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Episode 72 – Phoenix

Slam Tilt Podcast·podcast_episode·analyzed·Jan 4, 2018
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

Slam Tilt returns with personal updates, tournament coverage, and industry news on upcoming games.

Summary

Ron Hallett and Bruce Nightingale return to the Slam Tilt Podcast after a two-month hiatus. Ron shares personal updates about his mother's passing and the opening of his Silver Ball Saloon bar in East Rochester, NY. Bruce reports on his first tournament at the venue (won by Andy Cushman), beta testing of Guardians of the Galaxy, and industry news including new theme reveals, the Stern Pro Circuit locations, NYC Pinball Championships booking, and Houdini's shipment from American Pinball.

Key Claims

  • Ron's mother passed away after struggling with emphysema from smoking

    high confidence · Ron Hallett discussing personal loss at episode opening

  • Silver Ball Saloon had its first tournament with 24 players, won by Andy Cushman with Steve Daniels second and Bruce third

    high confidence · Bruce Nightingale recounting tournament results

  • Guardians of the Galaxy beta code had excessive call-outs and needs significant refinement on rule set and mode balance

    high confidence · Ron Hallett's detailed gameplay critique after attending launch party

  • Kingpin is being worked on by Circus Maximus

    high confidence · Bruce Nightingale announcing Kingpin remake in production

  • Houdini shipped two days before deadline

    high confidence · Ron and Bruce discussing American Pinball shipment

  • Mark Ritchie left Williams at the time Indiana Jones was released and was involved in litigation before designing Kingpin for Capcom

    medium confidence · Bruce and Ron discussing Kingpin history and designer legal issues

  • NYC Pinball Championships rooms are $229/night at Skyline Hotel and Ron booked a room

    high confidence · Ron and Bruce discussing NYC tournament logistics

  • This Week in This Week in Pinball ceremony is live Friday, January 19th hosted by Zach and Greg from Straight Down the Middle

    high confidence · Ron and Bruce reviewing award categories and ceremony details

  • Alien (LE) trim color is problematic; blue looks terrible, should be green or black

    high confidence · Ron and Bruce discussing Alien (LE) aesthetic concerns

  • Grand Prix machine at Silver Ball Saloon had GI and chime box failures during tournament

Notable Quotes

  • “If you smoke, consider quitting. Yes. If you saw what my mother had to go through, believe me, you would quit instantly.”

    Ron Hallett @ ~0:06:00 — Personal PSA about smoking health consequences tied to his mother's recent death

  • “Fuck yeah. You could take any time off. You had to be on.”

    Ron Hallett @ ~0:14:00 — Joking that Bruce is now the 'podcast whore' of the pinball community due to frequent appearances

  • “They've got to do something so it's just not Groot all day.”

    Ron Hallett @ ~0:45:00 — Core gameplay complaint about Guardians of the Galaxy's unbalanced rule set focusing on one mode

  • “It needs a lot of work, code-wise.”

    Ron Hallett @ ~0:48:00 — Summary verdict on Guardians of the Galaxy's current beta code quality

  • “How much would you pay for a Kingpin? Hmm. Hmm. Hmm. Around 65,000, 7,000.”

    Bruce Nightingale @ ~1:03:00 — Pricing speculation for Kingpin remake at AFM/Williams classic pricings

  • “This is a pure tournament. Yes. Like, this isn't like you go to Papa, like, oh, I might play a few tournament entries.”

    Bruce Nightingale @ ~1:25:00 — Describing NYC Pinball Championships as tournament-focused vs. casual play-heavy events

  • “The blue looks terrible. Yes, the blue is terrible. It's definitely green or black.”

    Ron Hallett and Bruce Nightingale @ ~1:45:00 — Consensus criticism of Alien LE's trim color aesthetic choice

  • “We're going to have a couple tournaments coming up at the Silver Ball Saloon.”

    Bruce Nightingale @ ~2:12:00 — Announcement of upcoming venue tournaments after community voting

Entities

Ron HallettpersonBruce NightingalepersonAndy CushmanpersonSteve DanielspersonZach SharpepersonLonnie RopppersonTim BallpersonRaymond DavidsonpersonTrent Augustineperson

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Multiple pinball podcasts active and growing (Slam Tilt, Head to Head, This Week in Pinball with awards ceremony), establishing industry media infrastructure

    high · Slam Tilt returning from hiatus, This Week in Pinball Awards ceremony announced with live event January 19th, multiple guests cross-appearing on shows

  • ?

    venue_signal: Silver Ball Saloon successfully launched in East Rochester, NY with tournament operations and games, representing new venue addition to pinball ecosystem

    high · Ron Hallett operating bar for one month with first tournament completed, 24 players attending, planning additional tournaments based on community voting

  • ?

    code_update: Guardians of the Galaxy beta code criticized for excessive call-outs, lack of meaningful mode structure, and requiring significant balance updates before release

    high · Ron's detailed critique: 'They have to do something so it's just not Groot all day,' complaints about non-existent rule set and grucho gameplay, beta version .75-.80

  • ?

    product_launch: Houdini shipped on schedule from American Pinball, meeting two-day-early deadline

    high · Ron and Bruce: 'Houdini has shipped. Shipped. They got the shipment out two days before their deadline.'

  • ?

    rumor_hype: Multiple game themes being eliminated one-by-one in reveal format including: Back to the Future, Beastie Boys, Beatles, Fast and Furious, Goonies, Harry Potter, Iron Maiden, James Bond, Jaws, Jurassic World, Led Zeppelin, The Matrix, Men in Black, Michael Jackson, Mission Impossible, Muppets, Pulp Fiction, Super Mario, Superman, Willy Wonka, Zelda

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.201

0:00
Well, no use wasting time with the past. Those boys are dead! Ha ha! Principal McVicar, what is your reaction to the deaths of Braavis and, uh, Headbutt? Well, uh, what kind of a god could take such, uh, fine boys in their prime? Uh, but we will find some good in this tragedy. Uh, this jar contains a collection I've started in their names. These pennies that we plant today will become a whole lot of cash tomorrow. But no amount of money can make up for their absence. I would gladly give back all the money just to see Beavis and Butthead one more time. Uh, okay, McDicker. Give us some money. What? Where the hell are the dead people?
0:57
I'll just go ahead and take that. I told you it was supposed to be this! Coming to you from beautiful upstate New York, this is the Slam Tilt Podcast, a show about all things pinball. I'm your host, Ron Hallett, here with my co-host, Bruce Nightingale.
1:26
Addyho, neighbor! Long time no see. Yes, we've had an interesting month, I will say. Yeah, we're back. We're back in black. Back in black. Yeah, it was an interesting month for both of us. Ron, first I want to say so sorry about your mom. If everyone doesn't know, Ron had a bit of personal issues, and unfortunately his mom passed away. It really sucked. I feel bad for his dad and Ron, of course, and not a good thing to go through as a family. But I went there for the funeral. It was a very nice ceremony, and she was a great lady.
2:05
Yep, she was on the – if you watch the Dragon Fist stream, the first one, you will see her in the background. Yes. Yeah, last month has sucked pretty hard. Yes, it did. Even before that, she's having other health issues. So not to be preachy, because I hate that, but consider this a public service announcement. If you smoke, consider quitting. Yes. If you saw what my mother had to go through, believe me, you would quit instantly. Or if you see what my father's going through now also, he has the same thing as your mom did with emphysema and the smoking. So and I did it. I did it. And just think we're going to have fun dealing with that. Yeah. But that's that's my my public service announcement.

high confidence · Bruce detailing machine repairs and replacements planned

Mark Ritchie
person
Gregperson
Silver Ball Saloonvenue
Guardians of the Galaxygame
Kingpingame
Houdinigame
Alien Limited Editiongame
Circus Maximuscompany
American Pinballcompany
Stern Pinballcompany
NYC Pinball Championshipsevent
This Week in Pinballevent
Straight Down the Middleorganization
Head to Head Pinball Podcastorganization
Slam Tilt Podcastorganization
Pinball Profileorganization

medium · Ron and Bruce discussing theme list: 'basically almost like a slight troll type thing like here's a list of various themes and we're going to eliminate them one at a time'

  • ?

    machine_intel: Kingpin classic Capcom game being remade by Circus Maximus, potentially priced at AFM-era Williams pricing levels ($6,000-$7,000)

    high · Bruce: 'Kingpin. Oh, yes, and this week in Pinball Awards is actually going to have an awards ceremony... Kingpin... It's being worked on by Circus Maximus'

  • ?

    event_signal: NYC Pinball Championships confirmed with room blocks at Skyline Hotel, pure tournament format without casual play options, attracting top competitive players

    high · Ron booked room at $229/night, describes as 'pure tournament,' notes major players attending including Raymond Davidson and Trent Augustine

  • ?

    product_concern: Alien LE trim color (blue) widely criticized by community as poor aesthetic choice; green or black suggested as better alternatives

    high · Both Ron and Bruce in agreement: 'The blue looks terrible... It's definitely green or black. Yes. The blue just does not work.'

  • ?

    operational_signal: GI connector failures on Sword of Fury requiring repeated replacement of male and female connectors; Grand Prix machine experiencing cascading electrical failures (GI, chime box)

    high · Bruce's repair log: GI connectors melting on Sword of Fury, Grand Prix GI backbox failure followed by chime box 'literally blew apart'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Tim Ball referred to as 'sandbagger' B division winner with unspecified 'big things happening' possibly in development, creating speculative interest

    low · Ron: 'I wonder how Tim's doing lately. I've been hearing there might be some big things happening with Tim. Big things. Well, we can't talk about that. At least not yet.'

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Tournament results showing variance: Andy Cushman winning, Steve Daniels' late comeback via Demoman, Bruce struggling with accuracy in later rounds, Zach excelling at specific games

    high · Game-by-game breakdown: Star Trek LE technical failures, ACDC scoring adjustments, Indiana Jones right-lane dominance by Zach, Metallica final placement payouts

  • ?

    historical_signal: Mark Ritchie left Williams around Indiana Jones release due to Capcom formation, faced litigation preventing design work for several years before Kingpin development

    medium · Bruce: 'Mark Ritchie... he couldn't design that right away because he was involved in a lawsuit... when he left williams... Williams had him in litigation so he was sitting there and couldn't design anything'

    • 2:57
    But yeah, it's it's. But, you know, at least at least I got the game room and all that because she she she was selfless to a fault. One thing she wanted to see was, I talked forever about getting the dream game room and all that, and the house and all that. Years went by, probably 10 years until I actually did it. So at least she got to see that. So she was happy. And I helped out. Yeah, as in bringing all the machines in. So she got to see that. She got to play the games. I changed one of my Facebook pictures. You could actually see her playing. No fear, an apropos game to be playing. So that was my wonderful last month, and this was all going on the last couple of episodes. Yeah. And then I opened the bar, and we're up and running, and we had our first tournament. We've had our first – we're actually a month into the bar, and it's been interesting.
    3:59
    What's the name of your bar? The Silver Ball Saloon in East Rochester, New York. And you can find us on Facebook at The Silver Ball Saloon.
    4:08
    Yeah. It's been interesting. Two employees already gone. But the games have been very good, actually. Actually. We got our first actuallys of the year. This is a watershed moment. We might get you on soon, too. Trust me.
    4:26
    And, I mean, most people probably already know this because you were on Head to Head Podcast, and you were on Pinball Profile. Yes. Luckily, both those groups asked me to be on. I did not ask them. Oh, sure, Bruce. Come on. Yes. I think Josh Sharp has given up the podcast whore title to Bruce Nightingale. You are our new podcast whore. Fuck yeah. You could take any time off. You had to be on. I never, well. So for you, there's been no hiatus. No, there never is. Well, wait a second. I own a pinball arcade and a bar. So there is never a hiatus from pinball for me. I even had a tournament. You just had a tournament, didn't you? I did. How did it go? It went very well, and I had 24 people, including Ron Hallett Jr. and the Pinball Princess,
    5:21
    including two other guests we had. We actually had three other guests on that were on our podcast. Steve Daniels, Eric Russell. I think it was CNY Eric Russell. Hi, Eric. Jason Plourd. And Jason Plourd. And Kevin Manning was there. He did not play in the tournament, but he stopped it afterwards, which was very nice. Thank you, Kevin. So we did have a lot of past guests show up, and it was a good tournament. Andy Cushman won. Steve Daniels came in second, and I came in third. And our own – oh, wait a second. I forgot about Zach. And Zach was also there. So Zach was another guest. Hi, Zach. So you didn't win your own tournament this time? Nope. Good job. Good job. I had a chance to win it. I had five points. We played Papa Scoring. So it was 4-2-1-0. After two games out of three-game bank, I was behind Andy Cushman by one point. 6-5. Steve Daniels had two. And Zach had nothing. And we played Demoman. Ah, beautiful. And three balls of Demoman, I got 19 million. That's terrible, Bruce. All right-hand drains. Every single one. I tilted twice trying to save him. Didn't even help. So I got zero points. Steve Daniels got four points. He won the game and leapfrogged me and got second place. Fail. Fail, fail. Not as bad as my fail. No, you burned out pretty bad. My accuracy basically completely left me the last round of the regular play. Yes, it did. I was in top two, three, like throughout the tournament. got to the last round on ACDC, took a zero, and could not hit a ramp, could not hit anything. Then there was a long – there was – because I got a bye because I was in the top four. So I got to eat and then wait and wait. How was the food at the Silver Ball Saloon? Excellent. I love those curly fries. Thank you. Curly fries rule. And you had – I heard the crack fries. What? What did I have? What's the crack fries? You had the funnel cake fries. That was weird. It tastes like funnel cakes, don't they? Yeah, it tastes like a pastry item that's fried. Yes. My body had trouble processing that. But funnel cakes are fried.
    7:42
    It was just weird. It was just like, this shouldn't be fried. My body wasn't like, it'd be like if I had, I'm trying to think of an example, like certain foods. I can't, yeah, I can't think of a good analogy here. Fail. fail but after all of that when we started again i got to play star trek le is was that your le yes it is my le do you have like the blackout mod or something in it yes i do okay this is the guy that complains about leds and not being able to see then you have a mod in there when you get in a multi-ball all the lights go out yeah so you don't have no problems with leds oh i'm there One of the lights is going to come back on. Oh, he's got the blackout mod in this thing. Not that that made any difference. I basically had terrible multi-ball. To show you how great the game is as far as the shots are, I couldn't hit anything, and I still almost got the Kobe Ashimaru, which I needed to.
    8:43
    I still ended up second, so maybe I'm making it worse than it was. But I had one of those wonderful – I actually hit the Kobe Ashimaru start, but it did one of the deals where it hit the opto and the target came up too quickly and basically blocked the ball but i got a full trap and a second shot and i blew it yes you did thank you we were in a group together don't forget yes we had a hard group hard so then we go to acdc it's like all right so i got a zero on that star trek yes you did my own Star Trek, I got a zero.
    9:18
    Then I took a wonderful last in ACDC. As again, I couldn't hit anything. When I came back, I had four million points on the last ball, and I came all the way back and took the win on that one. On a big song jackpot. Yep, big song jackpot. Thank you, Lyman. And then we went over to Indiana Jones, the pinball adventure. Yes. Where I think in three balls, I hit the ball five or six times. Yeah, I took second on that. Zach took first, got him into the – Yeah, Bruce and Zach are having these 15-minute balls, and literally I hit, like, the drop targets to try to start multiball, and it just – I had right – yeah, right out lane, left, right. Wow. Yeah, wow. I was not happy at all. I was extremely pissed. And then you got to stay at Chateau Nightingale. Well, no, it's not over. Then I was in a tie for sixth place, which meant money. So I got to play Metallica again and got my ass whooped at that. And so you were one out of the money, weren't you? Oh, yeah.
    10:21
    All right. I didn't even think of that because I've been cashing so much lately. I know. I've been listening to Steve Bowden, Fun with Bonus. Hi, Steve. I've always been cashing, and it's been so long since I haven't cashed. I forgot about my game. So you're just one out of the money. Yeah. That sucked. So what I'm going to do for this tournament, every tournament that we have, the big ones, I'm going to take a picture of the top four, put it on the back wall, the total back wall, and then put the four players' names and have them framed and put them all up on the back wall. So it's like a little trophy wall. The TBW, the total back wall? Yeah, the total back wall will be for tournaments. My favorite part was the Slam Tilt Podcast poster thing that was up there. Your dad gave me that about six months ago when I put it up in the bar. Excellent. So how was the New Year's Eve? Because I wasn't there for that. Oh, yes. It was good. Steph was over. Steph stayed. Steph was at the tournament. She stayed. And she played and she drank, which was kind of cool.
    11:29
    Kind of cool? So should I drink then? Yeah, go ahead and drink. No. See if you get more talkative. I'm more talkative. I'm on a podcast, Bruce. Yeah, I know. But I'm the quiet one. You are the quiet one. Oh. And we had a great time. We had a champagne toast at 12 o'clock. So we did very good, me and Kathy, the whole weekend. And we were very grateful for everyone coming out for the tournaments and for New Year's Eve. And today was a day off on New Year's Day.
    11:59
    But I was still at the bar working. what else is new and it snowed after the tournament it's still snowing yeah we had about five inches today i got about we got another two inches today oh my yeah when we were driving back it's pretty much whiteout conditions could not see a thing luckily it's like everyone got home okay yeah it's probably the worst i've ever driven in well my father's ever driven in well welcome to upstate new york no yeah yeah like when yeah exactly when we were leaving your house both me and my dad were like, I don't see how anyone can live here. No way. It's too cold. There's too much snow. I don't understand it. It's just like... That's another thing that people don't realize. When that snow was coming down,
    12:41
    the temperature that night went to negative four. That's not Celsius. That's Fahrenheit. Yeah, it's rough. Today, it was a beautiful balmy 16. Now it is nine, and it's snowing again for two to three inches. All right. So let's see. What else do we have? I actually have a list here. Yes, we do. And that was mostly what we've done. You also went to – didn't you go to a – did you go to a Rock Fantasy thing also during that? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I got to play.
    13:15
    I went to the Guardians of the Galaxy launch party. And how was Guardians of the Galaxy? Okay. How was beta testing? Yeah, we were beta testing. They went from, like, there were no call-outs during the deadflip stream to the machine literally doesn't shut up. It's just like call out after call out after call out. And they're all, like, soundalites. It's so weird. I don't understand. They have, like, clips from the movie, but then instead of just playing, like, it's like they couldn't get the sound from the movie. It's so weird. I don't know how these licenses work anymore. It's just so bizarre. You would think if they had impersonators, they would be doing custom call-outs, but most of them were just, like, scenes from the movie. Yeah. I don't get it. Other than it just must be too expensive. Yeah. I am so sick of that stupid Ooga Chaka, which already went over that. But you've got four songs now. Yes, yes. We had Hooked on a Feeling and Cherry Bomb. Now they've added Jackson 5. I Want You Back. And what was the other one they added? Ain't No Mountain High Enough by Martin Gay and Tammy Terrell. All right. Although that's a 60s song, but it got in there. So it's fine. Why don't you back? Oh, 69. Okay. You got me. Touche. You got me. So I played it, and it doesn't play like Iron Man or Metallica.
    14:42
    Actually, the shots are very nice, very smooth. Shoot's good. rule set non-existent it was terrible it was all grucho i i i ended up getting to the final four and i fucked up honestly i got the first group multi-ball played that a while and then for some reason i decided to try to play modes after that and realized after failing that uh no i shouldn't be doing that i should just be doing groot all day because there's no point playing the most. Yep. So a severe tactical error on my part. Just assuming there would be a little more than that. Because I only played it once before then. It played forever. Played way too long. The songs just played in between the modes. So if you're not in a mode, you get to hear the song.
    15:35
    It's just boring. I don't know. Just hitting Groot over and over and over. And then you hit balls in his mouth during multi-ball and he holds them. Oh, my. Kind of like the snake. and Metallica deal.
    15:49
    And then, like, you'll think the multi-ball's over and it'll spit out the ball. It needs a lot of work, code-wise. Yeah. They've got to do something so it's just not Groot all day. Who did the code?
    16:03
    We're going to start already? Let's start the new year off right. Who did the code, Bruce? No, I want you to say it because I don't want to be the bad guy here because you're complaining about the code. I'm not. I haven't played it. Okay. I'm asking you. Who did the code? Lonnie Robb did the code. Oh, okay. Thank you very much.
    16:19
    You're still the bad guy. I'm sure Lonnie will work on it. They've got to do something like, I don't know, maybe you've got to finish a mode before you can get into group multi-ball again or something like that. I don't know. Maybe they've already done that. I haven't played. We were on .8, .80, I don't know, .75. It's just whatever beta code version we were on.
    16:43
    Tim Ball 1B this time yeah so he was the sandbagger who won B division He got to take my title Captain Sandbagger is now Tim. I wonder how Tim's doing lately.
    16:57
    I've been hearing there might be some big things happening with Tim. Big things. Well, we can't talk about that. At least not yet. Not yet. So let me look at my little list here.
    17:10
    Let's do some news. News of the week. No, you're ripping off head to head now. I know. I'm doing it on purpose. I know. Don't do that. We don't copy people here. We invent things. We set the pace. It's a piece of news, damn it. Let's see what we got. We got, well, speaking of This Week in Pinball, we got the Twippies. Yes. Which those are This Week in Pinball year-end awards for various things. And if you listen to the Head to Head podcast, you will get to hear all our picks. Yes, you will. Since you were on with me, so you didn't have a full month off either. No. And, you know, it's a shame that we did have that hiatus. We couldn't plug our own podcast. I don't plug my own podcast. I'm not going to beg for votes. The only plugs you get are hair plugs. Exactly. Hair plugs for men. They work too well. But I am plugging my show. If you want to vote for me, thank you. If you don't, oh well. Not trying to win no popularity contest, but I do this to have fun. That's all. Not going to beg. Don't want to beg. Ain't too proud to beg. Maybe they can add that one. You're not begging either, right? Begging? Yeah. Begging strips. Begging. Please vote for us. Please vote. Come on. No? No. No? Okay. let's see we got the scoop new themes being revealed yes i like the way he did this basically almost like a slight troll type thing like here's a list of various themes and we're going to eliminate them one at a time over the course over the course of how long did it say here let's see we'll eliminate them one by one and and yeah so we got back to the future the beastie boys The Beatles, that one I've heard. Yes, I've heard Back to the Future also. Yeah, Fast and the Furious, The Goonies, Harry Potter. Well, Iron Maiden, that's the one. Of course, that's coming out. Yeah, that's coming out. It, I don't know about that. I don't think so. No, I don't see anyone taking that. James Bond, Jaws. Maybe, maybe. I can see James Bond, maybe. Jurassic World, yes. I've heard that. Led Zeppelin.
    19:32
    No Golden Girls in here. What the fuck? He doesn't have all his information. I know. The Matrix, Men in Black, Michael Jackson, Michael Jack, no, Mission Impossible. What is that, like Macaulay Culkin? Yeah, I can't see that. Muppets. Billy Sheens.
    19:52
    Pulp Fiction, Super Mario Brothers, Superman, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. Isn't that the one after Toy Story for Jersey Jack, I believe? Then Zelda. I can see maybe Zelda, but nah. So we got that. And we got Kingpin. Oh, yes. It's being worked on by Circus Maximus.
    20:16
    Maximus. So would you be interested in a Kingpin? Yes, I would. What's the first game I used to run to at California Extreme? Kingpin. Got it. How much would you pay for a Kingpin?
    20:28
    Hmm. Around 65,000, 7,000. Right way, if they price it out at AFM pricing, I think they can sell a lot of them. But they do have to update the rules a little bit. Yeah, because they weren't done. Well, they weren't done, plus they're linear. Oh, okay, another hatred of linear. That's the flaw with Capcom games. All their games are linear, except for Big Bang Bar. If you notice, that was the last true one. well i mean what's the i mean in big bang bar you hit the ramp to start everything yes i know but it does move around it's not like you know following in kingpin most of the time it follows just going up the elevator you know on the right the left hand side in that out hole you know the the hole in the back left you mean the lex the lex yes the lex yes it's it's similar to big bang bar and big bang bar was the ramp to start everything in kingpin it's the lex yes but who cannot love ramp spinners yeah yep crisscrossing ramp spinners think taxi yes i know taxi and at its best yeah mark ritchie who a little trivia he couldn't he couldn't design that right away because he was involved in a lawsuit what was that about when he left williams he left williams either before or right as indiana jones the pinball venture came out which was his last game there a bunch of williams people left over a course of a couple years to go to capcom yes like uh what's his name futson reuter i think i said it right he thought yes yeah that's why there's version 1-0 was the last version on dracula because he left because they were starting to form capcom this is like years it took him a couple years before the first game but he left and whatever williams had him in litigation so he was sitting there and he couldn't design anything Oh, I bet you he was designing stuff. He was just waiting. And it wasn't until they settled or whatever happened that, boom, then he could work on Kingpin. So it's a shame. It plays great. Even the beat-up one that we used to play. Yeah. So would you buy one?
    22:43
    I got no room. You got plenty of freaking room. I've proven this to you yesterday. Did I or did I two days ago? Yeah, what did you say? I need to. You have two other empty bedrooms. No, I have one empty bedroom. Okay, one empty bedroom and a living room.
    22:59
    See what I've got to work with, folks? See why this is a problem? No, I want my house to at least seem normal. Plus you have a middle, whole, open area in your game room. Which is for people, it's for room, so it's not crowded. No, no, no, no, no, no, no.
    23:17
    Houdini has shipped. Shipped. They got the shipment out two days before their deadline. so good luck to american pinball hope they do well yes hope houdini does well i mean it's interesting game i played it let's see what else do we got here they announced the papa pro circuit locations well no it's not the pro papa pro circuit sorry that's now sorry stern pro the stern pro circuit yes they announced all the uh yeah all locations and the um in this They're exactly the same. It never drains in Southern California. It gets the double dip. Yes, it does. So they were like, what were they, like the last one? Yes, the last one of the Stern Pro, the Papa Tour, and then now they're the first of the Stern Pro. So because they're doing it by calendar year. Yes. Which I guess is easier to figure out. Totally, totally agree. So then there's the New York City Pinball Championships. They announced the room blocks are now available. Yes, $229 a night. At the fabulous Skyline Hotel. Yep. And guess what? I booked a room. Really? Oh, my. Yes. I booked a room. Going to give it a try. The only thing about it is this is a pure tournament. Yes. Like, this isn't like you go to Papa, like, oh, I might play a few tournament entries, but then I'm just going to play another one of the 400 games. It's not going to be like that. No, no, no. So you're going to want to – they said they might have – they'll probably have some games out there for play, but for the most part it's going to be tournament. Yeah. And they already got some just major firepower coming in. I looked at the guest list of the tournament, the attendees, and they got – the one is there.
    25:11
    Raymond Davidson is there. Ooh. Yeah, we got some major firepower coming. Very nice. Trent, I would assume, has to be there. Of course. He doesn't even miss anything. Because it's a pinball tournament. It is. I mean, he's required to attend. And congratulations to Trent Augustine, who is the 2017 IFPA Player of the Year. To no one's surprise, as he won like almost every tournament under the sun.
    25:40
    Going back to the news here. Let's see. If we're a little slow, man, we're rusty. You got to give us some leeway here, you know. We're kind of rusty. It's been a while. I wonder how the people, if they like the new intro. Yeah, the new intro, I decided to change it up. In all honesty, I was going to change it up soon after our one episode where we mentioned Steel Panther. But I couldn't get it to come out quite the way I wanted. But since I had time, I played with it a little more, and I think I have something I'm satisfied with. Very cool. Bonus points to any of our listeners who can identify the song.
    26:23
    So let's see. Kingpin. Oh, yes, and this week in Pinball Awards is actually going to have an awards ceremony. Yes. Which is going to be, let's see, live Friday, January 19th. So the host will be Zach and Greg from straight down the middle. Yes. So I wonder if they're going to have it in the envelope, please. Yeah, I don't know. Just a review for those who were not listening to the Head to Head podcast, and if not, you should be. Hi, Australian guys. It's Martin and Ryan C. You might have forgotten their names. Nope, g'day, mate. G'day, mate. So we call it the best theme. Best theme integration. Best sound and call outs. Best artwork, best code, best light show, best toys, best play field layout and gameplay,
    27:16
    best display animations, favorite pinball podcast, favorite pinball Twitch streamer, favorite pinball YouTube channel, favorite new mod. Definitely the favorite new mod for me is the pin flood lighting or whatever it was called. Yes, we called it the Circus Puke, Circus Puke Colors. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. Like Pin Flood, you know, where it's just like a huge spotlight. Oh, yeah, the whole thing, the whole, yeah, light everything up. That's my favorite. It's just you can't see anything. It's just blinding light. It's just the folds. You can't see the play field. You're good.
    27:52
    See, Pindigo version 3 is out. I had to look up what that was. It's like you manage your pinball scores socially. Mm-hmm. Maybe I'll have to try that out. There you go. You just share your scores. I'd be like, was that with extra balls or without extra balls? Yeah, no, there's too many. Yeah, that's the thing. That's the thing that always, when it comes to pinball, there's too many factors. It's not like a video game type thing where it's just like it needs to be on this setting, and there you go. There's tilt, it's angle, it's everything. Yeah, it's just too much. That's why they've always had issues trying to have any kind of like. Tournaments or anything like that. No, overall, like a Twin Galaxy scoreboard for pinball scores. I know IFBA tried something like that. I think it was even a Twin Galaxies thing, and no one submitted a score. I think Josh used his score or something, or he put his up first, like somebody beat me. That's funny. Yeah. So, Total Nuclear Annihilation. The music is so good, it's coming out. It will be available on cassette. Yes. Yeah, and then you can download it afterwards, too. I hope so. People will be like, I don't have a cassette player. What's a cassette?
    29:04
    Alien, limited edition shipping. Yeah, okay. I'm looking at the trim, and I agree with Head to Head Pinball. The blue looks terrible. Yes, the blue is terrible. It's definitely green or black. Yes. The blue just does not work.
    29:21
    And I know the Buffalo guys actually streamed a working Alien. So did you see any of that? I did not. I know James very well, but I didn't have a chance. I was working at the bar. I mean, even the xenomorph head tongue thing worked multiple times.
    29:38
    So let's see. I think that's it for news. I'm really rusty. When we get a guest on, what was the manufacturer and the year again? Williams versus Gottlieb, 1975? No, no, no. Yes. It was 1988.
    29:57
    No, it's not. Yes, it was. No, it's not. Yes, it was. It wasn't 1975. Would you like to make a bet? I will make a bet. It's the end. No, 1975 was the last one we did. It was Bally versus Gottlieb. I picked Wizard. Oh, that's right. Yeah, that's right. Okay, what was that bet? You didn't bet it well. Oh.
    30:15
    It was 1988. I got Williams this time. And I got Data East. Did you get Data East or did you get Gottlieb? No, I got Data East. I thought you got Gottlieb. No, I didn't get Gottlieb. Oh, that's right. No, we considered this one a heads up. No, I forget. We'll have to look back. Wow. Wow, we are very rusty. It's been almost two months. Yes, it has. So how about repairs? I know that's usually your line. It is.
    30:44
    You got a whole bar. You had to fix something. Yes. One machine did go down during the tournament, and it wasn't mine. It was Zach's. The Grand Prix. Oh, Grand Prix. I think it's just something about if a Grand Prix is near you, it breaks. It just breaks. Yep. The GI first took a dump on the back box, so we took out all the LEDs. LEDs!
    31:10
    And then it finally worked again, didn't blow the fuse. Then the chime box blew apart. Literally blew apart. So Zach's going to swap that out. We're thinking Wednesday. he's going to bring in the tommy i'm going to take out the grand prix and then uh hopefully next month we'll be getting a getaway in walking dead pro oh everyone likes walking dead exactly everyone likes it on the new code and i'll say it here first we're gonna have a tournament well for well we're gonna have a couple tournaments coming up at the silver ball saloon luckily we had a vote this past week well we'll get to that later let's go to repack the repairs oh oh my head's spinning you went like five different directions at once you're definitely back i had to fix the white water ramp i kept on getting stuck where the ramp where you take the ramp to the left of the green drop targets to get up back up to the upper play field well if you soft plunge on mine once in a while you can get the ball hung up where the upper play field meets that ramp to the left of the green targets to lock the ball there's like a little lip there i've shaved it i've done everything i think i finally got it so it won't get stuck 99 of the times because it seemed like it did it ton at the tournament so i was that's what i worked on today A couple stuck switches, a couple stuck flippers.
    32:44
    What else have we had? Coin mechs. Coin mechs have been the biggest repair this past month. What else did I repair? Oh, we keep on blowing GI connectors on a Sword of Fury. Lion Man. It keeps on melting the connectors for the input from the transformer. So I've replaced both male and female for that, and I've replaced the male and female for the going to the back box lights.
    33:15
    And what else did I repair? Just as I said, a couple switches. It's actually been a very knock on wood. Got to find wood.
    33:23
    Of course. And it's been pretty good, actually. I very happy And your Galaga did well this past month and only reset on me twice That good I guess One time the sound went really wacky You know, I was there all day Saturday. I didn't even look at it, never played it. And if I don't get the getaway in time, I'm going to probably bring another Stern up to swap out. I have four old games there. I have my Paragon, my Harlem, I have my Stars, and Stargazer. Now, what would you think the top two are out of those four games?
    34:06
    Out of those four games, I would say the top two would be Stars and Stargazer. You got it. Which do you think is the worst game? Well, you told me what it was, so Harlem! Yes, it is. So if that does not work out, I'm going to bring another stern in.
    34:26
    Or maybe I'll bring another wide body in. I only have two wide bodies left downstairs. What are the two?
    34:34
    Hot dog in and big game. You got it. So maybe it'll be big game. Maybe it'll be hot dog in. Or do I really mix them up and go right to nine ball? No, don't do that. I just have visions of that drop target mech blowing up constantly. Great. No, it would not be great.
    34:54
    Let's see. You done with all your repairs? I think so. Yeah, I think that's about it. All right. I finished up the fist.
    35:03
    Dragon fist is done. Did you take or give the fist? Ugh. Oh, I'm back, baby. Oh, you're back. Yes. dragon fist is done i streamed it the uh finished product and no breakdowns no it survived the whole stream very impressive nothing broke on it and the cock spinner was spinning yes the cock was spinning really spinning 68 spins oh my record perfect yeah one more we had 69 spins and that would have been funny and and that you know you start where you're working on it and you keep finding things like you you think you're almost done and then something else comes up where like the one post they replaced with another post and then you find out why because the original one sheared off so they drilled another hole and put a bigger post in its place to cover up the hole things like that very very fun so that is kicking ass you can check that out at our youtube channel just search for slam till podcast and speaking of streaming this week probably friday we'll see i'm gonna try a little a little fun experiment we're gonna do what stern does we're gonna stream a game with beta code.
    36:30
    God. Isn't that great? Yes. Hey, Stern. Stern does it. We're going to do it right here. The good thing is at the bar, I have like 60 upload. I'm sorry, 60 download and 12 upload. So I am ready for the Slam Tilt Podcast Challenge. Okay. You bring a game out, and we put two games against each other, and we do head-to-head. Head-to-head? Head-to-head. We still have the head-to-head idea. and plus we still have to have the buffalo challenge yeah we could have had i was right there we could have had it damn no nick was in uh toronto oh okay because because one half of them were there yes kevin was there but uh back to what i was uh i want to stream firepower i am testing mr scott his latest software creation this is a one of a kind well i guess two of a kind this is a firepower running on system 7 some people might say oh that's already been done i know there's just people have run it on system 7 hardware but this is actually coded for System 7. So it's using the full System 7 architecture, which means I had to create three wire harnesses. Why would you have to make three wire harnesses for that? Different displays. The displays are a little different. The System 7 has the connector that's not used in System 6. That's for the sound and the commas. And since it's a true System 7 game now, that's what it uses. so we're gonna i'm gonna stream that see if we can get some uh some viewers and they can point out stuff that may not be working okay any other repairs anything else break um how about that new game you got that new game that almost should be its own segment okay well did you repair it at No, I haven't touched it. Okay, that's good then. Any other repairs then? No. Okay, so what new game did you get?
    38:43
    Well, this already came up on the other. I think head-to-head this came up. But maybe somebody missed out on it. Thanks to Nick from the North American Pinball Tour, one of our former guests, I have acquired a cheetah.
    39:00
    Very nice cheetah. We're still looking for another one for me. We're still looking for one because Bruce has the dream of the ultimate head-to-head challenge. Yes, and I want to have a better one than he does. That too, that too. And I already sold my Star Trek, so I ruined that part of it. Yes, you did. I'm sorry. Fail. So if we had a head-to-head challenge, what could we have? Harlem. Black Spider-Man. Big game. Nine ball. Stars. Stargazer. Damn. Hold on. There's got to be more. Is there more? Maybe not. I think that's it. I will put out a plea here to anyone who may have a cheetah or has had to do this. Sell Bruce one. Well, that too. That too. My in-lane plastics are shot, as they are on most cheetahs and galaxies and games that use the plastics for the in-lane. They're like the ends of them are chipped off. Mm-hmm. So if anyone has, and I don't even need like the actual plastics. If someone maybe has some like Lexin plastic that they made, I've seen some posts where people have done things like that, you know, so it won't break again and put it like underneath or over the existing plastic so it leads to the flipper like it's supposed to again. Mm-hmm. If someone maybe has any of those lying around for Cheetah, I don't know. And the thing is, it doesn't even have to be the full plastic. It only needs to be, like, the end. Basically, the last two screws worth where it feeds to the flipper.
    40:44
    And that's, if anyone has anything like that, and I know I'll probably be like, you can make your own. Well, I don't have the stuff to make my own. You should. I should.
    40:55
    Well, you know, Zach, hi, Zach. Hi, Zach. He said, I could use my scanner and scan it in and make something.
    41:04
    So when I went to your tournament, I'm there, oh, did he bring the scanner? No. Of course, I said, well, I didn't bring the plastics either because I knew you wouldn't remember to bring the scanner. There you go. Yeah.
    41:16
    Winner, winner, chicken dinner. So that'll be probably next in the queue. I did, oh, I did one more repair. I fixed my father's sea witch. because you got motivated by my flipper strength on my C-Witch, right? Actually, it was before that. I got motivated because he keeps getting on my case to get it fixed. Go, Dad. So we fixed it. We replaced the upper right flipper bat with a Williams flipper bat. That's suggested by the one. The one. And I do like it. It does make certain shots easier, flow a little better. Like hitting the spinner is easier. That's definite. Okay. So you have to play my my cheetah, your cheetah. You mean your sea witch? My sea witch. I mean, he still he really wants that cheetah. I do. I want that cheetah. Hey, Jeff, just message me. Hi, Ron. Hi, Jeff. I'll tell him right now.
    42:12
    But Ron played my sea witch. Yeah, he's roided up his flipper somehow. I didn't. It was factory. They're all original ones and they they freaking work like a charm. They work too. You're going to break stuff. What's wrong with that? That's what games are for.
    42:30
    You know, the flipper right next to the drop targets on the upper left, I make sure it's as strong as possible. I really want to bash those targets. Yes. Yeah. And they're all original targets, too. Yeah. He's got all original targets. Original flipper bats? Mm-hmm. Bastard. And you saw how the back glass was with the repro back glass. Yep. Which I have one also. I just didn't put it in. Yeah. The one that's in there isn't that bad. Gotcha. So, I think that's it for that. Yep. I have one more request for you on repairs. Ooh, okay. I need E-Promps. For? Because you were busting my balls about Stargazer. Oh. Because I have an Alt-Tek Bard in my Stargazer. Mm-hmm. So I cannot use custom ROMs, but Ron has custom ROMs for his Stargazer, which will negate the Zodiac earn. Oh, yes, because when I played Bruce's Stargazer, I got to fully exploit the fact that it had the factory ROMs in, and you could trap the ball easily, especially the right flipper. He just kind of quick flip it and just go over the rollover over and over and over and over. Boom, hold Zodiac, do it again. Oh, got the second Zodiac, third Zodiac. Okay, let's get some multipliers because they carry over, no matter how high they are, boom, I can have a total shit ball and still get like 200k in bonus. So my plan now is to swap my CPU out when I pull out Stargazer. Oh my. Pull out? Okay. Because guess what's coming tomorrow?
    44:04
    A new playfield? You got it, baby. Again, his quest to always have better games than me. Yes. So the playfield will be coming. So once I pull the game out, I'll swap the CPU board out of my Centaur, which is a Weebly, jump it for Stern, and then Ron will give me the EPROMs, and I'll pop them in, and then no exploiting. I won't be able to pull it out. Oh, my gosh. What?
    44:34
    Damn. You haven't changed a bit, Bruce. Nope, not at all. I'm still the same Bruce. so uh we're gonna have some tournaments coming up soon oh we're back to that okay yep see i i leave my notes and i remember what i'm talking about what tournaments are we gonna have soon i don't know what tournament first in the every middle of the month usually the second or third weekend of every month we are going to have the monthly stern tournament at the silver ball saloon and we'll be giving away trans lights each time it's gonna be a three or four strike tournaments That'll be cool to do. So that's because you're a member of the Stern Army. I am a member of the Stern Army. Who would have thunk that one? What's your rank again? I am private. We've got to get you promoted. Private first class, sir. But what we need to do after that, we're going to have two tournaments up in upstate New York in January and February.
    45:31
    What's the first one? The first one is going to be the New York State Finals. Yes. It's going to be a game on in Buffalo, New York, run by Nick Lane and Kevin Manning. And upstate New York's going to New York State finals. I have a tear in my eye. Well, finally. I never thought this day would come. No, we actually get to have the finals upstate New York. Yes. And you know what? I'm going to look like a total hypocrite here. I'm not playing in them. Why not? Because I'm playing in Massachusetts. Oh, okay. Well, that's good. well i'm qualified right now for 13th yeah i was qualified too i'm just saying after all my bitching and then i don't play in it i look pretty bad but you get to play in one of the other tournaments in february early february it was voted on by the seven representatives of upstate new york and where is the upstate championships going to be at mr ron hallett the silver ball saloon on february 10th so that is the official date the official date february 10th i'm just waiting for the approval from ifpa once that is i will make a facebook page up for it and then start contacting all 60 top qualifiers because we have a lot of outstate out-of-state people excellent yes so that will be on february and then uh the next tournament at the silver ball saloon will be March 3rd of Saturday. It's going to be a March Match Play Madness. Another same thing like what we had before. Four hours. But I'm going to sweeten the pot a little bit.
    47:14
    The Silver Bowl Saloon will be donating $100 towards the pot. $75 towards the main pot. And $25 will go to the top IFPA player that is $2,000 and higher. So going 2001, 2002, all the way up. So the top player who is not in the finals but is above $2,000 will get a $25 cash prize from me.
    47:39
    Encourage people that, guess what, it's not always going to be the six or eight same players. If you're not in it, you've still got a chance to win some money. You'll make your money back easily on the door payout. And then the $75 will go to the main pool prize, which we paid out six people out of 24. Pretty impressive. And that'll be March 3rd. March Madness at the Silver Bowl Saloon. Be there or be square.
    48:08
    So, what else do you have? What else do I have? You know, we never mentioned the movie. This is episode 72, Rocky Balboa. Well, luckily you can add this in. Add what in? No editing. We're putting it right here. No editing. We totally fail.
    48:26
    We totally fail. Hey, we're rusty. 72 Rocky Balboa. This is the one where he fights the current champion or something? Yes. Split decisions, just like the first movie. Then he goes to see Adrian at the end and says, we did it, Adrian. But we've got to start thinking about the next group of movies, which I forgot what our even list was. So if you've got suggestions. No, we don't. Just go to that Wikipedia page that says movie franchises with more than like three movies or something, and we just start picking them. Okay. I can do that. We've still got one more movie of Rockita. Is it one more? Oh, Creed. Creed is – okay. Yep. Creed 2 is not out until the end of next year. Damn. They need to make it faster. I know. Play better. Oh, there's some rumors about him. What's that? Did you see that? Nope. What did he – He's going to retire. that the last game he's working on is like an original theme. It's going to be like Black Knight again. Who knows? Yeah. That's a rumor. Who knows if that's true? Probably not. It's not true. I'm never going to retire. Play better forever. That's funny.
    49:40
    Feature film with five entries. See, I got the list right here. So what do you got? What do you got? Honey Python, no.
    49:50
    But it's only five. I want more than five or more. Let's go back. Scintillating programming, folks. Yes. But go ahead. Oh, okay. So I'm looking at our list. I think that's about it for all our usual stuff.
    50:08
    So let's look at the mail ball bag. Shaft. Katie, dig it. Wait a minute Okay that shaft Shaft Let see Hold on Shaft big score Shaft and Africa Those are the three Shaft The Enforcers Shaft The Killing What? Shaft, Hit and Run. When did those happen? They're all TV movies. Oh, that doesn't count. I'm just telling you. Boo. There's three Shaft movies. Come on. And there was the remake. How about Alien vs. Predator Universe?
    50:38
    Alien, Aliens, Predator, Predator 2, Alien 3, Alien Resurrection, Alien vs. Predator. No, no, no, no, no. Alien, Confident, and Predator. No, no, no, no, no. Oh, the Muppet movie. The Muppet movie? Well, the Muppets. Muppet movie, Great Muppet Caper, Muppets Take Manhattan, Muppet Christmas Carol, Muppet Classic Theater.
    51:05
    All right, stop. We're going on to the mail ball bag. Oh, my. First we have, these are somewhat dated, at least a couple are. This is from Jim Mueller. Hi, Jim. And he guessed Cheetah, and he was right.
    51:23
    Nick equals Cheetah. Congrats. Hey, hold on. I'm reading a letter here. Nick equals Cheetah, correct. Congrats to Ron. Sorry, Bruce. Well, I had a chance at this one. I could have shared with Ron. We could have shared it together. we could have been high-fiving over the game so what were you saying?
    51:44
    I found our X-Men we can do 13 X-Men movies there's 13 of them? X-Men, X-Men 2, X-Men The Last Stand X-Men Original Origin, Wolverine X-Men First Class, The Wolverine X-Men Day is the Future Past Deadpool, which is a spin-off of X-Men Apocalypse, Logan New Mutants, which is coming out Deadpool 2, and X-Men Dark Phoenix you realize I've only seen like two of those movies what else is new with you at least I've seen like two of them oh yes alright so next email this is from Steve Martin we do Disney movies you're neglecting our listeners here movies come on pay attention I always pay attention to you what's your name? Steve Martin hi Steve Ron Bruce, great podcast, guys. Looking forward to your return in the new year. So are we. Female themes for games. Xena would be good, but a little dated now. I guess it is at this point.
    52:48
    Laura Croft is more timeless, but it would be better to have Angela Jolie rather than Alicia Vikander. Is that how you say her name? I don't know. Who is doing the 2018 version?
    53:01
    It's always great to see more women coming out and playing pinball. Yes, it is. more than just theme holding them back. I've heard some complain that they can't figure out what they're supposed to be doing. I do that. The newer games with deeper rule sets can't be helping that. I agree, they're too complicated. On another topic, when it comes to Microsoft patches, I have to back you up, Ron. It's not an anal thing, oh my. He said that, not me. To want control of when they run, especially at my day job. I have other projects scheduled, and those damn patches get right in the middle of the plan. By the way, do you think that Microsoft's starting the trend of releasing unfinished code, started the trend that exists today in pinball. Yeah, probably. But they made it seem normal to have never-ending patches. Actually, I would say video games have been doing it. Yeah, video games have been more known for that. I mean, one of the, I'd say, biggest games that was released last year was Battlegrounds, and that was, I think, just went to version 1.0 like a couple weeks ago. Nice. And it was out the whole year. It's almost like if you see buggy shit in it, oh, it's beta code, man. What do you want? That's all. Don't worry about it. He says, before I go, come up to Toronto, August 24th to 26th. We're going to have the pinball tournament at the Canadian National Exhibition again this year. Cheers, Steve Martin. Hi, Steve. Yeah, I would like to go to that, but it all depends. I think, actually, that's the same weekend as my concert. Concert? You're going to see Steel Panther? No, I wish. ELO. ELO again? Yes. Don't bring me down, down, down. But they are playing in Toronto the day before that day, so maybe I could do two. That'd be great. But it's hard with the bar. I found our new movie series for next one. Okay. Lethal Weapon. We'll do four at least on that. All right. There is a pinball tie-in. Exactly. That's why I'm – Name the three music clips you could play. Oh, this is so easy. Start of the game. CNC Factory. CNC Music Factory. Yes. So you got that wrong already. Next. ZZ Top. What song?
    55:04
    What's it called? Not LaGrange, of course. Yes, it was LaGrange. It was LaGrange? Yep. That's been used at least three times in pinball machines. And the third one? Third one is the original soundtrack from Lethal Weapon 3. Lethal Weapon. No one ever picks that. I always pick C&C Music Factory. Everybody dance now.
    55:27
    That's what we're going with after episode. It started with 74. You got it. Sounds good. Next mail ball bag thing. To empty out the mail ball bag, our last letter from the pinball princess.
    55:42
    Subject, hi, Ron. Hi, Bruce. Dear Slam and Tilt and Podcast 2, it is with the utmost elation that I write to the Slam Tilt Podcast as it returns from hiatus. Hiatus it is. It will be good to hear your voices come through my earbuds again, not that they haven't been on head-to-head or pinball profile or in real life at the Silver Ball Saloon or anything. Yeah, I've never heard that before. Speaking of which, Bruce, I cannot thank you enough for hosting. The bar is absolutely amazing, and I can honestly say I had one of the best weekends of my life spending time up there with all of you. I am beyond grateful that I was able to get up there. Everyone should go to the Silver Ball Saloon and play tons of pinball with the gracious owner, especially Stargazer. What a gem. Everyone loves Stargazer. And we're Silver Ball Saloon again, Bruce? What's the address? That is in East Rochester, New York at 135 West Commercial Street in East Rochester. Okay. You have a website? Yes, we do. It is thesilverballsaloon.com. Okay. Back to the letter. It has been a long month full of slam-tilt notes that are buried somewhere at home. I am still in transit, reluctantly returning from Rochester and still somehow only at Albany because New York is big and I had a few stops to make. I cannot do my normal letters justice, but I felt compelled to write you, even if only on my phone. I do recall that I wanted to mention that a few people have approached me with good themes for women. Regrettably, I remember none. Fail. And that Carl suggestion of Powerpuff Girls would be amazing. It would be. It was absolutely wonderful seeing the both of you this weekend, but I am weary and have had but four Tim Balls to eat. Oh, no. Wait, Timbits? What? Oh, whatever they call Tim Horton donut holes, which are delicious. So delicious. So I need to sleep and food, and I am typing on my phone. And the quality of this letter is degrading quickly. Stoked to have her favorite podcasters back on the air. Player 31915. Thank you, Steph. She gave me a nice note, actually, before she left, and I was really flattered. And I'm going to open it up right now.
    57:55
    Player 365 also thanks you. This is actually, she gave it to me right after New Year's. Hi, Bruce. It was awesome seeing you guys at the South Wall Saloon this weekend. It was awesome seeing you anytime, but seeing you at your new bar, wow. You really do have a good thing going here, good food, friendly staff, and wicked good pinball. This is beyond cool to come visit, and I hope to be able to do so many more times, which I offered. And she has a, like you have, the standing rule, just like JT does and a couple other people, and Steve did also. My house is your house. You can just come over and stay anytime, guys. Five-ish hours is long, sure, but it's not insurmountable. I'll be back to take some of those high scores from you, Zach, and Eric. Keep up putting on the board, my scoreboard. I actually have to erase that. So we gave away free prizes this month for the high scoreboard.
    58:42
    Wishing you, Kathy, and the SoBall Saloon the best of luck in 2018. Hope to see you again soon. Stephanie. Thank you, Steph. That was very cool.
    58:50
    And I told her she can wear her rock fantasy shirt next time she comes up. Oh. Very nice. Yep. I'll even wear mine the same day, too. You have one? I do. Okay.
    59:02
    I have the tie-dye one. So, let's see. I think that's it. I think that's enough. You think that's it? I think that's enough. Content from us for one... Yeah, before we get back into it. You don't want to shock them too much? Yeah. So... Oh, I've got one more tidbit we put on our Facebook page. And that is? Chicago Gaming comments on affected Attack from Mars remake issues with the Solenoid driver board.
    59:27
    Oh, what's wrong with the Solenoid driver board? If you lower the flipper power, you can actually take out a MOSFET on your driving board, your driver board.
    59:37
    What did you just say? So if I lower the power, I take out a MOSFET. Is that like a Muppet? Yes. Okay.
    59:47
    MOSFET is a transistor. Oh. So, wait a minute. By lowering power, you take stuff out. I'm confused. That's what's happening. That's weird. And they admit that there's a problem. Okay. They're going to fix it in the next code update, they said. Seems that most people are very happy with their attack from Mars. Yes, they are. They seem to be getting, I mean... It's a publication up here at Swillburger. Yep. Seems to get better each game, so I can't wait for Monster Bash.
    60:15
    Or a couple others like Big Bang Bar. Nah. Oh, yeah. The Bloom wore off the rose for that for me, honestly. I mean, it's fun, but it's the one ramp. Everything's the ramp.
    60:31
    Sorry. I love it. Yeah, it's still Kingpin. No, it's not Kingpin, but I still love it. I think the art really pushes it over the top. Yeah, the theme's pretty neat, but I just, eh. Eh. Eh-eh.
    60:47
    Eh-eh. All right, so sign to pay some bills again. Yes. The Silver Ball Saloon is one of our sponsors. Wink, wink, hint, hint. You can get money from it.
    60:58
    East Rochester, New York. Come on out. Check us out. We have food, drinks, 18 pinball machines, hopefully soon to be 19. So check us out.
    61:09
    Also, don't forget www.pinballlifter.com for your lifters, tilters, helpers, wheel kits. And we do have a couple mods there.
    61:19
    Pinball Star by your Houdini, your JJP, your spooky pinball from Pinball Star, Joe Newhart. And don't forget Flipper Fidelity from Mike Pupo. He also sells Stern Pinball Machines. You can go to FlipperFidelity.com, get in touch with Mike Pupo, and check them out. And don't forget, sites like This Week in Pinball, the go-to source for podcasters everywhere for knowing what the hell's going on. All our fellow podcast mates like Head to Head Podcast, Pinball Profile, Pinball Players Podcast, This Flippin' Podcast, Brody Weave and Pinball Podcast, Coast to Coast Pinball, Twice a Year Podcast. the Canadian Pinball Players Canadian Pinball Podcast we got a lot of them out there yep and we are the Slamtail Podcast you can find us just search for Slamtail Podcast on the internet we are on Facebook just search for Slamtail Podcast check out our YouTube channel which has archived copies of all of our streams that are done what do we have to know on some of ours let's check what do you mean up to oh you mean views at least 3 or 4 and we always got the down vote from that same dude yeah it's everything at least he's consistent yes the um archived copies of all our streams we've got quite a number of different games on there now again where there's our twitch stream so if you go on twitch just search for slam till podcast i also during our hiatus i applied us for a google play so we're on google play now in addition to iTunes and Stitcher. So, you know, we're with the cool kids. Yes, we are. Please send critiques, comments, criticisms to our email address, which is slamtiltpodcast at gmail.com. So this has been Episode 72, Rocky Balboa. What's that?
    63:25
    Or we can just go with the... Well, with your game on Demoman, you probably didn't hear that that much, huh? No, I did not. Fail. Say goodbye, Bruce. Goodbye, Chris Point.
    63:39
    Now, this is the part of the podcast where the oh-my-my music usually plays. But this week, we're going to do things a little bit differently. What you're about to hear is a song my father wrote for my mother about 10 years ago. And me and a bandmate cut a track from it. And I felt it was a fitting end to this week's podcast. So I hope you'll all enjoy. And this one's for you, Mom.
    64:26
    All the ups and all the downs, we both could always see. With all the smiles and all the frowns, it was still you and me. You and me, it was meant to be, your life I would defend. You and me, everyone can see, together till the end, all right. Many lives are no longer here Many years have come and gone Some of them were way too short And some were very long Many things in our lives Don't mean much as before Still we go on ever strong Through the bumps all down the road You and me, it was meant to be We will not break open You and me, everyone can see Together till the end, alright
    65:43
    And now as we move ahead The future looks so bright I know it wouldn't be that way If you were not my light Don't know how much longer The good times will go on So take my hand, we'll face it all With you I can't go wrong You and me, it was meant to be We would never be apart You and me, everyone could see Knew it right from the start We will always overcome It was always meant to be Just as it ever was You and me, alright Thank you.