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Astounding Cacophony

NYC PinPod·podcast_episode·1h 13m·analyzed·Mar 23, 2026
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 (batch) · $0.014

TL;DR

NYC PinPod reports March 2026 league results, venue machine updates, and local tournament highlights.

Summary

NYC PinPod episode covering local competitive pinball results across multiple NYC leagues (Pinball NYC Left/Right Flipper divisions, Scrapple League, South Slope Pinball League, Thursday Night Strikes), venue updates via Pinballmap.com documenting 361 machines at 74 public locations with various maintenance issues, and personal recounts from panelists about tournament play and social pinball experiences in Brooklyn and Manhattan.

Key Claims

  • As of March 20th, 2026, there are 361 pinball machines in New York City at 74 public locations

    high confidence · Benjamin Furiga, citing Pinball Map data

  • Kate Martin (South Slope Pinball League director) is out of town attending the Texas Pinball Festival

    high confidence · Eric Sweetland, describing SSPL tournament direction

  • Pokemon at Jack Bar had a factory manufacturing defect: improperly soldered wire from the factory caused left orbit and associated switch failures

    high confidence · User 'JackBarJohn' on Pinball Map, confirmed repair

  • Winchester Mystery House at Scrapple Land has recurring issues with Seance multiball ball lock acting unpredictably, sometimes not registering locks

    high confidence · User 'Flipper Fiend' on Pinball Map, multiple reports across different dates

  • Godzilla machines at multiple NYC locations have volume set too low for comfortable play

    high confidence · Multiple users (Phil T, Flipper Fiend) on Pinball Map at different locations

  • Godzilla Premium at the Gutter LES is effectively unplayable due to level calibration and overly sensitive tilt sensor

    high confidence · User 'Mad Hatter' on Pinball Map

  • Balls of Steel defeated the Mutants on their home turf at Solid State in Queens, reported as possibly the first time this has happened

    high confidence · Zen Zachbiak, recounting Monday league match

  • Parliament and Balls of Steel are the last two undefeated teams in Pinball NYC Left Flipper division going into week 6

    high confidence · Benjamin Furiga, upcoming matchup preview

Notable Quotes

  • “On Monday night, the Balls of Steel went to the Mutants in Queens with four players... I think this is the first time that the Balls of Steel have ever beaten the Mutants on their home turf.”

    Zen Zachbiak @ ~17:00 — Documents significant competitive milestone for Balls of Steel team

  • “Shout out to Scott and August. I mean, they literally carried the team. They're new to pinball and they're so much better than they were last year or the year before. It's pretty crazy.”

    Zen Zachbiak @ ~17:30 — Recognition of new player improvement trajectory

  • “This machine is effectively unplayable. The level is set beyond normal range and the tilt sensor is set so sensitively that I'm getting double warnings by simply alternating flippers to try to save a ball. Total trash.”

    User 'Mad Hatter' @ ~52:00 (machine updates section) — Scathing product quality complaint about Godzilla Premium at specific venue

  • “I play less with my ears than they do. I do a lot of things with my ears. It's a family podcast, Benjamin.”

    Eric Sweetland @ ~58:00 — Humorous moment regarding audio-based gameplay feedback

  • “There was nothing on the lower play on the regular play field of the game. None of the inserts were lighting on Monday night when I was playing. The floodlights were on. You could see the ball easily, but there was no indication of where you should shoot it.”

    Eric Sweetland @ ~68:00 — Documents Simpsons Pinball Party playfield lighting malfunction at Rulos

  • “Yeah, I think the final score in our fourth round game on Metallica, I had 36.9 million and you had 36.5 million.”

    Eric Sweetland @ ~80:00 — Close competitive match result (400k point margin) affecting tournament standings

Entities

Benjamin FurigapersonEric SweetlandpersonZen ZachbiakpersonPinball NYCorganizationScrapple LeagueorganizationSouth Slope Pinball League (SSPL)organizationTexas Pinball FestivaleventPokemongameWinchester Mystery Housegame

Signals

  • ?

    product_concern: Pokemon machines across multiple NYC locations exhibit factory manufacturing defects, including improperly soldered wires causing left orbit switch failures and plunger loading issues

    high · Multiple Pinball Map reports at Jack Bar, At the Wallace, and Scrapple Land documenting left orbit switch failures traced to factory defect; plunger loading issue at Boat Bar

  • ?

    product_concern: Winchester Mystery House machines experiencing recurring Seance multiball ball lock mechanical failures that prevent proper gameplay registration

    high · User 'Flipper Fiend' multiple detailed reports documenting lock not registering balls, sometimes two balls, requiring tilt to continue; characterized as unpredictable behavior

  • ?

    product_concern: Godzilla machines at multiple venues have volume calibration issues making machines difficult to play in ambient venue noise; also physical leveling and flipper strength problems reported

    high · Multiple reports: Scrapple Land volume too low, Gutter LES described as 'effectively unplayable' due to improper level and overly sensitive tilt sensor, Bar Great Harry weak flippers

  • ?

    product_concern: Simpsons Pinball Party at Rulos has lower playfield insert lighting completely non-functional, making the game unplayable without audio cues

    high · Eric Sweetland direct observation: 'none of the inserts were lighting on Monday night... no indication of where you should shoot it'

  • ?

    venue_signal: At the Wallace pinball venue recently added space to accommodate a sixth pinball machine in their lineup

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.220

0:00
Theme Music Happy Sunday, pinfolk, or whatever day you're listening. This is NYC Pin Pot, in which a panel talks location pinball in New York City and sometimes nearby surrounding areas. My name is Benjamin Furiga. My initials are BCF and I'd like to extend my condolences to fans of Chuck Norris jokes. My name is Eric Sweetland. My initials are HIP and I'm a pinball tournament director in New York City. And my name is Zen Zachbiak. My initials are ZEN and I am the unofficial ambassador to Rando's to play pinball in most of South Brooklyn. Damn right. On this week's pod, we'll run down local competition results in ball one as we always do. In ball two, we will do those things we always do. Venue updates courtesy of pinballmap.com and thanks to Eric and then our bullet journals. And in ball three, we will talk about the results of round one of the NYC double P double A tournament. Let's get started. Let's talk about competitive pinball in New York City and nearby surrounding areas.
2:04
Linda came in second and Jacob Reynolds and Jackie Bailey tied for third. Spooky to do the Friday the 13th tournament on a day that usually we don't have the Friday tournaments all that often, but when it's Friday the 13th and to do it, I think that's the second Friday the 13th in a row, which I mean, I know it's the second month in a row we've had a Friday the 13th because the last one was February and it's 28 days long. But I think it's the second Friday the 13th in a row that we've had a pinball tournament in New York City. There was a women's division tournament at the Sanctum called the Pies of March.
2:42
I hope they had a pie eating contest in addition to the target match play and ladder finals. And congrats to Zianna, Zianna Murray, who won a tournament that I really think was Fucking cool as hell, I imagine. Sianna Murray came down to play in Brooklyn Pin Pride last June. Cool. Pretty cool. I follow her on Blue Sky. Cool. On Monday, March 16th, in bars all around the city, Pinball NYC's Left Flipper Division contested their fifth round. The two-for-oners went to Scrapple Land to face the Pinbots, and the away The New York City Flipersport Association at At The Wallace and NYC FSA got an 8-8 tiebreak home win. Look, the aristocrats were undefeated before that, and it was only that tiebreaker that keeps them away from that. Tell me about the rest of it. That's what I knew before you told me that it was an 8A. Tell me the rest. We had just gotten a new pin in the lineup at At The Wallace, and it had just been set up that afternoon. In fact, they were able to shove one more in. They found just enough space, so we have six up there now. And the aristocrats were very keen to call that new pinball machine Pokemon. They called it in the first doubles round, they called it twice in their singles rounds. As many times as they could have chosen to play Pokemon, they chose to play Pokemon. But after all the regulation play, we were all tied up. We chose to play on NBA Fastbreak. The aristocrats chose to play split flipper. Gabe had been killing all night on NBA. How he do. And he and Adam combined to bring that home for us. That's a good height combination for a split flipper team, I think. Skylark saw Intermission Dolores come to battle the Pin Pals. Intermission Dolores picked up a 9-7 road win. The Pin Pals take their first loss at home, but their fourth overall. The good news is that they've got three at home in the second half. The lesser players were at Gebhardt's Beer Culture to welcome former home team Lion Persons to town. Lion Persons got a 13-3 road win. And that is their first win this season. It's a big one. And that former home thing probably plays into that a minute. Worms had a bye week. The deluxe horses and Parliament battled at Owl Farm and the home team got a 10-6 win. Parliament stays hot and remains undefeated. Balls of Steel traveled to Solid State in Deep Queens to see the Mutants and Balls of Steel picked up a 10-6 road win. Either of these teams would have stayed hot and remained undefeated, but the one who won Balls of Steel did it. Mutants first loss. And a word from Zen. On Monday night, the Balls of Steel went to the Mutants in Queens with four players. So we had Jason, we had August, and we had Scott and myself. And we tied first round, tied second round, And then we had to play Harlem and Monta Hari, the Mutants chose, and with Jason and Zen on Harlem, and August and Scott on Monta Hari, we won both. I think this is the first time that the Balls of Steel have ever beaten the Mutants on their home turf. Right, pioneers to solid state. We've seen them elsewhere, but not there. Shout out to Scott and August. I mean, they literally carried the team. They're new to pinball and they're so much better than they were last year or the year before. It's pretty crazy. Special When Lit hosted Your Colliders, Benjamin, at Rulos, and the Colliders picked up a 9-7 road win. We won all eight doubles points. The two games in which I personally was involved were both decided in the 10,000 point digit on Pulp Fiction and Banzai Run. Other people got their calculators out for it. I looked at the significant digits and told everybody who had won. I was like, yeah, get out your calculators, but we won. And we had Chad won our only singles match on Star Trek The Next Generation. And I did not see the score, but I remember him coming to me after the game and being like, dude, I don't know what just happened, but I just like I was killing that game. I just I was seeing the ball just right. So we we had one singles game go just right. It was Chad. And that was the difference because we won the doubles. We got the 8, but it would have been a tiebreaker otherwise, and my goodness, I don't think I wanted to play a tiebreaker against that team at home. Shoutout to Kaitlyn R., who admirably captained the cutest ship around with captains Ben G and Jess W. out for the week on Tuesday, March 17th. Also, all over the city. Pinball teams in Pinball NYC's right flipper division met up, And they decided round four. The Trolls went to solid state and visited No Quarters for Laundry, where No Quarters, I'm sure they were friendly hosts, but it looks like they were not all that hospitable, at least as far as the score was concerned. No Quarters won 14 to 2. That's No Quarters' third straight win and Trolls' third straight loss. The troll story was pretty simple in text form this week, reading only, green is serene. I think alluding to that, it was St. Patrick's Day on Tuesday. Ah, quite so. Looking through the various photos on the troll story, I do notice their trolltar, the altar that they make every week of various items, is all green items this week. Oh. Including a green little duck that comes out of the claw machine at the Wallace. Oh, cool. Cool. Shlubz hosted the replays at Jack Bar and the home team, the Shlubz, won 9-7. Replays came close, but they're still looking for their first win. Danger Danger went to Sunshine Laundromat where the home team were kind enough to tie them right up until the tiebreaker but then bested them 8-8. That's Danger Danger's first loss. Everybody Loves the Sunshine is 2-0 at home. Your Butterballers hosted Rest in Pinball, parenthetically R.I.P., and you won 11-5. Yeah, good night. RIP came in with a tight four and were just a lot of fun to play with. Cool. More on that in my bullet journal. Cool. The Ball Drainers visited Neptune's Treasure at Milo's Yard and bested the home team 9-7. That's a Ball Drainers win. Both teams had come into the week undefeated. Ball drainers stay that way. Neptune's Treasure take their first loss. Scrapple Squad hosted Harlem Globe Flippers at Scrapple Land, and the Globe Flippers got a big 12-4 win. Globe Flippers and Scrapple Squad had identical records coming into this week, and just a five point differential. The win and eight point differential here puts a lot of distance between these two teams in the standings. Birdies saw the third ball visiting the Pin Babes and the Pin Babes won 10 to 6.
Godzilla
game
Scrapple Landvenue
Rulosvenue
Jack Barvenue
Buttermilk Barvenue
Balls of Steelorganization
Parliamentorganization
The Mutantsorganization
Greg Pavarelliperson
Gabriel Chasanoff (GC)person
Kate Martinperson
Caitlin Reeseperson
Zianna Murrayperson
Adam Kaneperson
Alberto Santanaperson

high · Eric Sweetland: 'they found just enough space, so we have six up there now' at At the Wallace

  • ?

    venue_signal: Active machine rotation across NYC venues: Jurassic Park added to Transmitter Brewing (moved from Jack Bar), Pokemon added to At the Wallace and Scrapple Land, Lord of the Rings added to Scrapple Land, Addams Family removed from Boat Bar

    high · Multiple Pinball Map updates documenting machine movements across venues during week of March 13-20

  • ?

    community_signal: Emerging players showing rapid skill improvement in competitive league context; new players integrating into established teams (Scott and August with Balls of Steel, Matthew Grady returning to competitive play)

    high · Zen Zachbiak: 'They're new to pinball and they're so much better than they were last year or the year before'; Eric noting Matthew Grady's return and contribution

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Scrapple League shows tight standings with 7 players in top four positions after three qualifying sessions; multiple players on A/B division cutlines creating high-stakes final rounds

    high · Benjamin's detailed standings analysis showing Alberto Santana leading with 87 points, multiple players tied at cutlines with only 3 of 6 qualifying sessions completed

  • ?

    event_signal: Texas Pinball Festival scheduling affecting NYC tournament director availability (Kate Martin away from SSPL duties)

    high · Eric Sweetland: 'Kate Martin... is out of town attending the Texas Pinball Festival'

  • ?

    operational_signal: Rising volunteer tournament director participation with Caitlin Reese stepping into multiple leadership roles (captaining Your Colliders, assistant TD for SSPL)

    high · Eric noting Caitlin volunteered for two leadership positions in same week: team captain Monday and main TD Thursday

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Notable high scores achieved in competitive play: Eric scored 150+ million on The Walking Dead at SSPL, close match (36.9M vs 36.5M) on Metallica affecting tournament standings

    high · Eric's tournament play results and narrow loss on Metallica with significant series implications for A/B division placement

  • $

    market_signal: Pinball machine inventory in NYC stable at 361 units across 74 public locations as of March 20, 2026, indicating consistent market presence

    high · Benjamin citing Pinball Map data: '361 pinball machines in New York City at 74 public locations'

    • 11:44
    Pin Babes get their first win and third ball still looking for theirs. Zens, Pinister 6, went to Bar Great Harry and took a 10 to 6 victory over Harry's Hand Grenades. And Harry's Hand Grenade is also still looking for their first win. Tuesday, we got to go to Bargright Harry, which was the original Finister Six lineup that they had years even before I started. We got to play this great new team. All brand new people, super fun. I didn't really know them at all. And they put up a fight. And again, we got down to the last two games. And we had to win one for a tie, two for the win. And we managed to pull it off, finish the six, pulled it off, rolling with five people, also a lot of new people. So that was pretty exciting. On Wednesday, it was March 18, but it was February 23rd in the hearts of the lesser players and the pinbots when they met at Scrapple Land to make up their Blizzard match. And the pinbots picked up an 11 to 5 win. And I'll just say it was really cool to see a bunch of those players on Wednesday night because just after they were wrapping up, it was time for Scrapple League, the third qualifying week of the second season of 2026. Directed by Greg Pavarelli, myself, Woody Richman, and Harlan Aida-Linda. 31 players joined in on Wednesday for five rounds of group match play with IFPA scoring in the hopes of garnering the most points towards their series total. Greg Pavarelli, Chris Caffaro, and Alberto Santana all picked up 29 points. Adam Kane, Dustin Bailey, Pat Carawan, and Harlan Aida-Linda had 25. That's seven people in the top four, folks. After three meetings, the standings have Alberto Santana out in front with 87 points. CJ Smith, Sean Grant, Steven Perillo, Harlan Aida-Linda, Dustin Bailey, Pat Carawan are all looking at an A Division berth at the moment. Dan Merrill, Susie Zalewski, and Adam Kane are tied on the line. With Dan in theory or whoever, one of them is above that line. One of them is number eight, the others are number nine and ten. It'll all change as more meetings come in, but two of them... There's only three in. There's only three of six. Four will count, but three, most of these people have had three that we've talked about. Two of them would wind up in the B Division finals, joining myself, Lindsey Rhodes, Woody Richmond, Greg Pavarelli, Jackie Bailey, and Chris Caffaro at the moment. Eric Schulenburg and Mike Pantino are both very close to that cut line for B, too. Pavarelli, Chris Caffaro, and Mike Pantino all have two meetings only of those people that we just talked about. Everybody else has three, so they are, in a way, one meeting ahead. They also, you know, have to actually perform at that one meeting because they're not going to have one to throw away that everyone else now gets to potentially throw away. On Thursday at Jack Bar, at 8 o'clock sharp, the GC hosted Thursday Night Strikes. No Bro Presents, I should say, Thursday Night Strikes. And 28 players showed up to enjoy the GC himself. Gabriel Chasanoff won the night, besting Greg Fertel, John McGregor, and Andy Hayden. Gabe got 6.81 Whoppers for his efforts. Also on Thursday night was the first qualifying week of South Slope Pinball's second season of 2026. The director of record is Kate Martin, but she's out of town attending the Texas Pinball Festival. Caitlin Reese took over the main TD duties for the evening with assistance from me, and also Monica Weidekamp shadowing along to pick up some of the skills of the trade. That's very cool. There were 21 players at Buttermilk last night. We played five rounds of group match play with IFPA scoring, all the same stuff. Taylor Connolly got 31 points, Steven Christopher 29, Paul McHugh and Billy Vazine both picked up 27. This week, and when I say this week, I mean like, you know, we're going to release this at nine o'clock on Sunday night, but on Monday at eight o'clock, like 23 hours later, all over the city. This is March 23rd, and it's going to be round six of Pinball NYC's left flipper division. The Worms will visit 2-for-1ers at Gebhard's Beer Culture. Worms looking for their first win, but the 2-for-1ers have been tough to beat lately, and they're 2-0 at home. Your New York City Flipper Sport Association will go to Bar K Brooklyn to visit the Deluxe Horses. That sounds like fun. Sounds like fun to me too. The Pin Pals will host the lesser players at Skylark. Both teams are one and four and hoping that maybe the other team will be the easy mark. Right now they're sort of right on the line of making it into the in-lane playoffs or having to stay home for weeks 12 through 15. Commonwealth will host Intermission Dolores, the home team, where they will host the Pinbots, the visiting team. If the pinbots win this one, they'll pass intermission to Loris in the standings for now. The aristocrats will host the mutants at Rulo's. Mutants and aristocrats were both undefeated until last week. One of them will fall further. We colliders will take a cute week off. Aww. Parliament will host Balls of Steel at Owl Farm. Balls of Steel and Parliament are the last two undefeated teams.
    18:15
    Only one will remain after this matchup Special Wendlandt will go to Barcade Fidei where the Lion Persons will be their host Both teams off to an uncharacteristically slow start both looking to turn it around this week at Fidei On Tuesday, March 24th, it's round five of Pinball NYC's right flipper division. No Quarters for Laundry is heading to Rulo's to see the replays. We Butterballers will visit Everybody Loves the Sunshine at Sunshine Laundromat. That's going to be another one of two weeks in a row that the Butterballers are going to have a match that could advance them a lot in the standings or could give them a big detriment in the standings. They won last week. Midway will see Shlubz come to face off against the Third Ball. Both teams got their first loss last week. Danger Danger's at home and they're gonna hope that's enough. That matchup could shake up the top of the left flipper standings. The flippers are a game and two points behind. If they win by two points, they will necessarily be tied. If they won by more than that, they win nine to seven, they'll be tied with the ball drainers. If they won by 10 to six or more, they will be ahead of the ball drainers who are currently in first place at four and oh. Rest in pinball, parenthetically, RIP will host the pin babes at Arcade Brooklyn. Pin Babes are looking to build on their first win last week. And Scrapples Squad will head to Bar Great Harry to meet Harry's Hand Grenades. These teams have two wins between them and Scrapples Squad have both. Harry's Hand Grenades had a rough season last season. They are looking for a win at home. And Zen told us this week that he had a good time playing them there. I hope it's a great time at Bar Great Harry on Tuesday night. On Wednesday, it will be the fourth qualifying session of Scrapple League at Scrapple Land in Greenpoint, Brooklyn at pinball 8 o'clock. On Thursday at Jack Bar, No Bro Presents Thursday Night Strikes will be convened at, I think, still 8 o'clock sharp, although I've heard a preview that maybe it'll be before 8 o'clock sharp, but it'll be sometime earlier sharp at some point. But now I think we're still at 8 o'clock sharp. Also on Thursday at pinball 8 o'clock, SSPL will have its second qualifying week at Buttermilk Bar. On Saturday at Barcade Fi-Di, Greg Pavarelli will host the Barcade Fi-Di Monthly. It'll start at 1pm. I imagine that's pinball 1pm. I think the bar opens at 12. And on Sunday, March 29th, tournament director Tommy Ortega brings you The Immaculate Inning at Scrapple Land, a nine fair strikes tournament with a top eight Papa Style final at 2 p.m. It's the day after opening day of baseball, like the regular opening day of baseball season, and it is the immaculate inning wherein nine strikes, if you had nine strikes, if you threw nine strikes as a pitcher, you threw not the smallest number of pitches you could, but you threw every pitch perfectly in such a way that it could not be hit into play. It's the immaculate inning. This is the perfect. I love this about this tournament as both the timing and the format of it. If you get zero strikes, you get a big prize. Also, on Sunday, March 29th, there will be something that is called a South Slope Friends Tournament. That's at Rulos. That surely starts around 5 o'clock. 5 o'clock, it is a fundraiser for a neighbor who's going through something. As of March 20th, 2026, there are 361 pinball machines in New York City at 74 public locations. Thanks to the creators and users of Pinball Map for this data, here are machine updates from the past week. On Friday, March 13th, user Flipper Fiend was at Jack Bar and commented on the Pokemon, Left orbit shot doesn't register, but thinking that this issue might not be specific to this copy. Interesting. User CKFlips went to Boat Bar and played their Attack from Mars remake. CKFlips said, ball doesn't load into plunger until you shake to double danger. Challenge accepted. CKFlips also noted that the Adams family is no longer at boat bar. That's too bad. I mean, I don't know that that one ever worked in that position there, but that's too bad. On Saturday, user Phil T went by ScrappleLand and said of their Godzilla, volume is Very turned down and impossible to hear during midday play when it isn't crowded.
    24:07
    Phil T also commented on the Godzilla 70th anniversary version. Legs are super wiggly, so easy to get movement and tilt. Otherwise, it seemed to play well. Volume turned down is hard at Scrapple Land because if you turn the volume up on all of those pinball machines at once without any kind of I just, I just, I hear that and I just, I like, I hear you, that you want to hear your pinball game, but also there's a lot of pinball machines in that room and it's just a big barn, man.
    24:48
    User Flipper Fiend was also at ScrappleLand. Commenting on Winchester Mystery House, Flipper issues seem to be fixed. There's some jankiness with the Seance multiball ball lock.
    25:03
    Flipper Fiend also commented on Dune coin slot not registering. Also on Saturday, a Jurassic Park was added to Transmitter Brewing.
    25:16
    That's the one that recently left the Jack Bar lineup. On Sunday, user JackBarJohn The Pokemon commented on the Pokemon at Jack Bar and said, Left orbit and all associated switches have been fixed. And improperly soldered wire from the factory was the culprit, 100% now. And on Monday, a Pokemon was added to At the Wallace. I think we talked about that. I think we did. On Tuesday, user ItsRaj was at the Coyote Club and commented on their Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. The turtle van shot doesn't seem to work unless you shoot it super fast there. Otherwise it'll get stuck until the machine detects the ball is missing. Also was leaning right last time I played it, but maybe it was how the machine was sitting. On Wednesday, user Nudgee was at Sunshine Laundromat and left a few comments. Of Bad Cats they said, working and playing well. Of Whirlwind they said, ate my quarters. And of Evil Knievel they said, out of order. User Flipper Fiend was back at Scrapple Land on Wednesday, left another comment on the getaway, four months later still needs a mechanic to get under the hood and get her running again. Well. TheLiberteFiend also commented on Beetlejuice, Sandworm Dead, Bill Acceptor Busted. Also Wednesday, a Pokemon showed up at ScrappleLand, we played it in League. Also a Lord of the Rings was added to ScrappleLand. Hambone was at Bar Grade Harry and said of their Godzilla very weak flippers, nearly impossible to get it up the left ramp. On Thursday, user Mad Hatter commented on the Godzilla Premium at the Gutter LES, This machine is effectively unplayable. The level is set beyond normal range and the tilt sensor is set so sensitively that I'm getting double warnings by simply alternating flippers to try to save a ball. Total trash. And user Flipper Fiend had some more comments for Scrapple Lands. They elaborated on Winchester Mystery House. Seance multiball lock acts unpredictably. Sometimes one or even two balls will lock without registering, effectively ending your gameplay and requiring a tilt to continue. Other times, a single locked ball or two will trigger the seance multiball. And Flipper Fiend reiterated on Godzilla, volume set way too low. I must play with my eyes more than these folks do. Or less with my ears at least. That might be a better way to describe it. I play less with my ears than they do. I do a lot of things with my ears. It's a family podcast, Benjamin. Let's talk Bullet Journal. I didn't play till Monday. I was grateful that I had the ability to play competitive pinball on Monday night and Tuesday night and Thursday night. I won some, I lost some. I hadn't planned on playing any pinball last weekend, but on Sunday evening, a message popped up in the Butterballers group chat. Butterball Anna said she was going to be in the area, anybody want to swing by, buttermilk or rulos. And as it turned out, me and Courtney were game. You did. As it turned out, you did once in a swing by Buttermilk or Rulo's. We went to Rulo's. I had a couple of highlifes. We played some games of pinball. It was chill and quiet. At least until karaoke? There wasn't karaoke. They were projecting the Oscars. Oh, sure. Right, of course. You know, I just stuck around for a couple hours, got home nice and early, and that was really pleasant. Sure, yeah. On Monday I went to Rulo's. My goodness, it was a close match. It was also fun. It's fun to see those folks. They were out not in, uh, they were not in full effect. They did not have all of their players. Neither did we, to be fair. We were missing some key players, they were missing some key players. But when I am happy to say that when it came down to it and Matthew Grady, who I didn't even know was on this team, walked in the door for round four, who was who was running Barcade Brooklyn Pinball League last fucking season and not playing in Monday Night Pinball League in, you know, the in Pinball NYC. I was, I was hopeful that this would not be our undoing. He came in and played, you know, a pretty good game on the King Kong and then they chose not King Kong. And I played against him in bonsai and it felt good that we were in front. He had a very good. I think everyone played like a very good competition game where you just don't get anything going. There was a lot of great work done that did not end in a lot of great points is what that game felt like. I was a little bit disappointed none of the inserts on the lower play field of Simpson's Pinball Party would illuminate. So you I played it in like I practiced it twice that way I think once and then like turned it off and turned it back on to just like proof of concept is this really as bad as it was this this you might notice a pattern by the way with what I said about Farfalla last week there might be a pattern and what I'm I might need confirmation of truths I might think that the first time it's only a hypothesis and that the second time it's actually a theory. That feels like a very hard way to play that game. I know how to listen to the game even when I've got noise-canceling headphones on. I know how to think about the way that game works, but no. That was a non-starter. Nobody chose it, I imagine, for that reason. Yeah, now that you mention it, I did notice some weirdness with the lights on Sunday night. That's what it was. There was nothing on the lower play on the regular play field of the game. None of the inserts were lighting on Monday night when I was playing. The floodlights were on. You could see the ball easily, but there was no indication of where you should shoot it. What about your Monday? Up at the Wallace and this is something I alerted you to on the evening in question. Right. We three texted each other, you and me and Zen. That's true. The aristocrats were up, high pressure situation, they were undefeated coming in. We have been off to a slower start and really wanted this one and boy, it took us right down to the wire. But as I alerted you and Zen in the text, Neil was in fact wearing tails. Yeah, I thought that was a home team thing or a home match thing, but it turns out maybe he do it when he do it. I dressed up cute for the evening also. Nice. Nice combo I've got with this silk camisole under my NASA jean jacket. Oh, cool. It's a good look. Uh-huh. So then Tuesday night, the Butterballers were at home against RIP. Yeah. That was a lot of fun on the match. I was hanging out with some of the members of RIP and we stayed I did get this from RIP Al. She asked, do you like bugs? Uh-huh. I said, yeah, I mean, I like bugs. She's like, do you really like bugs? I'm like, yeah, I'm into bugs. Bugs are cool. She's like, okay, I want you to take this centipede photo lighter. Lighter. Okay. Yeah. It's got a bug on it. Cool. I mentioned Wednesday, it was neat seeing some of the makeup match players at Scrapable Land. Yeah. Yeah, the lesser players were there and they were like, oh, hey, cool to see you. We're here playing the makeup game. I'm like, oh, yeah, cool. Did they hang out and play? I don't think any lesser players stuck around to play in the league, but they were definitely there as the league was getting started and in all the pre-league mingling. Right on. Pretty fun. I don't know if this is interesting or not. The nightmare transit story on Wednesday. What happened? The G Line train I was taking home as we were pulled into Smith and 9th Street announced it would be running express to 7th Avenue, skipping one stop. Skipping the stop that you wanted to transfer. But the one transfer stop that I wanted. So I got off the train because there was an F train following just one minute behind, which is pretty good. And I got on the F train and then they came over the speakers and said, this train will be running express to Seventh Avenue. Right. And the next train wasn't for 16 minutes. So I rode to Seventh Avenue and crossed over to the opposite platform where luckily a train came along in only just a few minutes. Nice. And I got to 4th Avenue, 9th Street, transferred to the R or an N, I don't remember which it was, it doesn't matter. At that hour, yeah. They run local at that hour, which is great. And that wasn't too long of a wait. But as we were going along and got to 36th Street, they announced they would be running Express past my stop. Right. So I stayed on and went express past my stop and then climbed up to the mezzanine, walked over and went down to the other platform and waited for a train to take me back one stop. Yeah, I mean, sometimes overnight the subway be like that, unfortunately. Three in a row. Yeah, that feels unlucky. That feels more than unlucky. Feels like a house ball of a subway ride. On Thursday night I was helping out assistant TDing at South Slope Strikes. Yeah, I was interested to hear that Caitlin had to hear you say that earlier. I didn't know that. That's twice this week that Caitlin volunteered for leadership positions. You know she jumped in on Colliders on Monday night as captain and jumped in on Thursday night for Kate at SSPL I didn know that she was doing that on Thursday night when I peer pressured her into captaining on Monday night or peer pressured everyone else into peer pressuring her into doing it However, that worked on my way to buttermilk. I swung by the dispensary and I got these cute little guys. Uh huh. Quarter gram. That's just a little guy. I think point three five. Yeah. Okay. Some people might call that a dog walker. I call him Nebuchadnezzar. There were a couple of machine malfunctions during the league. One of the flippers on Maiden was getting stuck up. I was called on Ghostbusters in the second round and it started doing its wacky shit again. Oh my. It really hates Thursday night or something. Yeah, I got the Scolari brothers just out of nowhere and then it started launching people's balls. Uh-huh. So we... Set off a car alarms and shit. Yeah. We got redrawn to The Walking Dead. Uh-huh. Which turned out well for me because I had played The Walking Dead in the first round. Uh-huh. And I had gotten a disappointing third place. Right, but you got a little bit of a feel for it. But I got a feel for it. Yeah. And boy did I get a hold of that one. I finished up, I think, at 150 something million. Ooh! No initials, unlike last week when I GC'd the one at Midway with 130. Right. Yeah. But that one, yeah. Like we talked about. We talked about like that was that was a little you know it's a legit GC after it's been reset and the battery's been changed or whatever but it's also you know it's not enough for buttermilk not not for that one in that location where I can slide it several inches if I choose to I'm not the only one who can do that oh quite easily yeah it's like it is not for that one in that location that's that's fine but it's a fine score it's very good score in competition but it's not an Initials score on that one. So that was a nice one for a win. And I had one other win on the night, which was a very close game with Zen on Metallica. At Buttermilk on Thursday, which is the match play tournament, which is a six week match play tournament. You can you have to play four. You can drop two. And then Eric decided to just win by what were the numbers, Eric? Yeah, I think the final score in our fourth round game on Metallica, I had 36.9 million and you had 36.5 million. Ouch. So I'm still freaking out. I was like, oh, that would have pushed me over the edge. So I have an uphill battle for the rest of the rest of the tournament to be able to get into the A division at this point, because I'm going to I'm going to be out for a couple of them. And so we'll see where this ends up. I know you're the king of B, but you're the king of B when there are a hundred people in New York. You're not the king of B at SSPL, my friend. You're the, you are, you're an A player at SSPL. I don't know. B plus. And so with Kate out of town to not turn on direct, she also was out of town to bartend. And thanks to Nat for standing in and being a really great bartender for Pinball League. Okay, so we do this bracket thing. Our pool of participants is small but mighty. Our pool of contestants in the brackets are pinball games.
    40:36
    64. 16 each from regions just like in the NCAA tournament, but this is the NYC double P double A tournament. That's the NYC Pinpod Awesomeness Archive. The game that wins this tournament, we're going to name it the very best pinball machine of all time, at least for right now. We separated these regions based on the eras of the pinball machine. So we each, last week, we did what was basically a best game tournament wherein all three panelists, Zen and Eric and I, put in our top 16 whatever with no limits on what we did. We've done a lot of research on what the games could be in each of these eras and that's how we gave 16 points to my number one and 16 points to Eric's number one, 16 points to Zen's number one, 15 points to everybody's number two, down to one point for everybody's number 16. We tallied up all those results and that's how we came up with the seating and the selection. And now, this week, now that we have those brackets, we voted using IFPA scoring the way that you would in a pinball tournament. So I gave each of these groups, one game got seven points, one game got five points, one game got three, one got one. Zen did the same thing, Eric did the same thing, and we tallied all of those results. That's what we're going to talk about right now. There are also listeners who are contesting a bracket challenge. That small but mighty group. They are eligible for a fabulous prize. Whoever has the greatest number of correct guesses will start talking about that competition next week. But for right now, here's Eric with the results of the electromechanical region. In the electromechanical region, Group 1, Argosy, is our winner, beating out Topscore, Dimension, and the Paps Can Crusher. And we voted for these things, 7-5-3-1. Argosy got all three first place points, right? Like all three first place votes, and then Topscore and Dimension. 21 points. Yeah, like it's all... Clean win. Yeah. Not a question. Yeah, stepped up, just swung genitals and was just like, I win. That's it.
    43:06
    A much closer story in the second group, where Centigrade 37 advances over Gold Strike, Mata Hari, and New York. I specifically want to talk about Centigrade 37. I think it was only in the standings because of me. I think that I had it ranked high enough that it might have been that I'm sorry that Eric had it somewhere or all three of us had it somewhere, but that it was much higher for me. I, here's the thing. Centigrade 37 is an electromechanical machine. And on the left side of the backglass, there is a red ribbon that you have to advance to the top of a, something that looks like a thermometer. Because 37 degrees centigrade is the temperature of the human body. When we talk about art, and I don't usually talk about art in pinball games, but I love that thing. And I also love that on the opposite side, on the playfield, there is this mechanism that has several lanes that you have to traverse. Once you're in it, it's going to go whichever way it goes to a certain degree. It's almost like four stacked John Borg double in lanes. It's almost like that. And when it gets to the bottom, you that's when you really have to pay the piper with your nudging. I love this game and and it's got so many drop targets. Eric, you're itching to say something. Yeah, that's usually called a waterfall and it's kind of kind of like a little bagatelle. Yeah, those are fun. But I just want to say, yeah, I love a charming physical backglass animation. Yeah. And this is one of the better. And it was from the early 70s, right? I mean, it was, I think, 72. I'm saying that off the top of my head. Prove me wrong. Send us hate mail at nycpinpod at gmail.com. Or for that matter, send us a hate voice message at speakpipe.com slash nycpinpod. Send me one, not the two of them. They don't deserve it. I deserve your eye. What's next, Eric? In the third group of the EM region, Spanish Eyes advances to the next round, beating out Fireball, Sky Jump, and Atlantis. Zen, you had Fireball first here. So fireball, I think just in general, feels like a game that you would walk up to and go, okay, I have a challenge here. There's somebody in front of me and challenge accepted. And it's not nebulous. You just go, okay, I'm going to have to win. Otherwise, I might be fireballed. How do you feel about the multiball? Do you try to go for a three ball multiball? You just stay, just keep going. Just keep cycling through. It's just about doing the thing. Chop the wood. Doing the things, whatever the things are. Right, but you just keep chopping wood. Just stay alive. You keep adding it. Yeah, you stay alive and you just keep going. And so there's not a lot of strategy behind it, but it's possible to keep going and you just chop wood and then And you can get a lot of points. So, you know, I appreciate that part of it. Yeah. Versus, well, I hit a skill shot all day today. Yep. Yep. Yep. That, by the way, is why Pabst Can Crusher did not get out of the first group. That it wasn't just, Pabst Can Crusher is kind of just a skill shot in a lot of ways. Eric is making the gas face at me. Shout out to third base. But that's about right. And in group four of the EM region, Doodlebug advances to the next round, besting Old Chicago, Bowen Arrow, and Bristol Hills. This advanced entirely because two of us had it first. One of us had it last. Old Chicago, all of us had it second. So this was actually a tie that was broken by the number of firsts And that's a number of seconds. By the way, see Match Play. When you're like, hey, how do I break a tie between these two people and not play a tiebreaker? The number of first places and the number of second places would be the tiebreaker. That's exactly what we did here. And it turns out that Doodle Bug had two firsts and one last to get its 15, whereas Old Chicago was second for everyone. Zen and I had Doodle Bug first. Eric, what's your fucking problem? This is a group of great games. I don't dislike any of these games. But yeah, if I walked up to this bank of four, if I were called to this bank of four in a competition, let's say, I think I'd feel least confident on Doodle Bug. It has a higher degree of chance in its scoring.
    48:29
    Okay. It scores big when you do the thing, but making the thing happen is tough, and then it stops after a second or two, and you're like, I did all that work to get there. I understand. I also want to point out that Zen had Doodlebug and Fireball, both of which have the kick-ass zipper flipper feature here as number ones in these last two groups. Zen, do you love zipper flippers? I do. I also like scissor flippers, and lightning flippers, and regular flippers. What about banana flippers? I need more of that, and what I really wanted to have is banana flippers on a King Kong. Oh! Good call. Great call. In round one of the solid state era in group one, Harlem Globetrotters was the first seed facing off against Frontier, TX Sector, and Centaur. And Harlem Globetrotters necessarily advanced entirely because Eric and I both put it first. And now, to our next guest, Zen, you had TX Sector at the top of your list. And I think last week you told us that you hadn't played it a lot, but you had started playing it recently and you were really digging it. How'd it get there? Is that how the decision was made or is there something else behind it? It's all about the noises and the sounds that that machine makes. It's so good. Some of the best. Back in time, that was not an easy task to do. No, that was all general MIDI programming, I think, that created that. It was like, I don't think that 16-bit sound was associated with that pinball machine. I think it was 8-bit sound, and that really limits a lot of what you can do. Right, so my entire choice was based on the sounds that that machine makes. In group two of the solid state region in round one, Stargazer will advance over Dolly Parton, Bobby Orr's power play, and Paragon, respectively. Benjamin, you've got to be heartbroken to see Dolly Parton not advance. I mean, a colleague of mine recently said to me, I would not know how to behave like a human being if I were standing in the same room as Dolly Parton. I totally agree that like if I were standing in a room that Dolly Parton walked into, I would just melt. I would 100% totally agree. My entire decision on Dolly Parton was based on the one that plays at the arcade, Five Night, because that's not fun. It's hard. It's hard. It's very hard. There is the one at Rock Fantasy I have always found plays very fair and fun. The one at Barcade Fight I would say plays hard, but I also, my God, I feel accomplished when I have a good game on it. But it's hard as shit, that one. It's very hard. It does. It drives me crazy. So otherwise, that would be that would probably even be one of the top ones that I have at all by a lot. But that one pisses me off. Got it. Stargazer has no in lane, but it has that great thing. Stargazer. I mean, the artwork to begin with is fantastic. It's a fantastic looking machine. It's got the very weird flipper arrangement at the bottom. You can't just do a standard trap or post pass or any of your regular moves. Not with that attitude. It's got three fun spinners and a fantastic bonus heavy rule set. I think it's a great shooter. I personally love the drop targets the most. Yeah, there are two awesome three banks of drop targets. Three banks. Oh, you're right. You're right, you're right, but one of them is too dangerous. But yes, you're right. In group three. My goodness. It was close. I think each of us had a different first in this group. Banzai Run bested, respectively, 8 Ball Deluxe, Bad Girls, and Diner. Diner was actually a higher seed than Bad Girls, but Bad Girls, Zen, was your number one vote here. Are you a power toot here? Uh, I... yeah. I like bad girls. It's got the 8 ball deluxe thing going, but the targets are on the other flipper. The drops are on the other flipper the spinners on the other flipper. And, I mean, it's the one where the right flipper makes the big difference. Right? Yeah, it's personal choices. Yeah? Are you right-handed? No. I just like bad girls. Alright, I love that. Maybe left brained is the right way to play. It plays entirely differently though. It's an entirely different manufacturer and components and everything. It doesn't feel the same. I'm just a sucker for 8 Ball Deluxe. I understand. Boy, is that just a fantastic game. I'm a sucker for Bonzaro. I'm not entirely talking about pinball.
    54:06
    I'm a sucker for Banzai Run and it turns out that both of you thought that it was the second best option here. Pretty dang good. Yeah, that's why it goes through. For me, it's all about the fact that there's another axis that I'm fighting gravity on. And also, it's, I'm pretty sure the first game that Pat Lawler had like, designer in the credit line. It is I also when I went looking to confirm that information today discovered that he probably designed something incredibly similar called Reckon Ball that there a whitewood of that you can go look at on IPDB It has a very similar back glass game on it and almost exactly the same lower playfield but really cool to see that In Group 4 of the Solid State Era, it just, I mean, it was almost a fait accompli even though it was the second seed. Stars bested respectively Silver Ball Mania, Black Knight 2000, and Funhaus. I had Silver Ball Mania as my first, which is why it got second. Stars got 15 because both of you put it first and I put it last. So I'm going to let the two of you talk about Stars. It's just, it's fun because you have to collect all of the stars. So it's obvious, but if you're playing it for the first time, you have no idea what the hell you're supposed to do. Five stand-ups, different colored stars, right? Is that the right number? Five?
    55:55
    I think so. So, but you just, you keep going and you collect all the stars and until the point in time that you understand that you're supposed to, that's what you're supposed to do, you don't realize that that's the objective of the game. A lot of the other games you go, okay, hit drop targets, hit spinner. Stars, a little bit different. You have to make sure you get all the stars. In the DMD region, in group one, Spider-Man advances to the next round, besting Lord of the Rings, Game of Thrones, and The Shadow. Zen, you had Lord of the Rings first, right? Right? Yeah, I did. And again, it's just, I love the progression of that game where you can go through all of the characters, right? Work your way through, get to the point where you can, you know, do the ring shots and then that's where the game usually fails and you can never hit the thing. Yeah, right, right, right. When you can't get that big ass hurry up. Yeah. Eric and I both had Spider-Man first. For me, it's about the fact that it is the best flow game that I have ever played. I can see the ball coming off an orbit and one time a shot on that game better than any other game I've ever played. But also, now that I'm a more sophisticated player, I also feel like I can live catch Everything coming off in orbit. I can slow everything down or understand where the pass is every time on that playfield because it's a little open in the right place, but it's asymmetrical in a way that I understand where a little open, what a little open means, you know? Maybe we should do another one where we put our flow games up against each other, not in a March Madness type format, because it could be a smaller field because there's better flow games than that.
    58:08
    In the second group, ACDC is our winner, beating out Metallica, Congo, and Indianapolis 500. Did two of us have it first? Two of us had it first. It was two firsts and a third. This is the second Steve Ritchie in a row. I said last week I think it's his best implementation of the Canon. He tried the Canon and at least this and T2 there were probably others that I'm forgetting. Oh, Star Trek. I like the ones that have the little laser mod on it so it points right where it's gonna go. The one at Scrapple has that. So I have opinions on cannons and because they have a mechanical portion where they move back and forth that causes problems. They're often broken. So stop doing that. Just put a thing there and then have the target move and then you just have to hit it like a skill shot, right? So you like the skill shot on T2 better than the jackpot shot from the cannon on T2. Is that safe to say? Yeah, I think that would, yeah, I think the skill shot in T2 you're talking about is where you do it out of the plunger. Add another plunger on the side that operates as the cannon, and then you have to time it to be able to collect it. In the third group of the DMD era, Theatre of Magic advances to the next round, beating out Twilight Zone, NBA Fastbreak, and Attack from Mars. I don't think that's a surprise. I also don't think it's a surprise that Twilight Zone, you know, was right there. And in the fourth group, our winner is Tron over Iron Man, Whitewater, and World Cup Soccer 94. I had Whitewater first partially because of my arrogance that some other podca- that you quoted some other podcast last week and said, tell me who it is, please. The Wedgehead podcast. Thank you. I'm sorry folks that I didn't actually listen. I was just emboldened by Eric's suggestion, but I love that game. I think that this was one of the more challenging groups that I had trying to make a decision on. Grouping all four of them, I had a hard time just deciding who was where. There are two games that have clunky stops on weird upper gestures from the 90s and two games that are really fast with open playfields from the teens and or aughts perhaps. But it is really it's an interesting it was an interesting grouping. I chose an old one, you two chose a new one. Not the most recent. I think Iron Man is more recent than Tron, correct? They were close in their age. They're very close. They're close in their age. I think of Iron Man as the last DMD. It probably wasn't, but that's how I think of it. The last DMD is Ghostbusters. Gross. How dare you. In the flat screen era, this was the hardest era I think for us to parse, but in group one, round one, and it's no surprise, Metallica Remastered has bested Elton John, which I had first, Godzilla, and Black Knight, Sword of Rage. Y'all wanna talk about Metallica Remastered other than to say it is what it, it be what it be? It's still the champ. Elton John was close. That is a very good game. Sword of Rage should not be on the list. It's a fun game and it plays more simplistically than Elton John where you have to figure out, okay, well, which songs do I need to pick? What do I want to do here? And it starts getting I'm like, well, sometimes I just want to hit the ball with the flippers. Sure. And Metallica Remastered in particular, right? I mean, Remastered in particular allows for just like, if you play good pinball, there's some multiball that's going to pop up somewhere. There's some scoring mode that's going to pop up because you hit the right number of stand up targets or you hit the right number of whatever. It's even more open in terms of the rules than the original game and there were already a million ways to score points on the original game.
    62:53
    Yeah, and then the new one too, the points are accelerated so you get you can get higher points, but doesn't differ from what you're actually accomplishing with the old one.
    63:05
    It just kind of added a zero. Yeah. You know, you can move through it. It's still the same. As long as you're playing the same person, it's a fun game to play. Jurassic Park wins group two over Batman 66, Jaws, and 007 60th anniversary. This was a really close tie here. Basically, Jurassic, Batman, and Jaws all tied. 00760th, we, I guess we all agreed there that we didn't like it as much as the others. No. Zen, I think you had Jaws first. No, this was actually complicated because I had 007 first. Jurassic Park was the one that got sort of the highest number as first, second, third, right? Yeah, and a tiebreaker. As opposed to second, second, yeah. This is the Elwin heavy group, but it's far and away my favorite Elwin. I like the storyline of the rules. Each of us had an Elwin first. Zen, is Jaws your favorite Elwin? I would still go with Godzilla. The Big Lebowski will advance beyond King Kong, Guardians of the Galaxy, and Elvira's House of Horrors respectively in the scores. You also had an Elwin here. Zen, you had King Kong first. King Kong might be one of the best games. The new code, there's a power-up mode that you can have with the new code. And in addition to that, it has kind of like the oxygen destroyer thing where you have in Godzilla, where you have to hit it into the center to be able to save your ball. There's also an option now in King Kong that when you drain, it gives you a ball and you have like 10 seconds to be able to hit that power up target in the middle and that operates like the oxygen destroyer where it's going to save your ball and you can move on. So, I mean, there's a lot of new stuff in King Kong that I'm really excited about. It's good stuff. What you're talking about is also what Eric's talking about in terms of Jurassic Park having the best rules. Levels on top of levels of rules, which is one of the cool things about Jurassic Park. There's definitely even more room for improvement, so it's rapidly becoming one of my favorite games. The Big Lebowski is getting through entirely because I had it first and Zen had it second. It is a thing of beauty, whether you are interested in it because you're interested in the movie, Whether you are interested in it because you are interested in the art, whether you are interested in it because you are interested in the way that it shoots, it is an art project. I don't believe in perfection, but it's flawless, except for the fact that its flaws are its perfection. I did learn something new that I didn't know. Yeah? Uh, was today, Bart told me from Rulos, Yeah? uh... about Lebowski that during the multiball if you have one character and you hit the character shot you get the jackpot uh... if you have two characters you have to collect a shot for that character and then the next character... first character and then it's not lit anymore that's right if you have Donnie and Maude lit which is a common first set if you hit the Donnie jackpot you cannot collect the Donnie jackpot again Until you've collected the mod jackpot. That's absolutely correct. Right, which I didn't know, because I was like, I would start rapidly taking one character into the next character, into the next character, into the next character. It turns out, that's not the right thing to do. I mean, it depends on how you want to roll. But it is also true that every time you hit that shot, that Donnie shot, when it's not lit for a jackpot, You're building the value of the next jackpot you hit on that shot. So it isn't not valuable to play two at once, but you definitely have to plan for the way you want to play it. And you definitely have to survive for it to be worthy. You can't just bang on a single shot unless you've got a ball trapped on one flipper and you're somehow able to just keep banging on that single shot to build up that jackpot. So that you can collect the other one once and then get a big value. Or maybe just play one at a time. Or maybe that. This, by the way, is why it was tops on my list. Interesting. In the final group, this is it. This is it. We're going to talk about what each of the eras, what games we will talk about next week, what groups we will talk about next week in a moment. It will be the era finals. But in this final group, which is group four of the flat screen era, Deadpool will advance. Besting James Bond, Dialed In, and Star Wars. This one went scratch in terms of the standings. And Star Wars is only where it is because of how much I love it. So talk to me about Deadpool. Talk about a game where you're layering things on top of things with lots of options for play. Play. It's a fantastic game and you can do so many different things. It is. It's a it's the best super skill shot. Boy, howdy. And also the best super, super skill shot. What's the super, super skill shot? So if you hit the ball, you plunge it right and then you go around and then you go around the right orbit. Hold left flipper, plunge wall. So that it goes, so that it goes the whole way around. One time, the shot that is just to the right of the little Deadpool 3 stand up so that it goes around and up the ramp to the... No. Oh. No. Two flips. You, you, you, you full plunge holding the left flipper so it comes around. First flip, hit the right orbit. It goes all the way around again, back to the same spot, and then shoot the lock shot. Lockshot. Oh, Lockshot. Oh, okay. So, okay. It is called the MXV Super Skill Shot. That is for Mike Vinacore, a Stern employee on the product team. He's a tester and helps come up with some rules. But he plays all the games extensively as they're being designed. And sometimes he'll come up with a cool idea for a skill shot. And when they add it in, they'll call it the MXV Skill Shot. That is the best super still shot in all of pinball. This game is probably my top five of all time games regardless of this ranking. Next week we will vote on these games to determine who will advance in the brackets in the electromechanical era. Argosy, Centigrade 37, Spanish Eyes, and Doodle Bug. That was pretty scratchy. All of those were high seeds except for centigrade 37. Boy, that's gonna be fun. In the solid state region, competing to see who goes to the final four, Harlem Globetrotters, Stargazer, Banzai Run, and Stars. Stargazer was a dark horse, is a dark horse there. That was a 12 seed in part because I didn't put it in my rankings idiotically. In the DMD region, we're in an interesting realm whereby modern games are trumping some games from a longer time ago. Spider-Man, ACDC, Theater of Magic, and Tron will face off to determine what the greatest DMD-era game of all time is to go against these other games next week. And in the flat screen region, the four contenders for advancing to the next round, Metallica Remastered, Jurassic Park, The Big Lebowski, and Deadpool.
    71:34
    You guys, I think we won week one of the brackets. Next time I'm gonna beat Eric on freaking Metallica. Yeah. Come and get me. That thing killed me. Great game though. See ya. Thanks.
    71:50
    That's all for this week's pod. I'd like to thank Zen for joining us. You can send us your hate mail or your valentine to nycpinpod at gmail.com. You can spit your vitriol or read us a love poem at speakpipe.com slash nycpinpod and you may hear your voice right here on the pod. If you do that, join us next week when we'll do the usual things in Balls 1 and 2, and we'll do the short time usual thing. We will announce the winners of each region, and we'll start talking about the standings in the bracket challenge, the listeners who are competing to predict the correct winners here. Between now and next week, whatever you're up to, go get them, pinball.
    72:43
    So it's called the MXV skill shots. You can find it on Deadpool and also on Iron Maiden, Dungeons and Dragons, Jurassic Park, Stranger Things, and James Bond. And Stern has a page on their website where you can look up the instructions for doing each of them.
    73:13
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