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Arcades Across America Part 9 - Episode 67

JBS Show·podcast_episode·52m 13s·analyzed·Jul 23, 2025
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claude-haiku-4-5-20251001 · $0.035

TL;DR

Austin and Georgia pinball collectives share venue operations, membership models, and community-driven tournament strategies.

Summary

JBS Show episode featuring Kay from the Awesome Pinball Collective (Austin) and Sterling from Pinball Studio (Georgia), discussing their new nonprofit pinball venues, membership models, tournament operations, and community-building efforts. Both emphasize the importance of community, affordable access, and maintaining quality arcade experiences while managing inventory and sustainability challenges.

Key Claims

  • Awesome Pinball Collective opened in June 2024 after organizing starting in January with a board of Kay, Philip Pomeroy, Becca Salem, Chris Welch, and Ryan Hoddard

    high confidence · Kay states 'by May, we actually started a lease on our space. And in June, we officially opened. And it is now July.'

  • Awesome Pinball Collective has 57 games in the building and membership of 50-60 monthly members plus 30+ game loaner members

    high confidence · Kay: 'we've been open for two months, we're now just doing monthly subscriptions of $60 a month' and 'We actually have 57 games in the building already' and 'I know that we passed 50. We might be up to 60 members now'

  • Pinball Studio is located 30 minutes south of Savannah in Richmond Hill, Georgia and has 19-23 machines on site

    high confidence · Sterling: 'We are about 30 minutes south of Savannah. So we're in south Georgia in a small town called Richmond Hill, Georgia' and 'I think there's currently 19 in here. We got room for 23.'

  • Pinball Studio rebranded from 'Balls of Steel' to 'Pinball Studio' at the beginning of 2024

    high confidence · Sterling: 'So we started a group back in 2022... we rebranded to the Pinball Studio at the beginning of this year.'

  • Pinball Studio's first tournament had 47 participants and expects to grow to 60-70 players within months

    high confidence · Sterling: 'our first tournament we had 47 people show up' and Jamie notes 'They're going to be pushing in the 60s, the 70s within the next couple of months.'

  • Predator pinball machine pricing with import/shipping fees makes ROI impossible for commercial operators

    high confidence · Sterling: 'once the price is too high and then there's the import fees and then there's the international shipping fees and then there's domestic shipping fees on top of it. It's just that it wouldn't make its money back.'

  • Sterling has bought or sold approximately 40 games in the last two years at Pinball Studio

    medium confidence · Sterling: 'I've probably bought or actually probably sold like 40 games in the last two years, and every one of those was replaced with something else'

Notable Quotes

  • “Community is everything with an arcade space. And especially around pinball, having all my friends that are now, I didn't know these people moving into this arcade, and now I have a large group of really close friends that come every day to the arcade, and we all hang out and play pinball. And it's the best thing ever.”

    Co @ ~14:30 — Core philosophy behind arcade venue operations; emphasizes social bonds over pure revenue

  • “I can hear it from right here. The pinball machines are on the other side of the building and they're smacking the machines.”

    Jamie @ ~18:45 — Humorous observation about enthusiastic pinball play; demonstrates operator awareness of machine handling issues

  • “We're not a bar. Right. So, you know, I actually started my journey in pinball as a pinball technician at Silver Ball Museum in Delray Beach. And that was where I learned how to work on machines and to be able to now, you know, open a museum of my own with along with a lot of my best pinball friends and all of Austin.”

    Kay @ ~21:00 — Establishes Kay's expertise and the museum/educational focus of Awesome Pinball Collective versus commercial arcade

  • “I think there's currently 19 in here. We got room for 23... The bigger it gets, the harder it gets. I mean, any more than 23. All these are set up top-notch.”

    Sterling @ ~27:30 — Operational philosophy: quality maintenance over quantity; reflects sustainable venue management

  • “I'm terrible at Metallica remastered. I don't know why. That one just doesn't gel well with me for some reason. I enjoy it. I can't play the original Metallica, but Metallica remastered, I could blow it up.”

    Co @ ~25:15 — Highlights individual game preference variations; relevant to venue game selection strategy

  • “They're building a whopper farm up there. They're doing great things in Austin. Congratulations. It's fantastic.”

    Jamie @ ~35:00 — Community recognition and peer validation of Awesome Pinball Collective's rapid growth and impact

  • “I don't like amazing race. It's forever. It takes forever... If you do top eight, it's when it starts hurting feelings and you're there for a long time.”

Entities

Awesome Pinball CollectiveorganizationKaypersonSterling MartinpersonCopersonPinball StudioorganizationQuarter Drop ArcadeorganizationJamieperson

Signals

  • ?

    business_signal: Pinball Studio's first tournament attracted 47 participants with projected growth to 60-70+ within months, indicating healthy tournament ecosystem and venue scalability despite small town location (Richmond Hill, GA)

    high · Sterling: 'our first tournament we had 47 people show up, which was amazing' with Jamie confirming 'They're going to be pushing in the 60s, the 70s within the next couple of months'

  • ?

    community_signal: Bounty tournament format (poker chip awards to high scorers eliminating finalists) spreading across multiple venues (Electric Bat → Little Dipper → potentially broader adoption) indicating format innovation and community-driven experimentation

    medium · Jamie: 'We had so much fun doing Chewy's Tournament at the Electric Bat that we stole the idea. Mike Flanagan did it at Little Dipper this past weekend. And we had 30 people come, five bucks each'

  • ?

    community_signal: Awesome Pinball Collective achieving rapid growth (57 games, 50-60 monthly members, 30+ loaner members within 2 months of opening) indicates strong community participation and demand for nonprofit membership model

    high · Kay: 'we're now at the point where we're like, hold on, we got to think about what more games are bringing in here because we might start running out of space'

  • ?

    community_signal: Georgia state rep (Sterling) noting difficulty keeping up with diverse tournament formats and rule variations, suggesting IFPA standardization/documentation challenges and grassroots innovation outpacing official frameworks

    medium · Sterling: 'I'm the state rep or one of the state reps for Georgia, and I don't know half of these crazy, like, formats'

  • ?

Transcript

groq_whisper · $0.157

0:00
🎵 Hello and welcome to the JBS show part nine, Co. Can you believe this? Part nine of Arcades Across America. Welcome, my friend, Co. From Court Drop Arcade. How are you, sir? I'm doing well, Jamie. Good to see you, as always. Time flies when you're having fun, clearly. I know. Because we're nine episodes deep. We're nine into the Arcades Across America, and I love this series. And today we have two great guests, and I'm really excited to introduce everyone to Kay and Sterling. Kay with the Awesome Pinball Collective and Sterling from the Pinball Studio. Welcome to Arcades Across America, ladies and gentlemen.
1:07
Thanks, Jamie. Good to be here. Yeah, we're real excited. This is our second take, ladies and gentlemen, because we were five minutes in. Well, this is take two, because we were five minutes in and Jamie was on mute and that wouldn't have been a very good podcast. So, say goodbye to Janine in the background. Hi, Janine.
1:30
So, okay. Let's start like we did last time with Kay. And what we want to do is just give us the beginning of the Awesome Pinball Collective. Why did you guys decide to do this? What is a pinball collective? And let's go from there. Sure. So, the Awesome Pinball Collective is a new non-profit pinball collective and museum where a bunch of us collectors in and around Austin pulled our games together to create this really unique space with a variety of pinball machines from different eras. And we're currently in the midst of setting up a museum room, right, that will kind of walk through the history of pinball. And then we have about 40 plus games on FreePlay, right, or membership driven. And we also sell day passes as well. so the idea from this you know this has kind of been kicked around in Austin for my understanding is even a couple years within the past year you know there were a number of folks that were talking about it you know we were able to you know talk to a local office where they had some space right at a great deal and explore that and then you know number of people just really stepped up right we've now got a I'm a member of the board as well as Philip Pomeroy Becca Salem, Chris Welch, and Ryan Hoddard. And together, you know, this idea really started pushing forward in January when we had regular meetings. And then by May, we actually started a lease on our space. And in June, we officially opened. And it is now July. I can't believe we're two months in. I thought Cole went fast with his arcade. Holy smokes. You guys are cruising. Yeah, from just an idea to completion. That's unbelievable. Did you guys get your tax ID number and all that stuff? We did, yep, and we've applied to be a 501c3 nonprofit. Well, congratulations. I know a little bit about this. Kay came to our house, and she was visiting Houston, knocked on the door, and we had her for dinner. It was a great day. Thank you so much for hanging out with us that day. and the wormhole, the former members of the wormhole were there, and she was picking our brain, and it was really good meeting, and hopefully we helped. Oh, my goodness, super helpful. You all gave us some great tips and advice, and that's part of our guiding star now. Good. We're looking to expand and what we need to do next. The pinball membership is kind of interesting. I'm actually thinking about doing something like that upstairs, where it's just like a private pinball club. or you have to have a membership to get up there, and everything's on free play. You don't have to worry about the CoinMax. I think it's an interesting concept. How much does it cost per month to be a member there? So we had a couple of deals when we first opened. If you were a game loaner who put a game in, you could get in in the first month at $300 for the year, which is a great deal, right? We worked out to $25 a month. Yeah, yeah. Um, and, um, then we also initially, right, offered 600, uh, a year if you did not have a pinball machine to move in, but wanted to get in early, um, which is still a great deal. I think works out to what, 50 bucks a month, basically. Yeah. Um, and now at this point, you know, we're, we're, since we're open, we've been open for two months, we're now just doing monthly subscriptions of $60 a month. and members can come in during our regular hours, six to 10 on Friday nights and then also Saturdays, 12 to four. Plus we have a Monday night for members only, six to 10. And then also sometimes we have leagues or tournaments, which they're also welcome. And then if they volunteer, because we are totally volunteer run, if they volunteer at least twice a month, so two four-hour shifts, they get upgraded to our gold tier membership. So they have access during the same time that game owners do, which is about 7 a.m. to 10 or 11 at night.

  • Quarter Drop Arcade in Cottage Grove, Oregon has approximately 48 total machines (9 pinball, 39 other arcade)

    high confidence · Co: 'I have 48 machines on the floor, and they're not all pinball. We have nine pinball machines and 48 arcade machines total.'

    • Kay @ ~45:30 — Critique of specific tournament format; demonstrates operator/player perspective on tournament design tradeoffs

  • “I really want to go to pinball at the beach dude you gotta do it... all my friends just like told me they're like you so missed out”

    Sterling @ ~48:00 — Evidence of Pinball at the Beach gaining traction as marquee industry event; FOMO dynamic

  • “It's too expensive. Yeah, really. They priced it way too high. And then because once the price is too high and then there's the import fees and then there's the international shipping fees and then there's domestic shipping fees on top of it.”

    Sterling @ ~32:45 — Direct operator criticism of manufacturer pricing strategy and cumulative cost barriers

  • “We had such a great vibe in Houston. We still do, right, with the wormhole and such. And we just had one rule, don't be an asshole, right? I stole that rule.”

    Jamie @ ~16:30 — Community cultural transmission of values across venues; core governance principle

    • Wormhole Pinball
    organization
    Electric Bat Arcadeorganization
    Flipping Out Pinballorganization
    Silver Ball Museumorganization
    Brandon Haneyperson
    Neil Wagnerperson
    Philip Pomeroyperson
    Becca Salemperson
    Chris Welchperson
    Ryan Hoddardperson
    William Johnson (Will)person
    Robert Byersperson
    Pinball at the Beachevent
    Houston Arcade Expoevent
    Keith Christensenperson
    Chicago Pinball Expoevent
    Lee Balasekperson

    competitive_signal: Pinball Studio and Awesome Pinball Collective explicitly modeling operations on Wormhole Pinball (Houston) success, indicating knowledge transfer and replication of community-first venue model across geographies

    high · Sterling: 'He kept telling me about this place called Wormhole... we kind of, like, used y'all's inspiration in a way. Oh, boy. To kind of come up with, you know, just our idea of what we wanted to do here'

  • ?

    design_philosophy: Tournament format critiques (Amazing Race too long, concerns about player experience degradation at scale) suggesting community conversation about sustainable competitive structures vs commercial growth pressure

    medium · Kay: 'I don't like amazing race. It's forever... If you do top eight, it's when it starts hurting feelings and you're there for a long time' with Sterling preferring to keep Pinball Studio tournaments ~20 players 'smaller and everyone's friends'

  • ?

    event_signal: Pinball at the Beach (St. Pete/Tampa) and Houston Arcade Expo establishing themselves as marquee events driving travel decisions and inter-venue networking in October season

    medium · Multiple references to 'Pinball at the Beach' generating FOMO ('you missed out') and planning multi-event road trips in October with Chicago Pinball Expo and Houston events

  • $

    market_signal: Venue operators actively rotating/trading 40+ games within 2-year windows suggests secondary market fluidity and continuous competitive pressure to maintain fresh lineups

    medium · Sterling: 'I've probably bought or actually probably sold like 40 games in the last two years, and every one of those was replaced with something else at the time'

  • ?

    personnel_signal: Awesome Pinball Collective leveraging Kay's Silver Ball Museum technician background to establish technical expertise hub and educational programming as core differentiator from pure commercial arcades

    high · Kay: 'I actually started my journey in pinball as a pinball technician at Silver Ball Museum in Delray Beach. And that was where I learned how to work on machines and to be able to now, you know, open a museum of my own'

  • $

    market_signal: International manufacturer pricing on Predator pinball (with tariffs and multi-stage shipping) making ROI impossible for venue operators, causing purchasing decisions to shift away from new premium releases

    high · Sterling: 'They priced it way too high... it wouldn't make its money back. No, there's just no ROI there' and 'I'm not against having Potter, but I don't want to pay that big price tag at the moment'

    • 5:38
    Very cool. That's a heck of a deal. I mean, it doesn't take long at a dollar a play to spend that much money at an arcade on pinball. So for an entire month of fun, it's a no-brainer. Ko, do you have an update for us about upstairs yet? No. Okay. Because you're teasing us a little bit. I know. Well, I've been talking to a lot of the regulars and, like, how much do they think is the right price for something like that and what they would want to see up there and what that would look like. And I'm kind of in that just planning phase because the next big project is the front of the building. So I still haven't done the front exterior of the building as far as, like, the permanent signage and all that. I have a temporary sign up there and whatnot, but it's going to be pretty special out there. It's going to really pop. I'll have a UFO crashing into the building, ideally, if the city will let me, and lights shining on the ground, and then big marquee letters that say either arcade or quarter drop. Ladies and gentlemen, Code does things big, and it's why I love him. He doesn't mess around. I don't mess around either, so it works out perfect for us. So there you go. Well, good.
    6:48
    Sterling, how are you, sir? Thank you so much for joining us. Let me talk a little bit about the rebranding. So you were initially Balls of Steel, right? Yeah, so we started a group back in 2022. I kind of didn't even know the direction I really wanted to take it. I just wanted to have, you know, tournaments in the area. So we started a group. Actually, I didn't even come up with the name. We went on Pinball Enthusiast, and we're like, what should we call the group? And everybody voted on Balls of Steel for some reason. All right. Anyway, moving forward, I was like, I need something a little bit more polished. Yeah. So we rebranded to the Pinball Studio at the beginning of this year. And where are you guys located? We are about 30 minutes south of Savannah. So we're in south Georgia in a small town called Richmond Hill, Georgia.
    7:40
    A lot of times it's funny. People give us call outs and say they're in Atlanta. I'm like, that's four hours away. Yeah. But yeah, so we're in south Georgia right near the Florida border, not far from there. Okay. And I've met a good friend of yours many times, William Johnson, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. Okay. So, yeah, Will helps me run the group. He's been around since the beginning, and he kept telling me about this place called Wormhole, and I was like, damn, I've got to get over there and check this out. But anyway, we kind of, like, used y'all's inspiration in a way. Oh, boy. To kind of come up with, you know, just our idea of what we wanted to do here. but so what did you what was your idea and where are you now what's going on at the pinball studio so eventually her so originally like i said it was just a group and we were bouncing around between all kinds of local arcades and house tournaments and everything else and we kept just saying you know we got to get our own spot we got to get our own spot so finally you know we kind of came together we got a building built uh most of the games are mine but there is some games that are members as well so that you know they help uh fill the gaps where i still have room in here and uh yeah we it's it's been crazy ever since um but yeah we just run usually tournaments every other week but sometimes every week and uh we try to have some type of event every week so there's definitely at least one day you can come play pinball here every day or every week i'm sorry are you uh membership driven as well or is it open to the public the pinball studio originally we were going to do memberships and then we kind of got away from it georgia's got some really crazy laws when it comes to pinball so yeah um just our best route is honestly it's you can come play here for free um but we ask for a you know voluntary donation it's up to you if you want to donate if not you can play here for free i don't care but you know everyone so far has been nice enough to donate but uh so all of our tournaments are just twenty dollars flat you can come play the machines They're all set on free play, play them all night, play in the tournament.
    9:48
    And then we do, like, movie nights and stuff like that where everybody just comes and plays pinball for the night, and it's like $10 to come do that. Awesome. Very wormhole-esque, if you will. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it is open to the public. You know, it's just, you know, go on the IFBA website or go to our website, pinballstudio.com, and you can see everything we got. The problem is is I have a day job, and it's like I can't just open the doors every day for everyone. Those day jobs get in the way, guys. Those day jobs get in the way. Kate, how many members do you guys have right now?
    10:23
    So I think we have a little bit over 30 game loaner members. And I know that we passed 50. We might be up to 60 members now, monthly members. So what's your goal? I mean, what do you want to get to? What is your?
    10:38
    So I think, you know, in a lot of ways, this is a dream come true. I've always wanted to open an arcade and it's even better to do it with the entire pinball community here in Austin and be a part of something bigger than just each of us individually. And not only that, you know, we are a museum and a collective. We're not a bar. Right. So, you know, I actually started my journey in pinball as a pinball technician at Silver Ball Museum in Delray Beach. And that was where I learned how to work on machines and to be able to now, you know, open a museum of my own with along with a lot of my best pinball friends and all of Austin. Right. Work together on this and the collaboration. You know, this couldn't have been done without the community. Right. So I think that is the focus. Right. Is building the community. Really. You know, our focus is on, you know, educating, providing classes, ways for people to learn. A lot of people say they want to learn to work on pinball machines. There's a lot of great pinball knowledge right in here. So, you know, our short-term goals, right, are getting that museum room open. We're working on planning it out right now, hoping maybe September, October to have that done, to continue to build our membership base. We actually have 57 games in the building already.
    11:55
    And, you know, it was crazy to think when we first started, we were like, you know, we might have 25 machines. Do we have enough to do this? And now we're at the point where we're like, hold on, we got to think about what more games are bringing in here because we might start running out of space. So I think, you know, continuing to we're also shifting focus right to and hoping to invite game loaners who don't have any games here. Right. So that they can be then a part of this community more directly. And then, you know, inviting the general public, you know, being able to expand our hours by getting more volunteers in. so we can provide more time for the public to come in and check the space out. So that's kind of our goals over the next year, and hopefully we get to a point where we're sustainable and can continue for the years to come. Awesome. I love it. Ko, you know, when we're talking about building the community, you're doing the same thing in Elk Grove, Oregon, right? Cottage Grove. That's all right. Elk Grove. Cottage Grove. You know what My fraternity brother was from Elk Grove South Dakota That where it came from Nah it from my fraternity brother Sorry I was actually when Kay was saying that I was like yeah that really rings true to me because community, it's not like I'm not just saying it. It really is everything. Community is everything with an arcade space. And especially around pinball, having all my friends that are now, I didn't know these people moving into this arcade, and now I have a large group of really close friends that come every day to the arcade, and we all hang out and play pinball. And it's the best thing ever. It's not a bad gig, is it? It's not a bad life, right? It's really fun. You know, Sterling, you're four hours away from a major metropolitan area, but how many are you guys pulling for these tournaments? I look at the numbers, they look really good. It ranges. I mean, we're usually more in the 20-ish, you know, around 20 players or so. But I really don't want it to get too crazy, honestly. I don't want to go to the whole 50 or 100 players. Not that I have the room for that. But I kind of like it smaller and everyone's friends and everyone hangs out and everyone socializes. I've been to too many tournaments where everyone just sits in a corner and no one talks to each other. That's totally not the vibe here. That's part of the community, though.
    14:21
    We had such a great vibe in Houston. We still do, right, with the wormhole and such. And we just had one rule, don't be an asshole, right? I stole that rule. And it's a good rule, right? Because why, you know. That's one of ours, too. It really is because think about it. You've got a collective. You're building a family down there in Austin. You're building a family in Georgia and in Oregon. You don't want someone coming in that family and messing it up because you've got a good thing going. Right. And the last thing you want is someone banging on games and being a potato head.
    15:02
    We just don't need that all the time. Yeah, it does. It does. But, you know, I can hear it from right here. The pinball machines are on the other side of the building and they're smacking the machines. You mentioned Will earlier that you've met a few times and he can be a little bit rough on machines from time to time. Oh, he's a big dude. OK, he's like a moving machines. I'm like, please don't. He's just nudging. Nudging is pinball. Nudging is great. Nudging is good, but yeah. No, I think if you want to follow, you know, one of the great things that the two of you have started doing is a lot more social media. I've started noticing with Kay and Sterling. And, you know, you've got a guy here. I don't know what part of the screen is, but he's an expert. So if you have any questions about social media and building your presence and building more, this is the guy to talk to, okay? info at quarterdroparcade.com. Always happy to help. And he really, really is. Love that. He really, really is. Building the community is just a small part of what you do. Maintaining the games. Let's talk about that. Coach, you know, you maintain all your machines, and it's hard, and not everyone has someone like Kay that can do that. But how do you feel the time? Because pinball machines break. How are you guys handling all these tech things? Well, I'm lucky that it's a smaller arcade. We have 48 machines on the floor, and they're not all pinball. We have nine pinball machines and 48 arcade machines total. So it's manageable. That helps a lot. But it's still, even with 48 machines, it's daily. Just something breaks, I fix it. If I don't have the part, I order it right then, And I just keep the, like today is my day off, and I was working on my Gold Rush EM pinball machine, my ice ball, and burger time. And that's, you know, this is the typical Tuesday. There's always something that's going on.
    17:02
    I like it. Starting with most of the machines being yours, do you tech them or do you guys have techs there? I do most of the tech work, but Neil Wagner, another member and also another tournament director here, he gives me a hand he's an electrical engineer and then I've got a background in electrical as well so you know it definitely helps out but I've restored many machines over the years so I'm okay I'm pretty familiar with the whole thing okay how many other texts do you guys have well that's what's great it's a hive mind of really smart pinball people right we've got Chris and Jordan are some of our best texts for sure we've also got Ted you know I know a little bit um and you know all the various owners have varying degrees of experience um or certain specific areas of knowledge right um so we're able to kind of pull that all together uh and and work together to figure things out for the most part and if none of us can figure it out we bring in our favorite brandon haney uh he's a genius there you go you go to the bullpen uh yeah it's good to have one genius ready it's good to have a bullpen if you need it it's good to have a bullpen i've I call him Yoda.
    18:15
    He is the pinball Yoda. Yeah, the pinball Yoda. Let's talk about your pinball lineup, okay? That's what people hear. They want to hear the vast selection of games. Co. has a great relationship with flipping out pinball. Tell me about what's new. What's new with the quarter drop? Oh, well, you know, it's always a revolving door, the quarter drop. So the latest machine, well, I've got a Kong, of course, which I'm loving. I play it all the time. another Keith Ellen banger. It's awesome. It is great. We got Metallica in recently. New remaster. Yeah. Nice. And that's been a big hit. People are loving that.
    18:54
    I'm terrible at Metallica remastered. I don't know why. That one just doesn't gel well with me for some reason. I enjoy it. I can't play the original Metallica, but Metallica remastered, I could blow it up. It's crazy. Really? It's interesting. I play Godzilla and Kong all day long, but Metallica, I just don't shoot very well. But we have a Ghostbusters coming in soon. I'm excited about that. Oh, nice. And we have a Deadpool coming in, a Deadpool Premium. That's coming in soon. And I just brought in that Gold Rush EM pinball machine because I'm trying to have every era of pinball, you know, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s. Yeah, there you go. And then once you move upstairs, you're Katie Barthelodeur. Yeah. Then you're good. You'll have everything. Yeah, I can feed my pinball addiction.
    19:42
    Yeah. Sterling, what kind of mix, how many machines do you have on site? I think there's currently 19 in here. We got room for 23. I mean, I could keep squeezing them in here, but I'm not trying to go for that. You know what? That's the modern wall. 23, we had 23 at the Worm. And 22 is a good number. Yeah, I agree. Because you could fit. I mean, if you grew to 50, 60 people, it's not that bad.
    20:12
    And this is enough for me to maintain, honestly, like any more than 23. All these are set up top-notch. I stay on top of everything. I love your topper game. The bigger it gets, the harder it gets. I was going to say, you must be a topper guy like me because that row looks beautiful.
    20:31
    Jiminy Christmas. But, yeah, we've got modern games behind me and then in front of me, which you can't see, is our classics and, you know, DMD-era games. So that's good when you're playing in a tournament especially, right? Yeah, it's like 50-50. That's awesome. That's a good lineup. What about UK? What's the lineup look like? You've got 50 in there, huh? Can I show you? Yeah, you can show us, yeah. So it starts all the way down at the end here. I mean, we've got FunFest all the way down there, Monopoly, Revenge, Star Trek Next Gen. I see a World Cup soccer.
    21:10
    Yep. Yep, your favorite. DNA, which is kind of rare. I only turned a couple of the games on here because it's mostly just me. Got some of the newer games, you know, Scooby-Doo, Labyrinth, Multimorphic. We even put a Princess Bride in here. Ooh. We've even got more EMs on this side over here. We've got a little extra room in here with Paragon and some other classics, like Big Game, Stars.
    21:40
    And then we've got another little secret room with some classics, like Black Knight and 8-Ball Deluxe.
    21:49
    And then at the very front, I can give you all a little sneak peek of the museum. Oh, here we go. It will be in this room. Right now it's kind of where a bunch of projects that are campaign mall machines that really need some work are happening. But we will. We have some of the beginnings of our museum with some of our wood rails here. Nice. Yeah. And we are thinking, we're throwing this idea around of the very front entrance having a machine that's propped up or someone's working on it. It's like a pinball tech zoo where people can walk by and see people working on a pinball machine. Why not? There you go. Well, that is a tremendous amount of room and just a tremendous amount of room to even grow even more. I love it.
    22:43
    When's your next tournament? So we have tournaments on the second Saturday of every month. Okay. So I believe our next tournament is August 9th.
    22:54
    August 9th. And our first tournament we had 47 people show up, which was amazing. Isn't that fantastic? That's huge.
    23:04
    Yeah. They're going to be pushing in the 60s, the 70s within the next couple of months. I mean, the vibe that I'm hearing all the way from Houston is that we're coming. A bunch of us are coming. So we're all trying to book it. So, you know, they're building a whopper farm up there. They're doing great things in Austin. Congratulations. It's fantastic.
    23:27
    Let's ask a question about newest machines. What do you have? Is there any new machines on the horizon that you're looking at bringing in? We're talking about maybe a Predator, a Harry Potter. whatever new machines are coming in. How do you handle those, Sterling? Are you addicted and have to get the newest machine? Yeah, I'm really bad about buying and selling games. I think I've probably bought or actually probably sold like 40 games in the last two years, and every one of those was replaced with something else at the time. But, yeah, we always try to have the newest Stern. I got King Kong back there. I'm not against having Potter, but I don't want to pay that big price tag at the moment.
    24:14
    It's hard for a quarter drop co. to get a $10,000 machine, isn't it? It is. And you said Predator. I think if there's anyone in the world that probably that machine should be what I would be buying, it would be me because I'm a massive fan of the movie. I was planning on buying one.
    24:33
    Are you still planning on buying one? No, it's too expensive. Yeah, really. They priced it way too high. And then because once the price is too high and then there's the import fees and then there's the international shipping fees and then there's domestic shipping fees on top of it. It's just that it wouldn't make it wouldn't make its money back. No, there's just no ROI there. It's a bummer. It is a bummer. They come out, like, because I have an Alien Ripley edition in the back room there, and I'm hoping that they come out with a Predator, you know, like Dutch edition.
    25:09
    I see, yeah. Same price as the Alien, right around there, you know, nine grand. I don't know if those days are gone. I know, they might be. They might be. We haven't seen a price raise in a while from a lot of the big manufacturers, so that's been good, but, you know, they're already so expensive. Yeah, I know. How do we get Robert Byers to bring his Harry Potter into the Awesome Pinball Collective? I would love that. I did finally get to play it. I played his Harry Potter last week on Friday, I think it was. It was amazing. I watched the stream.
    25:47
    Were you on the stream? Yes, I was. I had my full Slytherin outfit on. Yeah, I saw it. I'm sorry. I lurk on streams. I don't like to comment that much. I don't want to bother anybody.
    26:01
    You know what I mean Coe I don want to be that guy who always in there I don You should come hang out every Tuesday We stream with the home team here I love to see you and Jeff I've been on. I'm lurking. Have you? I'm a lurker. You're a lurker. That's okay. I'm a lurker, Sterling. I'm just a lurker. You're so gregarious, though. I'm surprised. No, I can't. It hurts not to chat, but I just don't want to make it about me or anything. I just want you guys to enjoy your stream. I just want to give you a number and enjoy what I'm watching. That's good.
    26:34
    What else do we have to discuss? Sterling, when's your next tournament? Our next tournament is this Sunday. So usually our tournaments are every other Sunday. Sometimes we do Saturdays, but it's usually Sundays. The doors are at 1230 and then tournament at 130. And we usually just do group match play until 5 p.m. Then we take people to finals after that. But that's usually our Sunday afternoon.
    27:01
    Awesome. Well, I just played in a tournament, guys, and I want you to try to copy this format if you don't mind.
    27:09
    I went up to Electric Bat. You know, we know the bat up in Tempe. And my buddies, Ralph and Kale. And Rachel runs a tournament where it's called a bounty. Have you ever heard of these bounty tournaments?
    27:24
    So everyone gets a chip, and it's $5 for the chip. And everyone gets a chip, and it's a three-strike, four-strike tournament. When you're eliminated, you give your chip to the highest player, whoever scored the highest on that round. And they collect chips, and they get five bucks. And you could lose the tournament and come out and win 15 bucks. And it is the most fun. We had so much fun doing Chewy's Tournament at the Electric Bat that we stole the idea. Mike Flanagan did it at Little Dipper this past weekend. And we had 30 people come, five bucks each, and Lee Balasek won a ton of cash. And so did Craig Hughes and a bunch of different guys. So that's a poker chip idea. You should think about stealing this. It's a really good idea. And people really enjoyed it. you could be rocking two strikes and get some good rounds in and be taking people's poker chips.
    28:31
    That sounds cool. Is it recognized by the IFPA as like an actual format? Yeah, I think we had a bounty. I don't know. We just did it as a 4X, right? You could just do it as a 4X and just do the bounty on the side. Dude, I'm the state rep or one of the state reps for Georgia, and I don't know half of these crazy, like, formats. They're fun. We've been doing an amazing race as well. Let's talk some tournament pinball. Amazing race finals. Have you guys ever played in an amazing race? I don't like amazing race. It's forever. It takes forever. It takes so long. It's forever, Kay. You're absolutely right. But if you could do like a top six, it's not that bad.
    29:13
    If you do top eight, it's when it starts hurting feelings and you're there for a long time. You know, I finished second in the Amazing Race and then finished second in the seedings and then finished fifth or sixth. So that hurt feelings because I choked. But that's all right. You know, you're going to choke once in a while. It's fun.
    29:36
    Guys, thanks so much for this. I really appreciate it. We're at 30 minutes. Does anyone have any questions? Any plugs you want to give? come check out the pinball studio the best way is just to go to the pinball studio.com we keep all our tournament schedule up there and any kind of special events and also we have a way to contact us and everything as well as all of our links to all of our social media accounts so best thing to do is just head over there if you want to check out any of our tournaments and anyone's welcome also i did want to mention uh please pinball at the beach we might do like a big party for a lot of people like heading down that way because a lot of people are going to be coming down i-95 into florida i know a lot of people will be flying but you know we are planning on hosting like a pinball before the beach big party thing that's a great idea i i really want to go to pinball at the beach dude you gotta do it do you both go i went this past year it was amazing see i didn't go but all my friends just like told me they're like you so missed out and i kept looking into I was just kind of skeptical about it at the time because it was a new event. But it looks like everything went really well, so I'm glad they're doing it again. It looks like they're doing it again, right? I mean, it must have gone well, Sterling. Marshall did great.
    30:57
    Let's just say I'm 50-50. I would really love to go. I know I would love to get Ralph and Cale and Co. there. Aren't you from Florida or lived in Florida? I lived in Florida, yeah. I lived in Florida. And my family's there still. I have my parents, but where is it at Pinball at the Beach? You're in Tampa, right? Yeah. St. Pete? Yeah, St. Pete, right outside of Tampa. Okay.
    31:21
    Maybe I could hook up with a bunch of attorney brothers and see what those idiots are doing and go to Pinball at the Beach. That could be a lot of fun, huh? Pinball and golf. I think it would be a good idea, man. I hope to make it out to Texas this year, but I'm kind of like they're back to back. You know, it's like it's hard, right? Pinball season. If you look at it, we've got to go in October to Expo in Chicago. Are you going, Coe, this year?
    31:49
    Definitely, certainly try. I know. I haven't even thought about it. Sorry. No, I just haven't even thought about it. I already booked my rooms, man. Have you? Oh, gosh. That's kind of quick. See, this is crazy. It's October. I know. It's crazy. That's the part of running the arcade. I know. It's just all-consuming. And then, of course, we've got Houston Arcade Expo. Can't forget about Keith Christensen's birthday party in Houston. Austin Pinball Collective, we might be trying to get a booth there. Oh, you should. You should. It's fun.
    32:26
    Have you been, Sterling? No, no, no. I've done booths before, and I highly recommend it. The Houston show is truly a party, okay? Oh, it's fun. surrounded by a pinball show. It is. Wang Chung was there last year, ladies and gentlemen. Wang Chung. I mean, how do you beat that? Where are you going to find that? I mean, no offense to Rob, but, I mean, Wang Chung? God almighty, I had front row seats to Wang Chung. Now, yeah, they're 75 years old. I don't care. They play the hits. They were rocking it. And then, so the Houston Arcade.
    33:03
    I know. I know, dude. It's Wang Chung. I know. That's ridiculous. Right. But I don't even know how much he spent to get Wang Chung there. But it was an absolute. How much? I don't know. I did an over under twenty five thousand. What do you think? Twenty five thousand over under. I bet you that sounds sounds probably right on the money. Twenty five thousand plus expenses. You can get yourself a Wang Chung at the pinball palace or the Austin Pinball Collective. Ladies and gentlemen, we're going to have REO speed back at the quarter drop. I don't see the ROI on that, Sterling, but you never know. I remember hearing Bug talk about he's like I wonder how much Bruce Campbell would be to bring to a show you know of Evil Dead Bug mentioned that though I wanted to get Elvira here what do I have to do to get that I have a party monsters in the back and I would love to have her here and sign the back glass the things we do in pinball and then of course then you have TPF that we're not mentioning in March.
    34:10
    And that's really the last one out of the big four, if you will. I'm going to throw in Houston Arcade X because I'm a shill for them.
    34:18
    So, yeah, how can I go to all four of those? I have no idea if I want to stay married, but we're going to figure it out. You know, we're going to figure it out. My problem is I keep buying pinball machines, and then I'm like, I'm going to go to a show, and then I'll buy a machine. I'm like, I'm not going to the show. No. Yeah. But you have, at least you're selling them. Kind of. Right? You know.
    34:41
    Hard to let them go. No, I don't like to sell them. I'm trading Elvira, though. Elvira is leaving next week sometime. What's going in its place? Yeah. I think Foo Fighters, Ellie.
    34:53
    All right. Cool. Has anyone played X-Men with the new code and Kong with the new code? And what else just dropped? Jaws today. Jaws 1.01. Has anyone played any of them? Oh, Kong Not yet Played Jaws for a minute What's going on there? I didn't notice a whole lot I noticed some new stuff on the screen Like countdowns and stuff You know, that I wasn't familiar with But other than that All right No worries All right, guys Thank you so much Anything from you, Co? What's going on with you? Anything new? New tournaments coming up? What's going on at the Port Drop? Yeah, we just had an awesome King Kong launch party and tournament. That was really fun. The 26th is coming up and we're going to do our official ribbon cutting because we've been open six months now. That was going to be the original opening day but we opened way earlier than I thought ever possible.
    35:49
    Chamber will be down here with the big scissors and food and drinks and music. Are they naming a street after you? Not yet. We can get that. We can make that happen. Come on, guys. We're going to turn Main Street into Quarter Drop Avenue. After me, personally. I don't know about that. Quarter Drop Drive. That would be really cool. Yeah.
    36:15
    Thank you so much, guys. Again, quick and easy. I just wanted to really introduce people to what's going on at the Pinball Palace. A studio, not palace. That's right down the road, though. It is, right? It's a great location as well. Is it? Yeah, I think, shit, what are they up to? I think it's like 140-ish pinball machines.
    36:37
    Wow. That's a lot. Good for them. That's fantastic. How many are they getting on a tournament? Well, they were running. So they started tournaments for the first time at the end of last year, and they ran them up until about a month ago, and I think they're just going to take a little break. Hopefully they'll return, though.
    36:56
    You know, it's got to be hard because the wormhole was strictly tournaments, right? That's what I am for the most part. And that's what you guys are. And the collective has tournaments surrounded by a collective and open hours.
    37:12
    It is hard just running those tournaments and building that community. But I'm telling you, once you build it, they will come, guys. And anyone that's listening, play competitive pinball. I know we, I don't talk about it all the time, but I'm addicted to it. It is so damn fun. I am crazy. I throw hissy fits in the corner, but so what? I'm not banging machines and I'm not an a-hole. So I just, I absolutely love it. And, you know, I've played in tournaments with Kay. I've played, you know, I want to play in a tournament with Sterling. These are great things. And join your local community. You can find it simply on IFPA.com, right, I think? Yeah. Yeah, go to the IFPA website and just search your area, and you'll see, you know, hopefully multiple locations that have tournaments going on. Great. Thank you guys so, so much. I appreciate it. Where can they find you again?
    38:13
    At the AwesomePinballCollective.com? AwesomePinballCollective.org. Even better. Because we are a nonprofit. There you go. And then, you know, Austin Pinball Collective on Twitch, Instagram, Facebook. And come check us out here in Austin. Thanks, guys. I really, really appreciate you all, and hope you guys continue success. Congratulations on what you're doing. Congratulations on the rebranding, Sterling and Austin, what you're doing. Thank you. And, of course, you guys kicking butt and taking names over there in Oregon.
    38:46
    And I hear some tech work going on there, Kay, so we're going to leave you alone, all right? always be teching always be teching all right thanks guys so much i appreciate you thanks for having me hey ko that was fun man it was so awesome you know you know i love learning about these different pinball locations all around the country and i love the fact that part of what my past was an inspiration for the Awesome Pinball Collective and for the Pinball Studio I caught that. That is really, really cool. And it makes me feel warm. It is. And it's not surprising either because you were doing special things over there. Now you're doing special things at Eureka.
    39:31
    Yeah. No, I love going to Eureka. And now I'm able to go to more places in Houston, too, because, you know, I'm not just holding to one place anymore. So I can go all over the place. But it's been fun. I'm having an absolute blast. Those streams are cool. It's like a pretty party vibe over there, huh, Eureka? Yeah. Houston's got a good little party thing going on. Which from a viewer standpoint, it's really interesting because you guys are all having such a good time. You know, there's so many good players in Houston that when one of them doesn't win, we're also pretty pumped, you know, for a newbie or for an average player to kind of sneak up in there. And those are my favorite streams when someone that's playing with house money, if you will, gets to the finals. Right, Ko? Yes, absolutely. It's so fun. It's so great. Never happens to me. I do terrible every time. It's tragic. You know, I can go up to Godzilla and get a billion points when I'm just having fun, but can I do that in a tournament? No. Not even close. I know. Isn't that a pisser, right? It's tragic. I got on Attack from Mars in the last tournament, and I'm like, oh, good. I had the GC at the arcade on that game. I can crush it. Rule the universe, no problem. I was fourth place. I got on the land. It was like the worst score. I have to really try to get a score that bad. But that's just how it goes in tournaments for me. I don't know what the problem is. There is a book called, it's either The Art of Tennis or something about tennis, and it's about playing the machine. It's like playing, you don't play your opponent, you just play your game, right? Yeah. And Ralph covers this in his latest podcast, and I highly recommend you guys should go check this out, because Ralph loses his mind when he plays, and I lose my mind. Yeah. And it is a really lately I've been trying to like breathing exercises. Yeah. I've been trying to just play the machine and just. And it it seems to help. But when I'm in a mood, it negative things go into my head. Then forget it. And I can't. Isn't it amazing how mental it is? It's a mental game. Even when I'm in a good headspace, I still have to be in the right frame of mind. And I think my big problem with the tournaments is I'm not just competing in a tournament. I have this problem where I'm running an arcade, and I'm always looking to make sure everyone is taken care of, and there's not kids that need tickets because we have the arcades open. So it's like SpongeBob is spitting out tickets, and there's kids, and I'm like, oh, my God. You have a good excuse then, Coe, because you're TD and running an arcade and trying to play. Good luck. Yeah, well I haven't been TD yet But I am going to be moving forward I have a TD But I want to start doing monthly tournaments Because I'm a Stern Army location And they want me to do the monthly tournaments And my TD And you should Yeah, I should You should, they're great That's how you truly build it, right? It's the monthly And Michael Grant's going to take care of you with Stern Army He's been great And after our last podcast you mentioned Michael because I've been working with Roper at Stern, and he's awesome. And then you mentioned Michael, and so I reached out and said that because I wasn't sure if I was a Stern Army or not because I have the leaderboard, and I did the phone call and the whole thing, but that's a different – now I am Stern Army. I've got the banners. Yeah, and I've been working with Michael, and he's been awesome. Everyone at Stern, of course, is always so helpful. Yeah. They got it together. And the relationship with Flippin' Out has still been great? Oh, yeah. Amazing. Flipping out. Gosh. Yeah. They take good care of everybody, and they're so pro.
    43:25
    Well, there's a reason why so many people are sponsored by them, because they really are. They do a great job. I know Ralph loves them. They understand the importance of community outreach and spreading the word of their brand, and it pays off because, I mean, they've got to be. I imagine by numbers, they're the biggest pinball distributor in the world, I would think. Got to be, right? Yeah, got to be. Yeah, he's got to be. Yeah. Well, congrats to Zach, and way to go. It's doing a good job there. I only have one sponsor. Are you ready? Okay. What is it? Pinbomb? Oh, right. Pinbomb. Is Pinbomb sponsoring you now? Absolutely. I love that. Pinbomb is a sponsor of the JBS show, and she sent some really cool Pinbomb stuff here. Some more swag and some Pinbomb. Dude, you need to buy some pin balm, and I'll tell you why. I just got back from the Grand Canyon, right? Yeah.
    44:21
    That's the driest place on earth, and I use pin balm every single day, and my lips are perfect. Wow. If the pin balm can survive the Grand Canyon, it can survive anything. I mean, if it can survive the Grand Canyon, it sure as hell is going to survive your arcade. I'll tell you that right now.
    44:39
    I can see the script in my head of the video already. Oh, you think I should make it? Are you making the video or am I making the video? I don't know. I immediately go to script mode when I think of it. Yeah, you do. How has that been going? Everything going well in the social media world for you? It is going well. I feel like I'm not being as prolific as I should be as far as output. I'm hard on myself on that. I'm trying to find that balance. I'm trying to find that sweet spot right now. A little bit of a – I'm trying to. I'm only posting once or twice a week, and I need to up those numbers, right? That's just not enough. But I'm so busy at work. And, you know, this is a good conversation real quick as we end the show. I have serious decisions to make when it comes to the JBS show, right?
    45:30
    I want to continue to do Arcades Across America once a month, at least try to do once a month, right? But then I've got these clowns in the roundtable that are kind of we're pushing maybe every three weeks.
    45:45
    I think that that roundtable is lightning in a bottle. I do too, dude. I think that I know that I love watching the roundtables.
    45:58
    And I love JBS show too, of course. I just think that if you're going to go all in on something, I think that the roundtable, you guys are three well-known personalities in the pinball world. So you've got a bunch of different people coming to see you guys. And it's fun because you're friends. We are really friendly. My wife is going out of town again for the end of August. And so I look at flights, Co. I go, well, no one is going to Arizona in August, right?
    46:37
    I got a flight for seven. Make sure you have your pinball if you do. Well, I'm going to bring pinball, no question. But I got total from Southwest Airlines, I got a flight total 138 both ways, and I'm getting an Airbnb for like 300 bucks. I'm going to go hang out with these idiots again at the end of August. Yeah. Why the heck not? I mean, seriously. Yeah. It's all in. It's like 500 bucks, and I get to go hang out with my buddies. So we're going to do a live show while we're there as well. So you're right. I'm having a really good time with them. I think people see that we're genuine. You've got an arcade owner, a home collector, and a location player, if you will. Yeah, and all three known pinball people that are friends and that have different perspectives.
    47:35
    And it's a good name, too. Actually, Roundtable was the name I was floating around when I was thinking about doing different things. No, it's okay. No, I'm not. I'm just saying I actually, that was, because I was like, I'm surprised it's not like a pinball roundtable. I actually had this thought about a year ago. And when you did, I'm like, yeah, good. That's perfect. I kind of bullied him a little. Did you? No.
    47:58
    It took a little convincing, but not too much. It didn't take too much convincing. You guys have so much fun when you're doing it. We have a ball, and we have a shared note, and I literally talk to these clowns every day. I absolutely love them, and we're having a time of our life. Amazing. Between that, the JBS show, still trying to stream, do some social media, and my interview show, I think the interview show is probably going to take the back seat, right? Yeah. I mean, you focus on what's working and what you enjoy.
    48:35
    I have an interview booked that we're waiting on a date that's going to be really awesome. I'm teasing that one, so stay tuned on that. Stay tuned. But, yeah, I'll probably just do a few interviews a month. Do you watch Dirty Pool Pinball? You know what? I keep meaning to ever since your podcast, and he's been in my Twitch stream as well. And I haven't yet. I need to just get him on the rotation. Get him on Spotify too because he – That's where I would put him because I listen to a lot of podcasts. And that's where if you're in my Spotify playlist, then I'll listen to your podcast. Me as well. And I haven't done that yet. And you know what? Right after this, I'll just add him. Adam, because truthfully, he's doing such a good job interviewing that I'm kind of like, I don't need to do this anymore. Yeah. Because between him and Teolis, they do such a good job that I'm going to take credit. Well, I caught a little bit of what he does, and it was great. He's a very talented, talented dude. And congrats, Jeff. Anyone not listening to him, please do so. All right. That's enough, sir. Okay. Good time catching up with you. Congrats again on everything going on in the quarter dropping. Good luck with the ribbon cutting. That is so cool. You get the key to the city?
    49:56
    Well, you know, I'm still waiting. I don't need the key to the city. I'm just messing with you. I'm sorry. I know. That's okay. I haven't been able to talk to him, ladies and gentlemen, very much. The guy is seriously busy, okay?
    50:12
    Yeah. I mean, I am busy, but I try not to. At the end of the day, it's fun. I'm running an arcade. There's things that I could feel. I'm not stressed about it. You know what I mean? Okay, good. Yeah, some people, they're busy. They're really busy. I am busy, but it's not like, you know, it's totally fine. Yeah, I enjoy it. That's what matters, right? That's all that matters. I can still see the joy in your face, dude. Oh, absolutely. So when that goes away, when that goes, yeah, you pinch yourself, right? Can you believe you're doing this? Oh, my gosh. So I just look, right even now, I'm just looking at it. And I just think of the joy that it brings to the community. And that's really, like, people come in here and they just thank me for doing this. And I'm like, oh, my gosh, thank you. I know. It's amazing. Yeah. All right, what's your number one earning pinball machine, real quick? Attack from Mars. Really? I made $200 last week.
    51:12
    Yeah. There you go. Play some Attack from Mars. AFM is one of my favorites. It's 75 cents a play. So it's getting banged on. Good. Yeah, it's getting every day, play after play after play. Yeah. Well, save Paris and all those great cities and keep doing what you're doing, Coe. Thanks so much, brother. Appreciate you as always. Thank you. Again, JBS Show, you've already found us, but hit me up on YouTube, all right? We really need those subscribers. I had like 5,000 at Wormhole, and now I'm down to like 550, so help me out. Yeah, absolutely. Thank you, sir. Talk to you later. Pleasure. Take care.