Hello and welcome to the fourth episode of the pinball studio podcast. Today I've got William Johnson back with me. Today we're going to do something a little bit different. Instead of talking about someone's journey into pinball, we're going to talk about what the pinball studio is, our fourth annual Halloween tournament, the new John Wick code, and a whole lot more. Anyway, Will, how's it going, buddy? Going pretty good, thank you. Yeah, so we're going to do something a little bit different. and just chat about a few things. And one of the first topics I kind of wanted to touch on was we got a new John Wick update finally. And I know you're a big fan of the John Wick game. So what'd you think about the new update? Well, I haven't had a chance to explore everything, but what little bit I've discovered. I do like, I think it helps with the flow. I think the scoring is a bit improved. There's some different ways to qualify multiballs now, like the excommunicado which is the dance club right i believe it takes less hits to do the car multiball i do think one of my the ones that i enjoy myself personally is now with the the consecration multiball which is the continental when you spell winston instead of having to do three separate shots to lock i'm sorry instead of having to spell it three different times to light the lock. Now you just have to do it once. Okay. And so for the pro. So they're making it more approachable and just easier to qualify things, it sounds like. They are. And also, throw this out there as well. So credit is certainly for sending it along. But the crew at Electric Bat Arcade have a very detailed video. Oh, yeah. Their new show, Pen Pals. That one is Pen Pals. Yeah. They're doing like two separate shows now on their podcast channel. So you can look that up. It is on YouTube as well. So just look that up. There is a very long, detailed video about it, all the rules, strategies, and they go into pretty much everything in the code update. So I'm about an hour into it. So if you are an avid fan of the game with myself, I'm also a proud owner. I would definitely recommend you take a look. I would say. I'm really looking forward to that last update I'm guessing there's one more update before 1.0 code and that'll have the final wizard modes finally in there probably because they're mapped out on the playfield so I don't know much about them if I haven't gotten that far into the game myself I do I don't know I was speaking with you earlier though when I was watching some of the video about I guess some of the opinions that they had about how multi-balls are set up. And I kind of like that there aren't a lot of breaks in shows, like light shows. Because I think of John Wick when you think about the film franchise, how it just kind of keeps moving. That's kind of what I liked about how the multi-balls are set up. Yeah, John Wick doesn't get a whole lot of breaks in his fighting scenes. No, he doesn't. He's constantly on the move because people are constantly after him. And he's constantly. So I like the idea that it kind of keeps going, which is why I like the way that the pro multiball is set up where you just kind of keep shooting because it keeps the flow moving same with the car multiball and to an extent the dance club if you will i just like how it all keeps things like you know the mode started you hear the call outs if you have a shaker motor you'll feel it but outside of that i just kind of like how it keeps the flow going because that's the idea that i get when i watch john wick right so but as i said earlier though please go watch the video it's very informative so the next uh topic i kind of wanted to jump on to was uh explaining to people uh what the pinball studio is and uh you know are we a podcast and then you hear us talking about tournaments and stuff so basically we're just a tournament location that hosts tournaments uh every other weekend sometimes every weekend it just kind of depends We do try to have some kind of event going on every weekend, at least to give players time to practice and stuff in between tournaments. But with my day job, I can only do this on the weekends. But anyway, if anyone ever wants to sign up for a tournament, we're located in Richmond Hill, Georgia. A lot of people that travel down to the theme parks, whether it be Disney or Universal and stuff, you're going to pass right by us on the way down there. since we're right off I-95. But anyway, if anyone ever wants to play in one of our tournaments, just go to the pinballstudio.com and you'll see a list of our tournaments coming up and a way to sign up because we do require you to sign up ahead of time for tournaments. But yeah, is there anything else you want to touch on? Just kind of explain to people what our group is. We're actually just a very tight-knit group of enthusiasts. Many of us enjoy competition, but I think what sticks out to many of our members is the camaraderie and the community that we've built. People just have a great time, which is our number one goal when hosting tournaments is that you come and you have a great time. Yeah. Everyone's here to hang out as well as playing a tournament. People bring food and we, you know, we all try to bring something to the table. We do. And many of us have become, I'd like to think all of us have become really good friends and it's just a lot of fun and i just again you know even been on vacations with other members right right we have and even though they may not some may not be the best of players they just they just enjoy being here and that's a huge compliment to us because that's again that's like our first first goal is that you have a great time because it is pinball but it's also just meant to be fun And, you know, some that's the way I look at it. Yeah. When we were putting this together, I just the biggest thing I wanted everyone to hang out. There's too many tournaments to me. It's just not what I enjoy in a tournament. It's like going there and no one talks or anything and everyone just kind of separates. And I mean, you know, some people like that, but I wanted to build more of a family as well as, you know, a really cool tournament spot and host some really cool tournaments throughout the year. Yes, and we've been very fortunate to build quite the community and had a number of people pass through. We've had people as far as, I want to say Ohio, come through on a weekend because they just happened to be on a business trip. Saw that there was a tournament nearby So things like that is pretty cool And always getting Florida players to come and South Carolina players Alabama Alabama sometimes If Addison never decides he wants to come back Yeah, where are you at, Addison? But it's great to see the progress we've made in the short window we have. And especially the support that you received from outside Georgia, from other people, you know, have their own arcades and their own tournaments. Absolutely. And our sponsors that we are able to lock in each year to help, you know, everything work out because we do kind of we run on 100 percent donations. Yes. So without that, we don't exist. So every year we always try to reach out and lock in four to five sponsors just tried, you know, to help out with like trophies and stuff like that throughout the year. Exactly and Also another thing to We also keep in mind is Sterling and as well as Neal Are very much very particular to this Is keeping our machines In the top of top top Condition We don't have any games with any errors On them at the end of every tournament Me and Neal are always diving into Whatever game has issues and trying to fix That up so you know Next week or the following week when the next tournament comes around everything's good to go um but yeah we we keep everything top notch there's there's not one game that has an issue in here at the moment and i mean i'm usually here for support like i'll you know point at something and say hey that's needs to be fixed so i think that's about the extent of my contribution i may hold a flashlight so they can you know so he complains basically well i mean okay if that's the way you want to look at it oh we should also talk about the newest additions and the change in the lineup okay yeah go ahead you so i remember yeah so we now have a grand lizard grand lizard which and it's a prototype or well no i think what they call it a display it's like in between the prototype and the full uh the full release of the game it's got the prototype back glass and the prototype uh plastics and stuff on the game it's pretty cool yeah it's it's a lot of fun uh it's very interesting for tournaments we might have to make a couple of tweaks to it but outside of that i've i've been enjoying it and i think we also have adam's family which was brought to us by one of our other members yep josh yates uh that's on loan from him yes uh very much appreciated uh i had a couple little little things going on with it but me and neil ironed it out mainly some you know the ball getting stuck in the subway in a couple different spots but uh seems to be ironed out now and to my knowledge unless something's changed uh you do have star wars and obviously foo fighters is back again yep elvira left i traded elvira premium for foo fighters le which i think is a phenomenal trade honestly and then we We got Star Wars Premium, the old Star Wars Premium from Neil. Yes. Wait a second. I just realized. Where is Star Trek set? That's at Neil's. Neil's working on Star Trek. Okay. So I'm hoping to have that back by the Halloween tournament. I would like to have it for that. So we no longer have John Wick or Dracula or Roller Games. Sterling fired me from bringing games. No, we just took them back to his house. We're getting a little tight in here. I got room for one game, maybe two, if it's really tight in that corner. But I'm pretty sure Spooky's next title is going over there early next year. All right. So looking forward to that. Hopefully Beetlejuice. And we don't – well, I don't know if we will any time in the future because we have hosted launch parties. So that is something to keep in mind with our group as well. Yeah, we do do launch parties. but we don't buy every new title from Stern. But if we do grab the newest title, we definitely do a launch party. Our last one we did was King Kong this year. We also did an Evil Dead launch party for Spooky. That was super cool. A lot of fun. What was the other ones? We did one with John Wick. We've done quite a few launch parties. Jaws. I think most of the new releases you have, because you did one for Foo Fighters. Yep, did one. I'm sure you did one for Dr. No. Did you or not? No, I think we skipped Dr. No. Okay, okay. Yeah. We did a couple more. I can't remember. But, yeah, whenever we get a new game, definitely do the launch party. So let's talk about, like, people that have never played in a pinball tournament. The question or the answer I get a lot of times is, I'm not good enough to play in a pinball tournament. And I'm like, man, just come out and have a good time. It's not about just winning. what's your take on that whole thing same it's uh as we've stressed numerous times and will continue to do so it is about community and having a great time you're coming to spend time with us want to make sure you have the best experience possible so we do welcome like all skill levels and welcome all ages doesn't matter we've had young young we had much younger players and older players it's just really just about our youngest players are probably like what seven yeah something and they can play yeah exactly yeah they are good but yeah you don't you know you don't even have to have hardly ever played pinball if you just want to come out and hang out with the awesome group of people and you know you will get better over time uh yes you know this is the place to do it because everyone's just a big family around here wants to hang out and uh we'll show you the ropes and if you've never played in a tournament no sweat or anything we'll We'll help you out. We don't gatekeep. That's one of the biggest things. We don't gatekeep. We will show you how to play a game. We'll tell you the experienced players here will gladly help you, not during a tournament, but during practice rounds or sessions. We have practice or warm-ups. We have no problem showing you what works for us. Other players, works for them. You want to learn some rules of the game or strategy. We're very big on that here. So we don't gatekeep. Absolutely. And you were also mentioning earlier you kind of wanted to touch on some of the tournaments that Abby's doing. Yes. One of our members, a lifetime member, mind you, Abby, if you're listening, hello. She's in Augusta, which is North Georgia. I'm trying to think. I guess about a couple hours from Atlanta. But it's in Augusta, Georgia. So she holds tournaments or in this case right now a league pinball league at Retro City Arcade which comes up as Evans Georgia but it technically it still Augusta And so I've had the pleasure of going up there for their first league night, which was also Abby's birthday. So happy birthday again. And that was a really good time. The location is very spacious. They have a really pretty good selection of games, some good classics, modern. and it was not a large group but it was a very enthusiastic group and they really enjoyed playing. To me, again, one of the best things about that is I had a great time up there. It sounds like you had a wonderful time. You were texting me that day. Right, yeah, it was. I would encourage you to go up there. I encourage anyone in the area, if you'd like to try your hand at it, just stop by sometime or just to go see it for yourself, just to see what kind of arcade. They have other games as well. It is a full arcade, but for a pinball enthusiast, I think you'll be pleasantly surprised at what they have to offer. In leagues, you don't have to play in the whole series of the league. You can just travel up there and play just that one tournament, even though you don't plan on coming to the following tournament. So don't be scared to just drive up there and give it a go. Right, and the way that Abby has set it up is actually very welcoming. It's five rounds. You come in. Everyone plays their rounds. And it's over pretty quickly. This is even with a break in between. They all just kind of hang out, take a break, and then get back to it. I would love to do that at some of our tournaments. But sometimes we're struggling to get through some rounds. Yeah. Sometimes it hauls butt and sometimes it doesn't. Yeah. And I just, again, I just keep going back to it. It was the community and the people and the enthusiasm, and they just all had fun. And that's just, again, one of the biggest things that we cannot stress enough, what they do up there. So credit to Abby and the community up there. I love seeing more locations in Georgia. Right, exactly. Maybe some of the players in the league are always welcome to come join us down here, which we always appreciate Abby willing to make the trip to join us for our tournaments. She is, again, a lifetime member. so it's fun to travel around and see all the different spots in georgia see what everyone has to offer we got the pinball palace in brunswick as well yes there are tournaments down here in the south and i don't know their specific tournament can't uh my mistake calendar you can find that on ifpa website yeah i think they just scheduled a bunch but they do host uh because it's a big deal in brunswick downtown brunswick they do first friday so you can guarantee at least to my knowledge every first friday in brunswick georgia there will be a tournament at the pinball i think they're doing every other week now every other friday as well they changed it to oh i see but i think it lands on that first friday every week as well as you know every other friday i got you something like that so that's another option for uh players in this is in this area georgia or florida as well because a lot of players from Jacksonville. Yeah, we get a lot of Jacksonville players, and I'm hoping they're putting together some other spots to play because I don't think they're doing leaderboards anymore, but I think I'd heard they were maybe trying to set something else up. Okay, but I just wanted to put a little spotlight on. All right, so the next thing I want to touch on is the Halloween tournament coming up October 25th. It's going to be our fourth annual Halloween tournament. We're going to have all kinds of giveaways will's also going to do some kind of trivia or scavenger hunt type deal where he's going to do some giveaways yes just touch on that really quick yeah like you just said there's going to be things hidden throughout little clues stuff like that i'm still hammering out the details but yes expect a lot of giveaways but for the uh regular raffle you do have to dress up this year that's how you're going to get your raffle ticket in order to win like the elvira a back glass, the director's chair, some shirts, hats, stuff like that. And we get all kinds of giveaways. But that's how you're going to get entered to win that. And, Will, are you going to require people to also dress up to do your scavenger hunt type stuff? Maybe. Maybe. No. Actually, no. No. So if you don't want to dress up, you can do his scavenger hunt. Well, let's put it like this. If you want access to the cool stuff that we're giving away, you got to dress up. There you go. So there's going to be all kinds of prizes. But if you don't want to dress up, I don't have a problem with it. Yeah, you definitely don't have to. It's just a fun way, and that's how we're trying to encourage people to dress up is with prizes. But if you want the really cool stuff, then, yeah, you got to dress up. And for the tournament, we got some really cool trophies this year. I ordered a trophy that I thought was half the size, and it's huge. Anyway, you can win that for first place. And then for second, third, and fourth, we got the skull trophies like we had in previous years. I've seen that trophy. I think it's ridiculous. Yeah, you would think you won like some, I don't know, big-ass tournament. It's pretty major. But anyway, if you want a really cool trophy, definitely come out to the tournament. And I want to go over some of the details for the Halloween tournament. I'm going to open up the doors an hour and a half prior to the tournament. I usually only do one hour prior to the tournament, but I'm going to give you a little bit of extra time to practice. So we're going to do doors at 2.30, and then we're going to kick the tournament off at 4 p.m., and we're going to be doing group match play. And what we're going to do is we're just going to do qualifying all the way until 7 p.m., and we won't start a round after 7 p.m. The last round can obviously run into 7 p.m. a little bit if it has to. then after we're done with qualifying we're going to do a big low country boil so if anybody wants to uh eat some of that we'll have all kinds of good food and then once we wrap up uh eating dinner around 7 30 ish um we'll move on to finals and our top eight of move on and we'll do some more group match play finals but um yeah tell us uh some more stuff about the halloween tournament it will not a problem so during I will say during our dinner break it's probably we're going to do the majority of our giveaways so it's you know something something else to look forward to besides probably do the big raffles in as well like that yeah that kind of that stuff yes that what I meant to say that pretty much when we will give those away and that when we have like that the big deal We be in that window while we all eating and just enjoying the tournament or just enjoying the atmosphere I should say not so much the tournament. So just keep that in mind if you decide to come out but still have a great time and enjoy some good food and some good banter and hopefully walk away with something really cool. And all of this only cost $20. Only? Only $20. Only? We feed you, you get to play pinball all night, and there's all kinds of awesome prizes to win. Wait, did I completely miss? Did you tell them the grand, grand prize, or you did not? The grand, grand prize. The Elvira back glass? That's the one. But you didn't tell them which one, though. Yeah, I showed them that in a video. Yeah, but you should tell them here, in case they didn't see the video. Well, if you didn't see my other video, we are giving away an Elvira and the Party Monsters mirrored back glass. It was donated from Classic Playfield Reproductions, and we really appreciated that. It's gorgeous. It is gorgeous. So we have that. That is the grand prize, essentially. But trust us, there's a whole bunch of really cool stuff that we'll be giving away during that whole window. Yeah, it's going to be a blast. And, I mean, if there's one tournament you want to come to all year, I really think it's the Halloween tournament. If you've kind of been on the fence about checking us out, I highly recommend come to this tournament, honestly. This is the one that I heavily promote the most when I'm out and about meeting people. I say, if there's any – what you just said. It's just fun, man. Everyone's dressed up. It's just a different vibe that night. And also, we decorate the whole area. It'll be spooky and fog machines and all that kind of stuff going on. So Sterling pulls out all stops when it comes to Halloween. And some of our members will donate some – or not donate, but they'll bring in some really, like, cool – just, like, desserts. Oh, yeah. People always bring all kinds of good food, and that's always much appreciated from any members. Yes, anyone wants to donate. So we'll have a whole lineup of food. Actually, we must shout out Ashley because you know she's going to come with something really cool. Ashley always brings the best damn food, I swear. She's going to come – Her and her crockpots, man. So she's going to have all kinds of cool Halloween themed snacks as well. So, oh, yeah. Every time, man, like the Jaws party, she had like this big ass like shark, like castle thing with cupcakes on it. Yeah, it was cool. So, yeah. So shout out to her. Definitely. But this is this is one that you want to attend. So we cannot stress this enough. It'll be a great time. Come help and just support local pinball. It really does mean a lot to us because, I mean, without the donations of these tournaments, we don't exist. And it's just a lot of fun. So don't be scared to just come out and try a tournament for the first time. Exactly. Exactly. And that is something else. It's part of our way of giving back to you all for the support. But, yeah, just look forward to seeing you all if you decide to make it. Nah, it's going to be a blast this year. And if you want to sign up for this tournament, probably the easiest way to get a hold of me is just email me, sterling, at thepinballstudio.com. Or you can visit our website, thepinballstudio.com, and there will be links to our Facebook and everything else to contact us. Definitely get on the Facebook group. That's where the most information is for our group and everything. You know, there's posts on there every day telling you about all the upcoming tournaments. And that's where you're going to see the sign-up list as well. We do have an Instagram Yes, we do And a TikTok That we don't ever use No, we do have an Instagram Like you said, a TikTok But most of our interaction is on Facebook Facebook and Instagram I'm trying to make it more active on there as well We're getting a lot of new followers on there Is there any way to contact you through the website? Yes, I think you just click on Contact us But I definitely prefer email if possible okay um i think that's about it we do want to do at the end of the year a poll or a survey survey um just kind of going over we want to figure out do people want us to cut qualifying down lengthwise on some of our tournaments or keep them all uh the same we've usually been doing what two and a half hours of qualifying three hours of qualifying somewhere in there right so Well, you know, you've been talking about the possibility of length of tournaments, frequency of tournaments, certain days of the week, Saturday, Sunday, maybe alternate. We just want to keep everyone happy in different formats. Different formats. We got to keep it strong where people are always signing up for our tournaments because sometimes we do kind of have not such a good turnout. And we're trying to fix some of those issues by trying to figure out why sometimes people aren't wanting to attend. Nothing against any players But we're just looking for honest feedback From everyone so we can Make the best experience for you So we encourage Any and all feedback Good, bad, we appreciate it And that will go out You said end of the year? Yeah, probably Because I'm not going to change any of the tournaments For the rest of the year Let's keep it how it's already posted On the IFBA But yeah, next year we might do some shorter tournaments And maybe some bigger tournaments here and there Maybe we need to switch it up and not do the same thing almost every weekend Or the same length of qualifying every time Absolutely I know some people don't want to play pinball for three hours of qualifying I don't mind myself, but some people don't Right, exactly But I think that's about it Anyway, let's talk about our main sponsor, Old Town Pinball. If you want to buy a new or used pinball machine, make sure to hit up Will in St. Augustine, Florida. His phone number is 904-814-7305. You can also shoot him a text message there. And make sure you get on Spooky's list for their next game. I think everyone knows by now it's probably Beetlejuice. And he's opened up his list if you want to get on it and lock in your spot to get your game. Anyway, I think that's it, and we'll see you next time. See you.