Journalist Tool

Kineticist

  • HDashboard
  • IItems
  • ↓Ingest
  • SSources
  • KBeats
  • BBriefs
  • RIntel
  • QSearch
  • NName Review
  • +Health

v0.1.0

← Back to items

#48 Caribbean Cruise (Gottlieb) - The Classic Pinball Podcast

The Classic Pinball Podcast·podcast_episode·41m 58s·analyzed·Feb 23, 2021
View original
Export .md

Analysis

claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.032

TL;DR

Classic Pinball Podcast deep dive into Caribbean Cruise (1989 Gottlieb): restoration, mechanics, and gameplay.

Summary

George and Dave from The Classic Pinball Podcast discuss Caribbean Cruise, a 1989 Gottlieb System 3 cocktail pinball machine they recently restored. They cover its technical features (smart switches, lithium batteries, LED conversion), gameplay mechanics (two-ball multiball, skeet shooting skill shot, four-flipper layout), production history (377 units made for International Concepts), and restoration challenges. The episode includes live gameplay demonstration and discussion of Gottlieb System 3 games from that era.

Key Claims

  • Caribbean Cruise is a 1989 Gottlieb System 3 made for International Concepts with only 377 units produced

    high confidence · Dave described the machine details during restoration discussion

  • The machine had blown inline fuses (a known Gottlieb problem from this era) and a bad bridge rectifier requiring replacement

    high confidence · Dave explained the specific electrical repair work he performed

  • Gottlieb System 3 board sets are reliable and serviceable, comparable to WPC from the 1990s

    high confidence · Dave's expert assessment of System 3 reliability

  • Caribbean Cruise was marketed in the late 80s/early 90s as a franchise opportunity for homeowners to buy six machines for ~$20-30k and resell them for $4-5k each with ~$1800 profit per unit

    high confidence · Dave explained the direct-to-consumer business model and franchise structure

  • Gottlieb made only two cocktail pinball machines: Night Moves (under Gottlieb brand) and Caribbean Cruise (for International Concepts)

    medium confidence · Dave stated this when discussing cocktail machine history, but said 'I believe so' indicating some uncertainty

  • The game features smart switches (piezoelectric assemblies) instead of leaf or micro switches, requiring no adjustment and responding to material bending

    high confidence · Dave provided detailed technical explanation of smart switch design

  • Caribbean Cruise uses Gottlieb's special resistor warming circuit on pop bumpers that increases voltage from ~5V to ~7.5V to create a flasher effect

    high confidence · Dave explained the pop bumper lighting system and its diagnosis

  • The multiplier on Caribbean Cruise reaches up to 15x but is difficult to achieve even at 4x

    high confidence · George and Dave discussed multiplier progression during gameplay

  • Caribbean Cruise features a flat top glass (unlike pitched glass on most pinball machines), allowing drinks to be placed on top

Notable Quotes

  • “Godley did, out of all cock-to-table pinball machines, Godley did the best job with them. They really did good themes, good execution, great sounds, and solid board sets.”

    Dave @ ~13:00 — Expert assessment of Gottlieb's cocktail machine quality relative to competitors

  • “In fact, the System 3 in this Caribbean Cruise, for reliability and serviceability, is right up there with WPC from the 90s, their board sets.”

    Dave @ ~13:30 — High praise for System 3 reliability, comparing favorably to much later technology

  • “They were trying to sell us you know so you could not buy us from a distributor you bought it from the actual company you know international whatever they're called there so this company was selling direct to consumer they would make the consumer buy six of them”

    Dave @ ~22:00 — Explanation of the franchise business model for Caribbean Cruise distribution

  • “It would make, you know, $50 a first week, $40 the next week, $30. it would fall off quick because it's pretty much a one-player game as a sit-down thing.”

    Dave @ ~26:00 — Realistic assessment of route revenue potential for cocktail machines

  • “But I chose it more as an appetizer to go check out different islands and see which one I want to fly to. That's what it worked out for me, you know. But I don't like being trapped on a ship and, you know, it might be a nice pretty jail, but it's still a jail.”

    George @ ~1:22:00 — Lighthearted personal anecdote about cruise experience that inspired the game theme discussion

  • “you have the glass on top of it is flat so that you can place your beverage of your choice on there and, you know, have Ed instead of having it fall off like a regular table”

    Dave @ ~1:05:00 — Key practical advantage of cocktail machine design for bar/venue use

  • “It's really tough. Okay, so I got it up into the upper play field again. Oh, yes, mystery hole. Mystery hole for George is... Oh, extra ball, I'm thinking. Multi-ball again for you, George.”

Entities

GeorgepersonDavepersonCaribbean CruisegameGottliebcompanyInternational ConceptscompanyThe Classic Pinball PodcastorganizationPinsideorganizationIPDBorganizationBilly Ocean

Signals

  • ?

    restoration_signal: Dave performed major electrical repairs including replacement of inline fuse holder, bridge rectifier, and fuses; also completed LED conversion with warm white and colored LEDs throughout the machine

    high · Dave stated: 'So a bridge rectifier, two new fuses and a fuse holder later, and now up and running. And then I just spent 15 hours shopping it out with all new Titan rubbers and colored rubbers. And I even did the dreaded LED conversion on this one, George.'

  • ?

    product_strategy: Caribbean Cruise was part of a late 80s/early 90s franchise model where International Concepts sold machines directly to homeowners in bulk (6-unit minimum) for resale at a markup in bars and venues

    high · Dave explained: 'Basically, back in the late 80s, early 90s, this was like considered to sell this pinball machine to households who want to get into the distributor business and pinball machines so for 20 or 30k you could buy in you can get about six of these tables'

  • ?

    design_innovation: Gottlieb System 3 machines featured smart switches using piezoelectric assemblies instead of traditional leaf/micro switches, reducing need for adjustment and improving reliability

    high · Dave detailed: 'Instead of a leaf switch or micro switch they use smart switches which is a piezoelectric assembly in there so that they really need adjustment They react upon the bending of the material'

  • ?

    design_innovation: Caribbean Cruise uses a special resistor warming circuit on pop bumpers to increase voltage (~5V to ~7.5V) creating a flasher effect when bumpers are hit

    high · Dave explained: 'They had 44 bulbs in the pop-uppers which everyone pretty much did. But these ones have a special resistor warming circuit that when you hit the pop bumper, it would send a little more higher voltage to that light to make it almost act like a flasher'

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.126

0:00
Oh, man, rhythm is in my shoes It's no use a-sittin' and a-singin' the blues So be my guest, you've got nothin' to lose Won't you let me take you on a sea cruise? Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of the Classic Pinball Podcast. My name is George and I'm joined by my co-host today. Hello Dave. Hello George. In today's episode, we're going to revisit a game that Dave talked about in our last episode. And here we are a week later with it actually working.
1:13
The game, Caribbean Queen. No, George. It's Caribbean Cruise. Oh. That's all right, George. It's the all-friended name. That's for the other gang down the street. This gang, it's Caribbean Cruise.
1:37
You know what I was thinking of, right? Yeah, the, was it Billy Ocean? Unfortunately. Makes sense. That's why he did the Caribbean Queen. Billy Ocean, get it? The Ocean Queen. Okay, I'm not going to say what I normally would say. Because I'll get in trouble by somebody from a faraway place. why don't you start us off although we like our nutty guy in Australia well this Caribbean cruise picked it up customer called me they were all done with it hasn't worked for years 10 years plus it was in Michigan they got it gifted to them it didn't work they had it for 10 years over in Massachusetts and they called me up and said hey I'd like to get rid of this so looked it up looks like an interesting game only 377 made it's a it's an international concepts manufacturer, so that's kind of an off-brand, but it actually is a Gottlieb. It's a 1989 Gottlieb System 3 that they were commissioned to do for International Concepts. So the problem with it, when I got it in, it was totally dead. And it wound up being, I guess these are known, the Gottliebs are known from this time frame for having their inline fuses for the main fuses are junk. So I replaced that and I got power.
3:00

high confidence · Dave described this as a practical advantage of the cocktail format

  • Dave plans to retrofit the machine onto a 5-inch platform to convert it to stand-up height while maintaining the flat-top glass advantage

    high confidence · Dave outlined his platform retrofit plan during the episode

    • Dave (during gameplay) @ ~45:00 — Live gameplay commentary showing the generous multiball and extra ball features

  • “The other thing that I remember is my grandfather was a gigantic cruiser. and he said to me early in the week go and tell the steward at your table that you want the captain to come by and have a drink with you”

    George @ ~1:27:00 — Personal cruise story that humanizes the theme and connects to game atmosphere

    • person
    Roy Clarkperson
    Paulperson
    Stuperson
    Janiceperson
    Louieperson
    Captain Steubenperson
    Ben Heckperson
    Elaineperson
    Led Zeppelinperson
  • ?

    design_innovation: Caribbean Cruise was the first pinball game to use non-leaking lithium batteries; original batteries on this machine still functioning after 35+ years

    high · Dave stated: 'It was the first pin to put lithium batteries on the game, and they wouldn't leak. In fact, the original lithium batteries is on this game and is still running fine.'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Caribbean Cruise's cocktail format includes flat glass top (vs. pitched on standard machines) allowing beverage placement, and compact footprint fitting in venues where full-size machines cannot

    high · Dave noted: 'it has a flat top glass because inside the play field is pitched but outside on top of the glass it's flat to put a beer down or whatever so that beats the regular pinball machines'

  • ?

    manufacturing_signal: Only 377 units of Caribbean Cruise were manufactured, making it a relatively scarce machine

    high · Dave stated: 'only 377 made' and later confirmed 'They only made 377 of these?'

  • ?

    operational_signal: Cocktail pinball machines placed in bars experienced rapid revenue decline, starting at ~$50/week first week, dropping to $40/$30 in subsequent weeks due to being single-player games

    high · Dave explained: 'If you could get this game into a bar, it would make, you know, $50 a first week, $40 the next week, $30. it would fall off quick'

  • $

    market_signal: The direct-to-consumer franchise model for Caribbean Cruise and similar machines failed when homeowners discovered established venue operators (like 'Louie') had exclusive placement agreements preventing entry by independent operators

    high · Dave described: 'They realized shortly that, no, no, we have Louie Bag of Donuts here. These are his games, and you can't bring your game in here because Louie's going to break our legs.'

  • ?

    gameplay_signal: Caribbean Cruise features challenging shot geometry, particularly the skeet shooting targets which require precise flipper positioning due to unconventional four-flipper layout with one flipper in an unusual corner location

    high · George noted: 'It's hard to even get the skeet targets from the extreme lower left flipper to the left side it's hard to even nail anything on the edge to get that t over there in skeet it's really uh a bear the geometry is not what you're used to'

  • ?

    product_concern: Gottlieb System 3 machines from this era are known for having faulty inline fuses that frequently fail, requiring replacement as routine maintenance

    high · Dave explained: 'these are known, the Gottliebs are known from this time frame for having their inline fuses for the main fuses are junk. So I replaced that and I got power.'

  • ?

    community_signal: George and Dave noted they corrected a previous episode's omission of the kicker bonus collection mechanic (spelling S-K-I in lanes), acknowledging it as an important gameplay piece they initially overlooked

    high · George stated: 'Last week we talked about hotdogging, and I told Dave after we recorded that we left out a very, very important piece of the game... we missed that one but we got it now'

    • I'm going to interrupt. First off, this is a cocktail game. Did we say that? We did not say that. Good thinking, George. Good thinking. Yes, it is a cocktail. Cocktail pinball machine. And it's a four player and tough with a cocktail to sit down and keep changing spots. so pretty much I contributed as a one player but I have a plan to make this into to put on a platform, a 5 inch platform brings this game up to be a regular height sized pinball for a stand up with a smaller form factor than a regular pinball machine so it can fit in spots that a regular pinball couldn't fit into and the bonus is it has a flat top glass because inside the play field is pitched but outside on top of the glass it's flat to put a beer down or whatever so that beats the regular pinball machines because they have a pitch glass especially the modern rampers out there so pissed that all your tools on top of it just fall off the game why don't you tell the audience what you said about this particular version of a cocktail 1989 versus probably the one most people are familiar with the roy clark entertainer game Is that the one most people are familiar with? Yeah, Roy Clark Entertainer, kind of not built that well, not really much fun.
    4:26
    You can pick them up for next to nothing. No one wants them. I think it was the Allied Leisure, I think, made that one, along with some other ones they made as well.
    4:35
    Godley did, out of all clock-to-table pinball machines, Godley did the best job with them. They really did good themes, good execution, great sounds, and solid board sets. In fact, the System 3 in this Caribbean Cruise, for reliability and serviceability, is right up there with WPC from the 90s, their board sets.
    4:56
    And Night Moves as well is another good one. Were those the only two cocktails that they made in this time frame? Yeah, I believe so. Gottlieb made just those two right there, and under the Gottlieb brand name, just Night Moves, but Caribbean Cruise is still a Gottlieb System 3. So when I replaced that fuse holder, boom, the actual game came to life. And it's okay, it's limit, I can't believe it, it's just one quick little thing. But then it would, I couldn't use the flippers or anything, it was that main fuse for the solenoids was blown. And replaced it, turned the power on, boom, blew right away. So that means if it's blowing right away like that, typically you have a bad bridge rectifier, and lo and behold, that's exactly what it was. So a bridge rectifier, two new fuses and a fuse holder later, and now up and running. And then I just spent 15 hours shopping it out with all new Titan rubbers and colored rubbers. And I even did the dreaded LED conversion on this one, George. I actually did LEDs throughout, which I'm starting to warm up to them, so to speak, to the warm LED, warm whites and some colors in there. While we're not sitting or standing in front of the machine right now, I'll reserve judgment until I see it. In our last episode, I asked you a question whether these games were made for cruise ships. And in the last week, I went and did a little homework, and I could only find one instance of somebody talking about it with something called the Big Red Boat. I guess it was a premier cruise line Disney operation up until sometime in the early 90s. But that's the only reference I could find. I had always heard that these were for cruise ships, so I don't know. I guess the jury's still out whether that's true or not. Yeah, no, this is not the case, George. I did some other research, too, on it. And I should also mention this is a two-ball, multi-ball game as well. So that's very exciting.
    6:58
    Basically, back in the late 80s, early 90s, this was like considered to sell this pinball machine to households who want to get into the distributor business and pinball machines so for 20 or 30k you could buy in you can get about six of these tables and sell them for like four or five grand a piece or so and your outlay would be about maybe 1800 bucks so they were trying to sell us you know so you could not buy us from a distributor you bought it from the actual company you know international whatever they're called there so this company was selling direct to consumer they would make the consumer buy six of them and then it was up to them to sell them at whatever price right sell whatever price they want you know and they were all over the gamut from 1800 and 4500 bucks or so it was a franchise so people it's sort of a get rich quick franchise thing it kind of fell on its face uh they would these homeowners would put them in to call Mr. Bar Owner or whatever, hey, we're going to put a game in there. But they realized shortly that, no, no, we have Louie Bag of Donuts here. These are his games, and you can't bring your game in here because Louie's going to break our legs. I'm familiar with Louie. I'm very familiar with Louie. He was my guy. And if you could get this game into a bar, it would make, you know, $50 a first week, $40 the next week, $30. it would fall off quick because it's pretty much a one-player game as a sit-down thing. But like I said, I have a plan to make this into a stand-up thing, like a regular table, so it would be definitely better for multiplayer games.
    8:37
    Do you want to talk about some of the features on this game and maybe describe the layout? Kind of an octagon, right? An elongated octagon for the playfield? Yeah, an elongated octagon for the playfield. So it's a bit wider and a bit shorter than a regular pinball machine play field.
    9:01
    Again, it has the System 3 board set. It was the first pin to put lithium batteries on the game, and they wouldn't leak. In fact, the original lithium batteries is on this game and is still running fine.
    9:16
    Also, another cool thing that this game and other manufacturers didn't do is they had 44 bulbs in the pop-uppers, which everyone pretty much did. But these ones have a special resistor warming circuit that when you hit the pop bumper, it would send a little more higher voltage to that light to make it almost act like a flasher. So it would flash when you hit the pop bumper.
    9:35
    It'd make the 44 instead of having like five volts and maybe go to like seven and a half or something. I'll look forward to seeing that when we play. And I was wondering on this one last thing in the game, why one pop bumper, the light wouldn't work at all. It's like, oh, I was going to the MOSFET transistor. no that's not it it's like then i said what are these warming resistors up here oh there's one falling off oh that's gonna be it put it in there started back in boom nice and uh flashy light again like it's supposed to be it also has a pair of optos for the out hole um when the ball goes the out hole instead of having a leaf switch or micro switch it goes through a an opto pair and godly also did some neat things with their switches so instead of a leaf switch or micro switch they use smart switches which is a piezoelectric assembly in there so that they wouldn really need adjustment They react upon the bending of the material would change the That Caribbean Cruise there just doing a little ocean effect in the background And so they called it a smart switch, and they worked really well, very reliable thing. So Godley hit a lot of home runs with this system.
    10:45
    Were a lot of these items in games that came before this or games after? Yeah. In System 3, they did a lot of things with the smart switch. So all these things were utilized in Gottlieb games from that time. Now, the bad thing about Gottlieb, this time frame, is usually their themes and their execution kind of sucked. For the most part. There's some people that love them, but for the most part, people pan them. But sometimes, like in this game, they actually got it right. It's actually fun to play. So it's fun to play and reliable. So it's good for them. I took a look at the list and I don't have it in front of me I was only familiar with two games out of all these system three games care to go through the list do you remember what some of them are I think blackout or black hole was that one of them no the system three no black hole is a system 80 okay you're talking games like uh oh I don't know some games you can't really remember for a reason if you give me a second i'll look it up you can continue well another neat thing about this game it's very hard to do is the skeet shooting thing on here so that's why it's kind of as a cruising theme on it as a skeet shooting five targets on it and upper right hand side when you get them all down then the gi turns off a flashing strobe or a flasher goes off continuously in the background behind the skeet targets, and it strobes each letter in skeet, S-K-E-E-T, like slowly strobing them for a skill shot for you to hit that. Every time you hit that, you get big points, and it keeps going, going, going under a timer. See, I think you have maybe, I think exactly how much time, maybe 15 or 30 seconds, I'll have to look for sure, but there's some kind of timer to it, and then that mode is over and you're back to regular play.
    12:39
    Game on, let's go skeet shooting! so here are the premier games that i have listed you tell me whether these are correct or not barb wire bell ringer Brooks and Dunn, it doesn't look like they made any of those, Bullseye, Cactus Jacks, Carhop, Class of 1812, Cuball Wizard, and Deadly Weapon. I retract my statement from earlier. I don't think I've played any of those games. I played Carhop at Pintastic a year or two ago. They had that game there. These were all pretty doggy as far as numbers. They're a doggie. As far as numbers. Now, did you type in System 3 under search? I just went to System 3 on IPDB. Oh, good. Okay. All right. Good. I think there's like a basketball theme one, too, they did.
    13:54
    Not NBA Fastback, but something else in there. Shaq? Shaq Attack? Yeah, I think Shaq Attack. I can look it up. Some kind of, yeah. Because I remember working on one of those, and they had smart switches in that one, too.
    14:04
    I don't know anything about that game, either, other than the name. Premiere, you're right. Look at that. Why didn't it list that? Oh. You didn't scroll up, George. Wow. All right, the Australian guy's going to really. Yeah, he's going to have a field day with me this week. So I'll continue with the list. Frank Thomas, Big Hurt. I watched that on stream yesterday.
    14:28
    Okay. 2,000 games. Freddy Nightmare on Elm Street, 2,800. Gladiators, 2,000. Hoops. Lights, camera, action. Don't know what that is. Oh, it's a horrible game, I think. Mario Andretti. Only 1,100 units. That's not a lot either. Nudget. Operation Thunder. Oh, that was a redemption game. Rescue 911. Silver Slugger. I don't know any of these games. Stargate. I've heard of that. Stargate. That was fantastic. 3,600. Street Fighter II. Strikes and Spares. Bulletin. That's a redemption game. Super Mario. Super Mario Mushroom World. I guess that's a redemption game. Surf and Safari, Teed Off, Title Fight, Vegas, Water World, Woof, Woof, Wipeout, and World Challenge Soccer. Wow, these are some gems. Yeah, they are, though. Sorry, people, if you collect these. I will say Teed Off is their No Good Gophers. That was their competition for No Good Gophers, Teed Off. I saw somebody advertise the game that way, too. Or Caddyshack. Yeah, Caddyshack. Same kind of thing, same kind of humor-filled thing with Mr. Gopher. What was the other one that was in the middle there you said? Mario Andretti, Nudget, Frank Thomas, Freddy, Gladiators. Oh, I know, the bowling theme one. You said the redemption game. Actually, it's a bowling game. So the flippers, it's strikes and spares, right? Strikes and spares? Yes, that was the name of it. Yeah. They made those. That was one of the last ones. 750 units. The last ones they made, they were giving away at the end. No one wanted them. Oh, I know this game. Yep. And every one I've seen is absolutely beautiful. Oh, yeah, because they were blowing them out for, I don't know, I want to say $900. No, the one I saw recently was more, but it's the environment we're in. I think it was more like $2,000. Well, back in that day. No, no, I remember seeing these for not a lot of money. And my friend Paul and his brother Stu, they picked one up back then. And it's because they like bowling. And it's two flippers at the bottom. The balls come down on each side. And you take your turn by hitting the flipper and trying to get the pins down in the middle. It's like a big bowling alley with flippers. It's a strange game. Strange game. It's probably fun if you have a bunch of games in the game room. But as a single game. Or in a bar. In a bar would be nice. No, I understand what I'm saying. As a single game for home use. No. But part of the arcade, sure. And in a bar, yeah, absolutely, because everybody knows exactly what to do. Right. Hit the pins. Hit the pins down. Right. I mean, right.
    17:11
    No matter how many beers you've had, you can get that done. Do you want to talk about the game features here, or do you want to sit in front of the game and go through the game with all the features, because we can actually look at it? Yeah, let's do it in front of the game. That way we can do better.
    17:30
    Caribbean Cruise. Game 1. Let's see here. I'm okay. Game 1, Caribbean Cruise. Here we go. Shoot the ball.
    17:54
    And the mystery hole says... Show me multiball. There it goes. Two ball multiball happening here. So... Oh, look at that already.
    18:10
    You got two ball multiball right away by just hitting that skill shot into the upper saucer. And I got the jackpot. He he he! Got that jackpot!
    18:26
    Hey, hey, hey. Get the extra ball. Hey, hey, hey. Hey, hey, it's better. I got the jackpot. You did not. Hey, hey, hey. Wow, things are happening here. I don't know what you're doing, but you're doing well. So while I head to my multi-ball, if I get to collect the jackpot, big points. Well, I think we need to start at the beginning. All right. When Dave plunges the ball, it goes up into an area with multiple rollovers and a saucer.
    19:15
    It then feeds an upper right flipper, and the skill shot is to get it up to a spinner that puts it back into the area to get onto the rollover or to roll over the rollover in order to get the multiplier. The multiplier on this game, believe it or not, goes to 15x.
    19:40
    And it's tough to get. It's tough to get even up to, I don't know, 4x, really. The other big piece of this game is the bonus. there are three targets a little off center in the upper play field. Every time you knock those three down, it's 100,000 bonus points, correct? Correct. 100,000 points for each lettering cruise.
    20:07
    This game doesn't have a back box, so all your displays and all the information for the game is right in the center of the play field.
    20:21
    What kind of display is that, Dave? That is a DMD. It's a blue DMD from Gottlieb. And it's kind of big, robust, and blue. Oh, so you didn't even get it in that saucer, and you just drained. So that plate field is not tinted blue. It's the actual display. Well, it's tinted blue, and it's blue as well. Yeah, I think. Pretty sure Don hold me to it But I know it at least tinted blue So Dave just got the ball into play He hit the flipper and it has now gone by all everything and he got nothing Oh I got nothing for that I really want to hit the, uh, it has four flippers, too. Four flippers, multi-ball, there we go. Alright, show me multi-ball. Could be multi-ball, mystery score, and it's going to be extra ball. Oh, it gave me an extra ball for that. That's very generous of it.
    21:21
    What else can I even have? So you got it in the saucer again. Another mystery saucer. Here we go. It's time. Roll the magic eight ball, and we get multi-ball. Here we go. Two-ball multi-ball coming. And collect jackpot in the center target, which is kind of tough to hit. Let's see if I can get it here. Oh, and not lose the ball like I just did. So now I'm back to single ball play.
    21:41
    Where did that ball come from? The saucer? The saucer. Yeah, it just gave it. Oh, it held it? It held it until it wanted me to hit something, and I didn't hit anything except the out-hole. Now, Dave mentioned that this is a four-flipper game. This is not your traditional four-flipper game by any long shot. Three, yes. Two in the bottom, one in the upper right, like I said. But then there's another flipper in the corner of the play field with a very, very small... I don't even know if it's a slingshot. I don't think that's active. you need to go out onto either IPDB or Dave's website or out on Pinside when we list this to look at the pictures we're trying to describe it but it's so untraditional you're probably having a tough time imagining what this thing looks like and it is very unique I'll be putting this up on my YouTube channel with a full video and play it and so forth so very shortly so Dave's doing a pretty good job I don't know what the replay is on this now Dave would you call this game Dave would you say that this game has an Italian bottom I forget what that term means George except for maybe the swimsuit issue it sort of does doesn't it is a swimsuit issue we're in the Caribbean You're amusing yourself, as always.
    23:19
    Because both flippers do get fed by an outlay. They do. But the flipper that's on the left-hand side corner is not where you would normally see a flipper. You have to go look at these pictures. It is a very, very different game. They didn't make what they... What did you tell me? They only made 377 of these? 377. Kind of relatively rare. Fun little cocktail table. Good form factor.
    23:47
    You can use it as a table. You can put a tablecloth on it. It's flat. It's nice. Start. All aboard, George.
    23:59
    Who was that guy, Captain Steuben of the Love Boat? Captain Steuben, yes. Okay, this is going to be interesting. He now sells scalp polish. Okay, so here comes in. Not enough. The bumpers in this game are in kind of a weird spot, too.
    24:21
    Oh, there's that Italian... And you get a little pin there, too. A little pin helps a lot in the lower left flipper. The second lower left flipper, I should say. Okay, that wasn't very good.
    24:34
    Nice shot, George. Skill shot, here we go into the... Nope, and I missed it. Come on. Nope, and I missed it. Spinner denied. Your upper spin is worth 10,000 to spin right now. Looks pretty good. Which spin? The one on the right or left? The left.
    24:51
    Okay. Jordan is going to... There we go. Use that pin that you're supposed to... There. Now it's worth some more. That's for 50.
    24:57
    Hooray! 20,000 to spin. He has two letters in cruise. Okay. That was a good save by George. That was almost nasty.
    25:09
    Okay. I'm not hitting anything. There. Now we got the drop targets. Those three blue drop targets. Ooh, went up the spinner again. Now 50,000 points of spin.
    25:21
    No, no, no. Oh, there we go. Okay. Oh, there we go. Come on into the saucer. And again it goes. Jesus.
    25:32
    How many times do I have to hit that thing? I'm doing... A little floaty, but not too bad. Okay, got it again. There you go. Okay, finally I get it. Now do I get an extra ball? I'm going to say it's going to be multi-ball. Yep, multi-ball for you, George. You can shoot your own multi-ball. So I got to shoot it in, and this will activate that saucer ball until it hits something. Until you hit something. Okay, so I just did, and it went to the thing. Okay. Okay, this is a little... And that was poor.
    26:15
    Made overboard, George. So that was it? One time? One time for... She got 400,000 points right there. For bonus.
    26:25
    I'm not doing very well, am I? You get 2 million on... Okay, here we go. Flipper shot. Bad again. one skeet target. So how do you get the skeets? You got to get them all down? You got to get them all down first. Okay. It's kind of the feet. It's really tough. Okay, so I got it up into the upper play field again. Oh, yes, mystery hole. Mystery hole for George is... Oh, extra ball, I'm thinking.
    26:52
    Multi-ball again for you, George. You got to shoot that collect bonus thing right there. Okay. Okay, let's... No more click bonus for you No more jackpot for you So you get the multi-ball again I'm just trying to keep the ball alive It's very different It is Another multi-ball for you, George It's very generous People say that Guns N' Roses is full of multi-balls Oh my lord And it's going bye-bye again. And wow.
    27:35
    Am I done? That's three balls. Abandon ship. So I see how it kind of trails off. It's like, I picture that if you jumped off the cruise ship and you're trying to get back and you hear the cruise music going away. You hear the boat slowly going into the sunset. Going to sunset and you say, I'm really in a bad way here. I know you're into cartoons.
    28:06
    The Bugs Bunny cartoon, Waikiki Rabbit. That's one of the two people on the Desert Island with the coconuts and so forth? Correct. That's a funny one. I was thinking of you. I'm like, I know Dave knows this one. It's a good one. That's a classic. You know, those two characters in there are actually, I think they're supposed to be the two people that drew, that drew for Warner Brothers, I think. Oh, they're caricatures of the people who actually drew the cartoon. Yeah, I'm pretty sure. Interesting. I'm pretty sure.
    28:45
    So, you've got skeet. You've got to spell S-K-E-E-T. when you do that then it activates the variable target so it goes back and forth from s to k right it scans back and forth so it scans back and forth and if you so when it's scanning back and forth once you get the target that's lit it'll make like a firework sound give you all kinds of points if you don't get it it'll make a duck sound like quack quack sound that jackpot is in a you got to really hit that dead on there's no there's no fudge factor with that it's hard to even get the skeet targets from the extreme lower left flipper to the left side it's hard to even nail anything on the edge to get that t over there in skeet it's really uh a bear the geometry is not what you're used to so you're trying to figure out the geometry of the game and the flipper position to the left is in a very strange spot. The neat thing about this, another neat thing about this game, is they pitch the game internally inside the unit. So it's a permanent pitch in there, but a pretty aggressive pitch. You know, enough to be fun, not floaty like a typical older Gottlieb in an EM that some people don't know how to set them up right. But when you go to a show, usually they're pretty floaty. But this one's set pretty, you know, nice aggressive pitch where it's supposed to be, so it's exciting and fun. But at the same time, you get the, like we talked about before, You have the glass on top of it is flat so that you can place your beverage of your choice on there and, you know, have Ed instead of having it fall off like a regular table.
    30:25
    Do you want to play a game together? Sure. Like a two-player game? Yeah, two-player game. Yeah, sure. Or we can even do flipper and flipper, but unless you aren't into that kind of thing. No, I'll do flipper and flipper. You want to flip? I'm sitting here, so it's very easy. Let's go. All right, let's go. I'm on the left flipper. You're on the right flipper. Okay, here we go. All aboard. Okay, let's see.
    30:49
    Not enough. Big, giant goose egg. Well, that was horrible. 100,000 points. That's pretty bad. Okay, we got him.
    31:06
    Oh, honk. There he is. I think that's our favorite part of the game. You guys are having a great time there. I think you can tell he's had more booze for the cruise. He's had several cocktails at this point. He had a couple of rum swizzles. I think he did So oh I forgot about that flipper there Okay skeet target You got Nope.
    31:36
    Okay, got that again. Oh, I should have. Oh, here we go. That was dumb. So here comes the big question. Yeah. Have you ever been on a cruise? Once.
    31:46
    Me too. You first. I knew cruising wasn't for me. I just, but I chose it as, you know, celebrate with my parents their anniversary, and no one else was going to go with them, so it's like, you know, it's Maureen and I, we'll go with them. We had a good time with them. But I chose it more as an appetizer to go check out different islands and see which one I want to fly to. That's what it worked out for me, you know. But I don't like being trapped on a ship and, you know, it might be a nice pretty jail, but it's still a jail. You can't leave. And you're under maritime law, so you're not under the law of the jurisdiction of the United States or whatever country you're from you're under this strange water law as well I went on one with my mom and my sister's family and not for me either the one thing that I remember out of the whole cruise well two things actually one I had to go out every morning at 6.30 and 7 o'clock and keep everybody away from the lounge chairs. Yes, I was one of those. So you sit there trying to save eight or ten lounge chairs when everybody's coming by. No, they're taken. I have blankets and pillows and all kinds of things on there, and I got a lot of stink eyes. You know what? Cue the Seinfeld show with Elaine trying to save the seats in a movie theater. You go in and save seats. Me? But that's three seats. I can't take three seats. I told you about that guy who tore up my winter coat. I'm sorry. No, but George. No, these are saved. All of them? Yes. Come on, you can't take four seats. What, is that a rule? They're taken. They're taken.
    33:31
    Okay. I'm not familiar with that one, but I'll have to go look at it. The other thing that I remember is my grandfather was a gigantic cruiser. and he said to me early in the week go and tell the steward at your table that you want the captain to come by and have a drink with you okay and i did that early in the week and i got pushback well my brother-in-law was in the wine and spirit business and you're allowed to bring a case of wine. I forget how many bottles, but he brought a case of wine.
    34:11
    He was holding court during dinner on Saturday night with half the waitstaff and the captain drinking at our table the bottles of wine that he had brought, plus the champagne. So my brother-in-law caused quite the scene at dinner on Saturday night, but my grandfather probably gave me the most memorable cruising event I could ever have. You know, having cocktails with the captain. Here comes the ocean And the waves Down by the sea Here comes the ocean And the waves, where have they been?
    35:11
    Boris Feature Well, we're at that point in the show, folks, where we're going to look at the sheet. Clean up on aisle six. Where is that stock boy? Last week we talked about hotdogging, and I told Dave after we recorded that we left out a very, very important piece of the game.
    35:33
    On the top of the game, you have to spell with the lanes, S-K-I. Well, the K in ski is for the kicker. But the most important piece that we left out is, when you do get into the kicker, you collect the bonus. it's a gigantic piece of the game yeah we missed that one but we got it now we also and we'll go quick didn't talk about the artwork of the game I've said before and I'm sure people who listen to us I said it's kind of Peter Max like some people agree some people don't it's very colorful I think it's a very attractive game and actually I was talking with my wife Janice last night and she said, you'll never sell that game. That's my favorite game. So that's always good. Wow, she actually plays? She plays once in a while? She said, if I had known you were playing that last night I would have come down and played with you. She never plays. Wow. Ever. Get a picture of that. Right.
    36:39
    Another thing that I want to address on the sheet is you've heard a lot of different intro music. Well if you were wondering what the hot dog song was it's actually a Led Zeppelin song from In Through the Outdoor 1979, cool thing about that album was it came in a brown paper wrapper the unique thing about it was the record sleeve it was a black and white picture But if you moistened it or ran a sponge or a wet paper towel over it, it would change color.
    37:21
    Very, very different at the time. And I remember my friend in California had that album. I heard that song and I had no idea it was Led Zeppelin. Well, that's why I included it. And the previous shows that also had very Led Zeppelin-y songs, that wasn't Led Zeppelin either. that was greta von fleet well i actually i actually saw let's up one okay 1974 five madison square garden they're awesome never seen them live another item from the sheet heard this one on the poor man's pinball podcast and i had to chuckle i think dave's heard this story before. They were talking about Joe Petschie's house being listed in New Jersey. So happens that my grandfather lived next door to Joe Petschie. And I used to see Joe all the time next door. Didn't interact with him. He didn't need us to bother him like everybody else down at the Jersey Shore did. I would hear it in the middle of the night with people either driving down the street yelling, hey, Joe!
    38:35
    Or boats passing in front of his house yelling the same thing. He has his house listed for $6 million. Everybody was commenting on the plastic furniture. The plastic furniture was out in his gigantic closed-in porch with a full kitchen. It was interesting to have Joe Petsche as a summer neighbor for many years. Am I funny? Do I amuse you? I'm funny how? I mean funny like I'm a clown? I amuse you? I make you laugh? I'm here to fucking amuse you? What do you mean funny? Funny how? How am I funny? I have one last thing from the sheet. Sure. The Marx Brothers movie that we had in the hot dog episode was not Animal Crackers. Night at the Opera. There's one captain of the crew who's a little bit, I don't know, he got fired because he kept going to the nice looking girls around the crew and said, hey, do you want a little captain in you? And it really wasn't appropriate at all.
    39:46
    And you know the thing is, he was short. So, there you go. Hello. Thank you. Oh boy. Okay. Boy, that's a head. That's a joke, boy. You missed it. went right past you you gotta keep i say you gotta keep on your toes but toes that is but the fast ones get right by you keep your ears open but yeah but yeah but yeah i can't get a word in edgeways talk talk talk but no wonder you're not sharp dave who dave d-a-v-e yeah dave right so anyone out there that wants to explore getting their games worked on, getting their games restored, or buying a restored game from me, you can check out my website at pinballdoctor.com. That's pinballdoctor, all spelled out. Or you can reach me at dave at pinballdoctor.com. Or you can reach me at drdavespinball at gmail. And that's d-r-d-a-v-e-s, pinball, at gmail.
    40:58
    Thank you. Oh, oh. Get the extra ball. Oh, oh. you