Hey, Poor Man Tribe and listeners, this is Glennie Rogers, and you're listening to the Tribe Multiball Podcast with Rachel and Tim. Poor Man Tribe's the thing, that is who we are. It is true. They're not in this thing, so how could it go wrong? Flip away with us, to an old barcade, and then we'll learn about each other. Uh-huh, from two pennants to another Uh-huh Hello everyone and welcome to Tribe multiball episode 33. I'm one of the co-hosts, Tim Lee, and I'm here with my other co-host Rachel Risto. How you doing today, Rachel? I'm doing great, Tim Lee. I'm so happy to be here with you. Yeah, yeah, it's been a while. It's been a while. Yes, we have been podcasting, but with other people, just not each other. So I'm so happy to reunite with you. All right. Well, we can get into that in a few minutes, but we have another guest today. I'm very excited. All right. You ready for our guest? I am. All right. Welcome to the show, Steve Johnson. How you doing, Steve? I'm doing well. How are you all doing? Good. Try member number 16, suite 16. Should we call you Steve Moonpie Johnson? At least it's not banana. I love that joke. That's a great joke. If you don't know what we're talking about, Steve was on one of the more famous episodes of the Poor Man's Pinball Podcast. He probably drank a little bit too much and got into, I don't know if it was a moon pie eating contest. But you all should go back, look up that episode, and listen to it for yourselves. It's one of the really fun episodes on the Poor Man's Pinball Podcast. Wouldn't you agree, Steve? Yeah, I definitely drank too much, and my wife brought me a moon cookie at the end of the recording, and I was very excited about it. Very excited. Hey, Rachel, what are you drinking? I am having definitely a poor man's kind of beer today. I'm having a Miller Lite. There it is. Nice. What about you? Genesee Cream Ale. It's like every other episode I drink a Genesee cream ale, the cream ale of the poor men. What are you drinking, Steve? I'm on pain pills, so I've got a Dr. Pepper. Oh, yeah, yeah. Do you mind telling us why you're on pain pills? No, no. Well, as Tim Lee and Rachel both put it earlier in the week, I suck at table sauce. And I was in the process of doing flooring and my hand got in the way of the blade. So I had to go have some surgery yesterday to reattend a tendon. And hopefully I'll get most of the movement back. Well, the picture you sent was not pretty. It looked kind of nasty. But we hope you get well soon. and there's no better way to heal than talking to Rachel and myself. There you go. I'm looking forward to it. And hopefully that's going to put a little hamper on any pinball playing for you for a little bit, I would think. For a little bit. Thankfully, my fingers aren't affected too much, but I can't really put any weight on that thumb. Doctor said after about two months, he'll give me the green light to do whatever I want. All right. So you'll be watching pinball streams, listening to pinball podcasts, reading about pinball yeah just absorbing it in other ways right absolutely absolutely so yeah i'll definitely still be in touch with pinball all right well yeah you get to catch up on a lot of podcasts i saw your cast earlier and it was it was massive it'll it'll definitely be a while before you can hit those flipper buttons yeah yep well let's get into some personal pinball news Rachel, what have you been up to? Oh, you know, just going to a couple of expos, having fun, hanging out with friends, playing pinball. I went to the pinball expo in Chicago, and I had a lot of fun. I played some tournaments, hung out with cool people. But we're going to talk about that on the next Tribe Multiball. We'll do a little expo roundup. The two highlights, at least, I want to mention are, is number one, I met Dan and Haley. if you've not heard other podcasters talk about them they were just amazing they came up to me with Haley came up to me with her with her autograph book I gave away my very first autograph Tim Lee I don't know who I am Dan said the nicest things about TriMultiBall about you and I about the positivity that we put into the pinball community so many wonderful things I'm just going to treasure my heart forever so that like let me tell you that was day one at pinball Expo in Chicago and that was like the cherry on the top on top of the whole weekend just having this cool interaction yeah yeah she looked like a sweetheart super sweet yeah I ran into her a little bit later and after that interaction I ran into her later either later that day the next day or whatever and not only had she got a topper now for her dad at East Simpsons she also got a shooter rod and this is the game that she wants to take to college with her so I'm like that's right you keep modding it out so that was pretty cool yeah that was uh i and i loved that they went to the expo together is you know father and daughter i've done some things with my daughter in pinball and it was very special so i'm sure dan really kind of had the time of his life with his daughter yeah that's awesome autograph book was a great way for both of them to connect together with different people and it's kind of like like a treasure hunt kind of right to find these different people. So if I was her age and with my father, that would be like the most ultimate weekend. So really, that was just so neat. The other thing I wanted to talk about is I wanted to thank everybody that supported Flippin' the Script. I want to thank the poor men that came into the stream chat that kept Drew and Mr. Sharp and I all entertained. They were able to raise the $25,000 that they were looking to, especially with the help of a specific angel donors, little thanks to everybody for your support in doing that. So that was really, really cool. Yeah, that was kind of fun to watch you all. I kind of, I skipped out on a little work that day to watch everyone throughout the day. I was on and off and I bid on some things. Do you want to know what I won? Yeah, I do. For sure. One, I talked Scott and Josh into putting a loser kid hat on, you know, late in the day. So I won that. But I also, I didn't plan on winning this. My I honestly was trying to bid it up and get it high, and then I was going to switch over to the Insider Connected device. But I ended up winning an American Girl Doll pinball machine. You won flip side. We love it. It's in Torts Arcade, and everybody plays it, and it's kind of neat. I'm glad I won it now. But, yeah, I didn't expect to win it, but my buddy Justin brought it home for me. So they just did an awesome job. The entire thing from start to finish was really well produced, really well organized, and they met their goals. So congratulations. Yes, congratulations. What a great way to have pinball people helping other people. Congrats on your flip side. That is a fun little game. I'm pretty sure that Miss Amy Lee might have posted a little video of you playing in our tribe group. Yeah. Using you a little bit on that game. In your pajamas, I think. It was in my pajamas. Yes, thank you. That was great. Other than that, I went to Houston Pinball Arcade Expo. I just came back from a hot weekend there. Let me tell you, that is an unbelievable show to go to. Okay. I'm going to encourage everybody that's listening to this that you need to put this on your calendar for 2023. You can play pinball all night, all night. You can get a tattoo. You know, you want to get a little something done. No problem there. I attended an ice cream social. I played several different tournaments. I got into a stranger's car within an hour of getting there to go play a flipper frenzy. You know, it was just like it was a complete party atmosphere. They had a DJ. They had live music. They had one night was 80s theme. The second night was yacht rock. I just had such a blast. I got to spend time talking to Scott Danesi and John Borg. That blew my mind. Wow. Being able to engage with some pretty fancy pants people in the pinball world. Houston Arcade Pinball Expo. It's a Space City Pinball Open, and the Houston Bells and Times did such a great job with what they did hosting there. I don't even know. I played a – there's so many great things I can talk about there. The energy is unbelievable. If you're looking just to go have a fun time, to party it up, to meet pinball people that are warm and welcoming and inviting, that once I met – this is the best part, Tim. is once I met one person and they're standing there with two other people that are strangers to me, they would introduce me to those other people. And then one of those people would introduce me later on to the person that I was about to play pinball with or whatever. And everyone was just unbelievable. The one other really cool thing that I have to talk about was I played a $10 Tommy game. Do you play dollar games, Steve? Do you ever do that? I have in the past. I like to wait until I'm a little intoxicated. Usually the opponent's a little bit more intoxicated. That's right. Well, I assure you there may have been a little bit of alcohol involved. I was jamming playing Six Million Dollar Man. I was pre-playing it prior to the women's qualifying the next day. A group of dudes that are local guys in the local league there came up to me. They wanted to play that game because it's a six-player game. And they asked if I would like to play. And I'm like, sure, but we're going to play. and they suggested a $10 game. I'm like, sure, I'll play, but we're going to play it Tommy style. Do you know what that is? I have no clue. I believe that's when you put the dollar bills over the glass so that other people can't see where the ball's at and you get to put your dollars where you want to have a blind spot. That's right. So I put my $10 bill, you can put it over the drain, over the flipper, over the drop-down targets, wherever the important spots are on the table. So that kind of ups the ante in terms of playing. So now we've got a $60 game of $6 million man on the line. That's Tommy style. So it kind of evens the playing field. You've really got to be able to know the game or feel the game or be able to be a little bit more creative, like crouch down, look at it, whatever. But that was so much fun. That was also a big highlight. Again, it was just such a party expo environment. I had the best time. There's also like a poor man style booth full of all sorts of interesting vintage junk. So there's definitely, you know, a possibility for the poor men to have a booth there. I also got to see, can't forget, oh, my goodness. I also got to meet our very own tribe member, Stephen Silver. He is an incredibly great hugger. He was kind enough to record a little video, Late Breaking News, that I posted on the Poor Man's Fan page. Right, Tim Lee? Wasn't a really big fan of that video. sucker steven you you've done really good work in the past especially on your games but that video kind of sucked um so but we got to hang out you know it just i hung out with rebecca and lauren of backbox pinball podcast in fact lauren was my roommate it goes on and on i i can't expound enough about how much fun i had you know tim lee that i've been you know i've been working on this goal you know I've got these pinball goals that I've been working on all year and I've done a lot of pinball travel specifically for like competitive purposes so it was really nice for me to just kickback and just have fun not that I don't have fun while playing but I mean like you know I'm having like I'm staying up till 3 30 in the morning having drinks and playing pinball and being dumb it was great yeah just relax have a good time yes and it was a safe environment and again the nicest people that I'm ever going to meet. The nicest. Yeah, the pinball community is great. I'll have to mark that one on the calendar for next year. Yes, and I would really like to see a bunch of friends that I know from this region going down there. It was interesting because I was the only Czech from Wisconsin, the only player from Wisconsin, and I went at the behest of Lauren and Rebecca, just encouragement to come down there and have some fun. And so I'm just going to put that out there they weren't lying this is the the pinball expo that you want to go check out and again it's the Houston Pinball Arcade and Expo and that was in it's in November of 2023 and I think they already have the dates out there but I really hope that other folks will meet me down there especially and join me for on Saturday night they have the Yacht Rock Champagne Toast and if you hear this podcast you mention it to me next year at that Champagne Toast I think I'm going to give people like something special like I'm going to hand out like a little token or something i have something made you know but we got we got it we gotta live it up when we can that's it i think that's everything nice i did oh and i did play competitive pinball and all of that but if you are interested in hearing about my competitive play and tournament talk you can listen to the ray ray show with raymond davidson and me rachel aristo right here on the poor man's pinball podcast network uh i'm really excited about that just a little side project i guess or that I've been working on. It's fun. Tim, have you listened to it? It's kind of long. It's going to be dry and long for some people, but we also have an opportunity to break down games and talk about how tournament play actually works as far as the pointing and the mental game that has to be into it and so forth. Yes, I did listen to it because I edited it for you. Yes, right. I'm leaving the laughing as well. I'm so used to that. Oh, God. You know, it's been a little bit, I don't know. I'm going to have another beer. Yeah, that's what makes this show great. That's all I got. Any questions about my big, long ramble about Houston and how awesome it was? No, that sounds great. Steve, have you listened to the Ray Ray show at all? I haven't yet. I was going to do it this week, and then I had my accident. So I've been focused on other things. yeah sure like not using your hand i mean that's gonna be hard oh it's very difficult not to use use a hand that and i don't do well just sitting doing nothing oh yeah yeah well to our fans go out and listen to that show it's it's really good it's uh it's doing really well for the poor man's pinball podcast network i also hear that you've been up to something else tim that's enough about me and my junk. I want to hear about what's going on in Tim Lee's world. Well, I got really, really jealous that you were doing a podcast with Raymond. So I went on a quest to find somebody to do a podcast with me and everyone turned me down. So I paid my buddy Eric to, to at least record an episode with me, but no, uh, I, I have a podcast that I used to do with my boys. It's called life Lessons with Tim Lee, and you can hear all about the origin of that podcast if you listen to the episode I just dropped. But I've told you in the past that someday I might resurrect that show, and my buddy Eric was doing stupid things in his pinball world, so it was a really good time to get on the show and resurrect it and have a nice good talk with him. By the way, he wasn't doing stupid things, but him and I are good friends and we've talked about it. So we recorded an episode. I don't know. Maybe I'll record another one. It was fun. I enjoyed it. I might go back and release the first two episodes that I did with my boys maybe three because I went back and listened to them and they entertaining to me but just what we talked about three years ago is so different from how things are now and my boys were quite comical, so I might do kind of a retro show. But yeah, I recorded my own podcast, just couldn't handle you having one with Raymond, so I got super jealous. Just kidding, just kidding. Well, Tim Lee, you will always be my podcast host. True love. Yeah, I think. Well, I did get a lot of questions, maybe by a lot, three to five. People would ask me if we were going to stop our podcast. And I said, no, no, no, no. I said, Rachel's actually been talking about the Ray Ray show for some time, and I've been talking about resurrecting my podcast for an episode or two. It's not going to be a weekly thing. I just decided to do it. And when you were in Houston, I'm like, I just feel like recording a podcast. But no, Rachel, try multi balls here to stay, right? Sure. Yeah, man, we got to win that Twippy. Yeah, yeah. We can't quit until we win a Twippy, Tim. I think that's going to be our new motto. Oh, that's funny. I'm really excited for you that you did another life lesson with Tim Lee I have not listened to it because I didn't edit it so I will take a listen to it hopefully this week but no I'm excited for you and you know I'm sorry to make you so jealous but you know when you got way with James and like barking at your door saying come on Rachel no it's really the other way around I'm like please Raven let's make this show it was actually a really nice meeting of both minds he's such a nice guy to work on that project with so i'm just the luckiest girl luckiest girl i really liked raymond until he kind of gave me the smackdown in regards to to the rush uh ball save on the time machine what did he i won't spoil it uh uh raymond he didn't give me the smackdown but rachel asked him a question for me and i did not get the answer i wanted you got the appropriate answer that was great thoroughly enjoyed it i was gonna ask are you trading out games have you traded any games are you clean so i don't know if i talked about this on the last episode but my weird owl came in and i've been playing a lot of weird owl i purchased yeah i purchased that one a while ago been playing weird owl a lot really enjoy it and i got guardians i believe i didn't mention that on the last episode i've been playing a lot of guardians of the galaxy it's a great game yeah it's it's really a lot of fun i i didn't expect it to be as much fun as it is it but i'm enjoying it i it's uh it's kind of got a more simplistic role set for somebody like me but yet it has ways to multiply the points for somebody that's a little more advanced than myself so i'm enjoying it good well that's all that matters and if it's something that you don't enjoy you can just get rid of it look for something else yeah well that might be easier said than done i actually have my mandalorian is still posted i've actually changed it from a cell to a trade because i want to trade it and i had an avengers um infinity quest premium and after six months i only had 150 plays on it which is crazy because i put a lot of plays on my machines and i thought you know it's just not connecting with me so it's time to go and i posted it and i really haven't gotten many hits on either cash-wise, but I've got a ton of trade offers, just an absolute ton of trade offers. But yeah, the market's kind of slowing down. Well, that's good for the rest of us. For me, I think that's good if I'm looking to offload something. Well, enough about us. That's enough about us. Let's talk about you, Steve. What are you doing in your personal pinball world? Well, during Expo, Denver has a show as well called the Denver Pinball Showdown. And so being local, that's what I did that weekend. I met another tribe member, Lee Bellhumer, and him and his family came out and we all hung out together. And then Ari Jones also, he had the wrong day, but we got to meet up for one night before he headed out to Moab. So that was nice to see him again. We saw him down in Texas. So it was good to hang out. yeah like i'm still waiting for my cactus canyon le to come in that's the standard le or the le plus uh the le the actual le le yeah yeah the top model yeah yeah so i'm excited for that it's been over a year now my kids are asking quite often when is it going to come in it's like i don't know when it comes in. Nobody knows. Yeah. Yeah. There's been a kind of radio sounds on that. I think they're getting close though. So I don't know, maybe before Christmas. We'll see. I'm not holding my breath though. I hope it appears under your tree for you. That would be nice. I'm really hoping that somebody will just move it down the stairs for me because I can't. Great. Yeah. Yeah, so I'm looking forward to that. And I've got an alien SE Pinball Brothers that I'm occasionally looking for trades on here and there. At one point, I had The Hobbit. My son hadn't read the book yet, and we got rid of it. He then read the book, watched the movie, and he's like, why did we get rid of that? And I was like, well, because nobody was really playing it. And he's like, well, we should trade the alien for it. And it's like, well, we'll see if we can't make something happen. But so far, no luck. Okay. So you're looking. You're looking for that Hobbit. Yeah, looking for the Hobbit. There's a couple other games out there too. And then, I don't know, the Houston show, did they have the new James Bond? They did have James Bond and the vibrating rocket. Yeah. Yes. Yes. Now, was that the Pro or the Premium? I think I'm pretty sure I played both. Yeah, because you were also at the Expo. expo yes they had it they had i played the pro and the premium at both expos i went to okay yeah they had a premium at the denver show so we got to play that and that is uh that's on my radar now because my wife was like well it's a sean connery one so i'd be okay with that so i agree now i i like i liked how the game shot i thought it was a really fun shooter i enjoyed it i only had a small amount of time on it maybe like a handful of games i got to play and also you know it was kind of like in a you know a poor man's drunk kind of condition thing a couple of those games so uh but i will say that i liked the lock shots felt really good the uh the bonus felt like really huge on that game like ginormous like had 300 million points in bonus or something it was bonkers yeah it was i felt like an uneven scoring is the i think what i'm saying But I thought it was so much fun to play, and I can't wait for one. I want to see who's going to get one in my area first, and I can't wait to go play it. Yeah, I definitely think the scoring is going to have to be worked out a little bit. I'm excited that Lonnie is doing it because he kind of does more basic code. I believe he's the one who did Guardians of the Galaxy as well. A little bit more basic, but I think he'll get the scoring worked out to where it'll be a fun game. Yeah, we have one on order. Amy, I've said it in previous episodes, loves James Bond. But I don't know if I told you this, Rachel. When we went on our 25th anniversary trip, I was so excited that we were getting Bond and had one on order. And I knew that she loved Bond. So the entire way there, I talked in my Sean Connery sexy voice. and she pretty much told me the anniversary trip wasn't going to happen if i didn't shut up because i don't know i was like sean connery or let's go make out i don't even know like what sean connery sounds like but yeah i used to ask what my favorite sport is what's your favorite sport? Tennis. Yeah, tennis. That's it. That's my song. Well, have you guys seen the Barbara Walters interview from the late 80s with Sean Connery? I have not. Oh, man, it's pretty hilarious. So Barbara Walters brings up in a past interview at some point, he talked about, you know, it's okay to slap a woman. And at the end of the interview, he still agreed that it's okay to slap a woman occasionally if they really deserve it barbara walters is like well i think you might get a little bit of mail for that he was perhaps female oh geez it would not go over well today but no no no it was you guys should go back and watch it though because it's it's a pretty fantastic video and you're just like i can't believe he's saying this very something else very uncomfortable moment. You could tell Barbara Walters was very upset the entire time that they're talking about it. And Sean Connery's just got a smile on his face and just kind of making jokes. I think it's no big deal. That's interesting. Yeah, it was, it was, it was interesting, but different times. Yeah, for sure. Well, my Sean Connery sexy voice for every, did not work out. that was my Sean Connery sexy voice you don't think that's sexy I don't think that's Sean Connery that's what Amy said I thought you'd hey so alright well that's all I got to say I'm with you I'm right there with you Amy that's all I have to add to the James Bond conversation so anyways out on Steve. Oh, that's pretty funny. Yeah, other than that, I think that's pretty much all of my recent pinball news. Nice. Well, we were on video earlier before I screwed up the whole podcast thing. Tim Lee sucks at podcasting, but now we're not. But you had a pretty nice collection going on in the background. I saw Metallica. Did I see Metallica? Yes, you did. What else you got i'm looking at your list here you have a tron pro yep yeah and that one's heavily modded okay got a congo um i've got home use only monster bash remaker williams uh original williams okay nice yeah i've got a home use only adams family jealous so jealous i got that from a complete kind of fluke. I already had an Adams family and there was a guy here locally who used to go and find barn finds. And he put out that he had an Adams family and haunted house. And I really wanted a haunted house. And so I went up there and looked, he goes, well, it's a package deal. Like if you take one, you've got to take them both. And I was like, well, I said, I really want this. And I'm pretty sure I can get money back for the Adams family. And it was already kind of wrapped up a little bit. So I said, all right, I'll give you the money. And so I picked both of those up. I got home and unpacked the Adams family and it was home use only. And it was my, my Adams family was nice. It had a replacement play field and it was gorgeous. But the way that the home use only one played was just incredible. Played like it was just new out of the box. Oh, wow. Nice. So I sold the other one and kept this one. Yeah, it was. And Haunted House, that was a fun game. I bought that and I modded that out. So it had multiball in it like it should have from the factory. So that was fun. Okay. But I no longer have that game. Yeah. Then I've got Wizard of Oz. Great game. Yeah, it's that one. Everybody always asks what my favorite is, and I have about five favorites. and unfortunately, I'm kind of down to where I don't have a whole lot of space left because I like all the games I have. Yeah, it's tough once you get to that level and you have to get rid of something, and you're like, what do I get rid of? And you don't want to get rid of anything. It's time to get a storage unit, Steve. Well, at one point, I had 35 or 37 pinball machines in my basement, but then my family wanted to put a pool table up, and then they wanted to create a little area for the kids and so now in my basement i think i'm down to about 14 and then i have a couple pinball machines in other places okay but now my son's getting older he's like we should take the pool table back down i was like well it's kind of too late now prices have just gone nuts on pinball machines yeah yeah you know how tim lee solves that though about what game to get rid of yeah he has a spreadsheet i do i i've heard about the spreadsheet and then i think the last time you actually went on and said which game should i get rid of tribe wasn't that you yeah that was me and i picked aiq premium to get rid of because i don't nobody plays it you know just think about that 150 plays on that expensive of a machine in six months it's time it's time to go And the entire time I'm thinking, you know, I don't want to get rid of AIQ. I don't want to get rid of AIQ. Wait, nobody plays AIQ. It's time to go. Yeah, that's why we got rid of Jurassic Park Pro was because nobody was playing it. And so I was like, well, if nobody's going to play it, I need to free up a spot. So, well, yeah, same thing I do with Jurassic Park Pro. Now I'm looking at the list you sent us. Yeah. The next game is one I've been dying to ask you about. So what's the next game on your list? Blackwater 100. Blackwater 100. Now that's the Endurance Motocross game, correct? Yeah, yep. Yeah, that's a fun game. It starts out with multiball. And you can't get multiball back, so after you drain two balls, then you're back to just a single ball for the rest of the game. Yeah, that's a game that I had a chance to buy within the last year at a very reasonable price. I just didn't want to make the drive. And I've been kicking myself because I grew up, my father was a motorcycle mechanic. So I always had motorcycles and never really played it that much, but I really want to own it. So I'm kind of jealous there. Of all the games on your list, that's the one I'm the most jealous of. Yeah, and that one, the plastics are oftentimes the issues. And I've got all my plastics worked out, except for there's one area that I'm still trying to figure out how to protect it to where it doesn't get further damaged. But it's a very unique game. And when I first got that game, because of the era of it, and that's when Williams was really going cheap on stuff, they would cut the cabinets weirdly on the bottom. And so when you look at it, it's not a traditional pinball cabinet. Yes, I see that. I've never even heard of this game, so I brought that up, and I see the front or the bottom of the cab is, like, cut upwards. Yeah, it's really weird. And then... The playing field looks cool, though. Yeah, it's a great layout. That's a Dennis Nordman layout. And he loves his ramps. And it shows in this game. Plastic everywhere. And it's kind of cool because it has a flipper back where the apron's supposed to be. And so there's not really an apron in the game, which is kind of unique. And then also on the top of the cabinet, they didn't put wood like they normally do either. they put a piece of orange plexiglass. And so when you turn the light on, when you turn the game on, it lights up from the bottom and just has orange that lights up the ceiling. Very different. Yeah Yeah When I first got it I had to look into it a little bit more like did somebody really hack this game up or is this how it came Turns out that how it came Yeah, right. Interesting. That's a really cool game. I can't wait to play that someday. Yeah, it's a very unique game. And a lot of people are afraid to buy it because of the plastics because they don't make any replacement plastics for it. And when I say that, I'm talking about the ramps. And there's ramps everywhere in that game. But in today's age, can't you just 3D print that? It would be a really big ramp because one of the ramps goes all along the entire left cabinet and then is the apron. And I think that's what the problem is. And then there's artwork all over it as well. It's just a unique era for pinball machines. Yeah, you've got to find one in the junkyard and get the ramp off of it. Yeah, it spares. All right. So what else you got on the list? Guardians of the Galaxy Pro. I've got a Deadpool Premium. Wow. Yep. I've got the Alien. I think it's called the standard version, the SV, by Pinball Brothers. Okay. Baby Pac-Man. I do not like that game. Really? I really want to play that game, but I don't like it. Oh, man. That's such a unique game, and it doesn't take up any space. So that one's not going anywhere either because it takes up no space. for a pinball game you're right it doesn't take up a lot of space i totally agree i just can't get into the game i'm like i don't know maybe my brain it just doesn't want to split between arcade and a regular pin i don't know have you ever played it's cool that's a cool game very unique have you played caveman before no okay that's kind of a similar thing except for that one had more of a pinball play field and then kind of a small arcade feel to it because it has a monitor in the back of the play field. Oh, I'll have to look that one up. But it's a full-size pinball machine. And that one was made by Gottlieb. So that's another unique one. At one point, I collected really odd games because I had enough space to do that. And so if it got played a couple times a year, that was fine. But then as you start trimming games down, then you have to decide which games really get played, like you said, Tim. Yeah. You got to make those tough decisions. Yeah, you do. And when you get down to it, I think the perfect size collection is probably about 18 to 20 for myself because that'd give me a few games that I could rotate in and out. Gotcha. What's been the most unique game that you've had? Well, the rarest game that I've ever owned is Defender. Oh, okay. And they only made, I believe it was 169 of those. Okay. and they don't come up very often. When I was a stay-at-home dad, I had a lot more time to search the local ads for stuff. So I was oftentimes one of the first ones there because of it. Sure. And that one came up and I drove about an hour and a half to go pick it up and brought it home. And it was a fun game. And that's one that my wife wishes that we still had. And that one, man, talk about price. Price is going up. I think I bought it for $1,900. I think I sold it for $3,400. I think it's worth $7,000 or more now. Wow. Wow. Yeah. And it's because it's super rare. It's not because it was a bad game. Williams, it was kind of during their time when they were making pinball machines out of arcade games. And that one just didn't get – there just weren't a whole lot of them made. that was a good find did i ever tell you rachel about the auction story and the cubert i don't think i told this story it was at the beginning of summer i was looking for model trains because i like model trains as well in an auction site and i came across a listing and they didn't really have the details of the pinball machine but there was a pinball machine so i blew it up and it was a cubert and it was the morning of the auction and i was three hours away i couldn't get there and somebody got a cubert pinball machine for like it was like three or five hundred dollars oh my gosh and i saw no matter if it works yeah no matter if it works yeah and i saw months later a cubert go up for sale for a crazy price and i and it was in kind of in the pennsylvania area and i always thought i wonder if that was the person that got the cubert but it was weird It didn't say pinball. It didn't say Q-Bert pinball. There was just a picture in a barn. And sure enough, somebody got a Q-Bert at a really great price. That's the information that our buddy Ted over at pinballprices.com could use. Yeah. Is that little factoid, right? Yep. All right, Steve. What else you got? I've got a Star Trek Pro. That's a great game. Yeah. Although the sounds on it get really annoying when you're not the one playing it. If it's on in the background and you're doing something else, you're just like, can we turn that off? I think that game has like the best call outs. I'm not kidding you. Maybe just while I'm playing it. Well, the call outs are great, but it's like just the loud sounds of what's going on. And whenever you're in a pin, like an arcade bar, you can always tell when there's a Star Trek because you just hear the sounds before you even see it. Sure. Yeah. And then I've got a Mandalorian Pro Fishtails, and then I mentioned the Cactus Cagninelli will be coming. Coming soon. Yeah. I tell you what, that's a great collection. I'll be right over. Yeah, come on over. You're in where, Missouri? Rachel, you can get there before me. I'm in Colorado. Oh, wait, you're in Colorado. Who's in Missouri? is that maybe is jonathan hall in missouri no no ari yeah is it ari i don't know i mean i know the rotters are in missouri but i literally talked to somebody from missouri this week i am getting everyone confused sorry that's okay that's okay i'm the name of our guest right so far that's the most important thing and steve colorado you actually sent me pictures and told me you went skiing or we're going to go skiing so I knew you were from Colorado but I still screwed it up oh well so what is it blizzard mountain pinball what is it called yeah there's blizzard mountain pinball that's uh Kevin McCarthy's place and that's up in Conifer that's about 30 minutes from me um and then we have all the one-ups and the one-ups are great locations as well and they're anywhere from 15 to 30 minutes from me. We've got Lions Classic Pinball that's owned by Ryan Comet LEDs, and that's a fantastic location. That's been going since the early 2000s. Fantastic place. So lots of pinball right there in the greater Denver area is what you're telling me. Yeah, well, and then we have lots of great players, as you guys all know. We've got Zach McCarthy, who just won the Expo. And then we've got Escher, Lefkoff. We've lots of great players down here. So I've met him once or twice. I've also beat Escher. I just want to every time I think about that. I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Tim Lee. It's such a messy episode. I just have to say every time Escher comes up in conversation, I like to just drop that in there that I beat Escher and Raymond on the same game on Cyclone earlier this year. And that felt so good. That's it. I just have to brag forever about that. I need a shirt that says that. Anyway, sorry. Yeah, you've got some really great players out there in Colorado for sure. Yeah, I used to do a little bit more competitive pinball before my daughter was born. And the players out here are just really, really good. And even the people who don't travel around to shows who aren't ranked really low, just because they're not ranked very highly because they don't go to other shows, they're really good as well. Absolutely. Like your own state players. I understand that. Yep. Like we have, you know, in my state, in my league, I have Neil Graff and Cassidy Milonowski and Tom Graff and Eric Thorne, and I've got Jordan Sumrow and all these people that are local, Eric Strangeway, local players that are very good players, even though they may or may not be in the top 100 or, you know, not the top 1,000 either, even that they are still really good players because they're good to the local area or the competition that way um i have a lot of people that i play with that are in the top you know they're ranked a thousand and higher and they're great players that i play a lot of pinball with but they just don't get the opportunity to go to a lot of shows either so i i hear that yeah central pa just has me but every time i set a gc i say to my wife i'm the best there ever was the best there ever will be and then she looks at me and just in disgust but it's like a black yeah it's a it's a black hole of of pinball here in central pa well perhaps you should try it in your sean connery voice and maybe that would get her going a little bit more ah let's see oh amy i had such a gc no that's terrible i shut the gc amy is that better that was a little bit better You don't mean me a tiny bit? Oh, my word. All right, I'll get it before the show's over. Oh, my word. You know, the sloppiest shows, we get the best ratings. Like, people love when we're sloppy and laugh a lot. We're just sloppy and having fun. Well, that's awesome that you have a lot of really good location pinball play, though, too. You're lucky to have that, much less your basement. So when I do come out to Colorado, I'm just going to invite myself on over and put new GCs in all your games. How do you feel about that? Yeah, go for it. Go for it. Some of them, I think, still might have Trent Augustine's scores on them. Oh, gosh. Never mind. Never mind. We'll have a beer. When Amy finds out you're in Denver, she listens to the episode. She's going to want to come out and stay and ski. So, hey, Amy, we have a friend in Denver now. Yeah. Well, and I've got a condo up in the mountains with a pinball machine in it, too. He has a condo in the mountains With a pom-pom machine He's yelling it Oh wait hold on Hey Amy this is Tim Cotter I have a friend In Denver Is that better? No I think I had too much cream out I won't tell it can be our secret sorry keep going Steve I want to know what the game is I have Fishtails at that one right now I think we're going to be switching it out for Mandalorian here within the next month or so once my hand heals up get a little bit newer game up there and then Fishtails might end up going to my other place up in Estes Park were you sleeping? oh sorry we're recording the podcast sorry hi amy she's really bad that was that was true too she looked at you she's really bad just go talk sean connery to her and i'll calm her right down I'm leaving this all in alright sorry cut you off where were we yeah well did we make it through the collection of games the collection of games is over okay okay all right well let's we talked about where you play pinball let's move on to your origin story so how did it all start well uh back in about 2005 2006 um my wife and i had just bought a house and we had a friend that collected pinball machines and we kind of were like wait you can buy pinball machines. And so we went down to Game Exchange here in Denver, and they had a few pinball machines at the time. And we were kind of trying to stay on the lower end. And so we ended up getting Johnny Mnemonic for about, I want to say it was $2,200. It was really high price back then for Johnny Mnemonic. And so we bought that. And then we had a place that was kind of like Dave in Buster's that was going out of business. And they were having an auction for all their arcade games. And we bid on a Jurassic Park sit-down shooting game from the 90s. And it was like that big, big one that came in three pieces, three sections. Oh, wow. I know which one you mean. Yeah. And so when we brought that home, we were going to put it in the basement. And unfortunately, even when you broke it down into the three pieces, it did not fit. And so we played it through several times and we were like, well, maybe we can trade it for a pinball machine. So we went to another local place and we said, Hey, we bought this at this auction and it doesn't fit in our basement. And we'd like to trade it towards a pinball machine. And he goes, okay, well, why don't you come on downstairs and I'll show you what I've got. And so we went downstairs and He had quite a few games, but the two that we had narrowed it down to was Sega's Mary Shelley's Frankenstein and Tales of the Arabian Nights. And so Tales of the Arabian Nights won. Glad you said that. Yeah. Well, this was early on. Sure, yeah. Yeah, so we ended up with a Tales of the Arabian Nights, and the guy said he was going to shop it out and everything and get it working. Until I had somebody come over and fix it, it didn't work properly. But that's okay, because I paid $800 for the Jurassic Park shooting game and then paid him an additional – I want to say it was like $1,800 for trade-in value towards – Okay. And so I got that game for a song, especially considering what it was worth when we ended up selling it a few, like several years later. Yeah, that's a very highly sought after game. It's a beautiful game. Beautiful game. And so I yeah, so we had just those two games and we're like, we're good. We don't need any more games. And then in 2011, my first son was born and I became a stay at home dad. and so I had enough projects around the house to do for quite a while. When my second son was born in 2013, I was still kind of keeping an eye on the pinball market. I knew that they were, Jersey Jack had kind of come out saying that he was going to be making a new pinball machine and it was The Wizard of Oz, which is a movie I grew up with and so it was a theme that, you know, meant a lot to me and in 2014 they got one at one of our local arcades and so I was like hey I'd really like to go down and play this game so we went down and we played it and afterwards I was like man I really like that game there's a lot going on to it you know like the screen everything and my wife was like well didn't really get you much for Christmas or Father's Day this year so why don't you go ahead and pick one up. And so I was pretty new to Pinside, and I logged in and found somebody who was slotted to buy one and he was selling his spot with Jersey Jack And so we made a deal and I bought it from him and had it shipped directly from Jersey Jack about three weeks later which was great Oh wow Yeah, which was really great. And then in the meantime, the pinball bug had kind of bit me and I'd never worked on games at the time. And so I was like, I think I can do this. I'm pretty sure I can work on games. And so I found a project pinball machine before that one came and it was fishtails. The guy wanted twelve hundred for it. And so I went and bought it. It was just it was a mess. It didn't function at all. It was ended up being just the bridge rectifiers on the board that weren't working. And so I fixed that and I made it look pretty. And my wife came down after I fixed it up and she's like, if you want this to be your hobby, you know, go for it. And so I learned how to fix pinball machines and otherwise I wouldn't have been able to have so many because they break all the time. Yeah. And so from there, just kind of blew up. And I want to say within a period of two to three years, I had 35 games, 37 games. And I worked and shopped out almost every single one of them. And they all looked they all looked great. Oh, that's awesome. Yeah, yeah, it was it was definitely useful. I needed a hobby that kept me in the house for when the kids went down for naps and stuff. And it was something that they really enjoyed as well. My middle son, who's now nine, he's at the age of three, was helping me take pinball machines completely apart and then put them back together. and he still has an interest in pinball. And when he grows up, he wants to be a pinball engineer. So at some point we're going to get out to Chicago, and I'll reach out to Eric at Jersey Jack and some of the other designers at Stern and get some tours because he's – since the age of four, that's what he said he wants to be. So it's pretty great. So he might be starting his own homebrew. Does he have like a homebrew idea already? He has a couple of ideas that he wants to do, and I'd like to get him to get on the computer and digitally design it, and then maybe we can start putting it together because I think we have enough know-how to at least get it flipping. You know, the scoring side is the side that I wouldn't get. You know, like everything would be worth 10 points. That's okay. You could design a modern game that only, you know, you hit the sling, you get 10 points. If you light the sling, you get 50. Yeah. It could be something like that, right? His designs are a little bit more elaborate that he's come up with in his head. I can't wait to see them. I can't wait to see them come to fruition. Yeah, like he's really into megalodons. And so he was trying – and I really hope Stern makes a Jaws pinball machine because that's one of his favorite movies. and he he said with the megalodon it'd be really cool if like there was a magnet that like once you hit it a certain number of times like the magnet would lock it on there and then there'd be like a half scoop where it would look like the sharks coming and eating it and then taking the ball back with it so he's got some unique ideas so thanks we'll see what happens yeah johnson homebrew coming to uh to a theater near you yeah no that's that's great to hear that you and your son are into it together. I like to hear that. And you know, there's a, there's a lot of young people in pinball. I was, I'm surprised. So cool. Keep us posted on how that goes. Yeah. Yeah. And they love going to shows with me. Last year for spring break, we went down to Washington DC for the first part of their spring break. And then we came back on Thursday and then Friday we flew out to Texas, just the boys and myself, and they just had a blast. And anytime they get the opportunity to go to any show they're always up for going oh that's awesome wish i would have known you were in dc but it's a short drive for me when i came down and saw you oh yeah like i don't when you're back east everything is so close but yet so far away it feels yeah i feel like we need to make like a tribe map you know like with a pin where all the different pinheads are yeah like a tribe map so like because when you go when you go different places i had no idea that it'd be that close if I was there you know what I mean oh yeah yep and my brother he lives out back east as well and he's about two hours from uh DC and we told him we were coming he's like well have fun he didn't even come out visit oh no I I'll drive up the five or six hours I think I'm gonna go to Cincinnati and see Pete quit and maybe I'm sure Tish will be there so I'm gonna try to get out to Cincinnati and I can just you know what I envision just me and Pete like on the front of the Titanic like you know we're king of the world so I've been anxious to meet Pete so if anybody is going to Cincinnati look me up yeah all right well back to Steve so before we get into the most important question do you have any other hobbies besides pinball I think you're a skier I am a skier I do that I've been I started skiing when I was about 12 or so and I'm a pretty decent skier. This last year, we went to Crested Butte for the first time since I was probably 14. And they have a run called Pinball. And so it was kind of cool. It's an extreme run. And so first time I went down it, it was like, okay, this is great. I went to go down it again, and my pole broke and I got a bruise on my side about the size of a basketball. How was it? Yeah, it was not much fun getting down from there. So pinball, it kind of lived up to its name. You were the pinball. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. And it's kind of funny because before I decided pinball was going to be my stay-at-home hobby, I was looking at getting into woodworking. and based on the recent incidences, I think pinball is a safer bet for me. Yeah, not to laugh, but yeah, you should stick with pinball. All right, anything else? Man, other than that, it's just right now just busy with kids. I've got a three, a nine, and an 11-year-old, and they just keep me busy all the time. And then this last year, I finally went back and joined the working class again. And so I now have a job. So I have a whole lot less time than I had before. Sure. Yeah. Yeah. Kids keep you busy. Well, I tell you, there's a lot more to Steve Johnson than moon pies. Sure. Yeah. Like cutting fingers off. Slices their hand open. Sure. Why not? I keep telling everybody. It was just the tip. At least you're laughing about it. It was ugly looking. The nurses in the ER did not think it was very funny, and I was making jokes, and they were not laughing. Well, I'd have been doing the same thing. All right. Rachel, do you want to ask the most important question? Oh, yes. I would love to. Steve, how did you get into the Poor Man's Pinball tribe? I'm pretty sure they let me in because I couldn't have any more kids because I got a vasectomy. Wait, what? Okay, I didn't expect that answer, so now you're going to have to elaborate. You can't leave us on a cliffhanger. Well, so I've been listening to the Poor Man's Pinball podcast since the beginning, and I started emailing him back and forth, and I was going in for a vasectomy, and so I was like, hey guys, I'm going to be going into a vasectomy and I'm going to be listening to you while they make it so I can't have kids anymore. So I said, take my mind off of it. So they made kind of an entire show, jokes around vasectomies and it was great. It took my mind off of what else was going on. So. So. That's it. And that's pinball history. So secrets to becoming a tribe member. That was your pillar number five. Yeah. Did you, did you send Drew pictures? I did not send him any pictures. I. A what? Does it picture the what, Tim Lee? I don't know. Vasectomy. The process. He said, Steve sent us pictures of his finger. I figured maybe Drew, or he sent Drew pictures of his vasectomy, his James Bond rocket or whatever. They do that there. That's true. Vibrating rocket. It sometimes wiggles like that, too. All right. I'm going to get yelled at again for being loud. Oh, man. Yeah. No, Drew and Ian, I really enjoy listening to them and have since the beginning. And it was fun because they were a breath of fresh air with how stale the pinball podcast did kind of become. And it was kind of nice because you got to see them grow from kind of like the beginning of getting into pinball. And then versus the guys who'd been in pinball forever. So it was breath of fresh air. Yeah. We'd love to see another reunion show with Ian, right? Yeah. Oh, it'd be great. At the same time, I understand the reason why I don't podcast is because it takes up too much time and I don't have that much time to begin with. So kudos to everybody out there who actually takes the time to podcast and actually edit the shows. For sure, and folks that also provide any type of pinball content on YouTube or any type of streaming or whatever, I always appreciate that too. Oh, yeah. Thanks to all y'all. It all takes a lot of effort and time, and most of the guys aren't getting paid for it. We're getting paid? Well, this is a good opportunity to announce that, like everyone else, Rachel and I have started a Patreon. we have yes our patreon is five hundred dollars a month none of this dollar five dollar crap five hundred dollars a month yeah what you'll get is a phone call from me every friday morning between 7 30 a.m and 8 a.m sorry glenn you're out if somebody gives me five hundred dollars but that's when glenn calls me every week maybe you'll get a phone call from rachel so So join our Patreon. $500 a month. Yeah, man. And I'll throw in, like, if you subscribe at the $1,000 per month, I will throw in, like, pictures of my feet or something. Okay. After a long tournament weekend, even girls are okay. For another $500, I will not send you pictures of my feet. Okay. Oh, my goodness. Steve, you tend to drag these shows down. In a fun way. I think you brought us up. And I'm completely sober. So funny. Thanks so much for hanging out and spending time with us today. Oh, yeah. This was great to get to know you a little bit better. And I can't wait to come back to Colorado and meet you in person and play your games for real. Yeah. Well, and I think I've got my hotel for TPF as long as I'm able to get out there, as long as we don't plan something else for spring break, which my kids, my boys really like going down there. So I'll be at TPF again, and then, yeah, we'll see where else. Yeah, I think I'm going to do TPF and MGC back-to-back, as crazy as that sounds. So I'm going to try to do both because there's so many different tribe members and people I want to see, and they're, like, split between the two shows. So I'm going to try. I might have to drive to MGC, but we're going to try. So it'll be cool to see you, Steve. Yeah, no, it'd be awesome to meet up. And, you know, it's always fun at these shows when you meet the rest of the tribe and you're like, OK, these guys, I get it. Yeah, we are the same. That's how I end up feeling. Yeah, that's a great group. So, Steve, before we end it, did we miss anything that you want to talk about? We kind of went all over the place and I kind of sidetracked us a couple of times. So did we miss anything? I'm sure that there's something that I'll think about later. It's like, oh, yeah, I probably should have talked about that. But right off the top of my head, I can't think of anything. All right. Oh, one last thing, I guess. I did also, with that flipping the script on autism, did bid. And I won the Jaws Translight from Franchi. Oh, nice. Yep. And Ari was with me and Lee. They were both with me when I was bidding on it and slowly getting outbid. and then I ended up winning it, which was pretty exciting. So still haven't received it yet. I'm looking forward to getting it. And I know Chris is a little bit slow sometimes. I get stuff out, but I'm very excited to get it. Oh, that's great. Yeah. I hope you post a pic of that once you get it all framed and hung up where we want or whatever you decide to do with it. That's really awesome. Yeah, post it out on the fan page with a picture of your finger beside it. Hopefully by then I can move it. Yeah, hopefully. All right. Well, I hope the healing process goes well. Yeah. Yeah, me too. And if I suck now at pinball, I'll just blame it on that. Heck yeah. Built-in excuse. All right. Well, that's all I have, Rachel. Sounds good. Happy flipping. Happy flipping. Happy flipping. This is Tim Connery saying Drew sucks at pinball. How was that? And Timmy sucks at waxhomes. I love you all. Have a good night. Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep. I finally made it through med school. Somehow I made it through. I'm just an intern. I still make no mistake or two. I was last in my class Barely passed at the institute Now I'm trying to avoid Yeah, I'm trying to avoid A malpractice suit Hey, like a surgeon Cutting for the very first time Like a surgeon Organ transplants Are my line Better give me all your gossmers This patient's fading back Hello everyone and welcome to Tribe Multiball. I'm Tim Lee. I'm one of your co-hosts and I'm here with my other co-host Rachel Risto. We're here to bring you episode 32 of Tribe Multiball. How are you doing today, Rachel? I thought it was episode 33. Oh, shit. We're here to thank you. You just said 33. Oops. Hey, let's start over. 33. He said 33, right, Steve? He did, earlier. Like 10 seconds earlier, he was like, okay, it's episode 33. well we are on episode 33 for real okay take two here we go