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#82 Stiff Competition - The Classic Pinball Podcast

The Classic Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·1h 14m·analyzed·Apr 12, 2022
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.034

TL;DR

Classic Pinball hosts report from Pinbrew Fest, discuss games and technical work, then dive into match play tournament experiences.

Summary

George and Dave record episode 82 of The Classic Pinball Podcast from Pinbrew Fest in Ohio, discussing their experiences at the show and a match play tournament. They cover encounters with listeners, game impressions (Multimorphic's P3 platform games, a modular game with a hamster wheel mechanic), and technical troubleshooting stories. The episode culminates in detailed tournament commentary, where Dave describes his early competitive success and the challenges of modern tournament formats dominated by newer games requiring rulebook study.

Key Claims

  • Multimorphic's Heist and Weird Out games had no lines at Pinbrew Fest, with players able to walk up and play freely

    high confidence · George reported observing Multimorphic's booth at Pinbrew Fest

  • Dave dislikes the P3 platform's two-button flipper system (separate buttons for upstairs/downstairs flippers)

    high confidence · Dave stated his opinion directly after trying Weird Out

  • A modular game featuring a hamster wheel mechanic (with character Harvey the hamster) was at Pinbrew Fest; Bowen worked on the rule set or callouts

    high confidence · George discussed Steven Silver's game and Bowen's involvement

  • Pinbrew Fest tournament had an imbalanced game bank lacking classic pinball representation, unlike Pintastic

    high confidence · George critiqued the lineup as mostly newer games; noted Pintastic has learned to balance classic and modern

  • Guardians of the Galaxy at the tournament played too long and should be modified or excluded from future tournaments

    high confidence · Dave stated it needs modification; George said players who study rulebooks exploit the game's length

  • Dave placed 7th out of 28 competitors after the first tournament session on Thursday

    high confidence · George confirmed Dave's placement after Dave shot well early in the tournament

  • In match play scoring, a maximum score is 70 points (seven games × 10 possible, two rounds)

    high confidence · Dave explained the scoring system: 7-5-3-1 points per position, five games, two rounds, 35 max per round

  • The hotel hosting Pinbrew Fest is located directly next to a highway with heavy truck traffic

    high confidence · Dave complained about HVAC noise and truck noise; George asked the hotel staff about highway proximity

  • Baraka (Mr. Weebly, Andrew) produces one-piece replacement displays for pinball backboxes that screw directly on

Notable Quotes

  • “They make pinball, you know, a little flavor for everybody, but this flavor is not for me, George.”

    Dave @ ~9:30 — Dave's dismissal of Multimorphic P3 platform games; reveals personal preference gap in modern pinball design

  • “Just give me two flipper buttons. That's all I ask.”

    Dave @ ~10:00 — Core complaint about modern Stern games' complexity; reflects broader tension between casual and competitive player preferences

  • “You have no rack for these multiple games, I don't think. But if you're going to sell this game, you need to have some kind of fancy schmancy rack.”

    George @ ~20:00 — Product suggestion for modular/stackable pinball game storage; George copyrights the term 'Pin Rack'

  • “It caters to that kind of player who goes home, studies the rulebook, watches all the tutorials.”

    George @ ~65:00 — Critiques modern tournament meta dominated by rulebook study; highlights divide between casual play and competitive depth

  • “That game should not be included in tournaments. It needs to be modified because they were playing that way too long.”

    Dave @ ~68:00 — Direct criticism of Guardians of the Galaxy's balance in tournament settings; game duration issue

  • “I'm shooting good, all right? And I don't know, I played a couple other games but did okay, middle of the pack. And I said to Dave, 'Dave, you got to play in this.'”

    George @ ~55:00 — George's tournament performance and persuasion of Dave to enter; shows casual entry into competitive play

  • “What is this guy doing? So I just took a lot of alligator clips... I fix it the right way. And the guy said, 'Wow, this game never worked so well.'”

    Dave @ ~48:00 — Example of poor technical practice in field repair; illustrates growing skill gap in EM game maintenance

  • “There aren't a lot of people that can fix anything. That's the consensus I'm hearing too in Ohio here.”

Entities

GeorgepersonDavepersonPinbrew FesteventMultimorphiccompanySteven SilverpersonBowen KerinspersonScottpersonMaureen

Signals

  • ?

    event_signal: Pinbrew Fest match play tournament lacks balanced game bank; heavily weighted toward modern games requiring rulebook study; classic pinball severely underrepresented compared to Pintastic

    high · George: 'The tournaments like this, I mean, it caters to when you have all new games. It caters to that kind of player who goes home, studies the rulebook, watches all the tutorials.' Dave noted Guardians of the Galaxy plays too long, disadvantaging casual players.

  • ?

    product_concern: Guardians of the Galaxy pinball game has excessively long play times that slow tournament rounds; needs modification or removal from competitive rotation

    high · Dave: 'That game should not be included in tournaments. It needs to be modified because they were playing that way too long.' George noted rulebook experts exploit the game.

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Multimorphic P3 platform's two-button flipper system (separate upstairs/downstairs controls) reduces accessibility for traditional pinball players accustomed to two-button configurations

    high · Dave: 'I don't like the two different flipper buttons. The flipper buttons for upstairs, for downstairs... Just give me two flipper buttons. That's all I ask.' He contrasted this with Stern's lockdown bar complexity.

  • ?

    operational_signal: Industry-wide shortage of skilled EM and classic pinball technicians; Dave encountered a Boston-area tech using improper methods (alligator clips instead of soldering); consensus among operators that qualified repair personnel are scarce

    high · Dave: 'There aren't a lot of people that can fix anything. That's the consensus I'm hearing too in Ohio here.' He described fixing an EM game after a previous tech used five jumper wires instead of soldering.

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.222

0:00
🎵 The Steeep Competition 🎵 You fucker! You took me high, high, high, yeah! 🎵 Still competition And we're down You take me higher Still competition Out of the world Ice for you, you for me, this for us Here we go again
0:55
Hello and welcome to another episode of the classic Dollhouse Podcast. My name is George and I'm here with the house master Dave. Hello Dave. Hello George from Easy Bake Oven Central. I botched that. He's really the master of the house. a master of the dollhouse george yes and thank you for the easy bake oven mod you gave me for the rush le i have oh isn't that pretty in pink it's awesome in there it clashes beautifully doesn't it it's way better than the freaking oven roasters and all the freaking wash machines they're putting in there the easy bake oven's the way to go well if you're you know playing rush and you want some fried chicken well i guess it's not fried rotisserie rotisserie chicken rotisserie chicken that's okay yeah it works out fine does it come with the uh the smell you know with the smells that would be really cool yeah uh i don't know about that's a special mod for that one extra cost oh yeah well there'd be people that would buy that wouldn't they i'm sure they would okay we're not doing they're buying everything else george we're not doing this folks this is not another rush broadcast i will not let that happen right now can we change the classic Rush Pinball podcast, George? No. That's what we're kind of doing these days. No.
2:21
No. Okay. We're recording in the hotel room at Pin Brew Fest. We're having some fun. At least I am. I'm not so sure Dave is after the tournament. We'll get into that in a couple of minutes. I'm grumpy tournament guy, George. Grumpy tournament guy. You got sucked into the vortex. And I have good reason to be, which I'll explain later.
2:48

high confidence · Dave discussed buying Bally/Stern and Williams replacement displays from this vendor

  • A technician in the Boston area uses alligator clips and jumper wires instead of soldering to repair broken switch matrix wiring

    high confidence · Dave described fixing an EM game that had about five jumper wires incorrectly applied by a previous technician

    • Dave @ ~50:00 — Industry-wide shortage of skilled technicians; concern about EM game maintenance sustainability

  • “The tournaments like this, I mean, it caters to when you have all new games. It caters to that kind of player who goes home, studies the rulebook, watches all the tutorials.”

    George @ ~65:00 — Systemic critique of modern tournament formats; highlights advantage of modern games with detailed rules

  • “I drove nine hours. I had like an hour before the thing started, kind of chilled out for a little bit. And I think that that helped me because I wasn't really paying attention.”

    George @ ~56:00 — George's casual approach to tournament entry; suggests preparation and pressure may hinder performance

    • person
    Dave (Oregon)person
    Baraka (Mr. Weebly / Andrew)person
    Pintasticevent
    Jimperson
    Tomperson
    Whitewatergame
    Creaturegame
    Circus Voltairegame
    Guardians of the Galaxygame
    Elviragame
    The Beatlesgame
    Alexander Komarczykperson
    Grantperson
    Tony Zidzikperson
    ?

    design_innovation: Steven Silver's game features modular design with removable/interchangeable mechanics including a hamster wheel element; demonstrates experimental approach to pinball game design at Pinbrew Fest

    medium · George: 'Did you see the thing with all the mechanics on it? Taken out of the game? I thought it was pretty cool. It's cool, it's modular if you're into that kind of thing.' Bowen Kerins contributed to ruleset/callouts.

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Dave placed 7th out of 28 competitors after first match play session (Thursday); George also competed and performed well enough to be encouraged to continue; Alexander Komarczyk arrived Friday and performed strongly

    high · George: 'By George, by George, you know what? You're right. If you can do this, I can probably do it better.' Dave initially hesitant, George persuaded him after seeing his ranking.

  • ?

    content_signal: Classic Pinball Podcast has recognizable audio presence; multiple listeners recognized George by voice at Pinbrew Fest (Scott, Dave from Oregon); community actively discusses show content

    high · Two separate strangers approached George at the show and said 'Hello George' mimicking his intro. Scott was interested in buying t-shirts; Dave from Oregon drove 9 hours from Portland.

  • $

    market_signal: Baraka (Mr. Weebly/Andrew) producing one-piece replacement LCD displays for pinball backboxes; aftermarket display options competing with original equipment (Wolfpack, others); Williams restoration using red display upgrade

    medium · Dave: 'I bought some [Baraka displays]. I was one of the first adopters of his stuff... I got them for the Williams stuff.' He used a red display in Firepower.

  • ?

    venue_signal: Pinbrew Fest Ohio well-regarded as community event with good atmosphere and nice people; low lines at major manufacturer booths; venue infrastructure issues (highway noise, HVAC problems)

    high · George praised the show overall and Ohio: 'Come to Ohio, whatever their slogan is... great show. A lot of nice games, a lot of nice people.' But complained about hotel room placement near highway with truck noise.

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Modern tournament games (especially Guardians of the Galaxy) require extensive rulebook study and tutorial viewing to compete; casual players disadvantaged; meta-game rewards preparation over spontaneous play

    high · George: 'They're playing it for hours. Meanwhile, everybody's waiting to go for the next round.' He noted rulebook readers exploit the game's length, creating tournament delays.

  • ?

    product_launch: Steven Silver's modular pinball game with hamster wheel mechanic exhibited at Pinbrew Fest; Bowen Kerins worked on ruleset/callouts; George suggested Pin Rack storage solution for stackable modular games

    medium · George: 'If you're going to sell this game, you need to have some kind of fancy schmancy rack... I'm going to copyright that. Pin Rack.' Game featured modular removable mechanics.

    • Folks, we're going to have a couple of recordings coming up that were recorded inside. So the quality is not as good. Forgive, but you're going to meet somebody new with a large collection. Good guy.
    3:03
    What else we got going on? I haven't recorded it yet, so I'm not going to put it out there. But I think we're going to try to grab a game or two. We talked about the Big Lebowski. Yeah. If we get to it and he's amenable, and even if he's not, we'll berate him. The Brooks and Dunn machine. Dave wants to... I've never seen it, so the person who owns it will reveal that later. We'll have a little fun with him. It's a very rare item.
    3:34
    Okay, so I got my list. Let's get into some old topics first. Are you familiar that Baraka, Mr. Weebly, Andrew, however you identify with him, have you seen his displays?
    3:53
    Yeah, I bought some. Thanks for telling me. So when did you get those? A long time ago, probably months ago. I was one of the first adopters of his stuff. So the Bally and Stern replacement ones. Yes, but I got them for the Williams stuff. So you haven't bought those. These are not like the originals. They're the one-piece ones that just get screwed on to the back box.
    4:25
    Okay. Like the ones I bought from Wolfpack actually replicate what an old-style display. with the bottom and then the display this is just put the display and screw it in somehow just asking if you had heard of it I'm guessing you have sort of I don't like the whole screwing into the thing that way so I'm kind of more I do like his Williams product he did a nice red display for that that's actually working pretty well I did that in the firepower I put him in there, it looks great folks I want to say about the show we're at if you are a pinball player and want to come to a show and play all the latest games with no lines now Multimorphic several times I went by there and there was nobody there and you could just go up and play heist and weird out I'll ask you Dave because I've had the opportunity to play with another game. Did you play either or both of those? And be polite.
    5:34
    George, you know what? They make pinball, you know, a little flavor for everybody, but this flavor is not for me, George. I tried Weird Al. I'm just not a fan of the whole, the way they do the whole P3 platform. I don't like the two different flipper buttons. The flipper buttons for upstairs, for downstairs. I already have enough of a time, which we'll get over the tournament thing, hitting the middle button on a stern, stupid, modern game with a freaking lockdown bar. Hit a button to do some special crap. Just give me two flipper buttons. That's all I ask. Maybe on a black night, hit a magnet button once in a while. But I just want two flipper buttons and no worries. Did you get to hit the new hamster wheel with Bowen?
    6:20
    New hamster wheel with Bowen? Yeah. Oh, I mean the hamster wheel. Isn't that hamster named Bowen? I have no idea what that is. Are you talking about the Bowen? Are you talking about our neighbor? Yes, our neighbor. I never, he has a hamster. Oh, it's his hamster wheel. Oh, okay. Oh, no, no, that's not the name of the character. I think the character is named Harvey the hamster.
    6:45
    Bowen worked on, I think Bowen worked on the game. Something with the rule set or the call outs. something along those lines. I talked to Steven Silber for quite a while very nice guy, heard him on multiple other podcasts. You'll hear him briefly on this podcast I thought it was okay. I never hit the hamster wheel and you know different strokes for different folks Did you see the thing with all the mechanics on it? Taken out of the game? I thought it was pretty cool It's cool, it's modular if you're into that kind of thing. And I ain't. Oh, so I want to bring up the one idea. And I didn't even say this to Steven Silver. I'll say it now.
    7:33
    You have no rack for these multiple games, I don't think. And if you do, my apologies. But if you're going to sell this game, you need to have some kind of fancy schmancy rack that all these big-time spenders are going to want So you can put the games underneath your game, maybe on some wheels, or a big rack that you can put in your room. You can even call it Pin Rack. I'm going to copyright that. Pin Rack. I got it.
    8:03
    Pinrack.com. Wasn't that done on a lot of games in the 70s? Pin Rack? No, I think the thing in the Bally Playboy machine, that's a Pin Rack. There's a lot of rack going on there. we got a lot of racking going on a lot of rack okay what else is on here oh let's give a shout out he screwed me up really bad folks i'll introduce this piece so i'm sitting with dave's wife maureen and watching dave compete in the tournament which we're going to come to in a little bit and this burly guy with a beard and sleeve tattoos comes up to me and says hello George I look at him and I go do I know you he goes no he goes but I listen to you I'm Scott you know with the t-shirts and I'm just bewildered I had to go through the cycle I had a couple of beverages so I wasn't at the top strength and finally I say oh, oh, oh. Dave's been talking about doing t-shirts. We'll come to that either today or a later episode. But the long and short of it is he wanted to buy some t-shirts from us and Dave had sent me this email a couple of weeks ago. So my apologies but what a nice guy. We went out and played TNA. We went out and played Valhalla. His wife was playing in the tournament and actually right now we're recording on Saturday afternoon. The last session going. Dave, all the people that are at the top of the heap, not one of them are playing. Really? None. Because they don't have to. They go to their thing. They're just sitting down and waiting. We're going to get to that. We keep teasing it, but we're going to get to that. A shout out to Scott. Very nice guy. Appreciate it. So that happened. So I wander away to go get a beer and I'm over playing. There's a row of Rush games. I'm not going to talk about Rush, but I'm standing there playing it because I didn't get to play it other than at the distributor we talked about in an earlier episode. And the guy next to me goes, Hello, George. Just like I do my intro. Hello, George. I'm like, Do I know you? He goes, No.
    10:30
    I'm like, Who are you? He goes, I'm Dave. I go, Oh, no. Not another one so we're adding dave to the uh the pile here but twice and a half an hour i'm i'm so appreciative it made my day george is a little more social a little more uh you hear his voice he's like talking to people this and that kind of pressing the flesh for me i'm a little more you know behind the scenes kind of thing at the show just walking around doing things i don't really i don't know sometimes i get a little uh you know introverted a little bit let's say you know some I'm kind of like not, you know. So they recognized George by hearing his voice all the time. And then, so George was like, oh, this is Dave over here. So I talked to him. He's like, oh, yeah, I love your stuff. And so it's cool, you know. But I wasn't really the one, you know, talking to a whole bunch of people. So I might have got the same thing as George did. But George has the unique voice that people are like, I know that guy. I know that podcast. Good lead in. So I'm on the phone with my wife this morning. I told her the story. and I said, Scott said that I have a very unique voice.
    11:37
    She goes, you're kidding, right? I go, no, I'm not kidding. I go, that's what he said. She goes, I don't think you have a unique voice. Well, I guess that comes with the multitude years of marriage. So anyway, shout out to Scott.
    11:54
    And a shout out to Dave in Oregon. He was from Oregon. That was the weirder part. I'm like, what the hell are you doing here? Yeah, he's way off the... I'm crazy driving nine hours here, but you're from Oregon. I got family in Pittsburgh, so get it. But, folks, great show. If you want to play pinball, you want to play in a tournament, you want to meet nice people, I'll do the state advertisement for Ohio. Come to Ohio, whatever their slogan is. Come to Ohio. Yeah, great show. A lot of nice games, a lot of nice people. just a real good feel good kind of show except for that tournament George I'm kind of not feeling good about that but you know other people did so let's okay do you have any before we do that because I'm going to adopt a new strategy when we do our shows the tournament talk folks from here on out even though we alluded to it we didn't go into it we're going to put it at the back of the show so if you don't like it you know you can shut it off you don't have to listen but we don't do this that often so you know bear with us for five or so well yeah we never do anything in five hours yeah right we'll never do it in five minutes but we'll try so do you have any we haven't recorded you know dave's adventures any story that sticks out something that you want to talk about a game you got yeah i got a i got a new segment we can call why is it okay so i'll i'll bite why is it why is it george well why is it that every hotel that you go to for any of these shows it's always next to a highway with just trucks trucks trucks galore day and night 18 where it was like a big train set going by a room and you you can't get to sleep you need earplugs now this now this would not be a story except for the fact that you asked directly if the hotel was next to the highway.
    14:00
    We couldn't get any closer. We'd be on the off ramp if we were any closer. And lo and behold, I get the second closest to the highway room. I actually stuck my hand out the window and put a blinker sign out there. I'm going to take a left-hand turn. but but that's not that's we'll do this here maureen would you be kind enough to go up to the thermostat and put it on cool you press down the button on the if you don't know how to do it i'll come over and do it put it on cool and then put the down arrow and just hold it hold it hold down more and that's it let go okay get ready it's gonna go click i think i think it turns on Here we go. Let's click. Here we go. Now it's going to come on. Let's see, George. So this is the heating and cooling system. And this is a shout-out to the people at this hotel. Man, you're spending so much money on energy. Those halls must be 90 degrees. Oh, my God. You have to keep the rooms like 62 to keep up with the room on the other side. But let me – you'll hear it in a second. I'd like to know if anybody could sleep through what is about to happen with my heating and cooling system. Well, you know what, George? What happens, though, even though that's going to be loud coming up, but the dull roar of the trucks outside will kind of lull you to sleep. Well, I got both. I got stereo, man. Oh, that's good. Pick your poison. Here we go. That sounds good. It's kind of like Maracas. You know, it has a nice beat to it. I like it, George.
    15:35
    In fact, I want to put that in my new Rush game as an accessory. Yeah, I'm going to just hold it up. We're about 15 feet away, or 10 feet away. It sounds like a bunch of metal-headed woodpeckers. So if you happen to be closest to the system...
    15:52
    Wait, you can't sit through that, George? You know what it sounds like? I know what it sounds like now. It sounds like a very, very mild jackhammer.
    16:03
    Now, in defense of the hotel, and I didn't name the hotel. In defense of the hotel, I was offered another room. But I was completely unpacked. I'm like, no, I'll just deal with it. Don't worry. And he even offered me. This is why they know this place is hot. He goes, would you like a fan for your room? I go, no, I'm all set, man.
    16:24
    So, oh, the travel. Traveling is so much fun, isn't it? Oh, it's getting louder, George. You can shut it off. Bye-bye.
    16:34
    Yeah, Carol Merrill, you can shut that down. Thank you. And by the way, Jerry, speaking of rooms, it took us, you know, so typically it's very, very rare one-off that we actually get the first room they give us is going to work out perfectly. It's either going to be a weird smell, a weird noise, or both. This time around was no exception. We tried four different rooms. I think room five was actually okay, sort of acceptable. But I still have to wear earplugs at night. Well, you're a light sleeper. So let's go. I hear everything. Enough of our travel. So do you have a story? One story, because we're 16 minutes in. Did you know that there's a bay about 100 miles away from up north? There's a special seagull that lives up in this bay. Do you know what it is? There's a special thing they call it. Do you know what they call it?
    17:21
    No. A bagel, George. It's a bagel. Seagull in a bay. It's a bagel. Get it? Wait for it. Let it sink in, George.
    17:43
    Glad you're amused. Okay. We're going to go... This is going to be a recurring segment. This is called the George Rush segment.
    17:58
    First of all, I don't get the Dalmatian deal. But I understand that dogs take... The Signals Tour album cover. It doesn't matter. I just don't get it. But anyway, I don't get a lot of things, but that I don't get. So my suggestion for a mod is, other than my Easy Bake Oven, nobody steal that one. That's a really good one. I'm getting that mod for my game, by the way. And why can't you replace the Hydrant with Cruella de Vil? That would be just dumb I mean it dumb George Come on No No Come on Disney No Disney sucks I mean I sorry I love Disney Sorry, I love them. No, no, no. They're the best ever. I'll shut it down. I love them. Don't do it. They're good. Yeah. They're my favorite. It's the happiest place in the world. Oh, it is. It's excellent. Especially after the last two weeks. Oh, they're doing a really good job out there. Yeah, they will. Yeah, they're... Shh, quiet over there, Caramaro. They do really good with the kids. They're teaching them all kinds of nice things. Yeah. We'll leave it at that.
    18:57
    We'll leave it at that. Well, they're not doing the tea. Never mind. We know. People are going to read you the lines. Okay. Do you have any other stories? That wasn't even a story. That was a stupid joke. Go ahead. Stupid joke, George. Yes. Let's see. Other stories. What's my story there? Oh. Well, we're not doing tournament stories. That's later, right? Yeah. I'm trying to extend the show a little bit. So, help. We need Spencer.
    19:22
    Spencer? Oh, you mean the story's not from the show. This is not the tournament. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm trying to do it. Other things. Right, right. Ah, other things. Okay. You know, because we've already lost probably half our audience. True. Okay, so non-show story. All right. Well, no, I can talk about the last show. I'm collecting your thoughts. Okay. So my shout-out to Tom.
    19:41
    Off the hook, dude. We had so many people listen to that show. Now, everybody knows that Dave and I are not the social media mavens that other people are. but Tom he must have contacted every cousin aunt grandmother who probably went to his second grade school teachers thank you Tom it was awesome you're gonna come back Dave is Dave doesn't want to hear about the dart thing but I do so we'll have you back well I do like darts but I like to use lawn jarts instead it's more exciting yeah well you're a kid of the 70s so if we do have you back tom you know what you got to come with a really unique game like you just did fair sounds fair to me okay so you have a story now yeah uh yeah i do oh here's one okay so uh on a little couple weeks ago we went to do uh work on a t2 and on the same day worked another t2 so it's two kind of two t2s we worked on in one day george but the end this t2 had the what's it called? The red dog's eyes, you like to call it? Or I call it the goofy bender eyes on the T2. Not the nice cool term you're supposed to have. We did a little show on it and you pointed them out and then I compared them to a dog's unit and you left. Yes.
    21:08
    So yes, I remember. We also went to Spencer, Massachusetts which is a nice area and worked on a nice guy's game room. Where Maureen grew up, by the way. and we worked on a Circus Voltaire, which I haven't seen one of those out in the wild in a while.
    21:24
    Ringmaster Jerry. And actually, this one had the... You know, people listen to that dopey episode. That was a pretty... What, sir? Well, why do I call him Ringmaster Jerry? I don't know. There's no... right.
    21:39
    But I still listen. Okay, well, they didn't turn it off yet, I guess. This one had the special prototype Ringmaster Jerry, as George calls it, And it's really cool looking, but I know why it's a prototype, and they didn't go with that, because there's all these little fingers around his collar, and they'll all get stuck there. It's like, oh, that's why they made it into one like a can-looking thing, a can face for the real release, and not this thing. But this thing is prettier, but it's not as functional. So be that as it may, so we worked on that guy's game for a good portion of the day. He was very happy about it. He has a nice collection of other games from that time frame, too. I worked on a Black Rose recently oh did you get that thing to work? I got it to work, yep how many hours did you spend on it? about 4 or 5 no I mean on that ramp that habitrail thing that launches the ball down isn't that what it does? is it like a long gangplank? a long gangplank comes down it looks like it's going right down the middle but it doesn't that part worked fine although the ones with broken wire on it, I fixed that I have gone to some of these calls lately, I know, what was the call I went to recently that had all the someone takes alligator clips and the alligator, was that the circus ball tear?
    22:57
    was it T2? instead of soldering or putting them all out this guy, there's a tech out there in the Boston area somewhere who were named nameless and what he does instead of like here's some more Dr. Dave's tech tips here. Just a quickie on this one. I found we have some fans that like this stuff, so I'm going to give you a little heads up on that. That surprised the hell out of me. I was psyched to hear it. It's like, yes, cool. Someone likes a little tech talk. So these games use what you call a switch matrix. So basically they're daisy-chained along. If you clip one of those daisy-chains out... That's like the classic Valley games, right? Is that a switch matrix? The 8x5 or whatever it is? They don't use a... Well, yeah, they do. They do, but it's a little different. It's different. William's a little more involved.
    23:47
    So, yeah, so there was a couple of switches missing. So what this guy, instead of fixing the problem with a broken wire, obviously sitting right there, you could solder that thing. I don't think this guy has a soldering iron because he just took some jumper wires, jumped this switch over here to another totally other switch at the other end of the game. Not just one, but about five different, like, jumper wires everywhere. It's like, what is this guy doing? so I just like they're all like brand new clips and jumpers so I took a lot of alligator clips so now I got I got a special as a special bonus I get that I get to keep those for future working on ems or whatever and I fix it the right way and the guy said wow this game never worked so well and I said yeah here's the previous guy that worked say yeah I'm not gonna have that guy back say yeah it's a good move because this is not the right way to fix this thing so hack-a-rama man there's some hack-a-ramas out there doing that stuff no good one thing I learned in my talking to people over the last couple days, there aren't a lot of people that can fix anything. That's the consensus I'm hearing too in Ohio here. That's what they're saying too. Well, even the person that's upcoming, Kurt, 60 plus games and he has a buddy. Good to have a buddy. Right, it's good to have a buddy.
    25:02
    It is. Don't know how to fix this crap. I can comment, but it's good to have a buddy. Yeah, there you go. It's good to have a buddy. Okay, so you want to get into the meat, why we're here and how the last two and a half days have gone in the tournament world?
    25:18
    Sure, George. Okay. So I came up with a strategy. My thought was there's going to be eight sessions for this match play tournament that we entered. my thought was on Thursday at 5 o'clock it's probably going to be mostly non-tournament people. Well, it was kind of that way. George did some research. He said, Dave, you've got to play in this now because everybody's going to Wisconsin. All the heavy hitters going there. There's going to be a bunch of schlubs at this one. I never said schlubs. Because if anybody listens, they're going to be a schlub. They're not a schlub. but you know i figured we'd have a fighting chance so me guys remember me i step up to whitewater now i have played that game before but not a lot like most of them and i know you're sick of hearing this but i stepped up and i came in first which game whitewater there was no whitewater at this one yeah it was no there was not huh whitewater yeah wasn't that the game where what's That's the one I'm thinking of with the Yeti guy.
    26:26
    They had the topper there. It was in the bank early on. There was a white one with a Yeti? There was that? They must have broke early. I wasn't there for that one. Right, the one that's got the... Oh, the little thing? The ho-ho-ho-ho. It goes down. All right. Yeah. I never saw it. Sorry. I wasn't there. That's part of the story. Okay. Sorry, George. So, stepped up, did that, and then the next game was Creature, and I haven't played that probably since I went to Tony Zidzik's house. 20 years ago stepped up came in second on that i'm like i'm shooting good all right and i don't know i played a couple other games but did okay middle of the pack and i said to dave dave you got to play in this i'm you know it's me and look at me i'm number seven out of 28 people he's like you're seven i said by george by george you know what you're right if you can do this i can probably do it better and i was shot i drove nine hours i had like an hour before the thing started kind of chilled out for a little bit and i think that helped me because i wasn't really paying attention i started having a couple of beers to de-wind and i did okay so you got sucked in you went to the eight o'clock one and tell your story so it actually went really well now i was hoping for a little more classic pinball representation but they did have a uh did they have the gorg right there at that point or no at the first no they didn't came and that's we should probably talk about that yeah the lineup was never the same and even mid session they were pulling games out and putting new games in so they started with like monopoly when i started that didn't last long and that got pulled i never played it but that never that was there for like maybe one one one match play i think most of the games were pretty good shape especially because they're mostly newer games and then when they put ones that maybe like 10 15 years old that's when you had a little bit of problem with them because i know people actually these aren't really quite restored examples they're kind of like maybe shopped out examples you know um but i was really it was the only thing was lacking with it was a classic pinball representation like at Pentastic, let's say. They've learned over the years. They have a balanced bank. But they didn't at first. I was actually very vocal about it because I'm on the Pentastic committee there. And I said, if need be, I wouldn't mind maybe putting a bank of my classics in for a classic pinball tournament. So they heard that. It's like, okay, we'll step up our game. So then Jim over there, who runs that tournament for the Sanctum, he actually started to incorporate those in there. So now you get a balance. You have some Clactus, you get some new, you get some middle of the road stuff, and it's a good, you know, it's almost like a Pinberg would be, which is great. But the tournaments like this, I mean, it caters to, when you have all new games, it caters to that kind of player who goes home, studies the rulebook, watches all the tutorials, And you're going to turn your key, sir? Yes. Turn your key, sir. Thank you. You like this? Yeah, it's very flavorful. Very nice. Drinking all you folks that are going to Pintastic. You know what this beer is called? This beer is called, it's fresher in mountain water from a bear, a lot of bears in a bear spring. Oh, no, no. It's called Bear Whiz Beer. It's in the water. We did that. We did? Okay, we're doing it again.
    30:07
    We did that. I don't remember that one. Yeah, I put it in one of the episodes. Oh, good. I'll have to hear that again. So if you're going to Pintastic, we're having a haze, a double IPA.
    30:19
    Take the trip. It's like six miles down the road. Go have a couple. If you like micro brews, go. I mean, this show has been micro brew. I think that's going to be part of our show moving forward as well. We seem to be doing that a little bit more recently than before. Didn't you have a brewery that was called Micro Bike Brew? It was like small bicycle or small biker bar? You're outing me, dude.
    30:44
    It was Micro Bike. It was late, okay? You're going to hear this. I met Larry. His name was Micro Bike. No, his name was Larry. I got his name right. Okay, Larry. I botched the name of his. I called it Bird Fish first. Is he correct? I'm like, oh, never mind. It was somewhat embarrassing, but he was a very, very good guy. Well, at least there was a Beatles there. So that's something I can work with. Well, that was the one game that was there the whole time. And that was fine. The Beatles is like sea witch. Well, let's go to your favorite that was right next to it.
    31:18
    Guardians of the Galaxy. Oh, that game. You know what I like to do that game? I like to take that. Push him out onto Route 80. Push him out onto Route 80, perfect, and then burn it. Or burn it first and push it out. Either way. but that game sucked. That game... I hate that game.
    31:36
    Tell us how you really feel. It's a freaking video game. You hit a freaking middle button, shoot the characters.
    31:43
    I'll be a little bit more diplomatic. That game should not be included in tournaments. It needs to be modified because they were playing that way too long. Especially the Ramparama people, the Rampers who like that game. Oh, you've got some good players. But they know, they freaking read the rule book. They know every little thing about it, so they're playing it for hours. Meanwhile, everybody's waiting to go for the next round. So that was consistent. Elvira, I think, was there every time, although I really sucked at that. Did you play that? Elvira? Yeah. I played it. I played it twice in one session. I did her.
    32:20
    I'm sorry, I mean, I played Elvira. That's not any better. I played with Elvira. No, no, that's wrong too, George. It's all coming out wrong. What is wrong with you? I don't know, George. I've been drinking. Yeah.
    32:33
    Oh, boy. See, this is... Yeah, that's true. At least we have some feedback loops now. So, you know who we didn't include? And he was nice enough to contact us. And we had the 14-hour story today. How far ahead is he? And behind? And whatever. But Grant in Australia. Grant, I wish you were here with us, man. You would have had a lot of fun.
    33:01
    I have a feeling tonight might be a whopper of a night. Oh, yeah. We've been kind of consumed with the tournament. You're not even done, though. I'm not even done. So we're still on Thursday night. Still on Thursday night. I'm playing. I actually did pretty well.
    33:16
    The score you want to go for, there's five games you play. A seven is a perfect score in a game. It's 7-5-3-1, you know, four-player games. If you get a seven, a first place on each game, it's 35 points maximum. when you play... You have to play two rounds. Two rounds. So 70 is the perfect score. No one's going to get a 70, but if you get like a 45 or above, you're doing pretty good. Yeah, Alexander Komarczyk, and I haven't looked at the standings, but man, he came in on Friday night. We'll get there in a minute. So I got like a 23 the first round, then the next round I got maybe a 21,
    33:50
    something like that. It's like, okay, well, that's it for the night. I think I'll do better the next day on Friday. Came in Friday. I think now there was a Gorgar there at that point, maybe. Oh, I came in because something else. Something else blew up. I had to pull it. So they put Gorgar. I said, oh, great, so now I've got a two-class. I've got a Gorgar, I've got a Beatles. I can work with that. I can just, like, hopefully, hope and pray that stupid Guardians of the Galaxy just blows up or burns up or burns a coil and has to be pulled. Never happened, unfortunately.
    34:19
    The poor person, whoever owns that game. And keep, oh, never mind. so so i'm not gonna he's not gonna like that so and the other game i didn't care for is the the avengers but it wasn't as bad but it's like playing a video game you gotta keep choosing thank god i didn't i never played that game you know what and i can't i didn't get picked for it so that was good i kept hoping for like and these things always go when every time a new rounds is like what is it five how many rounds you're playing five five rounds five so every time you finish your round you go back goes a little shuffle thing shuffles up the name shuffle up the games, boom, and I would never get a classic game. I'd always get like, you know, Guardians again. You played Gorgar. I did play Gorgar. I played Gorgar. I played Gorgar. I actually bought the Gorgar off the guy. Nice guy. Steve owns the game. I actually talked to him. It's like, you know, I need a Gorgar. I got a customer who's looking for one. So, yeah, I did a nice work on it. It's a good player. It definitely was getting tired and he knew it too. I told him about it later. From all the play and so forth and all the heat and all the electricity, low electricity maybe in the bank, I don't know. But the game was kind of affected by, you know. So the good thing about owning these tournaments You want to play them early in the day before they even get warmed up. Everything's crispy and powerful. The longer the games are on, the longer the games are played, things are going to get weakened out, and now when you're zoned in, your shot takes certain shots, and now you've got to shoot them earlier, I found out. I just thought I was a bad player. Well, you are a bad player, George. But, you know. Somebody didn't say that. That's what beer is for. I'm going to come to the Turtles that I played in one of the. Ah, Turtles. That's a hard game. Yeah, I'm not a big fan of Turtles either. That whole thing with the whole, I don't, I just don't get it. So there was this guy, Mark. Sorry, Mark. I don't have my thing out to, not that thing. I don't have my, I don't have my phone out. George, put that away, George. I don't have my phone out. George.
    36:07
    But, you know, I was setting them up, you know, my little shtick, like, you know, I'm really bad. I'm not really a good player. And I bombed the first ball in Turtles. Actually, I think I tilted the machine. I didn't even, that was the other. Oh, my God. We'll come to that in a minute. I get some rage on that one. Right.
    36:25
    Not Eric Stone. So I really stoned the ball. I was just poor. And he got up and he did okay, but not great. And I came back in the second ball and I just wailed. And he's like, you're a much better player than you let on. Well, that's kind of the shtick. I found that you know the second round I played I have like a bad ball and my head wasn in the game and then I just would try to relax a little bit And so everybody was like cranking on me on this ramp game I think it was I don know probably Godzilla or Godzilla I didn get to play that either That was actually fun to play you know Game of Thrones, that was another one. Oh, I could stand the Game of Thrones. Did you play that? Oh, a piece of junk. No. I mean, it plays well, but I don't, it's a piece of junk. I don't, the LE, I don't like the whole extra bunch of crap up there. And then you had to pick it. You got to pick one guy. I asked him some inside info on how do you play this? Because I know how to play the game, at least the pro. I do pretty well. My customer has one. I play test it. It plays great. But playing this LE or the premium version, there's more crap on it. And he said, oh, yeah, when you get this certain thing, this certain thing, this, and then hit this button a bunch of times and you get extra special points for this and that. So like 19 steps in order to get that? Yeah, so it's up, down, left, right, backslash, backslash, up, down. Like, okay, you know, enough. I want to just play a Mata Hari or a Power Play or an Evel Knievel. Let's just play a nice classic bag where my flipper skills come in. I don't have to read the rule book. Because now people who read the rule book have a way big advantage over you.
    38:03
    So you got, the long and short of it is, I mean, we could go through more, but the long and short of it is you got sucked in. I got sucked in. And you really got sucked in. I did. It's like, okay, one more 15 bucks. I can do it again this time. Every time I was just grinding metal. As I call it, making the deposit. Well, let's come back to what we started to talk about. Especially this morning. It was the tilt. Oh, the tilt was fun. On every game. Only certain games. Oh, come on. I was playing Beatles, and we finally figured out how you get to multi-ball. But anyway, the third ball, I had multi-ball going. I was right. Rock and roll. And tilt. Done.
    38:44
    And I also have another story. Shout out to, I think his last name is Boyle. Tim, if I butchered your last name, I'm sorry. but he saved me twice in the tournament this is how nice people in ohio are i walked away from the game no surprise and then the ball comes out again saved or whatever happened whatever gizmo released the ball he's like george you got a ball jump back on the game and i play it and you know did okay he actually saved me see other other tournaments you know i think right hardcore even if even the stirbridge i don't think that would happen i think they just like oh so that's nice though it's a gentleman's a gentleman's turn that happened on thursday night yeah it's cool i played because tim and i were kind of compatriots in the rankings so we played like three games in a row together i'm playing elvira and the same thing happened and afterwards i said tim you're my pinball angel man you were just standing behind me watching and you didn't let me croak. It was great. Nice. Very nice. So, enough tournament stuff. Anything else? Well, let's go, let's go with this one more thing. So, I did okay. Oh, boy. One more thing. As of this morning. One more thing. As of this morning. This morning. Now, here's another point, another pointer. Never do a hardcore workout in the morning right before you're going to go playing a tournament. Because when I got up there to play, now, I wanted to go early, 11 o'clock, all the Games are fresh. But I realize I'm up to play. I was feeling a little bit jittery. Am I nervous? Is my adrenaline pumping? A little bit. I know why I was kind of shaking. The shame is I just worked out. I just worked out a full upper body workout. So my muscles are kind of shaky a little bit. Now I'm trying to control the ball. I sucked. I couldn't do shit. And then you started drinking. And then I started drinking. Okay, you know what? I'm going to calm it down. I'm going to have a drink. That'll make it better.
    40:46
    And then I got my earplugs. I put earplugs in to try to get rid of the noise of the place. So I would basically just go up on, say, Guardians or some other ramp game and some other foolishness and just plunge the ball. But you own a ramp game now, Dr. Ramp. Yeah, I don't know. I've been – I don't know, George. We'll see how long it lasts. I don't know. It is rushed, though. But just after I'm playing this tournament, it's like – after a while, I looked around. It's like, what am I doing here? Why am I playing this stuff? I can play pinball, but this stuff here is just not... There's another element to it. There's another element of all this rulebook crap. I'm not into it. It's not as much fun to me. I want simple. I like a game where you can explain it to me in do these three things.
    41:39
    Right. As Maury would say, if you harken back to the Three Stooges, I was like Curly. It was a great fight, Ma. I stood there like this. Not for long, though. Hello, everybody. We just brought the moon over the mountain. Hello, Ma. Hello, Pa. It wasn't much of a fight. I stood like that. But not for long. Hi!
    42:02
    See, now that's funny. You going to send me that clip? I will send you that clip. Oh, definitely. I got it queued up right here. Okay. One more thing. Yeah, one more thing, George. Go, go. This morning I was on fire Give me that beer I was getting more and more pissed As I was playing I was like Eric Stone When Eric Stone starts doing badly He starts yelling Tearing the place up Throwing games around I was ready to put my foot through one of the coin doors I did fake kick What did people say when I did that? Did people look around? They were just looking at you Like who That was a nice mild mannered man before. What happened to him? Called PSD, man. Did you see that red cup in your hand? That didn't help. I was not happy, Camper. The game determined me so badly. I was in loser place the whole time, almost the five games I played. In fact, the last ball I played, I had somewhat of a chance to get him in third place. I plunged the ball, the ball meandered down there, and then right down the middle, ball save, did it again, and right down the middle again I lost the game. It's just like, it was like okay. And just as I was going up to the game, I told Scott and his wife there, I was like, yeah, I'm just going to go up to this game and plunge the ball. And that's what I did, and that's what happened. And they started laughing. I did that on a game. Some guy was, I forget who it was, was trashing the other three of us. It was like 140 million to like 5 million. Right. And I beat the other two guys in two balls. And I went up to the third ball. I just pulled and walked away. And they looked at me and they're like, everybody's looking at me. I go, what? You don't think you can beat him? I go, not even close. I go, I'm done.
    43:54
    Yeah, we are not your conventional players. I'm not going to speak for you, but for me, they're just looking at me like, you tell me you suck. And I'm not consistent. I'm not real good but I'm not consistent and that's why I'm not good well it's also there's multiple factors in any of this stuff you have to be good pinball skills you also have to be good under pressure because you get the tournament jitters and you get the adrenaline running in two no's so far third one you need to read the rule book and study up on your spare time watch all the freaking tutorials read all the manuals and all that you mean listening to podcasts don't help doesn't help what did I say don't help George yeah it's a lot more to it so that's why give me the nice we should give a shout out though we trashed on the tournament and it's not because the tournament the tournament's good it just wasn't what I thought it was going to be let's be positive let's thank Tommy whatever your last name is you're in the other podcasts you look i think i think b tommy with a b i think yeah whatever tommy b yeah you did a great job great tournament well organized yes well done good people yeah very well behaved except for that guy that wanted to kick the coin door oh yeah it was me but uh besides that no it's really well done uh well organized and he kept things going uh the games were in nice shape games played played well and when one wasn't it was quickly pulled out another one put in my only comment would be next year guys double the banks so if a game goes south you turn it off you end the round and then pull it out in fact if if i can somehow if we're going to come out here again next year or one of the years going forward i wouldn't mind even throwing i'll bring one of my restored classics maybe with me and put that in the bank if they want, just to have some more flavors of classic in there. Because the classic game, the games will go quicker, and it shows some real flipper skill instead of knowing all the other stuff as well in the game. And again, I don't want to try it. The tournament was great. A lot of people loved it. No, people don't get the wrong idea. We came for three days. We didn't leave. We're going to go back and have some more fun. George suckered me into this thing. He's like, Dave, I know it's a lot of newer games this tournament, But we're going to do great in it. It doesn't matter that we don't really know the new stuff that well because all the really players that know the stuff really well, they're out in Wisconsin, so we can define it. So George suckered me in. And then as soon as we both did really well the first round, it's like, oh, George, you psychopath, you might be right here. This might work out. But then all of a sudden, more and more talented, new school football players were coming in that know all these games, know all the rules. It's like, oh, here we go. And I started throwing more money into it, getting more and more pissed because I was just out of my league with these new games and these freaking rules. It's like, okay. And that one last thing, it's like, I just, as soon as I, after the first game I played in this last round, it's like, I just wasted my 15 bucks. I should not even play. I should just went and played with George for a dollar. You should have bought three more beer tickets. I could have. I could have bought three more beers instead of that. But I don't know. A lot of people, met a lot of good people in that tournament, a lot of nice guys. And again, Tommy did a great job running it. Yeah. Keith, great job. You've got a great local tournament. Hopefully you're not competing against Wisconsin last year, so you get some players here. But great job. And I hope, again, as I was talking to Keith about it, about the hardtop tournament that was supposed to happen, but it didn't for various logistical reasons. But that would have been the classics tournament, because all the hardtop games he had there was a Xenon, a Wizard,
    47:57
    Swords of Fury. Pinbot, right? Not a pinbot. Wasn't that the game that Kurt bought? No. That wasn't in that bag? No. That must have been somewhere else. No, there were five classic games. The newest one was Swords of Fury. The other ones were all 70s or early 80s ballets. Like 70s ballets. And they were like, no, that would be... Oh, here. Newsflash, folks. If you've hung in there and we haven't lost our last listener. Well, Grant's probably still there. Yeah, hi, Grant. You're still here. You're the only one left, Grant.
    48:29
    They're going to make an embryon hardtop. That's needed because they're not making embryon playfields. That's great. I said, I need one.
    48:42
    Mine's not real bad, but the top. Just make an embryon hardtop for that one section of the top and call it done. For the bonus error.
    48:51
    Positive. I was thinking of You're not going to tell another stupid joke, are you? Oh, you know, speaking of that, I will tell. Okay, you're not going to tell another joke. Yeah, good. Good recovery, George. So why is it, George, that you drive on a parkway and park on a driveway?
    49:14
    So you can think about that for a while. Folks, don't get upset. That cricket sound is going to be used a lot. Oh, yeah, Big Lebowski. No, we're going to do this. We already talked about it. We did. Say goodbye. All right. Goodbye.
    49:38
    I'm here with my co-conspirator playing yet another ramp game that he wants to buy. Don't let that get out. We're playing the Big Lebowski. And we're playing with a newly acquired friend and fan, Scott. Scott, welcome to the program. Thank you. It's awesome. So we're going to play a little Big Lebowski.
    50:04
    Dave just put up the Grand Champion. We'll see if he can repeat while multitasking and listening to my idle chatter. You have a famous voice, George. Oh, yeah. Well, they heard all about that. So Dave is being bold. Oh, and he's also draining this ball.
    50:27
    You're drinking that habanero beer. Figures can't be choosers, George. You know, and that's all you got. You're bold, dude.
    50:38
    Oh, that's great. Where was your pinball angel? He wasn't around. It wasn't you, George. No, I saw it. I let it go. Thanks a lot, George. You're a pinball devil, George. I have.
    50:52
    I'm player two, right? Yes, you're kind of big. Well, right now it's player one right now. Scott is like. Still player one? I mean Scott.
    51:00
    Scott is horrified. That's George. It's me? You're player one, aren't you? Yeah, hold the mic. Who's on first? What's on second? Hold the mic. Who's on third base? Very organized game. Very organized. Payoff as always. Here we go. We're close to the plunge. How bad am I doing? I don't know. You're doing good, George. No, I'm not. Oh, you're not? Actually, no. Did that go upstairs? Oh, awesome. You're supposed to go all around the edge, George, in the top thing there, Dave. You're not supposed to do what I just did? No, no. You're supposed to go... Was that a gutter ball? Go the roundy round thing. I got it in the carpet.
    51:33
    Is that good? That's good. The rug thing's good. That thing's good. It's lit. When you go where that thing is lit, you get down... Oh, no, no. You get on the bowling alley.
    51:43
    Oh, rug again. Go up the ramp, George. Just hit the ramp. Ramp with the best one, George. Almost, George. Top circle. Why do I keep hitting the ramp? Oh, and a tilt. Oh. Uncle Tilties showed up.
    52:02
    Oh. Aggression. Aggression will not stand, man. Hey, this aggression will not stand, man. Well, that's done, man. Look, you went first, you went second, and then you went third. What is this thing doing? Clicking balls.
    52:21
    You broke it. You broke the president, George. You broke the game, George. Oh, you're going to restart it? Well, hold on. Let me check the screw protector. Oh, wait. It doesn't have one. What's it doing? It's thinking about it. You have to turn it off and on. Let's see. Well, it has four issues. Uh-oh. There's four issues that says on the test report. That's not good. If I had a key. Kick the coin door. I might have a key. No. If you can open that jackpot, you win. Hold my beer.
    52:57
    Get out. Oh, my. It's a universal key. Oh, you're the best. You're the best. He had the magic key. What are you doing? And that's why he's the doctor.
    53:21
    Right? I've never seen this before. This is all standing. Here, let me say, oh, my God. When people hear this, they're not, see, you can, I think a lot of people, right. I'm your witness. How many times do you say, oh, that didn't happen? Oh, yes, it did. He broke the target. Oh, did you break it? No, I didn't break anything. You broke it. No, I... No, George did. You were playing. Okay, you know what? I think this is... This is a good... This is really good right now. You know, George, the doctor is in. Yeah, but that's... Somebody beat you too at a Reddit. Your good friend Scott. Your new friend Scott over there. Awesome. It's got two issues.
    54:04
    We've got to go find the other one. They posted the next round for the tournament. When do we play? Well, I built my house about 10 years ago. We lived in our old house for 16 years, and I only had enough. I was telling him earlier, we only had enough room for four machines, and I had a Cruisin' USA sit-down driving game. And then we had the full table and the two-sport table and all that stuff. So I would constantly rotate machines in and out of there. And that's when you used to be able to give up a game thinking you can always get it back. What's the big deal? If I sell this one, I can always get it back. nowadays that's a different story and if you get it back it's not going to be the same condition you made it it's going to be some junk stocks maybe so I people are so tired of hearing this story over this weekend years ago I had an Arabian Nights beautiful game I had it pristine and ended up selling it for I think $3,000 wow it's a deal these days oh my god that tells you how long ago this was so I tried to buy it back from the guy he won it a few years after that and I sold it for more You wanted literally double. You wanted $6,000. Because he can get it. I thought, I can't do that. I'm not giving you twice what you paid me. So now here we are. I did all the work, and you're making all the money. Right, exactly. But I bought that at $6,000. Now they're $10,000, $11,000. Yeah, sure. Exactly. We standing near the bathrooms at Pin Brew It a place to be George Oh yeah sure it is With Kurt who a collector from Pennsylvania and he telling us about his journey to where he is today with 60 plus pinball machines. It's been a work in progress. We're always about unique. What's the most unique game in your collection? Oh, unique. Something that most people have never seen.
    55:59
    Well, my oldest games are probably Space Shuttle, Taxi. Oh, so you don't go beyond like early 90s? System 11 stuff. So you're all moderns. Yeah, that's about the oldest ones I have. But that was the soft spot. Taxi was the soft spot because right after we first got married, I started telling you that story earlier, I always said when I grow up and I have my own house, I'm going to have the pinball machine in the basement or in my bar. You sound like me. And I kept saying this to my wife, and first Christmas after we got married, she bought me a taxi for $800. And it was okay. That's how I learned to start fixing minor little things like we all do. And we played the daylights out of that thing for six months to a year or something like that until you get bored with it. I ended up trading that in on an Indiana Jones pinball adventure, which I still have.
    56:48
    And one turned into two, two turned into five. So you have the skill set to repair as well? To a point. I've worked with another guy, Dan, who he's the tech guy. I always joke around and say I'm the pretty face of the organization. He's all the brains. But we work really well together because he loves working on them. And, you know, whatever I don't keep for myself, we'll find somebody, you know, find the right person for them. We don't really do it to make money, but it's just one of those things to perpetuate the hobby, to keep things going out there. you know you get a certain sense of satisfaction when you take an old machine it's like restoring an old car yeah it's a junker and you turn it into this beautiful thing like outside edges here with hard tops uh just love doing that you know they they turn out beautiful dan has done four or five space shuttles with those hard tops and what a difference that makes it takes an old machine that's totally roached out makes it look brand new and you know i just just really enjoy it it's very relaxing type of thing. It's a zen thing, restoring these things. I just get into a whole groove working on them and all of a sudden I'll realize hey, is it time for dinner yet? Well, it's midnight. Oh, okay, well I guess I missed dinner. You know, it's that kind of deal. Well, Kurt doesn't know either one of us. Kurt and I met in the lobby, I think. Kind of looked at each other and it was you're here for the pinball show, right? Yeah.
    58:10
    Dave has got a restoration business and repair business. I'm just a hobbyist. I'm just the glue that holds this nightmare together.
    58:20
    So most of your stuff's modern, then? Yeah. A lot of it. Well, it depends on what you classify modern. Anything newer than 1990, 1995? Well, no, but he's got system life. He's got, like, 80s. He's got, like, mid-80s Williams stuff. You know, like, you know, the whirlwinds, the taxis, the bad cats of the world, that kind of thing. Yes. So where George and I really like, we're more in the 70s, you know, mid-70s to early 80s stuff. That's kind of where we, that's our sweet spot. Right, I'm 10 years older than you, so all my stuff is from the mid-70s to early 80s, and then I got married and completely fell out. Same story. Got the house, always wanted a pinball. Started with one. I always say if you didn't get toasted on your first sale, you did okay because you probably didn't know anything. You just grabbed it because you liked the theme or you thought it was good. And if you didn't get scorched, you did okay. Well, the first machine I ever had, my dad bought for my brother and I. It was a 79 Sturm Meteor. And I remember I came home from basketball. I'll never forget the day I died. I came home from basketball practice, and my dad said, Hey, come on in here. I want to show you guys something. And it was right before Christmas. And I went in, and I'm looking at this thing under a blanket. I'm like, what in the world is this? He pulled that cover off. You'd have thought, you know, it was a pile of million dollars sitting there. I jumped around. I thought that was the greatest thing. We would play that thing until it broke, and I'm like, God, call the guy! Call the guy! He's got to fix the machine! He's got to fix the machine! Whoever fixed it, we'd play it until it broke again. Call the guy! Call the guy! That's what memories are. Yeah, that's where it really all started. Everybody has that story. There was a little corner store that had this machine, and there was an ice cream parlor down there. So you grew up in Pennsylvania? Yeah, central Pennsylvania. Okay, okay. So, you know, everybody has that same story. I don't know what it was that kind of drew me into these machines. I never really got into the video games. I never got into the home consoles or anything like that. But it was just, I always had a soft spot for pinball machines. And then when I grew up and it started... When you had the opportunity, time, and money, you did it. Yeah. Like everyone else. That's where the story is usually very similar. Yeah, so that's how, you know, one turns into two, two turns into five. And then you realize that if you give these up, you might not get them back. So I have a really hard time giving anything up anymore. I mean, friends have tried to buy them. There's a couple guys here that I've actually sold a few machines to. They were very surprised that I let go. And it's always a gentleman's agreement. Listen, I will sell you this machine, but if you ever sell it, I'm not going to let you. First-rider refusal, right? Yeah, first-rider refusal. So it's always worked out, and you always want to help somebody get another machine because I know what that's like when you come across something you don't have, and I really want that. Like the meteor. I've been trying to find another meteor. I actually bought one. Oh, you told me about the one up by where I live. Yeah. In Goffstown, New Hampshire. Is it still out there? As far as I know. If I could be of any help, I'm literally around. I might take you up on that. But that's what this is about. Well, they have one here. This is about the hobby. The one here is roached. Yeah. Roached. I'm more than happy because you know what? I'm a nosy person. I want to go see who this person is. because I don't know, we don't, you know a few, we know a couple of people, but we don't have venues, you know, microbreweries that have pinball machines. Yeah, we're in the same boat. We have Fun Spot, but, yeah, we have Fun Spot. If you want to play pinball in my neighborhood. We have Fun Spot. Yeah, exactly. You're driving somewhere. If you want to play pinball where we live, you're driving somewhere. There's no, there's no, there's no barcades. There's no, you know. So that's why you have Kurt's Arcade. Yeah. We'll end with this. What are the three games you just bought? I bought a new Rush Premium. I bought a Comet that I'm going to hard top. And I bought a Pinbot that's already been hard topped.
    62:17
    How bad is the Comet? Is it pretty freaked out? It's not horrible. Come back in another month and it's going to be beautiful. Okay, yeah. We'll stencil it. We'll re-stencil it. So you're going to pretty much take a belt sander and then clear coat it with some clear coat? You're stealing my questions, man. They clear coat it, then you lay it down. But a lot of work to put the hard top on the right way. I don't do the hard tops. I do the body work. I'll make the cabinet look brand new. I'll strip that all down, bond to it, put all the fillers and things like that in it, paint it, do all that kind of stuff. But Dan does the hard tops. I don't have the nerve to do it, to be completely honest with you, because one of those things. One shot? One shot. It's sticky stuff. It's done. Even a fraction one way or the other, it's going to show up. Yeah, sure, it's right. And it's the same thing with the cabinet decals. You screw them up, which I have. I've screwed up. Why, you don't use soap and water? That's not the way to do it? Oh, yeah, you sort of move it around with soap and water. No, not any good? There's a couple different ways to do it. I have to ask. You've got to have some kind of craft background.
    63:20
    I'm a carpenter. Okay, there you go. That makes sense. You started talking about Bondo. I'm like, is he an auto body guy? Because that's how I got into the hobby. My friend Jack, he bought Playboy in 1978. Everybody's heard the story a million times. But pointed in the magazine and said, I'm buying that. And he did. Yeah, I have a construction background. Okay. And I'm pretty good with that. You sounded handy. Yeah. Yeah, I can fix this thing. But when it comes to the electronics, that's not my thing. That's your counterpart? Know your limitations. That's my best advice. That's what Cleese would say. Man's got to know his limitations. Cleese would. You can try anything once, but if you're in over your head, pass it off. Because at the end of it, you might save a dollar or two, but it's going to look like you did. Yeah, exactly. Leave it to the professionals. What did you get for a banner there? The Munsters. My wife liked the show. You had one of those? We never seen, yeah. If I started going back in time and stern, am I going to say, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. And I drug my feet. Spider-Man, Iron Man, Watch Turtles, Avengers. Do you want me to keep going? Yes, yes. I just have to divide it. Iron Man's in for five grand. It's not a bad deal that Iron Man's sitting there. You can't find it. I haven't seen one lately. I don't care. Come to my garage. You got something? I have an Iron Man. And I drug my feet against the new modern stuff, to be honest with you. It just didn't do it for me there for a while. Some of the machines just didn't feel the same when Stern got back up and running. It's just like in the old school. I like my favorite genre you know, fishtails, whitewater. Okay. That's the machines I really like. Early 90s stuff. Yeah, when you grab a hold of them and play them, you can always tell what's going on. Yeah, solid. Definitely, yeah. And when Stern started to back up, I was like, ah, I just wasn't quite feeling it. Yeah, yeah. But then after a while, they came out with some better themes. Yeah. A couple get your attention. I thought, okay, I'll give in. There's no other options. What are you going to do? So, and I started, you know, same thing. Okay, once the dam broke, now I need this one, now I need this one, now I need this one. That's just kind of the way it goes.
    65:27
    It's a fun hobby. Everybody needs to collect something. I always tell them that some things are a little bigger than others. And I always tell my wife, hey, it could be worse. I could collect cars.
    65:36
    I have a favorite collection. Money. Green bags. Green things. Yes. Well, if you're in this hobby, you probably don't have much of that left. No, I'm not like everyone else. I stopped collecting when everything went nuts. I call money a Babylonian magic square, George. You know, stop, stop, stop. Kurt, thank you. Sure. I very much appreciate it. It went longer than five minutes. No, that's fine. My apologies.
    66:12
    My apologies to Larry, the owner of Biker's Brewhouse. You can visit them at bikersbrewhouse.net. Their beers were quite delicious. My extended apologies for not getting the name right. I'm here with Larry from Micro Brew House. He's the only micro brewer in the United States that has a micro brew inside a Harley Davidson dealership.
    66:44
    That's correct. Tell us a little bit about your business and why you're associated with this particular show. Well, to make the long story short, I was a home builder prior to the market crash of 2008. And in 2011, I decided to change careers. I started selling Harley-Davidson's at the dealership. By 2012, I moved into sales management. By 2014, I relocated to the area, and I needed a hobby. So I brewed my first beer. and I bring it in for the guys to be guinea pigs.
    67:18
    And they said, man, this is really good. You should look into selling it. Well, selling it was a commercial address. You needed a commercial address for a whole year, almost a year and a half to get through the federal government guidelines through the TTP and get your brewer's notice, right? So I'm like, there's no way that I can run a commercial property for a year. So at that time, the owner says, hey, you're the builder. I want to build a lounge for our customers. He wasn't a drinker at all. He wasn't thinking beer. He was thinking a place where people can come in and relax while they're shopping for a Harley or buying accessories or clothing or service. Yeah. Smart idea. Yeah, smart idea. Like a car dealership. Sure. So he says, hey, you're the builder. Build me a lounge for the customers. So at that same time, on the second floor, he was taking all his retail stuff out of there and rebranding it as far as like vintage leathers, old stuff like that, vinyl.
    68:18
    And he told the general manager, he says, what do you want to do with the retail space? Because I'm taking this out. Larry's building a lounge for customers on the first floor. What do you want to do with it? And he goes, well, he's making great beer, and he needs a commercial address to sell it. And the rest is history. The door opened, and I walked through it. Great story. So, I'm from a small town in southern New Hampshire, 50 square miles, which is not small, but only 25,000 people. But we have five microbreweries. Wow. Now, you need to ask me the most obvious question.
    68:54
    How many pinball machines? Yeah, how many pinball machines are in each one? One. One? In one, an old battered EM. So, please deliver a message to the microbreweries in southern New Hampshire, the benefits of having pinball in your establishment. Oh, the benefits are huge. We get so many people that come in and they specifically go to those machines because they know what machine is where. And now we have people that never would have played them go over and they drink beer and they're playing pinball. Pinball. So not only do you get the established buyer who wants to come out and have a micro brew, but you've now snared... I've snared regular people that never even knew that probably pinball existed. Correct. Terrific. Yeah, and they love it. When we had our first spot, we just expanded last year. We went from 1,500 square feet to 3,600 square feet. So now we went from two machines in the small brewery to seven machines now in the larger area, and the people love it. Are you a player? I am a player. Have you played in the tournament? No, I'm not that good. Well, I'm not either, but I still play.
    70:12
    Anything else you want to say to my audience about... If you're ever in Youngstown area, look up Biker Brewhouse. Pitch it. Tell us where. Give us a good website. The whole thing. Route 46 and 80 in Austintown.
    70:27
    The website is bikerbrewhouse.net. Terrific. Larry, thank you very much. Thank you. It was great talking with you. That's awesome. That's good. Thank you. Yep.
    70:53
    This morning with the sun down, shining in. Found my mind in a brown paper bag. But then, tripped on a clouded belly eight miles high. Told my mind, won't you use the sky? I tried to see what condition my condition was in Yeah, yeah, oh yeah What condition my condition was in I pushed my soul in a deep dark hole Then I followed in I watched myself crawling out As I was calling you I got up so tight To find wine For so much I broke my mind Drowning in the sea Condition by condition I'm living in a bad, bad, bad Yeah.
    72:43
    Yeah, oh yeah, what condition, my condition was I. That was painted in gold, and the blackness on my dead inside.
    72:59
    I had my foot on the gas as I left the road, blew out my mind. Eight miles out of Memphis, in the middle of the square, Eight miles straight up downtown somewhere.
    73:19
    I'm in. See what condition my condition is. I said I just got here. See what condition my condition is. Yeah.
    73:36
    Yeah. Whoa. Yeah. I'm blue. Hi, my name's Steven Silver. I'm the creative director for Multimorphics Heist and Weird Al Pinball Machine. My voice is shot, and you're listening to the Classic Pinball Podcast.