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Episode 2 :: The Electric Bat Cast

Electric Bat Cast·podcast_episode·1h 4m·analyzed·Sep 30, 2023
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TL;DR

Electric Bat Cast covers arcade operations, marketing, and community pinball engagement from Phoenix.

Summary

Electric Bat Cast Episode 2 features hosts Kale and Rachel discussing their Phoenix-based arcade's recent accolades, tournament operations, and pinball community engagement. The episode covers Rachel's grappling competition win, Electric Bat's recognition as best arcade in Phoenix, tournament logistics including an upcoming Hellhounds of Libra event, marketing strategies for arcades, Venom Premium reception, and community questions about pinball economics and leaderboard systems.

Key Claims

  • Electric Bat Arcade has won best arcade in Phoenix for all five years it has been operating, according to Phoenix New Times

    high confidence · Phoenix New Times named the Electric Bat Arcade the best arcade in Phoenix, Arizona. This just dropped like 10 minutes ago. We were just congratulating me. How many years have you won this? I think all of them. I think all five.

  • Over 100 people attended the recent Electric Bat tournament with visitors from Tacoma who described it as the best pinball arcade they've ever been to

    high confidence · Over 100 people showed up. We had some of our friends from out of town. Yeah, the Tacoma guys. Tacoma guys. Pete and his friends. And Pete won. Pete tied with John Schappel... every one of them said it was the best pinball arcade they've ever ever been to. Hands down.

  • Stern Pinball ships new machines with outdated IFPA flyers that are at least 8+ years old, packed by assembly line workers who have been doing this for decades

    high confidence · We unboxed our Venom. I pulled out, there's an IFPA flyer. It looks like it is like a 20th generation copy. I mean, this thing is just full of like static artifacts... this is like an eight-year-old flyer. No, much more than that. Because I think I've been an IFPA for 10 years, and my IFPA number is 20,000 and change.

  • Insider Connected leaderboards significantly drive play on newer Stern machines at arcades with display screens

    high confidence · It's helped drive play. Yeah, that's basically the question. It drives me to play it... It not only do you have data to back this up we see it when we go into the arcade so many people even you. You know, not hardcore tournament players. This is even, like, better for casuals.

  • Rachel paid $3,000 for her Addams Family pinball machine, which is one of her favorite machines

    high confidence · Paid $3,000. Woo. Man, if we could go back and just buy all of those machines... It's one of your favorite machines. You bought that machine.

  • Christopher Franchi hid Rachel as an Easter egg on the Beatles pinball machine playfield

    high confidence · He put a little Easter egg in the Beatles machine. Right. I am on the Beatles play field. Yes. If you own a Beatles machine, go see if you can find Rachel. She's holding up a sign waiting for the Beatles to get off a plane.

Notable Quotes

  • “every one of them said it was the best pinball arcade they've ever been to. Hands down.”

    Kale @ ~7:30 — Validates Electric Bat's reputation and community draw beyond local Phoenix area

  • “be yourself unless yourself is not cool... if you're a jerk hire somebody... to do it”

    Kale @ ~26:00 — Marketing philosophy for arcade operators - direct and practical advice

  • “There's something quaintly atrocious about all that, which is awesome”

    Rachel @ ~48:00 — Rachel's perspective on vintage/retro pinball art styles and charm

  • “I want to see a dune machine that we resurrect for Zeta... necromancers out there, let's get...”

    Rachel @ ~52:00 — Reference to hypothetical future game design; Rachel's interest in complex IP arrangements

  • “None of that”

    Kale @ ~67:00 — Firm rejection of the idea that machine prices should decrease after payoff

  • “The problem is most people who play pinball machines... they do not understand what's under the hood and the maintenance involved and the cost of parts”

    Kale @ ~66:00 — Operator perspective on community understanding of machine economics

  • “put a tv up there always displaying... it's inexpensive those tvs and a wall mount i mean you could probably get it for like 200 bucks”

    Kale @ ~71:00 — Practical advice for operators implementing leaderboard displays

Entities

Electric Bat ArcadeorganizationRachelpersonKalepersonVenom PremiumgamePete (Tacoma Pete)personJohn Schappel (Yon Schappel)personChristopher Franchiperson

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Operator economics misunderstood by player base; expectations for price reduction after machine payoff reflect fundamental disconnect about arcade business model

    high · Seth reports ongoing pressure to reduce prices; Kale/Rachel explain ongoing costs: maintenance, parts, insurance, rent, wages, electricity, food/alcohol; operators must maintain margins

  • ?

    community_signal: Insider Connected digital leaderboards effectively driving increased play and engagement at arcade, particularly among casual players; validated by operator observation and player behavior

    high · Hosts confirm leaderboards drive play and provide competitive motivation; casual players check leaderboard displays first when entering arcade; represents data-driven engagement tool

  • ?

    community_signal: Electric Bat Arcade demonstrating strong community engagement through weekly tournaments, mixed-skill tournaments, and inclusive environment that attracts competitive and casual players

    high · Over 100 people at recent tournament, visiting players from Tacoma describing it as best arcade ever, Tuesday tournaments with established format and community participation

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Rachel's aesthetic preferences show tension between traditional hand-rendered pinball art and modern digital design; expressing desire for complex, naturally-rendered artwork

    medium · Rachel advocates for oil paint/acrylic/watercolor over digital art; wants 80s heavy metal/sci-fi fantasy styles; acknowledges licensing and time constraints prevent this approach

  • ?

    event_signal: Electric Bat hosting Hellhounds of Libra tournament Sunday featuring innovative format (max match play qualifying, Amazing Race finals) with tiered pricing and cash prizes

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.193

0:00
We're back. We're back. The Electric Batcast is back. This is our third episode, but it's called episode two, right? Oh, gosh. This is going to be a perpetual... It gets complicated. Okay. I guess we have a recap. I was training for a grappling competition. Training hard. I was training hard. Early and often. You were watching my diet, and I made it happen. I got the gold medal. I pulled it off. I'm really surprised that I was able to do this, but it happened. I'm not surprised at all. I'm so proud of you. I was there. I was watching, filming. Thank you.
0:48
Yelling, I guess. And you did so well. It was so much fun to watch. you know i was afraid i was going to be afraid that you might i might get hurt yeah yeah yeah i don't want that but uh i made it happen and man what a great day you made it look easy we had a lot of teammates that won medals and uh it was it was really cool and i'm i'm really really proud of you you did an amazing thing i appreciate it shout out to pro edge uh mma boxing muay thai grappling i don't know how many things they teach they teach weight training uh check it out uh pro edge mma and boxing in phoenix arizona uh shout out to the team and the owners there in the management yeah thank you for making such an awesome facility for us to train in and if you want to train come on out you can there's uh if any kind of combat sports they'll teach it do you like combat, this is your place. They don't sponsor us, but they... They really... Well, they helped us out. They helped us out. It's a great facility.
1:56
Also, Electric Bat. Best arcade in Phoenix. This just dropped like 10 minutes ago. Hot off the presses. Phoenix New Times named the Electric Bat Arcade the best arcade in Phoenix, Arizona. Congratulations to you. We were just congratulating me. Now we're congratulating you. Thank you. You built an amazing thing here. And for those of you that don't know, this is Rachel's arcade. She built this thing before we got married. I'm just kind of hanging around.

  • Venom Premium features unlockable characters including Captain America, Wolverine, and Hulk

    high confidence · you can unlock Captain America, Wolverine, I think the Hulk. Yeah, I think Chewie unlocked Hulk last night... you can unlock stuff. I like unlocking things.

  • Rachel prefers naturally-rendered art (oil paint, acrylic, watercolor) for pinball rather than digital art, and would like to see 1980s heavy metal/sci-fi fantasy art styles

    high confidence · I would really love this to be actual like oil paint, acrylic paint, watercolor, whatever the natural medium of that artist is... I would really love to see... some 80s heavy metal art... pure sci-fi fantasy, beautifully rendered.

  • Kale describes himself as being on a playing roll after recent tournament performance

    high confidence · I'm kind of on a roll, to tell you the truth.

  • Electric Bat's Tuesday tournaments start at 6:30 PM and feature a mixed skill level community environment

    high confidence · if you want to play pinball with us every Tuesday 6.30 at the Electric Bat Arcade come a little early to warm up and hang out.

    • Stern Pinball
    company
    Phoenix New Timesorganization
    Pro Edge MMAorganization
    Game Room Goodiesorganization
    Marco Specialtiesorganization
    Rolandperson
    Sethperson
    Adam Hortonperson
    IFPAorganization
    Brandonperson
    Chewieperson
    Zombie Yetiperson
    Dirty Donnieperson

    high · Roland organizing cash prize tournament with $10/$15 entry tiers based on IFPA rating; A and B division finals; Amazing Race format finals stage

  • $

    market_signal: Kale emphasizing authentic personality and consistent social media presence as primary marketing drivers for arcade success; practical advice on content frequency and authenticity

    high · Kale describes marketing approach: 1+ posts daily, authentic personality, regular content featuring venue and players; attributes Electric Bat success to visible personality and consistent marketing

  • ?

    community_signal: Christopher Franchi including Easter eggs and personal tributes to community members on Stern machines, suggesting integration and personal investment in artist role

    high · Rachel hidden as Easter egg on Beatles playfield holding sign; identified as 'little Easter eggs' that Franchi includes as tribute

  • ?

    product_concern: Stern Pinball shipping machines with severely outdated promotional materials (8+ year old IFPA flyers with multiple generation copies), suggesting quality control/inventory management issues at factory

    high · Hosts found 20-generation copy IFPA flyer in Venom Premium box; estimate flyer is 8+ years old based on IFPA membership numbering; attribute to assembly line worker habit

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Strong positive reception to Venom Premium with praise for approachability, leveling mechanics, and character unlocks; no significant criticisms noted

    high · Hosts describe Venom as 'knocked it out of the park' with positive player feedback; non-tournament players scoring $200M on first ball indicating accessibility

  • ?

    technology_signal: Community players misunderstanding pinball machine economics and maintenance costs, expecting price reductions after machines are paid off

    high · Seth reports local players asking for reduced pricing after machines are paid off; hosts explain maintenance, parts, insurance, and operational costs are ongoing regardless of purchase payoff

    • 2:30
    But congratulations. Thank you. And obviously. How many years have you won this? I think all of them. I think all five. All the years you've been operating. even when you only had like 12 machines best arcade but at the same time you know back when we only had that small room none of these other arcades were open either the cobra was the only other one that existed at the time and you know yeah no I'm very grateful and obviously couldn't do it without you Chewy Mark John Chappell you know it takes and the people of course And the management, our business partners and management and staff at Yucca Taproom, thank you so much. You guys are great. They're basically watching the arcade when we're not there. We are indebted to you guys. We'll have to do something nice for Christmas. Aranda, Dane, all the people. Lola.
    3:27
    Danger. Nick Danger. All right, all right. Good deal. Excellent. You want to talk about some pinball? I think people want to hear it. I think they tuned in more for pinball. Now, what about this last tournament? We have tournaments every Tuesday. Yeah, this is a cool one. We just had a great tournament. Over 100 people showed up. We had some of our friends from out of town. Yeah, the Tacoma guys. Pete and his friends. And Pete won. Pete tied with John Schappel. Perfect night. What a fun time. You know, some of them boys are thinking about moving here. They should. They said, every one of them said it was the best pinball arcade they've ever been to. Hands down. That's a quote. I got it right here. That feels really great. Yeah.
    4:18
    And he was drinking Liquid Death, so it's not like he was drunk and just... He doesn't drink. Pete doesn't drink. He's like me. We keep our edge, although he's a lot better at pinball than I am.
    4:30
    I'm not going up against John Shappell. I like to call him Yon Shappell. Yeah, Yon. when he's on stream is Jan Schaeffel thank you everybody for coming out to that tournament making it just an absolute blast we have the best people the whole group you have casuals playing with serious competitive pinball guys and we all get along and help each other out it's a fun community if you want to play pinball with us every Tuesday 6.30 at the Electric Bat Arcade come a little early to warm up and hang out. Yeah. And grab some food. We have great food, great drinks. Our bartender, Brandon, always hooks up the tiki drinks. Sure thing. His new thing, well, kind of new, he's adding Poppin' Bobas. Oh, yeah. Poppin' Bobas. For a couple of bucks, you can add Poppin' Bobas to anything. We saw somebody put Poppin' Bobas in their Miller High Life. Yeah. You can try that, too. Let's see what kind of combination. You could do Jaeger and Boba. Ooh.
    5:34
    How about, what is that super nasty shit? Malort. It tastes like Band-Aids and boba. I'll tell you what, if the boba doesn't make malort better, I don't know what will.
    5:49
    Special shout out to our sponsors, Game Room Goodies. If you're looking for anything for your game room, pinball machines, jukeboxes, what else? Skeeball. Air hockey. All things game room. Anything Game Room related, they will take care of you. Call Aaron over at Game Room Goodies. And also, if you're looking for pinball parts, Marco Specialties, everything pinball. They have everything pinball. Pinball parts, that's where we get them. Yeah, that's where we get them. It's your one-stop shop. And we love those guys. Thank you so much. Can't wait to hang out at the Marco booth that is returning to Expo in Chicago. That's going to be a lot of fun. Yeah. We'll get to play the Venom Premium. That'll probably be the first place we play it. Yeah. Because we're, yeah. I know there are none in town yet. There will be. Yeah. I know there'll be an LE in town at a special location we'll talk about later. But.
    6:50
    What? Talk about a special location. Yeah. Later on. Okay. Not now. Later. Okay. Get Nancy. right so what do you want to do anything else you want to talk about before we get into the mailbag we have some mailbag stuff here um congratulations on the best arcade well really i am blown away you surprised absolutely blown away i'm not surprised blown away okay yeah well thank you it's great it feels good you know it feels nice to And the bigger compliment than that was just having people come out and talk about how much fun they have there. Our whole crew, the hundred people that play with us, are all awesome. And I don't think that the ones that don't travel out of town, I don't think that they necessarily understand how special that feel is.
    7:52
    You're there with a hundred people, some of them way better than you, some of them not as good as you. and it really it's it feels like an awesome community and that is a very unusual um that's just an unusual feeling in in arcade culture it's i think it's getting to be more that way in some locations certainly but i think that that that really is what makes the bat feel special right and we i've i've talked to two arcades um one of the owners actually came and played in one of our tournaments. Other ones we've just corresponded over messaging. And they have a hard time getting the casuals and serious competitive players to play together. Some of them have to do separate rec leagues where you don't get whopper points for the guys that are just having fun. And then, you know, so I'm just glad all of our... Yeah, we have a special thing. Yeah, yeah. All of our folks like to play together and have a good time, and they love the competition.
    8:59
    Mailbag time. Oh. I have a question from Rachel. You snuck this in here. Is this you? This is me. Yeah, you did it last time. I thought I'd add that. All right. And when you thought about this, you were riding in the passenger seat on the freeway. I guess I was driving. You were driving. Yeah. and the questions for me how about that uh you are the best marketing person in the business uh i guess you mean the pinball business because i mean out there yeah i couldn't do jewelry or watches or maybe i don't know i'd put you up against gary v gary v oh man i wish uh for people that don't have much aptitude in this area do you have any basic marketing techniques or tips uh yeah man this could be like a whole podcast i think we should do a whole podcast about marketing we should yeah a lot uh not this one though a lot of arcades ask for some like tips i guess i mean just in a in a nutshell uh be yourself unless yourself is not cool yeah if you're a jerk hire somebody yeah to do it uh but i mean just get nail the basics um you know you have to you have to use social media i know there's some there's still some arcade owners we know that just don't use social media they're like why is nobody coming out here you just have to be on there you know start out with facebook and instagram and then roll out from there but if you're strong on facebook and instagram that's going to lay down a good foundation when you're doing ads i still see people making this mistake you got to have what is going on when and where the the time the the day the month i still see big arcades just not not putting that just say come play in our tournament just come play in our tournament people are like responding on facebook going well when is it where do i go I'm not from here. That's the basic stuff. And I know this is hard and it isn't for everybody. Get your personality out there. Make videos. You know, if you're boring, feature some of your players because I can guarantee you if you are running a pinball arcade, there are some characters out there. So, yeah, give it a little personality. I mean, it's just marketing 100. Yeah, I think a lot of people are really like they get tightened up and they get very formal with it, like afraid to showcase who they are. For sure. And it is tough. When I first started doing Internet marketing, man, I was on MySpace. Yeah. You and Tom. Yeah, me and Tom. We're still friends today.
    11:54
    Still got the whiteboard. But so we had I was working at a packaging company and I was doing a daily. So I was actually doing it behind their backs. They had no idea I was promoting their stuff on on. I created a Facebook page for him, a Twitter and Instagram. And one thing I noticed was when I was when I was doing the promotions, I would do everything on the fly. They tell you not to do that, like set your whole calendar up. I still do everything on the fly to this day. And it really the mood I was in at the time really affected things.
    12:33
    And so I know it's very difficult to put yourself out there, but, you know, just do it. You know, just do the basics, an image with dates, time, specials, drink specials and a nice little write up. But, you know, play around with AI a little bit. If you're not good at writing, there are, what is it? Chat GPT. Chat GPT can write you, tell it to write you a social post and put the details in there and just use that thing.
    13:04
    Yeah, but that's about it. So I think I can check that off. Do you have anything to add to that about how awesome I am?
    13:12
    That was my favorite part. Yeah, I'm surprised we didn't focus more on that part. The marketing is really secondary, but the awesomeness, let's talk about that. But I think that awesomeness is key with all of this because you do have a very big personality.
    13:29
    Thank you. You just do. And it really shows in that you're not afraid. You wake up like, hey, I feel like doing this. And sometimes my eyes get big like, oh, God. You just roll with it. This is who you are and really who we are.
    13:49
    And, you know, the electric bat has a personality, and it's nice that we get to see it. Thank you. I know.
    14:01
    Sometimes I'm on that razor's edge. Yeah, sometimes you're way over it. Sometimes I'm – I post stuff you would never want to post. 100%. But when it works, you're like, holy shit. Yeah, like, how about that?
    14:13
    Yeah, and also, I mean, if you're promoting your bar and arcade restaurant, post a lot. How often? You know, it really depends on how much time you have, how creative you are, at least once a day. Okay. And then, but I would say, if somebody who's really getting into it, wants to hit it hard, you know, two to three times a day is good. As long as it's good stuff and it's meaningful. Right. It's not filler. You don't want to have the same ad, you know, run it every week or whatever. No, no, no. Yeah. You don't want to see all the same stuff. But even simple stuff like if there's a bar, a photo of a drink, you know, just a photo. Hey, this is happy hour. It can be as simple as that. Photo, drink, appetizer, you know, here's the special. So simple stuff like that works too. And especially if you're in a pinball arcade, all that cool art and those machines everywhere, cool photography is where it's at. And don't be afraid to hire somebody. Bring a photographer, a videographer in if you're not good with it. Hire them for the day to shoot a bunch of content and just tell them to give you the raw footage and you can chop it up and have some fun with it. And when you say post, do you mean like posts, not just like a story every day on Instagram? You mean like an actual post. An actual post. Yeah, on Instagram. And stories are great. You can do all kinds of stuff with that. But that's a whole other thing. We'll deal with that later. Separate episode. If you have marketing questions, I think we would eventually like to do one that's just kind of dedicated to this. Because you do get a lot of questions about this. And yeah so send them ElectricBatArcade at gmail Discord There you have it the usual places to contact us next on the docket yeah venom it brian eddie best game that not called attack for mark who said who said that that's a quote that's a quote from uh rachel bass right yeah it is a great game i do and and that medieval has is certainly a very charming game right um and it would be very that was sort of tongue-in-cheek those medieval and afm are probably my favorite brianetti games but venom i think has there's there's something about the leveling up that i'm loving and i i like the shots some people feel the ramps are a little steep um i say play better there you go i've heard uh most people have loved it and said it's like the shots are simple we've Had a couple people thought they were, like, difficult, and you need to backhand them. It's still new, too. It's still new. But, you know, I'm seeing players who are not tournament players, and they're in there playing some folks I know, and they're getting, like, $200 million on their first ball. Yeah. You know, so very approachable game and cool.
    17:21
    Great job, guys at Stern. You guys, once again, knocked it out of the park. I'm really loving this one. And everybody is loving leveling up their characters. And opening, I mean, unlocking, you can unlock Captain America, Wolverine, I think the Hulk.
    17:39
    Yeah, I think Chewie unlocked Hulk last night. I think I saw that somewhere. Yeah, you can unlock stuff. I like unlocking things. It's like presents. Right on, right on. Okay. Moving right along.
    17:50
    IFPA Flyer. Oh, I have this in the other room. It ships with... So we unboxed our Venom. And usually we throw away, you know, there's the little bag that tells you how to set it up. But, you know, Cale and I have done this plenty of times. We don't need the instructions on, you know, how to level a game.
    18:13
    But this time, for whatever reason, I thought, like, I'm going to go through this and see if they actually... Like, what are they telling people now? I thought maybe it had changed since we'd done it so many times before. I pulled out, there's an IFPA flyer. It looks like it is like a 20th generation copy. I mean, this thing is just full of like static artifacts, all that sort of stuff. And it's talking about increase your profits, join the IFPA, use the IFPA. it exists in over 17 countries.
    18:54
    And it has, right now, it's got over 7,500 players. Wow. So this is like an eight-year-old flyer. No, much more than that. Because I think I've been an IFPA for 10 years, and my IFPA number is 20,000 and change. So the deal is, you probably have some guy there who's been working at Stern for 30 years. Yeah. He's on the assembly line. He's at the tail end of it. And he has an inbox. It's just a stack of these old IFPA flyers. And he's just – he's taping them to every machine as it goes out. He's probably been doing it forever. And it's just like – you know, it's like old hat. It's a habit now. When they move the factory, do they not – like they take – okay, now make sure you grab the 15-year-old IFPA flyers. like why have these not been updated remember how we we were looking through old i think it was an old manual and it still listed jersey jack as a stern distributor oh wow and this was like years and years and it was something that had just come out it just sometimes things don't you know there's a lot of balls plates in the air whatever the phrase is at stern ball plates ball plates there's some ball plates in the air i think this is cool these little these relics these Easter eggs. Yeah. And this seems to always happen in the industry. You find something. Even when we're going through like old toolboxes of parts we've purchased from people getting out of the business. It's, oh, look at this old thing. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's very much a part of the industry and the culture of pinball. It's classic. To just forget about stuff. That's part of the culture. So I think we'll take a picture of it and throw it up for the people that haven't unboxed a new game recently. We'll post it on Facebook or something. Just a flyer from a very, very, very long time ago. If you get one, hold on to it. It might be worth something. Josh Sharp may want to. He might want it back. Might want to send a new one to the factory floor. Oh, what's coming up at the bat? Any new games, tournaments? We do have a tournament coming up. Yeah, Roland's Hellhounds of Libra. All right, that's this Sunday. That's this Sunday. And that's a cool one. Right, I was about to ask you. It's a little different than any of our other tournaments. Yeah, yeah, and that's great. I love that these people are, like, we're doing all kinds of things. So this is going to be a cash prize tournament, and the qualifying is max match play. So that's a head-to-head tournament, and I don't know how many rounds it is. 10, 15, 12, somewhere in there. There's a really good description. If you go to our Facebook page or Instagram, Roland, he lays everything out. Yeah, Roland is running this, and he's thought through the details. So that's the qualifying, and then the finals is Amazing Race. So basically you're going through each game and trying to have the highest score.
    22:02
    It's a format that I have not ever actually played. I was out of commission the last time he did it. So I'm really looking forward to playing it. And this is a cash prize. And I like that what he did is, so if you're under the top, I believe it's $2.50 in the IFPA, you pay $10 to enter. If you're above that level, you pay $15.
    22:25
    So it kind of hedges the pot. And so there's going to be an A division and B division finals. So there's a little bit of cash prize for B division, too. So there's something for everybody. He was very thoughtful in the way that he's doing this tournament. So we'll report back on it next time around. Very cool. I'm looking forward to this. Yeah, I am too.
    22:43
    You and I always have a little competition. We don't worry about everybody else. I'm going to beat you.
    22:50
    We'll see about that. I'm kind of on a roll, to tell you the truth. Remind me how that bounty knockout went this weekend. I remember you were taking a picture of me. I can't remember where. Oh, I was 11th. Yeah. What was I?
    23:05
    Third? That's correct. You're third, which is amazing. I mean, you're going up against some serious, serious competition. Yeah, it was a great day. Adam Horton won. Yeah. And then Pete. Yeah, Tacoma Pete. Tacoma Pete got second. Man, he was winning all kind of stuff. He did great.
    23:23
    Yeah, what a great time. What a great time. Okay, so Sunday, this coming Sunday, Roland's, what's it called? Hellhounds. Hellhounds of Libra. Libra Pinball Tournament. Live at the bat. Yep. Live at the bat. Good times. Okay. Moving right along. This is from a top fan on Facebook. Oh, a top fan. He's got a little diamond next to his name. What do you do to be a top fan? You just interact a lot? I think you just got to talk to us a bunch. Okay. Like our stuff and comment. And you too can be a top fan.
    23:56
    Marty Martinez has got a question for us. You ready for this one? First name, same as the last? old marty martinez yeah you like that you think that's a real name that's a cool name uh i would love to ask rachel how she discovered pinball and her take on pinball art and artists because you're you're an artist that i think that's uh that's why he's asking i see you're very accomplished artist thank you and he wants your opinion well i guess first uh how do you discover pinball same way everyone else did i existed in the 90s right everyone else of our generation um what was the first pinball machine you remember coming across adams that's adams family that's the first one i remember there were more before that but that's the one that really um that i you know really remember playing okay yeah cool adams and you uh own that machine I do. You bought that machine. It's one of your favorite machines. You bought it and you still own it. Paid $3,000. Woo. Man, if we could go back and just buy all of those machines, I'll tell you what, we can't.
    25:15
    So tell me, he wants to know about your take on pinball art and artists. Like across the eras, maybe.
    25:24
    Who's your favorite pinball artist? It's probably Python, huh? You don't like Python? Come on. I thought you liked that hand-drawn... Come on. You like Python. Oh, I love some Python. You're trying to put words in my mouth. You know.
    25:41
    I actually really like kind of the EM, like triangle people art, which is the absolute opposite of the art style that I am. I also really like, you know, like... Well, and I mean, there's something charming about the really terrible pinball art of the 80s. I mean, it's almost all just universally god awful. Especially the manuals. Yeah. The manuals, like they just let their kids draw it. Right. I mean, it's like this. Basically, the guy in the mail room. Yeah. Can you hold a pencil? Do what you think a gorgar is like. That's it's. Oh, it's. And so there's something quaintly atrocious about all that, which is awesome. But I think he's asking about, like right now, like Zombie Yeti and all that stuff.
    26:32
    I like it. It doesn't. Franchi. Who is a big fan of you. Well. He's such a big fan of you. He put a little Easter egg in the Beatles machine. Right. I am on the Beatles play field. Yes. If you own a Beatles machine, go see if you can find Rachel. She's holding up a sign waiting for the Beatles to get off a plane, I think, or something like that. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It says I love Paul. Oh, yeah. There. I made it real easy for you.
    27:00
    No, where's Waldo there? Yeah, I love all of that art. But I think I would really, what I'm waiting to see that I haven't seen yet is some 80s heavy metal art. I mean, the magazine's not the band. Oh, for sure. Just like pure sci-fi fantasy, beautifully rendered.
    27:31
    This is probably not going to happen because... Because of the medium and the substrate, right? The amount of time it would take. They couldn't afford to pay the artists to make that. Right. And could you imagine having to do a revision because the license holder didn't like something and you're painting an oil paint? Right. And that's the thing is I would really love this to be actual like oil paint, acrylic paint, watercolor, whatever the natural medium of that artist is and have that scanned in and transferred versus having to do it digitally, which they're all done. Dirty Donnie does do hand-drawn line art for the most part, if not all of it. For sure. But I want to see the whole thing done like that. So that's what I'm holding out for, and that's the pinball art that I want to see. Cool. So I want to see it. I would love to see that also. I want to see a dune machine that we resurrect for Zeta.
    28:33
    So, necromancers out there, let's get... You know, I want to see, I want a Dune machine with Mobius artwork. Oh, that would be cool, too. That would be bananas, right? Oh, that would be great. Yeah, I would love that. Maybe the different editions, right? You get the Mobius edition, the Frazetta edition. Right. Mm-hmm.
    28:53
    Okay. We're going to move on. Oh, this is from our friend, Seth. Yeah, I saw, I didn't read this yet. I saw you snuck this in here. Oh, yeah, yeah. This was from an email. Yeah. We love Seth. Mm-hmm. We actually, we chatted with him. You know what's crazy? We could have met him. We were at InDisc before. I think it was InDisc. It was one of the events at the Pinball Museum in Banning. Oh, okay. And we were actually there together, but we didn't know each other, so we didn't talk to each other. We didn't meet up, but we got to know each other over social media since then, and he has been operating machines or renting machines. He's gotten in the business. That's cool. So we may have been in line with them for hot dogs or something, but didn't know who it was. For sure.
    29:40
    So he said, local skeezers been bugging me about when my machines will be paid off so I can finally drop them the 50 cents. Excuse me?
    29:52
    Well, I think what he's saying is there are people playing the machines and they're like, you know, certainly this Iron Maiden has been paid off. Can we drop the price? Like he's milking the audience. Let me get this straight.
    30:13
    Seth has people that believe that if his machines have been paid off. They should get a deal. They should be cheaper. Right. I want to talk to these people about their cars, their homes. Right, right. And anything else with value. Can we borrow it? Your car. It's paid off. Can I borrow it? No, no, no. I don't want to borrow it. I want to buy it off them for like... Fair market value. No, no, no. Fair market value. I want it to be cheaper because it's paid off. Oh, yeah, yeah. So I want your Forerunner for $5,000, please.
    30:48
    That makes no sense at all. So basically his question is, do we reduce the price of play once we've recouped the original game purchase price? I mean, if my goal was a net zero, but like if we were independently wealthy, that just doesn't even make any sense. You have to. I mean, they cost like maintenance is way more than people think it is. Bottom line. No, we don't do that. No. And nobody should do that. And nobody should expect anybody else to do that. But he's going to have to. He's going to have to explain this. OK, so here's how I would explain it. I mean, I would use a couple of well-chosen fingers in my explanation. Pinkies. Yeah, that's not them.
    31:34
    Okay, I go to the grocery store. The building is paid off. They own the grocery store. Are my apples half price?
    31:42
    No. No, they had to ship them. They had to pay the farmers. But, I mean, it doesn't even matter. No, don't do that. Nobody should have to do that. It doesn't make sense. The problem is most people who play pinball machines, I don't know if most, a lot of people who play machines, they do not understand what's under the hood and the maintenance involved and the cost of parts.
    32:09
    And the cost of maintenance I mean you figure there four of us working on pinball machines every day of the week I mean, like, do they think that Seth should work for free? Yeah, they probably do. Okay. Do they work for free? I mean, this is one of those things. They may not even work anymore. I don't know the way they're thinking. Get off my lawn. So, in a nutshell, no, we don't do that. And then we've told you the reasons.
    32:38
    Also, you've got to pay rent. Yeah, I've got to pay. Like, if people knew how much it costs to, like, run an arcade, like, it is not. And as you expand, the costs go way up. Way up. You've got to pay for insurance for people. You've got to get a fifth air conditioner. Food costs, alcohol costs, pinball parts, no. Fair wages. We're actually going to raise the price. Yeah, now that we think about it, this is way too. Okay, Seth has another question. Seth, get back to me whenever you talk or people who are asking, who think that that's like a thing that you should do. I just want someone to explain to me why you should drop the price of playing a machine after it's paid off. Yeah. Okay. No, we're going to move on. Okay. None of that. Another question from Seth. I want to know. Do you think Insider Connected has helped drive play, or is it just a byproduct of them being newer Sterns?
    33:39
    It's helped drive play. Yeah, that's basically the question. Because we've had new Sterns before Insider Connected. We have new Sterns still post-Insider Connected. And we have, yeah, and it has absolutely helped because I get to see my name on that leaderboard. It drives me to play it. like i it drives me to play when we're there it gives us a goal because when we're like we're not just like hey let's play each other on this yeah whatever xyz game we're like let's both try to get on the leaderboard yeah we want to get on the leaderboard and you have the data you've seen this is actually works but because you can also see it in the arcade it is important if you are an operator uh or own an arcade uh put a tv up there always displaying yeah it's inexpensive those tvs and a wall mount i mean you could probably get it for like 200 bucks put that up there attach it to an internet connected device that can show the insider connected um it not only do you have data to back this up we see it when we go into the arcade so many people even you You know, not hardcore tournament players. This is even, like, better for casuals. They cut around the corner. They look up. The first thing they do is look up at the screen. It's like, hey, which leaderboard can I get on? Yeah. And did somebody beat my score? For sure. If it's just a location where you have a couple of machines, you might not want to invest in or even have to worry about putting a TV up with Insider Connected. print a QR code that goes to your location's leaderboard and laminate that and put it next to the machine so people can scan it and they can see the Insider Connected leaderboard for your location on their phone. But like I say, let's – I still think you want that TV because I want to see my name up there. I want a little ghost Rachel up on the wall saying what's up. You're right.
    35:48
    100%. Okay, where are we? I hit the wrong button and now I ended up... Oh, no. Man. We can skip that one. We touched on that a little bit. Oh, this is a really good one. Lift table, dollies, pin skates, escaleras, new tilt and truck lift table, yay or nay? Man. We've used all those. Well, I haven't used the Tilton truck. I've seen videos of people using those, and I've been jealous. I would like one of those. Those look cool. We don't have one right now.
    36:27
    Actually, I misspoke. I have not used that either. I just thought he was talking about like a lift gate on a pickup.
    36:34
    Is that not an actual device? Yeah, it's like our dolly. Is it like an Escalera? No. What it is, is it like, it goes like, it's like a table combined with a, like it goes. Whoa. Yeah, I saw, it looks very cool. I think it's expensive.
    36:51
    And I think we'll probably end up getting one pretty soon anyway, because we're not getting, despite the fact that you're real good at choking people, we're not getting any younger. We don't need to be like lifting all this stuff so much. We use, mostly we use the Harbor Freight, the modified jack. Yeah. And it's like a motorcycle engine lift, right? Yeah, I think that's what it's built for. It's the one that everybody has, and you have to weld the handlebar thing onto some hinges so it doesn't get in the way. That one, we use that the most. We also have pin skates that we modified. Yes. The downside of pin skates is that those casters, for home use, totally fine, right? You'll be fine using those for as much as you need to move machines around the house. And that's what I originally bought it for. But whenever you start using them as work equipment, those casters are going to fail very quickly. For sure. So there's caster stores in town. We're lucky. We actually have a store that sells nothing but casters. Nothing but casters. Specializes, and they help us out. So we put some nice casters on there that are rated for heavier usage. For sure. And we use those sometimes, too. A lot. Yeah. They're so convenient, especially to keep in the back of the truck. Yeah. But we can always move a machine without needing a heavy dolly. They're great. Yeah. Especially if you have, like, a step to go up into whatever building you're going into. Those Harbor Freight dollies, those weigh, like, 100 and something pounds. You can't just, like, jerk it up into the building. Mm-hmm. Penn Skates. So those are the two that we use the most, but I would like the tilt and lift table thing. For sure. There's no stairs in Arizona, basically. We don't have use for an escalera. Right. I've used an escalera, and it was great because I was at a pinball show, and I had to move a bunch of glass.
    38:50
    And somebody let me borrow one. It was either Larry or Zach. I can't remember who owned Flippin' Out at the time. but uh man it i mean it picked up a lot of i mean the glass is heavy it might have been like a thousand pounds i mean it was it was insane um and we we brought it into the uh the showroom and sold it in there that was a lot of fun thank you for the questions seth yeah thank you all right moving on this is from the the email uh he has the email bag the email bag cleaning games question i was cleaning a game with novice 2 okay and an old-timer started to chastise me claiming that i was ruining the playfield as novice was basically sandpaper he claimed that the way to clean games was with windex and then wax the playfield and that is what will keep the game in the best condition so my question is this how do you clean your games at uh electric bat Do you want to take this? I have some opinions on this, and I'm sure you do, too. Man, how often do we hear this? Let's hope they're the same, right? Yeah. So this was when we were working at Marco on the show floor. Oh, my God. This is like the one thing. You might as well just ask people how they feel about, I don't know, Trump, some kind of like hot button thing. Like this gets people or whatever gets people worked up. so old timers because those original play fields didn't have the clear coat and things you did want to clean it a little more carefully and keep the wax on there to protect it for sure as we moved into the modern era we get the diamond plate and now just you know the clear coat it's got a harder surface um i still at the bat the bat once again we get way more plays than what a home user is going to have on their games i still when i'm cleaning games first thing i do dry microfiber nothing on it at all just to try and because there's all that dust that coil dust and what else that you can just lift right off once that you know then then spray some novus one because Novis 1 is, I don't know what's in it. Do you know what the base of the cleaner is for that? I don't. Someone will let us know. But it's not abrasive. It's not abrasive. It's a spray.
    41:20
    And if that will take care of it, that's where I stop. And I prefer to do that. And then, but once again, we get heavy play. Novis 2 does need to be used at some point on our play fields. For sure. Because if you don't, like, there's no amount of elbow grease and Novus One that will get off 2,000 plays. Yeah, for sure. You know, like, you can't, like, intermittent cleaning, you can get away with just Novus One and stuff. But the high wear areas, you do have to use some Novus Two from time to time. I do try to use it. I won't say sparingly, but I don't just, like, run for the Novus Two if I see just a little bit of dirt, right? Right. because it is slightly a braze it's a polish um that's that's that's how i handle it right we tend not to wax the new games we do wax all of the older solid state games um and i think john shoppel i think i've seen him pulling out the wax so some of the newer games may have some wax on them that i don't i don't yeah like cool you want to put some wax on it that's for sure um and the way this guy the uh the old timer he's not wrong i mean it's fine a little windex and and some wax is totally cool um novice 2 is abrasive uh but it's it's fine on modern machines with that uh you know the finish the clear coat finish they put on those. Do not use Novus 3. I would never use Novus 3. That is basically like toothpaste with sand in it. Do you remember the guy, the Indiana Jones? Yeah. When we worked at Marco Specialties, there was a guy that called, and he took the paint off of his Indiana Jones, the Williams Indiana Jones.
    43:20
    Bummer. Nothing you can do after that. You can't reverse it. Right. Go counterclockwise and put the paint back on. It's like the, what's the stuff you put in your tub? The powder. Yeah, like Comet or something. Comet. It's basically like that with, like in lotion or something. So, yeah, it'll destroy stuff. Novus 3 goes in a polisher, a tumbler. Don't ever use it on a game. I would never use Novus 2 on an older machine that does not have any kind of clear. You will take the paint off of it. I think if you've got like super deep ball swirls and you're trying to just get that off, just like if you're using it very carefully, but I would never use it as just a, hey, it's Wednesday, let's put some Novus 2 on the Sinbad. I wouldn't do that.
    44:10
    Yeah. So it's good to see that we're on the same page about that. And as far as waxing, like you can do whatever you want to do. We personally don't wax everything because I believe it makes everything dirtier. When you get as many plays as we have, some of that wax is still on the table and it's collecting bits of rubber, dust from coil stops, all these metal shavings that are all over it. It's collecting all that and gunking up the play field where it makes it just a little harder to clean up. And you mean that like almost on a microscopic level. There's not like chunks of wax around our playfields. It's just like that's the function of the wax, kind of fill those tiny. Same reason we don't use grease on all kind of moving components. What if we started using grease on the playfield? I've seen people do it. Like just Crisco up?
    45:05
    Woo, woo, woo. That kind of goes along the lines of the people. You know, there's that whole debate about whether or not you should clear coat old classic games because the ball doesn't roll. It slides. That's a whole other... Do we have any that are like that? We do not. Although the Stern Dracula that I redid is clear-coded. Uh-huh.
    45:27
    Well, I guess, yes, that would be the one. Right. But it was clear-coded for a very good reason. It needed it. It had to be saved.
    45:36
    Yeah. Okay. Good deal. Hope we answered your question, Ben Griffiths. Oh, how... it's hard to say ben griffiths griffiths griffiths griffiths i like i like it thank you ben i appreciate you guys listening and uh sending in your questions okay this is from red liner 7800 oh red liner he's running like atari 7800 rpm i don't know uh do many people Well, is this from, is that from Facebook? I can't tell. Or is that Instagram? Oh, no, that's YouTube. That's YouTube. Thank you. Man, this has been great. All you folks that are leaving comments and asking questions. It's really cool. And loving this thing. I mean, we just, we kind of just did this on your birthday. Didn't expect really anybody to watch it. And it blew up. We got messages recently from all over the nation and then Australia. Yeah. Italy. Yeah. And Spain. We're international. International. International bats. Man, I'll tell you what, we are blowing up. Best Arcade in Phoenix. We're going to get some more accolades soon. Best Arcade in the nation. Come on, Italians, fly out here.
    47:00
    Okay, from Redliner7800. All right. This is from YouTube. Do many people leave with tokens and never return to use them? In other words, is your total token pool constantly leaking and needing to be replenished? Yes, sir. Yeah. We have to order new tokens. We order maybe four times a year. Quarterly, I think we order a whole lot of tokens. For sure. You know what's funny? I had some folks stop us. I was refilling the token machine, and they said, thank you. We love it when you polish the tokens. And I was like, polish the tokens. And I was like, oh, he means when he sees the really shiny ones. And that's when we get a new order in and we fill them up. And he thought we were polished. That's what you would use the Novus 3 for. Yeah. Polishing the tokens. Oh, and here's a little Easter egg. This is very cool. If you get some tokens from the Electric Bat Arcade, and if you get one that only says Tempe, that's from the first, I think, two runs. That's from the first two runs of tokens. The rest of them say Tempe and Flagstaff Yeah so they are vintage And they still floating I still see them They still floating around Isn that cool It is crazy that there some The original tokens are still in circulation So if you get those I mean still use them in the machine Don't take them home. Yes, we do get leakage of the tokens. We have to buy them four times a year. So people do buy them and they take them home, which is okay. They cost us a little bit less than 25 cents each. So that's not a huge harm. We would rather you kind of keep playing them. We want to get our money's worth out of them. Yeah, we want them to be used a lot.
    48:56
    Taking them home would be a little bit better than using another arcade's tokens in our arcade. Or don't take our arcades and use it in another arcade's. Be sure you support the local arcades and use their tokens and their machines. because we all put in a lot of hard work to make this happen, to make a fun place for you guys to play and hang out at. Yeah, yeah. That's important. But, yes, we do have to replace them. I love getting those new. I always wonder what the UPS guy thinks. He thinks it's so heavy. It is so heavy. Each token box is 35 pounds. Right, the whole pallet of them. And then you've got a pallet. But our UPS guy is solid. Sturdy. He's a big dude, yeah. Maybe that's why he's our UPS guy. Yeah. All right. I appreciate it. Red Liner 7800. Thank you for enjoying the podcast on YouTube. Is it a podcast on YouTube? Yep. Do you call it a podcast? I do. Okay. The vidcast. Like a TV show, a program. Oh, that's better. It's a program. Program. We're watching our programs. Yes. We're a program. Moving right along. Dan the Man. We love Dan. Yes. Dan and Rachel.
    50:12
    So we have, here's, he actually says mailbag question. I like that. He's real clear. Yeah. Because he knows I get confused. You know? He spent some time with you. Dan the man. Dan knows me. Dan is, this is a message from, oh, this is from our Discord. Oh, okay. And if you want to be in our Discord, you got to figure out how to get on there. It's a secret, isn't it? It's not a secret. The secret's out. Where are the links? They're in some, the descriptions on some of the podcasts. We should put it on our website. We'll put it on our website. We'll do a whole new thing on the website. Because I know some of you have been having trouble finding it, especially if you're on YouTube. Because right now, YouTube will not let us put links in the description of our videos. So I've been dropping it in the comments. But they want to get to know us a little bit better, make sure we're not shady. I don't blame them. You know, pinball's a weird thing. Dan the Man, mailbag question. Here we go. Really enjoy the stream from the state finals and the Walt Wood superhuman pinball feats. I can't wait until he comes back. Oh, man. We've got to get him back on stream.
    51:26
    What are the plans for electric bat streaming? Would love to be able to watch league night, Sunday tournaments, and Mark's three-day tournament coming up. That's going to be exciting. Also, Roland's tournament on Sunday.
    51:39
    Machines. Okay. That's the one question. Streaming. That's mostly your deal. You want me to talk about it? So I'd like you to talk about it. Actually, our last stream was we did Jurassic Park. Yeah. It wasn't really a planned thing. No. I messaged Roland to see if he wanted to come out, and a couple of other people showed up. When we got the new code that would enable co-op. We played some co-op stuff. Super fun. and after that we had so many people enjoying it we wanted to do it every sunday but every sunday after that stuff came up whether it was tournaments or we were out of town so we don't have a regular schedule we want to get back into it but we really want to build a rig so i'm not like setting up tripods and lights all the time and i mean it takes like about an hour to set everything up. So we want to invest in a rig. Yeah. We do have good news from Mark's big three-day tournament. Matt and Amy of Aimless Pinball. They're coming in town. Cool. And they are going to stream it. So thank you guys for doing that. Yep. So Dan and everybody else out there will be able to watch Mark's big three-day tournament. They just streamed the pinball at the lab. Yeah, that was cool. Yeah. Very, very, very cool.
    53:10
    We're going on to Casanova. This is in our Discord. Casanova. He's got like a bug or an eagle or a bird. Pardon me? What is that in his profile picture?
    53:23
    I don't know. Maybe like a dog flying. Oh, pig. It's a pig. Is it a pig? No, I don't know. Pug, pig. great debate question this is for you because i i really don't have an opinion on this is it worth it to do molex or will idc work just fine i guess when your idc fails you know some people say yes uh change your connectors and for those of you who have never opened a machine this has to do with the the connectors you know you have all this wire in a pinball machine and you're either using an id basically uh idc connector or a molex connector and a lot of people tell you to when idc upgrade to a molex a lot of people say when your the idc's fail or something happens and you have to rebuild them just go ahead and change it all to molex what do you think about that okay well i i do do that i swap it over to molex if if you're unfamiliar with how this works An IDC connector, basically you're pressing the wire into a little slot that has some kind of blades in there. So when you press it in, it cuts through the wire insulation, and that's how the connection is made. So the connection is really only made at the points where the wire is touching those blades. And, you know, there's nothing crimped in there. It's just the pressure of the wire maintaining that connection. So over time, the thought is that gets a little bit loose and the connection is not as stable. With a Molex connector, you are crimping on a terminal that's going to go into and that kind of clicks in to the connector. And especially if it's the Triforcon kind, then there's more points of contact. and the little thing that wedges it in holds it in there a little bit better. So the thought is that it's a more stable connection.
    55:23
    However, those IDC connectors generally last for 30-plus years. Decades. Yeah. So you're probably fine. If you want to just use the IDC connector, a new IDC connector, I think you'd be okay. I'm not sure with the Molex. Especially for home use, right? Yeah, if it's not good. Yeah, especially for home use. But, I mean, age is age, whether it's, I guess, heat is happening more as the game is on, if it's out on location. Sure. I think this debate is not as, there's not as much there there as surprise. Some things people get worked up about in pinball. For sure. I think you're fine with either. We do do the Molex, though. We liked weeping me goes in and, like, my arm gets sore because you're sitting there in, like, the back box holding up all of those wires, crimping stuff, doing new connectors. But I do that. And I think there's something satisfying about seeing, you know, the whole new. Oh, yeah, yeah. And I can tell when I've done it. New white connectors. Yeah. Well, you can tell when you've done it, too. You open up the back box and you're looking at an older game. You see that, like, that's all Molex. Oh, that's probably not the problem. I've clearly already tackled that. For sure. So.
    56:46
    Thank you, Casanova, on our Discord. Thanks, Casanova. Great question. I like when they get down to, like, really. Specific. Yeah, pinball nerd stuff. It's good for the program. We like talking about that. Next question. And this is also from Discord.
    57:04
    Okay. Guttagool. Our boy Guttagool. He always has. He's always tuning in. He always has great questions. Thank you for playing along.
    57:15
    Merchandising. How important is it to an operation? What's the best ROI? Any new items you can tease? We actually do have a new item, but I don't know if we want to tease it quite yet. Because it's not here yet. It's in early stages.
    57:33
    So this is kind of back to like a marketing question. But you, this didn't have anything to do with me. You made the iconic electric bat starburst well before I was into the picture. I did do the logo. You're a marketing person yourself. Explain that. Like, where did that come from? And you also, you hooked up the right people with this shirt. So it would be seen on streams. It would be seen at pinball shows. You have a good marketing mind. But these people were also just our friends, and it just worked out that way. So, I mean, yes, it does help to get your stuff in front of people, but also just when you're friends with the people that are in front of the other people, that naturally happens. Right.
    58:23
    I think merch is important. I think merch is very important. For one, it gives people a way to support your business, And also because I'm thinking about from my own perspective, the things that I'm excited about, I want to wear the shirt. Because it makes me feel good, like, oh, yeah, those are my people. That's my store. That's my place. I enjoy that whatever it is that's on the shirt. And I like to have that. but it's like a little electric bat club when you've got the shirt and you go out. And we've been out, and this is the coolest thing that's ever happened for us, when we're out and we see people that we have no idea who they are. Around Phoenix. Yeah, just like around town, and they're wearing this shirt. And we've never seen them before. Oh, my God, I don't know who that person is, and they're wearing an electric bat shirt. For sure, for sure.
    59:21
    Now, as far as the ROI goes, it's hard to tell. It's kind of like a billboard. When you put up a billboard, you're getting calls from it, but you're not sure how much is actually what your actual ROI is from that. And the tangible, like, let's say I spend $1,000 making T-shirts. How many dollars do I get back? I mean, like, it's not a moneymaker. It's more for advertising. It's more for advertising and for fun. It's just like a cool thing to have. For sure.
    59:59
    Okay. More from Guttergool. I'm just laughing because he had a little funny comment and he mentioned me.
    60:11
    But that's not what I'm going to get into here. What is the rate of failure on machines? In the most recent episode, you said you were there six days a week. Are you seeing multiple games unplayable in that time frame, or is it mostly tune-ups? Mostly tune-ups.
    60:30
    Yeah, we've got just a couple of games will go down throughout the week. Mostly it'll be a flipper failure. Right.
    60:40
    Yeah, so we don't have too many games going down, but we also spend an insane amount of time doing preventative maintenance. so that is what keeps them going right sure yeah that's it yeah there you have it there you have a couple of games thank you gutter goal we really appreciate it uh so that's it for the mailbag do you have anything else to add um i do we want to talk about tokens and all tokens versus card systems and all that or do we want to save that for like the part of the marketing or an episode Tokens versus card system. Well, let's see. What are we at here? We're at an hour. We kind of like to keep it at an hour. Okay. Let's say. Do a teaser. This is the teaser, right? Yeah.
    61:31
    We're going to get into tokens and quarters versus a card reader system. And Rachel's been doing some research. She talked to a few people. I have hard numbers. Yeah. about the initial costs of the card reader system.
    61:52
    And of tokens. Oh, yeah, initial costs of tokens. The maintenance, the hours of work it goes into maintaining. The token polishing. Token machine, token polishing, ordering tokens, versus the card system where somebody else has taken a cut. Somebody else has their hand in this.
    62:12
    There's pros and cons to all of it. Yeah, all three have pros and cons. Yeah, good deal. Which is right for you.
    62:19
    Let's get into it, because we have a lot to add. I mean, we could talk for an hour about that, but we won't. We won't. That would be boring. It's coming. We'll talk maybe like 25 minutes or so, and then we'll still do some little comedy.
    62:32
    That's you. You're the comic. I want puppets. You want puppets? I want the puppets that pop up down there. Like Mr. Rogers? Like the king and the like, oh. Yeah, Fozzie Bear. and they come in.
    62:46
    So we're getting some Muppets explaining tokens? Yeah, they ask us pinball questions. That's the next level. So Gutter Ghoul is going to be represented by Fozzie Bear or Grover or what have you. Right, right. Okay. Okay, so we have Sunday. We have a tournament on Sunday, Roland's tournament, and we're going to have a great time there. It's a really interesting – hey, look at me. Come to the tournament. It's a really interesting format. It's going to be a lot of fun. It's going to be super fun. And you'll be able to play in this one. That's going to be great. And so that will be at noon on Sunday.
    63:24
    Registration starts at 1145. That's going to be a lot of fun. Yeah. And if you want to know about any other tournaments, go to electricbatarcade.com and check out the tournament tab.
    63:37
    And I think we're out. Yeah. Send us some more questions. electric bat arcade at gmail um we love questions i have a lot of answers you want various questions please send questions for her answers she's ready she's got them in the pipe they're ready to just go out uh special thanks to marco specialties and game room goodies check them out game room goodies.com and marco specialties.com i think even marcopinball.com goes to that. I think they have like every Marco pinball, Marco pinball parts. So many choices. Those guys are great. Thank you so much. The bats are out. Bats out.