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Tidal Estuary

NYC PinPod·podcast_episode·1h 1m·analyzed·Mar 31, 2025
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.035

TL;DR

NYC PinPod covers March pinball tournaments and bids farewell to Barcade Jersey City.

Summary

NYC PinPod hosts Benjamin Puriga and Eric Sweetland cover local NYC pinball competition results from late March 2025, including Stern Army tournaments, NYC Flipper Sport Association league matches, and the inaugural NYC Match Play Pinball League. They announce Miriam Nadler's victory at the IFPA Women North American Championship and discuss the upcoming closure of Barcade Jersey City on April 21st, reflecting on its importance as a pinball venue while previewing the new Manhattan location.

Key Claims

  • As of March 29th, 2025, there are 298 pinball machines in New York City at 83 public locations

    high confidence · Benjamin Puriga citing Pinball Map data

  • Miriam Nadler won the IFPA Women North American Pinball Championship at Port City Pinball in Portsmouth, New Hampshire on Friday March 28th

    high confidence · Benjamin Puriga announcing tournament results streamed on Backhand Pinball

  • Barcade Jersey City will close on Monday, April 21st, 2025

    high confidence · Official Barcade Facebook announcement read by Benjamin Puriga

  • The Mutants are the lone 5-0 team in Pinball NYC league standings with 52 points

    high confidence · Eric Sweetland reporting league standings as of March 29th

  • No Quarters for Laundry stands atop the lower division standings at 5-0 with 65 points

    high confidence · Eric Sweetland reporting lower division standings

Notable Quotes

  • “This is the return of Wednesday night at Sunshine pre-pandemic. This is Greg's league. This is Woody's, you know, hope in a lot of ways. This is the realized dream of pinball being back after the pandemic in a lot of ways.”

    Benjamin Puriga @ ~36-37 minutes — Reflects emotional significance of reopening NYC Match Play Pinball League as symbol of pandemic recovery

  • “The East River is technically a tidal estuary.”

    Eric Sweetland @ ~60 minutes — Episode title reference; provides geographical context for Barcade Jersey City location

  • “I can get to Barcade Jersey City faster than most pinball venues inside New York City.”

    Benjamin Puriga @ ~63 minutes — Highlights accessibility and importance of Barcade Jersey City for NYC pinball community despite cross-river location

  • “There usually a tech there playing the machines to check out and make sure that everything is working. That is one of the things that Barcade does really well.”

    Benjamin Puriga @ ~75 minutes — Praises Barcade's training practices for arcade technicians as community strength

  • “I love that they have so many games such that when there's a Rocky and Bullwinkle and friends and a Gilligan's Island collection that I just don't care. I can just discard them and still say, my God, what a great collection.”

    Benjamin Puriga @ ~92 minutes — Reflects on depth and quality of Barcade Jersey City's game selection

Entities

Benjamin PurigapersonEric SweetlandpersonMiriam NadlerpersonRob WongpersonZen ZokniakpersonZach Sharpe TillpersonNintpersonSean GrantpersonMatt CarlsonpersonNYC PinPodorganizationPinball NYCorganization

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: NYC pinball venue accessibility analysis indicates strong transit infrastructure (PATH, subway lines 1-5, A, C, R, J, Z all serve Barcade Jersey City)

    high · Benjamin Puriga: 'quite literally from New York City to trains 2, 3, 4, 5, A, C, R, J, Z, all of these get you there'

  • ?

    community_signal: NYC Match Play Pinball League successfully launched with 36 players in qualifying week, representing return of pre-pandemic Wednesday night league format

    high · Benjamin Puriga: '36 players showed up at Scrapple Land... This is the return of Wednesday night at Sunshine pre-pandemic... This is the realized dream of pinball being back after the pandemic'

  • ?

    community_signal: Barcade demonstrates strong operator practices through on-site technician training and machine maintenance protocols praised by community

    high · Benjamin Puriga: 'There usually a tech there... That is one of the things that Barcade does really well. They're training the people who are actually going to do the work'

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Pinball NYC league shows competitive depth with 5-0 and 4-1 teams dominating standings; lower division led by No Quarters for Laundry

    high · Eric Sweetland reporting standings: 'So far the Mutants are the lone 5 and 0 team... No Quarters for Laundry stands atop the standings, absolutely dominating. 5-0, 65 points'

  • ?

    event_signal: Miriam Nadler won IFPA Women North American Pinball Championship, with significant community engagement watching stream on Backhand Pinball and NYC Discord

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.186

0:30
Happy Sunday, pinfolk, or whatever day you're listening. This is NYC Pin Pod, in which a panel talks location pinball in New York City and nearby surrounding areas. My name is Benjamin Puriga. My initials are BCF, and I've been up way past my bedtime several nights this week. My name is Eric Sweetland. My initials are HIP, and I'm a pinball tournament director in New York City. On this week's pod, in Ball 1, we'll run down local competition results. In Ball 2, we'll send off Barcade Jersey City and we'll hear about some venue updates, courtesy of Pinball Matt. And in Ball 3, we'll announce the final four of the NYC-PPAA tournament. And we'll talk about the bracket challenge. Let's get started. Let's talk about competitive pinball in New York City for the past week. on Sunday, March 23rd, 18 players came out to Rolos in Brooklyn for the Stern Army March Rob Wong Invitational directed by Jess Warren and with Lamb Stew by Bart. Rob Wong won the eponymous tournament with Caitlin Reese coming in second and following a tiebreak, Tundelburn third, Courtney Wetzel fourth. rob garnered 5.98 whoppers on the day and that tiebreaker was on bonsai run on monday march 24th in pinball nyc's left flipper division our new york city flipper sport association went to owl farm to face parliament we battled out all night to a tie after a one two three tie break on Avengers, the home team parliament got the win. It was a good night. We had a weakness on Avengers and they were able to exploit that to take home the win. The Deluxe Horses visited Rulo's and special when lit, the home team for the night, there are two home teams at Rulo's, gave the Deluxe Horses an 11 to 5 loss. I went across the street said hello to those folks hung out with MMC and them for a couple of minutes before our match at Buttermilk. It was fun. Special when lit beats Deluxe Horses 11 to 5. Intermission Dolores went to McKenna's Pub and lost 5 to 11 to the two for oners. The Mutants bested the home team Balls of Steel at midway 10 to 6.
3:07
Zen Zokniak, one of the captains of the team, texted me on Tuesday to say, I can't tell you about last week's 8-8 loss because I was away for work, but I can tell you about last night's 6-10 loss because I could not break 10 million on the last round to force the tiebreak. Ugh. The aristocrats went to Barcade Brooklyn and the home team, Pinball Union, picks up their third win after two wins and then two losses. They pick up their third win 12 to 4 over the visiting The Aristocrats. The Pin Pals visited us colliders at Buttermilk and we lost 11 to 5. It was a fun night. As I said last week when we announced the schedule. They're our pin pals too. We really enjoy playing this team. What I thought was really fun, they, of course I did, because if you didn't notice, everything is about me. They had beaten us. They had nine points before the third round was over. And we went into doubles.
NYC Flipper Sport Association
organization
Stern Armyorganization
No Bro Presentsorganization
Barcade Jersey Cityvenue
Scrapple Landvenue
Rulu'svenue
Jack Barvenue
Buttermilk Barvenue
Port City Pinballvenue
Godzillagame
Stranger Thingsgame
Dungeons & Dragons Tyrants Edgegame
Attack from Marsgame
Black Knight: Sword of Ragegame

high · Benjamin Puriga: 'The IFPA Women North American Pinball Championship was held... the winner was New York City's own Miriam Nadler... Lots of the New York City community was watching, chatting on Twitch'

  • $

    market_signal: Machine inventory at Barcade Jersey City shows mix of classics and newer titles; collection includes 15+ pinball machines among 40+ arcade cabinets total

    high · Benjamin Puriga/Eric Sweetland discussion: 'Would you say there's 55 to 60 video games in there?... I'd guess maybe something like 40 cabs... and about 15 pinball machines'

  • $

    market_signal: Barcade Jersey City closure on April 21st, 2025 represents loss of flagship pinball venue in NYC area despite accessible transit location

    high · Official Barcade announcement: 'Our Jersey City location will be closing... Our last day of service will be Monday, April 21st'

  • ?

    venue_signal: Machine rotation between Barcade locations signals active equipment management strategy (e.g., horseshoes game movement, fire truck steering cabinet relocation)

    medium · Benjamin Puriga: 'three days after valentine's day... I went to Barcade Jersey City and the horseshoes game was sitting there... that two player fire is definitely going to show up somewhere'

    • 4:15
    And we had won on The Walking Dead. And I was player four on NBA. and they were up by a good 125 or so points. And I stepped up with about four points on the board and scored 120 and was just shy. The whole room was, you know, everyone was standing around waiting for that match. And I injected drama where there was truly no drama. The other team had already won, but everyone was standing around watching me play this game, and I made it really close. but failed i got big hugs from the other team i also got big hugs from my team lion persons went to jack bar and bested the lesser players 11 to 5 so far the mutants are the lone 5 and 0 team with 52 points scored lion persons new york city flipper sport association parliament and special when lit occupy the second through five spots in the standings at four and one with respectively 53 50 49 and 44 points pinball union is the sole three and two team and occupies the slot that would be the cutoff for the playoffs at this point it is halfway through the season the if the playoffs started today the upper division would stop right here at pinball union at three and two with 43 points the pin pals intermission dolores the aristocrats two for oners are all two and three they have 41 37 36 36 points respectively balls of steel the lesser players and the deluxe horses each have a win and 39 33 and 31 points respectively and we colliders are 0-5 with 16 points scored. On Tuesday, March 25th, Trolls went to Scrapple Land, where these two teams christened the venue for Pinball NYC competition, and Scrapple Squad picked up the first home win at their new venue, 11-5. I think there wasn't a Troll story, or at least there isn't one yet is that right that's correct we butterballers hosted the replays at buttermilk bar and picked up the 10-6 home win we split each of the first three rounds and then butterballers got both in the fourth there were strong games all around personally i played iron maiden twice and had plus 100 million each of those and in the final round the metallica in the 30s that's pretty good We needed it because they were playing strong too. Nice. Harlem Globe Flippers got a bye and nine points. No Quarters for Laundry hosted the Schlubs at Solid State, and the home team picked up a very large 13-3 win. This team is at the top of this division, and they keep showing why. Danger, Danger went to birdies and took no pity on the pin babes, who still are winless. Oh, no, that's a forfeit, isn't it? That is a forfeit. What happened? Several members of Danger Danger were at birdies when they received word that the pin babies weren't going to be able to make it. Well, that's too bad. Ball Trainers hosted Rest in Pinball, parenthetically RIP, and took the 10 to 6 win at Jack Bar. Neptune's Treasure went to Skylark, and there's a lot of good information about this. First, I went to Skylark on Sunday, and I don't mean to blow up anyone's spot, but I definitely ran into a member of Neptune's Treasure who's not always hanging out at Skylark. I also received a text from Zenzokniak, who is a captain of Pinister 6, that said, Close games all night. Pinister split the first round with the Neptune's Treasure, and we were even all night until an eventual 8-8 split flipper loss on X-Men. He then sends screenshots of calculators of like his phone's calculator showing me a total of ninety one point eight million versus ninety one point two million on fishtails and a screenshot then of, you know, what the numbers were that he added up to get to it, as well as a screenshot of Paragon that shows a three thirty to three. 320,000, 320 on one side, 330,000 on the other side, a game on Paragon. And those, Zen says, they won fishtails and lost Paragon in the first round. So those screenshots are related to the first round. That's how the night started. It was an 8-8 tiebreak win for Neptune's Treasure. This is Pinister Six's new home, Skylark. They have been at Boat Bar. They were previously at Two Bits Retro Arcade. This team has had a long history of venues. At least for now, they're settled in on Pinball Mile in Park Slope. Those are particularly two venues with, yeah, some pinball problems. So far, no quarters for laundry, stands atop the standings, absolutely dominating. 5-0, 65 points scored so far. danger danger the harlem globe flippers neptune's treasure scrapple squad and the ball drainers would round out the top six and every single one of them is four and one they have respectively 57 51 45 44 and 44 also points that's scrapple squad and ball drainers tied with 44 down there at four and one the bottom half of the playoffs if we started today would start with the schlubs at seven they're three and two as our pinister six schlubs have 42 points pinister 6 38 butterballers trolls both are two and three butterballers have 35 the trolls have scored 26 the replays are oh and five with 33 i think nine of those might have come from a buy so that they didn't get a win but they got nine points i think that might be true rest in pinball is oh and five with 30 and the pin babes are oh and five with only 11 after a forfeit this past week on wednesday march 28th
    11:16
    something kind of triumphant happened and i'm gonna mostly let eric tell you about it but just as as someone who just like showed up and paid his money to play for the night it was a triumph 36 players showed up at Scrappleland at the far end of Greenpoint for the first week of NYC Match Play Pinball League. There will be six qualifying weeks in the finals. But this was the return of Wednesday night at Sunshine pre-pandemic. This is Greg's league. This is Woody's, you know, hope. In a lot of ways, this is the realized dream. of pinball being back after the pandemic in a lot of ways. 36 players played five rounds of match play with the intention of garnering points for the series overall. At the top this past Wednesday was Sean Grant with 31 points. Adam Kane got 29 and Zach Till and Rachel Grimm both picked up 27. That was such a great night. Also of those 36 players, 13 opted into a side pot. Sean Grant, the big money winner, and Alex Kelly in second, and with a delightful photo with his eyes closed, holding up his winnings. On Thursday, March 27th, No Bro Presents Thursday Night Strikes was convened. Zach, I presume Zach Till, led the night. 20 players gathered at jack bar nint who was victorious no strikes oh nint had a perfect night look at that guy look at that guy alex weisenberger came in second adam kane came in third and wait a minute didn't i just say didn't rachel grim come in tied for third on wednesday and then fourth on thursday my goodness wow also thursday night a small handful of people gathered at buttermilk in south slope for a casual stall ball tournament the medals from the south slope pinball leagues championship which was held last week weren't quite ready yet we'll get those next week we played several games of stall ball which is sort of a fun party pinball game in which everyone gets in a line the first person plays the pinball machine in the hopes of putting the ball into a scoop or somewhere that stalls it. And if they do, they'll stall. They jump out of the way. The next person in line has to jump up, recover the ball and continue play. If you drain, you're out. Eventually, there'll be one person left and that person will collect the dollars that are in the coin slots. And last night, they would also get a win. And the first person to three wins would win the night. That person was Matt Carlson. Kate Martin had gotten to two. Nobody else got to any. It was just some fun stall ball. What games did you play? Where were the places that I could stall the ball if I were playing in the tournament? We started with two games on Ghostbusters. Makes sense to me. In which you can stall on the left scoop or the right saucer. Sometimes the right saucer is fed too from the left ramp. And then we played at least two more on Attack from Mars. with the stall being either the lock or the saucer destroy or the scoop. It was mostly the scoop. And also, if you just did a standard plunge, most of the time it falls in there. And hey, quick stall for you. If we moved on to another, I don't really recall because it was more of a drinking fun night. Yeah. Serious pinball fun night. Staba. and then on friday march 28th not in nearby surrounding areas but at port city pinball in sport in portsmouth new hampshire the ifpa women north american championship was held and the winner was new york city own miriam Nadler This was wild This was great The whole thing was streamed on backhand pinball. Lots of the New York City community was watching, chatting on Twitch, chatting on the New York City Discord. Kate on stream mentioned the Danger Danger chat was blowing up. Holy shit.
    15:49
    Congratulations, Miriam. Take that. M-I-R. Watching it, like, in particular, in the semifinals, beating out Jane Fairwise, holy cow. Amazing performance. And then over Kelly Campbell in the finals, everyone was playing great, but Miriam was locked on. Next week, on Monday, March 31st, round six of Pinball NYC will be met. at bars across the city. The two-for-oners will probably take the L train from 8th Avenue over to Bedford, and they will go down to Midway to visit Balls of Steel, who are looking for their second win, uncharacteristically, after five weeks. Pinball Union, who are punching above weight, seemingly, are going to Skylark to visit the Pin Pals. Special When Lit will visit Intermission Dolores at the Monroe, their new home. Your New York City Flipper Sport Association will visit the Mutants at Solid State. That seems like a match of titans. Always is, and we usually do pretty well at Solid State. I like the venue for us. We Colliders will go to Barcade Brooklyn, where hopefully no one will be able to play Baywatch if it's still there. Baywatch is not still there. Awesome. dialed in as in its place awesomer i have the trophy for that in the league and visit the deluxe horses it's going to be awesome we're going to be cute they're going to be fun there's going to be some intersection parliament will go to gebhard's beer culture to face the lion persons that's going to be a pretty big match up next week and the lesser players will visit the aristocrats at Rulos on Tuesday, April 1st. No fooling. Harlem Globe Flippers will go to Solid State to visit No Quarters for Laundry. The Pin Babes will visit Reston Pinball at Barcade Brooklyn. Also, parenthetically, RIP. Butterballers have a bye week. Trolls will visit the Schlubs at Jack Bar. The Ball Drainers will visit the Replays at Rulos. milo's yard will host the battle between neptune's treasure the home team and scrapples squad the visiting and the pinister six will go to buttermilk bar to face danger danger fresh off their tie break loss just down the street on wednesday april 2nd nyc match play pinball league at scrapple land number two will be convened that's exactly what eric and i were just talking about from this past Wednesday. It's part of a series. You still have a chance to get four in. You need four of the next five weeks, most likely, if you really want to qualify for the top eight to get into the finals, because there's already a lot of players in this thing. There will probably be a few more players in this thing. There's going to be a lot of points on the table. You really want to get all four in. Sometimes when there's only a few people in something like this, if you perform really well, you can get past people with only three good performances, this is not one of those situations. On Thursday, April 3rd at 8 o'clock sharp, No Bro Presents Thursday Night Strikes will be met at Jack Bar in Williamsburg. And on Sunday, April 6th, both Silver Ball Sunday at Single Cut 24 will be convened at Single Cut Beersmith Queens. And Stern Army's Rob Wong Invitational for April will be convened at Rulops in South Slope. As of March 29th, 2025, there are 298 pinball machines in New York City at 83 public locations. Thanks to the creators and users of Pinball Map for this data, here are machine updates from the past week.
    19:55
    On Sunday, March 23rd, a Black Knight Sword of Rage Premium was added to Rossi's Lounge in Brooklyn.
    20:05
    And user SL Penza let us know it has factory default difficulty settings. On Tuesday, March 25th, user SmallTownBoy noted of the Ghostbusters at Buttermilk, left flipper is a little sticky, but not terrible. And user JNS said of Godzilla at Jack Bar, fixed, playing great. User Dan Tastic commented on the medieval madness at Scrapple Land saying 90s new old stock playfield and on Diner like new. Users LemmyBTL and JNS let us know on Tuesday that Whitewater, Star Trek The Next Generation and James Bond 007 60th were off at Scrapple Land. user JNS also said the Adams family gold at Scrapple Land is sharp and clean. Some problems with short plunge not registering in swamp. Even a full plunge doesn't reach skill shot. Playable and so pretty. And said of Indiana Jones the pinball adventure, so bright, so clean, played great. But then on Wednesday, March 26th, user MHG was at Scrapple Land and said of Indiana the Jones the Pinball Adventure turned on, but bill collector and coin slots were taped up and said of James Bond 007 60th anniversary, on and playing great. Tilt is set much more reasonably than it was when it was set up at Sunshine. Also on Wednesday, a Jaws was removed from Buttermilk Bar and an attack from Mars was placed in its spot. On Thursday, March 27th, user zeta 6742 went to the coyote club and played the mandalorian they said tilt is extremely tight got warnings and tilts just flipping not even nudging all right so we do the venue updates and i'm really thankful that eric not only took that on but that was an innovation that eric brought to NYC Pin Pod in the period that he was the captain of the ship. But it's a sad thing for us to announce before it happens that Barcade Jersey City is going to close its doors. Barcade Jersey City on their Facebook page says exactly this. Our Jersey City location will be closing a little earlier than originally anticipated. Our last day of service will be Monday, April 21st. We hope to see you over the next month in Jersey City. This was from last Monday, the 24th. We hope to see you over the next month in Jersey City and afterwards across the river at our new location on Cortland Street. So I don't want that. I will. We'll make sure that we talk about the fact that there is an upper to this downer. But I don't want to excuse the fact that at this bricks and mortar location that has for kind of long time before the pandemic, for a kind of long time, has had a lot of pinball machines that you can get to from anywhere in New York City that you can get on a subway. you can just like take one other subway after that for a couple of stops and get into New Jersey and go to this place it it has been that place for a while and I really dig it for that I think it was their second location after Brooklyn I believe that and you know they're now a nationwide chain Detroit Los Angeles uh the Philadelphia a couple of locations in Philadelphia now in addition to the several locations in New York City. They had almost no pinball for a very long time. But the place is that they had pinball. This was the place. This was the place that they had their pinball. This place and Barcade Newark for a while, they had pinball. And so this has been to me, this was the flagship Barcade until just recent, just the last. I mean, Barcade Brooklyn is like a newcomer to me in a certain way to the pinball scene, but they have transferred some of that cachet, most of that cachet, over to this side of the rivers, I guess, based on geographically where they are. I think you cross two rivers to get from there to here, even though it's one river if you're a little bit farther south. The East River is technically a tidal estuary. Oh, Barcade Jersey City is at 163 Newark Avenue in Jersey City. It is open from 2 p.m. to 2 a.m. most weekdays. It opens at noon on Fridays and over the weekend. And there's probably a ton of bus options if you live in Jersey. But the long and short of it is if you live on any train line that could get to the Fulton Street Transit Center, then you have an I don't have to walk outside transfer. It's a long you're walking to city blocks underground and through the Oculus where you will see tourists who are paying no attention, taking videos, you know, of of the fucking place. And so you have to be careful when you're walking through there. But you will also see someone playing a piano that is set up as a piece of public art. Something about the white marble is disorienting to me trying to walk, especially the stairs. I just feel really the stairs are awkward. Everything there is not a straight line in the interior architecture of the Oculus. It is all or at least it does not appear that way to me. And so it is that that is disorienting. Everything is curvilinear when you look at it. All of the beams are curved. When you look up at the ceiling, it almost looks like like the inside of a whale skeleton or something like you're inside, you know, a living being, the skeleton of this building. that's where you get the path that's where you get the path but quite literally from new york city tooth train three train four train five train a train c train r train j train z train all of these get you there also the one just on a different part and so like if you're in new york city it's just not you can get there you can get there and then the path as you say and it's not that hard to get there on the path sometimes it takes a little longer for the path to show up than the subway right i can get the barcade jersey city faster than most pinball venues inside new york city i can get to barcade jersey city faster than gebhard's when you pop up out of the path in jersey city too you walk through that really nice pedestrianized area yeah that pedestrian plaza that's built up in the last 10 years or so is great i mean it's cute at least i don't i don't ever want to really go anywhere because i have a destination and it's barcade but i like yeah I think it's mostly post-pandemic that it's really become pedestrianized, and only in the last year or two that they blocked off the one through street completely.
    27:28
    I really like that a lot. It is an adorable little spot in Jersey City, right there on Newark Avenue. And even when Barcade Jersey City isn't there after April 21st, if you were looking for an adventure and you're a city dweller and you were like, I want to get on the subway and just go somewhere I'm not going to go all the time, go there and check out what's there. I wanted to remember while we were talking about this to bring up at some point just, you know, some of the great times I've had at Barcade Jersey City. Yeah. Fun tournaments. But then other things happening around it. The warehouse party. The warehouse. multiple trips I've spent tromping around Jersey City with David Weeks in search of this pizza place that's supposed to have a ghost pepper thing of something he wanted to do some ghost pepper challenge had like went to the conveyor belt sushi place with some visiting friends and that was a great time conveyor belt sushi how about that a robot that brings you your drinks. It's a huge room. It's poured concrete. It probably used to be an industrial space. It is at a three-way corner that begs for one of the things to have been like the alley driveway where you could load a big truck or something like that. It really, just like based on where it is located, that's what it feels like. And I can certainly walk in the front door and see where the raised platform off to the left to the back is where the offices were. The back hall where the bathrooms are were probably some kind of storage and a bathroom or what have you, a couple of bathrooms, and that this was a small industrial space, as I think most of the barcade spaces are. I think that's kind of, it's not only their vibe, but I think it's also their real estate strategy. Yeah, I don't know how it came about, but they all certainly are similar interiors and feel like maybe they are all fashioned after what Brooklyn looks like. But also they all seem to occupy buildings that were previously factories, which have a lot of power so that you can put a lot of arcade cabinets in it and that sort of thing. Other than some seated tables by the tall windows up front, which probably really more than anything allow for them to or allowed for them to host private events. The walls are lined with games. They're pinball games and arcade cabinets. And there are a couple of islands of games in the fashion that, you know, arcades put islands of games out. There's a big bar. There's a couple of dark, dank tables in the back by where they always put the classic pinball machines. And that's always where I, at this place, have gone. One of my favorite things about this place. I've gone there for competitions. I've gone there just to hang out. I probably reviewed it when I was doing NYC Pin Pod, you know, back in the day. but I have always liked to go there on a weekday off and get lunch and hang out before anyone else comes in so that I got free reign of the joint basically free reign of all the pinball machines There usually a tech there and this is worth mentioning There usually a tech there playing the machines to check out and make sure that everything is working. That is one of the things that Barcade does really well. They're training the people who are actually going to do the work on the machines, it feels like. And that's something that I think has been missing in our community in certain ways. would you say there's 55 to 60 video games in the place? I mean, video games and pinball machines altogether? Does that seem about right to you? I tried to count on the list on their website. I was going to guess maybe something like 40 cabs. Right, right, yeah. And about, yeah, 40 cabs and about 15 pinball machines. Yeah, and some weird ones. Yeah. That fire truck steering one. Oh, unfortunately, I don't think that's still there. I wish it was. that was one of my favorites so here's the thing this barcade has all of these weird one-off games and i saw at valentine's day i pulled many people aside and said shoes where's shoes because there's this trackball horseshoes game that used to be sitting at barcade brooklyn and the next time i mean three days after valentine's day for whatever reason, I went to Barcade Jersey City and Shoes was sitting there. And so like that two player fire is definitely going to show up somewhere foreshadowing. Let's talk about the pins. I was there on Thursday and in that back dark bank where I ate my chicken cheese steak on Thursday afternoon, there is from left to right a TX sector, which I would also like to point out was the one that was set up as a one-off for, I think, Pin Pride last year at Barcade Brooklyn. Does that sound right to you, Eric? Yeah. There's a Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends. Rocky and Bullwinkle represents something very specific that I saw in the evolution of Barcade's pinball collection, which is that they got a lot of the cheap-ass data easts that nobody wanted early when they first started investing in pinball they had a rocky and bullwinkle and a gilligan's island and a popeye saves the earth on every site that they had pinball machines filling out the collection to make big numbers frontier to its right recently mentioned on the NYC double P double A tournament and just edged out for its advancement by, I believe, Dolly Parton and Banzai Run both just just knocked out of the NYC double P double A tournament frontier and Banzai Run both great solid state games. Really fun. The front bank and here's how you know that they're still operating the place on the left has dungeons and dragons tyrants edge i i tyrants pulp fiction congo stranger things godzilla fishtails taxi and gilligan's island gilligan's island is tucked in the back in a place that nobody wants to get to and it is the worst machine like if anyone is playing taxi you absolutely do not want to try to get to gilligan's island with that game they're probably clamoring over each other that's right you have to collect all of the things there's exactly one thing that you can do you can spell lagoon to light mystery and mystery is the only way to get multi-ball okay but also the the saucer on the top right lights the ramp for big points. Much simpler than trying to get all those stupid ingredients. Trying to collect all the ropes. You don't go for the ingredients.
    35:09
    Ignore the ingredients. You'll get them eventually. Just play for Lagoon. And then hope for a good kick out into the top saucer. My advice is to choose other games.
    35:23
    I did play Dungeons and Dragons for the first time when I was there. on Thursday. I had not even been in the room with it as much as I can recall. Did you sign in with the Insider Connected? No, I don't do that thing. There are enough people tracking me on my phone. I mean, yeah, I mean, out of interest, one, I want to know how you enjoyed playing D&D, but then the second point of it is, in particular, it's a game where if you use Insider Connected, you continue the game. Oh, I see. So the role-playing game element of it can be... It stores your progress and you can start up again on a new game in the same spot where you were in the story on your previous game. Get further, get to the wizard modes. You know, some of the wizard modes are going to require, you know, that you go through this whole game. The Pinball Illuminati must exist because they really want me to sign up for that app.
    36:18
    While I was there, I spent my time in that back bank, which is often the case. the classics are often in that back bank. It's where I want to go. There's also usually in this location, the like prime hot, this is the new thing we just moved in that everyone's going to be excited about or that we think everyone is going to want to play is often on the very left of the front bank. I love that they have so many games such that when there's a Rocky and Bullwinkle and friends and a Gilligan's Island collection that I just don't care. I can just discard them and still say, my God, what a great collection. There's this really interesting thing at Barcade that many people may not know, but I'm going to clue you in and maybe I will be banned from Barcade forever for telling you this. I hope not. All of the machines there take tokens and you can buy tokens or rather exchange your dollars for tokens, which is buying them at the machines, but they also take quarters. And so if you're like me and you kind of only take quarters home of your change and dump them into a big thing, you might be able to just take that to Barcade if you wanted to. Most of the modern games at Jersey City are 75 cents and the classics are 50 cents. What do you love on this list? I think Barcade Jersey City just does the mix perfectly. There's going to be some newer stuff, the new new thing, maybe even usually, and then some great classics and then some weird old ones too. I really like that they have Gilligan's Island. Rocky and Bullwinkle I think is a real dud but it's a real dud that you know I'll play it once in a while for the heck of it rotates a lot and the good classics are the really good classics yeah right now I mean I want to run over there and play Frontier and TX Sector like straight off it's like yes yeah and the only reason that Banzai Run isn't on that list is because there are now A little bit closer. There's now one at Rulo's. Yeah, Ed has one now that's on a location. Yeah, there's another way to do it. Video cabinet highlights for me. NBA Jams is there. I think they have a commitment to that, but also probably there's just a lot of those as four-player cabinets, and Barcade is a place that they want parties to go and, yes, dates to go, but maybe also double dates and group hangs or things that, as a very old man, I don't understand. I certainly get a lot of groups playing the Bishy Bashy machine. I love Bishy Bashy. It's really popular. I mean, I guess, you know, I'm sitting over here slapping my pinball machine and complaining, but I find it annoying.
    39:24
    Make it rest in pinball, parenthetically, RIP. Barcade Jersey City. there's here's the here's the optimism there have been rumors for a while about there's going to be a barcade that moves into the financial district in the old century 21 building which uh has has a special place in my heart i bought a lot of suits in one of those rooms and it will supposedly have a number of pinball machines that will exceed 10. We have heard very ambitious numbers, I think, and I don't want to try to tell anybody what is actually going to happen until there is a venue open, but we have heard ambitious numbers and I am both hopeful and confident that we will later report more ambitious numbers than what I just said. However, I don't want to promise anybody than anything is going on in excess of 10 feels appropriate in the financial district such that if you live in New York City, you don't even have to then get on the PATH train. You just come up upstairs, right upstairs from the Fulton Street Transit Station, and you'll be at this location.
    40:49
    I don't know if anybody else knows anything about this location. I don't know if anyone understands the architecture of this thing but it is roughly half a city block it it spans i don't know what portion of it barcade will occupy but if they took up every corner of this what used to be a massive department store with games whether they be pinball or other potentially solid state or electromechanical things in addition to arcade cabinets, whatever they could put in, even just one of the departments of this massive department store would be incredibly impressive.
    41:38
    I'm excited for it. I am hopeful, as they point out in their Facebook update. We hope to see you over the next month in Jersey City and afterwards across the river at our new location on Cortland Street. Seems pretty exciting to me. What about you? A couple of pinballers in the past week have mentioned to me that they've seen the Barcade logo being painted as a giant mural outside the space.
    42:06
    This is getting pretty close. I'm excited for it. Yeah, I want a big pinball venue that's already I'm used to going there to take the path to JC.
    42:21
    And that sounds cool. Also, it doesn't matter where you're coming from in New York City. And in fact, if you're coming from the suburbs, this isn't hard to get to. If you are coming from the suburbs and you're trying to get to Brooklyn, you got to take two trains most likely. Or you got to take a train for a long time after you get into Metro North or, you know, after you get in Grand Central or Penn or wherever you get in, you got to go for a minute. But you can probably get an express train from wherever you are to this place in a second if you're coming into Penn or Grand Central or Port Authority. I think it really opens up the tent a little wider because of that, too. Let's talk about the NYC double P double A final four results. Last week, we whittled 64 pinball machines down to 16. This week, we will whittle those 16 for each from the flat screen era, the DMD era, the solid state era, and the electromechanical era. Each one of those will have one game advance to the final four. And next week, we will announce the greatest pinball machine of all time, at least for now, which will be enshrined in the NYCPPAA, that is the NYC Pin Pod Awesomeness Archive, alongside the bracket challenge winner, we have two competitors who could still get to the front of the pack. To remind you, John Nealon leads the way with 10 points, having predicted 10 correct of 16 in the first round the only person to have predicted what host voting would determine as the winning pinball machine of each group the only one to get one in each era he got two in the flat screen two in the solid state three in the dmd and three in the em which is to say that he has a lot of possibilities this week john has eight ball deluxe as the champion and eight ball deluxe cannot get through but he can have a best score of 14 zen zhokniak z-e-n got three correct in each the dmd the solid state and the electromechanical era none in the flat screen but had nine points versus john's 10 and zen has metallica remastered as the champion and Metallica Remastered is still in the tournament. So Zen has a possible score of 18 points. Everybody else will be in also ran for the Venom Translight and the Harvest Pint Glass, courtesy of NYC Pins and Glenn Gillyard. Currently, Caitlin Reese and Thomas Milburn are tied at six. caitlin has a best maximum score of 10 thomas eight stephanie guida and ab dina ecker have five points each in a possible seven steen monica white camp and jose garcia each have three points in a possible five and jessica warren jlw has two points and a possible four we had nine champions predicted of 10 brackets and only one person's remains, which is Metallica Remastered. A variety of opinion. That right That right And a variety of potentially prediction of how you and I would vote on this thing Well we done Yeah we have Let start at the electromechanical era and we proceed to the flat screen Well, let's I mean, let's talk about it in a macro for a real quick sense. In three of these four eras, after we've combined our voting, in each group of four, we assigned a 7-5, a 3, and a 1, as in IFP scoring. And then we've combined them, and in three of these four groups, we have a tie. That's right. eric and i talked about this for a minute and we decided that the best way to advance these tie games was to if one of us gave the game first place and in this instance every time that it's tied 10 10 one of us gave it first and one of us gave it third and the other one we both gave second place that's what always happened in these groups if it's 10 to 10 and that's the only way that they get tied. So the way that we decided to break the tie is whichever one got first place. This should be familiar to everybody who plays in match play because that's the first tiebreaker that is easy to just like click a box, right? On match play tournaments, on match play dot events. If you get more first places than anyone else, then you move on. If you get more second places than anyone else or than the other people with the same score, then you move on. So this should be a method familiar to you. Everything we've done here is crafted after the scoring of pinball tournaments as we do this thing. And so let's start with the electrical mechanical era as we have been doing in which Eldorado, Spanish Eyes, Wizard, and Argosy were competing for the most awesome EM machine of all time, at least for right now. And after our host voting, we had a tie Eldorado and Argosy both receiving 10 points. Wizard had 8 and SpanishEyes only 4. You gave Argosy 7, you gave Eldorado 5. My first place is not tied for first here. Wizard was my first place, but it got 8 points. And you gave my second and my third, first and second,
    48:46
    in the opposite direction. And that's why this is a 10-10-8-4. We both agreed. No, no, no, no, no. You had Spanish Eyes next to last. You had Wizard last. That's why Wizard is not in the conversation. That's why my top is not here because you put it on the bottom. Argosy is the winner.
    49:03
    We had a tie in the solid state as well. Harlem Globetrotters on tour was the number one seed, which got out of the first group. Stars was the fourth seed. Meteor was the seventh seed, the only not-scratch game to get out. and Dolly Parton got out of round one in the solid state era. We measured those games against each other. My methodology was, which one do I want to play first when I walk into the arcade?
    49:34
    And as Eric said, we have ties in three of these regions. We're going to advance Harlem Globetrotters on tour because it was my number one and Eric's number three. We both had Dolly Parton number two. So really here, this was a tie and score between Harlem Globetrotters and Dolly Parton. But if you want to put it in NCAA tournament standards, Globetrotters on tour got a buzzer beater to get the win. And they will advance to the final four as the greatest solid state pinball machine of all time, at least for right now. Yeah.
    50:19
    You had stars first. I had stars last. Do you want to talk about that? Do we need to go to see a friends therapist or something?
    50:29
    Which one do I want to see pop up on match play if I'm randomly assigned? Why is it that one? It's so mean. I like it when they're mean. Okay. All right. In the DMD era, Attack from Mars advanced from the first group, which was a nine seed, barely an upset in certain circles.
    50:52
    Iron Man, the five seed, advanced from group two, besting Twilight Zone. ACDC, the seven seed, got past its Steve Ritchie brother, Spider-Man, to advance. And Theater of Magic got past Game of Thrones. In our voting, this time, Theater of Magic will advance because I gave it seven.
    51:18
    We both gave ACDC two. Five. Five points for second place. Yes, sorry, second place. Yes, five points. Five points for second place.
    51:28
    Iron Man was your one and my four? Yeah, eight points there. An Attack from Mars was my three and your four. I find it interesting that we both had ACDC second in my heart theater of magic is only so fond because it has been here for so long acdc is a great great game these are all machines i love to see competitively uh-huh i mean attack from mars i gave one point in the fourth spot that's the one i'd probably least like to see pop up competitively but i like them all and certainly with it showing up at buttermilk and we'll be playing a lot more Attack. What happened in the flat screen era? In the flat screen era, the four machines we were considering this week were The Big Lebowski, Batman 66, Metallica Remastered, and Guardians of the Galaxy. This group we did not tie on.
    52:33
    Metallica Remastered with 10 points will advance through. I just want to briefly highlight that that means that the only person who had a possible champion in the bracket still has a possible champion in the bracket. The only person in the bracket challenge who's had one. I haven't calculated it yet off the top of my head. We're just announcing these things right now and figuring it out as we're speaking to each other. But I just want to point out that that probably gives Zen the inside track, whether or not he gets the three points for the champion next week, that he definitely just got himself two more points because he has the champion as Metallica remastered. Big Lebowski and Batman 66 both had eight points combined and Guardians with six. So We Where did Where was your number one Lebowski was one no question Seven points Lebowski was one Batman 66 was two Metallica Remastered was three And Guardians of the Galaxy was four It was not This one It was only not cut and dried Because I really had to consider The difference between one and two Three and four were obvious one and two was the question and lebowski is just too good batman 66 is also so good but lebowski is just too good for me to not want to play it every time that i walk in somewhere and it's working if i walk in and it's not working i will be briefly upset and step to the left or write and find the game that I want. But Lebowski's not anywhere just by itself. Nobody puts the big Lebowski by itself. Nobody's that dumb of an operator. Anytime I walk into an arcade and it's there, that's the first game. Batman 66 is so close of a second. So close of a second to me. And it was a third place to you. Metallica was your one though, right? I like all of these games a lot. Metallica and Metallica Remastered, the amazing new version of it. Just, you know, I specialize on it. I consider it one of those games that, you know, the Metallica buttermilk, it's there. I'm always ready to play it in competition. Sure. I found myself the couple of times that I played Metallica Remastered at Sunshine Laundromat, and I do mean Sunshine Laundromat, not Scrapple Land, despite the fact that I will numerous times in the very near future say Sunshine Laundromat and mean Scrapple Land. And in particular, the Metallica Remastered at Sunshine is intended to be moved to Scrapple Land. Quite so. I'll say it wrong when it's moved to the other place. That's all I'm saying. but I found that I did the things that I want to do on the old Metallica and that other things opened up because of it.
    55:51
    And I'm not sure that I like that as an arena for a competitive pinball machine, because I think it will lead to very long play.
    56:05
    But I also really appreciate it as a coin dropper. I don't know if the new rules significantly lengthen the time of play, although... There are so many more multiballs. You get more multiballs. I mean, that's the thing. There are so many more multiballs, and so there's so much more ball save, and so there's so much more time. Certainly the scores are much higher. I did not put my initials in with 220 to 250 million points at Sunshine last week or two weeks ago. That would be grand champ on most Metallicas in the wild, on location in maybe the world? Maybe not. Maybe there are enough really great players out there that all of them have a 300 on it. Because that's not impossible on the old Metallica. But on Metallica Remastered, it's just there. It's possible. Like, it's just there. We have a final four. Tell me about it. Out of the Electromechanical Era, Argosy. Out of the Solid State Era, Harlem Globetrotters, On Tour. Out of the DMD Era, Theater of Magic. And out of the Flatscreen Era, Metallica Remastered. Next week, we'll be judging these four machines using IFPA scoring 7531 to determine the most awesome pinball machine of all time, at least for right now, in NYC PinBod Awesomeness Archive. All right. We're going to save some of the suspense about who won, although if you've been paying attention, you probably already know who won the bracket challenge. But we're going to save that for next week when we will have our official induction ceremony into the NYCPPAA, the NYC Pinball Awesomeness Archive. I want to run through a couple of fun things with some of the predictions that we received from you brave listeners who joined us on this. in the brackets that were submitted to us, attempting to predict what pinball machine Eric and I would choose out of these groups and which would then advance into a second round into the championship in the way that people are doing with their NCAA tournament brackets just right now. we had nine separate predicted champion pinball games. I'm going to run through what they are, but I think that this is really notable right here. Of the nine, three of them were from the solid state era. Three of them were from the DMD era, and three of them were from the flat screen era. Nobody predicted that a champion would come out of the electromechanical era. I'm going to list all of the champions that were predicted right now. Eight Ball Deluxe, Space Shuttle, Stargazer, those are the three from the Solid State era. From the DMD era, Twilight Zone, Metallica, and Addams Family were predicted. And from the flat screen era, Metallica remastered, Jaws, and Iron Maiden was predicted twice. Incidentally, Iron Maiden having been the champion the last time we did this, that was probably a pretty good prediction. I just think that's cool that in 10 brackets that were submitted to us when we put out a list of 64 pinball games and said to you, either choose your favorites or try to choose our favorites. And maybe a good methodology is choosing your own favorites. But I really appreciate that we got of 10 entries, nine champions and that it was diversified in that way over those eras. It's a really interesting sphere of opinions. I want to thank Monica Weidekamp, QQQ, I see you. Of the 10 brackets that were submitted to us, five of them were trolls. And I have been led to believe that Monica may have been responsible for that. So thank you to Monica. And also, thank you to all of the trolls who submitted brackets and everyone else just that was there was a very high representation of trolls from the right flipper on tuesday night i want to thank everybody for participating i'm having a lot of fun doing this i hope that it is fun and rewarding for you to listen to also at least as background noise or you know as asmr when you're going to sleep that's all for this week's pod join us next week when in ball one we'll run down local competition results as always in ball two we'll give you venue updates courtesy of pinball mat and also we'll talk about solid state in woodside queens in ball three we will resolve the final four and name the awesomest pinball machine of all time at least for right now and enshrine one brave bracket challenge winner brave and successful bracket challenge winner to the nyc double p double a as well between now and then whatever you're up to pinfolk go get them It didn't end on an end note, but oh well. Well, that's okay. It doesn't, at least.