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Episode 199 – Car Hauler

Slam Tilt Podcast·podcast_episode·2h 26m·analyzed·Jan 31, 2023
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

Slam Tilt #199: Joe Cervino discusses Toronto pinball scene and launches Pinball Degenerate Awards.

Summary

Slam Tilt Podcast Episode 199 features guest Joe Cervino, a Toronto-based pinball enthusiast and founder of the Pinball Degenerates Facebook community. The episode covers Joe's entry into pinball through vintage machines like Sorcerer, his involvement in Toronto's competitive scene, and the inaugural Pinball Degenerate Awards—a grassroots alternative to established pinball award shows that celebrates unconventional community contributions across 17 categories with charitable donations.

Key Claims

  • Pinball Cafe in Toronto closed due to archaic licensing issues for arcades and bars

    medium confidence · Joe Cervino explaining why a Toronto pinball venue shut down unexpectedly

  • Joe purchased his first pinball machine, Sorcerer (Williams), for $800 around 2010

    high confidence · Joe's personal account of buying Sorcerer as his entry machine

  • Joe attended Pittsburgh Papa tournaments and Pinberg conventions before both ceased operations

    high confidence · Joe recounting his tournament history and expressing regret about Papa and Pinberg ending

  • The Pinball Degenerates Awards feature 17 categories and include charitable donations to MS Foundation, American Cancer Association, and NAMI

    high confidence · Joe detailing the award structure and associated fundraising commitments

  • 64 degenerate portraits have been commissioned at $35 each for a poster, with artist Hex Unzio from Argentina

    high confidence · Joe explaining the portrait project that exceeded initial expectations of ~20 commissions

  • RPC (Rochester Pinball Collective) currently has approximately 50 pinball machines in rotation

    high confidence · Bruce clarifying machine count during venue description segment

  • Indiana Jones Pinball Adventure is prohibitively expensive in the secondary market

    medium confidence · Joe stating he couldn't afford it even if he sold all his machines

  • Joe founded City Pinball League in Toronto with Mark Bartolo and Dad and Beeson

    medium confidence · Joe crediting league co-founders for building Toronto's competitive scene

Notable Quotes

  • “Pinball has gone through so many ups and downs. It's an incredible history, and it's amazing to just ride this wave and be part of the moment right now.”

    Joe Cervino @ ~mid-episode — Reflects community optimism and historical perspective on pinball's cyclical nature

  • “It's literally as American as apple pie and baseball, in my opinion. And, you know, I'm Canadian, but Canadians, they follow very closely with the culture of America.”

    Joe Cervino @ ~early-middle segment — Articulates pinball's cultural significance as reflection of North American values

  • “I want to reward people who've just done stuff on their own without any – they do it because they're passionate about it, not because they're trying to win any awards.”

    Joe Cervino @ ~award show segment — Explains the philosophy behind creating an alternative, grassroots awards show

  • “Performance enhancers are encouraged. Absolutely encouraged.”

    Joe Cervino @ ~awards eligibility discussion — Humorous commentary on 'degeneracy' award criteria, suggesting anything goes as long as no one else is harmed

  • “I am the entire judging panel for this discussion. You're like the Josh Sharp of IFPA.”

    Joe Cervino / Bruce Nightingale @ ~award judging structure — Self-aware comparison to IFPA leadership structure, suggesting centralized decision-making

Entities

Joe CervinopersonRon HallettpersonBruce NightingalepersonPinball DegeneratesorganizationPinball Degenerate AwardseventRochester Pinball Collective (RPC)organizationSorcerergameIndiana Jones Pinball AdventuregameJack Tadmanperson

Signals

  • ?

    community_signal: Pinball Degenerates Facebook group has grown organically from core friend group to thriving community of strangers collaborating and visiting each other

    high · Joe: 'it just blossomed into this amazing group of people, strangers I had never met before, people they just know me through Facebook sometimes come to visit Toronto'

  • ?

    community_signal: Pinball trivia nights (Pinheads Trivia) demonstrating sustained competitive engagement and community participation despite scheduling challenges

    high · Joe, Zach, Dalton, Mayday consistently participating in third-Tuesday monthly trivia events with demonstrated expertise

  • ?

    competitive_signal: Pittsburgh Papa tournament scene and Pinberg convention have both ceased operations; Toronto competitive players historically traveled to these events

    high · Joe: 'sadly Pinbing is no more, and so is the Papa tournament as well, which is very, very unfortunate. I hope in some form both of them come back'

  • $

    market_signal: Grassroots alternative to established pinball awards (IFPA/Twipy-style) celebrating 'degenerate' unconventional community contributions with charitable giving component

    high · Pinball Degenerate Awards with 17 categories, donations to MS Foundation/Cancer Association/NAMI, intentional focus on quirky community over traditional metrics

  • ?

    event_signal: RPC (Rochester Pinball Collective) operating as stable venue hub with ~50-machine rotation, supporting competitive and casual play

    high · RPC location details provided (349 W Commercial St, Suite 2965, East Rochester, NY) with active rotation management

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.438

0:00
But right now, let's go down into the teeming streets where two very special guest reporters are standing by. How's it going down there, guys? A mob scene, huh? Eh, hey, loader.
0:10
Loader. Eh, well, uh, we're at this porno place. We already saw these three chicks. They had big boobs.
0:22
And then we saw a midget. Yeah, yeah, and, uh, me. And, you know, he kind of had big boobs, too, actually. New York. That's a hell of a town.
0:49
Coming to you from beautiful upstate New York, this is the Slam Chill Podcast, the show about all things pinball. I'm your host, Ron Hallett, here with my co-host, Bruce Nightingale. vacation vacation vacation coming soon oh yeah vacation not for me we're recording every weekend i'm editing up my ass off here oh my oh my this is episode 199 one before the big 200 really is it is it isn't you sure about that because i think we're backwards a little bit we're backwards well we recorded our episode 200 guest. Yes, we did. And I think everyone is going to be very happy. Yes, I think so too. He did a great job. I know we were. Not going to say who it is. But, yes. But we're not alone today. We're not? Who do we have? I said it first. No, it's your job. It's in your contract. Because he wants me to fuck up the last name as always.
1:48
He is the Mr. Degenerate. He is the savior of Toronto. He is Joe Cervino. You screwed it up. You got it so close, Bruce. Hey, guys. How's it going? So close. As a fellow Italian, it's Joe Cervino. That's right. Yes. So just in your mind, just picture a chair of vino. Like a chair of vino. A chair of wine. I got it. Perfect. Cervino. Boom, you got it. Boom. Yeah, let's go, guys.
Mark Bartolo
person
Dad and Beesonperson
Hex Unzioperson
Pinball Cafeorganization
City Pinball Leagueorganization
Travis Murrayperson
Jessica DiNardoperson
Special When Litproduct
Pinheads Triviaevent
Pittsburgh Papaevent
Pinbergevent
  • ?

    licensing_signal: Toronto licensing/regulatory environment created barriers for pinball venues, causing Pinball Cafe to close unexpectedly despite community demand

    medium · Joe: 'archaic, fossilized licensing issues for arcades and bars and establishments in Toronto' led to Pinball Cafe closure

  • $

    market_signal: Secondary market pricing for Indiana Jones Pinball Adventure has become prohibitively expensive even for collectors with modest collections

    medium · Joe: 'even if I sold all my games, I wouldn't be able to afford that game right now' (with only 2 owned machines)

  • ?

    announcement: Degenerate Portrait project unexpectedly expanded to 64+ commissioned pieces (target was ~20), suggesting strong grassroots artist engagement and community enthusiasm

    high · Joe: 'I thought maybe at most we'd get like 20 portraits together. 64. Over 64 at this point'

    • 2:26
    It's going great. I wonder how many of our Italian listeners hate you. Between the whole Pedretti thing, you just butcher the Italian names. They put out a picture of the queen of their assembly line and how everyone's all excited about it. Wait, wait, wait. The queen of their assembly line. What does that mean? The queen pinball machine that they're building. On their assembly line. Yes. They showed pictures of it, and they said, hey, look, Nap Arcade posted pictures of it. I said, hey, we make them all pinball.
    2:56
    It's a pinball. It goes great. Yes. It's the perfect combination. Yes. Yes, it is. So how many – hold on, hold on.
    3:04
    Ron, how many times have you been to Italy? I've never been there. Okay, Joe, how many times have you been to Italy? Just once. Okay, I've been there three times, so I'll fucking rank you. So you're literally more Italian than me because you've been to Italy. Yes, I've been to the old country. Hey, motherfucker. My great-grandparents came from Italy, so I'm still not as Italian as you. Yep. Okay. Motherfucker. It's all in the hands. That's what I'm doing. I'm actually doing the hand shit right now. Hold on. I heard you were straightening the Tower of Pisa. Is that true? Of course. I brought that back to pinball. You know. There you go. Back up. For years, I never knew that's what they were saying in Attack for Mark. Okay, Bruce, you look like you're having an episode. Bruce Fisher. Hey, what the hell? I'm a paramedic for Bruce. I like the yellow sweater. Very good. It's a sweatshirt. Oh, I'm sorry. Because it's a zipper. This is actually being perfect for you, Ron, because it's lightweight.
    4:04
    It's a nice lightweight. No, I need heavy sweaters because I'm always cold. I know you are. I'm wearing a sweater right now. I am. You saw me. I was too. So, Joe, welcome to the show. Glad to be here. Long time listener. Yes, we have known Joe for many, many years.
    4:23
    Many, many years in the Spine Academy. And he goes into a Sean Connery impression thing, whatever that's supposed to be. Yes, yes, Moneypenny. Today we shale into history.
    4:37
    It's a Lithuanian sub-captain, that's how they sound. Some very similar. You know, it's not Conor Kastan, however he damn well wants. And I can hit anyone I want also. Oh, my God. Highlander, he's a Spanish, Egyptian, whatever he was supposed to be. I know. Which is funny because then you have a French guy playing a Scottish guy. It's like you have a Scottish guy in there, and he's not playing a Scottish guy. I am immortal.
    5:07
    We brought it back to pinball because Queen. Come back to Queen. Yeah, that'd be awesome if it played that song. I'll come back to Queen. That would be awesome. That song is so underrated. Princess of the Universe. If you're a fan of Highlander, that's like the highlight of the movie, almost, in a way. Just like Flash Gordon, the Queen song is the highlight of the movie as well. Exactly. I'm still waiting for my Queen, New York, New York to be released. It's only in the movie. It's never been on a soundtrack or albums.
    5:37
    Yes. Really? Okay. He always sings it. When does he sing it? Where the Kurgan's, like, driving. Oh, okay. And they play New York, New York, whatever. Yeah.
    5:51
    I'm still waiting for my Highlander pinball with Christopher Lambert doing Call Us. That'd be awesome.
    5:57
    Jack Scott. Oh, I want what's-his-name, the Kurgan. I mean, he's in The Mandalorian, so he should be able to, should be available. Was it Tom Clancy? Oh, not, something Clancy. Yeah, I can't. The big dude. Yeah, he's great. I love that guy. He is such an awesome guy. You've seen interviews with him. He's an awesome dude.
    6:16
    There can be only one. I know his name. Okay. Wowzers. So, Joe, how did you get into pinball? The famous question. Oh, this old chestnut, huh? Oh, it's Clancy Brown. That's the guy's name. Yeah. Yeah, well, I mean, I grew up in the 90s, was born, you know, in the 80s, and grew up playing pinball in the last sort of heyday of the 90s, pinball sort of time of the arcades. And I remember always being very intimidated as a young boy from, especially the backlash art of some pinball machines like Theater of Magic, F-14 Tomcat, and Whitewater, I remember particularly. they just looked like really scary, intense games, you know? And later on, I realized they're just a lot of fun. But I never really played that much. I would kind of dabble in it if I had a few quarters left after I played, you know, Street Fighter and Mortal Kombat and stuff like that. But I really got into playing it as a real hobbyist later in life. obviously in my mid-30s when sort of I got into kind of a retro game, kind of nostalgia kick. And a place opened nearby in Toronto called the Pinball Cafe. And literally I had no idea that pinball machines were even still being made until that place opened up and showed me that, yeah, there's modern games being made. I think the most modern game they had was Iron Man, so it was 2008-ish around that time. And I loved it. I was like, this is the original, this is the OG of all retro games that you get. This is the grandfather of the arcade. This is the original. So I just fell in love with it immediately. Unfortunately, it closed down due to, we have some really, really archaic, fossilized licensing issues for arcades and bars and establishments in Toronto here. So unfortunately, due to some city policies, they had to immediately close down when it got word out that they just didn't have a couple forums or something. I'm not exactly sure exactly why, but they closed down almost overnight. I was heartbroken.
    8:31
    But a few years later, I kind of kept the interest in pinball, and I got really curious. I was like, well, how much would it be to buy a pinball machine for myself? So I looked on eBay, and I found this really cool game, but it was just the play field. It was just the actual wooden play field for $800 for a game called Sorcerer's, designed by Mark Ritchie. And I was like, that's cool. I could have some cool pinball art. And then I was like, oh, geez, oh, damn, it's already sold out. It already got sold. So I was kind of on eBay again looking for that game, and then I actually found the whole pinball machine for $800. Again, on a different listing. I was like, okay, I can buy the whole game for 800 bucks? Sure. And, you know, I figured, you know, it's a good deal considering, like, if I were to buy, like, a PlayStation and an Xbox, it would be pretty much the same price as buying a whole pinball machine. So it's not that crazy in terms of cost. And, you know, that game, I'm sure you guys are familiar with Sorcerer, William Sorcerer. You know, it's got a ramp. It's got a multiball. It's a two-ball multiball, but it's a multiball. It's got drop targets. It's got two spinners. It's got stand-ups. It's got, you know, a three-flipper game. And it's got pop bumpers. It's got everything that I considered when I was, at that time, very new to pinball. That's a real pinball game. You know, it's not like a joke toy, you know. So I bought my first game, Sorcerer, around 2010 or so. And just got deeper and deeper into it. I watched Special Lit. That told me all about the whole Papa scene and brought me into this crazy competitive world. And luckily, I just found out a few years after I first discovered it that a league was starting up in Toronto, and I joined the City Pinball League with my buddy Jack Tadman. I'm sure you guys know Jack Tadman. Amazing guy, just so welcoming and such an upbeat, helpful human being, just a great friend of mine. And unfortunately, he temporarily moved out to Manitoba to be with the rest of his family for a few years. But we miss him very much in Toronto here in the Toronto scene. And shout-outs to Jack Tadman. Toronto pinball scene wouldn't be anything without the likes of him, my friend Mark Bartolo, and my operator friend, Dad and Beeson. They really were the core people that started City Pinball League. And I just got hooked into it, and I started taking trips out to, you know, down to Pittsburgh, down to Carnegie to check out the Papa scene. I didn't even play in the first Papa that I went down to. I just wanted to play the games, you know, because I was way too intimidated to play in any tournaments yet. But then very quickly I was like, man, I've got to play. I've got to get into this, you know. And so, yeah, all the Pinbergs that they moved out to the convention center, I generally visited all of those, and sadly Pinberg is no more, and so is the Papa tournament as well, which is very, very unfortunate. I hope in some form both of them come back in some way in the somewhat near future. And, yeah, I've just kind of been creating my own sort of online scene on Facebook with the Pinball Degenerates group that is so amazing. I'm amazed by all the creative, funny, awesome pinball people that started off with just my group of friends, but now has just blossomed into this amazing group of people, strangers I had never met before, people they just know me through Facebook sometimes come to visit Toronto and I go and hang out with them, play some pinball and make a new friend. It's an amazing experience. And yeah, I just feel like it's a great part of the pinball community that I'm very proud to be part of.
    12:21
    So what do you need to be a pinball degenerate? You just need to be nuts about pinball. You need to be just like crazy about pinball, like obsessive, crazy-eyed, wild-eyed pinball nut bar, you know, like just anything about it, like whether you're really into fixing pinball machines or playing pinball competitively at really high levels or just anything, really. I mean, the artwork, the culture, the history of pinball, I'm really into the history of pinball. I find it a fascinating sort of reflection of America or North American values and interests and what's going on at the time.
    13:04
    It's incredible. It's literally as American as apple pie and baseball, in my opinion. And, you know, I'm Canadian, but, you know, Canadians, they follow very, you know, with the culture of America very, very closely. So, yeah, it's just an amazing game in so many different facets of it, whether from a business side, from a marketing side, like in terms of, you know, what's going on right now with so many different manufacturers competing against each other, especially in this time where who knows where pinball is going to go with the price increases and the recession that's on the horizon looming. It's fascinating to see what's going to happen to pinball in the next decade or so. I'm excited. I'm very hopeful and positive. But, you know, pinball has gone through so many ups and downs. It's an incredible history. and it's amazing to just ride this wave and be part of the moment right now, what's going on. And Joe knows his history. I try. We do trivia for Chad Hobbs for Pinheads Trivia. Pinheads, yes. That's a lot of fun. He bi-monthly has a pinball trivia night. I think it's the third Tuesday of the month. Something like that. Something like that, yeah. Yeah, and it's usually it's Joe, Zach, unfortunately. It's always near the top. Yes. Dalton, he's started to do it. He's way up there. Mayday shows up once in a while. Once in a while. And it's hilarious when they unintentionally have trivia questions about his games.
    14:40
    Yeah, or about IFPA. His players rank the whatever. Oh, I hope I know this one because it's me. Yeah, Bruce, where are you in that trivia? I thought you would be into that. I was a couple times. I think you just did it once. The problem is it's Tuesday night at 9 o'clock. The problem is I wake up at 345. Ah, the problem is you're old. I'm old and I need sleep. You bastards.
    15:08
    Get off my lawn, you bastards. My issue is I'm old, so I'm not fast enough. I really think I need to. Maybe if I do it on my phone so I can actually use the touch, you know, I think I could tap it faster than I could move the click, you know, the pointer. That's a good strategy. Because I really think a lot of the questions, I know them immediately, but I think I'm getting beat. Because the faster you answer, the more points you get. I think you just need to cut that nice little thing. I'm old and I can't get – I'm not fast enough. That's all. That's perfect. Mm-hmm.
    15:45
    Okay. But speaking of degenerates. Yes, sir. You guys have an award show. Yes, we have our own award show, the Degenes. The Degenes. Who cares? Twippies? Nah. Pinball Awards? Nah. It's all about the Degenes. We've actually won these. Why do they matter? What do we need for Bruce? Bruce won one. Oh, Ron is not worthy. And Zach won one.
    16:12
    But there's no Degenes yet for Ron. I'm not degenerate enough. Well, you've got a pretty good pinball collection there, Ron. I don't know. It could be in the running for best degenerate pinball collection.
    16:26
    Level zero. See? Level zero. I have the name in everything. See, I named the arcade. So you know it's true. You've got to name your arcade. It's very important. Do you have a website for your arcade? Do I have a website for my arcade? Sure. It's called slamtiltpodcast.com. No, I want to see, you want to have level zero arcade, and then you have, like, all these, you know, shots and, you know, beauty, you know, like. Well, how about your arcade? Remember what your name was going to be?
    16:55
    No. You don't? No, I'm old. We talked about it on the show. I know we did. I'm old. I don't remember shit. What's your name? Okay, longtime listener Joe, does he remember what Bruce was going to call his arcade?
    17:08
    That I can't remember. See? It's ELO-related, Bruce. Don't bring me down? No. No, you were going to call it Xanadu. Oh, that's true. I was going to call it Xanadu. Yeah.
    17:24
    Xanadu. You can get the newer version where she's dancing. Xanadu. That's in the movie part, not in the soundtrack. Oh, I'm sorry. I've never seen the movie, Bruce. Oh, wow. I'm sorry. You are missing out, Ron. You are missing out. I know there's roller skating and Gene Kelly's in it somehow. Yes, yes. A magical Gene Kelly. I wonder if he knew what movie he was in at that point. What?
    17:55
    I hear Olivia Newton-John is hip and now I need to be in this movie. Disco is where it's at. Or no, that's the other movie. I think Swan from the Warriors is in it as well, if I'm not mistaken. The guy who plays Swan. With the ultimate double shoppy like Xanadu with, let's see, the other one, Can't Stop the Music. So you can watch. You can watch.
    18:17
    Yes, the Little People movie and then Break-Ins 2. That's after. Break-Ins 2, Electric Boogaloo. Electric Boogaloo, yes. Electric Boogaloo.
    18:25
    I might have seen Break-In, I think. It's better than the second one. I don't know. I like the first one. It's more, I don't know, more genuine. The second was ridiculous. I remember when that just became such a big thing in the 80s. I remember going to, as a kid, going to some other kid's birthday party, and they hired break dancers, and they brought their own cardboard.
    18:53
    Because you would just put the cardboard down on the ground so you could do the, you know, all the moves and stuff. And do you spin on your head? Yeah, and all the kids were just like, do the moonwalk, do the moonwalk, because that's the only thing we all knew was the moonwalk. Do the moonwalk so they do the moonwalk. Is the moonwalk? I guess it is break-in. Yeah, that's all anyone was requesting was the moonwalk. Yeah. Well, we're getting off-tangent here. The jammies.
    19:21
    So, you know, I don't want to, this is not a knock on any other award show or anything. I just want to do something fun that's a little uncommon and strange and, you know, basically give awards out to the little people of pinball, like the weird awards, like Best Tattoo or Most Degenerate Washroom at a Pinball Location or, you know, all these kind of weird things that don't get recognized by the big boys, you know, the more established sort of pinball award shows. You know, I'll leave the, you know, best pinball machine, best designer, best play field art and all that stuff. I'll leave that to them. That's fine. But, you know, I want to reward, you know, people who've just done stuff on their own without any – they do it because they're passionate about it, not because they're trying to win any awards or anything like that. So it's a lot of fun. I just want to get people to interact with the Facebook page and post all the crazy stuff they've been working on and doing and anything that's just pinball degenerate related, you know. and the support and the positivity has just been always overwhelming and so great and it's a lot of fun, you know. So what are some of the categories that people can actually nominate themselves? I want more categories.
    20:37
    Oh, now we got him on the spot. Like, ha. Okay, give me a second. Is there like a ceremony of some kind? He's getting the list right. Yeah, yeah, sure. Okay, give me a second here. Hold on, one second.
    20:50
    Pulling up the list. As for our non-Canadian listeners, A washroom is known as a bathroom in the U.S. Okay, a bathroom. A degenerate bathroom. That was last year's award. I just love saying that. Every time I hear, like, Teolis or someone go, washroom, like, uh-huh. But it's where you wash your hands. You don't take a bath.
    21:09
    Well, you do take a bath, too. A truck stop? Yeah. They have truck stop bathrooms. They have showers and everything. A restroom, maybe. I understand a restroom because you relieve yourself. You rest. I understand that. But a bathroom doesn't make any sense. This is from the country that makes ketchup potato chips. Don't forget. So, you know.
    21:30
    We do the all dress, which people do better. I don't understand. Why do you Americans think that ketchup chips is so bizarre? It's potatoes and ketchup. Have you ever had a french fry and dipped it in ketchup? Oh, I love them. Isn't that delicious? I love them. I have bags of them. I have bags of them covered right now from Canada, like when I was up there. It's like I talk to Americans like, oh, my God, that's outrageous. I'm like, what? It's potatoes and ketchup, man. It's like I said to them, like I'm dipping it in blue cheese or something. I don't know, or like forganzola.
    22:03
    It's just ketchup and potatoes and fried potato. What I'll tell people to do is this. In the United States, if you want to try this, try wavy lays with ketchup. You'll like it. Yeah, sure. Give it a shot. What the hell?
    22:21
    Exactly. I am really worried in Canada, boy. You know, back in my day. So, anyway, okay, so we have a bunch of, we have 17 categories this year for the Pinball Degenerate Awards. Ah. First off, we got Most Degenerate Pinball Tattoo. That's from last year as well, because we had a lot of input on that one. That was one of the hottestly contested.
    22:46
    Jessica DiNardo won last year, but we got a lot of applications. and, again, this year as well for Pinball Tattoo. Most Degenerate Ball Save. This has to be recorded in some format and presented on the page. Most Degenerate Pinball Troll. Okay, you guys know who you are.
    23:07
    Bruce, you're in the running for sure. Troll. Most Degenerate Pinball Vehicle. So Bruce won a similar one. And kind of adjacent to this, Bruce won most degenerate pinball hall. So he, like, you know, grabbed, what was it, from Texas? Where'd you go? I went to Arkansas. A cheetah. A $20 cheetah.
    23:31
    I mean, sure, yeah. He spent $220 in gas alone, probably. But I got a $20 cheetah. Totally worth it. Did you mess up a $20 cheetah? Mm-hmm. Yeah, I didn't think so. Mm-hmm. So we have most degenerate DIY topper. Not an official topper. It has to be a homemade homebrew topper, okay?
    23:52
    Most Degenerate Publication. Most Degenerate Homebrew Game. Most Degenerate Pinball Streamer. Most Degenerate Pinball Stance. That's a good one, too.
    24:04
    Most Degenerate Pinball Collection. Wink, wink, Ron. Like the lotto, Ron, if you don't play, you can't win. Is that right? Mm-hmm. Most degenerate pinball score, so just an insane, either a negative score or just an insane, unimaginable number that's so ridiculous. I nominate Travis Murie, score of zero. That was a very late entry, but it is being very well considered at this point. That was unbelievable, the no switch, quote-unquote no switch score of zero-zero.
    24:41
    Yes, definitely up there. We have Most Degenerate Pinball Restoration, Most Degenerate Pinball Operator, Most Degenerate Pinball Event, so this could be a convention or a tournament or whatever, Most Degenerate Pinball Commentator, Most Degenerate Pinball Artist, and Pinball Degenerate of the Year. so there's actually some special awards I'm going to be giving personally I'm going to be donating some money for some of these awards like for example for Pinball Operator it's technically the Alan Seahack Award and I will be donating $100 in the name of the winner of that award to Multiple Sclerosis Foundation for Most Degenerate Pinball Streamer that's actually going to be the Norma Jennings Tribute award, and I'll be donating $100 to the American Cancer Association. And then for the big award, the Pinball Degenerate of the Year award will be dedicated to MyMatchHeats and a $100 donation will be made to the National Alliance of Mental Illness in that winner's name. So we're trying to do a little bit of good as well with recognizing the awesome people in the Pinball Degenerates community. You don't necessarily have to be a member of the Pinball Degenerates to me, it helps. Let's just put it that way.
    26:06
    Because I want people to put stuff on the Facebook page. I want them to contribute. I want them to share whatever they're doing.
    26:13
    So, yeah, that's the idea. And also, when you do an award show, what you don't realize is that, yes, you're celebrating one person, but you end up pissing off, like, 40 other people at the same time. So there's that. Hell, yeah, I like that. so where do I go if I want to nominate someone vote for someone on Facebook we have a Facebook page pinball degenerates just join you can follow the very simple rules of answering just naming a pinball machine that you like to play and you can agree and if you agree to the group rules of just not being a jerk and just you know being a normal decent human being then you're in and yeah You just put your name, post on any page. You just make a new posting. Post somebody's name that you think is worthy of winning the award or yourself. You can self-nominate. And just give, if there's a visual element to it or explain why this person should win, please post that all together, and it will be all considered by simply me because I am going to be the sole, I am the sole singular judge. I am the entire judging panel for this discussion. You're like the Josh Sharp of IFPA. Yes, that's correct. I know Josh says there's a committee. I don't believe him. There's no committee there. Josh says do this, and then they do that. Yeah. I think even his brother, if he says something, yeah, maybe I'll consider it. Maybe. It's all Josh. Yeah. So it's a dictatorship. I agree. But I think it keeps things cleaner that way because then I don't have to go through like, oh, got to submit, like, you know, all the records of the minutes of the meetings and all this nonsense. I'm too lazy for that. I'm way too lazy for that. So I'm just going to pick who I think is worthy, and, you know, hopefully we'll have this multiple years, and if you don't win this year, then hopefully next year, you know? Like, just, you know, there's a lot of – Be more degenerate, yes. Show me how degenerate you are. Put it in a nice way. Don't be a jerk. If I've done steroids in the past, am I banned? Am I like Mark McGuire? I can't get in? That's encouraged. Oh, encouraged. Steroids are encouraged. Okay, I like it. Yeah, as long as you don't harm anyone else. As long as you're just harming yourself. Okay. If you eat a pinball, that's very much encouraged. That's fucking awesome.
    28:40
    Performance enhancers are encouraged. Absolutely. Okay. Absolutely encouraged. Performance enhancers.
    28:47
    I might be on the phone right now. You up. So what's the schedule? Well, when do we have to get our nominations voting? Well, nominations, I should say. You are the voter. We're getting our nominations before midnight on January 31st. So hopefully this comes out before Tuesday because the show is coming out this Sunday, February 6th at 4 p.m. No pressure, Ron. I will do the best I can. No pressure, Ron. Nope. Now. Fucking do it now.
    29:16
    Bruce, you can nominate Ron if you want. Ah, no. I'm a douchebag. Wow. Oh, wow. Bruce has a Degene Award, and he has also a Degenerate Portrait done. So that's two for two for Bruce. Vaughn is zero for zero. I don't have a portrait. You don't have a Degenerate Portrait? Come on, man. That's what everybody's doing.
    29:37
    We're going to have a whole big group on the T-shirt and on the poster. It's going to be epic. We have 64 different portraits at this point, and it's going to be all on a giant poster. It's going to be amazing. it. What do you have to do to get a portrait?
    29:52
    It's $35 that goes almost entirely to the artist. His name is Hex Unzio from Argentina. I ran into this guy on Instagram and I just loved his look. Kind of has like a Beavis and Butthead meets Cabbage Patch Girls, I think. That's kind of how I would describe it. I said, can you do a portrait of me with just pinball stuff destroying my face, like pinballs exploding out of my head and flippers just going into my neck and just killing me in different crazy ways. He's like, yeah, sure. I loved it so much. I posted it and other people really loved it. I was like, you know what? Everybody should do this. So I just asked the whole community who wanted to get their portrait done and then it's just overwhelming. I thought maybe at most we'd get like 20 portraits together. 64. Over 64 at this point. And it's just really awesome to see all the different types of people that are involved in the pinball hobby. The colors that he used, the artists used in the degenerate portraits are awesome. It's going to look incredible on a poster. I'm telling you right now. 64 different full-color portraits. Get ready. It's going to be awesome. Get ready. Degenerates. And that's not even the craziest stuff I've played for this year. I've got some really wild stuff that's just really going to be nuts.
    31:09
    We're going all out this year. 2023 is definitely going to be the degenerate. And Joe has even come down to the world-famous RPC. It has been my pleasure. The Rochester Pinball Collective. Where is that, Bruce? That's at 349 West Commercial Street in East Rochester, New York. Suite 2965. With almost 50 pinball machines for your play. Wait a minute. Still almost 50? Didn't you hit 50 with one? No, you hit a 50. No, we took one out. That's it. You've got to get on Zach's case about this, guys. This is not my call. We do have 50. It's in the back getting fully done.
    31:49
    Okay. And it's rotation eight. Rotation eight. Yep. Okay. She'd be a rotating captain. That's a weird name. Careful where you rotate it. Yes.
    32:03
    Okay. Well, game you like, game you hate. Let's do it. Oh, boy. Here we go. Okay. game I like, I mean that's a no-brainer for me I'm a movie guy, even more than a pinball person, I'm obsessed with movies, movies have been part of my whole life all the time and I gotta say I was obsessed with these movies as a kid and I was obsessed with this pinball machine as a kid and still am ever since it came out Williams Indiana Jones Pinball Adventure it's my it's literally like my favorite of all time. Like, they'll be, it's my Grail game. I don't own one.
    32:46
    I'd love to, but it's so insanely prohibitively expensive right now. Like, even if I sold all my games, I wouldn't be able to afford that game right now. I only have two games. But, I've got a T2 and a Jurassic Park Dead East. And I'm never going to sell those, really. Because I love those games too. But, Indiana Jones Pinball Adventure, it's got the call-ups, it's got the music, it's got all the three Indiana Jones movies that I recognize as being official Indiana Jones movies. I don't care about this. I mean, I'll go see this new Indiana Jones number five, but I know I'm going to get disappointed. It's going to be weird seeing de-aged Dicker Harrison Ford beating up Nazis. It's going to be very strange.
    33:25
    It is Walker. Yeah, I hear it. I'm going to take a nap after this. You're not going to be getting the Jersey Jack Indiana Jones five game? If it's a good game, I'll get it. I mean, if it's a great game, it's a great game, right? Regardless of the theme, I don't care. If it's the phone book and it's a great game, I'll buy it. I'll play it. You know, like, I don't care what the theme is. Yeah, that's like not bad.
    33:48
    But, yeah, I mean, we'll wait and see. We'll see what happens with that. I mean, I would really love to see a new Indiana Jones game because, obviously, the Stern one left a lot to be desired, you know? It sucks hard. It sucks bad. You know, the Ark multiball was cool because, you know, I wasn't into pinball really at the time, and I played it just because of Zinetta Jones. I was like, oh, that's interesting. But then I literally realized almost immediately I could just backhand the left scoop a million times and catch it on the left flipper by just holding it up. I got, as a non-pinball player way before that, I learned that that was an easy exploit. And you just do that again and again, and it just made the game incredibly boring. Yeah.
    34:31
    Any game where you just hit the same shot an increasing amount of times to get – With a safe return, like an insanely safe return, just right to the corner of the flipper, right to the knuckle of the flipper. Like, yeah, I mean, your game fails right there. And then just the whole, like, how do you get a high score? Well, you actually don't do that. You hit the captive ball and do the Kyra Stordsman thing and get a multiplier of infinity or whatever. Like, wow. It's ridiculous.
    35:01
    But, anyhow, I mean, yeah, there's that. But, yeah, the original Williams Indiana Jones Pinball Adventure, you know, the Path of Adventure part on the left is a little wonky sometimes, but I think the reason why it doesn't work for some people is because they don't actually know how to play it. They don't really learn how to actually manipulate it properly, I think, is most people's problem with the game. But it's got John Rhys-Davies doing Call of Jackpot. Too far, Jackpot! You know, like... So good.
    35:38
    So, that's the game I love. I'll always love that game. I'll always want to have that game at some point in my life. I hopefully will. And, yeah, that's the game I love. Game I hate.
    35:50
    Now, this is obviously the most difficult of all of the two questions, and Originally, for a very long time, for like almost a decade, I would have just simply answered volley. Gottlieb's volley. Boom. Hate that game. Especially in competition. If you don't get those pop rollovers on ball one, you're dead. It's over. You lose.
    36:13
    Sucks. It's symmetrical design. It's, yeah, drop targets are great, but when they're worthless, why are you even playing the game when they're not, we don't have the rollovers lit for those drop targets you might as well not even hit those drop targets Just get it back up to the top until you get those rollovers And pray to God it goes into the center one And then pray to God that it goes back up and down Up, up, up, down, over the rollover. On the pop bumper, the thousand roller. No, that's a terrible game. Terrible design. I hate symmetrical games. Especially that one. That's like the definition of a boring, symmetrical, godly. I hate it. But, there's a new number one. Fire. I don't like that man every symmetrical game I could think of sure but like how did they not understand like oh you shoot a ramp oh but the ramp doesn't go up all the way it just comes right screaming right back down at you like nobody realized that that's the most unsatisfying way to shoot a ramp ever to have like a half two half ramp what the hell were you thinking but no that's not my number one right now is ice fever okay, Godlieb's Ice Fever I can't stand that game there's so much stuff in that game and it's all entirely worthless, except for the lit right spinner you just go through an in lane and you hit that spinner when it's lit and that's it, that's the game and I hated it because I had to play it in competition and guess who picked it I was going up against Jeff Teolis Mr. Spinner himself just loves ripping up Spinner but it is such a chore it's the definition of chopping wood it is literally turn your brain off get the ball to roll through one of the inmates or shafts it back and forth if you can and then just shoot the Spinner and shoot the Spinner and then shoot the Spinner more I would rather just go to sleep for like 10 minutes than play that game. No, you have to blame the person who owns the game that had it in competition. That's a huge issue. Let's do that. So, Bruce, is there anywhere I can play Volley?
    38:39
    Yeah, I think there's one place. Where is it? Oh, fuck. They have it at... I think they also have it at District 82, don't they? Yeah, everyone has Volley. Everyone loves Volley. Parallel. Asty Fountain. He hates volley too. Wow. He hates that game. I love volley. I'm pretty sure. I love volley. I'm pretty sure that's the first time.
    39:02
    Volley rules. It's just symmetrical garbage. It's just symmetrical. Wow. There's no difference in height. No, Knight Rider. No, Knight Rider is symmetrical. Countdown. That is symmetrical. Countdown has at least like a crazy amount of drop targets that just makes it impossible. And they're worth hitting off the bat. They're worth hitting. unless, if you don't get those rovers at the top of volley, then it's worthless.
    39:27
    You're shooting yourself in the foot. What's the greatest symmetrical game ever made? That's a good question.
    39:34
    Countdown. Yeah, I'd say Countdown. Tell me one that's better than Countdown. Yeah. It's got to be a dot lead.
    39:42
    I mean, like, half their games were symmetrical games. A lot of the old EMs are going to be symmetrical, but, I mean,
    39:50
    Countdown, man. Yeah, no, I can't say... No, I get it, man. But you gotta understand, that game has more drop targets than any other game ever made, to begin with. And they're worth shooting. They're worth... Like, it's a sharpshooter game. They're worth aiming for. You know? And there's a sequence to it. There's choices that you have to make in that game. When it comes to volley, you just... The skill shot, or you lose the game. You get that skill shot, or you lose. And that just sucks. Tell us how you really feel, Joe. I love the passion. I love it. Yeah, I know. I love it. I'm a majority of people who made that game.
    40:29
    Goddamn, you Wayne Nimes. Why are you picking folly? Oh, that's the best game. Sorry, sorry. It's my best, my favorite EM game, though. It's Sprinter 76. Oh, God. Beautiful game. Incredible game.
    40:46
    Drop targets. The kick-out hole in the middle. it's literally the definition of what people think of when they think of a pinball machine all the America, stars and stripes all over it it's got the chimes, it's got everything that's the most beautiful perfect EEM game ever made honestly I wonder if we just had an episode where people just argued about games I think people would love that you gotta get people with the most different taste in games possible So you just get Zach on there because he hates every game that most people like. So right there you got, you know. It's like, what was that show on MTV back in the day? The Real World. Oh, God. Where we'll have, like, we're going to have this guy from the South who hates gay people, and then we're going to have a gay person, and then we're going to have this person, and then, you know, we want conflict, and, yeah. Oh, yeah. That's what we're going to have.
    41:44
    That's a nice clusterfuck. But isn't that amazing? I mean, but honestly, to get back to the positive side of pinball, like, isn't that amazing that you can talk to somebody who you respect as a pinball player and knows their stuff, and they'll pick a game that they hate that is, to you, the most amazing game ever made, and vice versa. Like, it's so incredible that we have such incredible different tastes and experiences, because, you know, maybe my experiences with the volleys that I've played are not like the experiences that you've played with different volleys, and you had a great experience I had a really shitty one on most of mine so it's all about our own individual subjective experiences and just don't crap on the people for liking what they like or hating what they hate I just think it's awesome that we have I'm sure there's someone out there who loves barbed wire the barbed wire Gottlieb game I don't think so I'm sure there's someone out there who loves it I don't think so, I don't think that's possible Sure. You know, I'm going to find someone. I'm going to go make a poll on pinball degenerates, and someone will admit. I didn't think Waterworld was at that. Waterworld's right. Sink the Gs. It's just amazing so many pinball's opinions can be wrong. It's amazing. No, I'm fine.
    43:04
    You guys are like girts. How exciting is that? So when are the winners announced again? We'll just get back to the G-Genny's. This Sunday, February 5th at 4 p.m. Eastern on Facebook Live on the Pinball Degenerates Facebook page. Be there or be square. Yes. Or be square and be there. That's fine. You're a pinball nerd. Come on. I mean, how lame can you be? So, want to help us go through our topics here? Let's do it. Okay. The first thing I got here is something I went to. InDisc.
    43:43
    Woo! which stands for It Never Drains in Southern California, also known as the Open. The first major, well, actually now that Pinnberg and Papa are not around, it's one of, what, three majors, I think? I think two. This is the European one, isn't it? No, there's EPC, the Open, and the IFPA World Championships. I believe those are considered the three.
    44:08
    Although the IPA one is, you've got to be, what, top 64 to even get in it. Or top 100. Top 100, yeah. Yeah, they just increased it. Oh, really? Yes.
    44:20
    So it was good for me. Yeah, you made some money. I'll say that. The Classics Target Match Play. Explain how that worked, Ron.
    44:30
    Yeah, so the first actual tournament they have is Thursday. They have the Classics Match Play. So the target is 70 points. and basically you're in foursomes. You get seven points if you win, five for second. I think it's three for third, one for last. I think it's seven, five, three, one. It is. And I was not in. I was on the waiting list. When I went there, I was eighth on the waiting list for that.
    45:05
    But enough people didn't show. I got in. So that was cool. Awesome. Then I started winning. I kept winning. The first seven rounds, I finished first.
    45:21
    He was unstoppable rock. Which, yeah. Were they all classic returns? No. But then, let's see, what did I do? Round eight, before the dinner break, I finished third. Finally did not finish first. It got harder when we came back dinner break. But I had people come up like, Ron, you haven't lost yet. Ron, you're doing really good. Ron, you have a chance to win this. Ron, Ron. Ron's like, whoa. Don't put all the pressure on me. Was this recorded?
    45:57
    They started streaming at the end, yeah. When he started doing bad, that's when I said, Oh, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah. When we came back, let's see. Round nine, I think I finished first again, and then they turned the cameras on, and I was on big game and finished last.
    46:17
    Yay. It's so hard. It's a wide body, but it plays so insanely fast. And they were doing all kinds of flipper fancy shit with the bottom flippers that I was like, no, I'm not even going to try to do that. I'll just drain.
    46:33
    So then we went over to Car Hop. and this was hilarious because four of us, including Bo and Terrence, and he's like, I have no idea how to play this game.
    46:46
    He's looking it up on Pintips. I'm like, oh, man, this is not good. Like no one has any clue what to do on this game. So later on during Classics finals, people finally figured out what to do, but we had no clue what to do on this game. What did he do, Ron? What did he do? Give him the info.
    47:02
    Well, once they figured out, what they were doing was, what is it, Hit the top shot so it goes through the left lane, and then you can just trap it on the left flipper, and then you shoot up the right lane, the right orbit, and it comes down and you hit the spinner. And you just repeat that over and over and over and over and over again. If you start any kind of mode, you time it out.
    47:26
    Unless it's the one where it lets you pick the mode, you can do it by hitting the flipper. You just keep flipping like crazy to try to get the catch-up award, which just catches you up to the next closest person to you. What? That was on? Yes. Wow. They allowed that to be on? Yeah. Well, I think in Classics qualifying, nobody noticed it because it was all one-player games. But when they had the finals and that happened, I think they took it out after that. Yeah. But this was before any of that.
    47:52
    So, and I got a catch-up award. That was nice. That I finished, I finished third. I just was short of Bo and Karen's by, like, a couple thousand points. Like, oh, that hurt.
    48:05
    But then I had a chance. The next game was Doodlebug. So basically, if I won Doodlebug, I would have actually won the target match play. I had a chance to win.
    48:19
    We don't want you to run. Love Doodlebug. I love Doodlebug. That's a great game. It doesn't love me. It doesn't love him. That's the thing. It doesn't love me. And I just get annihilated. And this was no exception. I had 20-something K. And here's the funny thing. I played that doodle bug about six or seven times, I'd say, for the weekend, and I got around 20K every single time I played it. So it's very consistent, but consistent suck, unfortunately.
    48:48
    Yeah. Yeah, so I finished last on that. So then the final game ended up on, it was Abracadabra, which I had never played before.
    48:58
    What? Never played Abracadabra. Really? Really. Wow. So your last comment of playing almost every game was false. No, I always say solid state specifically for that reason. I understand. There's tons of EMs I'm sure I haven't played, especially wedge heads and, you know. That's one of the best. I got about halfway through the game when I finally realized, like, oh, you want to hit the lit targets. I noticed there's a light above the target. Yeah, I'm not too bright. But I had another situation where if I finished first and Bowen finished last, I would have won. But I finished second.
    49:38
    Andrew Rosa, Andy Rosa's son, Andrew Rosa finished first. And Bowen did finish last. So I ended up second.
    49:48
    Me and Bowen actually ended up tied, but I had more first place, so I got second. Yeah. You tied for second. Very nice, Ron. Yeah. That was not expected. No, not at all.
    50:02
    I guess I'd have to thank Adam Lefkoff for that. He said, like, what? Because the first time they ever had the Target Match Play Tournament at Indisc was 2020.
    50:16
    And I didn't participate in it because I usually would get in sometime Thursday. And this starts Thursday morning, so you really have to be in by Wednesday playing this. So I arrived Thursday while they were finishing up, and Adam looked at me like, Ron, why weren't you in this? This seems like it would be your thing. Your forte. I was like, well, you're right, Adam. I guess it was my thing.
    50:40
    Congratulations on Ron. That's good. Yeah, that was nice. So Andrew Rose finished first. But to me, that was nothing compared to what happened the next day.
    50:51
    The next day in Classics 1, and again, I'm only playing Classics for the most part because, you know, it's my thing. I probably should have played in the Open. And I probably should have described the tournament because I'm just giving no background whatsoever. So in Indus, they have Classics 1 and 2. Classics 1 is on Friday. Classics 2 is on Saturday. They have the Open, which the qualifying goes from Thursday to Saturday, all the way through Saturday. That's the main tournament. They also have the Women's Tournament. They have a Youth Tournament. And they had a new one this year. They had the, you didn't make the open finals, you're a loser strikes tournament for Sunday, which I played in that. And the high stakes, let's not forget about that. And the $500 minimum requirement high stakes tournament. Holy God. Yep. And they still went to max capacity on that, even with that price.
    51:49
    So Classics won. So you have so many hours to qualify on a bank of Classics games. and going into maybe, I don't know, an hour and a half left, I had two or three entries, and they all sucked.
    52:05
    No, no, nothing really going on there. And it's card format, so it's your whole card. You've got to play four games, and all four games have to be good. It's not like pump and dump. You can't just keep playing the same game over and over until you finally get a good score. It's so freaking hard. It's brutal. And with classics, you only got four games. So basically, if you bomb out a game, you're done.
    52:27
    Well, except in one particular scenario, which happened to me. We're getting to there's not much time left, and I'm trying to figure out what I want to play. I know I'm going to play Meteor and Stargazer because they're stars. It's in my contract. I have to do that. But what are the other two games I'm going to play? And thanks to Robert Byers, he suggested, you should play Rock. Stop playing that hard. It's just You just light one spinner and you hit it And you light the other spinner and hit it What did he say? It was like What's the golly game With the awesome music With the spinners All I had to say was awesome music And everyone So I played Brock And I got 2.8 million, 3.8 million, whatever it was And I have no idea if it's a good score because I'm ignorant. I didn't look to see what any of the scores were. But it asked me for my initials. Like, oh, that's got to be decent.
    53:29
    I put my initials in. I look. Number one score. I'm wrong. It's like, whoa, okay. That's a good start. So what do I play next?
    53:39
    I decide to play Viking, which the first time I played it, I didn't get over 100K. Like, I just did absolute shit, dog shit on it. But it's a valley. So, again, I have to. It's my gimmick. So I played that. I got two million.
    53:56
    And, yeah, I killed that. It's like I wonder, and I look, number one score. I have two number ones in my first two games. Oh, boy, here we go. With my two games that I actually won a play last. So, like, okay, don't fuck this up. Well, I did. I got on Meteor and did absolute nothing. Didn't even get 100K. Like, ah, well, there goes that entry. Was the Kirk post installed? Yes. and they had the posts on either end were rubberized. It was fine. It was a very fair playing meteor. Wow. All on me, I must say.
    54:32
    So, like, okay, that card is shit. But there's really no time left. I'll play out Stargazer. And the Stargazer they had, the spinners were awesome. It was playing good. I played it a couple times, stuck both times. But I just felt there's a big game here. I could feel it. There's a big game here.
    54:52
    Well, I had the big game there. I ended up with a 3 million number one score with 15 minutes remaining. And I look, and I'm like 27th. That's what three number ones. I'm 27th because that one score. Basically, anyone who played Meteor would knock me down further. Boom, boom, boom, boom. But there's only 15 minutes left. Someone did beat my rock score, so I ended up. So I had a 2, a 1, and a 1. But still, that just shows like you get one Bad score Oh yeah, unless we're getting one It's ridiculous It has to be all gold for four games It has to be all gold All gold And actually I have the page up here I think I was 22, how good is my memory? 27th, damn, good job Ron Yeah, first in Viking, first in Stargazer Second on Rock, and we won't talk about Meteor Then in the playoffs I lost I think I had last, last, and second on my three chiefs. But I didn't care at that point. It's just like, yes, I feel like I won.
    55:57
    You made it. I made it. I'm winning. And then Classics 2, I think it's because it was Saturday, there was about 20 more people, which made a big difference in the queues. The queue times were starting to get really bad, where you are in a void re-queue situation if you fail. If your first game was shit or something, you just have to start over.
    56:26
    And honestly, I already thought I was way ahead of the game, so I think I put two entries in maybe. I didn't put a ton because I didn't have a lot of time. And it's like, eh, it's fine.
    56:37
    I'm cool not making it. Because I was on the – they had an announcer's schedule. announcers had when the stream was on they actually had a schedule and I was yeah I was supposed to announce Thursday the target match play but I was in it I ended up being in it so I couldn't do that and the classics I was on there but again I was in it so I ended up not announcing but classics too I was not in it so I got to announce and what I didn't realize as I found out later was that somehow IE Pinball, Carl D'Angelo's channel that was doing the stream, they ended up getting on the front page of Twitch. So when we went live with Classics 2 finals, and I was announcing, there were over 10,000 people watching.
    57:30
    He's like, hold on, hold on, freeze. Did you plug? Did I plug? I don't think I plugged. Fuck! I'm sorry.
    57:38
    But the thing is, I didn't know there was 10,000 people watching. And I was looking around for the chat, and there was no, there was nothing, it didn't show the chat anywhere. And I guess in the chat, people were complaining, they're not paying attention to the chat.
    57:54
    So about an hour into the stream, Carl brings over an iPad with the chat on it. You know what the first comment I read in chat was? Like the first comment I saw.
    58:05
    Any guesses? Oh, fuck. It literally was, it just said, so is this just white dudes? That literally was the first time.
    58:15
    Thank you, Internet. So I didn't really read the chat much after that. But, yeah, I got to announce. That was nice.
    58:25
    That was cool. And my boy Jack Tappman came in second. Jeff Cholas came in third, I believe, in Classics, too. Keith L1 won. He got first, and Johnny Ledeca got fourth, I think. Yeah, I recognized Tadman this time. He had gone with a different look since the beginning of COVID. Yeah, he grew his hair out long and got, like, a full beard and all that, and I literally did not even know it was Jack Tadman. And then at InDisc, he was back to Jack Tadman classic look. I'm like, oh, it's classic Tadman. Okay, now I recognize you.
    59:00
    Let's see, what else? Well, my story. Then Sunday, they had the You Didn't Make the Open Losers Tournament,
    59:10
    which was they just did, I think, a three-strikes tournament. No, it was eight strikes. Eight strikes, progressive strikes.
    59:16
    So if you finish first, you get no strikes. Second, two, you get a strike. Third, you get two strikes. Fourth, you get three strikes. I got a bunch of strikes.
    59:26
    Well, I started good, and then I got a bunch of strikes in the middle, and then I staved off elimination a bunch of rounds in a row and ended up getting ninth. overall out of like 120 something people. So that was cool. So yeah, classics. Go classics.
    59:43
    Trying to think of any other stories here. We'll go over the winners. Ashley Weaver won women's finals.
    59:55
    The youth tournament, that was, I don't remember his last name. His first name was Liam. Liam won the youth tournament, and I know this because he was in Classics 1 playoffs.
    60:07
    Oh, man. He's like 10 years old. He made Classics 1 playoffs. I'm like, oh, my God. It's like, here's another one. I'm sure we'll see him. It's never a good sign when you're playing against a young child, and they know all the call-outs of a game, and they're like, by heart, you're like, oh, boy, this kid's so wild. I think the Sunday strikes was Luke Nahorniak. I think he won. if I remember. Let's see, what else? Then you had the... Who won all the Classic stuff?
    60:40
    I think you just said before, let me see. Classics 1 was... Jason Zahler won. Zahler, yeah. And then Classics 2... You named Daniele and Zach for Classics 1. And in Classics 2, Keith Elwin. Yeah, Keith Elwin played in three tournaments. He played in Classics 2, the Open, and the high stakes. He won Classics two and finished second in the other two. Pretty good average. He doesn't play tournaments anymore.
    61:09
    That's why he's the GOAT. He is the GOAT. I'm the GOAT. I'm the most degeneratist of all time. There you go. He is the greatest of all time.
    61:19
    And the Open was won by Escher in a What a finale. Awesome game of Flash Gordon. Go out on your way to see it. Go to IE Pinball and check out. He won by, what was it, 70,000 points? I have the numbers. He won by a difference of 5,460 points between his total score of 1.5 million and Keith's was at like 1.4 million.
    61:45
    Yeah. By less than 6,000 points. Yeah, on Flash Gordon. And the crazy thing was that Elwin was smashing those left bonus targets on the left, the drop targets on the left and just getting bally-bricked. If he had just gotten one or two of them dropped down, he would have won.
    62:05
    And Travis Murray was third. He managed to accomplish something on bad girls I don't think I've ever seen. I don't think anybody's ever seen. And it wasn't a malfunction. It turns out this is how it actually – and actually, I like this bit of programming. I think we should re-institute this. Basically, he was soft plunging trying to get the skill shot. Oh, he's not soft plunging. He was trying to get the skill shot, but if he didn't hit any switches, he would just let it drain.
    62:31
    You know, no play-fill validation. He tried again. So he does it once, drains. Okay. Twice, drains. This was on ball one. Does it the third time, it drains, and it just goes from player three. He's player three. It goes from player three to player four. And he's just looking like, what happened? He literally has a score of zero for ball one. Zero-zero. And I guess In single Like in qualifying They're one player games You can do it all day And you'll never lose your turn But in a multi-person game If you sit three times And you're out And it just goes to the next player Love it I love that rule I want to see that in Jackpot I want to see that in all these games Imagine Whitewater Trying to make that skill stride At the top To keep it on the upper playfield And you only got three tries What do you think, Bruce? Would you like that rule? I would love that rule.
    63:25
    Bruce is on mute. I am on mute. I love that rule. Yeah, you get three strikes, you're out. Like, if you fail the salt plunge thing or whatever you're trying to do in three tries, your ball's over. We just go to the next. Move on. Once. Move on. Twice. Three times, you're gone. I'm good, Brady. Three times.
    63:44
    Yeah, I love that. Sometimes watching people do that over and over and over, it's like, okay, come on. It doesn't stream well. Oh, yeah, that was the other thing. So when I'm announcing Classics 2, well, when I was watching Classics 2 qualifying, I noticed there was this meta that people had discovered on Cheetah where basically you just hit the left orbit, it goes up, comes down, and you just do that over and over and over. And it's running Scott's ROM on it too. So you can only do the one collect. But still, when you hit the switch in the left orbit, it gives you one through five targets. And when it comes back down into the in lane, it gives you another one of them. So that's what people were doing. It was boring as fuck. And I'm watching it, and I'm like, because I know I'm announcing the first round, and I'm thinking they're going to pick this, and it's going to suck. I'm going to have to announce this. And Carhop, where they figured out the meta, and they were just playing that, the same, like, two shots over and over, and I'm thinking, like, ah. This isn't good for pinball. This isn't going to be good for the stream, and I'm thinking, but I know the players are going to pick this shit. And I went over to Carl, and I said, I told him, they're going to pick Carhop, and they're going to pick Cheetah, and it's going to suck. I'm just warning you before the stream starts. And guess what they picked?
    65:04
    Those two. Yeah. Yeah, I got to announce Cheetah and try to make someone hitting a left orbit 30 times in a row exciting. Oh, my God, he did it again. Oh, my God. Boom! Look at that. It's a real thing. No. So after the game that we had to endure, Jim Belsito went over there, pulled two of the posts, and bent the metal so you couldn't do that anymore. Nice. Yeah, so that was the end of the Cheetah meta. And then for, I think, Carhop, once the Ketchup Award, it became obvious, like, oh, Ketchup, they're gone. Yeah. Eject. But, yeah. Unfortunately, that was the only bad thing is I had to announce those games. Like, ugh.
    65:47
    Oh, well. And finally, the winner of the high stakes was Kaylee George, I believe. That's correct. And that was in disc.
    65:58
    Great time, as always. I did, as far as for the only, let's see, the second time ever? Yeah, I think only the second time ever I had to fill out a tax form.
    66:07
    Because I made over $600. You made it, Ron. You made it. Not a big time, boy. The other time was Pinberg, the C Division, whatever. That's the only two times I've had to do the tax forms thing. Make the money. Yeah. Which I got the money after the fact. Like, I remember Pinberg, it was when they were still doing, like, you get a check. Yes. That year I got it. And Indus was doing a thing where they contacted me afterwards and actually PayPal-ed it to me. Yep, which was cool. That was cool.
    66:38
    So, yeah. Congratulations, Ronald. Thank you. Check it out. Maybe next year. Well, speaking of play better, we'll get to the very next weekend. I'm playing in the New York State Championship. The SPS, the State Championship Series. Were you playing in that, Joe? I already played in my provincials. I came in 10th. So you did play it? Yes. You finished better than I did. Way better. Okay. Yes. Well, we both finished better than Bruce because he didn't make it. I didn't make it because I had a COVID breakout at my work, and I was exposed. So I didn't want to get anybody sick possibly if I was exposed. Thank you, Bruce, for doing that, though. Well, I stayed. I was home the whole weekend and the day after. And then guess what? Nobody got sick at all. Yeah. You never know, man. So for those who think Bruce is an asshole, well, you're right. But at least he's a considerate asshole. He was packing his bags to go. That was. And I got the call from my boss. He said, hey, you know, we got a problem here. You know, you better get tested, and you better keep on getting tested, and don't come in until then. So he did not get to go to the world-famous Rock Fantasy. Oh, darn!
    67:54
    For the, yes, the state finals. I got beat by Nick, Nick Zendayos, then the eventual winner. I screwed up all the final people. That was the funny thing about it. Because everyone was all set on their person. and then when I jumped out, all the brackets got all screwed up and everyone was like, oh. See, you were an asshole even when you weren't there. I know. I love it.
    68:17
    But, yeah, whoever beats me usually wins it. It's this weird thing. I don't know what that is. But, yeah, neither of us were. New York State men.
    68:32
    What? Upstate New York men were 0 for 4. Okay, cool. The men coming from New York State. Upstate. So you had Eric Russell. Yeah, Upstate sucked. We did not represent well at all. No. Zach, the number one seed in New York. Number one seed. 4-0. Out. Whoa.
    68:52
    Yeah. Eric with 4-2 or 4- I forget what he won. I think he won 4-2. And Andy Cushman, out. Damn. Yeah. But Steph got- Seth was out 4-2, but at least he won two games. I didn't win shit. Yeah, I picked ACDC because that particular ACDC I almost never lose on at Rock Fantasy. And other than starting one multiball, which was the only multiball I ended up starting the entire series, I lost that in a fairly low-scoring, shitty game.
    69:30
    Then what did I pick? I picked Cactus Canyon. Lost that. Never started a multi-ball. Picked Dracula. Bram Stoker's Dracula. Lost that. And none of these games were very high scoring. Then I said, fuck it. I picked Rush. And I lost at that.
    69:49
    I knew it was bad. When I came in, Cheetah was broke. Cheetah was down. That was going to be one of my picks. Like, oh, well. Yeah, not good. How did you do, Joe? You at least made it past the round. Yeah, yeah. I was up against a fellow named Sean Russell in the first round, and I knew going in it was going to be like a 50-50 split. Like, he's very, very good, and we had probably the most epically even-matched battle I've ever played in pinball. Like, it was just unbelievable. Like, he got – we played Ali. He got, I don't know, at ball one he had, like, maybe 400,000 points, and then I got like 700,000 points and then he got over a million point two and then I got over a million point six. It was just like, it was like blow for blow, back and forth, back and forth, all the games. And I made it through to the second round and had to play Mr. Pinball Profile himself, Jeff Siolis.
    70:51
    And he beat me in a really quick match of big game. That was just like, it was, Both our scores were so laughably bad. It could have gone either way, really, to be honest, but he beat me. And then I believe he beat me on Meteor pretty convincingly. I just could not get that spinner going ever. I just couldn't max it out when I shot it, couldn't get it when it was all maxed out. But I was able to beat Jeff on one game, which is a personal victory for me. I was able to beat Jeff on Frontier, which I know is one of his personal favorites. He's very good at it. I love Frontier. I hate Frontier. He's very good at Frontier. Yeah, he lost at Pinnberg on it, so Bruce hates it forever. I hate Frontier.
    71:40
    Little crickets. Fucking crickets. Come on, Keith Allen loves it. He has a Frontier t-shirt. That's all you need to know. It's a great game. Yes, that's right. And so I was happy that I at least took one game out to his four. and yeah, he was a better player and he went on and of course, it was at Adam Becker's place, the press start It was at his place, because I was watching some of the stream and I'm looking like is that his place? Like, yeah, I think I know it was winning. Yeah Adam Becker took first, John Flitten took second, I think It went pretty late, like it went until like about two in the morning, I think so you just go right into bed right after, he's like, yeah, thanks for the trophy, okay Good night. Bye. That's nothing. You just got to go to four in the morning. Yeah. That's pretty cool. No way. So Adam took the Ron Hallett approach. You play in your own place. Yeah. And that's where you work. I highly recommend it. It's a good thing. You build it. You deserve it. Yeah. That will come.
    72:41
    Yeah. So they finished at two in the morning. That was early. The West Coast State Finals finished before Illinois. They play until 4 in the morning central 5 a.m. eastern the next day The field is insane though Illinois and Seattle probably or Washington probably have the deepest field of most talented Like, it's crazy. Yeah, the final match series went seven games between Andy Bagwell and Raymond Davidson. And Raymond, like he did every round, he picked Simpsons.
    73:21
    And, you know, there's certain games that you would say certain players are the best in the world at. Like, never play so-and-so in this game. Never play so-and-so in this game. Do not play Raymond Davidson on Simpsons. I think I could say he's the greatest Simpsons player alive. He basically got the super-duper, what's it called? Super-duper, mega-extreme wizard mode in the final game. Yeah. What's going through your head with your Andy? I mean, Andy's an incredible player, too. Don't get me wrong. He deserved to be there, I'm sure, 100%. But isn't it the most insanely discouraging thing to see, like, someone put up just a master's piece of a game, and you're like, well, I'm done. What are you going to do? I'd be like, I should have beat him earlier, because he was saving that for game seven if he needed it.
    74:14
    Let's see. The biggest upset to me was Jason Zahler did not win Delaware. Yeah, I know. I was very surprised. They played in the Delaware Pinball Collective. Which is his home place. Yeah, something out of ten tournaments he played in there, he won nine of them. It was some just obscene thing where I just figured, like, this is the ultimate hometown advantage. But, no, he did not win. Yep. I'm trying to think if there were any other upsets.
    74:41
    I mean, most states who you thought would win probably won. Yes. For the most part. Like Dillon down in Georgia. Dalton, not Dillon. Sorry, Dalton. Not Dillon. It is not predator. And then, what's his name from South Carolina who owns Bang Back? Fred. Fred? You won, yep. Yeah, there's a lot of regulars that you saw come and make it. So when's the national? Do you guys know what it's set for? It's in Wisconsin on March 14th or something like that or right around there. That sounds right. Yeah, right around there. I've got to get out there to District 82, man. That's crazy. I sent you a text, Ron. Personal text. Oh, a personal text. Yes. That I'm going to announce during this. Okay. Yes. If you click on it, you'll be very happy to go to it. Okay. Is it a text or is it a messenger PM? Because I don't have a text. What did you do on your phone? I'm looking at my phone. I didn't get it. You didn't get it yet? What the fuck? Remember, I have terrible cell reception here. I know you do. Yeah. When you get it, you can talk to me about it. Okay. Not to the listeners, just you? No, no. Everyone. Oh, everyone. It's a good joke, but it's funny. Oh, it's a good joke, but it's funny. But it's funny. What? It's a good joke, but it's funny also. Uh-huh. I think we have a title. It's a good joke, but it's funny. I got it wrong. Okay.
    76:11
    What else do I have? What else is on the list there, Killer? Spooky's building a 12,000-square-foot new building across the street. But I hear that it's just for, like, storage and administration, so it's not really, like, they're not really increasing the line capacity. Yeah. So temper that expectation. Yeah. And they hired a guy named Scott Innes? Right, he's a voice actor? He's got a bunch of the Scooby-Doo villains? Points. I'm expecting some great call-outs in that game. Yeah, but it's so weird because the game is being built, and they're hiring people to do voices for the game as it's being built. That's just weird. Sure. That's kind of like – Well, you see how good they are with their software updates for Halloween. But, I mean – It's not going to have a complete game for another year anyhow. What are you expecting, realistically? Stern kind of did that with Star Trek. If you remember, they got Carl Urban. It was way late in the project. All of a sudden, his voice started popping up like, oh, thank God. They had a lot of really bad speech in that game earlier. They had to be placeholders. They were really bad. We're in trouble. Who's going to stop them? You? We're in trouble, Captain. You can tell it's just an employee. Come on, just put a line here. Put a line here. Come up and speak the line. You have a bronze medal. Boom, cha, ca, pa. Somebody already has a Spooky Scooby-Doo launch party scheduled in February in Ohio. Oh. So it's probably one of the first places you'll be able to play it. I think it's at the garage, that place that's in Ohio.
    77:51
    There's lots of garages in Ohio. No, it's called the People Garage. So Spooky had a Scooby-Doo gameplay video. Way to announce it, you know. Well, they announced it. What they should have done is worked it up three days. Hey, guys, something cool is coming up. They kind of did. I thought they had a picture of them filming it saying, hey, look what we're doing. You build stuff up and make people go, oh, yeah. Oh, yeah? Like Macho Man? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah, brother. Marketing expert, Bruce Nightingale, ladies and gentlemen.
    78:27
    No, I cannot take that title. Did you watch any? I haven't. That's like 40 minutes long. I haven't watched any of it yet. I watched a little bit of it. Yeah, I watched it, too. I thought it was great. Honestly, I'm very excited for the game. I think that... It is definitely alpha stuff. Sure, but already they have some really good, fun modes that make sense, and the shots look really fun and clean and smooth. It doesn't look clunky. As many shots as there actually are in the game, the way they use the diverter, you can actually use the top of that library diverter to smack the ball to the right it's really interesting and I think it's going to be a really fun game I think everybody who is a Scooby Doo pinball fan is going to be more than satisfied but I would never buy that game I wouldn't touch just the build quality alone I literally I just wouldn't buy it I'd love to play it but maintaining that game I hate maintaining pinball games in general but the amount of work that's going to go into that I'm sure is going to be tough and I wish Spooky the Best are a great you know, Rags to Riches story, Underdog story I love the whole Spooky thing, they're great people but man, like as a potential buyer, I'm not convinced of their build quality, that they're ready for prime time their themes are fantastic they've got Rick and Morty They've got contemporary themes that speak to a living generation. Like a real... I was just like, relevant themes. I'd argue they're second or third in themes, as far as manufacturers go. I don't know. You like Toy Story 4? You think Toy Story 4 is a relevant theme? Well, no. Guns N' Roses was. Yeah, no. Guns N' Roses is old. Toy Story 4 was the wrong Toy Story. Yes. They got Rick and Morty. Rick and Morty's out, you know. They got Scooby-Doo. It's old, but everyone knows Scooby-Doo. Scooby-Doo still has new, like, shows. Yeah, Thelma. That did well.
    80:39
    But it's still relevant. It's still relevant. But they're still basing it off this 1969, 1970 stuff. Sure, but I mean, so is Star Wars. Like, Star Wars is still relevant. It's from the 77. All right, the important question is, did Scooby-Doo still have the penises?
    80:58
    It does. Yeah, I think so. They probably kind of modified that. No, they better not. I'll cancel my order for that. Bruce, they're literally just decals. Because I saw some of the aprons before they put the decals on, and it doesn't really look as much like a penis without the decal on it. Just change the decal to something else. No.
    81:17
    I demand penises. My penises. Good lord. I'm Bruce Owens 5's Quicksilvers I just There's those green penises all down them He gets his game, refuses Like refuses to ship it, like no I want my penises I want my green peni Okay, we'll send you the decals sir, you can put them on Thank you, I'll have my penises Yeah, like Elvira The, what do they call it The, um The duty cover up Yeah, but they had a name for it It wasn't modesty cover Modesty. Was it modesty? Okay. A modesty cover. All right. I got your text finally, Bruce. Yay. I can go. I can go for days on that. I can spend a day up close and personal with Gene Simmons. That's right. Did you know I've spent 50 plus years acquiring a legendary collection of Kiss memorabilia? Like, wait a minute. Gene Simmons has spent 50 plus years acquiring a legendary collection of Kiss memorabilia. I mean, well, yeah. Yeah, he's Kiss. So how much does it cost to hang out with a weekend with Gene Simmons? Well, wait a minute. Now it's time for you to hang out with me.
    82:31
    Oh, God. Are you ready for a day, all day you can spend with Gene Simmons? I'm scrolling down. Where's the price here? Oh, here we go. Okay. Here we go. The price for the entire package where you can spend two days with me, Gene Simmons, of Kiss, Oh, and a guest is only $5,000. You know, that's actually not bad. That's actually a deal. And if you want a base with it, like in classic Axe or the Punisher base, it's $6,500 total. Yes, if you don't want some of my cool items, if you'd rather have the Axe Punisher base, it'll be $6,500. That's right, Bruce. In Vegas. In Vegas, of course. So what happens in Vegas? So you get a full 48 hours or what? You get two personal items. Bring your Kiss pinball machine. You get two personal items that you get signed and photos with Gene Simmons. Gene Simmons will perform with his band. Close, intimate experience. That's worth it. Gene will take the stage and share stories about items that he's passing on to his fans. He will present you personally with selected items from his collection.
    83:43
    You'll see your package before the event. Oh, my. See your package. Wow. And you get the bid on items that's never been seen before, offered out to the public, that were owned by Gene Simmons. So, like, Gene Simmons used a condom. Gene Simmons used a condom that broke. Wow. One of his kids. You can buy it. Now, if you scroll all the way down, for $10,000, you can get my wig.
    84:08
    Again, that's a deal. I'm sure that thing will be $20,000 after he dies. That's a deal. Like, I'm just saying, like, if I, like, you told me, like, $5,000 to meet George Lucas, I'd be like, for two days and hang out with him and talk Star Wars all day long. $5,000? Not bad. It costs less than any Stern pinball machine. Yeah. You'll get some old tour. Or a topper, even. Jesus. Here's what you get. Each package will include some old tour crew, media passes, nice assortment of other pieces from Gene's collection. At least one one-of-a-kind item, like original negative from the Dynasty shoot. original proof of written connections with Gene's makeup, that kind of stuff. One personal worn item of clothing. This is one of Gene's scarves. A certificate of authenticity.
    84:57
    Oh, boy. You get it all for this. $6,500. For another $500, you can get my personally worn underwear. Yes. Oh, my. Today. Today only. Don't delay. Skid marks optional. I'm sorry.
    85:20
    Put your name in, Ron. Thank you, Bruce. Thank you. Put your name in. There's nothing you can't monetize. Jesus Christ. That is Gene Simmons. Okay. Well, speaking of, instead of helping Gene out, you can help us out here at the Slant Show Podcast. Listeners, I need your help. Yes. So I got a message from the Twippy Crew that they are looking for 30 seconds of clips from the Slamtail podcast. And we need good ones, so we look good. And contrary to popular belief, I don't listen to the show. He doesn't, except for editing. When I edit and it's out there, that's it. I don't want to hear it again, and I don't want to go back and listen to old shows. So it's 30 seconds, and probably the first 10 is going to be at least, coming to you from beautiful upstate New York, this is the Slamto Podcast. You're all about all things pinball. That'll be at the beginning. So at least 20, 25 seconds of clips, or if there's just one awesome clip that's 20, 25 seconds, whatever. I think we do either the condom machine. We do the condom machine. No, no. That's like four years ago. No. It has to be from last year. Oh, fuck. because it doesn't really make sense, because it's for, you know, last year's episodes, etc.
    86:38
    If you could help us out, you don't have to send me the, if you know where the clip is, just give me the episode and the time stamp, where it is, that's all, and I can put something together. Because I don't know half our bits at this point. Really, just pull a blunt in. So if you have just the episode number and the time stamp, And you can send it to our email at slamtiltpodcast at gmail.com. That's slamtiltpodcast at gmail.com. Help us out. Hang on. Help is on its way. Do you want to hear the clip before they announce the award we won't win? Yes. Oh, come on, guys. No, it's a popularity contest, and we couldn't even win like that. Dude, I also got to put you guys number one, my top pick. Thank you. Not a joke. It's 100% true. You guys are my top pick. Pinball profile number two, and then head-to-head number three. We're not here for popularity. We've proven that. You've got to break the cycle of evil, okay? Let's break the cycle of madness here. Well, the funny thing is the person is going to win as about around 600 paid subscribers, but it will get way more than 600 bucks. I know, exactly. But the thing is, I think I have the opportunity to be a three-time in one year loser.
    88:02
    Because at Silver Ball Chronicles, we were nominated. We're top. Actually, I'm trying to think. Was Slam Tilt nominated for the pinball awards? No, we weren't. We weren't? Okay. So. Fuck you, Manny. Fuck you. Whoa. So. So we had. Take a look at my Monopoly. Fuck you.
    88:22
    Wow. I've got words about your monopoly there So he lost that I'm up for two of them Two different podcasts for Twippy We'll lose both of those So I'll be three losses in one year Once And no D. Jennings Susan Lucci award is what I'm Three times a lose I got nominated again And I lost again Yeah that's a hard one to go against I mean the guy's Working like crazy I mean, the guy's, you know, he's always got a post thing. He's always bringing out new stuff that nobody else has. I mean, yeah. I mean, so, like, hey, man, like, that's awesome. Just to be honest, it's really, truly surprising for me to be nominated. I didn't know. I don't think anybody knew what the nominations were. No, no. Not anybody knew until they made their say. Oh, wow. Holy shit. And the cool thing is actually they named Joe Cervino and the Degenerates, like, as the nominee. So it's like the whole community, which is awesome, you know? Sounds like a band. Joe Cherubino and the DJs. Joey and the DJs, yes.
    89:29
    So the Pinball Awards, which was done by the Pinball Network, which I am on, with my other podcast, the Silver Ball Chronicles.
    89:38
    Okay. It aired last night, January 28th. They had a two-hour, exactly two hours. They timed it out very well. two-hour award show on YouTube.
    89:51
    I can't find the runners anywhere. Yeah, I know. So I'm going to try to do it from memory here. I'll try to help you out. I'll watch it, too. Art, Cabinet, and Backglass. That went to Toy Story. Okay. That's very, very good. I agree with that. Let's see. Art on the Playfield. I think that went to Toy Story. I think so, yeah. It should have went to Fathom, in my opinion. How is there a better Playfield? Isn't that weird giving a game that's like 40 years old? It is weird, but if you're giving me that as an option, like, here are your options. I'd be like, fathom.
    90:25
    Yeah, Bruce. It looks amazing. Don't get me wrong, but it's just like. When they were giving out nominations, they were doing these little digs, I think, on some of them. Oh, yeah, they were. Bruce was in there because when they said the nominees for best, you know, in a podcast or whatever, it was Super Bowl Chronicles, the one without Bruce Nightingale, which I thought was funny. But they had for When they had Oh, Fathom What's it called again? Revisited? Revisited Yeah, Fathom Revisited See, we didn't forget it Oh, man They had a bit of a dig at the end For the Twippies as well Oh, yeah At the very end As it got cut off They had something that was Kind of like a little bit of a A little bit of a Backhanded Yeah, they might want to lay off the digs Yeah, I think so Unless it's about Bruce Then it's No, then fuck you, Manny Oh, dude. Where is that? Brendan Bridges. Hey, hold on. Let me get out the gasoline, boys and girls. Jesus. The call-out was Weird Al. Yes. I believe. Just Herman. I agree with that one. Lighting effects was Rush?
    91:34
    Yeah. Without the expression lighting, too, which is... Yeah. Well, we have an LE, so we see it. Where is the expression lighting? Even Zach Minney during the pro, it's like, where's the expression light? Yeah. But honestly, I would have gone Fathom. Fathom was just... Yeah, Fathom's not that good. With the lighting? Yeah. The lighting underneath the thing where it looks like it's... And it's cool, but it's not that good. Okay. Theme integration. Alien.
    92:00
    Yeah. I totally... Yeah. Toys. There was none. Yeah, there really was none, so I don't know who won that. I don't know. I'm pretty sure it was Weird Al. Weird Al? Okay. Oh, I can see that with the five shots. All right. Maybe the hamster wheel or something. Yeah. I think that's deserving as well. We got some cool shots, cool mechs in there. Some good Tima.
    92:23
    Rules went to Rush, of course. Yeah. Music went to, I think, Rush. Yes. Yeah. So, again, like, what? We're going to give the band the award? What's going on here? Sound effects went to, I don't remember.
    92:39
    Oh. Oh, wait, Alien. I think it was Alien. Yeah, Alien. I think it was Alien. I'd go for that. See, Animation, Display, and Effects, that went to Toy Story. Yeah, again, Pixar. Thanks.
    92:54
    Innovation went to Weird Al, I believe. Yeah. Layout went to Rush. Game of the Year, I guess. And Game of the Year went to...
    93:05
    Hey, I have the premiums, not Den of Shaw. Okay. The game of the year went to Rush. Yeah. And who was the best podcaster, Ron? Since it wasn't us. Oh, yeah, it doesn't stay. Wait a minute. Where was it the other awards? That must have been. Best podcast went to the pinball show. Oh, it was excellent. Yeah, it went. No, not straight down. The YouTube one. The video went straight down the middle. And then the excellence in podcasting, they call it, went to the pinball show.
    93:35
    So I got to see Dennis Creasel twice. That was the highlight for me of the stream. Like, there he is. Yeah, they had the pinball awards, or the machine awards. And they had the two nominees for, oh, the Hall of Fame. They add pinball machines to the Hall of Fame, which I think is a cool idea. But then they always do the same. They did, for EMs, they did Wizard and Captain Fantastic. Like, ah. Yeah. There are way better EMs than us, too. I know they sold a shitload of them, and everyone knows what they are, and they're famous. But they're boring.
    94:12
    There's so many better EMs out there. Oh, totally. I know they're having problems with, like, you know, the decade of, like, the aughts, you know, 2000, 2010. Why don't you just make it post-2000 award? Yeah, exactly. Make it easier. Just solve the problem by making it post-2000 award, and you're good. The 21st Century Award for pinball. Yeah, sure. There you go. We did get mentioned, Bruce. We did? On what? About how we've made Stars the popular game it is today. Of course we did. Yeah. That is a fact. Did that win? They had like this $70 date. I literally left the room, I think, right at the point. I came back and all of a sudden I hear Slamtail Pocket. Whoa, they mentioned us. What? Yeah, it was Stars. All right, Stars. Okay, not fuck you, Manny. Not fuck you.
    94:57
    You got unfucked? He probably didn't vote for Stars, though. I didn't. I know he didn't. Yeah. In the TPA, did you guys vote as, like, judges? I did. I always forget, and I leave it last night, and I fucking forget. We didn't get the links until, like, five hours before. No, no. Yes, I did not get the first link. I did not. And he said, I have the email saying, you probably didn't get the first one. I re-sent it again. And I said, oh, I just got it. I did not get the first one, Ron. I did. Don't say you. Maybe you did. I did not. It's probably in your spam folder. I checked my spam. I look at my spam all the time. It's got all the ups and everything in there, like, you know, arthritis pain and about nail fungus.
    95:49
    First of all, I'm on SPG and endo pump. I get to make fun of that. All right. We don't need to hear about your spam, Bruce. Of course. I went from two inches of night to death, and my ex-husband humiliated me of it. This is actually Bruce's inbox. This is not his checklist. We have a new segment. It's called Bruce's Spam. Alpha here.
    96:11
    This is terrifying. It's turning into a horror podcast. Okay. Stern Insider had their year in review thing, which was pretty interesting. It's interesting. It's a lot of data. Yeah, it gives you all this data. I like the one where it tells you how good you are on ball one, ball two, and ball three. And they're judging you. Obviously, you're going to be the highest scoring ball three, because that's where usually most games culminate into your highest scoring ball, is using your ball three, right? That just makes sense. Your work. Your general progression.
    96:47
    I thought it was cool. It is not very cool to have that info. Don't get me wrong. It was really cool that they did that. Yes, I like it. You know what's really cool? Or maybe not. their exclusive Bond topper. Oh, yeah. Oh, wait a sec. The marketing really needs to proofread their wording on these things. No, I don't think that was the case. I think that originally they wanted to make it exclusive, and then they're like, oh, we can make more money. Okay, let's do that. Yeah, but you made your marketing department look stupid. Which has happened a lot with this release. What we're talking about is the Bond 60th, the Super LA or whatever, has a topper. And in the wording it said, exclusive bond topper. So you would think it's exclusive to that game. Like, it's exclusive to the 60th, you know, the $20,000 game. And they're like, oh, no, no. We meant, like, it's exclusively bond. But we're selling them. So they were selling them on their site. It's exclusive to people who have $2,000 to burn. Yes. That's who it's exclusive to. Yeah. Yeah, so they might want to work on that wording. It's all about the poverty. Honestly, they just saw that the anniversary game wasn't selling out like they expected, and they were just like, well, we can make a bit of money just by making this available to all the other games. And, of course, everyone will be happy with that. And so, yeah, they just said, okay, screw it, we'll make it available to everybody else. It was an afterthought just to make more money. I don't think it was a copy issue or anything. I think they intentionally wanted to make it exclusive, and then they thought, oh, shit, we're not going to make as much money as we can if we make it just available to everybody. Okay. I honestly, sorry, hot take, whatever you want to call it, but that's, it's just good business to do it that way. It just makes sense. So, Bruce, has anyone in Rochester bought the 60th anniversary Bond game? Not that I know of. Damn it. Not that I know of. Damn it, because if the only way I'm going to get the players out of show is standing in line with 20 other people and not even going to be able to hear anything, that's going to suck. Yes, it will. You're not going to be able to hear anything because there's no way to call us in the game. Hey, but did you try to – well, first, there's new code coming out. They came out for Bond, and there was new code for Fathom.
    99:06
    Mm-hmm. Did the Bond new code have any songs other than the Bond theme song? Nope. Oh. Not at all. They did say there were supposed to be other songs in it eventually, right? Yeah. I do remember hearing that. He did say that they're getting the John Barry, all the different versions and variations of the Bond theme that John Barry composed. I really hope, like seriously, double cross fingers here, that they get the John Barry theme from Her Majesty's Secret Service. Take a listen to it. Go on YouTube. Take a look at Spotify or something. Go listen to Her Majesty's Secret Service theme. It's so killer. It's a killer track. That's the one with the fuzz tone guitar. I think they're like, there, there, there, there, there, there. Oh, good.
    99:53
    And, you know, they have some other things. They have, like, you know, I think from You Only Live Twice and the newest code update, they have the scene where he's flying Little Nelly. Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da.
    100:06
    So that's cool. I mean, that's good. There is something wrong with that. Everyone thinks it's not. Could you imagine if they actually could get some of this? Like, nobody does it better. You put your name up. Nobody does it better. That's what Bond fans are actually expecting when they pay $20,000. We have all the time in the world. Yes. That was his last song. That was the last song. Yeah, just about. Yeah. No, but. Yeah, that's the problem. But, no, the worst problem with Bond right now is after you play the game, it still does the music for two and a half minutes after the game ends. Yeah. it's got a lot of polish, more than that but I mean it's made by the greatest rule guy out of Stern, come on we got this it's just so same, like you know like it's such a stark difference between something like Godzilla where like, okay so this mode is about shooting rams, okay cool, this mode is about shooting spinners, I get to choose what I'm like wanna, like thematically shoot for, you know in a mode there's like, you know, like a sort of a theme to whatever the modes are, and this is just oh, this multiballs shoot all the shots, all the main shots. Oh, this multiballs shoot all the main shots. This mode, you just started a mode, a Q branch mode, it shoots all the shots. You started a henchman, shoot all the shots. Like, what is the... What is the... There's no, like, apparently, I mean, I can't see it to this point, there's no rules or, like, in terms of, like, what you prioritize. No, no, no. You're thinking way too deep in this. You know why? Because you can't copy and paste anything that's not original. Your body hate knows no bounds. It knows no bounds, but am I right or wrong on that? I respect him for being a coder for as long as he has, but maybe, you know, like, get somebody else to jump in. Get a date with him or somebody with a new idea, maybe. Well, hold on. I thought he was coding, but it's like a joint effort, him and Mike Minicore coming up with the rules. Tim's actually jumping in now, apparently. So Tim's jumping in, so that should be good for some new interesting ideas, I hope. You know, I mean, it's just You can't, like, it feels like Star Trek The stern Star Trek Before the away missions came in It feels like, just shoot those colored shots And then the mode's over But then when the away missions Okay, so you gotta get pop bumpers now Or you gotta get rollovers, or you gotta make ramps Or, you know, there's something more specific In terms of the progression of the mode And then people don't even go deep They don't even go one or two more than the first level But if you go two or three deep on the missions In Star Trek Oh, it's really growing. Now you're really talking about some interesting mode progression. And valuable. No? People don't do that, but they really should. They're not getting the entertainment value out of their game if they're not going three deep on a mode, on a mission in Star Trek. It's that awesome game that Ron sold. Yeah. Well, hey, man. Everyone's not perfect. They made a lot of them. Buy them back, man. It's a great game. It's such a smooth shooting game. I hesitate to say, but it's definitely one of Steve Ritchie's top five. Oh, God, easily. I think it's its best layout. Yeah. I don't know. I still love the getaway, man. The getaway. Oh, the getaway is good, too. I agree. Shit. I agree. Just those bad rules on the getaway with all the bugs. Oh.
    103:24
    That's not. I mean, that's just bugs. Whatever. Just don't do secret media, okay? Stay the fuck away from secret media. My version works fine. Just saying. It only took how many years? 30? Well, for Soren to fix it? Yes. So 30. Yeah.
    103:43
    Okay. I just feel like Star Trek was, he said there, okay, I want to make the flowiest game I could possibly make, because I'm supposed to be the king of flow, so I want the flowiest. Oh, the ramp is far off. I love that thing.
    103:59
    But, anyway, back to Bond, I mean, I'm sure we'll all get a chance to play it, and, you know, honestly, that's good enough for me. I'll get the chance to play the next one or something. And that's all I care. It's really, that's, like, I mean. 0.85, Rekha. 0.85. I hope it doesn't end up being a situation, though, where it starts to get good at some point, but it's too late. Yeah. Because we're on to this game, and it's like a, you know, a Stranger Things situation. Yeah. Where people really, well, no. It's too bad. No. Lots of people want that one. It's too bad. Lots of people want the premium that you can't get anymore. Yeah, they can have the pro. Or Guardians. which was like Alpha Code, that hurt it. Even Deadpool, to some degree, at the beginning, it picked up after the fact because of how far along it was. And if he runs into a situation where the next game is massively popular, is really good, then it could kind of get lost in the shuffle. It might just be the case, yeah. And then you have the 60th anniversary game, which is designed for pinheads but priced for really rich pinheads and or bond collectors, and you're not going to get to play it, and that's a shame. We'll get to play it eventually. We'll get to play that play field eventually. Mark my words. They're going to re-release. You think it's going to be something home edition? It would be the dumbest financial mistake Stern's ever made if they don't re-theme that and sell that game again in three or four years. Mark my words. It'll come back. we'll be able to play that layout. It'll be different rules, but whatever. It'll be Pabst Cancrusher Vault Edition. It'll be like that, honestly. It will be.
    105:41
    It should go make money, guys. It's nothing about, like, honoring the integrity of the game. Ron, did you buy a ticket for the 60th anniversary Chance to Win raffle? I did the first one, and then I saw the second one was going to be Friday, and then I forgot. Did you get it on show? No, I don't do that. It sold out in 45 minutes. 45 minutes, the second one did. The first one was like two hours. So people have a chance. They might be able to get and enjoy it. If you can get my cell phone number, just message me. I'm coming over. Coming over.
    106:19
    All right, let's see. We're getting near the end here. Are we? Yeah, I got your notes here. I got not enough cheetahs. Never enough cheetahs in my life. So Say goodbye to a couple games From the Bruce collection Oh what did you get rid of Sea Witch Out of here The fastest Sea Witch in the world That was the strongest No no no I traded it for a cheetah Another cheetah How many do you have I had two and then I sold one to Zach And I couldn't just be without Just one so I bought another one Be a winner, don't be a cheetah Are you trying to be the fastest collector of all time? Yeah See what I did there? Yeah, cheetah Yeah And I sold my second Gamitron Bye bye So the one you owned entirely Yeah, entirely Not the half ownership Not the half one Split sack one Yeah, not the split sack one And I sold my second big game Okay And I bought a new car hauler Car hauler? You mean a car? It hauls cars It involves cars. Yes, you didn't know that. Okay, another title drop. Car hauler. Okay. Car hauler. We got a couple of Bruce Isms. I don't know which one to pick. I don't think. He's a degenerate car hauler, so, you know. Yeah, car hauler. I like that one better. Car hauler. I went with your route. Car hauler, you boys. I went with your route. Oh, you got a CRV? Yeah. I got a CRV. He loves it. I got a hybrid. I'm a hippie. Ooh. Because the only issue with the newer CR-V is it's got a bigger hump. It's got a bigger hump, but it fits the game still nicely. Yep. Wait a second. I got 200 miles on the car, and I've already moved two games.
    108:11
    Wow. That's that for degenerate. You are definitely a degenerate. 50,000 degenerate points for you, Bruce.
    108:23
    Yeah, my wife's like, you know this is new? I'm like, yep. Putting right now, putting the, so I put in the, what's called Sea Witch, coming the way back, get the cheetah, and then I just put the Gamitron in there.
    108:36
    Bye-bye Gamitron. Bye-bye games. Not yet. Games haven't gone yet. Oh, the games. The games. Yes.
    108:46
    So that. Like, you know, a guy like Keith Elwin loves the games. He loves the games, yes. You know, like, that's what I was telling you. Like, if you ask any other person playing pinball, like, a little bit of, what are you talking about? I mean, the games. I like the games, too. I like the pinball games. And then you get some of the top-tier level players, like, oh, and they're like, yeah, it's one of the greatest games ever made. And you're like, that's cool, man. Like, I love that. You know what other game that Keith likes? Fish Tales. Just saying.
    109:15
    Just throwing that out there. It's a very pure shooting pinball game. there's fun mechs in it but really when it comes down to it it's like you make the shot or you die and that's it there's no other way and one of the best video modes which is a rip off I must say of a very classic arcade game I think it called Beachhead or something I can remember exactly but it actually pretty much a clone of a famous arcade game where you fire torpedoes at submarines or something. My favorite is just when you hit the guy, that's how he makes... Oh!
    109:54
    Chris Granner is a legendary sound designer. The fact that he made three different soundtracks for each high score input initial mode, if you get the top three initials, he made three different soundtracks for each one of those. It's insane and amazing. And three different soundtracks for each multiball phase. What are the three jackpots? it's freshwater, saltwater, and goddammit, like open water or something? Fresh, uh, saltwater open, freshwater, saltwater tropical? Tropical. Yeah, tropical's in there. Trouchfishing! Oh no, that would be a Beavis and Butthead episode, I'm sorry. Here's the weird thing about fish scales, take a look at the guy's face which is modeled after the artist Pat McMahon I believe his name is, Pat McMahon, big beardy guy. Look at where the cigar in his face is placed. In the character's face. It's placed behind the mustache.
    111:05
    Which is very bizarre. In his mouth, but it's like under his mustache. I've never understood why he drew it like that. Once you see it, you can't unsee it.
    111:17
    So if anyone knows why that was done, email us at slantillpodcast at gmail.com. Thank you. There's all kinds of weird little inside jokes. Like the worm that's being fed to the fish on the back glass is somebody's face. I don't know who it is, but it's like a person's face. It's like there's weird stuff going on in that game in the back glass.
    111:37
    Okay, Bruce. Yes. So, do you want to do repairs or ball bag first? Let's do the ball bag first. I love a good ball bag. Okay. Nice and all. you're probably saying right now don't encourage them okay for our guest requests we will we will be getting you into the order as was received do not worry i think we read this one last time this is from blueberry johnson asking us if we looked at the pinstripe thread about the uh i think it's the trailer park boys or whatever i did look at it a little bit then I saw it was 200 pages worth and I just went to the end and I would love to hear John Greenwich join a future episode. I actually saw John recently. He was at Pintastic I remember seeing him during the Rush was it the Rush Review Band? He was quite hammered Wow. Canadian? Not hammered? He was really hammered Oh, let's see.
    112:49
    Got one from Chris. It says, introducing the baddie box. I think this is when we were talking about what should be in the goodie bag, depending on the manufacturer. You know how Stern would have coil stops, and Jersey Jack would just give you an extra play field. Yep. Or washers for their play field. Oh, washers, yes. It says, just to pile on your Pedretti bit. Oh, it's Bruce's Pedretti bit. Hey, what the fuck it up? About shipping a box full of spare parts. Let's see. It says Ron announcer voice, so I've got to make an announcer voice. Let's see.
    113:27
    Other manufacturers only give you a measly goodie bag. With Petretti pins, you get a baddie box full of shit guaranteed to break within your first month of ownership. We're bringing back the joy of Heathkit projects by letting you rebuild your pinball machine piece by piece. There you go. What the fuck it up? You don't like it, us? Screw you, Oza Wow We put on the pizza On the playfield We cook the same thing together Yeah We put the money on the playfield We put a mushroom on the We put a mozzarella on the playfield It's good Our power supply is so hot We melt cheese Yeah We give it a mozzarella test I'll make them an offer they can't refuse You know what I'm saying? Okay Well, just wait for Jersey Jack Mmm I think that's going to be a successful game. Godfather? Yes, I think that's going to be a very successful game. I'd like to see the Sonny Corley home mode. How many times can you shoot him? It's a frenzy. Frenzy, yes. Every switch shoots him again. And they just show him and Scott over and over and over. Yes, family-friendly entertainment from the people who brought you Toy Story and Wizard of Oz. We have Godfather. I'm digging it. I'm into it. Yikes. As soon as you hear that music hit and you play it.
    114:47
    You're going to be like. As long as Ape Magoda's in it, I'm cool. Yes, Ape Magoda's a must. Must. Let's see, Jay. This is from Jay. Longtime early listener, first time email. Oh, my. We got a person here. You are 100% correct that everything, every, what is it? everything, everywhere, all at once, is a far superior film to Ready Player One. I am a big movie buff and a huge fan of the Ready Player One novel. The film isn't necessarily bad, it's just not great and pretty forgettable. Very disappointing considering that it was directed by Spielberg. I still recommend that you check out the book in whatever format you like. It's one of the most entertaining books ever. Professional critics and the audiences agree as well if you look to reviews.
    115:37
    Thank you, Jack. Yeah, me and Kathy actually went to go watch that movie. Yeah? 20 minutes in, she looked at me and she said, can we turn this fucking thing off? And I said, oh, hell yeah.
    115:51
    Exactly. It's like 24, 25 minutes. We're just like, I had to get out of it. I just had to tap. I tapped. I think it's just, it's at a higher level that you just can't comprehend. My wife likes all those fucking Tolkien movies and everything like that, so I don't know. she was like, this isn't enjoyable. Okay, this is the emails by El Jefe. Hey, Al. El Jefe. First of all, it's El Jefe, pronounced like Jefe, Spanish for the boss. My real name is Jeff. Have me on the show and I'll tell you all about how I got that name. Now until the real reason I'm writing back. I said his name wrong last time, I guess. I guess so. You'll love this, Bruce. My buddy Scott and I watched everything, everywhere, all at once tonight, and I have one word. Seriously?
    116:41
    To start, we wanted to stop watching after half an hour. They made 10 more minutes than you. That was the point I turned to Scott and asked him, is this good? Scott is a more cultured and intellectual person than I am, so I figured maybe he'd see some relevance. Nope. But we soldiered on and continued watching. I wish we had stopped it at that point and just started playing a Godzilla pin just 20 feet away from us. Nope. We continued watching the whole thing. I wanted to give it a chance. Well, there's no way of getting those two hours and 20 minutes back. Yeah, so we both agree that Ready Player One is a much better movie. Sorry, Ron. Sincerely, El Jefe. Oh, we tapped out also. Kathy's just like, and then I never heard of it. At the end of it, the next day, Kathy's like, did we just waste like 25 minutes? I was like, I know. Right with you. You didn't even get to the part where they're trying to shove things up their ass? No. I figured you liked that. No? Okay. I want to see RRR. RRR is the best movie of this decade. Like, I'm talking like 2020-10 onward. What's RRR? You just gotta watch it, Ron. What is it? It's all the movies. It's a romance movie. It's a comedy. It's an incredible action fight choreography movie. It's a historical movie. It's every movie. It's a Bollywood dance movie. I mean, it's actually – Okay. It's actually Hollywood. It's the Bollywood. It's the one where all the – It's Hollywood. So it's – Is it the one with the crazy CGI and animals attack and all this other stuff? Yes, that's correct. Okay, yes. All right. You need to watch it. Even just watch the first scene, Ron, and you'll be hooked. You're like, this is the most insane choreography I've ever seen in my life. All right. It's mind-blowing. I'll put that on the list.
    118:27
    So the last email, I'm going to say for $200. Okay, good. It's from the Pinball Princess, and it's like 2,000 words. Hi, Steph. I saw Steph last night working with me. So, yeah, because you were working with her, so you would see her, I would think. Sometimes. I'm sometimes in the back the whole time. Oh.
    118:48
    Working on crap. Because it's repair time, baby! Oh, yes. I'm just going to go to sleep for like 10 minutes. Sorry, guys. See you later. I love you guys, but this is my least favorite segment on the show at all. Oh, fuck. Full disclosure, guys, I love... You've got to repair your games. I don't do that shit, man. I'm sorry. I probably should pay $750 an hour. How many other people talk about repairs on your broadcast? I'm sorry, guys.
    119:12
    I swear to God, I voted you guys in the two of these number one. That's 100% true. But this is death to me. This segment is death.
    119:19
    I'm losing connection here. Let's see. Oh, oh. All right. Phone on mute. See you guys. So what's your picks, Bruce? So we got rotation eight fully rotating. So he's good. Yes, so it was totally foobarred. We started tearing down the playfield, and for the screws, normal playfields use light Phillips or flatheads. Nope, they use squared head screws. Yeah, that's weird. And wait, they drill them right in their wood screws, drilled right into the playfield. Well, who made this?
    119:54
    Valley Williams, Midway. Valley Midway. So, okay, American. Why do they use weird stuff then? Couldn't fucking tell you. I really couldn't.
    120:04
    It's terrible. They ran out of regular screws, man. Yeah, they're like, hey, buddy, go down to the hardware store. Just get me some screws. What kind? Just get me anything.
    120:14
    So that was one thing. What else did we do this week? I put a new flipper assembly into the Cheetah at the RPC because we keep on binding up. So I just, the actual mount, going mounting to the play field was a little bent and tweaked. So hopefully this will stop our binding. And just the basic stuff. But guess what? I have one thing bad for you. You're going to cry now, Ron. Oh. Halloween is leaving the RPC. You mean the Halloween that he sold a Rush LE to pay for? Yeah, yeah. Thank God. It's gone. It's going to be gone Monday.
    120:53
    Replaced with what? It's already been replaced with Surf and Safari. Yeah! Better than ever, baby. Here we go. With the new ROM. Running the improved ROM. What does that do? It makes it tournamentified. It's all ready for tournaments. It's always $500,000 for your, if you get a still shot. It's $500,000. And outlanes, if they're later, I'll take $100,000. Yes, $100,000. Which I don't think matters because if I remember, Zach already disabled both outlane switches anyway, so it doesn't matter.
    121:23
    So that's about it. repairs are easy this time. Repairs are easy if you just sell the damn game. There you go. Exactly. That's my repair tip. Sell it broken.
    121:35
    I played that Halloween at the RPC and literally the game said shoot the scoop. So I shot the scoop and the game turned off and reset. What was the wrong scoop? You see, there's lots of scoops and you picked the wrong one. It's one of the modes. If you pick the wrong one, the game resets. That would be a neat little feature there. You shoot the wrong scoop, it just resets. Is that the wizard mode? You saw the spooky quality right there, didn't you? Oh, that's crazy, man.
    122:05
    I was pretty much working on games all day yesterday. Just getting little things shored up from my list that came up during the Bells tournament. Some of them, though, like Quicksilver, the rod, the shooter rod sticks a little bit. But it's all clean. It still sticks. I think it's actually because the shooter, what's it called, the beehive on there is new. Oh, it's new. Yeah, and I think that's actually the issue. Just reaming out a little bit more, big boy.
    122:39
    I didn't say it was stuck. It's been sticking, but it actually seems to have almost too much play. Oh, my. You know, so whenever I see a new part like that and it doesn't work, I'm just going to blame the part. Yeah. $14, get a new one, try it again. Try it again? Try it again. What else? Surfing. Here's the issue I have with surfing.
    123:04
    So the plates, one of the three screws for the coil stop is stripped, so it won't tighten. Luckily, you've got two others. Yeah, but what I found is if you don't have at least the two outer ones, If you tighten the other two ones, it starts coming out. It doesn't matter if you Loctite it. They start coming out.
    123:26
    The issue is you can't, if you make the holes bigger, then you've got to make the holes bigger on the coil stop. Get a new plate. Here's the problem. They don't sell those plates anymore. What? Yeah. PVR's got everything right. I've learned some interesting stuff. What's that? A little tech thing for you folks out there that I didn't realize. If you ever go to Pinball Resources' site, you'll notice for the System 3 Flipper rebuild kits, he's got a pre-Super Mario Bros. version, and then he's got the in the middle of Super Mario Bros. after version. And that's because they changed the plate because they had issues, like the same issues I'm having, and they opened the holes up. So instead of eight screws, it's number 10 screws, so it's thicker. and the same thing with the coil stops, bigger holes. And they made the brackets, the base plates black to differentiate them from the old ones.
    124:25
    So the issue is if you want to replace it, that's great. You have to replace everything. But then if you want to do what I'm doing, which is using a System 1 coil stop, the System 1 coil stops are set for an 8-screw. So you'd have to drill out, rim them out to 10 to fit the thing in there. So what I did in the meantime, to be lazy, I just took the base plate off, and I put nuts on the other end and tightened them down, and we'll see how that pours. So that, yeah. And while I was doing this, of course, because the coil, I think, had been replaced at some point, and the soldering job on it was still poor by whoever did it last when I took the base plate out. One of the wires came off, of course. So I took all the wires off and redid them so that they're done decently. Fixed a couple light sockets on some games that were out. I screwed with 9-Ball, which kept resetting. I got to a state where I had it on for hours without it resetting.
    125:22
    So hopefully that's good. We shall see. The funny thing is, the first test game I put on it, I got like 2.3. I got my highest score ever on 9-Ball.
    125:33
    So that was pretty cool. And, yes, the glass was still on because I was only working in the back box.
    125:39
    Let's see. What else did I do? I think that was it. It was just a lot of little stuff, little nagging things I fixed to keep the fleet at full 100%. Well, we've got to start planning Stomp West soon. Yes, you have to start planning Stomp West soon. Yes. I have to just inform you when it is so you can plan the weekend, right? Well, yeah. Try to not make it when there's a District A2 tournament or some other event or in-disc, some other thing I'm going to. I know. Does it have to be at your place, Ron? Well, it'll be west. It'll be west. So it is Rochester. Okay, so I can make that one. I'm never going back to Albany. I have no idea.
    126:21
    I'm sorry, Ron. I love you, man. But, like, the bus, I don't drive. So I've got to take the bus or the train. The train is impossible to get there. It's soon. The bus goes to New York City. From Syracuse, it goes to New York City, then back to Albany. That makes no fucking sense. Wait, wait. This summer, they're starting from Toronto, train service from Toronto to New York City via Albany.
    126:45
    Okay, maybe that's a possibility. Amtrak is offering that. Because I know they're doing it now. It's called the Maple Leaf Line. See, I'm aware of these things, okay, because this is my life. But if it goes to Albany, then New York, then we're on board. Yeah, 100%. Then I can make it up because it's no bueno, man. It's an extra eight hours out of my way Just to go to New York City and come back It's crazy I wouldn't do that I'm sorry, I love Iran But that's the last time I would ever do that It's a great arcade I love Dragon Fist But not that much I won't go that far to get fisted Ha ha ha Ha ha No, the Maple Leaf will be starting February 15th Okay. So there you go. You can go write them Ron. So if you're in Toronto and you want to go to the world-famous Level Zero Arcade, you can now take the Maple Leaf or whatever you just said. Maple Leaf right from Toronto right down to Dark City. Yep. Right on the Amtrak. All aboard America, all aboard Amtrak. How do you know that, Ron? That's so esoteric. I just remember commercials. See, I don't watch commercials anymore, so I'm going to suck in another 30, 40 years. I won't know any of the commercials that are out now. But I remember, you know, Spirit of Massachusetts. It's the Spirit of America.
    128:08
    You know. On the great space coaster, get on board. On the great space coaster, we'll enjoy. I got one more thing. If you want to do it or do you want to cut it short? No, we're all about, I mean, just to let the listeners know what's going on. We're recording right now. Yes. And this will be out, well, it looks like I'm not doing much editing if I need to get this out by Monday. So that's fine. So this will be out Monday. Then next weekend, me and Bruce will record again. Hopefully no big news happens or anything. And we'll just, you know, hoping to get Stu McVicker on. I'm trying to get him on. It's hard. It's hard to get him on, but we'll try to get him on. And we have a guest, which I think you're all going to like. Yes, very much so. We learned all kinds of interesting stuff, all kinds of interesting information I'm sure Silverball Chronicles would like to know. Yeah, too bad they can't take that. Well, no, they can quote. They can even say, quoted from the Slamtail podcast. They will get plugged on the other podcast from this one. See? Yeah. And then I'll try to get that out as soon as I can, episode 200. And then we will – you're going on a cruise, so you're going to be gone for a while. I'm on vacation. So then we'll be on a hiatus hernia for a little bit. Yep. And then we'll come back at the end of February for the beginning of March. Mm-hmm.
    129:36
    Would you not buy that? How did I know? How did you know? Because we have a guest on. Yep. Guest tradition. It is a guest tradition. So, again, if you're listening, hopefully not driving, go to eBay. And in the search box, you're going to type in the numbers that Bruce is going to give you. and we're either going to have actual deals, just crazy, ridiculously overpriced shit, or maybe a condom dispenser or something, because Cruz did that the last time.
    130:03
    255-943-940-134. Road Kings. A guilty pleasure of mine, I must say. It is. It's a Mark Ritchie game. Yep.
    130:19
    Settling theme. the non-Mad Max team. Yeah. What have we got here? A stuck flipper on the right? Yeah, it's out of alignment, it looks like. Starting bid, $995. It says reserve not met. I have no idea what the reserve is. He wants $2,600 for it. No. But depending on what the reserve is. Great working condition. No. Wait a minute. It says right in the description, great working condition. Okay, number one, plain field glass on. I love that. Glare from the sun. Glare from the, yeah. The rubbers on the flippers look older than me. Yep. They're broken. And if the flippers are both up in this one shot, they are still out of alignment. It's not even funny. Yeah. Yeah, they are. Oh, the flipper. Oh, yeah. The rubber actually is coming off on the one flipper.
    131:11
    Oh, the original rubber. It's original rubber. All original parts. Yeah. There's not enough pictures either. There's nothing on the play field at all, back box. Literally, it looks like he took his cell phone, took like three or four pictures while standing over the game, holding the flippers up, and that's it. Yeah. You need to show more effort, dude. Missing key but opened. Numbers have loose rubber. I don't know what that means.
    131:36
    Numbers have loose rubber. Maybe he did the speech to text thing. Feel free to message me for any additional info. I don't see any lights on the back box if the game is on. Yeah. That's discerning. Is he, I assume he's not shipping, being, I mean, how's he going to break it down if he has no key? Yeah. Unless he drills it.
    132:00
    Oh, you could drill it all right. Starting bid $9.95 with no reserve met. Yeah, I bid on it, but. Yeah, if you could pick it up. $1,200, $1,100. And his reserve isn't ridiculous? Yeah. Okay. You give it a try. Like something like max $1,200, $1,300, then you guys can work on it and fix it. Yeah, that's true.
    132:23
    I mean, look at the play field. I mean, from the shots I see, I don't see anything horrible. It's probably all mylar, too, so. Oh, no, I see the back box is up. There's numbers in some of it, anyhow.
    132:37
    Okay. Would you or would you not buy that? I would, but not at the price that he's listing. Not at the price he's listing. but if there was a bid that I could get a low bid, like Bruce was saying, like $12,000, sure, and that's in American money, which is like frigging twice as much Canadian. Yeah, so there's no... I mean, I would go, in Canadian, I'd go like $2,000.
    133:00
    $2,000 Canadian, $1,200 American, $13,000 maybe at most. If the guy sent me like a play video, then yeah, I mean, it's not insane. There's nothing particularly crazy about it. You just replace the rubbers and the game works. What a great game. Oh, Canada, our home and native land. I always forget the lyrics after that. True patriot love in all our hearts command. With glowing hearts we see thee rise, the true north strong and free. From far and wide, O Canada, we stand on guard for thee. God keep our land glorious and free. Thank you, Hockey. Oh, Canada, we stand on guard for thee.
    134:15
    And I know the lyrics to the Star-Spangled Banner, which, by the way, which, by the way, written by Francis Scott Key, based on the War of 1812. So guess whose bombs and red rockets glares coming over the ramparts? It's the Canadians. No, it's English. The Canadians were attacking you guys. English. Oh, mostly British, but for Canada.
    134:38
    Okay, they're mostly British, but it's the war of Canada, man. It's like the war that we won against America. You didn't win. It was a draw. You guys won? No, because we had territory in Ontario. You guys had territory in upstate New York, and they went back to the original things. Correct. Wait a minute. You tried to conquer Canada. You failed. You lost. No, we did take care of Canada. Guys, guys, I got to do a Jimmy Carter there. Just peace, peace, everyone, peace. Do you have another item, Briss? Yes, I do. Back to Canada. Defended successfully.
    135:15
    We won the war. Sorry. Guess what? We didn't want no frigging maple syrup. We didn't want the French yeast. We didn't want the Frenchies. You do want the poutine, though. No, we don't want the poutine. No? The Frenchies went down to actually to the actual history is that Canada kicked out a lot of the French people from the Maritimes. They went down to New Orleans. They went down to Louisiana, and that's how you get your French in Louisiana. They're from Canada originally. Yeah, eh? Okay, there. Wait, what do you got there? Come on. Give us one.
    135:46
    275-273-418-150. Tradewinds Pinball Machine Williams, 1962. Only $5,000. $700 shipping. No. Is this like one of one or something?
    136:08
    I do like the map in the middle. Because you have Wake Island in the upper left. And then you have San Francisco in the upper right. Then you have Hawaii, Samoa, Fiji, and then Tahiti. The play field looks okay. Yeah, it looks pretty nice. It looks pretty good. Yeah, little touch-ups I see, but nothing bad. It looks like a well-maintained machine for $5,000.
    136:32
    Yeah, no. No. I mean, at least it's in decent shape. Oh, it's got a big, long description, too. Oh, great. See, no, it's good. It's back glass is mint. Great single-player electromechanical model in tip-top shape. I mean, it does look good. but man, that's pretty expensive. Joey Zuzu himself selling it. Joey Hedge before. Trust him.
    136:59
    What's his feedback like here? Feedback is, oh, Joey Zuzu. Oh, it actually is Joey Zuzu. I remember him. Yeah, we've had him on a couple times. Why would you call yourself that? I don't know. Even if it's your name.
    137:14
    I know. I would not buy something from Joey Zuzu. No. The commercials have poisoned me. They have. Okay, one more. One more, all right. 223-939-525-240.
    137:36
    Oh, God. Oh, yeah, maybe. Oh, yeah. The greatest era of ballet. Black Belt, 1986. Custom LED. It has full clown lighting on it. Where we do different colored GIs for different sections of the play field. Because everyone loves that. I love it. Only $4,259. Man, I know. What a weird number, too. How did we come up with that, man?
    138:10
    It's in excellent condition inside and out. Play field is in excellent condition. You got to give it to him He did take pictures without the glass on He did But he also Did full clown LED Oh no I got one more This just gets worse and worse It's just why I want red at the top Of the play field and white at the bottom Yeah No no no here we go Black belts the one where the guy got his legs open Hit me in the balls Kick me in the jimmy Hard. The most satisfying shot in pinball, Ron. The nut shot.
    138:51
    So that's a no, right, guys? That's a no. For that price, do you have that price? No. Yes. No. Here we go. One last one. One last one again. 1-1-5. 6-5-5.
    139:05
    227. 318. Oh, God. You know, as soon as you read the super rare. The description is super duper. Super duper rare. 1981, Bally Embryon pinball machine, LEDs, prof text, professional text, works great, super duper rare. By super duper rare, we mean like, you know, 5,000, 6,000 of them or whatever they make. Only 5,000, 6,000 of them. Yeah, yeah, super fucking rare, really rare. I never see these. You never see these on this thing. $700 shipping. Let's see. About $4,900 for this thing. Yep. It's in good condition, though, I've got to say. It's in pretty good condition. It's got mullet ball action. Two ball mullet ball action.
    139:56
    Everything's in all caps. Oh, yeah. It's got all tech. Wow, everything's in all caps. Everything in the entire description. Everything. Let's see. Oh, goodness. How's that coloring doing for you guys? It's very blue. Yes. It's very, very blue. Wow, is it blue. It's blue and red. I mean, the mean. What's that? Oh, yeah, blue and red. Okay, I didn't get to that picture yet. Wow.
    140:25
    Yeah, it's blue and red. Yeah. Oh, and you did the different color rubbers. That's always good. Of course you did.
    140:35
    No. The price is insane. The price is fucking nuts. You're telling me you want me to move this valley-wide body? I'm going to pay you to do it?
    140:48
    For five grand, you're bringing this to me. There's no way I'm going to... You're taking the LEDs out and you're bringing this to me. If you bring it to me, maybe. There's no way I'm paying $5,000 to move that myself. I'm going to break my back.
    141:03
    It's just not worth it. Maybe for a future spot, but not for a Xenon. Sorry, an Embryon. But it has mullet ball action. It also has a vagina on the playfield. That's true.
    141:17
    Labia. Yes. Majora's. Oh, my. What a way to end it right there. I know. I love that. That could be our sound clip. It has a vagina on the playfield. Yes.
    141:32
    Oh, Jesus. No. again, that's this year it's for the previous year we're in 2023 now, Bruce when we get nominated, of course, for the Twippy Snacks year, then that's the one you can cut yes, I'm sure that will sound great in the big room with everybody when they play that I don't know 2023, it's got a vagina again, listeners please, please send me some time codes, give me something I need help. I need to get this clip together by, I think it was February 5th. So I'm on a time crunch here. Help us out. Hang on. Help us on its way.
    142:15
    I really hope you guys win, honestly. I mean, I know you guys don't do it. And we know we're not going to win. I swear to God. You guys have been doing it for the longest time. You guys have been great. I always look forward to a new episode. You guys have a great chemistry. It works really well. It's just a lot of fun. It's weird. I feel like I've actually hung out with you guys on the podcast many times before, but this is the actual real time that I've actually been able to actually talk to you on the podcast. It's kind of weird. Was it yelling at us on the fucking podcast? What the fuck? Yes, constantly.
    142:53
    But, yeah, it's been really great. Thank you so much for the opportunity to come talk to you guys. don't forget the Degenees is this Sunday February 5th on Facebook Live at 4pm Eastern check it out, it's going to be an absolute shit show disaster, so guys watching that, we're going to have the TPA and the Twippy Awards are like the Academy Awards our level of quality is going to be a second rate child's fashion show you know those really disturbing child star fashion shows that they have.
    143:33
    We're going to have that quality of production value. It's going to be great. Excellent. I can't wait.
    143:39
    Next week, 200th episode. Thanks to all our listeners for all the 200 episodes. You'll love our guest. I'm trying to get Stu on. He's really hard to deal with. He is a pain in the ass. Where is he? Did he go back home to the old country? I don't know where he is He's doing a world tour of How many hooker places What? He's trying to expand his horizons Well, you know, he tells me all the time How the pinball people are too geeky And in his day, you know He was a celebrity And won cars in tournaments And he makes fun of You know, he's the pain in the ass I'm sick of him Yeah, I'm sure you do hello zach hello uh steve from the bonus i'm a bonus everyone in the clusterfuck yes again this is episode 199 our email address slamtailpodcast.gmail.com our website www.slamtailpodcast.com check it out in the upper right hand corner all the links to anything you'd want to go to check out our website and then you can find that 20 30 second clip for us Please? Please. I'm practically begging you. I know. I love it. I love seeing you suffer. I don't want to have to look myself because I don't remember what's in half the episodes.
    144:59
    Let's see. Plugs. No, I already plugged that other show multiple times. Bruce will yell at me if I keep doing it. Fucking almighty. Okay. Thanks, everyone. Until next time, say goodbye, Bruce. Goodbye, Raphael Mayor.
    145:19
    Can you move it? Can you fly? Oh my, my, oh my, my You can move it if you try Oh my, my, oh my, my Can I leave you, leave you alive? Oh my
    145:49
    Oh my.