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#91 Stern Flight 2000 - The Classic Pinball Podcast

The Classic Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·1h 15m·analyzed·Sep 13, 2022
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.030

TL;DR

Flight 2000 deep dive; Data East TMNT repair saga with supply chain woes.

Summary

The Classic Pinball Podcast episode #91 focuses on Flight 2000, a 1980 Williams Electronics pinball machine featuring space/flight theming, artwork by Barry Oursler, and Doug Watson design. The hosts discuss its mechanical features (spinners, drop targets, memory targets, four kickers) and rule complexity, particularly the challenging 'BLAST OFF' multiball sequence. A significant secondary segment covers detailed repair work on a Data East Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles machine, highlighting supply chain issues, parts availability challenges, and a defective replacement MPU board from Rotten Dog.

Key Claims

  • Flight 2000 was the first Stern pinball to feature voice/speech capability using the VSU-Blackwater 100 speech board

    high confidence · Dr. Dave (podcast co-host), early in discussion about Flight 2000 features

  • Harry Williams designed approximately 15 games for Stern, including Wildfire, Dracula, Hot Hand, Big Game, Cheetah, Flight 2000, Galaxy, Free Fall, Split Second, Pinstar Gamatron, and Q

    medium confidence · George and Dr. Dave discussion; some uncertainty expressed about whether Harry Williams was employee vs. contractor

  • Flight 2000 production run was approximately 6,000 units

    high confidence · Dr. Dave states this with specificity; George expresses mild surprise at the number

  • The three highest-production Stern games were Meteor (~6,000-7,000), Galaxy (~5,000), and Flight 2000 (~6,000), all space-themed

    medium confidence · Dr. Dave comparison of Stern production runs; George notes the space theme pattern

  • Data East's Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles machines use a specialty DMD display that is no longer manufactured and costs $400-$500 for the LED replacement version from European suppliers

    high confidence · George (repair technician) describing parts sourcing challenges

  • Rotten Dog is the only known manufacturer of MPU driver boards for certain Data East pinball games from this era

    high confidence · George notes exclusivity of supply during TMNT repair troubleshooting

  • The Space Shuttle Discovery's 100th mission occurred in the year 2000, which George suggests was foreseen by Flight 2000's designers in 1980

    medium confidence · George makes this observation about government space program history and game naming

  • FedEx overnight shipping from multiple suppliers on Friday cost $40-$60 per package with Friday-to-Sunday delivery promised but not guaranteed

    high confidence · George details his personal shipping experience and policy fine print from Pinball Life

Notable Quotes

  • “It's one of the few Stern Pinball games that has voice... I believe it's the first Stern to have a voice.”

    Dr. Dave @ early in Flight 2000 segment — Establishes Flight 2000's historical significance as first Stern game with speech synthesis

  • “5, 4, 3, 2. You just need that one... Side to side. It goes in an out lane. And guess what the out lanes give you? Nothing.”

    Dr. Dave @ during multiball sequence explanation — Illustrates the punishing game design philosophy and a common failure point in Flight 2000 gameplay

  • “I call that a designer with a sense of humor.”

    George @ after Dr. Dave describes the out-lane frustration mechanic — Captures the tone of appreciation for deliberate difficulty in classic pinball design

  • “These guys were visionaries in 1980. They saw it happening.”

    George @ regarding Space Shuttle Discovery's 100th mission in 2000 — Reflects on thematic prescience of the game's space/future theme

  • “You pay your money, it takes you chances.”

    George @ transition to repair story — Sets tone for upcoming tales of troubleshooting and supply chain unpredictability

  • “It blew up. No, that would be even worse. How about nothing? I got a little bit of a flicker... and then just black.”

    George (repair technician) @ during TMNT display installation — Describes the anticlimactic failure of a new LED display installation

  • “They're the only game in town. We can go through the whole supply chain and you're stuck with only this manufacturer makes an LED display board for this game, a place overseas in Europe somewhere.”

    George @ discussing Data East parts scarcity — Illustrates the consolidation and fragility of the repair parts ecosystem

  • “Now me and Rotten Dog have had a love and hate relationship over the years. A lot of times they knock it out of the park. Other times, I want to strangle them.”

Entities

GeorgepersonDr. DavepersonBarry OurslerpersonDoug WatsonpersonHarry WilliamspersonBill DavispersonBrucepersonEricperson

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Repair technician George absorbs costs of defective components and shipping failures rather than charging customers, indicating margin pressure and service-loss tolerance in the repair market

    medium · George's decision: 'I'm not charging you for any of this stuff'; partial cost recovery only on shipping ordered at customer request

  • ?

    community_signal: The Classic Pinball Podcast provides detailed technical and historical analysis of classic games, attracting both collectors and repair technicians to engage with pinball history

    high · Episode format, guest appearances, detailed mechanical walkthroughs of Flight 2000

  • ?

    community_signal: Rochester Pinball Collective operates as significant regional hub for classic Stern machine availability with ~50-game lineup, supporting player access to machines otherwise found only in private collections

    high · George's shout-out to Bruce; acknowledgment that most classic games are in private collections; Pinball Map referenced as community resource

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Classic Stern/Williams design included intentional punishing mechanics (out-lane failures after near-completion of multiball sequences) as deliberate design humor

    high · Dr. Dave's Flight 2000 multiball sequence explanation; George's comment: 'I call that a designer with a sense of humor'

  • ?

    leak_detection: No unreleased machine leaks or announcements present in content

    high · Content focuses exclusively on 1980 Flight 2000 and Data East TMNT (released games); no forward-looking rumors or unannounced titles mentioned

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.227

0:00
And I think it's gonna be a long, long time Till touchdown brings me round again to find I'm not the man they think I am at home Oh no, no, no I'm a rocket man Rocket man Burning out his fuse all day long Hello and welcome to another episode of the Classic Pinball Podcast. My name is George, and I'm here with my co-host, the captain of the pinball space force, Dr. Dave. Hello, Dave. Hello, George, captain of the head force? Space force? The what force? Head force. Head space force. No, I don't know. Stargazers. I don't know, George. I'm just rolling. Wow. I hope this is not things to come. Sharpen the pencil, dude. Let's jump in the game. All right, let's jump in. Okay. We're in the dog days of summer.
1:28
Fall is almost upon us. And I'm hoping, not after that last little passage, Dave is going to bring the heat. So, Dave, please get us started on Flight 2000. Flight 2000, a Harry Williams pinball machine, August 1980. And, of course, as you know, all the Stern games, the best ones, were from 1980. and they were putting one out basically every month. Almost like a pinball playmate, so to speak, but more fun because you actually could plunge the ball and use your flippers. So, yeah, art by Jerry Simkus and Doug Watson, Harry Williams Design. And one thing about Jerry Simkus, which I didn't realize until I started researching this, is that he did lots of artwork for a couple games there. He did Big Game, he did Stargazer, and Split Second. I didn't realize he did Stargazer, so that's kind of cool. I guess he likes those blues. Can we go back to Harry Williams? Sure. How was Harry Williams integrated into Stern? Because he just didn't do Flight 2000, if I read correctly. He also did Galaxy? He did a bunch. He did 160 games. No, I know that, but how did he become, was he like gun for hire? I mean, he had to be pretty or fairly old by the time he got to Stern. He was. He did about, I want to say, 15 games for Stern. When they first really started with like Wildfire in 78. Oh, he did more? Yeah, Wildfire, Dracula, Hot Hand in the late 70s for Stern, their first stuff they were rolling out. And then he did Ali, Big Game, Cheetah, Flight 2000, Galaxy, Free Fall, Split Second. I had no idea. Pinstar Gamitron and Q, which is that weird game they only made a couple of six games of Q. That was a fantastic... No, no, no, no. I remember seeing that game. I had no idea he did that many games for Stern. So he was an employee, obviously? Yeah, he was an employee for a while, yeah. But didn't he have a... Yeah, Williams. You figure he'd be with Williams. Well, that's what I'm asking. Or maybe I didn't ask that. Is that him? I think that's him. Yeah, Harry Williams. I think we got to check that. We'll cut for a second. No, we're not doing that. We're not doing that. I know. We'll come back. Next show. There's probably somebody who's already talked about it. I know who knows. Who? Oh, don't say Bill Davis. No, not Bill Davis. You'll hear that at some point in time. No. No, Bill, I don't know.

George @ before MPU board failure discovery — Expresses the unreliability and inconsistency of aftermarket component manufacturers

  • “I told him, I'm not charging you for any of this stuff. I'm not charging him that. Why should he pay that?”

    George @ resolution of TMNT repair saga — Shows George absorbing costs due to defective parts and logistics failures

  • “It just adds complexity to one's life that is already hectic.”

    George (implied) @ final reflection on repair saga — Summarizes the cumulative frustration of supply chain and component failures

    • Fred Marco
    person
    Rotten Dogperson
    Maureenperson
    Mrs. Pinperson
    Alice Cooperperson
    Flight 2000game
    Galaxygame
    Big Gamegame
    Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtlesgame
    Williams Electronicscompany
    Stern Pinballcompany
    Data Eastcompany
    The Classic Pinball Podcastorganization
    Rochester Pinball Collectiveorganization
    Pinball Lifecompany
    FedExcompany
  • $

    market_signal: FedEx contractor/franchisee issues affecting small business parcel delivery; Friday-to-Sunday overnight shipping delivery guarantees not honored; fine-print disclaimers now standard

    medium · George's detailed FedEx saga; Pinball Life's strategic fine-print policy; multiple failed delivery attempts; industry-wide article mentioned about FedEx contractor problems

  • ?

    community_signal: Harry Williams transitioned from long career with major manufacturers to freelance designer role with Stern in late 1970s-early 1980s, designing ~15 games including Flight 2000

    medium · Podcast hosts' discussion of Williams' employment status; uncertainty about employee vs. contractor relationship; no clear timeline of departure from earlier manufacturer

  • ?

    product_concern: Rotten Dog MPU driver boards exhibit inconsistent quality; newly supplied board to George was dead-on-arrival (DOA), failing to pass audio signals despite successful installation

    high · George's statement: 'a love and hate relationship over the years. A lot of times they knock it out of the park. Other times, I want to strangle them.' DOA board experience.

  • ?

    product_strategy: Flight 2000 received software update with new skill shot mechanism allowing alternate path to spell difficult 'O' target letter, modernizing difficulty progression

    medium · Dr. Dave: 'With some new software, as you'll see when we go downstairs, there's a way to get that O a different way... A skill shot thing in there'

  • ?

    technology_signal: Specialty component availability crisis: Data East TMNT machines require imported LED displays ($400-$500) and Rotten Dog MPU boards with no viable alternatives; supply consolidation creates single points of failure

    high · George's extended narrative about parts sourcing; exclusive supplier relationships; DOA board requiring full replacement and re-shipping

    • 4:06
    Bill. No, Bill. That made my morning. That got me started. You know, clear coat is good. It also can be very bad. Yeah. You know what? I wasn't even thinking of that. Okay. I'll take that back. Oh. You know, piece of shit phone. You know, I can't even figure this phone out. But anyway. All right, well, never mind. All right, Bill. Well, it's good talking to you, and I'm glad you checked in. You're live on our podcast right now, so you can say hello to the people if you want. Hey, everybody. How's it going? This is Reddy Freddy.
    4:41
    All right, David. I'll talk to you later. Hold on, Bill. Hey, Bill. Do me one favor Yes sir Say you're listening to The Classic Pinball Podcast Please You're listening to The Classic Pinball Project No Try it again You're listening to The Classic Pinball Podcast Take two Oh podcast Pod P-O-D-C-A-S-T Podcast Okay What do you want me to say again After that Alright I'm Bill Davis when I'm not restoring play fields I'm listening to the classic pinball podcast how's that I don't know I'm alive how about thank you Bill thank you have a great weekend thanks Bill All right, guys. Thanks. Take care. Bye-bye.
    5:48
    Okay, what else about Flight 2000? So Flight 2000 has a bunch of slingshots. It has four slingshots, or kickers as they call them nowadays. Memory drop targets, so they go down.
    6:04
    When you hit them, they'll know from the next ball what you did, that kind of thing. it has voice, it's one of the few Stern games that has voice so it says it's the first Stern to have a voice is that true?
    6:19
    I believe it's the first Stern to have a voice although it doesn't say it in the little thing here oh wait, sorry, it does, yes it does I stand corrected, the first talking game from Stern using the VSU-100 speech board that is true yes, and they all sounded the same well, kind of like Bally's speech kind of sounded the same too, so I guess they all use the same different processors. I'm going to ask a question and people can deduce from the question what's coming.
    6:44
    Did Ali come before or after this game? Ali came before this game. So that game would not have speech? No. That's too bad. Ali is kind of a sister game to Galaxy. Which I'm unfamiliar with. I know who it is, but where would I have played one? I mean, you don't see them often. Ali or Galaxy? Well, Ali I played at Mike's house. Yeah. Probably the only, maybe at the shows. Honey Games had it years ago. Well, right, but that's your haunt, not mine.
    7:18
    Yeah, a lot of these games, as people know, you don't see them often because they're in private collections.
    7:25
    That's true. And games that are on location, unless it's a mega arcade, rarely do you see these games. I mean, I'll give a shout-out to Bruce up in Rochester with the Rochester Pinball Collective. They tend to put old-time Stearns in their lineup, and they have something like 50 games. So that's a place where you could probably play them, and you can obviously go out onto the Internet, and there's that website, right, that tells you where all the pinball machines are? Yes, yeah, pinball map or whatever it's called. Yeah, I have another thing to talk about as far as a new arcade. We'll talk about that at some point in time. As for Owly coming out, it came out in March of 80. Galaxy came out in January of 80. And Flight 2000 came out in August of 80. Okay.
    8:13
    So continue. You were talking about the play field. A couple of spinners? Yeah, it's got, let's see, it's got two spinners. One of them on the left-hand side is a whole ball walker assembly, which is kind of, it was new for Stern to do that. I think it's the only game they really did it with, except for maybe Gametron by Pinstar. And some people say, oh, it's a big waste of space up there. It is a lot of, you know... It's a lot of real estate. A lot of real estate. But it's a wide body. You can get away with it. When you start thinking of, you know, the Bally wide bodies, think of... There's nothing quite that creative.
    8:48
    No, in this game... And I own a couple of them, so I can tell you firsthand that there's nothing quite that creative. In this game, for a wide body, it can be really fast. It really comes down fast. It's kind of a wide open play field in the middle all the way down, that part. and there's a really long table shot from the right flipper all the way up to the spinner to the top left to get it to lock a ball around there. It's a tough shot to get that spinner and rip it. And when you rip it with not lit, it's 200 points. When you rip it when it's lit, you get, I think it's 2,000. Yeah, 2,000. And you can accumulate big points going that way. But you have to get multi-ball first and then it's lit for 2,000. When we're in front of the game, I need you to describe in detail how that numbered drop target on the left middle upper side of the play field works. And then that, I don't know what else to call it, a lane with a standard target at the end.
    9:49
    How that all works in order to lock the ball. That is still kind of a little bit of a mystery, unless you want to tackle it right now. Yeah, I can tackle it. And so you want to throw a ball up there, and it'll lock ball one, throw another ball up there, it'll lock ball two. You don't have to hit any targets? You don't have to do anything? Nope. But now to get to lock ball three or start multi-ball with ball three, now at some point you have to spell blast off. You've got to get the top four targets at the top. That's blast, I think the B's up there some way, or the B's down below there. and then you have to spell off down below. So you can get everything in the play field either spotted directly or remotely from stand-ups at the top of the play field, except for that troublesome O on the right out lane. That one you have to... Is that the one closest to the slingshot? No, farthest away from the slingshot. Okay, so the one in the middle. Yeah, well, farthest away, this one here, right on the out lane. So the only way you can get that is if you kind of luck it in there and kind of shake it and drop it in. Or if you're good at shotsing, you can shots it. But I don't think I've ever, I might have got it once that way. Eric Stone, sure, he can hit that. If you're good at shotsing, he shots the O.
    11:04
    With some new software, as you'll see when we go downstairs, there's a way to get that O a different way. It's still in a skill shot. So they put a wild card or something else. A skill shot thing in there. Okay. Yeah, it's very cool. Cool little roll set that's very nice for the game. So that makes the game difficult. So once you get that... Oh, and then on top of it, you have to sweep the drop. On the right-hand side, there's three drop targets. There's a light that's lit. So they're not giving you three multiball very easily. No. And it's only three or nothing? There's no one multiball? This ain't no ramp game. So there's no two multiball? There's no... No, three multiball. That's it. But then once you get multiball, then that thing likes for 2,000 points. You just keep ripping that spinner, and you get lots of points for that. You can spot blast with that stand-up target you're talking about in the middle there between the drop targets. That spot's blast all in one shot, so it's good to get that shot. It also gives you a multiplier. It's good to get the drop targets and the three on the right-hand side. You sweep them with one shot, you get 50,000 points, and you also get, it increases your spinner value over on the right-hand side in front of it. And you can have it so the game holds over from ball to ball. And you can get, I think, like 4,000 points of spin out of that. It's 500 plus 1,000 plus 1,500 plus 2,000, whatever that equals. What is that? 5,000 points of spin. You can max that spinner off to 5,000 points of spin if you keep getting drop targets. Right, and we know how you like juicy, loosey spinners. I sure do. So, wow, that can be... So you really have to perform in order to get to that part of the game. That's not an easy... It's not a gimme. You've got to work for it. I mean, glass swap, that's a lot of targets to hit. And you have to keep getting it up top. the only way you get it up top is to the through there or you could try to shoot it from the left flipper up to the right upper right side and kind of get it through there through the narrow path that mechanism what do you call the mechanism ball a ball walker okay so the ball walker if you just there's two balls locked up in there and you don't have multi-ball uh activated yet and you shoot a ball up there it ejects the ball up into the uh top lanes is that a way of getting the ball up into the top lanes?
    13:17
    Yeah, go up. You haven't spelled blast off. Yeah, you go up there, and it keeps your two ball blocks. So that's one way of getting up to the lanes. Yeah, correct. It's not one way just through the spinner on the right. You can also do it through the ball walker on the left. Well, yeah, spinner on the right, well, that won't really get you there. Instead of going, you can take the left flipper up straight, forget about the spinner, straight through the clear action of the plate, near the pop bumpers, and up to that upper in lane there.
    13:45
    You also go through the spinner and ball walk it through. It'll still hold your two balls for lock. It'll just be virtual, you know. Once you do that, once you go up there and you get two balls locked and you spell everything, now you're going 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Got to get them in order. If you get them out of order. Okay, that's where I was wondering. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Like, ready for blast off. So, after all that, after spelling blast off and getting multi-balled, then you have to. Well, hold on. Now, here's what always happens in this game. Very frustrating. Many people know playing this game, this always happens. 9 times out of 10. You go 5, 4, 3, 2. You just need that one. Once you get the one, throw it up that spinner, and boom, you've got multi-ball, and you've got a party happening. What happens more often than not, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. The ball starts going. A lot of side-to-side action on this game. And side-to-side is no. That's why. And kickers from side-to-side. Kickers here, kickers down here. Always going side-to-side. You know what happens when you go side-to-side? It goes out. So you're throwing the ball up here. You're hitting that. You're telling me, or you're asking me? Oh, I'm telling you. So what happens Invariably 5-4-3-2 I need that one shot Side to side It goes on an out lane And guess what the out lanes give you Nothing They spot a number target And then you lose And it's a ball three You lost the game And it's Ray's shoot So you just almost You were so close to getting that spinner shot And getting victory I know what I call that You lose I call that a designer with a sense of humor Yeah, exactly. That's what I call it. Yeah, it's like, ha-ha. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah, pretty much. Sorry. Pretty much. That's pretty much. Oh, boy. Yep. So that's pretty much that game in a nutshell.
    15:28
    Well, we're going to go downstairs in a little bit. Made about 6,000 of these, too. About 6,000. I was surprised to see that. That's a pretty good number for a wide body.
    15:40
    I don't have a comparison, unfortunately. I didn't research that. But I don't think any of, maybe Space Invaders, but definitely not Hot Dog and definitely not Embryon. Paragon, how many did they make? They made a lot of those, didn't they? 4,000 maybe? No, more than that. I don't have it in front of me. But that would be the only one. That and Space Invaders would probably be the two that had the most.
    16:09
    And I think for Sterns, they didn't really do a lot of big runs, Like 6,000 was a big run for them, you know, compared to like Stargazer, 863. So the other sterns that would be big runs would be Meteor, which is like around that 6,000, 7,000 number, I believe. And Galaxy had probably around 5,000. So those are the three big sterns. And they're all sort of space themes. Now that brings, wow, you're good. Thank you. Good. A mind reader. Do you, I went and looked at Space Travel 2000, because the game's called Flight 2000. and in looking at it, this is kind of cool,
    16:46
    our government launched the Discovery Space Shuttle's 100th mission in the year 2000. I thought that was pretty cool. So these guys were visionaries in 1980. They saw it happening. I guess. I mean, I don't know how else you would know, but that was pretty cool. It could be a retro causality, George. okay that went right over his head you're doing it to me again you're taking advantage of me I don't like it okay are you good with that I am but I will say Paragon 9000 Paragons oh okay that's a lot I have one I know you have at least one Galaxy 5000 So there you go Where else are we going? Let's move on to our good friend Mr. Bugs Bunny Whee! What's up Doc? What's cooking? What's up Doc? Oh you're looking for Bugs Bunny bunting Doc is gonna hunting Just to get a rabbit skin But now the rabbit's gonna get What's up Doc? what's cooking hey look out stop i'm gonna fight someone with that old shotgun so uh so data east teen and mutant ninja turtles in rhode island so customer said he just needs a new display display is dead nothing else needed because the game plays fine even though he had no work done to the game over the past 20 years of owning it it's like i don't know did he have regular rubber bands on the game? Oh, yeah. No. Oh, yeah. He did? Yeah, yeah. Sure, they were kind of a little, you know, dirty and gritty and whatever, but it plays, you know, original, you know. So, again, a lot of my stuff requires I have to educate the clientele. Do most of these people not have the internet and just have a curiosity pinball parts Nope Does that ever occur to them No They must How do they find you Not by carrier pigeon They type in pinball repair Okay. Good for you. There you go. Okay. I just learned out what robot.txt does. I'm just doing some website stuff. My website was not doing a happy thing for me, so I had to spend a lot of time doing that. But that's a whole other adventure. I'm beating my head against a computer screen. But anyway. You can tell us once you do it. Well, no, maybe you don't want to. I don't want to. You don't want other people to know. Just like the speaker thing. You can have the dumb Google website. Exactly, right. So it's a whole thing. You're at the bottom of the pile. Yeah, exactly. I was in the top and I'm climbing back up because of having Google say, hey, Google, here I am.
    19:44
    So I'm still busy anyway. So anyway, needs a new display. Needs nothing else. I said, well, your game probably needs a good going through, a day spa, as I call it. You know, replace the display. But I said, keep an open mind that, you know, I can come down with all my stuff and replace the display with any other stuff. So he was open to that and opened, I gave him kind of a price range we'd probably go for. And he said, okay, we'll see how we go.
    20:09
    But, you know, I had to make him into a believer. So I went down there with, I got this brand new LED display. Because I heard these DMD displays, they use a small one. It's a specialty one from DAT. It's a small one than other manufacturers were using. They use a bigger one. So only a couple games use this small one, and you really can't find them anywhere. You can get the LED version of it, which is low voltage from a place in Europe where Marco sells it. Didn't you tell me these things were like $400 or $500? Yeah, yeah. Because they don't make them anymore.
    20:43
    Yeah, they don't make the plasmas anymore. Well, the plasmas are made, but those are big money. Plasmas are big money, and you're almost better off going with an LED version of it because it's better and it's cheaper. More reliable. More reliable and cheaper or just the same price. So I got him the LED one. I paid up for it. I said, it's going to cost this. And went down there and looked at his game. It's like, oh, your power supply. Look at it. It's all, it's roached. Someone hacked it and there's burnt up crap on it. No wonder you're not getting any high voltage. But that's okay. We don't need the high voltage. I have a nice new LED low voltage one it's going to work great anyway I put it in, I turn it on you know what happens George? It blew up no that would be even worse how about nothing I got a little bit of a flicker I got some life on the new display and then just black and the game blew it up and you could play it but no feature lights the game said Teenage Mutant Ninja where's the last part, where's the turtle part And it says turtle.
    21:46
    And I said, did it ever say turtle? I don't remember. It hasn't played for a while. It's like, okay. All right. But I think it's supposed to say turtle.
    21:54
    Question. Yeah. Are we leading to a multi-board replacement? Where's my bell? Hold on, George. Uh-oh.
    22:04
    Did I jump ahead? Here you go, George. Give the boy a cigar. All right. oh okay i thought i was being inappropriate no you weren't no jumping ahead this is a multi-task bell it's inappropriate also if you win a cigar you get one too ding there we go okay so yeah it needs more work and i said it's well i'm having my my family i haven't seen him a couple years or across the country and they're coming over and i really want it done you know sooner rather later it's like, all right, tell you what, I'm going to go home, regroup, see what other parts I need. I'm making a bunch of notes, but you definitely need more work. So I think as he saw how I was dedicated to it and that I knew what I was talking about, he basically, he was willing to, you know, go with my route and spend a little money on the game. He said, okay, you verified, you know what you're doing. I think he's kind of gun shy because maybe he's been burnt before, who knows, you know. so now now he knew that i was you know straight shooter guy so i uh i i emailed and said okay i found the parts this and this and that and i can get it to you i can overnight this stuff but you're gonna pay a lot of money in shipping it's like just do it do it i don't care it's okay you're into it for some dough okay so i said i can get there sunday if the parts come in fedex another FedEx story. Oh no. Yeah, so FedEx... There was a big article about the... all the different... I can't call them franchisees because they're not franchisees. Contractors? Yes. Oh boy. Yeah, not too good. Oh boy. Yeah, not good. Yeah, there's a little bit of... Trouble in FedEx land. You got it. So go ahead. There's no... I'm not surprised by this story. So I couldn't even get... I had to go to Marco for one part and I had to go to Pinball Life for another part. So I had to pay double overnight shipping. You know what I mean? How much for each one? $40? $60 for each one.
    24:05
    On a Friday? On a Friday to get... Did it show up Saturday or Monday? It's a Friday to... Come on, George. Monday, George. And even though it says Saturday delivery, order Friday before 1, which I did. Order Friday at 10 a.m. I'm guessing you didn't get a rebate. Well, I did. Some people got rebates. I got a rebate. A lot of other people got a rebate to that But Pinball Life Very carefully And they're smart about it A little small print said If you order on a Friday and expect a delivery It could happen but it might not happen So we're not going to promise it We can try but it's not a guarantee So I went back to Pinball Life Why would you go back to Pinball Life? They didn't F up Because I called FedEx on this Oh yeah So they say No, we will refund the person that shipped it, not you. You need to go to your guy who shipped it, and then we will refund the shipper. Okay, so you just did a PSA. Good. So I did a PSA. So I ordered the stuff, and I got FedEx basically giving me the finger and said, yeah, it's happening Monday. We'll get there Monday before noon, you know, both of them. So I said, hey, sorry, Sunday's not going to happen, but Monday can happen. I'll let you know as soon as I get the parts in. I'm raring to go. I'll get in the car and get down there for Monday his family is coming in Sunday night. It's okay. We're still good. Do you have any boards? Not the... I have every other board I need, but these, I don't have this one. Not for Data East. Not for this generation. I'm surprised you usually have everything, but... Not for this. This is like a rarity. I don't really see a lot of these Data East from this time frame. Not a whole bunch. We're not going to belabor the point, but I'm sure they didn't make tons of them. Yeah, exactly. They didn't make tons of them. Right. They're the only game in town We can go through the whole supply chain And you're stuck with Only this manufacturer makes an LED Display board for this game A place overseas In Europe somewhere And only Rotten Dog makes the MPU driver board For this game As far as I can see Now me and Rotten Dog have had a love and pay relationship Over the years A lot of times they knock out of the park Other times, I want to strangle them. So it all depends on what kind of board. Yeah. Rough. That's called rotten dog. Well, that brings me to today. Do you know today? You pay your money, it takes you chances. You know how we're famous in this country for a national day of?
    26:35
    Well, today is National Dog Day. Did you know that? Who comes up with this crap? I want to be the one who publishes it and gets paid for putting it out to the Twittersphere. When is it Proud of Your Dog Day? Is that coming? Is there a Proud of Your Dog Month? I just wanted to know the story. Have you been out and about recently? Sorry, go ahead, George. Have you been out and about recently and seen a St. Bernard or a dachshund or a husky with a mask on? Not yet. But we are in Massachusetts, so that could happen here anytime.
    27:14
    No, that's not the reason. Okay. They're calling it canine COVID. Stop over there. Wait, wait. She's doing it again. Maureen.
    27:30
    Inappropriate bell for Maureen. Your husband and I have done 90 shows up until this one. And we have never used that word in our podcast. Yet, you sit over there and flagrantly throw it about. You know what? Maureen and Mrs. Pin, you know, you guys are potty moms. Exactly. I think Mrs. Pin has her beat, though. Right, but she's a school... If the walls could talk. Anyway.
    27:59
    Oh, so if you see a dog out there with a mask on, there's a thing called canine COVID. Oh, it's a bunch of P.S. The dogs are... We got the call. We went away last weekend, and Cooper was in the daycare. Oh, boy. And the daycare called and said, what day was your dog there? And Sunday. The dog didn't come in until Monday. But that's not my joke. These dogs, do you know how these dogs get it? They don't get it by... Wait, wait. Sniffing each other's butts, George? That's monkeypox. We're in the monkeypox section. I would have said it a little bit differently. But, yeah, they're sniffing each other's... Okay. And that's how they get it. Yes, that's what they're... Okay.
    28:45
    Do dogs get colds? They should call us money pox, George. Tell them about the money. We already talked about that. When you get those green lesions, you get money pox. Money pox, good. Now she must have a crap load of that. I'm just glad people are smarting up after... Well, wait, no, they're not. Okay, George, well... Okay, sorry. I digress. I thought it was pretty interesting. I have a lot of other interesting stories. I can't wait to hear. Yeah? I can't wait to hear, George. I don't watch TV and news for a reason, George. I keep saying that way. Can I give you that really fun highlight reel? Thank you. Appreciate it.
    29:24
    Okay. So you're still talking about this guy in Rhode Island. Yes. When we last talked to a guy in Rhode Island, he had a non-working display on his Teenage Ninja Turtles. And I had a FedEx problem where it's like, freaking FedEx once again. Screws the pooch. So hey, pooch, we brought it back around to the dog. Look at that. Look what I did there. Woof, woof. And a rotten dog. So went down there, got the boards and threw the power supply in there and had to redo all the hacks that someone else did on there. All the wiring hacks and fixed all that. And then turned it on without the new main boards trying to save the guy money like i might not need this board and turn it on and the little display came up a little bit and then nothing dark but at least now i had feature lights and other parts of the game started working better with that so okay so we were making progress okay now i'm going to put in mr customer i'm going to put in this nice new mpu driver board for you and that's going to fix the rest of the game so put that in there and yeah the rest of the game played like before still no display and now when you start the game up, when you turn on it goes Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles! Cool, it says Turtles now. Great. The old boy didn't say Turtles. It's supposed to say Turtles. I'm following. Good, cool.
    30:47
    Play a ball and I'm playing the game and there's no sound at all. No call outs, no music. He said, well it wasn't like that before when I played it. It's like, are you sure? Oh, boy, he's starting to point at you. Now he's losing confidence. Oh, now we're going backwards. Uh-oh. Okay, all right, you know what? Let's first, shits and giggles. Whoops, hold on, inappropriate. Let's put the old board back in. So I had to swap the ships back and the rods back in. We'll put that in.
    31:16
    And now it's saying Teenage Mutant Ninja, no turtles. And then you play a game in the game, all the sounds, everything's working now. So it's not the sound board. It's the new Rotten Dog MPU not giving any sounds. Oh, no. Yeah, the new board not working. Problem. DOA, in a way. Okay? After all that money for that board and all that shipping for that board. Yeah. Ouch.
    31:44
    It's time. Yeah, time. It's time. Yeah. Not including the $60 send it overnight fee that wasn't overnight fee. Hour and a half each way the first time. Hour and a half the second time. The second time of bribing. I'm not done yet. I'm not even done. Not even remotely.
    32:07
    Princess Bride. I'm really glad that we're going to chop these up because, oh, my God. How long have we been recording?
    32:18
    Let's see. Oh, George. How long have we been recording? Because I think I might want. 30 minutes, George. Okay. You need to finish this and then cut it and then we'll start over again. Oh, my God. We'll start another reel. All right, so another highlight reel. You're being a little verbose, but that's okay. People like verbose. They like stories. Theater of the mind.
    32:33
    You're walking this path with me, or plank, depending on how you want to look at it. You just keep teeing it up. Wait until we get to the George review section. Ah, the review section. I can't wait to hear that part. I can't wait for that one. That's going to be good. Oh, yeah.
    32:48
    So put the old board back in and received a couple more things, and all of a sudden, and then I went underneath the game and started replacing some lights that were all blown. All these flasher lights were blown for a while. Did all that. And now I got... What did we do? Oh, then I said, you know what? Let's take... Since the Rotten Dog was bad DOA, perhaps the LED from Europe, maybe that has a problem. So, you know what? Let's put the original quote-unquote known bad plasma display that I was going to throw out, let's just throw it in for shits and giggles george let's see what happens again thank you for shoots and giggles shoots and ladders no don't even say that stop okay start again so let's just put that in for uh for yuck yucks oh boy that's bad too that's really bad yeah it's really bad i don't know insert your favorite term here um put it back in power it on and the display works the display now works so basically original mpu board are you going to do this through a close because so far i've heard bad board bad board lots of time one good board customer looking at you like oh my and if you're one who's never repaired a pinball machine before that is a standard response but as you and i well known this happens more often than not oh yeah because i i I've got to rely upon my suppliers. I'm supposed to assume when I get a new board, it should be QC'd and good. That should be, because why would I replace old 34-year-old stuff? You were under the gun because you had the stuff shipped in overnight. You needed it right away. In the future, my guess is you're probably going to start testing some of this stuff if you're able before you go out. Exactly. Because that's a hair puller. Yeah, it is. Because you just keep introducing other variables, and it's like, okay, now I'm really down the rat hole. Let's go back to the beginning. Right. Now I've got to say, okay, what is good, what is bad? Am I going to start going after the soundboard now? It's like, no, no, we're not going to go. We just introduced a problem. Let's put back old stuff in. Okay, problem went away. Okay, good. So now we know rotten dog, rotten. we know display from flunky Europe somewhere LED rotten but we do know the power supply that I got is good, that's the only really good thing not picking it apart, that actually was the one thing that actually brought the game back up from the dead and on top of that at some point when I put the old board back in it said Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles it did the whole thing And so then we did a whole day spawner. We spent another five hours on it. Maureen and I replaced it with silicone rubber and did all the, some LED stuff and lights. And rebuilt the flippers. And after we were done with it, it was, the guy was like, wow, this has never looked this good and played this good before. It's like, yeah, I told you. Well, I didn't expect that for 20 years. Yeah, but he didn't, he had no frame of reference. He doesn't know. But now, so I have to make people believers. Once I say, here, just look, just watch, play. You know, when I'm done, you'll see. Trust me. so it's very nostalgic because this guy he bought it for his son when he was young years ago and his son passed a couple years ago died tragically so that's why this machine meant so much to him and as part of this family heirloom kind of thing i found out later after the fact you know so it meant a lot to him to get it to play this nice so anyway so long story short after all that work customer game and grandkids very happy now I'm glad that story's over just one more thing please oh wait one more thing back to the FedEx thing back to now what am I going to do with these stupid parts that don't work George these parts are like this is like about a thousand dollars worth of boards yeah a thousand dollars worth of boards and shipping everything else? Yeah. I told him, I'm not charging you for any of this stuff. I'm not charging him that. Why should he pay that? So it's on me now. But I did kind of charge him for the shipping part because I had to order it. So you wanted me to do it so I ordered it. So I kind of threw that in there. So you're paying a little of that part. That's part on you.
    37:13
    But I'm going to try to get or at least some of that. So I want to recoup a little bit of that but I'm not going to try to recoup that. You've got to send the bad board back.
    37:20
    It just adds complexity to one's life that is already hectic. Exactly. Especially you. Yeah, especially me. So now, ring, ring. Hello, Marco. Yeah, next day. Yeah, DOA. Oh, I'm sorry to hear about that. Oh, we'll ship you another one out. Just throw it back. It's like, no, I just want a refund. I don't need it anymore. I put the old one in. Okay, fine. And also, it came a day late. You promised Saturday. Oh, no problem. We'll refund the shipping charge too. Oh, good. We'll just charge you standard shipping.
    37:49
    Well there something I don be drunk so instead of 60 bucks 10 bucks No I Great Sure We complained about it You complained about shipping costs there through the roof We understand why we're not going to go into that. Right. But I'll, I'll pay if I get what I paid for. You're ahead of the game. So now, now. Okay, good. Marco did good. Good on Marco. Call him all life now. Same thing. Yeah. Okay. We'll say no. No, I just want to return the board. It's a DOA. Here's what's wrong with it. You know, I can tell. Well, let me give you our tech guy. Your tech guy. Here's what's going on. Oh, did you talk to Kyle? That must be him. What, you talked to a tech guy at Pinball Life? Oh, no. He does a thing with Emoto on Thursdays, and I watch him. He's a big ballet guy. Why? I had no idea. Oh, yeah. If it was Kyle. I don't know if they have other people, but he's... I met him in Houston. I don't know if I've seen him anywhere else, but nice guy. How do you know he works at Pinball Life? He says that? No, no, no. Did you say Marco or Pinball Life? Pinball Life. Oh, oh, oh, I was talking Marco. Marco's done. We finished Marco. I'm sorry. Him all life. No, Marco. Sorry. Polo. Oh. Sorry. Jump in the pool. Again, not listening. Oh, my.
    39:03
    This is the decoder ring episode where you're finding out all the inconsistencies and back room antics. Oh, boy.
    39:17
    Uh, yeah. Pinball life shipping. Did you stop the recording? No, it's still going. Oh, we're almost done. We're almost there. Pinball life. Uh, yeah. I want to return it. Okay. No problem. And also the shipping thing. Yeah. Well, if you read the small print there, uh, we don't really, you're, you're, you're, you're paying. It's on you. So like, Oh, fair enough. Fair enough. Okay. I'll just, I'll eat that. Great. Thanks. But at least, so the both can read. So I'm getting a good portion lion share the money back. So I'm made whole. The guy paid for his thing. I'm getting money back. You don't have five more stories that are this long, do you? No. Okay, good. Actually, and one last thing. Not one more thing. For this game. After I finished this, flippers are strong. Everything's good to go. It's like, this game is playing so slow. I looked at the back legs. There's no leg levers on the back. The game is almost flat. And I said, there's leg levers in the coin box. You had those, wouldn't you? I had them with me. And Maureen found them in the coin box, the ones he had. It's like, these should be in the game. Oh, I just thought maybe we'd make it too hard. It's like, no, no, no. You want these on the game. The designer designed a 5% to 7% pitch on this game to make it fun. Otherwise, it's just like wandering around. Kids are going to walk away from it. They're not going to play this. There's no action. So he said, oh, I'll take care of that later. I said, okay.
    40:33
    Oh, you didn't do it for him? No, he said he's going to do it. No, we were already there for like seven hours. You know he's not going to do it. He had to go. He was very polite I can just tell you It's kind of like You know Antsy because Because the family was there They already left for dinner They left without him He had to go meet them Oh They left And we were down there working So he wanted us to finish up No I'll do it Let me just pay you Because I got to go to dinner So he's like a half hour behind Wow So no problem So he paid us And he's going to do the legs himself Great And his family's there They're young kids They can lift it up for him You know So they don't need me They can do that Anyways I told him about it so that was that one go through go through a game you can even use a ball if you want to but you got to describe there's a lot of stuff on this game what's the i mean ultimately you're trying to spell what blast off is that the you try to spell blast off in order to uh make multi-ball happen you throw two balls up the spinner it says lock one lock two then you get but then it won't take a third one until you spell blast off right you spell blast even the last time right away so So, that's me. So, go around the play field starting with B. B is the left. It's the left in lane to the flipper. And F is the.
    41:54
    No, just go B. Where's the L? B and L is up top. Okay, where's the A? A is next to that up top. And S next to that. And T next to that. Okay, where's the OFF? It's down here. So, F on the left kicker. F on the right kicker in lane. And where's the O? And the O is on the right. And the O is tough to get. That's the one. That's the one you were talking about earlier. Yep, the stubborn O. That's what keeps you from having a whole party. Okay, so I was blind when I was upstairs. I thought the spinner on the right fed to the upper lanes, and that's incorrect. So you need to go left flipper to the extreme right lane in order to get back up there. Or you've got to put the two balls and then get a third ball in the, what do you call it again? Ball walker. The ball walker to get the ball up and in there. Is that right? Right.
    42:45
    Now, the lane that's between the two and the three and the four and the five drop targets. So there's a single bank, a dual bank, a space, and then another dual bank. What's that space do? That's, if you get that white stand up way in there, tucked way in there, that gives you blast when lit yellow. and then with the special software that's when the lights for special that's an extra ball it's the only way to get extra ball in this game so it's got nothing to do with the ball walker no nope that part is nope okay nope not at all and what are the right targets on the drop targets on the right do so if you get those down with one shot like a real quick sweeping shot like a bally or well like a stir really all targets down 50 increases spinner and bonus multiplier values. I'm guessing that's when lit?
    43:40
    No, that's all the time. And then when it's lit, you're also going to get 50,000 points on top of that. Okay. Oh, that's up top. To score 50,000, drop the three targets with one shot. Sweep them.
    43:51
    Oh, okay. Now I'm getting it. Sorry, I'm a little slow on the uptake. And then if you don't do a sweep shot a couple... That's a pretty cool... Is that on any other game? No, I know of. Uh-oh. That's really cool. And if you sweep it all the way up, it hits the bumper and up and in. Okay.
    44:11
    And there's a target. What's that little target up on the left there? That spots B. And the other one over there spots B. See?
    44:21
    Oh, so there's multiple ways to get the B? B. There should be a spot O for this one there, but they don't do that. They just spot B hard.
    44:30
    Oh, okay. Okay, we're going to play. You're going to show me how to start this. You know what you should do? I just thought, you know what? I should rewire that O to be spot by that target up there. There's no writing in front of it. It says B. Oh, it does there. So I just take the wire and go there. Oh, on the plastic. I'm looking on the play field. Okay. I can easily change that. I don't know. That might make the game easier. This is a great looking game. I mean. You'll see once the stubborn O comes up. You'll see. You've owned this for a long time, haven't you? Yeah. It's one of the first ones I've ever got. All systems go. Commands count down. No, that never happens in the regular game. This is the special software. So they didn't even have an attract mode with that? No, no. That's the attract mode he put in. It had this attract mode, lights, but not that. It's a really cool game.
    45:17
    Then when you finish your game, it says, coin detected in pocket. Is this the exact same width as a Bally game? No, Bally's a bigger.
    45:26
    Of course it is. Crazy. Okay, show us how it's done. Player 1, prepare for admission. That's great. Player 2, stand by. So, here's a skill shot. The flashing S at the top, that's new. So if you get that, I believe it spots two letters. And I think something else. Let's see if I can get it. If I can get the S. So normally it wouldn't be flashing? No. On the skill shot. Were there a lot of... Okay, so Dave... Oh, ouchie-goes.
    46:21
    How many changes were made to the software? I have a whole list. A litany. Oh yeah, a whole bunch. whole bunch so basically the game's been reimagined no no not that far no basically if it's a if the original programmers had another year to work on the programming original stuff that's what they is what it would be okay so i'm gonna go for the skill shot i'm going for the s as well nice and i got it in skill shot there you go so they gave you two letters oh so you can backhand that up there oh man holy pro this is fast no surprise so what happened i just hit the target and it went down what did i what am i doing those don't give you much at this point i don't even know what i'm doing so you want to i'm going to go up the spinner shots good but why is the one why is the why is the one flashing uh that's because there's one more to go before it's going back to five four three two one so it's ready if you have all the balls locked right now you hit that go the spinner you're having a party but so right now it nothing but you can leave it that way that's great I'm gonna leave it that way I'm gonna go for the right target up top through the spinner all right and that didn't work out oh the oh the hard to get oh yeah that's great so I need a lot of letters you want to you want to basically walk that right spinners No. Sorry, left spinner.
    47:54
    Not quite with the shot yet. See all the side-to-side action? Yeah. That's why it's dangerous. Side-to-side all the time. Okay, so I hit some targets. Okay, so I got it all the way up. How many spinners did you spun? 48 spins. Is that normal? No, that's the new software.
    48:14
    Okay, you got... So I have one ball locked. Right. I have the B, the S, the O, and the F. Yeah, all you need is that L-A-T up there.
    48:28
    And this is my ball. That's your ball because you locked the ball, so it's giving you another ball. You're locked. Okay. So now I want to get L-A or T up top. Yep.
    48:39
    So I got the L. Bear with me, there's a lot going on here. I don't like that. Oh, no. Oh, he goes between. Okay, not bad. Not great, but not bad. Come on, yes I can see how people I would never grow Forder this game This is fun Back and forth though, those slingshots And those Yeah, that's That's deadly It's a lot to take in on this game There certainly is It moves, it all moves I mean, descriptive wise You know, trying to explain this on a podcast It's an experience Yeah, there's a lot going on here So he just hit that thing between the two drop targets That lane What did that get me?
    49:47
    So he's up to three times That got me a multiplier You've knocked targets down multiple times to get there, right? Is that it? The right targets? Is that what gives you the multiplier? Yes, that gives you the multiplier Okay, so now you want to lock a ball Yes, that'd be nice And you're playing rubber There's a lot of rubber when those targets are enough. Oh, you got the O. Okay, and you locked the ball in. That's a nice shot.
    50:15
    The O shot into the right flipper with a nice, like, just... Lay it up there. Lay it up. Oh, nice bounce into... the S.
    50:29
    So what do you want to do next? I want to get the A. The spinners lit for 1,000 on the right. Right. That A is... That's what I want. I'm going to go for the drop targets on the right. Nope. I got published. Ugh.
    50:45
    Always hitting that down post. So, unlike Valley games, I'm just noticing this between the flippers. You have one-time, two-time, three-time, four-time, and five-time bonus. That's not on a lot of games. And more. They add. Then you get six-time, seven-time. All the way to ten-times. oh because just like the tripod on the right with the spinner up to five thousand what what's like a superstar score on this couple million uh yeah a couple million two mil there you go almost lost it and i did It also goes up to Instead of just the original game was only 10,000 bonus This one goes up to 19,000 bonus Say that one more time Instead of just going to 10,000 was the max bonus you can get The new software is 19,000 times Oh the bonus on this game is only 10,000? 10,000 Normally that's 19,000 That's not low I know but for this game 10 was lousy So it almost doubled it There we go, that's a good thing. Sounds like all the changes are very positive. Well, very positive. Oh yeah, he did a lot of work on it, a lot of time went into it, a lot of thought. Do you think there are a lot of people who have implemented this? Oh yeah, I see this game. Or is he pretty selective in who he... No, it's alright, you can just get it, it's out there for free. here's a whole repository but when you first developing it's kind of put up right away spin shot left spinner come on get up there ok so we knocked the two target down and he got it up into the ball walker second stage go all systems go that's a good sound all systems go Oh, I was going to do a countdown. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.
    53:03
    Pump-up reaction. You just scored a lot of points. 5, 4, 3. Oh, so you got the 5 and the 4. Oh, we didn't talk about that. The blast-off. Yes. So he now needs to hit the targets in succession. 3, 2, 1. He's blinking.
    53:22
    And he just got 3. Oh, oh, oh, that's ball three. See what I mean? It's Manny. It says one more corner.
    53:33
    This ain't no gimme. I could see why people want to collect this game. I would like this game. I would not want to pay for this game, but I would like this game.
    53:48
    I don't like everything, but that's all relative. Okay. So I'm going to try to hit that target up on the right. And I still can't hit that shot.
    54:01
    Nice shot. Oh, I have three balls. What did I do right? You locked the ball. Cool. Oh, now you're doing the countdown. Here's the pressure. Ball three doing the countdown and spinner. What did I do? Go for the five now. Oh, there you go.
    54:17
    Go for the drop target at this point. Do I have five? No, no. You gotta get the five. Oh, the five target. You want the five target. The five target, yes. The drop target. Okay, okay, okay. I thought you were going for five times and doing the other thing. Like I said, folks, there's a lot of stuff. I'm going to hit the five target. No, I'm not.
    54:44
    You can hit them both together, too. It doesn't matter. Five and four doesn't count together. It counts.
    54:51
    Five. Nice. Okay, five. four Can I do it? Can you do it? No. Oh, that's good. Three. Sorry, I was just trying to get rid of the ball. All right.
    55:09
    Oh, fuck. Two. Double the one, folks. Oh. This is trash. Stop it. You're making sounds. No, no!
    55:26
    What? Oh, classic ball three. You didn't get the one. I did exactly what you said. I hate this game. See what I mean? More often than not, mission over. That's all new, too.
    55:39
    So how did he do that? Were they already recorded? Did he just unlock them? He knows the code for all his turn games, so he'll take speech out of this one and add it to this one. So who said mission?
    55:53
    Um, this game says mission, but he cut a piece out and put it somewhere else. He copied it. I understand. Yeah. Then he can take, and he also took other stuff. So he took existing text code and put it into the game. So he chopped it up. He edited it. Edited it. He's editing stuff. This is a really cool game. I, that's why I feel like we're forgetting, we're forgetting to do stuff on the game. There's so much going on. Well... I have no idea how I got three balls.
    56:26
    Because... Oh, you know what? You spelt... No, you just threw another ball out there. You just threw a ball up, that's all. You just gotta throw a ball up there. But I wasn't even cognizant that I had spelled blast off. Yeah, you did that before. You already had that done because you got a skill shot. Okay. I'm not paying attention. There's just... There's a lot of blinking lights in this game. But, man, fun.
    56:49
    Yeah I think I turned John John David was a poo this game Oh I don see how you can be There a lot You got to be You have to be a really good target shooter He's a believer now. I think he... He likes space theme anyway. But... I love target games. And I love that 5-4-3-2-1. It's a good... So if you botch it... It's a shooting gallery. So if you botch it, you don't get the three ball?
    57:10
    If you hit him out of sequence. No, it doesn't... If you hit him out of sequence, it just... It resets and gives you... Another opportunity. Another opportunity to do it. So you have to do it. Yeah, you've got to do it in the right way. Because I think it won't start counting down. It wants that five. You're going to go with the two and three all you want. Right, but I'm saying, say you hit the number one target, all five are up. Yeah. It'll reset the one target because it's saying, hey, you've got to hit the five target. It'll keep the one target down, but the five's still blinking. It's like, no, you didn't get me. It'll get the two and three target down. No, you still didn't get me. Until you hit that five, then everything else resets, and now four, three, two, one are lit. The five's down. Right. so it makes it more complex I get it makes a lot more shots you gotta be accurate knock them down together bang bang really only three shots center center center and you get them all in three shots that's what I kind of want you to do how skillful are you all the slings and the active this changes again this back and forth thing here slings? yeah there's kickers or slingshots from left and right doubles on them. I get some action going up top. Let's play one more.
    58:19
    Good call. First or second? Go ahead. I have no idea. I won that game, but I have no idea how. Another cool thing he put in this game is when what you had going on, you had 5-3-2-1 and it said go for mission or something, but once you're ready to go and it's ready for your ball to go up the spinner, you go up there, the spinner starts saying go, go, go. I never said it before. And you're hoping, go, go, go. Sometimes it's also, you could only go halfway up, go, go, go, and then come back down again. Because you're hoping, go, go, go, he goes in there, and ball walker, and multi-ball, and player two, stand by. Come on, S. S, nope. I'm just noticing the woman with the pod on the back.
    59:10
    And the other guy, oh, they're all in like rock. This is a weird backlash. It's Flight 2000. They're taking a Flight 2000. No, it's like Planet of the Apes where they're in those chambers, but everybody's got their own rocket.
    59:25
    Okay. Pay attention. The S is blinking. And I missed it. Ooh, that was a good save. I'm taking them all down. Right. I need to adjust that so it sweeps properly.
    59:42
    Okay. come on come on come on I want that last letter no Oh Lazarus will take it we'll take it oh come on come on come on I want that last lane I want the L
    60:12
    Bumpers work great. The whole game is fun. It's nice and punchy. Yep, it is. Ah, that was horrible. Let's try that flipper there. You got some work to do. I do. 10,000 points. Look at that bonus countdown. Very nice. Alright, the A. A is going to be right about...
    60:34
    Let's try... Let's try that one. That should be A. Is it? No? That's an S. I wanted to jam it in there.
    60:54
    Nice save. Thanks. Nope, that's not it. Oh, oh, oh. Wax? Oh, struggling. Rubber game. Hit the mic. Okay, A is flashing.
    61:15
    I get 30,000 points. George has 243. All two right now. Look at that shot. He made a good shot. Right, but it's not spelled blast off, so I'm going to get one back. 46 spin speed.
    61:35
    Maybe. Nope, I need that L. And that's Adrenorama. Ten times my score right now. The L is lit. I have a feeling I'm not safe. Yes. Oh, come on, I want that spinach up. Nope. Yeah, thanks. Thanks, game. Ugh, I just, I made a hundred thousand. Yay. Okay, here we go, folks. I need the L and the dreaded, the dreaded O. Oh, I need an A too? Okay, that didn't work out. Well, like that. Oh, let's take that. How many spins? 39 spins. Oh, yes, the L. Okay, I need that L. And it still didn't get it. No. Boy, I do not like this thing bouncing around down here. I did it to myself. Okay Dave, I'll give you one more time. Twice. Mission over. I need 680 for a free game. Oh, I also put a knocker in this game. It never comes with a knocker. They always, they annoy us. They didn't have enough solenoids to uh so he reprogrammed one so now he created software to do i had to hook it up and he created software to do it okay target scored five and three and two down Oh, boy, that was such a tough shot, those spinning shots.
    63:45
    A lot of rubber. If you miss a shot, it's coming back at you. You get punished. That's no pun intended. It takes off like a rocket. Oh, that was a good one, too.
    63:57
    I'm all around it. Almost for the O. That O is elusive. Oh, it's high. Oh, no, you get caught in that.
    64:08
    Oh, finally. There you go. I had to send it out of there. So, 47. I like that. I got as high as 62 before. I like that. Yeah, neat, right? Yeah.
    64:28
    Nope. Ooh, oh, nice save. Oh, oh. Okay, Dave is working on the back banks again. Oh, he got the elusive. Oh.
    64:40
    And then lost it. Yeah, that center post helped me once. What's up with that flipper place? You can get the upgraded metal aluminum flippers. They're not coming here.
    64:52
    You know, I don't know if they work for these games. I don't know enough about it. That's why it would be a fun experiment, but...
    65:03
    Oh, God, come on. You hear the rubber, folks? I keep hitting the... No, no. Okay. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. There we go.
    65:18
    That's a bunch of... That's like 60, 64 spins on that, George. Nice going. Was that true? Yeah. There we go. Oh.
    65:27
    That's a backhand. I like that. Try that trick. Oh, maybe the O. Oh, it's supposed to be O. O's backhand. Okay. You needed that target last game.
    65:40
    No, no, no, no, no, no. God, I keep missing that spinner. There we go. Oh, get the... Oh, so close.
    65:56
    Multiplier, that's good. Oh, I ripped... Oh, got him! Yee-haw! Yeah, I'm trying to hit it. I'm either early or late. Yeah, I know. I do not like those.
    66:43
    Okay. Tried to be fancy. That was stupid. That wasn't, though. five times now. Yeah, that's 2,500 points a spin now.
    67:02
    Oh, Lazarus again. Take it. Oh. How many spins? Oh, and I got the oh. I'm rocking the Fillmore here. Oh, and the ball walker. Yeah. 44 spins, first stage go. He's one letter. I need the A. Oh!
    67:32
    Oh! Right down the whole play field between the flippers and the posts. But $500,000 on a... Oh, keep going here. That's a nice ball one, George.
    67:46
    Wow. See, that would never go that long. You had so many multipliers. You got up to high pitch. That's another cool thing this thing does. But you get 580. You need 680 for a replay, and you're only on ball one. So you get to hear this game knock. Because these games never, never knock in the factory. Okay.
    68:06
    I'll try. Do I have carryover bonus? Or do I have to earn? You get to earn, I think. Oh. Here we go.
    68:15
    Skillshot. Thank you. What's the skillshot? Uh, I can't. I think so. What'd she get? Oh, fuck. Oh, this is... Ugh.
    68:27
    You get two letters for it, instead of one letter. Nope, that's not it. Ugh. We're not saying anything. Yes.
    68:53
    We're not saying anything. The crowd is... there's a hush upon the crowd. I'm like mesmerized, sorry. There we go, up into the ball walker. Oh, alright. Oh yeah, where's the... thank you. Ball, there we go. Need the L or the A, here we go, come on. Show me L. Or A, that's good. A's good, we'll take it. Maybe this will be the L this time. Did you have last off spelt? No, I need the L. Then I got it spelt.
    69:30
    There we go. Like that. Okay, now it's points time. Ooh, nice save. Nice, nice save. Thank you. Ooh.
    69:41
    Oh, I see. So... Okay, three. One. So if you knock the two down, the bolts are going to come up again. Correct.
    69:52
    Ooh! Ugh! Alright, well... I'm down to two. So I need the A. Yeah, if you get the T, you get the A. Makes a lot of sense. ...kinda go together. I meant Trans Am. Like Peanut Butter and Jelly, I get it. stay away from that side oh stay away from there too oh okay oh three thousand points I got six times that's a hell yeah you got six times held yeah that holds for you oh good okay that's a little bang man that stuff comes fast I need the egg right oh there's the knocker I
    71:27
    Want to keep getting that bonus prepare gb women or epic Oh, there we go. So what, I have seven times now?
    72:07
    Oh, that's the right flame. And another game. Wow, two games, George. Not bad. Over a million. Over a mil. Pretty darn good.
    72:20
    Nice bonus. Wow, putting on a show. I need... What do we need? That's awesome. I think I get the L here.
    72:33
    That's right, it's the... the one. Nope, nice. I want the one right there. Nope. Mmm, yeah, one, good.
    72:50
    Yes! Got it! Go, go, go! Go go go. Go go gophers. Go gophers. Now when I throw a couple balls in there, I get 2x and 3x playfield values. Right, but if I throw balls up there right now, it's worth even more money. I get 2 and 3x playfield values like Fathom. It acts like Fathom now. Back up. I get back up in the ball walker. I can throw it back up there again. Keep them going. You haven't lost them yet. Keep them going. Five times bonus, here's where Dave makes up the stage. First threshold pass. Alright Dave, keep it going. That's three balls going, pretty good. Okay, lost one. Two going still. Lost one. One going, but a lot of red lights. Oh, come on! Oh, if he tied that thing. It's gonna be close. Almost a million. 936. That's a ball game right there. Okay, let's see. So I need the A and the S.
    74:03
    No. No, you just need the A. The S will get to the A. That's the skill shot. So I have a two for one on this, and then I got it in the wrong one again.
    74:15
    I need that letter. Oh. Okay. I'll take it then. Nice. 1281 by George. 936 by Dave. He did some... Nice job. Well done. Awesome.
    74:54
    I think that's like the first time I've ever won. All three games, no less. Yeah, all three games. Look at that. On your game. On a stern. There we go. Amazing. Anyway, that concludes another episode of the Classic Pinball Podcast.
    75:10
    My name is George. I'm here with Captain Pinball, Dr. Dave. Until next time, Dave? I had fun, we had fun, and we all learned something today.
    75:23
    Make it a great one. Who do you call when you want your pinball machine restored? Dr. Dave! Who? Dave! D-A-V-E! Yeah, Dave! Right. But George, you don't know what you're saying. You're under their control