Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Classic Pinball Podcast. My name is George, his name is Dave. Hello, Dave. Hello, George. Now, we all love the 70s. Bell bottoms, Bally's, and all. But let's be honest, not every machine from that era was a masterpiece. Today we're airing out the coin-op closet and counting down the top 10 worst games of 1970s. These are the games that made us scratch our head, shake our fists or just walk away. Buckle up, it's going to be a bumpy ride through some really bad games. So if you've ever owned one of these, don't worry, we've all made mistakes. Hey Dave, what do you think? I'd say yeah, yeah, there's we've all been there and got some real stinker roos played some real stinker roos and Then didn't play them anymore and played the good stuff. So we're following up on our I guess we talked about this last month our He's given us some good comment or good content. Pardon me. Yeah Tim Yeah, Tim 70s pornstache Tim Okay, do you want to get to his list first? Sure, you have it in front of you? I do. Okay, yeah, go ahead. Okay. What's Tim's last name again? Sexton. Oh, that's right. Which makes sense, 70s pornstache Sexton. There you go. Okay, so this is Tim's worst list. Pardon me. You can comment accordingly as we go along, Dave. Number 10, Lost World. I can't argue with him there. Nope, can't. Number 9, Time Warp. Yeah, that's not the greatest game. No, that's a stinker too. Here's what's going to stick in your craw. Number 8, The Six MillionDollarMan. He's way off the reservation. He has no idea. He's born in the early 90s. He doesn't even know what Six MillionDollarMan's show even was. He's out of touch. I saw you sent me some text. Did you reply some place where he is posting? Yeah, I just put it in the comment section of his YouTube video. I basically put in there that because you are trashing so hard in Six MillionDollarMan, I actually picked up one and a CPR playfield. I'm going to make a beautiful one for myself. So there. That's what I think. Right. I'm looking for one. That's a hard game to come by. Yeah. Great game. We'll come back to Six MillionDollarMan in a little bit. Number seven. Can't argue with this one. Airborne Avenger? That's an Atari, right? Yeah, that's on my list. Yeah, that's an Atari. Yeah, pretty, nothing to do on that game. Pretty boring. Here's one. Here's one. I didn't like what he said about this. Number six is hot hand. Yeah. And his comment was, gimmick is not interesting. No, I think that game is not a real, it's not the best game. It's not, it doesn't come out to the ten worst games. I don't know if I would put it as ten worst. No, no. It's not one of the best. Okay, here's one you probably will not agree with either. Number five, World Cup, the Williams one. That's not that bad of a game. That's okay. I restored one of those. No, it's not great, but it's not bad. We've done a show on one, right? Yeah, I did a show on one. It's not bad. It's an okay game. It's not bad. It's okay. Okay, here's... I think this is a real woofer. So I think you got this one right. Pokerino by Williams. That is a woof woof. Yeah. That is a real dog. Oh my god. Yeah, that's pretty bad. They didn't make a lot of them either, I don't think. Good thing. This appeared on somebody's best list. I think PJ. Freedom by Bally? That's not a hot gig. I don't think it's bad, but it's not great. It's not great. It's okay. I don't think PJ put that on there. I don't think so. Or was it the other one? 1776? Probably that one. That's a Gottlieb. Yeah. Oh, okay. I thought it was Bally. Anyway, it doesn't matter. Yeah. Here's one that's kind of crappy. Disco Fever by Williams? John Travolta knockoff where they didn't pay any royalties? Yeah, pretty hacky, banana flippers, super cheesy. What's the deal with banana flippers? I mean, why? Well, I kind of agree... No, no, they said, well, we've done so much with pinball anyway and we're kind of bored with it. How about we throw these stupid curvy banana flippers on there and see what happens? All they were were like shoes. They were shoes that go over a regular flipper. That's all it was. It was stupid. It was just, you know, it's like kind of the pinball Olympics. Stupid. Cheesy. I'm curious to hear what you think of his number one. Nugent? Is it really that bad? No, it's not that bad. No. You know what I think? What? I think that's a DEI hate thing. Yeah, you know what? I don't think he likes Ted Nugent. It is, yeah, because he is of that DEI flake fest. Yeah, I think so. They just hate on Nugent, you know, with all his guns and his conservative flair. Yeah, I think you're right on that. Okay, you want to hear mine? Yeah, go ahead. What do you got? Okay, where's my list? My list is right here. Well, I agreed with him on one game. Number 10, Lost World. We're in agreement. We call it Lost Cause. That's a really bad game. The Pretty but not great. Oh I guess what I did include a couple of his games number nine Elton, oh no, I went the wrong way. Oh shit. Oh Number one is supposed to be the very top worst. Well, you might agree with number ten being the top worst You know what? I'll be honest with you trying to rank these in order. That's not the easiest thing in the world I think it's these are just the top 10 games that you know, the ranking really doesn't matter, right? Let me go to number 10 and we'll work back. They're all equally crappy So number 10 I had Dali vampire That oh, that's a good well, that's an EM though, so I didn't really include the EMS on my list. But yeah, that's okay Number nine Gottlieb Tony Latugas, fork kontak wing twitter. . Dicky K Zusch, the Cute how you gets yours wonrauen common Juan by williams nineteen twenty four need they continue like a little later ball I don't know. It caught my eye. I went through the pin side list and it was like, oh yeah, that game. Some of these I might have played. Others, you know, I just looked at and said, oh, this game's pretty lousy. The Williams EMs from the 70s, there were a lot of, I don't know, just like, why make them? I don't know. They're kind of, you know, it takes a special person to love those games and I guess, you know, I don't know. I try a couple of them, but they're really not my kind of wheelhouse. I like the ballet stuff better. So here's number seven. Bally Air Aces. This is kind of like a jumping jack ripoff. I kinda, you know what, I played that game at Pinfest a couple years ago with Maureen. I actually recorded it too. I don't know, not a colorful game. I like the back glass, the great back glass on that game. Right, but I don't know. Other than that. It wasn't anything for me. I remember it from back in the day. I like it better than jumping better than jumping jack I'll take it over jumping jack any day yeah I didn't put that on my list I figured you probably would have but if you didn't include any EM's it's probably not on there but anyway how about number six Dally Knockout yeah kind of crappy game too yes one player I think right yeah I don't know here here's my Atari I don't get this flipper setup time I'm on my list. Yeah, that's pretty bad. What's that about? Two sets of flippers at the bottom and left set on the right. It's like a double game. It's weird. Left set, right set, stupid. I'll tell you. I know they weren't selling weed there back in the 70s, but they must have had some really good hooch. They had something. Yeah, they were doing something. Here's number four. I think you tried to sell me one of these. A stingray, Stern 77. Yeah, not the best game. I got a couple of those I'm looking to sell. Good luck. Number three, Freedom by Bally. I put that on my list. Yeah, that's not a great game. Not a great game. And here's El Toro at number two, even though we did a show on it. Even though I don't mind playing it because I put a lot of money into it as a kid because it was only a dime. Now I know it's not a I'm not a great game. El Borough. Yeah. And you heard number one, Lost World or as I call it Lost Cause. Lost Cause, yes. So that's my top ten. I have two honorable mentions. Okay. I don't get this game at all and I remember it when it was in the arcades. High Deal. Oh, the one with the gorilla on the back. Is it a poker or a some kind of card game? A gorilla playing poker. Great. Drugs. After you stop corporate, change dive to a special VISakter That's the alarm and we're done. Inline on the left middle of the game. So they're like horizontal across the playfield. You got to look at it. It's really bad. I can't. I can't wait. I think I would love to. I would love to talk to somebody who owns this game and actually tells me it's good because I can't believe it would be. Some it's somebody likes these games somewhere. So satin doll. Let's see what comes up here. No. Come on stupid search. Search. Son of a bitch. There we go. Satin Doll. I know I've seen this game somewhere before. Satin Doll. Bang. And Williams. Satin Doll. 75. And looking at that playfield. Yeah. Not a lot going on there. Right? Yeah, boring. Oh, no. No good. Who came up with that? That is really bad. Russ Jensen. No, he actually, he's the owner. That is really bad. So that's my, that's my top ten. I think I did pretty good. Christian Marche. A lot of EMs. Yeah, you did the EM walk there. Yeah, I, uh, there's just way too many in the 70s to get them all done with EMs and all the different manufacturers. I'm going to go with number 10. Bally Voltaun Escapes Cosmic Doom. We did a show on that too. With Tommy Skinner a long time ago. Yes. Did we? I think we did. Yup. I mean, you know. It's a long time ago. I mean, it's a... I played it. It's not a great Bally SS, that's for damn sure. It's like, it's about as fun as Gold Ball, which isn't that funny. Oh, that's horrible. I know. Exactly. Then we have number nine coming in, Stern Magic, which is a pretty game but pretty Dullesville. At number eight, Williams Disco Fever. Yep. That seems to be a fave among people. Banana Flippers and Super Cheesy. Yep. And then we have another Williams. Williams did not do that good in the 70s. Lucky Seven. And he comes in at number seven. So it's lucky that way. Very dull layout. Not much going on there. Yeah, that's a bad game too. How about this Godly Dragon? Oh, I don't know what that is. I played it as a kid because it looked kind of pretty. I played one or two games. It's like, okay, I don't need to play this ever again. Super boring game. Then we have Belly Lost World, number five. Oh, okay. I'm wondering what your number one is. Okay, keep going. Number four would be Pokerino. Okay, we talked about that already. That's a real sad game. Then we get into the Ataris have made the top three of worst games. Oh, wow. Atari Hercules, number three. Very slow game with the pool ball being too heavy for the game to batter over the big underpowered flipper assemblies. Where did you play yours? I played mine at Fun and Games in Framingham in the late 70s. Oh, they had one there? They did. I played mine recently, well, recently, last 20 years at, help me, what's the name of the amusement park in southern New Hampshire? Oh, Canopy Lake Park? Did you say Lake Park? Yeah. Okay. They had one at one time that really bad. Bad shape too. Right? It was a bad shape? Oh, yeah. Oh yeah. Yeah, bad. Even that game was brandnew. I played a brandnew, and even brandnew it played like crap, nevermind being tired. Yeah, I don't remember if being in the arcadese when I was a kid, but I'm not surprised. They only made like what 300 of them? Real low number. Low number. Yeah, and I think they actually charge a lot of money to play the game at that time. In 1902 To me, here in Hnox, far and clear, normal. This week time about the most controversial thing in history of fantasy. Since the personnes under conspiracy to not capture 13 pouvoir of Sail 5 remained there releases since the first year of its creation for Cramer who as a Internet sneaked tactics coreeil 8 series equalizer anál stem陽an mais o estim� alas means dialogue single addPR la local harajuku still unnecessary poeple substance sales had acted unparalleled it.种께 말 mainland Timed2000 at number five and Timed2000 at number one. Mine was the complete opposite. Timed2000 at number five and LostWorld at number one. So we're in agreement. They're both bad. And nowhere on this list was a ballet $6 million manual notice. Yeah, whatever. You know what? If you're taking, I'll just say it. If you're taking your advice on 70s Machines from Tim Sexton, you better go find another source. I'm trying to find another source. New games, he's probably very knowledgeable. Old games, not so much. Well he was talking about, he was talking about Pokerino and cards and talking about well if you really want to play cards you got to pay, everybody loves Baltro. And I go what the frick is Baltro? What are you talking about? What? Yeah, exactly, what? So, basically... What is a Baltro? Well, it's a geeky card game for people who like to play on their phone. You know people and they guess your average I did some some research. Demograph, your average ballatro player is 18 to 34 years old. A typical ballatro player is likely someone who enjoys puzzle games, games that require strategic thinking and mathematical optimization. So Tim being a software mathematician guy, there you go, Often with a history of playing similar games, they are drawn to the game's depth and satisfaction in making combos. Bingo, combos, ramp games. Sounds like new games. Sounds like Stern. Sounds like Stern. The term works for... who's he work for? He was working for... Mechanics? Well he was working for Stern for a long time. He made Rush and a bunch of other games. You know, he's part of those games. The term balatro itself is Latin for buffoon, which reflects the game's theme. So, there you go. Oh boy, oh boy. Hey, I'm just dropping off the mail. We're just equal opportunity offenders. I mean, we're, I can just see the numbers going down. Wow, you insulted me about my games I own. I'm a real EM guy. We should have had Dave on, the other Dave. Oh yeah, I know. EM Dave. He would have been a good one for this. Well, him and Gene, they would basically be fighting for like, wait a minute, that Williams EM is actually, that's a good title. That's a good title. What are you guys talking about? They'd fight over the titles. They'd actually... Well, I'll be getting an email, I'm sure, from him. Okay, yeah. Sayingding, hey George, you're wrong. Right. Try again. One more thing, the strategy and so this game is also strategy and for math enthusiasts, the game's core loop involves math and strategy. Player must maximize the score by building hands and using jokers. This appeals to players who enjoy optimization problems and satisfaction of finding the perfect combination. The game features historical names of jokers, planets, and obscure facts about bananas. Me near Itabd writes.achtopin.com Hey! It's Michael. Brian. Don't let my lips harm your body. clam circ parallelkeptopimактиosaurs The Spirit said Gene euro explosay mortefayer Clozolma, clore dels, hypoaltovir revenir a seismai million cams atرك-atract'sPAIWOTCH POPEikanih板ia, diextsluccinylgoacqu eventually one of these abouteterians Michael Carter. Y'all should do the fact that all these butters is perfect. I've been at Rush Game for, I don't know, eight months. I don't know. No more music pins for me. They just wreck it. They wreck the music that you like. Okay. I thought you would be interested in that. Okay. What do you think about this? I'm going to go through a couple of weird little things. What do you think about an Iron Maiden coloring book? I don't think much about it. Okay. I didn't even know it was a thing, but they've already published one. They just published another. It came through on a feed. I'm like, okay. Adult coloring book? I don't know. Not my thing. Hold on. Maureen just said, what do they have? Cat farts. They have a cat farts coloring book, in case you want one, George. Cat farts. I will go look to see what that is. Maureen took a picture of it. Geez. Okay, I got another random thing. On Harlem Globetrotters the saucer at the top of the game that spells Harlem Yes Random or not That is random. Yeah, it should be random. Every tournament I see, in order. No random. Huh, because you can make that selectable. You can change that, I think. Yes, you can. You can just spell it H-A-R-L-E-M or random where it might not spell right away. I think it makes the game infinitely harder, but that's me. It does. It does. So, just like Paragon. Paragon's the same way. It's always random, typically. Well, that's how I have mine set. I just saw it one day on a tournament and I'm like, why do they do it that way? But, you know, again, who knows? Speaking of tournaments, I thought this was good. I'll give Teolis some props. There's a guy named Nick Stein. Most of you probably are not aware of him, but he was playing in London in a tournament. And Jeff Teolis named him Dynaltap. This guy could tap pass. Dave, good tap pass on games I've never seen people tap pass on. This guy, if he played in big events, He would be a top 10 player. He's that good, but he doesn't travel Young guy, old guy, young guy? Young guy 20s, 30s, somewhere in there. Not you know, not sub, not sub 21. Right There's that. Oh Guess what? I just got my order from Margaret Pinball Life. Did you buy stuff this week? No, I didn't know about the sale Fill pens out of our mind 3 John Papadiuk, Black Water, Kaneda's Pinball Podcast, Twippies Awards, translite sovereartwork panel in backbox that is backlit during play So speaking of $6 million, man, I was, I've been, you know, restoring one for myself a little bit here. I even have, I got this guy here. You see him? Yes, Steve Austin action figure. Yes, from 1973 with the bionic eye and everything. And he's got a special little, little thing here. You hit the button here, and his little arm goes up. Oh, look at that. It's a bionic arm. You go like this. How'd you get that? Maureen, we were out there, we were out a couple of months or so ago out in Warren, Mass and we had a nice little bed and breakfast we stayed at for a weekend and we went out to one of these consignment shops and all of a sudden there was this, I wouldn't say doll, action figure, hello, in a bag and it's like wow, it was like 50 bucks. They go, I don't know, 50 bucks Maureen, if you wanted to buy it for me. I was like, hold on, let me Google it. And I, on eBay, they go for anywhere from 75 to 150 bucks. I was like, okay, I'll buy it. And plus he has his special red jogging track outfit with his special six millimeter. He looks in good shape. He's in good shape. Yeah. He's better and faster and stronger than he ever was. So there you go. He's got his sneakers and everything. His clown shoes. Little clown shoe sneakers there. You know, got the whole thing going on. So, yeah, she got that for me because, you know, I went for a little hospitalization thing recently, which was lots of fun. You know, but I got all tuned up and I will say I get some tips for anybody that's going to do any kind of hospital stay. They like using polyester sheets in a hospital and polyester pillows. Ze enfrent, John from my bro Kerd in the questionwarming category for今天号 and the questionopez in нихis Hola, qualifying Vincent I had Maureen bring into the hospital cotton sheets for me. They got me out of the bed. She put those cotton sheets on. Oh, way better, way better. So that was good. And then we can talk about hospital food. So hospital food, especially when you're on a diet, they have a whole menu and you order up and say, oh, what would you like, sir? Oh, I'd like this. Oh, no. I'm sorry sir, you can't have that, okay? How about this? No, no, no, you can't have that. Absolutely not, sir. Okay, what can I, you know what, let's not play guesses. What can I have? Can you guys, you know, it's like, you keep teasing me. Salad? So yeah, I got the chicken salad on top of some lettuce. That was okay. Some fruit. I couldn't have a little, little, little, what's it called, a little pint or half pint of milk of 1% milk. Oh no, sir, there's too much salt in that. And milk? What are you talking about? How the hell do they put salt in it? I don't know. Raisin Bran? I couldn't have that one day. RaisinBran? What? But oh, but you- I said okay. I'll play a game. How about at night? How about the lentil shepherd's pie? Oh yeah, you can have that. Really? Shepherd's pie, a little bit of salt. I can have that- You know we called that in college, right? No. Shepherd's pile. Shepherd's pile. Yes. Yes. So I equate it to- I'm gonna play a little I was thinking about this when I was trying to order the food and what they would give me and wouldn't give me. Let's see, I'm going to try to bring this up here. Oh, come on. Oh, it's going to give me a Stern commercial for a Stern game. Wow, that's really bizarre. Splendid, splendid. And now the first thing to discuss is your diet. We'll begin by cutting out starches, sugars, proteins, and carbohydrates. What do we eat? Vitamins and calories. Oh boy, with cream gravy! As I was saying, I'm going to prescribe your daily schedule. You'll arise at 5 a.m. Hossback riding until 6, chopping wood until 7,roadwork until 8, and then breakfast. A nice big bowl of milk. After breakfast, more roadwork, more wood chopping, a good stiff workout in the gym, and then lunch. A nice big bowl of milk. In the afternoon, more roadwork, more wood chopping. Yes. You punched a bag for an hour and then dinner. I know, a nice big bowl of milk. No, no, no milk. You drank it all for lunch. Exactly. Then he says, he says. I'm still hungry. I'm still hungry. That was like all these different things when I was in the hospital, I was running through these different funny things, you know, just to get through all the BS. There's so much BS going on. That was one of them. Also the other one was the Mad Max thing. I felt like Mad Max here. It's all assigned to you. I'll drive that tanker. You know when Mad Max is all beaten up, it's like screw it. I'm still motivated. I'm going to drive that tanker. I felt like Mad Max at one point. So yeah, and the Road Warrior. I just watched that again recently. Had John Day over. That was fun watching that. So I have a I have some pinball related stuff if you want to hear it. Sure. Did I talk to you about my trip to York to the White Rose game show? I you mentioned it, but I didn't really hear the details yet, though. Okay, so first off, I probably shouldn't even say this, but I am anyway. I get there I'm early. So, let's get into it. And, I doubt nobody out there will know the answer to what I just said. I'm just gonna start with another question. Nobody guardingTheDoor. Very different than going to Allentown. Wow, okay, that's very trustworthy. So, I walk in, and what I see? My buddy, Brian, and his son Brian. I'm like, there's nobody here, he goes, oh yeah. That's part of the show. He goes, walk around. I'm like, okay, I don't have a wristband, he goes, oh no, you have to go back out and pay. But you can walk around and play games right now. And nobody bothered me. I walked around, looked at everything. I'm like, oh, there's nobody here. And I'm gonna go down. This is cool. So what would stop you from just like walking around not paying? Oh, you don't have a wristband on I'm guessing it's a trust thing on right, but you know, it's 15 bucks. I mean, come on, right? And I'll talk about what I played. I mean, folks, I said I say this all the time. If you're going to go to this show, you can play the modern games. I don't think there was as many people as last year. I played Dungeons and Dragons like five or 10 times in a row. There was no I was watching the show and I thought, I'm going to win. I looked behind me and I'm like, okay, I'll keep playing. Jaws, same thing. They had two different, whatchamacallit, the new Star Wars. They're going to make a lot of money on that game. That's, I don't know why people diss that game. I mean, I don't think it's a great game, but they're going to make a lot of money on that game. I played that game a crud load. I mean, just between those three games, I probably played 30 or 40 games. I'm a little bit of a fan of the old school games. I played that too. I'll get to that. So I'm walking around and somebody comes up to me and goes, Hey, George, how are you? I look at the person and I go, I know where this person is from, but I don't remember his name. Well, it was Ryan from a year ago. If you heard, if you listen to that podcast, I think I played Avatar with him. He came up and he's like, oh, I'm Ryan. I'm like, oh, cool. He then proceeds to tell me, he goes, oh yeah, I want you to meet my friend Mike. He's the one who told me that you talked about me on that podcast. I go, okay, remind me, what did I say? He goes, uh, Mike's listening to it. And he heard, he heard my name. You stumbled on it. You weren't sure if it was my name. And then you mentioned the game I own, the only game I own, which is millionaire. I'm going to go punk Ryan. So I go over and he's talking. He's got a booth and he's talking to somebody to sell something. I waited my turn. I finally said, are you Mike? Yes. I said, you know, a guy named Ryan. He goes, I know several people named Ryan. Why? Oh, no, no. This guy Ryan has a game called and I didn't get even millionaire out of my mouth. He goes, George, what are you doing? I go, Brian's over there. He told me that. Yeah, you talked about me. Nice guy. He had. This is the crazy part of the story. You're gonna say, well, that's not so big a deal. He proceeds to tell me we've met before. I'm like, Oh, God, where he goes, Do you remember being at Ocelot Brewery? And we played a game together. I go, I do. He goes, your wife was there and you know, we're having beers and playing pinball. He goes, you were surprised because I drove two and a half hours to this place to go play games. I go, I do remember you. He goes, I only owned one game back then. This is like two years ago, maybe three. He goes, oh, I own a bunch now. Then he had a hot tip there. He had four games there and I played them all. They were pretty good. And a hot tip by Williams. Jak Pot Pinball HAL DOWN Jackpot Pinball He said to me, George, it's only 15 bucks, but did you go in the back room? I said, yeah. He goes, oh, that's where all the special machines are. If you don't ask for the extra five bucks, I don't let you in that room. I go, well, everybody's going to know that now because I'm going to talk about it on the, on the show. But good guy. I'm going to interview him at some point in time. Nice guy. Alastair, Aston. It's me the $6000 man. So are you actually working on the game? I am. So what have you done? I have... Hold on. Come on Steve Austin, settle down. There Steve Austin, okay. I have I've teen out of the back of the playfield this is you know pre pre going on my hospital staycation did all that and then recently I did order some nice new rails from Leon down in Florida for it so he makes these white oak rails and he puts red paint lacquer on it all kind of stuff so I just put I put those on and a couple months ago I've I started with the old playfield. I stripped it down. The top side and the bottom side I've already started rebuilding. I rebuilt all the pop bumpers. I think I rebuilt the flippers. I got to do the drop target still. So I like to rebuild everything on the old playfield and slide it on over to the new playfield, sock it down, and then go from there. So yeah. So you're rebuilding the flippers. You're doing it all. I'm doing the whole thing. I'm making a real nice six mil. You should have been in on that pinball life buy because stuff was like switches. They were discounting the crap out of that stuff. So even though I didn't need 30 to 40% off. Wow. I mean, you know, an $8 down to six or five. Need the info. Yeah, I you know, I was gonna I was gonna send you and I'm like, he, you know, he does a lot of business for that. He's got to know about it. Well, next time. I'll do it no matter what. Thanks. Oh, you know what else I got? Methos, one of our Mark. Methos on... Oh, tell me you got some emails. Yeah, I did. Okay. So... I'm still email-less. Nobody likes me. It's good cop, bad cop, George. That's why. So this is from a little while ago, but not... This is basically when we're gonna run our... We want to ask the audience about the 10 best 70s games. And I don't think I got to say, I don't think I included this one. Let me know if I did. But he said, hello Dr. David, I just got back from a pinball run from Madison, Wisconsin to Cleveland to buy an original Stargazer. It took me two days. I haven't heard this. No, you have not talked about this. Okay, good. It took me two days and thought I was going to die driving through Chicago, but got home okay. The Stargazer is an original and pretty decent shape. Playfield has little wear but overall pretty nice. So I listened to the classic pinball podcast while driving. Great show as always. Here are my top 10 early solid state games as you guys were discussing. Now he didn't say 70s at early solid state games so he kind of did his own thing. Not sure it was only 70s but only but that would be mostly ENs for me. So here we go. Number 10 Sinbad. These are best games, not worst games. It's okay. I don't like the spinner. I don't like Gottlieb's spinners, so that's probably why I don't like the game. And number nine, Sea witch. Much better than people gave it credit for, especially when it's dialed in. I agree, sea witch is a good game. Number eight, Dolly Parton. Great butt kicker. Yeah, the one I had here, yeah, with a new playfield in it, great game. Number seven, Flash Gordon. That's 1980, but okay, I get it. Number six, actually Sea Witch is 1980 as well, and so is his number six, his Stargazer. Right, but we're going to do, aren't we going to do a show on the 80s? Yeah, this could probably fall into that. Pretty much, you know what, all this stuff on here, except for Sinbad and Dolly Parton, is 80s. So I can save this list for 80s. He said, I know George doesn't want our list, but too bad. Thanks for keeping the fun thing coming. What are you doing back there? Me? Yeah. Hi. Did you hear that? You got a mouse in the house. Yeah, she's making bread. Oh, all right. What kind? Sourdough? No, $100 bills. $100? All right, George. That's your kind of bread. No, she's making just a loaf of bread. Okay. Sorry. So anyway, so one more thing. So he said, I just, so he picked up another stuff. I don't know if you've seen it. I don't know if you've seen it. I don't know if you've seen it. I don't know if you've seen it. I don't know if you've seen it. I don't know if you've seen it. I said, um, I just, so he picked up another Stargazer, sold one during my last time of weakness and sold my other one. Able to find a pretty decent original, little bit of playfield wear, over plays fast and mean. I love that game. I now only have two new, new Sterns left as I just reverted back to older games, really anything older than 2000. Did he tell you what he paid for it? No, he did not tell me what he paid for it. Okay, I'm wondering. As always, love the show and hope you guys keep it coming. Any chance for some System 11 game reviews coming up? I just got a pool sharks up and running and while not the best system 11, it's a bit of a sleeper. Weird with the pool sharks. That's more your game than me, but yeah, well, we'll continue. We'll continue until people tell us to stop. And then... We're definitely gonna do the 80s because we haven't done that. Oh, we gotta do the 80s. Especially, well, especially early 80s. There's so many games, forget the late 80s. That's two different things. 85 and newer or any late 80s and early 80s. We could definitely do that. Yeah, we should do that. I still have a couple of items from the White Rose game room show. Go ahead. Okay, so if I didn't talk about this, I think he would be upset. So did I send you the picture of the paragon with the googly eyes? No. Okay. You know those little sticker eyes that kind of the eyes bounce around? I guess they call them googly eyes. This guy, this guy Eric. So I'm in his booth and he's got this Paragon and on all the plastics wherever there were eyes he put these googly eyes. And I went over and I'm looking at it and I said something to him. He goes, oh hi George. I'm like how did you know I'm George? He goes, your voice. I like okay Wow So I suggested to him I send you the picture I said why don you have these on the back glass He goes Oh great idea So he did that And that was fun He was he was good But he had a skateboard for sale in this booth Brand new backless brand new plastics brand new CPR playfield Wow Brand new paint job What's your favorite game? Um, 5K. 4500, but you know what? I played it. No. It doesn't play like my game, an original. Not dialed in. No, no. Pretty, very pretty looking game. I mean, whoever did it, it wasn't his game. I think he was selling it for somebody. Pretty game. The game was yet that's the thing that's lost on a lot of people when you do a playfield swap and that kind of thing You can do a playfield swap sure but to do it, right? You need to spend a crap load of time to line things up to rebuild things to get it so plays Like a brand new game and play correctly is an art to it and a lot of people don't don't have it Well, this was lost like I said nice looking game, but yeah didn't play that great Alright. Last thing from the show. I'll give a shout out to Somerville, Mass resident and tournament player and you've seen this kid before. He's in college. She Seamus meter. I saw him. I'm like he's a redhead. And you've seen him before. He's he's been playing at the pentastic probably for the last four years. I'm guessing we saw Kali Ghandi, Matthews Anime, Tom Young, AbleNor, He played a couple. I went up to him and I said, I know you from somewhere. He goes, oh, fantastic. I'm like, oh, okay. We played some Star Wars with him. Good player. He was trying to figure the game out. He ended up beating me and Ryan, but he was a very accommodating young guy. Good player. Not one of the best players, but a very, very good player. So give a shout out to him. I don't think I missed anybody. Good show. I stayed overnight. I didn't go the next day. There were no bargains. There was nothing I would buy. I did play two games. I think if I didn't send you the pictures, I will. I'm going to mess it up again. Not Time Tunnel. What's it called? What's the production version we did the show on? Oh, that one. Boy. I'm a good guy. Right. I got to look at my picture. Whatever it is. Yeah. I played that which was very good. I thought I sent those pictures out. Anyway, those are really, that was a really good player and then I think it was Space Mission. I've got to go look at the pictures. William, William Space Mission, old one? I got to look at the pictures. Sorry Dave, I'm not organized for this. Yeah, Space Time which was a beautiful version, fun game, played that quite a bit becauselihood reducing and I know I talked about it last year, but I never got to play it. Basically a roached out skateboard with all kinds of stuff removed and he put all modern electronics in it. So it had basically all kinds of video assets. It was it was really well done and I kicked the crap out of that game. It was it was easier to play than a I'm a regular skateboard so I was really annihilating it. That was fun. What else did I play? Talked about pool sharks, talked about all that. There's a lot of older games big EM, you know, show, Wood Brails which I didn't like. But were they really nice shaped older games? Are they all restored? Like the 70s, 50s stuff? Most people, I gotta say, there were some dogs but for the most part, yeah, people take, this is a real, you know, showcase show I think. People take a lot of pride. n He Voyager's b Online Good backlash, everything else, not that great of a game. Could have taken either one home for under $1500 and they were both pretty much restored. But not what I'm looking for. Nah. So I passed on that. What was the other? Oh, I don't know if you saw this. Did you see that Rolling Stones, 70s Rollingstones, Valley Rollingstones that was sold in Connecticut? No, how much? And what was it? Eighteen hundred bucks and it was a buy. Was it really nice? Really nice. Wow. Someone got a deal. I would have bought it in a second. I saw it, I said, this is not going to last long. I think it was like a Saturday morning. Yeah. Within two or three hours it was gone. Done. Was it Facebook Marketplace or what was it on? No, it was on Pinside. Okay, wow. I mean if I, let's put it this way, from your house, under an hour. Wow. Wow. Workinging? Workinging and nice? Working. Yeah, it was, trust me, I would have been in the car, I would have called the guy and said, money in hand, I'll be there in an hour. Wow. If I lived in New Hampshire still, I would have bought that. We talked about hot hand. There is one out on pin side right now. Guy wants $1250. It's actually is probably the best one I've seen in a long time and I would be, I would be a buyer but not at that price. I know the back glass is in good shape. The playfield is in good shape. All the plastics aren't all roached out. I mean, somebody had must have had this in the home because it's a survivor. It was a nice looking game. So I'm still on the hunt. But now they got my package of, you know, pinball life stuff. I got plenty of stuff to keep me busy. Mata Hari is the first one on the block changing all the changing all the posts on it. All my posts in that game are orange. I never changed them. Okay. So, put nice red ones in there, gonna give it a whole service. Oh, one thing I should talk to you about. Yeah. I think I know the problem. It's probably a switch, but my right hand flipper is buzzing. If you hold it, you know, you cradle a ball. Which game is this? Mata Hari. Uh, it's buzzing, huh? Yeah, I don't, I haven't taken it apart. That's my next project. And then... You'll find it. I don't know what that is too. I just didn't want to dig into it yet. That's later. The second display was not, you know, the digits weren't complete. Segment, I don't know what you would call the segment. In the eight it would be the left top. That segment across all of them, all the digits in the second player went We're out. So it's got to be it's got to be one of the connectors. But it was also going to the ball in play and number of credits, and it was going back and forth. So I guess the fix is probably to just do both connectors and be done with it because they're daisy chained, right? I believe they're daisy chained. I think so. So that's great. So I got stuff coming up, but that's everything else has been running good. I'm reading about that Rolling Stones you said basically it's eighteen hundred bucks for best offer so someone gave him a best offer on it uh... I would have given him eighteen hundred bucks and said I'll give you your money take it off the market. I can't believe or best offer he wanted this thing gone so he said I'm listing my friend's Rolling Stones machine he's moving and has to be out before October sixth this was from a while ago uh... so price price to move and the state of the NPU as it has some alkaline damage Cash on glass, no shipment. So what? So what? You're trying to buy a new... Big deal! Right, right. Right. MPU and battery leak should be... But it's a nice looking game, right? Right. I don't know what... It is... Well, cabinet's a little faded. Back glass is mint. But yeah, very restorable. I mean, definitely, especially... That was worth the money. I bet you someone paid $50, $100 bucks for it. Whatever they paid, it was worth it. Nice looking game. He said, need to know, MPU had battery leak and should be hot swapped. What do you mean hot swapped? How do you, how do you hot, that's dumb. I think that means you need to buy a new one. It should, should hot, that makes no sense. Game played fantastic until battery leak. Very minor playfield we don't see pictures. Could use new rubber but current parts are functioning. Incandescent lighting, fine by me. Back glass is mint. Pick up only, no stairs, easy access for loading. Wow. So someone basically just pulled up, grabbed it, here's some money, get out of there. Yeah, not bad. Not bad at all. That was a good one. I know that's making Grant cry in Australia. I'm sure. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Wow. It kind of makes me, I have one, it's all good to go too. I have it in my queue for myself to do. I've got a nice original playfield that Bill Davis clear-coded for me years ago to do for this game. Yeah, that's another fun game. That's another game full of memories for me. Oh, then I got this. So I got another email right just today. This guy named Matt said, Good afternoon. I recently bought a pinball machine off of eBay. I said, Oh, oh, oh, that was that was supposedly just serviced. Oh, sure. You don't say what do they take a dirty diaper and wipe the glass with it. The machine turns on but the buttons do not work was trying to return it but the seller said, I said if I could have a tech look at it, he would pay for the repairs. I don't know who's gonna pay my bill. I doubt it. Jess would like to get an estimate and have it looked at because I'm going to charge him before I get it fixed. So you first need to ask the question, was this a pickup by you or did you have it shipped? My guess is the latter of the two. Shipped, I'm sure. So the game comes to your house, you're all excited and it doesn't work. And doesn't work. Surprise, surprise. Another eBay, another eBay story, another eBay pinball story. Yep. People, people don't get it. They just, oh, PillowShade looks good. It was just serviced by our local technician crew. Yeah, sure. Sure it was, sure it was. Yeah. Boy, oh boy. So, live and learn. So basically I said, hey, what's the name of the machine? That'd be kind of helpful to know. So he brought it, even right there he doesn't really know, he sounds like a real newbie. I bought a pinball machine. How about what's the title of the game? I said I bought a pinball. You know what I mean? You just bought a game because it's a game. I said take some pictures of playfield and back. Oh wait, I just got a, I said where you're located. He just got back to me. This is live. Oh, all right. It's a bally. It's a 70s bally, George. Salt State. Guess which one it is. Block World. No. It is a bally playboy. gestagne주� obstacle0 ou premierThenケ PRO, Adam Wood muito Paulo, Dan Waller, Tomx oppa, hundredorgaestory escolantenguindoctaaiwill.com envie na wwareňňŋōōŠŒŒōŎŁŋʼnŬńŁŃŃŠŽŃōŒņŃŒņŦŃņŁŒŁŽņŌŒņ� INEGŽŋţłŃŪŁŜ� mondeŰŒŒņńŋŦ�ındanŽŋŌ� severalgold trial.com I will send you photos. I bet you the middle of that playfield is going to be all touched up with magic marker or some crap. So I talked about Mike earlier and having that Playboy which was for sale. Don't take this the wrong way Mike but it wasn't worth what you were asking. I think he wanted 2200 bucks for it. What was wrong with it? Tired looking game. There was no... It played okay. Well, definitely needed either you or me to tune it. He's a newbie, so I don't know how much he knows how to make it really play right. But it was okay. I wouldn't pay that kind of money for it. And it seems like that game is just... People are not gravitating toward that game for whatever reason. I don't... Playboy is not a good game. In fact, I probably should have put that on my... one of my dog list. Although it didn't... I don't like it, but people do like it. I don't know. I don't think it's that great. No. No. In fact, I have a list here of other ones I was going to put in there. Here's some other ones from contenders from the worst. Would be Star Trek Knight Rider being another one that's contender. No! Yeah, not that great of a game. Unless you did this. Yeah, I don't know. It's not that great of a game. I mean, it's, if you like targets, which I do, it's a good game. It's a decent game. It's not the best, but hey, I only paid a hundred bucks for mine, so. I put in there also Phoenix, Time Warp, Contact from Williams, Williams Laserball, another one. Those are other games that weren't that, weren't that good. But yeah, those are, those are pretty much the solid state stuff. On the way кажется baru drawings drank Roy Duvall of S stats from high school is rolled out to their colors and cameras. In the middle corner of these for channel. palo alcor is with Başan hover and it unless public transport is ister I keep saying that. I'm trying to line some people up for round two on that. So we went to Lost Rhino. They have a mix of moderns and older games. How old was the game? Like what? There was a Captain Fantastic there. They had the moderns, you know, they had Jaws, they had the new King Kong, they had Cactus Canyon. I played an eight ball deluxe, which was not a bad game. Actually, it does play like yours, but it was actually for, you know, game on site. It was pretty good. Um, you know, they have a mix, which is good. And then I took them over to Ocelot. Um, tried to get ahold of the owner to interview him. I'm going to have to wait on that. I got, got the owner's name, so I'll follow up with that, but it was all moderns. And Matt, I reached out to the owner of the bar or the brewery and the pinball arcade are two separate businesses, but they're linked by a hallway. He takes really nice care. Matt is the guy out of time or something like that, the amusements. So it's his machines. They were all moderns. There was nothing. The oldest game there and their relationship with Western Interactive isreb 쓸 descent. introductory straight What do you want to play? How much you gonna pay? Most at Rhino was a dollar. For the modern? Even for the moderns. Other games, the older ones were 50 cents. And at... It was a card system at Ocelot. And it varied depending on the game. They had an Evil Dead. I don't know, I think you got 500 points for a $5 bill. I don't know if but I don't know it was like over a dollar a game but it wasn't a dollar fifty it was some somewhere in between for all the moderns but like I said it was all moderns not your kind of place you you'd probably like lost rhino a little bit better because of the older games but all well maintained good place to go drink I mean you know and have a beer and play pinball you know we just scored speaking of modern games uh Mike McGordy just scored a medieval madness wizard edition um that he's adding next to his Walter Elvisk, Professor of Science, Master of Science,alog,osse.com Professor of Science, Physicist, I'm going to show you, so check this out. This is my $6 million man. You'll get to see her in a second. Let's see. I'll show you. Wass�r does practice a holocards Okay. Um, I got nothing else other than next month. I'm hoping you've talked to John about this, but if not, he's going to learn it right now. I really think you should do a show with John. And the reason I think that is the show we did with John is now number three in our top ten. Wow. Okay. So people like that episode. I'm sure he can entertain us. I'm sure he can spin some yarns about some of the stuff he's been working on. Oh I sure he he been doing a maneira of worst fashion C to error Mär是我 de mi sécost et pro je so ci si tot m pi I have something I'll add to it. I'm going to I think it's called Starship Arcade at a casino racetrack in Pennsylvania, Hollywood Casino. Over 100 games. I think most of them are moderns. I think I talked about it in one of our past shows. That's coming up in a little over a week. So I'll have some content for next month. And Helicon Brewery, which you've probably seen on The We actually play pinball on the brewery. I'm gonna go there So odd to other places that the you know people should Maybe attend a lot of no. Okay, cool. Oh You know what what do you got I'm looking right now at this playboy Okay, not to look into the one he's just sent me all right so not too bad he sent me a quick video He said the flippers and they aren't going But I think oh, you know what cuz he's not there's no no credit in the game. Wait a minute Yeah, it's on it's on It's on a track mode So he has no credit So doesn't sound like this person knows what they're doing. No, he doesn't know he's doing it all Well, but why wouldn't the guy the guy who sold so through and FaceTime and say yeah, you get it set up Call me we'll do a face time. I'll run you through how the game works, right? I'm wondering how much you paid. Yeah. Right. You know, you know, he didn't get bargain basement. Well, let's see. I can go on eBay right now and see what he paid. Valley Playboy. Let's see. Valley. Where's this guy located? He's in Weymouth. Oh, so he's nearby. I'm nearby. Yeah. I'm not that nearby. Well, not far either. No. Sold items. All right. Sold items. Okay. Wow. Yeah, right? Tell me it's over $4,000. Yes, it is. Oh, crow. Yeah. Oh, it's got to be a $4,000. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, it has stupid LEDs in the back glass too. Ugh, like blue LEDs. Sold October 16th. It's got to be this one. $48.88. Oh! Almost five grand. Oh. Wow. Unsuspecting. Taken advantage of. Taken advantage of. Yeah. So it goes. This is a classic from late 70s. And then of course all cap. All capillation. This is one everyone wants. We all remember playing this game in the arcades, bars and pool halls. Our incredible team at the Pinball Dudes did one heck of a job. Oh, they're the ones who sold it? Yup. Oh, crap. Do you know... Who are they? They advertise... they're all over the internet. Anyway, there's a guy in Jersey, in Brick, Jersey, who did two of them. Did you see them when they were at... Yeah, I did. I did. Okay. That price keeps going down every week. He really did them up, chromed them. He must have spent a boatload of money. Nobody wants them. He could, this guy who just emailed you, could have bought a fully restored playfield backglass, plastics, rails, paint job, chrome for under five grand. Yeah, exactly. The Playfield was stripped to its core, cleaned and waxed, all new rubbers and LED lights were installed. Please look at the playfield to see what a work of art this playfield is and how much better it looks with the LED lights. The playfield is a minor wear for a game of this age. Here we have that old line. Hours upon hours when it's making this playfield that you see before you today. The playfield is some of the coolest art you'll ever see in a classic pin. How's the playfield look? It's a little beat, not too bad. It needs a good cleaning. It needs a good magic erasering. We gave the game the love it deserved and it plays as it should with no errors. These games don't say errors. That's a Williams game from the late 80s and 90s. We installed a brand new Alltech main MPU board to help ensure trouble free gameplay. You do the connectors? For that money you should have put all new boards in. All new boards in. And all new connectors. And all new connectors. And all new everything. Right, all new everything. I mean, did you do a flipper rebuild? I mean, let's see. You're going to go see this thing, I know. Eventually you're going to go see this thing. Oh, hours upon hours. We installed a brand new Alltech board, trouble free gameplay as well as new light driver board for LED lights. New flipper bats were installed. Ooh, how about, how about, did you rebuild them or just the flipper bats? No, just the bats, just some bats. Installed to ensure strong flippers during gameplay. All new pop bumper caps and lane guards were installed as well. The cabinet, it's original and untouched, yeah, faded. It exhibits some, it exhibits some normal nicks and scratches, yeah, no shit, you don't want to get into that. And fade. It has normal scratches, fade, and nicks, so basically it's a piece of crap. The backbox is in its normal wear and tear. Our work is stunning with huge aftershocks. The two Playboy Playmates alongside of UFOFCO, the game is loaded up with three classic pop-up numbers, five classic drop-down targets, and six stand-up targets. The game is finished off with brand new playfield glass. Okay. Is it tempered? If you were looking for a playboy with a refurbished playfield and one that was worked on by professional techs, then do not miss one. Wait, wait. What do you mean refurbished playfield? You just said it was wear and tear and you basically cleaned it. It's not refurbished. You cleaned the fricking thing with a dirty rag. We have positive feedback. Well, how much positive feedback? So buy with confidence. All games can be played and viewed in person or show them in Jupiter, Florida. Ah, Jupiter, Florida. There we go. Now we know. That's the guys. We have left. We got about five minutes, I think. Okay, let's shift gears and we'll end the show. I was watching, you've already heard this story, but I'll make it condensed. I was watching the Jet warning game, football game, a couple weeks back, and on comes an advertisement for Microsoft Copilot. I'm like, okay, let me go look at that. Oh, it's an AI product by Microsoft. Oh, that's cool. Oh, you're going to let me use it for free. Oh, even better. So what does George do? George puts in four words, the classic pinball podcast. Dave has already heard it. Grant has already heard it. You will hear it after this. We'll put it in the bonus section. Pretty good. What do you think? What do you think? Yeah, not bad. I mean, you know what? The only thing is though, why do they put that English girl on there talking? Why is it always the same people? Because it distinguishes the podcast from others. Yeah. It would be like, well think about it. If it were you and Grant or me and Grant, it would be a contrast in voices. I think it's annoying. It's just different. It doesn't sound the same. I don't like her voice at all. Well, we'll let people decide. We'll see if anybody comments on it. There's a couple of things that aren't correct. But if I were to put it back through and add a couple more sentences, what I want to do is, I think I said this to you, I would love to take that and say, redo it with George and Dave's voice.ь Santiago-P Here is a picture of the side of the head. See that? Yeah, really nice and faded and all chewed up. Chewed up and scraped up and there's no paint on it. Oh my god. There's a story. You gotta call this guy because there's a story here. Return the frickin' thing. You got taken, dude. Take the $1600 loss and send it back. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but you could have got a restored game for this price. Oh, what a piece of crap. I can't believe these people. They got a hundred percent. Yes, you can. They have a hundred percent positive on eBay. How? How? I don't get it. Like I said, you need to have a conversation with this guy. First thing I want to know is why did you buy from these guys? Yeah. With the internet the way it is, I could pull up 10 games for sale. If I hunted, I bet you could find 10 of them. Exactly. Why don't you buy that one? People get lazy. They just search for it. All of a sudden, eBay serves it up. Right, but that's not an insignificant amount of money, especially if it's your first game. I know. You could have bought a Stern Pro used for that kind of money. Right. Why would you... Like I said, call the guy. I'm interested in the story. And the back glass is all chipped up. It's not even a good back glass. It's crap. This game... This game is, I don't know, 1500 bucks? Maybe 2000? At tops? Tops. I just told you the game. I'll send you the picture afterwards. The game that Mike was selling for 2200 bucks. I guarantee you that game is better than the one this guy bought. Ugh. What a joke. The world is crazy. Ugh. I can't... You got anything else? If not, we're going to close this thing out. Yeah, we should close it out because we got not a lot of minutes. Less than a minute going, so yeah. Okay, you first. All right, everyone stay lit and tilted. That's my line. Okay, well, everyone be well. I know I'm going to be well and heal up a bunch. We'll see how far I get with this. Okay. So this is what AI printed out for our clothes. And there you have it, 10 machines that made us groan, grit our teeth, and just walk away shaking our heads. Whether it was clunky gameplay, baffling artwork, or rules that made no sense, these games earned their spot on the wall of shame. But hey, even the worst titles have a place in pinball history. Thanks for flipping through the wreckage with us. Until next time, keep your flippers clean and your tilt sensors forgiving. That is horrible. This is the Classic Pinball Podcast signing off. Stay lit and tilted. How'd we do? We did good. Welcome to Copilot Podcasts. You know that feeling when you stumble across something that's both incredibly niche and surprisingly universal? Today, we're diving into the Classic Pinball Podcast, a show that's been keeping the silver ball rolling for five years with their deep dives into pre-1997 pinball machines. By the end of this episode, you'll understand how two guys turned their passion for classic pinball into a global All America's Top Ten Top Interviews of 2017 Ghost Bible Scripture electoral Show Female Guy Guy Guy Guy Guy Guy Guy Guy discoursing Guy They've covered everything from Elton John's 1976 Valley Captain Fantastic to modern sternmachines. Hold up, Elton John had his own pinball machine? He did. They dedicated an entire episode to Captain Fantastic, including gameplay review and stories from the field. It's this kind of deep dive content that sets them apart. That's amazing. How do their listeners respond to this level of detail? The response has been incredibly positive. One reviewer from Florida praised how it feels like a good chat between friends who love pinball. So they found that sweet spot between being informative and entertaining? Exactly. And they've built quite a dedicated following. They even have listeners in Antarctica, no joke. Antarctica? You're kidding. Nope. They got a message from a listener on the MS Rold Amudsen in Antarctica, though they did note there weren't any pinball machines on board, unfortunately. That's incredible reach for a show about classic pinball machines. And they keep evolving. Their recent episodes have included interviews with industry figures like Steve Ritchie. How do they structure their episodes typically? Each episode usually runs between one to two hours, with their longest recent episode being about two hours and twenty minutes. That's quite lengthy for a niche topic. But their listeners love it. As one reviewer put it, they enjoy the long-form content because it allows for deeper discussions. What kind of topics do they cover besides specific machines? They cover everything from restoration projects to pinball events, like their coverage of Pintastic New Robert Englunds and Pinfest. So they're really documenting the whole culture around classic pinball? Absolutely. And they've recently started doing top ten lists, like their episode about the best pinballs of the 70s. That must be fascinating for collectors. It is. And they often include repair tips too. Dr. Dave frequently shares restoration stories from the field. How technical do they get with the repair stuff? They cover everything from simple bulb replacements to complete playfield swaps, but they keep it accessible. That's quite a balance to strike. And they maintain it consistently. They've produced 129 episodes so far, each maintaining that same approachable style. That's a lot of content about classic pinball. And they're still going strong. They've recently covered games like Buck Rogers and 8 Ball Deluxe. How do they keep finding new angles on these classic machines? They often bring in different perspectives, like having collectors share their experiences or interviewing industry veterans. That must help keep things fresh. Definitely. And they're not afraid to go off on interesting tangents, like when they discuss the history of puck bowlers. What's been their most popular content? Their episodes featuring well-known machines like Star Trek and Addams Family tend to get a lot of attention. Makes sense. Those are pretty iconic games. And they've covered some unexpected ones too, like their episode about the Dolly Parton pinball machine. There's a Dolly Parton pinball machine? Yup. It's these kinds of surprising discoveries that keep listeners coming back. How do they handle feedback from their audience? They're very interactive. They regularly read listener letters and take suggestions for future episodes. That must help build community engagement. Absolutely. They even get international submissions, like recent content from their Australian listeners. So they've really created a global community around classic pinball? They have, and it's growing. And it's growing. They're consistently rated among the top 20 pinball podcasts to follow. What do you think makes them stand out in that space? I think it's their commitment to focusing specifically on pre-1997 machines. It gives them a clear identity. Why 1997 specifically? That's when the industry started shifting towards more modern digital features. They wanted to preserve the history of the classic era. That's actually really important from a historical perspective. Exactly. They're essentially documenting an important era in gaming history. And making it entertaining at the same time. That's what makes them unique. They balance education with entertainment. Do you think other niche podcasts could learn from their approach? Definitely. Their success shows there's an audience for deep, focused content if it's presented well. What do you think the future holds for them? Well, with over 40 years of classic pinball to cover, they're not running out of material anytime soon. That's a lot of silver balls still to discuss. And each machine has its own unique story and technical challenges to explore. It's amazing how much depth there is to this topic. That's what keeps their listeners coming back. There's always something new to learn. Well, that brings us to the end of today's episode of Copilot Podcasts. Who knew a show about classic pinball machines could reach from Florida to Antarctica? It just goes to show that when you're passionate about something and share that enthusiasm authentically, you can build Dr. Dave Hotline, we just got a voicemail I just missed. Let's go see who's calling me here. You have 20 saved messages. Looks like some Susie from Revere it looks like. Saved message. Yeah, hi. I got a jungle Queen that's a real mess. Okay. And I was hoping that you could one, get it out of my garage. Okay, maybe. Which is unheated. And two, take all the mouse dropping out of it. Oh boy. Oh dear. And three, have it working and ready to go in time for Christmas. Thanks very much. Bye bye. That looks like a one, two, three strikes you're out situation on that one. So I would say Susie from Revere, you would probably be best looking elsewhere. Because that's a three-time loser right there. It's not for me. Well, it looks as if our time has just about run out. Just enough left to tell them who the sponsor was. Who do you call when you want your pinball machinery stored? Dr. Dave! Dave! Who? Dave! D-A-V-E! Yeah, Dave! Dave! Right! But George, you don't know what you're saying! You're under their control! George, we've had it with you. Say no rodeo, bro dad! Hasta la vista, baby.