EP03 Neal Wagoner

The Pinball Studio Podcast·podcast_episode·23m 2s·analyzed·Sep 20, 2025

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.031

TL;DR

Neal Wagoner's pinball journey: 1970s arcades to 2015 restoration to IFPA 900 ranking.

Summary

Neal Wagoner, tournament director at the Pinball Studio, recounts his decades-long journey into pinball from 1970s arcade visits in upstate New York through his restoration of a deteriorated Fishtails machine in 2015, tournament participation starting in 2016, and current competitive involvement. He discusses his favorite games and designers, his peak IFPA ranking of 900, and recent work restoring classic machines including Star Star Trek: The Next Generation and Bram Stoker's Dracula for tournament rotation at the studio.

Key Claims

Neal first played pinball in the 1970s at a local ice cream shop/snack bar in upstate New York outside Albany on EM pool and poker themed machines
high confidence · Neal Wagoner, direct personal account of early childhood memory
Neal won a free pizza by setting a high score on a solid state pinball machine (possibly Stars) at the same venue in his youth
high confidence · Neal Wagoner, personal anecdote about arcade memory
Neal encountered The The Addams Family in 1992 while on an expatriate work trip to Japan
high confidence · Neal Wagoner, first-hand account of finding pinball in Japan arcade
Neal acquired his first pinball machine, Fishtails, in 2015 for free from a friend who was moving, with a severely deteriorated condition requiring CPU board replacement and extensive restoration work
high confidence · Neal Wagoner, detailed personal restoration story
Neal spent two months working nights and weekends to restore Fishtails to tournament-ready condition
high confidence · Neal Wagoner, direct statement about restoration timeline
Neal played his first tournament in 2016 at Palmetto Pinball Club in Columbia, South Carolina, operated by Pat Petras
high confidence · Neal Wagoner, tournament history recollection
Neal won a small tournament (12-15 people) in 2017 and qualified for South Carolina State Championships
high confidence · Neal Wagoner, tournament results summary
Neal's peak IFPA ranking was 900, achieved after playing multiple tournaments in Florida and South Carolina post-pandemic
high confidence · Neal Wagoner, direct statement of IFPA ranking achievement
Neal currently maintains an IFPA ranking around 2,000-2,200 after focusing more on local tournaments
high confidence · Neal Wagoner, current IFPA ranking disclosure

Notable Quotes

“I was just big enough to see over the lockdown bar, and my parents had indulged me, let me play while they would play a game or two.”
[name withheld pending review] @ early in podcast — Establishes how young he was when first introduced to pinball, setting context for lifelong passion
“You wouldn't forget it. The first time you saw it, you didn't forget it.”
[name withheld pending review] @ mid-podcast, discussing Bram Stoker's Dracula and Addams Family — Captures the memorable impact of certain iconic pinball machines on players
“I spent two months, weekends, nights and weekends just working non-stop, getting this pinball machine tuned up”
[name withheld pending review] @ Fishtails restoration segment — Shows the dedication required for restoration projects and commitment to the hobby
“Like a new penny. Like a project pinball machine does.”
Sterling Plays Pinball @ post-restoration discussion — Describes the satisfying transformation of a restored machine
“I think my favorite designer... probably Pat Lawlor is my favorite designer. The whole show and the four flipper kind of deal like The The Addams Family”
[name withheld pending review] @ designer preferences discussion — Articulates his favorite designer philosophy based on specific game mechanics
“I'm into Foo Fighters. Well, yeah, you're always in love with the new game, hopefully, if you chose well.”
[name withheld pending review] @ favorite games discussion — Reflects the dynamic nature of pinball enthusiasm and shifting preferences
“It ticks like a Swiss watch now. Plenty of people come over and they're like, 'Man, that's a really nice Fishtails,' and I'm like 'I don't think Neil would have told you that when he first got a hold of the game.'”
Sterling Plays Pinball @ Fishtails current condition assessment — Underscores the dramatic improvement from initial deteriorated state to tournament-ready machine

Entities

[name withheld pending review]personSterlingpersonJosh YatespersonPat PetraspersonBrian MerrittpersonPat Lawlorperson Keith Elwinperson Steve Ritchieperson[name withheld pending review]person

Signals

?
historical_signal: Neal's detailed recollection of 1970s-1980s EM and solid state arcade ecosystem in upstate New York, including regional chain arcades (Time Tunnel, Aladdin's Castle) and mall arcade culture
high · Neal describes playing EM pool/poker machines in 1970s ice cream shop, earning free pizza with solid state high score, visiting Albany malls with chain arcades in 1980s, and Black Knight memories
?
restoration_signal: Detailed account of two-month intensive restoration of severely deteriorated Fishtails machine: CPU board replacement, corrosion removal from chrome ramps, bolt corrosion cleaning, rubber replacement, cabinet repair, switch and light work
high · Neal describes leaking batteries destroying CPU board, rust and corrosion, flat/petrified rubbers requiring replacement, white powder corrosion on playfield bolts, all demanding comprehensive two-month weekend/evening project
?
competitive_signal: Neal's tournament career arc: first tournament 2016 at Palmetto Pinball Club, small tournament win in 2017 (12-15 person field), South Carolina State Championships qualification, peak IFPA ranking of 900 post-pandemic, current ranking 2000-2200, potential Georgia State Championships qualifier
high · Neal provides detailed timeline: 2016 first tournament, 2017 small tournament win and state qual, post-pandemic 900 peak ranking from FL/SC tournaments, currently 2000-2200 with local play, competing for Georgia finals
?
community_signal: Growing tournament infrastructure in Southeast: Palmetto Pinball Club (8 machines), Fellowship of the Silver Ball monthly house league in Greenville rotating through member homes, Pinball Lounge in Florida, Free Play Florida events, regional state championships establishing competitive depth
high · Neal describes Pat Petras's Palmetto Club, Brian Merritt's Fellowship with rotating house tournaments, multiple Florida tournaments at Pinball Lounge, Free Play Florida, state championships in SC and Florida

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.069

Hello and welcome to the third episode of the Pinball Studio podcast. Today I've got another one of my good friends, Neil Wagner, with me. He's one of our tournament directors at the Pinball Studio, along with being one of our founding members. Neil, how's it going, buddy? Hi, Sterling. I'm doing good. So today, pretty much, we just want to hear your story of how you basically got into pinball And basically just start with your earliest memories of how you found this whole hobby. Yeah, so my story goes back a little longer than some of the others. I first played pinball in the 70s. So this was the local ice cream shop, snack bar, restaurant. It had a pool table and a couple of EM pinball machines and an EM shooting gallery game and an EM shuffleboard table. And I was just big enough to see over the lockdown bar, and my parents had indulged me, let me play while they would play a game or two. And I wish I could remember what EM games they were I first played. I just remember they were pool themes and poker themes. Do you remember, like, maybe the brand or anything? Was it Wedgeheads or – No, just EMs. It had chimes. Maybe they all blended together. I'm sure this place has been around forever. I'm sure years before, my parents had gone on dates to this place and played pinball there as well. What state was this in? Yeah, I grew up in upstate New York, outside Albany, a rural area. So when I got a little older, me and my buddies from town, the local guys, we'd ride our bicycles to the same place and play some games. Eventually, along came the solid state games. And I remember it was a solid state game, maybe like Stars or something like that. And they had a sign next to the pinball machine. If you set the high score, you get a free pizza. And, well, we had a few dollars, got some quarters, and, you know, grind off enough games. And sure enough, I set the high score. And we got our free – me and my buddies took pizza for lunch that day. I remember watching. They took down the free pizza sign. No. No more of that. That's a fun pinball memory. So after that, visiting Albany had so many malls with arcades, and they were the kind of chain arcades. Like there was one Time Tunnel, and gosh, right off the tip of my tongue, trying to remember the other one there, Aladdin's Castle, these arcades that were kind of regional. and so many arcade games and pinball machines then in the 80s. And eventually, though, the pinball machines got smaller and the number of arcade games got bigger, you'd notice, through the 80s. And I don't even really remember those pinball machines very well, just that I had fun playing them other than, I remember in school, me and my friends would mock the Black Knight call-outs. We'd walk around with kind of the same robotic voice. Will you challenge the Black Knight Kind of thing So definitely I must have played Black Knight When I was young because I remember That call out clearly That's hilarious I work for a high tech company Electronics On scientific instruments So I work, I repair electronics And work on intricate mechanical Machinery, things like that Kind of assemblies And I happen to be I did an expatriate trip with work, spent a year living and training at our factory in Japan. And this would have been 92, and you really didn't see any pinball machines then in the arcades in Japan. But there were tons of arcades to have fun at. But finally, at the one big arcade in the next city over was a brand new pinball machine. and that was 1992 so of course the new pinball machine was adam's family which you know makes sense i look back now everyone knows adam's family came out in 92 so that was uh i always look forward to visiting that arcade and uh playing some adam's family that was uh really really don't forget the first time you saw that pinball machine that was that was really a whiz bang one coming back from uh getting back from japan i traveled the country a lot with work and always seek out arcades, but you really just didn't see that much pinball going through the 90s. I don't hardly remember finding very much. I remember one city I would visit, this one arcade had a Bram Stoker's Dracula, and that was another pinball machine. The first time you saw it, you didn't forget it. And other than that, two others I remember from the 90s. The Revenge from Mars You know, the Pinball 2000 With the big monitor in the back Oh, absolutely And I didn't care for that No attack from Mars, though? It was, you know, a dark pinball machine With the TV Yeah, I never cared for it No, no But I do remember playing that So definitely I was still enjoying pinball Pinball then in 99 But the other one That there was a city I visited The arcade always had a South Park And I always enjoyed playing that Because that's just a great theme You can't go wrong with South Park on Route You don remember any like Attack from Mars or Medieval Madness Not really from that time No The city I went to Actually that was interesting My company not only supports customers in the U but some out of the U That's a business trip that I would frequently go to Israel, and the arcade in Jerusalem had the Bram Stoker's Dracula. And every time I went back to Israel, I'd always visit that arcade and play their BSD. And Well when did you get into tournaments Or was that way later Oh yeah way later I was going to say that the one other Pinball memory was Playing The virtual pinball So in the 90's there was Epic Mega Games Had epic pinball And there were multiple tables Of course the virtual pinball they call them tables There was the android pinball and Pot of Gold and some others. And they had a couple table packs on this early DOS. I just remember the one on PC. It was like the space-themed one. Well, in Windows 95, it had the pinball game. What was that? Space Command. Yeah, yeah. That's right. So, yeah, and, of course, I always enjoyed the PC games. I always had some kind of virtual pinball. In the 90s, I found the 90s, but I came out in the 2000s or I should say I never in the 2000s. I always thought about pinball and I would you'd see a pinball very rarely like I'd see a Johnny Mnemonic. And I think, well, wait a minute, that's an old movie. This this is an old pinball machine. Do they still make pinball machines? And I try to think what's the newest pinball machine I'd seen? And probably the pinball 2000 Star Wars Episode I was probably the – because Stern was making Lord of the Rings and Simpsons Pinball Party. But I never saw one of those en route. I don't recall ever seeing those. They're kind of memorable. You wouldn't remember those. See, when I bought my first pinball machine back to the future, I kind of asked myself the same question. I was like, do they still make these? So the first thing I did was look up and Ghostbusters had just came out. And I was like, whoa, like Ghostbusters, one of my favorite themes. You know, so. Yeah. So like Stern was still cranking them out or so then. Yeah. Yeah. They were getting popular then. But yeah, through the 2010s, then the pinball arcade came out on the PC. Like I said, I enjoy PC games. So I was playing all the Pinball Arcade titles And a lot of them I realized I didn't know That I enjoyed, like Whitewater I don't recall ever seeing Whitewater But it sure seemed cool on Pinball Arcade Or some of the other cool ones Elvira, Scared Stiff was so much fun on the computer But I don't recall ever seeing one of those in real life Right, and also, what else was on there? Are you Tales from the Arabian Nights? Totan, yeah. That was the free game. But I was really into the pinball arcade, enjoying that, and a friend of mine approached me and said, Hey, a friend of ours is moving, and they have a broken pinball machine. You're an electronics guy. You can probably fix it up. And they just want somebody, if you'll take it away, and you can have it to fix up. That's an awesome deal. And they said, it's kind of a fish theme, we're thinking. Like, oh, Pinball Arcade, I know fishtails. Yeah. And sure enough, they had fishtails, which was in real poor condition. The batteries had leaked and killed the CPU board. Right. And it was really rusty and corroded. The chrome ramps had spots of rust all over them. And all the playfield bolts were covered with this white powder corrosion and white powder, you know, laying all around on the playfield that was shedding off the bolts. All the rubbers had snapped and were laying on the playfield. And they kind of turned to gum and they kind of like sunk in. You know, they laid flat and then they turned to concrete. Sticking to the playfield. They looked like they melted and froze. And yeah, that well, long story short, I started with the CPU board. I was I was looking at repairing that because I have experience with electronics, but even the traces were were cracked on that. But OK, let's get a rotten dog board and see if this if the rest of the machine works. And and sure enough, it everything was there. It lit up. It needed switches and lights and new rubbers and right. A lot of love. The cabinet was cracked, but it needed everything. You'd expect a free pinball machine to need But I spent two months Weekends, nights and weekends Just working non-stop Getting this pinball machine tuned up Had some friends that were visiting So I kind of had a deadline, I want it working And yeah, boy, it really shined up Like a new penny Like a project pinball machine does Oh yeah, it looks fantastic Tell me your story, man The Fishtails is now in the pinball studio One of our tournament games With the other Bally Williams Titles right next to T2 It's a fun one man Yep Yep Ticks like a Swiss watch Now plenty of people Come over and they're like Man that's a really nice Fishtails And I'm like I don't think Neil Would have told you that When he first Yep Got a hold of the game Took a lot of love To make it shine like that Wow that's cool So that then You know Of course I found Pinside And saw that Oh they do make Pinball machines And you can collect them And all the parts Are available online And that It took me forever to jump on pin side All my friends kept saying you got to get on Pinside And I like no And then like finally I jumped on I was like, oh, this is pretty much the one-stop place for pinball. You know, you sell them, you buy them, you mods, whatever. Yep, yep. Oh, yeah. No, it's great to have a community to go chat with other people as well. I enjoy Twitch, watching tournaments or just watching folks playing their home machines. and chatting with them about pinball and, oh, what's your favorite and all that stuff. So do you remember the first tournament you ever played in? Yeah, it took me a while to get my nerve up for tournaments. I would, you know, when I got into the hobby in the spring, when I got that fishtails, I visited SFGE that summer and went to the show, but I didn't. I just noticed, oh, there's the tournament room and those are the pinball machines I can't play. darn, I didn't even, wasn't really interested in a tournament to start off with. But when you're playing at home alone, you think, oh, if I was playing with somebody, I'm having a good game, I might win, you know. And you want to be competitive, you want to go out and see how you do in a tournament. Do you remember about what year this was? Yeah, so I got the fishtails in 2015. By the end of 2016, I would look on, of course, the tournament map, and the closest were up in Columbia, South Carolina, about three hours away from me. But, you know, hey, I want to go play in a tournament. Sounds like fun. Let's go. And Pat Petras had the Palmetto Pinball Club, a little space they rented with maybe eight pinball machines, all good tournament machines, EMs and classics. And I had a great time And I probably played in Four or five tournaments That first year there in 2017 And one of the small tournaments I even won You know, these are tournaments with maybe 12 people Or 15 people And qualified just at the bottom of the pack A 16th place for the state championships In South Carolina So that was really exciting to participate in the South Carolina State Championships Oh yeah And I played since then At the end of the pandemic I was going to Florida to play in a lot of tournaments there And I did good in Free Play Florida And I would go to tournaments at the Pinball Lounge And have fun on all their classic pins And did good enough that I qualified that year To play in the Florida State Championships And I did Did real well with those I basically came in Like the top eight So fifth place You'd say I got knocked out at fifth place I was happy with that Got some cash And since then Been playing in the Georgia State Championships The last couple of years So that's fun Did you ever start playing in any of the Atlanta locations prior to us? No, never Getting to Atlanta The traffic getting through Macon up to Atlanta Is always so heavy It's difficult to get up to Atlanta For tournaments I think for me I prefer to travel up to Greenville, South Carolina Which is still four hours But they have the Fellowship of the Silver Ball there Brian Merritt, the tournament director And they have a house league Where once a month on Friday or Saturday They'll play at These rotate through these three different homes With giant collections And have pretty large tournaments So that's They have some real great tournaments there In Greenville So those are recommended No that's really cool When did you finally discover us? How did you find us? How did I find us? I think my friend Josh Yates I met him at SFGE We're both from the Savannah area Okay And probably he had texted me That hey look He noted something And I was putting it on the IFPA website So if some of you all may have just Discovered us that way Actually that was prior Yeah your first tournament wasn't IFPA You just posted it on Yeah you and Josh were like the ones that were saying Hey you gotta make these things IFPA Yeah of course I'd already been to some state championships I have PA points I think I was posting it also in like some Local pinball groups and stuff On Facebook so Josh may have seen it on one of those And pointed you in the right direction So do you have any favorite Pinball games or designers Or anything Specifically? I think about the eras So the classics my favorite is Stars and the DMD's Fishtails is my favorite I still just That was your first pinball machine You're tired of that one? Nope, it's a fast game I'll never get tired of playing Fishtails I really enjoy that one And more modern Modern Sterns Avengers Infinity Quest I love And Jurassic Park I have AIQ and Jurassic Park in my home I really enjoy those Favorite designer Keith Elwin it sounds like What's that? Sounds like you like Keith Elwin Kind of Keith Elwin Well I have to say though you know enjoying games by Pat Lawler Probably Pat Lawler is my favorite designer The whole show and the four flipper kind of Kind of deal like Adam family Shooting the ball around with Adam family And a lot of Keith's games are very similar to Pat Lawler Games I think so yeah Kind of It's hard for me to pick A favorite gamer designer anymore It seems like I'm always bouncing around Like probably a month ago Jaws was my favorite now I'm like Playing Foo Fighters every day I just I'm into Foo Fighters. Well, yeah, you're always in love with the new game, hopefully, if you chose well. So what's your best ranking in the IFPA so far? Like I said, after the pandemic, I was hustling around a lot, hitting a lot of big tournaments in Florida and South Carolina, driving all over. And I hit 900 with my ranking. That's where my ranking peaked out. Playing more local tournaments. It's been hovering around 2,000, 2,200 currently But it's fun if I can squeak into the Georgia State finals That's fun Heck yeah Yeah, I think you and maybe Willa sneak in there this year hopefully Or at least that's what I'm hoping for Yeah, we're close And maybe we'll have it down here this year I'm not sure yet That'd be cool But have you seen the new Star Wars game? What's your thoughts on it? Oh, the new Star Wars game Did you watch any of the streams yet? Just a little More just the YouTube Stern advertisements Someone mentioned the layout Might look a little like Austin Powers Like okay now I can get that out of my head See I don't even have that I can't even picture the Austin Powers layout It's another fan layout With some ramps and what not I noticed it kind of had the Cactus Canyon Bowl thing Or whatever like spin off bowl Yep I don't know what to think about it I want to play it I'm curious to play it The artwork on the play field I was kind of iffy about I like the cabinet artwork though It looks pretty good And I just recently got a Steve Ritchie Star Wars 2017 I think I like that At least looking at both layouts I think I like that one better It's just me Having it at home is so much fun One more game, one more game One more game of Star Wars But it's here right now Because you're out of room And now it's here I'm forgetting how to play it I remember to get my multiplier moved And get my modes right Pick the right guy Now I'm glad I got to spend some time on Star Wars Because I'd never really played it on location Until we brought it over here To put in some tournaments Of course we should mention why Star Wars is here Because I had to make room Because my house is your Star Trek's next generation Getting it all fixed up for us Notoriously finicky pinball machine I'm finding problems We didn't know were wrong The more I play it Yeah you mentioned one of the guns was screwed up The one gun wasn't homing correctly So when the gun Did it's first swipe it wouldn't let you fire And once I got the homing fixed on that The other gun The plunger would stick out I remember it was doing that I've seen that before It's magnetized so I just put a little business card spacer At the Is it magnetized to the stop or something? Yeah, not to the stop When the coil pulls it in, it sticks to the metal I guess it is That holds the coil, yeah The plate there I got you But yeah, that's a problem I'd seen before We got that tuned up Now I'm looking forward to having that in some tournaments That's a cool, cool older game I miss my old Star, or Stern Star Trek There's a lot to go over The more I fix, the more I see needs fixing. Oh, and I'd already fixed all kinds of things on that. And you had done a ton of work and put a lot of new parts on it. Both guns had all kinds of broken wires on it. I don't think either gun worked at all. Before that, I had Will's Bram Stoker's Dracula at my house that needed a lot of board work to get the five volts sorted out on that. Not one of Will's games. And, yeah, that's all right. I enjoyed tinkering on it Enjoyed having it at the house to get some plays on BSD is a great game So exciting When you can stack the multi-balls Yeah Dracula's not here anymore Maybe they'll return one day Sounds like Will's willing to bring it back Great tournament game That game's kind of problematic as well It seems like Those little gates and all that With the ball going across it The mist multiball And the little gates can stick The software compensates for that If a ball gets stuck in the Mist multiball pocket when it's not supposed to The magnet will actually run over there And pull the ball out and put it back in play Right For all it's faults it's got some decent Programming That's fun Well anyway I appreciate You coming on the show Neal And it was good hearing your story man Yep, it's fun to talk pinball. Thanks for having me, Sterling. No problem, man. And if anyone else is looking for a new or used pinball machine, definitely give Old Town Pinball a call or check out their website, oldtownpinball.com. It's got all the new Stern games. Order your Star Wars today, and we will see you next time. Later. you