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Episode 303: Sounds like a Euphemism

NYC PinPod·podcast_episode·1h 1m·analyzed·Sep 16, 2024
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.030

TL;DR

NYC PinPod weekly roundup: tournament results, Barcade Brooklyn venue review, and upcoming league schedules.

Summary

NYC PinPod episode covering local tournament results from the previous week, a detailed venue review of Barcade Brooklyn as a pinball location, and information about upcoming competitive matches in the New York City area. The hosts discuss tournament outcomes, league standings, machine conditions at various venues, and the operational aspects of running tournaments at Barcade Brooklyn.

Key Claims

  • Barcade Brooklyn has 14 pinball machines, among the highest collections in NYC alongside Single Cut (13), Jack Bar (15), and Sunshine Laundromat (16)

    high confidence · Benjamin Buriga discussing Barcade Brooklyn's pinball lineup in detail, cross-referenced with NYC pinball machine map data

  • As of September 14, 2024, there are 279 pinball machines in New York City at 85 public locations

    high confidence · Benjamin Buriga citing Pinball Map data

  • Game of Thrones at Midway has a persistent bug where the plunger spring shoots the ball up so fast it can auto-select House Stark before the player plunges ball one

    high confidence · Jose Garcia describing the issue; Benjamin Buriga explains it's a physical limitation requiring plunger spring replacement

  • Barcade Brooklyn provides tech support during tournaments, with staff members trained in pinball maintenance

    high confidence · Eric Swedland praising Barcade's technical support as a TD, naming Matthew Grady, Max, and Jeff Anderson as available techs

  • Pulp Fiction LE was added to KCBC taproom in Brooklyn (operated by Sunshine Vending) and Jaws Pro was removed from that location

    high confidence · User Wmanning4th on Pinball Map, September 13th

  • Special When Lit has relocated to Boat Bar in Cobble Hill for Monday Pinball NYC matches (previously at Rolo's)

    high confidence · Benjamin Buriga announcing location change for upcoming Pinball NYC round

  • Theater of Magic has been added to Sunshine Laundromat with enough machines now available for a good tournament

    high confidence · Benjamin Buriga noting availability for September 22 tournament at Sunshine Laundromat

  • Deluxe Horses beat Special When Lit 9-7 in Pinball NYC despite being predicted to lose

    high confidence · Benjamin Buriga describing Monday Pinball NYC match outcome

Notable Quotes

  • “the Colliders are the cutest team, the Deluxe Horses are demonstrably the funnest team in Pinball NYC”

    Benjamin Buriga@ 3:00 — Establishes team personality dynamics in NYC league play

  • “I had a shitload of fun. Absolutely. I had fun. We were cute. And we went to bed early.”

    Madeline Lynn@ 5:33 — Expresses enthusiasm for team experience and camaraderie

  • “Ted needed about half a million to take the match and whoops.”

    Benjamin Buriga (quoting Weston Ulfig)@ 13:50 — Captures the dramatic near-miss moment in competitive play

  • “Most modern Western games are mostly pseudo-gambling, and I have a significant issue with that morally.”

    Madeline Lynn@ 33:51 — Expresses ethical concerns about modern arcade game design

  • “TDing out of Arcade Brooklyn is one of my better experiences, I think particularly because of the tech support that we get.”

    Eric Swedland@ 34:33 — Highlights importance of technical support infrastructure for tournament operations

  • “I was chatting with him and I was asking so hey how does this work he's like well the new light bulbs you can do leds if you do the old incandescence you can solder them or you got to screw them in and replace them”

    Madeline Lynn@ 36:38 — Illustrates the technical details and skill involved in pinball machine maintenance

  • “I really appreciate the service i get there that's awesome i remember my first attending of a bell's event was at the barcade brooklyn and i remember seeing how uh one of the machines was being worked on”

    Madeline Lynn@ 35:56 — Emphasizes the professional maintenance quality observed at the venue

Entities

Benjamin BurigapersonEric SwedlandpersonMadeline LynnpersonBarcade BrooklynvenueMatthew GradypersonNint HupersonJose GarciapersonSunshine LaundromatvenueJack BarvenueButtermilk Barvenue

Signals

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Comprehensive reporting of Pinball NYC season week 2 matchups with team movements, venue assignments, and location changes (Special When Lit relocating to Boat Bar)

    high · Detailed match schedules and results for multiple leagues: Pinball NYC, South Slope Strikes, SSPL, Jack Bar Thursday Night Strikes, Barcade Brooklyn Pinball League

  • ?

    venue_signal: Detailed assessment of Barcade Brooklyn including machine lineup (14 pins), venue infrastructure, tech support availability, and operational excellence for tournaments

    high · Extended venue review covering decor, game selection, tech staff (Matthew Grady, Max, Jeff Anderson), accessibility, and comparison to other major NYC venues

  • ?

    product_concern: Game of Thrones at Midway has persistent plunger spring issue causing unwanted auto-selection of House Stark before ball one; requires spring replacement and plunger lane switch inspection

    high · Jose Garcia reporting the bug; Benjamin Buriga providing technical explanation and fix methodology

  • ?

    community_signal: Growing evidence of team spirit and community engagement: Pin Pals team overcoming forfeit history, Trolls' Instagram 'Troll Story' featuring team themes, Harlem Globe Flippers establishing presence

    high · Multiple team initiatives: Pin Pals' commitment to showing up for At The Wallace matches, Trolls Instagram account (@pinballtrolls), team camaraderie narratives

  • ?

    operational_signal: Barcade Brooklyn stands out as having dedicated, trained tech support staff available during weekly tournaments, creating significant operational advantage for TDs

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.185

0:00
Happy Sunday, pinball or whatever day you're listening this is nyc pinpod in which a panel talks location pinball in new york city and nearby surrounding areas my name is benjamin buriga my initials are bcf and time flies my name is eric swedland my initials are hyp and i'm a pinball tournament director in new york city hey y'all my name is madeline lynn my pronouns are she or hers My initials are MXL, and my new special interest table is JAWS. On this week's pod, we'll run down local competition results. In Ball 2, we'll review Barcade Brooklyn as a pinball venue. And in Ball 3, we'll talk about Eric's travel to Hudson, New York for a tournament this week. Let's get started. Let's talk about competition results in New York City and nearby surrounding areas for the last week. last saturday south slope strikes september was convened at buttermilk primarily with a few games played at rollo's there were just enough players that we had to go catty corner to the other for few rounds. Nint Who won the day with only one strike to his name.
1:54
Thomas Milburn came in second, Robert Wong third, and Billy Vazine, in fact, tied with Robert Wong. On Sunday, September 8th, the Jersey City Monthly Open was met at Barcade Jersey City. Matt Falzone took first place after some finals. Matt Warwick took second place. Matthew Lewandowski took third place. And Jose Garcia took fourth place.
2:32
It really relieved the pressure to not have a fourth Matt or Matthew there, as Eric points out. On Monday night, Pinball NYC. Excellent. Special Went to Barcade Brooklyn to visit the Deluxe Horses. And I gotta tell you, I would have had this one the other way. If you told me it was going to come out 9-7, I would have told you that the visitors would have won. But, while the Colliders are the cutest team, the Deluxe Horses are demonstrably the funnest team in Pinball NYC. And they brought nine points of fun to special when lit the two for oners came to buttermilk bar they visited us colliders i'm sorry to say the result wasn't exactly what i wanted madeline what was your experience for the night oh i played in the second uh round so that was the first singles round and i played in the fourth overall round which is the second doubles round jaws both times first jaws match was pretty neck and neck. Pulled out just over 100 million versus my opponents. I think 98 million in the first round of singles. And then for the second round of doubles, teammate Jess and I, we went head to head again, playing against the two for one. But they got the two and we did not for that second round of doubles in Jaws. They got the two, we got the zero, unfortunately. And it was 10 to 6. You guys played a nice game. I was watching I was going back and forth between the two games I tried to stick back with Metallica because I might feel like I have a strategic advantage to communicate to friends on my team I was not playing in round four in this one I played in rounds one and three I had a ton of fun while the two for oneers brought it as they do we were the cutest team as we are. I will point out that this was a really interesting matchup, not only because, as we pointed out in the Jersey City Open, that Matthew, Matt, and Matthew existed in the top four. There was more than one name vortex at this matchup because our team has Ben, Ben, and Benjamin. And their team has Dan, Danny, and Daniel. And also, one of our Bens is Hagen. And twice, Ben Hagen played Hagen Major in our match. So there were all sorts of name vortices floating around.
Scrapple Landvenue
JAWSgame
South Slope Strikesevent
Pinball NYCorganization
Deluxe Horsesorganization
Collidersorganization
Boat Barvenue
Owl Farmvenue
Solid Statevenue
Gebhardt's Beer Culturevenue
Single Cut Beersmithsvenue
Endless Life Brewingvenue
KCBC Taproomvenue

high · Eric Swedland: 'TDing out of Arcade Brooklyn is one of my better experiences...particularly because of the tech support that we get' with named techs available each week

  • ?

    venue_signal: Location equipment changes tracked: Pulp Fiction LE added to KCBC (Jaws Pro removed), new machines at Sunshine Laundromat including Theater of Magic enabling better tournament support

    high · Pinball Map user reports on Wmanning4th and DanTastic; Benjamin Buriga noting sufficient machines for Sunshine tournament

  • ?

    content_signal: NYC PinPod providing comprehensive weekly coverage including tournament results, venue reviews, machine condition reports, league scheduling, and community engagement tracking

    high · Structured episode covering competition results, venue review, machine updates from Pinball Map, upcoming schedules across 8+ active leagues

  • $

    market_signal: Barcade expanding through sister locations (Boat Bar in Cobble Hill); consolidation of pinball venues around major operators (Sunshine Vending, Barcade network) evident

    high · Announcement of Special When Lit moving to Boat Bar as sister location to Buttermilk; multiple Sunshine Vending locations (KCBC, Endless Life Brewing) noted

  • ?

    community_signal: Discussion of venue accessibility concerns (21+ age requirement at Barcade Brooklyn), machine maintenance quality and historical preservation (LED vs. incandescent bulbs)

    medium · Madeline Lynn raising accessibility questions; detailed discussion of technical maintenance standards and authentic parts preservation

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Gebhardt's Beer Culture adjusting format from 5 rounds to 8 rounds of match play due to player count fluctuations

    high · Benjamin Buriga noting format change at Gebhardt's for Thursday tournament due to 7-player turnout

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Pin Pals team showing increased commitment to uptown play (At The Wallace), ending streak of forfeitures under captain Sonny's leadership

    high · Eric Swedland: 'last two seasons in row, they forfeited coming up to At The Wallace. But this time, Sonny, captain of the pin pals...said, we're going to make it this time'

    • 5:24
    It was a great starting match for the season. Would you agree with that, Madeline? I had a shitload of fun. Absolutely. I had fun. We were cute. And we went to bed early. That's right. We also were done before 10 o'clock.
    5:42
    Pinball Union went to Midway and lost a close one. Thankfully, members of both teams reached out to us.
    5:56
    Zen Zakniak, who plays on Balls of Steel, said they played a fun team with a couple of new players to the league. Nice. And pointed out that the machines are just as wonky as always. Oof. Jose Garcia from Pinball Union pointed out that after they were swept in round one, both teams traded blows for the next two rounds to reach a score of eight to four. And going into round four, they, Pinball Union, needed to sweep to force a tiebreaker, as would be the case if it's going to end ten to six. It was a couple of tense games with some hope for pinball union. They won on Iron Maiden with a clutch third ball. But at the same time, Greg Fertel put up a score of almost 1.8 billion on Game of Thrones to take the win.
    6:53
    Holy cow. Jose also mentions that the Game of Thrones at Midway still has that bug from back in the day where it shoots up just so fast that you've got to grab the plunger to make sure that you have not automatically had the House Stark selected for you before ball one is plunged it's a physical limitation not a bug in the software replace the plunger spring and that'll go away. Huh. And also check the switch on the plunger lane. Make sure it's working good. You can choose the family into which you're born.
    7:36
    Oh. Parliament visited Commonwealth on Monday night and they won the first tiebreaker of the season with an 8-8 win over Intermission Dolores. An 8-8 tiebreaker win on the road can prove to be really useful. And I just want to point out that I said that in week one about Parliament beating Intermission Dolores. Let's remember that in week 10. Nice job, nice job.
    8:10
    The pin pals went to at the Wallace. Eric, tell us what happened. Yeah, Benjamin, last week you predicted that no more than four pin pals would show up in Upper Manhattan to see our association.
    8:27
    And that was in question until 757 when four pin pals walked into At The Wallace. We're really happy to see them because the last two seasons in a row, they forfeited coming up to At The Wallace. But this time, Sonny, captain of the pin pals, let me know. She put her foot down and said, we're going to make it this time. We're not going to forfeit this one. And we're glad they showed up. We had a lot of fun.
    8:56
    NYCFSA took the first doubles round, four points there, and then we split the rest of the way down to finish 10-6. In round three, Pimpel's player, Arun, was playing against Sean on NYCFSA and finished all three four points short of Sean, but had an extra ball to be plunged.
    9:19
    It bounced around in the pop bumpers just long enough to start the hoops multi-ball and score at least six points in pop bumper points and take the win. It was great to see. Clearly a luck-based game. Well, that's interesting. That's interesting. Ron got himself close enough to Sean's score that the extra ball that he earned through game play provided him with at least six points and the win. That's skill. And let's also point out that this is a game where you score a point at a time. You don't score 10 points at a time. You don't score 100 points at a time. You don't score 1,000 points or a million points or 100. You score a point at a time with the possible exception of some two-point shots and some three-point shots. And so I just want to, like, getting the extra ball did it. An extra ball is usually zero points. Well, it depends on how many pops you hit. It depends on how many pops. On this game, if you hit the right number of pops at the right time, you won the game.
    10:28
    Wait, because you can only get points if you get it in the hoop. Actually, yeah, so it's not the other kinds of table. There are a few scoring ones.
    10:38
    Okay, never mind. And the pops will set one of them off. The pops actually score points. as it's not like one point per pop though it's one or two points every so many pops and I don't know what the formula is yeah I don't know the calculus you can't really expect much on an extra ball but it was cool yeah that's very cool after the match my teammate Alex and I caught a ride with the pin pals back down to Park Slope and we jumped into the buttermilk to see if we could run into the colliders there, but I guess they'd already all gone to bed.
    11:18
    We needed our beauty sleep. Yes, indeed. Catty corner from Madeline and me. The lion persons bested the aristocrats at their home Rolos. Rawr.
    11:33
    The mutants went to Barcade in Chelsea, where it's loud, and they won 13 to 3. Nice job, mutants. On Tuesday night in Pinball NYC, the ball drainers went to Buttermilk to face the Butterballers. The visitors were victorious, 10 to 6.
    12:01
    The pinister 6 went to rest in Pinball at Barcade Brooklyn, and Captain Zen Zopniak said to me, it was a super fun match. It came down to the last round of doubles where the deciding match was on 8-Ball Deluxe. Ooh. The doubles totals were 816,000 to 802,950. Oh. That is really close. and Zen pointed out it was a lot of fun.
    12:43
    Pinister 6 comes away with an 11-5 win. Danger Danger went to Milo's yard to face Neptune's Treasure.
    12:53
    They came away with a 9-7 win, and Weston Ulfig from Neptune's Treasure pointed out, after goading me about providing NYC Pinpod content himself, as opposed to power providing it. Thanks, Weston. Wes suggested that Neptune's treasure lost at home to Danger Danger. Both teams were short. Treasure's lost a couple of games on jackpot while still having billion-plus games, and that it all came down to the last ball on whirlwind when Ted needed about half a million to take the match, And as Weston says, I'm putting this entirely in quotes. This is up to him. Most of what I've said so far has been a direct quote, but this very much is, whoops, period.
    13:50
    Ted needed about half a million to take the match and whoops. Looking forward to the season. Kettle's hand grenades went to Bar Great Harry to face the trolls. and Eric, I think you pointed out that there's an interesting way to follow the trolls this season.
    14:11
    Yeah, that's right. I noticed that the trolls have an Instagram account. It's at pinballtrolls and they're featuring this week in Troll Story each week, apparently, showing off their team theme. This week was first day of school. It's adorable. and if you're interested in following along with the trolls, check them out on Instagram.
    14:35
    I just looked them up. Oh my goodness. These are such cute pictures. Y'all. I love the team spirit. Scrapple Squad went to at the Wallace to face the Harlem Globe Flippers. Again, one of the best names if not the best name.
    14:55
    The home team picked up a big 12-4 win. The replays went to Jack Bar to face the Schlubs. And the replays picked up a 10-6 road win.
    15:13
    No Quarters for Laundry went to Birdies and visited the Pin Babes. And Robert Gagno who plays on No Quarters for Laundries pointed out on Facebook to us that the pin babes are always wonderful and they hosted them He said good times were had Beers, both alcoholic and non, were enjoyed. Nice.
    15:38
    Talky Pringles were shared. Ooh. And no quarters for laundry came away with the win. Nice job, quarters. 14 to 2. That's a very big road win. I just want to point out that on Tuesday night, I see road win, road win, road win, road win, home win, road win, road win. Oh, yeah.
    16:08
    On Monday night, it's much more of a mixed bag. there are still striations. But I see one, two, three home wins.
    16:27
    One away win was an 8-8, and the others were all away wins. So we may have striations of the teams that are doing their things this season. We might already have set some standards. Interesting start. Things are cooking. Barcade Brooklyn Pinball League, session number six of our August-September season, was held on Wednesday night, and Matthew Grady came out on top with 31 points. Second place was David Patlak. Third place, Alex Kelley. and we had a big tie at fourth including george underwood nint who adam kane and special guest lauren burner lawrence former td of barcade brooklyn pinball league was in town and joined us for the evening they all got 23 points and tied for fourth now after six sessions we're ready for the finals the a finals will be contested next week and the top eight players going into a finals will be Dante Oliva, Sean Grant, Matthew Grady, Adam Kane, Alex Kelly, Nint Hu, David Patlak, and Mike Pantino. We'll also be having the B Finals. It's open for anyone who wants to come and join. We've got trophies and cash for the winners of A and the winner of B. The A finals next week will be Papa Formats Group Elimination Bracket With three games in each round 4-2-1-0 scoring And the B finals will be just like A regular night of league It's going to be five rounds of group match play With IFPA scoring Good luck to all Thursday night was a big night In competitive pinball In New York City 19 players on Thursday night went to Jack Bar for... Holy cow. Jack Bar presents Thursday Night Strikes on September 12, 2024.
    18:41
    Adam Kane won the night. Sean Grant came in second. Ian Leung came in third. And Zach Till and Travis Rosenberg tied for fourth. Nice job, all.
    18:57
    Also, on Thursday night, SSPL 6 number 3 was Matt. And Robert Wong, as he's been doing kind of a lot lately around Park Slope, won the night. Billy Vazine came in second.
    19:13
    Yours truly came in third. Nice job, Benjamin. Thank you. And Miriam Nadler and Gus Gonzalez tied for fourth. We are just about at the point. I think next week we'll start looking at what the playoffs will look like for that league as it meets.
    19:34
    On Thursday night, seven players convened at Gebhard's Beer Culture for their weekly tournaments. A format change was instituted to play eight rounds of match play instead of five of the finals because of the count of players. Matt Falzone came out on top for the evening. Second place is Adam Robinson. Third place, Glenn Gilear. And fourth place, Max Michaels.
    20:03
    On Monday, September 16th, in Pinball NYC, the second round will be contested. New York City Flipper Association will go to Solid State to meet the Mutants. Eric, are you looking forward to going to Queens? I like the games at Solid State very much.
    20:27
    Me too. Intermission Dolores will go north. They'll probably take the G train from Park Slope to visit Pinball Union at Barcade Brooklyn. The Lesser Players will come visit Us Colliders at Buttermilk Bar. See you there. Lion Persons will go to Midway in North Brooklyn to visit Balls of Steel. The aristocrats will walk just down Fifth Avenue and Park Slope to visit Parliament at Owl Farm. The pin pals will go to Special When Lit, and there's a very interesting all-caps note on the League webpage that points out that there's a location change. And they'll be at Boat Bar. Boat Bar is over in... what I call that? Cobble Hill.
    21:23
    On Smith Street. Also sister location to Buttermilk. And one of my favorite bartenders in the world works there. Go to Boat Bar if you're the pin pals or Special When Lit. Don't go to Rolo's. Special When Lit's new home. This coming Monday, September 16th.
    21:44
    The Deluxe Horses after a big home win, will go to McKenna's Pub to face the two-for-oners. On Tuesday, September 17th, the Harlem Globe Flippers will go from one venue where Phillip has games to another venue where Phillip has games to visit No Quarters for Laundry at Solid State. Good luck, all.
    22:07
    That's remarkable that the Globe Flippers are going to Solid State on Tuesday after NYC FSA goes to solid state on Monday because the two teams share a number of players.
    22:22
    Trolls who share many Collider players will visit Danger Danger at Buttermilk Bar. Eric, anything to say about that? Their whole team? Yeah. That's a lot of people's home team bar. Yeah, love it.
    22:38
    The Pin Babes will go to Barcade Brooklyn to visit Rest in Pinball. The replays will go to Milo's Yard, where Neptune's Treasure will be looking for not a home loss, as I think they are very sad to have had last week based on the capitalization in Weston Olfig's message to us on Facebook.
    23:04
    The Shlubs will go to Kettle of Fish to visit now Kettles and Grenades. Scrapple Squad will go to Jack Bar to visit Ball Drainers And the Butterballers will go to Boat Bar to visit Pinister Six That's two matches at Boat Bar this week That's interesting because they only have a Tuesday night team At Barcade Brooklyn on Wednesday, September 18th We'll be having the finals of our August-September season A finals and B finals open to all On Thursday night at Buttermilk at 8 o'clock the South Slope Pinball League's sixth season will have its fourth meeting. On Thursday, September 19th at Jack Bar at 8 o'clock, Jack Bar Presents Thursday Night Strikes will have its nth meeting, where n is the continuation of pinball in the series that is post-pandemic, as we discussed last week. And also on Thursday night at Gebhard's Beer Culture on the Upper West Side. Thursday night at Gebhard's will be convened for a tournament there.
    24:18
    On Sunday, September 22nd at Sunshine Laundromat, and I'm happy to say that there are enough machines to play a good tournament there. The monthly September 2024 at Sunshine all of that was one word, by FLR, parentheses, suck, close parentheses, will be met.
    24:44
    Time for the location update. As of September 14, 2024, there are 279 pinball machines in New York City at 85 public locations. Thanks to the creators and users of Pinball Map for this data, here are machine updates from the past week. On September 10th, user JNS visited Skylark and left comments on three machines.
    25:10
    Of Foo Fighters, JNS said, on and playable today. Of Medieval Madness, dirty and slanted, but playable. No rollover problem that I saw. Lots of lights out. Trouble registering balls that drop in the trough if they don't go through to lock or bounce off drawbridge or gate. Castle toy is busted. And of Paragon, played great for me, no tilt whatsoever. One dollar for five balls takes dollars. Bring me more 70s wide bodies.
    25:43
    Then, on September 11th, the same user, JNS, went to Treadwell Park and left comments on two machines. For Game of Thrones, still not taking bills. Auto launch not firing, so multiball lasts as long as you want it to, really. and of Star Wars, screen working but won't take bills, dirty and sticky. Looks mostly like it's been a beer rest for people playing ping pong.
    26:10
    Then on September 12th, the same user, JNS, went to Burger and Shake Co., a restaurant on Amsterdam Avenue at 140th Street operated by Harlem Pinball, and said of the one machine that they have there, a NASCAR, off and unloved. also on september 12th user w manning the fourth went to endless life brewing a tap room with two pins near the corner of franklin and pacific street in brooklyn operated by sunshine vending and wrote this comment on their johnny mnemonic quiet neighborhood bar specializing in sours and saisons batched and brewed on site you won't find much else here i.e no ipas or other standard brews. Both games here are from the Sunshine Collection, so they look and play beautifully as expected. Lineup may not be worth going out of your way for, in my opinion, but a nice option to have in a neighborhood generally underrepresented by location pinball. Also on September 12th, user DanTastic commented on the Theater of Magic at Sunshine Laundromat and said, The Theater Awaits.
    27:25
    On September 13th, user Wmanning4th noted that a Pulp Fiction LE has been added to the KCBC taproom in Brooklyn, a location operated by Sunshine Vending.
    27:40
    A Jaws Pro was removed. That's it for location updates. Let's talk about Barcade Brooklyn. located at 388 Union Avenue in Williamsburg. This is the original Barcade location, and it's got the most pins of any of the Barcade lineups in the city. Mm-hmm. Ideally, if you're going to try to get to Barcade Brooklyn, you're going to take the G or the L to Metropolitan Avenue, but you can get there on the J. You could get there through any number of buses. you are just a block away from being under the BQE just north of the Williamsburg Bridge and you are in an old industrial part of Brooklyn.
    28:34
    The decor speaks very specifically to that. The opening at the front of this place, if there weren't glass in it, it would effectively be a loading dock on Union Avenue. There's a curb cut for it. I mean, this was just some random warehouse in some random industrial neighborhood just on the other side of the river when this building was built. And now it is still, kind of all of that, but it has a special energy that it doesn't really extend past about seven feet off the ground, probably. And there are high ceilings in this place.
    29:34
    There's cement everywhere. All the walls are cement. Everything about this place looks industrial, except for what I would say is effectively the only decor to speak of, which are the arcade games and the pins and, frankly, the bar, which is on the right.
    29:59
    Call it 20 feet into the space. I'm going to say it's 40 feet long. They'll sell you booze. They'll sell you lots of drafts and barcade. If you want draft beer, and you want pinball.
    30:15
    I'm not saying Solid State isn't a great, great place, but Barcade focuses on it, and they have a large footprint.
    30:26
    Yes. It's an industrial space, but man, are there a lot of games. And it's, I mean, if you just wanted to go play games, it's cool. I'm not sure that it has all the things that Madeline might be looking for. As Madeline pointed out last week there a bouncer here most of the day and so like in terms of accessibility there there an age limit you gotta be 21 or over to walk in the doors here but past that i'm not sure that there's that much to criticize what do y'all think of the decor what do y'all think of the menu there are a lot of bottle caps on the wall i did make good friends with the bouncer back during the uh summer a 23 bells and chimes new york city season who was the same staff throughout and we got to chatting real quick as we walked in and as i walked out uh for those first uh four or five meetings i was able to make so i enjoyed getting to know the staff the bartender also is the same each evening and sometimes i'd walk up and they would just hand me a tall glass of water with no ice and i'd say oh my gosh thank you so much because it really was I can drink my water bottle here, but I cannot. So thank you very much for the water because it's hot. I do dig the industrial vibe of the place.
    31:53
    And, you know, I probably prefer dive bar types of places more than this, which is, what's the word? I want to say corporate bar. Well, it's a focus bar. It's a theme bar. A theme bar. I mean, the theme is arcade, and we love that. And so it's hard for us to see the theme maybe in the way that, you know, some alien themed bar might be a thing or some, you know, but it's a theme bar. There is a good selection of arcade games in addition to the pinball. And perhaps the attraction is part of the theme being the original barcade. It does have two different trackball games. And you think, oh, trackball arcade cabinets are common. there's actually a very limited number of trackball games because of the mechanical stress you're putting on the cabinet the original trackball game was meant to be it was a football game and you're meant to physically exercise as you're rolling the ball to move the player but they have both shoes and crystal castle available they also have another physical game in addition to the pinball that's one of the light gun games that might be out of order currently which is quick and crash which is working as of wednesday oh and then there's also uh ocean hunter which is not as good as the usual Sega dual player light gun game but to have variety in a relatively small space and in the original barcade I think does lend to that theme of venue. Yeah I'm with all of that I think one of the strengths of this place is its video cabinet lineup despite the fact that it doesn't necessarily have all the video cabs that you sort of think of as the big arcade joints it doesn't have. I think you mentioned Bishy Bashy last week, for instance. I do like my imports. Any rhythm game is pretty darn... Any modern arcade game should be a rhythm game. Most modern Western games are mostly pseudo-gambling, and I have a significant issue with that morally. Yeah, yeah, there's an ethical problem. Yeah, I'm with it.
    34:01
    Actually, you know, Eric, I've been talking about my experiences as an attendee, but I don't really know what it's like to put on venues here. We've heard a lot about you hosting the weekly tournaments as well as the pin pride there. I don't know what goes into being a TD and I don't know what goes into the back end or backstage. Can you tell me more about that actually?
    34:23
    Yeah, I've been running tournaments out of Barcade for a couple of years now, Barcade Brooklyn. Heck yeah. In addition to Barcade Brooklyn Pinball League now with Woody and Uche. And I've got to say, TDing out of Arcade Brooklyn is one of my better experiences, I think particularly because of the tech support that we get. Several members of Arcade staff are pinball tech ready, and we've got one or two every week. Matthew Grady is there and Max might be in or Jeff Anderson and they all can help us out if we have any technical issues and that is one of that's like a great thing to have as a TV. If you have tech support it's like wow.
    35:14
    It's like a step up. It's a super value add for a venue as a host of a pinball tournament. yeah and you know like your experience madeline uh being there with bells every week you you start to get to know the regular staff i'm there on wednesdays and there's a particular set of people who work there on wednesdays from the door to the bar and being there every week you get to be a regular you get to know them and you develop a good working relationship also you know it's sort of a working relationship but it's also i'm still a customer too and i really appreciate the service i get there that's awesome i remember my first attending of a bell's event was at the barcade brooklyn and i remember seeing how uh one of the machines was being worked on and then one of the techs said okay you're not going to have this to round one for round one but you will have this for round two and onwards and while we are playing round one he is fixing one of the machines with the headlamp and the things open like it's when you're working on a car and i was really impressed by not only the speed and the diligence but also the quality because you're flinging this metal mass at a fragile little part and i was chatting with him and i was asking so hey how does this work he's like well the new light bulbs you can do leds if you do the old incandescence you can solder them or you got to screw them in and replace them and it's really cool to hear the detail of go of working on a machine a pinball table i i love i wish i could learn more about maintaining them and fixing them given the high number of mechanical parts yeah totally if the accessibility of a venue is dependent on its machines it's also impressive with arcade the ability to maintain relatively authentic parts. I'm reminded of in music, there's this thing called performance practice or authentic performance. You play this with the original like oxtail bow or calfskin timpani membrane or do you use modern parts? For solenoids, do you use the original solenoids? Can you find them anymore? I admire how for Barcade, you can play the older games that are older than me and they're still functional in the present day. I enjoy that history aspect. The lineup of pins begins on the right side, just past the bar, and next to a Q-Bert machine. Mm-hmm. They are Paragon, 8-Ball Deluxe, Bad Girls, John Wick, Johnny Mnemonic, and essentially in order, Junkyard, Cactus Canyon Star Trek The Next Generation Twilight Zone Godzilla and Iron Maiden and then just to the left of the line and turned 90 degrees to face the back wall of the bar from your left, Total Nuclear Annihilation Theater of Magic and Baywatch That's quite a lot of pins that many, 13, 14, 14. 14 machines? 14 machines. It is really hard to think that there are a lot of other venues out there that are actually competitors with this from the standpoint of the pinball market.
    38:59
    I think it's just about the best collection in New York City at the moment. Yes. And as a TD, the tech support and the support from the organization wider at various locations is great. And, you know, they helped us out at our tournament at the arcade pop-up at Rockefeller Center, as we've previously reported. Yeah. Well, looking at the map in terms of selection, I mean, you've got 13 at Single Cut, 14 at the Williamsburg Arcade Brooklyn. You've got 15 at Jack Bar and you've got 16 at Sunshine Laundromat. Those are the largest numbers you've got in New York City. So it's definitely at the higher end of selection. Combined with the ages of the different tables, you've got some of the older tables. You've got classic layout. You've got wide body. You've got your modern stern. You've got your alternate companies. There is a nice variety to try and to practice on depending on what your style is, depending on what kind of tournaments you may have upcoming. There is probably a table here for you. Hell yeah. As an animal welfare advocate, I am slightly sad to see bad girls replace bad cats in the lineup.
    40:14
    Meow, meow, meow, meow. However... I like that bad girls is sitting directly next to 8-Ball Deluxe. It's the same playfield, but flipped. Other than that, I don't have a lot of thoughts about this collection. I'm really glad 8-Ball Deluxe is on site somewhere. really glad Ape All Deluxe is on site somewhere in the city I like that Paragon is on site somewhere in the city really pleased that there's a Paragon on location I like a lot of the games here and fun fact about Twilight Zone both the Gumball Machine and the Power important features within the playfield never feature within the Twilight Zone original TV series huh I was rather disappointed because as someone who grew up in upstate New York and watched a lot of on TV a local professor long before I was born I was saddened to hear that some of the most prominent features of the table do not feature in the show but there are many different easter eggs in the back glass from the TV series I also just want to point out that I believe that Pat baller dreams or at least dreamed about pinball in ways that uh physics don't and the ceramic ball and the power and all of that is one of the greatest most genius innovations absolutely i'm glad it's there i can't say enough good about what Barcade has done with their pinball as a pinball player in the last several years. I'm really glad to see all of the games popping up.
    42:06
    I, you know, RIP Barcade Newark, which had several games, and I don't think it's the last time I saw their black hole, but I miss their black hole. Sounds like a euphemism, Benjamin.
    42:22
    On Wednesday evening, following the conclusion of Arcade Brooklyn Pinball League, myself and Gabriel Chazanov caught a ride up to the Hudson Valley with recent NYC transplants and pinball players, Timothy Lawrence and Lauren Berner Lawrence, because we were on our way to a story screen theater in Hudson, New York, where on Thursday, September 12th, They held their first IFPA tournament directed by Lauren.
    42:53
    I came up to check the tournament out and file this report about the location. All right. Hi, can you tell me your names and a little bit about the place we're in? Hi, I'm Diana DeMuro. And I'm Mike Burge. And we're the co-owners of Story Screen Cinema. And we've got a three-screen movie theater. But they have a large lobby, and they've put 10 pinball machines into it. Heck yeah. Just as you walk in, they're on the wall to the left. And beyond the pinball machines, there's a bar. They are serving several draft beers. They have a nice selection. They had some fancy stuff. I didn't pay much attention to it because they had Narragansett on draft, which is all that I need. they also have a snack bar with some movie type concessions they've got popcorn they've got hot dogs they've got pretzels uh mozzarella sticks stuff like that does all of this take place before i have to hand the ticket taker my ticket yes nice tickets and concessions are both at the bar the evening of the tournament, they were also having a screening of a local director's film. It was called Midwinter.
    44:18
    There were a lot of people there to see the movie, and they were intermingling with the pinball players as we prepared for the tournament.
    44:28
    Then, leaving pretty much as the tournament was concluding and it was a fun mix of people i am interested in what i might consider to be the dialectic of a strip mall movie theater that is playing a local director's special event Mm-hmm. Is there any ethos to this, or was it happenstance?
    45:01
    They are programming lots of very filmy events, but they were showing movies during the tournament on the screen that varied widely. As Diana DeMuro told Eric. We're showing a mix of new and old movies, fun repertory. We do a lot of pop-up events. We do live music, interactive stuff. trying to show Art House, Independent, and First Run, big old blockbuster-y stuff. I have the lineup of machines alphabetically because I don't particularly remember the whole thing. There's ten of them.
    45:37
    So alphabetically we have the Addams Family Gold Edition, a Batman 66 LE, an Elvira's House of Horrors 40th Anniversary LE, a Ghostbusters LE, a James Bond 007 60th anniversary, the Keith Elwin, a James Bond 007, the George Gomez LE, a Junkyard a Jurassic Park LE a Star Wars comic art premium edition and a Tales of the Arabian Nights It lends itself well then that a movie theater would have several tables or games available that use certain IPs that are also movie-related. The Jurassic Park, the James Bond, the Ghostbusters.
    46:34
    Good point. Yeah. Let me make this perfectly clear. That is THE Tales of the... that table is the. Peter had that dialed in every time I played it. That's... if there is a, the Tales of the Arabian Nights, that's the one.
    46:59
    It still plays great. Always has. Definite article. Yes. So why does it play great? Is it the quality of the parts? Is it the elevation? Is it just the cleanliness of the field? Pristine maintenance, absolute dedication to 100% functionality in gleaming condition. In their conversation, Eric asked Mike Burge and Diana DeMuro, owners of Story Screen Cinema, about the collection. You guys have a bunch of pinball machines in here. We've just finished up a tournament tonight how you know how did this come about uh well i've got a really good buddy of mine named seth porges uh who uh i know seth also knows a really good buddy of mine now named peter who works uh runs sunshine laundromat uh down in manhattan and rose we got linked up and he brought us 10 machines that i swear to god uh should not even exist they're beautiful they're amazing uh they're rare limited editions and work in a way that kind of uh makes god weep himself they are gorgeous yeah so seth's really awesome he he put us in touch with peter and then peter being very kind and very generous kind of worked with us on what types of machines we would want to have like what would be the biggest sweetheart i've ever met he uh he came up with Nancy and his poochie Scrapple, and they bit by bit. Happy birthday, Scrapple. They installed all of the machines, and now this is our first pinball tournament, so this is really exciting. Really awesome. It was a lot of fun. It's a great place to hang out. Peter had come through a few days before and given all the machines a cleanup and a tuning, so everything was in tip-top shape for the tournament. Nice. Always a strength of Peter Rose's pinball machines. on september 12th at 7 p.m 16 players showed up for the first tournament at story screen cinemas story screen pinball directed by lauren burner lawrence nice only cool people showed up i was very surprised usually with some pinball tournaments you get some weirdos we didn't this time we didn't at all it was all just cool people everyone was super sweet very had a good time um lauren our host with you did a great job we thank you eric for helping co-host the tournament we appreciate you delighted to be here yeah great hosts yeah played five rounds of match play with ifpa scoring no finals a quick night and in the final standings the winner was jesse ryan there was a four-way tie break for second place finishing on top of that in second place gabriel chasanov in third place tim summers in fourth place michael simmons and in fifth place after the tiebreaker just out of the money heavy hands howard levine gabe chasanov tell me how it went down. Yeah, you know.
    50:14
    Slapped pretty hard most of the time. IPA adjacent seeding, so it was me and Irk in the first round. He destroyed.
    50:22
    I got third. Got a couple more firsts. Snuck my way into round five. Not mathematically eliminated. It was theoretically possible that if I got first and then everyone else got a very specific finish that we could all tie for first. That didn't happen. Jesse who was already in first got first again on Adam's Family but it did result in a four way tie for second place on Junkyard a game I played previously in the night but which was randomly selected wait wait wait hold on a four way tie on Junkyard you say but what I think you mean is to say that the tiebreaker four ways for second place second third fourth and fifth is how the four players in this game would finish in this tournament is that correct exactly of again eric how many players did you say showed up 16 of 16 so the top 20 uh 25 percent of the standings of this tournament were going to be determined by this particular game that my is telling us about gabe you were saying so i'd already played junkyard my standard Straddle Junkyard to shoot shots. Nice. Toilet bowl, dog, bus. Trust your accuracy. But as was shown to me by the local players, you don't want to do any of that. You just want to bang the wrecking ball. Huh. Yeah, because if you start multi-ball, you're going to get five, six million, which will usually be enough to win because the game is playing so squirrely that if you're actually trying to shoot anything, you're probably just going to drain before you get anything going. to just take the shot that's dangerous because the whole game is dangerous and then hope you get multiball by ball three get a couple snackpots a lesson I learned for the tiebreaker successfully starting multiball on ball three licking up a couple jackpots and locking down victory as player one no less walked home with 20 bucks congratulations and then they gave me free movie tickets for winning second place. There was generous prize support. All the finishers got a number of movie tickets included with the cash and the trophy, which was an Oscar-style trophy, which was very cute. That's awesome. Yeah. Silver ball, silver medal, and silver screens to boot. Gabe, what was your outside of obviously dominating for the big $20 prize and the second place. What was your favorite game?
    53:12
    Well, these are Peter's games, as you know. A lot of them used to be at Sunshine, including one Totem, which was there on my first date with my rugby partner, Sam. That was the first game she saw me play pinball on, down in the corner of Sunshine, in League.
    53:32
    It was cool to see that. seen again. So probably that one. Kick-ass. Eric, what was your favorite game to play there? I liked kicking Gabe's ass on Toadstamp.
    53:46
    But actually, I also had a real great game on that Batman 66 I liked. Lauren, how'd the first tournament at this new place go? Really well. The owners have been a delight to work with. they've been so excited and made all the flyers advertised it they're hoping for a league eventually but we've been just thinking of different ways to make a single event work on a weekday versus a weekend I think it's really cool we got players show up from a variety of areas around the region but like different spots there were some Albany people Oh, yeah. And Connecticut. Yep. Oh, my. Yeah. I heard Howard Levine's name. That's true. Yeah. Howard from Orange County.
    54:41
    Yeah, we actually had a couple different groups. So we had folks from Albany. Like you said, we had some folks specifically from the Mean Max crew, Mean Max Brewery. I think it's the tap room is in Troy and they've been doing some events about once a month. I'm going to go on Tuesday of next week, actually.
    55:05
    Yeah, Nicole, our state women's champ from Connecticut, even though she lives in New York, from this year, attended. Nice. Ooh! Yeah, so we have four or five brand-new players, which is really exciting.
    55:23
    I think it's really cool, the idea that there's going to be this burgeoning scene coming up in here i don't know what would you call the high hudson valley uh i would just i would just call it in the hudson valley area yeah yeah i mean it went it went really well we had a great time i can't be happier than to hear that there are new players getting getting up in this business when you say that you're doing this. Did you hear any feedback from the specific people who were new? Did you hear anything from them that told you anything about, or for that matter, that you just sort of like threw your head back and were like, oh, just child, come to the pinball.
    56:23
    Child, come here. uh you know no um the only thing that i've been aware of especially organizing bells with a few other women um we have a number of new players from time to time and so the number one thing that i set up first is to make sure that they have the match play um yes it's difficult if you don't have an ifk number or you've never made that account before um so i walked all of the new players through claiming their player on MatchPlay so they were able to view it for player order on their phone. I noticed in particular you doing that last night with the new players, and you knew exactly the steps to take and walk them through it, and it was so welcoming.
    57:11
    And, I mean, getting to the point where you've got a MatchPlay login and connect isn't clean. this is advanced pinball stuff i think and you're like setting up the new players very well thank you i appreciate it because we didn't have a tv and the next time i believe we will have the match play on the tv which should be that's so cool you're um for people to follow along especially new players i think that's going to be really great and they're i mean the you know the owners are super committed to this they think it's so great and they're like yeah we're going to go out and get a Bluetooth dongle and set up this TV so you can do it next time. We'll just do this right now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I think the main thing that I'd love to highlight is that there are a lot of people who are familiar with pinball or they have even pinball machines in their homes around here, but they don't necessarily know about the tournament scene. And so I've had people, when I'm just playing casually at the cinema, I've had people come up to me and say, well, well tell me how the tournament works how do i know which machine i'm on how do i know who i'm playing like just tell me everything so there there's definitely interest and hopefully we can just be building that from the folks who are a little familiar with pinball but not familiar with tournament play it's very cool yeah super with it and we'll tie it a hundred percent to not yesterday but eight days ago at buttermilk as eric and i were sitting in for kate martin running the tournament there was a dude sitting at the bar who looked at me as i was shouting out round announcements and was just like what is there are people competing on pinball here my very first bells attendance ever lauren and co the organizers set me up with match play and i had it since day one of competing so thank you all for getting us onboarded because it is it does take a few steps and i'm glad that there's somebody else who knows what they're doing to walk us through that so thank you very much keep your eye on them yeah keep your eyes on them for that first yeah oh i think it's so great you know encouraging newcomers and how good you were at it oh thank you okay it's open come on in wave the flyer in front of the mic so we can get some asmr see that's what i'm talking about diana demuro and mike burge again with eric we're gonna have another tournament on november 2nd lauren's gonna be running it again It's going to be a spooky-themed costume contest the Saturday after Halloween. That's what I'm the most excited about. This one starts a little earlier. It'll be 2 p.m., and costumes are encouraged but not required, so you should still come in even if you don't dress up. That sounds like a lot of fun. I really hope I'll be able to make it again. Thanks so much for coming. Thanks so much, dude. Thank you, guys. It's great having you. I just want to say I'm hoping I'm going to come up and check out the next Story Screen Pinball Tournament on Halloween weekend, but right now it's Friday night and I'm going to go play some Terraforming Mars that's all for this week's pod I want to thank so many people who provided us with information about their competitive pinball matches particularly in Pinball NYC Zen Zokniak, Weston Alphag Robert Gagno Jose Garcia thank you I would also like to thank Mike Burge and Diana DeMuro of Story Screen Cinema for giving Eric some time while he's been up in Hudson. Thanks also to Lauren Berner-Lawrence and Gabriel Chazanov for their time in this week's episode. I really appreciate all of you. On next week's pod, we'll run down local competition results. In ball two, we'll review quarter club. And in Ball 3, we'll talk about the ideal customer for pinball machines. Between now and then, whether you're playing pinball or not, go get them this week, pinfolk.