new Star Trek, as Ron has also. So he's also done some famous games and some sentimental games for himself. Like the most famous video you've done, besides Family Guy, which Ron talked about in the beginning, that's sold so many games for Jersey Jack, is Big Bang Bar. Yeah. You were the first person to really truly videotape Big Bang Bar. Tell us a little bit about that. And one of the only people I knew that actually had one or had ordered one. Well, that was – Family Guy and Big Bang Bar, that was a different era for me. I was like about 300 pounds then.
    37:17
    That's right. We should say Chris is now – he is buff-booching. He is melt. Yeah, no. Melt. No, no, no. Photoshop is my friend. Oh, he's photoshopping all his videos. Okay.
    37:31
    No, but it's – Hard body bodies. They're plastered on. Oh, God. Yeah, he'll be on hard body. We should ask you, just for people who don't realize, when Big Bang Bar was announced originally, and I have to ask you how you got in on the trainer, because originally it was made by Illinois Pinball, the remake, which was, oh God, help me here, Bruce, what was his name? Gene Cunningham. Gene Cunningham and Illinois Pinball, they had the rights to Capcom, and they were going to do Big Bang Bar. and he, if I remember, there was only two major sign-ups, at least events where there was sign-ups. There was one, I think it was in Texas, and then a second one at Expo, which was in 2004. And I know this because that was the first Expo I went to, and if people are listening to this, they're going to cry when they hear the price. I went to every seminar that year. I'd never been to the show. I wanted to go to, like, every seminar. and I went to that seminar and they handed out the flyer and like, you can get in on this for $4,500.
    38:41
    It's a big bang bar. And I'm thinking, this is 2004, like, wow, $4,500, that's a lot of money. So I just wondered how you got in on that when there was a limited amount of people who were able to get in on it. At that time, and I generally pick up games that are my favorites or ones that I grew up with or something like that, you know, but every once in a while, I feel like getting something different. Like Safecracker, for example, you had mentioned earlier, Bruce. Remember we talked about, you know, I never really played that game on location. I was playing it on visual pinball. And being a big Lawler fan like I was, that was one that I'd never seen before, and I felt like having something different in the collection, so I picked that game up. And Big Bang Bar happened to come around at a time where I just, I really wanted something different in the collection. And I remember hearing about the sign-ups at Texas and sign-ups at whatever. And then they had – I think it was on Rec Games Pinball. Yes, it was. They had posted that they were still taking some other sign-ups.
    39:54
    And if they made me do a video, you know, to become one of them, I probably would have. Speaking of Batman, right?
    40:01
    Very good. Yeah. I don't know. I just, they needed half the money up front as a deposit, and then you would pay the other half when it was delivered. And at that point, $4,500, that was more than I'd ever paid for anything. You know, my, what was that again, 2004? Yeah. You know, my monopoly was $3,400, and my Ripley's, believe it or not, my T3 was $3,500. You know, so $4,500, that was a big thing at the time. Then you see what they paid for Ghostbusters, and you go, well, that's nothing now. But, and I don't know. I just, I was breeding up on it. I thought it was a neat idea. Like, people weren't doing that then. It's not like that was a regular thing, reproducing games. You know, hey, I bought out this company. I've got a little under a couple hundred translates and a little under a couple hundred board sets, and I'm going to go ahead and recreate all the rest of the stuff and put a game together. And I don't know, I found that extremely fascinating. So I took a chance, and I felt comfortable from a legal standpoint. I remember talking it over with a friend of mine who's a lawyer about what I could possibly be getting into, and we felt very comfortable about it. And so I took a chance, and I put the money down, figuring, okay, they said it's going to take about a year and a half or so for the delivery. So I thought, well, that gives me a year and a half to save the rest of it up. And then, of course, it took twice that long. So, but yeah. I remember Chris actually talking to me like two years in saying, what do you think is going to happen, Bruce? Is it ever going to happen? And I'm like, I don't know, Chris. I really don't know. Well, they were really good for a while. There was like a separate group that you could join with like a, you know, you had to be only people that bought the game were able to join it, and they would put up photos, and they would update you. It was a Google group. I remember that. Right. Yep. Yeah, and so I was very warm and fuzzy when I would see new parts coming in, and, you know, and they would talk about, you know, Gene would talk about some of the things he would do to make the parts better, some of the stuff that wasn't working as well on the original prototypes and all that. And then that kind of started to, probably around the time I was asking you, Bruce, it started to fizzle a little bit to where I was going, well, and then they asked for the second half of the money a little earlier because then they had originally said. And I was like, okay. But they followed through. In 2007, man, that thing was sitting in my house, and it was freaking gorgeous. It was sitting in a lot of people's houses, usually in a box, getting ready to be sold. I didn't realize how much it was worth.
    42:45
    Oh, my God. Well, you know, it's funny. Correlating that to the videos, Bruce was in my Big Bang Bar unboxing. Yes, I was. I think I'm actually the second most person in your videos. Probably. Yeah, absolutely. Which I'm very honored, actually. To me, that's like, wow, because I've known Chris so long. I actually met Chris one time. I went to one of your parties. Yes, you did. Way back when in 2005. You were one of the first people that came in from out of town. You know what I mean? like most of the time I'd get people within a certain radius and you actually came in from out of town I remember thinking that was the coolest thing ever I ever since now I think I've been friends with Chris for 11 years now and it's been a really good great relationship and when he asked me to come out for videos and then I've actually sold him games I've actually sold him my uh I still have it and I was mentioning his video for that and I mentioned now in Star Trek He's been actually at my house for unboxings for Black Spider-Man, which is really cool, and also for Spider-Man. For Tron, were you for Tron? No, I missed Tron. Missed Tron, right. I was there for Star Trek LE. Yeah, with the broken shooter rod. But, you know, Chris's videos have always made me feel really good about the hobby. You know, Chris's attitude towards the hobby is a positive one, as he said. And it really shows in the way he represents pinball in his videos. It's just amazing. Well, I appreciate that. That means a lot. It is. I don't presume to say anything other than the truth. And you did. You actually said, you know, in the video for Big Bang Bar, you said, hey, I didn't know at the time it was even going to come out until, voila, I had to get the rest of the money. I remember that because I believe, if I'm not mistaken, I interviewed you while you were playing the game. And I interspersed because I remember my ex-fiancee, you know, the one that I eventually moved to New York City after Jamie. She was helping a lot with that, too. She was being interviewed then and there. And somebody else. Who else? Boy, I can't remember. A couple of the people from Buffalo, wasn't it? We had Shelby out from. Shelby. And we also had Billy Fugel. That's right, Billy. Okay. That was a lot of fun. Oh, it was great. And, you know, it's just the way we got to play it, that was just the first thing. I was like, woo-hoo, we get to play Big Mike Warren. Woo-hoo. It's only four hours away. Woo-hoo. I had a great time, and it was just really cool. Well, I have to tell you, I have to give them props. The people that sat there in garages and stuff and put these games together, because, I mean, they were, I mean, you saw when we pulled it out of the box, I mean, it was beautiful. Oh, yeah. You had a lot of dedicated people. before I think I all got pissed off and all eventually like, you know, I'm like, screw you, we're not helping you make kingpin. Well, here's the kind of friend Mr. Bucci is. We had the, I think it was the third Rochester Pinball Game Room show. And I asked Chris for two games. And you would think, you know, Chris might give me a monster wrap, something like that. No, Chris goes, well, what do you want? So I went, oh, a Big Bang Bar. Now, wait a second. Don't forget, at the time, now this was growing in value, too. Plus, he goes, okay, I'll let you have Big Bang Bar. What else do you want? What else do I want? Okay. I go, how about Taxi? Now, Taxi is another game that's very dear to Mr. Puckistart, and we're going to talk about that. Better than that one. Remind me, isn't that the – we couldn't get the tilt to work? Yeah. The Big Bang Bar, the tilt did not work. That's the only thing. It did not work. Like, it was wired up right. It just did not register. You know, back to at the Rochester show, which you might actually. Were you going to get into this, Bruce? Oh, yeah. I was walking. Everyone was walking that game. And I'm sitting there going, it's an expensive game. Start more. I was ready to actually almost like take it out. But everyone was kind to it. They moved a little. We gave it a lot of room maybe to clean it. Was that the one at the armory? That's the one at the armory. Yeah. Yeah, is that the one that had, like, the Sopranos that, like, Trent walked out of the building also? Yes, he did. Okay, I remember details like that. That's the one that Gene Cunningham was at, and I remember him saying, what kind of an idiot would have his Big Bang Bar at a show like this? I remember him saying that while I was at his table about to ask him to sign something for me.
    47:31
    I said, that's me. Well, you guys kept it in the tournament area, and I think it was only used for that. So that made me a little more comfortable. But you remember the guy? And I don't remember, but he was really, really nice. The guy that worked for him that was at his booth came over to look at the tilt and could not figure it out either. Yeah.
    47:52
    I remember that tournament because I think that's where I picked the – yeah, that's where I picked up the Spider-Man. Yep. I picked it because I brought roller games for the tournament. Yes, you did. So, you know, Chris brings this. I grabbed the games from both Taxi and that. And the show happened, what, it was January, February. I actually had Big Bang Bar and Taxi in my living room for five months, four months. Yes, you did. Oh, my gosh. Because you had to bring it back. I had to bring it back, darn. and that's just the kind of friend Chris has always been to me. You know what? Let me tell you. It'll sit in my basement. It'll be played a lot when I have a party, which by the end of the 2000s I wasn't having as many. Other than that, I mean, it just wasn't going to get to be played, and I thought here's a chance for people who really would love to see it to get to play it, and it's not going to do any damage to it. And, you know, so I just, I was really happy to be able to do that. And I was appreciative of how, you know, how well you took care of it and all that. Yeah, I was thinking about this.
    49:06
    I think I might have met you two the same night for the first time. Because I remember, because when I went to Bruce's party. Oh, yes. At his old place. I think Chris was there. Because I remember you playing Champion Pub, and it had an issue where you hit a certain switch, it would reset. Yes. Oh, yes, Jamie was with me, too. She had come down. That was the first time you ever saw a Champion Pub, and, of course, mine didn't work.
    49:41
    Yeah. And so, literally, so I could say the first time I saw it was both of you, the same day. Yeah. Because I remember I played Black Knight 2000. I played like one ball and it slam tilted.
    49:55
    Because you had like the manual leaning against the, something was leaning against the slam tilt switch. So I'm there, you know, I go to this guy's house and I break his game immediately. Yeah, you're not welcome back here. Yeah, that's like the first person's party I think I ever went to, and it was frigging Rochester. If I'm not mistaken, Bruce, was that right after the party I had where you won the safecracker topper and you needed it, ironically needed it? I did. And actually, he came out a couple months later, and he saw it. It was up on. There it was. It was all pretty. And I just really enjoy, you know, those days when games were cheap. God, we can actually go. Oh, yeah. In the old days, games were cheap and fun. Well, and again, if I may, Ghostbusters is in my basement because of Big Bang Bar. Yes, it is. Unfortunately, Big Bang Bar has sailed to. It has sailed. pastured.
    50:52
    But you know what? The guy that has it is a really big collector in Canada and he was really, really generous and really cool. He sent me pictures of it in his collection and he also let me keep the plaque which had my name on it. Which I thought was really awesome. It had the number of the game and it had my name on it because I think it's... Number 34.
    51:16
    That was really, really cool of him and because of it I was able to buy Ghostbusters, which I really wanted, and then put the rest of the money away because there was more.
    51:26
    Oh, yeah. A lot more. Oh, yeah. Well, while we've been talking, hold on, while we've been talking, 8-Ball is sold. Oh. 8-Ball is sold. Of course, none of our listeners may know that it was for sale, but Bruce had it listed on Facebook. What's an 8-Ball? 8-Ball is sold.
    51:44
    And then I also have my Freedom of for Sale and my Embryon. Yes, I saw your Facebook post on that, I believe. Yep. So, 8-Ball is gone. It will be gone Friday. So, power, heads, and silence. Power, heads, and silence. It's funny. I'm on your YouTube channel, Chris, and the first related channel that comes up is Cinema Massacre, which is the Angry Video Game Nerds channel. Oh, there you go. So, there you go. I did audition for the Angry Video Game Nerd movie because I was living in New York City at the time, and he was having auditions in Philadelphia, and I sent my resume, and he had me come in and read and audition. I didn't get a call. You weren't angry enough. I just wasn't angry enough. I'm going to unsubscribe from his channel now. Yeah, yeah. I've already done it. Everybody unsubscribe. Come to mine.
    52:35
    Yes. But that was cool. That was a cool experience. So let's, we'll get into, because we mentioned this last week, and I said it's a clue on who our guest is going to be. And that's the fact that we mentioned Taxi.
    52:49
    Oh. And when I think of Chris, that's usually the game I think of. Yes. That's the last one to go if things need to ever go.
    52:58
    And why is that? The video I did on Taxi tells you a lot of that, but there's a lot to talk about with that one. We're almost at an hour. How long is your podcast?
    53:11
    I feel like I'm rambling on. No, this is the Thanksgiving edition. Yes. Oh, there we go. They're going to be driving. They're going to be doing a lot of stuff around the house. So they need something to listen to. Well, thanks, guys. I love you all.
    53:27
    I started when I say all the time that high speed, and I told Steve this when I talked to him. I said high speed was the game that really got me to notice and play pinball more than just a novelty game in the corner. And the Williams games especially that came out in that era, I don't know. There was one after another, Pinbot and F-14 Tomcat and Cyclone. There was just something about those games. But taxi, I don't know why. To this day, I'll never know, but that game cemented my pinball addiction. I could not get enough of Taxi when I was younger. My skills as a pinball player were getting better, but they were not good enough to really ever get all the passengers yet. I would maybe get them all once in a while and get the jackpot once in a while. But it just, the music and the theme and the humor and the sounds and the layout and the crisscross, I don't know, there was just something about that game. I could not get enough of it. it became a favorite of mine for a long time. And so it is the most nostalgic game for me for that reason, because it just attracted me for many, many years. And when I went to buy my first game ever when I was 15,
    54:43
    and I called a local operator, and I said, hey, I'm looking to buy a game. I don't know anything about this.
    54:50
    Do you happen to have any Williams games from the 80s? but at this point it's 1992 late 92 and um he says well i don't know is there anyone you're looking for well i said taxi right away thinking there's no way that this guy is going to sell his taxi or that he even still has one you know who knows because there were a couple of operators a few of them at the time around here um and then the putt-putt guys were separate because they had their own games so uh he goes you know what i do happen to have a taxi and it's sitting uh It's sitting in a restaurant bar down the whatever, and it's not working. We've got to pull it out of there, but I'd be willing to sell that to you. And I went, wait, what, huh, really? So I asked him how much. I think it was $700 maybe. Blasphemy, blasphemy, too much money. I know. Well, I've been saving for so long, and I thought, you know, Christmas is coming up, and my birthday is not too long. So I went up to mom and, and, and so, You know, whatever. So I put the money down on it, and like literally three months later, he finally got it out of the location and got it fixed up and brought it to my house. So wait a minute. So you got your first game when you were 15? Well, my birthday, I paid for it when I was 15, and I got it when I was 16 because it came right after my birthday. And, Bruce, when did you get yours?
    56:13
    13. Wow. 13, 14, right around there. I was like 31. I feel like I'm just so far behind. Sorry. You are. Don't worry, you are. I am. Continue.
    56:25
    That's, I mean, uh, uh. You're talking about how you got your game, yes. Well, that's the taxi. I mean, my grandfather worked for GE Transportation. He was a draftsman, and he used to draw the locomotives, which I thought was the coolest thing ever. And he was also an engineer, so he taught me, you know, how to solder, and he taught me how to just kind of strip wire and, you know, look for certain things. thank goodness because when a wire would pop off because you know they spit and duct taped it together i hate to say uh these guys when a wire would come loose or something silly i could fix it but when it became something a little more complicated uh they would come up from the from the vending company and they would help me fix it um but i learned a lot from watching them and just you know kind of digging in there uh and then when we moved into the new house uh when we moved from the apartment that we were in to the house, and I had this basement room to mess with. That's when I started getting more than one game. But that taxi, unfortunately, it just was, you know, it was just falling apart after a handful of years. So I ended up trading it for something else. And then, and this is the long-winded way to get here, the taxi I have now was, I can't remember how I ended up coming across it. It was just something somebody had for sale. on the news group, and then he put me in touch with somebody else. This taxi was a tournament game at Pinball Expo 1988.
    57:56
    And, you know, like, you know, they used to always, they would always donate a row of games, you know, for their tournaments at Expo. I think they still do, don't they? No, they don't do that anymore. They stopped that around 2005, 2006. Oh, okay. Yeah, for listeners, what they used to do is they, and it would be, back when there were multiple manufacturers, they'd be like maybe one year it would be Checkpoint from Data East, another year it would be Taxi from Williams, another year it might be a Gottlieb game. And that's what they would do for the tournament. So in 1988, it was Taxi. It was Taxi. And there's some pictures of it. I actually was able to get them for the video that I put together. You can see them actually there. There was a row of them at the convention. And, well, supposedly from what I hear from the guy I bought it from, the person who won it, and I'm not sure who that was, won the game. So they won this machine as a prize. And then literally they traded it to somebody at the convention because they didn't want it. So they traded it to somebody else. This person had it in their house, I think for a few years, set up. And then he packed it away. And it had been sitting in his storage facility for, I'm not even sure, maybe under a decade. It's just been sitting there. And that's in 2002 when I came along and I happened to get it and I bought it from him. I can't remember how much I spent. It wasn't a lot. But it was, I mean, you know, taxis, they have that, most of them have that factory-applied Mylar in the center.
    59:30
    And the areas around the Mylar get all dirty pitted beat up you know And if you know taxi and Bruce you know you have your own And it a ranch
    59:42
    The outer, you know, the entire place field is a street. It's a road. So it's all cement. It's gray. And the middle part where the Mylar is is generally the normal gray. It stays the same color. But outside the Mylar, the gray turns like a black and it gets discolored and it turns almost like a brownish black and gets beat up and chipped. And most taxis I see, including my original, which I, you know, when I originally bought it, you know, it had that kind of wear. And this taxi did not. The gray was the same outside the miler as it was under the miler. There were a couple chips that were happening. There were a couple inserts were starting to raise up, you know, like by Santa Claus. And if you don't know the game, that sounds very weird. But, you know, by Dracula's hand near Santa Claus there.
    60:33
    So I took it. I never really had done this before, but I just really, at that point, play field reproductions and stuff weren't really being done, you know.
    60:43
    I did not. I wanted to preserve this original play field, especially since it was in Maryland, too, which was cool because those were the ones I really played when I was a kid, and that's the one I had. And I sent it to Bill Davis. Remember Bill Davis? Yes, Bill Davis. He is still actually doing very rare. Is he really? Really? Once in a blue moon, yes. Because Bill Davis, in the early days, he was one of your clear coders. You send your play field to him to get fixed up, clear coded. He actually did, my stargazer I have, he did that play field for the previous owner. And I remember he actually gave a, he was in one of the seminars. He had a seminar at the 2004 Expo. How long ago that was. Yep. He still does Once in a Blue Moon. I heard one person said he got one done last year. He's very, he only does it for a select few people. Yeah. Yeah, he was very nice to me. I told him the story. I sent it to him. I took the Mylar off very carefully. That was scary. Oh, God. I took the Mylar off, and it chipped up like one insert, luckily. Hardly. It didn't do any damage, really. So he touched up the area around Santa and Dracula that I was talking about, and then he did a little touch-up in a couple little places, and then he cleared it up. And then it came back, and I was just, I couldn't believe it.
    62:15
    I'm actually not a big, I don't do that with everything. Like some people, that's all they do. They get an old play field, they clear them. I'm not as much into that. I don't mind keeping it if it's nice, like your Earthshaker, you know, Bruce. I mean, the Mylar isn't bubbling or anything horrible. And outside the Mylar, it's pretty nice. I did a little touch-up, and I put a couple pieces of Mylar down, and it's fine. But this taxi, I just really wanted to preserve it. And when it was done, and so I did a full restore on it. I'd never done that before up to that point, aside from some shopping. So I got all new things, all new star posts, all that kind of stuff. And I got a new Translight. actually my ex-fiancee bought surprised me jamie she bought it do you remember that she bought it for my snack um and i remember i wrote mike because he said he had one and he said uh yeah i got one and i go and maryland translate yeah i mean that's you know that's like finding the maryland flyer which i do have um holy crap he was like i have it and then i kept bugging him And then he goes, nah, and he wouldn't get back to me. Here I realize, well, it was because Jamie bought it for me as a present. And I'm getting mad. I'm like, dude, what? Will you get me excited? Then you don't even have it. And then she gave it to me, and then I wrote him, oh, hey, thanks, man. I got it. Sorry, man. Sorry. Sorry, dude.
    63:34
    But then I finished that up, and I actually brought that game to the York pinball show in 2003 when I finished it. But, yeah, underneath the lockdown bar, it actually has a piece of masking tape that actually says Pinball Expo Game or I think it might say Expo Game 88 or something like that. So I kept that on there.
    63:59
    Very nice. It's kind of like the Black Knight 2000 T-shirt sticker that I preserved in the back, kept it on there.
    64:10
    Sorry that was such a long story, but that's the real thing. Oh, that's a great story. That's the reason why that one would probably be the last one to go if I had to sell everything off. It just means too much to me. And I still love playing that game. I mean, how many times do I come over to your house, Bruce, and play yours? I love that game. I don't know. It's a great game. Luckily, Chris was with me. We bought mine at Allentown out in the parking lot, and I grabbed Chris, and we went out there, and I had to borrow $25 from him just to cover the rest of the money. And I paid it to him, of course, right back when we went back inside. But, yeah, and I've had mine since. I don't remember getting that back. Yeah, you did.
    64:48
    You gave it back in love and friendship. Yeah. That's true. $25 in the parking lot. That doesn't sound good either. Oh, my. Yes. Parking lot. Oh, my. Hey, can I ask you a question, Bruce, real quick? Because your listeners might find this interesting. That Earthshaker that you sold me has a little bit of a story, too. It does, actually. I picked that up in, I didn't know at the time, but it was actually on RGP, and a guy was selling an Earthshaker, and I think it was a Whirlwind. They were both there, and I always wanted an Earthshaker. I had two or three Whirlwinds by then, but I always wanted a nice Earthshaker, and the guy really talked it up. I went down to, down by Paramus, actually, in some of the ritzier neighborhoods, and I'm going through some of these neighborhoods, and I get to this house. the guy's like, hey, it's a guarded gate. And I'm like, okay, I'm here. Oh, yeah, come on in. Come to find out that it actually was owned by Eddie Murphy.
    65:48
    The pinball machine was actually there. You never told me this. Nobody knows that except for Chris. And the podcast was. Yeah, now everyone knows. So I actually went up and he wasn't around. Nobody. I was his handler. And he's like, oh, yeah, here's the pinball machines. And I had to get through everything. Like, I was strapping up the game, bringing it outside. I couldn't dang him into it. I'm like, oh, my God, I'm ready to shoot myself. But got it out, got it in the car, and I had it for about a year. And then Chris saw it, and he fell in love with it. I did, yep. I always wanted one. That's another very nostalgic game for me. And then when I heard the story behind it that it was, you know, Eddie Murphy's machine, that, you know, I was like, well, that's kind of neat. I didn't know that either when I went to get it. But it's a really cool little – and I have that – put the sinking building kit in there. Yes. And it's still – yeah, it's beautiful. Yeah, I love that game. I did – well, when we brought it out to Chris, when we brought it out to Chris, we brought it out in a snowstorm, me and my father. Yes. By the time we got to Chris's house, there was like 10 inches on the ground. So we get there, back out the truck, empty it out, set it all for him. It works perfect. And we're like, okay, Chris. I'm going to get going. He's like, whoa, come on, hang out. Hang out and play some pinball. You're like, no, it's snowing really bad outside. Yeah, you guys wanted to get the hell out of here. Oh, we did. We finally got home.
    67:13
    But, yeah, you know, that's the good thing about it. You want to help other people out. And when it comes to, a.k.a., you know, either Ron or, you know, a lot of my good friends, they'll – they know I will – I don't care. You know, games, you know, they're only one thing, you know. Friendships last a lot longer. They really do. I love you, man. Slow your back, guys. Man hug. Turn it over, man. Turn him over.
    67:40
    Next on Dr. Phil. Yes. Oh, God, Dr. Phil. Chris, Ron, and Bruce, talk about this. Oh, boy. What do you think about your problems with your pinball machines? Do you think it's going to happen this time? Do you think it's going to make you happy?
    67:57
    I think I'm going to ask Chris, what games you got now? What does the collection look like? well you know what's funny real quick I was going to mention this earlier I have the back glass off of both my Star Trek and my Ghostbusters because I got them both signed and I hadn't put the back in yet it's funny looking at the boards on the back box of Star Trek and then looking at the board at the back box of Ghostbusters Spike it's like there's nothing in there no there's nothing it doesn't need to be that big but you know I understandably now why it is. The only issue is, though, yeah, there's only one board in there. Their new spike system, the whole concept of fusing has seemed to go by the wayside.
    68:44
    Because that's that Ghostbusters fix for the shorting situation. If they have no fusing, it basically will blow out almost every board. Oh, boy. Their philosophy now is kind of with the way they have it set up is just replace the whole board. or like they have the node boards, you know. So if this board goes bad, just put a new board.
    69:06
    Well, hey, Ron, how long did it take you to – I'm not sure how long this has been going on. How long did it take you to stop grabbing the bottom of the cabinet to turn on the game? A while. I still do it. I go, oh, that's right. Yes, and my father does it every time and will probably continue to do so. But don't forget, Gary Cern always says there's a quarter mile of wire. Now it's probably an eighth mile of wire because we couldn't afford that little extra distance, you know. It's pretty neat that it's, I'll say the one thing that sucks, though, it takes forever to update code on that. Yes. If you start updating, just leave the room or go play something else for 20 minutes because that's how long it's going to take. Wow. Because the code is like three gig. I think it's two or three gig. It's compared to, like, an older, like, Sam game would be maybe 30 meg, 40 meg. Right. Except some of the music games would be a little bit bigger because of all the songs. But it's amazing how much larger it is. But it's stereo. It is. You can tell, too. You can hear it. Yeah, you can tell. You can hear it. Really, really nice. Ghostbusters does bring it out very nice, the music it has, the fact that it's – but the stock speakers, too. I mean, I don't have the volume up that high, and I think it sounds pretty damn good for just stock speakers. It really does, yeah.
    70:28
    Well, let's see. If I'm looking, because I'm sitting in like the main room where some of the games are where we're talking right now. Well, I got Star Trek Premium, Ghostbusters Premium.
    70:42
    Next to that is Family Guy and Tron, Tron Pro. Those are my sterns right now. Next to that, we hit the Williams. We got No Good Gophers, Scared Stiff, Indiana Jones, Medieval Madness, and The Shadow.
    71:00
    You want me to keep going? Keep going. Okay, that's in the room, in case you're wondering the vicinity of them.
    71:08
    Let's see. Now I have to think off the top of my head. I got my Lawler row over here. It's Adam's Family, Whirlwind, Earthshaker, and Funhouse. Then I've got the topper row, which is Whitewater, Getaway, and Fishtails. And then I've got Diner, Cyclone, and Taxi.
    71:30
    And then my Terminator 3. I was about to say, where's that Terminator 3? You said you still have it. Don't forget the T3. That one I'm probably going to sell at some point here, but I think that's everything. Is that 20? I think that's 20. but I've had I mean you know how it is too yeah I got 20 now but I've probably had 60 some over the last 20 how many years 15, 20 you know trading and moving around and swapping but I'm actually very thankful and I don't know if you feel this way Bruce I'm actually thankful I got into it when I did when I mean pinball was always expensive but I would not have the collection today if I started today there's no way I could spend the money on some of the games to me the games are not worth I love the hobby but I cannot say that games are worth the money they're going for I'm sorry they're just I can't do it I haven't been in as long as Bruce but they were a lot cheaper back in the day and it seems certain games got like popular and then all of a sudden balloon I remember when I started you could get white water at a reasonable price and at some point that became like this is like I don't know diamond or something my whitewater was $1,600 back in 2002 and it's nice it was in good shape I mean now it's like $3,000 $4,000 and you have the Lawler row all the Lawler games are expensive I don't know what the deal is I wonder if Steve Ritchie ever wonders why aren't my games that expensive because they mean it's not like you can say, well, they didn't make many of them. No, they made a ton of them. They made a ton of them. It amazes me, and I love the game, so again, this isn't me picking on it. It amazes me for the amount of games that were made of Adam's family, how much money that game still commands. You would think, I guess it's just a demand thing, you know, because it's so loved by people, but there's so many of them out there. I mean, there's a ton of whirlwinds and funhouses and Twilight Zones, and yet you can get You can get a Star Trek Next Generation way cheaper than you can get a Twilight Zone.
    73:48
    It's so weird. I don't know. I never could figure out the rhyme or reason to it. So since you have the Lawler Row, have you seen any of the dialed in yet?
    73:58
    I watched the podcast with the Buffalo guys. Bro, what is it? Why can't I remember the name of it? Bro, do you even pinball? Yes, you give him pinball. Jeez, oh, man. Sorry, guys. I do know your stuff. I watched that one, and I've seen pictures and stuff like that. I mean, I was somewhat excited about it because I do like his stuff. You know, I like Pat's stuff.
    74:27
    It looks interesting. I mean, I'm warming up to it a little more as I hear about stuff and I see it. Yeah, I know it's tough a lot of times to tell from video. It really is, yeah. Yeah, I put some video out there. I mean, you can watch it and not really get a – I got to play the game because I was at Expo. Oh, did you put some video, too? I'll look for it. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. I think I put it on our channel, and it's also on my own channel.
    74:57
    Again, it's the Slam Tilt Podcast. Just look for it on YouTube. I also put it on my own channel, which is Gizmonic, Mystery Science Theater reference there. I think I subscribed to you. I just haven't been on YouTube in so long to see it. I'll say, I mean, as someone who has played a lot of Lawler games, when you play it, it is definitely Lawler. I mean, if you play it, it's like, okay, this feels like a Lawler game. I mean, it feels like a Lawler-Williams game. That's the best way I can say.
    75:31
    But is it worth $8,000, $9,000? I mean, you know. that's where I get turned off because I can't imagine spending I just can't imagine spending that kind of money on something I'm just not going to do it but I'm looking forward to playing it I really am you had mentioned earlier if you start reading Pinside and reading into it too much you have to be careful you know the stuff that you heard about the game when it first came out I was reading it mostly on Pinside because people were reporting it, you know, but a lot of the people that were talking about it were people like me that just looked at pictures, and it's like, I want to hear from the people who played it. Yeah. It's a deal. How do you play? When that came out, oh, my God. They revealed that, and everyone just shit on it, just badly. It's like, oh, my God. It's just like everyone hated the title except me.
    76:28
    Everyone hated, like, the idea, the theme. Everyone hated it. You can't make anyone happy. It's just like, we want an original theme. Okay, here's an original theme. Oh, this sucks. What is this? It's like, you want an original theme? Here you go. I want pinball to take me away from my cell phone. I don't want a game about a cell phone. Oh, it's very good. Okay. You know, it's like everyone's so mad. I love the cell phone. You get to shoot the cell phone. Come on. Why is everybody so mad? We're in the hobby here. You know, I'll tell you what. Look, in 1999, when Williams Valley closed and all that was left was Sega and now Stern, I got to be honest with you. If we were going to have if we were going to just keep having Harley Davidson or Striker Extreme, and that was what we had to look forward to. I mean, I just I don't I thought pinball was gone in a couple of years. I never and me and my friends especially I looked around and said that's it I said this is it I've been with it from the beginning, I've been collecting for a long time and now pinball is going to be gone and I just don't see it happening and then you know all of a sudden things just started cranking and then they started hiring a lot of these people that kind of tweaked the default a little bit and started coming up with stuff and all of a sudden Lawler is doing Monopoly and all of a sudden And it just started, you know. And so I am thankful that we have pinball at all in 2016. So I'm not going to sit here and get mad over anything.
    78:09
    Okay, we'll do that for you. We'll do that for you. I don't know. Chris is just having this effect on me now. I don't want to do any games I hate now. I just have so much love. I can't criticize anything now. I just feel bad. You know what? I'm so pessimistic in my real life. This is the only time I'm happy. Ah.
    78:29
    Well, speaking of pessimistic, I will bring up, we mentioned Batman before. And just to respond to one of our listeners, I want to bring him up here. Because we were mentioning how last week they had IAPA, which is a big industry show for operators. like the industry side of gaming. And Stern was there. And they did not have Batman.
    79:03
    No Batman. Yeah, no Batman. Why is there no Batman? So we were like, why is there no Batman? And got a message from Gary Wood.
    79:14
    An easy name to say. Gary Wood. Yes, it's the new amusement park. Gary Wood, who said that Gary Stern, who was speaking at the – Actually, this was at his Free Play Florida talk. There was no Batman there because the IAAPA was an operator show, and Batman 66 wouldn't be there since it wasn't aimed at operators.
    79:37
    So that was the explanation. Here's my only issue with that. I'm going to have to be too pessimistic here. Number one, in their booth at IAAPA, what was one of the banners they had up?
    79:52
    Batman 66. Oh, okay. And they had some games there. They had two Metallicas. They had a Metallica Pro and a Metallica Premium. Bruce, what are premiums aimed at? What segment of the community are they aimed at? Mostly homeowners. Oh, really? Okay. Okay, well, forget that. They had two Ghostbusters there. They had a Pro and they had a Premium.
    80:20
    Just saying. I agree. I'm just saying. I know he's saying. I know. Okay. You guys are so angry. Oh, we can't be. Trust me. I'm just kidding. I know.
    80:31
    Oh, angry. You should see me playing Ghostbusters sometimes. You want to see angry. Oh, I'm with you. Oh, if I hear who brought the dog one more time, I swear. Okay, you brought the dog. Oh, no. It was just this dog. Nice doggy. No. The two little fools.
    80:49
    Yes, you know what I did? I climbed down the ledge and tried to disconnect the cable, but I couldn't. So you know what I did? I turned on my TV rollout, too. That way everybody would think both our TVs had something wrong with them.
    81:00
    Yeah, you know what I did? That's why I invite all my clients, you know, because I can use this attachment for whatever the hell. Yeah. That's why I invite clients instead of friends. You having a good time, Mark? And you know who was originally supposed to have that role? John Candy. Yeah. It's hard to believe. Yes. He wanted to do it with like a German accent or something. Do you remember that? Yeah. They were like, uh. But he had some other commitment, but then at least he got to be in the Ghostbusters music video. So there you go. Oh, yes. That's right. Along with everyone else. Everyone was in the Ghostbusters music video. Who are you going to call? Even Ernie Hudson got to be in there. Yeah. Even though like in some of the posters he gets cut off and they just show the three of them. It was nice to see that actually all four of them were in the game, that they remember there was a fourth coast bust. You're up, rookie. Yes. You're up, rookie. I love when it says that after you've been hitting ten targets, and he still says, you're up, rookie. Yeah. Oh, you noticed that. Yes. That's a little bug. A little bug. Yeah, you'll be well into a ball, and you'll just hear, like, you're up, rookie. Like, uh, okay. Thank you, Ernie. Yeah. Okay, Ernie. The funny thing is, I played Congo at someone's house for the first time ever where I could actually hear the sound. Because I'd only ever played it at shows and tournaments where I never could hear anything.
    82:22
    Right. And when it comes on, I hear Ernie Hudson. Like, wait a minute. That's Ernie Hudson. He's in this game too.
    82:29
    Yes, he is. So him and John Trudeau must have some kind of thing. Because he's in John Trudeau games. I like Congo. It is a fun game It's an excellent game So we're going to bleed right into our Yeah we'll go into our Regular segments unless Chris has Anything else Let's not talk about me anymore I'm so sick of talking about myself Yes please You can find me at the Olenac stage In a play called Fools Yes Anyway So game you like Game you hate Oh, crap. I had to think. Oh, crap. You haven't done shit, have you? Well, you know, okay. Last week, did you give one last week?
    83:19
    Oh, damn it. We started doing this, and I told Bruce, like, we're going to start repeating them. And Bruce was like, no, I remember them all. It's like, you remember them all? Like, we're in a show of, what, 20? You remembered every one I said. Yep. Now, let me just clarify, because you told me this right before you hit record. It can't be a game we own Can it be one we owned? Yes, it can be one you owned And actually You can have it in your basement And still hate it Which I've done already Well, you're weird like that I try to get rid of games I don't like Oh, it's because your dad had like Avatar or something? Party Zone and Avatar Or Avatar as we would Avatar Third. I actually like playing that just to practice. It was good for tournament practice because you just go for, like, multi-ball and that's it, you know, so.
    84:13
    You go first. I need to think of something. Okay. Game I like. We're going Old School Valley again. A little power play.
    84:24
    Uh-huh. Bobby Orr's power play for his one year with the Blackhawks. And great game. Four flippers. Two sets of drop targets, up kick and out kick and out hole in the middle. Multipliers increase with each four drop targets you take down on either the left or the right-hand side. Star rollovers around each loop. Fun game. In the middle, we talked about this on things that haven't been used in a while, is the center post between the two flippers pop up and down. Great artwork. I think that's Christensen, isn't it?
    85:02
    Eh, probably. I think it is. All together, great package. Great game. Then we go from great artwork to a terrible artwork package.
    85:14
    We're going to Gottlieb. My pick on Gottlieb. Man, you pick on Gottlieb a lot, dude. Oh, you'll agree with me on this one. You've got a lot of hate in your heart, man. You'll agree with this one.
    85:25
    Raven. Oh, that's like my favorite game ever. My freaking God. You're on crack, son. Actually, I like Genesis.
    85:36
    Raven, whatever. Yeah, Raven's just a one-shot pony. You know what it reminds me of? It reminds me of Road Kings worse. I actually like Road Kings. I don't like Road Kings, but we'll get to that next time. So those are my games. You know what's funny about Raven?
    85:55
    I'll tell you this real quick. There's a guy. He's a really nice guy. I hope he's listening. His name is Matt. He's a cool guy, goes to the White Rose Game Room show, the York show all the time. And one year, I swear to God, every time my friend Michelle and I would turn the corner, he'd be playing Raven. And we have no idea why. He just kept playing Raven over and over and over and over. And so by the end of the convention, we started making fun of him. Ooh, you know, ooh, Matt, you playing more Raven? Ooh, you know. So the next year, I printed out the flyer for Raven, and I Photoshopped it, and I put it on glossy paper, and we signed it. to Matt, love Raven, and put a little lipstick kiss right in the middle of it.
    86:35
    That's freaking hilarious. I don't know if he was happy or creeped out. Oh, my. He'll never live that down.
    86:46
    How about you go next, Chris? Because then I can go and I actually can segue into something else with my picks.
    86:53
    Okay. Well, my goodness. I'm going to have a hard time with the one that I hate because I'm really thinking hard right now. But, you know, one that I love that I'm surprised I have not purchased a second time is Demolition Man. There is something about that game whenever I see it and it's playing well, when it's playing solid, when the flippers are rebuilt and that game is level and it's playing, there is a flow to that game that I cannot get enough of. I love it. the, you know, you shoot the ball up to the upper left flipper into the computer. That comes up to your right flipper up around to activate the claw up to the claw. There's just, I don't know, there's a lot of flow on that game. And I just, I get addicted to that game when I play it. I always end up with my, that's one where you'll probably find my initials on it because I will keep playing it and keep playing it and keep playing it. And I don't know. That's one that I've always, always really, really liked. And that's another one that I've noticed go up in price a bit, but it's still not quite like you said, Ron. Yeah, on a Twilight Zone level or one of those. Yeah, yeah. Well, if you want to play one, man, come on over. Sit in the basement. Oh, yeah. So I love that game, and I just wanted to pick another one. I'm having a tough time. You know, there was one game that I was kind of disappointed in, and that was – it's a recent game because I like the theme a lot, and that was Avengers.
    88:23
    I can agree with that one. I played that. It was one where I – I guess maybe that's more disappointment than anger or hatred, but I really wanted to like that game.
    88:34
    And every time I would play it, it just didn't grab me at all. I tried. And the fact that I – Bruce, you had one, right? No, no, never had one. Never had one. I actually don't mind it. He had X-Men. I think that's why you're – Oh, that's it, X-Men, yeah. I can't remember where I played it. Oh, that's it. Pocketeer had it. Yes, Pocketeer had one, a premium. Yeah, and that was when I was excited because I thought, all right, this one maybe will be set up really well and I'll get a chance to play. And I played it there a lot when I was at that tournament that one time. I just, I couldn't, I don't know what it is about it. There was something about it. I just couldn't get into it. I didn't like the skinny little shots. And there was just something about the, so I guess comparatively speaking, the flow on that game I didn't like. No like Hulk.
    89:15
    Very good. Okay I get into mine which will lead to another segue And it funny you mentioned Demoman because that also could be another segue It just full of segues here I do the game I dislike first And you actually I'm going to rip you off, Bruce, because you've already mentioned this one. But I got to play it this weekend and kind of solidified that. I'm just not a huge fan. Cubeball Wizard.
    89:41
    Rowdy Ramp Ramp. Rowdy Ramp Ramp. And we were saying that the whole time. The whole time. Everyone was just repeating now it's hilarious rowdy ramp round you need a rowdy ramp round oh good lord just trying to do i because i never really played it that much before before i realized like okay you know how do you start multi-ball okay now how do you get jackpots oh you're supposed to hit the cue ball to hit the target to make the other thing hit but like it's almost impossible to hit that thing centered to get it to, oh, that was such a pain. Yeah, I used to play that a lot when I was younger. They had that next to Whirlwind.
    90:21
    No, I'm sorry, Whitewater. It was at a bar around here when I was a kid, a bar. It's funny that I would say that. But I just, yeah, it was the same thing. It was just really strange. It was very strange. Very strange, yes. You know, it's the count leave where mows are useless. I never even got into the multi-ball too much, but I almost guarantee you if I got, like, all the jackpots, whatever the super was was probably the biggest total, like, points thing in the game, I'm guessing. Yeah. I'm guessing. I don't even know. So that was dislike. Like, and I'll bring this up. Bruce will like this one. Strikes and spares. Oh, good boy. Yes. Very good. Damn. Yes. I got to play it a lot. This past weekend at the Catskill Classic. Ooh. Stay away.
    91:15
    I played in the Catskill Classic. We mentioned that on the last podcast. And I did fairly good. Yes, you did. I was victorious. You did. You brought glory to the podcast. You brought glory, and I got upstate points. I got to hold the Indonesian pin of doom. Very proud of that. Ron Hallett is victorious I have the power Amen Yes, yes, children of the 80s cartoons The Strikes and Spares I played well and also High Speed treated me very well Nice Basically they did the format was it's so weird when you have a laid back format it was just so refreshing is so much more relaxing than the usual. Like, you just keep buying entries and playing over and over like I was in the previous week. This was like you pay $20 if you're ranked in a certain, like, top whatever, and only $10 if you're, like, lower ranked in the IFPA. And you play 10 games, and you just try to get the best score you can on each game, and you can play as many times as you want. $20.
    92:33
    It's like, cool. Like, you don't have to keep putting money in over and over. You just keep playing. So I think I qualified. I had to win a playoff to get in.
    92:47
    Playoffs? Yeah, playoffs. Then in the semifinals, they did it. It was like they had a semifinals with four people, and then the first person who qualified first got a bye. So in the four semifinals, just the low person would be eliminated. So I was, I was, it was, I'm trying to remember. It was me, Ed Zeltman, Mike Pantino, and the host himself, Howard Levine, were in the semifinals. And it ended up me and Ed, me and Ed advanced, but Howard and Mike ended up tied. So they had to have a one-game playoff, which they had, and Mike won. so it ended up being the finals and wow we might have to edit this one here because I should have the guy's name ready to go and I don't quite fail embarrassing yes it's very very bad that's pretty damn bad oh boy oh boy oh boy yes this is the power of editing as I will just keep talking because I'm going to edit this out no one's going to hear this we've been talking about Iran a little too much for my taste Yeah, I agree. I'm looking up Catskill Classic, and it's coming up at the Catskill Police Department. Oh, hold on. Okay.
    94:08
    Oh, this is such a fail. I just, because I hate when I don't know someone's name. And they posted the points, like, almost immediately. They did.
    94:20
    Insanely quick. Okay. Yeah, it was who I thought. Okay. All right, a little silence. Editing ends now. So, I ended up in the finals. It was Jeremy, who was the top qualifier. And then Ed. Jeremy who? Jeremy. Ed Zeltman. Jeremy who? Oh, you're killing me. Now I'm going to have to edit again. What an asshole.
    94:42
    You suck. Oh, man. No, you're leaving this fucking in. Oh, okay. I guess I have to leave this in. You do.
    94:53
    Worst podcast ever. Oh, my God. I love this. Funny, I knew it was, I was pretty sure his name was Jeremy. I actually didn't know his last name, and now I'm looking at it, I'm not sure how to say it, so I'm probably going to butcher it, and if he listens to the podcast, I'm so sorry, dude. It's H-A-K-E-S, Hapes? Okay, so it was Jeremy Hapes, Mike Pantino, Ed Zeltman, Ed Z, and me in the Final Four, and we played, it was like pop-up finals, but with Pinberg scoring, so you play three games, and it's 3-2-1-0 scoring, and the high C gets the pick, game or order. So the first game, I believe it was Grand Prix, and I took second on that.
    95:40
    And then it was the next game was high speed, which I took a first, and then the strikes and spares I blew up. I had like almost 500K. The next person had like 40 or 50K. I don't think anyone else had over 100K.
    95:58
    So that was most awesome. That was a very, very enjoyable. That's just a very relaxing format. I was rooting for you. I saw you when I was in League Night. It's just after being in like Florida and you're putting money in and you're playing all these entries just to kind of play and just it's all fun. It was nice. And he had also a 50-50 drawing. He had a plate countdown for charity, you know, part of the pot goes to charity. I love countdown. That's definitely one of my, I would say, games to like.
    96:33
    But it's a great game for that kind of thing where you're just trying to get the high score and it's just so brutal.
    96:39
    So a splendid time was had by all. Yes, it was. Congratulations. Thank you. And I'd like to also send congratulations out to one of our other guests, our frequent guests, who won a Demo Man, Mr. Tim Sexton, who won a huge trophy and a Demo Man. So that was so apropos that Chris mentioned that. And he sold it. Oh, he sold it already? Sold it right then and there. Oh, okay. At the Flippers Tournament in North Carolina. I think isn't that the name of the... Yes, and he won a Papa Circuit event. Yes. Big money, big prizes. He won a brand-new VCR. It was great. Yes, it was great. But congratulations, Tim Balls. Mr. Tim Saxon won big. Actually, so another friend of the show, Levy, and Steve Bowden was down there. Hi, Steve. I'm a bonus. Yes, Steve ended up, I guess, inadvertently or airing the finals because they were streaming it, but their internet died. and they actually had, I think they had the internet provider or probably TimeWarp, whoever it was out there and they couldn't get it fixed, at least in time. So Steve ended up just filming it on his cell phone and then he posted it to Facebook later. Oh, Steve. Steve's awesome. He was a good friend when I lived in New York City because he was part of a lot of the tournaments, a lot of the stuff out there, and he became a really, really good friend out there. and we used to always joke because we'd play the Indiana Jones four game, you know, Stern, he would always say, all you got to do is map, map, map, map, map, map, map. So every time I would see him, I'd go map, map, map, map, and he'd go map, map, map.
    98:23
    Indeed. Indeed, that game sucked indeed. It did. That could have been on the list, huh? Yeah, it has been on mine. Yeah, it might have been on mine too. That was another disappointment for me. Yeah, when I was thinking of the Angry Video Game Nerd, That was one of the games I was always thinking would be easy. So, you know, I hit a shot and I get to watch a movie. That's just what I want to do when I'm playing pinball. What were they thinking? You know, so something along those lines. So, yeah, actually, wait a minute. You met him once, right? The Angry Video Game Nerd.
    98:58
    Did you meet him at some point? Because I could have swore I saw a picture of him and you. That's what I'm thinking of this. Okay. Yeah, that was at Digital Press in New Jersey. Yeah, it's like in your Facebook feed or something. It's like, oh, Christmas.
    99:12
    Yeah, he was cool. He was very nice, James. The pinheads will be like, what are they talking about? Yeah, probably. Look it up, though. It's funny. It's called the Angry Video Game Rarity. Just imagine us doing pinball games with that because there are a lot of them you could probably do that with.
    99:30
    So are we, let's see. Repairs. Repairs? Oh, well. So I got the big game up on its legs. Hey, and? I guess you get what you pay for. Oh, no. I went to, you know, take the glass off, the play field glass, and I reached in for the lockdown bar or latch, and it was kind of hanging there by the spring. That's what the one in my house is doing right now. And so the, like, oh, shit, how am I going to get the lockdown bar off? Well, I just tried to use logic, and I wonder if I just pull up on it hard enough. And sure enough, it came right off because there is no latching mechanism. It's, like, not there anymore. Like, it must have busted off, so they just removed it. Oh, cute. Yeah, cute. And you know what the chances are of ever getting one of those? Zero. Nah, you'll find them. Where am I going to find that, Bruce? You'll find it. We'll find it for you. We'll find it. We'll find some other wide-body stern game that's being parted. Clearly, that'll be easy. Well, we ask our listeners. Ironically, we have a call. Go ahead, listener.
    100:49
    I have a big game. I'll give you it for $10,000. All right. Sold. We'll figure it out. If anyone has a lockdown bar for a wide-body stern. No, not a lockdown bar. The bar is fine. The actual lockdown mechanism itself, there's that. Then there's the fact that, like, the main fuse under the play float is blown. However, none of the coils look toasty, so I don't know what exactly is causing that. One of the slingshots is totally wasted. Like, it's sheared right off of the plunger. Yeah, I do have a spare, so I can do that. The flippers, they're just what I thought I would see, which is the holes are blown out, so they put huge screws in there, and it's a total mess. That's fine because you can get all that stuff, so that doesn't really worry me. The thing that worried me, as soon as I saw it, because I knew something wasn't right, if anyone's ever seen a big game, it has four flippers.
    101:56
    It's made in a way you can't get flipper bitch. Like if you lift the two flippers up, it doesn't go in between and drain because it has a guide. Secondary guides. A secondary guide. Well, guess what's not on mine? The secondary guides? On either side.
    102:17
    Oh, my. Yes, the screws are there. That's the first thing I noticed. You see screws going into the play field, and they're there. There's two on each side. and I'm there, I'm looking at it, it's like, if a ball went in there, it would kind of just go right through. That's not right. There's got to be something there that's missing. It's the new Paragon. So thanks to Pinside, yes, props to Pinside, if you look up Big Game, they have shop-out pics on there, shop-out pictures, because you need the shop-out pictures to be able to see it, because when it's assembled, you can't see it. What was that? Nudies? Yeah, nudies. Nudies. Okay. Nude game, yeah. All right. It's a nude game, Peter. That's the only kind of game I play. So you've got the guides are on there, and they're exactly what I thought they would look like. They're just like right angle, like metal piece. It looks like a guide, just like a steel guide. So if you happen to have any, Bruce, or if they're on one that you've seen, that maybe we can get fabricated a couple of them. I would hope it's the same part on both sides and they didn't, you know, use a different one. Oh, I guarantee they did. They look the same and it's stern. Even then they were cheap, so they probably used the same one, I would think. There'd be no reason to use different ones if you didn't have to. So I'm thinking it's the same. So other than that, it's fine. The problem is that's kind of a major play thing that's got to be there in order to play the game. Did you talk to Mr. Scott? I have not, but I believe Scott is a listener. So, Scott, if you're listening, of course, he might have fallen asleep by now. So who knows? I think he has, but, yeah, that's good. That's a common joke, Chris, on our podcast, that everyone's falling asleep because, you know, we try to keep it to an hour. Actually, I think Chris is falling asleep. I think he is, too. Yeah, he is. There he is. Yes. I'm here. Okay, so for repairs for me, I figured out what's going on with me and Zach. We had to mention Zach. Figured out what's going on with his Vector. This is the first for me ever. Wait a minute. Vector. I thought it was Kevin's Vector. It is Kevin's Vector. Jesus. Okay, you can't say his last name right. Now you totally don't even say the right guy. What do you have against Kevin? I need to know. No, nothing. Yeah, if you didn't hear last week, Chris, I was telling Bruce the problem with Vector was that it was Vector. Yeah, I heard you say that. Yeah, he had an all-tech board, and it won't boot because it knows it's in a Vector. Right, that's why it refuses to work. Well, you know, like in the Roadrunner cartoons, you know, when he tries to use stuff on the Roadrunner, and it says, like, right in the bottle, does not work on Roadrunners? That's what it actually says on the all-tech board. It does not work in vector. Well, it does, actually, though, I hate to say.
    105:21
    Guess what actually caused it not to boot to the 7th Flash? Something stupid. Yes. A bad light board.
    105:33
    A bad light board causes it not to boot? Huh? What light board? The light driver board. Oh, the lamp board. The lamp board, yeah. Okay, when you say the light board, I'm thinking of the newer games. They're going to have lamp boards underneath. Nope, nope. Okay. Nope, the whole lamp driver board.
    105:55
    It was drawing down the 5 volts below 4.91. First, we disconnect the lamp board, boot right up, put another one in, boot right up, put it back in. Must be one of the chips is bad or something. There's a short in there. Brings it down below 4.91 volts. Will not boot. So now he's getting a new light board. I get this thing out of my house. A win-win. Yes, win-win. God, I hate Vector. I hate that game.
    106:24
    I think Friday I might be off. I might not be off, but I'm going to replace the power board for the Harlem, and then I'm going to work on Simpsons with my upkick problem, and then hopefully I'll get most of my bugs out. And I have to wrap up now.
    106:41
    Eight balls, and I'm yawning now. We're at 145, so, yeah, I'm a little late on my yawns. So you've got to fix the senses. Yes. And see which we fixed at a cold solder joint on the board, but I lost my sounds on my sound board.
    106:58
    So now I've got to work on that. So moral of the story, don't run tournaments because all your games will die. Yeah, exactly.
    107:08
    Exactly. So for our listeners, we're coming near the end here. Mr. Bucci in the day used to have some killer parties. He did. Any of those in the future? Anything going on in that?
    107:21
    Because I only got to go to one. You know, maybe. There's a party in his pants. Everyone's coming. Okay, okay.
    107:34
    Wow. I thought a pause there would be the best answer. Yeah. So much editing is going to happen here. Oh, fuck, Joe.
    107:47
    You can swear on this, too. You can swear on this. Trust me, I'm on your podcast. You already lost all your listeners before. Yes, excellent.
    107:56
    But you know what? That's something I would like to do. A lot of the games are, they're not party ready, as you well know. So, you know, once you have one party, you know, after 12 hours of them being played, you know, generally some stuff needs tweaked or something, and I just never have gotten the rest of them up to that point. But, you know, I'd really like to. Those are fun. I miss those. I used to have them multiple times a year for a decade or more. I mean, it was really a lot of fun. And, yeah, I'd like to. Who knows? We'll see. we'll see us better than never fuck you people I notice the cursing has gotten worse as we've gone along what the fuck wow wow come on have some class man what's the matter with you come on give me a call sometime when you've got no class oh very good very good it was his birthday today I believe oh man you know I can't do Ronnie Dangerfield I used to be able to really well when I was younger but now it's gone you know my father got fired from a bank he got steel for, yeah I fucked that up see now I understand it yeah my father used to work at a bank he got fired for stealing pens it's just god I love Ronnie Dangerfield if any of you out there you may want to go back we used to have these things called comedy albums back in the day and all your comedians would have their comedy albums. There's the Ronnie Dangerfield No Respect comedy album, probably from the early 80s. It's very funny. It's got all this material you're familiar with. There's even a heckler in there. I love watching comedians just destroy hecklers.
    109:51
    I think his was like, the guy was heckling him, and he's there like, hey, buddy, save your breath. You're going to need it to blow up your inflatable date. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Somebody screamed out, what do you do for a living? And he goes, I got guys for your sister, okay?
    110:07
    I met, you know, what's pretty cool, I have his autograph on a laser disc that I have. I met him in New York City because he has a comedy club out there that he started, Dangerfields. And when I first visited New York for the very first time, sometime in like 99-ish or something, I went there because I just always wanted to go to this danger field because I was always such a fan and he was there he happened to be in New York City at the time which was rare because he was living in California at that point and he happened to be there and I didn't care what I had to do I had to meet him so I just busted through and I just asked him if he could sign I brought it with me just in case because you never know I happen to have a Ladybugs Laserdisc with the Ruddy Digifield on the front. I had him sign it. And, you know, I met him real quick. He was real nice. But I will cherish that forever. It's one of my favorite things that I ever got to do.
    111:07
    Caddyshack pinball. Make it happen. Come on. Oh, my God, yeah. Come on. You can do it. I bet with this pinball you get a free bowl of soup, okay?
    111:19
    Hey, Wang, I think this place is restricted. Don't tell them you're Jewish, okay? Something like that. I can't remember. Yes, yes, yes. Yes, yes, there's so many of them, yes. Yes. Oh, God.
    111:32
    Okay, Bruce, are you ready to pay some bills? Or are we doing upcoming shows? I don't really have much on the upcoming shows. I'm just going to plug my website of www.pinballlifter.com. Chris can now make fun of it. Go ahead, Chris.
    111:48
    So he got these shirts made. and he goes to a convention and my friend and Michelle and I who go pretty much every year to this convention we're looking at his shirt and it says pinballlifter.com and there's just one too many L's P-I-N-B-A-L-L-L-L-I-F-T-E-R and apparently nobody noticed it including Bruce yeah fail he was so mad at us remember how mad you got you were mad enough I was like what the fuck I didn't buy these shirts what the fuck but it was like you were pissed at us you wouldn't talk for this for a while I was pissed off about the shirts I was like what the fuck I put like a hundred dollars in these shirts and there I am like and the skull says spell better see but a very good product. Yes, we try. We try.
    112:50
    I really didn't do any show prep for the new show. The only thing I know coming up is Central New York Pinball is the final league night coming up this Friday. Anyone's welcome. If you go to Facebook and look up Central New York Pinball, you can check out all the information. The selfie leagues are still going on this month.
    113:10
    For Rochester, it is Knox Amusement Pinball Location League. for Syracuse it is Syracuse Pinball Location League and for Buffalo Pinball is Buffalo Pinball Selfie League all three are going around right now I don't even know when the next Papa Circuit event is or anything like that so I'm a little out of touch with this but next week we will definitely be more on the ball this with more a Chris Bucci extravaganza so we'll be much more on the ball when we're not having a guest We'll be a lot more prepared. Yeah, that sounds great. It's the truth, though. Right? I'm fully prepared, right? Because I knew everyone's name from the tournament. I didn't have to look anything up. You had your games all set up and ready to go for your game to, like, game to hate. Yeah, I had everything all set up, yes. There is one thing. Do you know when the vote will be occurring for where the upstate tournament will be? Because Mr. Howard, when I was there, was inquiring if I knew anything. about when that was happening. Yeah, it will be hopefully this week. I've just been so busy with work. It will be coming up, and it will be – first we'll be asking the regional guys where they want to get the top three, and then we'll all vote on it. So that will be the fun part. Yeah, when I was at Howard's, I realized how long I have to go to really get the – I'll be honest, I'm looking for in the game room. Because Howard's is all, like, bowling-themed, and just there's no part of the wall. There's no area where there's not something, either like, you know, posters or flyers or all kinds of things. And he has his chairs are the actual chairs, like, from a bowling alley, which is so damn cool. And the jukebox and the speakers and all that. And I just don't. Ronnie doesn't have any of that. He's just got a basement full of games. I'm trying to get the posters up there. Yes, I saw. I'm trying the best I can.
    115:07
    I agree. Oh, man. Come on. Take it easy, will you? Take it easy. We're talking class. Come on. Yeah.
    115:15
    So, yes, I want to thank Chris for coming on again. You are always welcome on here, Mr. Bucci. So if you ever want to join us again, just email me or message. I know the fans will probably comment. Definitely.
    115:28
    They're very friendly when we have guests on. And if you are in the Erie, Pennsylvania area, please attend the – Fools. Fools, yes, allinact.net There's two more shows Actually, the Saturday show It's a cute little fairy tale comedy Written by Neil Simon And the Saturday show Is actually a benefit show that they do every year To raise money for Kids charity Which is the local shelter It's for children's Christmas presents Coats And it's a big fundraiser 100% of the ticket sales goes to that So it's a really nice thing It's a great thing. We usually end up getting close to – we usually sell out those shows or get close to selling out those shows, and that's a nice thing because it's good for the community too on top of it. But I have to tell you, this has been a blast. Thanks for having me on here. I hope I can do this again because you guys are – I mean, you know, both of us are friends. It's easy to talk to friends. But also it's been nice sharing some stories, and I hope your listeners don't unsubscribe. Hot subscribe. Yes, yes. Please check out Bruce's YouTube video channel. It's S-P-I-D-A-1-A. Right. And I'll have the Ghostbusters video up in the next day or two, and then hopefully that John Trudeau interview, which is pretty interesting. If you ever met John, talked to him, he's pretty down to earth. He's down to earth, but he's very energetic about his stuff. He is. He loves what he does. He gave me some really good insight on some things that were pulled from the game.
    117:10
    It's interesting. I like that stuff. So what can I say? And the thing I'll say about John, unlike Borg and Richie, who kind of, I would say, always stay in a certain comfort zone, John will try anything. Yeah. And if you've seen some of his games from the past, he will literally try anything. His layouts are never... I think I joked with him that you don't really have a trademark you just sort of do what you want to do and you try new things and he goes well that's kind of my trademark and I go ah yeah speak different yep and he's had so many white woods that he has pictures of games that just never even happen oh just something I worked on and we never really did anything with that because at one point he was like Gottlieb's only designer in the mid 80's there he was basically the man so he got to design a ton of games So, yes, Chris, thank you for being on the show. Thank you very much. We built it up. It was like a great play or great movie. We built it up, and then we had the big climax. And now it's the epilogue. So the closing credits are coming through now. So thanks, everyone. This is the Slamtail Podcast. You can catch us on Facebook. Just search for Slamtail Podcast. We are on YouTube. Again, just search for Slamtail Podcast. Any comments can be sent to slamtillpodcast at gmail.com. Again, thank you, Chris. Thank you, Bruce. Thank you, everyone. Thank you, everybody. Don't forget, episode 20, this was... This was Into Darkness Con. Goodbye, Bruce. Goodbye, Mr. Kevin Manning.
    119:00
    Thank you.