Episode 403: Bart Volman

Pinball Profile·podcast_episode·18m 45s·analyzed·Aug 15, 2024

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.029

TL;DR

Bart Volman on pinball's growth in Netherlands and competitive tournament scene

Summary

Jeff Teoles interviews Bart Volman from the Netherlands at IFPA 19 World Championship. They discuss pinball's resurgence in the Netherlands, documentaries that inspired Volman's passion for competitive pinball (including a chance meeting with Rick Steda), the role of pinball in supporting neurodivergent communities, major tournament formats, and Volman's experience as both a collector and competitive player navigating family life with pinball.

Key Claims

The Netherlands had almost no public pinball locations from the 1990s onward, but is experiencing resurgence with the Pinball Museum in Rotterdam and local venues in Eindhoven
high confidence · Bart explains the near-extinction and current growth of public pinball venues in Netherlands
Bart's first pinball game was The Getaway Ice (P2) by Steve Ritchie in the 1990s, which featured a ZZ Top song he later recognized on radio
high confidence · Direct personal recollection from Bart about his first pinball experience
Bart bought Indiana Jones (Williams) as his first collecting machine in 2012 and collection grew rapidly from there
high confidence · Bart's collection origin story
Bart saw 'Special When Lit' documentary, which inspired him to recognize Rick Steda in a Sunnyvale bar in 2015 and convinced Steda to play pinball with him
high confidence · Detailed anecdote of meeting Rick Steda in California
Eindhoven region has one of the highest per capita concentrations of autism/neurodiversity in the world, potentially due to high-tech industry employment
medium confidence · Bart's observation about his workplace and region; stated as personal knowledge
Project Pinball (led by Daniel Spohler in North America) provides a viable model for pinball community integration in therapeutic/social contexts
high confidence · Jeff and Bart discuss Project Pinball model applicability to Netherlands
Bart placed around 90th out of 1000 competitors at his first Pinberg tournament, which was the last Pinberg before its hiatus
high confidence · Bart's tournament result reflection
Bart prefers Pinberg tournament format over Indisc format, citing less waiting between rounds and all match-play structure
high confidence · Bart's comparative tournament format preference

Notable Quotes

“It's like a Pringles chip. You just can't have one.”
Bart Volman @ early in interview — Humorous explanation of why pinball collection tends to grow uncontrollably
“I won't forgive myself if I don't ask... I saw Special When Lit and that's how I recognized you”
Bart Volman (recounting conversation with Rick Steda) @ 2015 anecdote section — Demonstrates documentary's cultural impact on inspiring competitive pinball engagement
“They really found their space to just be themselves for some reason. So I think this is one of the things that could really help a lot of people in the area that I'm from.”
Bart Volman @ neurodiversity section — Key insight about pinball's therapeutic value for autism spectrum communities
“The fact that we're competing in the world championship, that's just a bonus, but it's the ability to meet so many people that are like-minded.”
Bart Volman @ community bonding section — Captures the social/community aspect of competitive pinball beyond competition itself
“I have a three-year-old son, and I'm not trying to push him in any way, but it seems he's pushing me because for some time he didn't mind pinball, but the past three months he does.”
Bart Volman @ family/youth section — Personal motivation for wanting to share pinball with next generation

Entities

Bart VolmanpersonJeff TeolespersonRick StedapersonSpecial When LitproductTilt: The Battle to Save PinballproductRobert Gagnon: Wizard ModeproductPinball Museum RotterdamorganizationProject PinballorganizationJohannespersonHelen de Haan Verbeekperson

Signals

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community_signal: Bart's efforts to promote pinball internationally and support Project Pinball model expansion to Netherlands demonstrates sustained commitment to hobby growth
high · Bart states: 'I love pinball, and I like other people to love it, too, so I try to promote it wherever I can'
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event_signal: IFPA 19 World Championship at Jim Belsito's location modeling successful tournament hosting with accessible venue and strong community infrastructure
high · Multiple references to well-organized tournament experience at Marietta location with room for side events and social integration
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market_signal: Pinball's proven therapeutic and social value for autism spectrum and neurodivergent communities is gaining recognition as viable community integration model
high · Bart details local observation: 'Whenever I see people somewhere on the spectrum playing pinball, I see they're fascinated, so into it. They seem to, just like Robert Gagnon in the Wizard Mode documentary, they really found their space to just be themselves'
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market_signal: Netherlands pinball market showing recovery after multi-decade decline; infrastructure developing (museums, venues, leagues) to support both casual play and competitive circuits
medium · Bart notes: 'The good thing is it's growing. It's growing, I think, quite rapidly, especially in the area that I'm in, which is in the south of the country' and mentions Pinball Museum Rotterdam, local Eindhoven venues, and growing collector base
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community_signal: Young competitive players (e.g., Johannes, age ~5 starting, competing in tournaments by age 6-7) demonstrating earlier competitive entry and skill development than prior generations

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.056

0:00

it's time for another pinball profile i'm your host jeff teals you can find everything on pinballprofile.com we're on facebook instagram twitter x at pinball profile you can email pinballprofile at gmail.com and if you'd like to show your support on patreon that would be nice not necessarily the show will always be free but it certainly is a very nice thank you and it keeps the show going. That's patreon.com slash pinball profile. And thanks to wonderful people like Albert A., Lua W., GME Law, Rodney C. Thank you again for your kind donations. Here at IFPA 19, it's at Jim Belcido's place, Marietta, California. A wonderful location, but it's where the world comes. It's nice to see this gentleman back again in California, because he was here for Indisc, but he's back again representing the Netherlands. The Dutch! Could they win it all? It's Bart Volman. Hi, Bart. How are you? I'm good. I'm good. How are you, Jeff? Nice to see you, my friend. And I like that you and I had a little conversation. We were just shooting the breeze as we do when we get to see each other. But you told me a bunch of interesting stories. I thought, okay, we've got to do a pinball profile. I mean, I want to anyway, but some unique things too. And really, I want to first of all talk about what it's like pinball in the Netherlands. A lot of locations, hard to find. What's it like? Well, the good thing is it's growing. It's growing, I think, quite rapidly, especially in the area that I'm in, which is in the south of the country. But when I started collecting pinball, you know, as a kid, I always liked to play pinball. We talked about this, right? In the 90s, I played my first pinball machine. Still remember the game. It was The Getaway, Ice P2. It's Steve Ritchie, right? It was Steve Ritchie for me. Oh, man, yeah. And that soundtrack always stuck by me. And I never knew that it was a song from ZZ Talk. So when I heard this song for the first time on the radio, I was like, wow, I know this. But it's just nothing, right? It should be an 8-bit tune. But yeah, that was a great game. And then in the 90s, the games were all gone from public places, and I didn't play pinball for 10, 15 years. And then in 2012, I actually thought about, let's just buy a pinball machine. I was finally working, and I had some money to spend. So I started looking for a game, and I was under the assumption I was only going to buy one. Quite naive, maybe. So I bought an Indiana Jones. The good one, the Williams one. Yeah, it was a great game to start out with, and the collection grew quite rapidly. You can't just have one, right? It's like a Pringles chip. You just can't have one. Right. And by then, I had no idea that there were even public places anymore that had pinball machines, that there were collectors, that there were tournaments. I was completely surprised. But I found out in the years after, and the deeper I got into the hobby, the more I liked it. So it got a bit out of control.

2:53

But coming back to your initial question. So by then, there were no public places to play pinball at all. Now we have the Pinball Museum in Rotterdam. In Rotterdam, yeah. That's awesome. Fantastic place. We have a few local places in Eindhoven. That's the city I'm closest to. And that really helps to get people to get to know pinball again. Because, you know, the old guys like us, we know pinball from when we were young. But people are now in their 20s. And in the Netherlands, they never see pinball. So it's good that it's not developing again. And there are more and more collectors also. So it's definitely on the rise. No, that's good. I know when you come to North America and you click on the pinball map, it's everywhere. So not so much. But it's really more home collections. So that's why they're not showing up on the maps. But that's the way the games are made now. They're more for home collections too. I mean, arcades certainly do well. Look at this man right here, Jim Belcido. Yeah, awesome collection. Yeah, I mean, he's been doing quite well with operating all kinds of games, whether it's redemption games, obviously video games, and definitely our love, pinball games too. You know what? I was in Amsterdam for a day. This was last year before the IPA 18 in Germany. And I would have gone to Rotterdam, but I think the day I was there was a Monday and the museum was closed. I've since talked to them like, you could have called. I'm like, I didn't want to. You should definitely go there if you have a chance. Oh, I want to. It's a fantastic place. It's beautiful for sure. But another thing that interested me too, we were talking about movie documentaries. How fascinating they are and how maybe there aren't enough of them or maybe we hopefully can see some more. But there are some classic ones out there and I think we've all seen the same ones. Yeah, so the one that was one of the first ones I saw I think was Special and Lit, sure. And this was when I was just getting into competitive pinball playing some local tournaments not even the big tournaments But I i was fascinated a lot of characters but also the passion for for you know the hobby the sport it was fascinating to me and funny thing is i went to uh california for work in 2015 i think okay and i think i saw a special one late in 2014 and i was at a bar you know after work in in sunnyvale and um we were not at that bar by coincidence because there was a pinball machine i looked it up and there was a spider-man and we played a game with a few colleagues and then sat at the bar grabbed a beer and a guy comes walking in walks up to the game and i'm like i know this guy and i was like how can i know a guy on for me the other side of the world in a random place playing pinball and i thought i know this guy from the special in the documentary it was rick steda oh wow rick i didn't know for sure so i looked at him i thought i i won't forgive myself if i don't ask so i walked up to him and said sir are you rick stedda world champ and he looked yeah and he looked at me and said yeah yeah i'm rick stedda but he had no idea why why i knew so i i didn't just start to explain to him that i saw special and lit and and that i recognized him he didn't believe me at all so so i really had to convince him that this was and that there was a pinball fanatic okay let's let's play a game and then he saw how you know enthusiastic i was was he animated like i expected then he was like yeah come on oh there we go and yeah let's grab a beer it was a great night yeah yeah i was absolutely fantastic so this is the first movie the first documentary i saw and then i saw tilt the battle to save pinball about the whole pinball 2000 absolutely fantastic i've watched it countless times it's uh it's a great documentary but indeed i think there should be more yeah i I mean, that one was Gomez, Papaduke. Who else was in that, too? Roger Sharp. Roger, yeah. And, yeah, the late Slim and Sheets. Sure. Of course, Roger's movie really was pleasant to see. Put on the big screen or certainly on the streaming services. That was wonderful. And it was good for people who, first of all, love pinball. I mean, Roger used to say, I'm worried the pinball people will think it's not enough pinball. But it was a good story and good history lesson. And then for the other people that weren't into pinball, it was that great story. and the interest between him and Ellen. And, oh, yeah, Pinball's in the background. You can watch it together with your friends who are not into Pinball as much as you are. I didn't know it was banned. All those kind of stories come out. It was really the perfect world movie. But another one, too, obviously close to me being in Canada, was Robert Daniel and Wizard Mode. Another great documentary about one of the best players, certainly at the time, but really more than just that and how Pinball really helped him. and obviously it has for many people with autism and you were telling me a neat story about what's going on in the Netherlands. Yes, so indeed. I saw the movie in the past year somewhere and I knew Robert already from Indisc. I was in 2018 and 2019 and I think what's very, very great to see is that someone who struggles in life really has created an identity around pinball and I think I'm from what they call the smartest square kilometer in the world. There's a lot of high-tech companies in Eindhoven, the region. And I also work at one of the big tech companies there. And there's a lot of people there that have autism or neurodiversity.

8:02

One of the highest per capita in the world, isn't it? I think it's the highest capita in the world, yeah. So I have a lot of colleagues that I work with who also have kids that have autism. And whenever I see people somewhere on the spectrum playing pinball, I see they're fascinated, so into it. They seem to, just like Robert Gagnon in the Wizard Mode documentary, they really found their space to just be themselves for some reason. So I think this is one of the things that could really help a lot of people in the area that I'm from. You know, parents, children, people that maybe struggle to be socially active, to, through pinball, meet other people, have a fun thing to do. And I know the Project Pinball. Oh, yeah. In North America, Daniel Spohler does wonderful things. In fact, even here at this tournament, there's a galactic tank force from American Pinball, and there's a little side tournament where proceeds go to Project Pinball. Yeah, it's amazing to see. And I think something like that could definitely work in the area that I'm from. It's not an easy business model, and certainly you have to get a lot of loopholes with the hospitals and who's going to tech the games. It's not just dropping it off. See, we're done. There's maintaining the game. So what Daniel... Someone that really drives it, I think. I think that's kind of how it works a little bit here. Certain areas you know they got people around I love to get one in my community And Daniel will work with that community and kind of they get the contacts and see how this is possible And then obviously work with the pinball companies to get great deals. So, again, Project Pinball, I can't say enough about that. But, yeah, seeing that on an international level, I think there's a good model there for things, whether it's Netherlands or anywhere else. Yeah. And in general, I think one of the great things I love about pinball is the fact that whether you're five years old or you're 80 years old, you can play. You can compete. You can have fun. It's a social thing. It doesn't matter how much you make. It doesn't matter where you're from. If you like playing pinball with people, you're always good. The biggest challenge for pinball is always the accessibility, right? Because it is an extensive hobby, certainly to own a pinball machine. It's not something everyone can do. But some of the greatest players in the world don't have any pinball machines, but they're always at the arcades and pumping quarters and learning the different games, Which is also another nice thing, because let's say you own a couple of games. You started off falling in love with Getaway, then you had Indie, and that turned into other games. Well, unless you're rotating them a lot, you only kind of get those games. How do you get other experience? It's tournaments, it's arcades. So I'm so happy that also in the Netherlands, it's a slow process, but I think the fact that there are leagues and people that indeed maybe not have the resources to buy their own game can play different games there and have fun with other people liking pinball. So I think I really hope that that's, you know, resurgence in pinball being more in the public space. Yeah, keeps going on. There are people who listen to this podcast or even final round and they're like, oh, they're talking competitive pinball. But what you're missing is I'm talking here with Bart from the Netherlands, who I only see maybe twice, three times a year. Right. Maybe you can open or something like that. And we pick up like where we left off. We have this common bond of pinball. The fact that we're competing in the world championship, that's just a bonus, but it's the ability to meet so many people that are like-minded. But from very different backgrounds, and I really like that. You see so many different people here, and it's great to meet so many different people through something you love together. I couldn't imagine before playing competitive pinball, I'm going to travel to California by myself. No, I don't know. But I know so many people here, not just at pinball, but in different communities. And it's like that everywhere I go. That's the beauty of this pinball and, in a sense, competition too.

12:03

Oh, they're so good. They know the rules. So, you know, Johannes is also here. Yeah. You saw his game yesterday. Hold on a second here. By the time this airs, he could have won it all. He could be the back-to-back champ. I just played him in round four. Check the stats. I stuck it to Johannes. Really? I did. Wow, congrats. Yes, I did. So that means nothing. And it's also the kiss of death. But Johannes is here with his dad. I talked to him and asked him, when did he start out and how did he start out? And they came to their home, and this father told me that he was five years old when he started, and I think he was six, seven years old when he played his first tournament. So I have a three-year-old son, and I'm not trying to push him in any way, but it seems he's pushing me because for some time he didn't mind pinball, but the past three months he does. He loves pinball. Okay. I've been to the Netherlands, all right? I mean, I love that you're teaching him pinball, but if you aren't teaching that kid to ride a bike at three that kid's gonna be in trouble i mean i've never seen so many bikes in all my life yeah it's uh but you know i hope that his love for pinball he has now continues and that at some point we'll also be able to travel together see that yeah that's maybe maybe hold on a second maybe he'll be able to get john's you were trying to be the dad of the year there for a second i hope he loves it and maybe we can travel together you're looking for permission by bonding with your son to go to more pinball tournaments exactly i tried my kids uh they try we'll see we'll see if you like something else that's fine but um yeah i would be really uh if i can be like uh johannes and his dad right now here um i'd sign for that what if your son gets a hold of that tim sexton video watch that says dad pinball makes me sick competitions are not for me there's no way i don't want you doing it anymore we'd have a difficult discussion well son I got good news bad news good news is that you never see pinball again The bad news is I sending you off to boarding school I see you when you 19 You rethink life for a little bit, all right? Anyway, UK Open, are you going to make it to that? Definitely. I'm going to skip the EPC to be able to be at the UK Open. Oh, that's the week before, isn't it? It is. And the week before EPC is the Austrian Pinball Open. I was there last year with Johannes and with Paul Jungma. And we had such a blast that I really want to go there. and I cannot do three weekends in a row. So it was either EPC or UK Open. And I really liked UK Open. Niels doing an absolutely fantastic job there. Well, again, here at Belsitos, he certainly modeled what he sees and what he loves about Indisc. And here we are at IFPA 19. And now, back again, we have five majors. We mentioned Indisc. Yeah, unbelievable. Right here, Papa is back now. And Pinberg. Pinberg's only going to grow. and of course the ETC, right? You were at the last Pemburg. I was. It was my first Pemburg and it was the last Pemburg, so I'm so happy that it's back. How did you do?