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Episode 105: Stay Positive, Test Negative

This Flippin' Podcast·podcast_episode·55m 32s·analyzed·Nov 18, 2020
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.030

TL;DR

Location ops update: 25 machines, Avengers launch, Sorin ROMs licensed, restoration culture thriving.

Summary

Tommy Skinner recounts North End Pub location updates from November 2020, detailing five weeks of new machine acquisitions (Ali, Super Mario Bros..., Radical, Big Guns, Spider-Man, Avengers Infinity Quest) and removals. He discusses operating performance, community safety during COVID-19, and highlights positive industry developments including Sorin's partnership with Planetary Pinball for licensed ROM updates, restoration projects using Geiger playfield kits, and reproduction parts availability for classic machine enthusiasts.

Key Claims

  • Super Mario Bros... (Gottlieb) earned better than machines costing more, proving theme is huge for operating performance

    high confidence · Tommy Skinner, direct operating experience at North End Pub

  • Black Knight Sword of Rage topper cost $400 instead of $1,000 but rivals best toppers in pinball history

    high confidence · Tommy Skinner, personal acquisition

  • Avengers Infinity Quest code is at v.93 and ranks third among Keith's (Elwin) games but still step above rest

    high confidence · Tommy Skinner, hands-on experience at location

  • Avengers designed for masses with easier shots than Iron Maiden/Jurassic Park, broader Marvel IP appeal than niche themes

    medium confidence · Tommy Skinner, design analysis and observation

  • Sorin ROMs officially licensed through Planetary Pinball as of yesterday (Nov 17, 2020) with four initial releases including Creature from the Black Lagoon

    high confidence · Tommy Skinner, citing recent official release

  • Pinball Resource provides top-notch customer service despite inconvenient website

    high confidence · Tommy Skinner, personal vendor experience

  • North End Pub has 25 machines currently, best two-week coindrop of the year, running eighth week of league play

    high confidence · Tommy Skinner, location operator

  • Space Rider and one Miss World conversion kits completed; Lady Death conversion planned for winter/spring

    high confidence · Tommy Skinner, personal restoration projects

  • PinballSparePartsAustralia released reproduction Bally/Stern transformer and rectifier board kits

    medium confidence · Tommy Skinner, citing recent product release (source verification needed)

  • Multiple ramp reproduction vendors (Jody, Free Play 40, Fantasy Starship) communicate openly and coordinate production to avoid duplication

Notable Quotes

  • “Theme is absolutely huge to a pinball machine from an operating standpoint.”

    Tommy Skinner @ ~5:40 — Core operating philosophy: theme drives casual play and revenue more than mechanical sophistication

  • “That topper itself has led to people playing the game, listening to the Black Knight talk shit, just draws people in.”

    Tommy Skinner @ ~11:20 — Illustrates how physical/aesthetic elements (toppers) drive casual engagement and retention

  • “Keith's games are still a step above the rest.”

    Tommy Skinner @ ~25:00 — High regard for Keith Elwin's design relative to industry peers, even while ranking Avengers third of three

  • “Avengers, what I think we're seeing is a game that was designed more for the masses.”

    Tommy Skinner @ ~26:30 — Strategic design positioning: Avengers targets broader audience than Iron Maiden/Jurassic Park

  • “Iron Man lock of the vertical target is if they haven't advertised I don't know how you would advertise that to me is like the coolest shot on the game.”

    Tommy Skinner @ ~33:00 — Identifies hidden mechanical innovation in Avengers; vertical target lock is standout design element

  • “I wanted to see these things getting taken out of a warehouse and actually built and converted into machines so as of right now i believe that tally is up to two completed space riders and one completed Miss World.”

    Tommy Skinner @ ~49:30 — Documents restoration/conversion culture; track record of Geiger kit conversions

  • “Sorin will be working on new titles that have not been previously released, so that is great news for the pinball hobby.”

    Tommy Skinner @ ~57:00 — Marks shift of Sorin ROMs to official licensed product with expansion to new titles

  • “All three of them have open dialogue they communicate with each other and they're trying not to double up on any sort of production.”

Entities

Tommy SkinnerpersonThis Flippin' PodcastorganizationNorth End PubvenueKeith ElwinpersonSteve RitchiepersonSorinperson[name withheld pending review]companyPinball ResourcecompanyStern Pinballcompany

Signals

  • ?

    operational_signal: North End Pub expanded to 25 machines (record high), achieved best two-week coindrop of 2020, hosts 8-week league season with up to 25 players; operations maintained during COVID-19 with SD90 sanitizing, hand sanitizer, social distancing in spread-out game areas. No player infections reported.

    high · Tommy detailed specific operational metrics, safety protocols, and league structure

  • $

    market_signal: Gottlieb Super Mario Brothers outearned more expensive machines; Avengers Infinity Quest far outearned Iron Maiden and Jurassic Park at launch; theme accessibility (Marvel IP mass appeal) drives casual play revenue more than mechanical complexity.

    high · Tommy's direct operating data from North End Pub; specific revenue comparisons

  • ?

    code_update: Sorin's unofficial ROM modifications for classic Williams/Bally games (previously disappeared months ago) now officially licensed and distributed through Planetary Pinball as of November 17, 2020. Initial four releases include Creature from the Black Lagoon. Sorin committed to developing ROMs for previously-unreleased titles.

    high · Tommy cited official Planetary Pinball announcement; confirmed four initial releases

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Keith Elwin's three Stern designs show distinct design intent: Iron Maiden (designer's personal game, niche theme), Jurassic Park (tournament/competitive-focused, difficulty peaks for skilled players), Avengers (mass-market casual appeal, broader IP, easier ramp entrances and multiball starts). Avengers at v.93 code shows successful accessibility targeting.

    high · Tommy's detailed comparative analysis of shot difficulty, multiball triggers, and mode spelling across three games

  • ?

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.167

0:00
Hey guys, what's up? This is Tommy Skinner and you are listening to This Flippin' Podcast. This is episode 105. I am coming to you bright and early at 8.40am on this beautiful, cold, chilly November 18th of 2020. I've been gone for about a month or so, had some schedule changes at school, and unfortunately, as with 2020, the pandemic has not gone away my school has just re-entered into a shutdown so my students are doing e-learning today and i am sitting here at school waiting for them to log in and do some work so i have something to grade so in the meanwhile i figured i would bust out my microphone and talk a little bit about what's been going on over the last let's say roughly five to six weeks within pinball and whatever other adventures you want. So as per usual, thanks for tuning in. This is This Flippin' Podcast with Tommy Skinner. And we're going to dive right into what I have been up to at my location. And over the last five weeks, we have added in a whole bunch of new games. Because the reality is, although it is a pandemic, the location where my games are located is still allowed to be open and we have taken extra precautions to keep things safe and sanitary but people want to be out and doing some things so we are providing that and over the last month we have added in Ali by Stern Electronics the greatest pinball machine as you can spell it on the game and see it on all the advertising features no less than like eight images of Muhammad Ali himself a great classic stern game that has been pretty popular I've actually owned that game since I think March and it was just uh out on loan to a friend and I actually planned to sell the machine I had someone who's interested in it and they wanted some more photos and videos of it playing so I brought it down to the bar so I could take all that and then uh just waiting to hear on them when they're coming to get it but until then I figured I'd let people enjoy the machine and play it so added in another classic solid state there uh just a couple weeks ago I picked up a Gottlieb Super Mario Brothers this is the first Gottlieb machine that I've had on location at North End Pub and I will say I know the game gets bashed on quite a bit but honestly I have fun playing it and it's been really popular down at the bar. Unfortunately, I did have a flipper go down and as per usual, I had to contact Pinball Resource to get my parts ordered. So it took a few extra days, but one, Pinball Resource is inconvenient as their website is. Their customer service through email communication or phone communication is just top notch. Great service there. Got the parts in two nights ago, went down there, rebuilt those flippers, got everything working and going good. And that game is back up and running and playing well and it is it is fun to shoot if you are a fan of the mario video games or just really basically i think if you're like a a child of the late 70s or the 80s and you grew up with that sort of era of mario you're really going to appreciate a lot of these sounds and animations within the game and i don't know exactly what sort of like if they were to make a modern mario pinball machine what uh better storytelling could be included within the game but as far as creating like something around the theme of mario they did a good job and although the game doesn't have a ton of shots the shots it does have are fun i love shooting that right flipper to the upper play field uh and then hitting that combo shot right to the upper play field ramp from that side so i mean it's it's what it is um i will sort of you know as i always have update you guys on or at least share my experience of operating these games um super mario brothers came in and it earned far better than many machines that cost more than it. Proving once again that theme is absolutely huge to a pinball machine from an operating standpoint. And that's with this game located in the bar. Now that I've got the flippers rebuilt, I'm still waiting on some LEDs for it. And then once I get those all installed, we're going to put that over on the bowling alley side of my location in the family area. So I think that's something that kids will definitely dump money into as well um next uh we've had we've been one of i think 18 locations across the country that have had america's most haunted on location we've had it for about a year and a half that game belongs to my buddy mark and mark got offered a trade of a black knight sword of rage premium for it and uh he jumped at that opportunity so i got the game all packed up and we met with the owner of the black knight a little bit south of indy made our trade uh very nice man happy to get the game uh coolest of all it came with the topper for the black knight sword of rage which has to be just one of the best toppers i've ever seen maybe the best topper in the history of pinball um odd because it only cost four hundred instead of $1,000 that they could make something so good. But regardless, very cool. And I will say that that topper itself has led to people playing the game, listening to the Black Knight talk shit, just draws people in. And with the music on that game being from, what was it, Scott Ian of Anthrax, it really fits well with a lot of my player base there. And they love the music on the game and they want to keep playing it and battling the Black Knight. I will say it's one of my more preferred Steve Ritchie layouts.

medium confidence · Tommy Skinner, observation of industry collaboration

Tommy Skinner @ ~70:00 — Demonstrates collaborative ethos among ramp reproduction vendors, avoiding market fragmentation

Avengers Infinity Quest
game
Iron Maidengame
Jurassic Parkgame
Black Knight Sword of Ragegame
Spider-Mangame
Super Mario Bros.game
Radical!game
Geigercompany
Replay Restorationscompany
Jodyperson
PinballSparePartsAustraliacompany
Indianapolis 500game
PIN Slashevent
Creature from the Black Lagoongame

restoration_signal: Growing ecosystem of Geiger playfield kit conversions (two Space Riders, one Miss World completed; Lady Death Mata Hari in progress). Replay Restorations providing professional restoration services. Supports preservation of unreleased/limited playfield designs.

high · Tommy's detailed tracking of conversion completion; Miss World documentation on Replay Restorations Facebook; personal winter project plans

  • ?

    product_strategy: Modern Stern games (Spider-Man, Avengers) balance casual entry with competitive depth: easy shots/multiballs for walk-ins but layered mode completion, gem placement, and shot stacking for skilled players. Ramp entrance width and target placement engineered for 3-flipper hitability.

    high · Tommy's technical analysis of gauntlet ramp design, vertical Iron Man target, Thor multiball trigger accessibility

  • ?

    community_signal: Three independent ramp reproduction vendors (Jody, Free Play 40, Fantasy Starship) maintain open dialogue and intentionally avoid duplicating production to expand collective product breadth. Demonstrates collaborative ethos in parts/service ecosystem.

    high · Tommy's direct observation of vendor coordination strategy

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: PinballSparePartsAustralia released reproduction Bally/Stern transformer and rectifier board kits, removing major hurdle for custom machine builds. Expected U.S. distributor pickup. Enables enthusiast conversion projects without sacrificing donor machines.

    medium · Tommy cited recent product release; noted as solution to conversion bottleneck

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Tommy noted Super Mario Brothers 'gets bashed on quite a bit' but reported strong actual performance, player enjoyment, and theme resonance with 70s/80s cohort. Suggests critical discourse misaligns with operational reality for themed games.

    high · Tommy's explicit discrepancy between online criticism and location earnings/play data

  • ?

    design_innovation: Avengers Infinity Quest features innovative Iron Man vertical target lock (accessed via specific spinning disc) described as 'coolest shot' not previously seen in pinball; uniquely hits from all three flippers; enables accidental multiball starts for casual players.

    high · Tommy's detailed mechanical praise and design positioning relative to previous Elwin games

  • ?

    venue_signal: North End Pub adapted to COVID-19 restrictions: used closed music venue stage space for machine expansion (25 machines), implemented SD90 sanitizer spray, provided hand sanitizer, spread machines across bar/bowling alley/game room for social distancing, maintained 8-week league with safety protocols.

    high · Tommy's detailed safety and operational structure; explicit mention of vaccine/masking hopes for music venue reopening

    • 6:05
    Still not a huge fan. I do think the Pro model plays better than the Premium, but I also understand that it's Black Knight and you want to have an upper play field on there.
    6:15
    Personally, if it's my game, I'm probably trying to trade down, but it's Mark's game, it's earning pretty well, and it has been popular so far. So it is what it is. We have it there. About a month ago when we had our fall break, I picked up a Radical from Bally. 1990 skateboarding themed system 11. The play field reminds me of Lisa Frank and all the bright and neon colors. and it's a really fun game that you don't see very often four flippers uh what do you got one two three different ramp entrances you're spelling radical to basically light your lock and then you spell it again to lock a second ball and start your multi-ball it's pretty simple it's a system 11 it is what it is but it's really fun to shoot um and i was fortunate enough to be able to track down some of the soren roms which we will talk to you later as soren and planetary pinball have now officially partnered to be releasing code updates for these Bally Williams titles and they just started that as of yesterday officially posting them to the site with four initial releases most importantly of course Creature from the Black Lagoon and we'll get into that later but Radical which I didn't know how my player base would take because I've had early solid state games in there and modern games but I've never really done sort of that middle era of solid state and it blew me away the first week it was there he got it added in i think a week or so before avengers showed up which we'll discuss as well but it actually although it didn't earn as well as avengers it actually got more plays than avengers did which really kind of surprised me how much everyone there was enjoying that title but it's got great sounds visually it's just very impressive the game came with a set of pin stadiums already installed so i just left them in there And it does really help light up that game so you can appreciate all the artwork and colors on it. I got another System 11, Big Guns. This is one I won't be keeping for very long. It came in a package deal with some arcade stuff. And I really just wanted one of the arcade things out of the deal. But everything was priced accordingly. And the Big Guns is actually in really good shape. And I will say it is more fun than I had anticipated. I've never really spent a whole lot of time on Big Guns. It does have a switch issue that I haven't even had time to sort out yet Where basically a switch is stuck somewhere and it sends you into a multi-ball early So I've got to figure that out But once I get that situated, that'll go up for sale I've had a few people already interested in it I have to say the cannon mechs that shoot the balls into the wire form on that game are really impressive They work flawlessly I can't believe it hasn't been used more often because it's quite visually appealing for a player to shoot a ball into there and then watch it be launched back at you very interesting next up on our edition list is a Stern Spider-Man this is from the original run it's not a vault edition and that has been doing really well I know we've discussed this game on the show before in the past that this is a Steve Ritchie game I really do like. I know that Taylor had it for quite a while. And I think it's just a really well-designed game, as it should be. You have Steve Ritchie, who is a great designer, even if he's not one of my preferred designers. And you've got Lyman Sheets on code. And there's this very good entry-level skill set within that game of, hey, let's start our Doc Ock multiball. All right, let's get our Black Suit multiball going. And you can stack the multiballs. you explain that to almost anyone they get it um bashing the targets to drop down so you can bash on sandman they get it the ramps are not easy to hit but they're they're not difficult to hit they're they're really well done you have all of that and then you can get into your deeper side of things of shooting all the white spiders starting your modes multiplying shot values playing for your Battle Royale and Super Hero. And I have played the Vault Edition quite a bit because that's what Main Street Amusements previously had. But I hadn't put a ton of time on an original.
    10:40
    And I will say some of the subtle differences that I know were sort of price cut out of the Vault Edition, like the Green Goblin being on a coil.
    10:49
    As silly as that sounds, it gives the player more physical feedback when you're hitting those targets, and it really does make a difference. My machine also has a shaker motor installed on it, which does provide some nice feedback. It's LED'd out, but it's not like any sort of crazy modded out, and it just plays well. It's fun.
    11:11
    It's been really popular as well. We did just have our best two-week period of the year as far as Coindrop goes. We've also got more machines at the location now than we've ever had before. We are at 25 machines currently, with that 25th machine being the much-lauded, very popular, brand-new release, Avengers Infinity Quest. And we did get the premium model, so we've added two Stern premiums in the last month.
    11:43
    And we're going to spend some time talking about Avengers. So, it's been interesting. I've seen the topic pop up on Facebook, on Pinside, just chatting with friends, but basically evaluating Ski's third title. And where does Avengers rank against Iron Maiden and Jurassic Park? And there's been a lot of differing opinions. It's really interesting. I will say the initial reception and critical feedback on Avengers, I would say it's a little bit not disappointing. Because it's not, but it's just not quite on par with what Maiden and Jurassic Park were.
    12:27
    And I think, you know, I'll share my opinions on why I think that is. but essentially with Maiden, you had a game that was in development for an extended period of time. It was initially a homebrew with the designer putting in everything that he wanted,
    12:50
    and it was eventually converted to that theme with some modifications. With Jurassic Park, which I will personally say is my favorite out of the three still, there's some really tough shots on there and there's very different approaches to the game as far as do you want to play for T-Rex modes do you want to play for paddocks do you want to play for the control room are you trying to play everything and really blow it up your combos, your fossils all sorts of little things it's just such a varied path you can take and that's not even touching on the escape new bar mode which is part of pin clash which I will bring up here a little bit later in the episode as well but Jurassic Park is just a really really high bar for me on top of really loving the Jurassic Park movies myself and I think it's so well done I have downloaded the new modified code that puts the original film assets into the machine I know Taylor has also done that I have not installed it on my machine because I'm participating in PIN Clash and we have to use the official Stern software.
    14:05
    But when this PIN Clash is over on December 5th, I do intend to install that. And we're actually going to try and put Jurassic Park out in the bar area as well and see how that does. So, that's where that's at. Now, as far as Avengers goes for me, currently at the code it's sitting at, it's .93. I would probably rank it as third out of Keith's games.
    14:30
    That being said, Keith's games are still a step above the rest. I really, really am enjoying it. I think the shots on the game are awesome. I think whereas you look at Iron Maiden, it was Keith's game that he was designing for himself. When you look at Jurassic Park, I think it was Keith's game that he was designing for the competitive pinball scene. For people who are heavily involved in leagues and tournaments and things along those lines. And now when I look at Avengers, what I think we're seeing is a game that was designed more for the masses. Um, for multiple reasons. One, it keeps changing things up again and doing something a little bit different from his previous titles. And two, it's a theme that appeals to the masses far more than either Iron Maiden or Jurassic Park probably would have currently based on the success of the Marvel film franchises through Marvel and Disney. So it makes sense. Um, but the reasons I believe that is some of the shots are just simply easy, like easier than shots on his previous games. whereas the ramp through the pops on iron maiden on the left side as well as just the right ramp being kind of a small entrance can be fairly hard to hit you know once you get them dialed in you're good but for a casual player walking up you're going to struggle now when we jump over to jurassic park you got a left ramp that's fairly easy to hit and then you got a right ramp that's pretty hard to hit and that's not even including your tower shot and your helicopter shot which in my mind are ramps and they're just like you know they're not hard but they're certainly not a lot of casuals walking up on their first game and hitting those so you've got that now you go to avengers and you've got this ramp that's right up the middle and you shoot it and you hit it and although it's steep the ball really climbs it quite easily and then you've got your gauntlet ramp which is one of the most unique ramps that we've seen in a pinball machine um but the fact that it has such a wide entrance and it is specifically designed to be able to be hit from all three flippers means that most of your casuals walking up are now going to be able to do that.
    16:47
    You've got an easier multi-ball to start than he's had on any of his previous machines with Thor. Bash, bash, bash, multi-ball is going. You know, so casuals are going to stumble into that. Your Iron Man is a little bit harder because most players are not going to be perceptive enough to pick up on how you're spelling iron most casual players to light those locks initially but if you've played the thor multiball there's a really good chance you have spelled iron and that lock is going to be available to you coming out of that so players are stumbling into that multiball and that iron man lock of the vertical uh very target is if they haven't advertised i don't know how you would advertise that to me is like the coolest shot on the game it is really amazing how well that works and how different it is from anything we've seen before and when you combine that in within the hawkeye challenges which are really fun little mini games within the game it's quite unique now as far as modes go keith has stuck with his system of you spell something so on maiden's eddie on drastic park it's map and now when we hit avengers you're spelling strange but in a difference where the first two games you are having to hit specific shots to collect your letters that are lit on this one we're hitting a spinning disc that has a pretty large post and you're probably going to accidentally hit it if you're missing other shots even or if you aim it's gonna be even easier but you're spelling strange by hitting one specific target and making it spin which i think leads to easier mode starts for players once you get in the modes they're very clear on what it is that you're shooting although i think there will be more and more of that developed as the code develops um and players have a decent chance of being able to complete a mode because when you start it it's color coordinated it just to me the shots stand out and make it kind of nice um what becomes difficult is understanding completing the mode collecting your gem and then placing your gem so even if you grasp that basic concept now we're getting into the more advanced area where keith is again i think really catered to tournament player minds uh as we've already seen with carl d'angelo's placement of his gemstones to end up with a two flip soul gem completion but the powers of those gemstones and where we put them on the play field and how we move them and how we use them that's going to really add a unique competitive advantage to the game um i know some people complain about how it plays a little bit longer but with so much depth in the game i think that's a good thing and it's an okay thing and my players feel like they're getting their money's worth whereas drastic park i think it's always been a little bit too difficult for my casual walk-in players and although iron maiden has some more basic things that are easier for a casual player it's just a theme that is more niche and doesn't jump out to anyone and not anyone but doesn't jump out to as many people as say drastic park or avengers would um as far as earnings go avengers has far out earned what iron maiden or drastic park ever did initially to start with i've been really really happy with that and i specifically at my location had two people that hang out at the location a lot but they're there more of a social group thing but they don't do a lot of the pinball stuff with us they've never played in any of our events i'll just occasionally see them playing a game with some friends they have gone out of their way to tell me how much they like avengers and how much they've played that machine since it was brought in. So I think that has absolutely more mass appeal than some of the previous games that have come from Keith, and it'll be really interesting to see what sort of a longevity this run has, as I know they're still cranking out Jurassic Park. I think they're still making Iron Maidens. Keith's games have stayed on the line because they continue to excel within both home collections as well as public locations. but those are the updates to my location down at north end pub we did get rid of demolition man and we also got rid of world cup soccer and as i sit here recording i don't know how well my microphone's picking it up but there's definitely some construction just started in the hallway so hopefully that's not too distracting um but yeah we're at 25 machines right now like I said, Big Guns will be sold Ali will be sold Radical, I do believe is being sold to our friend of the show here who reached out to me when I picked it up saying if it goes to move let him know and I said I don't plan to keep it long and that one will be out the way we'll get back down to about 20 games at the location just because from a space and maintenance standpoint that's much easier but right now with the stage at the bar the music aspect of it, the music venue aspect, not being allowed to have shows. As more restrictions were actually just put in place last night, they probably won't be having shows for a couple more months. We're using that stage space to host for the machines right now, and we can get those out of there whenever the music venue aspect of the business is able to come back. That way we got live bands coming back in. So hopefully with the recent announcements of some vaccines and maybe people masking up a little bit more and socially distancing a little bit more. We'll get to that path eventually.
    22:09
    But that's your, again, your North End Pub updates. We're going to keep operating as long as the government lets us. We are using SD90, which is a chemical spray I'm putting on the machine that's supposed to kill everything, including COVID, last up to 90 days. We're putting it on much more frequently. we are having league nights this is actually this will be our eighth week of league our final week this thursday so just tomorrow night um that'll be wrapping up our league season we've provided hand sanitizer we've had up to 25 players play in league this season our machines are spread out over the bar area the balling alley area and a game room area so it's very easy to socially distance we've provided sanitizer and knock on wood and no one has gotten sick from our location at all um and we have had one player who didn't want to play because they uh they were worried and they didn't feel comfortable being out and that's also totally okay totally get it you have to do what is best for you and if you don't feel safe and it's diminishing the fun you're having from what should be fun when you're playing pinball definitely don't go out and play right now that's absolutely all right uh if you want to play and you take your safety precautions and you feel safe and comfortable and like you want that excitement release enjoyment of whatever the pinball is for you that's okay too you know just be smart about things and do your best to respect other people's uh wishes on staying safe for themselves so as we jump from the updates of my location i did want to simply talk about uh some positive things going on within the hobby one we've mentioned them on the show before but i i imported a bunch of german playfield kits from a company called geiger a little over a year ago now and another one has been completed this one is a missed world conversion i sold it to a gentleman over on the east coast named mark and he sent it to a company called replay restorations definitely check out their facebook page they have a nice couple minute video of the game being played as well as photos and stuff but this one specifically again was a miss world conversion it's a conversion for a ballet kiss machine you've been warned if you go to look it up it's not safe for work it does contain female nudity it is not for everyone's taste at all it wasn't my taste i i have no problem with female nudity but i don't really need it on a pinball machine especially not one that i plan to keep in my home where i have friends who come over with their children i just not my thing um that being said i think it's a really cool and unique piece of pinball history and the restoration job that they did on this game i did sell them the the kit itself as well as a rough valley kiss machine that existed but was going to need some work you know so but what you needed for the base conversion and replay restoration really knocked it out of the park. The game looks beautiful. From the video I saw, it looks like it's playing amazing and brutal and fast. They did an amazing stencil job on the cabinet. I think they're stencils that were designed by Stu from CPR. I'm not 100% positive, but I think that's where those came from, or it might have been Neo Skywalker up inside. I can't remember. One of them had this style of cabinet. Anyway, go check out Replay Restorations. Mark, thank you for purchasing the kit from me, and thank you for taking the time and effort to send that to someone who would do the work and get it made into a complete and working machine and like just save another little piece of pinball history because that's really what my whole main goal was with importing a lot of these machines these play fields was to see these things getting taken out of a warehouse and actually built and converted into machines so as of right now i believe that tally is up to two completed space riders and one completed Miss World. I am planning to start to work on my Lady Death Mata Hari conversion over the winter here in the next few months and hopefully have that ready to go by spring. So we'll see how that one works out. So that's one of my positive news. Next we're going to talk about Sorin. Again, his ROMs disappeared a few months ago. If you're not familiar with Sorin, he takes older Bally Williams games and he does code updates, largely aimed at the competitive pinball feel of making the games more tournament worthy um getting rid of exploits errors bugs etc he's been doing this for years they were always unofficial releases before and you'd have to kind of download them and burn around yourself or find someone who could burn around for you etc and then suddenly they just vanished months ago and i had theorized then that they were probably going to become a licensed product and turned out i was correct and they are now um i did see somebody and I do apologize it was just scrolling through Facebook earlier say it maybe was slam tilt possibly they have done a interview with Soren about this project but they did officially become available through Planetary Pinball as of yesterday with the one standing out to me being Creature from the Black Lagoon as one of the first releases but I think they released four titles yesterday and they did say that Soren will be working on new titles that have not been previously released, so that is great news for the pinball hobby, because we're getting these machines that are 25, 30 years old that are now getting code updates, and that awesome To see that there always room for improvement on these machines is great Speaking of which I know Stern Spooky and Jersey Jack have all been doing a much better job over the past year of getting code updates out for their machines And that's really cool of all of them as well. So guys, keep that up. We appreciate it. Next, I just saw this today. And this goes out to some people who are doing these conversion kit projects or restoring classic valleys. want to build a classic ballet from scratch ballet or stern etc but a home pin out of australia via china um and for whatever you know i know he's not the hobby's favorite person and i know that some of their uh titles such as uh thunderbirds is that what it was i can't remember what it was oh it was so bad when it comes to a pinball machine i wouldn't count on them for design But they have just released a reproduction Ballystern transformer and rectifier board kit that comes all together. And it's available on PinballSparePartsAustralia.com, I think is what it is, or the website. And I'm guessing we'll see someone in the U.S. carry those as a distributor. Because I know that's one of the hurdles to doing these conversions if you don't want to sacrifice another machine is getting a transformer. so that is some good news out there for anyone who's into the classic battle and stern stuff like I am another game that has piqued my interest because I'm planning to help a friend do a playfield swap on it, we just recently acquired a restored playfield from my buddy Mark's Indianapolis 500 Mirko, high class playfields, he does all the playfields for Jersey Jack, did them for Highway might do American Pinball, I'm not sure honestly on that one but he's come up with a product called Radcows I know many of you have seen them before they were initially on I think The Hobbit and then they've continued to produce them for older titles they recently announced they'll be doing Indie 500 cabinet decals which are notoriously faded and always need a ton of work so that's awesome, put me down for a set of those that's really cool i love when companies are doing these things to help keep these old games alive and that's a lot of what uh sort of my good news and shout outs here and for contributing to the hobby and positive ways are for uh next up i want to talk about ramps so many pinball machines with these plastic ramps the ramps just break that's the reality we got a steel ball flying at them plastic ages it gets more brittle etc etc for whatever the reason is whether you just have a broken ramp or you have a really really dirty ramp you want to play some clean ones there's a few different people that have been contributing to ramps for the pinball hobby over the last several years there is jody there is free play 40 and then you have fantasy starship what's really cool is all three of these men or companies are passionate about pinball all three of them are in the same business they're all making reproduction playfield ramps what is really cool is all three of them have open dialogue they communicate with each other and they're trying not to double up on any sort of production so if one guy is already making ramps for this title the other two aren't going to do it but the bottom line is that allows them to create products for more games and i have ordered ramps from all of these companies uh most recently just because with jody i did just pick up a location update i haven't put out location yet so i didn't update it but i picked up a got leave spring break last week and although the ramp on it isn't in terrible shape jody makes a colored one a purple translucent ramp to go on spring break and i think it looks really cool and it's very affordable and i want to support someone who's trying to help the hobby out so i'm ordering one of those purple spring break ramps from jody looking forward to that arriving my spring break machine needs a little bit of work i'm going to take that down to dan st john at main street amusements so i can support another local business during these tough times where he's only open a couple days a week, I want to take some repair work there. Is it something I can maybe do on my own? Yeah, probably. But the reality is right now, wrestling season's going on, school's all up in the air, I don't know what's happening with my job at the bar, what are our hours going to be restricted to, and fixing a pinball machine right now is just one less stress that I need when I have someone I know I can trust and I can take it to, and I can get my work done on it very well for a fair price. So anyway, thank you Jody, Freeplay40Mark, and Fantasy Starship, you guys, for all producing these ramps that are keeping our games looking good and playing good. We appreciate it. And lastly, there is Beehive Pinball has entered into the realm of playfield reproduction. They are new to it. They are still working on their first titles. But they're doing some really cool stuff because they're restoring some classic Stern stuff that not a lot of people have had interest in over the years. They're not really high dollar games. and not only is he doing original art reproductions he's also doing some custom ones but in the style and eras that are appropriate for whatever the titles are beginning with star astern stars i've got two play fields on order waiting front to be ready from him one with original artwork and one with the modified artwork i own the stars and mark also owns the stars and we plan to restore both of them and be able to have them side by side at some point so we can do some really neat uh head-to-head video products uh projects with the stern stars machine because that is just one of those classic games that is really hard not to play it's really hard to play one game on it and walk away like you always get sucked back in for some more so we want to have two machines with the new look and the old look side by side eventually so as soon as he has those clear-coded and ready to go uh they should be shipping out to me and I'm excited about that. So those are some of our people who are contributing like parts or code to the physical machines themselves and it's awesome. But although I am an operator and I have my machines on location, the coolest thing about Dependable Hobby is we're not really in competition with one another. It's more like we're all rooting for each other's success. And on that note, friend of the show and friend of us, Stephen Gentry has partnered with a couple of his buddies to open up rock and roll pinball. I've been following them on Facebook. I just subscribed to their email newsletter today as well. The location is, I apologize if I messed this up, but 815 South Railroad Avenue in Opelika, Alabama. So if you happen to be traveling through Alabama, anywhere near Opelika, please stop in and check them out. And if you are not able to stop in and check them out. Check out their Facebook page. Help give them feedback. See what they have going. Right now they're doing $15 admission and they have 25 machines that are on free play. For me, someone who wants to play pinball all day, that's a hell of a bargain. I'm going to save money. So that is really cool. Steven, wish you all the luck in the world with that man. I hope it's going really well.
    35:02
    And again, if any of you are traveling in, around, or near Alabama, go out of your way. go visit Opelika, check out Rock and Roll Pinball, and say hi to Steven for me. Going from there, this one has just been sort of announced, and details are still to come, but Stern shared something the other day on their social media that showed pinball machines at Dave and Buster's, which, one, that alone is really cool. Awesome to see pinball machines going back into Dave and Buster's. Two, they had an amazing video setup for these machines that included a camera view of the playfield and a direct capture view of the display over two different screens set up behind the machine. So one, for a location to do this you're going to have to have tall ceilings to fit this in. But two, I think it's a great idea. It really shows off stuff. I know our friend David Yop has been doing this for years with playfield cameras at his locations. They look great. He's been more than willing to help anyone who wants to recreate that. He's shown exactly what he was using and how to get that set up for people.
    36:13
    He's a great contributor to the hobby in so many different positive ways. But to see Stern doing this at a location, I was really curious if this was an operator run thing, if this is Stern doing this as a demo for Dave and Buster's to try to get the machines more locations. I don't know what the full story is yet at this point but i am looking forward to see what more is to come from there and on that note we're jumping into our next shout out and thank you and contributing to the hobby kevin over at buffalo pinball we we started this show you know shortly before right around the same time as buffalo pinball started their streaming projects so we've both been doing this for several several years now and we've been in communication i think they were our guests on one of our very first episodes to talk about streaming and what they were up to then, and that's what led us to doing some streaming. But Kevin put a guide out there recently, and Kevin's guide was a simply cleaned up and shortened version of a bunch of information that was composited together by several gentlemen over at Tilt Forums in how to directly capture the display from modern Stern LCD pinball machines. and thanks to Kevin's guide I was able to order the parts and get everything set up so I wanted to thank Kevin for taking the time to put together that nice clean cut precise instructions and all the people that contributed the information that allowed Kevin to put that guide together as well because I as a moron essentially when it comes to working on pinball machines all the times was able to get all the right parts get them into the cabinet and then directly capture my display for a stream that I did this past weekend And I streamed more and longer than I think I have ever maybe. I think I was streaming for like four to five hours. And that is thanks to the wonderful Carl D'Angelo. For those of you not familiar, Carl D'Angelo streams under IEPinball on Twitch. And he has YouTube as well. Carl probably puts together the most professional high quality streams that are out there. I know they provide a lot of the coverage for tournaments as well. He's a big contributor to the Tilt Forums thread on streaming, equipment, etc. And he's an all-around amazing player and great human being.
    38:33
    That being said, Carl designed a tournament called Pin Clash. And it's a nationwide event. You have to be able to stream your gameplay. Qualifying just ended this past Sunday on the 15th. and what we were doing was essentially speed runs through the Escape Newlar Competition Challenge mode on Jurassic Park.
    38:57
    And I love the idea. I love that Carl's taking the time and effort and energy to organize this. I think we ended up with over 30 people qualifying or attempting to qualify and 40-something signed up. I can't remember exactly. But a good amount of people, which is one, it's amazing to see that many people that are out there with a Jurassic Park pinball machine and the capabilities to stream nowadays. That's awesome. And then I have to yell at Carl for making me want to smash my beloved Jurassic Park pinball machine. I have never been so aggravated with pinball as I think I was. That's not true. Playing pinball, working on pinball machine definitely frustrates me more. But as far as playing pinball, as I was on Sunday, as I attempted for four plus hours to improve my speed run time through the Escape Noobler Challenge.
    39:45
    But it's awesome. because it got me playing competitive pinball again in a new and unique way that allowed me to be socially distanced, safe, and very, very frustrated and angry again, which is what you feel in pinball competitions sometimes in a good way, because it's a good feeling. It makes you feel alive and like you want to try again and again and again.
    40:04
    But Mr. Robert Byers, while I put in that four hours that day and roughly two hours before, so I put in roughly six to seven hours total of qualifying attempts over the past month, Mr. Robert Byers I believe has the lead when it comes to that as he put in I think it was 46 or 47 hours of qualifying attempts it was quite stunning when you looked at some of the numbers that people were putting up here and what was also really amazing is that through this tournament you found strategy, exploits, etc. whatever you want to call them different ways to stop the clock, to improve your times, etc. and we saw people putting up more and more impressive times. First place ended up going for qualifying to Raymond Davidson. Yes, rated a pinball on streaming. You know, like world champion, one of the top rated players in the world. Odd that he was able to set the fastest time. Also a Stern employee, which makes me a little suspicious about his code, you know, knowledge. But hey, that's okay. He put in a just absolutely amazing time of roughly 1 minute and 26 seconds, which is insane. Coming in second is Escher Lefkoff, former world champion, 135, and then Andy Rosen third at 145. Those are our only three players to break the two-minute mark. Fourth place, you have Luke Nahorniak. Fifth Carlos de la Cerda Sixth Jared August Seventh Dr Phil Grimaldi Eighth Brian O Ninth Robert Byers Tenth Chris Grace Eleventh Derek Price Twelfth Adam Becker Thirteenth Tommy Skinner That's me. With 235 was my best time. And what's crazy is I did that time without completely understanding the rules to escape Mublar and how you could stop the clock intentionally through certain ball drains to strategically do that. I was just freaking on fire for one game. My next best time after that is roughly 250 something, 56, 59, somewhere in that range. I'd have to look at my machine to check. But if I'd gotten that time, I only would have dropped roughly two spots to 15th or 16th place, two or three spots.
    42:21
    So anyway, Matthew Richardson is 14th, 15th, Mike Castleman, 16th, Christopher Morgan, 17th Tom Graff, 18th George Fisher, 19th Kerry Wing, 20th Rodney Minch, RLM Amusements on Twitch. Go and follow him. That's my buddy Rodney. Awesome human. Most of these people are really awesome, let's be honest. If you're playing in this pinball tournament, you probably are. 21, Martin Robbins, 22, Brian Caudill, 23, Zach Wollens, and 24th Zachary Frey. Just missing the cut. Lindsey Rogers, Kevin Bowman, Taylor Reese, Stephanie Traub, Jose Chong, Rebecca Hinsdale, Michael Polero, Anna Neal, and Neil McRae.
    43:06
    So I think that puts us at roughly 32 people that ended up submitting times, and we had roughly another 10 people that were signed up that never ended up submitting times. You had to do this live on stream. But anyway, the top eight are going to get buys in the first round, and the rest of us will not get buys in the first round. and I think based on my seeding, me and Rodney, who are good friends, will actually be playing each other in the first round. What's going to be interesting is this will all be taking place live streamed on December 5th, all being run through Carl's IE Pinball channel. He will be hosting our streams and lining our things up as we face off head-to-head. When we go to play head-to-head, we're not playing for score necessarily. There are four tiers of challenges, and with those challenges, you are rewarded different point values based on how fast you can complete them. So it's a really unique way to compete. Tier 1, start T-Rex multi-ball or capture one dinosaur. Those are your two goals. Tier 2, 50 million plus score, collect a super supply drop, rescue three staff, start 2x scoring, start a control room mode, start chaos multi-ball, start raptor multi-ball. Tier 3 100 million plus score capture two dinosaurs collect a 20 million plus Terradon attack collect one letter in chaos multi ball collect two raptor jackpots collect extra ball collect any fossil collect three DNA combos earn a perfect paddock bonus rescue six staff and tier 4 collect 50 million Terradon attack collect a control room mode fossil collect a TRX event fossil collect a t-rex multi-ball super jackpot or rescue eight staff and the scoring goes 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 based on how quickly you complete those challenges so what's going to happen is we're going to get put on a machine rodney and i are going to face off and carl is going to randomly select a challenge that we will be competing for and it becomes a race against time and although you know we could both technically finish and say under 30 seconds, uh, we'd both be awarded 30 points. I don't know how many challenges we're going to get, um, as we play through that, that I still haven't really read all those rules. Um, but we're going to have to go through a setup procedure where we set up our machines exactly the same as close as possible as you ever can with that sort of thing. And just, again, I want to give a huge shout out to Carl and everyone else who was helping with this there are official sponsors of ray day pinball stern pinball domino and pin shades are all contributing there is prize packages for those of us playing in it bottom line is i'm just excited to be playing competitive pinball again and this is a really cool and safe and fun way for us to do it it also led to me improving my streaming rig um so that i could participate and provide a high quality stream because i don't want to be the guy who has like the awful stream while other people are having a really good one as we're trying to play head-to-head. But anyway, I'm looking very forward to competing December 5th in the Pin Clash finals.
    46:17
    All right. So I think that is largely going to wrap up our episode here. Well, my episode here at this point. I did want to mention just a couple other things that are not pinball-related that I am really enjoying currently at the moment. I think it's important to simply bring ourselves some happiness throughout this pandemic as much as possible. And I just recently picked up an arcade one-up machine. My first one is a NBA Jam. And I have to say that it is really, really fun. The machine includes NBA Jam, NBA Jam Tournament Edition, and NBA Jam Hangtime. And I love to say I never played Hangtime, and I don't know why. I've never really heard much talk about it or anything like that. The game has an absolutely amazingness to it because it's basically a third NBA Jam, except you have much bigger rosters and you can do alley-oops. That is honestly what I've been playing the most on there because it's just the best playing game, which makes sense since games tend to evolve and the sequels tend to be better. But I've been playing that. It has online play that is integrated. It's really cool. I lost my first game last night. Alyssa kind of distracted me while I was playing. ended up losing by a point to the Milwaukee Bucks of all people, and of course on the Chicago Bulls. But I just have to say I'm really impressed with the product. I know those NBA Jam 1-Up arcades have been on sale. They went on sale for $2.50 here just this week in Indiana at Meijer Grocery Stores. So I know a bunch of other people picked them up, and we're going to try to organize some online league play or something, just something for us all to do that allows us to remain socially distanced and still having a good time. uh and then so like nba jam i grew up with i had occasionally seen in an arcade and that was loud and uh i definitely had it for i think it was the sega genesis home console so i've got a lot of experience with it um and as we've talked about before i'm just not a arcade enthusiast the same way that i am a pinball enthusiast i absolutely used to play a lot of video games i was always a console-based player um but without a doubt if you know anything about you know video games pinball arcades etc uh there is a lore and a idolization of the game dragon's lair from 1983 it was featured in stranger things one of my favorite shows the kids in the arcade are playing it um it's referenced all the time because it was revolutionary it was game changing it was laser disc the animations on it were amazing don bluth animations um just so different for its time period and a company called replicate has been making these one-sixth size scale models and if you look at most arcade machines are roughly six feet tall that means this comes in at 12 inches tall um i couldn't resist i've never actually played dragon's lair i've just seen video of it i've seen it referenced in pop culture etc the princess you're trying to rescue is named daphne my dog is named daphne uh and i ordered one of these replicates and it just arrived yesterday last night and i've got to say um it's amazing like the quality of the product is is one it's awesome very well made constructed looks beautiful sounds great plays great the controls are awesome uh to the game itself like it's mind-blowing for me to think this game existed two years before i was born and how much it must have stood out in an arcade when you compare the graphic style that's on this machine compared to everything else that would have been available for play in arcades at that time.
    49:54
    It was 50 cents a play back then. Like, that's expensive. I'm charging 50 cents literally 40 years later for, you know, pinball machines that are much more expensive than now. I can't imagine what this cost back then. I can't imagine how well it earned. But anyway, if you are into retro arcade gaming, et cetera stuff, and you don't have a ton of space or a ton of money for a full-size machine, for roughly 120 bucks, you can get the Dragon's Lair Replicade from New Wave Toys.
    50:23
    I just have to say, I approve of the product. Not that my opinion matters on such things very much, but it's really cool. I'm having fun playing it. The game is brutal. It's hard as hell. It's all memorization and knowing where to go and which scenes, but the journey you take on the way there is just beautiful. It sounds good. It looks good. It is fun to play. I am in no way sponsored by them. I don't know why I'm telling you to go out and waste your money on these sort of things because they are not cheap, but they're not expensive compared to pinball. Anyway, it's really cool. I brought it with me here today at school. I'm going to play it on my lunch break. I have been grading assignments while I've been talking here and unlocking assessments for my students. So don't think that I'm not working. But I missed talking about pinball. I hope everyone is doing their best to stay safe out there as this pandemic continues to not be disappearing. it turns out. Hopefully the news of vaccines and development is positive and those will be available and distributed to those most in need in the coming months and we all can have a much better and healthier 2021. Thanksgiving is just over a week away. It's one of my favorite holidays. I am not going to work on Thanksgiving Day this year for the first time in roughly seven or eight years. Instead, I am planning to stay at home with Alyssa and cook a feast, a giant feast. I want to spend all day cooking. I love cooking Thanksgiving. I would love to feed a ton of people, but that is just not what is going to happen right now. So we're going to make a ton of food. We're going to freeze whatever it is we don't consume immediately. And if somebody needs to come through and grab a hot plate to go, we're going to provide that for some of our friends in the area and stuff we just don't feel real comfortable traveling to go somewhere or having a bunch of people over when we think the right thing to do now is to social distance and isolate as much as possible so that's our plan but i hope everyone out there has a great thanksgiving um i know i was kind of talking fast through this episode but i didn't know how long this was going to go or how much time i would have here at school today and i hope everyone just enjoys it i'm trying to be positive as I know this year has been rough on so many people but at the same time there's been a lot of good things that have happened without a doubt within our hobby new machines from multiple companies code updates great new modifications that are out there products good people if you can support a local arcade in any way shape or form whether that's buying gift cards t-shirts etc please go out and do that i know our friends at high score saloon in southern indiana evansville they are contemplating another shutdown because i think it's the right thing to do to be safe for their staff and employees they are without a doubt i think a absolute beacon of hope in all of this and showing you how you can treat employees and how you can run a business very well while remaining profitable but most importantly taking care of your humans i know they are selling gift cards and shirts. So if you haven't checked out High Score Saloon on Facebook, Evansville, Indiana, check them out. Clint and Jared, just two awesome dudes who are doing their best in obviously what is a rough year and just weird circumstances for absolutely everyone on the planet. Check them out. If you know of any other good arcades that need support, feel free to post about it on our Facebook page or send us an email so we can give them a shout out and try to send some help their way through any means that we can. If that includes some sort of a charity stream, I'm happy to try to organize that. I've got my streaming equipment going pretty solid now to where I feel really comfortable if I were to want to organize or could help organize something like that, I'd be happy to do so.
    54:15
    But yeah, you know, 2020 is, again, a hell of a year. I hope everyone's doing okay. and play some pinball, forget about the troubles of the world, and enjoy the day. I'll be back soon, hopefully. I've got two weeks with no students, and I will be at home. I've got some projects to do, but I'll probably record again because I like this. I like talking pinball. Taylor, I miss you, buddy. Hope you're doing well. I know Taylor completed a half marathon along with Brian Dye over this past weekend. Awesome job, guys. I'm very proud of you. Way to go. Keep it up. I've got wrestling season going. My whole body hurts, but I'm really happy to be in their room working with the kids. With our school shut down, we're still allowed to have practice today because today was already a scheduled e-learning day. Then after that, we haven't got word yet on what we can do. But seeing those kids concerned about their season and stuff, it's been rough over the last few days of practice. But I want them in there working hard, and hopefully I'll return to normalcy in our future. But we shall see. For now, keep playing pinball, guys. everyone stay safe over the holidays eat lots of food, play lots of pinball hug your loved ones stay out of trouble and we'll be back soon bye