Welcome to the Spinner's Lit Pinball Podcast. Tonight's episode, episode 8, The Lady Has Skills. I'm your host, Spencer Klingin, and along with me is my co-host and wonderful engineer, Seth Holder. Hey, everybody. And tonight, we have a very special guest. Juniper Neff is joining the show. Welcome to the show, Juniper. Hello. Thank you for having me. Yes, good to have you on tonight So of course we're a pinball podcast So we're going to talk about pinball So why don't you tell the listeners a little bit about yourself So I'm 15 years old And my dad's the main pinball expert in the family And I'm in the local league Yep, and we play in that local league together Cool He beats my butt every time So when did you first start playing pinball? So I first started playing when my dad started playing again, kind of a midlife crisis. But I wasn't really serious about it. So I actually, I kind of count it back as in I started playing when I started League, which was four or five years ago. Cool. Okay. So you've been playing for about five years now. Yeah. What was the first game you had in your house? We had a black hole. Awesome. And that was the first game we had. So you played it a lot then? Not really. I played it whenever my dad did, which was a lot at first. And all the black hole owners and lovers just crunched. I was little. I could barely remember. Hey, no, no. Juniper, I'm with you. If I had a black hole in my game room, it would be the least played one. I respect it. It's a beautiful machine, but I know people are not happy with me right now, but it doesn't do much for me. It was a wide body, and I was small. It hurt to play. Oh, there you go. There you go. That's true because for a small person, a wide body is a pretty big stretch. Spencer would know. I would know. So when did you start showing interest in repairing games? I think I had always had the interest, but I took the initiative after my 15th birthday because I was actually old enough to be useful at something. And so I had started planning, and my dad bought me the Stingray as kind of a, I was going to buy it, and then he bought it for me. The Stingray, so that's what, a stern, an old solid-state stern? Yeah. So that was the first machine, okay. First of many, right? You've got multiples by now? Well, no, not me. All right, so it's not like your dad yet. You haven't got to that space. No, not yet. What was the first thing you repaired on your own? So when we got her, Stingray wouldn't turn on. And so that was really the first thing we repaired was getting her to boot up. Okay. And you did all that by yourself, right? I mean, I had my dad help me, but, yeah, it was mostly on my own. What was it? Yeah, I was going to say, is this just chasing down board issues or wiring or what kind of details? I think it was a board issue. I think it might have been one of the fuses. Oh, that's a perfect start. Welcome to paintball. It's always a fuse. Welcome to paintball. Check the fuses. What was the hardest parry you've done so far? So my dad had always been by my side when repairing. and so when I went to Pinnagogo this year, I shadowed a pin medic and we worked on they had a different style and we worked on a machine that was much older than my Stingray and so that was difficult for me because I had to adapt very quickly. So it was an old EM? Yeah, it was a Northstar. Oh wow, great game. Well that's cool, so now you've got EM and early solid state on your belt, and I think you've probably helped your dad on a couple of more modern games too, haven't you? Yeah, I mostly watch him, but I have helped. Cool. That's quite alright, because when I turn to your dad for repairs, that's exactly what I do. I mostly watch. Yeah, exactly. Me too. So what's, uh, what do you enjoy about working on games? I really like the satisfaction of looking back and being like, hey, I did that. Yeah, when you fix something that's broken and you get it to work and it works perfect, you're like, awesome. That's always a good feeling. I remember the first time I heard the little startup chimes on Stingray, and I was like, that will forever be in my memory. Because that was so pretty, hearing something like, hey, I made that happen. I didn't even realize that game had a chime box in it. That's pretty cool. Mm-hmm. Yeah. So you did – partly you did this for a class project, right? I did. So at my school at the end of the year, you know how most schools have end-of-the-year finals that, like, encompass all of the subjects? Ours is – it's on a teacher basis. So if our teacher decides to give us an end-of-the-year final, we get one. But in addition to that, we have a huge project we have to do. And so in years before, they had chosen subjects for us like math or science or stuff like that. This year, we were allowed to choose our subject. And so I chose pinball because it's something that interested me. So how did you present this to the class? I brought Stingray in. Yeah. After school one day, we had my dad drive in and we drove straight onto the campus and put it in a supply closet. it and then about an hour before my um an hour before my presentation we wheeled it into the classroom and put a blanket over it and so during my presentation i brought the stingray manual that we had and i gave i put up a little powerpoint and i let students play it and that was my presentation so you got to be like the coolest kid in the school for a while oh i was i was definitely the coolest kid in the school. I had people coming up to me and being like, whoa, you repaired a pinball machine. Must have been so complicated. I'm shocked they knew what a pinball machine was. No, that's really cool, and it's getting other young people introduced to the hobby, which is always a good thing. That's awesome. It was funny. I had students coming up to me, and my presentation had an entire section devoted to, here's what the stereotypical pinball machine looks like. Here's what they actually look like. And a lot of the kids, apparently I broadened their minds, apparently, because a lot of them came up to me and were like, I didn't know there were modern pinball machines. I thought they were all for old people. And I'm like, no, no. So now there's kids at your school running all over town with bags of quarters looking for modern games to play. I think so. That's awesome. That's awesome. Get them hooked, you know. That's really cool. So what did your teachers think about this? I had, let's just say my vice principal was the one who had to let us into the school, and he was giddy. That's like the only word I can use to describe it. He's like, oh, my God, that's so cool. It was awesome. That is awesome. See, and that's, you know, because when you meet people, especially in like your dad's age bracket and me and Seth, you know, we grew up with it. It was literally everywhere. Every 7-Eleven, you know, every pizza place, every burger shack, bowling alley, every place had a pinball machine or two. You know, and then video games came along and slowly the pinball machines started to disappear. And then the video games started to disappear. So for your age bracket, there's a lot less places to find a place to play a pinball machine. So for them to see one or somebody like your vice principal, who probably hasn't seen one in a really long time, it's like seeing an old friend. So that's – it's really something special, and it gives people just simple joys of their youth. So that's awesome. You got any tips for someone just starting out? Maybe thinking about buying their first game, and they don't know anything other than, I like pinball. Surround yourself with experts. It's what I did. Ten out of ten. Always works. There you go. There you go. So basically network. Network with people in your area. Join your local league. It doesn't matter if you're good. They'll help you. Yes, yes. You know, and that's, I think, one of the things. I don't know. I can't speak on other leagues anywhere, but I know our league. you know we have people of all ages I mean from what mid to late 60s all the way down to 8, 9 year old kids and everything in between you know moms, dads, families it's a really laid back and positive environment and a really fun experience that's where I met you yeah exactly you can't get more positive than that yeah exactly you know when like Seth and your dad and all the other cool people who I'm in league with now and hang out with, I basically met all on the Internet. Because we all lived in the surrounding area, we all started meeting at shows and people's parties, and it just kind of grew from that. And that's how I got into league. So it's really cool. You should invite your vice principal. She's like, well, now wait, hold on. I invited him. Did you really? Cool. I did. Good for you. Actually, I think it was my dad who invited him, but I was smiling broadly the entire time, so I'm sure I was more welcoming. There you go. Well, your dad can be a charming fellow when he wants to be. Mm-hmm. Right on. What's your favorite game right now? Ooh, that's a tough one. I've always been a fan of the more modern games. I like, like, 2,000 games. But I'm also a fan of Flow games. So Theater of Magic, Star Trek, those are good games. I like those ones. Can't go wrong there. No, I just played the Theater of Magic a couple weeks ago in League at your house. And, you know, a lot of my play haven't been in that good of shape. And when your dad traded that out, temporary trade for Ghostbusters, I was like, but no, it's Ghostbusters. But after playing that Theater of Magic, which plays beautifully, I was having a really good time. Getting it back. But no, that Theater of Magic plays beautifully And I had a really good time playing it Even though I didn't do that well that night on it So It's a good game And Ghostbusters is cool too So, right on So you have anything else you want to throw out there? Not really Not really? You got any more questions you want to ask? You know what? I don't have any more questions written down So We love having you on the show And just to show people it's like, you know, it doesn't matter if you're young or old or, you know, a guy or a girl. If you like pinball, you know, you can be part of a great community and share that with other people and get them involved and show them the simple joy of just getting together with some friends and going and playing pinball. Actually, for the first three years, three years, I'm not counting the five years I had, but the ones where I was like really young and couldn't play all that well, I didn't even like pinball all that much. I just like the people. Yeah. Like, y'all are such nice people. Yeah, you know. That's probably what kept me in it the most. Not crazy or anything, so. Well. I mean, maybe a little bit. Maybe a little bit, right. That's what makes us a team. Yeah, exactly. You know, I have to agree with you on that. For the last, you know, few years, getting more involved in the hobby, meeting people. I haven't met anyone that's not just a really awesome, decent, nice person in the pinball community. And I mean, to go along with that, the nice thing about the pinball community is you have that special kind of crazy. That kind of special kind of crazy where it'll allow people to listen to a 15-year-old girl when she gives her opinions. You have no idea how many clubs, how many organizations I've been with where I've tried to have a voice, and they don't listen to me because I'm young. And I couldn't possibly have a good idea compared to all of these other people. And with you guys, I'm completely at home. That's their loss. I know, right? Exactly. And there's one more thing that is the magic of pinball. that your opinion is just as valid as anybody else because you're a pinhead. Woo! Yep. And that's the magic of pinball. Wow, cool. All right, Juniper, thank you for coming on the show and sharing your story with us. It's a great story. Thank you for having me. Now, you run out there and you share this podcast with all your friends. Definitely. And what's the name of our podcast? The Spinner is Lit Yes awesome thank you alright Jennifer thank you so much Thank you Okay Our game of the week or game of this episode Whirlwind So made by Williams Manufacturing and was released in 1990. And I believe it was 7,300 units of this game were made. And we both owned it. Yeah. It was what I termed at the time a keeper. You know, me too, and I never really planned to get rid of it, but this wonderful thing in California called supplemental property tax changed that. You know what, man, there's plenty out there. I can get another one down the road, and I had that one in the stable for almost four years. You put some good time on it. Oh, yeah, and I love the game. And, I mean, it's still one of my all-time favorite games. It's got really a little bit of everything because it was right at the end of the alphanumeric era. System 11, nearly indestructible. I mean, other than a microswitch breaking under the ramp, I never really had a problem with that game at all. Nothing ever broke. Yeah, a lot of System 11s, which when I had my whirlwind, that was all I cared about at the time was System 11s. um they really once you bulletproof them there they they're like tanks they'll go forever yeah really really you know fairly low maintenance like i said once you bulletproof them and uh you know in particular since we're talking about whirlwind uh some of the features for some of may not have played it uh you know six pop bumpers um a three bank of drop targets at a really interesting angle and they can be swept for extra points also offers a skill shot to hit the targets each one worth more points from top to bottom a single drop target up towards the upper play field two ramps three flippers a spinner two orbit shots one actually both of them if you do the outer orbit the inner orbit and then the left ramp in a row if i'm not mistaken the first three-way combo in a pinball machine. Ooh. At least the first, maybe, machine to award you something for doing a three-way combo. Yes, exactly. Which everybody's complaining about that game is that the shot is very, very difficult to make, and it doesn't award a lot of points. Only 250,000 points for making that three-way combo. But you get the ever-so-satisfying siren. The air raid siren sound, yeah. And that's really cool. And a cool little light show, too. Theme integration on that, I love everything about that game. The gameplay, the artwork, theme integration, the gizmos or toys on it, you know, the fan topper, which really, you know, when you lock a ball or go into multiball, you get, you know, the fan blowing. You know, that really pulls you in to, oh, wow, that's wind. Oh, cool. And then the three spinning discs, especially when you make the left ramp shot and it drops off onto that far right spinner, and if it catches right, just sits there, spins for a second. You never know where that ball is going to be coming at you. Sometimes it goes back up the play field, off to the side. Sometimes it rockets straight down at the flippers. It's great. It's got that one more game feel, and it's got that adrenaline rush like a roller coaster for me. yeah you know uh i it's funny as you're kind of going through it i'm uh i jumped on pin side because i know this is one of the games i had rated on pin side and so i pulled up my old uh review of it and uh i still stand by it i think i don't have it ranked even in the top three system 11 pins so um i'm probably uh not going to be popular for that opinion um but that's just because I really love System 11 pens, and I probably too much so. So there's other ones that I get a little bit more enjoyment out of. But I think my original review on this is that it's a great solid-state pen to own in a small collection, or if it's an only pen in your collection. I've heard some people refer to this as a desert island pen. It's got a little bit of everything on it. it's fun for a good player because it can be set up to be really tough and brutal. Like I said, drops and spinner and ramps and combo shots. It's got the depth and interest to keep you going long term. So most people that I know that have Whirlwind in their collection never get rid of it. Ultimately, I got rid of it because they made 7,300 of them, and I knew I could get another one. They do come up for sale, and I wanted an opportunity to own different pens. So I've tended to drift into things that are harder to get just because I know. Those are the ones that you see once every couple of years come up for sale. I'm more likely to jump on them. So I do miss it a little bit, but I think ultimately when I had it, I wasn't playing it as much. I think there's a couple things that hold me back on this game. One is the... I like the idea of an original theme, and I like the fan integration, and the colors and everything are fine, but there's just something about the overall theme that doesn't speak to me at a deeper level. You know, some of my pins I gravitate to more are going to usually be fantasy or science fiction. you know a blackout or grand lizard there's certain call outs that they have um or certain um art that just really speaks to me and and so those kind of up the scale for me whirlwind is is perfectly fine um but there's nothing on it that like just draws me in um and it makes me want to play it more so but yeah the the uh the real straw that broke the camel's back so to speak is a good friend of mine, Charlie, came over and he played it. He was having a great game. He's just a natural pinball player. He doesn't play that much, but he comes over from time to time and he'll play and he usually has good games. Well, he came over and within 10 to 15 minutes, he hit that freaking three-way combo. Wow. And I have never been able to hit it on that machine. And so at that point, I was just like, I'm done. that just really dispirited me believe it or not I mean it would be about once every hundred games but for about a year and a half it was my only game so I played it a lot yeah so I hit it you know I don't know probably eight or ten times in that year and a half you know you must have been doing something right I had good scores on it I'd get into the 20 millions on it for a three ball factory setting game. I think that's decent. But for whatever reason, I just could never get my act together enough to focus on that three way combo and be able to hit it. I did it with the glass off just to hear what it sounded like at one point early on. But I know that's considered one of the like, you know, top 10 hardest shots in pinball is trying to hit that three way combo. Well, you make your outside shot and you're, you know, and it rockets around and then you hit it off. The two-way combo, yeah, all day long. Right. Well, then you hit that interloop, and you don't even have time to blink. You have to assume it's going to make it, yeah. You have to assume it's going to make it and flip again, and then just pray to God you hit it up that ramp. Exactly. Just far enough to hit that switch, and boom, you get the three-way combo. But it's a tough, tough shot. You know, the other thing I forgot to mention about is the sellers. You know, it's got the sellers, and it's got a real, by today's standards, primitive, but it's got modes, you know, and that's one of the earliest mode games. Well, that was my favorite aspect of that game. That's typically what I ended up doing was just trying to light every single seller mode to get to the super seller. Getting the super seller is always fun. I just love the light show and everything that came with it. So that's typically the pattern I always fell into, and then I just never tried anything beyond that. once I got good at it. You know, physical ball lock, that's also fun unless you're in league play because nobody likes to have their multiball stolen. I love that, though. I do, too. I do, too. In fact, I was playing Grand Lizard last week at league. I hear that's a really nice Grand Lizard. It's a beautiful Grand Lizard, and it played absolutely wonderfully. I had a really good game on it. Yeah, so I was actually shocked he loaned that out. You know, but, you know, it's a cheddar, so, you know, it's good. You know, you're talking about. It's a hit and make for my brothers. There you go. You're talking about the glass off. I was speaking, and this is a couple of years ago, speaking with one of our other brothers who owns that game, our now legendary Mo. And I was like, you don't know about the three-way combo? He goes, what three-way combo, right? I'm like, no, no, take the glass off. And I was like, do it, do it. And he's like, I had no idea that was there. I'm like, yeah, man, it's really tough to hit. So I've never asked him if he's hit it since then. I'm sure he has. You just never know. I like to think it's a harder shot since I've never done it. I've done it on the pinball arcade, but I don't know if the physics on that are a little bit easier in my mind. Yeah, they are. But they did a pretty good job of it. But you can't get the fan. It's like Earthshaker. Your phone will shake, but it's like, all right but it's not the same yeah you know at so with my whirlwind it was a beautiful example it was a really really really nice players the cabinet was really good the playfield was done it was done uh with good leds i got it the guy that got me into the hobby in terms of uh he's who i bought my first machine from so i i take that back he didn't get me into the hobby but He was my first buyer. He sold me High Speed. And so he really took care of me on High Speed, gave me a great deal, knew it was my first machine. And I ended up falling head over heels in love with High Speed and then falling in love with all things System 11. Well, he, a year or two later, moved out of town. And so he was selling some of his other machines. And so I had the opportunity to buy his Whirlwind. So it was kind of nice to go back to him, having grown the collection and grown as a pinball enthusiast enthusiast and be able to pick up another machine from him so i always appreciated that but you know having um around that same time having a high speed and pin bot and um earth shaker and swords of fury and grand lizard um and borrowing a taxi so i had a whole plethora of system 11s that i was either had or was playing and um it just for me didn't have that one more game appeal compared to some of the other ones I had. And I think that's just a personal preference. Well, Matt, you mentioned all of those System 11s, having them all at the same time. You got me a little bit excited here. I mean, you know, wow, what a great lineup. You know, I've owned Pinbot, too, and I occasionally miss that. It's such a phenomenal game. It really is. Yeah, I didn't think I'd miss it until I went and played Chris's down in Lodi, and I was like, oh, my gosh, I forgot how much I love this game. And Chris's is absolutely just perfect. Yeah, yeah, it's beautiful. example you know the taxi uh grand lizard your grand lizard's awesome your swords of fury um just an amazing all of them you know i mean you can't go wrong you know we both are games too so we both loved it um yeah well you know yours was a little rough a little yeah i'm gonna say that's why you didn't love it as much as i did no you know i actually i actually missed that game i love that game i love the music on that game but you know it's like you I had fun with it. It was time to move it on. So I kept it for a year. Yeah, you kept a good lot. And mine went to Practical Steve. There's his shout-out. And I hear he's thinking about doing a trade for it soon. But he's loved it and held on to it for quite a while. So that's yet another system of love that doesn't get a ton of love. But it definitely has staying power in the right collection. You know, well, a lot of people said it's, what, high speed, really high speed too. So, I mean – Yeah, I mean, it's – yeah, it's before getaway, but it's definitely got that same flow as high speed. You know, it's got the ramp on the left like high speed does. So, and then, you know, it's got that Steve Ritchie flow. So, yeah, I could totally see that. Two spinners, they could drop targets. I mean, you know, a great – you know, it's a great budget game. Yeah, yeah, agreed. So, we got a – I think we're about to cover Whirlwind. What are we moving on to? We are going to talk I know this is going to be a shock Because I think we're the first podcast To discuss it I say that firmly With my tongue in my cheek Star Wars We haven't had an episode since they released The gameplay video Deadflip had the opportunity To go out to the factory And did a Twitch stream out there on Star Wars And I was heading out of town on vacation when it was live streaming but I was in my car with my phone, so I was able to watch a good chunk of it from the car and then watch the offline version when I got home, so I got to see a lot of it. This was a machine that I, if I recall, I'd have to go back an episode or two, you were kind of down on and i think i was kind of up on but we were we were waiting and we're still waiting right i think that's ultimately we're not going to really make a firm call until we can actually play a machine set up correctly but um to me this gameplay video was pretty telling i think i was um fairly blown away by the the use of sound and the visuals on the on the screen um i thought they did an amazing job i'm not a star wars fan per se i don't hate star wars but um so it's not like a dream theme for me like it is probably for 50 of everybody listening um but um watching it um watching the the the gameplay on it it definitely had um Steve Ritchie is is the designer on it definitely you could tell it's a Steve Ritchie pen it kind of had that Star Trek feel a little bit in terms of the shot maps, but ultimately it's pinball. There's only so many layouts you can do, and obviously it's not the same. There's quite a few differences, but it just kind of has that feel where you've got some ramps on either side and whatnot. But it's really fast. I think initially people, based on the reactions I was seeing, were a bit like, oh, God, this is going to be one of those games where everybody needs 20 minutes of ball because you never lose your ball, and it's multiball after multiball. But then I think everybody kind of calmed down a little bit and said, wait a minute. As we're watching this gameplay video and we're watching folks put up crazy high scores, I think we have to recognize that at least two of those players are some of the top-ranked players in the world. And they can take just about any game and make it look that easy and with that long of a ball time. So I think once we get to play it, we'll kind of be able to kind of really judge it in terms of, okay, is this going to be one of those games that you drain in 30 seconds, or can you play a couple minutes, or is it going to be Lord of the Ring-ish where you're chopping wood for five to ten minutes every ball and having to slog your way through it and stepping up for a game is a commitment of a decent amount of time? yeah you know uh watching the video my take on it was i really think they that stern has found the balance where the casual player that oh cool pill machine oh cool star wars i go up they throw a couple bucks in it and they play it and they have a good time like it's got great video integration and the music i think the theme integration looks pretty solid and they'll you know they'll get a multiball or they'll make the tie fighter dance or you know something and they'll feel satisfied right the amount of rules and i guess this is like a really really really early like almost maybe beta code and the amount of rules and stuff you can choose from is just crazy and so i think that it looked like they tried to help out a little bit on screen though i mean i was seeing where you they were showing paths that you could choose to go down and And you could go to level two or level three. Right. It's like – and that's where some folks will complain about the stop and go of the game is you've got to stop there and cradle the ball and try to make some decisions. But to me, if you own the game, then eventually you just learn all the rules. And on location, that's where it gets a little tougher. Yeah. Yeah, but I think for the homeowner, somebody who buys it and puts it in the home, they won't get bored of it quickly. because I'm sure there's going to be further code updates because it's got a real good look site, it's got a real good depth. And like you were talking about, you know, you've got Josh Sharpe as one of the best players in the world, but even he has some short ball times. Yeah, yeah. So, you know, of course, I'm sure it was set up pretty hard. So I think for the tournament player, the hardcore, you know, some of the people who are into really deep rule sets, I think this will have a lasting, you know, it will last in people's collection not only based on theme, but based on, you know, hey, it's got a really good rule set and there's a lot to do, so they won't just blaze through it in three months and go, well, I'm bored of it now. So I think Stern, it looks like Stern's got a pretty good balance of that. I mean, there's always room for improvement, but I mean, you know, the new LCD monitor, I mean, this is only, you know, Stern's third game on this. And just like if we go back to the early DMD games, you know, with Gilligan's Island and Terminator 2 and some of the other games, the dot matrix display really grew and progressed, and so did the rule sets along with it over time. You know, when it first came out, you can go back to even with the alphanumerics, you talk about high speed, which is still a great game, but if you look at high speed compared to, like, you know, the last few alphanumerics, like, you know, even go up to tax, you know, have some kind of sort of little video display things with the taxi rushing by at the match sequence. They made improvements, and they said, oh, we can do this now. And so I think overall I'm more excited about it. I'm less – and it is hand-painted art, but it's got that – the artwork could be anything. It could be the side of a lunchbox. I don't know. I think when you see it up front and personal, I think it's going to shine through. Just some of the shots I've seen of it, I'm like, okay, I kind of get it. I dig it. It doesn't look as Photoshopped as it initially did to me. And then I like what you're saying about the display. Totally agree. I mean, when I look at – I was trying to watch the screen instead of the pinball play on some of it, and I just thought it was really well executed. it wasn't just like screen grabs out of the movie it was really well thought out heads up display laid over content that really went with the sound and what the objectives were at that moment on the game so I think they just keep getting better and better at this yeah I'm excited to play it so as soon as we get one locally we're going to have to check it out and then we can talk about it more I'm sure Coin Op will get one yeah exactly we'll do a on the spot report yeah speaking of which i'll go back to whirlwind for one second um yeah check uh pinballmap.com listeners and see if you can find a whirlwind in your neck of the woods or find a collector that has one or a new star wars game in fact uh uh yeah i'm sure coin op's gonna get a star wars and right now at fanny ann's in sacramento california uh old sacramento you can play whirlwind it's on location there nice yeah i'm looking at Pinside and there's already like 19 people that have it in their collection so maybe they're people that have pre-ordered but I'm showing at least 7 locations around the United States that have one already set up so I'm not seeing one in our neck of the woods looks like Colorado might be the closest one well they just started shipping what a couple weeks ago yeah I've seen people taking them home from shows cool cool All right, I think that about covers our Star Wars update. Before we segue into show updates, I just want to give a quick shout-out. Spooky Pinball, their documentary, Things That Go Bump in the Night, is now available to rent or own on Vimeo. So let's support Pinball documentary filmmakers. Let's give our support for Team Spooky and rent it or buy it. And I know it's going to be coming out on DVD and Blu-ray soon. I just don't know when. So check out Vimeo and give it a watch. You're not doing anything else good this weekend, are you? Playing pinball? You're going to mow the lawn? It's too hot. It's summer. Sit inside, have a nice tea, and watch the spooky pinball documentary. You won't regret it. Yeah, I mean, for $4 for a rental or $9 to own it, it's an hour plus long with some bonus features. And I think it's good family entertainment. Gather the family around the dinner table, sit down and watch a little spooky. Yeah, it's not just pinball. It's a success story of a small family-owned business, and that's always a good thing. Yep. Cool. Yep. All right, show updates. You want to start? Sure. From my perspective, the big show in our neck of the woods is California Extreme, Big show that's been going on forever It's in Santa Clara It is July 29th and 30th That's a Saturday, Sunday And it is open for pre-order on tickets And it's being hosted in the Hyatt Regency there in downtown Santa Clara I was super excited to go I even had my room rented for Saturday night and unfortunately I got called out of town for two weeks. So I'm going to miss it this year. So a little bummed. But I know a lot of my Northern California brothers are going to be there and I've been monitoring the pin side thread and it looks like we've got a pretty good turnout for them this year. So it should be a great show. And that's what I've got on my plate. Okay. Well, mine is the other side of the country, the same weekend, And it is ReplayFX, July 27th through 30th in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center. And that's also going to be having the pinball tournament, Pinberg, which is the world's largest pinball tournament, if memory serves. So you can go out and play pinball and compete or just play pinball Watch some of the best pinball players on Planet Pinball slug it out for the title. So if you're going to be on the East Coast, definitely show to check out. So on to the gadget of the month, which I have nothing and you have a couple things. Yeah, you know, we try to throw in something out of the tech bag every episode. And as always, he didn't contribute this time. So what I was scanning around, I realized one of my recent acquisitions that's brought me a lot of joy, most things pinball do, but over the four to five years I put into the hobby. Has Juniper been in the hobby longer than me? Hmm. I'll have to think about that. The four or five years I've been in the hobby, I've gone through a variety of toolboxes. As I started going to shows about three or four years ago and bringing my own games and bringing my own tools to fix my games, I started kind of trying to figure out what's the best way to carry tools around. If I go to look at a machine, I go to go to show to work on my machines, I go to work on other people's machines, like what's the right amount of tools and all that good stuff. So I went down to my favorite hardware store, Harbor Freight, picked out a really high-end $8 toolbox. That was my first go around. And that lasted about a year before I just realized it just ended up being a big pile of tools in there that I was constantly having to dig around. So I thought, all right, let me get something a little more compartmentalized. So I went down to Lowe's next and picked out kind of one of those toolboxes that you pull the handle out, and it's kind of like a tackle box where it's got multiple levels that come out of it. And you keep it a little more organized, right? You can get smaller tools in the top shelves and the bigger tools in the bottom. So that served me well, but, you know, carrying that around and then setting it down and then having to open it and digging around trying to find a smaller tool still was suboptimal. And so this last year when Pentagogo was getting ready to spin up again, I started thinking I really want an easy way to carry tools around. So having observed others in the past, I decided to try out a tool bag instead. so i went back to um lowe's and they had a like just a vanilla polyester tool bag for like 17 bucks and you know it's not huge so i was a little worried it wasn't big enough but being able to store your tools vertically in pouches was like amazing so anywhere i went i just plopped my tool my tool bag down and I had immediate access to anything. I didn't have to open up anything. I didn't have to make sure there's enough space for me to open the lid and pull the trays out. I could carry it and pull a tool out while I was walking I could see all the tools at once and it took up a lot less space And so I really been able to kind of tailor that tool bag and I have like the perfect set of tools in it now for most of 90 of my wrenching is all in that bag now And what I've found is around the house or if I'm working on the cars outside doing whatever, I find that I'm grabbing this bag now and using my pinball tool bag for most of my honeydew list too. So I've been really happy with that transition. So I know it's something small, right? But if you're wrenching on games a lot, it's nice to have an easy way of carrying things around and accessing your tools. Because typically in the past, I'd grab a handful of tools and walk back to my machine, and I wouldn't get the thing I needed, and I'd have to go back. So you get kind of a waste of time. So carrying a bag around with everything you need in it is definitely the way to go. I actually have one for work similar to what you're talking about because I love Harbor Freight so it's got all my little tools for working it I call it my doctor bag you know but no it makes perfect sense and it's right there you can see it especially if you're in a show you know right there oh yeah I got that right here boom so that's a great tip and then In terms of gadgets, I thought I'd throw out something I saw on Pinside earlier today as I was browsing around like I'm known to do. It's something that I've had my eye on. It's a subwoofer. so some of the more modern pens you know um the um dmds later you if you will it's really easy to hook up subwoofers to them and really add a kind of a even if you don't have a shaker motor it kind of adds that um verbal depth to the gameplay when you can really get stuff to rattle around um so i was um pretty excited when i got mine hooked up i actually bought one uh last year and then I bought the Penovators. Make a little pen sound board that plugs into your MPU in the backbox and you just tell it what kind of machine you have, whether it's Stern, White Star, or whatever particular flavor of Williams you have. And you plug it in there and you just run your audio cables to it. So you're actually able to run multiple machines into it as well. So you can use, like I had my Star Trek Next Gen and my Fishtails. um piped into it so it's a pretty cool way to add an extra layer of depth and sound to it and then i went the next step and i added a little um um uh on off um uh it's like a little remote control to turn on and off the sub so i don't have to crawl underneath it and so it just plugs into the wall and so it's like a little remote that i keep on a keychain i can turn it on and off so that way if you know it's late at night i can just keep it off but or if it's during of the day and no one's here i can turn it on but so the subwoofer is a great way to add kind of a cool dynamic to some of the more modern games and poke audio's psw10 seems to be the one that most people point to is like yeah this is a great way to start and they go on sale from time to time for really cheap and so that's usually when everybody jumps on them so i think every year around black friday time they go on sale well there happens to be some used like new ones through Amazon warehouse deals right now on Amazon for $72 with free shipping. So head on out if you're at all thinking about powered subwoofers, it's a great time to go snag one. $71.99 and then tax depending on what state you're in. It's a great little way to add some extra depth to a game or multiple games. So highly recommended. And that is my gizmos of the week. Cool, cool. All right, next segment is, what's the deal with escapism pinball? This kind of just showed up out of nowhere about a week ago, courtesy of our good pal, another shout-out tonight to Practical Steve, who found a photo on the Internet of some empty – Wait, he found a photo. He found a photo. On the Internet. On the Internet. This is my shocked face. I know. of some empty cabinets with artwork for Guardians of the Galaxy. And it was escapism pinball. So I did some homework. I did my homework. So when you say escapism pinball, you're talking about like as in a pinball company called escapism pinball. Correct, sir. Not the concept of escaping into pinball. Awesome. All right. what's this about? I found it and they're out of South Africa and I found a website I actually I've got it pulled up right now so the listener can find them at escapism.co.za and apparently there's nothing on their website at all about Guardians of the Galaxy but they're apparently manufacturing They're doing a Spirit of 76 The old Gottlieb EM game But they're doing it as a solid state And They're doing a reissue Of the old Bally 8-Ball game Wow Those are interesting titles to pick Out of all the titles you could pick I wonder what drove them to those two I don't know, I did reach out to Them via email from their contact Page and I have yet To hear back from them but I'm just kind of fascinated that they're they didn't reach out to you and offer to send you a check if you would have their agent pick up a pinball it's not like any of those kind of things right not so far no okay still waiting you know I'm still waiting for my Nigerian prince to show up on you know at the door like Ed McMahon you know I kind of browsed around on the website today and did you look at some of the services that they offer? Yeah, yeah. They have like – they'll completely restore a play field for like $800. Now, they said they had to inspect it first, so I'm guessing they're not going to do something that has Mylar on it because they know it's going to remove all the paint. But that would be interesting to see if anybody here in the U.S. is engaged with them for any of their restoration projects. Yeah, well, you know, another thing is they do EM to solid state conversions. You know, you send them an EM game and they'll convert to solid state. Yeah, I was looking up the money difference because it's like South African rands, I think is their currency. And it was like their brand new machines that they're going to sell are like $3,500. Wow. So that was kind of surprising. $3,500 American? Yeah, to convert over. It was like 45,000 Rand or something. Okay. Hmm. Well, that's kind of interesting. So, yeah, I would love to hear more. I think as I Googled around, I think I saw somebody posted a video on YouTube like 10 months ago. It's like the last activity I've seen. So I'm curious where they currently are. Is it stalled out? Are they still actively working on things behind the scenes? It's just another interesting little thing to kind of keep your eye on as people around the world try to find their niche into our hobby. Yeah, yeah. I just – I was just fascinated by it because here they are, and they're like, whoa, nobody's heard about these guys. So, hey, so hopefully we'll have some updates down the road of what – are they doing something? Yeah, yeah. We'll keep an eye on them and report back if we hear anything. So now we've got – you've got something for me. Yeah, well, you know, I thought it would be fun to ask you some questions. So I thought I'd introduce a brand new segment to our show. I like to call it This or That. And I'm just going to rapid fire ask you some real simple questions and see how you answer them. And I'm going to try hard not to judge you harshly based on your answers. Or laugh out loud. So I hope you're prepared. Yeah, yeah, fire away. All right. So, all right, here we go. We're just going to warm you up nice and easy, okay? Board games, Monopoly or Life? Monopoly. Nice. Pinball vendors, Pinball Life or Marco's Specialties? That's a tough one. Pinball Life. All right. Coke or Pepsi? That was fast. Now, what about this? I want you to think about this. I'm going to hold you accountable. I either give you a – and these are equal condition machines, okay? I'm either going to give you a fathom or you have to give me 500 bucks and I give you a TX Sector oh man TX Sector nobody else has one nobody else has one so you're going to give me 500 cash and to get the TX Sector versus a free fathom I can go play fathom there's other people I know that have it So no one we know has a TF sector. ABBA or the Bee Gees? Man, that is tough. I'm going to go ABBA. So disappointed. Solid State Valley or Solid State Gottlieb? Solid State Valley. Mustang or Camaro? Mustang. Would you rather prepare an EM or a Solid State? Solid State only because I know more about them. You can only set your machines up for eternity in 3-ball or 5-ball? 3-ball. iPhone or Android? That was the wrong answer. Lowe's or Home Depot? Home Depot. That was also the wrong answer. I was looking for Harbor Freight. Oh, Harbor Freight. Vanilla ice cream. Vanilla ice cream or Rainbow Sherbert? Oh, Rainbow Sherbert. I'll have to go with vanilla. Wow, you're one of those. DMD or LCD? DMD. Do you toast your marshmallows or do you burn them? Burn them and give them to the kids because I hate marshmallows. LEDs or incandescent bulbs? Only one. LEDs. If you had to pick one favorite mechanism, would it be a spinner or would it be a drop? Oh, man. That's brutal hard. A spinner. I'll go spinner. Yeah, that was an easy one because of the name of the podcast. But I do love drops. Here's a controversial one. Star Trek or Star Wars? Well, you know, I love them both, but I'm going to give the hand to Star Wars. No. I knew that was the answer. All right. All your machines have to be either set up to six degrees or seven and a half degrees. Seven and a half. Make it harder. Makes you a better player. Wow. Okay. In-N-Out or Five Guys? In-N-Out. Superbands or Titans? Boy, that is tough. I'm going to go Titans. Big Red or Juicy Fruit? Juicy Fruit. Can't stand cinnamon. Wow. I like real cinnamon. I hate baked cinnamon. Final question You don't know what they're going to be But the next unannounced Stern Or the next unannounced Spooky Which one would you want? Wow Yeah that is tough I'm going to judge you You're going to judge me You know what I'm betting on Spooky Because I think they're really going to surprise a lot of people With their next couple of games Alright that's fair enough And that concludes this or that for this episode. That was fun. Thanks for playing. Yeah, that was fun. I thought you'd like that. So, closing time. Closing time. It's time to close. Already, but we've got a good show here. As always, I so look forward to doing the episodes. We always have so much fun. So, closing out the night, any more shout-outs to anybody? No, you know, I'll do, instead of a shout-out, I'll do a confession. All right, the confessional. It's been over two weeks since I've turned on a pinball machine and played it. You've been out of town a lot. I have, but that's not a good enough excuse because I've been home enough that I should have played one. I'm looking at my Knight Rider right now, recognizing I need to turn it on before I go to bed tonight. So I'll make up for it. I'll play ten games as my pennants. There you go. Well, I'll confess, too, I haven't played since Tuesday night. So, you know. All right. So I'm going to go play, too. We're both bad hosts. Yeah. I do want to give a shout out to all the wonderful people that listen to the show. Thank you for your support and listening. And we're always glad that we can entertain you and maybe give you something to think about. Big thanks again to Juniper Neff for coming on the show and sharing her really cool story with us. You can listen to us of course on SoundCloud Acast and iTunes Anybody else we got to thank tonight? I think that's about it Seth you got anything else? Nope Well thanks again for listening This has been episode 8 Of the Spinner's Lit Pinball Podcast Play pinball Keep America strong Good night everybody