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Arcades Across America Part 3 - Past Times Arcade and Free Gold Watch - Episode 44

JBS Show·podcast_episode·1h 14m·analyzed·Oct 11, 2024
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TL;DR

Arcade operators discuss community venues, collection strategies, and the 40th Pinball Expo.

Summary

Jamie Virtuell hosts the third episode of "Arcades Across America," bringing together Matthew Henry from Free Gold Watch (San Francisco), Rob Burke from Pastimes Arcade (Ohio), and Ko from Quarter Drop Arcade (Oregon). The discussion covers how these community-driven arcade venues were founded, their collection philosophies, and the upcoming 40th-anniversary Pinball Expo featuring 36 homebrew games, 110+ speakers, 110+ vendors, and international participation. Rob celebrates the expo's legacy of honoring pinball designers and artists while describing Pastimes' 600+ machine collection spanning international titles.

Key Claims

  • Pastimes Arcade has over 600 games in its collection (pinball and video combined)

    high confidence · Rob Burke stating current collection size during arcade discussion

  • Rob Burke is bringing 150 games to the 40th Pinball Expo, requiring two semis and four 24-foot trucks

    high confidence · Rob directly stating logistics for Expo transportation

  • The 2024 Pinball Expo will feature 36 homebrew games

    high confidence · Rob Burke announcing homebrew count to the podcast panel

  • Free Gold Watch started with four pinball machines (Terminator 2, Whitewater, Jurassic Park, and Whirlwind) and has grown to approximately 60 machines

    high confidence · Matt Henry recounting the venue's history and current machine count

  • The original Pinball Expo was founded 40 years ago (1985) by Rob Burke to recognize pinball designers and artists

    high confidence · Rob describing the show's founding philosophy and recognizing designers like Norm Clark and Steve Kodak

  • Over 300 international registrations for the 2024 Pinball Expo, with attendees from outside the U.S.

    high confidence · Rob stating international participation numbers for the expo

  • Pastimes Arcade was housed in a 30,000-square-foot former grocery store purchased for approximately $100,000

    high confidence · Rob describing the acquisition and initial condition of the building

  • Free Gold Watch operates as a communal arcade with 12-14 different independent operators running machines on the floor

    high confidence · Matt explaining the venue's unique multi-operator business model

Notable Quotes

  • “If you're going to do this make it a museum so the whole world can enjoy it”

    Rob Burke's wife @ ~18:00 — Pivotal moment in founding Pastimes Arcade; transformed personal collection vision into public venue

  • “Are you fucking crazy? There's only two of those in the world. You're so lucky to even play one of them.”

    Chris Koontz (Pinball Pirate) @ ~12:30 — Demonstrates Matt's early naiveté about rarity; humorous introduction to pinball collecting culture

  • “It's what we call here in Ohio Passion. So you got to have the passion. It's beyond love it's passion.”

    Rob Burke @ ~30:00 — Explains personal motivation for 40-year commitment to Pinball Expo

  • “These four gentlemen are responsible for designing over 600 games. Well, everyone stood up and applauded. These guys had tears in their eyes. They couldn't believe it. No one had ever recognized them.”

    Rob Burke @ ~32:00 — Core philosophy behind creating Pinball Expo: honoring overlooked designers and artists

  • “I have met so many of my friends and places I've traveled and things I've done now have all been connected to pinball... this group of people have been it's it's hard for me to even put it into words, but it's just such a great community”

    Matt Henry @ ~55:00 — Reflects on personal transformation through pinball community engagement

  • “You can actually hear the ball rolling, which you don't really get in the modern games... That's always special.”

    Ko (Quarter Drop Arcade) @ ~48:00 — Highlights distinctive sensory qualities of EM machines that appeal to classic enthusiasts

  • “Instead of taking this money home and spending it on some bullshit, I'm going to see if they got this camera”

    Matt Henry @ ~08:00 — Describes the serendipitous decision-making that led to discovering Pinball Hall of Fame

  • “We have over 110 speakers. Imagine this, over 110 vendors... for the 40 people, come on.”

Entities

Rob BurkepersonMatthew HenrypersonKopersonJamie VirtuellpersonFree Gold WatchorganizationPastimes ArcadeorganizationPinball Expoevent

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Large arcade venue operations require significant capital and maintenance expertise (e.g., 30,000 sq-ft roof replacement); barriers to entry for smaller operators

    medium · Rob describing unexpected roof costs and hiring specialized technician for rare machine restoration

  • ?

    business_signal: Free Gold Watch operates successful multi-operator communal arcade model with 12-14 independent operators; demonstrates alternative to single-operator/corporate models

    high · Matt Henry explaining communal venue structure and operator revenue-sharing arrangement

  • ?

    business_signal: Pastimes Arcade scaled from personal collection hobby to 600-game public museum venue; business model validates communal arcade as sustainable archival/community hub

    high · Rob describing acquisition of 30,000 sq-ft grocery store, multi-year coupon book advertising strategy, and evolution to museum model

  • ?

    event_signal: 40th Pinball Expo unprecedented scale: 36 homebrew games (vs. ~6 at Houston show), 110+ speakers, 110+ vendors, 300+ international registrations; expansion from original 1-person vision to massive international celebration

    high · Rob Burke detailing expo numbers and international participation; describing 40-year commitment to recognizing designers

  • ?

    community_signal: EM machine preservation valued by veteran enthusiasts; describes sensory/mechanical qualities (ball rolling, coil sounds, knocker replays) as irreplaceable features

    medium · Ko and Rob discussing distinctive EM qualities; Rob emphasizing relay/contact maintenance and unique audio characteristics

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.225

0:00
Hello and welcome to Wormhole Pinball Presents and part three of our podcast series we call arcades across America. I'm your host, Jamie Virtuell, the Wormhole. Let me start off by welcoming back to the podcast my co-host, Ko from Quarter Drop Arcade, all the way from Cottage Grove, Oregon. How are you, Ko? Always a pleasure. Thank you, Jamie. I'm really excited about tonight's guest. We've got some great people on the panel. Oh, we do. And I'm actually not in the Wormhole today, guys, so I'm sorry about that. We are in disarray with the Houston Arcade Expo coming up, and we're bringing five games, which we'll talk about later. And so let me also introduce all the way from San Francisco, California, Matthew Henry from Free Gold Watch. Welcome to the wormhole. Virtually Matt. Hey, thanks a lot for having me, boys. It's great to be here. I haven't done Zoom since the like total lockdown stuff. So I had to like, you know, really get myself, you know, acquainted with the program. My wife had to help me out and on my new computer and everything. So, you know, here I am. Let's go. There we go. And all the way from Girard, Ohio, outside of Youngstown. Guinness record holder for longest running pinball show. Owner of Past Times Arcade, the one and only Rob Burke. Welcome to the Wormhole, Rob.
1:33
Hey guys, I traveled a long way to be on the air here, man. You guys are on the west coast, I'm here on the east coast. Oh, I know. Amazing. We'll do an hour, I promise. No worries. This is a crazy coincidence, because Rob Burke, okay, I'm just learning about your arcade today from my friend Justin. Justin from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
1:56
He's here now, right now, in my arcade, hanging out. I've been to your place. You own that place in Frisco? Do you own it? Yeah, this is my spot. Justin's here now and he actually has a Pastimes t-shirt on today. It's amazing. He was showing me pictures of your collection. This is all just such a cool coincidence. This is great. This is all meant to be. What's crazy is I've been to your place and I bought a machine off you guys. Which one did you buy? It was back in the storage area. It was a Turbo. Upright Turbo.

Rob Burke @ ~51:00 — Emphasizes unprecedented scale of 40th anniversary Pinball Expo

Quarter Drop Arcade
organization
Chris Koontzperson
Pinball Hall of Fameorganization
Pinball Pirateorganization
Houston Arcade Expoevent
Wormhole Pinballorganization
Norm Clarkperson
Steve Kodakperson
Harvey Heistperson
Norm Clark, Steve Kodak, Wayne Nines, Harvey Heistperson
Ron Kuhnperson
Markperson
Tim Arnoldperson
Pinball Brothersorganization
Dutch Pinballorganization
HEXA Pinballorganization
  • ?

    community_signal: Pinball Expo attracts international participation and celebrates pinball design history; creates networking opportunities and cross-border community connections

    high · Rob describing 300+ international registrations, designer recognition model, and breakfast/networking outcomes for international visitors

  • $

    market_signal: Aftermarket parts availability and DIY recreation keeping hobby viable; ecosystem supports restoration of rare/obsolete machines

    medium · Rob mentioning Cliffy and other parts innovators creating modern solutions for defunct/rare components

  • $

    market_signal: Rare European and international pinball machines increasingly accessible through collector networks and imports; demand for non-classic titles driving acquisition strategies

    high · Rob describing European sourcing networks, Spain collection acquisition via container imports, and rarity-based collecting philosophy

  • ?

    technology_signal: Homebrew pinball game development scaled significantly; 36 homebrews at 2024 Expo vs. ~6 at competing shows suggests growing maker ecosystem

    high · Rob announcing 36 homebrews with emphasis on scale being unprecedented for celebration year

  • ?

    venue_signal: Coin-op metrics used to manage collection rotation; games removed based on breakdown frequency, revenue generation, or community interest fatigue

    high · Matt Henry describing GM-like curation strategy using coin collection data and playership engagement as KPIs

    • 2:30
    What did you get? Turbo. Turbo? It was one of the upright video games, Turbo. That's a good one. Or was it a pole position? Or maybe pole position, yeah. You know what? That's so crazy. I was just thinking about that pole position not even a week ago because that was a really nice one too. That pole position actually came from somebody that worked at Atari. So that was a home use only pole position. I got it. Wow. Good score, Rob. Damn, Rob. This is all coming way full circle. This is really, I'm really glad to be here. This is working out. This is already off to a great start. Love it. Wow. Well, I love it. Look what we're doing. We're bringing people together in arcades across America. That's fantastic. That's what it's all about. Since there's a bunch of us here today, our goal is to not only talk about your establishments, right, but what we're doing in Houston, we're growing to about a 14,000 square foot building. And then Coe is building the quarter drop. And so we're kind of using your free consulting services for you guys, if you will. Not only are we going to talk about your establishments, but we're going to pick your brain. And so we appreciate the help, although be it free. We appreciate it. All right. So hold on. Let me set my timer like my attorney does. There you go. That's a good idea. All right. This is going to be expensive. It is going to be expensive. Let's start with Matt from Free Gold Watch. Okay.
    4:00
    How are you both a printing press and an arcade? Okay. I'll try to give you, everybody here, the quick, short version of it. But, okay, so I've always been into screen printing. That's been, you know, I started, you know, working at a young age at a screen printing shop. I liked it so much that when the asshole boss fired me, I just said, you know what, I'm going to do this on my own. And it was the best firing that could have happened. So I got right into screen printing and always been into T-shirts and art and just design and just the process of it, too. I really just enjoy the process. You know, and the biz side of it, too. It's all great. But anyway, it's because it's so random, the people you end up printing for, right? So I love that. Now, having said that, to where the pinball all comes in, we used to – and I'll try to make this quick here. But we used to do these trade shows in Las Vegas because Free Gold Watch was a brand of clothing. So I would design and make all these different designs and stuff and sell them in stores and all over the place, New York, L.A., even Japan, everywhere. We would have our stuff in these stores, so we would do these trade shows. And one of them happened to be in Las Vegas, right? And we're at the illustrious, I mean, if you've ever been there, the Hooters Hotel and Casino, one of the greatest. I mean, it just happened to be by the center, you know, whatever, the convention center that we were at. So we stayed at the Hooters. It was cheap.
    5:39
    Right. It does have to do with pinball. Believe me. Okay. So I'm at the, oh, look at that dog. Look at that guy. So, okay. I'm at a three card poker table. Okay. And this is probably like, I don't know, 10, 11, 12 at night. It's late. And I've never really played three card poker, but I'm there and I'm playing it and I'm playing it. I keep winning. Right. And I'm like, shit, every time I get a hundred dollar chip, I just shove it in my pocket, shove it until my pocket, It's like, just like, I can't even fit any more $100 chips in this pocket. So I'm like, you know what? It's about that time to leave, right? So I get up, I walk away, thank the dealer, tip him out, and I leave. The next morning, I get in the actual phone book, right? And I look up this camera shop, right? And I look up this camera shop because I'm looking for a very specific camera. It's a Leica R6. It's a whole thing. Anyway, I call this used camera shop up, and I say, you know what? Instead of taking this money home and spending it on some bullshit, I'm going to see if they got this camera and I'm going to go buy that. Right. And I couldn't believe it, but they actually had this camera. Right. This Leica R6. So I said I said I'm coming down this afternoon. And this is like in 2010. Right. So I said I told the I told the guys at the store, I said, I'm coming down. Hold the camera for me. They said, no problem. Right. So I was like, OK. I told my buddy at the show there, and I said, hey, I'm going to go down. I'm going to go get this camera. I'll be right back. Take a cab down there, buy the camera, the whole bit. And then as soon as I walk out of the camera shop, there's this place called the Pinball Hall of Fame. And I'm like, wow, what is the Pinball Hall of Fame? I had never heard of it. I had no idea of anything about it. So I said, all right, that's pretty damn cool. So I went back to the show, and I told my buddy, all right, instead of going to, like, whatever parties the brands are throwing tonight, I said, let's just get some beers or whatever, hang out, and go to this place called the Pinball Hall of Fame. So we went there, and it was like we spent, I mean, as soon as we walked in, we didn't leave. And this wasn't at their new location. This is 2010, so this is their previous spot. And we stayed there the whole damn night until closing, and then the next night we did it again. And we just had so much fun just playing all the random games. Right. And we had driven to Las Vegas. So on the drive home, my buddy and I were we were talking about like, man, we should get some pinball machines for the show. For Freegal Watch, we have all this space. Like, just why not? And then on our drive home, we see a sign, little sign, a billboard in Oakland for the Pinball Expo, which was happening in San Rafael, which is a big show. out here. They don't do it anymore. But we're like, is pinball a thing? This is crazy. We're seeing billboards in Oakland for pinball. And that's kind of short of it. So I cold called this operator called Pinball Pirate, Chris Koontz. You guys may have heard of him or know him. He's been in the game a long time. And I told him about my location and he said, I was just looking for a single machine. And I was so, this is a funny story. I rarely tell this one. I was so naive. He goes, I said, well, I was at the Pinball Hall of Fame, and I was playing games there, and I was like, I played, I was really hoping like we could get, because he asked me, what games do you want? And I said, well, you know, a Twilight Zone would be really cool. I love that. I had a great time playing that one. And I also said, but I also had a good time playing Pinball Circus. Do you have that?
    9:13
    He goes, are you fucking crazy? There's only two of those in the world. You're so lucky to even play one of them. I didn't even know where the other one is. No, naive. Anyhoo, I mean, that's kind of the short of it. And he ended up bringing us four games about maybe six months later, and he just operated those games, and it took a while. But, you know, that's how it started. What were the four games? Three Card Poker, Hooters Hotel, Laika R6, Pinball Hall of Fame. The four games were Terminator 2, Whitewater, Jurassic Park, Data East. and when I played the most because it was only 50 cents I didn't he did not give me a key uh whirlwind which wow good lineup for yeah it was a good life yeah great you know slowly but surely and this was way before obviously pinball maps or anything but slowly but surely there was pinball heads that started coming around and playing andre mass and cough you know big like you know a big uh player in the circuit um but you know just a bunch of people just just started coming around playing and word spread that there was pinball there and uh you know from from four led to five led to six led to 10 led to 20 40 i think we're up to 60 and i got a bunch of my house you know how you guys all right yes we do anyways that's the short of that i love hearing the origin story of free gold watch because there's certain arcades in the country that just have that cool factor that people in the hobby know about and it's like electric bat wormhole pastimes and Free Gold Watch is definitely on that list. I always think that is just a cool place in San Francisco. I always hear about it. I always see people talking about it. I haven't been yet. I would love to go.
    10:54
    Where's the wristwatches? I always come for the wristwatches. The wristwatches. So we still get calls about that. People will ask us, like, what brand is it? You know, the whole, you know. So the name Free Gold Watch, and I'll make this one short, too, is from the brand of clothing. So on every, I wish I had a sample in here to show you. But on every shirt that we printed, we had these long hang tags in the back of the shirt that had a watch printed on it. So if you bought the shirt, you could cut it out and then you could wear it around your wrist. And that was that was where the name came from. I was wondering that, too, because I actually collect wristwatches. I have for most of my life. And it's always been something I've been very passionate about. And I was wondering if there's actually a watch component of some sort at any time, like where you sold watches. Just with that. Well, and then the hoodies. anytime and we still do it for all the hoodies so if you open up a hoodie on the inside there's all the watches kind of like old school yeah that's great so every one of our hoodies still to this day actually has that and i might actually you know what do i have to okay here we go actually i do have a sample here oh that's cool the watches on the inside of the hoodie are those available online no we don't we don't do any online sales because it's a nightmare so yeah everything's in store.
    12:10
    Hey, Matt, I got one suggestion for you, Matt. Sure. And that is get, there's a lot of guys that sell custom-made watches on the internet and really cheap, too. Yeah. I would suggest that you guys just carry a line of watches just with, you know, a face with pinball on there, or I'm a pinball geek, or just something. And then that way, it'll finally, after 30 years, finally connect the name. You know what? That's not a bad idea. You know, maybe we can even, like, stick them in the claw machine or, you know, or some or other, because we, you know, we don't just have pinball here. We have a bunch of shit. So it's all kind of random items. All right, now you're splitting the consulting fee with Rob. Really?
    12:51
    So Rob, you're pretty busy with Expo coming up, I am sure, but let's discuss pastimes, Arcade, first, if that's okay. You know, when did you guys open?
    13:01
    So about a year and a half ago, but it goes back further than that. So, you know, being a diehard collector and enthusiast of pinball,
    13:11
    you know, they do these coupon books that they put in the mail. And, you know, it's for specials on pizza or getting windows at half price and all these crazy things they do. So I thought to myself, there's so many people that get these envelopes. I said, I'm going to put in there one of the five pinball machines. So I started getting all kind of phone calls and ads from that in a good way. and that helped build up the collection to what it is today. You know, I've done it for years and I've got hundreds of games that way just by advertising on these coupon books. And that kind of started all of it. And then I realized there was this one grocery store that I used to drive by every day and it had been closed for years. And I said, geez, what if I could buy that cheap enough to make it worthwhile? Wow. So it was about a 30,000-square-foot grocery store, and I think I got it for like $100,000 or something. You know, the price was right. Well, little did I know that the roof was an issue. Oops. So anyone that knows anything about buildings, roofs are expensive.
    14:22
    But anyways, we put the roof on there. I told my wife, I said, hey, it would be kind of cool to have a place where I can put my collection and just play pinball. so I'm envisioning driving there one day and open up the door to myself and I'll play pinball for an hour she says you're so goofy she says if you're going to do this make it a museum so the whole world can enjoy it so that's how it started and you know right now we're over 600 games that's between pinball and video and because of that you know the selection is from all over the world which is crazy I've got pinball machines here from Japan. I've got the games from Spain, from Italy, titles you never hear about. I've got, like, Q-Bert's Quest pinball, which you don't see every day,
    15:11
    Astro and Annie, which is kind of on the rare side. But I have a bunch of games that a lot of them I'm bringing to Expo this year. As a matter of fact, the last count I'm bringing 150 games to Expo. One 5-0, guys. So it's going to take two semis and four 24-foot trucks to bring everything down there. But to celebrate the 40th anniversary, which is pretty crazy, even for me to even think that the show, you know, one guy, because there's so many shows, like you mentioned about the show out there in California that kind of disbanded, but there's so many shows out there. But how many shows are still from the original founder? Even the Texas show I think they have a new Guys that are running it now So One guy do the same show for 40 years It's what we call here in Ohio Passion So you got to have the passion It's beyond love it's passion That would make you Do this so many years In a row and still keep going It's been an interesting ride To say the least Rob, you mentioned your pinball machines from all around the world. As an Italian myself, I'm curious about your Italian pinball collection. Can you share with us some of the highlights from that collection and why you enjoy those machines? Well, I met a guy through the Internet. I don't know why he took a liking to me. His name is Mark. In fact, he'll be at Expo this year. But I said, hey, can you help me find some European titles? So he found me more than anybody. but we had titles I'm getting a phone call from Roger Sharp as we talk oh he's named Jonathan but we got titles totally casual, no big deal so to go back a little bit I got an email from a guy from Spain that was coming to Expo and I said you know we're going to be coming to Spain how far are you from Barcelona well I live quite close to that I said why don't you come visit me I don't know anybody in Spain any pinball guys anywhere in the world, except for a couple in Japan. So I said, hey, it'd be kind of cool to meet you. But the guy spoke English great, and he says, I want you to meet a friend of mine who's got a great collection. So we go to his place. It was kind of like an underground in the basement of a building, and the machines were lined up, and one machine after the other. I'd never heard of these titles. What? I can't believe what I'm seeing. This title, that title, this manufacturer. So I'm going bonkers. So it took me that trip for me to get hooked on the European and the Italian and Spanish title games. And to the point where it became an obsession because, you know, you can find, sorry guys, Twilight Zone, Adam's Family, you see them everywhere. But to see these goofy titles, and I'm not saying the games are the greatest playing, but to see all these titles is like, cool, this is so cool. and I started buying them. But I didn't buy onesie Tuesdays. I bought containers. So there's 40 games in a container. 40 here, 40 there. So it started adding up. Then the problem is how to get these games working. Is Matt going to come from California and drive down and fix my games from Italy and Spain? No. So I hired a guy Ron Kuhn who used to work for Dr Scott He out of Toledo Ohio And they closed their place down so he was available And he has a knack of, I don't know how he does it, man. He figures these goofy games out. You know, they're all written in the Chinese or Spanish, the schematics. But he's been able to figure them out and get these games working. And to me, it's the highlight. We call it the international row. But it's all these oddball titles. and I can't get enough of them because each one is crazier than the next. So it's been really a fun ride. And, you know, I got that Sega game from my friends in Japan. It's called Surfing. I never saw these games. So that will be at Expo. And there will be a lot of European games there. Plus, you know, one thing I want to mention just because we're talking about pinballs, but this year, you know, you've heard of the homebrew games, guys. I assume the Houston show will have I don't know half a dozen or whatever it is Yeah but you guys are having how many? Listen to this A good thing you're all sitting down At the last count we got 36 homebrews coming Unbelievable It's crazy I think because we're celebrating the 40th year Everyone's lost their mind And they're helping us celebrate A monumental occasion for any show And you know by the way We were the first pinball show out there back in 85. The idea of mine was just to recognize my heroes who were the designers and the artists because I figured all the top management were the guys who were getting all the accolades but they did nothing. They just collected checks from the distributors. It was the guys behind the design that created games.
    20:24
    We're talking about Norm Clark, Steve Kodak, Wayne Nines and Harvey Heist at the time. Harvey Heist at the time was 85 years old but he designed for a company called Denko, if you guys have heard of that.
    20:37
    So we had the Pinball Expo, and I had these guys come up front, and I said, ladies and gentlemen, these four gentlemen are responsible for designing over 600 games. Well, everyone stood up and applauded. These guys had tears in their eyes. They couldn't believe it. No one had ever recognized them. So overnight, they became household names.
    20:58
    So that's why Pinball Expo to me is very special. So, you know, the passion just lives on. And we continue to honor these guys. You know, it's all newer guys now. So for the old-timers like me, I kind of miss the Dave Christensen's.
    21:12
    If you guys have ever met him or know him, he was a character in his own right. And Steve Kirk, you know, he did some of the early stars and some of the early Stern games. Yeah, great games. But these names are names of the past now. And sooner or later, you know, Pat Lawler and Steve Ritchie, They'll be named in the past. I mean, these guys just won't live forever. So, you know, my other reason for doing the show was just to keep these guys in the light and let people recognize them and honor them. And that's why we have the autograph session. So that's crazy. I mean, last year we had about a 50-guy show. It was just nuts. But for anybody who's anybody into the pinball world, you know, this show brings everyone together. And this year, last count, we had over 300 people that registered from outside the U.S. Oh, that's fantastic. Imagine that, guys. You know, the Houston show or whatever, you have the local guys, Texas, New Mexico, California, same guys. Hey, man, look who's here, Jamie's here. Hey, give me a high five. But then these Europeans, it's unbelievable. So what's happening is when you come to the expo, you start talking to these guys. Most of them speak English. And the next thing you know, hey, let's get together for breakfast tomorrow or lunch. The next thing you know, you've got a pile of bosom buddies or your pen pals or whatever you want to call it. And your phone is full of networking and contacts from guys all over the world who share one common interest. Ready together, guys. Pinball. Absolutely. You know, you know, really special for me. I'm so excited to be going. I know Tim is going to be going and Tim wants to pick your brain on his Italian collection. So I won't take up any more time of that. But I know you guys have talked back and forth, and he's trying to one-up you and all that crap. I'm trying to find out what weekends he's not home so I can send a semi down there to his house. No, that's not. They're guarded. Our collection is guarded. Hey, by the way, guys, just real quick, but something else this year is, you know, we got the Pinball Brothers coming with their games, and then we got Dutch Pinball who's bringing Alice of Wonderland. Yeah, you're bringing three, right? That's crazy. Then I got, there's a company in France that I dug up. They made a company called HEXA, HEXA Pinball.
    23:35
    Their game will be at Expo. It's called Space Hunt. Yep. So, these are games you'd never see. Poor colleagues, you know, you'll go crazy with seeing tiles you've never seen. Space Hunt, it's going to be the first one in the States, right? It could possibly be. I think so. Yeah. I love the song. Space Hunt had this great jingle that they put out a while ago that was, like, really catchy. But, you know, I'm just kind of – Matt, I apologize for kind of getting wound up here, but I'm just thinking real quick. I mean, she – This year we have a – we came out with, you know, our little mascot a couple years ago called Flippy. Maybe you've seen Flippy in advertisements or whatever. I have. Well, this year Flippy's sister is coming, Flipette. their little kid brother Chip and then Aunt Tilt is coming along with their uncle Poppy Pop Bumper so we're going to have plush with all these characters but what else we've done is we've come up with a comic book The Adventures of Flippy so I've had various people throughout the Pinball Hobby Network submit some 3 and 4 page cartoons on Flippy but the comic book has got a lot of special features some I won't tell you about because you got to see it but it's a roar wow I can keep on going but I'll give you guys a chance to keep talking no Matt I feel like I'm missing out I got to get my tickets for Expo now is it sold out oh my god you guys sold me you know I've always kind of wanted to go in the past but now I'm like oh my gosh Matt if you show up I've never even been to Chicago though. This would be the great time to go. If you show up, I'll get you into anything since you're part of this group of four, the four musketeers. I'm going to hold you to that, Rob. Get your low hair to do that. You just have no idea the impact of the show unless you're there. There's so much positive energy. People high-fiving, hugging. It's a unique show because it offers so much. You can't possibly see everything in one day, two days. Imagine this. We have over 110 speakers.
    25:54
    Imagine this, over 110 vendors. You have lost my mind. But like I said, for the 40 people, come on. And just to go on all this right here, this is something that I never anticipated or had any idea about when we got those four games, that the rabbit hole that I was just starting to venture into would be this wonderful. I have met so many of my friends and places I've traveled and things I've done now have all been connected to pinball. And I got to say, you know, this group of people have been it's it's hard for me to even put it into words, but it's just such a great community and not saying they're all great or whatever and that it's all perfect. But like, you know, into itself, it is it is something very, very special. And I'm just happy to be even just like even a smidgen part of it.
    26:53
    Yeah, me too. Well said. It is just an amazing community. I've embraced it wholeheartedly. I'm all in. I drank the Kool-Aid a long time ago. You know What's crazy is in this hobby A lot of defunct Parts and parts are possible To get people are either Finding networks to find them Or they're making them on their own You know you got Cliffy out there in the west coast I've tried for a hundred years To get the guy to come next to me he won't do it But you know he made that So cool little invention that everyone Loved and a lot of the parts that we thought would be a problem, somehow people are recreating them. It's keeping the hobby alive. I'm an older guy than you guys. I'm from the Fred Flintstone era. We still enjoy playing the EM games. All I can tell to everyone that's listening to this podcast today, especially for you young guys out there is the EM games can be fun too. You've got to clean the relays and the contacts, but if they're clean like they were back when they first came out, you're going to get action on the EM games and you just won't believe.
    28:10
    Incredible artwork and inventive backglasses and all kinds of great stuff. EMs, they don't get enough love. Something, too, I'd like to mention about the EMs, which I really like, is you can actually hear the ball rolling, which you don't really get in the modern games. If you're in a room where you're playing an EM and between the chimes or the bells, you can hear the ball rolling on the wood. That's always special. I always like that. Absolutely. And the coil. The bells. Nothing beats a Gottlieb 10-point bell or a Gottlieb 100-point, that dong. And, guys, as we all know, us old-timers, you can tell that ballet replay knocker versus a Williams or a Gottlieb. The ballet had a unique sound to it. But you can't beat that knock. You don't hear that anymore. Why they got rid of that feature was the best thing out there, that knocker, whenever you get a replay.
    29:04
    Matt, what makes up the bulk of your collection? What makes up the bulk of your guys' collection? Okay, so, you know, just to give a little bit about Free Gold Watch as well. Yeah, please. Again, you know, back in 2010, 2011, I really didn't know how most places operate where you just have a single operator, right? So most locations, bars, et cetera, you know, they have like one company or somebody that handles all of their coin op equipment. Right. I had no idea about that. So with Free Gold Watch, I ended up creating more of a communal thing, you know, just kind of per chance. And so with Chris and Pinball Pirate, he had the four games. And then I ended up meeting somebody. I was doing a print job for Sean, my buddy, Sean Dulcini. He was coming to just pick up his. He runs a piercing studio and he was coming to pick up his shirts. And he said, wow, you guys are into pinball. And I was like, yeah. And he goes, man, I just bought the new X-Men Stern 2012. It's coming. It's being shipped to me. Would you guys want to have it here? We're like, absolutely. That would be fantastic. And then I met somebody else who was like, I got a space shuttle. So what happened was I ended up having this space where I have, I think, 12 to 14 different operators now here that have – they're either earning because they want to be operators or they don't have room in their houses to have the games anymore. So they'll put some games at Free Gold Watch, and it's become this communal thing here. So the bulk of the collection, I try to keep it really balanced. So we have a really, really solid chunk of Williams, WPC 95 games, all the classics. And then we have a lot of the older Stern, not old, we have a few of the older Stern, like Nineball. But then we have the older Stern, like 2001 stuff, like Simpsons Pinball Party, Sharky Shootout, which I kind of have a soft spot for. Lord of the Rings, a lot of the classics.
    31:08
    And then, of course, modern Sterns as well. But the thing here at Free Gold Watch is that games are constantly kind of rotating in and out based on a couple of factors. So I kind of think of myself almost as like a baseball GM, right, where the pins are the team or the squad here, and I'm watching them all. And we're on coin-op, so we see how the games are doing by the actual coins in the games. And, you know, a few factors like, you know, is it breaking down a lot? Are people bored of it? Or, you know, so there's been some certain titles that have come in that have been brand new that, you know, sort of fizzle out within the first maybe few months that they're there. So they end up, you know, getting the boot. And the operators may not like that. But, you know, as the GM of the team here, you know, I've got to keep it moving. Because there's a lot of pins out there. So we try to keep a lot of random games. Like we have, you know, Gottlieb's Rack'em Up. You know, I love those old System A, System 80B Gottlieb games. We have Hoops.
    32:20
    It's all over the place, you know, and I like to keep a balance. I'm not really, you know, I really like a lot of the new Sterns, but when I go into a location and all they have is new Sterns, and I get it. As an operator, they're the easiest to operate, you know, and people love them. But for me, I'm looking for like the weird titles and odd stuff, you know, to balance out. I'm just always looking for a good balance, and I try to have that here. So we also made a deal with the Pinball Museum in Alameda, Michael Sheese, to have – we have a room dedicated with just PNs. So we have a rare Bristol Hills in there, which is the Adderball version of Snow Derby, which is a rarity. Rob, not for sale, unless we can make a sale on something else. We'll have to talk later.
    33:06
    But we've got that in there. We've got Joker Poker. Not the EM, actually. That's actually the solid state. But it's actually leaving tomorrow. So, anyway, I'm blanking on the other game. We have Criss Cross Pop-Up, which is not technically pinball. It's like that weird kind of game. But we just try to have a really big, random collection of all the eras sort of represented equally.
    33:31
    That would be my short answer there for the last five minutes. Are there any machines that, as with your experience as an operator, that you would recommend to aspiring operators that they should definitely have on the floor, whether it's arcade or redemption or pinball? Yeah, for sure, for sure. There's like the classics. I mean, if you can get your hands on like the Williams Indiana Jones, I mean, it's a hard game to operate, but if it's working, it's very special to have. It's really good. Medieval Madness is obviously great. Attack from Mars, obviously great. Got to have it.
    34:06
    Theater of Magic. Theater of Magic is good. I like theater. It's kind of up and down. That one can be a little tricky to operate. The trunk can be kind of quirky. We've had it here for a while. We just actually took it out and put it at a bar because it's a good game. We moved it to a bar down the street just to kind of get people to go there, but theater is a great game. Fish Tales is another one that you couldn't think would do as good as it does, but it just does. I don't know. People just, the sounds, there's a simplicity about the game that's really fun. Cyclone, Cyclone as well. We have Cyclone in the very front of the shop, and it's right at the door of our garage door roll-up, and that's the only game we leave the attract mode on. so you can hear it shouting at people on the street. It's like, hey, you with the face, you know, and step right up. Like, it's like we use it as an actual barker on the street there. So that's kind of funny. But, you know, there's a handful of brand new sterns that are, you know, Godzilla is great. You know, that's just absolutely fantastic as far as operating. People love it. I think it's a great game.
    35:14
    But, you know, I just always think just kind of watching and seeing what people play. and then as the coin starts to drop, you know, it might fall off the team and here comes another game, you know. Do your pinball machines earn more than your arcade or like claw machines?
    35:32
    It depends, yes. So yes and no. So when a new game comes in, say like Elton John, like boom, right off the bat, that game is like automatic top earner for like, you know, a solid month, six weeks and then it starts to taper off and then medieval madness will you know catch back up with it and sort of like so so the new games have their peak but they also go down rather quickly um unlike but but godzilla didn't though godzilla is like one that is solidly just and we have the premium we have the pro first in the premium which was kind of fun because it gets people excited like at first you know to get that pro quickly and then as soon as the premium comes out to swap it in gets people kind of re-excited for the title.
    36:14
    You know, there are certain titles, though, that are steady and hold their coin drop very well. You know, it also has to do with Stern and their code, too. Like, you know, some games come out, like, you know, John Wick or, like, 007, where, you know, they come out and, like, people are excited for them at first, but then, like, the code's not all the way there and they're kind of waiting for it. So that can sometimes kind of alter how they do. And then once the code gets better, then it'll come back up again. So, you know, yeah.
    36:50
    What about you, Rob? Same question. Any good – are you coin drop at past times, or are you – We're one price. $20 and you play until you drop. Okay. Because one thing we've got is that I don't think anyone's got.
    37:04
    And, again, I've got to ask you, is everybody sitting down? I am ready Matt ready I'm ready we have 15 fully working gun games throughout the end all of them there a this is unbelievable that I can believe I actually talking to you here today because as I said my buddy Justin from Pittsburgh was at your location and he sent me a ton of photos But today he showed me this photo of a gun game
    37:36
    It blew my mind and you got to sell it to me. I need it, Rob. I'm going to come out to Chicago. I'm going to meet you there. I'm going to get it. Which one? And I'm driving it back to San Francisco. Which game is it? And I'm going to cut you in half the coin job. You're going to be the newest operator of Free Gold Watch here, Rob. it's i don't know the title but it was the gun is actually inside that the the it's actually inside it shoots actual bb's and then oh yeah and then when you're done shooting it kicks out the little card that you shot at and shows you how you did unbelievable got it what is that title called yeah i don't know i may sell that game to you i'll tell you why because um you heard it you guys heard it. Yeah, I'll tell you why. Because what we found in our place anyways is people would never pull that card out. So they start getting jammed up.
    38:27
    Okay. Okay, I can make a sign. So, for you to be the first in line, you've got to be the expo this year. Guys, if he doesn't show, he goes from first to last. Uh-oh. So that's the deal.
    38:46
    That's the deal. I'm texting my buddy Manu. I think, Rob, I think you have a meeting with Manu tomorrow from Ministry Pinball Theater. Earlier today we had it. Oh, okay. Earlier today. Okay, so anyway, I'm texting him right now if he's going to Expo, and I'm going to figure this all out. Oh, this is fantastic. Love it. This is great. He's going to be there. But you have to come. You have to come. I'm not going to give it to him. Only you. Rob, is it a coincidence that your favorite electromechanical pinball machine is Host Time and the name of your arcade is Past Time? Interesting.
    39:23
    No connection there, but let me tell you, the first game I ever had was made by United called Babyface.
    39:32
    So that was, I think, in 1947 or 48. and that game was sitting in the basement of my parents home when I was you know a very young guy and I didn't know what it was it was just it was something a toy I don't know what it was but that thing was down there for years it never broke it just was there constantly and not that I played it every day but um it was a very popular piece in the basement and when I got to be about 16 I told my dad boy these pinballs are fun can we get another one so the next one he got was a gauntlet game that very few people hear about called Texan.
    40:09
    And I had a friend of mine that works for me, and he said, Rob, I'll bring this game back to life. He claims he spent 80 hours on it. He rebuilt every single component. But the game plays, I'm not saying as fast as Solid State, but the bumper-to-bumper works like it was yesterday. And that game is so much fun. People that come to my home, I've got about 60 games in the basement. People that come to my home gravitate to that game in the beginning and at the end say, man, this game is fun. It's an EM game.
    40:43
    But to answer your question, I played post-time and I fell in love with post-time and Smarty, which is the Adaball Ding Dong.
    40:52
    And, you know, when those games are in great shape, they play well, they're fun, and they grab you because they're just this close from getting a free ball or free game. and then something happens. So they're really fun. Just like my son loves the Gottlieb 2001, you know, the one with 15 drop targets or whatever it is.
    41:10
    So, you know, the EM games can be a lot of fun. And some of the guys that design those games are still around. John Burris will be at Expo, and he designed some of the Gottlieb games. So he'll be there as well. But we'll see if Matt shows. If Matt doesn't show, I will post on the Expo website. because of Matt Henry not coming to Expo, this will be the last year we are doing Pinball Expo. Oh, wow. The pressure. Matthew Henry. That's a lot of pressure. That's a decent amount of pressure, Bob. That's a lot of pressure. You know, I'm on the phone. I'm over here texting with Manu furiously about like, okay, but like, you know, when are you going? When's your flight? I'm going to try to hop on this. I got to, you know, I'm always bogged down with this print shop world and all this other stuff. And, you know, I'm going to see if I can figure some things out. Manu is saying he's rooming with a buddy. He's letting me stay with him for free. I don't like that. I'm hoping that I would come to stay with him for free. You know, guys, let me say one thing. If anyone like Matt gets inspired by hearing me talk, let me say this. We're all at Creature Habits. All of us says, you know, maybe next year the wife says, can you buy this for me? Maybe later on. maybe this, maybe that. But once you set your mind and say, you know what? This is the year I'm going to do it. I've got it. And all I can say is if you're going to pick that one year, this is the year because it's the 40th. It's the 40th. Yeah. There's so much happening this year. I can't even put into words what you're going to find there. And you're teaming with the video game. Do you want to talk about that real quick? So I'm following up with Todd Friedman to a show in the Chicagoland area called Video Game Summit.
    42:57
    And my son is a Nintendo fanatic, GameCube, for those who ever played GameCube. And he loves this stuff so much that I figured maybe this is the time to combine the shows so that it's a mixture of everything. You know, anymore, a lot of these shows, the Houston show, all these guys are bringing these retro things in. I'm not saying we're all lovers of it, but it seems like there's a lot of people that are. And you know what happens is The retro guys is a younger crowd Let's face it So the younger crowd comes and then they get introduced to pinball The next thing you know They want to go visit Matt down at his At the stopwatch So you know it's just It's all full circle And that's what makes all these hobbies fun And you know we're going to do something else And you know if Matt comes I'm sure he would consider doing it And we're going to do a cosplay one On Saturday night So maybe Matt can dress up as, you know, Zelda or something, and you might win.
    43:58
    But something else we're doing is that we're bringing entertainment in for the first time. I have a local Chicago band that's coming at 830, and they're going to play the top 40 hits. But after, you know, the four or five days of loving we're having there, and it's the last chance for everybody to say their final goodbyes and their final hugs with their friends that they've met. And, you know, they'll dance the night away and drink pin beer and all that good stuff. So Stern has really gone out of their way to have a fantastic booth. They're bringing their one booth alone. And, Coe, I'm glad that you have your mouthpiece off because when you hear this, you're going to scream.
    44:39
    Stern alone is bringing 60 games in their booth, 6-0. Wow. You just can't comprehend it. Wow. So between them and Jersey Jack, they're bringing a load of games. And Spooky will be there and American Pinball and Chicago Gaming.
    44:57
    But, you know, what makes the Expo special is not only are these guys local, but they bring all their designers and artists to the show. So anyone who's, you know, a stern lover, likes any certain designer or artist or anyone for the matter of Mark Ritchie who did the Pulp Fiction, this is your chance to meet Mark Ritchie. This is your chance to meet Steve Ritchie. This is your chance to meet Jack Danger. You know, the list goes on and on. And that's why you really, anyone that's listening for the first time, and they're even hedging on it, this is the year where you tell the missus or your friends or your mother, Mom, I'm packing my bags now. Darling, what did I say? What did I do to you? No, it's not that. I'll be back. But I'm leaving for Chicago. And I might be a couple days late. but I think everyone who comes there will be so they will be on top of the world in happiness and joy and just seeing friends, seeing people seeing these zillions of different kind of pinball machines, seeing 36 home brews meeting Emoto the firecracker Emoto will be there and then we're bringing Captain Chris, Chris Campbell is coming up from Captain's Lockdown Service So he's coming down We're going to try an auction this year guys And in the auction And I'm glad Jamie is there Jamie's the ringleader tonight So he can tell everybody to be calm guys Be calm But I hooked up with a guy from Australia And he's bringing a game Made by Hankin Called The Empire Strikes Back Yes And for those who may have heard of it or seen it It's a game you don't see too often But the story gets better they're going to bring one and sell one at the auction Hankins game the Empire Strikes Back anyone who's looking for that game you can buy it through the internet or you can come to the show on purpose you never know what it will go for every game at the auction will sell for whatever it is there's no reserve Matt I don't see you calling the airlines yet which is a little disappointing I got to talk to my travel agent. She won't pick up. I don't know what's going on. Rob, I'm sad I'm missing it this year. I'm knee-deep in remodeling my arcade. I'm opening soon. I'm remodeling the building. It's a 114-year-old building that I'm remodeling. And I'm at the finish line.
    47:27
    Listen carefully. Watch me carefully. There's always two days or three days. You'll never miss it. I've got a lot of friends that are going. I would love to go. If you come, we're going to start you, Jamie. Yeah, I'm going. We've got the Houston Arcade Expo this week, and then I took off the entire week next week to make sure I go and say hello to Rob and do the whole thing. You guys come. I'll make sure you get double extra special VIP souvenirs. And, Matt, I have in mind one price for this game, okay? I'm not going to share it with you yet. But if Co comes, I'll cut that price in half. Oh, no. Wow.
    48:09
    Did I get on the sold-out tours? What's that? Did I get on the sold-out tours? Why, yes. You just see me. If I know you guys are coming, I'll make sure we take care of you. Okay. That's awesome. I'll try. This is fast. Just make it happen, guys. I'm just telling you. What days are the actual show? It starts the 17th? Yeah, Tuesday and Wednesday are the tours, and then Wednesday night, for those that buy the full package, They get the free admission to the Interium, which is like a Dave and Buster's kind of a place. So they're going to have enough food there for you to explode. And then they're going to have – they'll give you one of these cards, you know, so you swipe the card and you can play all the games on the floor. They've got a bowling machine there. But what's cool is it's the first night for everybody to connect, including the international guys. So anyone that's been to the show and been there, you know, it's like a loving. You know, the very first year I did Pinball Expo in 85, there was a guy that wrote a book named Dick Bluchel, if you remember that name, and the pinball author. But when he came to the first Expo, it's the one and only time.
    49:22
    Who is the collector from Rancho something California? Oh, the Silver Ball. Is it the Silver Ball? Yeah. What's his name? Silver Ball Ranch. What's his name? Yeah.
    49:34
    But anyways, he came to Pinball Expo 85, and he took a train there because he doesn't drive a car. Rich Conger, Rich Conger. Yeah. And he came to the 85 Expo, and it was kind of cool. But I guess the point being, certain things in life you got to go for, and this is it. This is the thing. Uncle Coe, I hate to tell you, buddy. Tell the wife, tell your cousins, relatives. I'm an uncle now. Hey milkman I'm going to be gone Tell the wife don't you fool around But I'll be back You really should make an extra effort Because this is the year Everyone out there in TV land that's listening to me I'm telling you guys You'll see Co And he'll be smiling And high fiving everybody But Co I thought you had all this Work to do at the house And he said you know what I did the best thing, Berg drove me crazy until I said yes the best thing he ever did, I'm having a field day here I love you guys Rob you're selling it, good you're like the ultimate hype man what more do you need else to hear, Rob got this place sold think about it Matt, you got the tour of the factory you got the chance to meet all these superstars this is going to be Pat Lawley's last show he's been to Expo every year But he told me, he said, Rob, you know, I'm getting up there in age I'm not feeling the best of health I'm going to give you one more year And this could be the 40th So to even meet Pat Lawler Who's made, as you guys know, a lot of wonderful games But this is a chance to meet him Get a picture with him High five him And shake his hand and say thank you for what you did for the hobby But this is the year He will not be back And just another reason to come Plus, there's all the different manufacturers from Europe. I mean, it's just, I don't know where to start and where to stop. Other than the fact that for anyone that's hedging on it, if you come, just come see me at the show. I'll say, you know what, I'm one of those guys that wasn't going to come until I heard the podcast. I'm here now, and I'll make sure you get a special VIP souvenir for free. You heard it here first, guys. You heard it here. All right. Last question before we get to our game show called the Hurry Up, guys. And Code's going to play it this time. But talk about the San Francisco pinball community that you really helped build, too. I mean, talk about it. I mean, how how strong is that community? How's the tournament scene? All that good stuff. Yeah. No, I've watched it grow right around us. You know, being a free gold watch and just kind of catering and creating the space for them. So, you know, starting with the league that we picked up the San Francisco pinball department in 20, like the beginning of 2012, I believe that was. And and it's grown. So we have about 85 members that meet every other week. And there's like a 50 to 60 person wait list and to get in, which is kind of a bummer, but we just don't have the space to accommodate more people. So and we're not going to do like a, you know, two, you know, once a week or split the league or anything. So, you know, but, you know, you know, people end up filtering in. I would say, again, the pinball community itself has been I've met the most.
    52:58
    You know, a ton of my of my greatest friends have been all through the pinball community here. And, you know, we keep it really tight. Everybody looks out for each other. There's there, you know, in all the years I can think of very little drama that's happened with with folks. It's everybody's welcome. It's just it's just a really good. And it's so random. I mean, you know, and one of the things I always think I always like to ask me, like, you know, what is league really like and stuff? And, you know, one thing I noticed that makes league special or the community special is that, you know, when you have these, you know, 60, 70 people, you know, on any random league night, very rarely do people ever ask, what do you do? Like, people don't really ask about people's work. It's kind of this weird, it's this interesting place to get away from work. And I didn't notice that people don't ask that for a very long time. And then it struck me that it's just something people just don't even bring up. It's just, it's a place to go and kind of escape and just, you know, head, you know, dive head first into pinball and into the fun competition of it, whether you're very serious about it or whether you're just looking for something random to do on a Wednesday. It brings together what I can't think of a better group of people. Really, that's just how it is. Well said. I agree with you. It's weird like that. It's odd.
    54:24
    We used to do art shows here before pinball because we had this big space. So for a while, we tried to figure out what to do with the space. And we were doing art shows, and we would have these movie nights and things like that. But, you know, the art shows would bring in, you know, some decent art, but, you know, nobody would ever buy it. And the crowds were always kind of stuffy, and it just never built, like the community never started. You know, it never kicked in until pinball came around, and that's where an actual community. So now for Free Gold Watch and the pinball and arcade community, we are so intertwined with this neighborhood that, you know, So families and kids have now, we've watched them grow up in it. And people love it so much because we're all ages, too. That's a big deal. And for kids to be able to come in, for a kid to barely be able to look over the glass and sit there and double tap away at Attack from Mars next to somebody who's like this big player. and for that person to interact with them and show them how to play and how to cradle or hold a ball and think about the game a little bit and show them, here's a lot. I mean, it's just all so damn special. And, you know, creating nostalgia in these kids. Like, you know, my big hope is that one day they're, you know, they're going to think wherever they might end up living or whatever and they're going to think back and like, God, remember that frequent watch place where we used to play, you know, these games? That's all what I'm really trying to kind of think about. And they will. And you're doing it. I mean, that's exactly what you're doing. It's really something cool to watch happen. From the youngsters to the old timers coming in and they bringing their grandkids in and they explaining to them like this is a pinball machine Let me show you what a pinball machine is Here Sonny And they get in there and they show them There's something so classic Americana about it. Not at all. I don't know what else to say. It's awesome. It's beautiful. I think you perfectly encapsulated why I'm opening an arcade. Yeah, exactly. Rob, do you guys have league? Do you have a pinball league over in Ohio?
    56:41
    Oh, yeah, we do. We have leagues. You know, it's starting to grow more and more. We also have, like, a party room so people can have their special events or birthdays or anniversaries and so forth. So, you know, one thing I was going to tell you guys, that made me think about something, but something new we're doing this year also on the show floor is the guy from Colorado,
    57:02
    Mark Gibson, if you guys know that name, he has a thing called Fun with Pinball. So what he's done is he's built this display where it shows how a pop bumper works, how a spinner works. So you can walk up to it and touch it and so forth. But he's doing something new this year, along with this guy they call the Goat Shed. Kim Oswald, have you seen about him on Facebook? Sometimes he's in there, but they're going to have a hands-on workshop. So we're going to have games on the floor there, you know, basket cases, and they're going to kind of show people how to go about, you know, tackling the restoration of these games. So that's something new we're also doing this year, which is kind of cool. Awesome. Awesome. All right. Are you guys ready for our rapid fire question game called the hurry up? Yep.
    57:55
    Free gold watch. What is the most played or highest earning machine currently at Free Gold Watch? Right now, it's actually John Wick. John Wick is holding it down.
    58:06
    All right. Rob Burke, in 30 seconds or less or a minute, please elaborate on your extensive firecracker collection. I love it. Well, there's an expression those firecracker guys use. Once you smell the smoke, you're never again free. So, you know, growing up in Ohio where fireworks were illegal, free games, by the way, were illegal You know, there are certain things that you did as a kid So back then it was playing marbles, collecting baseball or football cards Playing war with dirt bombs, which is basically clumps of dirt you throw And then when it's on the ground, explode in pieces and then occasionally you would get people that would have fireworks they'd bring back from the Carolinas where they were illegal so then we lived not too far from Canada so you know Canada's a big fishing area so my dad would take us fishing and as a young kid I didn't care either way but what was interesting is we would stop to Niagara Falls and there on the sign was fireworks so you know any guy likes noise bang i mean guns whatever explosions you know you can't a lot of the explosions ah that was cool man wasn't that cool and um so i got introduced to firecrackers in a bad way because i got hooked on them but what i got hooked on even worse was the labels on them so in canada every time every year we go to canada fishing i couldn't wait to stop in the firework shop, the firecracker shop, and get some packs of firecrackers. So, Jamie, the fact that you even knew about that about me, you can get an extra bonus souvenir. So you come see me at the expo, and we'll get you one free shirt for that because that's only a very special person would know that. But as crazy as my collection is with the pinball machines, I'm one of the biggest collectors of firecracker packs in the hobby. and a lot of my premier packs of firecrackers came out of California because they were legal up to the, I don't know, mid 40s or whatever, not California you don't dare sneeze, they'll put you in jail but a lot of the early firecracker packs I have, and these firecracker packs go for sometimes 3, 4, 500 bucks for a single pack of firecrackers just to give you an idea, it's a crazy hobby but that's one thing I had to pick your brain on the fire. I love it. How did you even know about that? You know, I'm just a very good interviewer, Rob Burke. You're the greatest.
    60:54
    All right, Coe. Every woman's dream, every man's nightmare is what you are. Thank you, sir. I'm going to clip that. Yeah, I know. Well, you know we're going to clip that. Yeah, that's going on social media. That's going on socials. Done deal. We'll put that on TikTok. would you uh ko would you ever consider setting up some of your rare consoles in the arcade you know people keep requesting that and initially i was thinking no because it just you know i'm thinking like recreating that just pure arcade experience but lately i've actually been reconsidering it i'm considering creating a retro lounge with a crt television shag rugs and comfortable seats and like roping it off with some velvet ropes and just charging by the hour to hang out in the lounge and play whatever console, and actual carts, actual consoles, actual CRT, and have the whole kind of authentic old school experience. Oh, you can buy all you want at Pinball Expo. There'll be all those retro guys there. You know, Rob, I may have a game or two floating around that house already. I don't know if I need to be spending money on that. He's got some collection over there. All right. Small talk. Mac, give me your Holy Grail Pinball title to own. Oh, man. To own, oh my goodness.
    62:11
    You know what? I need to check my list here. Let me see. To own, gosh. Or to have at Freewatch. I'll give you that one. You know, if I could own, you know what? I'd like to own a Rocky. Rocky would be it. Rocky, a Tron LE, I would like to own.
    62:30
    A Starjet. I'd like to own a Starjet, which is an older, old ballet, which is one of the earliest multi balls. Rob, you might know that one. Rob, you probably have two of them. I got it. Uh, there's a, there's a Sagasa. Okay. Really? This is a real deep one. Um, there's a Sagasa game called Joker, Joker's wild.
    62:52
    And it's on pin side and it has little, little slot machine reels in it. And it looks fun. Cause all those, all those old, uh, I'm sorry, Sonic. It's a Sonic game, not Sagasa. It's a Sonic game. Okay. Um, called Joker's Wild. I just can't find any other information about it. Rob probably has all of them. That one's up there. Those are some of my grail pins to own. Those are new. Is there any pin out there that you don't already own that you want?
    63:29
    That's the part that I don't already own. I wish you didn't have included that little propositional phrase. You have 600 machines. Oh, my gosh.
    63:41
    You know, I have a pretty complete collection of the early Stern. But the one I'm missing, it was a black belt. It was some karate-themed Stern piece.
    63:58
    I'm not saying it's a great game, but it's missing from the collection. You would have to come to Wormhole and play that one. I was just going to say.
    64:07
    Because we have that one. What's the name of that game? Well, there's a black belt. There was a ballet black belt, but this was made by Stern. It was another eight. Dragon Fist. There you go. Dragon Fist. We don't have a Dragon Fist. Lynn's Arcade in Seaside has themselves a dragon fist. Do they? Yeah, they do. That's actually a fun game. You said it's not a fun game. It actually is kind of a fun game. That game has a spinner counter on it. There's actually a display in the back box that counts your spins.
    64:44
    I'll trade that for the gun game. Wow. Well, that's Lin's Arcade, so you're going to have to get involved.
    64:52
    Now I can start working different parties together. I can hook you up with Lin's. I love those dudes. We just had them on the show. We just had them on arcades across America. Harry, Michael, Uncle Philly. Big shout out. Those guys are unbelievable. Kerry for Mayor of Seaside. My book. Oh, he's a great dude. We enjoyed that. That's a shameful plug. Number one, Arcades Across America Part Two. Lynn's Arcade. All right, Code, give me a pin you wish you had in your collection. Well, my collections aren't quite as robust as everyone here. So there's still a lot of machines on my wish list. I'm a massive Elvira fan. I would love to have either of the three Elvira machines. but I think Scared Stiff would be the one that I would probably want the most. Okay.
    65:34
    Coe, I've discussed my love for the pinball arcade game called Popeye to you. I've discussed this with you. When I come visit, will you have a Popeye?
    65:46
    Jamie, knowing your love for Popeye, the arcade game, I am motivated to try and find one. But, you know, it's not like going to Walmart. No, I know. Locking it off the shelf. So I tell you what, if I see a Popeye locally, I'll snag it. Or you just take me there. We'll just go to their house. Matt and Rob, question for you.
    66:07
    Thumbs up or thumbs down for Popeye? Why do I love this game so much? I'll give you double thumbs up for Popeye. And you know what? Not only is the game actually really, really fun, there's no game, in my opinion, that has a more complete art package from when you look at the sides of the cabinet on both sides because it creates the ship. And then if you look at it from the front, it's like looking at the ship. And then, you know, like the whole thing creates one big ship. I'm not sure if people really realize that. I mean, it's unbelievable how they, how, it's just great. And it's Popeye. I mean, come on. I mean, I love the lightning flippers. I like the little elevator, the maze. I don't know why a game gets such a bad rap. I don't know. Maybe because they called it like Popeye saves the earth or whatever it is. Oh, you're talking about the pinball. I was just going to say, Are we talking about the arcade game? I'm talking about the arcade game. Oh, that game's not... No!
    67:01
    I'm talking pinball. I'm talking about the arcade game. Everyone's like, no! I'm down. All right, Rob. Arcade pinball. I mean, excuse me, Popeye the arcade game, yes or no? You know, I've never really played the game. I have several of the Nintendo games, but that's Nintendo, isn't it? It is. I actually think it's underrated, to be fair. I agree with you, Jamie. Which one of you guys is the biggest arcade nerd here of all you guys?
    67:38
    Me and Coe, I think. A little bit. Because I just picked up a game. It'll be delivered next week. Hold on. I want to give you the correct title here. Hold on one second. All right. And then that was it for the hurry up. So sorry about that. See, the hurry up doesn't go as hurry as I want it to go. I know. Especially when you're way off subject. I'm like, I'm going to go play another world. It's okay.
    68:06
    I have my own theme music for it now. All these great things. And it's a high-ranking game show host, man. Maybe I have a stream deck here. I can just start pushing buttons to hurry people along. All right, guys, you ready? No, it's fine. Yeah. Carl, you ready? a Williams game called Inferno arcade game late 70s it was right near the very end and another one called Sega Monster Bash are these new ones for the pastimes I just purchased them but they're supposedly very rare games they must be because I'm not familiar I don't know them at all Yeah. That's some of the special sauce of past times is you guys have all those rare things. It's crazy. A day goes by where people don't ask me a good arcade to go to, and I always send them to, like, I say past times is, like, legendary. In a short period of time, you guys have done so much to, like, plant your flag as Destination Arcade. Yeah, I appreciate it. You know another game we got, which is kind of an oddball game, I think it's called Spot. it looks like a spin-off on 7-Up. One of the characters. Have you ever heard of it, Kyle? Yes, I have. So that's an oddball piece. And then we got Cuphead. Oh, yeah, Cuphead. You know, that's just fun to grab. It's like watching a cartoon. But you know what's happening? You guys ever run across a Konami Badlands laser disc?
    69:46
    That's a bad title. Oh, yeah. That's a grail for me, too. That's a good grail. Yeah. I've never seen one out in the wild, but I know the game. Yeah. You know, they had one when I was growing up. They had one at the movie theater in my small town, Merced, California, that I would go to. And it took me a long time to actually, you know, hunt back. And, you know, I just had these scenes in my head. And it just like I couldn't figure out what game that was. And then I finally figured it out. And, you know, I played main versions of it now. but man, I would love to own that cabinet. Again, if you've got a couple of those hanging around, let me know. Alright, well, I'll call you or message you. You ever hear of a game called Main Event? I just picked it up today. Konami? Main Event?
    70:33
    It's a wrestling kind of a thing, you know? Oh yeah, I know Main Event. I put some quarters in Main Event. Any good game? Do you know anything about it? No, I just know, you know, I put a lot of quarters in it because I was in a wrestling game. I think wrestling games are always a good pickup. Always.
    70:50
    Yeah. Absolutely. All right, guys. Thank you so much. This was a great third edition of our Caves Across America. Free Gold Watch, where can people find you guys?
    71:00
    San Francisco. You can find us at freegoldwatch.com. There's a website very much there. Pretty much you'll find us 1767 Waller Street, seven days a week. There you go. Rob where can people find Not only Past Times We're only open Thursday through Sunday but PastTimesArcade.com Or PastTimes.com But again guys everyone out there In TV land I want you to Reach out to me because we want To see if Matt will indeed Show up because If Matt shows up and Co shows up This is what we call The double whammy and it's like hitting the jackpot. So everyone here, as far as those four guys, including Jamie, they will all score big time. Wow. Let's do this. No, man. I'm on the mission, Rob. I'm on the mission.
    71:56
    I feel good about that. I'm talking to the travel agent tonight. I got a good buddy. Actually, I got to run because we're having our team pinball competition, and I got a buddy there that he really wants to go to, so I'm going to line it up with him and we're going to make this all happen. Jamie, thank you for having me. All you guys are great guys. All the best to all you guys. Thank you, guys. Nice to see you, Code. Nice to meet you, Jamie. I hope to see you guys and meet you guys sooner than later. Can't wait. See you guys. Bye now. Bye, Mike.
    72:28
    So how fun was that? Amazing. Talk about great guests. That was great. For episode three, they just, I mean, we're outdoing ourselves here. It's just with, you know, episode two with Linz and, of course, Electric Bat and Emoto on episode one. So we're on our way. And now apparently you're going to Chicago. Apparently.
    72:51
    And one of the cool things about that is we'll definitely meet so many people and book even further guests, right? And we have so many. But we also have so many people that we've been reaching out to that want to be on. People have been reaching out left and right that they want to be on the show. They love what we're doing here on Arcades Across America, and that's always great to hear. So lots of content coming, that's for sure. Oh, my gosh, yeah. I'm so excited. My co-host, this is great. Where can people find you, of course? Quarter Drop Arcade on Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and quarterdroparcade.com. We are on all the socials, Wormhole Pinball. and you can always email us at one more pinball at gmail.com or one more pinball.com. You guys are killing it on social media lately. Yeah, you know, we have someone that's helping us, Aaron, from the Learning to Flip series and Aaron excuse me, Eric Winant Anthony and she's just fantastic and she's really showed us how to hit that algorithm that you know so well, Co. So I can see the evolution and it's incredible. The content is like so good. Very fun. You know, we have so many great things coming down the pipe here at Warren Mall and and a quarter drop. And that's why we're also doing this. We get this free consultants and I've learned so much already and we have learned so much. We had so many more questions that we wanted to ask him about. I know. Yeah. About other things that we just couldn't get to. Yeah. So that's all right. All right. for formal pinball and arcades across america i'm jamie wirtle thank you co so much my pleasure i appreciate you and remember our phrase don't be an angle don't reason do it the community's too great we don't need to mess that up all right all right thanks co we'll talk to you soon