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Tribe Multiball with Rachel and Tim, Episode 23: The Haunted Barncade

Poor Man's Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·analyzed·Feb 19, 2022
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Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.036

TL;DR

Brian Thomas reveals mysterious collector persona while discussing collection, custom VP cabinet, and dream game themes.

Summary

Rachel Risto and Tim Dan Lee host Brian Thomas (Tribe member #13), a pinball enthusiast with 13 modern machines in his collection, who discusses playfield swaps, new game purchases (Star Wars Mandalorian Premium, Alien), his custom steampunk-themed virtual pinball build, dream game themes (Harry Potter, Fast and Furious, The Mummy, Fifth Element), and his quest to play the top 400 games on Pinside. Rachel shares recent competitive milestone (cracked top 1,000 players globally) and positive impressions of Rush and Star Wars, while the group discusses Godzilla's universal appeal.

Key Claims

  • Rachel achieved top 1,000 player ranking after three years of competitive play

    high confidence · Rachel states directly: 'After three years of playing, I finally cracked the top 1,000 players in the world' and later 'I'm sitting at 39th and I think if I can play consistent and smart, I'll be fine' (women's ranking)

  • Brian has completed playfield swaps on three games: Whitewater (3 months), Creature From the Black Lagoon (30 days), and Rocky and Bullwinkle (in progress)

    high confidence · Brian directly lists: 'I've done one on Whitewater and one on my Pinball Arcade table title' and 'The third one's Rocky and Bullwinkle'

  • Brian has been working on his custom virtual pinball machine since 2013, now in third iteration, with steampunk theming

    high confidence · Brian: 'I've been working on this pinball machine since 2013. This is my third iteration of it' and describes steampunk design elements in detail

  • Rush plays nothing like Austin Powers despite pre-release comparisons

    medium confidence · Rachel after playing Rush at Fox City: 'It is nothing like Austin Powers. A lot of people compared what they saw with the time machine, the middle ramp shot there to it. It's nothing like that at all'

  • Brian owns 13 modern pinball machines, no EMs or early solid states

    high confidence · Brian states: 'they are all modern the games I don't have any EMs I don't have any early solid states'

  • Godzilla is the unanimous favorite game among visitors to Rachel's home across three different evenings

    high confidence · Rachel: 'I would say 80 percent of the time they say Stranger Things. But the people I had over in the last few weeks, three different evenings, I had folks over and every one of them said Godzilla'

  • Rachel has played 352 out of 400 top-ranked games on Pinside as part of a personal quest

    high confidence · Rachel: 'if you look at the top 400 games on Pinside, it's been my quest over the years to play everything on that list, and I'm at about 352 out of 400 that I've played'

Notable Quotes

  • “It is nothing like Austin Powers. A lot of people compared what they saw with the time machine, the middle ramp shot there to it. It's nothing like that at all. Shame on you people. You need to wait until the game comes out to play.”

    Rachel Risto @ ~22:30 — Defends Rush against pre-release criticism; reflects broader community pattern of judging games before playing them

  • “100 days clean today. It's getting tough. Yeah, when you hit triple digits, it gets tough.”

    Tim Dan Lee / Rachel Risto @ ~10:00 — Humorous self-imposed constraint on game purchases; indicates FOMO and purchasing pressure in the collector community

  • “Godzilla just smacks so hard. Every time I play it, I'm like, man, I need to have this game. Every single time.”

    Rachel Risto @ ~35:00 — Strong endorsement of Godzilla's mass appeal; tracks sentiment on recent release

  • “I think my number one dream theme would, of course, be Harry Potter. I know it is for a lot of people. Actually ever gets made, you know, who knows, right?”

    Brian Thomas @ ~70:00 — Identifies Harry Potter as universally desired licensed theme; raises licensing uncertainty questions

  • “Brian, people crap on everything in pinball. And I'm just like, I don't get it. I don't get it. Let's just play you know and find what you like. Go play something else son.”

    Rachel Risto @ ~105:00 — Meta-commentary on pinball community criticism culture; frames counter-narrative of enjoying games others disparage

  • “From where it was in 2013 to where it is now is incredible. I've got nine – they call them contactors but they're really solenoids in the game for force feedback – so that when you hit the slings, two sets of contactors will fire against the side of the cabinet.”

    Brian Thomas @ ~48:00 — Details custom VP cabinet engineering; demonstrates accessibility of high-quality VP technology for dedicated hobbyists

  • “There isn't really any location pinball close to me. I have to drive over an hour, sometimes an hour and a half, to get to the closest location play.”

Entities

Rachel RistopersonTim Dan LeepersonBrian ThomaspersonGlennie RogerspersonSteven MartinpersonKeith ElwinpersonScott Ianperson

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Pinball community pattern of dismissing games before release then praising them post-play; Rachel frames as lazy criticism requiring self-correction

    medium · Rachel: 'people are really, like, brutal about the games before they're released...A lot of people compared what they saw...It's nothing like that at all. Shame on you people'

  • ?

    community_signal: Rachel achieving competitive milestone (top 1,000 globally, top 39 women) after sustained dedication; community supportive and encouraging; indicates healthy competitive infrastructure

    high · Rachel states: 'So many people are so supportive of that and encouraging me to play more pinball'; participation in regular monthly tournaments at District 82

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Strong positive reception to Star Wars Mandalorian Premium despite pre-release skepticism; Tim reached one shot from wizard mode, positive sign of engagement depth

    high · Tim: 'I give thumbs up on Star Wars: The Mandalorian Premium Edition'; 'I played one shot away from the Wizard mode'; Rachel defends game against early criticism

  • ?

    community_signal: Rachel building and sharing customized game experiences for visitors; introducing non-pinheads to hobby; community engagement through location hosting

    high · Rachel: 'I've had some friends over to play the games. Not really anything crazy happened...three different nights over the past two weeks'; teaching new players, building inclusive community

  • $

    market_signal: Modern machines preferred over EM/early solid state by newer collectors; nostalgia-driven by personal availability rather than historical significance; Brian owns 13 modern, zero EM/early SS

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.212

0:00
Hey, Poor Man Tribe and listeners, this is Glennie Rogers, and you're listening to the Tribe Multiple 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 blockade, and then we'll learn about each other. From two minutes to another Rachel and Tim, who do we have on the show today? Hello friends, welcome to Tribe Multiball, a pinball podcast that focuses on a dynamic group of the Tribe of the Poor Man's Pinball Podcast right here on the Poor Man's Pinball Network. I am your co-host, Rachel Risto, along with your other co-host, Tim Lee. Welcome to the show. How are you today, Tim? I'm great. How are you? I'm pretty good. I'm happy to see your face as we record today once again. Thank you. Good to see you as well, and our secret guest. And our secret guest. I hear this person is kind of an enigma. Yeah, I'm not even going to try to say that, but I heard the same thing.
1:18
What's up with you and your personal pinball world? Not a whole lot. I actually decided that I was going to get back into the social aspect of it within my basement, and probably three different nights over the past two weeks, I've had some friends over to play the games. not really anything crazy happened outside of one little item that I would bring up that's kind of funny. My friend brought over his son and I don't think he had ever played pinball before. So the first game we played was Guns and Roses and I put a two-player game in for him and his son and we told him how to plunge the ball and he plunged the ball and he started saying, what do I do next what I do next and the ball went straight down the middle he didn't know how to hit the flippers and I started laughing and he pledged it again and he's like what do I do what do I do so his dad like finally showed him how to hit the flippers and you know this was a college age kid oh and and we laughed and we taught him how to use the flippers he ended up being pretty good he's very uh you know he has a good hand and eye coordination so he ended up having some good games but the first two balls i guess i was a terrible host and didn't teach him how to use the flippers so that was kind of funny we laughed about it all night yeah that's pretty funny you would just imagine that most people would know that there are flipper buttons on a pinball machine so i guess there are still people in this world that do not know what pinball is or have never played the game yeah i think he had seen it he had said but he went first so he didn't even see anybody hit the flippers like i didn't play a game and his dad didn't play a game so yep straight down the middle it was kind of he was a natural player but he was a natural player it sounds like yeah yeah he loved it that's good well that's nice i'm glad that you've been hosting some friends and folks to come over and hang out and play pinball i do have one question for you sure have you remained clean 100 days clean today wow congratulations congratulations Tim. It's getting tough. Yeah. When you hit triple digits, it gets tough. Yeah, well, I'm really proud of you. Well, you know, I can't blame you for just kind of sitting there. I know you've got maybe a couple things in the works, but no new games in 100 days. Good job, buddy. Good job. Thank you, I think. I look every day at games. I look every day at buying something, and every day I'm like, nope, not happening today.

Brian is 100 days clean from buying new pinball machines (self-imposed constraint)

high confidence · Tim asks 'Have you remained clean Blackwater? 100 days clean today.' Rachel: 'Congratulations, congratulations, Tim'

  • Brian has deposits on Star Wars Mandalorian Premium Edition and Alien, has never played Alien before

    high confidence · Brian: 'I have put deposits down on a Star Wars: The Mandalorian Premium Edition and also an Alien. And I've never played Alien, so this is kind of a leap of faith'

  • There is no location pinball within an hour to an hour and a half of Brian's location

    high confidence · Brian: 'There isn't really any location pinball close to me. I have to drive over an hour, sometimes an hour and a half, to get to the closest location play'

    • Brian Thomas @ ~52:00 — Illustrates geographic disparity in location availability; drives adoption of home collecting and virtual alternatives

  • “If you're into video games, which I have been since I had an Intellivision and Commodore 64 back in the 80s... I think the approach to virtual pinball is that you treat it like a video game. It is not pinball.”

    Brian Thomas @ ~55:00 — Establishes frame for VP acceptance; differentiates virtual from physical pinball to manage expectations

  • “Rachel: 'my wife's going to love that because she loves that type of theme. She wants me to buy a Houdini Master of Mystery just because of that style of theme.'”

    Tim Dan Lee (quoting himself re: his wife) @ ~62:00 — Indicates spouse/family involvement in machine selection; shows non-player aesthetic preferences driving purchases

  • “I love Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. I have played that, I think, once... John Borg Design. I love that game. I don't know why people crap on it so much, but I actually love that game.”

    Brian Thomas @ ~120:00 — Defends critically dismissed John Borg design; repeats pattern of enjoying games community maligns

    • John Borg
    person
    Stern Pinballcompany
    Highway Pinballcompany
    Data Eastcompany
    Spooky Pinballcompany
    Tee'd Off Pinball Pursuitpodcast
    Poor Man's Pinball Podcastorganization
    District 82venue
    Galloping Ghostvenue
    Fox City Pinballevent
    Pinsideplatform
    IFPAorganization
    Rushgame
    Star Wars: The Mandaloriangame
    Godzillagame
    Aliengame
    Harry Pottergame_ip
    Fast and Furiousgame_ip

    medium · Brian: 'they are all modern the games I don't have any EMs I don't have any early solid states I grew up on those I love them...I just feel more of a pull towards the modern games'

  • ?

    licensing_signal: Harry Potter established as consensus #1 dream theme; licensing status explicitly uncertain; community views licensing as primary barrier to desired games

    high · Brian: 'Harry Potter...I know it is for a lot of people. Actually ever gets made, you know, who knows, right?'; Steven Martin cited as also having Godzilla as dream theme

  • $

    market_signal: Geographic accessibility constraints driving adoption of home collecting and custom VP solutions; Brian and Rachel both cite 1-2+ hour drive times to nearest location

    high · Brian: 'There isn't really any location pinball close to me. I have to drive over an hour, sometimes an hour and a half'; Rachel: 'I have to drive over an hour, sometimes an hour and a half'; both investing in home collections

  • ?

    community_signal: Brian as first-time playfield swap executor; learning curve documented (3 months on first swap, 30 days on second, ongoing third); indicates growing expertise and problem-solving approach

    high · Brian: 'Whitewater was my first one, and that took me about three months. It was a learning experience. There were some parts that I needed that I didn't know I needed until I actually had taken the game apart'

  • $

    market_signal: Brian explicitly considering whether to spend more money on premium editions (Godzilla Premium sought, Guardians considered); pricing pressure evident in purchasing decisions

    medium · Brian: 'I'm considering, do I do I want to spend more money? Because you know people have been talking about prices a lot lately'; hesitating between Godzilla and Guardians due to cost

  • ?

    product_concern: Godzilla's building mech identified as primary draw for casual/non-pinhead visitors; suggests design-driven mass appeal

    high · Rachel on visitor preference: 'It's the building that falls...It's a cool mech, very cool mech...the building...everybody loves the building'; 80% of recent visitors cited Godzilla as favorite

  • ~

    sentiment_shift: Community bias against pre-release games shifting; Rachel explicitly critiques premature judgment and advocates for hands-on play before forming opinions

    medium · Rachel: 'people are really, like, brutal about the games before they're released...You need to wait until the game comes out to play'; 'Shame on you people'

  • ?

    technology_signal: Custom virtual pinball with force feedback and multiple screens approaching parity with real machines; steampunk theming demonstrates creative expression in VP platform

    high · Brian describes 9 contactors for force feedback, 3-screen setup, leather/brass/copper theming; describes evolution from 2013-present as 'incredible'

    • 3:53
    You know what? I used to look like every hour, and I look about twice a day, and my friends send me the games that I want to see now. I'll get texts from people that say, hey, did you see this, and did you see that, and I'll go out and look, but I'm not looking like I used to. Yeah, I have a friend of mine, Michael, that's looking for an Iron Maiden Pro that somewhere is close enough to go pick it up, and that's used, and that is really a difficult game to find. I found one in Massachusetts not too long ago, and I should have shared that with him, but I'm like, I think that's too far for us to take a road trip and go get that. That could be fun. So, yeah. Let's see. My personal pinball news. Well, I do have good news to share. Okay. After three years of playing, I finally cracked the top 1,000 players in the world. Yay! That is awesome. Yeah. And that was your goal. That's been your goal for a while now. That is correct. That is my goal. I think from when I first started playing competitively, that was a goal. So that was really cool, an amazing achievement for myself. that I was able to achieve this past week. I had a really great, well, it was funny because I had a good and a bad. It's no longer league nights, now a standalone tournament. That's twice a month on a Tuesday night up at District 82. It was funny because I thought my first game, I thought I took a fourth on World Cup soccer. And so I was like, oh, man, when you start out with a fourth and it's seven rounds, it takes a while to work yourself back up, right? And I'm like, okay. So I went on a plate and had a third and seconds and first, and it was doing really well. And I got into our sixth round and I looked at the scoreboard and I'm like, oh, I'm like just maybe like one really good game away from being in the top eight. And so I ended up coming in fifth overall. So I did a lot better than I thought. But it's so funny because but I based my whole way of playing thinking that I took a fourth instead of a third on my very first game. I don't know. So, yeah, it was really exciting to be able to do that. I do have other goals. That was really big kudos to myself. And I can toot my own horn about that because it's a lot of playing and practicing and learning and reading and watching and talking about pinball, right, in order to do that. That's right. Substantial accomplishment. Congratulations. Thanks. And I really appreciate that. So many people are so supportive of that and encouraging me to play more pinball. I do have other goals. my next one though, I'm going to crush it, is I do want to become within the top 24 women overall in the world. So I think I can do that. So I'm sitting at 39th and I think if I can play consistent and smart, I'll be fine. I also played recently in Fox City's pinball up at District 1 Brewery in Stevens Point, Wisconsin, which is a little bit of a two hour trip one way there for me and back. So it was a little bit of a drive. It was worth it, though. I got to play the new Rush. Have you played that yet? I have not. What do you think? Okay. I really enjoyed it. I'm going to say this again. We've talked about this or commented just a little bit on our show about people are really, like, brutal about games before they're released, right? So after playing it, I want to tell people it is nothing like Austin Powers. A lot of people compared what they saw with the time machine, the middle ramp shot there to it. it's nothing like that at all. Shame on you people. You need to wait until the game comes out to play. That's how I feel at least. Whatever. It's my two cents. Yeah, I agree. But the game was a lot of fun. I thought the flow was good. I liked there was this upper right flipper orbit shot and you spun the ball around and it came down and it slowed the ball down. You could take that shot again. I liked it. But the best part of the game is that on the time machine, I think that's what it's called on there, at the time machine, it's 1978. You know what's so good about that year? It's the year I was born. I didn't say. Birthday. Yeah, so it must be like my game. I don't know. But it was a lot of fun to play. So there's my review on that. I played terribly, but I had a heck of a good time. That's really kind of the point of it, though. Yep, absolutely. Yeah. I think that's about it for my pinball news right now. Just, you know, plugging along, having fun. Yeah, well, that's great. Congratulations again. I did want to say that I got some feedback on our last episode, more than I have on any other episode. And I would say most of it was just a bust on me for not saying that Australian guy's name after – Our friend Hugh? Yeah, Hughie. Hughie boy. I think 50 people might have sent me a message picking on me about not being able to pronounce his name and then just letting it go until the end. Sorry. Sorry, Hughie. but I think that it's okay because I think he understands that when we're Americans we're dumb Americans in some ways Tim I don't know maybe but we also sometimes everybody can struggle but we try we do to try to make the effort a little bit at least we figured out his middle name even Amy came home from work and she listens on the way home and she's like man you botched that gentleman's name.
    9:08
    I'm still not going to say it. Me neither. But you know who you are, and I love you. I'm going to come to Australia someday. It's going to happen. Yep, love you too, Huey. Anyway. Alright. I am very interested to meet our guest on today's episode. Yeah, me too. He does consider himself the enigma of the tribe. It's interesting. He's kind of mysterious. I was able to scroll his Facebook page I think in within five minutes. That was fascinating. So I'm like, Ooh, I like this. I like people that like they, they're, you know, they're private and they keep their things themselves. And I appreciate that. Anyways, I think it'll be a pretty fascinating episode. Are you ready, Tim? Yeah, I like a good mystery. Okay, me too. It's like reading a really good mystery novel. That's a great way to think about this episode. All right. I would like to welcome to the show tribe member number 13 brian thomas welcome hey welcome brian good evening rachel and team welcome to my home i have a uh bram stoker's vernacular and i love that that line from oh from bram so it's a brutal game it is that's so funny you should have gone with that bit the whole episode. I don't know if I could have pulled that off for an entire episode. Me neither. I sometimes think about talking in a British accent or something, but I don't think I could do a whole episode either. We'll have to work on that. Maybe that needs to be its own podcast on the Poor Man's Pinball Network on its own. I don't know. Anyway, how are you doing today? I'm doing great. Thank you. How are you guys doing? Pretty good. Pretty good. I'm doing fantastic. Thank you. I want to jump kind of right into it. I want to know what you're doing in your pinball world. What I'm doing in my pinball world currently? Well, currently I am doing a playfield swap on my Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends. This is my third playfield swap that I've done. I've done one on Whitewater and one on my Creature from the Black Lagoon. All right. And then I told the tribe that recently I have put deposits down on a Mandalorian Premium and also an Alien. And I've never played Alien, so this is kind of a leap of faith. Yeah, I have not played it either. I have. I played it at the Galloping Ghost, but it was the older version, I believe. Oh, it was the Highway version? Yeah, yeah, the Highway version. So the Playfield Swap, those are three games that seemed like they would take quite a long time. How long did it take you to do the first two?
    11:54
    Whitewater was my first one, and that took me about three months. It was a learning experience. There were some parts that I needed that I didn't know I needed until I actually had taken the game apart. So that one was kind of difficult and, like I said, a learning experience. I got much faster at it with Creature. I think that one was done within 30 days. Big difference there. Yeah. What was the third one? The third one's Rocky and Bullwinkle. I've just started I finally found a replacement playfield. Very, very hard to find for some of those Data East games. So I'm in the process of stripping down the old one and then I'll be moving things to the new one. Yeah, I don't think that I have the skills to do that. Tim?
    12:45
    Did you have any parts left over? Because I always have parts left over. Yeah, where do these go? Yeah, I have a few screws and a couple of washers left over usually. You're like, where in the world do these go? That can't be good. That seems like something that would happen to me. 110%. It definitely happens here. Well, that's pretty cool. And I give thumbs up on Mandalorian Premium. That's another one of those games where, like Rachel said, you know, People like to poopoo on it before they play it, but I kind of like it. I got one shot away from wizard mode on Thursday. Nice. Yeah, and I didn't make it to wizard mode, though. You're one shot away.
    13:30
    And then you train here like, oh, darn. And I liked Alien. The older one was kind of dark, and there were some mechanical things on that particular machine, probably heavily played there but it was fun it caught my attention for sure so congratulations yeah congrats it's very exciting to have new games come in thank you and and right now i'm considering do i do i want to spend more money because you know people have been talking about prices a lot lately martin yes i've talked about it too and uh i i i need to have a godzilla it's one of my dream themes that's come true. And I really want the premium, but it's hard to find. Have you played it? I have. I've played like three or four games on it, and just right away, it's like I need this game.
    14:24
    And then I've been thinking about Guardians from the Galaxy Pro, but I have not pulled the trigger on that one yet. So I'm still thinking about it. Yeah, that's a fun game too. I think out of the two of them, I'd pick Godzilla. if I had to choose. Godzilla just smacks so hard. Every time I play it, I'm like, man, I need to have this game. Every single time. It's great that you've had a chance to play it, though, too, before buying it. That's part of the, I think, even if you decide, if you're able to buy, still get an LE or premium or order one, how long is it going to take, right?
    14:58
    So at least you're able to play one before ordering it, which I think is a good thing. It's an up-and-down thing, but it's like a dream theme, like it is for Martin, too. So, yeah, I would say that, Rachel, I've told you this, Brian, when folks come over before they leave, I always ask them what their favorite game is. And I would say 80 percent of the time they say Stranger Things. But the people I had over in the last few weeks, three different evenings, I had folks over and every one of them said Godzilla. Like it wasn't even a question. They all said two of the folks weren't pinheads. Two of the folks were pinheads. and one was kind of a mix, and they all said Godzilla.
    15:39
    I want to know why, if it's for the non-Pin Hood folks, if it's just a fun shooter or what it is. I think it's the building that falls. Oh, yeah, probably. It's a pretty cool mech, very cool mech. I'm pretty sure that one mech kind of brings them in, that magnet that grabs the ball.
    16:01
    It's just the mechs, but it's the building. I mean, everybody loves the building. Yeah, interesting.
    16:08
    Brian, you also have a virtual pinball machine that you've been working on too, correct? I do. I've been working on this pinball machine since 2013. This is my third iteration of it. Every once in a while I'll update the components, you know. And so it's been a wonderful project. I've been into virtual pinball since the early 2000s when it was VP6 on a PC just playing on a keyboard on my desktop computer.
    16:42
    All right. Wow. Yeah, I stumbled across one of the visual pinball websites and saw people making these virtual pinball machines out of real cabinets. And I thought, oh, man, I got to do that. I'm a tinkerer. I love experimenting with things. and so I said I gotta do that and from where it was in 2013 to where it is now is pretty incredible I've got nine they call them contactors but they're really solenoids in the game for force feedback so that when you hit the slings two sets of contactors will fire against the side of the cabinet and give you and it feels like a slingshot going off so I've wired these contactors in, I've got three screens going, one for the DMD, one for the back glass, and of course the main play field.
    17:34
    I put a lot of time and effort into it and it really fun And I also think you should comment about what type of theme you have going on Yeah most people when they theme these they put some kind of decal on the side like an Avengers or back to the future. Sure, theater magic or whatever. Right. And for me, I wanted something a little different. So mine is steampunk themed. so what I did was I put some birch plywood on the side that I stained and then that's going to be wrapped in leather there's going to be like the lockdown bar and the rails are going to be all brass and then there's going to be pipes you know kind of sticking out of it copper pipes and for the topper I'm going to put some work into the topper to come up with some different things that light up and move that are steampunk themed so the that is so awesome the software is capable of controlling all of that and it's okay it's a blast to design this and think about it to dream about it and to dream about it and put it be and you're that's very a lot of talent right there it's something i would never be able to do but being able to like to have that vision i'm like this is what i want i want it to be like steampunk themed and i want it to feel like this i want my virtual pen feel like this look like this and to make that dream come true. That's so awesome. That's a cool talent to have, man. Yeah. It really is. You know, I love real pinball. You know, I have 13 machines right now. Okay. There isn't really any location pinball close to me. I have to drive over an hour, sometimes an hour and a half, to get to the closest location play.
    19:25
    Oh, you and me both. Yeah. Same here. Yeah, boy. There's so many games that I love that aren't on location, that I don't get to play. And I'd love to have them, but who has the space and the money for all those games, right? Right. I think the approach to virtual pinball is that you treat it like a video game. It is not pinball. But if you're into video games, which I have been since I had an Intellivision and Commodore 64 back in the 80s. Awesome. So it's a lot of fun if you treat it as a video game, and you can get it as close as possible to a real pinball machine through that forced feedback. Yeah, that's interesting. I've played a couple of virtual pinball machines, but I've not played one that's a homebrew like yours. So I think that's fascinating. Where you're located, do you play competitively? I did look up your IFPA, and it looks like you do play a little bit. So you must travel and you have to do that as well. Yeah. I haven't played competitively for a few years now. I just can't make the time to drive to go out to where I could play on location. And COVID kind of put a squash on things. Absolutely. I'd like to get back into it at some point. And when we get closer to the end of the show, I'll kind of reveal some of my plans that I'm going to be doing. Ooh. Ooh, mysterious. See, there's like this mysterious factor going on. I'm digging it. Yeah, don't let me forget. We're going to talk about this towards the end of the show. We will not let you forget. I have to say, my thoughts on virtual pinball are I kind of enjoy it. When I picked up my Metallica, I usually don't do this, but a gentleman had a virtual pinball machine with forced feedback there, and I asked him if I could play it. Generally, I get in. I don't interrupt their lives and so forth, but he kind of mentioned it and I'm like, can I try that? And I, I rather enjoyed it. You know, he had a quite a lot of money into it, but I thought it's pretty, it's pretty neat. It wasn't quite the real thing, but it was, it was fun. And like you said, he had a couple of thousand tables on it and you know, who's going to buy a couple of thousand machines. So you buy the ones you want and you play virtual with, with the other. So I would own one. I think that's neat. And the theme, you know, my, my wife's going to love that because she, she loves that, that type of theme. She wants me to buy a Houdini just because of that style of theme. And I said, no, no. I said, you will want to burn Houdini. You know, I think Houdini is a great game. I like that it's tight shots because it forces you to be a better player. That's it. And so there are some games like Turtles, TMNT, same thing. That game forces you to be a better player because it's going to be a butt kicker, and I think that's a good thing. But as her, I don't know, she might really like it to him anyways. You've got to get her her Halloween first, right? Halloween, yep. Yeah. Well, you know, Seampunk is obviously a dream theme for you there, Brian. Do you have other dream themes? I do. Let's get into that. Sure. I kind of shared these with Drew and Ian a long time ago when they had a segment on it. But I think my number one dream theme would, of course, be Harry Potter. I know it is for a lot of people.
    22:53
    Actually ever gets made, you know, who knows, right? But I think if we kind of exclude that one, I think that my other dream themes would be the Fast and Furious franchise.
    23:05
    Oh, that's actually a great idea. I don't think I've ever heard that idea, but that's fantastic. Yeah, I mean, we have, you know, high speed and high speed to the getaway. You know, there's been a Viper Knight driving, which isn't a great game, but you can, you know, there's a lot of things you can do with cars. You know, Mustang. I love Mustang. Corvette, NASCAR. Right. Truck Stop.
    23:29
    I like that game. A lot of people don't like that game. I like Truck Stop. Anyway, have you played that? Have you played that, Brian? Have you played Truck Stop? I have played Truck Stop. Did you like it? I did. I like it. See, me too. I thought it was a fun game. I like to own that game. People think I'm crazy. I don't know. I have played, if you look at the top 400 games on Pinside, it's been my quest over the years to play everything on that list, and I'm at about 352 out of 400 that I've played. You know, that's a great idea. That's really good. That's really good, I think. But that's a great idea. I made the comment to a friend recently that, you know, District 82, there's 110 games, and there's probably been 20 other different games that have floated in and out of there. And last night where I went and played up in Stevens Point, there were three games that I haven't played in a really long time and two I've never played before. So, I mean, there's so many games out there. That's a great idea. It's a good goal. Yeah, the fact that you got that many is impressive. For sure. I call it a bucket list. Yeah. Yeah, I love that. I have to get myself a little notepad and write it down. That's a good idea. Okay, so what else? Do you have any other dream themes there? Sure. The mummy. Sure. Especially the Brandon Fraser ones. I mean, Ian likes the old mummy. He and I are both big Universal Monster fans. Yep. And we connected instantly on that topic.
    25:04
    And he likes those old Universal Monster movies. but I kind of would prefer the modern mummy just due to the call outs and the video and all that that's available. I could go with it, sure. Cuts from it. Yeah. Another one would be Clash of the Titans, whether it's the older one or the newer one. Either one of those would be good for me. Fifth Element, I think, would be a fantastic pinball game. Yes. Yes, Preach. That would be great. Collect all the different elements. Yeah, I'm thinking about that. Yeah, and then maybe Despicable Me. Okay.
    25:43
    Despicable Me, okay. That one would go really well with the kids. Yeah, for sure. You might see that one someday. You're going to see Harry Potter. I know. Yeah, that will happen. The one theme, the one non-licensed theme that I thought about recently, my sister and I were talking about that this past week. It would be so cool if there was a game that was just focused on the holidays. so hear me out so like all right you know you've got like i don't know i don't know but you have to go around like i love christmas right well what it stemmed from there is this gentleman and pinball enthusiast i think that posted his art his basement and there was a gigantic ginormous white christmas movie like poster and so the guy let me he told me about it was really fascinating how he obtained it and i sent it to my sister i'm like check this out there's a demo oh, man, and behind it's this gigantic white Christmas poster. So it got me thinking about that. It would be cool if there was a white Christmas-themed pinball machine, but I think that's like not a lot of people would really be into that. I mean, but I think it led to the conversation of it would be cool if there was some kind of holidays game. So you're collecting Christmas and you're collecting, I don't know, Thanksgiving and Easter. It would be very Americanized maybe, and you're collecting Cupid or you're collecting the Easter Bunny or I don't know. Just thought that was interesting. Not a dream theme, but it's just an interesting – we've got all these other non-licensed themes that are like Whitewater and Whirlwind and Earthshaker and that kind of stuff. Anyway. What if they did like a Nightmare Before Christmas pinball machine based on the end of the movie? Because at the end of the movie, they showed like the Easter Bunny area. Okay. You know, because pinball companies, they don't like to get the full license. So maybe they could just get like the characters and just do like Keith Elwin does and make their own kind of like little story. But instead of Christmas and Halloween, it has Easter and the Fourth of July or. Yeah, I like that. But again, you know, it'd be a very Americanized game in terms of there was Thanksgiving in there. Or I suppose it just depends on how you want to depict it. I don't know. interesting sorry lest i digress yeah that's okay that's what we're here for right second sloppiest show on the internet absolutely uh so you said that you have 13 games in your collection currently do you have a lot of one specific type of game like ems or solid states or moderns they are all modern games I don't have any EMs I don't have any early solid states I grew up on those I love them okay I just feel more of a pull towards the modern games what are your top five right off the cuff top five games period or in my head modern top five modern games I suppose that you like not in or not in your collection okay I would say Attack from Mars would be number one. Okay. Great game.
    28:53
    Yep. The Hobbit. Actually, a lot of people don't like the game or the movies, but I love both. And the theme immersion in that is incredible. I totally agree. Very fun game to play. And as we talked about before, Godzilla, after just three or four games, I know it's instantly shot to the top of my list. that's awesome and then I would say ACDC I love ACDC yes at the bell I love that game that's also fun you can backhand a lot of things on that game so much fun to play and then probably Twilight Zone just for all the stuff that's crammed into it sure you have the poor man's Twilight Zone I have Ripley's which I absolutely love too so run down your collection real quick okay so i have uh make sure i don't forget anything here so i have uh white water um that was the first game i ever bought i have a popeye don't see a lot of no um all right uh scared stiff that's a fun game yep fish tales another i love fish tales so much. Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. I have played that, I think, once, and it was once or twice. I can't even think about the play field on that one time. One time it was on the FX. That's it. John Borg Design. I love that game. I don't know why people crap on it so much, but I actually love that game. Brian, people crap on everything in pinball. And I'm just like, I don't get it. let's just play you know and find what you like to play go play something else son you know anyway yeah oh my goodness but anyway sorry a mother teresa pin oh my goodness everybody's going crazy oh she's such a terrible person oh shakespeare it's the best pin ever i'm telling you shoots like crap never played it but it shoots like crap it's like crap It's way too busy The colors are horrible What was that artist thinking blah blah blah Oh my goodness Anyway sorry Go on Segues Distractions Ripley's I mentioned I've never played that You know that's one of Pete Elwin's favorite games Is Ripley's That's fascinating yeah it's fun that Ripley's and Tales from the Crypt are two games I did not expect to like and I enjoyed them both yeah that's a good game too yep I'm not a fan of Tales from the Crypt sorry podcast over relationship done yeah can't go on Rocky and Bullwinkle and Friends that's the one I'm tearing apart right now Mm-hmm. Okay. All right. The Hobbit. Bram Stoker's Dracula.
    32:06
    Yeah, I like that game a lot. Rats and Bats. Yeah, Rats and Bats. I have a Stern Pirates of the Caribbean.
    32:15
    Ooh. Okay, I have that one, yep. A Munster's Ellie. Okay. So you and Josh Mudd are good friends. Absolutely. Right.
    32:25
    Yep. I've got a few you demands from Josh Mudd so yeah I love it Alice Cooper Nightmare Castle yeah I really enjoy that game and that's it that's a really nice collection very nice 13 is a good number do you have 13 games because you're tribe member number 13 I just have to ask or is it random that is totally random Totally random. Because there's this, like, monster theme going on as well. So maybe it's the 13th floor thing, right? Yeah. Oh, I didn't pick up on that. Nice. Very nice, Tim. 13 is my favorite number, so I'm all good with that. So maybe I'll have to have 13 games at some point. I can't have, what's my child number, 35? I can't have that many games in my... I'd have to be walking around with thousands hanging out of my pocket like our Australian friend. Yeah. Right? So that's a pretty well-rounded collection. That's an impressive collection, to be honest. Yeah, most of those are. You know, I was a poor man. Most of those are budget buys. Mm-hmm.
    33:41
    Like Whitewater. So I started collecting these back in 2004. So I picked up the Whitewater in 2004 off of eBay because I didn't know any better back then. Back then I was a total noob. my roommate was looking at Bigfoot stuff on eBay and he said, Hey, look at this pinball machine with a, with a Bigfoot in it for sale. And I was like, no way you can buy pinball machines?
    34:07
    And, and, and it got here and it was a total disaster. So I had to learn how to fix the machine, you know, on the fly with, you know, there weren't YouTube videos back then on, on repairs. You know, You kind of had like Wreck Games pinball and some of the This Old Pinball videos that you could order. And so that's how I started learning how to fix pinball machines on the fly. But I kind of fell into this Bolly Williams bias that existed back then because it was hard to find parts for anything else. At least with Bolly Williams, they were pretty solid and you could find a lot of the parts back then. so interesting that is interesting uh that's a fascinating way to buy your first game is that your friend was like i'm really into bigfoot kind of stuff check out this game it's got a big foot in the game i mean that's really cool story yeah i mean it just kind of it just kind of snowballed from there you know i bought that for eighteen hundred dollars shipped to me wow that crazy even if it was in really rough shape that bonkers Bonkers And then Popeye was the next one we bought because it was shipped Oh.
    35:31
    Was it in decent shape when you got it? Popeye was in perfect condition when I got it. Oh, my God. I just had some friends pick, got a Popeye, and I can't tell you what they paid for it because you just, like, you lose your mind. And, you know, the game's in great shape, but it's just nuts, you know. Yeah. Wow. But from perspective, right? Good for you. Bargain deals. Yeah. Games are expensive now, and I'm making more money now than I was back then. So it's all relative. Back then, I was super poor. And so back then, those prices were a lot of money. Right. I understand that. I totally understand that. So let me ask you, Brian, have you sold anything? or have you just kept all your games because the first two you still have in your collection yeah i have only ever sold one game and that okay i thought that might be the case yeah and that was junkyard um okay and i actually didn't really want to sell it i was kind of tired of it but i didn't really want to sell it regardless because it's still pinball and I still like Pim. I can be tired of a game and still love to play it. But I sold it because I needed to pay some bills.
    36:49
    That was the biggest ticket thing I could sell. To pay those bills off. But I don't really miss it that much. I added those other games over time so I don't really miss it. Poor Junkyard.
    37:05
    Junkyard's out. But I have to say, the rest of your games and your collection get a heck of a lot to love if they've been bolted.
    37:12
    So I think that's fantastic too. I'd love to play all of those. That'd be a great way to wake up, have my coffee, and flip those on and play all of those because it's a nice, wide variety of games. I think the only other ones that might not be bolted are Fishtails. I've kind of... I played that a lot over the years. That was a game that my roommate really loved and I think I might move on from that one just to infuse a little more cash to put towards the Godzilla.
    37:48
    Yeah, to buy that Godzilla. Yeah. I get that. So Fishtails could be gone. At some point, Popeye might be gone, but I still enjoy playing it. It's got one of the deepest rule sets of 90s pins. As long as you're enjoying it and having fun Who cares? You keep it in your collection as long as you want You're an adult, you do whatever you want, right? Absolutely That's right I actually enjoy that game I think Zach and Annie enjoys it as well I can't drive across the country to get it from you When you sell it Because you're on the west coast And I'm on the east coast So that would be a far drive Yeah, it's pretty fun I'd like to just snag up that Fishtails though You know, the game isn't super deep, but it's really fun. When you get that fish flapping up on top and, like, the game's just shaking at you, it's great. I think it's just a heck of a lot of fun to play.
    38:45
    Pinball doesn't always have to be about, like, being able to beat the game, right? It should just be a fun shooter and just something that gives you pleasure and you enjoy, and it, you know, does a break from reality. That's what pinball should be, right, I think? Absolutely. So for me, Fishtails is totally that type of game where it's just like, Oh, I got the monster fish! Oh, so I'm shooting the people. You know, I love that in the video mode. It's great.
    39:11
    Top rocker, whatever. I'm going to be honest. Some of those older games, Rachel, make me feel good about myself because I can actually get to the end. You know, some of these Keith Elwin games, Tim Lee is never seeing the end ever. Oh, you know, even with five balls. But, you know, never get games like that or like pirates, like Stern Pirates. I've gotten to wizard mode. It makes guys like myself feel pretty good about their skill set when you get game games. You're a good pinball player, a better pinball player than what you think. I'm better than Drew.
    39:47
    We're going to pause. I do have to congratulate my friend Drew for winning a pinball tournament. Congratulations, Drew. I don't know how he did it. I don't know how much it cost him to pay everyone off. But, nah, nah. I love Drew, and I was actually really irritated that he didn't send me a message and tell me. I'm like, dude, we're like best internet friends, and I find out on the Tribe page. Yeah.
    40:16
    Congrats to Drew and back to Brian. You should have been rubbing your nose in that one. Yeah. Oh, he was for sure. Hey, Brian, do you have a little bit of a barcade going on over there? I do. So my roommate and I had decided that we needed more space for things.
    40:39
    So particularly I wanted more space for pinball, and he had bought an antique bar from an old speakeasy in downtown Portland.
    40:49
    What? I bet it's beautiful. I bet it's beautiful and ornate. How old is it? It's from the 20s, so it's pretty ornate. I love it. The bar back piece that hangs on the wall is absolutely beautiful. It's all art deco with a mirror. Oh. And it's gorgeous. That's gorgeous. So we decided we need a place to put the stuff.
    41:14
    Yeah. So, you know, I'm going to buy a bar, so I need a bigger place. Right. Okay, go on. Bar fixtures. I'm not buying a bar. I'm buying the bar fixtures. So I need a bigger place to put it. But go on. I love it. You can use it as an excuse, you know, to build something. Yes, I understand that. Correct, right. So we built a 2,400-square-foot barcade. Holy moly. 2,400-square-foot barcade. So it's two stories, 1,200 on the lower floor, 1,200 on the upper floor. Wow. And that's on your property? Yes. It's a detached building on the property. Okay. The lower floor has the bar, a big pool table, some slot machines, some of the Japanese ones that take the tokens real slot machines a shuffleboard one video game it's a shooting game called Zombie Raid similar to the Terminator 2 video game that came out back in the day and a karaoke stage I'm coming over a karaoke stage I'm coming over I will be right there We don't even have to play pinball. Just set me up on the karaoke stage and let's go. Let's go. You just dropped a bomb on Rachel. I did. I'm like, I'm really excited.
    42:39
    Brian, I have to ask. It leads me to this question. What's your go-to karaoke song? I am a terrible singer, but that doesn't stop me singing John Michael Montgomery's Sold the Grundy County Auction.
    42:56
    All right. I'm going to turn it on my Echo after we're done podcasting today. I'm going to listen to it. I can't wait. I love it.
    43:04
    Anyways, go on. Sorry, I just got really excited about that. A karaoke stage. How come you didn't ask me my go-to song? Because you suck at karaoke, Tim Lee. I do. I do, but I do have a song. I'm sorry, Tim. What is your go-to karaoke song? So I always, and I'm the worst singer you've ever heard. The worst. I guarantee it. And and but I like to sing Sweet Child of Mine because I can get my voice really high. Last time I did it, I lost my voice. But before my mom passed, before my mom passed at a party, I got a little looped up and I got up there and I asked if I could sing Sweet Child of Mine. And that's actually my my most vivid memory of my mom was her crying. She was laughing so hard she was crying. And she said, that is literally the worst thing I've ever heard. but she's like we loved it you know my mom and all her sisters were putting up their lighters and yeah I am the worst singer I love it Tim I love it yeah Tim Lee sucks at karaoke big time that's alright I mean next year I get printed mine is Obladi Oblada by the Beatles for sure okay yeah anyway we were talking about your awesome barcade space So that's in the lower level. What's in the upper level? Yeah, so that's the lower level. The upper level is where all the pinball machines are.
    44:32
    I also have a huge collection of board games, so there's a board gaming table up there. Nice. Man, this is the place to be. I know. That's cool.
    44:43
    I'm going to pause you right there. Do you have the game Shogun or Samurai Swords? That's an older one. I do not have that one. Okay. It's in the line with the Axis and Allies series. I like to play that one, but my kids won't ever play with me. So I was going to actually fly to the West Coast if you had it. But I'll bring it with me, though. I'm still going to come over. Yeah, I'm going to bring it with me. Yeah, I'll play it. Absolutely. I love board games. So let's see. What else is up there? So I have a – there's a room in there. This is all open floor plan, right? But the upstairs has one room that's built inside the open floor space. And that room is basically my workshop, my pinball workshop. So I have like my history in there. All my parts and tools are in there. And it was supposed to be a guest bedroom, but we didn't put a bathroom in there. So it's my workshop.
    45:42
    There's a section. Now, you mentioned that we have a lot of monster pins up there. and uh so my my roommate he was i'm a big universal monsters fan he's a big universal monsters and also disney haunted mansion fan so we built a section of that upstairs to just be haunted mansion um really yeah we have the the pictures where they change the faces change you know they look normal and then you move to the side yeah and then yes change into these evil faces and um we have some things that he built from the uh haunted mansion with these these statues where when you walk the eyes follow you no matter where you go in the room oh so creepy nice super creepy yeah he has these big statues of hitchhiking ghosts from the haunted mansion and we were building a big scene behind that with a mausoleum and i'm building an animated animatronic crow that will sit on top of the tombstones and move and talk.
    46:43
    That's awesome. Handy dandy. Yeah, I love the Haunted Mansion. My family loves it. So, Drew, I'm canceling my trip to MGC to see you. Hey. And I'm headed out west. Hey, I'm part of that trip to MGC, too. So.
    47:00
    All right. Maybe I'll have to do both. Yeah, that sounds like a fun time to me. We'll plan it together. yeah dude that that's impressive how long did that all take what what was the what was the what was your estimate of the number of hours you have put into the barncade i'm going to call it the barncade because it's the barncade yeah hours a lot it we started in 2016 um where you know we started the excavation and you know the found pouring the concrete slab and all that so it's been five years now still not fully complete uh just have to finish up like drywall electrical yeah and a few more few more things um in there but it is it is usable and it's fun so yeah do you have pictures that you would be willing to share absolutely yeah we would love to post that with the episode on the on the fan page one thing that uh rachel and i've been talking about is we probably don't advertise enough when we drop an episode. No, we just put it out there. We're like, oh. And then sometimes the tribe member, they share it on their personal page, sometimes not. And I'm like, you know, we're not the best about promoting. But, yeah, Tim, we should try to do that and go back and start doing that moving forward. Because that would be really cool to see that because you described it very well, but I'd like to see the space. It sounds really neat. Yeah, especially the Haunted Mansion. All tribe members have an open invitation to come on over. Heck, yeah. I'll be right there. I wish I wasn't. Me too. I need to travel somewhere and get out of this winter up here in Wisconsin, although we haven't had much snow here. But still, I did want to ask, so you did talk a little bit about your first pinball machine, but how did you get into pinball? Was that it? No. So I've been playing pinball since 1980, in fact. Okay. I was 13 years old. My parents allowed me for the first time to go to an arcade. So when I went there, I went to play video games, basically. You know, your Asteroids, Defender, Space Invader, Space Invaders, Missile Command. You know, those early, early Atari video games. Right. And when I was in the arcade, I walked past this bank of four pinball machines. There was a Xenon, a Gorgar, a Black Knight, and a Firepower.
    49:36
    And I just stopped and stared. I was, like, totally amazed. You know, Xenon is just kind of making all these, ooh, ah, come play. Right. When you hear this black knight, you know, and I was totally memorized. My experience with pinballs to that point had been nothing. I mean, I knew about electromechanical machines, but I didn't really think that much about them. But I was standing in front of these machines and I was thinking, pinballs can talk. This is the best thing ever. And so I started pumping quarters into those pinball machines and I was hooked from that moment on.
    50:17
    Interesting. Pinball machines can talk. Yeah. That was a game changer for me. Yeah. And so throughout high school, I sought out, you know, pinball machines to play. And I would say, like, my favorite during that period of time would be Space Shuttle, Sea Witch, Paragon, Eldorado, and Cheetah would probably be my favorite of those early solid states. and then later, you know, Space Shuttle was a little later than most of those. But, yeah, I just. I was going to say, I don't think that I've played Space Shuttle. I don't think that I've played that. It's a fun one. I enjoy it. Yeah. More fun than I expected it to be. One of the games that saved pinball, if you know the history to that one.
    51:09
    Huh. I will look it up. I'll get educated. Yeah. It's really fun. yeah it's definitely an interesting story so go go look that one up rachel it's kind of crazy yeah see i'm still rookie rachel in certain ways i don't know all the history i don't know all the designers of each game you know to me like there's so much more out there to explore i still feel like such a noob in my head really new yeah i'm the same way but i just recently heard that on some podcast out there oh look at you tim uh-huh yep not a lot it's not a lot of time Not a lot of time in the winter in Pennsylvania. But, no, somebody literally just told this story on one of the podcasts in the last couple of months. Yeah, well, you're out playing in all these fun tournaments and leagues. I got nothing else to do.
    51:59
    Yeah. Yeah, so you're the one that's having more fun. All right. I don't know. I mean, it's good to learn things, too. There's fun in that as well. Yeah. I'm trying to figure out. I'm looking at my calendar when I can go out to the West Coast. and visit Brian. We'll have to coincide our calendars.
    52:18
    Absolutely. So that's pretty cool. All right. So you kind of, you know, interesting path. The attract mode attracted you in and hooked you for life, and then eBay got you re-hooked.
    52:31
    Yep, yep. And I played after high school. I was in college for a couple years, And that's when it started for me to seek out games I hadn't played before. That's when I started saying, I'm going to try everything that's out there. So during high school and college, I was looking around for games and trying everything I could find. And then I went into the military after that And on the base there was on one of the bases I was stationed at there was an F Tomcat so I played the heck out of that game
    53:08
    Thank you for your service. Thank you. And then after I left the military, I went to work for a chip company in Portland, and there was a pizza place just up the street. and uh that's when i first you know found whitewater so i i you know i had known of the game um when it came up on ebay so because i had played it at this pizza place i had played whitewater there fish tales twilight zone funhouse t2 funhouse is another game i i really love yeah and then yeah and then they got uh i think it was around 95 or 96 they got a attack from Mars in there. And I just played the heck out of that game. And that's why it's one of my favorite games ever, just because I, I just love that game and played it. I assume you have an original and not a remake, right? Yeah. Great, great game. Yeah.
    54:04
    No kidding. I'm jealous. I'm going to come over and play all those games. Tim, really let's get our calendar going.
    54:11
    I'll bring a sleeping bag, you know, like, too funny. There was one other thing that I wanted to ask you about. It's a good Pinball Origin story, how you got into it. Especially how you got your first game. But there is one other thing that I wanted to ask you about because I saw earlier today when I was looking at your Facebook stuff, I saw that your Beer Tap collection, and you actually referred to it as Tap Handle Museum Blog.
    54:42
    And I thought that was Fascinating. You're not a writer in life, but this kind of seems like a fun hobby for you. And when I looked at it, it was really fascinating, reading about how the different tap handles are formed. I never really thought about that. Tell me a little bit more about that. That's another neat collection that you got going on there. Sure. So I was a very good writer through high school and college. people in high school thought I, you know, they wrote my yearbook that, you know, sign your book for me when you first release it, because everyone thought I was going to be a writer. And the blog was like an outlet for that. But what happened was back in the early night, mid nineties, I would say, my friend would drag me along to garage sales and, and thrift stores and things like that. And he said, you need to collect something. And I'm like, no, I don't, I don't need to collect anything. I don't need any junk. You need to collect something. So, you know, we go around all these things, and I wouldn't buy anything. I didn't see anything I wanted. And then one day we went to a garage sale, and there were beer tap handles there. They were all kind of plain. You know, they're wooden. They just say, you know, Miller or Genesee or whatever. Sure. And there was one tap handle there that was the Coors Beowulf, just the head of the Coors Beowulf. And I thought, oh, man, that is so cool. So I bought that. And after that, we started adding, you know, a few here and there where we could find them. And then eBay, you know, in the early 2000s just kind of opened the door to find things that you wouldn't find locally. Right. So I just started collecting more and more and more. and then got up to about a couple hundred. My dad kind of told me, hey, you should – I had some other blogs, and my dad told me, well, you should blog about this. And I thought, yeah, maybe I should. So I was just going to put the collection up there to share with people what was out there. What happened was I thought, well, I want to tell a little bit of the story behind the tap handle or the brewery itself. and I went looking for information and it was just like scattered like you'd have to go to six or seven different websites to try and find information you'd have to really really dig through pages of google search to find things so I thought I want to pull this story in from all these different sources and make it something easy and cohesive for people to read so they can get the background on this and it just kind of snowballed from there i would say that right now i think there's 700 or so tap handles up there on my on my blog and that's not even half of the collection i have almost 1600 wow do you have any new glaris brewing ones at all from here in Wisconsin?
    57:46
    I don't believe so. I only really collect figural tap handles. And if they didn't make something... Figural? Yeah. If they didn't make something figural, I wouldn't have it. So if it's shaped like a person's face or a cobblicorn or a wolf or whatever, something like that? Exactly. Okay. An acorn or... Okay. All right. Well, I'm going to keep my eye open because sometimes they do have neat things I come across. interesting things here. That's really cool. I've never heard of that. I think we find people have interesting hobbies outside or inside of pinball. I think it's great. What about Stoney's? Do you have Stoney's beer? I don't think they would have any kind of figurative handle. That was literally in my sister's backyard, the brewery. I would swear that I do have a Stoney's. I have a database. I'm big on databases and Excel. tracking things in Excel. Sure. And, uh, yeah, I have a database and I bet if I did a search in my database for Stoney's, it's in there somewhere. Yeah. Look, look and see if you have a Stoney's, if not send me your address and I'll get you a Stoney's. There you go. Yeah. Nice. There you go. My, uh, my grandfather tapped me on the shoulder one time when, right before I was getting married. And he said, are you going to have Stoney's at the wedding? And I said, I don't know. And he said, no Stoney's, no Grandpap. And then he walked away.
    59:17
    Wow. Obviously he was kidding, but he loved his Stoney's. The beer preference. I didn't really like it, but he liked it. That's pretty awesome. It is really, like you said, Rachel, it's really neat to see what people are collecting and just doing. That was unexpected. Yeah, I didn't expect you to bring that up, so that's kind of cool. Right, right. well are there any other mysterious things that you'd like to tell us about yourself yeah you had a big secret you were going to talk about early on in the show now would be the time to to bring it up now's the time okay um so i had talked to ian and drew a few years ago about potentially being an operator in my area operating pinball machines because there's there's really nothing around me. I live very remotely. I live about 30 minutes from the nearest large town. I live about 15 minutes from a small, a very small town. And as I mentioned before, it's like over an hour for me to go play location pinball. All right. I'm thinking that I was going to operate some pinball machines, but I think I'm going to kind of switch gears now. And I'm thinking about opening a location. Really? Okay. What type of location? So a barcade, because I'm actually familiar with that. For sure. I would say so.
    60:49
    And I would make it science fiction themed. All right. One of the games that I've I missed on an opportunity many years ago To buy a Big Bang Bar And I always kick myself for not buying one of those Just because I've never seen one It's on my bucket list but I've never seen one or played one Okay And the prices now on those are ridiculous But That whole The whole theme of it I just find really appealing And I would like to take something kind of like that theme and make it into a pinball bar and have pinball machines in that location be science fiction themed. So, you know, I've got a Mandalorian and an alien on the way.
    61:37
    Maybe I buy that Guardians of the Galaxy and get an attack from Mars and a couple other sci-fi themed games and operate a location. Star Wars. Star Trek. Many of those, right? Yes. Wow, you can go anywhere with that. but there's quite a few games out there you could add to that. That's a great idea. Do you have a name picked for it, or are you going to keep that to yourself for your own sweet barcade? I have a name picked for it, but I'm not ready to release that yet. All right, okay. Well, that's super exciting.
    62:12
    Well, I really hope that all comes together for you. That's a big leap to take to open your own business, absolutely. but how many people would you put it in the place that's the smaller town or the little bit bigger town where would you put it? No I'd want it in a higher traffic area I think the smaller town there's not enough people that would be interested in the pinball as a draw but I think if I go to the next big town which is about 30 minutes away nearby where I work in my day job that it'd be a fun side project it's kind of a big risk for me if I do this because I'm I've been thinking about retirement a lot and taking on something that's a lot of extra work maybe isn't a good idea but I don't know it just feels like I just feel excited about it I want to do something that I love and and bring other people into the hobby if I can or you know yes and and and make that connection with people. And I don't really do that where I'm so remote where I am right now, but I don't have that connection to people in pinball. I have to travel to do that. Yeah. And I think you'll probably find, you know, even if you went to retire, this is your retirement job. It's not going to be a job. It's going to be more of a labor of love, right? And, you know, it won't be that exhausting feeling you have when you come home from work and You're like, all right, I'm ready to go. I'm ready to shut down. Well, everybody in the tribe is rooting for you for sure.
    63:48
    100%. And, yeah, feel free to bounce ideas off of us. And, you know, there's – I won't say who, but there are others that are in the tribe, you know, starting to talk about these sort of things. So it's good to, you know, talk about plans and so forth. Yeah, lots of support. Yeah, I love working on machines just as much as I love playing them actually. And I wouldn't have to hire a service tech. I'd be doing the work myself, you know, on the machines, which I would enjoy. So I just want to do something I love, right? Right.
    64:21
    Right. That's what Eric Thorne does at District 82. Those are all his games. He services them all. That's it. That's his passion. He found a way to do it, to do something really fun there. Much bigger area, obviously, you know. But I think we even have actually there's a little city not too far from me in Manitowoc, and they just opened an arcade there. They actually have two pinball machines there, a bunch of arcade games and stuff, and air hockey. And it's really nice to see that. I'd love to see a barcade and other arcades open up, especially as we move forward in the world. It's great. So I'm sending you lots and lots and lots and lots of big hugs and best of wishes for that, because I want that to happen for you. You also said, I want to remind you, you also said that you felt like you missed this other opportunity. So I guess you have to ask yourself if you choose not to do it. Are you going to sit in five years and say, well, that was a missed opportunity and I could be doing this now? Or in five years, you'd rather just be retired and be sitting on a beach somewhere.
    65:17
    So it's like whatever your choice is. But choose your own adventure, right? But either way, I think you have a lot of support from Tim and I and within the tribe, whatever you decide to do there. So good luck. Thank you. Thanks for sharing that with us. Thank you. Absolutely.
    65:35
    Thank you. Well, Tim, I think that winds us down to the final question. Oh, is that the important question? Brian, how do you feel about that? It's the most important question. I hope that you're ready, Brian. Oh, I'm more than ready for this one.
    65:50
    Okay, I'm glad to hear that. How did you become part of the tribe? So I've been listening to pinball blogs since 2013 when I used to listen to Josh Blood on Pinball Soul. And then I moved to Head to Head after that and Slap Save and Special When Lit and kind of drifted around to finally Poor Man's when they were about five or six episodes in. And I've been listening to them ever since and started emailing them. I just thought they were a crack up and I just loved everything that they they were doing. They weren't like anybody else. Right. Just having fun. Yep. So I started emailing them dad jokes and drink recipes, bought some swag, connected with Ian on Creature and Universal Monsters. And I'm a fan of rum. So we talked about rums and whiskeys. OK.
    66:50
    And one thing led to another. And I think back then it was a little bit easier to get in when there were fewer people, you know, interfacing and listening to the show. They're a pretty big deal now.
    67:04
    I think they are. Well, don't tell Drew that. He does not need to hear that. I love you, Drew. He's got a big head. I know what the fifth pillar is, but I'm not going to give it away. I mean, I'm pretty sure. I think I do, too. In fact, I like to keep that to myself. Tim, do you think you know what the fifth pillar is? I do, because on one of their last live episodes, they got drunk and told everyone. Pretty much. Yeah.
    67:34
    But I kind of, yeah, I kind of knew what it was. I kind of know, too. So. Yeah. Oh, that's a great story. Yeah, when they accepted me in, I knew right away, like, what that fifth pillar was.
    67:45
    Oh, I see. And it wasn't bribery. No, it wasn't bribery. They were happy that I bought their shirt, so I sent them a picture of it.
    67:56
    Good. I love it. Yeah, I'm repping my Poor Man's Pinball Podcast t-shirt today, too. We need to get TPN, no, the PPN t-shirts now, or TPN t-shirts, Poor Man's Pinball Network t-shirts, like with a TV logo or something. I don't know. I'm going to have to think about that. Yeah, I'm surprised Drew hasn't put a shirt out there yet, because as soon as he saw the Drew Sucks t-shirt, he's like, yeah, we've got to start to make those. Right? No.
    68:26
    Fun times. anything else anything else that we missed friends you two are super helpful people looking at me like I don't know Rachel I don't have anything I don't know maybe I need another cup of coffee I don't know maybe we're right at the time we need to wrap it up perfect thank you Brian so much for hanging out with us today it was really nice to get to meet you and unravel the mystery that you are Tim as always thanks for being my buddy appreciate it thank you Rachel thank you Brian that was a neat show you're doing some neat stuff I'll be out to the barncade you caught my attention great collection great person sounds like a great facility so we'll see you soon yeah sounds good alright you're definitely invited and I'll send some pictures along too fantastic alright take care friends Happy flipping Drew sex a pinball Oh shut it Tim
    69:56
    Thank you. Outro Music